Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	apostle_n	faith_n	word_n	5,163	5	4.0959	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93655	The opening of Master Prynnes new book, called A vindication: or, light breaking out from a cloud of differences, or late controversies. Wherein are inferences upon the Vindication, and antiqueres to the queres; and by that, the way a little cleared to a further discovery of truth in a church-order, by a conference or discourse. / By John Saltmarsh, preacher at Brasteed in Kent. Published according to order.	Saltmarsh, John, d. 1647.	1645 (1645)	Wing S493; Thomason E305_22; ESTC R200328	25,183	50

converting Ordinance lest otherwise it prove impertinent or ineffectual for if the close Hypocrites be finally impenitent ones God reckons for a greater sin if not yet it is no more impertinent then the Word is to all the children of God who yet never partake truly of it till converted Thirdly That the distinction of his into the first conversion from Paganism to Faith and secondly from a formall Faith to a true sincere Faith in Jesus Christ which is the corner Stone in his building is a distinction and certain degrees which we have not in any such notion in the Word nor if it were doth it appear that the Scriptures place administration upon the bottom of any such distinction though he doth it But suppose I grant it yet a formal profession then as he contends for and many other was not such as is now since Kingdoms were Christianized but a profession then was according to the Rule of evidence till the contrary appeared as in all the first gathered Churches as in Simon Magus Ananias c. And formal profession then was as much as a kinde of powerful profession now for then it was persecution to take up an Ordinance or name of Christ and now it is faction on the Law of the Land as well as the Law of the God to professe Christ neither were the whole Counsels of the Spirit of Christ brought forth then to make up the rule of evidences as afterwards but they were brought forth by degrees till the whole Scriptures of the New Testament were finished And we are now to take the whole Counsels of God concerning Administrations as laid down in the whole New Testament and not by parcels though so much as they did professe in the first time of gathering were rule enough then to them when no more was revealed yet not to us now who have a full Gospel for our learning And this mistake or want of just consideration of times and Scriptures is the ground of all the mistakes Vindication Fol. 41. Why should not the Sacrament do the like since Gods Spirit equally breathes and works in all his Ordinances and may and doth regenerate and beget Grace in mens souls Inference Whence we may infer That it is lawful according to this Principle to beleeve That if one Ordinance convert any other may whether God hath instituted so or no We know the Lord hath appointed and ordered every Ordinance to its nature kinde and use and Gods institution is to be the rule of our believing and reasoning and practising not because such a thing works so therefore any other thing works so as that thing works The Author himself reasons against this in another place and that there is no right inference but in things of the like kinde and under the like precept as thus The Word is able to convert therefore all Preaching and Prophesying is able to convert but not therefore the Sacraments can convert Vindication Fol. 41. The Sacraments are by all Divines whatsoever and the very Directory pag. 52. ever enumerated among the means of Grace and Salvation Why then should they not be the means of converting Inference Whence we may infer That it is warrantable to expound Divines and the Directory contrary to their intent and meaning and to infer conclusions from them to prove things which are not onely very disputable but unwarrantable as far as any Scripture makes appear either in any plain precept or president and especially to turn the Directory being a Publike form made by the Assembly so much against their sense and meaning as appears by divers of their judgements of late is an attempt much like that of expounding a Law or Ordinance of Parliament in a private sense not in their own and this quotation of a Directory in this kinde is enough to make it all questionable and to draw on a necessity of a publike interpretation upon it Vindication Fol. 41 42. That receiving Sacraments is usually accompanied with effectual means as serious examinations solemn searching out of all open and secret sins with confession contrition humiliation prayers of pardon secret purposes and vows sundry pious and soul-ravishing meditations of Gods Mercy exhortations admonitions by the Ministers And why is not the Sacrament a more fit and apt Ordinance to regenerate convert ungodly and scandalous sinners then the bare Word preached Inference Whence we may infer That there are certain preparations and qualifications in men meerly unregenerate which are here lifted up into something more then natural or carnal workings or filthinesse of the flesh as prayers