Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	holy_a	scripture_n	word_n	2,805	5	4.1192	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65864	Enthusiasm above atheism, or, Divine inspiration and immediate illumination (by God Himself) asserted and the children of light vindicated : in answer to a book entituled, The danger of enthusiasm discovered / by George Whitehead.	Whitehead, George, 1636?-1723.	1674 (1674)	Wing W1926; ESTC R24552	32,776	82

him and his Spirit be our Rule to know this he must not be limited to Silence or to a being mute from immediately teaching those who are confessed to be made one Spirit with him And what gross Ignorance is it to limit God's Teaching or Saving Illumination to a Mediate or Instrumental Way of Man's Teaching as this Man doth in his denying an Immediate Way of Saving Illumination p. 47. which is all one as if he should tell us that though God dwell and walk in his People yet still they are either Strangers to him or else he is silent from speaking to them except when they hear outward Preaching c. And what is this but to limit the Holy One set him and his People at a Distance when they are his Tabernacle and he dwells and walks in them That God Christ the holy Spirit do by Immediate Illumination of our Minds and without external Teaching by Scriptures or by Men shew us or reveal to us what we ought to do and that the Children of God are taught of God and need not any other Teacher p. 13 14. This he excepts against as quite different from God's Method and VVay wherein he hath opposed plain Scripture Testimony They shall all be taught of God they shall not teach every Man his Neighbour c. But the Anointing which ye have received abideth in you and ye need no Man to teach you but as the same Anointing teacheth you of all things c. We do therefore assert the Sufficiency of this Divine Illumination or Heavenly Unction as being of it self able to shew and reveal to us what we ought to believe and do in all things for that it was sufficient both to make true Prophets and Preachers and to inable the Holy Men of God to give forth what they spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And without the Inspiration of the Almighty men cannot truly understand the Scriptures yet we do not confine the Holy One only to Inward Teaching or an Immediate Way though the Sufficiency thereof to them that are turned to it we do assert yet by this Divine Inspiration or Immediate Teaching God hath been and is pleased to call out Instruments to testifie and preach forth what their Eyes have seen and Ears heard and Hands handled of the Word of Life even the same VVord of Life which they have received and this only is the effectual and powerful Preaching which flows from the VVord of Life or divine Unction within and not that which comes only by Tradition Reading and Hear-say without the Spirit 's Guidance And therefore while we own the holy Scriptures and outward Teaching as proceeding from divine Illumination and the immediate Unction within and as a Proof of the Sufficiency thereof the Man wrongs us in his endeavouring to begeta Suspicion of us as if we had an aking Tooth against outward Teaching of as if the VVork and Office of the Gospel-Ministry it self were the Eye-Sore to us as also with dissembling the Matter heaping Contradictions with Tergiversation and Shuffling p. 83 92 94. And why so but because we teach People give forth Books c. VVhile yet it is our Judgment That Men may be sufficiently taught of God himself by his Light and Spirit within now under the New Covenant p. 93. But how proves he this either a Dissembling or Contradiction when we do not pretend to preach teach or write without God's Teaching and Aid wherein we proclaim the Sufficiency thereof exciting Men to turn from Darkness to the Light and from Satan's Power to God for Power Life Spirit Illumination and Teaching immediately as he hath taught us which is no more Contradiction then was in the Prophets Christ or Apostles who preached and proclaimed the same thing as that all God's People and Children should be taught of him and the Anointing which they had received from the Holy One should teach them so that they should need no Man to teach them but as the same Anointing taught them of all things a plain Proof of its Sufficiency His supposing that we direct Men to a Natural Light in them p. 15. is not true but contrary to his own Citation before of our VVords That God's pure Spirit and the Light of Christ within us as both our VVarrant a●d Rule for Faith and Obedience to the Scriptures which therefore cannot be a Natural Light in them He grants that Jesus Christ himself revealed the Gospel to his Apostles and after his Ascension he by sending them the Holy Spirit immediately inspired them with the clear Knowledge and Understanding of it But for us to assert Immediate Inspiration and the sole Sufficiency thereof he deems now a changing of Gods Method which he confines to Man's Teaching and the Scriptures and yet in plain Contradiction to himself he is made to confess That the Scriptures attribute it viz. the saving Work of Grace to God to Christ to the Holy Spirit p. 18. And further saith Indeed the VVork of Grace in Men is most properly attributed to God to Christ because he is the principal Cause of it and all other but subordinate yet the Effect is some times attributed to subordinate and second Causes also though less properly p. 19. So that we in attributing the saving VVork of Grace in men to God to Christ we take the most proper VVay and Method how then is this contrary to God's Way and Method And our referring Men to his inward Light to be immediately taught by him doth both shew our owning his making Use of Instruments and outward Teaching in order thereto and as subordinate as also that they shall be sufficiently taught of God when they are come unto him to depend upon his Teaching as his Instruments are in their Ministry And this man hath confessed a Concurrence of the Operation of his Grace and good Spirit together with the rational Evidence of the Truth of the Gospel to perswade Men p. 15. And is not this Grace and good Spirit Immediate when it operates in the Hearts though God is pleas'd to make Use of Instruments for the Help and Advantage of the weak it follows not that either there shall be alwayes need of such a mediate Way of Help or that he will not immediately teach and operate in these Dayes for that were still to limit him and his People to a Distance one from another whereas it is confessed That the VVork of Grace in M●n is most properly attributed to God and less properly to subordinate and second Causes But saith this man The Holy Spirit works the saving Change in Men still by the VVord of the Gospel as communicated to Men's Minds by the Scriptures or by Men's Teaching the same Doctrine which is contained in the Scriptures And this in Opposition to our Way as he calls it of God's own Immediate Working p. 16. where observe First He limits the Spirit 's inward Work either to the Scriptures or mens Teaching which

