Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	true_a	worship_n	worshipper_n	3,023	5	12.1458	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54196	Primitive Christianity revived in the faith and practice of the people called Quakers written, in testimony to the present dispensation of God, through them, to the world, that prejudices may be removed, the simple informed, the well-enclined encouraged, and the truth and its innocent Friends, rightly represented / by William Penn.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1696 (1696)	Wing P1342; ESTC R15209	43,826	145

great Agent and Means of Man's Conversion and Eternal Felicity any more than Infancy Youth and Manhood make three Men instead of three growths or periods of Time of one and the same Man But passing that the many Modes or Ways of Gods appearing to Men arise as hath been said from the divers States of Men in all which it seems to have been his main design to prevent Idolatry and Vice by directing their Minds to the true Object of Worship and pressing Virtue and Holiness So that though mediately he spoke to the Patriarchs mostly by Angels in the fashion of Men and by them to their Families over and above the Illumination in themselves so the Prophets for the most Part by the Revelation of the Holy Ghost in them and by them to the Jews And since the Gospel Dispensation by his Son both Externally by his coming in the Flesh and Internally by his spiritual Appearance in the Soul as he is the great Light of the World Yet all its flowings mediately through others has still been from the same Principle co-operating with the Manifestation of it immediately in Man 's own Particular § 2. This is of great weight for our Information and Incouragement that God's Work in reference to Man is all of a Piece and in it self lies in a narrow Compass and that his Eye has ever been upon the same thing in all his Dispensations viz. to make Men truly Good by planting his Holy Awe and Fear in their Hearts Though he has condescended for the hardness and darkness of Men's Hearts to approach and spell out his Holy Mind to them by low and carnal ways as they may appear to our more Enlightned Understandings Suffering Truth to put on divers sorts of Garments the better to reach to the low State of Men to engage them from false Gods and ill Lives seeing them sunk so much below their nobler Part and what he made them that like brute Beasts they knew not their own Strength and Excellency § 3. And if we do but well consider the Reason of the Prevalency of Idolatry upon the Earlier and Darker Times of the World of which the Scripture is very particular we shall find that it ariseth from this that it is more Sensual and therefore calculated to please the Sences of Men being more Outward or Visible or more in their own Power to perform then one more spiritual in its Object For as their gods were the Workmanship of Mens Hands they could not prefer them that being the Argument which did most of all gaul their Worshippers and what of all things for that reason they were most willing to forget But their Incidency to Idolatry and the Advantages it had upon the true Religion with them plainly came from this that it was more outward and sensual They could see the Object of their Devotion and had it in their Power to Address it when they would It was more fashionable too as well as better accommodated to their Dark and too Brutal State And therefore it was that God by many Afflictions and greater Deliverances brought forth a People to endear himself to them that they might remember the Hand that saved them and Worship him and him only in order to root up Idolatry and plant the Knowledge and fear of him in their Minds for an Example to other Nations VVhoever reads Deuteronomy which is a summary of the other four Books of Moses will find the frequent and earnest Care and concern of that good Man for Israel about this very Point and how often that People slipt and laps'd notwithstanding God's Love Care and Patience over them into the Idolatrous Customs of the Nations about them Divers other Scriptures inform us also especially those of the Prophets Isaiah 44. and 45. Psalms 37. and 115. and Jer. 10. where the Holy Ghost Confutes and Rebukes the People and mocks their Idols with a sort of Holy Disdain § 4. Now that which is farthest from Idolatry and the best Antidote against it is the Principle we have laid down and the more Peoples Minds are turned and brought to it and that they resolve their Faith VVorship and Obedience into the Holy Illuminations and Power of it the nearer they grow to the end of their Creation and consequently to their Creator They are more spiritually qualified and become better fitted to VVorship God as he is VVho as we are told by our Lord Jesus Christ Is a Spirit and will be Worshipped in Spirit and in Truth and that they are such sort of Worshippers which God seeketh to worship him in this Gospel Day The hour cometh saith he and now is That is some now do so but more shall A plain Assertion in present and a Promise and Prophesie of the encrease of such VVorshippers in future VVhich shows a Change intended from a Ceremonial VVorship and State of the Church of God to a Spiritual One. Thus the Text But the time cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall