Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
kingdom_n	great_a	time_n	world_n	5,204	5	4.2496	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54107	A brief account of the rise and progress of the people called Quakers in which their fundamental principle, doctrines, worship, ministry and discipline are plainly declared to prevent the mistakes and perversions that ignorance and prejudice may make to abuse the credulous : with a summary relation of the former dispensations of God in the world by way of introduction / by W. Penn.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1694 (1694)	Wing P1257; ESTC R30091	50,798	131

Original in Him His Troubles and Sufferings both from without and within His End and Triumph I Am now come to the Third Head or Branch of my Preface viz. The Instrumental Author For it is Natural for some to say Well here is the People and Work but where and who was the Man the Instrument He that in this Age was sent to begin this Work and People I shall as God shall enable me declare who and what he was not only by report of others but from my own long and most inward Converse and intimate knowledge of him for which my Soul blesseth God as it hath often done And I doubt not but by that time I have discharged my self of this part of my Preface my serious Readers will believe I had good Cause so to do The Blessed Instrument of and in this day of God and of whom I am now about to Write was George Fox distinguished from another of that Name by that Other 's addition of Younger to his Name in all his Writings not that he was so in Years but that he was so in the Truth But he was also a Worthy Man Witness and Servant of God in his time But this George Fox was Born in Leicester-shire about the Year 1624. He descended of Honest and Sufficient Parents who endeavoured to bring him up as they did the rest of their Children in the Way and Worship of the Nation Especially his Mother who was a Woman accomplisht above most of her Degree in the place where she lived But from a Child he appeared of another Frame of Mind than the rest of his Brethren being more Religious Inward Still Solid and Observing beyond his Years as the Answers he would give and the Questions he would put upon occasion manifested to the Astonishment of those that heard him especially in Divine Things His Mother taking Notice of his Singular Temper and the Gravity Wisdom and Piety that very early shined through him refusing Childish and Vain Sports and Company when very Young She was Tender and Indulgent over him so that from her he met with little Difficulty As to his Employment he was brought up in Country Business and as he took most delight in Sheep so he was very skilful in them An Employment that very well suited his mind in several Respects both for its Innocency and Solitude and was a just Emblem of his after Ministry and Service I shall not break in upon his own Account which is by much the best that can be given and therefore desire what I can to avoid saying any thing of what is said already as to the particular Passages of his coming forth But in general when he was somewhat above Twenty he left his Friends and visited the most Retired and Religious People in those Parts And some there were short of few if any in this Nation who waited for the Consolation of Israel Night and Day as Zacherias Anna and good Old Simeon did of Old Time To these he was sent and these he sought out in the Neighbouring Countys and among them he Sojourned till his more ample Ministry came upon him At this time he taught and was an Example of Silence endeavouring to bring them from Self-performances Testifying of and turning them to the Light of Christ within them and encouraging them to wait in Patience to feel the Power of it to stir in their Hearts that their Knowledge and Worship of God might stand in the Power of an Endless Life which was to be found in the Light as it was obeyed in the Manifestation of it in man For in the Word was Life and that Life is the Light of Men. Life in the Word Light in Men and Life in Men too as the Light is obeyed The Children of the Light living by the Life of the Word by which the Word begets them again to God which is the Regeneration and New-Birth without which there is no coming into the Kingdom of God And to which whoever comes is greater than John that is than John's Dispensation which was not that of the Kingdom but the Consummation of the Legal and Forerunning of the Gospel Times the time of the Kingdom Accordingly several Meetings were gathered in those Parts and thus his Time was employed for some Years In 1652. He being in his usual Retirement his Minde exercised towards the Lord upon a very High Mountain in some of the hither parts of Yorkshire as I take it he had a Vision of the great Work of God in the Earth and of the way that he was to go forth in a publick Ministry to begin it He saw People as thick as Motes in the Sun that should in time be brought Home to the Lord that there might be but one Shepherd and one Sheepfold in all the Earth There his Eye was directed Northward beholding a great People that should receive him and his Message in those Parts Upon this Mountain he was moved of the Lord to sound out his Great and notable Day as if he had been in a great Auditory and from thence went North as the Lord had shown him And in every place where he came if not before he came to it he had his particular Exercise and Service shown to him so that the Lord was his Leader indeed For it was not in vain that he Travailed God in most places sealing his Commission with the Convincement of some of all sorts as well Publicans as sober Professors of Religion Some of the first and most Eminent of those that came forth in a publick Ministry and which are now at Rest were Richard Farnsworth James Nayler William Dewsberry Tho. Aldam Francis Howgil Edward Burroughs John Camm John Audland Richard Hubberthorn T. Taylor T. Holmes Alexander Parker William Simpson William Catton John Stubbs Robert Withers Tho. Low Josiah Coale John Burnyeat Robert Lodge Thomas Salt-house and many more Worthies that cannot be well here Named together with divers yet living of the first Great Convincement who after the knowledge of God's purging Judgments in themselves and some time of waiting in silence upon him to feel and receive Power from on High to speak in his Name which none else rightly can though they may use the same Words They felt Its Divine Motions and were frequently drawn forth especially to visit the Publick Assemblies to reprove inform and exhort them Sometimes in Markets Fairs Streets and by the High-way-side calling People to Repentance and to turn to the Lord with their Hearts as well as their Mouths directing them to the Light of Christ within them to see examine and consider their ways by and to eschew the evil and do the Good and Acceptable Will of God And they suffered great Hardships for this their Love and Good-will being often Stockt Stoned Beaten Whipt and Imprisoned though Honest Men and of Good Report where they lived that had left Wives and Children and Houses and Lands to visit them with a living Call to Repentance

