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	truth_n	7,532	5	5.8743	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26871	Cain and Abel malignity that is, enmity to serious godliness, that is, to an holy and heavenly state of heart and life : lamented, described, detected, and unananswerably [sic] proved to be the devilish nature, and the militia of the devil against God and Christ and the church and kingdoms, and the surest sign of a state of damnation / by Richard Baxter, or, Gildas Salvianus ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1689 (1689)	Wing B1195; ESTC R2643	73,886	164

disobeying men deserveth excommunication Learn of our late Laws which account all the Ministers of England worthy to be cast out and silenced if they dare not take the imposed Declarations Oaths and Subscriptions and do what the Act of Uniformity imposeth And do you think it worthy of reproach to be as strict in obeying Gods known Laws as is required to the Act of Uniformity and the Canons 31. Even the Church of Rome applaudeth great Rigor and Strictness of life in such as will obey the Pope And they have allowed Orders of Fryars whose rules tye them to great abstinence to much praying and some to much Preaching so that Religion is all their calling And shall the strict obeying of Gods known Laws render men odious among professed Protestants Yea the Papists honour the very Bones and Relicks of their dead Saints And you your selves keep holy days for many Saints And will you at the same time hate and hurt those that endeavour to imitate them Will you imitate those Pharisees whom Christ pronounceth Woe against who at once honoured the dead Prophets with building them Monuments or Tombs and murdered the living that succeeded them 32. You can never come to Heaven or be saved from Hell your selves without serious Holiness Justice and Sobriety And will you hate that without which you cannot be saved 33. Scarce any sin doth more certainly prove you to be ungodly than hating godliness What ever hope there may be of those that sin against Conscience and wish to be better and purpose Repentance that man cannot be a truly Godly man that is an Enemy to godliness so that this is a dreadful deaths mark on you 34. You would extirpate the principle of self-love which God hath made inseparable from us There is somewhat in our nature which we cannot lay by which makes us unwilling to be damned If you that believe no Hell dare venture into it we cannot do so who do believe it If you say that it is our folly to believe that none shall be saved without Holiness and mortifying the deeds of the body by the Spirit bear with that folly which doth you no harm It is not Men or Devils that we had it from but the Holy Ghost in Scripture If it be your wisdom to give God the lie and believe a Drunken sot or the Devil before him it shall be none of ours Speed as you choose and let us speed as we choose we shall meet your Souls shortly in another mind and tune Strive not to make us choose damnation now our Eyes are open We were once too easily befool'd but cannot now so hate our selves 35. Moreover he that would not have a man live a life of holy obedience to God would have him lay by that which he was made for and that which God continueth his life for and that which he hath his reason and all his daily mercies for What else have we to do in the World Have men going to the Grave and Eternity nothing to do but Eat and Drink and Laugh and Play and run up and down like Ants with sticks and straws and then die and call all vanity and vexation too late If we may not spend our time in making sure of a better World we had rather we had never been born or had died in infancy or that we had a dose of Opium that would make us sleep out the rest of our lives in quietness rather than spend it as you do and then give a sad ac●ount of all we had rather we had been Birds or Beasts Dogs or Swine than Men were it not for that life which you hate and the hopes which depend on it It had been a greater kindness to us to have murdered us at the birth than to tempt us to live for our damnation 36. What do you think it is that is Gods Image on mans Soul you know that it 's said in Scripture that God made man at first in his own Image and that Christ by his Spirit reneweth them to that Image What is it think you God hath not hands and feet and bodily parts as we have It is the Soul that hath his Image And do you think it is the love of Money and Lust and Sport or Gluttony or Drunkenness that is his Image Scripture saith Eph. 4. 23 24. Colos. 3. 10. it is Holiness And this is called the Divine nature as coming from God and inclining nature unto God. Either Holiness Wisdom and Righteousness is Gods Image or else there is none such on man And then you make Gods Word to be false And if this be it and this it which you hate are you not haters of God And is not that to be devilish and hated by God 37. While you are angry at them that say few are saved or that none but Saints or serious godly obedient men are saved you would sink all the World into utter despair and make none or next none to be saved One part of the haters of godliness believe no life to come And these would have all men despair For if there be none there is none to be hoped for and they that think men die but as Dogs Swine do must be expected to live like Dogs Swine The other part of you labour by all means to make themselves and others believe that the profession of more godliness than worldly carnal men have is but hypocrisy and that such are at the heart as bad as others And if this be so what is the consequence but that none are saved For unless you will give God the lie or be saved in spite of him you must believe that none are saved that are not sanctified by the Spirit of Christ and live not after the Spirit mortifying the flesh Ioh. 3 3 5. Heb. 12. 