Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	enlighten_v	light_n	shine_v	2,266	5	9.0968	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54195	The preface, being a summary account of the divers dispensations of God to men from the beginning of the world to that of our present age, by the ministry and testimony of his faithful servant George Fox, as an introduction to the ensuing journal.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.; Fox, George, 1624-1691.	1694 (1694)	Wing P1341; ESTC R220411	47,955	50

in Jeopardy to declare this Primitive Message 1 Jo. 1. 5. revived in their Spirits by the good Spirit and Power of God viz. That God is Light and in him is no darkness at all and that he has sent his Son a Light into the World to enlighten all Men in order to Salvation and that they that say they have Fellowship with God and are his Children and People and yet walk in Darkness viz. in Disobedience to the Light in their Consciences and after the Vanity of this World they lie and do not the Truth But that all such as love the Light and bring their Deeds to it and walk in the Light as God is Light the blood of Jesus Christ his Son should cleanse them from all Sin VIII Their known great Constancy and Patience in Suffering for their Testimony in all the Branches of it and that sometimes unto Death by Beatings Bruisings long and crowded Imprisonments and Noisom Dungeons Four of them in New England Dying by the Hands of the Executioner purely for Preaching amongst that People besides Banishments and Excessive Plunders and Sequestrations of their Goods and Estates almost in all parts not easily to be expressed and less to be endured but by those that have the support of a good and glorious Cause refusing Deliverance by any indirect ways or means as often as it was offered to them IX That they did not only not show any disposition to Revenge when it was at any time in their Power but forgave their cruel Enemies shewing Mercy to those that had none for them X. Their Plainness with those in Authority not unlike the Antient Prophets not fearing to tell them to their Faces of their Private and Publick Sins and their Prophecies to them of their Afflictions and Downfall when in the Top of their Glory also of some National Judgments as of the Plague and Fire of London in express Terms and likewise particular ones to divers Persecutions which accordingly overtook them and which were very remarkable in the Places where they dwelt and in time they may be made publick for the Glory of God Thus Reader thou seest this People in their Rise Principles Ministry and Progress both their General and Particular Testimony by which thou maist be informed how and upon what foot they Sprung and became so considerable a People It remains next that I shew also their Care Conduct and Discipline as a Christian and Reformed Society that they might be found living up to their own Principles and Profession And this the rather because they have hardly suffered more in their Character from the Unjust Charge of Error than by the false Imputation of Disorder Which Calumny indeed has not failed to follow all the true steps that were ever made to Reformation and under which Reproach none suffered more than the Primitive Christians themselves that were the Honour of Christianity and the great Lights and Examples of their own and succeeding Ages This People encreasing daily both in Town and Country an Holy Care fell upon some of the Elders among them for the Benefit and Service of the Church And the first Business in their View after the Example of the Primitive Saints was the Exercise of Charity to supply the Necessities of the Poor and answer the like Occasions Wherefore Collections were early and liberally made for that and divers other Services in the Church and intrusted with Faithful Men fearing God and of good Report who were not weary in well-doing adding often of their own in large Proportions which they never brought to account or desired should be known much less restored to them that none might want nor any Service be retarded or disappointed They were also very careful that every one that belonged to them answered their Profession in their Behaviour among Men upon all Occasions that they lived Peaceably and were in all things good Examples They found themselves engaged to record their Sufferings and Services and in case of Marriage which they could not perform in the usual Methods of the Nation but among themselves they took care thal all things were clear between the Parties and all others and it was then rare that any one entertain'd such Inclination to a Person on that account till he or she had communicated it secretly to some very Weighty and Eminent Friends among them that they might have a sense of the Matter looking to the Council and Unity of their Brethren as of great Moment to them But because the Charge of the Poor the Number of Orphans Marriages Sufferings and other Matters multiplied and that it was good that the Churches were in some way and Method of proceeding in such Affairs among them to the end they might the better correspond upon occasion where a Member of one Meeting might have to do with one of another It pleased the Lord in his Wisdom and Goodness to open the Understanding of the first Instrument of this Dispensation of Life about a Good and Orderly way of Proceeding and he felt an Holy Concern to visit the Churches in Person throughout this Nation to begin and establish it among them and by his Epistles the like was done in other Nations and Provinces abroad which he also afterwards Visited and helped in that Service as shall be observed when I come to speak of him Now the Care Conduct and Discipline I have been speaking of and which is now practised among this People is as followeth III. This Godly Elder in every County where he travelled exhorted them that some out of every Meeting of Worship should meet together once in the Month to confer about the Wants and Occasions of the Church And as the Case required so those Monthly Meetings were fewer or more in number in every respective County Four or Six Meetings of Worship usually making one Monthly Meeting of Business And accordingly the Brethren met him from place to place and began the said Meetings viz. For the Poor Orphans orderly Walking Integrity to their Profession Births Marriages Burials Sufferings c. And that these Monthly Meetings should in each County make up one Quarterly Meeting where the most Zealous and Eminent Friends of the County should assemble to Communicate Advise and Help one another especially when any Business seemed difficult or a Monthly Meeting was tender of determining a Matter Also these Quarterly Meetings should digest the Reports of the Monthly Meetings and prepare one for the County against the Yearly Meeting in which the Quarterly Meetings resolve which is held Yearly in London where the Churches in this Nation and other Nations and Provinces Meet by chosen Members of their Respective Counties both mutually to communicate their Church Affairs and to advise and be advised in any depending Case to Edification Also to provide a requisite Stock for the discharge of general Expences for general Services in the Church not needful to be here particularized At these Meetings any of the Members of the Churches may