Worship the Father in the Spirit and in the Truth VVhich is as much as to say when the VVorship of God shall be more Inward than Outward and so more suitable to the Nature of God and the nobler Part of Man his Inside or his inward and better Man For so those blessed VVords import in Spirit and in Truth In the Spirit that is through the Power of the Spirit In the Truth that is in Realities not in Shadows Ceremonies or Formalities but in Sincerity with and in Life being divinely prepared and animated which brings Man not only to offer up Right VVorship but also into Intimate Communion and Fellowship with God who is a Spirit § 5. And if it be duly weighed it will appear that God in all his Manifestations of himself hath still come nearer and nearer to the Insides of Men that he might reach to their Understandings and open their Hearts and give them a plainer and nearer Acquaintance with himself in Spirit And then it is that Man must seek and find the Knowledge of God for his Eternal Happiness Indeed all things that are made show forth the Power and Wisdom of God and his Goodness too to Mankind and therefore many Men urge the Creation to silence Atheistical Objections But though all those things show a God yet Man does it above all the Rest He is the precious Stone of the Ring and the most glorious Jewel of the Globe to whose reasonable Use Service and Satisfaction the whole seems to be made and dedicated But God's Delight by whom Man was made we are told by the Holy Ghost is in the habitable Parts of the Earth with the Sons of Men Prov. 8. 31. And with those that are contrite in Spirit Isa 66. 1. And why is Man his Delight but because Man only of all his Works was his Likeness This is the intimate Relation of Man to God Somewhat nearer than ordinary for of all other Beings Man only

it is that Conformity that gives Communion and there is no fellowship with God no Light of his Countenance to be enjoyed no Peace and Assurance to be had further than there is Obedience to his Will and a Faithfulness to his Word according to the Manifestation of the Light thereof in the Heart I say this is the truest and highest State of Worship for Set Days and Places with all the Solemnity of them were most in Request in the weakest Dispensation Altars Ark and Temples Sabbaths and Festivals c. are not to be found in the Writings of the New Testament There every Day 's alike and every Place is alike but if there were a Dedication let it be to the Lord. Thus the Apostle but he plainly shews a State beyond it for to Live with him was Christ and to Dye was Gain for the Life he Lived was by the Faith of the Son of God and therefore it was not he that Lived but Christ that Lived in him that is that Ruled Conducted and bore Sway in him which is the true Christian Life the Supersensual Life the Life of Conversion and Regeneration to which all the Dispensations of God and Ministry of his Servants have ever tended as the Consummation of God's Work for Man's Happiness Here every Man 's a Temple and every Family a Church and every Place is a Meeting-Place and every Visit a Meeting And yet a little while and it shall be so yet more and more and a People the Lord is now Preparing to enter into this Sabbath or Degree of Rest Not that we would be thought to undervalue Publick and Solemn Meetings We have them all over the Nations where the Lord has called us Yea tho' but Two or Three of us be in a Corner of a County we meet as the Apostle Exhorted the Saints of his time and Reproved such as Neglected to Assemble themselves But yet shew we unto thee O Reader a more excellent Way of Worship For many may come to those Meetings and go away Carnal Dead and Dry but the Worshippers in Spirit and in Truth whose Hearts Bow whose Minds Adore the Eternal God that is a Spirit in and by his Spirit such as conform to his Will and walk with him in a Spiritual Life they are the True Constant Living and Acceptable Worshippers whether it be in Meetings or out of Meetings And as with such all outward Assemblies are greatly Comfortable so also do we meet for a Publick Testimony of Religion and Worship and for the Edification and Encouragement of those that are yet Young in the Truth and to Call and Gather others to the knowledge of it who are yet going astray and Blessed be God it is not in vain since many are thereby added to the Church that we hope and believe shall be Saved CHAP. XI Sect. 1. Against Tythes Sect. 2. Against all Swearing Sect. 3. Against War among Christians Sect. 4. Against Salutation of the Times Sect. 5. And for Plainness of Speech Sect. 6. Against mixt Marriages Sect. 7. And for plainness in Apparel c. no Sports and Pastimes after the manner of this World Sect. 8. Of Observing Days Sect. 9. Of Care of Poor Peace and Conversation § 1. AND as God has been pleased to call us from an Human Ministry so we cannot for Conscience-sake Support and Maintain it and upon that Score and not out of Humour or Covetousness we refuse to pay Tithes or such-like pretended Dues concerning which many Books have been writ in our Defence We cannot Support what we cannot Approve but have a Testimony against for thereby we should be found Inconsistent with our selves § 2. We dare not Swear because Christ forbids it Mat. 5. 