for pardon of sin pious and soul-ravishing meditations with humiliation contrition confession c. Now I would fain know what there is in man before the glorious light of Jesus Christ hath opened his eyes and brought him out of prison out of darknesse into light What kinde of prayers can such make What pious meditations can such have of Gods mercy in Christ What contrition is there in such What humiliation Without faith it is impossible to please God and the carnal minde is enmity against God nor is it subject to the Law of God nor indeed can be and they that are in the flesh cannot please God What is all this then of prayers When as the prayers of the wicked are abominable What are all those flourishes and noise of vows and purposes and contrition and meditations of an unregenerate man when they all are but glorious sins Do men gather Grapes of Thorns or Figgs of Thistles Why should nature be made proud with these expressions And any ground laid for boasting And whereas it is said that the Sacrament is a more apt means to convert then the bare Word preached we may infer some derogating and diminution or lessening implyed here of the Ordinance of the Word or Ministery because it is said Then the bare Word as if so be that the Word were a bare word when it comes in the power of salvation to regenerate when the Spirit quickens it and makes it a Word of truth of grace the power of God unto salvation and we see the word or ministery it self is called The Preaching of faith The ministery of reconciliation The Sacrament is not called so anywhere though no lesse glorious neither And Christ and his Apostles and Disciples went every where preaching the Word but not administring the Sacrament but onely there where the ministery of the Word had first brought them under the power of the Gospel-Order and Rule for Ordinances of a more spiritual institution Vindication fol. 42. That because we behold Christs death and passion more visibly represented to our eyes and hearts in the Sacrament and remission of sins more sensibly applied to us then in any other Ordinances therefore it is certainly the most powerful Ordinance of all others to regenerate and convert with many Scriptures to prove conversion by representation Inference We may infer That because the Lord hath instituted his signe of bread and wine

whom the Apostles could no longer suffer not by way of discipline or inflicting Censure but by way of a spiritual contrarinesse to such grosse hypocrisie and sin discovered And so the experiences of all that are of a pure Gospel-temper will witnesse to this very Age in acts of spiritual fellowship and Community in all acts of Worship c. This is founded not onely spiritual antipathies and sympathies but in natural and civil natural things of a contrary nature bearing one another no lesse and things of a civil nature yet contrary doing the like Hence arise separations meerly natural and sensitive and rational Hence arises a particular Schism and separation in all the things of the world and a secret gathering and contracting of things from the contrary into the same kinde the common purity being lost as the Apostle implies by which Nature did at first more universally agree as if one common spirit had been in it And thus it was in the Churches of God at first when three four or five thousand did agree in one way of spiritual fellowship Doctrine breaking of bread and Prayers but we see there is not now such pourings out of spirit upon multitudes and Nations that a National-Church should be together in such a unity of spirit And under the Law there was even a weaker example in the people of the jews being taken out from the people of the world and naturally hating all that were common and unclean as the Gentiles And before the Law the people of God did gather into Families and particular societies as in Abraham c. And those Families the children of the Bond-woman and of the free never bearing but persecuting each other So as all of pure spiritual constitution cannot but experimentally finde a spiritual nature in themselves working them into a more glorious fellowship then that of the world The sum of the Argument If then there be two contrary natures of Spirit and Flesh if these cannot nor never could in experience of all Ages and according to the truth in Scriptures and example of all there bear each other into the same spiritual society or fellowship if nature it self in the creatures run out into antipathies and sympathies that is into particular gatherings and separations mutual opposings and resistings of each other when together Then spiritual and unmixt Communion and Fellowship from the world and men of the world is warrantable But all this is undeniably true to the experience of all Therefore spiritual unmixt Communion and Fellowship from the world and men of the world is warrantable II. Argument from the Power of Spiritual Ordinances and Dispensations THe Gospel-Ordinances brought into the World a power and spiritual Law in them though in degrees and measures and several givings out as in Johns time and his Disciples in