Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	religion_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	173	3	9.1439	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84229	The examiner defended, in a fair and sober answer to the two and twenty questions which lately examined the author of Zeal examined, in this answer are (not unseasonably) touched, Christ's interest in this and all nations. Christ's interest, and the Commonweals, as to the present affairs. The true nature of all civil states. The nature of all civil magistracie, and of the civil sword. The title of Christian magistrate. National churches and covenants. The world of religions ... The permission due to conscience ... Idolatry, and the kindes of it. The spiritual and civil sword, ... The forms of worship. The causes of destruction in nations. The violence to the souls of men; ... The dangerous consequence of such violences, ... Christ Jesus himself, ... The crying guilt of soul-rapes ... The light of nature in spirituals. The acts of Asa, Artaxerxes, &c. The fast of Nineveh. The conscientious differences ... The justice and prudence of state-provision against all uncivilities both of popish and protestant ranters.		1652 (1652)	Wing E3732; Thomason E675_2; ESTC R206745	60,783	103

whether to offer to this work one peny or not as appeares both by the Decrees of Cyrus in the first Chapter of Darius in the sixth and of Artaxerxes in the seventh Secondly he decreed bountitiful Assistance out of his owne Treasury toward the building of the Temple the Sacrifices c. Thirdly a Decree against any that should oppose or hinder the building of this House and therefore accordingly whosoever would not do the Law of God and of the King judgement must be executed speedily c. And chap. 6.11 whosoever should alter Darius his decree Timber should be pull'd downe from his house and being set up he must be hanged thereon and his house made a dunghil If any shall say The command of God and the King here mentioned was a command and Law in Spirituals c. I ask What Law was the Law of Artaxerxes the King The Law of Artaxerxes was an absolute Law of Toleration of the Iews Conscience vastly differing from and opposite to his was it of commanding the Iewes to his Worship and Conscience in an Uniformity of Worship to the Nation wherein they were captive Yea was it a commanding of the Iewes to their owne Religion or onely on his part a Law of Toleration and Freedome to practise their owne Religion Conscience and Worship and that with favourable Incouragement from himself For as before if the force were removed although Artaxerxes should have given them no Countenance nor Incouragement Yet I ask whether as Iewes Gods people and subjects they ought not of themselves to have departed from Babylor and from all parts of the World and to have ascended to Ierusalem as the Iews literally dream to their holy City and there have built the Temple and presented their Sacrifices c. Further The literal and Spiritual Iew. I ask As Artaxerxes made not one Law either how or when the Iewes should pray or fast c. but left them free to their owne Conscience to go up or not to go up to Ierusalem so when these Kings did makes Lawes in Spirituals as concerning prayer whether Daniel did not well in refusing to cease praying or by shutting of his window to give appearance of obedience though to the extream ruine of life c. And consequently Whether as the Iewes refused to be subject to any Judicature but Gods alone revealed by Moses So whether Christian Israel and Iews ought to acknowledge any Tribunal but Gods Thirdly I ask Whether the plain English of not tolerating the Idolater and Heretick hath not been in all Ages since Christ Iesus the not tolerating indeed of Christ Iesus God manifested in flesh and both in his owne Person and in his Followers the hunting or persecuting of him out of the world Was there ever any of the Prophets esteemed so great an Heretick from the Iewish Religion Christ Iesus accounted and hanged as the greatest Blasphemer and Heretick that was as Christ Iesus was was there ever such a Blasphemer of God as the High Priest esteemed him as the blessed Son of God God himself Christ Iesus And doth not the many Books of Martyrs in our owne and other Languages set forth that under this Hood and Vizard the Devil hath cast the Saints into Prison Rev. 2. He hath watched to devour the Man-child Rev. 12. and hunted the Woman the Spouse of Christ Jesus and her seed And the great Whore pretending that she drinks the blood of Hereticks c. hath been drunk with the blood of the Saints and Witnesses of Iesus Rev. 17. Hence will not Reason suspect a Murtherous snare in the Law pretended