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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	body_n	member_n	mystical_a	10,421	5	11.0632	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70803	A decad of caveats to the people of England of general use in all times, but most seasonable in these, as having a tendency to the satisfying such as are not content with the present government as it is by law establish'd, an aptitude to the setling the minds of such as are but seekers and erraticks in religion an aim at the uniting of our Protestant-dissenters in church and state : whereby the worst of all conspiracies lately rais'd against both, may be the greatest blessing, which could have happen'd to either of them : to which is added an appendix in order to the conviction of those three enemies to the deity, the atheist, the infidel and the setter up of science to the prejudice of religion / by Thomas Pierce ...	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.	1679 (1679)	Wing P2176; Wing P2196; ESTC R18054	221,635	492

Villanies in the World without exception He is not season'd by the Holy but the Vnclean Spirit let his Orthodoxie of judgement as to some Fundamentals be what it can An honest Heathen is not so bad as a Christian Knave Thirdly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Vnity and Love And therefore if any sort of men shall take upon them to be Reformers by making Schism by dissolving the Bond of Peace wherein the Vnity of the Spirit is to be kept and shall crumble Religion into as many small Parcells as the Caprices of Idle men shall have the liberty to suggest especially if they shall labour to separate Subjects from their Sovereign by absolving them from their Oaths of Christian Obedience and Fidelity or by instructing them to swear with a Design to be forsworn They are miss-led by That Spirit whose Name is Legion even the Spirit of Division That old and cunning Serpent which deceiveth the whole World Fourthly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Meekness and of Order And therefore if any despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities and in pretense of being the Meek ones who are by right of Promise to inherit the Earth demurely tread upon Crowns and Crosiers and love to be levelling with their Feet whatsoever according to God's special Providence does overtop them by Head and Shoulders especially if they presume to place the single Bishop of Rome above General Councils invest him with a Power to excommunicate Kings and subvert whole Kingdoms and make the People hope to Merit by the most prodigious Murthers They must be led by That Spirit which is called The Angel of the Bottomless Pit Abaddon and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is Destroyer even the Spirit which is still working in the Children of Disobedience Fiftly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Sincerity induing All whom He inhabits with an absolute Simplicity and Singleness of Heart And therefore They who do hold up their Left hand to God but their Right against their Governours having Godliness in their Profession but practical Atheism in their Lives hating Idols from the Teeth outwards but loving Sacriledge from the Heart crying down Superstition but preaching up the Creature-comforts flowing from Plunder which they call Providence declaring with zeal against the Prelates but ever voting up the Papacy of their Superintendents declaiming much against the Sectaries who are not of their Denomination but breaking down the Hedge of Discipline whereby the Herds are to be kept from God's Inclosure especially They who have invented the Art of Aequivocating and Cheating the Art of Swearing any thing safely by mental Exceptions and Reservations the Art of Couzenage by the Contract they call Mohatra and the like must needs be acted by that Spirit whom the Scripture has expressed by the Father of Lies even the Spirit of Hypocrisie That black Prince of Darkness which transforms himself with ease into an Angel of light Sixtly The Spirit that is of God is the Spirit of Knowledge and Wisedom and Vnderstanding And therefore if any man cites Scripture against the whole Tenor and Stream of Scripture and wanders into the wrong way even by That very Word which does direct him into the Right one especially if he levells the Canon of Scripture with the Apocrypha and makes the Pure Word of God to truckle humbly under Tradition whereby it becomes of none effect if men so learned and so acute and so sagacious as the Jesuites after all the heinous things they have done and taught are so far from discerning what Spirit they are of that they utterly mistake an Evil Spirit for a Good one a Spirit from Hell for one from Heaven the Spirit which reigns in the Court of Rome for the Spirit which guides in the Church of England if they can think it the Top of Piety to advance the Lord Jesus quite against the Lord Christ and make the Christian Religion the greatest Transgression of Itself which moves the Jansenists to call them The Antichristian Society if they can take it for the Comble of Christian Merit and Perfection to espouse and put in practice this Turkish Maxime that Religion is to be propagated where 't is possible by the Sword They must needs be possess'd by the Spirit of Slumber the Spirit of dead Sleep the God of this World which blindeth the mind for so the Devil is once call'd 2 Cor. 4. 