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
A65249	Lamentation over England from a true sight, and suffering sense, of the lamentable wickedness of such rulers, priests, and people, that are erred, and strayed from the way of God, and follow too much the devices and desires of their own hearts, offending against his holy laws ... : whereby all persecutors may (in pity to their souls) truly consider what way they are in, and whether it leads, and whose work they are doing, and what the Scripture saith will be the reward of oppression and cruelty / by M.W.	Watkins, Morgan, fl. 1653-1670.	1664 (1664)	Wing W1066; ESTC R38958	45,267	54

such are now that the Scripture may be fulfilled for such are not of the world but of God for said they the whole world lyeth in wickednesse and they were with sound Doctrine and a holy Conversation to beget unto God out of the world and if you who are called Lords spiritual did exercise your authority over none but they that you had begotten to God out of the world you would have but a very small flock if any at all but instead of gathering a flock out of the world you take the world for your flock and so exercise Lordship over them as Christ said Luke 22.25 The kings of the Gentiles exercise Lordship over them the example of those you follow and not Christ for there is many thousands by the year to be gotten by them and so rule by your outward power and Lordlinesse like the false Prophets of old and many of the world love to have it so and so let them have it But the flock of Christ the Church in God cannot own these things nor love to have it so but must stand witnesses against these things even to the death if the Lord require them And therein you come to be tried and made manifest what nature you are of and also their faith and patience is made manifest and the nature of the Lamb shewed forth that overcomes but the contrary nature as I have said is to be overcome that which persecutes and imprisons and would force the conscience and so slay the soul or else kill the body this was ever of the Devil and so it is now and a mark of Antichrist the false Church the Whore that is adulterated from the Spirit and alienated from the Lambs nature that overcomes in patience and obtains the victory and is made perfect through suffering but on the contrary the Whore the false Church is said to drink the blood of the Saints and the Scripture bears testimony that all the bloud is sound in Babylon then Sion is clear of bloud Mark that and the name Babylon comes thus to be written in the forehead of every persecutor who is of Cains stock that slew his brother because his worship was in truth but his in the murthering nature Mark he that was slain was in the truth from the beginning and he that slew was in the deceit and so we see it hath been all along unto this very day And that nature which slew our Lord Christ when he was upon the earth is the same that now persecutes and slayes his Disciples and followers because they are redeemed from the earth and cannot submit to their vain traditions customes and fashions and commands that are contrary to God therefore are sufferers by the world but the sons of Sion are such who are redeemed with judgment and that nature which is at enmity to God being condemned is crucified and cast out and the Lambs nature being raised up converts to righteousnesse and righteousnesse being brought forth glorifies God And we being called and gathered cut of the vain conversation and also from the vain worship which teacheth for Doctrine the commands and traditions of men by the mighty power and out-stretched arm of God are kept in faithfulnesse to him that we cannot bow or submit to that which the Lord hath shewed us to be evil for fear of men or their threats who are but dust being accompanied in our sufferings and persecutions with the power and presence of the eternal God that made heaven and earth And be it known unto you persecutors of the holy seed you shall never prevail to overcome us as we are kept in the power of Life which hath gathered us out of your dead forms to serve the God of Life in the newness of his spirit in which he is worshipped by the true worshippers out of the way sight and understanding of all that are not come to receive the true light who are all in a false worship erred from the spirit blind in the dark and stumble at the truth and fight against the life that is hid with Christ in God out of the sight of the vulterous eye and out of the way of the venomous beast where the lions whelp treads not and where the devourer cannot come and that which God hath hid in the spirit all the natural learning in the world could never find out nor ever shall for being hid from the wise and prudent of this world is revealed to such as are babes who hunger and thirst after righteousness and not after preferment in the world who cannot be satisfied with the bread that perisheth but with the sincere milk of the word of life they grow which word is nigh them and is the word of faith in their hearts that begets life in them and this life pints and breaths after nourishment from that which hath begotten it and cannot be satisfied with words but with the immortal word of life that was in the beginning that quickeneth that again that in Adam