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
A36890	A few vvords of truth from the spirit of truth to all who are convinced of the truth, and stand in opposition to the cross ... also a few words to all the litteral professors, who can own the ministration of Christ without them but deny him within them and to those that have their dependance upon the teaching of men, in oppostion to the ministration of the spirit within : together with a short discovery of the Presbyterian government, and some reasons of dissenting from it / William Dundas.	Dundas, William, fl. 1665-1673.	1673 (1673)	Wing D2612; ESTC R17235	15,054	23

yet said he I found that same spirit in him that was in the other two men who beat me and my Relation telling me simply the word as he spoke them the words did so reach me that I meeting the said Quaker again I did desire him That as he passed that way he would make my House his Lodging-place The Light in Darkness it did shine Though I did not it comprehend Till that God did my Heart encline His Word made Flesh for to attend Which he seeing the Witness in me reached he was the more free to do yet though the Witness was so far reached in me that I could discern spirits as betwixt the spirit of Meekness and Rashness yet there was still that Mind unbrought down that stood in my way to hinder my Obedience so that the Lord was pleased to stick closer to me with his Rod for first He stripped me naked by removing of my Children which was by Piece-meal to fit me to yoke my self under the Cross and then by separating me and my Wife for several years so that I was wholly turned out of my Estate also as to this day I am to live in a Wilderness Condition so that I was forced to leave my native Country and go to France where then the Lord began to work upon my spirit to bring me the nearer to himself for when all Visibles failed me and those to whom my Wife and I most trusted did become my subtilest Enemies yet the Lord did so Commiserate my Condition that in the Bowels of Mercy he made me to take up the Cross to my own will and to resign my self fully over to him seeing all Visibles failed me and he used that way of Mercy to bring me nearer to him which nothing else could and thus closing with the Visitation of the Lord I found more sweetness and contentment then ever I had in my fullest delight and Pleasure of the World and thus I do witness and the Lord is my Witness that I never came to my Rest till then and I would have done any thing never so hard and unpleasing to the Flesh to bear a Testimony to the Truth that the Lord had revealed in me and shortly there was an Oportunity cast into my hands to try me and that was this There came a Woman Friend out of England to the Town of Diep where I was then together with a Maid to bear a Testimony to the Truth against the Protestants of that Nation and brought with them several Books of Friends translated into French and distributed in the Town and gave me also to distribute which were writ by George Fox and William Dewsbury and several others and some Papers they gave forth themselves which I translated into French they not knowing the Language but in all this they never did manifest to me their Intentions for it is like that in that frame of spirit that I then was in and fore-seeing the Danger and not so fully come to the Obedience of Truth as I thought I was before the Tryal came yet so it was that they went the next First-day called Sunday to the Meeting-House of the Protestants where there were many Thousands of People and there did place themselves in the most Conspicuous Place of the Meeting just over-against the then called Minister the said Friend having clothed her self in Sack-cloth and her Hair hanging down sprinkled with Ashes was covered with her Mantle and Hood and when the said called Minister was in the highest of his Devotion she did stand up with the other Maid who did take from the said Woman her M●ntle and Hood she appearing all in her Sack-cloth and Ashes her Hair hanging down and turning her self round several times that all the People might see her did strike such a Consternation both upon the ca●ed Minister and the People that they were all at a stand the said Minister's Wife having confessed to a Friend since that her spirit was so affected with that Sight that she said This is of a deeper Reach then I can comprehend for the Witness in some was so reached at that time and a little while after they both did fall down upon their Knees and Prayed and then went out of the Meeting where a great many following of them to whom they distributed of their Books and spoke in the Market-place and then came to their Lodging which was in a Scotch-man's House who kept a Victualling-House but no Entry there was for them and they being destitute came to my Lodging I knowing nothing of this all this time I not going to that Meeting and when they came to me they did show to me That their Work was d●ne that they came for to that Nation and now wanted Lodging till they went away and I asked them What they had done and they told me so I went to some other Victualling-Houses to get them Lodging which was promised for them so as I kept them at my Lodging till Bed-time and then I went with them to that place as was promised me and when we came Entry was refused there also so that at that time of Night Lodging could not be had for them the Protestants had so stopped their Entry and where so that I took them back to my Lodging again and offered them my Bed and would shift for my self I being better acquainted in the Town but they refused to put me out of my Chamber then I dealt with my Landlady of the House to let them stay in any of her Rooms for that Night to sit up in but she refused it saying She durst not for fear of giving Offence to others all that I could prevail with her at that time of the Night was to let them have an Out-house to stay in for that Night which was an Hen-House so that I gave one of them my Night-Gown and to the other my Furred-Coat to save them from the Cold that Night and the next day I brought them to my Chamber again and after that we had broken fast I went to the Key to look for a Passage-Boat to carry them to England again and in my returning back I saw so many people of all sorts standing about my Lodging that I did pass by it but immediately one came running to me saying That the King's Advocate was at my Chamber waiting for me and when I came in he told me That I had Transgressed the Laws of the Nation by receiving Persons of another Religion to my Lodging for the King tollerated only two Religions viz. the Papists and the Protestants Then I told him That I had not Transgressed the Law of Hospitality and I was forced to it so as I could not let them lie in the Street where they were in Danger of their Lives by the rude Multitude So they took them away with Serjeants to the Judicatory where after they had judged them they sent them to Prison they not knowing the Language they wanted Food and other Outward

