Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A65855
|
The Christianity of the people commonly called Quakers, asserted. Being a brief account of their faith in relation to divers matters where-in their Christian belief is questioned. Published in behalf of the people of God called Quakers by some of them.
|
Whitehead, George, 1636?-1723.
|
1696
(1696)
|
Wing W1915; ESTC R214791
|
13,648
|
20
|
THE CHRISTIANITY OF THE PEOPLE Commonly Called QUAKERS ASSERTED Being a brief Account of their Faith in Relation to divers Matters wherein their Christian Belief is Questioned Published in behalf of the People of GOD called Quakers by some of them Luke 6. 22. Blessed are ye when Men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their Company and shall Reproach you and cast out your Name as evil for the Son of Man's Sake Acts 24 14 After the way which they call Heresie so Worship I the GOD of my Fathers Printed in the Year 1696. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THere hath been of late Years many Aspersions cast upon Vs whereby the People in some Places especially in the West of this Nation of Scotland have been much stirred up against us and much hard and cruel Vsage have we Suffered and have often been in danger of our Lives both in our Meetings and in the Streets and sometimes in our own Houses And since the Sitting of the Late General Assembly at Edinburgh what a mighty Clamour hath been among the People through a great part of the Nation concerning us Some saying we must be all Excommunicated and that none must Converse or Deal with us others saying we must all be Banished The rude Multitude that abuse us often threatning us with the General Assembly and taking occasion from thence especially in our Meeting at Edinburgh to be more Wicked Prophane and Loose in their Carriage towards us than they were before And the only Reason that is given for this Confused Noise about us and for all the Cruel and Vnchristian Vsage we meet with is it not the same that was alledged against the LORD and his People by their Adversaries and Persecutors in former Ages that is under pretence of being Deceivers Deluders Hereticks Schismaticks possessed with the Devil c. Did not the Chief Priests and Pharisees tell People that Christ was a Deceiver and that he had a Devil John 7. 47. Mat. 2. 63. Luke 11. 15. John 8. 48. and did not the People revile and persecute Him under that pretence and were not the Apostles accounted Deceivers Turners of the World upside-down and deemed unworthy to Live upon the Earth 2 Cor. 6. 8. Acts 27. 50. And was not Paul called a Pestilent Fellow a Mover of Sedition a Ring-leader of the Sect of the Nazarines c. Acts 17. 6. Acts 24. 5. And were not all the Revilings Scoffings Stonings Imprisonments and other hard usage that they met with inflicted upon them under those hatefull Names and Epithites aforementioned whereby the dark Priests benighted Elders and Proud Pharisees and others stirred up the People against them and did not the Heathens put Wild-beasts Skins upon the Christians to make them appear like Beasts that the Dogs might be stirred up to Devour them And was it not under the black and detestable Names of Hereticks Deluders Schismaticks and sometimes of Socerers or Witches That the Popish Clergy incensed the People against the Ancient Protestants prohibiting them all Trade and Commerce exposing them to cruel Scoffings and Revilings and at last Murthering many Thousands of them as may be seen at large in the Books of Martyrs Was ever Christ or his Apostles found in such cruel practices or stirring People up thereunto Did he not rebuke those Disciples that desired the destruction of some that would not receive Him telling them they knew not what Spirit they were off and that he was not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Joh. 9. 55 56. And were not the Stoners Abusers Scoffers and envious Murthering Persecutors and the Priests and Teachers that stirred them up thereunto such as were filling up the measure of their iniquity and drawing down the Righteous and terrible Judgments of God upon themselves Mat. 23. 32 33 34 35 Acts. 7. 51. 52. So our earnest desire is that they who have shown themselves so eager to be found in such cruel Practices in this our Age may seriously consider what Spirit they are off and whose Steps they are treading in and that they may Repent before it be too late Now we having often been wrongfully accused and from thence hatefull Names put upon us with denying the Trinity the Holy Scriptures that we undervalue the Merits and Sufferings of CHRIST Some saying we deny His Divinity others saying we deny His Humanity The Ordinances The Resurrection and the Great Day of Judgement c. We have therefore found a Concern upon us to Publish a brief Relation of what our belief hath been still is concerning those other weighty points of Christian Doctine so leave it to the serious Consideration of the empartial Reader what ground there is for that mighty Clamour that hath been and yet continues against us and whether it be not like theirs of Old that cryed out Men of Israel Help c. Acts 21. 28. The CHRISTIANITY of the People commonly called QVAKERS Asserted Being a Brief account of Their Faith in Relation to several weighty Matters wherein Their Christian Belief is Questioned Question WHat 's your Belief concerning the Blessed Trinity as our Term is Answer Our Belief is that in the Unity of the God-head there is Father Son and Holy Ghost being those Three Divine Witnesses that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit and that these Three are One according to Holy Scripture Testmony Mat. 28. 19. 1 Joh. 5. 7. Quest. Do you Believe the Divinity and Humanity of Jesus Christ the Eternal Son of God or that Jesus Christ is truely God and Man Answ. Yes we verily believe that Jesus Christ is truly God and Man according as Holy Scripture Testifies of Him God over all blessed for ever he true God and Eternal Life the One Mediator between God and Men even he Man Christ Jesus Joh. 1. 1. 2. Rom. 9. 5. 1 Joh. 5. 20. 1 Tim. 2. 5. Quest. Do you believe and expect Salvation and Justification by the Righteousness and Merits of Jesus Christ or by your own Righteousness or Works Answ. By Jesus Christ his Righteousness Merits and Works and not by our own God is not indebted to us for our deservings but we to him for is free Grace in Christ Jesus whereby we are saved through Faith in Him not of our selves and by his Grace inabled truly and acceptably to serve and â—ollow Him as He requires He is our All in All who worketh all in us â—at is well pleasing to God Rom. 3. 24. Eph. 2. 8. 9. Quest. Do you believe Remission of Sin and Redemption through the Sufferings Death and Blood of Christ Answ. Yes through Faith in Him as he Suffered and Died for all Men â—ave himself a Ransom for all and His Blood being shed for the Remission â—f Sins so all they who sincerely believe and obey Him receive the Benefits â—d blessed Effects of his suffering and dying for them they by Faith in His â—ame receive and partake of that Eternall
