Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	holy_a	speak_v	word_n	18,876	5	4.5025	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45901	The innocent cause of the people called Quakers in the north of Scotland, who are under great sufferings, laid open and presented to the King and his council in Scotland, and to all inferiour magistrates, judges, and rulers, who have a hand in our present sufferings.		1677 (1677)	Wing I205; ESTC R215418	5,624	1

world and therefore it is no Enemy to the Kingdoms and righteous Governments of this world and if they incroach not upon this Kingdom he will not only permit them but bless prosper and promote them whereof many examples can be given out of the holy Scripture Now for this cause it is that we cannot in Conscience own the worlds Teachers to be the true Ministers of Christ Jesus nor concur to hold up or countenance their Ministry even because they neither preach the true Doctrine nor live the true life of Christ and his Apostles and therefore it is that their Ministry their Preaching and Praying is so barren unfruitful and unprofitable unto their Hearers They preach not Christ Jesus to be the true Life and Light of all mankind as he doth inwardly appear and is revealed of the Father to quicken and enlighten them who is the true Light that doth enlighten every man that cometh into the world and by his divine Illumination in the heart of every man doth convince and reprove of all unrighteousness and perswade to all righteousness yea and by his power his spirit and life powerfully move and encline all unto it and so should attain to Everlasting Salvation according to Scriptures testimony But the worlds Teachers deny the saving universal Illumination of Christ Jesus in all men and tell the People that the Light in them is not of a saving nature nor able to lead them unto God although they should follow it never so diligently and so they deny the true universal free grace of God also they deny the immediate Revelation and Inspiration of the spirit of Christ Jesus in these days and the immediate teachings of God which is contrary to the nature and substance of the new Covenant wherein the Lord hath promised that all shall be taught of him And although they preach sin and the Devil to be in men and that the Devil hath his false Prophets whom he doth inspire yet they deny that God hath his true Prophets whom he doth divinely inspire with his divine inspirations in our days or since the Apostles times contrary to the promises of God and the experiences of the Saints in all Ages And they preach Christ only without and his Righteousness without only and so they preach only an outward foundation and outward rule and guide an outward word and call whereas the true Apostles and Ministers preached Christ within as well as without and preached the Law and Word in the heart and an inward call and they witnessed the life of Christ made manifest in them and from this life they preached and prayed and gathered the Churches and they ministred according to the measure of the heavenly gift given unto them of God they spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And their preaching and teaching was not with words of mans Wisdom nor stollen from the Mouths and Lives of other men but in the demonstration of the spirit and power of God as he spake in them and gave them utterance and as they freely received so they freely gave and forced none to maintain them and did take of none but such as were worthy and having food raiment therewith were content In all which the Worldly and National Teachers are contrary unto the true Ministers of Christ Jesus And they plainly declare they know not Christ within them they have heard nor seen nothing from the Lord nor received any inward or immediate call from him to preach or teach but derive their call generally from the Church and Bishop of Rome as is manifest out of their own mouths and printed Books Now how can we own such teachers who know not Christ in themselves nor his spirit nor his life nor his power in their hearts For the Lord hath brought us to know Christ in us and feel and savour and taste of his Life and Power and we have received of his spirit and the same spirit hath taught us the living knowledge of God and of Christ and by the same many of us have received a living Ministry and living words of life to speak unto people that minister Life and Grace unto the Hearers and they give a certain sound and direct people to a certain and infallible thing to wit the principle of the divine Life and Light of Christ Jesus that is in the hearts of all men that all men may believe in this join to this and give Obedience unto it and whoever do so they receive the spirit of Christ and it becometh in them a Well of living water springing up unto Eternal Life as many witness at this day blessed be the name of the Lord for his unspeakable gift And having found the Fountain of living waters we can go no more to these broken Cisterns that can hold no water to wit the dead and dry Ministry of the worlds Teachers that has no life in it because they preach not from any feeling of the life of Christ in their hearts And many