Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A48935
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The good order of truth justified wherein our womens meetings and order of marriage (by some more especially opposed) are proved agreeable to Scripture and sound reason / by an old and true friend to liberty of conscience, but not to disorder, William Loddington.
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Loddington, William, 1626?-1711.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing L2803; ESTC R21478
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11,744
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15
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and will certainly devour their strength unawares if they do not return speedily to the Lord Hos 7.9 I would not be supposed by writing this to be more zealous for the Form than for the Power of Godliness my daily Watch is against it And I pray God I and all that love the Truth may not only grow in Words to speak for it but also in unfeigned Love to the Brethren and that the very Spirit of our Minds may daily feel strength renewed to withstand all the fiery Darts and all the guilded Baits of the Enemy I do in this matter as the Apostles did about Faith and Works and as all Christians ought to do viz. to countermine where we feel the Enemy undermining When the Romans began an early beginning to be tainted with a Belief That Works without Faith would save them Paul zealously writes for Faith Rom. 4. But when James perceived the scattered Tribes inclinable to err on the other hand he writes as fervently for Works chap. 2. So a concern is upon my Heart to vindicate even the Form of Godliness because I feel the Serpent designing to bring us to Disorder and Confusion under the fair pretences of Liberty as before mentioned And if it be true as I heard one no small Opposer and for whom I greatly sorrow say That the Worm which spoils the Shell breeds in the Kernel then there is much more cause to examine their Pretences to Power than many apprehend For by this Argument all their talk of Power and seeming Power is to be suspected as wrong because no Worm can breed in the true living Power of God that will spoil the Shell or Form of Godliness Obj. There is one thing more with me to add concerning Judgment It hath sometimes been returned upon me in conference about these things That I judged none to be Friends by these Arguments but such as were conformable to our Order and Forms and this was judging according to outward Appearances and that I must not judge lest I be judged and such like Answ There is thick Darkness in this Objection especially being made by one in some things conformable to Truth whereby the World judges him to be a Quaker Now he must either own or disown this Judgment If he own it be contradicts himself in saying No judgment is to be made by outward Appearance If he disown it he condemns himself of Hypocrisie in appearing to be what he is not But further let such pretending Friends who thus object consider whether they themselves do not in their own Thoughts daily as they walk the streets make a judgment of People according to outward Appearances I do not mean as to their eternal state but do they not judge such to be no Quakers who are dressed in the World's Fashions So by the same Rule as they judge them to be no Quakers which have not the visible dress or habit of Quakers must they justifie me in judging them to be no Members of our Meetings whose Behaviour there is not orderly and agreeable to our Principles He is not of a right Spirit who is not as watchful not to offend those he pretends to own as a Church of Christ as not to offend â—â—…w or Gentile And if he believe us not to be a Church of Christ why doth he frequent our Assembly and there sit as in Unity with our Worship Qu. But what then is forbidden by these two Scriptures Mat. 7.1 John 7.24 Answ In Mat. 7.1 Christ forbids judging so of others as we would not be judged our selves Wherefore he adds For with what Judgment ye judge ye shall be judged He that judges without Mercy shall have Judgment without Mercy So this takes not away all but only partial and unjust Judgment 2. In John 7.24 That judgment is forbid which the Jews made according to the appearance of Letter of the Law When the literal Sence or Letter is a Figure we must not judge by that sence The fore-going Verses clear this The Jews were angry because Christ made a man whole on the Sabbath day He convinced them it was no Breach of their Sabbath by their own practice of Circumcision upon that day in case of necessity For that day was but a Figure of future Rest Exod. 31.17 So it was made for Man not Man for it that is it was to be subject to man not man to it Mark 2.27 And tho' the Letter of the Law was In it thou shalt not do any Work yet if they judged righteously this did not forbid good Works as necessity called for as Circumcision or saving the Life of a Beast themselves being Judges much more doing good to men Wherefore he reproves them for judging after the Appearance or Letter of the Law and not according to the Equity or Righteousness of it in his case as well as in their own Great is that blindness and ignorance which wrests these Scriptures to silence all judging and condemning what in Truth ought to be judged and condemned So I shall conclude with referring to what the Apostle Paul saith concerning our Bodies 1 Cor. 3.17 If any man defile the Temple of God him shall God destroy This Temple in chap. 6.19 he expounds to be our Bodies Now as the Body is a Temple for the Soul so I own the Form to be but as a Temple for the Power Yet if any man wound this living Temple this living Form the Life Spirit and Power within it will cry out and testifie against him THE END
