Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	abase_v	according_a	puff_v	30	3	12.1135	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93130	The Qvakers wilde questions objected against the ministers of the Gospel, and many sacred acts and offices of religion. With brief answers thereunto. Together with A discourse of the Holy Spirit, his impressions and workings on the sovls of men. Very seasonable for these times. / By R. Sherlock, B.D.	Sherlock, R. (Richard), 1612-1689.	1654 (1654)	Wing S3254; Thomason E1495_3; ESTC R208535	67,037	174

the Spirit of holiness gilding painting and setting out sinfulness and vice with the title shew and flourish of godliness and vertue thus covetousness on the one hand wears the painted mask and flourish of providence and good husbandry and prodigal profuseness on the other hand of nobleness and generosity Thus riot and excess drunkenness and gluttony carry the fair flourishing titles of bountifulness good fellowship and freedom of spirit Thus wantonness and uncleanness are painted over with the specious tearms of amorous kindeness and Courtship and pride and haughtiness of magnanimity greatness of spirit superiority of rank I might instance in most of sins and vices how men are inveigled and cousened into them by the Devil under the shews and false glosses of pretended vertues For full well that subtil Serpent knows that there is nothing so beautiful and comely nothing that hath so much power to win upon the hearts and affections of men as vertue and holiness and therefore in their habits and attire doth he dress his deformed strumpet vices puts them in colours and sends them forth under their names and titles and hence it comes to pass that the silly souls of men are so often cheated with the beautiful poyson of sinfulness whilst vicious dispositions undiscernibly insinuate themselves into our affections under the attire and dress of vertuous qualifications 2 Cor. 11.24 But thus the Devil transforms himself into an Angel of light whilst baiting his suggestions either with counterfeit vertues on the one hand or with false glosses of spiritual graces on the other he entraps the souls of men in the snares of sinfulness and error and leads them captivity captive to his pit destruction § 38 There are two Familiars whereby the Devil doth ordinarily work and lay his secret and subtil snares to catch cousen and delude our souls thus into sinfulness and error and these are either 1. the spirit of man or 2. the spirit of the world The dictates and workings of both which kinde of spirits being stirr'd and quickened by the evil spirit diametrally oppose the impressions and workings of the Spirit of truth First that the dictates of mans spirit the conceptions of natural sense and carnal reason with private resolutions thereupon do oppose the working of Gods Spirit our Saviour himself teacheth Matth. 16.17 Matth. 16.17 Flesh and bloud hath not revealed this unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven So that flesh and bloud hath their Revelations that is private men have their opinions and conceits which oppose the truth that is revealed from heaven The same opposition of private resolution to holy inspiration doth St. Peter observe 2 Pet. 1. ult 2 Pet. 1. ult For prophesies of old time came not by the will of Man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the holy Ghost not as they were moved by their owne private will wit judgement reason and resolution but as they were moved by the holy Ghost Et haec ideo dicuntur c. Glos ord These things are therefore said by the Apostle that no man should presume to interpret the holy Scripture after his owne private minde or fancy as too often opposing and thwarting perverting and wresting the same and the meaning of the holy Ghost therein The Church of Christ hath in all ages been infested and in these last times more then ever with such kinde of persons who pretending to be holy men of God to have the gift of prophesie and interpretation of scripture even to speak by the holy Ghost and yet are led by their own ghost onely following their own private will and desires imaginations and opinions as their onely guide and dictator who pretend to the Spirit of God and yet will not admit at any hand of other spirit then their own of other truth then the vision of their own heads or of other directions then the motions of their own hearts rejecting renouncing and crying down all but what themselves call holy with the Donatists of old Quod volumus sanctum est that they will have to be holy right and true shall be so and nothing else 't is the very ground whereupon this last upstart crew of Quakers build all their resolutions and strange fanatick opinions and heresies even that which they call the light within us This say they is the onely Judge we must follow the Pilot we must steer by the voyce whereunto we must give ear the onely Sanctuary to which we must fly for resolution never remembring how this sanctuary is profan'd by continual acts of spiritual fornication or idolatry therein committed whilst in stead and even in