Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	act_v	holy_a	zion_n	43	3	10.1811	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47164	The Presbyterian and independent visible churches in New-England and else-where brought to the test, and examined according to the doctrin of Holy Scriptures ... : more particulary directed to those in New-England, and more generally to those in old England, Scotland, Ireland, &c. : with a call and warning from the Lord to the people of Boston and New-England, to repent, &c. : and two letters to the preachers in Boston, and an answer to the gross abuses, lies and slanders of Increase Mather and Nath. Morton, &c. / by George Keith.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.	1691 (1691)	Wing K191; ESTC R21261	124,580	240

us and working together with us This answer is but a meer presumption or Conjecture seeing they deny all inward Revelation and Inspiration of the Spirit which gave the Believers and Saints in former ages an infallible kowledge and assurance that they had the Spirit of God for the Spirit that they claim unto as they say doth only work in them effectively but not by way of object it is altogether an unknown mean or principle of operation it hath no proper light or evidence or demonstration of its own such as the Spirit that was in the Apostles is no infallible spirit that they have but fallible and therefore their Faith is fallible their Knowledge fallible their Hope fallible and every thing in them fallible dubious conjectural and uncertain and they only think that they have the Spirit of God and a spiritual knowledge of things and when asked they dare not say their thought hath any infallible assurance in it as all true assurance is Infallible yea some of them are so dark ignorant and blind that to me in my hearing have affirmed That the Apostle Paul was not infallibly sure that he had the Spirit of God bringing Paul's words 1 Cor. 7.40 I think also that I have the Spirit of God But according to his blind argument the holy Ghost is not infallibly sure for the same Greek word is applied to the holy Ghost Acts 15.28 It seemed good to the holy Ghost but this is blasphemous to think or affirm and I see not how they can clear their Doctrin of Blasphemy to say That they have the Spirit of God and yet to affirm That they have no Infallible Spirit The plain English of which is that the Spirit of God and God himself is fallible 6. But the great cause and reason why all true Ministers and Preachers of the Gospel should not only be truly godly and holy Men but also should be indued with some more than ordinary power of the holy Spirit and communications thereof not common to all Christians at least in degree though one spirit in all is That the Ministry of every true Minister of Christ is a Ministration of Grace of Spirit of Life and Power which doth emanate or flow forth from or through the Minister or Preacher as living Waters that emanate and flow from a living spring or fountain which reach and flow into the hearts and inward parts of the Hearers such as are sensible and whose hearts God is pleased to open to receive them and sometimes to the opening and making alive the dead souls and hearts of many hearers whereby not only many that are spiritually dead are made alive but the living are made more living and livingly refreshed and strengthened and though this can hardly or not at all be received by many yet thousands can witness it from living experience that they have felt streams of divine Life Power and Vertue to spring and flow forth from the Spirit of Christ in faithful Preachers into their souls and inward parts to their exceeding refreshing and strengthning in the inward Man and the Scriptures abundantly confirm it that so it was in the primitive times the Ministers of Christ were the Ministers of the Spirit and Power of God and the outward and audible Words that reached the outward Ears were only as a Conduit of Conveyance to convey and transmit that heavenly Virtue that flowed through them and therefore the Ministers of God are called in Scripture flames of Fire and their Words and Preaching have a divine and spiritual Fire and Heat in them that exceedingly warm and melt the cold and congealed Hearts of many Hearers and that Fire is a living Fire or Power of Life to quicken them And this was it that made the two Disciples going to Emaus say How did not our Hearts burn within us while he spoke to us by the way and opened the Scriptures unto us And when Christ preached to the People it is said he spoke with Authority that is Power and not as the Scribes and so did the Apostles as Paul declared That his Preaching was in Demonstration of the Spirit and of Power And Christ and the holy Spirit spake in him to the People when he preached and so did it in all the other Apostles and Ministers of Christ and the Hearers who had and knew Christ in their own hearts had a Proof sufficient that Christ spoke in Paul by what they felt of that spiritual Vertue and Power that did flow forth through him in his Ministry And according to this Peter exhorted That he who ministers should minister of the Power that God giveth as good Stewards of the manifold Grace of God So they ministred not only Words but Grace and Power and Life to the hearers And thus there is a communication of the Grace and Graces of God not only betwixt Ministers and Hearers but among all the Faithful who are as one living Body but many Members and every Member a living Member and ministring Life one to another as it is in the natural Body and this is that Communion of the Saints that the Scripture testifieth that they had together in the Spirit which did knit their Hearts together in Love unto all Riches of the full assurance of Understanding Col. 2.2 And with such living instruments that are spiritually made alive unto God doth God work to make their Ministry effectual and fruitful to convert and beget Souls unto God and when begotten to nourish and feed them with the sincere Milk of the Word which Milk is not the outward Words but the Life that is in the Words For as in the outward God doth not work with a dead Man to beget outward and natural Children but with the living so it is with Men spiritually living with whom God worketh to beget Sons and Daughters spiritually unto God where God only properly and principally is the Father and Men but Instruments with and by whom he worketh and in order to this spiritual begetting of Sons and Daughters unto God by the Ministry of faithful Preachers God giveth unto them a spiritual and divine Seed which they convey in their words into the Hearts and Souls of their Hearers according to 1 Cor. 9.10 He that ministreth Seed to the Sower And Isa 55.10 That it may give Seed to the Sower So that there is a divine and spiritual Seed in the Words and Preaching of a true Minister of Christ for the words are living Words and are not his but the words of Christ and of the holy Spirit that speaketh in him But he that speaketh Words as suppose Scripture-words and not by the Spirit of Christ speaking in him there is no divine Seed in the Words there is the form or body of the Words but there is no Soul or Life in them as he speaks them And these Men are like that Harlot which took hold of Josephs garment but himself she could not enjoy So many get the outward form of the words