4. What I have thus drawn out at length our Blessed Lord does wind up into This short Bottom Matth. 7. 20. Ye shall know them by their Fruits But the Fruits of That Spirit that is of God are reckon'd up by S. Paul to be such as These Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Meekness Goodness and the like And therefore They who in stead of loving Enemies do persecute and oppress the mystical Members of the same Body whereof Christ is the Head who lay the Cross of Christ Jesus on Christian Shoulders robbing one of a Living another of a Liberty a third of a Life and this for no other Crime than being constantly Conscientious and very real Friends to All because the Flatterers of None though able to injure or to oblige them must needs be managed by That carnal and unclean Spirit which makes them so fruitfull and so abounding in the works of the Flesh such as Hatred Variance Wrath Strife Seditions Heresies and the like § 8. Now if All these Particulars be laid together in our minds I suppose we have a Touchstone to Try the Spirits of Pretenders whether or no they are of God and such a Touchstone as needs not it self another Touchstone to be Try'd by But because the best Touchstone is nothing worth to such as know not how to use it we shall doe well to take notice of one Rule more in the using of it For considering how many Vices do too much border and confine upon several Vertues and how many Lies are more plausible to flesh and bloud than many Truths and hardly any thing can be so false but may have Colours and Probabilities to set it off being neatly laid on by men ingeniously wicked and that a multitude of Ignaro's do often swallow the grossest Errours presented to them in the Disguise of the greatest Truths by not distinguishing Words as they ought from Things and blending one thing with another and taking them down all at once without any masticating or chewing I say for This reason we must not pass our last Judgement upon Pretenders to the Spirit untill we have made our selves acquainted as well with their Habits as with their Acts as well with the main or general current of their Lives as with the meer conduct and carryings on of their Designs with the Means they make use of as well as with the End they pretend to aim at with the Building which is erected as well

of Circumspection that our first Parents fell and still 't is for want of Circumspection that all their Posterity is ever stumbling 'T is but for want of Circumspection that many Professors are so blind as to be led by the blind till both the Leaders and the Followers fall all together into the Ditch In the whole Body of Christianity Circumspection may fitly be call'd the Eye Now as our Eyes are put in our Heads to direct our Feet and as good be quite blind as be always winking so Circumspection in our Hearts is to guard our Actions and as good be none at all as unwary Christians For what with those powerfull Impellents which Satan useth from without and those bewitching Allectives wherewith he charms us from within we are so smoothly drawn aside with great contentedness into some dangers and so vehemently dragg'd with equall reluctance into others that we do not onely like Janus stand in need of four Eyes but like Argus to be Eyes all over And just as the Builders of the second Temple at Jerusalem were so encompassed with Enemies on every side the Chaldaeans before and the Philistins behind the Moabites on the right hand and the Edomites on the left that they were taught by their Necessity to hold a Sword in the one hand for the defending of the Workmanship which they advanced with the other Even so we Christians who are dignified with the Title of Fellow-Labourers with God whilst we are building up our selves in the most holy Faith and building up our selves into Temples too for Temples we are of the Holy Ghost must have one Eye upon our Enemy as well as another upon our work still looking upward towards God but withall downward towards our Tempter still looking foreward towards Vertue but withall backward towards Vice We must not onely have an Eye unto the right and left hand of our Spiritual Poyse like a man walking upon a Pope but like a Thief at high Noon just in the Act of his purloyning must look exactly quite round about us § 3. And the reason of This is extremely evident For if we onely look upwards we shall be easily apt to stumble like Mother Eve who whilst she fixt her whole Aspect upon the goodness of the End did overlook the manifold Evill which lay concealed in the Means So praeproperous was the Haste which she made towards Knowledge that she left Obedience behind her back Or if we onely look forewards to shun a Praecipice we may at that very instant be attacqu'd behind us with a Wolf Just as Judas was so intent upon the Money lying before him that he was blind to the Despair which dogg'd him closely at the heels And we may guess by That Threat of God Almighty to the Serpent It shall