Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A81402
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Several letters written to the saints of the Most High, to build them up in the truth, as it is in Jesus. By William Deusbury. James Nayler. George Fox. John Whitehead
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Dewsbury, William, 1621-1688.
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1654
(1654)
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Wing D1272; ESTC R202145
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8,486
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22
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outward things thought never so seemingly glorious for they all shall perish in the using but the word of the Lord endureth for ever when it goeth forth it giveth understanding to the simple and the soul of the needy is refreshed by it therefore wait every one within your selves to hear that joyful Sound and every one of you dwell in the obedience to what is made manifest and so more shall be communicated You must all give an account of your Stewardship oh therefore be faithful that you may do it with joy and not with grief for it will gnaw you eternally if you trifle away this day of the Lords Love and Mercy Now there is balm in Gillead and a Physitian in your Souls see therefore that your health be recovered by him and that you neglect not so great Salvation for not withstanding your vain imaginations and hard thoughts of the Lord yet his arms of Love are stretched out still but how long you know not therefore be not secure and careless and careless but strive to enter in at the strait gate yet many strive are not able because they would have their own wils and wisdoms kept alive with the profits and vain delights of this world which keepeth them captive in the broad way which leadeth to destruction But my brethren not as unbeleeving or disobedient put on strength in the power of the Lord who hath called you and presse on the strait gate where the earthly wil and wisdom is kept in death for the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force So wil they who forsake their own wil and reasoning and yeeld themselves up into the Love and Mercy of the Lord minding to be guided by his pure counsel though your strength seem weaknesse yet there is nothing in Heaven nor in Hel neither in the Earth that is able to resist you but as Conquerours you must pass through death into life therefore be strong in the Lord every one of you give up give up what you have and are into his Wil let not carnal pleasures inlure you nor carnal fears cause you to distrust but run with patience that race which is set before you for your reward is with you and your work before you be not slothful but vigilant for to that end hath he chosen you that you might manifest the riches of his Love and bring forth fruit to his praise and faint not in your way the time of refreshment cometh cometh on apace when the Redeemed of the Lord shal walk in Sion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon their heads singing the Songs of their Deliverance Hallelujabs and Praises to him who sitteth on the Throne and judgeth the Earth in righteousnesse and therefore fear and tremble you carelesse ones which have lost your first love strengthen that which remains lest you walk in darknesse and you that halt between God and the world that which you lust after and account so profitable and delightful shal depart from you for this world passeth way and all the comforts which it affordeth and it wil leave you naked and bare before him whose Love you have rejected and whose Counsel you have despised Oh therefore consider and lay it to heart how wil you be able to stand hefore him when he ariseth to plead with you in his fierce Indignation Now you have time prize it and forsake that which is earthly and chuse that which is eternal you cannot have both be not sayers but doers lest you cause the worthy name of our God to be blasphemed and so bring upon your selves swift destruction Dear children you are called and chosen my desire is that you may be kept stedfast unto the end so I commit you all to the tender Mercy of our God who never leaveth nor forsaketh those that trust in him Written from the Spirit of the Lord be your Brother in the Truth of the Gospel Let this be read when you are met together JOHN WHITEHEAD I am now about to go into the Moors where I hear there is much hungring after the Truth when I shal return I know nothing Pray for me that I may be kept faithfull to declare the Truth as it is revealed in me Scarborough Octob. 6. 