34 37. and James his true follower It is Needless as well as Evil for the reason of Swearing being Vntruth that Men's Yea was not Yea Swearing was used to awe Men to Truth Speaking and to give others Satisfaction that what was Sworn was true But the true Christians Yea being Yea the end of an Oath is answered and therefore the use of it is Needless Superfluous and cometh of Evil. The Apostle James Taught the same Doctrine and the Primitive Christians Practised it as may be seen in the Book of Martyrs as also the earliest and best of the Reformers § 3. We also believe that War ought to cease among the followers of the Lamb Christ Jesus who taught his Disciples to forgive and love their Enemies and not to War against them and kill them and that therefore the Weapons of his true Followers are not Carnal but Spiritual yet mighty through God to cut down Sin and Wickedness and Dethrone him that is the Author thereof And as this is the most Christian so the most Rational Way Love and Perswasion having more Force than Weapons of War Nor would the worst of Men easily be brought to hurt those that they really think love them 'T is that Love and Patience must in the end have the Victory § 4. We dare not give worldly Honour or use the Frequent and Modish Salutations of the Times seeing plainly that Vanity Pride and Ostentation belong to them Christ also forbid them in his Day and made the Love of them a Mark of Declension from the Simplicity of purer times and his Disciples and their Followers were observed to have obeyed their Masters Precept It is not to Distinguish our selves a Party or out of Pride Ill-breeding or Humour but in Obedience to the Sight and Sence we have received from the Spirit of Christ of the evil Rise and Tendency thereof § 5. For the same Reason we have returned to the first Plainness of Speech viz. Thou and Thee to a single Person which tho' Men give no other to God they will hardly endure it from us It has been a great Test upon Pride and shewn the Blind and weak Insides of many This also is out of pure Conscience whatever People may think or say of us for it We may be Despised and have been so often yea very evilly Entreated but we are now better known and People better Informed In short 't is also both Scripture and Grammar and we have Propriety of Speech for it as well as Peace in it § 6. We cannot allow of mix'd Marriages that is to joyn with such as are not of our Society but Oppose and Disown them if at any time any of our Profession so grosly err from the Rule of their Communion yet Restore them upon sincere Repentance but not disjoyn them The Book I writ of the Rise and Progress of the People called Quakers is more full and express herein § 7. Plainness in Apparel and Furniture is another Testimony peculiar to us in the degree we have bore it to the World As also few Words and being at a Word Likewise Temperance in Food and Abstinence from the Recreations and Pastimes of the World All which we have been taught by the Spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ

Grace being received and obeyed by us he overcomes him in us That is he detects the Enemy by his Light in the Conscience and enables the Creature to resist him and all his Fiery Darts and finally so to Fight the Good Fight of Faith as to overcome him and lay hold on Eternal Life § 4. And this is the Dispensation of Grace which we declare has appeared to all more or less teaching those that will receive it to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World looking for which none else can justly do the blessed Hope and glorious Appearing of the Great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ c. Tit. 2. 11 12 13. And as from the Teachings and Experience and Motion of this Grace we minister to others so the very drift of our Ministry is to turn Peoples Minds to this Grace in themselves that they may all up and be doing even the good and acceptable Will of God and work out their Salvation with fear and trembling and make their High and Heavenly Calling and Election sure which none else can do whatever be their Profession Church and Character For such as Men sow they must reap and his Servants we are whom we obey Regeneration we must know or we cannot be Children of God and Heirs of Eternal Glory And to be Born again an other Spirit and Principle must prevail leaven season and govern us then either the Spirit of the World or our own depraved Spirits and this can be no other Spirit than that which dwelt in Christ for unless that dwell in us we can be none of his Rom. 8. 9. And this Spirit begins in Conviction and ends in Conversion and Perseverance And the one follows the other Conversion being the Consequence of Convictions obey'd and Perseverance a natural Fruit of Conversion and being Born of God for such Sin not because the Seed of God abides in them John 3. 