Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	good_a	jesus_n	lord_n	7,172	5	3.5622	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B20672	Truths testimony and a testimony of truths appearing in power, life, light & glory, creating, manifesting, increasing, and vindicating itself in the midst of persecution : wherein is discovered what truth is, and also a lye, who knows it and lives in it : with the authors call and conversion to the truth, his practice in it, his publishing of it, and his several tryals for the same ... : together with the particular accusations brought against him in each tryal and his answers to the same, and also the courts proceedings both by judges and juries : with an humble appeal to His Highness, Oliver, Lord Protector, as a general redress for all people / by Richard Coppin.	Coppin, Richard, fl. 1646-1659.	1655 (1655)	Wing C6105	74,193	93

you to appear or send you to Goal And so without any thing being laid to my charge either by themselves or others they according to their own wills bound me to appear at Glocester Assizes following to answer to what was not yet charged against me and according as the Priests and Elders desired of Festus judgement against Paul Act 25.14 15 16. before his accusers were come face to face so the said Ministers then present with the Justices would have had me been sent to Goal before I was accused of any thing and said That both I and all that adhear'd to me deserved no better place After this I went the same day to Stow where was news of several other Ministers of the same Country then come to Town to enquire concerning me some of which were my former accusers at Worcester and at Oxford And I being again desired by many people of the Town and Parish of Stow went again into the street and there preached that day after which I took my leave of the people rejoycing that the Lord for carrying on so good a work had again chosen me as an instrument in his hand to bear witness to the truth and suffer shame for his name And now my Lord after the consideration of all the foregoing discourse let it please your Highness to do what to your own wisdom shall seem meet that your practice may answer your title even to protect the innocent from those that would devour them for there are many wolves in lambs clothing who under the pretence of standing for the truth and the faith once delivered to the Saints do persecute the pure appearances of God in his people 2 Tim. 3 like unto those which Timothy speaks of who having a form of godliness deny the power thereof Wherefore I being perswaded of your Highness's tender care towards such as love the Lord Jesus in sincerity and truth was occasioned in boldness to present this unto your Highness to rightly inform you of the rigorous and illegal proceedings of some mennow in power who under a form of godliness do envy the pure appearances of Jesus Christ in spirit and truth Wherefore as the eye of Jesus is continually toward those that love him for good and that in all their afflictions he is afflicted so you may be like Jesus Christ in tendering those that are precious in his sight that so the beloved of the Lord may lie down in safety And lastly as it hath pleased the Lord to advance your Highness above your Brethren for their protection preservation and deliverance as he did Joseph above his brethren when he made him Lord of all Pharaohs house and Ruler throughout all the Land of Egypt so you like him may not always be as a stranger to your poor grieved and oppressed brethren to try them Gen. 45. but that you like Joseph may also make your self known to them by doing good for them to comfort and relieve them in their several wants and necessities as Joseph did his brethren that so you may not onely be blessed in the Lord but that both this and after-generations may also call you Blessed according as it is written The memory of the just shall be blessed Prov. 10 7. but the name of the wicked shall rot July 1. 1654. So waiting upon what the Lord shall be pleased to direct your Highness to do in reference to these particulars I remain Yours to serve you in the Lord Richard Coppin CHAP. XV. The Authors Tryal at Glocester Assizes before Serjeant Glyn ' and the unjust proceedings of two Justices John Crofts and Richard Aylworth against him the 22 of July 1654. VPon the day and year above written I made my appearance at Glocester Assizes there expecting a tryal with my then two adversaries Joh. Crofts Richard Aylworth two Justices of the Peace for that County who themselves were there with many Ministers of the same County conferring together concerning what they might inform against me having nothing before for nothing justly could they find then but their malice being great the Justices with the said Ministers had fram'd a scandalous Paper in which were many false and scandalous informations of their own inventions as a map of malice which they presented to the Court to which was onely the name of John Crofts and to which they themselves durst not swear neither could they get any other though they sought much for it which particulars were as follow The Information FIrst That I had several times caused to come together to hear me a very great multitude of wicked and prophane people to the disturbance of the peace Secondly That I disturbed their Minister in the Church and that some of my company should call out to have the Minister pulled down saying Touch Coppin who dare Thirdly That believers need not pray for the pardon of sin Fourthly That there was no heaven nor hell but belief and unbelief Fifthly That I should