we were dead to and this is the quickning spirit that ministers life which we having obeyed do live and the life we now live is by the mighty power of God which our souls are made subject to and we cannot but obey that which quickned us and is the immortal life in us the second Adam that the children of the first persecute because they are born of that which cannot reveal the second and so being in the darknesse of death see him not nor know him But alas for you it is in vain for you to think that you can prevail over us by your carnal weapon for the sword of the spirit is with us which hath slain and cut down that nature in us that your strength stands in to make War against us for the strong man the enemy of our souls being overcome by the power of life that is stronger comes to be cast out who is the Captain that leads all persecutors and all destroyers of mens lives for Conscience sake that is he that would destroy us being cast out from within and cannot destroy our souls would revenge himself upon our bodies but we know that he that hath given life to our souls can preserve our bodies if he please if not his will be done but this I say to all persecuters We have overcome your Captain-general and he that is in us is greater then he that is in the world as we have said and you shall know who is the Captain of our salvation that suffered by the world and overcome the world and therefore know this that as our Captain hath overcome the world in us so with us and in us will he overcome the world by us but this the world seeth not therefore cannot receive it so if all the world rise up against us as one man for the obedience of the spirit of truth we know it is that they may be overcome And how can you expect that we should submit to that in others

to worship his golden Image but after he came to know them be loved them and honoured them in the sight of his Nobles Princes Dukes and Counsellors confessing them to be the servants of the high God commending their faithfulnesse in yielding their bodies to the flames rather then they would serve or worship any God save their own God Then he saw his vain labour in forcing the servants of the most high God contrary to the commands of their God And will you shew your selves more unreasonable then a Heathen more blinder then those that knew not God and yet call your selves Christians and the Scriptures your Rule When Nebuchadnezzar had once tryed the three children of God to the laying down of their lives and found them faithful he was satisfied How many times have you tryed us by Imprisonment till death and spoyling of our goods by breaking up our Meetings beating innocent harmlesse people to death How many Cruel Barbarous Unhumane dealings have been used against us both before your Government and also since by you which we have walked through and in the furnace of affliction with the patience of the Son of God who hath kept our precious lives unhurt and brings us forth to his praise and yet cannot you see the Son of God with us whom you fight against Can you not see neither how little you do prevail against him and his spiritual work in us Though some of you can say We are a very confident people but if you could but see him that leads us who is the Captain of our salvation you would say We had good cause to be bold and valiant knowing our leader is not to be overcome nor those that follow him who are called and chosen and faithful which faithfulnesse Nebuchadnezzar did commend and honour And did he not do well in 〈◊〉 Yes you cannot deny Then as you have followed his example by indeavouring to compel us to fall down to your imaginary worship which I believe you will not justifie in him follow his example also in justifying the faithful children of God that would not obey his Commands to the dishonouring of the most high God who having tryed them blessed God for their faithfulnesse In this will Nebuchadnezzar stand in Judgment against all those who make unrighteous Decrees to compel men to disobey the commands of Christ except they follow his example in this that is to say the change of their minds and altering of their Decrees in Justifying the faithful servants of God in their pure obedience to him Objection But if it be said If we knew you to be the servants of the high God as well as Nebuchadnezzar knew the three children we would not make Laws nor Decrees to compel you to our worship being sure it would be but lost labour Answer Then all our sufferings and persecutions and hard usages from you is because you do not know us and whose fault is that ours or yours that you do not know us to be the children of God Whose fault was it that Saul the persecutor knew not the Church of God but made havock of the true worshippers were they to be blamed or he If he then you when he hearkened to the High Priests he persecuted the Disciples of Jesus but when he obeyed the voice of Christ he saw their deceit and believed the truth then he preached him and suffered with those he persecuted Now if you that persecute knew the truth you would know us that walk in it And have not we laboured even to the laying down of our lives that you might know it and be saved by it What could we have done more for you then we have to bring you to the knowledg of it Have we not