14. Rom. 8. 6 7. 8 9 13. 2 Cor. 5. 17. And that no man can be saved that loveth the world more than God and Heaven and fleshly pleasure more than holiness And therefore if there be none such then none are saved Hypocrisy will not save men God tells us that Drunkards Fornicators Covetous Thieves Extortioners Revilers Effeminate Idolaters cannot enter into the Kingdom of God 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Eph. 5. 5. And if any man love the world best the love of the Father is not in him 1 Ioh. 2. 5. And if all that pretend to be better are hypocrites than none at all are saved It may be you have the kindness to except some few But if those few be all that be not either carnal men described Rom. 8. 5 6 7 9. or hypocrites how few then do you make to be saved if God be true 38. Who do you think it is that Christ meaneth when he saith I send you as Lambs among Wolves Ye shall be hated of all men for my names sakes Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteousness sake When they say all manner of evil of you falsly for my sake The World will

perswade a Drunkard a Liar and Prophane swearer an Atheist to Repent he liveth quietly out of the Jail though he repent not But if a man repent not when he cannot of judging that God forbids such humane inventions and impositions in Religion take him Jaylor He that will not be for our humane Offices Ceremonies and Impositions shall not be of our Church And when we have cast him out we 'll say He separateth and if he be not of our Church he shall be in Jail As if the Church and the Jail would hold all the land except his sin be such a Peccadillo as Atheism Sadduceism Bestiality Hobbism Popery Man-slaughter Adultery Drunkenness Swearing c. not aggravated by the crimes of breaking the Canons in point of conformity Or if many thousands cannot or will not come within the Doors of the Parish Church so they will go to no unlicensed preacher nor worship God in House or Church at all they live quietly out of Prison But if the mote of an Oath or Ceremony scrupled be in their eye that eye must be pulled out if the mote cannot or else the whole body be cast into their Hell. And if the Preacher be but a Candidate of Domination his way is oft to call to the Magistrate to execute the Law upon such as dare presume to worship God openly till they hold all such imposed Oaths Covenants Professions and Practices to be lawful He is to make his auditory believe that such men are dangerous intolerable persons and that their meeting to worship God and learn their duty is to cherish Sedition Heresy and Schism and that Rebellion is in their hearts and that the Preachers that even to a thing indifferent are not of their mind and obedience are deceivers and factious and it is no sacriledge but a duty to forbid them to preach the Gospel If the People dare not trust the Parson Vicar or Curate of the Parish be he what he will whom a Patron chooseth for them with the Pastoral Ordinary conduct of their Souls or if he Preach not at all if they go to the next Parochial conformist for the Sacrament he is to be driven home and used as disobedient Through the great mercy of God while the Bible is Licensed a Preacher in England knoweth not how to spend his hour if he say not somewhat for Faith and Godliness Love and Peace And when they come down none are so hated by some of them as those that believe and do to their utmost what they for fashion sake perswaded them to believe and do Their neighbours who have not a word with the Priest of any thing but this World nor read a chapter or put up a prayer in their families these are good and quiet neighbours But if any seriously prepare for their everlasting state and mind their Salvation above the World especially if he pray without-book and dislike the ignorance and scandalous lives of sorry Priests these are the dangerous troublers of the land away with them and give us those that trouble us not with the talk of God and of death and Heaven or Hell of Scripture or of Conscience and that scruple nothing that we would have them say or do If such pray it is but in hypocrisy If they go to hear any other Preacher it is in faction If they speak any words to God which are not written down for them to read they sawcily prate to God and speak but nonsence If they be earnest as knowing what they pray for they do but whine and cut faces and speak through the Nose or are a pack of groaning Hypocrites It is confest that the spirit of Adoption and Supplication is Gods Gift and that this Spirit taught the Bishops and Convocation in what words to pray to God But if the most holy or learned man besides them pretend to it and think that any may pray by the Spirits help but the Convocation there are reverend men that will deride that Spirit or that prayer I would at least they would let men pray by reason and the sense of their Souls necessities as a Child will beg pardon of an offended Father if they will not give them leave to pray by that Spirit which all must live by that will be saved Physicians use their patients with some humanity and will not say to him that saith My stomach cannot take down this Potion I shall cast it up You shall take it or die or go to Prison Or if one say This Pill is bigger