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
A81054	Conscience-oppression: or, A complaint of wrong done to the people's rights, being a vvord necessary and seasonable to all pious christians in England, whether in or out of church-way; and to all sober minded and rational men, that yet know how to value law and christian liberty. / By I. Croope, a subject of Christ's kingdome, and of England's common-wealth.	Croope, J.	1657 (1657)	Wing C7236; Thomason E903_8; ESTC R207425	46,102	63

there grew the wilde and stinking weeds of Heathenish Idolatry were of another and more heavenly or spirituall nature if we may say what they did and how they laboured here by what Paul did in another place 1 Cor. 2.1 And I Brethren came not to you with excellency of speech or wisdome much less with the out-stretched arm of humane power to force them declaring to you the Testimony of God nay he shakes off the sword of man as nothing indeed to effect that conquest which he and all the primitive leaders were labouring to obtain 2 Cor. 10.4 The weapons of our warfare are not carnall observe but mighty through God Carnall weapons are here excluded as heterogeneous for kind and as ineffectuall to accomplish and to bring about the great design of God in converting men to the faith of the Gospel or in keeping them there and when he arms the Christians against their adversaries and such are errors and heresies too he girds them not about with the civill sword not a little of that here but covers them with the Helmet of salvation and teaches them to buckle with the sword of the spirit Eph. 6.12 16 17. By this we may conclude that the instruments of violence were not nor were to be promoters of the blessed Kingdom of the Lord Iesus in those dayes Who they were that first began the heavenly plantation here is much uncertain nor doth it lie much in our way to inquire Sir HENRY SPELMAN that great Antiquary who set himself to lay open the mouldy records of the British Ecclesiastick affairs exposeth much but modestly concludes without a certain Demonstration who ere they were as I conceive But through divine providence hither they came and it may pass for certain that they found the Nation as Paul found Athens Acts 17.16 wholly given to Idolatry now if it be the part of a King to cut off such as speak against the God of the Country how came they where they were to set footing safely on this shore or being a land and declaring the end of their coming as no doubt they would be working presently what was the reason that they were not thrust through with a dart or fired at a stake Did the present Governour neglect his duty or suffer his sword to remain asleep unsheathed in its scabberd when he should strike But some will say he was a Pagan and 't was the Gospel that was now proclaimed against which he must not draw 2 King 18.4 Especially the Idolatrous Priests if they had ground in the Law of the Land yea but this Gospel serves the Countries gods as Hezekiah did the Images and Groves it plucks them up root and branch and burns them with fire and what must the Magistrate do now The gain-sayers among the people might probably complain to their Magistrate that the heart-strings of their Religion and the Worship began to break and the sinews thereof crackt in these new flames here be men and strangers and foraigners too belike they were that turn our Images upside down and draw away the people yea and speak against thy God O King Now if it be the proper office of the Magistrate also to determine and interpose with his sword then of the present Magistrate for in this case we are taught by him that hath set up or rather uncovered the bound-marks of liberty of Conscience Antient bounds or Liberty of Conscience pag. 15. and excellently contentended for them with a parenaetick to the then Parliament c. for their due observation and continuance I say we are taught that that which belongs to a man as a man belongs to every man for quatenus ad omne are terms adaequate and convertible And if the case be thus what had become of those poor hearts that travelled so far and adventured themselves upon the surges of the Sea to bring the truth and peace home to our doors and scape that danger Now the vengeance of the Magistrate must not suffer them to live A sad requitall for so great a good brought hither on the wings of so much zeal and love The Magistrate believed it then reasonable enough for men to have their freedom about divine things if they levelled not their opinion at the disturbance of the civil peace which he was bound to keep but I must wave the handling of the point in Law and Argument that hath been done before beyond what I can do by far 't is matter of fact that I would touch at and condole the errors there If Sir HENRY SPELMANS glass be clear enough with that he fetches in Speeds Chron. pag. 73. to look upon these remote times and actions therein and fluent Mr. SPEED inclines unto his Authors much we may conclude we see the Gospel here in ENGLAND preacht and received in the Government of Arviragus he was a stout and hardy Souldier and could not well endure the