7 8. but through Faithfulness continue to the end and obtain the Promise even Everlasting Life § 5. But let my Reader take this along with him that we do acknowledge that Christ through his Holy Doing and Suffering for being a Son he learned Obedience has obtained Mercy of God his Father for Mankind and that his Obedience has an Influence to our Salvation in all the Parts and Branches of it since thereby he became a Conqueror and led Captivity Captive and obtained Gifts for Men with divers Great and Precious Promises that thereby we might be partakers of the Divine Nature having first escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Lust I say we do Believe and Confess that the Active and Passive Obedience of Christ Jesus affects our Salvation throughout as well from the Power and Pollution of Sin as from the Guilt He being a Conqueror as well as a Sacrifice and both through Suffering Yet they that reject his Divine Gift so obtained and which he has given to them by which to see their Sin and the sinfulness of it and to repent and turn away from it and do so no more and to wait upon God for daily strength to resist the Fiery Darts of the Enemy and to be Comforted through the Obedience of Faith in and to this Divine Grace of the Son of God such do not please God believe truly in God nor are they in a state of true Christianity and Salvation Woman said Christ to the Samaritan at the Well hadst thou known the Gift of God and who it is that speaketh to thee c. People know not Christ and God whom to know is Life Eternal John 17. because they are Ignorant of the Gift of God viz. a measure of the Spirit of God that is given to every one to profit with 1 Cor. 12. 7. which reveals Christ and God to the Soul Flesh and Blood cannot do it Oxford and Cambridge cannot do it Tongues and Philosophy cannot do it for they that by Wisdom knew not God had these things for their Wisdom They were strong deep and accurate in them but alas they were clouded puft up and set farther off from the Inward and Saving Knowledge of God because they sought for it in them and thought to find God there But the Key of David is an other thing which shuts and no Man opens and opens and no Man shuts and this Key have all they that receive the Gift of God into their Hearts and it opens to them the Knowledge of God and themselves and gives them a quite other Sight Taste and Judgment of things than their Educational or Traditional Knowledge afforded them This is the beginning of the New Creation of God and thus it is we come to be New Creatures And we are bold to declare there is no other way besides this by which People can come into Christ or to be true Christians or receive the Advantage that comes by the Death and Sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ Wherefore we say and upon good Authority even that of our own Experience as well as that of the Scriptures of Truth Christ will prove no Saving Sacrifice for them that refuse him for their Example They that reject the Gift do deny the Giver instead of themselves daily for the Givers sake O that People were wise that they would consider their latter End and the things that make for the Peace thereof Why should they perish in a vain hope of Life while Death Reigns Of living with God who live not to him nor walk with him Awake thou that sleepest in thy Sin or at best in thy Self-righteousness Awake I say and Christ shall give thee Life For he is the Lord from Heaven the quickening Spirit that quickens us by his Spirit if we do not resist it and quench it by our Disobedience but receive love and obey it in all the Holy Leadings and Teachings of it Rom. 8. 14 15. To which Holy Spirit I commend my Reader that he may the better see where he is and also come to the true Belief and Advantage of the Doings and Sufferings of our Dear and Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who saves from the Power and Pollution as well as Guilt of Sin all those that hear his knocks and open the Door of their Hearts to him that he may come in and work a real and through Reformation in and for them And so the Benefit Virtue and Efficacy of his Doings and Sufferings without us will come to be livingly applied and felt and Fellowship with Christ in his Death and Sufferings known according to the Doctrine of the Apostle which those that live in that which made him suffer know not tho' they profess to be saved by his Death and Sufferings Much more might be said as to this matter but I must be brief § 6. To conclude this Chapter we wonder not that we should be mistaken mis-construed and mis-represented in what we believe and do to Salvation since our Betters have

been so treated in the Primitive Times nor indeed is it only about Doctrines of Religion for our Practice in Worship and Discipline have had the same Success But this is what I earnestly desire that however bold People are pleased to make with us they would not deceive themselves in the great things of their own Salvation That while they would seem to own all to Christ they are not found disowned of Christ in the last Day Read the 7th of Matthew it is he that hears Christ the great Word of God and does what he enjoins what he commands and by his Blessed Example recommends that is a Wise Builder that has founded his House well and built with good Materials and whose House will stand the last shake and Judgment For which cause we are often plain close and earnest with People to consider that Christ came not to save them in but from their Sins and that they that think to discharge and release themselves of his Yoke and Burden his Cross and Example and secure themselves and Complement Christ with his having done all for them while he has wrought little or nothing in them nor they parted with any thing for the love of him will finally awake in a dreadful surprize