Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	holy_a	know_v	16,529	5	4.2676	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95890	A looking-glasse for malignants: or, Gods hand against God-haters. Containing a most terrible yet true relation of the many most fearefull personall examples (in these present times, since the yeere, 1640.) of Gods most evident and immediate wrath against our malevolent malignants. Together with a caveat for cowards and unworthy (either timorous or treacherous) newters. Collected for Gods honour, and the ungodlies horrour, by John Vicars. Imprimatur hic liber. Iohn White.	Vicars, John, 1579 or 80-1652.	1643 (1643)	Wing V317; Thomason E33_18; ESTC R19020	39,491	44

bounds as not to breake out to do that mischiefe unto His which their malignant adversaries most desperately and divellishly intended to have done unto them Malignants are but Gods drudges and scull-boyes to his Church and children Nay wherein they are yet farre more miserable yea most miserable of all God most wisely and wonderfully makes them in this their intended malice and mischiefe to be but as it were the very drudges and scull-boyes of his Church and children and to doe them farre more good than hurt in scouring and refining them from their drosse and filth contracted from the rubbish of the world in this life yea and by their malignant plottings fighting and spighting Reverend and religious Mr. Marshall cursing swearing jesting and jeering at truth and holinesse they shall as a most holy and reverend Minister of the Lord said exceedingly helpe forward promote and advance Gods cause yea more many times than many of the choice friends thereof and yet which I say is the height or rather the depth of their misery when they have thus done Gods worke though they little thought it and never intended it they themselves like the blinde builders of Noahs Arke who were after it drowned in the Deluge shall be so farre from having any part or portion in the comfortable issue prosperity of his cause that they shal die in their sinne and be everlastlingly damned and perish for their paines therein if I say in the interim God in his infinite boundlesse rich mercy gives them not space and grace to repent What an unexpressible sad condition are ye then in O most miserable Malignants if you could but see this your wicked worke and this your wretched wages as aforesaid even with prophane Esau Hebr. 12. 16. 1 King 21. 20. thus to strive and struggle to sell away as 't was said of Ahab that he sold himselfe to worke wickednesse your blessed Birth-right of life and salvation I speake here the pure language of Canaan maugre the false and fl●shie conceits and whimsies of our impious Antinomians those slye and jugling underminers of Christian humiliation for sinne A just objurgation to Antinomians by way of a briefe digression and of all other holy duties under a colour of their either ignorant or perverse wresting and misapplying of Gods eternall decree of salvation and free grace to his children Yea I say of those unjust and injurious scandalizers of our venerable pious and most painfull Pastors falsly terming them Legall Preachers and pressers of performance of holy duties in our owne strength and abilities a most grosse scandall and aspersion audaciously cast on them by these Satans Seeds-men of sedition and division in point of Religion Pardon good Reader this glancing digression of zeale in me and now to go on to struggle I say with prophane Esau to sell your blessed Birth-right of life and salvation for a poore base and beggarly morsell of meat or messe of pottage of worldly pel●e carnall pleasure and pretended peace forsooth which shall all perish in the use of them and prove unto you nothing but meere vani●y and vexation of spirit Cease then I beseech you O most unholy and unhappy Malignants cease I say and that timely too thus to fret and fume to swear and swagger and to shew your selves such palpable and apparent fighters against God such banders and combiners against Christ in his precious and peculiar members whom though you doe in your life and healthy times scorne and contemne The esteeme that Malignants have of Round-heads in the times of their sicknesse and distresses yet in times of sicknesse or extreme straits and heavy pressures and conscience-distresses these are the onely men you fare the better for these are the men I say that you are often enforced even out of Conscience to send for in your sicknesse especially when you thinke 't is a sicknesse to death to pray for you counsell and comfort you yea and ofttimes in health too are constrained to confesse of them 1 Sam. 24. 