Romans Tax and Tyranny which cost him many a blow The people then were grieved much to feel the sword of Conquest cut so sharp into their Kingdoms liberties and the King did storm much yet a moderate and peaceable ventilation of this new-sprang Doctrine of Jesus past without controule except the Romans when they could grew angry for Arviragus protects and in part provides for these new Dogmatists Sir H●nry Spelman pag. 4. who conculcatis Druidarum Superstitionibus Evangelii radiis illuminarent populum the superstitions of the Druides so they called the Idolatrous Priests being trodden under foot a great provocation both to Priests and people they illightened the people with the beams of the Gospel The King is not moved to stretch out his sword though by some no doubt sollicited but they these new sowers had rem apud Arviragum Regem adeo promovisse ut licet cauteriatum avita superstitione eum totum expedire nequeunt quaseum tamen reddunt benignum so promoted the matter with the King that although they cannot wholly deliver him being seared with the superstition of his forefathers a thing that sticks much yet they make him quash mild The King continued Pagan stil yet these Christian labourers receive their freedom without his deadly censures and his sons become their benefactors upon the account of their sanctimony The Law of nature and right reason permitting them to patronize such men that deport themselves in a peaceable and humble manner though of another worship And there is as vast a difference between Idolatry and Christianity as between Calvinism Arminianism Socinianism c. The Heathens may be our Correctors and stain our faces with shame who are less bearing and more cruel then were they yet we finde not the Canons or Constitutions of the Church uttering their voice through the guilded Image of the Civil power nor the Magistrates Authority or arm flashing such as acted barely upon the terms of Conscience LUCIUS a Christian King of Brittain some say the first Monarch that owned that way submits

Thunders This amongst other things began to breed a difference between that great Councel and the Army under the Command of Sir THOMAS FAIRFAX which was reported to be made up in much of sectaries and men of Heterodox Opinions which the Scotch and English National Ministry could by no means brook The English Sectarian Army is declaimed against by the Scottish Orators and it was so irksom to many Preachers here that it led them frequently beside their Texts wherein they dealt not so much by solid Argument to cry Errors down but by calling on the civil Magistrate to cut the erroneous off nothing was more pleasing to them then to think and talk of Imprisonment Exile Death for Sectaries The Land of their Nativity was not fit to hold them any longer one might have thought that the Heresie of PYTHAGORAS his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or transmigration of souls was revived now for the Prelacie was and would it were not still visibly rising in the Presbyterie These clamors thus ventilating themselves in fire and Pillars of smoke began to suggest thoughts in the Army that the Parliament the Presbyterian Interest declined their first Principles for the securing of their own and the Nations freedom of which Liberty of Conscience was no small part as will appear ere long The Trumpets of the Army also begin to sound and they made better musick then they have done of late Mr. SALTMARSH puts life into SMECTYMNUUS and groans again he dedicates the work to the Parliament Groans for Liberty ANNO 1645. Let it be read again t is a good Lesson for the present times and because it looks so much towards my present purpose with so fair an aspect as also because it may probably be thought to be the then mind of more and greater then himself I will here insert one passage from him Consider Epistle to the Parl. ibid. speaking to the Parliament whether in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ any other Scepter should be lifted up then that golden one of his own and whether if there be a Kingdom of God if Jesus Christ be the Law-giver and the spirit of Christ the interpreter of these Laws and this Kingdom of God within the throne of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the Lord Jesus any other power should rule any other Scepter any other Laws or any other sit down in that throne which is only the throne of the son of David whose throne is for ever the Scepter of whose Kingdome is an everlasting Scepter Thus much he And would this have been spoken by him that was the Generals Chaplain in such a publike manner at least except it had been the sense of the Grandees of the Army or the most prevalent part of them Agen These Coercive courses sought strongly to be used in Reformation of Religion fill'd Mr. Dell with breath enough to sound out his Right Reformation Dell's Right Reformation Anno 1646. so called in opposition to the other way which was presented both to the Parliaments ears and eyes to the house of Commons at least wherein the power of the Magistrate is excluded from the work as much as we would have it and he is styled an Attendant to both the Generals in the Army These with many other of the same Sect did in their places in this juncture of time Title page to his Sermons endeavor much to counterplead Presbyterie and to prevent any rigorous course in matters of conscience to be put in ure by the Parliament by a new Law for the old Statutes smelling so much of Popery and Prelacie were withered long since I mention these men not so much for what as when they spake and whose they were The Armies Declarations and Remonstrances themselves in pretence at least Armies Remostrance August 19. 