than my Throat can swallow They will rather say It shall be made less than they will cut his Throat wider to get it down And sure the reason is because the Law doth make them Physicians to none but Volunteers and give them no compelling power If it did I know not what inhumanity they might come to For I will not believe that there is any thing in Divinity which tendeth to make men more inhumane than Physicians I have seen Iews and others that will eat no swines flesh And I have known many that a tast of Cheese would cast into a swound near death And I never knew any say you shall eat this or die Nor that ever motioned the making of a Law that all men should be imprisoned or forbidden all other meat who refused to eat Swines-flesh for fear of tolerating Jews But we have Priests too many that will say Take every Oath Promise or Ceremony required of you or preach not nor worship God openly at all Take me for your Pastor or you shall have none Hear me or hear no man Receive the Communion from me or from none Deny not the lawfulness of a Ceremony or be Excommunicate § 4. And is it now any wonder that the people say as they are taught And these are lessons easilier learnt than a Catechism or the Creed or the meaning of Baptism How quickly can a man learn to call his Neighbour Whig or Tory Or to hate a Godly man or in a Tavern or Ale-house to scorn them or drink and curse to their confusion and to say I hope to see them all hang'd or banished out of the Land As a Priest that knows not what Divinity or the Priestly Office is may before he taketh many degrees attain the ability learnedly to call his Godly Neighbours Schismaticks or Hypocrites or worse So no doubt a few such Sermons if not a Tavern can quickly teach them that never knew what Religion is yea that can scarce speak sense to revile the wisest and best men as if they were sinners against the true Religion if they will be serious in any true Religion at all § 5. O sinful O miserable Land Who kindled all the hellish flames of thy malignity and mad divisions And who continueth them and for what What cloven foot hath entred and expelled concord What Spirit ruleth thee Were it the Spirit of Christ it would be for healing Love and Concord It would set men on studying

to promote Love to all even unto enemies but much more to the most holy It would make men zealous of good works and if it were possible as much as in them lieth to live peacebly with all men to bless those that curse them to pray for those that hate and persecute them forbearing and forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake forgiveth us It would teach them while they have time to do good to all men but especially to them of the houshold of Faith Mens hearts would be constituted of Love It would become a nature in them Their Speech and Converse would be the Savoury breath of Love Their dealings towards all men would be the works of Love Their sharpest reproofs would be but to do the sinner good But alas another Spirit hath possessed thee which rageth and teareth thee and is blind and deaf It calleth for Fire from Heaven and it kindleth a fire of Hell And sure his name is Legion for there are many It passeth under the names of Wisdom and Hatred of some evil But it must needs be Earthly Sensual and Devilish for it is neither Pure nor Peaceable Gentle or Merciful and Impartial but foameth with bitter envy and strife unto confusion and every evil work And yet thou knowest not what manner of Spirit thou art of Is it God that setteth rulers and people against each other Doth he divide his own Kingdom against it self when he tells us that the Devil will not do so by his Is it God that sets the parts of the same body in a hatred and War against each other As if it were the interest of the nobler and the Servile parts to weaken or destroy each other And it were an addition to the health and welfare of the one which is gotten by Conquest from the other Is it God that maketh people despise or dishonour their lawful Governours or any Rulers to hate the best Subjects and desire more to be feared than to be loved and rather to have power to do hurt than actually to do good Is it God that sets Corporations and Churches and Neighbours and Families in a state of Malice Vexation Strife and a kind of War against each other Doth the Spirit of God indite the malicious Pamphlets which exercise the utmost of Wit and Hatred to destroy Love and to call the Nation into the Devils Camp by mutual hatred to live as Enemies and Fight against the Lord and the ways of Peace And if any endeavour a reconciling healing of our wounds it 's turned into scorn and his healing motions are represented as the grand causes of division and to beg for peace is heinous Schism and next Rebellion against the Church and a crime sufficient to forfeit that mans Peace and Reputation And he that tells men of the only possible terms of Concord is made the chiefest cause of discord To serve and worship God no otherwise than Peter and Paul did and than God prescribeth is enough to render us unworthy to live on English Earth And if England may not suffer such why should any other nation suffer them There are men that keep holy days for St. Peter and St. Paul and dedicate Churches to them and their bellies are maintained at Dives rates and their Wealth and Revenues and Grandure held up by that which is dedicated to these Churches and to alienate any of this superfluity from their flesh were worse Sacriledge than to cast out and silence a thousand faithful Preachers And yet if St. Paul were a Preacher now in France Spain Italy or England and would worship God but as he did when he was on Earth and would not swear say and do as much more as the Bishops Canons bid him I think we should again hear those words Acts 22. 