and Religion but this doth not prove the ceasing of new divine Revelation but rather indeed establisheth it for the Prophets and Apostles who had divine Revelation were profited taught and edified by their Fellow-Prophets and Apostles and especially the latter Prophets were much helped by the Words and Writings of the fore-going Prophets as Daniel confessed he understood by Books to wit by Jeremiah his Prophecy the number of the years of the Captivity Dan. 9.2 And Christ opened the understanding of the Apostles to understand the Scriptures of the Old Testament what they did declare of him and Paul freely confesseth that the Scriptures of the Prophets were writ for his Learning as well as of other Men and yet he had great plenty of divine Revelation beyond what many of them had and David said he had more knowledge than his Teachers and yet no doubt profited by them and especially by the Prophet Samuel and others that lived with him and before him Next as to the sensible and intuitive knowledge of God it can be and oft is without all Words either outwardly heard or inwardly conceived I mean words consisting of Letters or Syllables such as are not the things but signs of things even as we have a sensible and intuitive knowledge of a Land by seeing it and eating the Fruit of it and drinking the good Wine or Milk of it tho' we are not hearing or reading of it nor thinking of any words that ever we read or heard of it And so often the Souls of God's people enjoy a sweet sight taste and repast of him in a deep inward quiet and stillness of mind having no words of any sort that can be expressed in Letters or Syllables so much as in their present thoughts or remembrance and this is the most excellent degree of Knowledge and as far excelleth and transcendeth the other sort as the sight taste and feeling of a thing doth the report or hear-say of it It is also acknowledged that oft it pleaseth God to joyn of his Life to Scripture words as Promises Prophecies or any others as we hear read or meditate on them and make them as Conduits Pipes or Cisterns or as Cups and Flaggons to convey the divine Influences of his Life and living Spirit of Life and love to our Souls but then they hinder not our Revelation to be real and true and proper Revelation as well objective as subjective for as in drinking of outward Wine in a Glass or Cup we not only see the Glass or Cup that revealeth the Wine but also the Wine it self and the Wine is the most desirable and pleasant and acceptable object of both our sight and taste and feeling so that we regard the Glass or Cup little or nothing for it self but for its use and service to us and if there be no Wine or other refreshing Liquor in the Cup we care not to use it it hath no taste unto us nor service but as the Wine is in it And thus it is with the living Soul that thirsts after the living God and to drink of his Spirit that quickens and refresheth the Soul when it seeth or perceiveth any divine Vertue or Life as God is pleased when how or by whom to joyn of the same to it in Scripture words either preached read or meditated it is very glad and most gladly maketh use of them and giveth God thanks for his great mercy but without Life be joyned unto them it is no more wisdom nor discretion to use them than for a Man to put an empty Flaggon or Cup to his Mouth to drink at it 8. But if they say There is no sensible or intuitive knowledge of God in this Life at least since the Apostles days as indeed it is most yea altogether most agreeable to their Doctrin who say All new Revelation of the Spirit is ceased then I say unto them they are miserable Comforters yea miserable and sad Gospellers to poor Sion they bring not glad but sad tydings they cannot say Behold O Sion thy King cometh unto thee they cannot say Taste and see that God is good they cannot say The Life was manifested and we have seen it and declare it unto you that ye may have fellowship with us they cannot declare the great kindness and love that Christ the Soul's Husband and Bridegroom hath to his Bride but rather their Doctrin preacheth him to be most unkind and unnatural never to let his Bride see him once all her Life here in this World nor yet once to hear himself or taste or touch or handle him or be embraced by him They preach altogether an absent Christ as some of them say Christ is not really and properly in his People or if present a Christ altogether either dumb or silent that being so near to the Soul as to be in it never speaketh one word in it and always hideth his Face and never giveth to the Soul one glance or shine of his Countenance But if they be ashamed of this Doctrin which yet is the very purport of it who deny all inward nèw Revelation and new Visitations of the Lord's love unto the Souls of his People then let them be ashamed to preach teach or write that there is no new Revelation of God and Christ nor no immediate or inward teaching no inward and immediate calling or sending to the Ministry and let them be ashamed to own themselves to be the Successors of the ancient Protestants who did acknowledge immediate Teaching and calling unto the Ministry and the Spirit of Prophecy and some of them had it as George Wishard and others whose Prophecies Fox in his Book of Martyrs hath recorded 9. And whereas these Faith-publishers at Westminster one while deny all new Revelation another while seem only to deny extraordinary Revelation as they term it cap. 18. section 3. is another piece of Non-sense or Contradiction for if all new Revelation be ceased as they expresly affirm cap. 1. sect 1. and 6. then there is neither ordinary nor extraordinary Revelation remaining according unto their Doctrin But the distinction of ordinary and extraordinary Revelation may in a true sense be well admitted by them who believe that divine inward Revelation is not ceased for among the Prophets Numb 12.6 7 8. Moses's Revelation far exceeded the Revelation of the other Prophets as is clear from Scripture and in that respect was extraordinary And we now plead for new divine Revelation we mean not extraordinary beyond what God was pleased to give to his Saints and Children in an ordinary and usual way from the beginning of the World more or less nor do we compare our Revelations with either the Prophets or Apostles by way of equality either in degree or in all the various manners and ways which they had then But we say in that one way and manner which was by God's inward appearance and speaking in their Hearts in the divine Seed and Birth we do plead for divine Revelation