Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A40177
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An epistle for friends for them to read
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Fox, George, 1624-1691.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing F1811; ESTC R43174
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12,546
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19
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AN EPISTLE TO FRIENDS For Them to Read My Dear Friends THE Peaceable Truth live in which you have received from Jesus your Saviour and that by the Grace and Truth that is come by him into your Hearts you may all abide in Christ and grow up in him from whence it comes For as Christ saith Except you abide in me you cannot bring forth Fruit. And there is none that abide in Christ but who abide in his Light Grace and Truth And Christ saith Without me ye can do nothing who is the Heavenly and spiritual Man the Second Adam the Lord from Heaven who hath all Power in Heaven and Earth given to him So without this Truth and Grace and the Light and Power and Spirit of Christ Jesus which you receive from him you cannot abide in him this brings you to abide in him and to have his Presence to strengthen you so that through him you may do all things which he commands and requires of you And now Dear Friends to the Light and Grace and Truth in your Hearts you were turned at the first and now as you do all walk in the Light and are established in the Grace and Truth your Hearts Minds and Souls it brings you to Christ the heavenly spiritual Rock and Foundation and to build upon him with the Light Grace and Truth that comes from him and then you will see such as Christ speaks of that did profess him and preach him but did not abide in his Light Grace and Truth so not in Christ Jesus and such Christ will not know that do not abide in him with his Light Grace Truth from whence it comes For the Grace Truth and Light that cometh by Jesus this makes Inward Christians and Jews Inward who have the Praise of God though not of Men. For the Apostles in their dayes they had to do with several sorts of People some that preached Christ of Envy and some of Contention and some of Good Will notwithstanding the Apostles rejoyced that Christ was preached But then after a time when many had gotten the Form of Christianity and Godliness and denyed the Power thereof he exhorted the Faithful that kept their Habitation in Christ Jesus to turn away from such And yet such went under the Name of Christians else they could not have the Form of Godliness And likewise such as got the good Words and fair Speeches with which they deceived the Hearts of the Simple these were got to be Preachers among the Christians And the Heady High-minded and Fierce Despisers these had the Form of Godliness though they denyed the Power of it which they were turned from So they that lived in the Light Grace and Truth and the Power and Spirit of Christ were to turn away from such that had the Form of Godliness and denyed the Power And such as these that had the Form of Godliness and denyed the Power were come farther than such as taught for Doctrine the Rudiments and Precepts of the World and Doctrines of Men or the professing Jews and Gentiles that stood against the Name of Christ which were altogether Unbelievers of the very Form of Godliness of the New Covenant And likewise such that were doting about Questions and Strifes about Words Vain Janglers and Disputers Men of Corrupt Minds and those that were Unruly and Vain Talkers many of these were Teachers which were Troublers of the Churches in the Apostles dayes And those that Peter and Jude cryed against that were come so far as Balaam to prophesie and Cain to hear the Voice of God and a Corah which came out of Aegypt many of these got up to be Teachers having high swelling Words which the Apostle judged them amongst the fallen Angels and the old World and Sodom who were turned to be Mockers And such like as these were they that separated themselves being sensual having not the Spirit And so it seems these did set up Separations from the Apostles and Saints in their dayes And the Apostle declareth how the Lord saved his People out of the Land of Egypt and afterward destroyed them that believed not and the Angels that kept not their first State but left their own Habitation he hath reserved in everlasting Chains under Darkness unto the Judgment of the great Day And so these which went under the Name of Christians that had been convinced and had got a Form of Godliness and Christianity that kept not their first state in the Light and Grace and Truth and by it their Habitation in Christ Jesus they came under the Chain of Darkness And therefore Friends you see how the Apostle was troubled with the False Apostles and Satan's Messengers that got among the Corinthians and how they despised the Apostle And likewise what was got up among the Romans and Galathians and in the dayes of John as he manifests in his Epistles And therefore how Careful were the true Apostles of the Saints in their watching over them For John said If ye walk in the Light as he is in the Light then have we Fellowship one with another And that ye also may have Fellowship with us for truly our Fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ And these things write we unto you that your Joy may be full For many may talk of the Light and preach the Light but to walk in the Light that is it which grafts into Christ Jesus and brings to live in him which talking of him doth not And as the Apostle said As every one hath received Christ Jesus so walk in him And the Sayers of the Word and not the Doers deceived their own Souls So there may be many Sayers of the Word Deceivers of their own Souls and others and Preachers of Christ Jesus But the Doers of the Word and the Walkers in Christ Jesus are they that are Accepted of the Lord. And again as the Apostle saith The Word of Faith was nigh them in their Hearts and Mouthes to obey it and do it and that was the Word of Faith which they preached And the Light shined in their Hearts to give them the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Christ Jesus And the Anointing which you have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things that is true and is no Lye and even as it hath taught you ye shall abide in him And these things I have written unto you saith the Apostle concerning them that seduce you So here may all the inward Christians in the Grace Light Truth Power and Spirit of Christ Jesus see what the Apostles exhorted the Saints unto that they might be preserved in their day and so by the same now from them that deceived their own Souls and others And so by this Light this Word the Anointing Grace Truth Power and Spirit of Jesus Christ in the Heart Mind and Soul must all the Saints be guided