against Thieves Robbers True grounds of suspition in Spirituals Whores c. and yet most commonly falling upon none but honest and faithful chast and modest Persons Are not these Engines worthily to be questioned which pretending to take none but Birds of prey and Wolves c. and yet ordinarily catch nothing but harmeless Doves the Sheep and Lambs c. If it be said Idolatry Heresie c. are the chiefest Enemies in Religion c. I ask First If those very famous Religions which have pretended themselves the truest in the World have not been found the greatest Idols c. Secondly Christ Iesus his Spiritual provision against Spiritual Adversaries Grant them to be the greatest Enemies yet since Enemies are of two sorts Spiritual and Corporal I ask Whether as Corporal weapon are proper against Corporal so whether Spiritual weapons are not only proper against meerly Spiritual Adversaries Thirdly Could Christ Iesus so forget himselfe as not to take sufficient order for Spiritual weapons against all his Spiritual enemies In a Battel or Fight by Sea or Land how apt are men to charge Generals and Commanders if Ammunition be wanting c. Yea in that case how justly may men complain as in 88 that Powder was said to be wanting in our own Ships at our owne doores And shall i● be imagined that the Last Will and Testament of the Son of God his whole Life his 40 daies after his Resurrection and those Gifts which upon his Triumph in Heaven he sent upon men should leave his Army his Family his Kingdome his Wife unprovided c. so that in the very day of the Battel they must be forced to the Forge of the Philistims to borrow Swords Halberts Guns Pikes Prisons Halters against Idolaters Hereticks c. Fourthly I may end and ask in the Proposers owne words whether he be not neer a Curse that would change the two-edged Sword of Gods Spirit the word of God for a Sword of steel in the hand of Civil Officers and the Arme of the eternal Spirit of God for an arme of Flesh c. And if blessed are Christs peace-makers Christs Cursings and Blessings and Christs persecuted Matth. 5. how neer to a curse doth he come that brings not Buckets to quench but Bellowes to kindle the Fire of Gods Jealousie against State Inventions the Fires of persecutions and hunting of Christs Saints the Fires of devouring Wars amongst the Nations for their respective Religions and Consciences How neer to a curse doth he come who under a Cloak of Christian Magistrate True Religion Zeal against Idolaters Hereticks c. shall conceal a Dagger which yet I hope this Proposer knowingly doth not stabbing at the heart of God his Christ his Spirit his Saints his pure Worship yea and at the Heart of all Civil peace and Civil Magistracie and Civility it self throughout the whole World And therefore lastly I ask Whether these two Examining Worthies shall not be wrapt up in the everlasting Armes of Blessedness it self while they improve their Talents uprightly and impartially in the further Examination of this Fire of Zeal in question Yea and whether not onely these two honourable Senatours but the most renowned Senate of the world the Parliament it self shall not be truly crowned with the Lawrells of true Nobility as the Bereans were while they Candidly and Impartially Examine whether these things are so or no FINIS

such whose either consciences or necessities cannot permit them to practice that notorious Iudaism of Tythes The Nonconformers it 's true were sued and cast and paid but they were never so torn with the three-tooth'd Hook of Elies SOns the Treble da mages and oppressions I as therefore shat Grace what Godliness that is that teacheth us after all our our former sins and judgements and deliverances and vows to stop our Eares from the oppressed their Cries their Teares their Consciences and to imagine that our Commonweal our parliament our Counsel our Commonweal our parliament our Counsel our Army our Navy must prosper in our most knowne oppressings of Him whose is all power in Heaven and Earth the Son of God Christ Iesus The sum of the fourth Question Whether the Magistrate Quest 4 he not bound to love God and to advance his Glory true worship and service and the good of his people with all his might I ask Whether as before the Magistrate being the Civil officer of the People hath any Might Answ Authority or Power but what the People commit unto him And Whether any People will or can betrust such a Power to the civil magistrate to compel their Souls and consciences unto his Secondly Spiritual weapons and carnal compared Whether the Spirit of God speak not expresly that the Weapons of Christians are not Sword and Might but the Spirit and whether his Spiritual Weapons 2 Cor. 10. be not sufficiently and