Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	matter_n	page_n	shape_v	70	3	17.6848	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43754	A brief relation of the irreligion of the northern Quakers wherein their horrid principles and practices, doctrines and manners ... are plainly exposed to the view of every intelligent reader : together with a (brief reply) to some part of a very scurilous and lying pamphlet called.	Higginson, Francis, 1617-1670.; Fox, George, 1624-1691. Sauls errand to Damascus.	1653 (1653)	Wing H1953; ESTC R34465	75,893	103

not heard heard of their open revilings which they principally fasten on them in whom most of God and sound Religion appears A man that professeth godlinesse especially a Minister that endeavors to be faithfull to Jesus Christ in the discharge of the duties incumbent on him cannot passe by them without their scorns Against such they grin and point at them with their fingers These and such like practises of this licentious people have filled the hearts of Gods People in these parts with exceeding fears to be driven after all their hopes to serve God in Corners and that they may die tho in the faith of the promise of Jerusalems peace yet without receiving it whilest the enemies of God roare in the midst of the Congregations So fast did their insolencies grow and their Numbers increase for a while that had they not been a little curbed by the imprisonment of Nayler and sending forth a warrant for the Apprehension of Fox for his blasphemies it is verily believed by many sober understanding men among us there would have been in a short time no peace or almost safety for any real Christian in Westmerland and some adjacent parts This was as some of the Justices expressed themselves at the Sessions Ianuary last one main reason of Naylers confinement namely that they were necessitated to it for the preservation of the publique peace and prevention of civil dissentions and such evils as might have ensued upon further connivance at these turbulene Impostors I shall conclude with the Judgements of two known learned and judicious men one of which is yet living and able to plead for the Truth and himself Master OWEN in his Discourse of Toleration hath this Passage Page 32. THere are saith he a sort of persons termed in Scripture disorderly vagabond wandring irregular persons 1. Thes. 5. 14. Acts 17. 5. 2 Thess. 3. 2. 1. Tim. 1. 9. Fixed to no Calling abiding in no place taking no care of their Families that under a pretence of teaching the Truth without Mission without Call without Warrant uncommanded undesired do goe up and down from place to place creeping into houses c. Now that such wayes as these and Persons in these wayes may judicially be inquired into I no way doubt The Storie is famous of Sesostris King of Egypt who made a Law that all the Subjects of his Kingdome should once a yeare give an account of their way and manner of living and if any was found to spend his time idly he was certainly punished And the Lawes of most Nations have provided that their people shall not be wanderers and whosoever hath not a place of abode and imployment is by them a punishable vagabond And in this by experience of the wayes walking and converse of such persons I am exceedingly confirmed I did as yet never observe any other issue upon such undertakers but scandal to Religion and trouble to men in their Civil relations when men by the practise of any vice or sin draw others to a pretended Religion or by pretence of Religion draw men to any vice or sinne let them be twice punished for their reall vices and pretended Religion Thus far Master Owen Master COTTON of New England touching the controversie of Libertie of Conscience in matters of Religion Page 7. layeth down this Position for Truth IF a man hold forth saith he or professe any Errour or false way with a boysterous and arrogant Spirit to the disturbance of civil Peace he may justly he punished according to the qualitie and measure of his disturbance caused by him and page 8. He saith the Scripture forbids not to drive ravenous Wolves from the sheep-fold and to restrain them from devouring the sheep of Christ and Page 9. He saith we acknowledge that none is to be punished for his Conscience though misinformed unlesse his Errour be fundamental and seditiously and turbulently promoted and further we acknowledge none ought to be constrained to believe or professe the true Religion till he be convinced in judgement of the Truth of it but yet restrained he may be from blaspheming the truth and from seducing any into pernicious Errors The End A BRIEF REPLY To some part Of a very scurrilous and lying Pamphlet CALLED Sauls errand TO DAMASCUS SHEWING The vanitie of the praises there attributed to the Sect of the Quakers and Falsitie of their Relations which are nought else but the breathings of a spirit of Malice Psal. 35. 