Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	beauty_n	folly_n	great_a	23	3	2.1590	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42479	A discourse concerning publick oaths, and the lawfulness of swearing in judicial proceedings written by Dr. Gauden ..., in order to answer the scruples of the Quakers.	Gauden, John, 1605-1662.	1662 (1662)	Wing G352; ESTC R542	50,247	68

Samosatenians Anabaptists Familists Presbyterians and Independents give occasion and confidence to common people to run to Tumults and Commottons under pretence of setting up God and Christ and the Spirit by the way of new Powers new Lights and new Models in Church and State Of which rare Fancies we have had of late so many Tragical Experiments in England under other Names Notions and Pretensions Certainly it will become the publick care and wisdom as not easily to permit the rise and spreading of any novel humors and wayes contrary to the good Constitutions and well-tried Laws of this Church and Kingdom so never to trust them though never so soft and seemingly innocent at first Hornes as in other Creatures grow out of mens heads and hands too as their Bones and Smews grow stronger as their strength and members increase Nothing but truly Christian and Evangelical Principles which are in the good and old way do secure Kings or sufficiently bind Subjects to their good behaviour Though Factions at first may seem but as a Cloud of an hand-breadth yet they will in time grow big and black covering the whole face of Heaven and pouring down showres of Civil troubles upon any Church and Nation if they be not dispelled by Authority Let them go never so soft and silently at first as Cats and Lions do on their Paws yet they have all of them sharp Fangs hidden and reserved Talons till they find a fit prey and opportunity for their designs then you shall see what cruel Clawes they have We see not only the greater Hornets of rigid Presbyterians but the lesser Wasps of Independents and the Gad-flies or muskeetos of Anabaptists with other Insects after their pious buzzing at first used their stings at last and in their season both jointly and severally they sought to sting to death this Church and Kingdom though at first like Serpents in Winter they seemed very tame and meek as to their principles and practises There is a Wolf under the Sheeps clothing of all Novelizing Humorists All of them did either begin or continue or increase our late Miseries and will renew them by their emulations and ambitions from which the miraculous mercies of God have delivered us The only advantage which these our late Tragedies can afford us is to learn wisdom by them to govern our hearts and affections with greater evenness and exactness also to look to the Peace of Church State with all possible circumspection and vigilancy never to trust the most innocent smiles and harmless simplicities of any Innovators dissenters and repugners against well-setled Laws and ancient Constitutions no way contrary to Reason or Scripture For my part though I have pity and charity for these silly Quakers as they may now appear wrapped up in a kind of clownish garb and ignorant plainness yet I should forfeit my prudence much to trust their Hands because I find the Tongues and Pens of some of them are full of bitterness scorn and reproch arguing much pride and presumption in their spirits not beseeming truly mortified Christians and least of all such as are for the most part but mean people for birth or breeding for reason and understanding as well as estates And for the pretended Inspirations or inward Lights of which they vapour I never yet saw any beams or effects of them that might give the least cause to think of them above other poor men who live by the more sure and sufficient light of the Scriptures and our Laws which raise them to much a higher pitch of knowledge and prudence sanctity and due obedience then ever yet I observed in any of this way who seem very much infected with affectation and self-conceit I never conversed with any of their persons and for their Writings private or publick in which I suppose they shew their best abilities I must profess there appears to me so nothing of an excellent or extraordinary spirit in them that there is much of silliness and never well-catechised ignorance ●et off with great confidence an odd way of folly dressed up with some Scripture-phrases like Sepulchres painted with sweet flowers and fair colours but void of any true life and beauty within either as convincing of sin and error or as vindicating any truth or necessary point of duty and morality They generally seem a busie petulant and pragmatick sort of people measuring themselves by themselves admiring each other even in their most ridiculous affectations and falsities a kind of Dreamers at once deceiving and being deceived doting and glorying in their rude and contemptuous carriage toward all men that do not either favour or flatter them in their rusticity and petulancy which hath in it a great seed of pride and ambition Nor do they seem wholly void of other evil principles which look very like Covetousness and Injustice while they deny to Ministers of the Gospel never so able and faithful that maintenance by Tithes which by the Laws of the Land are as much due to them as any mans Estate and by no Law of Christ forbidden but rather allowed yea ordained and proportioned by the Lord under the Gospel by a paritie of justice and gratitude in way of homage to Christ and of due wages and hire to Gods labourers as the livelihood of those that serve God and his Church in holy ministrations Nor is it a small insolence in them to endeavour in an age of so much light and learning to obtrude yea oppose the rudeness and silliness of their covetous and crude fancies against the Prudence Justice and Piety of this Church and Kingdom But my design in this place is not to ravel into all the pettie Opinions Enthusiastick Raptures and odd practises of the Quakers nor will I here severely perstringe them because I have a great pity for them upon a threefold account First because I perceive them to be so very unlearned and unstable people ever learning but never coming to any solid knowledge of Truth or any great improvement in Christian gifts men of low parts and small capacities as to any point of true wisdom or understanding in things Humane or Divine tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine easily seduced with specious pretensions and strange notions even to Raptures and Enthusiasmes which are presented to them as rare novelties by some that are Masters of that Art and Agitators for that Party for what design private or publick forraign or domestick God knows Some suspect Jesuitick Arts to be among them Indeed they seem so far to conspire with the craftiest Lotolists as they bear a most implacable hatred against the Church of England and under religious pretensions they may in time undermine the civil Peace as other Factions formerly have done The way to make them better Subjects is to make them wiser men and seberer Christians by some publick care to have them better instructed as well as justly restrained My Second ground of pity