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
A50275	The unlearned alchymist his antidote, or, A more full and ample explanation of the use, virtue and benefit of my pill, entituled, An effectual diaphoretick, diuretick, purgeth by sweating, urin. Whereunto is added sundry cures and experiences, with particular direction unto particular diseases and distempers; with a catalogue of peoples names, with their dwelings which have used and known the use of the same: also sundry plain and easie receits which the ingenious may prepare for their own health. By Richard Matthew, and are to be had at his house by the Lyons Den at the Tower, next Gate to the By-Ward.	Mathews, Richard, d. 1661.	1660 (1660)	Wing M1290; ESTC R214133	88,234	176

heal their gauled consciences little thinking what is required of them there and shrowd under a cloak of Religion gain being to them godliness Mark by how much these approach or do essay to come up unto the Primitive pattern assure thy self so much the more will the severity of the highest be revealed against thee whose fiery eyes of beauty and glory will not bare thy hypocrisie remember Ananias and Saphira therefore I have observed well what hath brought people to desire to get into this or that fellowship whether to serve as Christ did or to be served to perform their own duty in humility or onely clamor upon their priviledge for you shall perceive quickly who sent them thither O how forward these will be apt of tongue confident in opinion and fears sensorious and this lasteth a very little while and by and by he is beyond them and now he is beyond the Scripture it self and will have it no judge of his spirit but will judge it by his spirit have I not seen these fall off by companies what then think not thou that I speak against the commandments and Ordinances of the new testament I had rather my tongue should be for ever cut out of my mouth or against the Christian and conscionable administring the same but this is to shew how they have been and may be abused in doing of which a most accursed gender of hell is born into the world which otherwise could not be and I am constrained to unvail as wisely as God inables me this mistery of iniquity that you whom it concerns may beware and if the glory of God nor eternal salvation will not prevail yet that long life and health of body may prevail with thee thou maist know that the higher thou arivest in the profession of Christ the fiercer wi●● thy fall be when not supported if that ligh● which is in thee prove darkness how great 〈◊〉 that darkness and if thou be a builder look 〈◊〉 thy self that thy foundation be the true Rock otherwise great will thy fall be and know the returning evil spirit doth bring with him seve● worse then himself and worse will be thy latte● end my heart bleeds within me when I call 〈◊〉 mind how many great lights or stars have bee● thrown from heaven saln from the pinacle of the Temple down to hell from most fiery rigidity unto all abominations think not that I am unfurnished of a catalogue measurable it is the re● are so blinded as not to lay it to heart so to hea●● as again to take up their way and whole wall and that with trembling and set straight steps unto their feet least that that is halting be turn●● out of the way also I will at this time abrevia●● this discourse for the truths sake which you have yet a pretence unto I know there are a few na●● amongst you which have not defiled their garments for their sakes I should count it a happiness to serve you I will conclude with relation of one of you which I know is reme●bred of many of you A fierce zealot which was very conformable as indeed did exceed and I must needs say from one word I once heart him speak I had good hope that the truth had 〈◊〉 some rooting in him viz. that he was so sensib●● of the deceitfulness of his heart that he durst 〈◊〉 look upon a woman this man takes in th●● general tenet of all destruction viz. that the Scripture was a dead letter this man with the rest of his accomplices was soon inspired from the King of pride that they had in themselves the spirit whereby they knew all things and judge all things and also the Scriptures themselves so that now their spirit shall not be judged by the text but shall judge the text this infallible man was restless and quickly threw of all duties both publike and private for a season they must not speak till their spirit moved them but their spirit soon moved them to make use of and abound in their pure or rather impure liberty that is to glut and satisfie themselves in uncleanness this wretch being strong held out sometime but abusing himself in all blaspheamies riot and excess in due time the rot or the Pox over-took them but I speak of this one man his torments grew strong upon him and to me of all men he would not come or send what he used as means was to weak and thus for a long time he lived blaspheaming God and roaring out of his torment at last he and his wife using the mediation of another sent to me I could not deny her things for her mony he was then past coming himself she said his heart was as whole and as sound as ever and that he would eat as good a meals meat as ever and digest it as well but except he had one of my Pills in his belly he did lie rocking his limbs and roaring out of his intollerable pain and the next week as she came to me this Strumpet with impudence said she should dye of no disease but the Pox and her friend that came with her told me that as this man was sitting by himself his nose fell of from his face with mear rottenness I conclude with most serious admiration of Gods righteous judgements upon these who in the prime of their days are taken a way and are gone unto their own place for ever to receive the fruit of their doings and that which doth much heighten my astonishment is that the highest doth to wonderfully punish this wickedness in this life that they live some years in bitter torment and yet hearty and stout while they rot away by pieces their vitals and senses quick as I may say as prepared of God to suffer abundance of pains while in this world and before I come to give you the way of cure of this ugly disease I must crave leave to speak this third sort of people commonly called Ranters for so they are and these are of two sorts the one like unto this that I have named and the other which is the worse and more dangerous hold yet in appearance somewhat of preaching and prayer and would be thought to excel all others in spirituals I say these are the worse for by how much the more any thing that indeed is evil and doth hide it self under the cloak or mantle of Religion it is so much the more dangerous and pernicious most apt to leaven and delude the simple minds till they also by a smoth Satanical subtilty are drawn in and become hardened and then the high Rant or black devil doth not all affright them being before hand prepared and spirited there unto for the high Rant counts all illegitimate that cannot range in the depth of all abomimation swear drunk whore out of measure yea study to excel in execrations and blasph●●my and do all this without the least remorce or sign of remorce but this other sort for