Christs own time and his Disciples and in the Spirits time and according to these times of manifestation believers were wrought upon in Johns time they came out to the Baptism of Water in Christs and his Disciples to the preaching of the Word in the Spirits time to the Baptism of the Spirit to a more mighty and glorious working and all these times of Gospel-manifestation had a prevailing losse and more upon the believers of these several times in drawing them out from the world in part though weakly in Johns time it is said Then come out unto him all Judea yet though they were Baptised of him they gathered not off into such particular societies as after The Kingdom of God then was but at hand in Christs time though his preaching was powerful yet he let out the glory of his spirit but sometimes with the Word reserving his more glorious manifestations for other times and even here though Christs preaching gathered in his Apostles and Disciples into some particular and neerer way to himself yet not many more nay he rather left many partly in that mixed condition of society he found them and so the Disciples Commission which was given was to preach but little yet of Church-gathering but by way of Prophecy as in Matth. 16. and 18. The Kingdom of God was but yet at hand not come In the Spirits time then the Kingdom of God was come and then a mighty operation and measure of the Spirit was powred out and then the believers through the powerful working were brought more off from the World and began to gather in closer to Christ and one another And now all power was given to Christ which was not before his Resurrection and now he sets up a Kingdom All power is given into my hands and now the Kingdom begins to be set up in the hearts and practice of believers and the Spirit to mold and cast the believers into Brother hoods and societies and the form of a Kingdom and now the Laws and spiritual policy are given out for ordering this Kingdom And we see how the people of God in Rome Corinth Ephesus Galatia drew off from the world in the things of the Lord We see then how the Word did begin to work Believers into a fellowship from the world and the more the spirit was given the more and more off from the world in all these several times And it is a rational truth and a clear conclusion even to meer reason that the more Christ and his Spirit is in any the more neer and close they will gather up to heaven and walkings with God and the more Christward any one is the more off still from the multitude of the world And thus the Ordinances of Jesus Christ in which the Spirit breathes so powerfully work men off from the mixed world into fellowship with the Lord and that spiritual fellowship makes them rejoyce more in one another then in any other that are more carnal The more men live to Christ the more they die to the world and are formed into the fellowship of his death and Resurrection The sum of the Argument If then the Ordinances and Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ had ever a power in some degree of prevailing upon the souls of Believers according to the manifestation of the Spirit and if this Spirit flowing from God and Christ carry up the soul to God and Christ according to the measure given to those Believers and if the more they are carried towards Christ the more they must come off from the world Then Congregational or Church-order wherein Believers are gathered into fellowship with God in Christ and one another from the world in the things of the Gospel and unmixt communion is warrantable But all this is undeniably true from the Word Therefore Church-fellowship and unmixt Communion is warrantable III. Argument IF mixed communion and society came in upon the Apostacie and falling away and Parochial Congregations were formed up afterward from such mixt Communion If as Antichrist prevailed so darknesse and corruption prevailed upon Believers If Churches were called Golden Candlesticks before and a Fellowship of Saints and the Body of Christ and Kingdom of God till they grew mixed If the mixt Congregations by Parishes came in first by Dionysius Bishop of Rome in the yeer 267 and in England by Honorius Bishop of Canterbury and people were onely made Congregations by conveniency of situation and the Law of civil Politie If Parishes were first the seats of Popery and after the seats of Prelacy and now fall under the Presbytery in the same kinde and notion of a mixed multitude Then mixt and Parochial Congregations are not that way and order of Christ for Ordinances which was the primitive way revealed and practised in the Gospel But all this is undeniably true from the best Historians Therefore not mixt Communion and Fellowship but pure and unmixt is the onely Ordinance of Christ Now I shall leave you for the present and commend particulars unto you and the Kingdom the one A rule of Evidences for Spiritual Communion drawn from the Scriptures the other A remarkable passage in the Book of Vindication The Rule of Evidences FOR Spiritual-Communion MAtth. 15. 26. Chap. 18. 19 20. Joh. 10. 16. Acts 2. 44 46. Chap. 19. 