Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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B21662
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A tender and Christian testimony to young people and others whom it may concern in this present day, who walk with us under the profession of the blessed truth.
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Elson, Mary, 1623 or 4-1707.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing E642
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4,742
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10
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A Tender and Christian TESTIMONY TO Young People And others whom it may concern in this present day Who walk with us under the Profession of the blessed Truth Printed in the Year 1685. A Testimony of LOVE in tender Advice and Counsel to a Young Men and others who profess the Truth Dear Friends WE whom God hath raised in the Morning of his Day to be a kind of first Fruits unto himself do in a living sense of the Truth and in a true respect to the Prosperity and Glory of it tenderly advise Young men and others who are of late Convincement that you use all dillgence and circumspection in your several places and callings in Conversation and Practice to answer that holy Principle which in words you do profess and especially to beware of a false Liberty which some take to themselves that Truth allows not of particularly that of Fashioning according to the course and custom of this World which creates a great offence unto many who are apt to conclude there is no stability amongst us more than in other Professions when they see how several conform to and let in Superfluity Curiosity and Costliness in Habit and Apparel which evidently bespeaks the vanity of such Minds and become not men really professing Godliness Whose adorning is and always was inward in the hidden man in the heart and blessed be God many are settled down into the sense of it not being subject to alter or change but daily denying themselves take up the Cross to all outward and perishing things and being stedfast in the Faith become examples of Righteousness Gravity Sincerity unto others some of whom through Carelesness and Negligence have cooled their Affections and Love to the Truth whereby they become weak and grow into a feeble state sometimes put on Gay Clothing with Sumptuous and Costly Array such as many of us for Truth 's sake have deny'd and put off which as it is a Stumbling-block to those that are without so an Exercise and Grief to us who are concern'd for the Lord whose Power and Spirit hath mightily wrought in us to subdue and bring under the carnal Mind with its Affections and Lusts which in the weighty and serious Life we exhort you to watch against and suffer not that which is unsavoury and corrupt to arise nor give place to it but by the Spirit resist every Appearance of Evil and dwell in the seasoning Power that ye may be as the Salt of the Earth and Lights to the World that they seeing your good Works and orderly Conversation may glorifie your Father who is in Heaven And Friends our further advice and counsel to you is that you keep inward with the Lord and out of the Hurries and Busles that are in the World which we ought not to be concerned in who are seeking for a heavenly Kingdom and Immortality and Glory far transcending the Splendor and Lustre of this World which Christ said his Kingdom was not of but consists in Righteousness and Peace in which peaceable Spirit of Righteousness we desire all may be found and not to be busied in matters relating to outward Government and Rule which belongs not to us but are for such on whom it pleaseth God them to bestow wherefore we caution all to be careful that no real occasion be given by Words or Actions for any to be esteemed as Busie-Bodies on that account but be ye fervent with the Lord and strong in the Power of his Might as good Souldiers of Christ to endure Hardships suffer not as evil-doers but for the Testimony of Faith and a good Conscience towards God and the Crown Immortal you shall receive which is laid up not only for us who are at present tribulated and afflicted for Righteousness sake but for all them that love the Appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ So to the Word of his Grace we commend you all for further Counsel and Direction and with the tender Salutation of our Love rest Devonshire-House Monethly-Meeting the 8th of the 5th Moneth 1685. Your Friends and Brethren in the precious Truth William Ingram William Crouch Richard Whitpane Gilbert Mace A tender and Christian Testimony to Young People and others whom it may concern in this present Day Friends WE having a weight on our Spirits and Godly care on our Minds and a holy Jealousie in respect to the Honour and Prosperity of the blessed Truth you and we walk under the Profession of find a necessity thus to remind you and to stir up one another to our Exercise in the Light of Christ Jesus which first convinced us of Sin and Evil shewing us that to be the Way and the Truth that leads out of all Defilements both of Flesh and Spirit into the Life of Holiness and Righteousness in the whole course of our Conversation so that to the World and all that are without our Lives may speak that the Grace that hath appeared to all we have received for by the effectual work of it we deny all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts The Lust of the Eye the Lust of the Flesh and the Pride of Life which are of the evil One. And by this that first convinced us this Principle of Light and Spirit of Grace we are led to live godly soberly and righteously in this present evil World in which the Temptations are Now Friends we looking back to the Purity we beheld in the first breaking forth of the Light of Christ among us 't is not less beautiful in it self but more to us through the clearer shinings of it in the Mystery of the Cross of Christ Jesus which is Foolishness to the World but to us that believe in it the Power of God for Salvation out of the pollutions of the World that enters through the Lusting Eye or Flesh or Pride of Life which our fervent Breathings are to God that we may be preserved from turning back into again looking to our first steps in Truth 's way Oh! the strength we were one to another through our Unity each watching for the others good as well as our own fearing to draw one another from the stay of our Minds did not forget the bridle to the Tongue through unprofitable talking whispering or evil speaking one of another behind the back but if any thing did lie upon one to inform exhort and reprove one another that we did in a holy awe as became them that walked in the Light to the particulars faced concerned Moreover consider the Comliness of that Plainness that at the first the Truth led us to by which we were distinguished from other Professors and People of the World who if we were then reproached for it it was for Truth 's sake which the upright minded to God valu'd above all the vain Glory of the World And with such do you consider that wear the gay-clothing which speaks not the weight and gravity of Truth the costly array and so much conform to the Fashions of the World yet
