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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
work_n	conscience_n	dead_a	purge_v	5,027	5	9.3264	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78566	A brief apology in behalf of the people in derision call'd Quakers. Written for the information of our sober and well-inclined neighbors in and about the town of Warminster in the county of Wilts. by Will. Chandler, Alex. Pyott, Jo. Hodges, and some others.	Chandler, William.; Pyott, Alex. (Alexander); Hodges, Joseph.	1693 (1693)	Wing C1934; ESTC R229320	34,744	78

the heavenly Gift and were made Partakers of the Holy Ghost and that had tasted the good Word of God and the Powers of the World to come shew'd signs that they were effectually call'd and in a State of Grace that if they should fall away 't would be impossible to renew them again to Repentance not because they were eternally reprobated but because they crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh because they grieved his good Spirit Ezek. 18. 24 26. and c. 33. v. 18. and rejected the Means Hath not the Lord said If a righteous man turns from his righteousness he shall die Who can be righteous without the assistance of God's Grace No Man can make himself so 't is not in Man to direct his own Ways and yet it seems 't is possible for him to fall from it after he hath lived so long under its conduct as by it to be made righteous and one would think should then be sanctified too Our Saviour saith of himself I am the true vine ye are the branches John 1 1 2 5 6. my Father is the husband-man every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away Again If a man abide not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered Surely those who are Branches in Christ while so are accepted of the Father and yet it seems 't is possible for them to fall away and be cut off as wither'd Branches whence he often repeats this Condition if ye abide in me and presently he saith John 15. 10. the way to continue in his Love was to do his Will as he had that of his Father's and continued in his Love But though we can't embrace their Opinion for their Reasons and as they state it but that 't is possible for People to make a considerable Progress in Grace and yet for want of a careful and constant Watchfulness to that Grace they may fall away Yet we believe such a State and Growth in Grace throw a vigilant Attention thereto and such a degree of Faith attainable as that there is no more going forth But that which seems to be our capital Error and the top of all their Charge and that which is to silence all Plea's in our behalf is our omitting the use of the Ordinances so called of Baptism and Bread and Wine John indeed as the next immediate Fore-runner of Christ to prepare his Way gave an Alarm to the Jews that were so secure under the Law of Moses and proclaim'd the Kingdom of Heaven at hand and Mat. 3. 2. Acts 17. 30. the time come wherein God commanded the Jews as well as others every-where to repent 't was not sufficient for them to go on in sinning and then offer those respective Sacrifices which the Law enjoyn'd them for the same but now the Wrath of God was near Rom. 1. 18. to be reveal'd from Heaven against all Ungodliness and Unrighteonsness of Men 't was not sufficient to deek and make clean the outside of the Cup and Mat. 23. 25 26. and c. 3. 10. Platter but the inside was to be clean'd and then the outside would be clean also The Axe was now laid to the root and every Tree that brought not forth good Fruit was to be hewn down The Law of Moses took hold on exterior Acts and could not make perfect as pertaining Heb. 9. 9. 2 Cor. 10. 5. James 1. 15. to the Conscience but now that Dispensation was about to be established that comes nearer home and takes cognizance of the very Thoughts that Sin be not so much as conceived by the Will 's joyning thereto Wherefore John was sent to administer the Baptism of Repentance as a lively Figure of that which was presently after to follow for John's Baptism was not capable to produce this Effect upon the Mind and he himself testifies That though he baptized them with water yet he that came after him that was before him and more honourable than he should baptize them with the Holy Ghost and Matt. c. 3. v. 11 12. with fire that his fan was in his hand and and that 't was he should throughly purge his floor Which is the great Work that is to be done under his Gospel-dispensation to take away the Sins of the World and destroy the Works of the 1 John 3. 8. Devil to purifie Peoples Hearts and make them spiritually minded this is the proper Effects of Christ's lasting Baptism not the washing away of the Filth of the Flesh but the answer of a 1 Pet. 3. 21. good Conscience towards God to purge our Consciences from dead Works to serve the Living God in Newness of Life The Baptism of Christ is but Ephes 4. 5. Rom 6. 3. and v. 6 7 8 11. one and those who by it are baptized into Jesus Christ are baptized into his Death and their old Man crucified with him that the body of Sin may be destroy'd and they no longer serve Sin because they that are dead with Christ are freed from Sin and made alive to God to live a holy righteous Life These are the blessed Effects of the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and Fire and Benefits that redound to those who are in truth washed by Christ in that holy Laver which entitles us to a part Zech. 13. 1. in him 't is our chiefest Concern to know this inward spiritual Baptism of Christ that our Hearts may be washed 1 Cor. 6 11. purified and sanctified by the Spirit of God and that we really put on Christ and are in him who is the Substance in whom the Types ended John knew and foretold himself that he must decrease but Christ must encrease he John 3 30. doth not say I shall cease presently at once so soon as Christ's Baptism takes place but I must decrease but were Water-baptism to continue always amongst Christians then would not John decrease Nor will it solve this Allegation That 't was abolisht as John's and instituted anew as Christ's for then hath Christ his different Gospel-baptisms which is erronious We grant that some of the Apostles did use Water-baptism for a time but we believe 't was rather in compliance with the Circumstances of Time than of Necessity and in condescention to the Weakness of Believers in the very Infancy of the Church and even the same Age wherein John baptized who was not only a true Messenger of God in his time but had gained great Credit among the People and his Memory and Message could not soon be forgotten nor was it easie to draw them from a Practice that but just before was acknowledged to be of Divine Authority for we find the Apostles tolerated the believing Jews to live in certain Rites and Ceremonies of the Mosaical Law notwithstanding the Messiah was come in the Flesh and abrogated them so difficult 't is to disengage People from those things wherein they have been educated and to which their Minds are