abundantly able and mighty to bring down every strong hold and every high thing and every imagination and thought to the obedience of Iesus Christ And Whether ever any carnal might ever did or can effect ought in Christianity but the storming of the Nations into an Antichristian Hypocrisie and Compliance Thirdly The woful effect of carnal weapons in Spirituals Whether this Principle of the Magistrates putting forth his carnal might in spirituals hath not constantly occasioned the Magistrate according to the mistakes of his owne conscience to promote Superstition and Idolatry And also hath rendred the strongest sword to be the measure and standard of all Religion in the World and the Magistrates thereof the Nimrods and mighty Hunters before the Lord Fourthly I ask Where Christ Iesus the onely Law-giver to Christians hath appointed in his holy Testament Christ Jesus not forgetful to furnish his kingdom with spiritual weapons the civil swrod the judge and defender of his Religion and Worship And why he hath not furnished his civil Magistrates of Iustice in the World with such hearts and spirits but contrarily hath call'd few of them to the profession of his Name And whether he hath not ever furnished and doth and will his spiritual Ministers and Messengers with spiritual might and power sufficiently and abundantly efficacious for the propagating of his holy Name and Truth and for the confounding of Antichrist and all Antichristians by the breath of his Mouth that two edged Sword of his Spirit Fifthly Whether Christianity did ever so flourish The sirst and last times of Constantine considered as when the people of God in the first 300 yers after Christ had no might but that of Christs spiritual weapons Ans when it pleased God to raise up Constantine to give some rest to his people from persecution whether Christianity did most flourish in the first time of Constantine when he with his Colleageue Licinius published the edict of Freedome of Religion to hissubjects or in his after-times when he compell'd all the World to Christianity but as is confest by many occasioned the World to put on the bare and empty name of Chrislian c. Lastly I ask Whether this Principle of the Magistrates employing the carnal sword or Might in spirituals The Carnal sword an Spirituats the occasion of so much bloodshed in former and in our late Wars have not in all Histories and Experience been the Firebrand which hath kindled such devouring flames of War about Religion in all both Popish and Protestant Countries And Whether it did not kindle our late Wars and occasion all the dreadfull Calamities between the Bishops and the Presbyters which proved fatal to the both And whether all these Experiences are not the voice of God out of the whirlwind to waken all the Magistrates of the World to keep within the Civil sphere of Civil Jurisdiction and Deminion The sum of the fifth Question Whether the people be not bound to pray for Magistrates Quest 5 that under them we may live a peaceable and quiet life in all Godliness and Honesty and whether the Magistrate is not bound to do that for which the People pray c. 1. I ask Answ Whether as some have urged these words godliness and honesty be rightly translated but rather upon a mistake in the Translation weakly made the ground for the Magistrates being the heeper of godliness in the first and honesty in the second Table 2. I ask The puring and pre-eminence the first Christian times To whom this direction of praying for Magistrates was given Whether they were not the first and purest Saints and those times the most glorious wherein the Saints enjoyed two such helps as no Christians ever since did First the presence of the holy Apostles or messengers of Christ Jesus amongst them Secondly the wonderful effusion of the holy Sourit of God in those rare and miraculous gifts and operations 1 Cor. 12. Now to imagine that those first Saints should pray for the Civil sword to defend I speak not of their persons but their godliness and suppress ungodliness c. doth it not imply this twofold strange and most unchristian Paradox First Two strange Paraderes that those Saints must imagine those Civil Magistrates to have a clearer sight in discerning and an higher Authority in judging of Godliness and Christianity then themselves and the Apostles of Christ Jesus who are call'd expresly the Ministerial Foundations of the Churches Fphes 2. Secondly That they being thus call'd of God and indued with the Spirit of God so savingly so miraculously yet should not be able to live in Godliness and the pure profession of Christ Jesus without the help of a carnal sword to preserve them pure establish and reform them c. Thirdly I ask therefore Whether the scope of the holy Exhortation be not this The scope of 1 Tim. 2. pray for Magistrates That those first Believers and all Believers in the Ages following should be much in prayer with God and not onely for themselves but for all men and especially for Magistrates the Chiefe of men 1. That such as were Gods Elect amongst them might be called 2. For the peace of the Nation and Cities wherein they lived and so consequently that God would gratiously guide the hearts of the Helms-men the Magistrates that the ships of the several states wherein the Saints as Passengers were imbarqued might Sail in peace and safety that in the peace thereof they might have peace according to the