entred into the Rest out of the Toil of old Adam for they are grafted into him who was before old Adam was For Unbelievers in the Light are grafted into old Adam in Transgression And the Believers in the Light which is the Life in Christ are grafted into Christ the Word by which all things were made and Created So here is perfect true Freedom and Liberty And likewise the true Liberty and Freedom is in the Grace which brings Salvation and not Destruction and teaches to live Godly not Ungodly and Soberly not Unsoberly and Righteously not Unrighteously and teaches to deny the World and not to cleave to it and to follow it This Grace stablishes the Heart and seasons the Words the Fruits of its Liberty and Freedom will manifest it self And also the True Liberty in the pure holy Spirit of God and Christ doth baptize and plunge down that which is gotten up by Transgression in Man and Woman and Circumcises and cuts off the Body of Death and Sin in the Flesh that is gotten up in Man and Woman by Transgression and mortifies and kills that which would grieve vex or quench the Motions of the pure Spirit of God so that in this holy pure Spirit of this pure God and Christ is the holy pure Freedom and Liberty over all Bondage and false Liberties and Freedoms And the Fruits of this pure Spirit is pure Love Righteousness and Godliness Patience Temperance and Humility by which Spirit all are made to drink into one Spirit so that all are the living Wells that have their living Water from God and Christ their true and living Fountain and in which Spirit they have a holy and spiritual Fellowship in this Baptizing Mortifying Circumcising Spirit yea one with another and with the Son and the Father also through which the Love of God warms every one Heart But when the Love of many waxes cold as Christ saith then they go from this Grace Light Truth Power and Spirit and the Anointing and the Word of God in their own Hearts then such turn to be Betrayers and not Saviours upon Mount Sion And against such God's swift Judgment turns and suddainly falls though they may cry for a time Liberty Freedom and Peace Peace but a Day of Trouble will overtake them ere they are aware And therefore all ye Friends of Christ Jesus stand fast in that Liberty wherewith Christ Jesus hath made you free by his Light Grace Truth Spirit Faith and Everlasting Gospel the Everlasting Power of God which is an Everlasting Freedom and Liberty above all Bondage and false fallen Liberties and Freedoms in this glorious Gospel and glorious joyful Liberty where all may exercise God and Christ's holy Gifts in his holy supernatural Light Grace Truth Spirit and divine Faith Word of Life and the Gospel which Word cannot be bound with all the World's Cords or Chains for it is a Fire to burn and a Hammer to break and a Sword to cut in pieces and therefore Love the Word and keep the Word of Patience and the Lord will keep you for it is a tryed Word and it will keep you in all Tryals which shall come upon all the World to try them for the Word was before the World was and will be when the World is gone which all the new born Babes of the incorruptible Seed of the Milk of the Word grow by it up into an immortal Life and Kingdom that is without End Glory and Praises to the Lord God forever And now ye Babes of Christ If the World do hate you it hated Christ your Lord and Master also if they do meek and reproach and defame and buffet you they did so to your Lord and Master also who was and is the Green Tree that gives Nourishment to all his Branches his Followers Now if the World do persecute you and take away your Goods or Clothes was not your Lord and Master so served did not they cast Lots for his Garments was not he haled from the Priests to Herod and before Pontius Pilate and spit upon and if they hate thee and spit upon thee he was hated and spit upon for thee did he not go to Prison for thee and was he not mocked and scourged for thee did not he bow to the Cross and Grave for thee he who had no Sin neither was Guile found in his Mouth and did he not bear thy Sins in his own Body upon the Tree and was he not scourged for thee by whose Stripes we are healed did not he suffer the Contradiction of Sinners who dyed for Sinners and went into the Grave for Sinners and dyed for the Ungodly yea tasted Death for every man who through Death destroyed Death and the Devil the power of Death and is risen for Death and the Grave could not hold him nor the Powers and Principalities with all their Guards and Watches could not hold him within the Grave but he is risen and is ascended far above all Principalities Powers Thrones and Dominions and is set down at the Right Hand of God and remaineth in the Heavens till all things be restored And he is restoring with his Light Grace Truth Power Spirit Faith Gospel and Word of Life so that you read of some that came to sit together in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus And therefore all must bow at the Name of Jesus their Saviour in his Light Grace Truth Power Spirit and Gospel for he hath bowed for you if you rise with him And you must suffer with him if you will reign with him and dye with him if you will live with him And all that are dead and â—â—â—yed with Christ and are risen with him they will seek those things that come down from above where Christ sits at the Right Hand of God and there you will seek those things which come down from above and not those things which are below For those which seek those things that are below are the Tallers of God and Christ and the Prophets and the Apostles words but they are not dead with Christ nor risen with him and therefore they cannot seek those things that come down from Heaven where Christ sits at the Right Hand of God But they are them that seek the things that are Above that are dead with Christ and risen with him they I say do seek those things which come down from Heaven where Christ sits at the Right Hand of God and they have not only sought them but have found them and received them and come to sit together in Heavenly Places in Christ Jesus a safe established and heavenly sitting in a heavenly Rest and Habitation in Christ Jesus who is the First and Last and over all from Everlasting to Everlasting Blessings and Praises over all be to the Lord God through him forever Amen The Eternal living God of Truth he is a God of Order and is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace in all the Churches of the Saints Now the Author of