call to the people to stand to their liberty and not to suffer the Justices to entrench upon it Sixthly That I would not obey the Justices Authority Seventhly That I was a continual breaker of the peace And now I being called into the Court on Saturday night a little before the Court rose the informations against me were read but nothing of it being proved there was no answer required of me and the Judge being removed to the other Court my accusers would have been my Judges and also witnesses for themselves but I excepted against them and the Court reproved them Then I declared against their informations shewing them to be false and they themselves to be no true Christians living in the faith of the Lord Jesus so long as they did inform against or prosecute any for their judgements whereupon their proceedings upon the informations were stopt Then they presented to the Court several books with my name to them And the Court demanded of me if I would own them To which I answered That I had written such books with such titles but whether those particular books they produced were the same I writ I knew not unless I heard them all read And I further said That if they had any thing against me for breach of any ●aw I desired them to proceed according to the Law and I would further answer them Whereupon the Court told them That they could proceed no further by these informations but if they had any thing to accuse me withal they were to proceed by way of indictment But my accusers not yet knowing with what more to charge me desired to know of the Court if they might not indict me for disturbing their Minister in the Church The Court answered They could not do so the Minister having done before I began and therefore it could not be proved any disturbance But said the Court If you can pick any thing forth of the books which you say are his and prove it to be blasphemy you may

men Isa 30.1 who are to be counselled by you and not you by them and men in their counsel towards you are onely to assist you in carrying on that work which the Lord shall advise and counsel you in whose counsel shall stand and he will do all his pleasure when men and their counsel shall fail for as he himself hath chosen you and shall put his spirit within you to instruct and counsel you so will he himself be with you to protect you that you in him may protect his people and therein become a nursing father in him to them to increase among them their just freedom and liberty in the Lord Jesus Isa 49 23. That this freedom of theirs as it is in the Lord and wrought by the Lord is not to be setled or established upon any one sort of people under any one form of Religion whatsoever any further then the Lord hath called them and shall himself establish it in them but all are to have like freedom according to the several Dispensations or Administrations they yet appear to live under 1 Iohn 2.12 13 14. according to the measure of the gift of God in their several places or degrees of callings as they are either children young men or fathers in the faith of Christ And you like Christ to be a nursing Father to them all without having respect to particular times places persons and interests or any degree of calling whatsoever distinct but to assist and protect all whose practice is not licentious and who in their ways are not destructive to true love peace and unity among men And how you are not to hinder any but to further all that doth any thing of the work of the Lord for the glory of God and the good of one another and so according to the example of Christ Isa 42.1 2 3 4. you are not to break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax to destroy those for whom Christ dyed but rather to save them as much as in you lies follow peace with all men seek to increase blow up the coals of divine love among them that so both you and they may alike walk together in the light of God and live in the power of divine life and so be gathered up with the arms and carried in the bosom of him that gently leads those that are with yong Isa 40.11 and by the same power may be enabled to do the same work of love one for another Mal. 2 10. Acts 17 28 Ephes 4.6 to live and act in the same life that shall bring joy and comfort to each other having all one God and one Father in whom we all live move and have our being and who is over all through all and in all God blessed for ever And now that your Highness cannot be ignorant of the oppression and cruelty that the free-born people of the Lord yet lie under and is still continued against them by a generation of oppressive people that would still Lord it over their lives liberties and estates and endeavour to bring all men to their own ways and customs and so keep their poor brethren in bondage and slavery still under them never suffering the freedom of Christ to break forth in and among his people but instead of increasing the light and liberty thereof they rather seek to quench and inthral it But this I know and therefore am at peace in my self that the Lord Jesus will suddenly arise with deliverance for his people to bring them out of their captivity into their glorious liberty and so restore peace to all men and himself then reign as a Prince of peace in all Nations This work of the Lord for the glory of God and good of all people which is now to be done you know to be recorded in the 58. Chapter of the Prophet Isaiah from the 6. verse to the end and the reward that will follow the accomplishment of this work which work saith the Prophet is to loose the bands of wickedness to undo the heavy burthens and to let