9. Rom. 1. 7. Chap. 16. 17 18. 1 Cor. 1. 1 10. Chap. 5. 4 5 11 13. and 12. 12 13 14 20 25 27. 2 Cor. 5. 6 7. Chap. 6. 14 15 16 17. Gal. 5. 9 10 12 13. Chap. Chap. 6. 16. Ephes. 4. 3 4 25. Chap. 5. 1 2 11 12 21 30. Phil. 3. 15 16 17. 1 Thess. 3. 6. 2 Thess. 3. 14. 1 Tim. 6. 3 4 5. 2 Tim. 3. 5. Tit. 3. 10. Hebr. 10. 25. 1 Pet. 2. 9. 1 Joh. 1. 7. 2 Joh. v. 10 11. Revel. 2. 14 15 20. Chap. 18. 4. and 19. 20. A remarkable Passage in the Vindication-Book ANd if our Assembly and Ministers will but diligently preach against that Catalogue of scandalous sins and sinners they have presented to the Parliament and the Parliament prescribe severe Temporal Laws and Punishments against them and appoint good Civil Magistrates to see them duely executed inflicted I am confident that this would work a greater Reformation in our Church and State in one half yeer then all the Church-Discipline and Censures now so eagerly contested for will do in an Age and will be the onely true way and speediest course to reform both Church and State at once which I hope the Parliament will consider of and take care that our Ministers like the Bishops formerly may not now be taken up with Ruling and Governing but Preaching and Instructing which is work enough wholly to engrosse their time and thoughts FINIS Vindication fol. 1. Vindication fol. 3. Fol. 3. Fol. 6. Fol. 9. Fol. 14. Fol. 17. Fol. 28. Fol. 35. Fol. 40 41 c. Fol. 48. Fol. 49. Fol. 50. Fol. 57. Fol. 58. Fol. 59. Vind. l. fol. 59. Fol. 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28. Rom. 14. See fol. 3 c. 1 Kings 6. 4. Luke 7. 34 c. 1 Cor. 11. Fol. 3 4 6 9. In Fol. 3 4 6 9 Rom. 8. Matth. 8. Ephes. 4. 8 11. Revel. cha. 2 3. Rev. 2. 1. 1 Cor. 1. 9. Ephes. 2. 19 c. 2 Cor. 6. 15 16 17. See the learned Mr. Selden in his Book De decimis

Yet warrantably practised as if an unlawfull way of worship as all will-worship is might be lawfully practised which is contrary to these Scriptures Matth. 15. 3 9. Isai. 29. 13 14. Gal. 3. 15. John 10. 4 5. Matth. 6. 24. Tit. 1. 14. Revel. 14. 9 10. Vindication Fol. 38. That the Sacrament of the Lords Supper belongs of right to all visible knowing Members of the visible Church as well as the Sacrament of Baptism Inference Whence we may infer That in this his equalizing all Ordinances under this notion of knowing Members that either children are not capable of Baptism because not knowing Members and upon this ground of his wrongfully Baptized or if right Members yet deprived of the other Sacrament of the Supper to which as visible Members they have right as well as to the other there being no distinction of knowing and unknowing Members in his sense or else that they may partake in that Ordinance of Baptism and be signed or sealed and yet no right Members of a visible Church Vindication Fol. 38. That that of not casting Pearls before Swine in Matth. 7. 6 10 14. is expresly determined in 2 Pet. 2. 1 2 21 22. and Heb. 10 28 29. and 6. 4. to 9. to open Apostates not to scandalous sinners who duly repair to publish Ordinances and externally professe Reformation and Repentance and to apply this Text to these is a meer perverting of it Inference Whence we may infer That this cuts off the Brethren of the more purely-Presbyterial way fully from all their foundation-Texts of any more spiritual distribution of Holy Ordinances or any distinction in the distribution which they have so long while breathed after and rejoyced in the expectation of and their condition upon these principles are no better now in their so much desired-for-Reformation then it was under the Prelates and Common-Prayer Book which holds the door more close against sinners then the Vindication or they ought to do upon these his principles And secondly The full and finall determining a Scripture of this kinde or any other to one particular sense is not agreeable to that Spirit of wisdom and of God which is an infinitely abounding spirit and like the Sun is full of beams and continuall springings of light nor do the Interpretations of the Word appear all at once the same Scripture which many ages ago gave out one beam of light gave more in the ages after and more now as the eyes of our understanding are enlightned so as Scriptures are not to be bounded in our sense nor the elevations of spirit taken by the short rule of our spirits which is contrary to these Scriptures 2 Pet. 1. 20 21. 2 Cor. 5. 16. Phil. 3. 12 13 15 16. Ephes. 3. 18 19. 1 Cor. 2. 