suffered to the death in obedience to it that it might preach to you that we have found the kingdom of heaven and the righteousness thereof which is better then our lives for which righteousness sake we suffer and are blessed if we continue faithful to the end And this is the only true way that can be used as to you to convince your understandings that we are in the truth when we lay down our lives for it If we were unfaithful to our God and disobedient to his Spirit in obeying your commands that are contrary to the truth you had no reason to judge or think we were in the truth for had the three children been deceitful and obeyed the Kings command he had never knew them to be the servants of the high God that was able to deliver out of his hand And the deliverance that he saw was of their bodies from the flames that made him blesse the God of their lives but the deliverance that we witnesse is of our souls from etenel death which is far greater and more glorious yet you cannot see it but if your spiritual eyes were open as his fleshly eyes was then you might see a greater deliverance in the spirit then he saw in the flesh and would have as great or greater cause to blesse the God of those you in scorn call Quakers as the King Nebuchadnezzar had to blesse the God of Shadrach Meshach and Abednego though he be the same God over all blessed for ever Yet his appearance in this the great and notable day of the Spirit is that in which the riches of his love is and shall be made manifest which was promised to the ages to come which now is come of which the Apostles and Disciples of Christ were the first-fruits but now is the day of the whole Harvest of the earth begun in which the Lord is gathering in unto himself his Elect seed in all Nations Lands and Countries even from the one end of the earth unto the other that they may worship in spirit and in truth and be established in righteousnesse and the Mountain of the house of the Lord be prepared in the top of the mountains and be exalted above the hills where all Nations shall flow unto it out of which shall go forth the Law and the word of the Lord from this Jerusalem and they shall break their Swords into Plough-shares Mark the day of the breaking of Swords is begun and their Spears into Pruning-books and Nation shall not lift up sword against Nation neither learn to fight any more And this is the day that is dawned and blessed are they that walk in it but wretched and miserable are all those that despise it and persecute those that walk in the light of it casting them into Prisons Holes and Dungeons because they cannot submit to their corrupt wils nor worship the Imaginations of their Wise men which they teach for Doctrine and give forth for a Prescription of a Religious Worship contrary to the practice of Christ and his Apostles whose Worship stood in the Spirit But I believe if all you that resist us knew in what our Worship did stand you durst not oppose that power that hath gathered us and made our

so many years ago what you should find them but now you see it your selves who they be that make no conscience what they swallow they swallowed so much trebble damage in Oliver's days that their throat is become as an open sepulchre and are in that spirit of covetousnesse that the Prophet said never hath enough which is so greedy that having one or two Parishes yet labours to have more and some are so unreasonable to require Wages for some years before they came to the place which it may be stood vacant so long yet they can swallow that Hire though they never did the Work So the light hath made manifest their deeds of darknesse the hidden things that vvere in the heart being now come to be tryed and brought forth so the evil covetous man out of the evil treasure of his heart hath brought forth the evil things and the tree comes to be known by its fruit Now I say these things only to those that be guilty of them but to you that say our prinI say Did you not change your practice and conceal your principle and practice is the same that it vvas before the former chang ciple Did you nos Conform to the Commands of those you counted not of God Did you Preach and hold forth your gift of Ministration notwithstanding the Law and Commands of men till you vvere Imprison'd If you had received your gift from above and your Commission from Christ you would have chose rather to have obeyed God then man as the Apostles did and Ministers of Christ do for had the Prophets and Apostles and servants of God in former ages obeyed the powers of the earth Actually their Laws vvould have protected them that they could not have suffered Persecution and Imprisonment and Death as they did But the National Law did ever protect the National Prophets vvhich for the most part vvere ever false as the Scriptures do bear testimony But it is the Lambs Nature that doth overcome which you persecute which preacheth and shews forth its perfect love through sufferings and if you were in this nature and we in error as you say then you would shew forth a life beyond ours which is the life of truth that keeps the commands of God which life dwelleth in love and if we were in hatred it might overcome us but on the contrary we being in the suffering life of Christ and his Apostles and Disciples who never