Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A54109
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A brief answer to a false and foolish libel called The Quakers opinions for their sakes that writ it and read it / by W.P.
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Penn, William, 1644-1718.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing P1259; ESTC R26862
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17,388
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27
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A Brief ANSWER TO A False and Foolish LIBELL CALLED The QVAKERS Opinions For their sakes that Writ it and Read it By W. P. Being Defamed we Entreat 1 Cor. 4. 13. Printed in the Year 1678. Sober Reader THe end of Controversie with good men is the Advancement of the Truth with ill men of themselves and their base Interests in all which God is Judge who judgeth righteously and will reward every one according to their works nor doth his Judgment slumber Most Parties in Europe boast themselves of being Christians an excellent Character indeed but the worst is there is little more then a Boast in it I am not incharitable I have first judged my self Let none deceive themselves To be like Christ is to be a Christian and not else and Christians are in Concord for Christ is not divided neither is that Body of which he is truly Head at Variance how much Discord so much Degeneracy from God for he is one and so are those that are born of him the Children of God are not divided because one and the same holy Spirit leads them That which is the Guide of one is the Guide of all and by this shall it be known who are Gods Children if they bring forth the Fruits of his divine Spirit which saith the Apostle are these Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance against such there is no Law And they sayes he that are Christs have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts this only will avail in the great Judgment of the Lord. Therefore I beseech all vain Contenders to consider of their own Standing what their Work is who Employes them and what their Wages will be Tell me thou vain Disputer and Vitious Liver what is Religion without Holy Love what is Faith without Good Works what is Worship without Godly Fear and Christianity without true Self-denyal it is not he that cryes Lord Lord but he that does the Will of my Father said Christ shall be accepted There is a great talk of mans Laps in Adam and Restoration in Christ but they serve only for a sound with too many For did people sincerely believe that they are fallen from true Love Meekness Patience Humility Mercy Justice Purity c. and did they but consider that they are not restored to those Heavenly Qualifications but that they live in fleshly lusts of one sort or other some in Voluptuousness others in Envy and therefore not really restored or redeemed by Christ nor truly in a state of Salvation but in peril of eternal Misery certainly they would not pass away their little span of precious time in so much worldly Pleasure neglect of God and Carelesness of the other World if they have any the least hope of it Reader the Petulancy of some Adversary or other has given occasion for this little Treatise The design of which is both to reprove him and to hinder others from being abused by him that so the Innocency of a People whom God hath raised by his own Power and Wisdom to glorify him in their Bodies Souls and Spirits which are his may be delivered from the mistakes of his Ignorance and the reflections of his Malice And truly my servent Prayers to Almighty God are that he would yet more and more send forth his Light and his Truth to inform the Understandings and overcome the Hearts of all People that they may experimentally know the Redemption of their Sou's from the prevalency of Sin and the power of the God of this World's Lusts by the Blood of Jesus who is the Lamb of God that takes away the Sin of the World then shall Love Faith and Holiness encrease and all Unrighteousness come to an End Amen W. P. AN ANSWER TO A False and Foolish Libel CALLED The QVAKERS Opinions OPINION I. THe Quakers deny the Authority of holy Scriptures as the Rule of Faith and Practice unto Christians Answer This we flatly deny and charge our Adversary to make it good in terminis in so many words or retract his Charge For the Authority of the Scripture is the Spirit and Power of God which we say is our Rule and Guide as it was the Rule of the holy Men of God both before the Scriptures were written and when they spoke and writ them And to say we deny it to be our Rule is to say we deny our own Principle for owning of which you are angry with us Moses is taken on all hands to have been the first Penman of Sacred Story and that we cannot rise higher then his time for Scripture consequently then the Scripture must take date but who will deny that Abel had a Rule to worship God by Enoch to walk with God by Noah to preach by Abraham Isaac and Jacob to believe by if they had none say so if they had what was it if not the Spirit of Truth and Holiness that strove with the old World but was resisted And if the Spirit of God was the Rule of Faith Worship and Practice then have we got another Rule in the room of it now No such matter those that loved feared God in all Ages were ruled and guided by the Spirit of God though many Helpers have been afforded men by the Father of Mercies and Lights yet still the Spirit of Truth is the great Rule in and through them all This is the Rule of all Rules as God is the Light of all Lights yea this is that Rule of the New Creature for the walking of the true Christian is in and after the Spirit yea 't is the Mark of being a Child of God to be led and guided by the Spirit of God this is the Scripture's Testimony There is no Condemnation to those that walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit and as many as are led by the Spirit of God are the Sons of God The Argument is plain and altogether as unanswerable That which is to lead Christians is to rule Christians but the Spirit of Truth is to LEAD CHRISTIANS consequently the SPIRIT OF TRUTH is to RULE CHRISTIANS So that to deny that the Spirit of Truth is the Guide and Rule of Christians is to gainsay the Testimony of Scripture and the very Tenure and Nature of the second new and everlasting Covenant of Life and Salvation for in that state the Law is writ in the Heart and the Fear and Spirit put in the inward Part and what for if not to rule and guide the Soul in the Path of Life To conclude As the Spirit of Truth revealed to the Prophets things to come and was a Rule to them in discerning receiving declaring and writing those things so is the same Spirit of Truth the Rule and guide to all God's People in their reading and understanding of them now written and blessed are they that read with a good Understanding And that the Simplicity of none may be abused we declare as we have frequently done