Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	worship_n	worship_v	worshipper_n	4,806	4	12.4611	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39570	The bishop busied beside the business, or, That eminent overseer, Dr. John Gauden, Bishop of Exeter, so eminently overseen as to wound his own cause well nigh to death with his own weapon in his late so super-eminently-applauded appearance for the [brace] liberty of tender consciences, legitimacy of solemn swearings, entituled, A discourse concerning publick oaths, and the lawfulness of swearing in judicial proceedings, in order to answer the scruples of the Quakers ... / by Samuel Fisher ...	Fisher, Samuel, 1605-1665.	1662 (1662)	Wing F1051; ESTC R37345	155,556	170

is the World and the Civil States and several Nations thereof which howbeit the Bishop takes Nations for Churches by whole-sale here as if the words Church and Nation were Synonima's yet qua Nations are not Churches to grow together with the Wheat until the harvest or end of the World and that with this Caveat least men in the midst of their Busslings and busie minds mistaking should under a pretence of plucking up the Tares root out the Wheat it self also which what Kingdom or People soever doth Bishop Gaudens Counsel and Caveat to the contrary notwithstanding who sayes he is not for such a ●…ame permission of Tares to be among the Wheat least that good seed of Religion which is sown by the Publick Ministry by which he means no other then their own and fenced by Legal Authority should be ●…hoaked had better busie it self wholly about other and meer secular matters of wrong and wicked Lewdness which reason wills they should be Totally taken up with in the exercise of their Civil Power those being the things which not onely properly but indeed alone appertain to them to be exercised in or take Congnizance of For if the Wheat which are indeed those true worshippers only who worship the Father of Spirits who is a Spirit and seeketh such onely to worship him in Spirit and in Truth in reference unto whom all other outside worshippers are as nothing for what is the Chaff to the wheat saith the Lord and which onely must go into the garner when all chaffy Formalists must in this day wherein the Lord is sifting out the house of Israel from among the Nations or several Sorts of Professions as Corn is sifted in a Sieve fall to the ground be driven away with the Wind and burnt up with the unquenchable Fire of that great day of the Lord which now burns as a Oven against all Flesh and fleshly Christianities if we say the foresaid true worshippers be of God then they cannot be withstood in a way of Safety to it self by any Nation Sith to withstand●… them is not onely to resist that People which are the Chariots and Horsmen thereof but also to be found fighters against God himself against whom and his People it is as impossible finally to prevail as it was for Egypt to prevail against Israel which when God arose to Redeem them from their bondage increased upon them so much the more by how much the more they were opressed and intended to be for ever suppressed by them God himself taking part with his own chosen against the other who hath said he will give Kingdoms for their ransome and Nations for their Life rather then his own Seed shall go unredeemed We say that this were the way to setle all in Peace to change all setled Lawes that are for Persecution into a Law for the Tolleration of all Religions much more of that one which though it be struck at both by and before all the rest will be found at last to be the onely true one which yet must unavoidably suffer Violence in some place or other while that Principle of Persecution hath place in Peoples hearts for as all Nations are not of one and the same but of many respectively so all men are not of one and the same Religion in any one Nation whereupon in case it happen that any Nation by Law Establish that Religion which is not Truth that Nation suppressing by outward Violence all Religions besides its own whether that be Heathenish Turkish Iewish Popish Prelatical Presby erian or any other must necessarily ex officio in point of duty Persecute and tread down the Truth it self for if the Civil Magistracy as such ought de jure to root out all Religions but that which it judges to be Righteous and convenient then even those that are heathen Magistrates who would be no more as to that capacity of Magistrates then now they are if they should turn Christians must root out quoad posse all that 's Christian and every Magistrate being a Magistrate as well as any one the notion of Christian adding nothing to mens Power as Civil Governors according to that rule of quatenus ipsum which includes de omni what ever belongs to any thing as so belongs also to every thing that is so not onely those Nations which happen to be of the true Religion must Persecute all those that are found in false ones but each Nation that is found in any false Religion must seek the utter ruine not only of all the rest but even of those also which are Established in the Truth But this is the way which the Bishop in no wise approves of for any Nation or at least for this to renounce the unsound Principle of forcing under Penalties all Dissenters to conformity in Religion unto it self because saith he it is not consistent with the Piety Prudence Honour or Safety of a Nation and Church when it judgeth its Constitutions to be Religious Righteous and Convenient But what a contrary conclusion is this not