Quaker Bible Index

(John 4:2)

RBA 356, RBAF 311 (1678, XII.5): If water baptism had been to continue a perpetual ordinance of Christ in his church, he would either have practised it himself or commanded his apostles to do so. But that he practised it not, the scripture plainly affirms (John 4:2). And that he commanded his disciples to baptize with water, I could never yet read.

(John 4:6-29)

GF8:108 (1676): And the woman of Samaria, that Christ Jesus convinced, and taught her how God was to be worshipped, to wit, in the spirit and truth;[John 4:23f] you may see what a large discourse Christ had with her [John 4:7-26], as in John iv. from the 7th to the 27th, and suffered her to speak before the head of the church.

(John 4:10)

GF8:181 (1679): And the fruits of this pure spirit are pure love, righteousness, and godliness, patience, temperance, and humility [Gal 5:22f]; by which spirit all are made to drink into one spirit [1 Cor 12:13]; so that all are the living wells, that have their living water from God and Christ [John 4:10], their true and living fountain; and in which spirit they have a holy and spiritual fellowship, in this baptizing, mortifying, circumcising spirit [1 Cor 12:13/Rom 8:13/Rom 2:29], yea, one with another [1 Jn 1:7], and with the son and the Father also [1 Jn 1:3], through which the love of God warms every one's heart.

HPS 334 (Rebecca Travers, 1669): God is not divided, wherever the Spirit is, Christ is, ... the gift of the Father, that was never known nor learned, but in the measure of his own Spirit, as any may read, when Christ was visible amongst them at Jerusalem, and discoursed with the woman of Samaria, he did not call her so much to the beholding of his visible appearance or person, as to know the gift of God, whereby she could only have the knowledge who he was [John 4:10]; and though the was present, he doth not say, believe in this person at any time, but "believe in the Light, that you may be children of Light [John 12:36]"; [continued under Mat 19:16-22]

(John 4:10f)

[Other texts citing John 4:10f: MFU 98, HPS 462 (John 6:51), IP1:140 (Rev 21:6), IP3:328 (John 4:14), IP4:49 (Gen 7:11)]

JSS 27 (17–): [Quotes John 4:10] This gift of God was he that dwelt in that body; which, whoever saw, saw also the Father [John 14:9]. This gift was not only then near her, but had been in her, and is in all; and had she known it before she saw the Lord Jesus outwardly, even as it talked with her, and was the gift of God to her inwardly, she might have asked of him, and received the living water; even as Israel of old drank of that spiritual rock that truly was Christ [1 Cor 10:4]; and is now in every believer "a well of water springing up into everlasting life [John 4:14];" according to his promise, "He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water [John 7:38]."

(John 4:12-14)

HPS 144 (Dorothy White, 1662): Therefore abide in this eternal love [John 15:10], / From which you [neither] death nor hell can move [Rom 8:38f]; / As you in it abide, and eke do dwell, / You'll feel God's virtue flow from Jacob's well [John 4:12-14].

(John 4:12)

[Other texts citing John 4:12: GF8:19 (Gen 26:15,18)]

(John 4:14)

[Other texts citing John 4:14: GF8:167 (Rev 21:6), IP4:49 (Gen 7:11), JSS 27 (John 4:10) ]

GF8:127 (1676): I say, let not the birth of the flesh [Gal 4:29], with all his carnal weapons [2 Cor 10:4], jails, and prisons, threats, or reproaches, move you, nor separate you from the love of God [Rom 8:39], nor from your foundation, the rock of ages , Christ Jesus [1 Cor 3:11/Isa 26:4 KJV margin]: but feel the well of life springing up in you [John 4:14], to nourish the plant that God has planted in you, of his renown [Ezek 34:29], that that may grow up within his hedge, his power, which will keep out the devil and all the venomous beasts [Eccl 10:8/Acts 28:4], from entering into God's garden, or kingdom.

MFU 377f (1664): For he hath not left you comfortless [John 14:18], but he is come to you in his Spirit, believe in him, and ask of him the living water which he gives, and it will be in you a well springing up to eternal life [John 4:14]; so that out of your bellies will flow rivers of living water [John 7:38]: here is the true treasure, here is the desirable durable riches [Prov 8:18], far surpassing all created things.

IP3:328 (1674): [quotes John 4:14] Is not this a universal promise, to be made good to every one that drinks of the water of life [John 4:10f]? ... Oh, the water which Christ giveth! doth it not become a well in the true disciple, in the living disciple, out of which well the water is still springing and flowing to nourish up with life and unto life, even with life of an everlasting nature, and unto life everlasting?

(John 4:16-19)

[Other texts citing John 4:16-19: JWJM 251f (Luk 5:21-23)]

(John 4:20-24)

[Other texts citing John 4:20-24) MFS 24f (Heb 1:8)]

GF4:407-412 (1673): [Exposition of John 4:20-24, "To all professors in the Christian world, also to the Jews and Turk throughout the whole world; that they may see who are the true worshippers of God, that he seeks, and in what he is worshipped."]

