Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	ghost_n	holy_a	inspire_v	2,844	5	10.2489	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47197	The way cast up, and the stumbling-blocks removed from before the feet of those who are seeking the way to Zion, with their faces thitherward containing an answere to a postcript, printed at the end of Sam Rutherford's letters, third edition, by a nameless author, indeed not without cause, considering the many lyes and falshoods therein, against the people, called Quakers, which are here disproved, and refuted / by George Keith ...	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.; Rutherford, Samuel, 1600?-1661.	1677 (1677)	Wing K233; ESTC R19568	115,272	246

whereof is by me but of all this mans commendations this is the most high and admirable that followeth in his Epistle aforesaid where he saith So that in respect of us this Angel of the Church speaks as one standing already in the quire of Angels or as an Angel come down from heaven among men to give us some account of what they are doing above These words import not onely immediat new revelations I do not say of new Evangelicall Truths not declared in the Scripturs for I acknowledg none such but also great abundance of them And yet if we will believe the Presbyterian Confession of Faith published by the assembly at Westminster where S. R. himself was a Member Those former wayes of Gods revealing his will unto his people are now ceased see Chap. 1. sect 1. And sect 6. They exclude all new revelations of the Spirit and they tell us the whole counsell of God concerning all things necessary for his own glory mans salvation faith and life are set down in Scripture 5. And amongst other Scripture Testimonyes they abuse to favour this corrupt doctrin they cite Heb. 1. 1 2. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son c. And their scope in this place is to prove from these words that there are no prophets that is to say no men divinely inspired or immediatly taught of God in our days but I have shewed in my book of Immediat Revelation that this Scriptur doth not prove that prophecy or prophets that is to say men divinely inspired who preach and teach by divine inspiration and as they are moved of the holy Ghost are ceased in our days more then in the days of the Apostles For if it could prove such a dispensation to be ceased now it would prove it to be ceased then even in the days of the Apostles and that the Epistle to the Hebrews was not divinely inspired which is absurd yea this Scripture rather proveth mor clear revelation then formerly under the Law God now speaking to 〈◊〉 by his Son or in his Son Christ Iesus who is in his people and liveth and walketh in them and also speaketh in them But now if the Presbyterians think that this place doth prove that Prophets are ceased how comes it that they think S. R. not onely a Prophet but a great Prophet for he that is a great See● is a great Prophet for the Prophets are called Seers in Scripture And for a further proof that the Presbyterians think that men do not speak in our days by divine inspiration see Iames Dur●am in his Exposition on the Revelation pag. 1. where he telleth us that the words of the Revelation are the last words which God hath spoken unto his Church Sad tidings that for above this sixteen hundred years God hath spoken no words to his Church or hath had no Prophets since Iohn who wrot the Revelation but Iohn himself was not of that mind nor belief for he prophecyed of two witnesses that should prophecy a thousand two hundred and sixty days even all the time of the Apostasy also Iohn heard many voyces coming out of heaven long after him and he telleth us not onely of the presence of the Son of man in the midst of the golden candlesticks but also of his voyce which was the sound of many waters also he saw the new Ierusalem coming down from God out of heaven and that the● of this city should see his face and not need t●e light of a candle nor of the sun becaus the Lord God shall inlighten them which divers Protestants understand of a Church upon Earth p●rticularly Thomas Brightman who doth expresly affirm that the goodness of God shall shine forth in ● greater manner then can be ascribed to any means so that men shall appear Divinely inspired But if God hath spoken no words to his Church since Iohn's days his words being the last how comes it that this Presbyterian threatens us with S. R. his predictions or of what he did foresee would fall upon the heads of the forsakers of the Presbyterian Church For if this prediction of his be not from the LORD we have no cause to fear yea we know by blessed experience it was not from the Lord for since we left that corrupt way of the Presbyterian worship and their corruptions in Doctrin and Disciplin we have found the more abundant blessings of God from heaven to fall upon us and we have enjoyed more of the presence of Christ since our separation from such a corrupt Church then ever formerly we knew yea many of us that knew nothing before our separation what the enjoyment of Christs presence was are now come to know it since we were separat from them as a National Church although we are not nor ever were in spririt separated from these few scattered ones amongst them that fear or love the Lord in the least measure these are our little sister that we pray unto God for often and we have unity with them in every good thing that is in them and are only separated from the evil where ever it is in our selves and in all persons every where And the Lord hath let us see in his divine Light that the nationall Presbyterian Church at her best was never a purely constitut Church nor ever had the pure forme of the Gospell Church according to the pattern in the Mount nor was the doctrin of the Gospell purely taught among them onely some things they taught but they did not know the Truth in some of the most Weighty doctrines of the Gospell And when the Lord raised up a sinceer Ministry directing to a more pure way of worship and preaching the doctrin of the Gospell more purely then any of the Presbyterian Preachers did I mean some of our brethren whom the Lord sent among them faithfull labourers indeed divers of whom since have put of the Earthly Tabernacle and their soules are at rest with the Lord I say when these came among them they opposed them and stirred up the people against them and such of the people who received them and their testimony they excommunicated in the west of Scotland and none were more active and industrious in stiring up both people and Rulers in that day to banish imprison and persecute the true Servants and Prophets of the most high God then the Presbyterian Ministry so sadly were they de●erted of God both in England and Scotland and the common objection that both Teachers and People made against our Friends in those dayes was this who gave yo● a call to come and preach among us and when they saw that many of them were unlettered men as to the Languages and Heathenish Philosophy they cryed out against them as not being fitt to teach and when our Friends answered they mere taught of God immediatly by the divine i●spiration of

