Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	believe_v	holy_a	scripture_n	6,955	5	5.9774	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92173	A most grave, and modest confutation of the errors of the sect, commonly called Brownists, or: Seperatists. Agreed upon long since by the joynt consent of sundry, godly, and learned ministers of this kingdome, then standing out and suffering in the cause of inconformity; and now published in a time of need, for the good of Gods Church, and the better setling of mens unstable mindes in the truth against, the subtile insinuations, and plausible pretences of that pernicious evill. Published by W. Rathband, minister of the Gospell.	Rathband, William, d. 1695.	1644 (1644)	Wing R299; Wing M2893; Thomason E31_11; ESTC R209828	84,262	92

Civill estate and of every particular person in both all things being innovated in both according to the Iusts and pleasures of men the Law and Word of God being quite rejected and cast aside And in the 212. page of their refutation of Master Gifford They have these words We hold that you have poysoned all the fountaines of sincere doctrine and perverted the whole Testament and turned away the practise thereof by your damnable false expositions Yea that you teach not one point sincerely And in the 162. page of this discovery They are made socontrary one to another as it is an impossible thing to finde two of them in one minde yea or any one of them constant in that he affirmeth they know not the Doctrine even of the beginning of Christ Adde hereto Henry Barrowes words 12 and 23. pages of their collections of Letters and conference We will not give any answer to these speeches but onely desire the Christian Reader to consider whether ever Gods Spirit taught any to write so slanderously not onely against a whole Nation the conversion whereof they pretend to seeke but against the blessed Truth of God And how unlikely it is that they should bee in the right way whose chiefe leaders were guided by such a spirit That they should be the Lords building whose first founders and Master builders had either so small skill or so bad a Conscience Doe we not hold all the same books of Canonicall Scriptures which they themselves doe Doe wee not reject out of the Canon all which themselves account Apochryphall Have they any translation of holy Scripture besides ours Doe they themselves beleeve or teach otherwise in the Articles of the holy Trinity of justification of predestination then wee doe Hath every member of their Assemblies recovered that spirit of truth whereby they are led into all truth as Henry Barrow page 107. of his discovery affirmeth And is there not any one amongst us that hath not quite rejected the whole Word of God Not any one that knoweth the doctrine even of the beginning of Christ We know no better way to convince them in this then by appealing unto their Consciences which we are sure will take our parts against them Now this reason also is strong to prove us a true Church for although the bare letter of the Scripture may be found amongst the Jewes and Papists and other Heretickes Which none ran doe but the true Church Yet was there never any people that held and maintained the true sence of the Scripture in all points fundamentall but only the Church of God whereunto onely this title belongeth to bee the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tun. 3.15 A people may bee a true Church though they hnow not nor hold every truth contained in the Scriptures wherein wee desire the Reader to consider that a people may be the true Church though they know not nor hold not every truth contained in the holy Scriptures but contrarily hold many errours repugnant to the Scriptures Yet hath Henry Barrow affirmed in the 167. page of his discovery That to the people of God and every one of them God hath given his holy sanctifying spirit to open unto them and leade them unto all truth Whereby it is most evident that he would have none to be accounted the people and Church of God who either know not or practise not every truth contained in the holy Scriptures In which opinion see I pray you how grosse and dangerous errors are contained First That to every inseriour member in the Church there is as much reveiled as to the Pastors and chiefe members whereas the Apostle affirmeth Romans 12.3 Ephes 4 16. eol 2.19 that the Holy Ghost is given to every member of the body of Christ not equally but proportionably as the place which it occupieth in the bodie doth require Secondly That the promise mentioned Iohn 16.13 Should be made to every member of the Church which in the last words of the verse appeareth plainely to be particular to the Apostles Thirdly That the Church cannot erre and so neither were the Corinthians rightly called the Church of God when they judged corruptly of fornication and of the Resurrection Neither they of Pergamus when the Doctrine of Balaam was maintained among them Neither were Paul and the rest of the Apostles true Members of the Church who though in the exercises of their Apostolicall function they could not erre yet knew but in part and in many things were subject to error (a) 1 Cor. 13 9. Another strange opinion is amongst them maintained in the 156,157 of the discovery viz. That every truth contained in the Scripture is fundamentall For although we affirme not as he thereslandereth us That some part of Scripture is more holy more authenticall or more true then other Note Yet doubt we not to say that some parts are of more use and more necessary for men to know then othersome Else why doth the Holy Ghost oft give speciall commendation to some parts more than to other 1 Tim 4.11 Titus 3.8 Make 4 3● why doth he as it were make Proclamation and solemne oyesses before some and not before other Why doth hee use a speciall art in some parts rather than in other And although wee doe not hold as they falsly charge us in the forenamed page of their discovery That some parts of holy Scripture are of small moment superficiall needlesse and of no necessitie such as may be altered and violated without any prejudice or danger at all to the soule and much lesse that a man that hath obstinately continued in the transgression of some parts and openly taught the same unto others may be undoubtedly saved though he die without Repentance but on the contrary wee beleeve and teach that there is no part of holy Scripture which every Christian is not necessarily bound to seeke and desire the knowledge of so farre forth as in him lieth yet dare wee not call every truth fundamentall that is such as if it be not obeyed and known the whole Religion and faith of the Church must needs fall to the ground For we doe make no question but that the thiefe that was crucified and the Eunuch even then when he was baptized by Philip were in the state of salvation though they could not choose but bee ignorant of many truths in Religion The only fundamentall truth in Religion is this That Jesus Christ the Sonne of God who tooke our nature of the Virgin Mary is our only and all-sufficient Saviour For first they that receive this truth are the people of God and in the state of salvation they that receive it not cannot possibly bee saved (a) Mat. 16.17 104.2 Col. 3.17 Iohn 20.31 Ephos 2.20 Secondly There is no other point of Christian Religion necessary otherwise then as it tendeth necess rily to the bringing us unto or confirming us in the assurance of this one truth (b) Heb. 13.8