THE Good Order OF TRUTH JUSTIFIED Wherein our Womens Meetings and Order of Marriage by some more especially opposed are proved agreeable to Scripture and Sound REASON By an old and true Friend to Liberty of Conscience but not to Disorder William Loddington Formality not Form feeds the Spirit of Persecution So the Service of the House of the Lord was set in Order 2 Cor. 29.35 Though I be absent in the Flesh yet am I with you in Spirit joying and beholding your Order and the stedfastness of your Faith in Christ Col. 2.5 Printed and Sold by Andrew Sowle in Holloway-Lane in Shoreditch 1685. The Good Order OF TRUTH JUSTIFIED UNITY in Spirit is the true and firm Foundation of Love and Fellowship All Vniformity and Conformity not springing from this is but Hypocrisie Where there is Unity in the Life and Spirit of Christ there will be Uniformity if no Temptation hinder in the visible Life and Order answerable to the measure received Do men gather Grapes or Grape Leaves of Thorns The Sap puts forth the same Leaf as well as Fruit in every Branch Yet the comparison holds no further than to the faithful because Men may counterfeit but Trees cannot Outward appearances beget a Name as to outward Fellowships He shall by men of the World be reputed a Quaker that is conformable to their Language and Gesture but the true Quaker or rather true Christian takes his Measures from better Foundations There are Vertues Behaviours or Operations of mens Spirits discernable to the Spiritual more or less and according as they feel Unity in these they joyn together to exalt his Glory who brought them to a sence of Life Immortal into which the Hypocrite cannot enter though from this men may fall Never more need to watch and pray that we be not deceived for Truth was never more lively counterfeited nor never did the Mystery of Iniquity work more plausibly to break Sion's Peace What more hated than Imposition What more nauseous than Formality What more ridiculous than impertinent Ceremony The Serpent knowing all this covers himself in some places with pretences for Moderation and Liberty of Conscience as it were in opposition to all Imposition when indeed it s to bring in Bondage to corruption But the Daughter of Babylon is known though decked with Pearls and fine Array glorious words of Truth This Spirit never had a fairer advantage because so many have turned Persecutors under pretences of Conformity to Religious Order and Government so that many Arguments now brought in behalf of good Order though sound and rational yet are slighted because formerly some Persecutors have made use of them to a wrong end Hence strong Delusions get over such as receive not the Love of Truth that they may be saved Yea some who I believe did in love receive it yet not keeping to it are drawn into opposition to its Order whereby Divisions and Offences arise contrary to the peaceable Doctrine of Christ Jesus our Lord. Two things are principally pretended to be the subjects of their Dissatisfaction viz. our Womens Meetings and Order of Marriage But alas if these two things were removed other Dissatisfactions would spring up and others after them till and Order and Government were dissolved They know not what Spirit it is which makes them stumble give it an Inch and it will take more Nay some have even lost all their Profession of Religion by doing so Now because I am verily perswaded in my own Spirit that good Words and fair Speeches deceive many simple hearts I feel a freedom for their sakes some are so far gone pure Reason doth not reach them to write something of what the Lord not man nor by Man opened to me about these matters that after my searching and trying them I might be established glory to his Name in his blessed Truth and enabled in some measure to give a Reason of my Hope and Practice 1. As to the First then this Question in my Understanding contains the whole matter Q. Whether it be agreeable to Scripture for our Women Friends to meet by themselves or to sit speak and act equally with men in Meetings of Business of an outward or temporal nature or tendency Answ I put Scripture in the Question because I know its a common Objection That Womens Meetings are not to be found there Is not this plain limiting the Spirit of the Lord to those only times when that was written as if nothing of Order hereafter may or must be necessary and expedient but what was so in those days There is a general Rule not the worse because Superstition hath abused it in 1 Cor. 14. That all things be done Decently and in Order but the particular Circumstances of Decency and Order are left to the judgment of Christians in every Age a the Lord shall direct them But to come closer to the Question it s very clear to me that our Womens Meetings are plainly agreeable to the scope and fence of the Apostle Paul in 1 Cor. 13.3 where he weightily argues and earnestly presseth us to take notice of it saying I would have you to know That the Head of the Woman is the Man If so then if our Womens Meetings consist with the Headship they are justified by this Scripture but such Meetings as are destructive to it and take it away cannot be lawful That the first are consistent with this Headship and the other destructive appears by what follows If Women be taken into Mens Meetings appointed for outward or temporal Concerns with equal freedom to sit speak and act with them then I see no Headship man hath For if he hath any it must be either in Temporal or Spiritual matters In Spirituals he hath none for the same Apostle Gal. 3.28 affirms That Male and Female are all one in Christ that is in services purely spiritual relating only to Christ and the Soul such as Prayer and Prophecy Therefore in 1 Cor. 11. equal freedom is given to the Woman as much as to the Man to Pray and Prophecy But on the other hand Women Friends meeting by themselves may without the least suspition of usurping Authority over the Men confer and reason together how to serve Truth in their places in such things as are most proper and suitable for them still submitting to the Wisdom of God in the Mens Meetings Whereas being mixed together if a man should make a motion about any business and a Woman should stand up and signifie her dislike of it though in most mild and tender words would not any Man yea an Unbeliever if he should come in and hear it would he not conclude the Women in such Meetings had as much Power as the Men Let none Reply It matters not what Vnbelievers say for Paul himself was very careful that nothing might be done in the Church of Christ that might stumble Unbelievers as hereafter will be noted from 1 Cor. 14. Wherefore he knowing Man's Headship to be owned