Gray Hairs of your Dear Parents yet alive go down to the Grave with Joy to see you the posterity of Truth as well as theirs and that not only their Natures but Spirit shall live in you when they are gone I shall conclude this Preface with a few Words to those that are not of our Communion into whose hands this may come especially those of our own Nation Friends As you are the Sons and Daughters of Adam and my Brethren after the Flesh often and earnest have been my Desires and Prayers to God on your behalf that you may come to know him that has Made you to be your Redeemer and Restorer to the Image that through Sin you have lost by the power and Spirit of his Son Jesus Christ whom he hath given for the Light and Life of the World And Oh that you who are called Christians would receive him into your Heart for there it is you want him and at that Door he stands knocking that you should let him in but you do not open to him You are full of other Guests so that a Manger is his Lot among you Now as well as of Old Yet you are full of Profession as were the Jews when he came among them who knew him not but rejected and evilly intreated him So that if you come not to the Possession and Experience of what you profess all your Formality in Religion will stand you in no stead in the Day of God's Judgment I beseech you ponder with your selves your Eternal Condition and see what Title what Ground and Foundation you have for your Christianity If more than a Profession and an Historical Belief of the Gospel Have you known the Baptism of Fire and the Holy Ghost and the Fan of Christ that winnows away the Chaff The Carnal Lusts and Affections That Divine Leven of the Kingdom that being received Levens the whole Lump of Man sanctifying him throughout in Body Soul and Spirit If this be not the Ground of your Confidence you are in a Miserable Estate You will say perhaps that though you are Sinners and live in the daily Commission of Sin and are not Santified as I have been Speaking yet you have Faith in Christ who has borne the Curse for you and in him you are Compleat by Faith his Righteousness being imputed to you But my Friends let me intreat you not to deceive your selves in so Important a Point as is that of your Immortal Souls If you have true Faith in Christ your Faith will make you Clean it will Sanctifie you for the Saints Faith was their Victory By this they over came Sin within and Sinful Men without And if thou art in Christ thou walkest not after the Flesh but after the Spirit whose Fruits are Manifest Yea thou art a New Creature New Made New Fashioned after God's Will and Mold Old things are done away and behold all things are become New New Love Desires Will Affections and Practices It is not any longer Thou that livest Thou Disobedient Carnal Worldly One but it is Christ that liveth in thee and to live is Christ and to die is thy Eternal Gain because thou art assured That thy Corruptible shall put on Incorruption and thy Mortal Immortality and that thou hast a Glorious House Eternal in the Heavens that will never wax Old or pass away All this follows being in Christ as Heat follows Fire and Light the Sun Therefore have a Care how you presume to Rely upon such a Notion as that you are in Christ whilst in your old fallen Nature For what Communion hath Light with Darkness or Christ with Belial Hear what the beloved Disciple tells you If we say we have fellowship with God and walk in Darkness we lie and do not the Truth That is if we go on in a sinful way are Captivated by our Carnal Affections and are not Converted to God we walk in Darkness and cannot possibly have any fellowship with God Christ Cloths them with his Righteousness that receive his Grace in their Hearts and deny themselves and take up his Cross daily and follow him Christ's Righteousness makes Men inwardly Holy of Holy Minds Wills and Practices It is nevertheless Christs because we have it for it is ours not by Nature but by Faith and Adoption It is the Gift of God But still tho' not ours as of or from our selves for in that Sense it is Christ's for it is of and from him yet it is ours and must be ours in Possession Efficacy and Enjoyment to do us any Good or Christ's Righteousness will profit us nothing It was after this manner That he was made to the primitive Christians Righteousness Sanctification Justification and Redemption and if ever you will have the Comfort Kernel and Marrow of the Christian Religion thus you must come to learn and obtain it Now my Friends by what you have Read and will Read in what Follows you may perceive that God has visited a Poor People among you with this saving Knowledge and Testimony whom he has upheld and encreased to this Day notwithstanding the fierce opposition they have met withal Despise not the meanness of this Appearance It was and yet is we know a day of small things and of small Account with too many and many hard and ill Names are given to it but it is of God it came from him because it leads to him This we know but we cannot make another know it as we know it unless he will take the same way to know it that we took The World talks of God but what do they do They pray for Power but reject the Principle in which it is If you would know God and Worship and serve God as you should do you must come to the means he has ordained and given for that purpose Some seek it in Books some in Learned Men but what they look for is in themselves but they overlook it The Voice is too still the Seed too small and the Light shineth in Darkness They are abroad and so cannot divide the Spoil but the Woman that lost her Silver found it at Home after she had light her Candle and swept her House Do you so too and you shall find what Pilate wanted to know viz. Truth The light of Christ within who is the Light of the World and so a Light to you that tells you the Truth of your Condition leads all that take heed unto it out of Darkness into God's marvellous Light for Light grows upon the Obedient It is sown for the Righteous and their way is a shining Light that shines forth more and more to the perfect day Wherefore O Friends Turn in Turn in I beseech you Where is the Poison there is the Antidote There you want Christ and there you must find him and blessed be God there you may find him Seek and you shall find I testifie for God But then you must seek aright with your whole Heart as Men that seek for