persecuted nor ever will and you in the life that persecutes it is given to the suffering life to overcome you and that spirit by which you are acted and this is the word of the Spirit of Truth that shall stand over your heads for ever But by that spirit and those weapons it is impossible to overcome us who stand in the obedience of the spirit of truth mark that because our strength is the power of God and while we believe in it it can never fail us nor forsake us We know him to be the Corner stone who is tried Elect and precious and the highest of you all shall know that he in whom we have believed in is higher then you all to fave and deliver us when he hath sufficiently proved and tryed us and therefore you may be convinced of the foolishnesse of those Instruments and Weapons you use which the former Power of Professing Hypocrites used against us before you And what did it profit them who persecuted that life they did professe in words and would not be warned till the Lord heard the cry of the Innocent and arose and took their power from them who had abused it and gave it unto you and must you needs follow their steps whom you condemn and so much despise and abuse the power you are intrusted with which is to incourage him that obeys the truth and to punish him that obeys unrighteousnesse And do not you Magistrates the contrary those that meet together in the fear of the Lord and worship in the measure of his holy spirit do not you hale forth break up their Meetings and carry them to Prisons and by your Law condemn to be banished But those that meet together in Taverns and Ale-houses who swear drink till they be drunk and whore to the great dishonour of God and the Government of the Nation yet these can be let alone in their wicked meetings and go unpunished when Honest Innocent Harmless people are fined and sent to prison What can you say to this Is not this an abusing the power put into your hands to do good withal or do you think the end and intent of Gods Ordinance is to punish his people for obeying his command If not why is it done For as sure as Magistracy is Gods Ordinance so sure are we his people and suffer for well doing Then If this be so you must confesse we are abused and suffer innocently though many of you will not believe it for if you did then we should not suffer For ever yet in all Ages Persecutors were blind therefore as in a figure the scales sell from Sauls eyes Act. 9.18 For had the Princes of this world known it that is the mistery of godlinesse they would not have crucyfied the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2.8 But though you cannot see the mistery of our life yet you may see the open prophanenesse that is daily suffered to be acted in this Nation and that can go unpunished Why because some that should punish it may be guilty of the same things themselves this mistery of iniquity is not hid from your eyes yet your sword is not a terror to this is it not then born in vain Me thinks you might see to bit some of the wickednesse at a venture it is plentiful enough sprung up and easie to be found far eafier than a meeting of harmlesse innocent people that fear the Lord and desire to live peaceably in the Nation but such many of you will take great pains to search you and go beyond the Letter of the Law to punish And if we were forward to take the advantage of the Law upon some of you all you had would hardly satisfie what the Law gives for satisfaction But we have committed our innocent cause to the Just God of heaven and earth and we do assuredly know that except you repent and that speedily he will give you weight for weight and measure for measure because he is Just and will not alwayes suffer the rod of the wicked to remain upon the back of the righteous And how comes it to passe that your sword falls upon our backs so much I am sure it s not for dishonouring God by prophanenesse for if we did so then we might be safe enough from the danger of it and we should have friends in every place but in the heavenly place in Christ Jesus whereas we now have enemies in most places And why so because Magistrates Priests and people do the things they ought not to do and

which God in his dreadful power did condemn cast out and destroy in us But while we did submit to it in our selves then we could submit to it in others for when death reigned deceit was honourable but when life came death was destroyed deceit denyed truth exalted and God honoured and our souls saved and so in Gods salvation we standing Men and Devile cannot prevail against us Now if you persecutors could believe this then you would know it were in vain to strive against us for in so doing you strive against the Lord and must needs reap destruction but on the contrary if we did not know these things brought forth in us by the mighty power of God then we might believe it were in vain to resist your wills and suffer the losse of our lives goods and liberties not knowing for what For what would it profit us to suffer for that which could not save and deliver our souls from eternal death When we were in deceit we could not suffer for the truth because the truth did suffer by us and in us but now coming into the truth deceit is denyed and cast out into the world and there rageth at us in all deceivers