Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	form_n	prayer_n	use_v	5,241	5	6.1492	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39305	A further discovery of that spirit of contention & division which hath appeared of late in George Keith, &c. being a reply to two late printed pieces of his, the one entituled A loving epistle, &c. the other, A seasonable information, &c. : wherein his cavils are answered, his falshood is laid open, and the guilt and blame of the breach and separation in America, and the reproach he hath brought upon truth and Friends by his late printed books, are fixed faster on him / written by way of epistle ... by Thomas Ellwood.	Ellwood, Thomas, 1639-1713.	1694 (1694)	Wing E623; ESTC R224514	71,867	130

though he says he did not mean by agreeing a humane political Contrivance or Design but a Divine Agreement yet I make no question but he meant an Agreement of his own contriving and cutting out And I doubt not that he would call any such thing Divine that were of his Contriving He asks If I know not that Men may well agree together in one Faith by the Spirit 's inward working in their Hearts as well as they may agree together in one Prayer by the Spirit c I answer Yes I do But would he have some certain Form of Prayer agreed upon and set forth for all to be obliged to pray by at all times because Men may agree together in one Prayer by the Spirit That would be Common Prayer indeed It is one thing to propose certain Principles Doctrines and Points of Faith to be necessarily agreed upon and being so agreed upon a Confession thereof to be imposed to be owned professed and declared to be as it were terms of Communion and the Bond of Fellowship And it is another thing to be drawn together by the inward force and vertue of Truth through the Operation of the Divine Spirit in the Heart into an Agreement in the Belief of the same Principles Doctrines and Points of Faith and so also to agree substantially in making confession thereof when and wheresoever the honour of God requires it of us My Discovery that he has falsly quoted R. B. angers him extreamly and he rails at me for it like himself but that will not clear him He says I most fraudulently put a false gloss upon his Words about the Word agreed on and next that I deceive and abuse my Reader as if he G. K. did put the same Gloss upon R. B 's Words But all this is trifling both his Book and mine are in the Reader 's Hands and I dare trust it to the Impartial Reader 's Judgment He complains that I endeavour to make the Reader believe he wronged R. B. in citing some Words of his and that because he cited not so many of his Words as I cited after him This is a foul fallacy for G. K's Blame lies not in giving a Quotation out of R. B. too short but in giving a false Quotation for a true one or in forging a Quotation For neither in the Words he quoted nor in that Page nor in that Book nor in all the Books of R B. can G. K. find that which he has pretended to give as the express Doctrine and Testimony of R. B. in the 48th Page of R. B's Book called the Anarchy c. He struggles to get loose but cannot He says he cited as many of R. B's Words as were sufficient to prove that it is R. B's Doctrine and Testimony that Principles and Doctrines c. are as it were the Terms that have drawn us together c. But R. B. doth not say so of Principles and Doctrines indefinitely or of the Principles and Doctrines in general that we will agree upon to be such but of those Principles Doctrines and Practices into the belief of which we are gathered together without any Constraint or Worldly respect by the meer force of Truth upon our Understandings and its power and influence upon our Hearts Again G. K. says he did not say R. B. used the Word Agreed See his own Words in p. 8. of his Book called The causeless Ground of Surmises which are these That some Principles and Doctrines and Points of Faith are necessary to be agreed upon c. is the express Doctrine and Testimony of R. Barclay 's Book above mentioned pag. 48. Judge now how little this Man is to be trusted He calls it a gross Perversion in me for ins●…ating that in his Book Some Reasons and Causes pag. 16. He had cited R. B's Words But it was not says he his Words but his Doctrine that I mention in that place as to the substance of it but not as to that particular circumstance of answering to some plain Questions with Yea or nay Had not I discovered his Falshood in this he had gon off snug with his Quotation as a very fair Quotation taken out of R. B's Book But now he is put to his shifts and to shift it off he pretends now that he did not intend to give R. B's Words but his Doctrine and lest that cover should prove too short for him he falls from the Doctrine to the substance of the Doctrine Now let us repeat again the Quotation he gave and then let the Reader Judge of it It is in p. 16. of his Reason of the Separation where he proposes that we agree together to put Rob. Barclay 's Doctrine into Practice which says he is He does not say the substance of which is but which is to declare our Faith and Perswasion in certain Fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Faith and Religion that by the same as well as by a good Life and Conversation it may be known who are qualified to be Members of our Church and that every one owned to be a Member of our Church declare his Faith and Perswasion in every one of these Fundamentals which is a Secondary Bond of our Union the Spirit being the Principal which may be easily done by answering to some plain questions with Yea or Nay Let any one now that reads these words Judge whether they were not designed to perswade the Reader that not only this was R. B.'s Doctrine but that these were the very words in which he had delivered it Whereas ye see now G. K. not only confesses they are not his words but dares not adventure to say they are plainly and directly his Doctrine but the substance of his Doctrine And yet even that I deny I say they are neither R. B.'s Words nor Doctrine nor the Substance of his Doctrine And had his Quotation lain in a tolerable compass to be recited I would have given it But he cites for it Sect. 4 p. 32 33. and Sect. 6. p. 48 49. to which I again refer and recommend every Reader that has or can proc●…re that Book of R. B.'s called The Anarchy of the Ranters c. That G. K.'s Deceit herein may be more generally known He says all my proof that it is not R. B. 's Doctrine is that I assure the Reader it is not But says he let the Reader compare my Citations at length in my Reason and Cause of Separation p. 24 25. and he shall find it is his Doctrine But besides my assuring the Reader it is not so and my Referring him for certainty to the Original Book I have now too other proofs to offer which though not positive and direct are strong Presumptives against G. K. One is that he hath not attempted to Prove that this is the Doctrine or Substance of the Doctrine of R. B. in that Book by producing now R. B.'s own words to manifest it And the other is that he doth not now refer his