20. They speak not Peace but devise deceitfull matters against them that are quiet in the Land LONDON Printed by T. R. for H. R. at the signe of the three Pigeons in Pauls Church-yard 1653. To the Reader THere is an unlicensed Pamphlet called Sauls errand to Damascus lately procured to be Printed wherein diverse Ministers of Westmerland and Lancashire are falsly aspersed and maliciously belied and traduced Had it not been for the clearing of their Innocency and the discovery of the falsities contained in that Book too apt in this credulous age to be believed as whatsoever is spoken against a Minister there had not been one word written in answer to it And for the rest of that Book that concerns us not I should be loath to betray my indiscretion so far as to attempt a full answer to such a heap of words or to trouble any judicious Reader with such fruitless contests Good Readers you have that Book by you or can think it worth your buying or perusal let me intreat you to read it with some observation of the Contents And if you be men whose inner man hath been indeed illuminated by the good spirit of the Lord and the knowledge of the Truth or whose reason hath been at all refined or polisht by learning or good education you will easily perceive by what they have to say for themselves that they are men whose knowledge is science falsly so called that these men are blind Leaders that while they pretend to be full of the Spirit full of Light and Revelations they are led a captive prey to the spirit of lies that spirit that workes in the children of disobedience that they walk in thick darkness that they go they know not whither and speak they know not what Something they would say to clear themselves of those blasphemies and cursed speeches they have been overheard to utter and have bin deposed upon oath against them both in Westmerland and Lancashire if they could tell how Flatly deny them they cannot they do not you wil even wonder to see how they bungle out an answer You wil admire at their impertinencies inconsistencies irrational insensate misty expressions as ambiguous sometimes as the devils oracles and stand amazed to see their impudence and how magistically they can revile censure to the pit of hel how boldly they dare avouch an error and offer a rape upon the holy Text wrest and misapply it and father their heretical absurd tenets assertions on it that in Print even

of all the Ministers in England without exception and did pretend that himself together with his fellow speakers were the onely true Ministers and Messengers of Christ that we desired to know his Faith and to hear from him if we might the summe of that Doctrine of the Gospel which he came to preach I told him further that our selves and the Countrey in general did look upon him and his fellow speakers as seducers such as preached another Gospel and another Jesus then we had preached and that therefore for the clearing of himself and the satisfaction of the Countery and our selves there present it was but meet that he should give us them desiring it some account of his saith And to do that I told him I hoped he would not be unwilling seeing the Apostle Peter exhorts all Christians to be ready to give a reason of the hope that is in them to every one that asketh To this he replied nothing but stood as one that had nought to say I then asked the people there present if they did not generally desire to hear something from him touching his Faith in some of the main principles of Religion To which many of them said it was their desire Whereupon I intreated Nayler to answer plainly to a few questions which I desired to propound to him The first Question I propounded was whether he believed the Holy Scripture to be the very Word of God To this he answered there was no word but Christ which he would have proved out of Iohn 1. 1. In the beginning was the Word c. I told him we did not deny Jesus Christ to be the Word but did believe him to be the Essential Word of his Father I further told him according to that distinction of the Word into Verbum Deus Verbum Dei That the Word was twofold The Word that is God which is Iesus Christ and the Word of God which is the Holy Scripture Then altering the former question a little I asked him whether he did believe the Holy Scripture to be the written Word of God To which after many words to no purpose being pressed to answer positively he said It is not the Word of God there is no written Word The next question I asked him was Whether he that speaks or teaches that which is directly contrary to the Doctrine of the Holy Scripture is to be lookt upon as one speaking from the immediate inspiration of the Spirit though he pretend to do so To this be replied The Word and the Spirit are one What said I do you understand by the Word when you say the Word and the Spirit are one He said by the Word he meant Christ. I told him we did believe Christ and the Holy Spirit to be one God and that if that was the matter of his answer That Christ and the Holy Spirit are one it was impertinent to my question I then put the case touching my self thus If I said I should pretend to preach from the immediate assistance of the Spirit and preach that which is repugnant to the Holy Scripture whether would your self