the oppressed go free c. and that ye break every yoke also to deal thy bread to the hungry and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house when thou seest the naked that thou cover him and that thou hide not thy self from thy own flesh c. then shall thy light break fo●th as the morning and thine health shall spring forth speedily and thy righteousness shall go before thee and the glory of the Lord shall be thy reward c. That then according as this is to be done as God shall enable you and in every thing fit and qualifie you for this work of his so you may as a just and impartial Governor in the hands of the Lord be pleased to come forth in a general redress for all people to make good this good work of the Lord which he hath been pleased to put you upon the promise of for the deliverance of his people that so under your protection they may live securely walk chearfully and sit down contentedly in that which makes most for the peace of their own souls the safety of their bodies and the happy success one of another in the Lord Jesus to the end that God both from your self and all others may in all things have all the glory his people peace and freedom one with another and you the reward of a true servant of the Lord And therefore now inasmuch as by your Highness in whose hands under God the power of this and other Nations is at this time seated the Lord hath been pleased to promise a performance of this work give me leave to proceed in this humble appeal to your Highness to set before you some abuses offered against the Laws and Liberties of the people now under your protection as will appear in that which follows and how according to my experience the people of God have always suffered for the testimony of Jesus in pressing after and walking in their liberty in him which those that knew it not ever did and still do oppose And that upon consideration thereof you may to the uttermost of your endeavour in the Lord Jesus stand by his people to relieve them protect support and defend them in their just rights and priviledges their lives liberties and estates against their enemies that oppose them you will evermore engage the hearts of the free born people of the Lord in love to serve you as you in love and the presence of God shall serve them and the God of love and peace give patience to all his people to wait upon the Lord for what he in his own time shal be pleased to bring forth by you Isa 28.16 and then he that believes shall not need to make haste CHAP. XIII The sufferings of Christ his Prophets and Apostles together with the Authors sufferings briefly discovered and presented to his

that men might have peace and joy in it and God glorified by it but in man the place which the Lord hath appointed for himself to dwell in for behold the Tabernacle of God is with men that he might be a Comforter to them to encrease amongst them righteousness peace and joy which is the Kingdom of the Lord and till we have it in our selves we have it not any where but if there then every where which is a new name written that no man knows but he that hath it and thus the Scripture declares unto us what and where heaven is and I know no other heaven as to me in which is mans salvation from sin death hell and the world but Christ in man and man in Christ and they that will have any other let them declare what and where that is as I have declared what and where this is which is according to the Scripture and my own experience Eighthly That he who thought there was a hell to him there was a hell but he that thought there was no hell to him there was no hell Answ My Lord I yet know no other hell as to me then what I have found in my own conscience though the time hath been that I have feared another as most men do and as all men else have done till their consciences were purged but this I have found in my self that when it pleased God to make know Christ to me to take away from me the fear of hell he also took away hell for fear hath torment therefore to me it appears that while we live in the fear of hell we have it are in it and so subject to the punishment of it being kept in bondage by it till Christ in us shall destroy that fear and so set our minds at liberry as is written That for as much as the children are partakers of flesh and blood Jesus Christ himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death which is the Devil and so free them who all their life time were subject to bondage and now happy is that soul that sees himself so made free by Christ for he is free indeed and now sees an end of the Devil sin death and hell which he before lived in fear of and was in bondage to and therefore when the Lord Jesus is pleased to deliver us from the fear of it that it shall no more have power over us and thereby manifest in us perfect love wherein is no fear he then delivers us from hell it self from which every believer is freed Rev. 21. but the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable and murthehers and whoremongers and sorcerers and Idolaters and all lyars while they so remain are cast into it and so have their part in the Lake of fire burning with brimstone till the Lord Jesus by his mighty power shall quench the fire raise them up and overcome all their enemies for them and so restore peace to them in him that is their peace the Lord Jesus and then he that hath part in the first resurrection through Christ or is once made free by Christ of him the second death shall have no power but he is changed from death unto life by the spirit of the Lord and so sees an end of death and hell as to