Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	know_v	scripture_n	speak_v	7,222	5	4.9707	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34857	The English hermite, or, Wonder of this age being a relation of the life of Roger Crab, living near Uxbridg, taken from his own mouth, shewing his strange, reserved, and unparallel'd kind of life, who counteth it a sin against his body and soule to eate any sort of flesh...or to drink any wine...he left the army and kept a shop at Chesham, and hath now left off that, and sold a considerable estate to give to the poore, shewing his reasons from the Scripture...	Crab, Roger, 1621?-1680.	1655 (1655)	Wing C6736; ESTC R25357	16,785	22

is rebellion against our Maker for the Scripture commandeth us not to judge one another in matter of conscience towards God but for the sinne against our brethren and neighbours we ought to know the Tree by his fruits So that any man or men in Countreys Towns or Cities that shall defraud his brethren and shall advance themselves in pride by oppression and tyranny imitating Sodome and Gomorrah in all manner of abhominations if any see this imitated in England it 's high time for we or they that so see to become imitators of Christ and the Prophets first in order of the Prophets that came before Christ who were ordered by their practice to shew Israel their transgressions in drinking water by measure and in making bread for Ezekiel took of wheat barly and beans and lentiles and millet and fitches and put them in a vessel and made bread thereof and insteed of butter and spice he was to take cows dung insteed of mens dung to prepare his bread with and he was to have his portion by weight Ezek. 4. 9. Thus the Prophet was to shew them their error in matter of food and for clothing you may see in Isa. 20. Who was a Prophet of God ordered not onely to weare sack-cloth but to go naked and without shoes three years If these Scriptures are written for our learning imitation and practice then we are to judge which are the Prophets of God by this practice in Scripture and if so where shall we finde Prophets of God But some will say we are to follow Christ and the Apostles in the New Testament and if you will have it so then we must exactly see what orders they had in their Commission that we may know them from hirelings We finde in the Commission that they were to go and preach without mony or scrips or shoes on their feet but to bee shod with sandalls Marke 6. 8. So we may doubt whether we shall finde any Apostles too if we shall judge by Christs Commission but if you will not own these Scriptures neither let us try them that mark out the false Apostles and Teachers namely John 10. where he saith the hireling is not his Shepherd and Mat. 7. where he saith ye shall know them by their fruits inwardly they are ravening wolves Many more Scriptures to this purpose there are but if you have a minde to your hirelings still you will belive no Scripture that is against him neither is there any for him so that all the true practicall part of Scriptures must bee layd aside onely talk of it and dispute of it a little and pick out of it a few places to preach out off and to write to get some mony to uphold their pride and honour in this world to please the old man in the flesh Surely if John the Baptist should come forth againe and call himself Leveller and take such food as the wildernesse yeelded and such cloathing and Preach up his former Doctrine He that had two coats should give away one of them and he that hath food should doe likewise How scornfully would our proud Gentlemen and Gallants look of him that hath gotten three or four Coats with great gold and silver buttons and halfe a score dainty dishes at his Table besides his gallant house and his furniture therein therefore this Scripture must be interpreted some other way or else denied and this is our condition if the Scripture will not serve for our own ends to fulfill selfeish desires to uphold the old man in his fleshly honour which belongeth to the Magistrate onely who God hath made a Minister for thy wealths sake and doth not at all belong to innocency nor Christ in the Spirit for there is small signe of the olde mans dying or putting off whilst he smites his fellows for the liberty of his fleshly desires and this is our condition that loveth the world in whom the love of God cannot be 1 John 2. 15 16. Love not the world neither the things of the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him for all that is in the world as the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world These Scriptures have I endeavored formerly to interpret some other way by absurdities and consequences how that if we should not weare superfluous things thousands of people would starve for want of Trading and so by consequence bring greater evill upon us So I being not willing to loose my pride and worldly pomp I questioned the truth of the Scriptures and even God himselfe and all for want of some glimps of spirituall light which my naturall eyes in reason could not discerne Therefore the most high was pleased to convince me with naturall formes namely birds of the Aire which every day brought me intelligence according to my worldly occasions for almost three years space I have observed them for they would foretell me of any danger or crosse or any joy from friends I mean any danger or dishonour to my person or losse of cattell or corne or any other disadvantage to my advancement in the world and this cleerly convinced me that there was a power above man Then I considered the wise mans saying Eccles. 10. 10. Curse not the King not not in thy thought neither curse the rich in thy bed chamber for the fouls of heaven shall carry the voice and that which hath wings shall declare the matter Also I considered that God made use of a bird to feed Elias the Prophet by this I saw that he made use of naturall causes to fulfill naturall desires so I came to know God in nature Moreover I considered the Scrptures where the Lord speaks against the Sooth-sayers and against Astrologers Sorcerers and wizzards all these I found to be the spirits of darknesse and will reach no further then the old man in the flesh yet very necessary to be known that we may avoid the evill thereof Christ and the Prophets knew all these things or else they would never have spoken against them but we in the old man have often spoken against things that we knew not out of blinde zeale but not according to knowledge Therefore let the Scripture rule us that wee judge no mans heart which belongeth to God only in the Spirit but our judgment must be externall of every tree according to their fruits For by their fruits we ought to know them So to reprove every man his Neighbor to his face leave off backbiting and slandering one another and making up our laughter in deriding the actions of others which we cannot do unlesse we think our selves wiser then they This sad thing have I observed in many Families when they have hapned in any discourse it seldom or never ended without backbiting or deriding one another behind their backs with their tongues which causeth envy and sets on fire every