14 15. Vindication Fol. 41. If the Sacrament be onely a sealing or confirming Ordinance of true Grace when and where it is already begun then it were altogether impertinent and ineffectuall unto civil carnal Christians therefore doubtlesse it is and was intended by Christ for a converting Ordinance to all such as those Inference Whence we may infer That the Sacrament being a converting Ordinance may be given to all unregenerate persons in or out of the Church for if it be a converting Ordinance the consequence lies clear that no sinners of any sort kinde quality condition in or out of the Church ought to be denied it nay to have it administred as well without the Word as with it it being of equal power with the Word for converting as the Vindication saith and that who holds otherwise are mistaken And though there be a distinction premised of converting to the Faith or formall profession and a converting to a spiritual sincere Faith in Jesus Christ yet this distinction makes not any thing against the Sacrament to be given before the Word even for conversion to the first Faith or faith from Paganism which neither Scriptures nor practise of Christ or any Disciple of his from Apostles to the seventy and so down through any age to our own that ever I could read on practised and yet the principles laid down in Fol. 38. will infer such a consequence naturally and truly for the Vindication saith in Fol. 38. That the Word and all Ordinances are alike for conversion and if so the Sacraments may be used as well to convert from Paganism and administred singly by themselves as the Word by it self may be taught Secondly The Vindication saith That it is doublesse to be given to all for else it had been an impertinent and ineffectuall thing to administer to close Hypocrites that are carnall Christians Whence we may infer That because the Counsels of the Lord in all his Administrations do not clearly appear but through the Vindictions own suppositions and premises therefore he concludes fully That it were impertinent and ineffectual when as there appears no such end at all in the institution of it but rather two other ends One which himself layes down as occasional or evidential for the damnation and hardning some though I scarce allow him that that Ordinances of mercy and grace are properly active to condemnation The other which he never thinks on in his Book is this That God having left no infallible rule for discerning hath ordered it yet by a pure Gospel rule which if wicked men will come up to they hazard greater condemnation Further we may infer That things may be called impertinent and ineffectual which are instituted of the Lord when the reasons of the Lords institution appear not to us and that we may put our own suppositions and ends upon any administration in the Word when his ends are not clear to us nay and conclude against any other end then that of our own conjecture or supposed probable reason which I am confident is too too grosse to be in the learned Author Intentionally though not consequentially in his Vindication But the ends which I clearly gather from the Analogy of things in Gods dispensation are these Why the Sacrament though according to the institution delivered to Hypocrites yet is no converting Ordinance God having left no infallible Rule of discerning his but onely a Rule for outward evidences the Ordinances must either be administred to all walking according to the Rule of outward evidences or to none and according to that Rule Hypocrites may come in and do yet that is no sin to the Administrator nor Communicants so long as Administrations be ordered according to that Rule and Gods End of his revealed Will shewed Secondly The work of sifting and reaping of dividing betwixt the Trees and the Wheat the Sheep and the Goats is the work of the great day of the Son of man and therefore though Ordinances be administred here to Hypocrites yet at the time of the finall discerning the communicating of Hypocrites shall be visited in judgement and greater condemnation upon them So as there is no need of framing it into any notion of a

experiences are these I question the truth of all such conversion who have onely such experience as this because that such experience crosses the word and way of the Spirit and those are no right experiences which are not Scripture-experiences But some had not been converted if debarred from it This is a strange assertion against that of the Word The spirit bloweth where and when it listeth and some are called at one hour of the day some at another and how is it clear that the Sacrament converted such or not some other act of the Word at that time or about it Shew me that Christian among so many that can evidence his act of conversion meerly barely singly immediately from the act of communicating and then there is something proved to justifie an experience of conversion at such a time but still not to justifie the Sacrament an Ordinance Conversion and so to be used Vindication fol. 46. Is any Master or Parent so unnatural and sottish to deny his children or servant wholesom meat to feed their bodies And shall any Minister be so irrational or inconsiderate in denying the spiritual food Inference Whence we may infer That the Vindication takes all unconverted persons by this comparison to be alive and spiritually quickned or else it were as he says unnatural sottish irrational to give them food And if they be unconverted as he pleads for then who is so unnatural sottish irrational or inconsiderate as to give them any Men onely hold forth food to the living and not to the dead Vindication fol. 46. Physitians had an errour to deny drink to men in Feavers which murdred Thousands but now they see this deadly mistake and correct it So