Scripture and with what reason People have derided us for our Belief herein terming it the Quakers Christ as though his manifesting himself in our Hearts were another or distinct from Jesus Christ of Nazareth that is glorified with God the Father in Heaven which we deny For though he be ascended into Heaven and sits at Col. 1. 16. Eph. 1. 23. 3. 9. the right hand of God far above all Principalities and Powers yet is not he so circumscribed but that as by him all things were made and created he is the life and filleth all in all in his Church and People Is the Divinity and Humanity of Christ divided Is not their inseparable Union the true and intire Christ Can then his God-head be present and he who is the Heavenly Man be absent What think you of him that appear'd to John and gave him his Commission to the Seven Churches whom he describes Rev. ch 1. who saith Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the Rev. 3. 20. 2. 23. door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me The same saith I am he which searches the reins and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works Was not this Acts 17. 31. Rom. 2. 16. John 1. 16. the true Christ the Mediator by whom God will judge the World And can he make this near Inspection into the innermost part of the Minds of Men so as no Thought can escape his notice if he be not present there What made Paul desire that our Lord Jesus Christ 1 John 4. 13. might be with Timothy's Spirit if he thought it impossible Do not all acknowledge the Spirit of Christ who is the Anointed to be in his People and is he then absent Is its being a Mystery far beyond our comprehension to conceive how it can be a sufficient Argument that therefore 't is not so Ought we not in such cases to exercise Faith and acquiess in the Testimony of the Holy Ghost exprest in the Sacred Scriptures rather than interpose with our nice and curious Subtilties prying unnecessarily into things that are too high for us remembering that Secret Things belongs to God and that those that know most here know only in part the things that are invisible 1 Cor. 13. 9 12. and see them but as through a Glass Shall Men that neither know themselves nor have any intuitive knowledge of the Essences even of the meanest things wherewith Nature every-where presents us which are obvious to our Senses yet aspire to those more abstruce and undertake to account for that which is beyond the reach of the most pregnant Wits to penetrate We hope it 's no Error to avouch the Power of Christ to be stronger than that of the Devil that he is able really to Gen. 3. 15. bind him to bruise his Head and break his Power to dispossess and cast him out to fulfil to the uttermost the end of his coming to destroy the Works of the Devil and to save those from their sins who shall have true Faith in his Name and Power Surely it 's not inconsistent with Christianity to believe that Christ can or will throughly purge his Floor that he can indeed deliver out of 1 Thes 5. 23. the Prison-house and restore Man out of the Fall to God again and give him power to forsake the Devil and all his Works c. We find it consonant to Scripture and the Gospel-dispensation to believe that those who are regenerated and Rom. 6. 6 7 11. 2 Pet. 1. 4. born again of the Spirit have through the Spirit mortified the first carnal corrupt Nature which cannot please God and if dead and slain and buried too Eph. c. 4. v. 22 23 24. Colos c. 3. v. 9. 10. surely then it no longer lives but the mind is at liberty and restored to act in a new Life to walk after the Spirit and fulfil the Righteousness of the Law the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Rom. 8. 2 4. Jesus having set them free from the Law of Sin and Death which is its Wages 'T is for want of Peoples experiencing this real Birth of the Spirit brought forth and knowing Freedom in themselves by it which no Duties or Performances in the Will of Man nor entertaining of the most resined Opinions in Religion can administer short of the Law of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts 't is for want of this that People are so very apprehensive of difficulty even to impossibility of living a Holy Righteous Life which yet is so necessary to our Salvation that without Mat. 5 8. Heb. 12. 14. it we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven nor see God Nor is the way broader or its passage less strait and difficult than they imagine nay 't is absolutely impossible for them to walk therein while they are immerc'd in their first corrupt unbridled Nature which cannot keep the Law of God while their Lusts and Passions are rampant their Affections inordinate and Wills unsubjected and follows the desires and evil inclinations of their Minds without restraint But if they come to know another Principle and Power to govern their Minds to create in them new clean Hearts to regulate and subject their Wills to subdue and tame their Passions to limit their Desires and direct their Affections and Inclinations wholly after that which is good to meliorate their Spirits throughout and make them heavenly minded having an aversion to all Evil and a great love to Vertue and Goodness Being thus perfectly transformed where is the extream difficulty now for the good Man out of the good treasure of his Mat. 12. 35. Heart to bring forth good things Will not this new well-inclin'd inside that now detests Evil and loves and delights in Righteousness as naturally follow after and bring forth that which is Good as before he did Evil Here is no force upon Peoples Natures but they are converted and throughly leavened in another Nature and are in their measures Partakers of the Divine Nature which only can work the Will 2 Pet. 4. of God We request our piously-inclined Neighbours well and seriously to weigh and consider the absolute necessity there is for every True Christian thus to know their minds moulded and Col. 1. 13 fashioned anew by the Power and Spirit of Christ working mightily in them in order to their pleasing God by a Holy Righteous Life having escaped the corruption that is in the World through Lust and considering that 't is not so soon attained as apprehended in the understanding to be necessary That with all diligence they address themselves to the performing that which is the main and proper business of our Lives Wherefore as it hath pleased the Divine Power to give us all things pertaining to Life and Godliness so let 2 Pet. 1. 3. Tit. 2. 11