Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	deed_n	light_n	reprove_v	2,125	5	10.3012	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65862	The divine light of Christ in man, and his mediation truly confessed by the people called Quakers. In a brief and gentle examination of John Norris his two treatises concerning the divine light. Intended to wipe off his undue reflection of grossness and confusion on the Quakers notion of the light within. With a postscript to J. N. By G. W. a servant of Christ.	Whitehead, George, 1636?-1723.	1692 (1692)	Wing W1924; ESTC R220968	14,045	25

evil that with one consent they reject this Light for saith he it checks the Wisest of them all and the Learnedst of them all in secret it reproves them neither can all their Logick silence it nor can the securest among them stop its voice from crying and reproving them within for all their consilence in the outward knowledge of Christ or of what he hath suffered outwardly for them for as hath been often said in a day it strives with all wrestles with all and it 's the unmortified Nature in the Wisest in the Learnedest c. that denies this that despises it that shuts it out to their own condemnation they come all under this description Every one that doth Evil hateth the Light neither cometh to the Light lest his deeds should be reproved Joh. 3. 20. Apology f. 355. Thus far R. Barclay with much more of this kind in his Works which I forbear farther to recite here being I think sufficient to evince to any rational and intelligent person that he did not nor do any of us confine the Light of Christ within in reference to the Act of Illumination or Enlightening to certain Men or to ourselves only but the knowledge and experience of its more powerful operation unto salvation and deliverance of Man from Sin and Satan is only effectually receiv'd and experienc'd in them who return inward unto and obey this Divine Light of Christ within when it unavoidably convicts and reproves them of Sin and Transgression Christ being the Author of Eternal Salvation to them that obey him tho' he actually enlightens all he saves only them that believe and obey him And that R. Barclay did not believe this Divine and Saving-Light to be a Creature as is inferred upon him and the Quakers for his sake pray observe his own Testimony Apology fol. 798. viz. That the Quakers exhort People to believe in a meer Creature is a meer Calumny saith R. B. But now what ground has J. N. to charge the Quakers with confining the Light within as to the Act of Illumination as aforesaid For I find no real cause he has thus to charge us from R. B. his speaking of the natural condition of Man as fallen degenerate dead and deprived of the sensation or feeling of this inward Testimony of the Seed of God and as subject to the power nature and seed of the Serpent and that Man as he is in this state can know nothing a right and that his thoughts and conceptions concerning God and things spiritual are unprofitable to himself and others until he be dis-joined from this Evil Seed and united to the Divine Light P. 8. Apol. fol. 310. And that this holy substantial Seed many times lyes in Man's Heart as a naked Grain in stony Ground Apol. fol. 334. Observe Whence it does not follow That wicked Men who have the Light really and truly in them yet are not actually enlighten'd by it nor yet that it lyes dormant in them as is inferred p. 83. For tho' natural degenerate Man dead in sins and wicked hard-hearted Men have not the true sense and knowledge of the Divine Light it self it follows not that they are not at all or in any sense actually enlightened by it for when they are at any time convicted and reproved of evil judged and condemned in themselves for their wickedness and evil deeds and excited to the contrary they are thereby so far actually enlightened tho' they know not that Light it self nor what it is that doth so convict reprove and condemn them the Spirit of Truth reproves the World of Sin c. yet they neither accept nor see it as they ought to do and the Spirit many times blows or breaths upon them yet they know not whence it comes nor whither it goes nor really what it is tho' it does actually visit and enlighten them the Sun shines and the Rain falls actually upon the stony and barren Ground so the Lord causeth his Sun actually to arise upon the evil and the good and the Rain to fall upon the just and unjust And some grow past feeling and become judicially harden'd through their rebellion and presumptuous sinning against the Light How often is the Candle of the wicked put out how oft is destruction upon him 'T is therefore often lighted Concerning what J. N. is pleased to impute to the Quakers in general viz. That they do not hold their Light to be the very Substance and Essence of the Deity p. 39. Herein he is mistaken of the People call'd Quakers who profess God to be our Light and Salvation And I think his particular Instance from Robert Barclay impartially considered and compared with other Instances of his will fall so far short of proving the Charge upon the Quakers that the contrary will appear for him and the Quakers in this case His Instance for proof is viz. That Mr. Barclay saith By this Seed Grace and Word of God and Light wherewith we say every Man is enlightened and hath a measure of it which strives with them in order to save them and which may by the stubbornness and wickedness of Man's will be quenched bruised wounded pressed down slain and crucified We understand not the proper Essence and Nature of God precisely taken but a spiritual heavenly and invisible Principle in which God as Father Son and Holy Ghost dwells a measure of which divine and glorious life is in all Men as a Seed c. and this we call Vehiculum Dei or the Spiritual Body of Christ the Flesh and Blood of Christ which came down from Heaven p. 37 38. On which J. N. observes thus viz. I think 't is plain from this account Mr. Barclay gives of the Light that tho' it be a Substance yet 't is not the same with but really distinct from the substance of God for 't is not Deus but Vehiculum Dei Thus far J. N. Ans. 1. By the way being sensible where the stress of his Objection lyes and what Words it most here pinches upon I do sincerely propose That the Divine Light 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Word of God cannot be confined to those or any such Explications here objected in a strict or literal sense neither shall I insist upon the same If J. N. should write another Book or more thereof I shall not contest with him about varieties of Words and Terms which he may have and know far more of than I but for Things and Substance knowing that the Light is very comprehensive and large in its extent and signification 'T is said that God is Light and Christ is the Light and the Law is Light and the Commandment a Lamp and the Word both a Light and Lanthorn By which manner of speaking it may then be said the Word is both the Light and its own Vehicle And then why may not Christ's Spiritual Body which came down from Heaven as well be a Light as Life Aliment or Food to the Soul or as