Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	aaron_n	call_v	good_a	27	3	3.4692	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96265	A discovery, and confutation of the opinions, and practises of some false brethren, betwixt Bridge, and Lincolne: shewing how they agree in their opinions, with Pelagians; Papists; Arminians; in their practises, with Anabaptists. Wherein univerall redemption is confuted; and Gods absolute decree confirmed. / By John Wetherall, minister of Spridlington, near Lincolne. March 22. 1651. Imprimatur. John Downame.	Wetherall, John, minister of Spridlington.	1652 (1652)	Wing W1523; Thomason E661_1; ESTC R206761	53,660	88

word of God by such Arguments as it is impossible to answer For the Apostles were all sent by our Saviour first he furnished them with gifts Mat. 10. 1. and then hee gave them their Commission verse 5. As my Father sent me so send I you John 20. 21. If the people chose the Deacons yet the Apostles layd their hands upon their heads c. before they sent them forth Acts 6. 6. Paul and Barnabas ordained Elders in every Church Acts 14. 23. Take heed to the Flocks over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers Acts 20. 28. And yet they were all made Ministers by Men that were thus made by the Holy Ghost Timothy was made a Minister by the imposition of the hands of the Presbytery 1. Tim. 4. 14. and Timothy made others Ministers by the imposition of hands 1. Tim. 5. 22. and so did Titus Tit. 1. 5. No man taketh that is ought to take this honour unto himselfe but he that is called of God as Aaron Heb. 5. 4. who had as an inward so an outward Call Nay Christ himselfe gloried not himselfe to be an High Priest he had a Call Heb. 5. 5. Neither the Heavens could abide to see nor the Earth to beare the shamelesse burthen of such as came unsent but the one melting consumed with fire and the other opening swallowed them up alive Numb 16. 32. 35. To say that all the people are holy alike hand over head it was the sin of Corah and his Company Numb 16. 3. Common waters cannot heale so well as the waters of Jordan that had the Promise That Argument of theirs Is not the Spirit of God as effectuall in others as in them they call Ministers is much like that of Naaman the Syrian are not Abana and Pharphar Rivers of Damascus better then any River of Israel 2. Reg. 5. 12. The power of the Keyes is not in the People the Promise was to the Apostles and the Ministers their Successors and yet some of the People may have a greater measure of the Spirit then many of the Priests Because such a Captain may bee as able as his Generall may he therefore usurp the Office of his Generall Because many private Soldiers may bee as able as their Captain may they therefore usurp the Office of their Captaine Because many Lawyers may bee as able as the Judges may they therefore take upon them to bee Judges Because many Gentlemen may bee as honest as a Justice of Peace may they therefore take upon them to be Justices of Peace they allow it not among them that are the Ministers of our Parliament then it may not be allowed among us who are the more immediate Ministers of our God Any Butcher might have killed a Bullock in Sacrifice as well or better then the Priests but yet a King durst not bee so bold there are other means for private men to imploy their Gifts they may not in Preaching publickely the Word of God Who dare doe any thing in the name of the Parliament without a Commission Friend how camest thou in hither wee may well say to such as take upon them the Office of the Ministry without a Call By what Authority dost thou thus and who gave thee this Authority The brazen Censers wherewith they that were burnt had offered were made Bread-plates for a covering of the Altar to bee a memoriall that no stranger who is not of the seed of Aaron come neer to offer incense before the Lord that he be not as Korah Numb 16. 39. 40. All this I have sayd is nothing unto that which may be sayd both against the Opinions and the Practises of the Brethren about us and yet I have sayd enough had I wise men to deale withall but bray my Adversaries in a Mortar and they will be the same I know that God that made the heart can mollifie their stony hearts Christ can open their eyes as hee did the two Disciples that saw him not though they sat at meat with him Luke 24. 30. 31. No more then Hagar did the Well that was so neere till God opened her eyes also Gen. 21 19. Even the same God for Christs sake pity this poore simple seduced People And so I draw to a Conclusion Now then consider what I have sayd and the Lord give you understanding and I beseech Mr. T. by the Death and Passion of our Saviour Jesus Christ that he seek no more to tear Christs seamelesse Coat wee are Brethren travailling towards our heavenly Country let us not fall out by the way Preach the truth in love send home wandring sheep to their owne Folds but infect them not or so metamorphize them that they turne Woolves come home and worry their owne Shepheards The Office of an Evangelist is now ceas'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 busie Bishops or busie Presbyters in other mens Parishes are forbid 1. Pet. 4. 