Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A34915
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God's holy name magnified, and his truth exalted by the testimony of his faithful servants who have suffered the cruel penalty of banishment from their native country by the rulers thereof as also an abstract of their names : with some of the barbarous dealings and useages they received and sustained from the hands of those instruments that were imployed in the imbarquing of them / R.C. Unto which is annexed Englands sad estate and condition lamented / written by George Fox the younger in the beginning of the year 1661 ...
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R. C. (Richard Crane); Fox, George, d. 1661. Englands sad estate and condition lamented.
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1665
(1665)
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Wing C6812; ESTC R24785
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24,205
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34
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the Fatts to overflow and she is come up into remembrance before the Lord the Just God who will Plague her and all her Merchants and Inhabitants according to their Abominations whereby they have grievously provoked Him Therefore come out of her whilst Mercy and Time is offered lest you perish with her in her Judgments which the Lord is Strongly and Swiftly bringing upon her Oh England England A day of Sorrow and Calamity is comeing upon many of thy Inhabitants I have long been sensible of it even a day of such Breaking Confusion and Judgement as hath not been for a long space For thy People have wearied out the Lord with their iniquities and grieved his holy Spirit with their abominations days without number Oh England England The Lord hath a precious and Holy Seed in thee Yea He hath a Remnant which he hath raised by his Power to for himself which are exceeding precious in his sight and these a great part of thine Inhabitants have Shamefully entreated and grievously oppressed and persecuted And they have patiently born the same and have laboured in the Life of Innocency and Spirit of Emanuel to Inform thy Rulers and People in the Things that are Just and True and have shewn them the Wayes which have and do Displease the Lord and have Exhorted and Warned the Inhabitants Time after Time But notwithstanding their Doctrine Lives and Conversations have manifested their Innocency and Vprightness of Heart before God and Man yet have many of thy Rulers Priests and People Oppressed them more and more Some Spoiling their Goods others Imprisoning their Bodies in filthy Holes and Dungeons till Several of them have Sealed their Testimony for the Lord with their Blood which cryeth for Vengeance in the Ears of the Almighty and the Lord hath heard the Cry thereof and hath looked down and beheld the Actings of the Sons of men and he is near to Visit Yea the Lord hath beheld and doth behold the Snares that have been and are laid for the Innocent who have no other Helper but him alone and therefore they have Commited their Cause unto him who shall bring it to pass Yea he hath taken Notice how several of thy Rulers have combin'd together and endeavoured to Force his Babes to Violate his Royal Law and to Break his Command who saith Swear not at all to Uphold and Obey theirs which is Contrary to his Yea He hath taken notice of the Cruel Sufferings and great Temptations of his People who many of them are yet Imprisoned and both their Bodies and Estates threatned to be destroyed by some evil Men if they will not break the Royal Law and Commandment of Christ which he hath placed in their hearts to Obey Do. Oh! The Lord hath seen the Partiality and evil Intents of several of the Judges and Rulers of this Land who have had Power to let the Innocent go free and yet keep many of his Ministers and Servants many of which have outward Estates Prisoners in many places although they have no more against them than against those whom they have turned forth which is nothing else but for their Obeying the Command of Christ in them who this day saith unto his People Swear not at all as he said to his Disciples formerly and for meeting together and Speaking and Praying in his Name for the Edifying Comforting and Building up one another in their most holy Faith The Lord hath also taken notice that when some of the Rulers might Relieve the Innocent and let the Oppressed go free they will not and then to cover themselves they wil say They cannot act contrary to the Law But when a Ruler will act that which he hath no Law for he can then plead a Prerogative Royal for that and thus are the innocent Lambs of Christ made a Prey upon Oh! the Oppressions of his People and others are great this day in thee O Land and the Crying of the Fatherless the Widows and the Needy is come up before the Lord God of Compassion who will thorowly plead the Cause of his People and the Poor and Needy of the Land Oh England England I have oft heard and treasured up what the Lord hath said in me concerning thy Inhabitants but now must I declare it in the Appointed Season Thus hath the Lord spoken in me for a long time concerning thy Inhabitants saying The People are too many the People are too many I will thin them I will thin them Mark that is He will make them fewer for they cumber the Ground And the spirit of the Lord hath oft signified unto me for a long time That an Over-flowing Scourge yea even an exceeding great and terrible Iudgment is to come upon thee O Land and that many in thee shall fall and be taken away in the Judgment and the Spirit of the Lord signifieth unto me that the time draweth nigh and that the Decree of the Lord is so firm that though some of the Lords Children Prophets could appear so as to stand in the Gap yet should not that alter his Decree only in the Righteousness of the Lamb they shall be hid saved from his Wrath what ever may be done to any of their Bodies but his fierce Wrath Indignation shall be poured forth upon the Ungodly and a great Desolation and Destruction shall there be for he will overturn and overturn till he hath dis-throned thrown down the Man of Sin exalted established the Kingdom of his dear Son over all the Kingdoms of the world and the Kingdom and Dominion and the Greatness of the Kingdom under the whole Heaven shall be given to the Holy People the Sints of the Most High whose Kingdom is an Everlasting Kingdom and all Dominions shall serve and obey him who is King of Saints Behold ye Despisers and Wonder This is the Work which the Lord will accomplish by his own Power though you will in no wise believe it but you shall feel even both Hypocrites and Prophane that the Lord is able to bring to passe the thing that is in his heart And you who now think to set up and establish your Idolatry and to live in Prophaness without control and you who appear so hot against some of these things and labour to stop and pull them down mark that you might set up and establish your own Hypocritical Will-Worship in another dark dead Form I will frustrare you both saith the Lord God and you shall grind and waste one against another as the upper and nether Milstone And I will pluck out from you and preserve a holy Seed beyond expectation and I will be avenged on you for that which you have already bruised or shall yet bruise mark And I will hurry and hurl you round with a mighty Stream for the Waters shall roar and swell And after I have executed my vengeance upon the Rebellious and Treacherous Dealers I will then bring forth the Remnant of my Holy Seed