him All which I shall leave to your Lordships consideration and this honourable Court and do give you many thanks for that I have had liberty to speak for my self But my accusers were much troubled that I had so fair a hearing and began to urge many other things of their own inventions against me which was not in the Indictment First they said that I denyed the Law of Moses in saying there was no salvation by it which they affirmed it was if man would keep it That if it were possible for a man now to keep the Law in the letter of it which that it is impossible yet there would be no salvation by it for any man God having found out another way even by Jesus Christ without which no man could be saved 2. They said that I denyed the keeping of the Sabboth which they went to prove from the fourth Commandment Remember thou keep holy the Sabboth day To which I answered that the true Sabboth of a Christian was Christ and I knew no other as to me though that day which they now call a Sabboth day I keep it as exactly and as purely as any of them did in preaching to the people but not upon the account of a Sabboth day but as the first day of the week as the Apostles did being a day set apart for that use 3. They said that I spake in derision of heaven saying that if a Mill-stone were at heaven it would be hundreds of years a coming down To which I answered That I never said the words but one in my company did once say that they were spoken by a Minister in the Pulpit who there endeavouring to shew unto the people the vast distance between heaven and earth told them that if a Mill-stone were at heaven it would be many hundred years a coming down and that one of his hearers should make answer that if heaven were above the skies and a Mill-stone so long a coming down how long then should he be a going up And this my Lord was declared by one of their own tribe yet they would ascribe it to me though I never said the words 4. They said that I should deny the resurrection of the body and said there was no other but what was in flowers and grass also when the Corps laid in a grave were cast up again though turned to earth then was there a resurrection To which I answered that the resurrection of the dead I never denyed but do alwayes affirm it neither did I ever speak those words though they might be spoke in my company Yet it may be said that in this there is a resurrection though not denying any other for the vertue of every carkass laid in the earth doth ascend upwards with the earth and so come forth in flowers and grass also when a grave is digged and the body before laid in it though rotted to earth again cast up with the bones and all things thereto belonging then may it be said to be a resurrection of that body and the true resurrection not denyed but those things being thus answered and the malice of my accusers made manifest the Judge appeared more satisfied and my accusers more ashamed Then after the Judge had heard the whole business and declared the substance thereof to the Jury who understood it not they went forth to consult upon their Verdict whether all or any part of the charge were blasphemy by the Act or no who returned in their Verdict guilty being asked of what part they said of that concerning heaven and hell Then the Judge told them that unless it came

was called The Word of God Rev. 19 11 12 13. and not that the Scriptures were so called And let not us rob God of that honour and title due unto himself to give to the Scripture but what the Scripture saith both of God and it self that let us say also The Scripture also saith 1 Cor. 3.6 Iohn 14.19 Rom 10.8 that the Letter kills but the Spirit gives life which spirit is the Word and the Word is Christ I am come that you may have life saith Christ and because I live ye shall live also And this Word even Christ is nigh us in us yea round about us still teaching of us and giving life unto us which is the work of Christ and not the Scripture But this I will say of the Scripture which is what the Scripture saith of it self that it is an outward testimony of God his mind Christ the Word Faith and Eternal Life Heaven and Salvation to those that do believe but not that it self is either of all these or can give unto us the knowledge of it and that we might know the insufficiency of it Ioh. 9.39.40 Christ in it bids us search the Scriptures for saith he in them you think to have eternal life and they are they which testifie of me and ye will not come to me that ye may have life Yet this Scripture as it is given by inspiration so it is profitable for doctrine 2 Tim. 3.16 17. for reproof for correction and instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be perfect throughly furnished to all good works and not as it lies in the letter but as it is inspired revealed or made manifest in our hearts and minds by the Holy Ghost for saith the Lord I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and I will be their God and they shall be my people Ier. 31.33 34. and cause them to walk in my statutes of loving one another And the Word of God being once written in our hearts it is then profitable for us to teach reprove correct and instruct us make us perfect in the inward man furnish us fit and qualifie us with gifts and graces unto all good works and no otherwise can it do it for us but as it is within us And this is the honour and praise that I will give to the Word of God and to the Scripture to sum it all up in God in whom I desire to know to live to act and enjoy all things of God and I desire not to speak think act or maintain any thing that I have not