who are deceived that think to stop the way of the Lord and the work of his spirit in England Therefore we chuse to suffer with the truth being sure we shall reign with the truth over all that is against it for that power that hath and doth free us from the enemy within in his due time will deliver us from the enemy without and from the hands of all that hate us that we may serve him without sear of them in righteousnesse and true holinesse before him without controul of men all the dayes of our lives And therefore Infallibly knowing our selves to be led and acted by the spirit of the Lord God in the obedience of his will we do also know as well that all our enemies who oppose persecute and oppresse us except they repent shall all be destroyed and perish eternally and therefore how can we but pity your condition pray and mourn for you in secret that if it be possible you may come to the truth and be saved before it be too late and then we can neither pray nor mourn for you when you have sealed your destruction with our blood it will be too late for you because you have had such warning before-hand from the spirit of the Lord in his servants then the voice of our blood which is pretious in the sight of the God of heaven will cry loud for vengeance against you How long holy and true before thou aveng our blood dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth Rev. 6.10 Woe woe from the Lord God of power to all blood-thirsty Rulers Judges and Magistrates who hunt after blood persecute and condemn the innocent who doth not resist you in you is the resurrection of the unjust and cruel muthering spirit which is risen and alive to fill up the measure of iniquity and cruelty to bring to remembrance before the Lord all the bloud that hath been shed in your great City Babylon and woe for ever will be to those that are found acting in that murthering spirit for upon that spirit will the Lord render vengeance in flaming fire for all the righteous blood that hath been shed upon the earth And the woful dreadful terrible day of your destruction who are in that nature draweth nigh wherein you must suffer punishment for every evil thought and wicked word and action against the innocent who suffer for the obedience of his will as done unto himself Matth. 18.6 In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me And again ved 10. But who so shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me mark it were better for him that a milstone were hanged about his neck and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea And take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones who cannot Bow to mens Inventions and Traditions set up in the wills of some men and pulled down in the wills of other men but we are come to the standing worship in the Will Power and Spirit of God that abides for ever which men and devils shall not prevail against though some may stretch forth their hands to vex certain of the Church as Herod did Acts 12.1 because he saw it pleased their enemies the Jews but it pleased the Lord to make an example of him and he was eaten with worms that it might be a warning to all self-conceited ambitious proud highminded persecuting Rulers and Magistrates in the ages to come And if Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Mat. 25.41 be the portion of those that do not visit the little ones his brethren in prisons and dungeons and nasty holes where they are cast for the testimony of his truth what shall be the reward and portion of those that cast them in and throng them together to the destruction of their lives for want of fresh aire that they may be murthered in secret without Judgment or Mercy but alass for you the cry of their innocent bloud will find you out both actors and consenters and bring you to open Judgement for your secret wickednesse And if God do not openly appear in terrible Judgment against you for these things then you may say Tush God seeth it not or that he hath forsaken the earth or that he is not mindful of those that diligently seek him but we know and you shall assuredly know you have touched his annointed ones and offended his little ones and despised them slain his Prophets and done despight unto his spirit of grace Therefore vvoe is me for you vvhat vvill you do in that day that is nigh at hand Who shall deliver you from the stroke of his vengeance Who shall save you from his fierce wrath Alas alas Who can utter the misery or declare the terrible Judgments that is to come upon Babylon and all her Merchants and persecuting Rulers and Governors that are found alive in her sin when God shall render vengeance for all the bloud that is found in her and they in the bloud Woe upon woe misery upon misery plague upon plague is coming upon thee O Babylon thou mother of Harlots and abomination of the earth Oh happy are you ye Inhabitants of Sion blessed yea for ever blessed be the day in which that love was manifessed to your souls that hath gathered and brought you out of the City of confusion Mistery Babylon the great Though you may lose your mortal lives for a testimony against her yet you have cause to rejoyce for ever that you are made worthy to follow the Lamb and fill up the measure of his sufferings and so receive an exceeding weight of glory