Selected quad for the lemma: opinion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
opinion_n	according_a	truth_n	word_n	622	5	3.9324	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25299	The saints security against seducing spirits, or, The anointing from the Holy One the best teaching : delivered in a sermon at Pauls before the Lord Mayor, aldermen, and commonalty of the city of London, upon the fifth of November, 1651 / by William Ames ...	Ames, William, d. 1689.	1652 (1652)	Wing A3009; ESTC R11	27,575	47

I may the more clearly manifest to this great Assembly what my understanding is in this weighty matter give me leave to preface foure particulars which may prevent mistakes as if any private or particular designe were aimed at in such a Doctrine as this First Man as a reasonable Creature is the subject of Christian Doctrine Man doth not throw away his mind and understanding when hee comes to be proselited into the Truths of Christ When God undertaketh to informe a man with heavenly doctrine hee doth not deale with him as hee would deale with a stone which he would raise up to be a child to Abraham for he findeth man already endowed with a minde and will upon which account Hee is capable to heare further from his God Mans understanding is of very good use in Christian Religion for by that is man able to communicate much of his sence in heavenly things unto others as also to plead for and by argument to back the Truth received against the Cavils and contradictions of such as oppose themselves I must confess freely what I apprehend That in the moment of a mans conversion when the grace of God powerfully ceizeth upon his spirit to turne him from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God those acts that he doth then performe are the most rationall acts that ever he did performe in all his life The acts of Repentance Faith and Selfe-denyall the act of turning from sin unto God which are the acts that appear in the first motion of the soule unto God these are in themselves and to the soule most reasonable equitable just and right yea in the further progress of the grace of God in mans minde when it growes up into sanctification and holiness the understanding of a man doth act and acteth understandingly The truth is This minde and understanding of a man is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} as the great Philosopher calls it the very flower of a mans soule which is not blasted and withered by the Truths of the Gospell but it is thereby reformed rectified repaired and restored to its primaeve perfection with great advantage So that I think in a sober sence what the Apostle speaks of the Law That it is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a School-Master to Christ may be sayd of mans naturall knowledge and understanding In which sence one of the Antients calleth true Philosophy {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an inferiour Schoole or a fore-teaching to Christ as it is that which renders a man capable and fit to receive the impressions of a divine spirit For certainely a man in his witts and not a mad distracted man is the subject of Gods grace of his converting and sanctifying grace Secondly The written word of God in the Scriptures of Truth is the onely outward rule of faith and manners This is the norma fidei morum According to this rule must every man order his conversation Isai. 8. 20. To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it is because they have not so much as morning-light in them This is the royall Standard of Truth unto which we must bring all mens dogmata their assertions and opinions which are vended for Truth in the world Hereby may we examine and judge of all that which men would obtrude upon us I recommend to evry one that heartes me the constant studying of the holy Scriptures as being the Oracles of God It was that for which the Holy Ghost doth so highly commend the Beraean Christians That they received the word with all readiness of mind and searched the Scriptures daily whether those things were so and upon this account they were called {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} more noble as being better borne better bred better educated then those of Thessalonica I will onely adde this That the Letter of the Scriptures is but dead without a divine power joyned with it and a spirit moving mans mind without a word is very questionable and dangerous Thirdly The Holy Spirit which is understood by this anointing is no private spirit or particular impulse no singular perswasion or extraordinary inspiration but a generall and universall sense in all regenerate minds Holy men doe all agree by common consent in those Truths which the New Creature doth chiefly resent and rellish The Apostle to this purpose useth two expressions 1 Cor. 12. 13. and 2 Cor. 4. 13. By one spirit are we all baptized into one body and have been all made to drinke into one spirit and wee have the same spirit of Faith Where the Apostle considers the community of Christians under the notion of a body made up of severall members which must have a soule and spirit to informe animate quicken and enliven it This is that spirit of Jesus Christ which doth live in the soules of holy men and distinguish them from the common Herd of Infidels and Beastly sinners Although we may be ignorant of that which the Philosophers meant by their Anima mundi the soule of the world yet me thinks every gracious heart should easily apprehend what is that spirit and soule of the regenerate world But here I must acknowledge also That the eternall spirit of God doth sometimes come downe as from Heaven and particularly move upon a regenerate minde whereby it doth {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} blow off the ashes and stir up those heavenly sparkes which lay in the soule as buried under some clouds of sadness and hereby the frozen and benumined spirit of a precious saint doth finde it selfe thawed into a vivacious fitness for any service This is that which the spouse calls for in Song 4. 16. Awake O North winde and come thou South blow upon my Garden that the spices thereof may flow out This discourse I conceive may shew us the difference between the good spirit of God which sober minds converse withall and that fanatick and exstatick spirit which vaine men pretend unto and are deluded with This spirit in both the senses that we have spoken of may not be condemned as a groundless Enthusiasme for as the learned Cameron observes Enthusiasmus est ubi quis est merum organum sine omni usurationis judicij Then is a man acted by such a spirit when he uttereth Revelations without the use of his understanding and reason as sometimes the Prophets of old did who were but as a trunk or instrument through which the spirit conveyed those secrets which God would declare unto the world Fourthly The spirit of Christ signified by this anointing is first received in the way of his Ordinances and is thereby maintained and carryed on and doth live with great delight in the use of those Ordinances where it was first received He who hath received the anointing from the Holy one knows where he hath received it and he knowes also that

