Selected quad for the lemma: life_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A60626
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An epistle to all the called and chosen of God by William Smith.
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Smith, William, d. 1673.
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1672
(1672)
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Wing S4297; ESTC R32688
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10,262
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20
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will feel what the Lord makes up to himself and what he casteth out that must not come within the Borders of his Land nor within the Gates of his City nor within the Doors of his Houshold and Family but is separated and cast out as an unclean thing which with his Jewels he will not make up For it is in the Seed that he planteth and buildeth and maketh up his Jewels and so he fitly frames his Building together and iâ— Him it grows unto an Holy Temple and there is the Habitation of God through his Spirit and so the House is built upon the Rock and not upon the Sand and the Houshold are fed with Bread of the finest Wheat and not with Husks and Chaff and he is Lord and King in his own House to Rule Order and Govern his Houshold and his Houshold live in Order and not in Confusion and here ye will all have Rest and fulness of Joy Therefore be Faithful to the End in all things that ye may Serve Worship and Honour the God of all Power and Greatness that by your Faithfulness his Power and Greatness over all the Earth may be exalted and his Name set above every Name in its own Excellency And so in every good Word and Work be ye all Fruitful and walk in a Holy and Blameless Conversation that he who is Life may be known to be the ROOT and TREE by the Fruit of Righteousness who is to Day as Yesterday and the same for ever And Friends Be Careful to Honour God in all things for he Honoureth those that Honoureth him And take heed that none Dishonour God by fond Affections one towards another for if any go fondly together upon the account of Marriage they Dishonour God and hurt themselves And none to be busie in making Motions between Party and Party or to perswade any to change their Conditions in which they themselves are satisfied to continue and abide but let every one feel the Truth in themselves and the Movings of it in their own Hearts to dispose them in such a Weighty Concernment and then the Ordinance of God will be known in the Covenant of Life and such a Marriage will Honour God as being Honourable in the Undefiled Seed And all keep your Judgment in the Power Life and Wisdom that judgeth Righteously that you may be able to discern and try spirits whether they are of God and let no fair Shew or Appearance out of the Life come over you to vail your Judgment and Discerning nor no feigned Love or Humility sway your Affections for if any let in such things by letting out themselves to comply or joyn with them they will let Darkness over their Judgment and lose their Judgement and then they cannot put a Difference between the Precious and the Vile in a sound Judgement and so may be taken and snared with a smooth formed spirit in Carriage or Words Therefore all be mindful and careful to keep Sound Judgment that not any thing contrary to the Spirit and Life of God may come over you but keep the Judgment of Truth upon all and set true Judgment over all and do not set a Byass upon your Judgment to turn or wrest you aside in Judgment but all Judge in Truth and Righteousness in which you will also feel the Mercy And all keep in the Stayed Sollid Life and let not your Minds run after New Things to draw you from the Sound and Weighty Truth which you have seen and heard and believed but what is manifested unto you either by Word or Writing let the Heavenly Truth be Received and Embraced and Lived in and none to run after new things to forget the old and so you will all keep in mind the Sound and Wholesome Doctrine which hath plentifully been delivered by Faithful Brethren both by Word and Epistle and the Doctrine will abide and remain in you and you will abide and remain in the Doctrine For the preaching of the Grace of God by Jesus Christ is the Sound and Wholesom Doctrine which all are to receive and believe and whether it be preached by Word or Epistle it settleth and establisheth the Heart and Mind of those that receive it and believe in it and they come to grow in Grace which is the Doctrine preached unto them and by them received and believed And so Sound Doctrine maketh a Sound People and you that have received it and believe in it you are made Sound by it and whatsoever is manifest of that Nature as a renewing of the Testimony it doth more confirm you in the Doctrine which ye have already received but never draweth you from it and so you keep the Doctrine from first to last and do not forget any part of it And you do well that keep in mind the Sound and Wholsom Doctrine of the Gospel and the Sound and Wholsom Exhortations with which ye have been exhorted into Obedience and Faithfulness in things pertaining to the Gospel-Doctrine and so keepeth in the Gospel-Fellowship and Order yea I say ye do well who are thus mindful of that Doctrine which in and by the Spirit of God hath been preached unto you ye keep in that which is Sound and Wholsom aud out of that which Putrifies and Corrupts and so come to live in the ingrafted Word that is able to save your Souls And all Friends Keep your Meetings in the Faith and hold fast the Profession of your Faith in all Meetings and keep in mind the great Refreshment with which ye have been refreshed in Meetings and which still remains with all the Faithful and watch against that spirit and nature which at any time bringeth Heaviness and Drousiness upon you in Meetings and when you feel such a thing coming upon you do not give way to it to be overcome by it but with the Power of God resist it in time and so you will feel the Power as a Spring of Living Water to refresh your Souls Oh! let your Dilligence be improved in Watchfulness and Perseverance that ye may all feel the Power and Life over that which would at any time vail you from beholding the excellent Glory and from pertaking of the Heavenly and Living Vertue that so you may all feel the Arm which preserveth and drink at the River which Refresheth and Nourisheth that ye may be Strong in the Lord and in the Power of his Might and so be able to resist and overcome the Enemy in all his Appearances And in all your Meetings be tender over the Good one in another that ye may be a Comfort one to another and so in the Peaceable Wisdom to live and Glorifie God And Friends Do not run into Superfluities in Meats Drinks or Apparrel to come under the Power of any but all wait to be preserved in Sobriety Temperance and Humility And do not fashion your selves like unto the World in their Novelties and new Fashions for they know not what to eat or drink or put on and so are from that which should lead them into Comliness and Modesty and follow that which leadeth them into Vanity and Folly but do you dwell in the Heavenly LIGHT by which you may Adorn the Blessed Gospel and Honour the Lord God of all your Mercies Finally Brethren Fare-ye-well Live in Peace and Truth and Holiness and Righteousness and Godliness and Love and the God of Love and Peace and of all Heavenly Vertues and Graces will be with you into whose Everlasting Arms I commit you and in the Love of his Life I am dearly with you all The 7th Moneth 1672. William Smith Let this EPISTLE be read among Friends in the Power and Wisdom of Truth THE END