22. Away with such a fellow from the Earth for it is not fit that he should live here Unless he wrought miracles to convince men And whether those would prevail is a doubtful case or whether he would not pass for a Deceiver and Fanatick § 6. As in times of War all broken beggarly and idle fellows turn Souldiers as the easiest trade to live by and are never after good for any other trade but to kill and rob men So the Love-killing Regiments have forsaken other trades and this is like to put down all Booksellers complain that they can fell few Books but News and Scorning or Invective Libels And what is the subject of our formerly weekly and now daily News Books Why they tell us that such a City or Corporation are altogether by the Ears as Enemies some choosing one Mayor and some another Some called Whigs and others Tories Some seeking the ruine and Blood of others and some hardly escaping the power of false Witnesses and Oaths One Jury acquitting a man whose life is sought and another condemning him In such a Town or City so many find and so many distreined on and so many crowded into Jails and such and such Preachers cast into Prison and such a one dead there for praying to God and openly worshipping him without-book or by no book but his own In such and such a Country the people prosecuting each other on such accounts and some flying into other parts and some into America to seek that peace among Savages and Wolves and Serpents in Wildernesses which they could not have under sacred Protestant Prelates and their Clergy In France the poor Protestants hunted like Hares neither suffered to live at home nor to flie naked to beg their bread in other Lands and all this for the concord and peace of the holy Catholick Church a pattern so worthy of imitation that even such excellent men as Grotius think that it 's worth all hazards labour and cost to reduce England and the Lutherans to the French-Church-Consistence and to silence and ruine all as Calvinists that are against it From Hungary we must read how the persecuted Protestants after their utmost suffering and patience are fain to call in Turks to save them from the cruelties of Christians And that those parts that are under the Turks have far more prosperity and freedom in Religion than those that are under the Emperor Papists And Protestants under them are kept in co●●●●al fear as knowing that it is their Law and Doctrine that Princes are bound to do their best to exterminate or destroy them on pain of Excommunication Deposition and Damnation● And remembring the Inquisitions the Piedmont French Dutch Irish c. Massacres So that they are brought to this hard dilemma Chuse whether you will be Dead men or be proclaimed Rebels If whole Countreys will not lie down and die patiently without self-defence they are odious Rebels These and such other are the subjects of our News-books which have broken the poor Booksellers who were wont to live by selling Books of Learning and of practical Divinity And too many Preachers are fain to be short as well as formal in their Sermons

Canons are like to be the Law to the end of the World. § 11. But again what is it that maketh so many of the Laity serve the Popish Prelates universal claim or keep up the destructive enmity and divisions of the Christian World A stranger would think that it were chiefly caused by some great contrariety of real Interests or that one party adhered to some principles or practices which were really hurtful to the others rights While both were serious for Christianity But it is become by long experience notorious that all the Christian Worlds calamitous divisions are principally from the old enmity between the Womans and the Serpents Seed and that all is but the Prosecution of that which their first Patriarch Cain began exemplified after in the discrimination of the Children of men and the Sons of God and in Esau and Iacob Ishmael and Isaac and so down to the days of the Apostles And saith Paul As he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit even so it is now Among us it is notorious that if we knew how to cure men of the radical Enmity of the flesh against the spirit and of a carnal minds averseness to God and serious Godliness the rest of our differences were never like to continue our Wounds and cruel Factions In Families you may hear that this is the fundamental difference Husband and Wife Parents and Children Master and Servants upon the meer account of serious Godliness do live like Enemies that are impatient of each other If the Husband be ungodly the Wife Children or Servants that have but a care of their Salvation are still under his restraints or frowns or scorns This praying especially if it be without Book so much preaching and hearing yea any serious talk of God or Heaven or Scripture is a troublesom weariness to him and he tells them it is but Hypocrisie or more ado than needs If any compassionately tell him of the evil of his swearing or tipling or prophaneness he tells them they are precise Puritanes or Fanaticks and worse than he If they will needs hear Sermons he will have them go but to some cold or ignorant Preacher or one that will please him with a calumny or scorn at Puritans or that will say as he doth that this stir for Salvation and medling so much with Scripture and Religion is but proud self-conceited