A Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People Called QuakersPenn, William
Religion
A Brief Account of the Rise and Progress of the People Called Quakers
Penn, William
Society of Friends
Wherefore, dear children, let me entreat you to shut your eyes at the
temptations and allurements of this low and perishing world, and not
suffer your affections to be captivated by those lusts and vanities that
your fathers, for the truth's sake, long since turned their backs upon:
but as you believe it to be the truth, receive it into your hearts, that
you may become the children of God: so that it may never be said of you,
as the evangelist writes of the Jews in his time, that Christ, the true
light, "came to his own, but his own received him not; but to as many as
received him, to them he gave power to become the children of God; which
were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but of God;" a most close and comprehensive passage to this
occasion. You exactly and peculiarly answer to those professing Jews, in
that you bear the name of God's people, by being the children, and
wearing of the form of God's people: and he, by his light in you, may be
very well said to come to his own, and if you obey it not, but turn your
backs upon it, and walk after the vanities of your minds, you will be of
those that received him not; which I pray God may never be your case and
judgment. But that you may be thoroughly sensible of the many and great
obligations you lie under to the Lord for his love, and to your parents
for their care: and with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your
strength, turn to the Lord, to his gift and Spirit in you; and hear his
voice, and obey it, that you may seal to the testimony of your fathers,
by the truth and evidence of your own experience: that your children's
children may bless you, and the Lord for you, as those that delivered a
faithful example, as well as record of the truth of God unto them. So
will the grey 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 nature, but spirit, shall live in you when they are gone.
* * * * *
I shall conclude this account with a few words to those who are not of
our communion, into whose hands this may come; especially those of our
own nation.
* * * * *
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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