164● pag. 4. for what end the great God knows and will judge gave very fair and promising hopes unto all men that their faces and their hearts were set towards the maintenance and vindication of the Kingdoms Liberties and in special of conscience by which the eyes of the best seeing in the Nation were turned towards them in which work of theirs Mr. Cook a man well thought on by the Grandees of the Army as by his after-imployment doth appear He I say gives encouragement to them and endeavors much to fire their Resolutions for the effecting of this Work I shall repeat some words of his and so leave this And to the purpose before mentioned he brings in the Lord Jesus speaking to the Army upon their jar with the Parliament Thus with other things did I preserve you from active Martyrdom that you should bring your selves to passive Redinte gratio Amories pag. 84. Would not I have taken your lives as kindly from you at Nas●by Bristo c. as if after disbanding you should be imprison'd and put to death for Hereticks and Schismaticks Is not my Kingly Government as precious to you and as well worthy fighting for as my Priestly Office c. And pag 85. to the same purpose Hath God preserved you hitherto in times of War to be insensibly destroyed in times of Peace Was not your Commission to fight for Laws and Liberties whereof Conscience is the greatest Hath not the Kingdom sufficiently dishonored Religion formerly in the Bishops time but must they now under a pretence of uniformity seek the life of her children and of Religion it self Do they not aim at the life of Religion which is the heart of God and the lives of his children which are the Apple of his eye The Mercunalists at Court did but strike at the Letter of the Law in some things but these Phaëtons would set all on fire and aim at the Power of Religion the very life of our Laws whose humors are so corrupt that the least scratch turns into a gangreen Thus much from Mr. Cook and 't is pity his Language is so adaequate unto these Times This is enough to shew what the then thoughts of the Aymy men were concerning Liberty of Conscience Their means that we may go on with other prov'd as a hand clapt upon the mouth of that persecuting Spirit whereby its burning breath could not break forth to do much mischief yet in this doubtful and disputing time endeavours were not wanting to cast the seed of persecution into the Parliament 't is done not so much by a forc't ravishment 't is thought as by a willing prostitution for they had now forgotten their Virgin-dayes and glory The Parliament grows pregnant and at last brings forth that bloody and destroying Monster whose heart is as flint and whose teeth as iron that is able to cast down and trample on any serious Christian in the World that sees any thing beyond the Tradition of their fore-fathers I mean that Ordinance of Lords Commons against Blasphemy Heresie c. the unnatural off-spring of such a Parliament that did once assert and vindicate the peoples Liberties

these Mrs. of Divinity to take an Oath and did swear to worship Images which was against the Moral and Eternal Law of Almighty God Thus far he A sad President for any men and Powers upon earth to follow in taking cognizance of and punishing of men for Opinion whereby the weight of other mens sins is commonly laid upon their shoulders and I think they have commonly enough of their own and too much for some to bear let not the present Boutefeaus for their own defence object t was ill done of these for they themselves were Hereticks and the Sufferers held the Truth but we are in the right and therefore now there is no such danger for they may be answered first The former Prelates were as confident as any now yea t was their confidence and fierce zeal that put so many honest hearts from time to time into a deadly sweat wherein they left their blood and marrow life and all But secondly Admit that they or these are in the truth as both would have it thought so in their times yet was it not the duty of any King or Magistrate commanded to them by Christ by whom Kings now do reign to force men into his Worship or his Service I say so now for if it were it has been desired long since to be shewn which yet no man can see Nay according to the Laws and Customs of this English Nation Ancient Bounds pag. 23. the clear contrary may be thought to be the duty of the Magistrate and that he was and is to defend the people from such wrongs and infringements of their Liberties for he is sworn thereto and he is to keep the Peace so that