IP4:106f (1671): For men reading the Scriptures, not in the life, Spirit, and power which gave them forth, but with that which is natural, they come not to the true, pure, heavenly, living knowledge; but only obtain a natural knowledge, according to which they believe and worship; and so fall down before, and according to, the apprehensions and imaginations of their own minds; and so one believes and worships one way, and another believes and worships another way. And truly, here men worship they know not what; but they that are the true Jews, know what they worship; for salvation is of the true Jews, who worship neither at the mountain, nor at the other mountain; but only in Spirit, and in truth [John 4:20-24], even in the life and power of our Lord Jesus Christ.

HPS 127 (7000 Handmaids of the Lord, 1659; petition from women in Hertfordshire): ...was it not the great cry among the Jews that God was nowhere worshipped, but in the temple at Jerusalem, and thither all nations should come to worshp, and he that would not come, his cattle should die, and his eyes should eat out of his head, as in Zechariah the prophet [Zech 14:12-19]; yet when Christ came, he told them not at Jerusalem, not at Samaria, neither at the mountain, but they which worships the Father, must worship him in spirit, mark, in the spirit, and in the truth [John 4:20-24]; and would not the Jews say that Christ denied the higher power [Rom 13:1]?.... so run all from the spirit in them, and from the truth in which they should worship the Father, and they that will not go to worship with them, fine them and imprison them, these disquiet authority, these are not subject to the higher power....

(John 4:21)

[Other texts citing John 4:21: GF7:125 (Rev 9:20)]

(John 4:22-24)

[Other texts citing John 4:22-24: GFJN 35 (John 14:6)]

JN1:130 (1653): If thou know not the Father, Son, and Spirit one God [1 Jn 5:6], and the way of his worship, other ways than thou hast found in the letter, thou knows but that in letter and notion which all the saints of God knew in Spirit and power, and thou worshps in letter and form thou knows not what [John 4:22], who doth not know and worship in Spirit [John 4:23f]....

IP1:159 (1659): .... whatever ye have done in the worship of God, without the leading and presence of his spirit, it hath been idolatry. For the worship of God, under the gospel, "is in the spirit and in the truth," and required of them who are in the spirit and in the truth, and not of others. John 4:23. For them alone the Lord seeketh to worship; and the Lord will admit of none to his worship, but such as he seeks. And if any else will thrust themselves into his worship, it is not accepted; nor do they worship the true God, but they "worship they know not what" [Johnh 4:22]; and their whole state and course here is a state and course of idolatry.

(John 4:22)

[Other texts citing John 4:22: JN2:274 (Mat 15:14, Heb 11:27), JN2:443 (Rom 1:19), WDS 295f (Mat 15:14)]

(John 4:23)

[Other texts citing John 4:23: IP2:8f (Rom 1:5)]

IP4:224 (1671): Query 14. Doth thy worship stand in the Spirit, and inward life of truth in thy heart? Art thou such a worshipper as the Father hath sought out and made so [John 4:23]? Or art thou a worshipper of thine own or other men's making? And dost thou keep within the limits of the living and spiritual worship, and not transgress the law thereof?

HPS 260 (Joan Vokins, 1691): And although man and wife should be helpful one to another in righteousness, yet too many there are, since the fall, that hinder and hurt each other.... And this did I consider many a time, and earnestly endeavour to avoid; notwithstanding the false aspersions that might arise, yet I still endeavoured to keep my conscience clear in the sight of my tender God; and none can lay anything to my charge, except it be for serving the living and true God [1 Th 1:9], though in that way that many may call heresy, yet I do worship him in Spirit and in truth. For as Christ Jesus hath said, it is come to pass, that our heavenly Father seeketh such [John 4:23], and always sought such to worship him, in his own spiritual way of worship; which shall stand, when all idolatry and invented worships shall fall.

(John 4:23f)

[Other texts citing John 4:23f): GF3:273 (Heb 12:9), GF3:552 (Rom 1:28), GF7:229 (Rev 14:9-11), GF7:292 (Rev 9:2), GF7:317 (John 15:12), GF8:49f (Mat 10:34), GF8:71 (Gen 3:15), GF8:108 (John 4:6-29), GF8:235 (Mat 10:22[1], John 1:9 [2]), JN1:104 (Mat 23:9), IP1:164f (Luk 9:55), IP2:120 (Mat 1:21), IP2:311 (Rev 17:14), IP3:169 (John 6:55), RBA 407 (Luk 24:5)]

GFJN 417 (1661): Christ's worship is free in the Spirit to all men; and such as worship in the spirit and in the truth are they that God seeks to worship him [John 4:23]; for he is the God of truth [Deut 32:4], and is a Spirit [John 4:24], and the God of the spirits of all flesh [Num 16:22]. And he hath given to all nations of men and women breath and life [Acts 17:25], to live and move and have their being in him [Acts 17:28], and hath put into them an immortal soul.

