Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	call_v	lord_n	name_n	6,530	5	5.1879	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51402	To the supream authoritie (under God) of the common-wealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland the commons in Parliament assembled / the true and faithfull testimony of William Morris, a late member of the army in Ireland.	Morris, William, member of the army in Ireland.	1659 (1659)	Wing M2813; ESTC R13520	8,390	14

and persecuted from City to City and delivered into prisons and betrayed by brethren and kinsfolk and friends and hated of all men for his names sakes and these are true Characters of such as are true Ministers of the true Christ But such as run and were never sent of him go forth like Wolves among Lambs tearing spolling and devouring such as do not readily put into their mouthes and such were the false Prophets of old against whom the true Prophets bore their Testimony such were they that conspired in the midst of Israel like a Roaring Lyon ravening the prey and devouring souls Ezek. 25 26 taking the treasure and the pretious things prophaning the holy things of the Lord putting no difference between the holy and prophane nor between the unclean and the clean such were they that eat the fat and cloathed themselves with the wool killed them that were fed but fed not the flock Such were they that did teach for hire and divine for money Such were they that the Lord by his prophets calls Greedy dogs that can never have enough Micha 11. Isa 56. which all look to their own waies every one for his gain from his quarter And doth not the Nations abound with such at this day which run and are not sent of Christ O what Legions of these devouring Locusts have spread themselves upon the earth and what swarmes of them hath the East winds brought into this poor wasted countrie of Ireland as if all the Cages of unclean and hatefull birds in the Nations had been set open or Lucifer with his Regiments of unclean spirits intended to set up his kingdome in the midst of us And these having obtained approbation and commission from the powers of the earth and Tythes established by a humane Law and treble dammage the penalty of such as do for conscience sake or otherwise refuse to pay Then forth they go like evening wolves the greediest of all doggs ravening after their prey And then their first enquirie is not where 's the best people but where 's the best benefice Where 's the parrish that will yeeld most profie Where 's the quarter that wil yeeld most gain c. And when he hath found out the best he can then that shall satisfie because he can get no better and when he comes to the place his next enquirie is not as the Ministers of Christ who is worthy or who is godly but rather who is wicked who is the most malicious spiteful man amongst his neighbours or the most cunning knave in all the parish that he may make him his Proctor for no honest man will meddle with such an employment and such an one must be employed to make a strict enquiry into mens estates what quantity of corne they have what wheat Barly Oates Pease Beanes they have what Parsneps Carrets Onyons Leeks Pottatoes they have what cowes Calves and Sheep and Lambes how many Piggs and Ducks and Geese and Henns they have least a tythe Chickin should escape his greedy Chops Are these ministers of Christ And if any of the servants of Christ happen to be within his quarter who for conscience sake cannot put into his ravenous mouth then there 's a prize for him and if they have considerable outward estates that 's the fish he angles for they are the people he looks for Then never was cursed Cavileer more eager to plunder a Round-heads house in time of warr then this greedy hireling is to plunder these Quakers as he calls them And then another or two he must procure to go view their substance and value it at the highest rate and next teacheth them to break Christs command and to swear for him and thus having sufficiently instructed them in wickedness and made them seven-fold more the children of Hell then they were before to the evil Magistrates they go and there after swearing and for swearing he gets a judgement for treble dammage and so having got a commission to plunder he then makes havock and what ever he finds of outward substance alive or dead that 's movable he sweeps away not leaving either food to eate or cloathes to cover either old or young and then casts into prison the bodies of such as they had thus spoiled and there cause them to be kept until they finished their testimonies with their lives O! How many examples of this kind of lingring Martyrdome hath there been in several places as may appear in the records of furterings for tythes in England And these and such like are the true characters of the fals● Prophets and Ministers of Anti-christ and such is the ministry of these Nations at this day who murther and martyr for their greedy bellies And thus the land is defiled with blood yea the blood of the Innocent cries to the Lord for vengeance against unrighteous Lawes unjust and cruel