Emperors embracing the Christian Profession they changed what they could the Kingdom of Christ which is not of this World into a Worldly Kingdom or at least stiled the Worldly Kingdom that was in their Hands the Kingdom of Christ and so they became Worldly and not true Christians Then Humane Inventions and Novelties both in Doctrine and worship crouded fast into the Church a Door being opened thereunto by the Grossness and Carnality that appeared then among the generality of Christians who had long since left the Guidance of God's meek and heavenly Spirit and given themselves up to Superstition Will-worship and Voluntary Humility And as Superstition is Blind so it is Heady and Furious for all must stoop to its blind and boundless Zeal or Perish by it In the Name of the Spirit persecuting the very appearance of the Spirit of God in others and opposing that in others which they resisted in themselves viz. the Light Groce and Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ But always under the Notion of Innovation Heresie Schism or some such plausible Name Though Christianity allows of no Name or Pretence whatever for persecuting of any Man for matters of meer Religion being in its very Nature Meek Gentle and Forbearing and consists of Faith Hope and Charity which no Persecutor can have whilst he remains a Persecutor in that a Man cannot believe well or hope well or have a Charitable or tender regard to another whilst he would violate his mind or persecute his Body for matters of Faith or Worship towards his God Thus the False Church sprang up and mounted the Chair But though she lost her Nature she would needs keep her good Name of the Lambs-bride the True Church and Mother of the Faithful Constraining all to receive her Mark either in their Forehead or Right hand that is publickly or privately But Indeed and in Truth she was Mystery Babylon the Mother of Harlots Mother of those that with all their show and outside of Religion were adulterated and gone from the Spirit Nature and Life of Christ and grown Vain Worldly Ambitious Covetous Cruel c. which are the Fruits of the Flesh and not of the Spirit Now it was that the True Church fled into the Wilderness That is from Superstition and Violence to a Retired Solitary and Lonely State hidden and as it were out of Sight of Men though not out of the World Which shows that her wonted Visibility was not Essential to the being of a True Church in the Judgment of the Holy Ghost she being as True a Church in the Wilderness though not as Visible and Lustrious as when she was in her former Splendor of Profession In this State many Attempts She made to return but the Waters were yet too High and her way blocked up and many of her excellent Children in several Nations and Centuries fell by the Cruelty of Superstition because they would not fall from their Faithfulness to the Truth The last Age did set some steps towards it both as to Doctrine Worship and Practice But Practice quickly failed for Wickedness flowed in a little time as well among the Professors of the Reformation as those they reformed from so that by the Fruits of Conversation they were not to be distinguished And the Children of the Reformers if not the Reformers themselves betook themselves very early to Earthly Policy and Power to uphold and carry on their Reformation that had been begun with Spiritual Weapons which I have often thought has been one of the greatest reasons the Reformation made no better Progress as to the Life and Soul of Religion For whilst the Reformers were Lowly and Spiritually Minded and trusted in God and lookt to Him and lived in his Fear and consulted not with Flesh and Blood nor sought Deliverance in their own way there were daily added to the Church such as one might reasonably say should be saved For they were not so careful to be safe from Persecution as to be Faithful and Inoffensive under it Being more concerned to spread the Truth by their Faith and Patience in Tribulation than to get the worldly Power out of their Hands that inflicted those Sufferings upon them And it will be well if the Lord suffer them not to fall by the very same way they took to stand In Doctrine they were in some things short in other things to avoid one extream they run into another And for Worship there was for the generality more of man in it than of God They owned the Spirit Inspiration and Revelation indeed and grounded their Separation and Reformation upon the Sence and Vnderstanding they received from it in the Reading of the Scriptures of Truth And this was their Plea The Scripture is the Text the Spirit the Interpreter and that to every one for himself But yet there was too much of humane Invention Tradition and Art that remained both in Praying and Preaching and of worldly Authority and worldly Greatness in their Ministers especially in this Kingdom Sweden Denmark and some Parts of Germany God was therefore pleased in England to shift us from Vessel to Vessel And the next remove humbled the Ministry so that they were more Strict in Preaching Devout in Praying and Zealous for keeping the Lord's Day and Catechizing of Children and Servants and Repeating at Home in their Families what they had heard in publick But even as these grew into Power they were not only for Whipping some out but others into the Temple And they appeared Rigid in their Spirits rather than Severe in their Lives and more for a Party than for Piety Which brought forth another People that were yet more retired and select They would not communicate at Large or in common with others but formed Churches among themselves of such as could give some account of their Conversion at least of very promising experiences of the Work of God's Grace upon their Hearts and under mutual Agreements and Covenants of fellowship they kept together These People were somewhat of a Softer Temper and seemed to recommend Religion by the Charms of its Love Mercy and Goodness rather than by the Terrours of its Judgments and Punishment by which the former Party would have awed People into Religion They also allowed greater liberty to Prophecy than those before them for they admitted any Member to Speak or Pray as well as their Pastor whom they always Chose and not the Civil Magistrate If such found any thing pressing upon them to either Duty even without the Distinction of Clergy or Laity Persons of any Trade had their Liberty be it never so Low and Mechanical But alas even these People suffered great loss For tasting of Worldly Empire and the favour of Princes and the Gain that ensued they degenerated but too much For though they had cryed down National Churches and Ministry and Maintenance too some of them when it was their own turn to be Tryed fell under the Weight of Worldly Honour and Advantage got