17. and to say with wicked Saul to holy David Thou art more righteous than I for thou hast rewarded me good whereas I have rewarded thee evill And therefore truly friends in these like cases I may greatly and most justly feare and I beseech you marke well what I now shall say unto you and feare and tremble at it too that most of the Grandees and Cosmopolites of these our abominably back sliding and apostatizing times most of them I say for I beleeve that they doe not all fight against God upon one and the same principle especially our learned knowing Courtiers Marke this O our learned and knowing Malignants Prelates scandalous Priests and intelligent Protestants at large I greatly feare I say that they come as neere to that sinne that terrible and unpardonable sinne against the holy Ghost and are as deeply plunged into it as ever any Apostate before them which sinne if I mistake not is wilfully The sinne against the holy Ghost knowingly maliciously and perseveringly to persecute and prosecute with all spight and bitternesse of spirit the Truth and true Professors thereof eo nomine because it is and they know it is the Truth of God and therefore they cannot abide it because their owne workes being darknesse they love darknesse more than light 2 Thes 2. 10. 11 12. And that there are such to be found the Apostle Paul testifies and their desperate condition too and I make no doubt but some of them have or will bee enforced ere they dye to acknowledge and cry out I have credibly heard that a some of the Kings Cormorants or Cavaliers have in our late wars cryed out Let us be gon for God fights against us as Serjeant-Major-Generall Basset a Royalist who at the dissolution of the siege at Plimouth spake the very words to one of our Commanders in our works at his going away if not true penitence yet in damnable despaire with that accursed Apostate Julian the heathenish Emperour Vicisti Galilae vicisti So these You have overcome us O Puritans and Round heads you have overcome us for Gods judgements have overtaken us in contending against you And therefore I may and must say unto you all who ever you be in this case and persist therein as Simon Peter said to Simon Magnus You are certainly in the gall of bitternesse in thus abusing the Spirit of grace and his peculiar and precious jewels pray therefore O yet pray if peradventure this sinne may be forgiven you which indeed is the ultimum refugium the last and best refuge and hope you have yet most unlikely to helpe you if not serious and seasonable For he that turnes away his eare from hearing the Law that is from loving God and goodnesse his Cause his Saints and Servants even his very prayers are an abomination to the Lord. And then you may with wicked Esau begge the blessing you so

the Earle of Somersets businesse Which Sir Jervase himselfe being on the Ladder at the Gallowes freely confest That in his life time he had oft in his playing at Cards and Dice 〈◊〉 that he might be hang'd if it were not so and so and therefore ingenuously confes●'d Gods hand upon him for that sinne And so say I now here See O thou unflexible and flinty-hearted malignant how the Lord most justly met with this malignant spirited Souldier paying him most palpably in his owne Coyne as this most notable and personall example hath most clearly declared This I received out of a Letter sent by a religious young Gentleman a Scholler of Cambridge to his father a very reverend Minister of the City of London who gave me a transcript of it and whose testimony is I know without all exception In Cree-church parish also by Algate in London one James Atkinsons wife who with her said husband were both of them commonly noted to be most malignant enemies of the power and purity of the Gospell 11. Gods hand most fearefully upon one Mrs. Atkinson in Cree-church parish in London and mockers of goodnesse and good men which her ungodly and ill disposition she manifested in the Church of the said parish at a Sermon preached there by reverend and religions Mr. Wells of New-England who in his Sermon desired his auditors that they would not sleepe she being asleep at that time and awakened by one Mrs. Clarke her neighbour a godly Gentlewoman of the same parish and that in a very loving and neighbourly way by jogging of her knee as they sate together in the Pew But she presently upon her awakening fell into strange expressions of rage and fury and instantly belched out these wicked words O you bold drunken flut doe you kick me with divers other such uncivill speeches All which the said Mrs. Clarke very piously and discreetly for the present put up in modest and grave silence and onely acquainted her husband a very religious Gentleman with Mrs. Atkinsons said usage of her in the forenoone and therewith expressed her unwillingnesse to fit againe with her in the Few Whereupon Mr. Clarke unwilling there should be any further difference between them at least to continue with any private heart-burning against each other repaired to the Minister of the said Church and desired that he with the Church wardens and some of the ancientest of the Parish would after the afternoones Sermon send for Mr. Atkinson to see whether he would abet or countenance his wife in this her ill carriage According to the said desire he was sent for and came where after he had asked the cause of his being sent for and Mr. Clarke beginning to relate it Atkinson would not suffer him to goe on but he also brake forth into foule words and told him He lied for Mrs. Clarke he said did kick his wife in the Church Whereupon the Lecturer of the said Church Mr. Falkingham desired in love to take him off intreating him that each of them might be heard and so the businesse would be the better and sooner reconciled To whom