Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	heart_n	holy_a	know_v	8,259	5	3.9024	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45695	A Scriptural chronicle of Satans incendiaries viz., hard-hearted persecutors and malicious informers with their work, wages, and ends, who were instruments of cruelty against true worshippers / collected by Charles Harriss.	Harriss, Charles.	1670 (1670)	Wing H919; ESTC R336	13,462	20

of these Persecutors Some of them were slain with the Sword others taken Captives and their Eyes put out and they bound with Chains and their Houses burnt with Fire This was the Portion of hard-hearted Persecutors Again Nebuchadnezer the King was a setter up of false worship and he granted forth Order to compel all Nations to be of his Religion and to bow at his Musick and Worship or else they must be cast into a Burning Fiery FURNACE so it s said All the Princes the Governours and Captains and Judges and Treasurers and Councellors and Sherriffs and all the Rulers conformed to the Kings worship But there were three true Worshippers that would not conform it s very like they were called as some are now stubborn Fellows and Rebels against the Kings Laws and Breakers of the Peace and will not be subject to the higher Powers and it s like some Hypocrites would be ready to say You may conform the thing being imposed upon you you shall be clear and the sin shall be charged upon the Imposers or you may kneel down to please the times and to save your selves in a way of Christian prudence and yet have your hearts true to your own Religion c. But these true Worshippers were of a more valiant Spirit and told the King to his face they were not carful to answer him in this matter though in other things as Tribute Custom c. they could but they gave him to understand he should not be King of their souls and consciences in matters of Worship and they knew their God was able to deliver out of his hand however they would not turn to be of his religion and worship let him rage and heat his Furnace as hot as he pleased So ye may see that false worship and persecution still goes together for he caused his Souldiers to cast them into the burning fiery Furnace but what was the Wages of this Persecutor who set up that false worship It is said he was driven from men and did eat Grass as an Oz till his Hair was grown like Eagls Feathers and his Nails like Birds Claws to the end he might know the Most High ruleth in the Kingdoms of men unto whom every soul is to be subject for he is the higher Power and souls Bishop who hath said My Son give me thy Heart and again I will teach my People my self and they shall not depart from me But it might have been well for Nebuchadnezer then and others now to receive Daniels counsel who said O King break off thy Sins by Righteousness and thy Iniquity by shewing Mercy to the Poor if it may be a lengthening to thy Tranquility Again we read of Herod the King how ready he was to be a Persecutor for no sooner the Star appeared and tidings came that our Saviour was born but he was troubled and fearing that Truth should come up to reign he sent forth and slew all the Children that were in Bethlehem and in all the Coasts thereof from two years old and under so that People may see how busie the Devil hath been in all Ages to make use of wicked Instruments to crush the very appearance of that which is good but as for Herods Wages the Lord soon cut him off and there is little question but he had his Portion among Persecutors and Murderers Again Herod the Tetrach being reproved by John Baptist for all the evil he had done and for taking another mans Wife he turned Persecutor and put the Prophet in prison and after caused his head to be cut off being requested by his own unclean Companions and its like he could say to John as some such do at this day when they are reproved by the Lords Messengers Thou sawcy Fellow meddle with thy own business thou Deceiver and Heretick we will take a course with you shortly what you would have us live without sin and be perfect And so People may see how the Servants of the Lord in all ages have Suffered by proud corrupt men such as were Enemies of Righteousness Again Did not the chief Priests and Elders and Captains prove the greatest Persecutors our Saviour Christ met with it was the Priests then that hunted after him to have him murdered And how many times did they bely him and smite him on the face and stoned him and his Followers and called him Deceiver and Belzebub and said he had a Devil and was it not the Priests then that fawned upon the Heathen Magistrates desiring them to help them to crucifie Jesus and sought out for false Witnesses to prove as if he had spoken Treason a Caesar and was it not the Priests that gave Judas money to be gainst their Informer And it was the Hirelings that gave the Souldiers money and taught them to lye saying Christ was not risen but was stolen away Also people may see that those Rulers viz. Pilate and Herod that joyned with the Priests to put Christ to death they were also false Worshippers so still its evident that Blind Zeal and False Worship and Pride and Whoredom and Covetousness and Prophaneness all joyns together in this work of Persecution but what was the Wages that many received Christ told them their House was lest desolate and the Day of their visitation was over and called them a Generation of Vipers saying How can you escape the Damnation of Hell for ye are of your Father the