Judges and above all against the blood-sucking hirelings and their upholders against whom the controversie of the Lord is exceeding great and when the measure of their iniquity is filled and the sufferings of his saints accomplished then shall the vials of his wrath and the wine of his indignation be poured out without mixture and they shall surely drink it who have drunk up the blood of the innocent and have had no pitty And forasmuch as some of you have tasted of affliction under the late oppressing government and with other Noble and publique spirited persons in the Nation have been made the footstool whereby ambition and usurpation might enthrone it selse and arbytrary will and power kept you under bonds while the plowers made long furrows upon your backs because of the testimony you bore against the growing iniquities of those evil times and now that the Lord hath given you liberty and put the power of doing good into your hands Remember ye the afflictions of every Joseph and as feeling members of the miseries of others who for the exercise of a good conscience towards God have been left forelorne and fatherlesse in the Nations forsaken of the Magistrates generally all acts of Justice mercy and pity being denyed to many of them from men of all estates even from him that Swaied the Scepter to him that held the plough and they given up and exposed as a prey to the lust and spoil of any that would oppresse them let your bowels be enlarged relieve yee the oppressed help the helplesse Judge the cause of the fatherlesse for herein you judge not for man but for the Lord who hath reserved you to stand in the gap in such a day as this is and not to make it wider And amongst the flock whereof Christ Jesus is the tru sheepherd of which you are to have regard in England let not the tender Lambes who in regard of outward habitation are scattered here and there in this Nation be forgotten by you but speedily extend the power God hath put into your hands to save them out of the mouthes of the devouring Wolves the insatiable hirelings who are gaping ready to swallow up the heritage of the Lord And those who have been faithful to the interest of the Nations and with their lives and all that was deare unto them waded through hazards and hardships in times of difficulty and danger for the promoting the good old cause the advancement of Justice Righteousnesse and truth in the earth have lately been insulted and Tyrannized over by the greedy hirelings who wait to make a prey upon us And because for conscience sake we cannot pay them Tythes the hireling in whose quarter any of us falls to be seemes to rejoyce that he hath such a prize in hand and glories in the Law that gives him Treble damage that by colour thereof he might according to the example of his brethren in England Sweep away all in a day and inrich himselfe with the spoil of the Innocent O how he longes for harvest and boasteth what he will do if Tythes be 〈◊〉 denyed him 〈◊〉 was the case of several of the servants of the Lord who had been faithful to their country and generation many yeares when your authority revised even ready to be devoured our goods spoiled our wives made widdowes and our children fatherlesse by long imprisonments and lingring martyrdome an cvil reward for our good service which several of our dear brethren in England have lately undergone who neverthelesse have finished their course with joy and through many tribulations have passed into everlasting rest Although their wives and many innocent babes are left behind surviving monuments of their opressors cruelties And that it purely is for conscience sake towards God we pay not tythes you need no other evidence to convince you then the bloody characters wherein the truth hereof hath been so legibly written in these few years by so many servants of the living God in several prisons in England whose testimonies were sealed with their lives besides the sufferings of hundreds more both here and there who suffered joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing where they have a better and more enduring substance Wherefore if that gracious spirit of zeal towards God of righteousnesse and Justice towards men of love and meeknesse towards tender consciences which formerly was manifest among you be not departed from you then let it now appear and act for God that truth and righteousnesse the sum and substance of all our hopes and expectations may be established in the earth and oppression tyranny and Injustice the cause of all our sufferings be removed that tender consciences may be relieved the kingdome of Jesus Christ exalted and then generations yet unborn shall call you blessed But if a contrary spirit act and guide you and you let slip this precious oppertunity and suffer Sion still to languish in the dust spreading out her hands and there be none will help her the Lord will send deliverance another way and innocent blood will be required of you and your names be numbred among those that the Lord hath overthrown before you Written in Ireland the beginning of 5th Moneth 1659. THE END