IP3:184 (1668): [Context: gospel sabbath/rest, Heb 4:1-11] yea, in the faith, the weakest babe (abiding there) cannot but keep the sabbath, and offer up the sacrifices, and perform the services thereof to the Lord. For the worship of the New Testament relates not to outward times or days; but is in the Spirit, in the truth [John 4:23f], in the name, in the power, in the substance, on the day, and in the times and seasons which the Lord hath made [Psa 118:24/Acts 1:7], and makes, in the spirits of his people.

IP3:187 (1668): Is not the worship of the New Testament to be in Spirit and truth [John 4:23f]? Is not the Spirit pure, the truth pure? Can anything unclean enter into it [2 Chr 23:19, Rev 21:27]? Can any be in it, can any worship it it, but they which be cleansed, purified, and changed by it?

IP4:301 (1675?): The thing is nakedly and plainly thus: the great God, by the arm of his power, hath gathered a people to himself, and taught them to worship him in his own Spirit and truth [John 4:23f];; yea, he hath taught us to be continually retired, and upon our watch, and in his fear; eyeing and regarding him in all we do.

RBA 317-9, RBAF 273-5 (1678, XI.15 is extended discussion of John 4:23f): ... it is no more a worship consisting in outward observations, to be performed by man at set times or opportunities, which he can do in his own will and by his own natural strength; for else it would not differ in matter but only in some circumstances from that under the law.... [God] will now be worshipped in the Spirit where he reveals himself and dwelleth with the contrite in heart [Psa 51:17]; now, since it is the heart of man that now is become the temple of God in which he will be worshipped, ... it must also be purged of its own filth, and all its own thoughts and imaginations, that so it may be fit to receive the Spirit of God and to be acted by it; and doth not this directly lead us to that inward silence of which we have spoken...? And further, this worship must be "in Truth"; intimating that this spiritual worship, thus acted, is only and properly a true worship, as being that which ... cannot be counterfeited by the enemy, nor yet performed by the hypocrite.

WTG 356 (Ann Moore, 1761): I will now tell thee what I think is the baptism and the Lord's supper which we ought to be acquainted with: To know the power of the Lord, to subdue the will of the flesh and strengthen us to suffer patiently whatever he may permit to be tried with for his name's sake, and to draw us from all outward dependence to worship him in spirit and in truth [John 4:23f] as we do profess to do, and all who worship him in spirit and in truth, they know a supping with Him and He with them [Rev 3:20], they are made acquainted with the saving baptism, the true ordinance of the Church of Christ, and are willing to submit to it, remembering Christ said, "Ye are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you [John 15:14]."

DFR 29 (17–): ...here I found a numerous society who held the same truths [described by Barclay], and lived an humble, self-denying life; becoming the character of Christians. I was indubitably satisfied that their worship was in spirit and in truth; and that they such worshipers as the Father sought and owned [John 4:23f].

(John 4:24)

[Other texts citing John 4:24: GF7:27 (Heb 10:34), GF8:72 (Heb 7:11), MFS 38 (Rev 16:11), IP3:248 (Heb 12:9), JSS 37 (John 6:63)]

DFR 74 (1774): Inasmuch as we profess to believe that "God is a spirit," and that the worship which is acceptable to him, must be performed "in Spirit and in truth [John 4:24]," and may be performed in silently waiting upon Him, why should not they [children of slaves] be so instructed as well as our own children?

(John 4:27-29)

GF8: 108, see under John 4:39-42

(John 4:29)

[Other texts citing John 4:29: HPS 404f ([1] John 1:48, [2] John 14:26)]

GF4:73 (1656): if you love the light, you will come to see yourselves, and whether your deeds be wrought in God [John 3:21], and if you believe in the light, which manifesteth all that ever you have done [John 4:29], ye will become the children of light [John 12:36], and receive power from Christ, from which the light comes, him by whom the world was made [John 1:3], to stand against the evil, which he hath given you a light to see; and with this light you come to know the Messias your Saviour, to save you from your sin, which he discovers, and to see the one offering [Heb 10:14].

MFU 346 (1661): thou hast read in the scriptures that they should all be taught of God [Isa 54:13], & that their teachers should be never more removed into a corner & their eyes should see their teacher & they should hear a word saying, this is the way, walk in it [Isa 30:20f]; now this word is in thy heart [Deut 30:14, Rom 10:8] & it is this word in our hearts that hath taught us & told us all that we ever did [John 4:29]....

RBA 165f , RBAF 122 (1678, V/VI.28): ... we, having the experience of the inward and powerful work of this Light in our hearts, even Jesus revealed in us [Gal 1:16], cannot cease to proclaim the day of the Lord, that it is arisen in it, crying out with the woman of Samaria; "Come and see one, that hath told me all that ever I have done: Is not this the Christ? [John 4:29]" That others may come and feel the same in themselves, and may know, that little small thing that reproves them in their hearts, however they have despised and neglected it, is nothing less than the Gospel preached in them; "Christ, the wisdom and power of God [Cor 1:24]", being in and by that Seed seeking to save their souls.

