Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	holy_a	trinity_n	9,904	5	10.2376	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B06714	The Athenian Society unvaild: or, Their ignorance and envious abusing of the Quakers detected and reprehended	Wyeth, Joseph, 1663-1731.; Whitehead, John, 1630-1696.	1692 (1692)	Wing W3760; ESTC R186898	9,433	4

to be the detestable Opinions which we hold and indeed do not nor never did Decemb. 22. 1691. By one who is in Scorn called a QUAKER By this it appears that its end is either that you would prove your Assertions or retract them but instead of doing either in that which you call your Answer you have only shewn a little more ill Nature and a great deal of Impertinency in running so very wide from the Mark as you have done by making your foolish and false Harangues without proving any thing and all this with a design to use your own words to preserve those of your Communion by shewing them what Principles you say we really hold But if you have no better Preservatives than these palpable Lies you need not wonder that People coming to the Knowledg of that self evident Principle of the Light Grace or Spirit of God in their own Hearts do then leave you and your refuge And here I must observe that to evade the proving your Charges and to prevent any closer Answer you endeavour to amuse the Reader and frighten us by asking 10 Questions if at least they all deserve that Name in which you think there is so much Acumen that they touch us to the quick and all these to be answered Catagorically or else the worst is to be taken pro Confesso Now to Questions on which so great stress is laid the Reader will very naturally suppose they ought to be very pertinent and very weighty but I must inform him that in this present case it 's far otherwise as will appear plain enough by repeating them and which are as follows 1. Whether they all generally own the Scriptures to be the Word of God 2. Whether they own Jesus Christ to have been God equal with the Father from all Eternity 3. Whether they own the Holy Spirit to be God and that in the Holy Trinity there are three Persons and one God blessed for evermore 4. Whether they hold their boasted Light within to be this very third Person or only their own natural Reason 5. Whether they partake of either of the Sacraments in their Congregations or whether they do not absolutely neglect both Baptism and the Supper of the Lord 6. Whether they believe Angels or any Immaterial Spirits besides the Soul of Man 7. Whether they believe the Existence of the Soul after Death and Resurrection of the Body and Reunion of the Soul thereunto at the day of Judgment Now the terrible ones 8. Who was your first Founder 9. Did they Quake and Tremble or no when they first came into England and the reason thereof 10. Where may we find their Creed or an Act of their Religion And whether it is not altered in several particulars since their Rise tho' but of so few Years standing These are what you vainly and falsly set to measure Christianity by but they cannot do it because some of them are Antiscriptural which yet you call your Rule and others so ridiculous that they could not be asked by a Man truly Christian so that if I should not refer you to any Answer to these for you would not have it now done de Novo but by the Testimony of our Authentick Writers your mighty Threaten would signifie nothing for it remains for you to prove your Assertions they being denyed by us and tho' at pleasure you throw by your own Rules yet you must not pretend to do so by the continual Rules of Debate and Discourse But the trouble hereof being as small as your expectation can be great I shall for this once do it when I have first acquainted you That tho' you pretend to be more Athenian than the Senate of the Nation yet it will hardly become you to pretend to be more Christian than it And if so then since Malice or some such Humour has spoiled your Memory I will take leave to acquaint you that in an Act made 1689. Entituled An Act for exempting their Majesties Protestant Subjects c. there is something which upon the Authority of Holy Writ as well as their own is call'd a Christian Belief and was made on purpose for us call'd Quakers as by the Act appears and is as follows I A. B. Profess Faith in God the Father and Jesus Christ his Eternal Son the true God and in the Holy Spirit one God blessed for evermore and do acknowledg the Holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament to be given by Divine Inspiration This having been at all times as it now is our hearty Belief you might have spared your three first Queries which are not so Scriptural To your fourth query read Geo. Keith of Immediate Revelation not Ceased To your sixth and seventh read Sam. Fisher in a Treatise Entituled Some certain hidden Spiritual Verities revealed And likewise for Answer to many of them you may read The Christian Quaker written by Geo. Whitehead and Will. Penn And lastly both to these and the rest read Rob. Barclay in his Apology for the true Christian Divinity in which you will find a distinct Account of our Principles and that they are consonant to Holy Writ right Reason and pure Antiquity for which reason it is that our Principles are not chang'd nor indeed can be they being preserv'd by the Spirit of God in us with which there is no Variableness nor Shadow of turning And many more would I be prolix I could number up but here being enough and more than is needful in this occasion I shall stop Now in these cited Authentick Writings you may find as I have said not only more than enough to Answer your Queries but also the Truths therein contained so clearly delivered that were ye honest enough to confess it you would say there is much less of the Jesuit in them than there appears to be of their Nature in you as is evident by your gross Lies and Abuses which that I may not forget and you run from by that Evasion which you pretended to fear in us I shall here put you in mind That whatsoever you shall say hereafter cannot be look'd upon to have any Weight unless you either prove or retract these your bold Affirmo's which are hereby returned upon you as your Lies viz. You affirm 1. That the Quakers rest on their own Merits 2. That they deny Heaven Hell Angels and Spirits 3. That they believe the Soul to sleep in the Grave until the Resurrection 4. That they deny the Divinity and Humanity of Christ 5. That they deny the Scriptures to be the Word of God or given by Divine Inspiration And 6. that Fanaticism Enthusiasm and Infidelity do make up the Quaker's Creed If you pretend to prove them it is expected that you do it from our Selves or our own Writings but if you cannot let it hereby appear how fairly you have merited the Title of Incendiaries which yet you 're loath to own but it being your due you must be so accounted in that you 're