only to all Scripture Reason as is shewed above but also to all common Experience in this our Nation in which it hath been seen in the dayes both of Edward the sixth Elizabeth and Iames his times neither can it be denyed by the Bishops themselves unless they will deny themselves to be conscientious Dissenters from that Popery which stood here of old how much it was for the piety prudence honour and Safety of the Nation which did before generally judge those Popish constitutions it was then establisht in to be Religious Righteous and Convenient and yet upon further and more mature deliberation saw good ground for the sake of that small yet more enlightned Protestant Party that dissented to change the then and long before establisht Lawes concerning their Mass and many other matters as the Statutes themselves declare at large The Bishop therefore by this reasonless Reason both condemns that course of all the Protestant Princes of England that changed the Popish Laws before establisht for the sake of tender Protestant Dissenters as not savouring of piety prudence nor yet either safe honourable or convenient for the Nation but also secondly justifies the Pope himself and all Popish Princes in Persecuting such Protestants against him as are found within these Precincts and Dominions and in not changing their establisht Laws against the Truth for their sakes sith as the Bishops judge the English Constitutions so to be whereby they stand So other Nations judge their own Constitutions to be Religious Righteous and Convenient and thirdly makes a fence against the spreading of all sorts of Protestanism not that only which is so at large but of that which is Christianity so truly called Moreover where ever the alteration of any suppressive Lawes for the sake of a few Dissenters tends to the encrease of Love and Amity Peace and Unity which is a better thing than Uniformity in a Nation the preservation of

which is the main end of all civil Goverment it cannot truly be supposed to be prejudicious to either the Piety Honour and Safety of that Nation to alter its establisht Lawes for the sake of those few which for Conscience meerly cannot conform in meer outward matters And so the case is here for as that People that are most truly tender of keeping the truth and peace which are the party that though they least deserve it yet suffer most alwayes and for the most part only under those Laws that are made to force the Conscience in case of Religion cannot be forced to do against their Faith and so with more Pitty Piety Prudence Peace Safety and Honour every way may be let alone to live a quiet Life under all civil Governments in all Godliness and Honesty the disturbing them under the pretence of their being Disturbers being the true Cause of most Disturbance in most Nations So the generallity of the ruder sort that make no such Conscience about Religion as the upright ones do can without scruple change their Worship if men will have them and as people did by the lump worship that Image which was set up on pain of ruine if they bowed not to it eccepting three that did dissent for whose sake they found good cause soon after to change the Edict can conform quietly to and fro without scruple or controul as they did in Edward's Maryes and Elizabeth's Dayes to what Forms of Worship shall be required of them and so a Toleration by Law to the rest at least that cannot cannot be so far from a Nations Piety Prudence Honour and Safety as this Bp. Imagines and cannot but be most tending to its Security for those Nations which weave the Spiders Webb which catches and hampers the small harmless Gnats and Flies while Hornets and venemous Creatures that have strong stings and great strength that know how to foot it thorow every form and suite their peace to every Profession crawl over them without being caught or tangled do draw down upon themselves that Vengeance from the Lord which he will as assuredly recompence on them in due time as ever he foretold it by his Prophet who said Isai. 59. 4 5 6 7 8. None calleth for Iustice nor any pleadeth for truth they trust in Vanity and speak Lies they conceive Mischief and bring forth Iniquity they hatch Cockatrice Eggs and weave the Spiders Webb He th●… eateth of their Eggs dieth and that which is crushed breaketh out into a Viper Their Webbs shall not become Garments neither shall they cover themselves with their Workes Their Works are Works of Iniquity and the Act of Violence is in their hands Their Feet run to evil and hey make hast to shed Innocent Blood their thoughts are the thoughts of iniquity wasting and destruction are in their pathes The way of peace they know not and there is no judgement in their goings they have made them crooked pathes whosoever goeth therein shall not know peace Lastly Though indeed it is not consistent with the Piety Prudence Honour and Safety of the true Church to alter its Laws and Constitutions for the sake of such as are not of it because Christ himself is their Law-giver who hath not put it into her power to make her own Laws much lesse to impose her Laws under outward penalties with carnal weapons on the consciences of other people and by his Law allowes a latitude as to outward observations in whicih his Kingdom stands not to do as every one is by him perswaded and required in his own mind so be that he who observes or observes not dayes or outward things does and does it not unto the Lord neither need the ●…asse-Church change her Orders for the sakes of such as