of ours we commend first unto our brethren departed from us desiring them to read it without partialitie selfe love prejudice or other sinister affections and with meekenesse indifferencie and love of the Truth desire to be informed and readinesse to be reformed where they erre and goe astray It may be that God will give a blessing to it nay sure wee are that he is faithfull that hath promised to give unto those that aske to open to those that knocke and to cause them to find that seeke the truth in sincerity of their hearts especially if to the reading thereof they adjoyne First a review of the books which have beene written by the Ring-leaders of their separations Secondly a view of the persons of whom their Assemblies consist And Thirdly a consideration of the estate wherein their Church now standeth In the review of the bookes which have been written we exhort them with single hearts to examine the spirits where with the authors of them were led in their writing and they shall finde it not to be the good spirit of God which filleth mens hearts with meekenesse humilitie compassion softnesse holinesse and other sanctified affections but that evill spirit of Satan which under colour of zeale of Gods glory hatred of sinne desire of serving God in sincerity thrusteth men whom it hath deceived into pride selfe love rashnesse unnaturall affections uncharitable surmises and most unchristian judgment of their brethren Secondly to weigh wisely what end they proposed to themselves in their writings which will evidently appeare to be not so much the cleering of themselves from the crime of Schisme as the drawing of others to joyne with them and the defacing of our Church which they compare with the most Idolatrous and heathenish Nations that ever were yea with Sodom and Babylon it selfe and the disgracing the Ministers thereof especially those whom heretofore they have most reverenced whom they sort with most wretched Miscreants Iudas Cain Balaam and many other upon whom the spirit of God hath set a fearefull brand of eternall condemnation Thirdly to try carefully the allegations of Scripture wherewith they have fully painted the Margents and with the multitude whereof they have astonished the simple or credulous Readers perswading them that their cause standeth upon the same ground of Gods holy Word and they shall plainely perceive that the places by them alleadged do for the most part prove that which we denie not And if they be brought to confirme the matter in controversie they are either unconscionably or ignorantly wrested against or besides the meaning of the Holy Ghost A second thing which we intreat them to do is to view the persons of whom their Assemblies consist and let them tell us how many of them there bee whom they have brought from grosse ignorance unto true knowledge from infidelitie to holy Faith from profanesse of life to a conscionable walking with God if there bee scarce any amongst them which have not bin of some note in our Churches for holy and sincere profession and if they had no good thing in them which they have not received by the ministerie of those men and in the bosome of those Churches which now they condemne and flie from why then take they the Seale of our ministerie and Church and set it unto their blanke Thirdly we exhort all of them to a survey of their estate wherein they stand which is if that be true which by some of their own hath been reported full of disorder and confusion And indeed how can it otherwise bee whereas they teach that every member of their Church may and ought to stand up against their Ministers and Elders to gainesay them in delivering of doctrine and withstand the other in execution of discipline If he be perswaded the one erreth from the truth and the other faileth in justice is not this to make every member an eye an eare an head And must not men be of Angelicall perfection to preserve unitie where such large libertie is granted unto them A second sort to whom we commend this labour of ours be our brethren also who by the writings doings and sufferings of these deceived men are in danger likewise to bee deceived being brought to halt betweene two opinions These also we pray to read it with an holy purpose to be fully resolved and setled in the truth We hope their labour shall not be in vaine if they will accept from us these few advertisments First That they make not the example of any man seem he never so godly religious and zealous but the Word of God only the rule of their beliefe and life Paul himselfe must be followed no further when the holy precepts of the Word and the examples of the godly joyn together we have the one to teach us the other to incite us to doe our duties Secondly That they carry an humble and lowly conceit of themselves and their gifts That they remember 1 Cor. 8.2 Galath 6.3 that if any man thinke hee knoweth any thing hee knoweth nothing as he ought to know And that if any man seeme to himselfe that he is somewhat when he is nothing he deceaveth himselfe in his imaginations That to this purpose they occupie themselves in consideration of their owne wants and sinnes which cleave so fast unto them rather than in the marking the blemishes noteing the faults that are in others following the counsell of the Apostle Galath 6.4 Let every one prove his owne worke and then shall he have rejoycing in himselfe only and not in another Thirdly that they have a reverend opinion of those men by whose ministerie they have beene begotten unto God or nourished in the truth by whose labours they have beene instructed confirmed and comforted in whose mouthes the Word of God hath beene unto them as a two edged sword entring through them unto the deviding a sunder the soule and spirit the joynts and the marrow that they suffer not a sinfull thought to enter into their heads of their vnlawfull vocations who have their hearts and soules as Seales of their ministery and may say to them as Paul to the Corinthians 1. Cor. 9 1● are yee not my worke in the Lord if I be not an Apostle unto others yet doubtlesse I am unto you for you are the Seale of mine Apostleship in the Lord whereof they should therefore be the more carefull for that it hath bin an ancient and ordinary policie of Satan that hee might cause men to refuse the word brought unto them in the mouthes of the Prophets Apostles and other men of God yea of Christ Himselfe to perswade them that they had no warrant of their vocarions and calling from God Fourthly That if notwithstanding all that is said for their instruction and reformation in this behalfe they keepe a liking of that draught of a Church which our deceived Brethren have framed and commended in their writings and desire to joyne themselves unto their