also relating to Conversation which that Man well knows I know of him and have both privately and publickly reproved him for some of them But as for G. K.'s saying that my speaking against that Person gave offence to Hundreds it is not to be regarded it being his way and words of course with him when he has a mind to magnify his matter by Numbers to use the word Hundreds at a venture So he does here thrice in one page gave great Offence to Hundreds whose Ministry was well owned by Hundreds Hundreds hear Witness c. now that these are but words of course with him and used only to deceive may be seen in this last Instance of his Hundreds of witnesses by taking notice what he says they bear witness too viz that my Ministry says he is both refreshing and edifying to them and is burdensom to none but to the Ignorant and unfaithful c. If his Hundreds of witnesses could have witnessed truly that his Ministry is refreshing and edifying to them Yet if they will take upon them to witness that it is burdensome to none but the Ignorant Unfaithful and prejudiced it is an Hundred to one if one in an hundred believe them But by this hint it may be seen what little weight there is in his talk of Hundreds both in this and his other Books He complains of me for accusing his innocent true words as savouring of a Boasting Spirit because says he I humbly and modestly did mention my Thirty Years Labour in the work of the Ministry and God having blest my Labours with great Success in being an Instrument to the bringing many into the blessed Unity c. And he appeals to all that have a true savour whether these words savour of a boasting Spirit he as he says only using them by way of argument to perswade some that had a wrong jealousy of him that he intends no breach among faithful Friends His modesty and humility is pretty well seen and known by this time And had not this boasting Vanity been deeply rooted in his Nature the gentle Touch I gave him in my former Epistle p. 70. upon this passage now recited of his setting forth his Thirty Years Labour in the work of the Ministry and his Great Success therein c. might have taught him to think more modestly and humbly of himself But he was so far from taking warning by that that he begins his Epistle which he writ since much after the same manner thus Notwithstanding that I find some of whom with respect both to my former Labour of love and Service in the Truth towards them and to my present Service in the Truth c. I might have expected better things so deeply prejudiced c. What else doth this bespeak but a fond Conceit of his own Doings Many I believe who have deserved more have less sought Commendation for their Services And had he been in the true Humility and in that Charity which va●…nteth not it self and is not puffed up 1. Cor. 13. 4. he would have followed the Apostle's Counsel not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think Rom. 12. 13. But if it might have becomed him at any time to have spoken so highly of his own Services Yet his doing it now is as unseasonable as if a Cow that had given a good soop of Milk should boast of the goodness or quantity thereof after she had spilt it by kicking down the Pail I have no inclination to render his former Services Cheap which I think he hath but too much done himself though he sees it not by coupling them with his present Doings And I give but a Touch on this not doubting Friends that ye will observe in those Expressions of his A Vein of Spiritual Pride which he in vain endeavours to cover by pretending he used them by way of Argument to perswade some that he intended no breach among Faithful Friends Which yet could be but a weak Argument to them that know and consider that Others before him some of whom had laboured long in the Work of the Ministry and perhaps as successfully as he have turned aside as well as he and made Breaches among Friends of which he himself seemed formerly sensible Thus Friends I have gone through his Fifty Charges And said more to them than either they or he deserved of me Which I have done for Truth 's sake and yours more than for my own For I dare trust to the Goodness of the Cause I have undertaken and the Innocency of my Intention in undertaking it an Evidence of which I have no doubt to find in the Heart of Faithful Friends But my Desire and Care is so plainly and nakedly to lay open before you what Spirit he is of and is acted by and the mischievous Design thereof that none may be longer deceived by him nor any by seeming to countenance him may strengthen and harden him in his Opposition to Truth to their hurt and his Ruin I confess I cannot treat him as a Friend because I find him an Enemy to Truth Yet none could be more glad than I to see him return to a right mind For then he would see himself to be what you and I see him to be and would be more forward to condemn himself than to quarrel with others But I must needs say I have little hopes to see so good an effect wrought on him because I cannot find sincerity in him I gave many Instances in my former Epistle of his Insincerity and double Dealing Since which he hath sent forth First That Sheet single by it self which he calls a Loving Epistle but without any spark or appearance of Love in it He directs it to all the Moderate Judicious and Impartial among the People called Quakers intimating thereby that in his Opinion the Quakers as a Body or People are not Moderate Judicious or Impartial I dare say should any one of those that have appeared most favourable to him but thwart him in his way or reprove him for his Unruliness and disorderly Doings he shall forthwith reject such an One and rase him out of his Roll of Moderate Judicious and Impartial Ones And I am perswaded should all Friends deal so with him which they have just cause to do he would reject them all and not own one Moderate Judicious or Impartial among us Do ye not see Friends how he Slights Rejects and casts off not only Persons but Meetings at his pleasure if they answer not his mind The Second Day 's Morning Meeting consisting mostly as ye know of Ministring Friends he Derives and Scoffs and Represents it as mannaged by Parties The Yearly Meeting he represented in his former Paper called The Causeless Ground c. as divided For which I tax'd him in my last In his Epistolary Sheet he doth not vouchsafe to acknowledge it for a Yearly Meeting but when he speaks of it says That which he called the Yearly Meeting p. 4.