Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	aaron_n	able_a	magician_n	18	3	12.1285	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70803	A decad of caveats to the people of England of general use in all times, but most seasonable in these, as having a tendency to the satisfying such as are not content with the present government as it is by law establish'd, an aptitude to the setling the minds of such as are but seekers and erraticks in religion an aim at the uniting of our Protestant-dissenters in church and state : whereby the worst of all conspiracies lately rais'd against both, may be the greatest blessing, which could have happen'd to either of them : to which is added an appendix in order to the conviction of those three enemies to the deity, the atheist, the infidel and the setter up of science to the prejudice of religion / by Thomas Pierce ...	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.	1679 (1679)	Wing P2176; Wing P2196; ESTC R18054	221,635	492

as with the Scaffold by which 't is rais'd with All their Actions in a lump as well as with the most specious and fairest of them And when This is done throughly Then let the Hypocrites and Impostors be what they will let the Forms of Godliness and the Features of Religion be never so artificially and neatly drawn let the Colours be laid on with never so delicate a Pencill and let that Pencill also be managed with never so exquisite Address 't will be most easie to find the difference between the Picture and the Life Let Zeuxis his lively Grapes be never so apt to deceive the Birds yet the Deadness of his Boy will unfold the Cheat. § 9. The very Truth of it is We should be utterly unexcusable if we should fall into the Snare of The certain men among us crept in unawares of either sort because their Arts of deceiving are gross and obvious fit to infatuate Understandings of the lowest size onely and such as are willing to be deluded There were Counterfeits in the most primitive and purest Times of the Church who were brave Cheats indeed who besides their Form of Godliness besides their Praying and their Preaching could also set forth themselves by Signs and Wonders The Devil had taught them That subtil Trick of transforming themselves into Angels of light and so of deceiving if it were possible the very Elect. Such were Barchochebas Apollonius and Simon Magus Whereof the First had got a faculty even of vomiting flames of Fire the Second could tell the men of Ephesus what in That very Hour was done at Rome the Third like a Cherub could fly abroad into the Air. So that They had some kind of Colour for their giving out themselves to be the Messengers of Heaven some Pretences for their Broaching a New Theology to the People because their Counterfeited Miracles however derived from below might seem at least to short Reasons to have been given them from Above And to be couzen'd by such as These were a more tolerable Infirmity a Credulity more to be pitied and very much more rather than less to be pardon'd also The Magicians also in Aegypt were such admirable Deceivers that They were able as well as Aaron to turn their Rods into Serpents and their Slime into Frogs and their Waters into Bloud So as if Moses and Aaron through God's Assistance had not publickly convicted them of downright Sorcery and Inchantment wherein the Magicians grew eminent through the Assistance of the Devil If Aaron's Rod at last had not swallow'd up Their Rods and turn'd the Dust into Lice through all the Land w ch the Magicians could not doe but confessed to their own shame that The finger of God was in it Lastly if Moses had not smitten the very Sorcerers themselves as well as the rest of the Aegyptians with Boyls and Blains insomuch that the Magicians could not stand before Moses They had had a shrewd Advantage in the deceiving of the People and the People so deceiv'd had been excusable à Tanto Whereas our modern Enthusiasts or Pretenders to Revelation and to a Testimony within them from God the Holy Ghost are not so much as good Jugglers They are woefull Impostors and silly Cheats such as Satan indeed has furnished with very much Industry but with very small Wit whereby He does not more strongly Tempt them than he discovers them to be His. They being so far from being indow'd with extraordinary Gifts whereby to prove to us an extraordinary Commission so far from setting out themselves by Signs and Wonders like those Primitive Deceivers of whom our Saviour gave all his Disciples Warning in the 24 th of S. Matthew or like Those of whom Moses forewarn'd His People in the 13 th of Deuteronomy that they come short of most men of the Church of England even in Those very things wherein they would be thought eminent The onely Gifts of the Spirit which they pretend to are but Praying and Preaching in their Performances of which they signalize themselves by Nothing or at least by nothing more than Noise and Nonsense The Gift of Tongues or the Gift of Healing or the Gift of being subject to Higher Powers for Conscience sake or for the Lord's or any other such remarkable Apostolical Gift of the Holy Ghost I never heard that our Adversaries on either side did ever yet so much as pretend unto They seem to be as unapt to obey their Governors for Conscience sake which is one special Gift of the Holy Ghost as to speak with new Tongues or to raise the Dead § 10. Now if those Exquisite Pretenders in the Infancy of the Gospel Barchochebas a Jew and Apollonius Tyanaeus an arrant Heathen Simon Magus Menander Basilides and the like who by Profession at least were Christians were not Then to be believ'd notwithstanding their Inchantment and Magick-miracles If a false Prophet under the Law who led the People into New Errours as Vincentius Lirinensis expounds that Passage Deut. 13. 1 2 3. and applies it to a false Teacher in the Times of Christianity in particular and by name to Valentinus Donatus Photinus Apollinaris was not onely not to be heeded or hearkened to but also was by That Law to be put to Death yea one step farther If an Angel from Heaven who shall preach another Doctrin than what hath hitherto been deliver'd whereby to lead us into Rebellion or Schism or Sacrilege or any Conspiracy whatsoever against the Government we are under must be no otherwise entertain'd than with an Anathema Maranatha How much less may our Shallower and Vnskilfuller Impostors be believed to be of God upon their own single Word and without a Witness whilst they cannot confirm or commend their Novelties no not so much as by seeming Miracles no not so much as That Man of Sin That Son of Perdition of whose Coming S. Paul saith to his Thessalonians that 't is after the working of Satan with all Power and Signs and with stupendous though lying Wonders But grant they had what they have not an Ability to shew us some Signs and Wonders yet Apollonius Tyanaeus would put them down Suppose they preached extremely well as 't is plain they do not yet Photinus and Nestorius would go beyond them Do they make very long Prayers So did the Pharisees for a Pretence that they might the more slily devour Orphans and Widows houses Have they a readiness and facility in citing Scripture So had Julian the Apostate when he disputed against the Gospel So had Satan in his tempting our Blessed Saviour when he wrested God's Oracles with as much subtilty and address as the keenest of our Recusants of what strain soever are wont to do Do they pretend their being warranted by an immediate Revelation So did Numa the Roman and so did Eumenes the Greek so did Mahomed the Saracen and Alarichus the Goth lastly so did the Pretenders in the Primitive Church which