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
A84383	Pseudochristus: or, A true and faithful relation of the grand impostures, horrid blasphemies, abominable practises gross deceits; lately spread abroad and acted in the county of Southampton, by William Frankelin and Mary Gadbury, and their companions. The one most blasphemously professing and asserting himself to be the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God who dyed and was crucified at Jerusalem for the sins of the people of God. The other as wickedly professing and asserting her self to be the Spouse of Christ, called, the Lady Mary, the Queen, and Bride, and Lambs Wife. Together with the visions and revelations, to which they did pretend their ways of deceiving, with the names and actions of sundry persons deceived by them. As also their examinations and confessions before the justices of the peace, their imprisonment, and their tryal before the judg of assize, at the last assize holden at Winchester, March 7. 1649. Published for a publique benefit and warning to every one to take heed to himself, that he be not deceived by the errors and deceits of these present times. / By Humphry Ellis, minister of the word in the city of Winton.	Ellis, Humphrey, d. 1676.	1650 (1650)	Wing E579; Thomason E602_12; ESTC R206414	57,353	63

very sensible of these things and of the Glory of God and good of their Country so highly concerned in them And accordingly with all speed were Warrants granted out by several of them to the Constables of those parts for the apprehending of William Franklin and some others of these so dangerous persons These Warrants were with as much speed as might be put in execution by the Constables by them were William Franklin and with him Mr Woodward Henry Dixon Edward Spradbury apprehended and besides what was done towards these persons upon their apprehension by the Bayliff of Andover where they were either apprehended first or brought thither whose care and faithfulness in this business is much to be commended they were from thence brought hither to Winchester upon Munday Ianuary 27. and there presented before those Justices of the County who live at this City by them to be examined and proceeded withal accordingly With those persons thus apprehended brought by the Warrant came also others of their own accord though not included in that Warrant as M. Gadbury Mrs Woodward Goody Waterman and some others I do not hear that Iohn Noyce was here present particular complaint was made afterward against William Holmes and particular Warrant granted for the apprehending of him but he either departing from his habitation or some way or other hiding himself was not at all yet apprehended that he neither appeared now or at any time before the Justices or at the Assize But those persons who were thus apprehended with the others that came so together with them not so much to see what would be done with them as to assist them and witness the same thing with them in their Tr●al and Examinations and together they came with abundance of confidence and boldness to stick unto those things which they had asserted with which they knew they should be accused The Justices before whom they were brought and by whom they were now to be examined were Mr Thomas Bettesworth and Mr Richard Gobbe Their Appearance and Examination was at Mr Bettosworths house who lives in the Close here at Winchester At the time of their Examination great multitudes of persons resorted to the house to see and hear what would be done with them or said by them It would be tedious to the Reader and that which the brevity I desire and shall endeavour in this Relation will not bear should I now proceed largely to set down the whole of their carriage before the Justices and of the things spoken by them according to that credible information I received of it But some most material passages I shall have respect unto together with the Examinations of some Witnesses taken upon Oath and the Examinations of the persons themselves attested by them by subscribing their names to them These will be the most authentique Testimonies I can present my Reader withall of the blasphemous speeches and practises of these persons and wherein he may see from the Confessions of the persons themselves a Confirmation of the most or most material things that have been before related As concerning their carriage before the Justices it was with abundance of boldness and confidence in general there asserting whatsoever had been before declared by them and towards others whom they had occasion to converse withall with abundance of scorn and contempt Goody Waterman a very talkative woman said to the company That if they were not there the house would fall down upon them and if they should not speak the stones would speak And being very forward in speaking after this manner Mrs Woodward told her That she saw much of the Power of God in carrying her forth to speak so as she did This Goody Waterman to one that bid her stand farther from him saying that her breath did stink answered that she defied what he spake and her breath was the breath of the Lord And concerning another young woman one of their own company who had spoken somewhat wherein she was contradicted she also answered That what that young woman spake was not much to be regard she being but a babe of a week old and indeed it was their manner to reckon their age from the time of their first believing in this Deceiver as if they had been but then born When one speaking of William Franklin called him Fellow Mary Gadbury at the hearing thereof holding up her hand at him said Thou dog how darest thou call thy Saviour Fellow thou art not worthy of a crumb Thus may these and many other such like passages which fell from them serve to discover their height of confidence in