the good old Laws of England and the Magistrates the Executioners of those Laws are the Forts and Towers in whom all honest mindes though differing in the businesse of Religion a thing not imaginable to be under censure of the power of man and in reason and Scripture left to the decision of the Spirit and to Christ the Judge are to be safeguarded from the furious persecution of all state incendiaries Before I turn over from this Chapter of the Lord Cook concerning Heresie I shall observe these two things First The boundless license that the Prelates used to take under colour of Law to suppress and quash the non-Conformists informer times that they Phaeton Fablelike by their reignless Fury ranged through the Region of Christs Kingdom plucking the Flowers from his heavenly Crown and Dignity usurping his great Throne as also running through the Thrones of Earthly Princes setting them on fire as they pleased whereby with other places the world of our Brittish Iland was often scorch't with their too fiery Rayes Secondly That the Satute concerning Heresie c. made in q. Eliz. dayes was principally intended to restrain those Irregular Notions and to contract their lawless Rage in a narrower compass so the work look't backward rather then ought besides although the contrivers had not the heart and happiness to cut it clean off and to cast it out for ever as may appear in this place to the Judicious Reader and by the Statute it self as also by the second Part Institutes In Articulis cleri especially in pag. 615. But I am too tedious King HENRY the eighth was a blustering Prince and quarrelled with the Roman Court See the Statute 31 Hen. 8.4 yet Lutherans and others were very odious to the Kingdoms Powers the principle of persecution was kept alive with very great offence to Christianity as all can now believe by those that loved to Lord over their Brethrens Conscience yea the Inquisition reaches to the Kings own Chamber and takes the queen from his side There were six bloody Articles saith Mr. SPEED enacted that made it death to such as held or taught the contrary Who can remember and forbear to melt at English sufferings EDWARD the sixt was a young yet wise and tender Prince our Israels Josiah Speed's Histor pag. 1046. he would not send an Heretick to Hell before his time as may be gathered from Mr. FOX and others yet persecution lived it could not die they kept it alive that knew how to over-awe the Court by cunning Policy for that sate ruling sometimes and enveagling stil the civil Power to unsheath the Sword against dissenters in Religion Who can repeat the Marian bloody dayes without laments Now Rome is called in again to help the doing of what was done too much before England can persecute without the Pope as may be seen above his Spirit is here although unto his Person or his Name we bid defiance But now they flash and lay about indeed The Prelates rage the more because they had little check before and like fire pent in a little break out in desperate flames and the poor Protestants die ELIZABETHS beginning was like water in abundance falling on the Fires all over England it coold and brake them all yet did it not kill or quench the Coals they lay glowing still and were stirred up against Professors still upon occasion because men would not know their liberty The Spirit of Violence lodging still in mens breasts and labouring to bring the Judgements of others to their Girdle And so it went from hence into K. JAMES's Reign t is a continued Line not broken though a little lessen'd for the Puritanes were as Thorns in the Prelates eyes and they were rubbing still to get them out they could not see so well whiles these were neer them King CHARLS follows and drinks in the poisonous Wines the Prelates are as formerly his Cup-Bearer the common people were too much delighted with the sport these made They raged and staggered in this Spiritual Drunkenness Separatists and stucrk at many Non-Conformists till at last they lighted on those three Gentlemen Mr. BURTON Mr. PRIN and Dr. BASTWICK The seat of the Bishops is very high their Authority great and their mindes as cruel They cared not for a Parliament though they had as much room there as any and as much honor The Prerogative and Arbitrary Rule of this King did please them better as being more serviceable to their purpose you have them in their High Commission in the Star-Chamber every where They please the King and he gratifies them with what they like well enough The relation of their proceedings with the three above named is worth the reading * New Discovery of the Prelates Tyranny printed Anno 1641. where you may see their Will instead of Law their Tyranny instead of Piety Before we go any further let us look upon what is past with these queries 1. Whether the Magistracie of England hath done its Duty in taking Cognizance of things relating to Religion 2. Whether all present and future proceedings to oppresse the Conscience will not justifie theirs and fill up the measure of their iniquity 3. Whether such cruel dealings with dissenting men do not manifestly shew they had no better argument