their credit sake and also because of encrease of their advantage in their Callings and also preferments in the Commonwealth will not avow this plainness yet do account it their pure liberty and that is there pure liberty for all of them to live holding community of women and all to abide in their pure Adamical freedoms pleasing themselves in all things and some of these to my own knowledge who both speak hold practice except they belye themselves are of their forwardest and I think their eminentest Preachers which would seem to those that hear him as if he were caught up into the holy mount accounting themselves above all Ordinances these surely are the worst sort of men that ever breathed upon the face of the earth for these have not onely been hoised upon the highest pinacle of the Temple but are miserably thrown down unto hell in their own imaginary they are far higher then the highest pinacle conceiving themselves far above all instituted Ordinances and do bitterly hate dispise and persecute all those that do in the fear of God practice walk and live in them with a manifest wrath which is indeed a manifest token of their perdition for many of them have in their own guiddy headed and unstable minds run thorow all Religions that they might both hate and persecute all the God of mercy put into the hearts of our Rulers to preserve us from the rage and fury of these whom the Apostles of Christ Peter and Jude doth most lively set out in their proper collours and yet these would not be accounted to be Ranters although as is said seven fold worse I will hear give a true relation of some passages concerning one of their chief teachers A good woman whose husband is at Barbadoes having occasion of business concerning trade in behalf of her hu●band was desired to except of half a pint of wine this good woman looking upon hum to be eminent in godliness and her self at that time stood need of refreshing went to the Tavern with him by and by he changed his behaviour and shewed himself what he was and by his light scurrilous language declared himself to be what he is and in plain words and deeds would needs have been abusing her body and many arguments he used to draw her thereunto as I have them from her mouth that she was sick for want of a man and why would she not use her liberty and for his part he knew 〈◊〉 his wife looked on she would not be offended with it nay further that it was his salvation that he had done it his wife looking on and that 〈◊〉 he had not used his liberty his purer liberty as he called it it had been dead long ago and named other persons some of great quality that husband and wife gave each other liberty and with his might invyed against Ordinances and refusing him in his filthiness he called her whore and much to that purpose for submitting her self to forms as he called them the relation of his beastilness expressed by him I was ashamed to hear and cannot write but he highly commended the beastly openness and nakedness of the Moors and Heathen in the Indies that they was without shame he esteemed it a high vertue which did excell us here and speaking of the Quakers he said that he knew them very well and that he did know that their principals and theirs were one and the same and that the most strictest of them would soon come up and live in the pure liberty as well as they I think what he saith in this may well be granted as was most evidently seen in James Nailo● and the pack of whores that always hung on him I my self being at Nottingham did sit almost a Summer afternoon hearing some of their own company relate the vicious and filthy life and unclean coversation of George Fox whose whoredoms and filthy life is notoriously known in the North of England but to return unto this praying or prating Rantor this filthy man or man of filthiness without shame after God had delivered this woman out of his hand was set on again and again by him and when he saw that he could not draw her unto his filthy lust then inquired if she had told any body but if she had yet it was not matter of shame unto him and indeed I think I should have done good service to the Commonwealth if I had here named him its pitty all such hath not a brand on their forehead that they may be known who they belong unto I speak with grief of heart I have known this Varlet the worst of men I say I have known him a giddy professor of Religion above this twenty years and I have heard him my self when we have been speaking of the Scripture for he asked me seriously if I did use t● read them I told him yea with joy and gladness and they were to me more then my life he replied so could not he neither did he read any book he hearkened onely to the voice of the spirit within him and that while he made conscience of reading and expounding of Scripture and of family duty and going to hear Sermons and repeat them he all that time was without peace but now he had not for some years done any of those things and that he was at rest in himself I have in all this spoke the least of this vile person and you may by him truely take a view of the rest that fraternity what they are and where they will Center and in what I hope this relation will he matter of caution to many not always to credit or be too apt to give heed unto the smoth delusive tongues of men these study to obtain hardness of heart impudency of face that they might commit wickedness with greediness and therefore do deride at the torments of hell nay one of this company hath put out a book in print wherein he doth a vow there is no hell but what is in a mans self so that indeed by their doctrines if they can but stifle their own consciences they have freedom and sin is no sin for so they affirm my soul is pained within me when I think of these and of the just vengeance prepared of God for these which doth withhold the truth by their unrighteousness O wretched and most miserable of mankind How is it that Satan hath thus filled your hearts and the filth of your flesh thus deluded you you begun well who hath hurt you what hath Jesus Christ and his Gospel of peace done unto you How is it that you will be made perfect in the flesh What good things have you found in your selves that comparing your selves with your selves you now worship your selves nay your accursed lusts and beastliness how imaginable is it that man indued with common reason should thus be seduced I know there is not one of you but do feel the flashings of fire in your consciences