Devil though you call Abraham your Father for you are found doing the Devils work like your elder Brother Cain and many woes he pronounced against them which was fulfilled upon them and upon their Families and their Generations as is manifest to this very day Stephen also was persecuted by the Priests and false Worshippers and he bore a true Testimony against them saying Ye Stiff-necked and Vncircumcised in Heart and Ears ye do alwayes resist the holy Spirit as your Fathers did which of the Prophets have not your Fathers stoned or persecuted and they have slain them that shewed before-hand of the coming of the Just One of whom ye have now been the Betrayers and Murderers and those wicked men also stoned holy Stephen to death and cast him out of the City terming him a Deceiver or Blasphemer So people may see such Priests and Professors that resist the holy Spirit and follow an unholy Spirit they were and are persecutors of the Righteous Also it was the Priests and the Captain of their Temple and Sadduces that persecuted the Apostles Peter and John for preaching in the Temple and also put them in Prison and threatened them commanding them to speak no more in the Name Jesus Mark the Priests hated him then by the Name Jesus as bad as they now hate him by the Name Light in this day of his spiritual Appearance Again Herod the King made it his business to vex certain of the Church he killed James the brother of John with the Sword and when he saw it pleased the Priests and

ever their leaves may be for shew yet it is but a wild degenerate Plant of a strange Vine as is manifest by its Fruit seeing it proves a sowre Grape which is to be cast into the Wine-press of the fierce Wrath of the Almighty who knows how to reserve the Wicked for that day of punishment And I would have the Reader to observe how all along in the time of the Prophets Christ and his Apostles and since to this very day the chief Instruments of Satan in the Work of Persecution is and hath been the Priests and false Prophets and Hirelings with their Bishops and Popes and such unwise Kings and Rulers who opened their ears to hearken to their Whisperings and Lyes and Slanders and murdering counsel against the Righteous and by hearkening to those kind of Evening-Wolves and helping them to suck the Blood of the Saints and Martyrs of Jesus how hath Kingdoms been shaken and Governments overturned them and their Families cursed so perished in the hot displeasure of the Lord and their memorial hath rooted and stinks to this very day as the Enemies of God and so that which was written in the Second Psalm hath been and will be fulfilled Why did the Heathen rage and the People murmur the Kings and Princes band and assemble together against the Lord and his Truth saying Let us break their bands and cast their cords from us but then mark He that sitteth in the Heaven shall laugh the Lord shall have them in dirision and speak to them in his Wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure and crush them as with an Iron Scepter and break them in pieces like a Potters Vessel and so this is according to that saying He rebuketh Kings for the sake of his People and commanded them not to touch his Anointed neither harm his Prophets and wo be to them that break this Commandment But some will say Ought not every Christian to obey the King I say Yes in all Righteousness actively but if any Kings command contrary to God and make Laws contrary to the royal Law of Love and Righteousness then the Commands of god and his Law of Truth is to be kept only and the other witnessed against not by Plotting or raising Insurrections but passively in a Lamb like Spirit undergoing those Penalties that shall be inflicted until the Lord plead with the Oppressor and avenge his Elect that cries unto him night and day and have no Helper in the Earth and this is according to the Saying of Christ My Kingdom is not of this World therefore my Servants must not fight And this is the Faith and Patience of Saints to stand still and see the Lords Salvation and Preservation whilst they that are killing with Swords perish and are devoured one of another But say some men Ought you not to conform and be of the same Religion that the Governours of the Land are pleased to establish And if they make a Law to compel you thereunto Are you not Rebels if you do not actively obey seeing we have a Christian King c To which I answer By this Rule then I may not know what Religion I must be of next seeing the Papists and Presbyterians and Independants and others profess themselves Christians and we have seen how one gets up after another and every one sets up a new kind of Worship and cries You must obey the higher Power and bow down to my Fashion of Religion So if I should manifest my self as a Cloud carried about with every Tempest of mens brains and foolish conceits and such as can do see I little question but rather then suffer deeply they can conform to the Turks Alcoron or in the end wheel about to be Atheists and worship the visible Sun Moon and Stars or fall down to Nebuchadnezers Image if there be but Musick c. But he that is really a Christian will stand to the Worship that Christ set up which is in the Spirit and in the Truth which is the same to day as yesterday and will remain when Popish Dreams and Inventions of giddy headed men will have an end for the standing Rule that Christ hath appointed for his People to walk by is not a Mass-Book nor the Fragments thereof covered