opposition to God and Spirit of all truth they enshrine and idolize their owne fond vain and lying imaginations which the Lord by his Prophet calls the vanity and deceitfulnesse of their own heart Jer. 14.4 Jer. 14.14 The Lord said unto me the Prophets prophesie lies in my Name I have not sent them neither did I command them neither spake I unto them but they prophesie unto you a false vision and divination and vanity and the deceitfulnesse of their own heart But this delusion of mans own spirit following the deceitfull dictates of his own heart is seldome mentioned in holy scripture without heavy threats denounced both against such deluders and all that suffer themselves to be deluded by them as you may read in the following words And again Ezek. 13.3 Ezek. 13.3 Woe unto the foolish Prophets which follow their own spirit and have seen nothing nothing but what their own foolish spirit dictates to them Nor were there such under the Law onely but under the Gospel also They are noted by the Apostle Col. 2.18 Col. 2.18 Who intrude into those things which they have not seen or which they understand not being vainly puft up by their fleshly minde sensualitalis non rationis Gloss following the dictates of sense rather then of right reason and in this place the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is remarkable for even by that 't is easie to distinguish betwixt the dictates of a mans own carnal and sensual spirit and the impressions of Gods holy Spirit for the guidance of the minde The dictate of the fleshly spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inflatio a puffing up but the impression of the holy Spirit is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afflatio an inspiration indeed but without inflation or puffing up The heavenly wind of Gods Spirit may fill but it never puffs up or swels the heart but rather humbles and abaseth the Spirit of man which is most conformable to the Spirit of Christ according to his own command Matt. 11.29 Mat. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart the minde that is either puft up with pride vain-glory and false conceited excellency in it self or that swels with malice hatred or envy towards others is not inspired with the celestiall Breath or Spirit of

and in relation to us which was the Error of the Patripassians and others struck at by that clause of the Athonasian Creed so there is one Father not three Fathers one Son not three Sons one Hoby Ghost not three Holy Ghosts § 12 Thirdly that we may not confound the Person Distinct 3 and the Office of this ever blessed Spirit of God but rightly understand what is meant by receiving the Holy Ghost Act. 9.2 Psal 2.4 being filled with the Holy Ghost and made partakers of the Holy Ghost and all Scriptures which speak of having the Spirit being endued with the Spirit Heb. 6.4 and the like we must in the third place rightly distinguish betwixt the Personal Essence of the Spirit and the impressions or workings of this Spirit upon the minds of men For to be filled with the Holy Ghost or made partakers of the Spirit of God is not to be understood of the Spirit in respect of his Personal Essence for thus he filleth the world Wisd 1. Psal 139. and contains all things being really existent and present in and with all things and creatures giving unto all their life and breath and all things Act. 17. In whom we live and move and have our beeing viz. by his inexisting presence and this in respect of his Personal Essence If we should say then that the Spirit of God is in his Saints and servants here upon Earth in a greater measure then in other men Personally and in respect of his Essence we should so divide and consequently define and limit the Essence of God which is undivided infinite and unlimited see Jer. 23.23 Am I a God at hand and not a God a far off Can any hide himself in secret places that I should not see him for do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord Thus then those Scripture phrases of receiving the Holy Ghost c. are not to be understood of the Spirit in respect of his Personal Essence which is undivided unlimited and filleth all things and so not one man more then another But 2. In respect of his impressions and workings on the souls of men in respect of his gifts and graces which are various and divers and carry their name from the cause or Author of them There are diversity of gifts but the same spirit 1 Cor. 12.4 where the Spirit is plainly distinguished from his gifts as the cause from the effect the workman from the work of his hands or as the body of the Sun is distinguished from the light and heat which is darted and displayed from it And whereas it is said the Spirit is but one but his gifts are diverse we may hence observe that if we should confound the Spirit of God with the gifts and qualifications dispensed from him we should be so far from acknowledging and worshipping the true God which is but one that we should fall into that gross Idolatry of the Heathens of old making as many Spirits of God as they made gods who deified the moral vertues and worshipped their