Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A27079
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A testimony to the free and universal love of God in Jesus Christ to the sons of men in true love sent forth (more especially) to the inhabitants of Colchester and parts adjacent, for them to read over, and weigh with due and serious consideration, in the blessed fear of the Lord / by Thomas Bayle.
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Bayle, Thomas.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing B1471; ESTC R11593
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13,567
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22
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A TESTIMONY TO THE FREE and UNIVERSAL LOVE of GOD IN JESVS CHRIST TO THE SONS of MEN IN True Love sent forth more especially to the Inhabitants of Colchester and Parts adjacent For them to read over and weigh with due and serious Consideration in the blessed Fear of the LORD By THOMAS BAYLE Hear Counsel and receive Instruction that thou mayest be Wise in thy latter end LONDON Printed in the Year 1675. THe Universal Love and free Grace of God to man kind is again after a sad and deplorable night of darkness revealed and shewed unto thousands who have waited upon him in his holy Light and Heavenly manifestation in their hearts and consciences and testified of and born witness unto in this our age and generation for to enjoy which what sighing what breathing for and soul-traveling after in a holy hunger and thirst in deep exercise and travel of Spirit in a holy faith and fear in the Lord hath there been by many in former dayes and times some yet living are able to give some testimony thereof And this happy and blessed appearance of the Lord to the call and restitution of mankind to this his great kindness in Jesus Christ hath been sounded forth in this place and parts and that truly I may say according to the Nature of it which is free and universal and plentious from the God and Father of it and that very largly with clearness and certainty by his Servants his Messengers and Ministers who here in this Town and County have laboured for several years by past both by word and writing And the Lord hath given them fervencie of Spirit zeal and courage and also utterance in judgment and understanding that sinners might be converted unto him and people come again to partake of that heavenly blessed life which in the true light which now shines is made manifest which the Saints and people of the Lord partaked of in the primitive times and notwithstanding this certain and infallible testimony which hath been held forth in this place for these 20 years past in kindness tenderness and love unfeigned with freeness to bring Souls home to the Lord yet what darkness security and insensibility of heart and mind is there remaining in the Consciences and Spirits of the generality of you as if there were no such thing as Religion in truth and righteousness to be minded as if the Lord God had forsaken the habitable parts of the earth for man to live in the perverse wayes of his own heart and as if you had outlived that belief which formerly was as a standing Principle or Faith in peoples minds of comeing to Judgment for the deeds done in the body both the quick and the dead the good and the bad as the Scriptures testifie of and that there is no such thing to be as punishment unto the evil doer tribulation anguish and pain upon every soul that doth evil nor reward of life eternal to them that do well And this great evil which is false hearts ease and security in the flesh aboundeth very much amongst you even in and amongst you my Neighbours Townsmen and Acquaintance and the consideration thereof with grief and sorrow of heart have I seriously weighed within my self and certainly can conclude nothing but a sad and woful distruction from God Almighty to be rewarded in flames of Fire from Heaven into the bosoms of all such as persevere therein until their departure hence and be no more seen And therefore this is a warning and charge unto you into whose hands it may come that you break off your sins by timely repentance and seek the Lord whilst he may be found and that in discharge of my Conscience in the sight of God that the Testimony of the truth of our God may be kept up over the heads of all disobedient gainsayers and that that holy heavenly Principle the Light of Christ Jesus in the Consciences of all people may have its place and due Authority in your hearts and lives to the eternal Honour and Praise of so gratious and bountiful a giver and to your blessedness and great felicity here in this life and hereafter when time with you shall be no more And God Almighty the sercher of our hearts knows to whose righteous eternal and everlasting Judgment we shall all shortly stand and for ever be concluded that my end and intent herein is Gods glory and your salvation this is my sole and alone end and intent in this matter And therefore bear with me a little in patience and quietness of your Spirits and let not your hearts be like a boyling pot because I write unto you whom men dispise and am by Scorns called a Quaker for be it known unto you that if so you entertain my lines and that innocent love which draws my heart in gentleness to visit you that you will be left in the hardness of your hearts the more to fill up the measure of your iniquity that Judgment may come upon you for all your evil deeds And now concerning what I have to write or chiefly intend hereby I shall write it as to two sorts of men or as in two states and conditions although they have different branches yet springing from one and the self same root of evil and not all sinners according to one similitude and these I call Prophane and Professor And by Prophane I intend such as make not a Profession of Godliness no more indeed than those that never heard of such a thing or as men without God in the world as such there are amongst you their lives testifie unto me herein and are such as live in wildness ignorance disorder and confusion and cry tush who seeth such whose natures are given way unto which are not civil but rude And this ought not to be and it is time for such not to walk as in the dayes that are past wherein fear that is holy humility sobriety and chastity were set at nought for to possess and live in bad things as lying stealing whoredome wrath drunkenness swearing and many wicked things more which is a shame to any people a burthen to the Creation of God vexing the just and the righteous And oh you untoward people the sound of these things the evil effects thereof how do I and many more pass through the streets and lanes with the nauseous smell and burthen of them falling upon us for which we cannot but cry unto the Lord our God under the heavy oppression of And for these things the cryes ascend up from the innocent souls against you and the Lord is weary of iniquity and would rid his Adversary out of his way and destroy him by the brightness of his coming who worketh great evil in you great sin and transgression against God and against your own souls and I ask you what good doth your drunkenness or your swearing do you or any other of those evils which you accustome your selves unto I am