the letter for as well as the Spirit the truth and mystery of which letter no man knows till he hath it revealed to him by the Spirit and Internal Word that declares the Father plainly which so far as it speaks in me Mat. 11.27 and declares the mind of God to me I shall not be silent And now my Lord I give you many thanks that you have so patiently heard me and given me liberty to speak for my self Yet before I depart I shall desire to present one Scripture more which I shall but onely read and so leave it to the consideration of this honourable Court Said the Judge I thought you had done Answ If your Lordship desire it I have Said the Judge Nay but we will hear your Scripture Answ It is in the sixth of the Acts from the 8. verse to the end And Steven full of faith and power did great wonders and miracles among the people then there arose certain of the Synagogue which is called the Synagogue of the Libertines Cyreneans Alexandrians and of them of Cilicia and of Asia disputing with Steven and they were not able to resist the wisdom and the spirit by which he spake then they suborned men which said we have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God and they stirred up the people and the Elders and the Scribes and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the Councel and set up false witnesses Acts 6.12 which said This man ceaseth not to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the Law for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the Customs which Moses delivered us and all that sate in the Counsel looked stedfastly on him saw his face as it had been the face of an Angel And now I shall take my leave according as the Apostles in times past have done who when they had suffered for the name of Christ they departed from the presence of the Council rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name so shall I at this time and as daily in the temple and in every house Acts 5.41 42. they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ so shall not I my Lord cease to do the same so far as God shall enable me and so I take my leave of your Lordship And paying the fees of the Court I was discharged for that time CHAP. IX The Authors second appearing at Worcester before Judge Nicholes and the proceedings thereof also his being bound from thence to Oxford how and for what ANd I standing bound until the next Assizes at Worcester which was then six moneths to come my accusers Ralph Nevil and Giles Collier in the mean time imployed men on purpose to follow me from place to place where they heard I preached or came to enquire into my Doctrine Life and Conversation with endeavours to get something more against me to accuse me at the next Assizes following as my self and several persons well knew And they hearing of some difference in dispute that was between some Ministers and my self at Enstone in Oxfordshire where I had before been and preached they came to an Inn in Enston and sent for the Ministers that differed with me of whom they got a certificate of some particulars which they said I there delivered and which they counted blasphemy And when I appeared at Worcester next Assizes before Judge Nicholes my accusers gave to the Judge their certificate which was as follows First That I should say Christ ayed for his own sins as well as the Peoples Secondly That there was no heaven and hell but what was in man Thirdly That everlasting life should end in this life But no witness sworn to it And my accusers having no witness there they with many fair speeches used to the Judge desired him to bind me to appear at the next General Assizes holden at Oxford to answer to what was in this their certificate and what more they in the mean time could find against me For said they to the Judge that being his own Countrey we shall there by that time get something more against him And the Judge willing to do my accusers a pleasure against me as Festus did the Jews against Paul when he left him bound

God Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell meaning the grave nor suffer thy holy one to see corruption Psal 16.10 and what this hell and grave is he also calls it the lowest pit or darkness in the deep in which he was shut up and could not come forth the wrath of God lying so hard upon him Psalm 88. or the Lord hiding his face from him and Jonah agrees with the same who when he was in the fishes belly said That he was in hell For out of the belly of hell said he cryed I unto thee and thou heardst my voyce Ionah 2. for when thou hadst cast me into the deep or depth of darkness into the midst of the sea or under many troubles and afflictions and the floods compassed me about all thy billows and thy waves passed over me then I said I am cast out of thy sight or saw thee in wrath yet I will look again toward thy holy Temple where I shall behold thee in love when thou shalt raise me up Amos 9.2 And in Amos the Lord saith Though they dig into hell thence shall my hand take them and your covenant with death and hell shall be d●sanulled saith the Lord But it is most sure that there is a hell for the wicked as there is a heaven for the godly and all that are in Christ Jesus And for this let us consider of one Scripture more in Matth. 