with other names but it is the Spirit of Truth which he promised should lead and guide them and that it should abide and remain with them for ever So here is the unchangeable Way and Rule and Worship set up by him who is King of Kings and this is the higher Power unto who the soul is to be subject for it s written All Power in Heaven and Earth is given unto him therefore let all proud flesh tremble before him and let none think to rob him of his Prerogative lest they be driven to eat Grass with Nebuchadnezer and so be made to know there is one will rule in the Kingdoms of men But say many People What do you think of the present proceedings against Fanaticks and do you think it safe to suffer such great Multitude to meet together and was it not time to limit them c To which I answer The greatest Meetings that I have seen commonly are at the Play-Houses and if there be danger in a Multitude then to be sure they should be supprest for the Proverb saith The Wicked run together to do Evil but I observe such Meetings as are for PLAYS and singing of BALLADS though in the open Streets are most suffered and rather encreased then otherwise together with Bear-baitings Revellings Race-runnings and much of that nature whereby the Lord is daily dishonoured and the Earth corrupted but I hear of no Fines that are levied upon such Meeters nor Houses nor upon those open prophane Vassals of the Devil who spend their whole time in cheating ●ools of their Money and teaching Youth to be Idle and Wanton and Curse and Swear and so fit them for Baudy-houses and to be Theeves and so in the end to the Gallows And as for the late Persecution in it self I have no reason to believe that it is the Fruit of a right Spirit First Because covetous Bishops and Priests were the chief Founders of it for their own filthy Lucre sake that so as Merchants of Babylon they might have the whole Trade to themselves and also lord over Gods Heritage Secondly Many of those that gave life to it the Nation well knows had more need to sit down and repent in Dust and Ashes and wait to know their own Consciences washed and purged from filthiness then go about to shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against them that desire to enter and also to bring again into bondage such who through Grace have escaped the the pollutions of the flesh that is in the World Thirdly it makes sad the hearts of the Righteous but many that are well known by their Neighbours to be Drunkards Fidlers Players Swearers c. even the worst of men it s like a Feast for them and hereby an Arrow is put into their hands to make the Righteous their Mark and their Estates a continual Prey many of these wicked Instruments bragging what they will be worth in few years but let them remember Judas his End though for a time it may be suffered as in the dayes of Malachi That the proud and such as work wickedness and daily tempt God may be set up and counted happy and yet delivered But as Peter saith Their Damnation slumbreth not for wo be unto such as go in the Way of Cain and Balaam c. Fourthly The Law of God teacheth a man To love his Neighbour as himself and do as he would be done unto and every one shall answer for himself But I do not believe these Rulers that made this late Act would be served so themselves as they have appointed to be done to others and also that one man should suffer for another this is contrary to Gods holy Law and therefore all Kings Princes and Rulers who desire and expect their Laws and Commands to be kept let them be sure themselves to keep the Commands of God and act and walk according to his holy equal Law of Love and Righteousness and this is the way for a Kings Throne to be established and his Family and Kingdom to be blessed and to cause the hearts of the upright to cleave unto him and make his dread heavy to the Workers of iniquity Lastly I observe that Kings and great learned men are very ready to be tempering about Religion pulling down and setting up what pleaseth their Fancies but we see they are not infallible but are often times carried away with their own high thoughts and by lending an ear to such creeping Deceivers that serve not the Lord Jesus but their own PURSES and BELLIES they have many fold more set up false worship and caused People to sin by compelling them thereunto according to History then ever yet they were Bringers to the true Worship or themselves found walking in it and through their darkness have persecuted and slain the Lords Worth yes by many cruel Trials and Tortures judging and condemning them as Deluders and Deceivers Wherefore all high and low come to Christ the Light that so ye may see over the darkness of mens wayes and worships which are full of Envy Strife Persecution and Murder and every evil Work and so come out of them into the new and living Way to the living Worship of the true God which is in the Mountain of Holiness where there is no killing nor destroying but are known to be Disciples of Christ in that they love one another Christ being the Authour and Defender of their Faith which gives them victory over the World and preserves his Church not by CLUBS and DRUMS PIKES and SWORDS in the hands of Drunkards and Cursers and Mockers c. upon the Rock of Life by his own eternal Arm against which the Gates of Hell the Dragons flood of malice nor all the hosts of the Aegyptian Informers and Persecutors shall not prevail Therefore to the higher Power saith the true Church be Glory forever THE END