dissent from it and are not of it as the Quakers are not either of the Bishops or the Popes each of which if they please themselves shall not disprease us in their Acts and Orders for superfluous Ceremonies so be they let us alone with whom as being not of their Church they have nought to do de jure as with Members of it yet so far is it from being against the Piety Prudence Honour and Safety of any Nation or earthly Kingdom to repeal such Laws as they have made by their Priests Direction to bind men to conform to Religions contrary to their Consciences that if any happen to err aster that sort of Priests which do direct them and the Bishop without the Light which we call all men to and which he opposes is no more infallible but as fallible to the full as the Pope and Presbyter yea none of the three do so much as pretend to infallibility save the Pope then it 's neither Godly Prudent Honourable nor so much as safe for any Nation not to change its establisht Lawes for the sake of Dissenters from its Error sith in not changing them God himself is rebelled against in such a case whether those lawes be made for Swearing or against true Worship which are the two things only aimed at in the Act against the Quakers about one of which there 's the self same reason as about the other and in proof of this we have the authority of the Bishops own true Testimony to the one which is as true when given forth in a way of evidence to the other whose Words concerning Swearing which with the Bishops consent to it mans Law now commands pag. 23. are as followes If it do appear that all Swearing is absolutely by our Lord Christ forbidden to his Disciples God forbid we should not obey his Word and rather change the lawes of man than violate his Commands to whom we Christians owe the highest love loyalty and obedience but if it appear as say we it doth not by any thing said in the Bishops Book or any where else to religious reason that the words of Christ do not import an absolute forbidding of all Swearing we must not be so much slaves to the Letter as to leade Truth and Reason captive or to deprive our selves of that religious Liberty which is left us and so not only lawful for Christians to use but in some cases prudentially necessary as to the expediences of mens Iealousies Lives Liberties Estates and good Names even in private much more in the dispensations of Iustice to the publick Peace and general Satisfaction of whole Polities and Communities wherein men live sociably under Law and Government To which Words of the Bishops concerning Swearing mutatis mutandis we subjoyn concerning our meeting together to Worship God in Spirit and in Truth which with the Bishops consent thereunto mans Law now forbids viz. if it do appear that all meeting together in Christ's name of above five of his Disciples at one time to Worship him in Spirit and in Truth in any one place except in some such Churches or Chappels as are of mans and for the most part of the Popes Consecrating of old for

egregiously in their undertakings as to loose themselves in ipso limine and it 's ill stumbling at the threshold and as canis festinans coecos parit catulos to bring forth such blind businesses in their hast as when God and Man come to call them to account they must assuredly repent of by leisure their eyes though too late being enlightned then to see how they kept neither the pure Lawes of God nor those very Laws and Acts of men neither which they pretend to act by Fourthly We observe that the Bishop likens them to the Devil who first search mens hearts and then torment them in their Estates and Liberties only because they are not so wise or of the same perswasion with themselves little dreaming how far forth in so doing he likens himself to the Devil unawares as whether consequentially he doth not yea or nay we appeal to himself while in the next Words he says That some little pecuniary mulct for every Lord's days absence from the publick Church or Assembly may be justly t●…ld as a mark of publick dislike upon Dissenters and Seperaters from the established Religion And if he deems he sufficiently salves this sore by that di●…initive manner of Speech in which he speaks concerning the 〈◊〉 or Fining of men in their Estares ●…ith he would have but some little mulct or Fine of one or two shillings for every Lords Day Answ. Let him remember that as gradus non ●…riant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 degrees do in no wise vary the Nature of any case the spoiting a ma●… of a penny being contrary to his enjoyment of his Estate and a Tormenting him therein as truly and really though not so 〈◊〉 not so abundantly as the spoiling him of a pound so secondly two shillings a week as if not p●…id exposes a man to Prison and so to be ●…mented as to his Liberty so if paid amounts to more then five pound●… throughout the year and that is more then many conscientions Persons have in all to live on Object Or if secondly he shall say we wrong him in his senc●… because it is not for their private difference in iudgement which possibly saith he is not their fault but for their publick deformity in practice that I would have them so punisht Answ. We Reply this will not at all relieve him from but subject him more to the just censure of contradiction to himself Sith i●… private difference in judgement be not the dissenters own fault then his open practising according thereunto is so far from being his fault that it is praised and commended as good in the Quakers by the