25. where heaven is said to be at the right hand of God and hell at the left hand compared with Psal 16.11 In thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore meaning in heaven with God and how those on the right hand and that have increased their talents enter into the joy of the Lord as into heaven where they are at rest for ever when those on the left hand and that have not increased their talents go into utter darkness as into hell where is weeping and gnashing of teeth pining and mourning for sin and where they are at no rest And thus there is a heaven wherein eternal life is enjoyed by Christ and all his and there is a hell wherein everlasting punishment is inflicted upon the Devil and all his But let us use the Scripture expression for it if we shall declare it which is according to the mind of God Thirdly That everlasting life should end in this life Answ My Lord for answer to this I do affirm That I never then and so said the words and I do also affirm That everlasting life with Christ in God shall never have an end and that believers or the righteous in Christ go to it as to God enjoy it as God and still remain in it as in God with Christ Colos 3.4 John 3.36 yea after they have been dead according to the Scriptures as the wicked go to hell and damnation and as some who believe not are already in it And thus life everlasting with Christ in God shall never have an end Object But for a further clearing of this some may yet say Is there not a life which shall have an end and yet said to be everlasting Answ I answer That there is a life according to manifestation spoken of in Scripture which seems to have an end or be made perfect in another life and yet said to be everlasting as the life of works and of nature ends and is made perfect in the life of grace the life of grace ends and is made perfect in the life of glory the lesser still swallowed up of the greater the lower of the higher the darker of the lighter the weaker of the stronger to be made perfect and so at last all things end and are made perfect in God Object But how is that which ends said to be everlasting Answ For further answer to this it may also be said That if the first Covenant and Priesthood under the Law with the conditions thereof Gen. 17. Exo. 40.13 14 15 was said to be everlasting as that it was and is during the time of that administration unto us then the life which we lived in obedience to that Covenant while under it which was a life of works of fear and of bondage was as everlasting as that but when that first Covenant and Priesthood with the conditions thereof according to that administration which was said to be everlasting or was made perfect in a second a new and more heavenly then the life which we lived while under the first did end also with the first and so with the same made perfect in a second a new and more heavenly life as in life of grace and freedom faith and love under the second Covenant changed and brought in confirmed and sealed by the blood of the Lord Jesus whose life we then live and are justified by for where there is a change of a Covenant Law Statute Ordinances Conditions Administrations or Dispensations there is a change of a life also to the creature even that life which we are then bound by that Law in our consciences to live which is a change from a Covenant of works to a Covenant of free grace Rom. 2.28 29. or from the circumcising of the foreskin of the flesh in the letter to that of the heart and in the spirit which Covenant it is that God hath made with us according to the Scripture and which we are to live Heb. 8. For after these daies saith he a new Covenant will I make c. therefore a new life will he give And that the word Everlasting and For ever hath an end with us I shall yet prove from several Scriptures for in some Scriptures it is said The earth shall endure for ever as Eccles 1. in others it is said The earth shall be dissolved and burnt up now that earth which shall have no end must be that which had no beginning for whatsoever hath a beginning hath also an end and what that earth is which hath neither beginning nor end the Preacher in Ecclesiastes will tell you But there is a earth which shall have an end and that is the earth which the Devil feeds upon Gen. 3.14 and inhabits in to wit flesh sin and corruption the old man in us that is of the earth earthy together with all carnal wisdom 1 Cor. 15.47 self-righteousness flesh form and formality as that which is not spirit and truth and that cannot endure the fire even God when he appeareth in righteousness why this shall be burnt up Heb. 12.29 consumed and scattered before the Lord as dust before the wind though it is said to be for ever and everlasting as in Habackkuk 3.6 Yet when the Lord shall so come in his glorious brightness as is there spoken of then shall all things of man and that is earthy be scattered bow and melt before him as is written Before him went the pestilence and burning coals went forth at his feet he

My Lord Another thing in the fifth particular which they declare as their judgement is that the same body which dyes shall after death be so raised again and united to the soul for ever which thing is false my Lord and I know no Scripture to prove it if there be let them produce it for here they are Then the Judge looking upon them asked if there were no such Scripture but they were silent and answered not a word then Justice Jenkins who sate upon the bench undertook to answer for them and said there is such a Scripture produce it you then said I and let me see it or I shall not believe it but he was silent also and there was no man to be found that could shew that Scripture then I instanced a Scripture in the 1 Cor. 15. to the contrar● that the same body was not to rise again but God giveth it a body as pleaseth him which body none of them yet knew Then the Judge perceiving that those things which by them were written and by me excepted against