1653. In October 1653. TO al my dear Brethren the flock of God scattered abroad and kept together in the power up to God none be discouraged or disheartned at the Enemies without which is without God but be bold all in the power of truth triumphing over the world hold your freedome and keep and stand fast in it that you may be armed with wisdom and furnished against your enemies who are wiser in their generation then the children of Light But the wisdom of the most High is spreading and making it self manifest into your hearts by which you shal comprehend all the worlds Wisdome the worlds worship and knowledge and get them under your feet waiting in that which is pure it wil lead you before the world was before the false worship was before the seducers were before the Antichrist was and before the false Temple was and false Prophet and hirelings and here you wil comprehend all the World and what is done in the world therefore every one keep your habitation abide the trial and abide the day and stand fast in your freedom so far as Christ hath made you free free from mans wil and commandements which inbondageth free from the fashions and lusts of the world the fleshly wil which bondageth and burthens the pure and to you that cannot witnesse this wait and mind the pure and then the burthen wil be easie and wait for Redemption and Salvation to make it and your strength is to stand still that you may receive refreshings that you may know how to wait and how to walk to God and before God by the spirit of God within you So God Almighty be with you and keep you up to himself under his own dominion from under the dominion of Sathan that you may trample them al under your feet And friends every where meet together treading and trampling all the deceit under your feet and watch over one another in that which is eternal and see every one that your words be eternal life examine and search which speaks to that which is in prison in other which is eternal And you that are led out to exhort or to reprove do it with all diligence takeing all opportunities reproving that which devours the Creation and destroys the very humane reason and the truth which doth preserve every thing in it place and all meet together every where and in your meeting wait upon the Lord and take heed of a form of words but mind the power and know its which is eternal which will keep you all in unity walking in the Spirit and wil let you see the Lord neer you and amongst you So God Almighty be with you and multiply you and give you the dew of Heaven the Heavenly dew the living mercies which nourisheth the tender plants which causeth them to grow bud and bring forth and water you with his blessings So the Lord God of power be with you all my dear hearts I am with you in the spirit and in the love of your God your Father and my Father the Lord God be alone prosper you guide you and protect you all into his Kingdom of glory you who are elected called chosen and faithful who are the Lambs God Almighty blesse you and keep you all my dear hearts the love of God is love past knowledg which bears all things endures all things hopes all things envieth not thinketh no evil And the Bottom-stone is the love of God the ground of your hearts the bottom of your hearts which casts out the love of the world and the enmity to God betwixt you and God so it 's true He that beleeves is born of God and he that is born of God overcomes the world So fare you all wel and God Almighty blesse you prosper you GEORGE FOX 1653. This Precept was written from the mouth of George Fox as he spoke it forth by a Friend of truth ANd all you friends that wait in that which is pure it self which cannot lie which doth not change wait upon God God doth not change and let all flesh be silent before the Lord that the Life may speak in all then the mouth of the Lord is known and God is exalted and glorified with his own work which he brings forth and meet together there and every where and mind that which gathers you and wait on that which is pure which gathers you out of the worlds nature disposition conversation Churches forms and customes which wil knit your hearts together up to God That which gathers you out of all this is the Spirit of the Lord and to gather you up to him who is the Father of Spirits that you may be able to judg and discern and confound al the deceit in the world and grow up to be as Kings and nothing to raign but what is Life Eternal and beware of speakings in the presence of the Lord except your words be eternal life the eternal Word of God else it doth not profit nor build up nor edifie So God Almighty be with you all in your meetings that you may see him to be your Head King and Lord over all to you all who are inlightned with the lights of the Spirit that is the light which shews you sin and evil and your evil deeds and actings and the deceit and false-heartednesse which wil teach you holinesse walking in it and bring you into unity and it wil draw your mind up into God and in it you wil see more light but hating the light there is your condemnation FINIS
Lord wil bring down all Heights and Mountains into the valleys for in the valley of Jehosaphat will plead with all flesh which hath scattered the seed of the Covenant And now dear Friends here is your peace and blessednesse that you silence all flesh and cease from your own wisdoms give over your imaginations about the things of God come out of the love of the world and arise out of all visible things and prepare to meet the Lord cast off all your idols that have had your hearts put the stumbling blocks off of your iniquities from before your faces and give up all that will not that he should raign over them that his enemies may be your enemies for in judgment and righteousness is he come out to be avenged upon the unrighteous seed and now stand in the light that a separation may be made in you the precious from the vile that a true savour may arise that you may know your calling and election what is called and what you are to come out of left you stay in any of that to which the plagues is for