WPR 35 (1668): in the fear of God Eternal do I cry aloud unto you all, who are wandering in the by-paths of men's inventions, traditions, and precepts, to empty your hearts and minds of those unprofitable guests, that better entertainment than a manger [Luk 2:7] may be had to receive this Lord of Glory [1 Cor 2:8, Jas 2:1]; the mighty prophet all must hear or die [Deut 18:18f], who searcheth the heart, trieth the reins [Jer 17:10], and is able to tell you all that ever you did [John 4:29].

WTG 189 (Elizabeth Hudson, 1749): I was led ... to speak to some one who had in their youth been visited but through unfaithfulness had lost a good state ... when a person got up and showed great uneasiness and seemed as if he would have gone out of meeting but turned back, sat down and showed some disorder as if greatly affected. After meeting the Friend where we lodged came to me and said he was very sorry we had been at his home for I was led so pertinently to speak to that man’s state ... that he feared he’d say I’d been told all he’d ever done [John 4:29] .... I solemnly declared I had received no human intelligence concerning anyone's state in that meeting....

(John 4:32)

JN3:106 (1656): So no form we deny, into which Christ leads in Spirit; but all forms we deny that are imposed by men to keep people from following the Spirit; for those only are the children of God who are led by the Spirit of God [Rom 8:14], to whom they who are led by the letter were ever enemies: for it is the spiritual ministration that gives the knowledge of God, and his glory and power, and not the literal; for he that is born after the flesh [Gal 4:29] hath is way in the visibles, but he that is born after the Spirit hath his food the world knows not of [John 4:32], and therefore becomes his enemy.

(John 4:34)

[Often associated with Psa 40:8]

[Other texts citing John 4:34: HPS 465 (Luk 12:32)]

GFJN 193 (to Oliver Cromwell, 1655): Live in the Lord's power and life, then to thee he will give wisdom, and the pure feeling thou wilt come into, whereby thy soul will be refreshed and it will be thy delight to do the will of God [Psa 40:8], and thy meat and drink [John 4:34], as thou in the pure eternal power, counsel, will, and wisdom of God dwellest. Things all will be made plain before thee, for thee and to thee, from the Lord God.

MFU 350 (1661): Oh my dear lambs, let the issues of life [Prov 4:23] be kept open, that issueth forth into your souls from the blessed fountain.... So will you feel the word of the Lord God sweeter unto you than the honey or the honeycomb [Psa 19:10], & so will come truly to know that man liveth not by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth from the Lord God [Mat 4:4]. Here stands the life that is eternal & so to do the will of the Lord God will be meat & drink unto you [John 4:34]. ...

RBA 217, RBAF 164 (1878, VIII.8): And to this new man [Eph 4:24] "Christ's yoke is easy, and his burden is light [Mat 11:30];" though it be heavy to the old Adam; yea, the commandments of God are not unto this man grievous [1 Jn 5:3]; for it is his meat and drink to be found fulfilling the will of God [John 4:34].

SIW 147f (Ann Crowley, 18–): The next morning we attended a meeting ... in which much exercise was renewed; but I was still fearful of believing myself called to so great and important a work, as to become a minister of the everlasting gospel of peace and reconciliation; and so struggled with doubt and fear till the meeting broke up.... We all went to the house of our friend Robert Reynolds to dinner, but my mind was too deeply exercised to take much nourishment for the body; for truly I desired, above all other considerations, that it might be my meat and my drink to do the will of my Heavenly Father [John 4:34].

(John 4:35)

[Other texts citing John 4:35: GFJN 21 (Mat 9:37)]

EQ 165 (Stephen Crisp, 1662): When [James Parnell] was about eighteen years of age, the Lord ... put it into the heart of this young man to come into Essex, and to preach the word of life [Phil 2:16], and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord [Isa 61:2], where it might indeed well have been said, Behold, the fields are white unto harvest [John 4:35]; for, very many were there in that county, who were both weary and heavy laden [Mat 11:28] with their sins, and were as weary with running to and fro, to seek a way out of them [Amos 8:12]....

(John 4:39-42)

GF8:108 (1676): [quotes John 4:39,42] So here you may see, there was a woman preacher, that Christ (the head of the church) suffered; and through her means many were converted unto Christ.

(John 4:42)

IP3:268 (1672): I have felt that work within, and that living, sweet testimony of God's Spirit in my own heart, which hath been more to me than all that ever I heard or read from without; so that I can truly say (with the Samaritans, John 4:42): Now I believe, not because of the testimonies or words I have heard from without, but from the evidence and demonstration of life, and of God's Holy Spirit in my own heart.

