Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	accuser_n	false_a	good_a	58	3	2.1572	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97247	The cure of preivdice, or, The doves of innocency and the serpents subtilty wherein the originall, continuance, properties, causes, endes, issue and effects of the worlds envie and hatred to the godly is pithily laid open and applyed. By R. Junius.	Younge, Richard.	1641 (1641)	Wing Y149B; ESTC R230928	73,141	127

speaking of the Whore of Babylon saith She was drunke with the blood of the Saints and with the blood of the Martyrs of Jesus Revel 17.6 Which in part was fulfilled in England under the raigne of Queene Mary when in one yeare a hundred seventy six persons of good quality were burnt for Religion with many of the common sort and in France for before these late bloody Massacres there were more then two hundred thousand which suffered Martyrdome about Transubstantiation For the chiefe persecutors of Christ and his followers are not Atheists or Turks or Jewes but such as hold great place in the Church Antichristians and Pseudochristians which makes our Saviour say they shall excommunicate you that is they shall blot out your names from among Gods people or cast you out from the visible outward communion of the Saints And indeed vertue hath ever suffered most from those which should and seeme to uphold her and intruders upon other mens right can indure any man how bad soever rather to live by them then the servants of him whom they intrude upon as you may see Mat. 21.33 to 39. where those Farmers of the Vineyard killed the servants who came to receive their M●sters rent they did not kill the Theeves and Robbers and Spoylers of the Vineyard but the servants yea and the sonne too and the end of all was that they might take the Inheritance Yea the godly have ever suffered most from such as professe the same Faith and Religion with them It hath been the complaint almost of all the Fathers and Saints of God which have written that the faithfull in their severall times were hated traduced calumniated slandered reproached accused persecuted and condemned of such as professe the same Religion with them though under other pretences yet onely for their austere and holy lives that they stuck close to the truth made conscience of their wayes and would not rush so boldly into sin as others Ecclesiasticall History lib. 6. Chap. 4.5.16 7. To come unto these present times wherein we live Is the World mended with age Yea I would to God we did not find that as it is in the little world the older it grows the more diseased so in the great World the older the more vicious that the consummation of times and sinnes were not met together upon us But as commonly in a diseased body all the humours fall downe into the Legs or feet and make an Issue there so the corruption of all ages hath sliden downe into this of ours as into the feete Many saith the Apostle walke that are enemies to the Crosse of Christ Philip. 3.18 If many in Saint Paules time more now for Satan who was then bound is now loosed again out of his prison and hath great wrath because he knowes he hath but a short time Revel 12.12 To speake onely of the entertainment which piety findes among such as would bee counted not onely Christians but Protestants which principally I intend Is it possible for a man to live a conscionable and unreproveable life abstaine from drunkennesse swearing prophaning the Lords day separate himselfe from evill yea wicked company be zealous for the glory of God c. without being traduced calumniated hated slandered and persecuted for the same No it is not possible for if our righteousnesse doe but exceed the righteousnesse of a swearer or a drunkard we are sure to be persecuted for our righteousnesse as Abel was persecuted of Caine because his Sacrifice was better then his If a man walke with God he is too precise if he will be more then almost a Christian he is curious phantasticall factious and shall be mocked with the Spirit as if the Spirit of God were a Spirit of dishonour and shame How common a thing is it to wound all holinesse under the name of Puritan a name so ful of the serpents enmity as the egge of a Cockatrice is full of poyson What should I say The World is growne so much knave that 't is now a vice to be honest O the deplorable condition of these times Even the Devill himselfe durst not have been so impudent as to have scoft at holinesse in those ancient and purer times but now I could even sinke downe with shame to see Christianity every where so discountenanced our very names come into few mouths out of which they returne but with reproaches Amongst the rest of our sinnes O God be mercifull to the contempt of thy Servants True blessed be God and our gracious Soveraigne the very breath of our nostrils we suffer little but the lash of evill tongues but were wicked mens powers answerable to their wils and malice they would deliver us up to be afflicted put us out of the Synagogues excommunicate and kill us as our Saviour shewes John 16.2.33 and Mat. 24.9 Yea their enmity and hatred would be so virulent and bitter that the brother would betray the brother to death the father the sonne and the Children would rise up against their Parents and cause them to dye the kinsman against the kinsman and the friend against the friend onely for professing Christs Name and being religious as himselfe affirmes Matth. 10.34 35 36. Luke 21.16 17. Neither is it strange for this was one of the ends of Christs comming into the World as appeares Mat. 10.34 35. where himselfe saith Thinke not that I am come to send peace but the sword meaning betweene the Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman for I am come to set a man at variance against his Father the daughter-in-Law against the mother-in-Law and a mans enemies shall be they of his owne houshold Luke 12.51 52 53. Neither want we precedents of this For by whom was upright Abel persecuted and slain but by his own brother Caine Who scoffed at righteous Noah but his owne sonne Cham By whom was that vertuous and religious Lady Barbara put to death for imbracing the Christian Faith but by her owne Father Dioscorus And lastly by whom was our Saviour Christ betrayed but by his owne Disciple Judas 8. For the time to come As this strife and enmity in the wicked against the godly was early in its entrance taking its first being in the beginning of time and hath constantly continued hitherto so it will be long in continuance and endure to the end of time as the Scripture shewes Yea the last remnants of time are likely to have the most of it because as in them love shall wax cold Math. 24.12 so as love groweth cold contention groweth hot More expresly the Holy Ghost foretels That in the last dayes shall come such perilous times that all who will live godly shall suffer persecution and that toward the end of the World there shall be scoffers false accusers cursed speakers fierce despisers of them that be good such as shall turne the grace of God into wantonnesse and deny God the onely Lord and our Lord Jesus Christ And being fleshly not having the Spirit they