bruise thy Head and thou shalt bruise his heel that commonly the Devil does come behind us and loves to surprise us in a part the farthest distant from our Eyes that is to say at such a time as in which we are remotest from Christian Prudence Or if we look onely upon the left hand for the avoiding of a Shelve we may be our Negligence of the right be swallow'd up of a Quick-sand Like some Pretenders to Reformation who taking heed of Superstition but nothing else are so much the apter to grow profane Taking heed but of one extreme they run into the other which is many times the worse too and to prevent an Inconvenience incur a Mischief Thus we see how it concerns us on every side not to look upwards onely or downwards not onely backwards or forewards not to the right hand onely or to the left but at the same point of Time to be both provident and cautious and even circumspect in the letter which à circumspiciendo is to carry our Eyes quite round about us § 4. Nor must we be onely looking round but be always looking The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See But See we cannot whilst we are sleeping And by our Saviour's Admonition we are to watch as well as pray lest we enter into Temptation So S. Peter to all in General who are concern'd for their own Safety does recommend a strict Vigilance as no less requisite than Sobriety and that for this reason because the Devil is still awake whilst we are sleeping Be sober be vigilant because your Adversary the Devil goeth about as a roaring Lion and that by Night as well as by Day seeking whom he may devour Whom resist stedfast in the Faith So that in our Christian Warfare besides the manning of our Works we need our Scouts and our Countermines We must besiege our very Besiegers And as that Sophister The World does surround us with Fallacy so must we the World with Circumspection § 5. Nor does the Prudence of a Christian end onely Here. For Circumspection is to be us'd both in the manner and in the method and especially in the measure of being circumspect It being obvious to infer from the following Words See that ye walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise that there is in the World a kind of accurate folly an inconsiderate Circumspection a capricious sort of Wariness of which we are also to beware Such as is lying all Night out of Doors to be sure that our Houses shall not fall upon our heads Destroying Vineyards to prevent Drunkenness Pulling down Discipline and the Hierarchy to shun the Tyranny of a Pope Distrusting the Fathers of the Primitive Church because of Antichrist's being at work in the Apostles own Times Making the Laws and Law-givers conform themselves to Nonconformity for fear the Church should want a Breadth whereby to support her Superstructure Eating of nothing but Nuts and Shell-fish for fear the Cook should be a Sloven There are some uneasie Souls who seem at least to be incumber'd with so incomparable a Niceness that under colour of respect to the Word of God they take The Scripture to be the Rule I do not say of the most weighty for so it is but even of their trivial'st and slightest Actions looking on every thing as Sinfull to which the Plain Word of God does not immediately direct them From which fundamental Mistake it is that They dare not call it Wednesday but the Fourth day of the Week nor Nine of the Clock but the Third hour of the Day A Surplice or a Sacrament must not be mention'd because there are not such words in all the Scriptures no more a Sacrament than a Surplice And by the very same reason as our judicious Mr. Hooker does well observe If a Master commands his Servant but to take up a Straw the Servant shall not be obliged in point of conscience to obey untill his Master has found a Text for that one particular For though the Scripture saith to Servants Obey your Masters in All things yet That Precept is but General and Dolus latet in Generalibus There are very few Generals

Infirmities Yea when our Infirmities are so potent as to disable us even from praying and from crying out for help the Spirit interceedeth for us with Groans which cannot be uttered And at the intercession of such a Spirit our Spiritual Enemies will fly as the walls of Jericho did fall at the sound of a Trumpet 'T was by the help of This Spirit that though the Enemies of David were still in hand to swallow him up yet he was able still to say He would not fear what Flesh could do unto him Whilst the weapons of our warfare are not Carnal but Spiritual They are mighty through God to the pulling down of strong Holds casting down Imaginations and every high thing that exalteth it self against God and bringing into captivity every Thought to the obedience of Christ Our weapons indeed are mighty but 't is through God who does not onely guide our Feet but also lifts up our Hands and directs our Blows and often strikes for us Himself too And yet the Victory which he wins his Goodness placeth to our Accompt His is the Glory of the Conquest but Ours the Comfort And This accordingly was the Incouragement our Saviour gave to his Apostles Be of good Comfort I have overcome the World The Sting of Death which is Sin He hath pluck'd out