(John 5:2-4)

[Other texts citing John 5:2-4: IP4:73 (Luk 8:18)]

RBA 128, RBAF 93 (1678, V/VI.16): For though there be a possibility of salvation to every man during the day of his visitation [Luk 19:44], yet cannot a man, at any time when he pleaseth or hath some sense of his misery, stir up that Light and Grace, so as to procure to himself tenderness of heart; but he must wait for it.... Even as the lake of Bethesda did not cure all those that washed in it, but such only as washed first after the angel had moved upon the waters [John 5:2-4]; so God moves in love to mankind, in this seed in his heart, at some singular times, setting his sins in order before him, and seriously inviting him to repentance, offering to him remission of sins and salvation; which if man accept of, he may be saved.

(John 5:8-10)

IP2:57 (1660): The Spirit doth not teach to break the commands in the letter; but such as are under the ministration of the letter, to observe them according to the letter; and such as are under the ministration of the Spirit, to fulfil the righteousness of them in the Spirit. Yet the son of man is "Lord of the Sabbath [Mar 2:28];" and if he bid a man "take up his bed and walk," which was bearing a burden and doing of work on the sabbath-day [John 5:8-10], it is no breach of the sabbath. Now this is most righteous; that as the Son's rest should be entered into under the gospel [Mat 11:28, Heb 4:3], so the day of rest should be kept by his disciples and family.

(John 5:17)

JSS 50f (17–): ...as all the divine life, power, virtue, and authority of the son, is the divine life [etc] of the Father, conferred upon, active in, and actuating the begotten, he receives the name of "everlasting Father" [Isa 9:6]. Thus he and the Father are one [John 10:30]; and yet Christ truly says, "My Father is greater than I [John 14:28]." This, as son, he may say, wherever he is brought forth;...as a son, he must be dependant upon the Father; hence he declares, "I can do nothing without my Father." "My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." [John 5:19,17]

(John 5:18)

[Other texts citing John 5:18: EQ 108 (Mat 11:29)]

(John 5:19)

[John 5:19: "The Son can do nothing of himself, but that which he seeth the Father do" cf John 5:30: "I can of mine own self do nothing"; John 15:5: "without me ye can do nothing"]

[Other texts citing John 5:19: JSS 50f (John 5:17)]

(John 5:22)

[Other texts citing John 5:22: MFU 264 (Mat 12:20)]

GF3:221 (1659): He saith, "Christ himself sent his hearers to the scriptures, as the chief judge of controversy, and of faith." A. Christ did not put the scriptures above himself; he said, "all judgment was committed to the son [John 5:22], and for judgment he was come into the world [John 9:39]." And the Pharisees that had the scriptures could not judge of faith, nor of controversy, nor knew Christ the author of the faith [Heb 2:2]; nor can any judge but who are in the spirit that gave forth the scriptures [2 Pet 1:21].

JN1:51 (1653): And as the light grows, there is a discerning of things that differ, to choose the good and refuse the evil [Isa 7:15f]; and as the Son arises, the judgment is brought forth [Isa 42:1]: for all judgment is committed to the Son [John 5:22], and so the saints come to judge the world; yea angels [1 Cor 6:2f], and are made able to try the spirits whether they be of God or no [1 Jn 4:1].

IP1:109f (1659): that must be awakened in you which can judge you, and must bring forth its judgment in you unto victory [Mat 12:20], if life in you ever arise and get the dominion over death. And that spirit which now rules in you, and keeps the life down, knows this very well, and therefore endeavours all it can to keep you from owning judgment. He would fain keep the light in others from judging you. "Do not judge," saith he; "all judgment is committed to the Son [John 5:22]." True; but shall not the light of the Son judge? Shall not the light of that candle, which the Lord hath lighted in one heart [Prov 20:27], discover and judge the darkness in another heart? Light doth make manifest [John 3:21, Eph 5:13G], and its manifestation is its judgment.

(John 5:24)

[Other texts citing John 5:24: GF4:325 (Rom 1:6f), GF7:159 (John 13:35), GF8:302 (under John 3:36), JN1:44 (John 5:25)]

GFJN 283 (1656): They that live in the state that Adam is in, in the Fall, and who cannot believe of coming into the state he was in before he fell, come not to the Church in God [1,2 Th 1:1], but are afar from that, and are not passed from death to life [John 5:24], and likewise are enemies to the Cross of Christ [Phil 3:18], which is the power of God [1 Cor 1:18/1:24].

GF8:134 (1676): ... whosoever hath this true, saving, and justifying faith, Christ Jesus hath been the author of it, and is the finisher of this divine and precious faith [Heb 12:2].... And this is the faith of God's elect [Tit 1:1]; by which faith they have access to God [Rom 5:2], and know their election [1 Th 1:4]; by which faith they are translated from death to life [John 5:24], and from the darkness to the light, and from the power of satan unto the power of God [Acts 26:18], and from the corruption to the incorruption [1 Cor 15:42], and from the mortal to the immortal, and from the natural to the spiritual [1 Cor 15:44].