other things there are which we have to charge upon the worlds Teachers as reprovable and contrary to the sound Doctrine of the Gospel as witnessed in the Scriptures And certainly if they were indeed spiritual men and able Ministers of the New Testament they would have confidence enough to overthrow us and overcome us if we were such as they alledge by their spiritual weapons and would not so trouble and weary you in crying out to help them against the Quakers with your outward coercive power as they cryed out of old help men of Israel And if it would please the King or His Counsel to cause any of these Teachers openly to meet with us and appoint such as might fairly and equally hear us we doubt not but by the assistance of Christ we should prove them to be no Ministers of Christ and their Doctrine in the most weighty and material things and also their Worship to be contrary unto the Doctrine of Christ and the Apostles and unto the Worship which Christ set up which was in spirit and in truth And seeing we are at least thus perswaded in our Consciences why should the King or any in Authority under Him seek to force our Consciences to a way that is contrary to our perswasions we are as true Subjects and as ready to obey the Kings just Laws in all civil and temporal respects and to pay Tribute as any others we hope in the Nation And being faithful to God we cannot be unfaithful to the King but if we should prove unfaithful to our God and for fear of suffering defile our Consciences and act contrary thereunto we might justly be the more suspected as not like to prove faithful unto men Therefore let us have the free exercise of our Consciences as Christians as well as our liberty and freedom as men for which cause we are most willing to do all things that belong to us as good and true Subjects For even the Emperour of the Turks giveth unto the Christians in his Dominions the free exercise of their Consciences they paying their Taxes unto him and also the Jews were permitted to have their Meetings by Augustus and at this day are permitted by divers Kings Princes and Common-wealths And then why should not we have the same liberty by and from them that profess the same God and Christ We have no Idolatrous principles nor practices nor are we holders forth of any strange God or Christ nor preachers of any other Doctrine but the same abundantly witnessed by the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament And why should we be hindered to preach and pray in our Meetings only because we have not a Licence from the Bishop of the Diocess we question the Bishops own call and do not believe that it is of God nor can he instruct it any other way but by the Popes and Bishops of Rome which all true Protestants should deny as they did at their first coming forth He that hath my word said the Lord let him speak my word faithfully he doth not say provided he hath a Licence from the Bishop of the Diocess but the Lord hath given unto us his word and it hath been as a fire in our bones therefore we could not but speak it and judge ye your selves whether we should obey God rather then men not only the Scriptures testimony but the testimony of most famous and eminent for Piety and Learning hath been against using force in the matters of Religion This work that is begun among us is certainly of God and therefore ye cannot overcome it no more then ye can hinder the Sea to flow or the day to spring therefore O that ye would be wise and follow Gamaliels counsel that ye fight not against God for none that fight against him can prosper Given forth from the suffering people of God called Quakers Prisoners at Aberden in Scotland 16. 11 mon. called January 1676 7. A Coppy of this was delivered into the Kings one Hand

The Innocent Cause of the People called Quakers in the North of Scotland who are under great Sufferings laid open and Presented to the King and His Council in Scotland and to all Inferiour Magistrates Judges and Rulers who have a hand in our present Sufferings WHereas we the People called in scorn Quakers in the North of Scotland especially in the Shires of Aberden and Merns are under great sufferings both of long Imprisonment and spoiling our Goods which if continued upon us may turn to the utter ruine of our Families for many of us have now suffered above ten Months Imprisonment several of which are poor Labourers and Tradesmen and our Goods spoiled and taken away from most of us to the double and from divers of us to the treble of the Fines imposed upon us And in the Cold Winter season our Prison cannot admit of any Fire and is destitute of many other necessary accommodations not to mention many other severities and hardships we have and do daily meet with from the fury and prejudice of inferiour Magistrates and Keepers Therefore we have found it our duty to lay before you especially the King and His Counsel our innocent cause and so to leave it with you before the Lord for whom we suffer and to whose good and holy Will we are resigned and freely given up to endure whatever he shall be pleased to permit to come upon us as most certainly believing it shall work for his Glory the prosperity of his truth