believe that the Spirit of God spake by me or no To this he answered as before I say saith he The Spirit and the Word are one I told him he did not answer like a rational man and pressing him to answer plainly and not so cloudily and darkly as he did indeavour to do that those were Auditors could not understand what he meant divers of his followers that were there present said altogether almost the devil spoke in me the Serpent spoke in me I told them that was a pure Language that became a Quaker better then a Christian. His Disciples there present desired he should propound some question to my self I told them upon that condition he would answer me plainly to some questions I further desired to put to him I would answer him to any Question of his as plainely as I could He then asked me how I could prove my self to be a Minister of Jesus Christ. I told him that-I had been called and ordained to the work of the Ministery by the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery and that the Lord had been pleased mercifully to furnish me with some though very mean abilities for the discharge of that work and that it had been my endeavour to preach the Gospel sincerely and that I desired and as farre as the Lord assisted laboured to walke as became that Doctrine He told me I did not live as became a Minister of Christ. I asked him wherein he could accuse me He said I preached for hire and suffered my self to be called Master contrary to the command of Christ. To the first I replied that for the terms hire or wages they were used in Scripture that our Saviour speaking of those that labour in the Gospel saith The workeman is worthy of his hire And that the Apostle scrupled not to say he received wages Accordingly I told him I tooke hire or received wages for Preaching of the Gospell But did not preach for it did not make that the end of my Ministery And for being called Master I told him that I was not ambitious of that Title That my name was T. H. and that it would please me very well to be called by that name I said further when our Saviour saith Matth. 23. and 10. Be not ye called Masters he doth not simply forbid them to be so called no more then in the foregoing verse he forbids children to call an earthly Parent Father but that he there forbids such proud and ambitious affectation of Titles of respect as was in the Scribes and Pharisees Away Away saith Nayler with your Expositions of Scripture The Scripture is not to be expounded and God will adde to such as Expound them all the plagues written in that Book I replyed that the Apostles knew the meaning of this Precept of Jesus Christ and were obedient unto it and yet suffered a Title superior to that of Master to be given to them Iohn 12. 21. and Acts 16. 30. and that they reproved not them that so called them which they would have done if it had been unlawful for them to have been called Master and that Iohn 20. 15. Mary Magdalen called our Saviour Sir supposing him to have been the Gardiner The Greek word translated Sir is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and doth properly signifie Lord and is as Linguists know a Title of greater respect then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the term used Matthew 23. 10. The next question I asked him was not as he saith Whether Christ was ascended into Heaven as Man that was in another place about 5 dayes after which yet some of their speakers have denied and argued against but whether he did believe Iesus Christ to be true God and true Man also in one Person And first said I whether dost thou believe Iesus Christ to be true God The question I asked because I

had heard that some of them had affirmed that Christ was no more then another man In steed of replying to this question he stood like a man astonisht and said nothing at all I desired him to answer telling him he need not be affraid or ashamed to confesse Christ before men and that if he should desire my self to tell him my Faith concerning Iesus Christ my Saviour I would doe it with all chearefulnesse yea though in the presence of his professed enemies He there faintly bad me Answer the Question he had propounded to me I told him I had done so but that we might not lose time I desired him not to trifle but to answer in five words and plainly His spirit here it seemes began to move him and while we thought he had been about to shape some Answer to the foresaid Question he slipt into one of their speakings exhorting the people to look only to the light and to Christ within them and not to look forth telling them they had no need of any teacher without with other such stuffe When he had proceeded a little while I interrupted him and told him that we came not thither to heare a Seducer and such a one we took him to be and that we are commanded in the Holy Scripture to beware of false Prophets and to avoid them that are known to be such Then urging him again for the cleering of him self to let us hear what was his faith concerning Christ and first for that particular above mentioned concerning Christ his deity