their blasphemous Assertions as also the impudent boldness of their carriage But leaving these things we will now proceed to the Confessions and Examinations of these persons themselves and Witnesses concerning them setting down first what was attested by some Witnesses and next what were their own Confessions And first take here the Testimony of Fortunatus Wats of Woodhay who was the first that I can hear of to have given evidence against these persons and his evidence had been given in to the Justices before they granted their Warrants for the apprehending of these persons but may now be here very fitly inserted His Evidence was thus A man aged about thirty or fourty years on Monday the 17. of December 1649. at Mr Woodwards at Crooxeason in Hampshire affirmed himself to be Christ the Son of the living God the Messiah that sits at the right Hand of God the Corner stone the Lamb of God that was slain at Ierusalem and had the wound yet on his body unhealed That his Spirit was abroad gathering in of Souls that he came now in the fulness of time to save the very Elect and is none of those false Christs spoken of in Scripture but the true Christ indeed If any would know my name I am said he the great King of Heaven without any guile in my mouth without beginning of time or end of days He undertook to forgive sins and by name did so to me Fortunatus Wats of Woodhay in Hampshire Witness my hand Decemb. 20. 1649. And this he subscribed his name unto Now you shall have the Examination of some Witnesses delivered upon Oath before the Justices at Andover and at Winchester after their Apprehension The accusation of Peter Blake of Andover in the County of Southampton Merchant given upon Oath before several Justices of the Peace at Andover the 26. of January 1649. HE saith upon Oath That Edward Spradbury of Andover Clothworker affirmed that one lately lying at the Star in Andover aforesaid naming himself Franklin was the Lord of Life and Glory and that he was the Messiah the Lamb slain from the foundation that he had the key of the bottomless pit that shutteth and no man openeth and openeth and no man shutteth That he was the Christ the Saviour of the World The Christ that suffered on the Cross The Lion of the Tribe of Judah

having left this certain light of the Sun of the Word the Ignes Fatui which they follow never leave them till they have plunged them into some pit or other Greater measure of light and spiritual enjoyment these men usually pretend for this but as the Apostle saith of the Gentiles Rom. 1. Pretending to be wise they became foolish so are these very carnal wherein they pretend to be spiritual and are so discovered to be by the light of the Word in their most spiritual notions by every spiritual Christian that so it may be truly said unto them and of them They have rejected the Word of the Lord and what Wisdom is in them If the consideration of these many sad Examples of Divine Justice upon the Contemners of the Word may not suffice to reclaim those that are already plunged in the guilt of this evil yet I hope they may serve to warn those who are yet free from this contagion especially all the people of God that they take heed how they fall into it and thereby into temptation and the snare of the Devil but rather let this of the Divine Authority Perfection Sufficiency of the Scriptures be as well as the first Principle for the Foundation of our Faith that is learned and received by us which the Apostle Peter directs us to 2 Pet. 1.20 Knowing this first of all That holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and therefore what they spake and is from them recorded in the Scriptures to be of Divine Authority I would put the Emphasis on 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Knowing it first of all as if it were that Principle which is first to be received by us So let this Principle be constantly cleaved to that we receive nothing in matters of Faith and Religion but what we have from it For if once we fall from this we fall from all Look not then after new Revelations but hear what the Spirit speaks in the Scripture to the Churches And by this Word of Truth try all things Try the spirits whether they are of God for now are there many false spirits gone abroad into the world Surely they are but deceitful Merchants and such is the ware they bring unto us which they will not endure to be brought to this light to be tryed Cause we have to be very jealous That that silver is reprobate counterfeit drossie which they would obtrude upon us not suffering it to be tryed by this Touchstone To the Law and to the Testimony they who speak not according to this it is because there is no light in them And be as diligent to enquire after the sence as well as words of Scripture lest by the words contrary to the true sence we be deceived From what hath been held out in this Relation may divers receive some warning to themselves in other things besides what are now mentioned First To the persons themselves the Agents and Instruments in this great evil let them consider whence they have fallen and repent Consider the greatness of their sin by the fearful aggravations which it will admit For one to assert himself to be the Christ and others to declare him so to be are they not both guilty of the highest Treason that can be imaginable against the King of Heaven and while they endevor to perswade others to joyn with them in these their evil ways is it not to draw subjects from their allegiance to destroy their Faith and murther their Souls thereby Surely they have preached another Jesus another Gospel then what Paul preached let them therefore consider whether they come not under that Curse which is by him against such denounced Gal. 1.8 9. Cause they have enough with Peter to weep bitterly for this so great an evil and to