15. He reckons such among Murtherers and Thieves take heed to the Flocks over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers Acts 20. 28. Where is any warrant to meddle with other mens Flocks Paul thought it not good to take Marke because he went not at first with them to the Work Acts 15. 38. He is too bold that builds upon another mans Foundation The Lord grant me to discharge my own Charge for who is sufficient But let not Mr. T. meddle in every mans Charge it may argue courage in him so I call it not discretion I shut up all with the advice of St. Paul to his Ephesians Ephes 4. Since hee hath given some Apostles some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the Ministery and for the edifying of the Body of Christ bee not henceforth any more Children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every winde of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftines of those that lye in wait to deceive but speaking the truth in love grow up to him in all things which is our Head even Christ from whom the whole Body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectuall working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the Body to the edifying of it selfe in love And therefore if there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfill my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord and of one Judgement endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace knowing that there is but one Body one Spirit one Hope of our Calling one Faith one Baptisme one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in us all Behold how good and pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in unity it is like the precious ointment that was powred upon Aarons beard as the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion Psal 133. If all the Graces of a Christian should make one Ring Love would bee the Diamond there the Lord promised his Blessing and Life for evermore where there is Love Now the very GOD who is Love sanctifie us throughout and I pray God that our whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blamelesse unto the comming of our Lord Jesus Christ the God of Peace and Love 1. Thess 5. 23. Unto the same God that is able to keep you from falling and to preserve you faultlesse before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy To the only wise God our Saviour be Glory and Majesty Dominion and Power now and ever Amen FINIS

house may hee not take them in and refuse to afford me that favour and for no other Reason but because he will not If I should say Sir shew mee a Reason wherefore you reject mee may he not answer it is because he will not accept me must there needs be a quarrell or hee may not So heere must there needs be infidelity evill Workes Originall sinne or some other ill condition in me or else God may not do with his owne as he lift sure none will say so against themselves then how can they suppose it so of God The Master whose Scholers we may nay wee must be Mat. 20. 15. said it was lawfull for him to doe with his owne as hee lifted and may not God have the same leave as that Parable seems to prove Stat pro ratione voluntas is most proper to Almighty God Reprobation by it selfe considered is no punishment therefore it supposeth no fault the name signifieth no more but not to allow of sola voluntas decretum beneplacitum propositum Dei all or any of these cannot stand with the fore-sight of Faith or Infidelity good or evill Workes Indeed God foresees all sinnes Originall and Actuall it were Atheisme to deny it but that any sin Originall or Actuall ought to goe before the first Act of God called Reprobation I utterly deny let them call Faith Infidelity good and evill Workes but Objects Motives Reasons Circumstances considerable in Gods Decree yet if they looke into their Logicke it will let them see that the least of Causes Causa sine quâ non is yet a Cause and God if hee regard any thing but his owne Will in Election or Reprobation must goe extrase to say as they say to salve the Justice of God that he could not Elect without looking on man in massa Corrupta and yet that he did not consider it as any Reason of his Decree is without Reason I know my wise Adversaries the Black-smith or whosoever sent abroad that bable Object against these things and so do the Papists because they will not seeme to play the Fooles without Reason that by this it followes the Freedome of mans Will must perish Gods Glory is obscured saith Mr. T. if he punish necessitated wickednesses The Papists and Pelagians are of this Opinion then a Murtherer saith Pighius when he killeth a man may be excused because he hath executed the Decree of God then all care diligence and endeavour is taken away if our Thoughts Words Deeds be determined of God to such I may answer or aske this Question Can they doe any thing that God hath not decreed They are almost Atheists that say they can then it followes they can doe nothing but it is decreed Let Pet. Mart. answer for me part 3. pa. 6. I wonder saith he speaking of these and other Objections of Pighius that any Divine could let such an old Wifes Talecome out of his mouth Can Judas be excused of his wicked treason against our Saviour because he heard the Lord fore-tell his mischievous designe John 13. 