which shall be preserved from their Fury and they shall spread over all in my Life Power Knowledge and Wisdom wherein they shall stand in Dominion Yea and they shall rule the Earth in Mercy Justice and true Judgement and they shall forgive and love their Enemies as they do at this day and do the thing that is just and good unto all without respect of persons yea they shall seek the good of the whole Creation in 〈◊〉 true love and self-denial for the Spirit of Love Meekness Healing and Restoring shall mightily fill their tender Bowels and my Blessings shall fill their Dwelling-place and the Earth for their sakes these things will I accomplish by my own Power and in my own time saith the Lord God But although these things touching the holy Remnant shall certainly be fulfilled in their Season Yet before they be fully accomplished great will be the Tryals of many of the Righteous and there will be great Judgments executed in thee O Land by Him who oft-times maketh a fruitful Land barren because of the wickedness of them that dwell therein and Just will it be with Him to deal so with thee because of the great wickedness of the greatest part of thy Inhabitants who are departed and separated from the Spirit of Mercy Love Compassion and Healing and are labouring to Devour Oppress and Destroy one another and the whole Creation Oh England England There is also a People in thee who are come to see the Great Idolatry and Superstition which many are now striving to revive and set up in thee yea there is a People in thee which see and believe that the Worship which is now a setting up with the Vain Musick Altars Mass in English and the foolish needless Garments of the Priests and such like Popish stuff that these things are Idolatry Folly and Vanity and but a mocking of God and yet some of these People will run after this Vain Worship for self-ends slavish fear and to keep themselves in esteem with or amongst those who plead for it And others there are in thee who instead of being sorrowful for such Abominations and Superstition or reproving the Practicers thereof in the solid seasoned savoury Life and holy Dread of the Lord God they write and speak scoffingly of those things even to the stirring up one of another into vain Laughter and so make a sport of others Idolatry and this grieveth the Spirit of the Lord also and doth not convince but exasperate and harden those that are zealous for their blind Worship and Superstition There are also a great number of brittle fiery rash unsatisfied people in thee O Land who are as unstable as Water and these rebelling against the Light not knowing the way of it because they abide not in the path thereof they are restless rouling and raging oft-times like the Sea One time they will have a Parliament and cry out They shall govern and heal them and when they have gotten them in a short time they grow weary of them And then another time they will cry out for a King and say He shall heal them and make up their Breaches But these people are not long of one mind for they are much like the Athenians who spent their time in little else but either to tell or to hear of some New thing These People also are like mighty Tydes in thy Chanels O England which one while run with Violence driving all unsetled light unfixed things one way and shortly after run with as much violence the contrary way Therefore in a miserable condition are those Rulers whose strength is in such a People And untill Rulers come to be setled and fixed in Him who is the Rock of Ages and singly to rule in and for Him whom the Winds and the Seas obey who maketh the Waters to stand on heaps and divided them hither and thither and altereth the natural course of Tydes as he pleaseth as he hath done thine of late to shew thee the Figure of the People they can neâ—e safe neither will the People be still'd long together but there will be Swellings Ragings Overflowings sore Breakin gs and Ruines Oh! that the foregoing Rulers would have been perswaded to have Received Him for their Teacher who Ruleth in the Kingdoms of Men then should they not onely have seen what the Lord cast out others before them for but they should have been taught how to have denied all those things which the Lord was angry with others for and they should have received Power to have abstained from the same but they would not hear and obey the Lord nor his Prophets and therefore were they cast out also And therefore O! that the Rulers that now are would be perswaded whilst they have their Day by the Lord and his Servants to receive the Lord Jesus Christ to be their King and Teacher and then they should not onely see for what cause the Lord cast them out and others in their Age but they should be taught to deny and forsake all those things which God was angry with them and others for and they should receive Power to do those things which they and others before them left undone But alas How few are there that will Hear Regard and Obey the Prince of Life and his Followers and therefore is Desolation coming as a mighty Flood which none shall be able to stop Now all People in what Sect or Opinion soever in whom there are any true Breathings and Desires after the Lord and the way of his Holines Fear not neither be dismaid because of the Rage that you may yet see the Waters of the Land in and because of the Confusion and Cruelty of the People But stand still in that Life which begetteth Breathings and Thirstings in you after the Lord that you may come to see and feel his Salvation and that you may be gathered into that Patience Meekedness Contendedness Rest Peace and Satisfaction which many of the dear Lambs and Children of my Father are gathered into wherein they lye down and none can make them afraid though their Bodies and Estates be oppressed and abused Oh! Stick not Stick not in your Formes without Power neither Flee the Cross any longer but wait in the True Simplicity to feel God's hand of Tender Love which he reacheth forth to and manifesteth in you to lead and guide your minds into his Pure Worship which is in the Spirit and in the Truth Oh People This is the Worship that he will set up He will be LORD and LAW-GIVER in the Consciences of his People and those that will not be content that EMMANVEL should Reign over them he will slay them with the Sword of the Spirit The Words of his Mouth Oh! Hearken hearken a little and stand still that you may hear the voice of the true Shepherd in your own Hearts who calleth for Truth in the Inward Parts and he will discover what lodgeth Within and He will shew you the