several vertuous qualifications as gods § 13 The unwary neglect of this distinction betwixt the person and qualifications of Gods Spirit is that very rock whereupon many a misguided and unstable soul hath suffered the shipwrack of the true Christian Faith for being by the cunning suggestion of the spirit of Lyes once perswaded in their hearts that they have the Spirit of God and that personally abiding in them they are hereupon puft up with such an excessive spiritual pride and self-conceited eminence as not only to exalt themselves above and despise their Christian brethren who are better qualified then themselves but even to extol themselves above the heavens and most blasphemously to profess and boast of an equality with God a blasphemy however 't is salved and minc't that cannot be paraleld but with that Original pride of the Devil Gen. 3. He said in his heart I will be like the most High and to this he tempted our first Parents perswading them to rebel against their Maker and become as gods themselves knowing good and evil this was the very sin that hurled Lucifer like Lightning from Heaven his pride and presumption to be like the most High and therefore with all his Apostate crew he is now reserved in everlasting chains under darkness ●ude 6. to the judgement of the Great day And for our new Sect of Enthusiasts had they the Spirit of God as they pretend abiding in them and speaking in them Personally and Essentially thi● blasphemy must necessarily follow that they are equal with God in respect of the Spirit in them as themselves affirm it though not as George Robert c. To avoid which blasphemy and many other absurd and wicked opinions of the like nature which would follow thereupon and wherewith too many unstable souls are now infected we must remember that to have the Spirit in the language of the Scripture is not to be understood of his personal Essence but of his qualifications § 14 And because this distinction is very material as to the many present delusions under pretence of the Spirit 't will be necessary therefore to clear it by some Scripture expressions in this kinde 't is an ordinary piece of Rhetorick and an usual figure in the dialect of the Scripture to call the gifts and qualifications of Gods holy Spirit by the name of the Spirit as Exod. 31.2 3. Exod. 31 2 3. Behold I have called by name Bezaleel the son of Uri c. whom I have filled with the Spirit of God that is with the gifts of the Spirit for it follows in all wisdom and understanding and knowledge and in all workmanship Numb 11.17 so Numb 11.17 I will come down and talk with thee and take of the spirit which is upon thee and put upon them and they shall bear the burthen with thee where what else can possibly be meant by the spirit which was upon Moses to be put upon the Elders but that they should partake of the same spiritual gifts with Moses enfitting them to bear the burthen with him as to the administration of justice amongst the people even the gifts of wisdom understanding and knowledge impartially and without respect of persons to execute justice and judgement so The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him Isai 11.2 vers the gifts of the Spirit for so it follows The spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and strength the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. He then that is a wise man may be said in the language of the Spirit which is the Scripture to have the Spirit of the Lord upon him or to have the Spirit of God because the wisdom he hath is from Gods Spirit it comes down from above and the means to fetch it thence is holy prayer If any man lacks wisdom let him ask of God who giveth c. Jam. 1.5 so the

to our own understanding or trust too much to our own wit judgment reading learning or the like as knowing full well That the Lord gives wisdome Prov. 2.6 and from him cometh knowledge and understanding But hereupon either to despise or neglect those ways and means and helps which God in his merciful providence hath afforded us for to attain wisdom c. as the study of Tongues and Languages Arts and Sciences the reading and distinctly weighing the Discourses of the learned and to depend upon immediate Revelation and Infusion of such gifts from Heaven as if they should drop upon our barren hearts as did the Manna in the Wilderness upon the Tents of Israel out of the clowds and by miracle this is a false gloss which the spirit of delusion puts upon the former truth thereby to inveigle us 1. To tempt the good Spirit of God 2. To be exposed and laid open to seducing spirits 3. To enshrine Lady Ignorance again as the Mother of Devotion which all men know but who are blinded with ignorance to be the Dame of superstitious errors and confusions 3. § 33 Rightly to believe in the Son of God as the mean of our justification here and ground of our hope of salvation hereafter this is an impression of Gods Spirit on the soul of man and in respect hereof we are said to have the Spirit of Faith 2 Cor. 4.13 2 Cor. 4.13 We having the same spirit of faith according as it is written I believed therefore have