Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	act_v	friend_n	great_a	80	3	2.1564	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49109	The case of persecution, charg'd on the Church of England, consider'd and discharg'd, in order to her justification, and a desired union of Protestant dissenters	Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.	1689 (1689)	Wing L2961; ESTC R6944	61,317	83

from it because nothing but Sin can warrant a Separation Our Saviour tells us That he that is not with him is against him and he that gathereth not scattereth and by a like consequence he that scattereth destroyeth when two Princes are ingaged in a War if those Subjects that have lived under the Government of either of them shall according to their Power refuse to assist their lawful Prince they may be accounted as Enemies Suetonius in vita Neronis Sect. 2. saith Cn. Domitius medios inter hostes habendos censuit And the Lacedemonians had a Law that in case of a Civil War if any person stood neutral when the War was ended both Parties should agree to confiscate his Goods and pull down his House as an Enemy to both and thus the Romans dealt with Metius Suffetius who in the War between the Romans and Albans stood hovering with his Army waiting the event of the War till the Romans got the Victory who condemned him to be torn in pieces with wild Horses it was not because he did them any hurt but because he did not yield them that Assistance which in duty he was bound so that Neuters do generally make both Parties their Enemies and seeking to save their Lives they loose them for all Governments do agree to shew more kindness to an open and generous Enemy than to a pretended but treacherous Friend as in the Case of Pub. Servilius Medum se gerendo nec plebis vetuit odium nec apud patres gratiam misit as Suetonius But Manlius which had been against the Senate being reconciled Patribus mire fuit gratiosus was greatly favoured by the Senate therefore he concludes Quando alterum habiturus sis inimicum jacienda est alea alteratri adherendum We must cleave to one Party or we make both our Enemies but contra publicos hostes omnis homo Miles as when the Sea breaks down the Banks and begins to overflow a Country every one ought to contribute his endeavours to prevent a general Deluge or he may be guilty of destroying himself and his Neighbours so it is with those that neglect their bounden duties in defence of their Religion and the publick Peace And this reason is given to countenance such Practices for Non caret scrupulo societatis Occultae qui manifesto facinori desinit obviari He is justly suspected to be confederate in an evil Design who knowing it doth not endeavour to prevent it As when Moses saw an Israelite and Egyptian striving if by his neglect to save the Israelite the Egyptian had prevailed he had made himself accessary to the destruction of his Brother and thus we are taught That our Saviour will at the last day condemn those that have not fed the Hungry c. together with those that have oppressed and robbed them God threatned the Edomites Obadiah v. 11. to destroy them for their Violence against their Brethren of Jacob yet we read not there of any act of Violence against them but Thou stoodest on the other side when Strangers carried away Captive their Forces and Foreigners entred her Gates and cast Lots on Jerusalem Thou wast as one of them but thou shouldest not have looked on the day of thy Brother nor shouldest have rejoyced over the Children of Judah in the day of their Destruction nor spoken proudly in the day of their Distress As thou hast done it shall be done to thee thy Reward shall return on thy own Head. When Haman procured that bloudy Decree for the Destruction of the Jewish Nation Mordecai perswaded Hester to intercede for them by this Argument If thou altogether hold thy Peace Deliverance shall come but for not doing thy duty thou and thy Father's House shall be destroyed If the Edict had taken effect it would be in vain for Hester to have pleaded the favour that Ahasuerosh had for her she would probably have been executed as a Jew as Plutarch relates of Manlius whom the Romans condemned for favouring the Gauls when he pleaded his former Services Manlius eras mihi dum precipites agebas Senones post quam mutari cepisti factus es unus ex Senonibus They are Friends that engage with one another in times of Danger but when they stand as Neuters they are as Enemies Hence the Spirit of God declares as great detestation of a fearful and luke-warm temper as of that which is cold and he threatneth to spue them out of his Mouth They that halt between two Opinions are fitter to be Priests of Baal than of the Living God and a strange infatuation it is to pursue all those methods which our Enemies have designed for our Destruction But to speak in the second place as to the manner of suffering so as to denominate those Sufferings Persecutions we are to indure them patiently without unlawful Resistance or Revenge so saith our Saviour Mat. 5.39 Resist not evil and when he himself suffered the greatest injuries and pains as a Sheep before the Shearer is dumb so opened he not his Mouth And St. Paul Rom. 12.17 forbids us to recompence evil for evil or to avenge our selves but rather to give place unto wrath and not be overcome of evil but to overcome evil with good against which indispensible Duties they do greatly offend who heretofore disagreeing extreamly from each other do now wonderfully agree in breathing out Threatnings and Revenge against the Established Church as if it were an Assembly of bloudy Thieves Murtherers and Persecutors and endeavour to ruin her by such false Accusations and railing Speeches as Michael the Arch-angel durst not to bring against the Devil himself A Sin that is accompanied with so many aggravations as render it extreamly sinful for first so it is to deal with our best Friends as if they were our greatest Enemies which we are forbid by our Saviour to do which is to act as David's Enemies against whom by a Prophetick Spirit he denounceth so many dreadful Curses as such men may do well seriously to consider Psal 109.6 who make it their business to return instead of Good for Evil Evil for Good and Hatred for good Will and count those as Enemies who teach them the Truth But Secondly it is a great Aggravation of this Sin when our Wrath is more against their Persons for their Dignities and Endowments than for any Vice Injustice or Injuries that they have done us which is to act as Cain did in the Murther of Abel who slew him through Envy because his Sacrifice was better and more accepted for if we approve of the Doctrine of the Church and can joyn with them in their Worship and Sacraments but will by no means be reconciled to their Persons through Envy to their Preferments but will rather joyn with known Enemies than with such real though falsely suspected Friends this is to be of the like mind as Cosmo Duke of Florence who said He had read and learned that he ought to forgive his Enemies but never that he ought