Atkinson replyed Sir I have nothing to doe with you nor you with me And to Captaine Cower who reproved him for such ill behaviour he said You are a Bl●ckhead and a Roundhead and thereupon went hastily and fretfully out of the Vestry and fetcht his wife who also came thither in a great heat and very probably full of bitternesse and some credibly reported that she had boasted being at home how she had used Mrs. Clarke But most certaine it is that in the Vestry being questioned of these things she wished she might never goe home alive if Mrs. Clarke did not kick her and said she would have the Law on her for it And both she and her husband did utter many other bitter words at and before this most evident token of Gods displeasure for as I before touched it was well knowne that they both had been a long time much disaffected to pure religion and were very ready oft-times not onely to speake evill of ordinary Christians but even of Gods owne Messengers and now I say at this time she especially suffering her tongue to wander beyond its bounds it pleased the Lord that presently after that fearefull imprecation upon her selfe afore-mentioned she was stricken so ill that she began to falter in her speech insomuch that those present tooke notice of it and thereupon she was led forth of the Vestry into the Church-yard and set downe upon a bench there where she had meanes used for her recovery but she in a very short time there died and was carried home dead And which is yet more remarkably fearefull it was credibly affirmed that a little before her death in her forementioned weakenesse one of the women about her had said unto her that certainely Mrs. Clarke would not abuse her but she instantly cursed her saying A pox on you you are one of the holy sisters and that it was observed by some at the time of her death that her tongue turned blacke in her head A most terrible and dreadfull example of Gods wrath and indignation both to her most malignant husband and all such irreligious spirits as either in themselves wives or friends mannage and countenance such unchristianlike waies and wicked courses All this I have by most unquestionable information both from Mr. Clarke himselfe and from others who most exactly knew the truth of these things Upon Tuesday also Novemb. 23. 1642. about 11 of the clocke at night the monethly Fast-day being the very next day after it one Captaine Bard of Sir Francis Wortleys Regiment with about thirty Horse came from Ludlow in the County of Salop of purpose to plunder the house of one Mr. Iohn Green a reverend godly and learned Divine and one of the Assembly of Divines at Westminster Pastor of Pencombe in the County of Hereford 12. Gods hand most remarkably upon a Cornet of a Troop of horse comming to plunder a very godly Ministers house being eleven miles distant from the said Ludlow Who being accordingly come to the said Ministers house whiles some of the Souldiers were breaking open the doore of his dwelling house one Ogle a Northern man and a Cornet of the said Troope of Horse was the first that brake open the stable doore and as soone as ever the said Ogle was stepping over the threshold to goe into the stable first as the Ministers servants who lay in a chamber adjoyning to the stable reported and testified he fell downe as dead into the stable and in the morning his Hat and a small Piece were found in the stable behind a stone-horse which stood in a stall next the stable doore which was made up so firme with plankes and barres both behind and on each side of him that he could not possibly strike him and so some of the other Souldiers brought him into the said Ministers house as a dead man the

houre Immediately after Prayer the sicke party said He was now most happy since God and Man had forgiven him and told the Minister hee was certaine God pardoned him all his finnes The Minister answered It was well if his assurance were on good grounds He replied That he was sure of it for Christ had taken away all his sinnes which God had in his sicknesse set before his eyes yea and some such finnes as he did not know or beleeve formerly to have beene sinnes but now Christ had borne them all on his owne shoulders and eased him of all that heavy burthen with many other most heavenly and divine expressions And being neere his death even the night before he died he said Hee assuredly saw Christ in a vision appearing unto him and telling him that his sinnes were pardoned and that he had a Cause on earth and that the Parliament of England defended it and that in the yeere of our Lord Christ 1644. the Parliament should obtaine a great victory over the Kings Forces and that then there should bee none of those wicked Ministers that had mis-led Gods people left among them and that from that time the Parliament should prosper but in the meane season that the rod of the wicked should rest on the backs of his righteous ones And after this hee lay glorying and rejoycing in the forgivenesse of his sinnes and even triumphing over death till the time of his departure which was the next day This relation was testified both by the said learned reverend and religious Divine who was often with him in his said sicknesse and heard most