Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	scripture_n	word_n	5,665	5	4.3306	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30560	A vindication of the people of God, called Quakers ... being an ansvver to a book, dedicated to them, by one George Pressick of Dublin : in which book many lyes and calumnies are presented against the innocent people of God ... / by E.B.	Burrough, Edward, 1634-1662.	1660 (1660)	Wing B6053; ESTC R2304	18,015	26

to be innocent from these false Accusations 2. That we did arise from the Papists or that they are our Original in Doctrine Faith or Practice this is utterly false for between us and them is perfect separation and we are of another Spirit and divided from them as appears every way even by their persecuting of us for our Testimony bearing against them and their Religion and they have written against us and we against them divers Controversies and they have imprisoned divers of our Friends in their Dominions for giving Testimony against their wayes By all which it doth appear that we are not of the Papists line nor arisen from them for if we were of them they would love us and not persecute us and that herein we are falsly accused as in other things And this is an old out-dated Accusation and is of no account for now we are otherwise known through these Kingdoms and we are manifest to the Consciences of men in the sight of God to be such as fear the Lord and walk in his wayes 3. And as for our Original It is the Lord God alone that hath raised us up and planted us a People that were not a People in times past And not from the Apostate Christians neither of Papists nor Protestants so called are we sprung but are of the Apostles line and of the stock and race of the true Christians that believed in Christ and followed him and in every part of our Religion both in Faith and Practice and in Conversation we are agreeing with the holy Apostles being witnessed unto by the Scriptures in all that we profess and practise and the Lord hath raised us up out of the Apostacy into which all Christendom hath been fallen since the Apostles dayes whilest Antichrist hath reigned over the World and we are as the first fruits unto God and to the Lamb since the falling away from the true Faith and Truth and Righteousness is our Original and Christ Iesus is our Foundation on whom we are builded and the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against us and this Testimony the Spirit of God giveth for us and in us in Contradiction of the false Accusations of all our enemies 4. And if it be an offence to be risen from the Papists and if all that be evil which they are the Original of then the Protestants so called are in the offence and their Ministry and the chief part of their Church-Government Worship and Ordinances are evil for did not the Protestants spring from the Papists and did not the Papists institute the Way by which the Protestants make Ministers at Schools and Colledges And was it not they that first instituted Sprinkling of Infants and calling it Baptism into the Faith and into the Church And was it not the Papists that first taught the Protestants to keep holy dayes as Christmasse and Candlemasse so called And many other particular things relating to the Protestants Church Ministry and Worship were originally ordained and first practised by the Church of Rome and Papists And so while this false Accuser is charging others himself and the men of his way are found guilty of the same things and the Papists may justly say to the Protestants that they are false-hearted to them in denying of them and their Church when as their fathers were the Instituters of the principal parts of the Protestants Worship and Ordinances and so they like unnatural Children have denyed their Mother that bred them up and ordained them a way of making Ministers and maintaining them and many other parts of their Religion But because she hath not been the National Interest for these many years therefore the Church of the Protestants have denied the Church of Rome though originally they rose out from her The next thing in his Book I take notice of is where he seemeth to charge us with boasting that we talk with God and God with us and have Revelations and as if God commanded them to kill all the Wicked and to make a new World A Sect in Saxony saith the Accuser arose that held this and the Quakers now are like them which is as much as charging all this upon us Answ. 1. That we do boast of talking with God or of Revelation This is another of his false Accusations for we boast not nor do we glory in any thing saving in the Lord and this is no Error but that which we must acknowledge unto or else deny the Truth to talk with God and God with us in and by his own Spirit for all the Saints have converse with God and union and fellowship with him in his own Spirit as the Scriptures do declare And as for Revelations we do acknowledge according to Christs words that we had never known the Father not the Son but by Revelation For none know the Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him as it is written and all such as have not converse with God and that have not Revelation are not in the way of Eternal life but are ignorant and without God in the world and neither know him nor have fellowship with him 2. As for killing all the Wicked this is another false Charge for it is not our principle to war against the persons of any men and kill them with carnal weapons about Church and Ministry and Religion as the Papists and Protestants do one with another but it is our Principle to war against the evil spirit in men and to smite that with the Spiritual Sword of Gods Word and we would have mens Wickedness killed and their Persons saved and their Souls delivered and this is the War we make even till men be changed by the Power of God and all things made new even a new World and a new Earth we do expect according to the Lords promise so that it 's no errour to expect a New Earth and a New World for there is a New Creation which the Saints do witness created a new in Christ Iefus to bring forth good fruits unto the living God and all that do not witness this are in the transgression of the old Creation which brings the Wrath of God Again The Accuser tells a story of one that prosessed the gift of discerning Spirits and to know the Elect from Reprobates and that made Holiness to consist in speaking little and living homely and sordidly as our Quakers do saith he Answ. 1. As for discerning of spirits that is gift which the Saints of God do receive in all Ages for the Apostle said to some was given the discerning of spirits by the manifestation of the Spirit of God So to profess discerning of spirits is no errour in us though it be stated as a great errour before you by an ignorant man who knows not what he saith nor whereof he affirms And it 's possible to know the Elect from Reprobates by their fruits and works for the Children of God who are the Elect are known by their