Christ crucified is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an offence to the Jew and to the Greeks foolishness but unto them that are called both Jews and Greeks it is the power of God and the wisedome of God Great men are not always wise men and the men of the world are not fit to advise withall in the things of God Some there bee whom God hath given up {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to a Reprobate minde to an injudicious minde which hath no true judgement in heavenly things Would any one make a madd man his Counsellor No He would chuse one that is compos mentis one that is of a sober and discreet reason advise with him in a matter of difficulty He that is of a ranting spirit and given to the love of fleshly pleasures may verba conari may like a Parrot speake words which hee understands not but he is crazed in his intellectualls and knowes not the way of the spirit in the soule Let me heare one speake concerning the worke of Grace the actings of Faith the drawings of the spirit whose eyes have been opened as Baalam said of himselfe in another case one who hath had an internall sense and feeling of these things within himselfe for Hee is best able to unfold such hidden mysteries But let us cease from man for wherein is he to be accounted of The Day-dawning and the day-star arising in our hearts will give us better light into that more sure word of the Prophets and Apostles then all the learned School-men or voluminous Commentators who have not plowed with Gods Heifer Fourthly If knowledge of Christian Doctrine must be received by spirituall anointing then to be instructed in the Letter of the Scriptures is not enough to make a Christian A man may by naturall understanding exercised upon the Letter of the Bible attaine to very great Orthodoxie in Articles of Faith and severall points of Religion for that which is true in Divinity is true also in Reason but notwithstanding all this litterall knowledge his soule may be like Pharaohs leane kine a starved and ill-favoured soule The generality of men in the world are exceedingly mistaken in this businesse for they have thought it to be Reformation enough if they might but purge their Articles of Faith and set forth in print that which might vindicate the truth of their opinions and wayes from the prejudice that they lye under in the World whereas in the midst of such reformation men shall be as carnall and devilish as they were before they shall inwardly be as full of pride and covetousnesse of envy and malice of hatred and revenge as ever and they shall have leave to study mischiefe and conceive evill will against their neighbour notwithstanding all the elaborate nicenesse of a reformed System Brethren Wee must not onely reforme our Bookes though that be very good but we must reforme our hearts and our lives the power of this anointing must eat out the proud flesh of our distempered hearts and quicken us also into a more pure and refined spirit Professors doe thinke they attain to a great measure of heavenly skill if they are but so well read in the Bible as to turne from one Scripture to anoother and compare one place with another whereby they may more strongly back that opinion which they would defend whereas all this while The Scripture is a thing without them and the minde of God is in their Bibles not in their hearts but the true Christian hath the word of God transcribed into himself and can say in his measure as Jesus Christ did I delight to do thy will O my God Yea thy Law is within my heart Eunapius in the life of Porphyrie speaking of his Master Longinus sayth Hee was such an excellent Schollar That hee was {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} a living Library a walking Studie all his books were so well digested and their notions concocted in his minde that he did as it were give life motion to his Books in a requitall for that learning which he had received from them He is a Christian to purpose who hath the Bible transpirited into his minde who hath digested the sense of Scripture into practice and vitall blood Hee is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh but he is a Jew who is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit whose praise is not of men but of God Fifthly Doth the Apostle bring in this anointing of the spirit as that which secures holy men from Antichristian impostures then here may wee see the ground of those great Apostacies that are abroad Doe wee at any time see some eminent professor come tumbling downe like Lucifer from the height of his profession and immerd himselfe in the dung of worldly wickednesse let us know the reason is because he had no root in himselfe They went out from us saith our Apostle for they were not of us They were leviter tincti sed non penitus imbuti they have had perhaps some sodaine and transient tasts of sweetnesse in the wayes of God but never did feed upon them with savour nor digest them They went out from us that it might bee manifest that they were not all of us There be some men in the world who have much of that which we call light in their understandings but have no grace nor honesty in their hearts and it is no wonder if they turne away from the Truth in a time of Temptation and day of Tryall it is the good ground that bringeth forth fruit and it is the honest heart that stands in a tempest being well bottomed and grounded upon a Rock Hee that is hurryed into any profession by the impulse of his worldly affections can not be setled and established in that profession but must turn about when those affections give the word Hee is like a ship whose sails are open to every gale of winde but hath neither Ballast nor Rudder to keep it steddy in its motion Many people thinke themselves so good Protestants that they should never turn Papists who yet I feare would fall from their owne stedfastnesse into the error of the wicked and casting off the Protestant Articles would easily entertaine for Faith the dogmata of Rome the reason whereof is Their souls are not converted to that Faith which they professe To an unregenerate man who gives up himselfe to licentiousnesse All Religion is alike for Religion doth oblige and command the soule into a diligent obedience to some Rule but such an unmortified heart cannot endure the beautifull bands of a Religious Law But where the Gospell of Christ cometh as it did to the Thessalonians not in word onely but {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in power and much full assurance where the word of Truth is made manifest in mens consciences and becometh