Bishop himself pag. 10. and so it were rather a fault in him to do otherwise all men yeelding together with himself that consotentia errans obligat an Erring conscience binds to Act according to its Evidence till it be further or more truly enlightened And secondly if it be not his own fault then if he be punisht it must be either for the f●…lt of some other which is not just or which is far more unjust for that which is no fault at all Fifthly We observe by the Bishops own confession that the dissenters may be as honest and sincere in the sight of God as the Imposors and this we yield to be indeed as true as that way of imposing under outward penalties on mens Consciences about Religion is a way Universally false But this of the Bishop may serve however as a Caution to himself and to all imposers upon mens Consciences in Religions ●…ters to beware least they be found fighters against God un●…wares to themselves as assuredly they will be if they be found Persecutors of the Innocent and of such as are more sincere than themselves ●…oreover it yet further appears how little Liberty that is which the Bishop notwithstanding his fair pretences is willing to have allowed by these woeds of his viz. Bish. Onely such an Arbitrary connivance and conditional indulgence 〈◊〉 gives no trouble for their private and untrouble some Opinions while they are kept within their Breasts and Closets or in their private houses and families without any convention of strangers to them and so as to be kept within Parochial bounds or to such a number of Persons c. But for dissenters to have multitudinous Conventicles as it were mustering of their Forces when where and as many as they please cannot be safe for thereby they not only affront the Religion established but confirm each other in their Opinion as char-coals in heaps they more kindle and enflame each other by their numbers c. Answ. We never knew Truth yet untroublesome to a truthless faithless and Hypocritical Generation though it 's justified and witnessed to be the most peaceable thing in all the World by its own Children But are not the Multitudinous Meetings Conventions and Mustenings together of Rude Wild Wicked People to Drinking and Revellings Wakes and Whitsun-ales May-games and Morrice-dancings Fencings and Cudgel-playings Cock-fightings and Bear-baitings Bowlings and other Games Carding Dicing Dancing Vain-shewes Sights and Stage playes in the Streets Markets and Faires Iuglers Puppets Iack Puddings where they kindle and enflame one another in Lust Want●…nness and Wickedness as char-coals in heaps by their numbers and thrive in Swearing Whoredom Dissoluteness and all manner of Debaue●…ery and Prophaness much more inconsistant with the Nations Safety disturbing its Peace which if ever it be true must be the effect and fruit of Righteousness affronting your established Religion unless it be a Religion that allows all Ir-religion then for the People that fear the Lord to meet together to worship God in Spirit and Truth and to Preach up the Power of Godliness that would bring people out of all these ungodly courses to that Grace of God in themselves that teaches to live Godly Righteously and Soberly in this World Yet where do we find the Bishops and the Fathers of the Church so appearing in declamations against these things and though there are Laws and Statutes extant against them yet where so●… we the Iustices so busie in Execution of them as some are even to rage and madness in Execution of one Act to make the Quakers Swear against and ●…ase to worship God according to God's Will and their own Consciences 2. This is only such a Liberty as is not in the Bishops nor in any mans Power to deprive men of for thoughts are free and opinion is no crime punishable by mans L●…r being not declared by word or actions so that this Learned Doctor hath here unlearnedly exprest himself in that he talks of Indulgence to Dissenters where there is no Law of man at all broken as in the case of Opinion and Thought unexpressed or undeclared there is not no Law of man being made against the Thoughts and where there is no Law there is no Transgression and so no indulgence at all needed The Bishop might better therefore have spared his pains than talkt of Indulgence here

ever and is at this day a thousand fold more disturbed and that true Religion that was long since establisht by Christ himself and his Apostles upon the true Foundation which the Quakers stand on at this day more palpably affronted and Equity it self which is the End * of all Law subverted and so truly all right Iudiciall proceedings obstructed and even mans Laws as well as Gods more apparently disobeyed by hunting them up and down and haling them out of their own private houses as well as out of open meeting-places without Warrants into Prisons as the experience of those Hurli-burlies that are seen in this City at this day do evidently declare then ever they would have been or could possibly be if the Quakers were let alone to declare the Truth and to worship God in Spirit and Truth and to live a peaceable and quiet life as they would do under the King in all godliness and honesty Neither is it possible that the Quakers should be otherwise Opinioned or acted then they are or the Nation in Peace setled or your own if it were as truely as ye suppose it to be right Religion Established till these rigid inflictions have an end And to this the Bishop himself witnesseth in the very next words which are thus viz. in this particular Case of the