look up to that Jesus whom they have pierced by whom alone they must be saved from the guilt of that Treason which against him they have committed Let them also take heed they return no more to this or the like folly lest their latter end be worse then their beginning And though I may be likely to incur some displeasure from them for thus publishing their names and actions yet if there be in them any true sight and detestation of these wickednesses wrought in their hearts they will not be much displeased at the publishing of it for the warning of others by their example but be also provoked hereby to make as publique Declaration of their Repentance as publique notice hath been taken of the sin committed by them Many such there are who walk in that way of profession which amongst us bears the name of Anabaptism to whom also something might here be delivered by way of warning Of all the several ways and sects in the profession of Religion which men separating from the Reformed Churches have faln into since the time the Reformation began I know none so eminently blasted of God that either for the Congregations of them or particular persons have been given up unto and been guilty of such Errors and sinful Practices as those I now speak of not to instance in times past and the practices of those of this profession in Germany left on record by the testimony of those who deserve sufficient credit with us but only to have respect to our own times See we not their Congregations even in all places shattered and broken to pieces and that not by the hand of man by the persecution of any Enemies but by the immediate hand of God and by the divisions which have risen up amongst and within themselves that it is now a rare thing to find a Congregation of that profession some of them there may be yet holding together in London but in all the Countries hereabouts where Churches of them have been in several places erected and where but few years since there hath been much and zealous disputing for that way there is not now that I know of a Church of them to be seen but the members of them living in as scattered a divided way one from another as may be yea refusing to own that very way for which they before so zealously contested as the only way of God even ashamed of it as if but a carnal Administration Have not their Churches been the Nurseries and Seminaries of all these many Errors which have overspread the face of our Nation that from them have mostly proceeded and bin sent forth all these false teachers the Instruments of divulging of them Antitrinitarianism Arminianism Socinianism c. with many other gross Heresies how have they been professed in them where have the Scriptures been so much slighted and Revelations cryed up as among them and for Revelations how much have they pretended to them especially when their deceitful pretence of shaking fits was so much in fashion of late amongst them And so from this slighting the Word of God have faln into all manner of Errors whatsoever From them also

discoursing and relating of such things and what she spake I writ from her own mouth being willing thereby to learn somewhat of the wiles of Satan whereby she and others by her had been deceived and thus I received from her self at this time that large Confession so often before mentioned whence I have presented so many things already to the Reader After all this of her Confession is she dealt withall as Franklin had been to procure some acknowledgment and Recantation from her and besides the Arguments wherewith he had been perswaded now used towards her also it is farther pressed by the example of what Franklin had done and she pretending to be willing thereunto a form of a Recantation was presently drawn up presented or read to her acknowledged and subscribed by her And it was thus The Recantation of Mary Gadbury I Mary Gadbury do hereby acknowledg that I have been deceived by the temptations of the evil one the Devil in a sinful way accompanying with one William Franklin a married man and ascribing to him what is proper to CHRIST And do declare my self heartily sorry that I ever spoke of him under the names of my Lord and my Christ which I have sinfully given unto him And renouncing these and all such deceits I profess my self to beleeve in the Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God and Saviour of his people who is now in Heaven at the right Hand of the Father by whose Righteousness alone I hope and expect to obtain Life and everlasting Salvation To this her Recantation she subscribed by making her mark she having not skill to write her name And now upon this is this woman removed from Bridewel to the Common-Gaol whither Franklin had been before committed upon suspicion of Felony as hath been before related and so these two companions in wickedness after the several places they had been in though a week separated are now met together in the Gaol where they lie expecting the Assize then to be either released or otherwise according to Law dealt withall While these persons thus lay in prison together between the time of their Commitment and the Assize about the space of five weeks they were by great multitudes of persons from divers places resorted unto and visited but for several ends Some to satisfie themselves in the sight of those who had so filled the Country with the rumour and report of the strangeness of their Actions and Opinions Others that were godly and setled in Religion to confer with them to enquire into the Principles whereby they were acted to finde out the wiles of Satan whereby they and others by them had been deceived and if possible to convince them the more of the greatness of that evil whereof they were thus guilty Some again out of respect to them did often visit them for they wanted not those no not in this City