MFU 210 (1656): ... to the life raised by the immortal word of life [1 Jn 1:1] join your minds & pass from the death to the life [John 5:24], that so you may come to know & witness the true love that is to the brethren where the unity is [Psa 133:1], whereby ye may all know that you are true disciples in that ye love one another [John 13:35] & here ye fulfil the whole law [Rom 13:8] & keep the new commandments [John 13:34, 15:12] which the Lord & Master hath commanded who dwells in love....

IP2:393 (1663): Q. What will he do with them, when he hath sought after and found them out? A. He will gather them into the fold of life, and lead them into the pastures of life, and feed them with the food of life, as their conditions are able to bear; he will be fitting them by the exercises of his Spirit, for their passages from death to life [John 5:24]; and as they are capable, so he will be still translating them from the one into the other [Col 1:13].

(John 5:25)

[Other texts citing John 5:25: GFJN 122 (Mat 27:52)]

MFU 52, HPS 453 (1653): Dear hearts, this is the day of your visitation [Luk 19:44], and salvation, if you will be faithful and obedient, for the everlasting God, which is the life, light and substance of life, is risen, and arising, and raising up the dead to hear the voice of the son of God, and they that hear do live [John 5:25]. And the dead bones is coming together, and standing up [Ezek 37:7-10]; yea, the earth is giving up her dead [Isa 26:19], if you be faithful to the measure of God's Spirit, by which he hath quickened you, this ye shall see, and witness....

JN1:44 (1653): ...the ministry of Christ is to the spirit in prison (1 Pet 3:19), not to the outward but to the inward man [2 Cor 4:16], which is led captive and imprisoned by that serpentine wisdom that rules in the outward, and by which it is kept in death; which once coming to hear the voice of Christ is raised from death to life [John 5:24], and then that Scripture is fulfilled: the dead hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live [John 5:25].

WDS 322 (16–): And you that are in the sense of your miserable and lost estate, wait upon the Lord, weeping and seeking the Lord your God, asking the way to Zion with your faces thitherward [Jer 50:4f], until the Lord cause your souls to hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear his voice live [John 5:25], but not in themselves, not to themselves [Rom 14:7], but the life you live is Christ in you, and you in him [John 15:4f /Col 1:27].

IP1:240 (1659): [quotes Mat 11:27, John 5:25] There is no raising of a dead soul to life, but by the immediate voice of Christ. Outward preaching, reading the Scriptures, &c, may direct and encourage men to hearken after and wait for the voice; but it is the immediate voice of Christ in the soul, which alone can quicken the soul to God; and till the light of life shine immediately from Christ in the heart, the true knowledge is never given. 2 Cor 4:6. Therefore they that never yet heard the immediate voice of Christ, are still dead in their sins [Eph 2:5], and have not yet received the true, living knowledge, but a dead, literal knowledge, which gives a false shining of things in the dead part, but kills the life.

(John 5:26)

[Other texts citing John 5:26: IP3:280 (Luk 24:47)]

(John 5:29)

MFS 91 (1656): RANTERS: One power does all things, evil and good (being so to the low apprehensions of man, but all alike in God). ANSWER: That is false and blasphemy. That power that acts [in] you does evil and cannot be good [Rom 3:12]. You are the evil and not the good, [you] who call the evil good and the good evil [Isa 5:20]. You are he that hates the good and loves the evil [Mic 3:2]. Your resurrection shall be for damnation [John 5:29]. You bring a scripture, Amos 3:6, which is fulfilling: The Lion is roaring. The prey is taken. The bird is fallen into the snare, the trumpet is blowing in the city and you are afraid. The evil that shall be done unto you, the Lord does it [Amos 3:4-6].

HPS 361 (Elizabeth Bathurst, 1679): ...they do believe the resurrection of the just and of the unjust [Acts 24:15], the one to salvation, the other to condemnation [John 5:29], according to the judgment of the great day, and then shall every seed have its own body [1 Cor 15:38].... But because they dare not be so foolishly inquisitive as to ask, nor so arrogant in their minds as to determine with what bodies they shall rise [1 Cor 15:35]; therefore do some say they deny the resurrection of the body of Christ, and of all that are or shall be dead: But this is most falsely charged upon them, for they do believe the resurrection of the dead; for if the dead rise not they are of all men most miserable [1 Cor 15:16-19].

(John 5:30)

[Other texts citing John 5:30: IP3:220 (Heb 2:9)]

IP4:79 (1671): Now, in this body he finished the work which his Father gave him to do [John 5:36]; he fulfilled all righteousness [Mat 3:15] (the righteousness of the letter, the righteousness of the Spirit) that he might bring his through the righteousness of the law or letter, into the righteousness of the Spirt and power [Rom 8:4?], into the righteousness of the new life; and here that scripture is read and fulfilled, "I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live to God [Gal 2:19]." So his whole life was a doing the will of the father, which sent him [John 5:30].

