Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	jesus_n	light_n	light_v	2,353	5	9.9954	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64909	A just reprehension to John Norris of Newton St. Loe, for his unjust reflection on the Quakers in his book, entituled, Reflections upon the conduct of human life, &c together with his false representation of their principle of the light, in his postscript, wherein he opposes it to his notion of the divine ... ideal world, as he terms it, his confusion and self-contradiction therein manifested, and the doctrine and principle of the Quakers thereby cleared from his abuse ... / by Richard Vickris.	Vickris, Richard, d. 1700.	1691 (1691)	Wing V339; ESTC R10757	11,419	16

A Iust Reprehension TO JOHN NORRIS Of Newton St Loe FOR HIS Unjust REFLECTION on the QVAKERS In his Book Entituled Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life c. Together with his False Representation of their Principle of the Light in his Postscript wherein he Opposes it to his Notion of the divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Ideal world as he terms it His Confusion and Self-contradiction therein manifested and the Doctrine and Principle of the Quakers thereby cleared from his Abuse occasionally written by way of Letter with Advice to him and may serve for a better Information of the Quakers Principle to whom the knowledge of his and this shall come By Richard Vickris Printed and Sold by T. S. at the Crooked-Billet in Holywell-Lane in Shoreditch 1691. A Just Reprehension to Iohn Norris of Newton St. Loe for his Unjust Reflection on the Quakers in his Book Entituled Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life c. Iohn Norris I Need no Apology for this brief Reprehension if thou think'st I do Review the first page of thy Epistle Dedicatory viz. He that shall point out any of the Irregularites or Mistakes of the Conduct of Human Life ought to be lookt upon as a universal Friend and promoter of the publick Happiness and the more severe he is in his Censure provided it be true and well grounded the more charitable he is in his undertaking and the more like to be serviceable in his performance When first I perused thy Reflections upon the Conduct of Human Life with reference to the studdy of Learning and Knowledge I was and still am pleased with all that tends to the propagation of Original and necessary Truth but rejoyce where I find it spring from an upright mind pure intention and clean Vessel for whoso undertakes to reprehend the intelligible Conduct of Human Life ought first to purge himself from the Irregularities of his moral Conduct which doth cloud and darken his understanding Howbeit I was so far from a Spirit of Detraction or Emulation that considering from whence it came I in some sort rejoyced in it so far as it was sound and true hoping and desiring that what was either clearly and rightly detected or equally and fairly recommended might gain upon the Understanding of such whose Education and Literature had either prejudiced or at best mistated and unfitted them for receiving the same Truth and divine Principle by meaner Instruments respecting worldly esteem which Principle hath been and is by many such faithful Witnesses plentifully born testimony to as well by doing as suffering by the supposed learned Rabbies of our day as also by Doctrine in Word and Writing though not altogether under some of thy Terms or pretended Phylosophical Notions yet according to the Demonstration of the Spirit and in words approved and chosen of God to make known himself by and taught us in the holy Scriptures God having in his divine Wisdom in this Age as in former Ages 1 Cor. 1.27 28 29. Chosen the foolish things of the world to Confound the Wise and the Weak things of the world to Confound the things that are mighty and base things of the world and things that are despised hath God chosen yea things which are not to bring to naught things which are that no Flesh should glory in his presence Agreeable to this is that divine acknowledgement of Christ Jesus to his Father Matth. 1.11 and 25. I thank thee O Father Lord of Heaven and Earth that thou hast hid these things from the Wise and Prudent and hast revealed them unto Babes Matth. 18.10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little Ones I fear thou art guilty in this perticular viz. of despising the Testimony of God in this Age through the meanness of the Instruments Consider what is said Thes. 10.4.8 He therefore that despiseth despiseth not man but God who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit From the too apparent Reflection thou makes in the 77th page of thy Book New Edition one might at first think that thou wert a great stranger to the Conversation of the People called Quakers and more especially to their Writings which had unwarily subjected thee to a rash and immature Censure in rendring them dark aukward untoward and unprincipled in the way of representing their Principle viz. the Light within thereby discrediting as thou sayest one of the noblest Theories in the World but the thing in it self rightly understood is true I being under some dissatisfaction about these Expressions of thine took occasion to visit Ioseph Langton of Newton St Loe a person of my respect and acquaintance and near Neighbour of thine with whom I had some discourse about thy aforesaid Book and in perticular the above recited passage recommending to him Robert Barclay's Apology for the true Christian Divinity for thy perusal and having understood by him thou hadst been Conversant with it I confess it extreamly dampt me and gave occasion for other thoughts than a supposed Ignorance of the Persons and manner of their representing their Principle whom thou hadst thus evilly treated and exposed without reason or provocation as I know of and now I shall proceed to show thee wherein though I presume thou already knowest Robert Barclay in his fifth and sixth Propositions treating of this universal and saving Light of Jesus Christ page 110. calls it supernatural Light and Grace quotes Iohn 1.9 That was the true Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the World Which place as he observes doth so clearly favour the Quakers Doctrine that it is called their Text hence he draws this necessary Conclusion That the Life that is in him viz. the Word Christ is the Light of Men Iohn 1.4 In other places he calls it according to Divine Instruction The Seed sown in several sorts of Ground The Word of the Kingdom The Word of Faith The Implanted or Ingrafted Word which is able to save the Soul quoting Cyrillus Alexandrinus Clemens Alexandrinus Augustine Buchanan c. in confirmation of this Doctrine as thou mayst see at large whereby it appears whatever thou art he was so far from the Ambition of being thought the first promulgator of that heavenly Doctrine of the Universallity and Sufficiency of this Light within for Salvation that he rejoyces to meet with it imbracing it where-ever he finds it improves the interest of it and instead of calumniating its Votaries represents it to the world Cleared from the Rust of darker Ages and advantaged with the Confessions and Testimonies of purer Primitive Times And now I Enquire what are the Dark aukward and untoward Expressions and unprincipled way of representing this Principle that thou alledgest the Quakers are guilty of are any of these here quoted out of the afore-mentioned Author part thereof or in what other Book or Writing of the Quakers may they be found I shall now farther say that this Divine Word Light Grace and Truth or whatever else it hath