this is the cause of your suffering not discerning in the pure wisdom what that Antichrist or exalted spirit is that is got into the Seat of God and shewes himself to be as God whose Kingdome stands in the wisdome glory and riches of the world where at all that knows not the true God in Spirit ask couusel therefore dear friends look not out into the visible things for there he is ready to present to you false voices and visions lying-wonders to lead out the vain mind into the liberty and boasting of high things in words without power but while such speak of liberty they are in bondage in mind to corrupt and fading things and while these are head in the creature there is not redemption but the bonds of iniquity are unloosed and the pure seed is oppressed and the plagues must pass upon that nature therefore sink down into the sufferings and death that you may find the door where at to enter for their is a vale of tears to pass thorough you shall find your well-springs in him where you shall drink of the water of Life and find refreshment and grow from strength to strength till you come up to Sion Stand take heed of word without spoken from the comprehensions for that feeds not the pure seed but feeds the wisdome which is above and the itching ears and so the pure is covered with earth and the fowls of the ayr is fed and no fruit is brought forth to perfection and take heed of that nature that would know more then God is willing to reveal for you shal find that unwilling to obey what it knows and take heed of that which desires to appear before men to be commended for that seldom deserves praise of God and let a godly conversation declare what is within and know one another in spirit and not in word and meet often together and wait upon God for his teaching alone in a cross to your own wils for therein is the secrets of God revealed Let love abound in you one towards another without being partial and I beseech by the love of God that you halt not between God and the world but as you profess that you are not of the world so let your conversation be out of its fashions customes and traditions and covetous practises that it may appear you are marked out for the Lords and that you are not ashamed to own that which differs and so walk as not to cast an offence on the Gospel that you become not a scorn to fools but let wisdome be justified of her children and take heed to that which would be exalted above others teaching and talking of things without life and you that would be counted somebody let such first learn to wash the feet of them they would be above and he that would be greatest let him be servant to all for it is the humble and not the high spirits that are taught of God and such so walk as their lives and practises teach and judge all vain light and heighty spirits and mind how you grow out of the earth and you own that which is the enmity and until you be brought out of the love of all visible things and wholly infolded into the love of God you cannot witness redemption nor receive the true joy that ariseth in the manifestation of the Love for it is only he that is brought up out of the death to raign over it whose heart is come out of the unrighteous Mammon who is entred into the Kingdome of righteousness joy and peace and as you arise out of the earthly bondage you shall witness the glorious liberty and so come to know your own measures every one in particular to improve it and not to boast above it another mans line and so you will come to see by what power you stand in your warfare how far you are Conquerors and who is your enemy at present and so be able to give an account in your selves of your faith and how you grow from faith to faith and dear friends watch over one another exhort reprove admonish in pure love and meekness of spirit least you also be tempted and all know that you are set as a City on a hill as signs to this Generation therefore lift up your light to all the world that all mouths may be stopped and hearts convinced so that all that see you may see you to be children of light and being judged by you may be ashamed of their deeds of darkness for great is the work of the Lord and blessed are they that are found faithful in it in what is committed to them Farewel deare hearts and the Lord God Almighty bless prosper and preserve you pure and clear unto his Kingdom Amen My love in the Lord salutes you all and if my Father please I shall be glad to see your faces in the flesh but his will is my peace who is blessed for evermore To all dear Brethren and Friends in Holdernes and in the East parts of Yorkshier and a lover of your souls Written from Nuby in the seventh month the last day JAMES NAYLER The Work of the Lord is great in those parts and he carries it on with a high hand hath got himself the Victory Praise the Lord with us all that know him who is worthy even him alone for ever DEar Brethren and Sisters you who are begotten again of the Word of Truth my bowels of love in the Lord Jesus runneth forth to you all and beware every one of you of lusting after the flesh pots of Egypt Earth end earthly things or after the Merchandise of Babylon the intising words of mans wisdom from whence the Lord in his eternal Love hath called you by revealing his Son in you who is the living Bread which came down from Heaven Dear Brethren forsake not this living Mercy for