excludes all that have not the Scriptures or mens Teaching from the saving Work or Change in them and confines all God's People as Children under Tutors and Governours that they may be alwayes learning and then when shall they know the Truth And of whom do their Teachers learn and receive the Understanding of the Scriptures 2dly To his saying That the Doctrine contain'd in them is the Rule of Faith and Practice He should rather have said A RULE subordinate to the great Rule of Faith and Practice to wit that divine Light which was the true Prophets and Apostles Rule in giving forth the Scriptures is now the true Believers Rule in truly believing understanding and obeying the wholesom Doctrine contained in them which none truly own but they who believe in the Light and follow and walk in the Spirit which the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles directs men to His accusing us with opposing mens being enlightened and taught by Christ to their being taught by the Scriptures is not true unless he intended the Scriptures without Christ's Light within for we assert his immediate Illumination and Teaching in Opposition to mens preferring the Scriptures before the Spirit and excluding its immediate Teaching in these Dayes we do not oppose Christ's Enlightning men to the true Knowledge or Understanding of the Scriptures which proceeded thence His rendering the Spirit and the Word two several Causes that produce the same Effect viz. God's Working savingly upon men and his calling the immortal Seed of the Word 1 Pet. 1. 23. The Sword of the Spirit and God's great Instrument or Means by which the Spirit doth its Work upon Men meaning the Scriptures p. 18 19. In these is he greatly mistaken For first The Spirit and the Word are no such differing Causes for they are one and the immortal Word was before the Scriptures 2dly This Spirit or living Word doth work upon men both with and without the Scriptures as it pleaseth Howbeit the Spirit is immediate in its inward Manifestations and Discoveries and is only God's Gift And while this man hath granted That Christ is God and God every where present and so in all Men p. 20. He must grant an Immediateness both of his Presence Light and Teaching in Man or else he allows man no Preheminence above a Beast and endeavours to limit God to Silence in man unless when he hears outward Teaching or Scripture which cannot profit him without God's immediate Teaching and inward Speaking His accusing us with jumbling about Christ's being in all Men and saying that in Respect of his vertual Presence as Mediator as when he rules and operates in Men's Hearts by his Authority and by the Evangelical Law in this Sense he is not in all Men p. 20 21. And when did we ever say that he was in this Sense in all men that is as ruling c. or to dwell in the Hearts of all men by Faith But while 't is granted that as God Christ is every where present and so in all men it 's granted that he is in all men in some Sense and his Presence is immediate and though he does not rule in wicked mens Hearts by his Evangelical Law and dwells not by Faith in the Hearts of Unbelievers yet by his Light he reproves them for Sin often and immediately in their Consciences and his immediate Reproofs daily persue the Transgressors who rebell against his Light and there is both Vertue and Power in his Presence immediately to torment the Wicked and refresh the Righteous therefore he is not alwayes confined to speak by the Instrumentality and Agency of second Causes as this Opposer darkly imagins who neither rightly knows our Principle to state it nor doth clearly state his own but runs into a Multitude of Tautologies and Repetitions and Contradictions that a Body hath something to do to find out the Matter he drives at though one search his Book with a great deal of Care Memory and Perspicuity as for Instance He confesseth both the Work of the Spirit and Christ dwelling in the Heart and a being made one Spir●● with him as also to a super-natural Revelation and Illumination in the Way of Salvation and the Presence of God every where and in all Men and yet opposeth the immediate Operation of Christ in men but saith He doth not teach Men now immediately in Person p. 21. And who saith he doth But if he teach men immediately in Spirit as to be sure he doth his own who hear his Voice it 's sufficient And this man confesseth in Rev. 2 3. That it is seven Times said He that hath an Ear let him hear what the Spirit saith to the Churches as every Man in the VVorld hath that is not deaf as also He adds That when it the Doctrine is communicated to them by VVriting as where it is so by Preaching yea saith he I had almost said or by immediate Revela●ion p. 28. Reader observe here how uncertain variable and unstable this man is in his own Judgment and Principle for one while he opposeth immediate Revelation or Enthusiasm as none of God's Way or Method now another while he does assent to the hearing of the Spirit or receiving its Doctrine by immediate Revelation and so then the Controversie he seems to place not so much upon immediate Revelation as the Belief Obedience or Disobedience of the Doctrine and those Revelations which he confesseth 'T is possible Men may have from God as Balaam had and Judas and other Workers of Iniquity that prophesied and cast out Devils in Christ's Name had p. 28. But now you who deny immediate Revelation to the Church of Christ in these Dayes do ye not therein render the Church inferior to Balaam Judas and those Workers of Iniquity nay I may add to Adam after the Fall who heard the Voice of God and to Cain to whom also God spoak And I cannot understand how this Man can really own the Doctrine of Christ and the Apostles to be a Rule much less the Rule of Faith and Christian Practice as he asserts p. 22. while he saith That Christ Jesus doth not savingly enlighten all thos who yet are savingly illuminated neither by natural Light nor by super-natural Revelation in an IMMEDIATE Way and addeth Then it follows that such are enlightened by supernatural Revelation MEDIATELY or instrument ●● p. 47. Note here Reader that he pretends to own super-natural Revelation but not in a immediate Way and a being savingly illuminated but not immediately and yet pretends to own that Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles which directs both to God's Teaching and Hearing and learning of the Father and coming to Christ for Life hearing what the Spirit saith and to wait for the Revelation of Christ from Heaven and to look for the Appearance of the great God the Father whom no Man knows but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him And therefore this man's denying that Christ Jesus