command of God to his people in Babel Ier. 29. That so the Saints injoying civil peace and also if it may be the holy pleasure of God injoying rest from persecution Act. 9. might multiply walking in the fear of God and Christian Edification whatever the Religions fo the States or the magistrates there should be though Babylonian Roman c. fourthy I ask Whether the blessed Spirit of Life and Regeneration which is in all Gods people be not abundantly sufficient to preserve them in Godliness and true Christianity to preserve them from falling and to reform and restore them from all their Backslidings and declensions I add to preserve them 1 Iohn 3. Rom 6. ● Iohn 5. that sin have no dominion over them that they sin not and watch against the touching of Satan to preserve them in the use of the Word and prayer and all such paths and meanes which in Faith they are perswaded of to be the commands of Christ iesus The most holy and most powerful and eternal indwelling of Gods most holy Spirit in all Gods Children All this and more the holy Spirit of God works in Gods Children although there should not be a Magistrate in the World yea although all the World and the whole World oppose them yea although there were no Heaven nor Hell no Resurrection no Iudgement nor World to come wherein they should be rewarded or punished glorifyed or tormented yea although they should want all Spiritual helps and Teachers which respectively are necessary for they have received an Anointing which teacheth them and abident with them and will abide with them for ever Fifthly I ask Whether in the present state and juncture of affaires in England The divisions of the Clergie now like that of the Friers in Chaucers tiem wherein as Chaucer observes of the four great differing Orders of Friers in his time every Sect every Order and conscience pleads the integrity and purity of their way and the People of God themselves are so divided and differently perswaded as of late in the Scotch wars to blood and dreadfull slaughters I say I ask Whether we may pray without prophaning of the holy Name of God and the guilt of the breach of the civil Peace of the Nation that God would send such Magistrates who should authoritatively judge whose Conscience whose Worship whose Godliness is true What prayers ought to be put up for Magistrates and accordingly maintain that Godliness defend that Faith advance the Worship and service of God c. As also prohibite by his carnal Sword all other Consciences Worships and Godliness as Schismatical heretical Seditious Blasphemous c. How much rather ought we to pray that it may pleasethe most holy and only wise Goe to vouchsafe such a Spirit of Godliness and Wisdomie to the Rulers of this Commonweal that the civil Rights may be preserved and Civilities may flourish in Righteousness and Mercy even in the midst of so much spiritual Division and Opposition which are and must be greater and greater in all Nations of the World when once the Chains and Yoaks of implicite Faith Soul Yoaks believe as the Church believes Decrees and Precepts of Men Tradition of Elders Customes Antiquity c. re torn off and broke from the souls and necks of the People and Inhabitants hereof The sum of the sixth Question Whether Abraban and Jacob Quest 6 and others before the law were not Magistrates in their Families and commanded and reformed their Families in matters of Religion or were meetly fello-Servants with their Servants as the Examiner saith First I ask Whether the Questionist hath dealt fairly with the Examiner Answ in bringing him in s0 odiously to say that Abrahams and Jacobs Housholds might command them as well as Abraham and Jacob might command their Houshoulds And Whether or no did the Examiner once mention Abraham and Iacob It is true he maintaineth and with express words and clear light of holy Scripture well may that in Religious matters the Magistrate and Subject are fellow-Servants but gave he any colour or appearance of Countenance to Servants to be inobsequious