Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	keep_v	peace_n	unity_n	7,015	5	8.9407	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B10107	A peaceable and friendly address to the non-conformists: written upon their desiring an act of toleration without the sacramental test.	Synge, Edward, 1659-1741.	1697 (1697)	Wing S6381; ESTC R184783	9,369	16

in God's Worship and Sacraments it ought not to be done so much as once but if it be no sin why may it not be done always And would it not be much more agreeable to the temper of Christianity and the Spirit of Peace and Unity for you constantly to frequent our Assemblies who own you may lawfully do it and to hold your own other Meetings either after or before ours rather than by holding them just at the same time with ours to keep the people as much as you can strangers from our Congregations than alienating their affections from us cherishing an opinion in many of them that our way of Worship is utterly unlawful and widening or at least keeping open that breach which otherwise in a little time would probably close and heal of it self The design of what I have hitherto said has been to lay the matter home to your Consciences to perswade you to embrace the Communion of our Church and thereby supersede the necessity of a Toleration But if all we can say or argue upon this matter will not prevail then Fifthly I would gladly know what it is which you aim at and propose to your selves in an Act of Toleration Is it only to have the liberty of Serving God in that way which you think to be best and thereby to be free from persecution and to go the readiest way as you suppose to Heaven without let or molestation Or is it to lay a foundation for the overthrow of the Established Church and to get in time the whole Ecclesiastical and Civil Power into your own hands as is already done by those of your persuasion in Scotland If the latter of these be your design sure you must think us no less than fools and mad-men if we give way to our own Overthrow Ruin and do not give you all the Opposition that possibly we can but if the former be only and adequately your desire why are you so Zealous against the Sacramental Test as it is called as even to refuse an Act of Toleration rather then have this Clause inserted in it That no one shall be capable of any Office or Employment in the Common-Wealth who shall not so many times in the Year Receive the Holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper according to the Established Form I am sensible That Men may have strange Notions Prejudices and Scruples in matters of Religion and that what seems to be the highest and clearest Reason to one Man may not appear Convincing or Concluding to another And therefore I do not wonder that good and well meaning Men tho' mistaken should be very earnest for Liberty of Conscience to be clear from such Impositions as they think they cannot lawfully submit to and to have the freedom of serving God in such a way as they apprehend may be pleasing to him But when Men are not contented with this except they may have also a share in the Government and be made capable of Employments of Power Trust and Profit I think it is very apparent That they design and aim at some thing else besides the Salvation of their Souls and freedom from Persecution And it becomes the Wisdom of every Government carefully to consider even the remote if probable consequences of what they do and however it may be fit to deal gently with tender Consciences yet that State which shall seem to Encourage or set up two several Parties differing from each other in matters of Religion which strangely Unites or divides the Affections of Men to make Factions one against the other and to stand in perpetual distinct Opposition and Competition one with the other for all the Places of Trust Power and Profit in the Common-Wealth I believe will be thought by most Wise Men to be out in its Politicks But if I am told that this last Question which I have put contains in it a False and Uncharitable Suggestion against the Non-Conformists and that they have no manner of Design against the present Establishment of the Church as is pretended but only desire to stand upon equal Terms with the rest of His Majesty's Subjects as to Civil Matters I answer that supposing all this to be True yet no one knows but their Successors in the next Generation may endeavour to advance a little farther than what is proposed by their Predecessors in this And since the Presbyterian P●rty in these Kingdoms did in the late Wars of 1641. actually overthrow the Established Episcopal Church and have never yet Publickly Renounced those Principles by which they then Acted nor Testified any Repentance for what they did And since the Presbyterians of Scotland have now again Overturned the Episcopal Church of that Kingdom have we not all the Reason that can be to fear that tho' our present Non-Conformists may keep a kind and friendly Correspondence with us because we have been 〈◊〉 lately joined against a common Enemy yet in the next Generation Heats and Animosities may probably arise between their Successors and ours which if not before hand carefully prevented may tend to the disturbance or perhaps the Ruin both of Church and State And ought not every Government to provide for Posterity as well as for the Present Generation And thus have I Declared or at least Suggested my thoughts in this great Affair with all the brevity and plainness that I could and I hope with that Mildness which becomes a peaceable Man and a Christian How far what I have said may prevail upon any Man I know not but I hope that no one can take any Offence either at what I have said or at the manner wherein I have expressed my self and if I have missed of that Good which I designed yet at least it will be some satisfaction to me to think that I have done no hurt and whilst I have been Pleading for Unity have said nothing which should tend to the breach of Charity FINIS