glory hereafter the Covetous would not say Take you heaven let us have mony I le cleare it by a similitude If a Physitian should say unto his Patient here stands a Cordiall which if you take will cure you but touch not this other Viall for that is deadly poyson and he refuseth the Cordiall to take the poyson in this case who can chose but conclude that either he beleeved not his Physitian or preferred death before life But go on If men but beleeved that God alwayes beholds them they durst not sin No theife was ever so impudent as to steale in the very face of the Iudge O God let me see my selfe seene by thee and I shall not dare to offend thee Againe if men beleeved that there is a place of darknesse they would feare the works of darknesse If Lots Sonnes-in-law had beleeved their father when he tould them the City should suddenly be destroyed with fire and brimstone and that by flying they might escape it they would have obeyed his counsell If the old world had beleeved that God would indeed and in good earnest bring such a flood upon them as he threatned they would not have neglected the opportunity of entring the Arke before it was shut and the windowes of heaven opened much lesse would they have scoft and flouted at Noah while he was building it so if you did firmely beleeve what the Scripture speakes of hell you would need noe intreaties to avoid it yea cast but your eyes upon that fiery gulfe with a full perswasion of it and sin if you dare You love your selves well enough to avoid a knowne paine we know that there are stocks and Bridewells and Ioales and dungeons and Racks and Gibbets for malefactors and our very feare keeps us innocent were your hearts equally assured of those hellish torments yee could not yee durst not continue in those sinnes for which they are prepared yea if you did truly beleeve a hell there would be more danger of your despaire than of your security Yea had you but so much of an historicall faith as to beleeve the Scriptures touching what God hath already inflicted upon sinners as upon the Angells the old world Sodome and Gomorrah Pharoah and the Egyptians Nadab and Abihu Chora Dathan and Abyram with their 250 Captaines and many thousands of the Children of Israel together with the whole Nation of the Iewes Hammon and Balaam Saul and Doeg Absolon and Achitophell Ahab and Iesabell Senacherib and Nebuchadnezar the 2 Captaines and their fifties Herod and Judas Annanias Saphirah with a world of others Much more if you did beleeve how severely he hath dealt with his owne Children when they sinned against him vizt with Moses and Aaron and Ely which were in singular favour with him yea with David a man after his owne heart and that after his sin was remitted it were impossible but thou wouldest feare to offend so Iealous a God for thus thou wouldest argue If God be so just and severe to his owne children who were so good and gracious how shall I a wicked ungracious servant that never did him a peece of good service all my dayes look to be dispensed withall If the godly suffer so many and grievous afflictions here what shall his adversaries suffer in hell If Sampson be thus punished shall the Philistims escape If the righteous shall scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and sinner appeare as the Scripture speakes 1 Pet. 4.18 For thou canst not Imagine that he will deale after a new and extraordinary way with thee and so breake the Course of his so Iust and so long continued proceedings Wherefore dally no longer with your owne soules Are yee Christians in earnest Do yee beleeve the word or doe you not If you doe not yee are worse than the Devill for the Devills beleeve and tremble they have both faith and feare where as thou hast neither feare nor faith If you be Christians there is an hell in your Creed if there bee an hell How dare you tare Heaven with your blasphemies and bandie the dreadfull Name of God in your impure mouthes by your bloudy oathes and execrations How dare you exercise your saucy wits in prophane scoffs at religion and disgrace that bloud whereof hereafter you would give a thousand worlds for one drop It is no light or slight offence to contemne the brethren of the Son of God but thou fightest against the very graces of Gods Spirit wherever they appeare and notwithstanding thou didst vow in thy baptisme to fight under Christs banner against the world the flesh and the Devill and to continue his faithfull souldier and servant unto thy lives end as good reason since he laid downe his life to redeeme thee and hath ever since protected and provided for thee for a very Dog will fight for his master that feeds him thou contrarily takest part with the world the flesh and the Devill his mortall enimies and takest up armes to fight against Christ Againe if there be an hell and but a tithe of ●hem Christians who call themselves so what meanes our grinding of faces like edged tooles and our spilling of blood like water What meanes our racking of rents our detention of wages our incredible cruelty to servants our inclosing of Commons ingrossing of commodities our griping exactions with streining the advantages of greatnes our inequall levies of legall payments our spightfull suites griping usury our bouzing and quaffing our bribery perjury partiallity our sacriledge simoniacall contracts and soule murther our scurrill prophannesse cosoning in bargaines breaking of promises perfidious underminings pride luxury wantonnesse contempt of Gods Messengers neglect of his Ordinances violation of his dayes c when if the Word of God be true we need no other ground of our last and heaviest doom than ye have not given ye have not visited c. Mat 25 41. to 46. Certainely if the tythe of us be Christians which call our selves so there are abundance of Christians in hell For what eyes can but runne over to see for the most part what lives men leade There was a woman much spoken of in some parts of this Land that lived in a professed doubt of the Deity yea even after Illumination and Repentance she could hardly be comforted she often protested that the vicious and offencive life of a great learned man in the Towne where she dwelt did occasion those damned doubts in her minde And wee reade that Linacre reading upon the New Testament the 5.6 and 7th Chapters of Saint Matthews Gospell and comparing those rules with Christians lives hee threw downe the book and burst forth into this protestation Either this is not God's Gospell or we are not Christians Let any man looke upon the lives of most men and then say whether the argument be not without all exceptions It is the abstract of Religion to imitate him whom we worship neither are wee worthy to be called Christians except wee be