who as foul as their Crimes were would speak and plead for them did look upon them as persons wronged and persecuted and by these was provision sent in dayly unto them whereby they were the woman at least as well supplied with necessaries as if at liberty Notwithstanding these sufferings which these persons had thus fallen into and discovery made thereby of their so sinful and abominable practises and blasphemies yet was all the endevor that might be used to keep up the hearts of their parties abroad For the more credit of which I shall here insert a Passage of a Letter written by one sometime a Cavalier in Arms in Wallingford Garison against the Parliament but since his discharge of that service married a wife pretended somewhat to Religion in a short time run through divers Sects and Opinions forsook his wife betook himself to another woman at least to too much familiarity with her and is now a Souldier in one of the Garisons of this County from whence he wrote the Letter I mention to the woman whom forsaking his wife he had so much followed This Letter by some means intercepted from the Original of it by a special friend imparted to me I transcribed the whole of it the name of this person and place where he is I shall forbear for some Reasons to mention but the truth of what I here insert is too notoriously known by divers in these parts to whom this Relation will come nor shall I set down the whole of the Letter but onely that part of it which relates to the business I am upon And it is thus Well I am filled with the quickening Spirit and with the Holy Ghost and I hope ere long to enjoy that Light I told you of For here is Elias flying in his fiery Charet Already strange things are done about Andover and Winchester many mens hearts fail them for fear for there is one who saith he is Christ and with Him the Lady Mary who declares strange things They never miss to make trumpets sound in the very bellies of their Converts and great ships appear to the view of all people neer them If they desire to speak with an one whom they never before saw if they speak to any to go for them they must and cannot refrain when that they send for them and messenger and all come though they go five or six miles they come again in half an hour Lights appear upon the brests of many let them discourse with whom they will Priests or else they all are converted leave all and follow them For the most part it is thought they have converted to them five or six hundred and now they are in Winchester Prison and since that He hath been seen amongst his members many of them I say Lyes all He hath been seen amongst them in appearance and yet His Body all the while in the Prison with a hundred more of the like nature which here I cannot declare Thus far the Letter the Conclusion whereof was with this subscription From and to all Eternity Thine own self MALLANCHOLICVS With this Verse also at the foot of the Letter ' Cause God in Ginger I do use to own The Holy Crew great love to me have shown By this passage of the Letter notwithstanding that most of the Particulars are notorious lyes and falshoods and if they were truths I mean that such things had been seen and done yet could prove nothing unless that this deceivers coming was such as our Saviour hath fore-told should be the coming of the false Christs in the latter times of the world with signs and lying wonders whereby if possible to deceive the very Elect yet it hereby appears with what false reports the hearts of this wicked party abroad were yet supported Among the many that visited these persons in this the time of their imprisoment I acknowledg my self to be one who still with some othess with me went several times to them and had as often conference with them I have reserved by me in writing the substance of what in discourse

have proceeded those very Deceivers whose deceits and wickednesses I have here related William Franklin was sometime a zealous Professor of that way so was Edward Spradbury Mrs Woodward and many others of them yea it hath been observed amongst us that scarce any appeared to harken to these Deceivers to countenance them and incline to their deceits but such who had been this way engaged In a publique Dispute publiquely managed in the Church at Bazingstoke in this County in the beginning of November last by some godly Ministers of this County with whom I was then somewhat engaged in the same cause with them in behalf of Infant-Baptism I saw Edward Spradbury there appear and heard him speak in opposition to us Mrs Woodward also as I have been informed was there and privately spake to the encouraging of the parties who opposed us and yet both of them in very few weeks after were intangled in these deceits and harkened unto this Deceiver to the even denying and renouncing of Christ as hath been before related of them and became as zealous for a time against those who opposed this their counterfeit Christ as they had so lately been against Infant-Baptism I deny not but some there are of this way of Anabaptism whereof I speak that I look upon as godly persons who hold fast to the Scriptures and to many fundamental doctrinal Truths delivered in them but have they not cause in all these things to take notice of the hand of Gods Justice so prosecuting that way of theirs and to be very jealous whether that way be of God which hath been thus eminently in all times all along so blasted by God Yea and farther to consider whether there be not just ground to judg that their separating from all the Churches of Christ which are not of their opinion and disclaiming all fellowship with them as Antichristian which hath generally been the practise of those of their way their casting also of children out of their Churches by denying Baptism to them leaving all the generation of mankind in infancy in the