I spoken faith as it is doctrinal being a spiritual gift and reckoned amongst them 1 Cdr. 12.9 1 Cor. 12.9 And as it is practical being a grace or fruit of the Spirit and reckoned amongst them also Gal. 5.22 Gal. 5.22 But now to mingle and divide and as it were to cut asunder this true Evangelical Faith as it stands full and intire in all its integral parts both of doctrine and practice so as to be vainly puft up with a conceit of being engraffed into Christ and thereby to be justified here and sure of heaven hereafter whether we live according to the rule of Faith and in obedience unto the Gospel of Christ or no to define and measure our Faith not by the sacred acts thereof commanded which is called the righteousness of Faith Rom. 10.6 but by our own too too credulous fancies and apprehensions as if it were no more to be in Christ but presumptuously to pretend unto it and impudently without just ground to believe it This surely cannot be that true Evangelical Faith whereunto so many promises are annext but a false gloss which the spirit of Error hath put thereupon thereby 1. to puff up the hearts of too too credulous men with spiritual pride and presumption and make them swell with the empty conceit and airy fancy of their own happy and eminent state and condition when there is no such matter And 2. to inveigle men to neglect the use and practise of Christian graces those fruits of the Spirit which are as it is already said the very life and soul of Christianity and consequently the way to heaven if ever we mean to arrive there 4. § 34 It is an impression of Gods Spirit on the soul of man 1 King 19.14 To be zealous for the Lord of Hosts that is to be exceedingly fervent and forward earnest and desirous by all possible ways and means to advance the religious worship and service of God But to be so factious and forward so firie and furious as by any illegal extravagant and disorderly means to advance the truth it self much less to set up any private opinions in relation to Gods Service which have not been Vincent semper ubique ab omnibus The three rules of Catholick Doctrine and Worship to be generally and for the most part of the Primitive times at least of all persons at all times and in all places received and not now and then here and there by hereticks and schismaticks only introduc'd I say to be zealous for such pieces of Religion Doctrine and Worship and that per fas nefasque through just or unjust means by right or by wrong to endevour the advancement thereof this is not true zeal but a false gloss which the Devil puts thereupon even through the violence of this distempered heat 1. To divide separate and break men into sects factions and parties that they might so clash together to the ruine of each other And 2. to inveigle men into conspiracies seditions and rebellions against their Governours § 35 The like may be observed of zeal for the conversion of a sinner and bringing souls into the obedience of Christ the more zealous and active diligent and industrious any man is herein with the more fire of Gods Spirit no question he is endued But withall observe that to be active and zealous to seduce and deceive to inveigle and draw men aside into false and erroneous opinions in Religion is not a heat cast forth from the fire of Gods Spirit but it ariseth rather from the fire of hell it comes from our adversary the Devil 1 Pet. 5.8 who also continually goeth about like a roaring Lyon seeking whom he may devour And his Disciples they be and consequently in the same woful state and condition with him who take pains to proselyte persons unto the ways of error and perdition Matth. 23.15 Woe unto you Scribes Pharisees and hypocrites for ye compass sea and land to make one Proselytes and when he is made you make him twofold more the childe of hell then your selves § 36 'T is an impression of Gods Spirit on the minde of man to be apt and ready Matth. 18.15 active and forward to counsel advise admonish and in some cases and at some times to reprove one another Prov. 12.1 and tell men of their faults and He that hateth reproof is a fool but to rail and revile censure and judge and condemn our brethren and say it 's only a telling them of their faults and telling them what they are or to meddle with other mens matters that concern us not or to reprove other mens faults whilst our selves are guilty of greater These are no true parts of Christian fraternal admonition but false glosses that the Devil puts hereupon 1. To allure men to overlook and neglect themselves and the amendment of their own faults and amisses And 2. to dissolve the sacred bonds of amity peace and unity with others which are those ligaments and sinews of the body of the Church whereby good Christians are coupled and united and join together in the sacred service of God which is the way of their own salvation § 37 And as into erroneous opinions on the one hand so into sinful actions on the other are we allured and inveigled by the same subtil wile of Satan obtruding his false counterfeit coin of wickedness under the shew and semblance of the impressions of