and sensible enjoyments of himself and blessing them more abundantly with the fruits of holyness righteousness and victory over corruption in that despised way then formerly they ever witnessed although their experience of any things that were true among them called presbyterians was not short of many if not of the most of them even in that day Pag. 1. l. 18. That which this great Seer much upon his Masters secrets because he had frequent access to lean his head upon his breast who come ou● of the Father's bosom foresaw would follow upon this turning aside and fall upon the head of such forsakers of a Church so often honoured by receiving signall testimonys of the great Bridgroom's love towards her as his Spouse c. Answer 3. I wonder how this man hath the confidence to call this Author a great Seer and to tell us of his being much upon his Master's secrets becaus he had frequent access to lean his head upon his breast who came out of the Father's bosom for these and such like expressions do plainly imply Immediat Revelation and that S. R. was a prophet and had the Spirit of Prophecy in the same sense as any of the Prophets who were Pen-men of the holy Scripturs for what higher elogies could be given to any of the most eminent Prophets then these here and elsewhere given by him to this Author And here I shall set down some other expressions parallel to these in the Postscript or rather surmounting them to be found in the Epistle to the Reader whether one man hath writ that Epist●e and the Postscript is not materiall to inquire seing doubtless they are both of one profession if differing persons and he that writes the Postscript ownes the Epistle to the Reader In the beginning of that Epistle he tells us Considering how little need Master Rutherford as he calls him his Letters have of any mans Epistle commendatory his great Master whom he served with his Spirit in the Gospell of his Son having given them one written by his own hand on the hearts of every one who is become his Epistle c. This is the very same commendation that the Spirit of God giveth to Paul who was not behind the chiefest of the Apostles as you may read 2. Cor. 3 1 2 verses And indeed this is the greatest ground why we believe the Scripturs to be divinely inspired becaus the inward Testimony of the Spirit of God which is the Epistle commendatory written by Gods own hand upon the hearts of believers is the Seal of confirmation unto the Scripturs as being divinely inspired And seing GOD doth give the same Seal as this writer plainly affirmeth to S. R. his Epistles that he doth to the Epistles of Paul will it not prove that S. R. his Epistles are as really divinely inspired as Paul's Epistles were and then why may not S. R. his Epistles be put into the Bible with Paul's Epistles This question is the more pertinently put to this man and these of his profession becaus they do so argue against us the People called Quakers that if any of our words or writings be divinley inspired then we equal our writings to the Scripturs For this cons●quence if it hath any weight at all doth as much fall upon their heads as upon ours and if they do still make a difference betwixt the one and the other although both divinely in●pired can not we do the same But he proceedeth in his admirable commendation of this book thus as being a piece the holy Scripturs being set aside equall to any the world hath yet seen or this day can shew in respect of the spiritualness of it A friendly testimony indeed I remember the Presbyterians had wont to commend Calvin's Institutions above any book in the world next to the Scripturs according to these Latine verses made on them Praeter Apostolicas post Christi tempor a chartas Huic peperere librum secula nulla parem And I have heard an eminent Presbyterian Preacher in his pulpit commend the Confession of Faith with the Larger and Shorter Catechism set out by them called the Assembly of Divines at Westminster above all books in the world except the Scriptur But now both Calvin's Institutions and the Confession of Faith must give place to S. R. his Epistles yea and most books in the world besides I write not this to lessen any due worth that belongs to S. R. his Epistles for I acknowledg having read them all over once and many of them severall times I find many savoury expressions in them that savour of that blessed life of Christ revealed of God in my heart yet I must needs say I find also very many unsound and unsavoury expressions in them that the life and Spirit of Christ doth not onely not beare witness for but against as I may afterwards shew 4. I do really believe that there are divers books in the world besids the Scripturs nor shall I bring into the compari●on our Friends books lest any say I am partial more sound and more spirituall then this book is and which are more profitable to direct the minds of them who are strangers to Christ where or how to find him little or nothing of which I can find in all this book of S. R. onely somewhat of his own experience but I can not find in him any certain and clear directions certainly and in●allibly directing strangers how to attain to the least true spirituall experience nor can I find the least hint or shaddow of a testimony in all his book to the saving power and efficacy of that universall Light of Christ wherewith Christ hath inlightened every man that cometh into the world which blessed heavenly divine testimony I find in many of the Ancients for which cause a few lines of them are of more value to me and all who love Gods Vniversall Gift then this whol book of S. Rs. And I question not but many having as much of a spirituall tast and discerning as any Presbyterian will affirme that the writings of not onely Augustin and the like Ancients but of later writers in darker times as of Bernard Thaulerus Thomas a Kempis and that little booke called The Dutch or German Theology are fully as ●pirituall though I am farr from justifying any errours in these books as neither do I the errours in S. R. his Epistles And although I know the Presbyterians some of them as have seen and read the Dutch Theology account it a most dangerous book and full of bla●phemyes as I. L. did call it expresly to I. S. whereof both B. F. I were witnesses in Holland yet Luther doth commend it as one of the best books he had met with next to the Scripturs and Augustin and teaching more sound Divinity then all the Divines in Germany or any where else in that time and he wrot an Epistle commendatory of it which is prefixed to it in some Editions a printed coppy