and Belief in these Matters may be briefly summ'd up in what follows viz. 1. We believe That the spiritual appearance and living enjoyment of Christ in spirit is above all outward signs shadows or figures or 〈◊〉 Remembrance only of him thereby And that Christ more clearly discovers himself by his spirit in the New Covenant then by any outward Representations in the Old or thereunto appertaining 2. That the One Baptism of the spirit is a seal or confirmation of the New Covenant to true Believers and of them in it and so is their spiritual Eating and Drinking with him in his Kingdom a certain assurance Seal or Evidence of their spiritual Communion with Him and in Him 3. As all outward shadows and figures were of a decreasing nature so there is the substance thereof which they pointed at and wherein they ended though the names given to the shadows were carried along to the substance also that it might the more plainly appear in Scripture how the shadows were fulfilled in the substance Christ as in the Old Covenant there was outward Circumcision of the flesh in the New there is the Inward Circumcision of the Spirit In the Old there was diverse Washings or Baptisms Heb 9 10 In the New the One Baptism of Christ in the Old the Feast o◠the outward Passover kept with unleavened Bread and other Feasts observed c. In the New Covenant Jesus Christ is our Passover and the Feast i◠to be kept with unleayened Bread of sincerity and truth and here the O◠Bread of Life is known and received 4. We do not read nor find in Scripture that One outward Type o◠shadow was a Type of another Type outward but alwayes of the thing Typified ot shadowed forth which was the substance and end of that shadow or Type as may be shewen at large if any undertake to shew us any shadow or thing that is figurative in its own nature mentioned in Scripture which they suppose we cannot shew the substance of under the same Name or Title Quest. Do you believe and own the Holy Scriptures contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament to be given by Divine Inspiration and to contain all Matters of Doctrine and Testtmonie c. necessarie to be believed and practiced in order to salvation and Peace with GOD Answer Yes we do and by the assistance of the Grace and good Spirit of GOD which gives the true understanding of the Mind of GOD and meaning of Holy Scripture we always desire to live in the Faith Knowledge and Practice of them in all things appertaining to Life and Godliness Holy Scripture being given by Divine Inspiration is profitable for Doctrine Correction and Instruction that the Man of GOD may be perfect thorowly furnished unto every good Work able to make the Man of GOD wise unto Salvation through Faith in Christ Jesus A Further Declaration of what our Christian Belief and Profession hath been and still is in Respect to JESUS CHRIST the Only begotten Son of GOD his suffering Death Resurrection Glory Light Power Great-day of Judgment c. WE Sincerely Profess Faith in GOD by his only begotten Son JESUS CHRIST as being our Light and Life our only way to the Father That GOD Created all things He made the Worlds by his Son JESVS CHRIST He being that Powerful and Living Word of GOD by whom all things were made And that the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit are one in Divine Being inseparable One true living and eternal GOD blessed for ever Yet That this Word or Son of GOD in the fulness of time took flesh became perfect man according to the flesh descended and came of the Seed of Abraham and David but was miraculously Conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of The Virgin Mary and also further declared to be the Son of GOD with Power according to the Spirit of Sanctification by the Resurrection from the Dead That in the Word or Son of GOD was Life and the same life was the Light of men and that he was and is that true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World and therefore that men are to believe in the Light that they may become Children of the Light Hereby we believe in Christ the Son of God as he is the Light and life within us and wherein we must needs have sincere respect and honour to and belief in Christ as in his own unapproachable and incomprehensible Glory and fulness As he is the Fountain of Life and Light and Giver thereof unto us Christ as in himself and as in us being not divided And that as man Christ dyed for our sins and rose again and was received up into Glory in the Heavens He having in his dying for all bee◠that One and great universal Offering and Sacrifice for peace Atonement and Reconciliation between God and Man and he is the Propitiation not for sins only but for the sins of the whole world we were reconciled by his death but saved by his Life That Jesus Christ who sitteth at the right hand of the Throne of th◠Majesty in the Heavens yet is he our King High Priest and Prophet 〈◊〉 his Church a Minister of the Sanctuary and of the true Tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man He is Intercessor and Advocate wit◠the Father in Heaven and there appearing in the presence of God for us being touched with the feeling of our infirmities Sufferings and sorrows and also by his Spirit in our hearts he maketh Intercession according to the Will of God crying Abba Father For any whom God hath Gifted and Called sincerely to Preach Faith in the same Christ both as within and without us cannot be to Preach two Christs but one and the same Lord Jesus Christ having respect to those degrees of our spiritual Knowledge of Christ Jesus in us and to his unspeakable fulness and Glory as in himself in his own intire Being wherein Christ himself and the least measure of his light and life as in us or in Mankind are not divided nor separable no more than the Sun is from its Light And as he ascended far above all Heavens that he might fill all things his fulness cannot be comprehended or contained in any finite Creature But in some measure known and experienced in us as we are capable to receive the same as of his fulness we have received Grace for Grace Christ our Mediator received the Spirit not by measure but in fulness but to every one of us is given Grace according to the measure of the Gift of Christ That the Gospel of the Grace of God should be preached in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost being One in Power VVisdom and Goodness and indivisible or not be divided in the great Work of Mans Salvation We sincerely confess and believe