Quakers who refuse all Legall Oathes upon scruples of Conscience no sober man can think by meer Penalties to reduce them to the Conformity with our Laws or to stop the spreading of their Opinions until it be plainly shewed and that say we still never will be unless more be done then ever yet hath been done by the Bishops Book in order to it that it is not true Religion but onely S●…perstition in them a fear where no fear is a being Righteous over much a mistake of Christs meaning a wresting of Scripture by their own unlearnedness and unstableness to their own Dectruction as well as to the Publick parturbation Yea sad experience saith another Author hath clearly and plainly shewn us that forcing of Conscience and persecuting about Religion is not onely in vain but a direct contrary means and a cause of Sects and disturbances and of many evils as the Chronicles of Germany France and the Low Countrys do abundautly testifie The States of Holland also affirmed that it was not possible to find out means of any good and certain Peace otherwise then by Tollerating more Religions then one Some say indeed that People of different Opinions cannot live together in a Kingdom without continuall contention and therefore say they must that be prevented with Fire and Sword But what though there be Vertue and filthiness in a Kingdom good and bad men which are one contrary to the other one must not therefore saith a wise man to prevent it bring a whole Kingdom or Land into confusion by stirring up the People one against another Moreover it is evident that in Dutchland Poland and in the Low Countries more Religions then one are suffered and yet there are not continual uproars and Tumults as some imagine such Toleration would occasion in a Kingdom Therefore may we conclude that it is not the Tolleration of more Religons then one which produceth uproar in a Kingdom but rather the untowardness and perversness of them that seek to obstruct this Tolleration Moreover it was the saying of Calvin in his Iust If any one reprove or rebuke mens evils and teach any thing contrary to what they teach then they account that to be the cause of uproars when they themselves are the tumultuous and if they themselves did not stir up the mighty to shed blood there would never arise so many uproars among the People And it was Luthers mind also however both the Luth●…rans and Calvinists so called growing numerous and Potent have since Degenerated from the first professed Principles of those after whom they are respectively denominated that those who stirred up the Princes to persecute about Religion they still raised the uproars Neither is it such a means as Bishop Gauden accounts it to preserve the Religion Established from affronts by the Quakers for as for them they do not so affront it or endeavour to unsettle it but that it may stand long enough for them among such as can own it to be true if it can stand on its own legs without the Interposition of any Extrinsical or Foraneous force to uphold it but if like Dagon it fall of it self before the Ark of Gods Testament what reason is there to the contrary but that it should lie there as not the true one as Dagon did as no true God unless it can help it self up again by its own Intrinsical Power without the outward Heterogeneous assistance or help of men making Lawes and Penalties to impose it Furthermore how ineffectual utterly and of dangerous Consequence to any Nation the Practice of Violence and Persecution is is to be seen not onely by the Testimony of well nigh innumerable famous men of all Sorts and Capacities in their Several Generations whose unanimous perswasion in this particular is to be understood by their respective sayings comprized together in one Book Entituled The Testimony of a Cloud of Witnesses c. but also by sundry more of the Prudential sayings of King Charles the first besides those forecited out of his Book called EIKON BASILIKE as namely pag. 70. Nor is it so proper to hew out Religious Reformations by the Sword as to polish them by fair and equal disputations among those that are most concerned in the differences whom not force but reason ought to convince sure in matters of Religion those truthes gain most upon mens Iudgements which are least urged by secular Violence which weakens Truth with prejudices p. 115. It being an office not onely of Humanity rather to use reason then force but also of Christianity to seek Peace and ensue it pag. 92. In point of true Conscientiousness and Tenderness I have often declared how little I desire my Lawes and Scepter should intre●…ch on Gods Soveraignity which is the onely King of mens Consciences And pag. 123. Nor do I desire any man should be further subject unto me then all of us may be subject unto God Pag. 76. The enjoyning Oathes upon People must needs in things doubtful be dangerous as in things unlawful damnable And in pag. 105. In his advice to his Son Charles the second now Raigning My Counsell and charge to you is that you seriously consider the real and objected miscarriages which might occasion my trouble that you might avoid them beware of exasperating any Faction by the rashness and asperity of some mens passions humors and private opinions imployed by them grounded onely upon Religion where a Charitable Conn●…vance and Christian Toleration often dissipates their strength where rougher opposition fortifies and puts the despised and oppressed party into such a combination as may most enable them to get a full revenge on those they