for us The strength of Sin which is the Law He hath weaken'd in our behalf He hath routed our common Enemy and looks that We should follow the chase Which the Apostle well considering did seem with one and the same Breath to turn his out-cry into an Eulogy his complaint into a Jubily his Temptations of Despair into Joy and Triumph For no sooner had he said O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the Body of this Death But in the next words he added I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Nay farther yet He does not onely say in another place Thanks be to God who hath given us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ But also invents a new Word to shew the greatness of our Victory above that of others Through Him that loved us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 says the Text we do not onely overcome but are more than Conquerors Indeed without Him our strength is weakness our Wisedom Folly and accordingly the Apostle does very appositely exhort us to be strong in the Lord and in the Power of His might Eph. 6. 10. And when 't is said by S. John Ye are of God little Children and have overcome them he gives this Reason Because greater is He that is in You than he that is in the World For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the World and this is the Victory that overcometh the World even our Faith 1 Joh. 5. 4. This must therefore be our Prayer That Christ may dwell in our Hearts by Faith And this will then be our Incouragement That being strengthned with might in the Inward man we shall be able to stand in the evil Day § 19. But we have yet another Incouragement to wrestle with and to fight against Fleshly Lusts from the exceeding great Richness of our Reward For when we can say with the Apostle we have fought the god fight we may also say with him in the same Assurance because upon the same Ground Henceforth is laid up for us a Crown of Righteousness Betwixt which two there is so vast a Disproportion that the Fight is for a moment and the Sufferings growing from it do quickly wither whereas the Crown is immarcescible such as cannot but injoy an eternal Spring And therefore S. Paul vvas not out in his Reckoning vvhen he reckon'd that the Sufferings and amongst Them the Self-denials of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us Rom. 8. 18. Which kind of Sufferings and Self-denials do not onely praecede but even work for us a weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. And the reason of This expression may be argued even from hence That to fight against the Flesh so far forth as to mortifie and put it to Death which are the literal importance of the Apostles two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to make our selves Partakers of the sufferings of Christ Which sufferings of Christ do not onely occasion but clearly work for us a weight of Glory And for this very end do we partake of Christ's sufferings by Self-denials on his Accompt That when his Glory shall be revealed we may also rejoyce with exceeding Joy 1 Pet. 4. 13. Yea the bare consideration of such an unspeakable Reward did put S. Paul upon Rejoycing not onely after but in his Sufferings and Self-denials Col. 1. 24. A Reward great enough to make a Coward turn Fighter For who would not fight even for fear that he shall lose such a Reward The onely thing we have to fear is our not fighting enough to win the Prize we fight for Now every Fighter says our Apostle and so say all Agonistick Writers is to keep a strict Diet. S. Paul's words are He must be temperate in all Things Alluding plainly to the Olympicks in which the Combatans were dieted for forty Days Every Man had his Lent whereby to fit him for his Encounter and his Abstinence was his Armour whereby to guard him from a Defeat And if They were so Abstemious to gain a corruptible Crown how much more should we abstain for the gaining of a Crown which is not liable to corruption not onely an exceeding but an aeternal weight of Glory Such was the Logick with which S. Paul argued and such was the Rule of his Acting too For saith He I so run not as uncertainly So fight I not as one that beateth the Air. But I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection His own words are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I fight as a Pancratiast that is as a Cuffer and Wrestler too I beat my Body black and blue I make an arrant Slave of it lay upon it both the Yoke and the Cross of Christ subdue my Flesh unto my Spirit deny my self the use of my Christian Liberty suffer the loss of many things which I might lawfully injoy that by any means I may attain to the Resurrection of the Dead that by any means possible I may apprehend That for which I am also apprehended of Christ Jesus All which I take to be imported by those two words 1 Cor. 9. 27. Where by the way we may observe of our Apostle S. Paul He did not war against Another's but against his own Body For he knew his own Body was the worst Enemy to his Soul and that to save himself from it was to keep it under He knew the Flesh to be so sturdy and so implacable a Rebel that if he should suffer it to thrive and to get an Head he would