of his expressions and also by another religious Gentleman who was also then present and heard what is here delivered as aforesaid Also one Thomas Clarke a ranke malignant young man and servant to one Master Travill a merchant of London 3. One Thomas Clarke also a merchants man in London a notable malignant his penitent confession on his death-bed in honour of the Parliament being in the yeere 1643 stricken with sicknesse of which he died about three dayes before his death one William Coote a neighbour of his comming to visit him in this his sicknesse and having sate a while with him as he was going away the sick party desired him to stay a little and told him that hee would now say more to him then he had done to any which was this I am now sayes hee strongly perswaded in my heart that the Parliament maintains a right cause and at last shall have victory over the Kings Forces for they he said fought for Antichrist and he confest withall that he had lived a very sinfull life and was most of all grieved that he had spoken so much against the Parliament for which he wished he could now weep teares of blood together with very many patheticall speeches to this purpose and shortly after it departed this life This I have also from very honest and religious hands and testimony who have faithfully informed me of the truth thereof as having been both eye and ear-witnesses of the same In September also 1643. one Master Whitleigh in Golding lane in London with his wife Mistresse Whitleigh both of them very religious Christians 4. A remarkable example of one Master Whitleigh and his wife who deserted the Cause of the Parliament and truly fearing the Lord came with their foure children not long before to London from Tewksbury in Gloucestershire principally desiring to remove thence because of the wicked conversation of the Cavaliers billeted where he lived And hee having formerly served in the Parliaments Army against the Kings Forces but being now at London and for about three moneths space void of imployment resolved to give over service in the wars as finding a timorous fearfulnesse in himselfe to adventure any more into the Parliaments Army thereupon at last he had some thoughts to goe into New-England and advising with his wife who also was most unw●l●ing hee should any more put himselfe into the Service of the Parliament but by all meanes began to strengthen his resolution to goe away for New-England Whereupon he peremptorily now resolving to depart thither with his wife and children presently laid out thirty pounds for their passage by Sea and as much more for provision of necessaries to the voyage But being ready to depart the Lord suddenly struck him very sicke and in his sicknesse he was very much troubled in his minde lamenting and crying out very much against the sinne of Cowardise and Fearfulnesse which hee conceived to bee the ground of his intended removall to New-England and therefore much distrusting his soules estate cryed out often That he had sinned against God in cowardly deserting his holy Cause yet earnestly praying the Lord to forgive him this sinne promising and protesting that if the Lord vouchsafed to restore him to health and strength againe he would resolutely goe on to spend every drop of the blood in his veines for the Parliaments Cause and afterward blaming his wife for giving her consent and incouraging him therein he shortly after died yet before his departure he testified abundance of comfort and assurance of Gods favour and the pardon of his sin Immediately also after his death it so pleased the Lord that his wife fell so distracted that three or foure women could scarcely hold her downe in her bed and she taking no sustenance but what was forced into her mouth for many dayes she still in all this time of most sad perplexity crying out That she had sinned against God in counselling and incouraging her deceased husband to forsake Gods Cause and thereby she feare● she had beene the cause of his death And thus she lay divers dayes in much misery crying out of this her sinne and craving pardon of God for it And about the end of September aforesaid my godly friend from whom I had this relation comming occasionally to her house to see her found that her raging fits had left her but her spirits much spent and she lying speechlesse so that he knew not how to administer a word of comfort to her in that case wherefore being about to depart thence shee looked stedfastly on him reached out her hand to him which he tooke in his being as cold as clay and therewith spake many comfortable words unto her and ere he departed she manifested very much consolation in her soule both by words though faintly and gestures also and in a most happy and comfortable condition departed this life also the very next morning after his departure from her This relation I say I had from a very religious Citizen of London and faithfull servant of the Lord who himselfe was with Mistresse Whitleigh thus departing and whose own Sister lived close by these parties was well acquainted with them both in their lives and death and whose testimony I know to be without exception There was also about the time of the first victories of the famous and