could not by them nor any other be proved he commanded them to be crossed forth before their faces and they had nothing to say for themselves which was to the great shame and disgrace of my accusers and others of their tribe that those things which they have so long held forth and maintained to the people for truth and as their judgments that this should now be crossed out before their faces as an error sure as bad a thing as ever they could have done against themselves in things of that nature which makes it to appear that the greatest blasphemer cryed blasphemy first and these things being crossed out I set my hand to the rest which is as follows and which to my knowledge I never declared any thing contrar● to according to the Scriptures and in a spiritual sense in which sense we are to understand all things of that nature The part culars which I signed FIrst that Iesus Christ the only begotten son of God being eternal God and equal with the Father did in the fulness of time take to himself mans nature yet without sin being holy harmless undefiled as the scripture saith Secondly The Lord sesus Christ for discharging the office of Med●atorship whereunto he was called by his Father did perfectly fulfill the Law endured the shameful and cursed death of the cross but not for himself being as he was perfectly free from sin but that he might satisfie for the sin of his people Thirdly The third day he rose from the dead with the same body with which he suffered with which also he ascended into heaven 1 Cor. 15. and there sitteth at the right hand of his Father but not with flesh and blood Fourthly The bodies of men after death return to dust but their souls which die not return to God who gave them the souls of the righteous are received into the highest heaven where they enjoy God in glory waiting for the full redemption of their bodies and the souls of the wicked are cast into hell where they remain in torment reserved to the Judgment of the great day Fifthly At the last day such as are found alive shall be changed and they that are dead shall be raised up Sixthly God hath appointed a day wherein he will Judge the world in righteousness by Jesus Christ which day the Apostate Angels shall be Iudged and all persons that live upon the earth shall appear before the tribunal of Christ to give an account of their thoughts words and deeds and to receive according to what they have done in their bodies whether good or evil These things I do believe according to the Scriptures and never publish any thing contrary to them Richard Coppin CHAP. XI The Authors second appearing at Oxford Assises before Judge Hutton and what was there done I According to my engagement appeared the second time at the general Assises holden at Oxford there expecting again to have seen the faces of my former accusers they having before said they would follow me to death but they finding nothing against me came not there proclamation being made in the Court for my discharge and none other having any thing against me to declare one Keat the then Sheriff for that County sitting in the Court being of a bitter spirit and also an enemy to truth as he then appeared stood up as one among the rest of the accusers and informers saying that he could declare something against me which was spoke in London but when he was asked what it was no particular could be mention but said that he had heard very strange things declared by me at S. Dunstons Church in London before a great Congregation of people of great quality to the great dishonour of God and the people disturbance as said this informer Mr. Keet who earnestly importuned the Judge to restrain me from preaching in answer to which the Judge told him that a mans liberty was pretious and there was no reason any man should be restrained from his liberty therein by any mans words whatsoever unless oath were made against him that he had offended the Law Therefore said the Judge I cannot do it upon your words nor any mans else for then I should be partial and I came not onely to bind but to free men Then the Informer Mr. Keat by name receiving those repulses from the Judge was silent and sate him down with shame and then the bitter spirits of others in the University whose mouthes were ready to be opened in malice against me were quashed my freedom ordered and my enemies ashamed CHAP. XII The Authors humble appeal to his Highness Oliver Lord Protector of England Scotland and Ireland as a General redress for all people My Lord FOrasmuch as it hath pleased the Lord of Lords to call you to this high place of Protectorship under himself and according as he shall protect counsel guide and direct you as he did Christ and the rest of the Kings of Israel so you may act like them in walking before the people to do justice among them For by him Kings reign and Princes decree justice Prov. 8.15 who himself reigns in them to be their wonderful Counsellor And now as according to the counsel of the Lord your Highness hath been pleased to declare your self both by promise and oath to seek the peace freedom and liberty of the people of this and other Nations against oppression and tyranny and to protect them in their just rights and priviledges according to the mind of God written in Scripture for Christian Religion that then in the Lords time and as he himself shall appear to go before you and act in you so you may according to his directions follow him in persuit thereof bringing glory to God in the highest and on earth peace and good will towards men Which you shall so far as you follow the counsel of the Lord and not of