Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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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
now by which they may â—â—me to be inward Christians and have a Habitation in Christ Jesus and so built upon him the living Rock and Foundation as the Saints were in the Apostles dayes and so to have Salt in your selves and the Leaven in your own Meal and the Pearl in your own Field and your Lamps lighted in your own Tabernacles and nourished with the Heavenly Oyl So that you may put a Difference betwixt the Clean and the Unclean and what you are to touch and what you are not And that no Man or Woman may look below Heaven for their Bread to nourish their Souls and inward Man and below God and Christ for their Springs which by continuing in the Light which is the Life in Christ the Word by which all things were made and created they shall have a Spring from him the Fountain springing up in them to Eternal Life so they shall have both the upper nether Springs to nourish the Plant that God hath planted And such as came out of Aegypt with Moses and after rebelled against the Lord and Moses and the Law and the Prophets which were a greater Grief to Moses and the Prophets than the Heathen And likewise those that came to be Christians called and had got the Form of Godliness came to be a greater Grief to the Apostles than the World for their Work was to seek to destroy that which the Apostles had begotten and them that they had turned to Christ And therefore well might the Apostle exhort the Saints to turn away from such that had the Form of Godliness and denyed the Power and therefore he told the Saints The Kingdom of Heaven stands not in Words but in Power and therefore they were to know one another in the Spirit and Power and that is the eternal Knowledge And their Fellowship was to be in the Holy Ghost and their Unity in the Spirit which was the Bond of Peace And their Fellowship was to be in the Gospel which was the Power of God So an Everlasting Fellowship in the Everlasting Power of God that will out-last the power of Darkness for it was before it was And also their Unity was to be in the precious Divine Faith which Christ was the Author and Finisher of the Mystery of which was held in the pure Conscience and their Worship was in the Spirit of God and in the Truth So you may see what a Heavenly Unity and Fellowship and a Worship Christ and the Apostles set up And the Saints in the Light Grace Truth Spirit and the Power of God the Gospel lived in it and walked in it So with the Light Grace Truth Power Spirit and Word of Life in the Heart all hold Christ the Head who is the Head of all things by whom all things were made who is the Treasure of the heavenly saving Wisdom and Knowledge who is called the second Adam the Lord from Heaven And therefore all are to have their Knowledge and their Wisdom from him the Treasure by the Light Grace Truth Power and Spirit that comes from him it leads you to him your Treasure of heavenly Wisdom and Knowledge by which Knowledge you know God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent which is Life Eternal to know And now my Dear Friends concerning TRUE LIBERTY THE True Liberty is in the Gospel the Power of God which the Devil and his Instruments with his False Liberty cannot get into And in this Gospel is the Saints Fellowship which the Devil with all his false fellowships cannot get into nor find it for it is a Mystery Likewise true Liberty is in the Faith which Jesus Christ is the Author and Finisher of which gives Victory over that which separated man and Woman from God and by which they have access to God again And in this holy pure divine precious Faith that is held in the pure Conscience which pure Conscience hath its pure holy divine precious Liberty in this holy divine precious Faith which works by Love and not as the dead Faith doth which works by Enmity which is the Fruit of this holy pure divine Faith and in it is the divine pure holy precious Liberty and Freedom So here is the divine holy pure and precious Liberty in this Faith which works by Love that is the Victory over that which brought Man and Woman into Bondage and Slavery and False Liberty So this living Faith is the Victory over all dead Faiths and false Freedoms and Liberties which holy divine pure and precious Faith the Saints were and are to contend for which Christ the Holy One is the Author and Finisher of So in this holy divine pure and precious Faith they have a holy divine pure and precious Unity and Liberty which is the Victory over the Enmity the Adversary the Destroyer and all his Instruments and they cannot come within this holy divine pure and precious Unity and Liberty which is in the Faith for it is a Mystery and gives Victory over him and is the Access to the pure God and to Christ the Author of it which all are to stand fast in that Liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free who is the heavenly and spiritual Man the second Adam For the Bondage Captivity and Thraldom False Freedom and False Liberty was and is in old Adam in Transgression the true Liberty is that which Christ the pure holy One makes free in and this is a pure holy Liberty which Christ makes and sets his People free in in which they are all to stand fast over all the false Liberties and Freedoms which are Bondage Also the true Liberty is in the Truth which if the Truth hath made you free then are you free indeed from him that abode not in the Truth in whom there is no Truth So then there is no true Freedom nor Liberty in him and he in whom there is no Truth cannot come into this Freedom and Liberty which is in the Truth but remains in the False For the Jews in the dayes of Christ boasted of their Liberty and Freedom though they were in Bondage both inwardly and outwardly and that they were of Abraham their Father but Christ told them The Devil was their Father his lusts ye will do And also in the dayes of the Apostles many of the False Christians boasted of their Liberty but who was overcome by them was brought into Bondage And the Apostle was so careful of his Liberty in Christ Jesus that such as came to spye it out were somewhat in Conference but they added nothing to him and unto such he would not give place by Subjection but rather reproved them and directed every one to walk according to the measure of the Rule which God had distributed to them And also True Liberty is in the Light and Grace and the Spirit which comes by Jesus which by believing in the Light they are grafted into Christ and so into true Liberty and Freedom and so are