Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A92940
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A Serious warning and caution unto George Keith and to many others as also a relation of some expressions from George Keith, concerning his reasons which he then gave, for opposing and exposing the Quakers, when at his place at Turner's-hall : the intention of the publication of which, and more that is in this paper contain'd, is proposed for a publick and general good of all.
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1700
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Wing S2620; ESTC R43737
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6,600
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15
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worthy Apostle and Servant of the Lord Paul who lamented in his Day and Time to this effect That all were seeking after their own and not the things of the Lord who could not be content with a low Estate which the Lord doth bless having Food and Raiment to be therewith content and to follow the low and humble Example of our only and blessed Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who although was Heir of all Things in Heaven and in the Earth yet deny'd himself of all things taking off the World only a little sustenance and a little something for outward Covering viz. a Garment which we read of was without Seam without Rent and so is his Spiritual Garment witnessed and known to be at this Day to a little Remnant he alone is worthy of the Glory who is for ever blessed And where the Rents are and where the Envy and Bitterness of Spirit is and where the Runings out are from the Truth and blessed Spirit of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ let it be be amongst what People Name or Denomination soever such do not keep under the Spiritual and Seamless Garment of our Lord Jesus Christ notwithstanding they may not be a wanting of high Pretences and making in Words a great and specious Profession of him much like the Jews of old who counted themselves the Children of God and Abraham's Seed yet would needs have Christ the blessed Messiah to be a Blasphemer and what not speaking Despicably of him saying Is not this the Carpenter's Son whose Father and Mother we know and are not his Brethren hear with us Calling him a Deceiver and how that he did cast out Devils by Belzebub c. And such as before go into the Love of this present World and too much effects the Enjoyments thereof and such go into a Spirit of Prejudice and Envy and lets in a persecuting Spirit against their Brethren that cannot Worship after the same way and manner as they themselves are pleased to do which is too much like Cain's Spirit and Disposition And this envious Spirit of prejudice to my former too great and woful Loss and hurt to my great Unhappiness having entred into my poor Soul through my too much giving way unto my Soul's Enemy after I had a long time made profession with the People call'd Quakers to that Degree that I almost loathed the sight of any of the said People but the Merciful God who had visited and tendered my Heart in my early and young Days who had been many a time good unto me who continued to follow me in my Rebellious State and State of Apostacy from him justly brought upon me Outward and Worldly Disappointments and blasted my Endeavours as to Outward and Worldly Affairs yet providentially open'd a way still for an outward Subsistance Yet again I forgot the Lord who had shewed so much Mercy and Goodness unto me and the Enemy again stole away my Heart from following him by little and little so that I lived in much and great Excess too much to mention hear but the Lord still continued to follow me according to his wonted Mercy and long forbearance and in a remarkable way visited me with his Judgments It being now near Four Years since by laying his Afflicting Hand upon my Body by which my Body came to be afflicted with divers kinds of Indispositions and Weaknesses and that of a long continuance and also inwardly visited my Soul and Spirit with Judgment wherein my former Disobedient and Rebellious State was set before me as in a Glass the Lord having found me in this deplorable State and nothing but Eternity in a dreadful manner seemingly to appear in my view and that which greatly Exercised my distressed Mind was the unaccountable hardness of my Heart when if the World had been in my Power to have given I could gladly have parted with it to have had my hard Heart broken and tender'd by the good Spirit of the Lord and at that time to have witnessed lasting Peace to my poor never dying Soul So the Lord in great Mercy unto me having brought me every way very low in his time which was a time of great Love indeed he did not forget to shew his great Love and Mercy unto my greatly distressed poor Soul and brought my Heart and Spirit into much brokenness and tenderness for which I have abundant cause to be always thankful unto the Lord for ever to bless and praise his Honourable and Worthy Name so long as it may please the Lord to give me a Being in this Mortal Body The weighty solid and serious Consideration of which great and unaccountable Mercy great Favour and Love of Almighty God to me hath occasion'd a concern of Mind in me towards others that may have Apostatized from the Lord as I have done in slighting his tender and compassionate Visitations to warn others that may have declin'd in their Hearts from the Lord of Life and Glory as I to my former great Unhappiness have done And this former unhappy State and Condition of mine may also serve to be a warning unto all sorts of People of what Perswasion or Judgment soever that they do not provoke a merciful God as I have done For my belief is that the Lord is not a wanting to afford in some degree and measure a time of Visitation unto all so as to leave all without excuse of what Perswasion or Judgment soever when he shall come to Judgment And it is my belief that at that Day the Question will not be so much what People's Judgments and Religious Perswasions may have been but whether in their Lives and Conversations they have not lived in Rebellion against the good Spirit of the Lord so as in that Day be found Workers of Iniquity so as to incur that woful Sentence of Go you Cursed into utter Darkness c. And as before express'd having through the great goodness of the Lord in some measure obtain'd Forgiveness and Mercy and Favour at his Merciful Hand hath occasion'd a concern upon my Mind to go to visit this to be lamented Apostatized poor Man George Keith which accordingly I did about the Months call'd February or March last before he had given over Acting at his Stage at Turner's Hall and some Months before he tooks Orders upon him in the Church of England way it being upon my Mind to warn and caution him against that Spirit of Prejudice which I had a Sense of he was enter'd into And I can truly say I found Love in my Heart reaching towards him and amongst the Expressions which he made to me at the close of what past I holding him by the Hand being earnestly disswading of him from that undue proceedure of his He replyed What wouldst thou have me to do wouldst thou have me to go into the Street with my Wife and Family And this if need be I can Testifie to the Face of George Keith to be ineffect if not the very