A VINDICATION OF THE People of GOD CALLED QUAKERS DIRECTED Unto Roger Boyle Called Earl of Orrery Charles Coote Called Earl of Mountrath Theophilus Iones Called Sir Theophilus Iones BEING AN ANSVVER To a BOOK dedicated to Them by one George Pressick of Dublin In which Book many Lyes and Calumnies are presented against the Innocent People of God And this is for the clearing of the TRUTH that no Lye may rest upon it And for the Satisfaction of all Sober People in Ireland and elsewhere With a Word of Good ADVICE to the Chief Governours there By E. B. London Printed for Robert Wilson in Martins Le Grand A VINDICATION Of the People of God called QUAKERS THere is Irreconcileable Enmity between the two Seeds to wit the Seed of God and the Seed of the Serpent and these two are alwayes opposite and contrary one to the other in Nature Fruits and Effects and the Seed of the Serpent is alwayes persecuting the Seed of God in every Age and Generation and they in whom the Seed of the Serpent is living and ruling are alwayes projecting and contriving mischief and hatred against the People and Servants of the Lord in whom the Seed of God liveth and reigneth as it is written He that is born of the flesh persecutes him that is born after the Spirit Thus it hath been in all generations and thus it is at this day Great is the opposition that is made by many in Lyes and Slanders in Reviling and Reproaching in Imprisoning and Persecuting and in all manner of evil works and words against the innocent People of God called Quakers How have the hands of ungodly men been lifted up to smite that People by many kinds of abuses and how have their tongues been set on fire to reproach and revile and slander in all kind of evil-speaking and all this for Righteousness-sake and not for any evil-doing For who is the man and where is he that can justly charge Evil upon that People either in Doctrine Faith or Practice or in any thing relating to their Religion to God-wards or in relation to their Conversations and Walking towards men It is true we have not wanted Accusers to every Authority but such and such things have been falsly charged against us and that to every Power that hath been since we were a People under whom we have been a Suffering People even from all that ever have sitten in the Throne since the Lord raised us up to bear witness of his glorious Name and Truth in the world Now the present occasion of this my present work is Forasmuch as we now stand accused of great and heinous Crimes in the view of this whole Kingdom of Ireland and more particularly before you Three in a Book called A brief Relation of some Remarkable Passages of the Anabaptists in Germany c. published by one Geo. Pressick of Dublin and dedicated in a special manner to you that his Work may passe with the greater Credit and his Slanders and Calumnies be received for Undoubted Truths Now that the Innocency of the Upright may be cleared and that no lye may rest upon the Truth nor that you neither any others may receive Falshoods for Verities because of our silence therefore it is that the Lord hath put it into my heart to defend the Cause of God and his People by returning plain and sober Answer to the principal parts of his Book wherein we are concerned and falsly charged and for the end that the false Accuser may be reproved and his Calumnies returned into his own evil and malicious heart from whence they came and that You and all men may be truly informed and prevented if possible of being seduced into the belief of falshoods lest that your hearts and hands should be stirred up to Act or Do in your Authority against the People whom God hath blessed and from the ground and cause of Mis-informations and false Accusations without better testimony which would be a way to destroy your selves and to bring the guilt of the unjust Sufferings of the Lords People upon your own heads which would draw down the heavy Wrath of God upon you I cannot flatter you by feigned words of Guile nor give you flattering Titles but I judge you are Reasonable men in that degree as to hear and consider our Defence aswell as our Enemies Charge and I hope you are wise in that degree as to judge between Truth and a Lye and to distinguish one from the other and I suppose you are just in that measure as to receive what ye know to be Truth and to reject what ye know to be False being convinced in your own Consciences and as such I must place my Plea before you particularly and make my Defence to your Iudgment Seat even to the Witness of God in your Consciences I intend and mean And I shall omit to say much to the Accuser himself as supposing him a man more full of envious raging humour than of solid and wise judgment to receive either reproof or conviction for many such as he I have dealt withall in this case whom I have found men so filled with prejudice that neither the Authority of sound Reason nor of the Word of God could convince them of their evil proceedings Therefore before you I shall state the particular Accusations and the Defence against them The way in which our Adversary hath proceeded in his Accusations is obscure and yet malicious enough and also in great ignorance for he tells you in his Epistle he hath gathered up out of several Authors the most remarkable passages both of the Doctrine and Practice of the Anabaptists so called in Germany 139 years ago and then he charges the same things upon the Anabaptists and Quakers as he scornfully calls them in these dayes and then he applauds you three in words of high stile for being instrumental to suppress their insolent tyrannical usurped Authority which they exercise over Gods People in this Nation to enslave us saith he to their insatiable lusts There are his own words in his Epistle Answ. In answer to all this divers things are very considerable which I desire to lay before you 1. Concerning the Anabaptists so called in Germany and their Doctrines and Practices with the several Transactions falling out in that time It is not my work now to plead their Cause nor yet can I justifie them in their proceedings if the relations given of them be true which are many and to me seems not in every thing credible because I find it were their Enemies who are our Authors who seldom give true relations of such whom they hate But be the Relations true or false it is not material in this case in hand for my occasion is not concerning a People so far off as in Germany and of so long time as above a hundred of years but I am to clear the Innocent who are now living from the present Accusations of an envious man though