mankind art thou above all other and to thy further judgement know that when thy now rotting body is destroyed thou again shalt receive a spirituous body capable of bearing and receiving a flood of wrath and as then thou hast received a body spirituous that shall remain unto eternity so will the vengeance of God be powred out against all ungodliness now thou hast but a taste and yet O how thou roarest out as thy limbs rot but what is that to that ocean or expansion of wrath prepared let this awaken thee if thou be not past feeling to repentance to break off I say thy sins by true and timely repentance God Almighty open thy eyes to see thy redoubled misery that so thou maist inquire after mercy then the blood of Christ will be precious unto thee but wo is upon us who are born in a giddy drunken age drunk but not with wine and here also I cannot get forward but must crave leave to trace this a little and you will be sensible that it lies consentrick with the former and now I come to speak unto a second sort of people amongst whom I believe there are many that have received in their souls the power of endless life I speak of those that have shewed great zeal and forwardness in building Tabernacles for God to dwell in who have posted into Churches and rushed upon all Ordinances which things are good if performed with clean hands and pure hearts but wo is me when I consider the works of the unwary the headdiness and presumptions of many and in my time and observation within this twenty five years passed having been an eye witness of the beginning rise and fall of many I cannot but speak a word although Gently unto these and am forced to speak it aloud because I by woful experience have found them dull of hearing for many amongst them puffed up have miserably faln into this pit many of whom I fear have not yet repented or if they have yet bear with me it is not yet to me evident sure I am this Pit is not for Saints to fall into not many returns Although your way if returning is broad and easie yet I much fear not so with God it were well if justice in this case went hand in hand with mercy that those that sin not might he admonished and fear which is one principal end of rejection but these alas with ease find entrance but not so with others in other cases less material it were well if you were clean every whit notwithstanding the feet must be washed the iniquity of the heel strove against many lift their head on high and I pray God keep them from falling it is a dangerous thing for men to make idols of Ordinances to put more in the dipping of water then in the regenerating of the spirit there is a golden mine he is happy that finds it and walks therein there is a promised spirit to direct when we turn to the right hand and when we turn unto the left to too many neglect or dispise visible Ordinances and too many plant their Religion in them and in divers forms will prepare Tabernacles for the God of Israel but unto us there is but one God and one rule of righteousnesse men will at all rates have a covering but the wo belongs to them that cover not by and with his spirit let me in much sobernesse inquire of you and it would be a joyful tune if indeed you would consider whether your rash and hasty zeal running upon Ordinances not spirited from on high have not been an occasion of stumbling and of falling unto many for having no sealing presence but rather a barrennesse which from thence as in your hands may be called presumptious I say this discovers that men seeing no beauty to enliven them faint How many have you with sighs complaining that they are filled with deadnesse in your assembling but at home when they exercise their mediations on the riches of free mercy in Christ then filled with consolation You may note that at this time and in his place I would say no more then to awaken you to consider how you have been an occasion of stumbling to many from the aforesaid grounds I freely spare you coveting rather to cover then to discover neither would I charge all for the faults of some but this I must say it is like to go ill when the ruling spirit is the spirit of this world when the whole head is sick and the heart heavy what should I say to make you hear and yet cover you all over with love the most high cover you when he maketh inquisition for blood when his dead body shall live when his righteousnesse shall arise when he hath purged Jerusalem with the spirit of fire and with the spirit of burning then will he be a defence upon all your glory and not till then but evident it is your glory he stains neither is he any defence upon it an account must be given who required these things at your hands when many shall say we have done these and these things in thy name it will be said I know you not it will be then wo unto the sinners in Sion fear shall surprize the hypocrit● that generation of men at this time will be to seek which say stand further of I am more holy then thou those I speak of which are pure in their own eyes and is not washed from their filthines●● those who separating themselves from those fro● whom Jesus Christ doth not separate himself those which make dipping the ground of the● communion not union with Christ it is a wo●der to look back and consider the firy zeal of ●●ny and whereunto it hath tended God grant the rest may be admonished to pray and wait u●till the Temple be opened in heaven and a live●● Vision of the Ark of his Covenant the presumptions of men now in this dark and smoky day● to be wondred at but it is evident no ma● can enter till the appointed time and indeed it is evident that excepting those Ordinances which are granted in common whic● indeed are spirited the other whereby they will be known and distinguished art without life and is in their hands a carkass 〈◊〉 I have to say further is I beseech you in the bowels of Christ Jesus consider how far you have been an occasion of stumbling or wo●●● unto the gender of this third generation of men wherof I come now to speak unto for when men as I may say have found little but pollotick workings as men and have not either discerned tha● beauty as doth of good right belong unto Gospel-Ordinances or when men dishonoring God use Gods Ordinances for earthly ends it is just with God to give them up unto a spirit of slumber to believe a lye because they did not receive the truth in the love of it nay too many designedly do get into Churches one purpose to