Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	life_n	live_v	soul_n	13,623	5	5.6183	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75811	The Christian moderator: the second part; or, Persecution for religion condemned by the light of nature. Law of God. Evidence of our own principles. With an explanation of the Roman Catholick belief, concerning these four points: their church, worship, justification and civill government. Whereunto there are new additions since the octavo was printed.; Christian moderator. Part 2	Birchley, William, 1613-1669.	1652 (1652)	Wing A4246; ESTC R225799	36,103	34

That now the wisdom of the Parliament applying it self to establish the people of this Common-wealth in a quiet and setled condition your Petitioners take up an humble confidence that they alone shall not be excluded from so universall a benefit And therefore humbly pray that the Laws and proceedings concerning them may be taken into consideration and such clemency and compassion used towards them by Composition or otherwise as in the judgement of this honourable House may consist with the publike peace and your Petitioners comfortable lie ving in their native Country And they further humbly pray that it would please the Parliament to vouchsafe them the permission of clearing their Religion from whatsoever may be inconsistent with Government which will assuredly be done to full satisfaction if there may be a Committee appointed by this honourable House on whom they may have the priviledge to attend And your Petitioners shall ever pray c. THis to my sense bears it self with so much respect and submissiveness in the stile that it can no wayes be interpreted misbecoming the duty of good and peaceable subjects and for the matter of the Petition it seems to my eye so reasonable that I cannot believe but after a little patience till other more generall affairs afford the Parliament leisure it will certainly receive a satisfactory and relieving Answer Especially since not onely such Papists whose moderate delinquency leaves them some hope of mercy nor such who for preservation of their lives were forced to flye into the late kings Garrisons without ever acting any thing against the State but even the most innocent who all this while have sate still under so many pressures and never were charged with other accusation than their Religion yet all freely and humbly submit in this Petition to the absolute pleasure of the Parliament for Rules of Composition and this as to the single Papist for an offence which in no other society of Christians in this Nation is accounted any crime at all being meerly their different judgement in Religion a proceeding wherein certainly we shall use too much severity and partiality if we make it not onely unpardonable but unredeemable In the close of their Petition they humbly beg the favour of an opportunity to satisfy the Parliament in the point of consistency with Civil Government which being the chief Objection that without passion can be made against them surely we should not take offence at their most diligent applications and utmost endeavours to deliver themselves from so destructive a charge laid upon their Religion In order to which performance it seems divers Papists of considerable quality unanimously agreed upon this following Explanation to declare and witnes to the world the perfect consistency of their Religion both with civill society joyning also in the same paper the like expressions of their Belief concerning some few other points which they were informed to be more obnoxious to exception than the rest As the under-valuing of holy Scripture and over-valuing the authority of the Church Invocation of Saints and Angels and worship of Images and above all the proud opinion of Merits This paper they drew up as a preparatory to a more full and perfect clearing of their Faith from those prejudices and misunderstandings which ordinarily men of different perswasions entertain especially in Controversies about matters of Religion The Paper containing certain Doctrins of the Papists and by them delivered to divers persons of quality for their particular satisfaction WE believe the holy Scriptures to be of divine inspiration and infallible Authority and whatsoever is therein contained we firmly assent unto as to the word of God the Author of all Truth 1. But since in the holy Scriptures there are some things hard to be understood which the ignorant and unstable wrest to their own destruction we therefore professe for the ending of controversies in our Religion and setling of peace in our Consciences to submit our private judgments to the judgement of the Church represented in a free Generall Council 2. We humbly believe the sacred Mysterie of the Blessed Trinity one Eternal Almighty and incomprehensible God whom onely we adore and worship as alone having Soveraign dominion over all things to whom onely we acknowledge as due from men and Angels all glory service and obedience abhorring from our hearts as a most detestabbe sacriledge to give our Creators honor to any creature whatsoever And therefore we solemnly protest that by the prayers we addresse to Angels and Saints we intend no other then humbly to sollicit their assistance before the throne of God as we desire the prayers of one another here upon earth not that we hope any thing from them as originall authors thereof but from God the fountain of all goodnesse through Jesus Christ our onely Mediator and Redeemer Neither do we believe any divinity or vertue to be in images for which they ought to be worshipped as the Gentiles did their Idols but we retain them with due and decent respect in our Churches as instruments which we find by experience do often assist our memories and excite our affections 3. We firmly believe that no force of nature nor dignity of our best works can merit our Justification but we are justified freely by grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ And although we should by the grace of God persevere unto the end in a godly life and holy obedience to the Commandements yet are our hopes of eternall glory still built upon the mercy of God and the merits of Christ Jesus All other merits according to our sense of that word signifie no more then actions done by the assistance of Gods grace to which it has pleased his gooodness to promise a reward a Doctrine so far from being unsuitable to the sense of the holy Scriptures that it is their principal design to invite and provoke us to a diligent observance of the Commandements by promising heaven as the reward of our obedience 1 Tim. 4. 8. Godliness is profitable to all things having the promise of this life and of that which is to come And Rom 2. 6. God will render to every man according to his deeds to them who by patient confidence in well doing seek for glory and honor and immortality eternal life And again Rom. 8. 13. If you live after the flesh you shall dye but if through the Spirit you mortifie the deeds of the body you shall live And Heb. 6. 10. God is not unjust to forget your work and labour of love which you have shewed for his name c. Nothing being so frequently repeated in the word of God as his gracious promises to recompence with everlasting glory the faith and obedience of his servants Nor is the bounty of God barely according to our works but high and plentifull even beyond our capacities giving full measure heaped up pressed down and running over into the bosoms of all that love him