(John 5:31)

[Other texts citing John 5:31: GF7:124 (under John 5:41)]

(John 5:35)

[Other texts citing John 5:35: GFJN 32 (under Luk 3:4f)]

JN2:228 (1655, continued from under Mat 3:10): And that kingdom you will hear preached at hand [Mat 3:2, 4:17], which consists not in words but in power [1 Cor 4:20]; then the vain babblers you will come to see and avoid [1 Tim 6:20], and be brought only to press after righteousness and so see your light grow and spring up to the burning and shining [John 5:35], 'til the day-star arise in your hearts [2 Pet 1:19]....

WPR 573, WPT 353 (1694): These people also made profession of neglecting, if not renouncing and censuring, not only the necessity, but use of all human learning, as to the ministry; and all other qualifications to it, besides the helps and gifts of the Spirit of God, and those natural and common to men. And for a time they seemed like John of old, a burning and shining light [John 5:35] to other societies.

(John 5:36)

[Other texts citing John 5:36: IP4:79 (under John 5:30)]

JSS 8 (17–): [Christ] urged his doing the works of God, as certain evidence of his being the son of God [John 5:36]. And this had never been a certain evidence at one time and on one occasion, had it not been always so at all times and on all occasions.

(John 5:37)

[Other texts citing John 5:37: GF3:457 (Mat 4:4)]

(John 5:37f)

IP1:241 (1659): [quotes John 5:37f] There is the hearing of the voice, the sight of the shape, and the having the word of God abiding in the heart, which ... keeps the soul quick, and living in the life. The voice gives life, the sight of the shape daily conforms into the image [Rom 8:29], which is beheld by the eye of life; and the word abiding in the heart nourishes and feeds the living soul with the pure bread of life [John 6:35]. But the Jews knew not this.... And thus many zealous ones at this day, ... sticking in the letter of the gospel, ... stumble at the present dispensation of life, and cannot do otherwise.

John 5:38

[Other texts citing John 5:38: GF6:202 (John 17:6)]

JN2:542 (1655): And [the beast and the false prophet, Rev 16:13] take the letter, therewith to deny the light and oppose that Spirit that gave it forth [2 Pet 1:21], and whereof the letter testifies, because they have not the word abiding within them [John 5:38], and this was the work of the Pharisees and hirelings; but never any one of Christ's ministers denied the light and Spirit within as thou dost....

(John 5:39)

[Other texts citing John 5:39: GF3:130 (John 1:45), IP3:318 (Mat 11:25)]

JN1:518 (1654): "The spirits are not to be tried by Scriptures." ... the infallible Spirit, which is the original of all Scriptures, is the trial of all spirits ... I set the Spirit of God ... in opposition to all deceitful spirits: for so the apostle bids them who had the Spirit of God to try the deceitful spirits [1 Jn 4:1]; and this was not spoken to them who were guided by the spirit of the world [1 Cor 2:12]; for such cannot try the spirits, neither with the letter nor without it...; neither did Christ send them to try his Spirit when he bade them "search the Scriptures [John 5:39]"; nor did the Bereans try the Spirit of Christ, but searched the words which Paul spoke from those Scriptures that declared of Christ [Acts 17:10- 12].

(John 5:40)

[Other texts citing John 5:40: GF6:286f (Rev 19:21), GF8:274 (Mat 23:37f, Luk 19:41), JN3: 37 (Heb 4:2),]

IP3:28 (1667): Oh, observe what bars were in the way of the Scribes and Pharisees! They would not come to him that they might have life [John 5:40]; nay, indeed, they could not, as they stood. There are greater bars in your way; yea, it is harder for many of you to come to him, than it was for them. My upright desire to the Lord for you is, that he would remove the stumbling-blocks out of your way, that he would batter and knock down the flesh in you, that he would strip you of all your knowledge of scriptures according to the flesh, that ye might be made by him capable of knowing and receiving things according to the Spirit, and then ye will know how to understand, honor, and make use of the letter also; but till then you cannot but make use of it both against your own souls, and against Christ and his truth.

HPS 221f (Mary Penington, 1668): Terrible was the Lord against the vain and evil inclinations in me, which made me, night and day, to cry out; and if I did but cease a little, then I grieved for fear I should again be reconciled to the things which I felt under judgment, and had a just detestation of. Oh! how I did beg not to be left secure or quiet till the evil was done away. How often did this run through my mind: "Ye will not come to me, that ye may have life [John 5:40]." "It is true I am undone if I come not to thee, but I cannot come, unless I leave that which cleaveth close to me, and I cannot part with it."