the weighty savory words of Life that with the Life every one may be truly refreshed comforted and stablished Oh Friends Be ye all watchful to the Heavenly Light to be preserved in the feeling of Eternal Life that ye may all follow the Lamb in his goings and not go into any thing that is contrary to him for that draweth a vail over the Life and obstructeth the Vertue and then the pettish part is ready to be exceptious and streighten the Life and the Unity in it and so the evil Eye comes to be opened and the Whisperer and Reporter to be let at liberty and then the Enemy works into parties to spoil the Heritage of God and it is set much upon me by the Spirit of the Lord to warn and exhort all Friends To be very circumspect in all their wayes and to keep to the Light by which they were first convinced and in which true Love aboundeth that none may run out and grieve the Spirit of the Lord and bring Grief one upon anothet but all keep in the good Unity of the Spirit which is the Bond of Peace and so all will understand what to joyn unto and what to stand at a distance from for a good Understanding keepeth good Order and they that have attained to it they speak with the Spirit and with an Understanding and pray with the Spirit and with an Understanding and sing with the Spirit and with an Understanding and with the Spirit and with an Understanding God is glorified and unto his Blessed Name and Power be Glory forever Amen And Friends Be very mindful in all things wherein you are concerned to answer the Lord in Obedience and Faithfulness to the End that your Hearts and Minds may be constant to persevere in the Way of Godliness that in the Light you may feel the Strength and Power of Life to do the Will of God and so the Lord will keep you in his Way as a People that are ordered and disposed in his Counsel and you will be as a Holy Generation and a Royal Priesthood to offer a living Sacrifice of Praise upon his own Altar For the Lord is exceeding good to all that faithfully love him and serve him he is nigh to help them wherein his Name and Truth is concerned for his Power is as the Wings of an Eagle and where his Power beareth up there is no fainting but a Faithful Continuing with Joyfulness to serve Him unto the End Therefore all keep in the Light which the Messengers of the Covenant first preached unto you and by which your Hearts were touched and turned unto God abide in that as being the one and only in which the Love Life Spirit Power and Wisdom of God resteth for all resteth in the Light and in the Light all comes to be witnessed in one Nature and Beeing and whatsoever would draw your Minds from the Light under any Colour or Pretence let it not prevail over you but stand in the Light and resist it as your Enemy For as the Light is only true so there is to be an abiding in it for all that go from it to find any thing true above it they err from the Faith and wrong themselves or who go from the Light to embrace the World they enter into the House of Bondage and where the Enemy so prevaileth over any it is because there is not Faithfulness to the Light For if there be Faithfulness to the Light the Wiles of the Enemy are discovered and Dangers prevented for the Light lifts up it self as a Standard against the subtil Worker And so with the Light the Faithful are preserved in their Faithfulness to walk with God and do his Will and there they grow in Grace and Godliness by which the Truth is Honoured And herein the great Love of God is manifest to all the Faithful who are indeed his Chosen and unto whom his Arm is stretched forth for their Preservation he only is the God of their Salvation and in his Life he causeth all his tender Plants to grow and with his Vertue he gives them Nourishment to make them live and be fruitful yea it is He and none Else he whose Name endures forever and all that wait upon him his Grace falls upon them Therefore trust ye in Him whose Name is I am The Lord Strong and Mighty The Everlasting Immortal God The Power that is able to subdue all things to it self by which ye may all feel the Resurrection of the Immortal Seed and of the Seed to be born again and so as Heirs of Life to inherit Life and in Life to live that the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and Ending may be your Rest And as ye all dwell in the Light you will be sensible of the Drawings and Leadings of his Hand since the Day in which he first Appeared to you and how he hath driven back Enemies before you and brought you forward into a Wealthy Place yea a Place where ye have found durable Riches and keeping in the Weighty Power you will have a weighty Life and so be found as such that walk worthy of the Vocation unto which God hath called you and there you will know the goings on from one degree of Godliness to another unto the Perfect State in Christ Jesus and so you will not hastily flye up into the Air but learn your Goings by degrees and walk safely and there your Way will be pleasant to you and your Reward a Crown for who overcometh the Lord will Crown the Overcomers must wear the Crown as a Token of their Victory over all things contrary to Truth and Purity and also as their Glory before him who sets the Crown upon their Head and such Honour have all the Saints And so in the Power of God all get Victory and Overcome that ye may wear the Crown And all be mindful wherein ye are concerned one towards another in all things that the Peace of God in all your Hearts may rule and that the pure Movings of God's Power ye may all know in your Understandings that every one may know their going forth and coming in as the Power ordereth and then the Order will be kept and not broken for if the true Power be not understood in its Movings but that another thing moveth and acteth that thing breaks the Order and none do keep the Order of the Gospel but who live in the Power and understandeth the Motion of it and so all are to wait upon God to understand his Counsel and do his Will and not follow their own Counsel and do their own Wills for if any do so they will run into Confusion aud come to nothing but who stand in the Counsel of the Lord and do his Will they serve him in the order of his own Life by which he hath Glory And so all is to be kept down with the Power that nothing may be seen or heard but the pure Seed in its own pure Life and then you