given by Inspiration of God is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the man of God may be Perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works And this shall suffice for an Answer to thy third Section The fourth is a down-right falsity viz. The Quakers make their Light within a special Priviledge of a certain Order of men their own party not indeed as to the possibility yet they do as to the act making none but those of their own way to be actually inlightned by it This is so abundantly Confuted by the Writings in general of those People more perticularly in the afore-recited Book of Robert Barclay's which considering thou hast read I am the more amazed at thy Assertion They say all are actually inlightned by it all are Called but all have not obeyed according to these Scriptures Micah 6.8 He hath shewed thee O man what is Good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do Iustly and to love Mercy and to walk Humbly with thy God 1 John 9.3.19 1 Cor. 13.7 Tit. 2.11 c. Thy distinction of a possibility and not actually with respect to the Divine Illumination of this Principle is trivial though not with respect to Salvation by it The Capacity or Possibility is not nor can be in man abstract from the actual Illuminating Power and Spirit no more than seeing if the light be seperate from the Eye The Quakers have and still do declare that Christ Jesus the Light of the World is the universal free Gift of God for the benefit of all men in order to their Salvation and is not this Common yet Special priviledge because dearly purchased and freely bestowed on lost man that thou mayst not want occasion to traduce the Quakers thou hast so much over-done it in this Section as to contradict thy self in the fifth as for instance Sect. 4. to be actaully inlightned according to thy Principle is no special priviledge but the common and universal benefit of all men yea of all the intelligent Creation who all see and understand in this Light of God without which there would be neither Truth nor Understanding On the contrary Postscript Sect. 5. thou sayst Thy Light does not formally enlighten or instruct thee but when thou carefully attends to and consults it and read what is written in those Divine Ideal Characters The like Doctrine thou hast pag. 71. of thy Book Sect. 5. and 6. where treating of thy double illumination of thy divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. Fundamentally and Potentially or else effectually or actually in the former sense thou sayest he inlightens every man in the latter only those who duly consult him and attend to him See what Contradiction thy strained Notions run thee into one while to be actually enlightned is the Common and Universal benefit of all men another while only of those who Consult it and attend to it and all to avoid being thought to Symbolize with the Quakers in thy notion of the Divine Light thy Distinction of Potentially and Actually can have no more in it than the Difference in the subject the one universal act of the Word or Light enlightning every man comprehends both these are but new invented terms to express the most ancient and more Divinely and better revealed Truths of the Gospel Thy fifth I take in the first part of it to be the same in substance with thy first Differing in form of expressions viz. The Quakers by their Light within understand some Determinate formed dictate or proposition expresly or possitively directing or instructing them to do so or so as in thy first thou call'st it some divine Communication or Manifestation ONLY Where didst thou learn this definition of the Quakers Faith and Doctrine of the Light within The Quakers believe the Light of Christ within to be God's divine Oracle of Wisdom in the Soul the former Dictater and determiner of heavenly Propositions their Directing and Instructing what to choose and what to refuse as the original Cause of the knowledge and love of Truth which are its proper effects Now wherein is the Quakers Light as thou term'st it Inferiour to that which thou call'st thine except in the Differing Character thou givest it they own the Real and Substantial Truth of God the Life of the Word the Light of men as Christ said of himself I am the Way the Truth and the Life That this divine Light which is the Light of men is always in some degree and measure present in the Soul by which it is upheld either in God's love or anger the Quakers believe and that in him we live move and have our being though with respect to operation after a different manner and measure and passing the understanding of man And whereas thou sayest Thy Light is only the essential Truth of God This is a high presumption about which I have already shewed thy Confusion in other places calling it Reason and Conscience and a man's natural and ordinary way of understanding consider Mat. 6.22.23 The Light of the Body is the Eye if therefore thy Eye be single thy whole Body shall be full of Light but if thine Eye be evil thy whole Body shall be full of Darkness if therefore the Light that is in thee be Darkness how great is that Darkness So may I say if that Doctrine Principle thou recommendest to the World for Truth Excellency be erronious and faulty how great is that Error and Fault Again thou sayest Thy Light is always present to thy understanding and Intimately united with it still Sect. 5. Which in thy sense of the Light is to say thy Soul is never without thy Reason and Conscience I wish they were both reformed that thou mayst be no more guilty of these and such like false Aspersions That the Light as supposing it to be what really it is viz. a Distinct Principle from the Soul is always present to the understanding which implies its operation upon the natural Capacity or Organ the ordinary means of knowing I conceive is more then can be safely or experimentally said because the Organ may be hurt and the understanding in that sense interrupted and consequently no fit Medium or Receptacle either for the Soul or its Light besides the Soul may be absent from the natural understanding by the interposition of Spiritual as well as Natural causes and yet present with the Light in its spiritual way of understanding But to say as thou dost that Thy Light is only the Essential Truth of God and that it is always present to thy understanding and intimately united with it and yet that it does not formally inlighten or instruct it but when carefully attended to and consulted seems to discover a Contradiction in it self and to the formal Reason of its Being and Presence and Sufficiency in the one act of the same Principle as well as to the state and nature of Intimate Union for how can any