to their Masters Children to their Parents Wives to their Husbands people to Magistrates in all their civil spheres and respects I ask further The dispensations of the Fathers and magistrates of Cods Israel figurative and typical Is the consequence fairly gathered that because Abraham I saack and Iacob and those Fathers of Families and Elder Brothers those Saviours Judges Governours and Kings of the Israel and people of God in those sigurative times and typical administrations commanded and punished even with a material and carnal sword in spiritual matters therefore every Master of a Family Husband Father Elder brother Judge governour King Magistrate hath the same Authority in spiritual matters now And that therefore according to Numb 30. an Husbands or Father may now disannul and over-rule the meerly Religious Vowes and Devotions of their Wives and Daughters Or rather since the Lord Jesus the substance of those shadowes is come Whether ti be not one express end of his coming Great diviscons in matters of Conscience necessary c. to set a man at variance which his Father Mat. 10. in a family of five persons to set two against three and three against two that is in the matter of Religion and Canscience And I ask Whether the wife notwithstanding in civil converse she submit with all wife-like submission and affection yet as to Religion ought she not to judge of her Husbands Beliefe or Unbelief in God and may she not joyn with him or separate from him labouring to be a Saviour to him How knowest thou O Wife but that thou mayest save thy Husband c. And so consequently the servant to his Master the Child to his Parent the subject and souldier to the highest Magistrate and Commander For Gal. 3. there is neither Iew nor Greek there is neibond nor free there is neither male nor female for yea are all one in Christ Iesus Secondly I ask Whether it be not the designe of God for the manifestation of his owne most glorious Brightness to cary on the Mystery and Glory of Christianity in the meanest and lowest of Earthen Vessels according to that of Iames 2. Hath not God chosen the poor of this World rich in Faith Gods designe of chusing men of low deeree not many wise noble nor mighty and Heires of the Kingdom Hence in a most stupendious condescension God manifesteth himself in Flesh and that Flesh must be taken from a poor Carpenters wife and she delivered of her blessed fruit in a stable amongst Beasts And however he command thousand thousands of those most blessed Invisible Spirots the Angels yet for his visible attendants and Embassadours to the World were they not ordinarily of a low Ranck and condition even those two Pillars whose names have so sounded in all parts especially at Rome and London Peter the Fishcrman

Bowells therefore of pity in us toward poor sinners like our selves If any sence of the mercies and pitie of Christ Iesus to our selves How should we compassionate the Captivated and sometimes the striving and relucting souls of thousands about these and the like Opinions How many thousands and ten thousands of Gods ancient Friends and Acquaintance The Iewes Conscientious plea from Scripture the Iewes will say unto us How can that Iesus whom you pretend be the true Messiah the anointed of God he whom all the Prophets told of whom all the Fathers lookt for How did he deliver us from the Roman yoakes how hath he redeemed us these 1600 years since from all our Enemies in the Lands of our Dispersions and Scatterings How many thousand Papists will tell us that Iesus the Son of Mary he is the blessed Messiah that was to come and why should we not believe him that plainly said This is my Body Is he not able to make good his word in a real and corporal presence Did he not say to Peter thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church To thee will I give the Keys of the kingdom of heaven How many thousand will tell us that the great and wonderful mystery of the holy Trinity is beyond their understanding and reach and they cannot believe and die for that which passeth their comprehension as also that the knots of holy Scripture besides those of Reason are very great and wonderful How many thousands are perswaded that the several Orders in the government of Christs House and Kingdom The several conscientious pleas of the more knowing and most godly persons in England are not manifested in vain unto us in the Word of God in particular the order of Bishops Nor are there thousands and then thousands wanting who will triumphantly ask us What that laying on the hands of the Presbytery was How many Consciences will ask how we can dare to say that Christ Jesus died not for all when so many Scriptures speak of the propitiation