world the Kingdom of the Devil not owning them to belong to the Kingdom of Heaven the Church but denying any thing of the free grace of God in Gospel-Ordinances to be held out unto them to the great undervaluing and eclipsing of that abundance of the grace of God now in the Gospel held out unto us Whether I say these be not the sins which God hath thus visited upon them in his thus blasting their way and giving up the most eminent Professors of it to these ways of delusion For surely God is jealous of the glory of his Grace and will not endure it to be undervalued very tender of his Churches and of the little ones in them that he will not suffer those who so cenfure the one and so highly offend against the priviledges of the other to pass unpunished Oh that therefore these things might be so considered by these persons that the warning they have in them might be seriously layd to heart by them Many there are who profess to expect a personal coming of Christ to raign here upon the Earth and I deny not but some eminent in learning and godliness have held forth somewhat like thereunto but I well remember what a learned friend of mine said long since unto me when that opinion of Chiliasm was first cryed up amongst us viz. That it might be just with God for some Deceiver under that pretence to come among them and prevail for a time to the deceiving of such and that this opinion did hold out a ground and foundation for such a deceit I have now seen it somewhat truly verified for this opinion hath been the foundation of all these deceits I have here related to have been acted Mary Gadbury ●elieves Christ shall come in the flesh to raign here she asks of William Franklin whether it had been revealed to him he takes the advantage to deceive by it and saith I am the man and she as quickly believes him and through all this Relation these seem to be the things held out That as Christ should come to raign here on the Earth so William Franklin was he now come accordingly here to raign and set up his Kingdom nor think I that his deceits were or could be by any entertained unless this were first believed and expected by them I hope therefore that such an example as this is will make men wary how they entertain such an opinion which seems to give such an occasion to it But some there are who deservedly are called Seekers who if they judg not themselves to be above Gospel-Ordinances of Word and Sacraments and look upon them as carnal low Administrations yet please themselves to live without them censure all the Churches of Christ who walk in the practise of any of his Ordinances to be Antichristian deny that there is any true Ministry Churches Sacraments or any to be till some extraordinary person or persons be immediately sent of Christ as Apostles for the restoring of them Upon which ground themselves live without practise of any of these Ordinances or of any Church Society and condemn and censure those who walk in the practice of them whose opinion to recite is to refute and the evil of it cannot but be easily discerned and be also by all the people of God justly exploded that have had in their souls any true experience of the benefit and comfort God gives in to the Souls of his people who in an humble and conscionable manner walk in the practise of his Ordinances and attend upon them But let them also consider how easily they lay themselves open to such deceits how easie a thing it may be for them to be deceived by any Deceiver that taking the advantage of this expectation of theirs shall pretend himself to be such a one as is expected by them yea cause they have to take heed of it that God in judgment give them not up thereunto for this contempt and slighting of his Ordinances And may not this at last be warning to every one to be jealous of himself and his own standing That he who thinks he stand take heed lest he fall seeing such sad examples of the great and dangerous falls of these and such like persons Take we heed of an uncertainty in matters of Religion of being Scepticks in it affected with every novity and Athenian like hankering in our minds after it and beware of these whom we see possessed with such a spirit of giddiness in matters of Religion that they know not what to fix or settle upon See we the evil of error how it pollutes a man A corrupt judgment quickly causing a corrupt life so that those who cherish and entertain error quickly proceed to much impiety Of which these persons are also sufficient examples when once a person is entered into the path of error and is fallen from his ●●edfastness in the truth he knows not where to settle as appears in these persons running from one Error in Religion to another till they at length attained to that height of blasphemy that I think the like hath searce been heard of and usually the proceedings of men in their changes from one Error to another is still for the worst according to that of the Apostle Evil men and Deceivers wax worse and worse deceiving and being deceived 2 Tim. 3.13 But prize we truth and the true knowledg of it labour we to attain it but labour we also as much to be setled in it that we be not carried about with every wind of doctrine but be rather able to contend for the faith against the gainsayers of it hold we fast the mystery of Faith in a good conscience lest turning aside from the one we make shipwrack of the other Surely Christs sheep know the voyce of Christ and can discern and distinguish it from the voyce of strangers The Lord make us of the number of these his sheep and give us the ointment of his Spirit that we may know all things at least that are necessary to be known being guided thereby into the way of truth we may be preserved from the deceits of the many Antichrists which are now abroad in the world Amen FINIS Imprimatur JOSEPH CARYL May 18. 1650.