let not this errour creep into Divinity and Divines in denying the cup to such Feaverish Christians burning in the flames of sin and lust Inference Whence we may infer That there is in the unconverted a spiritual Feaverish thirst after Christ as there is in the sick after drink But oh Doth the same fountain send forth sweet and bitter waters Are there any such spiritually-feaverish desires in souls meerly carnal and unregenerate Can the burning in the flames of sin and lust breath any such heavenly longings Can there be any desires but sinful desires after Christ Can any but a soul like Davids pant after the water-brooks Are the flames of sin and lust like that heavenly fire in the bosom which the Prophet speaks on Do the hearts of any burn within them but when Christ is in their company and when spiritually enflamed by him Are the kindlings of sin like the kindlings upon the Altar Is the fire in the kitchin like the fire in the Temple Are the burnings of hell like the burnings of heaven If not Why are we told of men burning in the flames of sin and lust after Christ The Doctrine is not more unwarrantable then the expression is uncomely Vindication fol. 47. A Peradventure we may receive or do good by such a particular Ordinance or action is a sufficient encouragement for us to adventure on it in other cases let it be also warrantable in such cases where they have at least a probability a possibility a peradventure it may be and a Who knoweth but it may convert Inference Whence we may infer That the sum of all the former Arguments now summed up you see will reach no higher then to a Peradventure or to a may be And whether these be such Scripture-grounds or assurances for administrations of the Ordinances of God I appeal to all the world of believers who knows that May bees and Peradventures are not to be allowed any place in the practical obedience of Christians but clear demonstrative solid and certain Maximes or Principles for Whatsoever is not of faith is sin and He that doubteth is damned and Happie is he that condemneth not himself in what he doth And who knnws not that what is done upon May bees and Peradventures cannot be done of faith nor perswasion Vindication fol. 51. That the Presbytery or Classis may order a Suspension from the Sacrament or any other Ordinances provided that this power be claimed by no Divine Right but by Parliamenry Authority and Humane Institution Inference Whereby we may infer That what is not to be warranted in the Word yet if Humane Authority will undertake it it shall not be excepted against by the Vindication But where is there that Authority that will adventure so far to make up any thing in spiritual Administrations that there is no Spiritual nor Scripture-warrant for I am sorry to see the Vindication set the Parliamentary Authority so neer to Humane Invention of whom we are perswaded better things then to take the Patronage of any such thing which is not warrantable by the Word but rather to suspend all then to settle any thing so close to the highest Administrations in the Word which is of meer Humane Invention Nay I will prove this to be the very Maxime and practice of that honourable Senate who have therefore rooted out Episcopacy professed to the most high God in a Covenant against all Will-worship and Traditions of men and therefore let us not roll such a golden ball before Authority to put them out of their way after Christ who have followed him so close hitherto both in their searchings in the Word and in their tendernesse of persecution lest they might scourge Christ out of his own Temple and not know it Vindication fol. 57. The practical power of godlinesse is generally more evidently visible and the lives of the generality of the people more strict pious lesse scandalous and licentious in our English Congregations where there hath been powerful preaching without the practice of Excommunication or Suspension from the Sacrament then in the Reformed Churches of France Germany or Scotland Our English Ministers and Prostants generally excel all others notwithstanding their strict Discipline Inference Whence we may infer That the Vindication though it pretend in the general or face of it to be for Presbytery yet it is very clear that in aspersing the Government of all those Reformed Kingdoms where the practice and power of it hath been it secretly wounds the glory of it in the opinion of the world and though it pull not down the Government quite yet it weakens the Posts or Judgements of men on which it stands I name not here the other Texts that the Vindication hath pull'd out of the building of the Presbyterial Government for the taking out the Scriptures are like the pulling out the nalls and pins from the house and a loosning of the frame This I observe because the Vindication professes so for that Government though I suppose many such friends in time might do as much harm if not more then those of the Separation whom he calls their enemies Surely I do believe France Germany Scotland had rather such Books were not writ in their behalf that opens the evil corruption and