The Christian Moderator The Second Part OR PERSECVTION FOR RELIGION CONDEMNED By the Light of Nature Law of God Evidence of our own Principles WITH An Explanation of the Roman Catholick Belief concerning these four points Their Church Worship Justification and Civill Government JAMES 2. 12. So speak you and so do as they that are judged by the law of liberty for they shall be judged without mercy that have shewed no mercy Mille hominum species rerum discolor usus per me equidem sint omnia protinus alba Whereunto there are new Additions since the Octavo was Printed Printed for H. J. 1652. Persecution for Religion condemned c. IN the precedent part of this discourse I have demonstrated according to that light which the Lord Christ hath infused into my Soul how much Coercency in Religion is repugnant to the Law of Nature and by many evident and unanswerable Texts of Scripture shewed how displeasing it is to God how improper to advance the power of godlinesse and how extremly disaggreeable to the sweet Spirit which guided our Lord Jesus in the propagation of his Gospel And after in the same little Treatise I proceed to prove by the expresse words of the Parliaments and Armies Declarations that the great Principle wherein we glory and which we have so long fought to establish is a perfect Gospel-freedom and absolute deliverance of the Conscience from all Tyranny and oppression Which discourse as I composed in all humbleness of spirit and afterwards offered to the gracious Redeemer of our Souls who gave me strength and power to finish it to his glory So I finde not onely my self for which I humbly thank the bounty of my God confirmed in my former judgement but others in some measure convinced in theirs of the unreasonablenes and sin of Conscience-Persecution Concerning which pious and modest temper of mutuall forbearance I shall only add to what I have mentioned in the former part this plain and familiar Observation That as the surest mark of a tender conscience in our selves is a tender spirit to others so the most infallible sign of a hard and stony heart in our brests is when we slit in pieces and shipwrack the Consciences of all that touch upon us But praised for ever be the Name of our God who still proceeds to guide and illuminate his chosen graciously disposing them neither to presume upon themselves for their knowledge nor be cruell against others for their ignorance but humbly adore and wait upon the Divine Providence in the disposure of all things which fils my soul with exceeding joy when I consider it to be the general sense of all the truly godly and well-affected in this Nation that no quiet and peaceable Christian be deprived of the chief content and comfort of this life which certainly consists in a real impartial yet unoffensive liberty to serve his God according to his conscience Many Petitions I could here cite in affirmance of this Truth from severall Provinces of this Land but I shall trouble the Reader only with these two the first was presented to the Parliament upon the six and twentieth of March 1649. from the county of Leicester wherein though I were none of the Subscribers yet I did both by my self and friends promote it what I could as conceiving the requests of it both just and reasonable it bore this Title The humble Petition of divers well affected of the County of Leicester in behalf of themselves and the Nation ANd the seventh Article or branch of the Petition was this 7. That every one may enjoy the just freedoms to worship God according to his word without any Coercive or restrictive courses to the contrary The Petition being read the Gentlemen that presented it were called in and Master Speaker by Order of the House gave them hearty thanks c. And on the 2 of April following a like Petition was presented entituled The humble Petition and Representation of severall Churches of God in London commonly though falsly called Anabaptists which was also graciously accepted by the House according to the Merit of so conscientious a suit and the justice of so glorious a Parliament At which time we happily began to shake off that intollerable burthen of Isachar the Presbyterian government which has bin since in a good measure effected through the blessing of the Lord Christ and pious care of his instruments the Governours of this Common-wealth In so much as no persons of what society or perswasion soever in this Nation are at present persecuted for their Conscience onely or difference in outward worship but the Papist whom I am therefore according to that Principle of charity which absolutely commands my spirit obliged to make the chief subject of this discourse In order to which performance I have since the writing my former sheets often waited upon God in humility of spirit and endeavour to inform my self as much as I could of the truth and particular manner of their sufferings and to that end have somtimes purposely attended at Haberdashers hall to hear their Cases pleaded where though I suffered some persecution from the croud and noise of that place yet far more was the grief of my minde to behold so many distressed suiters whose countenances were made sad by the fear of a fatall Order for their impoverishment But before I proceed to any of those particulars I must at least in my own judgement clear the Papists obstinacy and non submission to the present government wherewith they were by some accus'd as a sufficient ground of all their punishment from which imputation I shall easily deliver them by transcribing a copy of their Petition which they have with much diligence and humble importunity addressed to very many Members of Parliament professing to wait onely the happines of an opportunity to present it to the House and being a Paper at least 5 or 6 moneths old and delivered to so many persons with whom I have the honour to be acquainted it fell by chance into my hands having I confesse of late entertained a particular delight and recreation to passe some part of my time in such curiosities To the supreme Authority of this Nation the Parliament of the Common-wealth of England The humble Petition of the Roman Catholikes Sheweth THat your Petitioners have long waited some happy leasure when there might be a hearing allowed them of their many sad pressures the weight whereof hath sunk them so ruinously low that they are utterly disabled to discharge their many debts make the least provision for their Children or relieve themselves reduced to extreme necessities That even such of your Petitioners as are sequestred for Delinquency have still comforted their sorrows with this hope that at the last they should certainly be received to mercy since the generall VOTES for Composition of the 17. of March 1648. seem cleerly to imply them capable thereof when the Rules concerning them should be agreed upon