Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bless_a	jesus_n	lord_n	6,161	5	3.6174	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29395	Some reasons why Robert Bridgman, and his wife, and some others in Hvntington-shire, have left the society of the people called Quakers, and have join'd in communion with the Church of England and some passages contained in a letter of George Whitehead to R.J., and R. Bridgman's reply to the same / by Robert Bridgman.	Bridgman, Robert.; Whitehead, George, 1636?-1723.	1700 (1700)	Wing B4494; ESTC R18987	9,724	25

Epithets they bestow upon him And in their Word to the Well-inclin'd represent him the Epitome and very Common-place of all the Malice of their preceding Adversaries And these fine Characters they industriously spread throughout the Nation to defame and reproach him having a method effectually to do it by spreading their Pamphlets according to an agreement of their Yearly Meeting which is their supreme Authority in this and in other Kingdoms and Countries where they have any settled Interest The Agreement and Order of their Yearly Meeting held in London the first second third and fourth Days of June 1691 and directed to the Quarterly and Monthly Meetings in England and Wales and elsewhere was and is That each Monthly Meeting of which they had at that time about 150 in England and Wales and since no doubt the number is greatly increased was to take off two Books of a sort when both do not exceed the price of a Shilling and to be sent by the several Correspondents in London or their Order to the Correspondents of each County who are to send up the Money out of their Meeting Stock which sufficiently encourages both the Author and Printer And this Agreement and Order was expresly made for the spreading their Books as is more at large declared in their Yearly Meeting Paper printed in the Year 1691. And thus they are encouraged to be continually scribling and judge it to be as they say in their Word to the well-inclin'd the fairer more substantial and edifying method But the misery that attends their numerous Proselytes is the impressions they are under in partiality and prejudice what is published by their Party passes for Truth and that not only in Doctrine and Fact but they conceive a peculiar presence of God is a continual Blessing that accompanies them The same conceit they have in all they say and do and are generally so affected with a Relish and Savour of it that puffs them up with intolerable Pride even whilst it appears to themselves under a Disguise of Humility But true Humility is another thing it submits to Truth where-ever whenever and in whomsoever it appears inlarging the Heart with Catholick Love which like the attracting and bountiful Heaven scatters its Dew on every Soyl and maintains its correspondence with an impartial influence The Lord in Mercy increase this Vertue and inable the sincere in all persuasions to let go the shackles of their several singularities looking up unto Jesus the universal Head and Captain of their Salvation who by his blessed and Holy Spirit is sprinkling the Nations through the Faith of his Gospel and that without respect of persons And therefore let me beseech such of my Friends as profess their Faith in a Crucified Jesus and in humility submit to the means he has appointed as the Seals of his Covenant and Symbols of his Presence to be very careful in all manner of Conversation that so the Adversary who seeks many ways to undermine and lay waste the Foundation and Pillars of the Christian Religion may be stop'd every way in which he appears The greatest reproach that at this time attends the Christian Church is a loose Conversation in too many not season'd with Grace and the fear of God and this is the Ground and Plea of all Schismaticks as well as it is the Air that infests the Atheist who secretly concludes because of such Liberty there is not a God of such Purity and Power as the Christians profess in their verbal Confession But this I can say from a good and comfortable experience That there are many pious and heavenly-minded Souls in several places both Ministers and People that are as Lights and as Salt in their several Stations though once I could hardly believe it so much Filth and Dirt having been cast upon them by an ignorant proud and obstinate Generation of Men whose feigned Simplicity and Humility under a pretence of Subjection to a Power above the Magistrate is very delusive in the Appearance of it but when duly examined proves chiefly the Fruit of Education and Humour Being taught and persuaded that Reasoning is dangerous in things of Religion they stop their Ears and close their Eyes until by degrees they grow hardy in Imagination and Fancy in the strength of which they have been suffered to proceed until their own Folly hath corrected them Whoever comes to a sober mind and attentively reads over the History given by George Fox and his Delegates in the Entrance of his Journal may readily find that an ignorant Education and Melancholly Temper impressed and blown up by a Spirit of Enthusiasm gave birth to his Faction in those Hurricane Times whilst the Church lay despoyled of her Power and Privileges and since that inundation of Heresie and Schism the Breach has remaiued too much unobserved And to my Understanding no better Expedient can readily be proposed to heal up this Breach and recover the Wasts than a laborious and diligent instruction of Youth and detecting of Errour by open and free Conferences judiciously managed in divers parts of the Nation T is a lamentable thing that in a Christian Nation the publick Seals and Badges of its Communion should be so slighted neglected opposed and rejected by a sort and number of men that will not be accountable in Matter of Fact for their Mistakes and Abuses 'T is a most lame and scandalous Insinuation against the Institution and Practice of Outward Baptism which George Whitehead advances in his Rector Examined p. 27. saying When this Rector meaning Mr. Merriton can demonstrate a Probatum est of such Virtue in that poor Element as he calls it of Water-baptism as to cure polluted and distemper'd Souls as if the Issue or Effect of a means that is prescribed must determine the right or lawfulness of its Institution and Practice without any Exception he may at the same rate question the Authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and his Apostles in their Teaching and Preaching because many that heard them were not effectually Cleansed And in the Commission that was given Math. 28. 19. there is no more mention made of outward teaching than of outward Baptism and the Quakers may as well reject Teaching with Words as Baptizing with Water But to manifest how liable they are to pervert the True Sense of the Matter see what George Whitehead says concerning the Supper Page 35. of his Rector Examined where he produces some Testimonies out of the Book of Martyrs to favour his Cause which duly considered are directly against it The Bread and Wine in the Supper are Figurative and Symbolical and as the Eating and Drinking by the faithful Receiver Intitles him to the Graces and Blessings of the Spirit of Christ so the breaking the Bread and pouring out the Wine were Instituted as a means to preserve the Faith and Remembrance of his Body and Blood that was Broken and Slied for the Remission of Sin and which is now Exalted and Glorified in the