for the sins of the whole world And why say they shall the power of Nature be so slighted when Christ Jesus tells us that he would but Jerusalem would not And how is that doctrine say they so infallible of the impossibility of a final breach between Christ Jesus and Believers when so many Caveats Warnings Items are given us nor to fall and so many dreadful examples especially in these times of the departure of so many from Christ Jesus to the world with Demas and Judas to honour and preferment with Diotrephes to lusts and pleasures and many abominations with the stony ground How many are assaulted by Satan to question the Godhead of the Son of God and of the Holy Spirit and of the truth of the holy Scriptures Whether there are no more holy Scriptures but these and whether the Translations and infallible and which are to be rested or relied on Oh how merciful how pitiful are the bowels of the Lamb of God to poor wandring sinners And how sierce how cruel are the thoughts of his Corrival Antichrist who makes it so casie to be born againe to have Gods Spirit to the Orthodox to be truely Zealous against Idolaters Blasphemers Hereticks c. The sum of the sixteenth Question Whether Idolaters may not be punished Quest 16 because the Magistrate doth not know the heart of the Idolaters and whether this opposeth not the word of God by Moses and the punishment of the worshippers of the Calfe and Baal and the Prophets of Baal Unto which may be added the seventeenth Question viz VVhether Idolaters may not be convinced by Acts Quest 17 as well as a Murtherer and thereby the heart of the Idolater is discovered for the Murtherer is discovered guilty because of Malice in his heart As also the eighteenth VVhether of two sins Quest 18 that which is discerned ought not to be punished because the other is not punished for want of discerning First Answ Not to respect what hath been said as to the Distinction of Idolatry as to the nature of civil Magistracie and its power the different dispensations of God divers times and divers waies and at last by his Son To the Fathers in familes to Moses and the Prophets in the typical Land of Ganaan and at last all the world over by his most glorious and dear Son God blessed for ever I ask first Whether the Examiner can be fairly charged to bring it in as a reason that Idolatry should not be punished because the Magistrate doth not know the heart of the Idolater The Spaniards sacrificing millions of mtn to that grand Ido of the world the Indian gold And will all that the Examiner speaks there of the heart be fairly cast up and amount to more then the forementioned distinction of Religious and moral Idolatry and that opened by that so famous instance of the Spaniards in the West-Indies who cryed out against the poor Indians Idolaters Idolaters Heathens worshippers of the Sun and yet themselves did most notoriously bow down to the Golden God the Indians Gold as all Europes Nations and England more or less and in a sordid and bloody devotion did sacrifice to that Golden Images so many thousands yea millions of the Inhabitants It is incredible how many millions of mankind were there destroyed as their own Cardinal wrote to the Emperour Charles the fifth as Idolaters Blasphemers c. But it is very credible and easie to believe what stumbling blocks such their Covetousness and Cruelties were to the poor Indians insomuch that they abhorr'd to hear the Spanish Priests to talk of Heaven whither the Spaniards were said to go whose Covetousness and Cruelties they thought would never send them to a place of Blesedness Secondly I ask Whether those Examples of punishing the Worshippers of the Calfe and of Baal and of Baals Priests are presidential and binding unto all the Nations of the World And whether the Paralleling of all Times to that ceremonial Time The new piecing up of the vaile of the temple and all places to that typical and ceremonial place be not indeed upon the point a new piecing up of the vaile of the Temple which the right hand of the God of Heaven hath rent and a preferring of Moses the Servant before the Lerd Fesus the Son yea and consequently a denying of the Lord Iesus the great Messiah to be yet come Thirdly I ask If these Examples be now presidential The Bishops root and branch and all faise Ministers ought to be put to death Whether if there were such Civil Magistrates Monarchs of the world as formerly yea and however whether it be not the duty of all the Magistrates in the World to destroy even beyond all compare and Imagination the greatest part if not almost all the Inhabitants of the whole World for some false Worship Idolatry and one Golden Calf or another Yea I ask Whether by this rule the