Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
cause_n call_v effect_n nature_n 1,689 5 5.4122 4 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A66584 Quaker's false interpretations of Holy Scripture By Thomas Wilson rector of Arrow in Warwick-shire. Wilson, Thomas, 17th cent. 1678 (1678) Wing W2935; ESTC R222279 83,988 180

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

Killeth or will you say it was not so with him because he had the Spirit and that went along with it from him to them If so you must tell us why the Spirit may not as well accompany the same to us which we likewise have received But know you however it was that life came into the dead thing they acknowledged that his Letters were mighty and powerful 2 Cor. 10. 10. And it seems some of you perceived that this Doctrine and these good works which the Scriptures contein are not altogether so weak and dead as others would make them for that they have added that out of a wicked mans mouth they can do no good and yet further that the Apostle speaks this of false Apostles The Letter kills Well then our Ministers may still Preach them with comfort if they be righteous out of such mouths they may do good reach the seed of God raise it up and refresh it and there is virtue in them if they be not Ministred by false Teachers who yet you should observe Minister not them but another thing the figments of their own brains in their place false Doctrine as they are false Teachers whereas I thought you had understood by the Letter the Scriptures without their corruption and so you do however you thus speak But I like not these words The truest words out of a bad mans mouth kill and burden the seed of God in others It might be more innocently said his sinfulness doth this or is the occasion of it than to lay the blame upon the pure and incorrupted Doctrine of God or to charge it with so dreadful and dismal an effect I hope such a conceit as this lies not at the bottom viz. that the sin in the man infects the Doctrine and so it becomes noxious to others that hear it like as breath receives contagion from a contagious Body and conveighs the same to them into whose Lungs it enters Nor do I like this saying The truest words out of a bad mans mouth cannot reach the seed of God raise it up or refresh it For that hereby you spoil the word of Christ of all power and render the Doctrine of the Gospel as impotent in it self as is silence and a dead Mouth or as it is our hand to work any good upon the Soul which yet is of such a nature as I have shewed as that it must needs have a force in it and is called the power of God and even herein excels the Law in that it is more vivid and quickening And hereby you make all the efficacy and the effect to depend upon the goodness of the Preacher as if his Soul rightly moving affects the Holy Ghost with whom she is conjoined and that great Spirit which sills all places transfers the motions unto the Souls of others like as some say impresses being made upon the Spirit of nature are carried by the same from Body to Body just as a stroke given at one end of a line runs unto the other so that no good can be done let the Doctrine be never so right and excellent unless such a motion can be made and no such motion can be made but by a Pious Soul If this be the mystery I leave it to them that love it Only let me say The Wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound of it but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is euery one that is born of the Spirit Joh. 3. 8. As thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit nor how the bones do grow in the Womb of her that is with Child even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all Eccl. 11. 5. So is the Kingdom of God as if a man should cast Seed into the Ground and should sleep and should rise night and day and the Seed should spring and grow up he knoweth not how For the Earth bringeth forth Fruit of it self first the Blade then the Ear after that the full Corn in the Ear. The Seed is good cast it into the Ground and as for the success leave that to God who we may be sure hath a blessing for his own word of truth and as his blessing accompanies the goodness of the Man so it doth the goodness of the Doctrine and his Spirit which waters and quickens and brings forth Fruit proceeds not from man nor depends upon his sanctity as to others reception of it but proceeds from himself and he sends it forth whither he pleases and it is willing to work in us all Paul Plants and Apollo Waters but God gives the increase So then neither is he that Planteth any thing nor he that Watereth but God that giveth the Increase 1 Cor. 3. That we may know whether the Spirit in one can act upon another let the Spiritual man keep silence and let a particular Doctrine or some particular Sins be proposed to him privatly and let us see whether he can instruct the minds of others in that Doctrine or convince them of those Sins St. Paul makes me despair of any effect in that he says the Spiritual man that speaks in an unknown Tongue and that is as much as he kept silence effects nothing 1 Cor. 14. 2 Because you condemn our Preaching from the Scriptures without immediate Revelation calling us for that cause alone Ministers of the Letter let me tell you that whilst our hearts are honest and we entirely desire and labour after the Conversion and Salvation of Souls and God hath blessed us with the knowledge of his Will and with zeal for his Glory and with the sanctification of our natures and with good success of our labours we will not be ashamed of this Ministry though it please him to give us no more than ordinary assistance of his Spirit which he that hath not is none of his and we receive not his word as the Apostles and Prophets did by extraordinary inspiration and by inspiration alone but meditate and study and so Preach as we have learned the truth from the Scriptures through the help of God which we have had in our diligence according to the good sense of divine things upon our hearts For whereas St. Paul received not the Gospel of man nor was taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ Gal. 1. 12. you read otherwise of Timothy and Titus and other Preachers 2 Tim. 1. 3. Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast learned of me Chap. 3. 14. Continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them and that from a Child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures which are able to make thee wise unto Salvation through Faith which is in Christ Jesus All Scripture is given by Inspiration and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the man of God Timothy or any other such Preacher 1 Tim. 6. 11.