from England was returning for England of whom I desired Passage in his Company which he freely granted me and so came to England with his Convoy But I have omitted all this time to shew you that the High Places as yet were unbroken down in me but that some Groves were as yet left standing notwithstanding all the Wonderful Mercies the Lord had bestowed upon me in carrying me and my Wife upon the Wings of his Providence in our Wilderness Condition which would spend more time to relate then some it may be would bestow upon the reading of it yea and I dare say that none could well understand nor believe but those who have trod in the same Pathes as we did But I being so long in Egypt and I so habituated and leavened to their Fashions and Customs I was like Joseph that could Swear by the Life of Pharoah and had not come to that Plainness of Language which God doth require but could Complement with their Fashions and Words And I had Thoughts that all was well with me till I came to a Tryal in England again so that the Face of Friends did strike a Dread and Terror in my Heart when I thought that all was well till the Spirit of the Lord running through others of his Vessels did awaken me for I was Upright in my own Judgment but the Lord searched me For I could come with Confidence to Meetings and frequent the Assemblies of the Lord yet I durst not own the Name of Quaker I not being Faithful to the Measure which I had receiv'd for now it was become so far high for me as before my Obedience I had esteemed it low and after that I would willingly by Wisdom have made void the Obedience into such things as Matters of Indifferency and accounted them but Circumstantials and Foolish to put any Weight upon the doing or not doing it became so burthensome to me that I could have undergone the greatest Strait Imaginable rather then omitted it and as I became Obedient there I felt Strength and Power and a more real Content did spring up in me and in this Light and Power of the Spirit that hath visited me did I feel Strength to wait and know further his Will and Mind for in the height of this Exercise I found my self overcome and my self not my own but the Lord's to do with me what he pleased to require of me what Service he would I should be willing to obey in his Strength and if the Lord never show me any more I feel Contentment in his Will earnestly desiring that I may never stop the course of his Spirit for I find that there is nothing can nor is able to satisfie my thirsty Soul short or beneath the Lord of Life In the Fire as Gold tryed I was Till Consumed was the Tin and Dross And then I knew what was come to pass That I did not suffer any Loss Postscript FRIENDS THere are a few Words which I have to add to you The Litteral Professors who can own the Ministration of Christ without you but deny him within and who raise up Jealousies and Prejudices against us as if we denyed the Scriptures and Ordinances of God and Christ that dyed at Jerusalem professing him in Words but denying him in Reallity and Substance and you to be the only Owners of Christ and yet ye forget your own Principles who have been all your time praying for the Spirit of the Lord and now when he comes to you in his Spirit ye will not only be shie and scare off him but ye will persecute all that will not own him after your Form though we really in our hearts own that Christ in the Flesh which in the Fulness of Time did offer up that Body prepared to do the Will of the Father according as it is expressed in the Scriptures of Truth Neither do we hold any thing for Christ but him who appeared and was made manifest in the Flesh I cannot believe that Doctrine of you the Litteral Professors who recede from your own Principles of the Literal Profession of the Letter which saith Is not Christ within you except you be Reprobates and Christ in you the Hope of Glory I know that some of you will say That it is the Vertues and Graces of Christ But I would willingly know of you How Christ's Vertues and Graces are separated from himself This seems a setting up of your own Conceivings or an Image in your Mind of the Mind of the Spirit and miss the Thing it self which alone is known by the Spirit For we find experimentally a clear Distinction betwixt the searching out by the Reasonings of the carnal Mind and Scriptures opened by the Spirit and felt in the Life Therefore it were better for you to examine really your Knowledge of Christ your Faith and Knowledge of the Scriptures and your Prayers also lest ye miss of the Substance and meet with a Shaddow which is only able to please the Natural Part but justifieth not the Soul I desire that you let not this my Christian-Expostulation with you displease you but rather set you home to sink down to that which is only able to make you clearly discern whether you or we are the Truest Owners of Christ seeing ye cannot make it appear by Scripture which ye say is your Rule to walk by that the Outward Application of Christ bringeth Salvation without the Inward Manifestation of the Spirit O! Blessed be the Day forever That it pleased the Lord to come Me from the World to sever Unto the State of some Who have past through the Seas Unto the High and Glorious State Of all that have the Spirit of these That pass by Tophet's Gate Unto the Port of Heaven Where all the Saints have Rest Which the only Lord has given To the Seed that he has Blest For when I was in Egypt's Land Wanting Straw I did make Brick And ready at the Command Of the so called Kirk To Work all the length of the Day Without the Sense or Sight Of which I ever should Obey The Shining of the LIGHT That would have taught me the Way From Dead Formal Duties that 's without Unto the LIGHT Within I say Who lives in LIFE and has no doubt The Promise to Obtain Which none at all can have In the State that I have been And would not TRUTH receive Oh! that all those as do this read Would come and feel the same That they may know with all the Seed The true Abode of the I AM Who is the only Great JEHOVAH And Rules in the Hearts of Men Praises Honour and HALELUJAH To him be sung of all the Seed AMEN Given forth the 10th of the 3d Moneth by a Lover of the Souls of all men but especially to the Faithful of the Infallible and Only Everlasting Truth William Dundas THE END