on your sick beds cry out O that the Lord would spare me this time I would take warning and become a new Creature and live a more holy self-denying life than ever I did and thus oft times the flamingness of it and the sharpness of it comes neer you yea very neer you even into your bosoms but the way to get to the tree of life is not by a few false words and promises utter'd on a sick or dying bed from an impenitent deceitful heart which being in torment would have some cool water poured upon it for I have sometime known when some such have been spared and let these my words enter into your hearts consideration who are concerned herein they have soon forgot God that smot them and have returned with more greediness to that evil conversation for which the just hand of God was lifted up in smart rebuke against them therefore take heed to watch over your wayes and doings whilst you have time but this is the way O Man and Woman to this tree of life spoken of return return from the evil of your wayes and doings and kiss the Son that is to say embrace him hearken diligently in all bowedness of Spirit and humility of Soul upon this his inshining ingrâ—fâ—ed word which is able alone to save your souls and none other nor nothing else and here the soul that sinneth must dye and the judgment must be executed and the flaming Sword have its place and do its work which is quick and sharp and divideth between joynts and marrow soul and spirit and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart can any thing come more neer to a man feel ye this have ye felt or do ye feel this sharpness this quickness for it is to be felt this dividing Sword of the Lord which divides between a man and his lovers and know your selves to be redeemed from that Spirit of transgression which hath ruled in your hearts and yet does and has the dominion there and know the Adversary is destroyed by the brightness of his comeing who comes to finish transgression and to make an end of sin It 's time for you this to learn and know and happy shall you be if now you come forth to the help of the Lord against the mighty and keep not back your lusts pleasures nor sinful sports and pass-times but deny your selves in those things and be willing and obedient take the yoak of Christ upon you and learn of him who saith hold that fast which thou hast that you may eat the good of the good Land the promised Land of Rest to your souls which flows with Milk and Honey but as Israel of old could not go on in hope to possess the Land of Canaan but by passing from Egypt through the Red Sea and a vast and weary Wilderness wherein great exercises tryals and sorrows were no more can ye inherit substance the inheritance of the Saints in Light and possess that peace which the world can neither give nor take away but by taking up the dayly Cross and following him who said unto the woman that asked him to have her two Sons to sit the one at his right hand and the other at his left hand in his Kingdom Can ye be Baptized with that Baptism that I shall be Baptized with can ye drink of that Cup that I shall drink of are you willing to suffer with him and to be made like unto him who was a man of sorrow even like unto his death and to bear about in your bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus that so through the dying and the death you may come to know life and the quicknings of it and its virtue and holy opperation to fashion and mould you to fit and prepare you for that Kingdom for that Crown and weight of Glory which is laid up in store for all them that believe in Jesus Christ and follow him through the Regeneration for through the being made in fellowship with him in his sufferings and raised unto life by that eternal Spirit which raised up Jesus from the dead thou mayest reign with him in his Glory in his blessedness and eternal life world without end But ye my Neighbours and Acquaintance I have often seen and taken notice of a Spirit and Life in you altogether contrary hereunto as being disorderly a scoffing mocking Spirit of Ishmaels nature abounding amongst you against the Spirit of the Lord and its teachings and movings against the holy Light of Jesus Christ within and the Professors and Witnesses of it which hath and doth tend greatly to the grief and burthen of Gods holy Spirit which is teaching and if you have not the Spirit of Christ you are none of his and this your unchristian carriage and behaviour the Lord will require it into your bosoms in the day wherein he will enter into Judgment with you and then it will be unutterable sad for you and then you will find your selves as far from an excuse for your so doing as the man was who was speechless when it was said unto him Friend how camest thou hither not having on the Wedding Garment this will be your state then for I tell you there is no excuse now to be made no pleading of Ignorance now no saying although many foolish ignorant people will now so say when the Lord gives grace or when the Lords time is come and when the Lord please to give us power then so and so but take ye notice and let it be a warning unto you and an information the Grace of God is given the true Light now shines by which thou mayest see and know and understand the things that belong to thy peace and therefore shut not thine eyes stop not thine ears fold not thy arms and cry Yet a little more sleep in sin and in the lusts of this world lest God in Judgment leave thee to be past feeling and thou be shut up and sealed up in utter darkness where shall be weeping and wailing for ever more Doth not Wisdom cry doth not Understanding utter her voice blessed is the man that heareth me watching dayly at my gates and giving attendance at the posts of my doors for he that findeth me findeth life and she is ready to receive those that wait for her and prevent those that early seek her by first shewing her self unto them so be not ye dull of hearing shut not your eyes from beholding Wisdoms wayes be not careless in your Spirits and presumptuous trifling away your pretious time in a light mocking scoffing Spirit for such walk after their own ungodly lusts but learn wisdom which is the fear of the Lord whilst you may and to redeem the time that you have mispent have ye a watchful careful mind and Spirit in the Lord least also that little time which remains unto you be likewise spent in vain and you pass away speedily into the pit with the workers of iniquity