21. So then it is a simple nay it is a sinfull thing to excuse any sinne by the eternall or absolute Decree of God it is his owne Will not the Will of God that the mischiefe-munger or the murtherer regards he cannot doe otherwise nay but aske himselfe and hee 'l say he will not Such as maintaine Gods absolute Decree hold necessity infallibilitatis not coactionis they say that God determines mans Will and yet it is Free as I shewed before and followes the dictate of its owne Intellect to reason thus God hath eternally fore-seene Judas his impenitency therefore decreed him to eternall damnation therefore Judas shal infallibly continue impenitent and at length be damned is a true inference but this God hath eternally fore-seene Judas his impenitency therefore Judas shall by coaction or compulsion of his Will be made unalterably impenitent and so be damned is a false Conclusion The Agent is yet as free as if God had not foreseene the absolute will of God to worke faith repentance c. in Peter maketh not these actions compulsory but maketh the agent most free for it giveth him that spirit of which the Apostle sayth ubi spiritus ibi libertas true and perfect liberty and Gods Spirit goe both together and e contra non-Election denieth men that Grace which would effectually and infallibly make them produce good Actions but it depriveth them not of their owne naturall freedome neither doth it compell them to evill actions Divina Voluntas non tollit potentiam ad oppositum God hath determined to permit men to faile in attaining eternall life but he is not Authour of their sinnes whereby they incur eternall death In good Actions the Freedome of men Elected is not vaine though the End be determined because God hath determined together with the End that by their free Actions they shall attaine it and in bad their Freedome is not vaine because thereby their Consciences are convinced of their guilt and Gods Justice cleared in their damnation Reprobation and the permission thereto annexed importeth not a witholding of Grace necessary for the avoyding of sinne so permitted much lesse a necessitation of Sinners to their severall sinnes but a witholding of all Grace which would de facto be effectuall to the avoyding of sinne so that sinne flowes not from this 〈◊〉 and Permission as an Effect from the Cause but 〈◊〉 Consequence from the Antecedent necessitate infallibilitatis as the Sunne witholding his Beames causeth not darknesse yet darknesse is a Consequent Neither doth this Preterition or Reprobation imply a substraction of any Graces or helpes obtained but a non-Donation of such Graces without which God foresaw that Reprobates out of their own Free-Will would infallibly perish in their sins Deo Reprobante non irrogatur aliquid quo homo fit deterior sed tantùm non irrogatur quo fiat melior man is not made worser but he is not made better by this Act of Preterition or Reprobation Nay there is not only a bare permissive but there is also an energeticall and operative Will in God conjoyned with the permissive Will and this operative or energeticall Will of God is apparent in these six Circumstances 1. God eternally decreeth and accordingly when sinfull Actions are committed giveth the sinner power and use of Understanding and Free Will without which he could not sinne 2. God thereby eternally decreed to concurre and doth concurre ad materialem actum peccati to the sinne as it is an Action 3. God decreed the Circumstances or Occasions good as from God whereupon he saw the sinner would make evill use and sinne 4. God decreed to deny the Meanes that he knew would have prevented such sinnes and offered onely such as he knew the sinner would abuse to the committing of sinne 5. God limiteth and ordereth their sinnes so that they breake forth in no other measure at no other time upon no other persons then

moved to their Effects by the First and in their operations reduced to the motion of one universall prime Cause that is God Therefore it is the Scriptures say that the way of man is not in himselfe neither is it in man to direct his owne steps Jer. 10. 28. It is God that gives a new heart and puts a new spirit in man Jer. 31. 33. God placed the members in mans body and orders them as it pleaseth him 1. Cor. 12. 18. It is God that worketh in us both to will and to doe of his good pleasure Phil. 2. 13. The heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord and he turneth it as it pleaseth him Prov. 21. 1. He hardened Pharaohs heart Exod. 7. 3. as hard as a stone and he takes away our stony hearts and gives us hearts of flesh he hath done he doth and he will doe what he will The will of God was but fulfilled when Judas did betray Jesus Act. 1. 16. Herod Pontius Pilate and the whole Synagogue of the Jewes did no more then what God had determined to be done Act. 2. 23. and Act. 4. 