For certainly they that pretend no more than the ordinary divine assistance could not have erred more grosly than you have done I wish with all my heart that you had more of the Spirit and that you were Prophets indeed that we might have more Truth and need not spend our time in correcting follies And admonish you in the Lord that you make your humble and ardent supplications for wisdom to him that giveth and upbraideth not And that withal you labour and search for her as for hid Treasure and despise not the light which Godhath set up in any who hath variously distributed his gifts as he hath the members of our Body for mutual assistance Seeing your failings watch against them and take more heed and amend To ascribe any thing that is false to the Holy Ghost you know is wicked impudence and of the worst consequence the Prophane and Atheistical being the more tempted hereby to believe there is no such Divine power How horrid is it to say that Spirit lies How nigh to which you come by asserting him to be the Author of your errors in your seriousness consider If I have erred I have erred as a man and yet I think and know I have the Spirit of God and for all the World would not be without it It would do well since you say you are Prophets like them of old sent from the Lord immediately and guided infallibly that you tell us in all your writings distinctly what the Lord saith and what you say of your selves As St. Paul gave notice when he spake his own judgment saying This say I not the Lord This not I but the Lord 1 Cor. 7. 6. 12. 25 26 40. And so much I expect of him that shall reply to what I have written and that in every particular that I may know with whom I have to do viz. that he say I have received by inspiration this Interpretation but this I have not but deliver it according to my best judgment Or else declare apertly that you write nothing at all but what you have by inspiration I admonish further that if you believe the Holy Ghost did not intend that sense in which you use the words of Scripture you plainly and honestly declare so much But then reflect whether it be not better to let the Scriptures stand in that sense which the Holy Ghost hath given them lest every one using this liberty they come at last to signifie just nothing but like the Air be blown hither and thither with every breath as every one pleaseth and be turned into all shapes like a piece of soft wax Think not that to interpret mystically is profound wisdom and ought to be admired of the People For alass they that are weakest are aptest to this and hither they fly when the Letter is too hard for them And take heed especially of thinking your selves spiritual because you talk spiritually as knowing that none are so but who are born of the Spirit and walk according to it who are Holy in their Life and holy in their Nature Which they that turn the Letter into Spirit may be as far from as the Swinish Adulterers and the Rude Swearers And now because I know not whether I shall speak to you any more take that serious word which I have sometime had in my mind to dispence to you Which is this Insist on the particular duties of a Christian man and deliver them with all perspicuity of speech as knowing they are not to be practised in Phraseology and pure mystical notion Cry not out against Ministers for taking of Tithes calling them for this cause Hirelings and Wolves Covetous Balaams Deceivers and Antichrist's since you see such walk soberly righteously and godly and seek the conversion of Sinners and would part with their Estates and Sacrifice their Lives for the sake of Christ Since you know that it is false Doctrine pernicious errors and heresies which makes the false Prophet and this may be and is found in them that take no Tithes and in them that decry them and they that do receive them may be orthodox and are so and have not the temptation to corrupt the truth for the pleasing of men that they might receive the more from them like as others have that live upon the bounty Since again you know that there are hundreds of these Tith-takers which would exchange their ten or twenty pounds a year for the maintenance of your Preachers who ride about and work not with their hands You that plead the Apostles examples consider whether they who forsook all and followed Christ turned Merchants kept Shops constantly traded in the World sought after Riches as many of your Preachers do You that condemn a Lace and the Fashions of the World should remember your bands that are broader than an Inch your Cloaks that cover not the Breast with Capes that are of no use your Gowns Hoods and Scarves your Borders and Periwigs your Coloured Garments Died by mans Invention You that plead the Spirit consider whether the manner of your writings signifie inspiration when we see exultation exasperation carping playing upon words contention about matters of no moment poor flashes of wit quibbling and evasion obscurity and impertinence and abundance of ill names poured forth without cause and provocation You that speak so much of the Law and Christ the light within should understand that all our knowledge is so in our Souls which are not in our Bibles but in our Bodies and no man ever thought that Ink fashioned into Letters can instruct him that cannot read for want of learning or for want of eyes For what is the Bible in Hebrew and Greek Characters to them that know only English know ye therefore what you talk of I would have you consider again what knowledge the World would have had what Nations had been Converted how the Gospel and Kingdom of Christ had been propagated if he and his Apostles and others had not spoken and written and men had not heard ard read or what we should come to within two ages if we should all shut our eyes and stop our ears and tie up our tongues Yet say I with you Christ is within and Christ is light Next I admonish and beseech you to bear others burdens and to help their infirmities and to know your own For we are not perfect neither we nor you Lay aside all bitterness of Spirit and censorious judging scoffes and jeers pride and haughtiness strife and vain jangling wrath and clamor love of the world and greedy pursuit after it unjust gains and base contrivances dissimulation lying backbiting contumelies and false accusations all excess and intemperance voluptuousness and drunkenness lasciviousness uncleanness fornication and adultery Speak without ambiguity seek not the praise of men receive instruction and hearken to reproof Pray in your Families and Pray in the name of the Lord Jesus and Pray for the pardon of your Sins Give thanks at your Meals