Fanaticism In a word it is serious Preaching and Hearing and Reading Gods Word serious Praying and Preparation for the Sacrament serious Discourse of the state of their Souls and Preparation for Death Judgment and Eternity serious fearing and avoiding sin and speaking against the sin of others that is the common eye-sore and trouble of the world which they secretly hate and cannot bear with in their Families in their Neighbours in Magistrates in Ministers or People And because it easeth their minds by vent and by keeping up some hopes that they may be saved without this serious Godliness themselves they cherish a conceit that the persons that herein differ from them are as bad if not much worse than others and gladly hear those that slander and deride them Such Company such Pamphlets such Sermons please them And to make them odious they have for them some contemptuous scornful Nickname which though it be of no signification is as effectual as the truest charge Among the Roman Sects do but call a man a Heretick or Schismatick a Lutheran a Calvinist a Zwinglian and elsewhere do but call him a Sectary a Schismatick a Puritan a Calvinist a Nonconformist an Independant a Presbyterian a Round-head a Fanatick a Whig and it serveth the turn as well as if you had proved him a proud Hypocrite or a Rebel And there be among the real Schismaticks also some persons that if you do but call a man Episcopal a Conformist an Arminian a Church of England man that goeth to the Common-Prayer they think that he must needs be a Temporizer Graceless or Dangerously unsound And thus the miseries of the Land are continued and increased But because the spirit of Cain is the Grand Incendiary and the Enmity against serious Holiness throughout all the world is the principal cause of Divisions Hatred Wars and Blood-shed I will here annex many Reasons which with men that have any Reason left them should cure this Malignant Enmity to Holiness if men will but soberly consider them I have said so much to such already especially in my Saints Rest Now or Never my Family Book and a Saint or a Brute that I cannot do this work again without repeating much that 's said But seeing all that doth not serve and the Ulcer breaketh out more dangerously than ever till it come to a Noli me tangere we must continue some hope and use of means and if we lay on fresh Plaisters of the old materials while only New Books are by such regarded we are bound to do our best It is but so much labour lost and it is not utterly lost to our selves while we have peace of Conscience in Gods acceptance But being sure to be misreported when I have done my best to be understood that I be not guilty of it I will first shew what I mean by serious Godliness and next what I mean by Malignity or Enmity to serious Godliness Chap. II. Whom I mean by Godly Persons and whom by Malignant Enemies to Godliness § 1. BY GODLINESS I do not mean 1. Any Superstition or making Religions or Religious Duties which God never made and extolling these and the Party that are for them God hath made us Religious work enough Could we do that well we need no more Religion so far as it is made by men is no Religion but a contradiction or equivocation for Religion is our Obligation and Duty to God and Conscience of it Could I be for Superstition or more Religion than God hath made us I might be for all the New Religions of Rome Franciscans Dominicans Carthusians Jesuits Oratorians and all the rest And I might be for their Works of Supererogation their Massings worshiping Bread Angels dead Saints Images their Pilgrimages Relicks and all their pretended Traditions and Councils their new made Church-Laws and I should know no end § 2. And 2. By Godliness I mean not any singular odd Opinion differing from the Scripture and making a Sect or any Errour whatsoever nor any Opinion which is contrary to any thing which the whole Church on Earth did ever hold as necessary to Salvation or Communion § 3. Nor 3. Do I mean any Truth or Duty of inferiour moment which only makes to the well-being of a Christian though this be an Inferiour part of Godliness at least not that which a godly willing person knows not to be his duty § 4. Much less 4. Do I mean any proud false conceit of a mans own Godliness and becoming one of an unwarrantable Sect that he may be conspicuous to others or

cherish this presumption in himself and say to others Stand by I am holier than thou Or as the Pharisee I thank thee Lord that I am not as this Publican Though yet all that will be saved must greatly differ from the ungodly and must with thankfulness own Gods grace § 5. Nor 5. Do I mean any unlawful practice which on the pretence of Godliness may be done whether unjust censures backbiting unwarrantable separations from others divisions disobedience to Authority Sedition Rebellion c. These are all contrary to Godliness and true Religion Christ is the strictest condemner of them and Godliness the best cure If any Godly or Religious person be guilty of any one of these 1. It cannot be as known and in a predominant degree 2. And it is his Disease as a Leprosie to a man and not his Godliness § 6. But by GODLINESS I mean only the serious Consent to and Performance of the Covenant which we made with God in our Baptism That we seriously believe that there is One only God of most perfect Power Knowledge and Goodness our Creator Maintainer Governour and End whom we must Obey and Serve and Love above all Creatures whatsoever and that he is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him and will