Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bear_v	son_n	witness_n	5,359	5	7.9501	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94081	An essay in defence of the good old cause, or A discourse concerning the rise and extent of the power of the civil magistrate in reference to spiritual affairs. With a præface concerning [brace] the name of the good old cause. An equal common-wealth. A co-ordinate synod. The holy common-wealth published lately by Mr. Richard Baxter. And a vindication of the honourable Sir Henry Vane from the false aspersions of Mr. Baxter. / By Henry Stubbe of Ch. Ch. in Oxon.	Stubbe, Henry, 1632-1676.; Stubbe, Henry, 1632-1676. Vindication of that prudent and honourable knight, Sir Henry Vane, from the lyes and calumnies of Mr. Richard Baxter, minister of Kidderminster.	1659 (1659)	Wing S6045; Thomason E1841_1; ESTC R209626	97,955	192

that which we finde to be best if after our most serious and deliberate Election we shall be affrightned out of our consciences by penalties Ad vana inutilia nec lex dei nec hominis prudentis cogit To what purpose is there so much liberty permitted as may beget our torture and not permit us to rest where we finde satisfaction Either prohibit to search at all or let us be sensible of some benefit by searching To believe what appears untrue seems to me impossible To professe what we believe untrue I am sure is damnable Are there not now as many occasions for us to try the Spirits as formerly Are there not now as many errors broached as then And is the true Doctrine delivered infallibly by the Apostles and attested unto by miracles and wonders as of old Nay is it not foretold that the last times shall be more perillous for seduction and that the faith of the very elect if possible should be indangered That many false Christs should come and though any the Magistrate not excepted should say lo here or lo there is Christ are we not forbid to believe them was that a temporal injunction That every man should be perswaded in his own minde 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 14.5 Must we under the Reformation only vary the Object of our implicit Faith not renounce the thing it self Surely Moses who left an High Priest with Vrim and Thummim light and perfection to resolve doubts and to preserve knowledge together with perspicuous Laws for Government Spiritual Surely I say he was more faithful than Christ and his Apostles since they left the world no infallible Judge to expound Scripture so as men might adhere unto their decisions because they were theirs The Spirit of God in each Saint is the sole Authentique Expositor of Scripture unto him that hath it the publike Spirit of the Church imaginary or Catholique hath been sufficiently exploded nor do I doubt but a Believer may safely acquiesce in his Explications upon whose Authority alone he receives the Text and in whom we all place the sure hopes of our Eternal welfare The Spirit bearing witnesse with our spirits that we are the sons of God Rom. 8.16 Yet this testimony of the private Spirit in the breast of a Saint however it be so clear and convincing that his Faith becomes the very substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. v. 1. yet is it like unto the white stone and the new name which no man knows but he that hath it Revel 2.17 it obligeth not others purely to a belief who have not received the like satisfaction What is Revelation to one is but Tradition to another and he who will believe every man that saith he is sent of Heaven may himself unless chance be as prevalent as choice in soul concerns go himself to Hell Thus Pilates wife was obliged to believe God speaking to her He was not bound to believe a woman speaking to him Have thou nothing to do with that just man for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him He might think she might be willing to deceive out of a natural compassion strong in that Sex or might be deceived her self calling that inspiration which was fancie This unsupplyable defect of common evidence in the delivery of Spirituall matters is of that nature as it alone would suffice to the enforceing a Toleration For though it be a confessed principle that whatsoever the prime verity doth say is an uncontroulable truth yet the course whereby he discovers himself in divers wayes and after divers manners unto the sons of men is followed with so much ambiguity waving that Soul-satisfying testimony of the Spirit as inquisitive men and sober if destitute of the highest gifts may upon a rationall ground if that way of arguing unto which we are bred up be true and sound suspect the sincerity the Revelation in the word and if he assent thereunto strongly and firmely he is rather to be accounted resolved then certaine And it is judiciously said All voluntary opinion that is grounded not in the understanding but will onely is vitious A sentence famous amongst the old phylosophers and confirmed by Austin that to give a direct assent to what you know to be uneertain is Turpe that is in our ordinary locution Sin in all propositions where we see no more then probability it is our part to withhold our assent till evidence or certainty deserve it The reason is cleare for if a man do strain his stomack with meat or drink his armes with pulling or walks himself off on his feet we blame him because he uses his body otherwise then is fitting or out of proportion to his dispositions and therefore wrongs it disappointing the end and use to which nature designed it Since then our understanding is our principall and most noble part farre lesse ought it to be strained against it's nature and which encreases the unworthiness of the Act this cannot be done to the understanding but by an inferiour whose end is good not truth and so no fit motive for faith and to obey or be ruled by its dictates Nor is this any derogation to God's word but a charge upon the weakness of man not being able to comprehend things certain in themselves and evident to some upon other accompts I shall not debate this matter any further it having been learnedly and unanswerably handled by Dr. Taylor in his Liberty of Prophesying I now come to shew that where there is wanting an infallible Expositor of the minde of God which being to be accepted upon Revelation is not to be discussed by Reason there is not onely cause for a Toleration for why should any be forced from what he holds to be true It is not ma●criall but formal certainty that obliges to belief unto that which another can not evidence but it may be false but sufficient ground from former practices and usages to reestablish the like forbearance Under the Jewish Kings before the captivity though they had an infallible direction by Vrim and Thummim for cases emergent and positive orders to recurre unto the High-Priest for resolution yet such was the power given or arrogated by their Kings these so intermedled with religion which then mostly consisted in outward ceremonies and types with a very slender explicite faith that all the forementioned circumstances were not a sufficient barre to keepe the people from idolatry who seemed so complyant as if they were absolute vassalls to their Soveraignes and onely rebellious towards God so dismall is that power when entrusted with the Magistrate and can we think a select Clergy founded upon Tithes that have no other right then what the Hands may take away which gave them not endowed with any substitute for the Vrim and Thummim but dictionary-learned Pasorians not assisted with extraordinary prophets as of old should bear up against a corrupt