he utterly refused When we saw we could not get a word more from him we quietly departed and left him in the field with as many as pleased to stay with him The Quakers relation saith the people cryed out saying let us heare him c. a notorious untruth that any did speak such a word there mentioned save some of their own faction that did desire he might go on in his Speech Their relator saith also there could be no peace that some kept close about Nailer to keep him from the violence of some that came along with the Priests but they raged so that he and some other friends received stripes Reader beleeve them not their words are as light as wind and vanity All that had the colour of any affront offered to Nailer was only this and that a good while after we were once away A young man in Orton Parish as Nailer was going down the hill set his staffe or foot before him I doe not now remember well whether and caused him to stumble but he fell not for which Act this poor man was Indicted at the Sessions and fined 20. s. so ready were the Justices to appeare against any that offered the least shaddow of violence to them A little after the Author of that lying relation saith That the raging Sodomites waited about the Door to do mischief and kept shouting a bout the house c. Inquiring of this particular since some of the Townsmen told me that it is true there were some little Boyes and Girles that made some noise about the house while Nayler was speaking These were his raging Sodomites Upon these they also bend the bow of their tongue and spend these words of Gall. A Reply to that Part of the Quakers Relation that concerns what was done at Mallerstang and Kirkby-Stephen THeir Relator saith the Priests missed of their purpose at Orton He intimates we had purposes of violence against Nayler when we met him at Orton a little before But the searcher of hearts knows that we never intended no more violence to him then to our selves and they know also as well as we that we offered none The end why any of us desired to speak with him was this Having heard much of his seductions of great numbers of people on the other side of the Countrey to their wicked way and knowing he had no other errand among us but to infect the people of our several Congregations with their internal doctrines and to perswade them to desert the preaching of the Word and all their Ordinances of Christ and to render not onely ourselves but the very calling of the Ministery hateful to them We therefore thought it fit to go to him and have some discourse with him about some fundamental points of Religion that if we found him to be erroneous in these Principles we might exhort the people of our respective Congregations to beware of such false Prophets though they came to them in sheeps clothing And therein we did nothing but what we tooke our selves obliged to do in duty to God whom we serve in the Gospel of his Son and the souls of the people related to us Should we being shepheards and overseers of the flock stand still look on and be silent or flie when the Wolfe comes and labours to devour Should we not rather warn all men under our charge if it were possible day and night with tears to beware of such impostors as are risen up among us teaching such Errours as have overthrown the seeming faith of many and speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them Their relation saith further the next Lords Day after we prepared our Sermons suitable to what we intended We intended with the assistance of God to do our endeavour and shall while we have a mouth to speak to help those to whom we preach the Gospel as far as in us lay free from the contagion of the Quakers Errours and to this our intention some of us did then suit our Sermons And blessed be God that hath given to any of us some though weak abilitie to suit our Sermons to the present occasions Solomon tels us how pleasant and profitable a word spoken in season is Prov. 25. 11. Their Relation saith further that we said the Parliament had opened a gap for blasphemy I do not believe these words were ever spoken by any of us There is one Mr. Dodson a Minister of Rassendale I am perswaded an honest Godly man that is accused to have uttered these words on the 24. of October by two of Naylers Proselytes but the most judicious knowing hearers of that Congregation then present deny to their best remembrance that ever any such words were there spoken And whereas this Relator affirms them to be spoken the 5 of December he might have remembred that true saying A lier had need of a good memory The following part of the Relation is a meer heap of lies as that any of us said they did God good service that would knock him down is a wicked malitious lie That we stird up the ruder sort of people is another That any of us sollicited Mr. Burton to come to Mallerstang is another untruth That the Priests son got him to come is another falsity It is well known to those to whom he is known that he neither hath nor ever had son or daughter That Mr. Burton had been in actual arms against the Parliament is