give everlasting blessedness to the faithful and everlastingly punish the ungodly That we seriously believe that Iesus Christ is the Redeemer and Saviour who Teacheth Ruleth Pardoneth Sanctifieth and Saveth all true penitent Believers who is our Intercessor Head and Iudge That we seriously believe that the Holy Ghost indited and sealed by his Gifts and Miracles the Doctrine and Writings of the Prophets and Apostles now recorded in the Scriptures and that he is sent from the Father and the Son to Regenerate Sanctifie Comfort and Strengthen those that shall be saved And that we seriously consent to Love and Obey God our Father Saviour and Sanctifier as his Creatures Subjects and Children in these Relations that we may be pardoned and saved by him And that we be willing to forsake the Devil and his Works and the World and Flesh so far as they would tempt us to break this Covenant against God and our Obedience and Salvation And lastly That we seriously or sincerely though not perfectly endeavour in our lives to keep this Covenant preferring God in our Love and Obedience and our Hopes of Life everlasting before all the pleasures and treasures of this World and resisting the temptations of the Devil World and Flesh which would turn us from him and from our Obedience and Hope And that we truly though not perfectly trust God and our Redeemer for the Heavenly Glory which he hath promised This is plainly distinctly and fully what I mean by Godliness or Holiness And such are the persons though all imperfect and of divers degrees which I call Saints or Godly He that feigneth me to mean any thing else doth but abuse himself and me If there be none such there are no Christians and all the Word of God is vain But every Duty commanded by God is a part of the matter of our Obedience and Religion viz. As according to the first Commandment to take God for our God to be absolutely Obeyed Loved and Trusted and to renounce all Idols and neither to Obey Love or Trust our selves or any creature before him So also according to the second Commandment to renounce all scandalous symbolizing with Idolaters in the outward worship of God in their sinful way especially by Images and other apearances of Idolatry And that we worship God according to his Word And according to the third Commandment that we avoid all Prophanation of holy things All Perjury false Vows and fathering falshoods upon God or his Words and rash Swearing and Unreverent using of Gods Name and turning his worship into a lifeless form And according to the fourth Commandment that we worship God publickly in solemn assemblies and devote the Lords day to holy exercises that we search the Scriptures pray for what God hath promised or commanded Meditate and Confer of holy things and celebrate the Sacraments in the Communion of Saints And so according to the second Table that we honour and obey our Parents and as far as their right of Government reacheth all other that God sets over us And dishonour them not nor obey Civil Ecclesiastical or Domestical Usurpers against them That we do our best to save our neighbours Life and Bodily welfare against Murderers or Usurpers and hurt no mans life or health either violently or by Iezabels pretence of Justice That we keep our Senses Thoughs Affections Passions and Actions from all unchastity and immodest lasciviousness That we wrong no man in his estate but to our power help them That we avoid all Injustice Lying false Witness false Judgment and Oppressive Unrighteous Government And promote Truth and Justice to our power And lastly that we love our Neighbour as our selves and take his welfare and his sufferings as our own and do as we would have others do by us and covet not to draw from him to our selves So that he that pretendeth to love God and Godliness and obedience to Christ and yet loveth not such a life as this he lieth or says he knows not what And he that hateth men or opposeth them for any one of all these duties for reading or hearing Gods Word for praying for things promised for holy Conference and Meditation for sanctifying the Lords day for desiring a Shepherd and not a Wolf for abhorring prophaneness and other great sins doth thereby declare that it is so much of Godliness or Obedience which he abhorreth and it is through Ignorance doubtless if he seriously love and practise the rest of Gods Commands § 7. II. By Malignant Enemies of Godliness 1. I do not mean every one that hath any backwardness to any duty which he overcometh in the practice Nor every one that is guilty of some omissions The spirit is willing and the flesh is weak § 8. 2. I mean not those that are Godly in the main so far as they can know but through education or otherwise are ignorant of some Integral Truths or Duties and have an opposing contentious Zeal against them by mistake and by factious company are taught therefore to speak evil falsly of those from whom they differ I hear some revile all even with terms of enmity and unchristian threatnings yea seeking their ruine who do not swear say and practise all that is required to English Conformity I do not conclude them therefore Malignant Enemies of Godliness if they live soberly righteously and godlily in their way and prefer God before Men Heaven before Earth the Soul before the Body and a Holy life before the pleasures and profits of the flesh If they are uncharitable against all that are not for Diocesans Lay-Chancellours Excommunications Symbolical Crossing of Children as a Covenanting sign of Christianity and all the rest I wish them more Charity but