(John 5:41-44, 5:41,44, 5:41/44)

GFJN 37 ([1649]): [quotes John 5:44] "And I (saith Christ) receive not honour of men [John 5:41]." Showing that men have an honour which they will receive and give, but Christ will have none of it. This is the honour which Christ will not receive, and which must be laid in the dust [Psa 7:5]. Oh! the scorn, heat, and fury that arose! Oh! the blows, punchings, beatings, and imprisonments that we underwent for not putting off our hats to men! For that soon tried all men's patience and sobriety, what it was. Some had their hats violently plucked off and thrown away, so that they quite lost them.... And though it was but a small thing in the eye of man, yet a wonderful confusion it brought among all professors and priests; but, blessed be the Lord, many came to see the vanity of that custom of putting off the hat to men, and felt the weight of truth's testimony against it.

JWJM 263f (17–): [Continued from under Luk 16:8)] It is ... good for us in schools and in all parts of education to attend diligently to the principle of universal light, and patiently wait for their improvement in the channel of true wisdom, without endeavouring to get help from that spirit which seeks honour from men [John 5:41/44]. [Continued under Heb 8:5]

SIW 90 (Sarah Tuke Grubb, 1782): The power and authority of truth arose, by which we were enabled to place judgement on that spirit which was seeking to support the testimony with unsanctified hands, and to have their honour from men [John 5:41/44]....

(John 5:41)

[Other texts citing John 5:41: IP1:327 (Jas 2:9)]

GF7:124 (1656): So, every particular wait on him, who received not honour of man [John 5:41], neither glorified himself; but the light, which enlighteneth every one that cometh into the world [John 1:9], is a witness against all them that seek their own glory [John 7:18], or glorify themselves, or bear witness of themselves [John 5:31]. Now they who receive honour from man, are from the light, both he that gives, and he that takes it; and it is to be stained [Isa 23:9], and the light stains it, and condemns it.

(John 5:42)

IP1:207 (1659): [the Jews took exceptions to] his harsh censures of all the professors of that age (who observed the law of Moses, and Israel's statutes), with all their laborious and godly teachers.... He told them, that they had not "the love of God in them," John 5:42. Did not this, think ye, seem to them a very harsh charge? And why not the love of God? Because they did not follow him and his new doctrine? Yea, would they be ready to say, they did love God, and kept his commandments, sabbaths, and ordinances, which he transgressed. He laid this also to their charge, that they did not believe Moses. John 5:46. What an unjust charge might this seem, when they were so zealous for Moses; and their very dislike of him, and controversy against hm, were for the sake of the law and ordinances of Moses!

(John 5:43)

GF5:182f (1675): [quotes John 5:43] And now is it not clearly seen in this day, that the prophets and apostles, that came in the name of the Lord and of Christ, such were always hated; and they would not receive them: and by sad experience we have found it in our age, who have been moved by the Lord, and gone in the name of the Lord to speak to priests and professors, many of which you have imprisoned and beat; but if any have come in their own name, such are received by you.

(John 5:44)

[Other texts citing John 5:44: GF7:68 (1 Pet 2:17), GF7:319 (Rev 22:8f), IP1:327 (Jas 2:9), IP4:278 (Rom 2:7), RBA 429f (Mat 15:13), JWJM 173f (Mat 6:10), JWJM 264 (John 5:41)]

JN1:385 (1654): God is no respecter of persons [Acts 10:34], and you that would take the honour from the power which is of God and would give it to men's persons, would rob God of his honour and are enemies to the faith of Christ [cf Phil 3:18], who respects no man's person but saith, How can you believe that seek honour one of another ? [John 5:44] and [you] would charge this to let in treason or disobedience to authority. I answer, Where did ever any who did reverence the power which was of God do any violence to the person of any into whose hands God had committed it, though they have been sent by the Lord faithfully to declare against the unjust practices of such governors who have used their power contrary to the end for which God committed it into their hands....

IP1:326 (1660): What kind of honor is this which is thus much stood upon? Is it the honor which is from above, or the honor which is from below? What part springs it from in man; from the new birth, or from the earthly nature? ... Doth it please that which is begotten of God? Doth it please the meekness, the humility, the lowliness, the new nature? Or doth it please and help to keep up the old nature, the lofty spirit, even that part which is prone in every man to be exalted out of the fear of God? For this I may freely say, that whatsoever is of the earth, hath an aptness in it to feed the earthly part; and particularly this of outward bowing to the creature, is apt to hurt him that receiveth it. In man's giving and receiving honor, God hath been forgotten....[John 5:44].

RBA 439, RBAF 397 (1678, XV.3): ...who are they, that are honorable indeed? Is it not the righteous man?... Is it not the humble-hearted man? ... But who are they that generally receive and look for this honor? Are they not the rich ones..., proud Hamans [Est 3]? Now whether this is the honor that comes from God or the honor from below? Doth God honor such as daily dishonor him and disobey him? ... how can the children of God, such as are Christians indeed, give or receive that honor among themselves, without coming under the reproof of Christ, who saith, that such as do, cannot believe [John 5:44]?

(John 5:46)

[IP1:207: John 5:46, see under John 5:42]