at the sound of the last Trumpet and at this sad and irrevokeable Sentence Depart from me ye Workers of Iniquity I know you not Which terrible End may all timely avoid by hearkening to Wisdom's Voice and turning at her Reproof that she may lead them in the Ways of Righteousness and in the midst of the Paths of Judgment that their Souls may come to inherit Substance even durable Riches and Righteousness in the Kingdom of the Father World without end CHAP. X. Sect. 1. Of the true Worship of God in what it stands Sect. 2. Of the true Ministry that it is by Inspiration Sect. 3. The Scripture plain in that Case Sect. 4. Christ's Ministers True Witnesses they speak what they know not by Report Sect. 5. Christ's Ministers they affirm Preach freely 't is one of their Marks § 1. AS the Lord wrought effectually by his Divine Grace in the Hearts of this People so he thereby brought them to a Divine Worship and Ministry Christ's words they came to Experience viz. That God was a Spirit and that he would therefore be worshipped in the Spirit and in the Truth and that such Worshippers the Father would seek to worship him For bowing to the Convictions of the Spirit in themselves in their daily course of living by which they were taught to eschew that which was made manifest to them to be evil and to do that which was good they in their Assembling together sate down and waited for the Preparation of this Holy Spirit both to let them see their States and Conditions before the Lord and to worship him acceptably and as they were sensible of Wants or Shortness or Infirmities so in the secret of their own Hearts Prayer would spring to God through Jesus Christ to help assist and supply them But they did not dare to wake their Beloved before his time or approach the Throne of the King of Glory till he held out his Scepter or take thought what they should say or after their own or other Mens studied Words and Forms for this were to Offer strange Fire to pray but not by the Spirit to ask but not in the Name that is in the Power of our Lord Jesus Christ who pray'd as well as that he spoke like one having Authority that is Power a Divine Energy and Force to reach and pierce the Heavens which he gives to all that obey his Light Grace and Spirit in their solemn Waitings upon him So that 't is this Peoples Principle that Fire must come from Heaven Life and Power from God to enable the Soul to pour out it self acceptably before him And when a Coal from his holy Altar touches our Lips then can we Pray and Praise him as we ought to do And as this is our Principle and that according to Scripture so is it Blessed be God our Experience and Practice And therefore it is we are separated from the Worships of Men under their several Forms because they do not found it in the Operation Motion and Assistance of the Spirit of Christ but the Appointment Invention and Framing of Man both as to Matter Words and Time We do not dissent in our own Wills and we dare not comply against His that has called us and brought us to his own Spiritual Worship in Obedience to whom we are what we are in our Separation from the divers Ways of Worship in the World § 2. And as our Worship stands in the Operation of the Spirit and Truth in our inward Parts as before expressed so does our Ministry For as the Holy Testimonies of the Servants of God of Old were from the Operation of his Blessed Spirit so must those of his Servants be in every Age and that which has not the Spirit of Christ for its Spring and Source is of Man and not Christ Christian Ministers are to minister what they receive This is Scripture now that which we receive is not our own less another Mans but the Lord's So that we are not only not to Steal from our Neighbours but we are not to Study and speak our own words If we are not to study what we are to say before Magistrates for our selves less are we to study what we are to say for and from God to the People We are to minister as the Oracles of God if so then must we receive from Christ God's Great Oracle what we are to minister And if we are to minister what we receive then not what we Study Collect and beat out of our own Brains for that is not the Mind of Christ but our Imaginations and this will not Profit the People § 3. This was recommended to the Corinthians by the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 14. that they should speak as they were moved or as any thing was revealed to them by the Spirit for the Edification of the Church for says he Ye may all Prophecy that is ye may all Preach to Edification as any thing is revealed to you for the Good of others and as the Spirit giveth Vtterance And if the Spirit must give Christ's Ministers their Utterance then those that are his are careful not to utter any thing in his Name to the People without his Spirit and by good Consequence they that go before the true Guide and utter words without the Knowledge of the Mind of the Spirit are none of Christ's Ministers Such certainly run and God has not sent them and they cannot Profit the People And indeed how should they when it is impossible that meer Man with all his Parts Arts and Acquirements can turn People from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan to God which is the very End and Work of the Gospel-Ministry It must be Inspired Men Men