but both of them conspiring and acting for her Destruction though now they cry out of a Persecution only because they cannot persecute as when they were in power for I doubt not but our Dissenters will acknowledge that when the Papists were in power as in the Marian days their little finger was heavier then the Churches loines And if the Sectaries had been setled the Papists would not have had more gentle Lords and though they agree scarce in any thing else yet as St. Augustine on Psal 36. observes Tunc inter se concordant mali cum in perniciem justi conspirant non quia se invicem amant sed quia eum qui amandus erat mutuo oderent Justly therefore might the Church complain as Erasmus did in an Epistle to the Bishop of Rochester Triplex sustineo certamen c. I undergo a threefold Conflict First against those Pagan Romanists which wretchedly envy me secondly with some Jesuits Priests and Monks who move every stone to destroy me thirdly with such implacable Sectaries as think they can never rise but by my Ruine But through the singular providence of God which hath often and wonderfully appeared for her preservation against many secrert Plots and open Assaults of her Enemies she may say as the Psalmist Psal 124.2 3. If it had not been the Lord who was on our side when men rose up against us they had swallowed us quick when their wrath was kindled against us And as Psal 129.2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth yet have they not prevailed against me I shall not now insist on the several Accusations charged on the Church reserving them for a Second Part wherein I shall Historically consider matters of Fact onely take a taste how bitter they are in these Expressions Father Parsons speaking of the Government of Queen Elizabeth saith Where are now the old Tyrants Nero Decius Dioclesian Maxentius and other Persecutors of the Christians Where are Genserik and Hunricus with the Arian Hereticks As if that moderate Queen had been a greater Persecutor than any of them No sooner was Queen Elizabeth come to the Crown saith another and setled the Church of England but she enacted those bloudy Laws to Hang Draw and Quarter the Priests of the Living God. And I defie any man saith another to instance a greater Persecution than that of Protestants against Catholicks Thus the Papists And the other Accusers are not less sharp our Government decried as Popish and Antichristian and our Liturgy as the Mass our Bishops as Wolves and Tyrants Thorns and Thistles and Military Instruments of the Devil our Laws taring Engines the Clergy are represented as a company of lying perjured and persecuting Villains And hence the Land is filled with those loud Celeusmata's which summons all hands to pull down the Church and lay it even with the ground and pitty it is but that Church which is so great a Canibal were so dealt with I shall therefore enquire First What Persecution is And Secondly Whether the Church of England is guilty of Persecution And by the Church I mean in a strict sence the Clergy of England against whom I suppose the Objection is intended and not the whole Body of the Nation First then Persecution is a malicious Vexation and punishing of Men for Righteousness sake for it is only they that live Godly in Christ Jesus that suffer Persecution for as Lactantius de Mortibus Persecutorum saith Quis nisi malus justitiam persequitur As none but a wicked Man persecutes the Righteous so none but the Righteous do suffer Persecution To this purpose speaks St. Peter Epist 1. ch 4. v. 15. Let none of you suffer as a murtherer or as a thief or as an evil-doer or as a busy-body in other mens matters For if any be justly punished for his Faults it is correction and not persecution it is the cause not the suffering that intitles men to Martyrdom and Persecution For what glory is it saith St. Peter if when ye are buffeted for your faults ye shall take it patiently but if when ye do well and suffer for it ye take it patiently this is acceptable with God 1 Pet. 2.20 By these two qualifications the Complainers may judge of themselves or because every man is apt to be partial in his own case others may judge of them whether they are truly persecuted or not for if they have been punished for disobeying any Law of God or of the King that is not contrary to the Law of God in which case the Law of God obligeth them to obey the King not only for fear of wrath but also for conscience sake this is not to suffer for well doing and therefore cannot be called Persecution Wherefore it hath been well observed that before the Blessing pronounced to those that are persecuted our Saviour doth not only add for Righteousness sake but prefixeth those other qualifications of being poor in spirit of mourning and meekness of hungring and thirsting after righteousness or mercifulness and purity in heart and peace-making and to such only belongs the Blessing Matth. 5.12 Great is your reward in heaven But to suffer as Busy-bodies in other mens matters against Laws well established for Decency and Order according to the Apostles Injunction to draw down and provoke the wrath of our Superiours on our heads for Disobedience to such things as they have authority by the Laws of God and Men to injoyn this is not to suffer for Righteousness And for what cause soever it be that a man suffers he ought by the next qualification no take it patiently i. e. not to murmur or repine not to resist and seek revenge or endeavour by any unlawful means to transfer the Cross from himself to others but as the Primitive Christians receive the sentence even of Death with a Deo gratias blessing God who hath counted them worthy to suffer for his sake and given them Grace not only to believe but also to suffer for the Name of Christ For thus Christ suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps who did no sin there is the first qualification and the second followeth who when he was reviled reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously 1 Pet. 2.21 c. This is to be made conformable to Christ in his passion and to suffer as a Christian blessing them that curse us doing good to them that hate us praying for them that persecute us which as none but the Christian Religion teacheth so none but such as practice it are truly Christians Matth. 5.44 And thus doth Lactantius observe of the Christians in his days whose Sufferings he describes to be extreamly cruel and sharp yet Ne verbo quidem reluctamur sed deo remittimus ultionem And St. Ambrose Laedentibus non irascimur spoliantibus non resistimus caedentibus non repugnamus Now if we compare either the matter or