A Serious Warning and Caution UNTO George Keith And to many Others AS ALSO A RELATION OF SOME EXPRESSIONS FROM George Keith Concerning His REASONS which He then gave for Opposing and Exposing the QVAKEKS When at His Place at TVRNER's HALL The Intention of the Publication of which and more that is in this Paper contain'd is proposed for a Publick and General Good of All. LONDON Printed in the Year 1700. A Serious Warning and Caution unto George Keith c. WHEREAS on the 18th of the Month called August 1700. was seen affixed upon the great Pillars of the Exchange on Cornhill-side a Paper in Print entituled A Serious Call to the Quakers Inviting them to return to Christianity Containing many Quotations so termed out of the Books of divers Quakers c. Which Quotations are said to be attested by Eight Ministers of the Church of England wherein George Keith in his Goliah-like Spirit doth offer to prove the same to the Quakers Faces c. to be Monstrous Heretical and Antichristian But there is a Stone which is cut and a cutting out of the Mountain without Hands which is risen and arising in this Nation which will dash to pieces in the Head the Work and Works of this Goliah with his Champions for the Lord the invisible and mighty God is on his way to sustain and support his distressed and exercised People let their Exercises be of what nature or kind soever and the Faithful amongst this People shall be preserved such that do not seek to be setting themselves up great in this World that deny themselves of Self and Self-Love and Selfish Worldly Interest but are seeking after the invisible and only wise God and our Lord Jesus Christ for the everlasting welfare of their never dying Souls as also seeking desiring and praying for the eternal welfare and good of their Relations Neighbours and loving Country-men of what Judgment or Perswasion soever And notwithstanding all the Mists and dark Fogs that may arise out from the Bottomless-Pit and of fallen Angels the Faithful Humble and Lowly minded and hearted amongst this People the Lord the mighty God and Creator of all things he by his great and invisible Power will preserve them in despight of whatever Satan and his fallen Angels can or may be suffered to do or attempt And the Author of this Paper doth something admire that those called Bishops and Ministers of the Church of England should suffer themselves to be so Imposed upon to think that this poor Apostatized Man and Creature should be of service unto them to be an Instrument to help to bring the Quakers back to the Church of England I do affirm and assert That you will in the Lord's time see your selves Mistaken although it may be some Particulars such as George Keith whom 't is supposed you take something the more notice of because he may have something of outward Learning and therefore the fitter Tool to be made use of on the aforesaid occasion who like him have forsaken their inward and spiritual and first Love unto the Lord which hath provoked the Lord to withdraw from them and to give them up unto the guidance of their Souls Enemy and to follow their own darkned Understandings And this I am made to declare unto you that are called Bishops and Ministers c. that the same Arm Strength and Power that did secretly and inwardly sustain this People in their former Sufferings Exercises and Persecutions I do affirm and assert through the unexpressible mercy and goodness and favour of Almighty God is now in a wonderful secret manner prevalent in the Assemblies of this People but it is much my Belief and I fear that the Lord will make some of them Examples unto the World of his displeasure for their Unfaithfulness unto him notwithstanding they may it may be keep to the outward Profession amongst this People because of their secret withdrawing in their Hearts from the Lord who hath been good and gracious unto them many a time and delivered them many a time because of their getting again too much into the Love and Spirit and Things of this World of which I can remember a time when the Lord suffered many of them to be stript from almost all worldly Enjoyments and in that Day the Lord was with them and sustained them in a low and exercised Estate and was near to them to do them good and the Lord is the same at this Day and will be the same to all that shall be so happy as to have their reliance and dependance always upon him Now as to the Spirit and Disposition that hath and is of late Years and Months entred into this to be pittied and lamented poor Apostatized Man George Keith I do affirm and testifie it is no other than the same that was in the Prophet Balaam of Old who for Balack's Rewards notwithstanding the Lord had forewarned him yet would go with Balack to endeavour like this poor Creature for Enchantments against Israel But the Lord turned his endeavours of Cursing of Israel into Blessings the Lord is not changed he is now the same at this very day And this is the same Spirit that was in wicked Jeroboam who made Israel to sin in causing them to worship his Golden Calves to cause them that they should not go up to Jerusalem to worship and offer unto the Lord as the Lord had commanded and is the same Spirit that made wicked Cain kill his Brother Abel because the Lord had accepted of Abel's Offering and is the same Spirit that in the Old World mocked at Righteous Noah when he was Building the Ark at the Commandment of the Lord and is the same Spirit that was in Dathan and Abiram of old that withstood Moses and Aaron the Servants of the Living God who the Lord had commanded to lead his People Israel out of Egypt's dark Land Slavery and Bondage the Lord caused the Earth to open its Mouth and swallow them up So at this Day those that inwardly in their Hearts which departeth from the Lord the Earth opens its Mouth and they are swallowed up in the Love of this World and in the Love of Earthly Things and Enjoyments and this is the Spirit that was in the false Prophet Zedekiah the Son of Cheuah of of old that smote the Prophet Micah the Lord's Prophet upon the Cheek who said Which way went the Spirit of the Lord from we to speak unto thee And is the same Spirit that ruled in the unbelieving Jews of old who Crucified our Lord the Lord of Life and Glory the great Saviour of the World and of Mankind it is the same Spirit that was in the unbelieving Jews that Stoned that blessed Martyr Steven who told them of their Rebellion and Stubborness against the Lord and how they Rebell'd against his good Spirit it is no other but the same Spirit that caus'd Demas of old to embrace this present Evil Word complain'd of by that