28. The whole World united can doe nothing but what God will and God is not moved consequently by any thing which he as a superiour Cause moves and determines to the Effect but God himselfe antecedently as a superiour Cause moves and determines the Will of man to the Effect or that which it wils be it good or ill Therefore it follows God is not consequently moved by the good or ill use of the Free Will of man therefore the good use of mans Will foreseen moved not God to Elect him and the evill use of mans Will foreseen was not the Cause that God Reprobated him Therefore God had no Antecedent Will to save the Reprobate if they would by their Free Will receive and use his Grace aright therefore Gods Decree touching the Salvation and Reprobation of men is lastly and finally resolved into his owne pure Will Universalist thou tellest me of the love of God to Man and in that thou tellest me true for if all the World were full of Bookes if all the men in the world were Writers and if all the water in the Sea were Inke yet the Bookes would bee written the Writers weary the Inke spent and yet the Love of God to us poorely expressed but then let me tell thee that this Love of God to man should make a reflection towards this Sun and move man to love God againe and nothing but God and himselfe for this God that loved him when he was nothing submitting himselfe wholy and soly to the Will of God There are foure degrees of Love First a man loves himselfe for his owne sake for he is flesh and so naturally can love nothing but himselfe but when he sees that he cannot subsist without God then necessity compels him but for his owne sake still to flie to God and when he has begun to love God though but for his owne sake and begins withall to taste and see how sweet God is then he loves God no more for his owne sake but for Gods sake and when he has attained to this third step to love God for Gods sake he staies there and strives if it be possible for any man to obtaine this heavenly happynesse heere on Earth to love himselfe onely for Gods sake Thus the true love of God should both begin and end onely in God like a Circle which begins and ends in it selfe Now let Mr. T. take heed how hee preach against this absolute Will and Power in God and plead his owne Faith and Workes lest God at length be avenged on him God hath leaden heeles but iron hands he seemes to winke with his eyes but it is as Gunners use that they may hit surer when they shoot Origen in his second Booke against Celsus saith thus A certaine man gave counsell to his friend that was sick not to send for the Physitian because sayd he it is already appoynted by Destiny either that thou shalt recover of this Disease or that thou shalt not if it be appoynted by God or by thy Destiny that thou shalt recover thou shalt then not need the Physitian if it be not appoynted by God if it be not thy Destiny to recover the Physitian though hee come cannot helpe thee wherefore whether God have decreed thou shalt recover or not the Physitian will be called in vaine Another by the like Argument disswaded his Friend from Marriage Thou wilt marry a Wife sayd he to beget Children but if it be thy Destiny to have Children thou shalt have them without a Wife if it be not thy Destiny it will nothing further thee to marry a Wife for whatsoever Destiny hath decreed in this kinde will come to passe it is in vaine therefore to marry a Wife Thus wicked men deride and would rather that blind-man-buffle in the World then that God determine every Action and Event or fix his Decree But the first did send for the Physitian and the second did marry a Wife Hee us'd a wiser Argument who told them that God having Predestinated Men to such Ends Predestinated also that they should use the Means The sick man might safely answer nay rather if God have Decreed I shall recover therefore I will send for the Physitian that by his means I may attaine to that which God hath Decreed Thus Hezekiah had fifteen years added to his life by using the meanes and yet he 's a Devill that denies God did from all eternity determine the certaine number of his dayes And that other might answer if God have appoynted I shall have children seeing it can or ought to come to passe by no other meanes I will marry a Wife In this absolute Predestination we are far enough from the Stoicks Fate they subjected God himselfe to Fate we subject Fate that is the necessity of things to Gods most Free-Will they under the name of Fate understood a necessary connexion of naturall Causes and Effects we teach that God can and often doth suspend these Effects and works besides nay against Nature The Stoicks tooke away all contingency Wee admit contingency in respect of second Causes but we say there is a certaine prescience in the first Cause all things are ordered by the providence of God Indeed the Turks out of their obstinate beliefe of Predestination brutishly contemne all kindes of dangers for they say that as soone as man comes out of his mothers Wombe to enjoy the light of the world God writes in his forehead all the good or evill that shall happen unto him and particularly of what death hee shall dye the necessity whereof they say no humane power can avoyd and hence it came to passe that Anno 1611. there died of the Plague in Constantinople 200000. in five months every day 12 or 15 hundred for they will not turn away from a body dead of this disease nor forbeare to visit