and the comfort of our Immortal Souls The alledged grounds and reasons of our present sufferings are because we join not with the National Worship and Ministry and that we meet together among our selves and some of us do speak and pray at sometimes in these Meetings without a Licence from the Bishop of the Diocess which is contrary as is alledged to divers Acts of Parliament To this we have answered and do at present answer that we do not understand our selves to be transgressors of these Acts for none of these Acts although made since we were a gathered People in this Nation do mention us nor doth the ground and reason of these Acts reach us being made to prevent all sedition plotting and insurrection against the present Government and for preserving the outward peace of the Nation whereas it is abundantly known that our principles and practices universally are most peaceable and tend to nothing but the universal peace and quiet of the Nation for as to our principles in relation to the King as the supream Magistrate we hold it our duty to live in all godliness and quietness under him to pray for him and to give him what is his as Christ did teach saying Give unto Caesar what is Caesars and to God what Gods And we are of the same Faith that the primitive Christians were of both in the Apostles days and long after that we ought not to resist the Magistrate by force of Arms or any Military resistance not in our own defence but in the patient and meek spirit of the Gospel to suffer the wrath of men even when we are innocent and have done nothing worthy of punishment and our practice always since we were a people hath answered most agreeably to our principle So that nothing hath ever been found among us either in this Nation or any other Nation where the Lord hath raised us up to give the least ground of jealousie as if we were not peaceable or were obnoxious to the present Government And it being thus with us as towards the Magistrate we acdnowledging the King to be supream and that active or passive Obedience is to be given to his Commands by all his Subjects universally why should any seek to incroach upon the peaceable exercise of our tender Consciences or to limit the Spirit of God and his divine movings and workings in our Souls And we earnestly wish in true love and good-will both to the King himself and to all that are in Authority under him that they may not incroach upon the things that are Gods to seek to hinder us from giving unto God the things which are Gods to wit his true Worship in spirit and in truth and to answer the pure holy and peaceable movings of his spirit in assembling our selves frequently together and to preach pray and give thanks as he doth move and command us seeing our being thus excused tends only to Righteousness and Peace and our Meetings are not seditious Conventicles but Schools of Virtue and open unto all to hear and see what is said or taught among us where nothing is heard but what maketh courteous meek shamefast modest chast and tending to good Neighbourhood as was said concerning the Meetings of the Primitive Christians and as was confessed by the very Pagans themselves that they were a Sect troublesome to none the same can all sober and impartial people that know us and converse with us declare concerning us as we can appeal to all our Neighbours every where among whom we live Whom did we ever prejudice or injury and let all sober and impartial people who have ben present at any time in our Meetings declare if the very nature end and service of our Meetings be not the common good of mankind to turn People from Darkness to Light and from the power of Satan unto God And seeing we are perswaded by the spirit of God in our hearts that the National Worship is not the true way of Worship that is in Spirit and in Truth and that we do not refrain from it in any contempt of Authority as God is our witness why should any seek to force or compell us to join thereunto for the witness of God in our Consciences teacheth us as also it doth teach all men that no forced or constrained Worship or Religion is acceptable unto God to which also the testimony of the Scriptures do fully agree for the Lord will have a willing People to serve him whose own Divine power alone doth and only can make truly willing and no other power can do it And the Lord hath said My Son give me thy heart but if we should Worship contrary to the perswasion of our hearts then we should not give our heart unto God and all constrained and forced Worship by outward power and force is expresly against the very nature of the Gospel Worship and Obedience for under the Gospel we do not receive the spirit of Bondage again to fear but the spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father Therefore we exhort you in tender love and good-will not to encroach upon the things of God nor to meddle with the prerogative of Christ Jesus nor seek to stop and limit his Soveraign Power Will and Authority in and over the Consciences of his People let him set up his Kingdom among you which will not destroy any just Kingdom or Government of men but will indeed establish and confirm it His Kingdom is not of this