walk under the Profession of Truth with us In the fear and love of God we beseech you as Children Retire to the Light of Christ in you and there feel our burden for you and the reproach and dishonour of the precious Truth by you whilst the world saith The Quakers are now like us they want only Lace Ribbands Our end is not to upbraid any but to remind you how our religious Profession is upbraided for with the Light you will see there may be and is Superfluity in Habit although no Lace and Ribbands neither would we have you provoked but to the Love of the Light of Christ in you because they that love the Light bring their deeds to be manifested by the Light and receive the Reproofs and Instuctions of it for they are the way to Life Now this we do enjoyn upon you and are seeking for you even that the holy Principle of Truth may take place in you so as to season you in all good Manners of Life and Conversation as those that profess Godliness Remember what the Apostle saith in 1 Tim. Let the Women adorn themselves in Modest Apparel and with Sobriety and not with broidered Hair Gold or costly Array And in Peter read how the godly Womens adorning was to be inward not in putting on Apparel c. Now having known a Mortification through the Cross of Christ and in this as well as other things deny'd our selves put off these things we had liberty in before we professed the Truth to such it s now strange to see what some put on so much more costly far exceeding whatever they wore before they came to profess the Truth and indeed unsuitable to Truth 's Gravity and Christian Society as if that which crucifies to the World and leads to Self-denial were forgotten The Lord help to stop these things that hinders the work of God and stops that holy progress in the Life of Truth Furthermore we cannot but remind here amongst us Young People that have little in the World yet deck themselves as if they had great matters and thereby draw out the Mind one after another into high expectations in this Circumstance there is oft times a Falacy and Deceit and the end of it proves of a bad effect by disappointment but at best this bespeaks not the Modesty Sincerity or Weight of Truth Now pray Friends bear with us for it is the Truth of God which is most precious both in Faith and Life which is our concern herein and that the Cross of Christ in which the sum of Christianity consists may not be made void and our holy Profession may not be scandalized by things unbecoming Truth and us in which a false Liberty is creeping up to the hurt and hindrance of Truth 's Prosperity but in the Light all is discerned and strength ministred to withstand Therefore our Testimony is to Elder and Younger that in all things we all may keep to the Touch-stone and Guidance of the holy Principle that first convinced us And you the Younger Friends be not as those that are grown beyond Reproof but esteem of them that are before you in the Truth as the Elder Women that are in our Duty which is To teach the Younger in all good things and also to reprove and admonish concerning evil things and the Elder and Yonger may walk in Truth in all things harmless and blameless Let us all mind that which keeps in humility fear and godly sincerity and those that are Mothers of Children in all holy circumspection to watch over them that the Vanity of the Mind may not be encouraged but curbed and kept down And those Servants that profess the Truth which will not be subject in their places in these things that are wholsom honest and just but take liberty as they will being stubborn and perverse not answering the blessed Principle of Truth so becoming a stumbling to them without an ill example to our Children and Families within a sore disorder and grievous burden that many bears by them but such Servants we exhort to fear the Lord and take heed how they persist in going contrary to the holy Truth they profess but turn into the measure of God's Spirit of Grace and with the Light of Christ examine their own Spirits and manners of Life and with a subject mind read what the Apostle teacheth Servants in their places as well as Masters and Mistrisses Col. 3.22 Servants obey in all things your Masters according to the Flesh not with Eye-Service and so on to the end of that Chapter Ephes 6.5 6 7. also read Tit. 2.9 10. 1 Pet. 2.18 1 Tim. 6.1 2. Let as many Servants as are under the Yoke count their Masters worthy of all honour that the Name of God and his Doctrine be not blasphemed We pray God that Servants with meekness and fear would lay to heart what the Spirit of God speaks in themselves as also what the Spirit hath spoke through the Apostle to the Servants state that so the Truth they might do as well as know and profess and then they will be sensible that our Exercise is for the Prosperity of Truth in all And Masters do ye the same things as the Apostle saith Col. 4.1 Give unto your Servants that which is equal and just And Mistresses of Families to be Examples to your Servants in the fear of the Lord in Humility and Christian Gentleness that as in our several Stations we are called and gathered into the harmony of Truth that so all may grow up and prosper therein that so we may be a good savour to God in our day and to the Generation that shall succeed us in the Truth and Service of the Lord which he daily confirms us in through his heavenly Presence with us his Name be honoured the Witness in all hearts answered we through his Word of Life confirmed and strengthened to every good Work for which let us always wait on the Lord to whose Spirit of Grace we commit the whole Flock and Family of God for Instruction and Preservation unto the end Amen From our Womens-Meeting at the Bull and Mouth the 8th of the 4th Moneth 1685. These Names for and in the behalf of the rest of the faithful Members of our Meeting Mary Elson Jane Bland Hannah Taylor Anne Whitehead Margaret Meakins Sarah Milnar Lucresie Cook Elizabeth Fuller Agnes Poole Marabel Farnsbury Susannah Dew Elizabeth Camfield Grace Bathurst Mary Plumstead Ruth Crouch Martha Fisher Bridget Ford Sibel Adson Constant Atridge Mary Ellis THE END