Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	dead_a	quicken_v	7,579	5	10.7938	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65358	The saints guide, or, Christ the rule, and ruler of saints manifested by way of positions, consectaries, and queries : wherein is contayned the efficacy of acquired knowledge, the rule of Christians, the mission and maintenance of ministers, and the power of magistrates in spiritual things / by Iohn Webster ...	Webster, John, 1610-1682.	1654 (1654)	Wing W1213; ESTC R17627	36,008	50

The Saints Guide OR Christ the Rule and Ruler OF SAINTS Manifested by way of Positions Consectaries and Queries Wherein is contayned The Efficacy of acquired Knowledge The Rule of Christians The Mission and Maintenance of Ministers And the power of Magistrates in Spiritual things By IOHN WEBSTER late Chaplain in the Army LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black-spread Eagle at the West End of Pauls 1654. To all that love the Lord IESUS CHRIST in Truth and Sincerity Dear Souls BLessed be the God of mercies who hath satisfied my spirit that it is not the power of Argument the force of Dispute or Eloquence nor the efficacy of humane Reason that can more clearly make out the things that are freely given to us of God than they are by that Spirit that searches all things yea even the deep things that are of God in the experience of his Saints as they all witness having the same spirit opening unto them that Record which God gave of his Son Neither are these and poor weak things though we should not despise the day of small things made publick upon any such account but onely as it pleased the Lord to draw forth my spirit to give testimony with those Truths he had sealed in my breast against all the prejudice cenfures and unrighteous judgments of men For that immortal Spirit which raised Ies●s up from the dead and quickeneth the bodies of his Saints by its own light life power wisdom and strength worketh all in all in his people stands not in any need of the weak instrument of ●infull mans carnal and devilish wisdom For it is this Spirit that qu●ckeneth the flesh profiteth nothing Neither are the weapons of a believers warfare carnal but mighty in Christ not in us to the pulling down of strong holds and laying low of every imagination that stands up against Christ And also I have usually in experience observed that in laboring to make out the Truth by the force of our wit and arguments one carnal weapon is but set against another and so doth little else but engender strife and stir up passion so that Truth rather receives damage than profit by it And therefore the Scripture witnesseth that Saints should avoid foolish questions endless Genealogies and contentions with perverse disputings whereof cometh envy strife railyngs and evil surmisings And as the Lord in mercy hath cleared my spirit from these mysts so he hath led me forth to give my testimony with the rest of his Saints in behalf of his Cause and Truth against all perversness and unrighteousness of men For after the Lord about eighteen years ago had in his wonderfull mercy brought me to the sad experience of mine own dead sinfull lost and damnable condition in nature and fully shewed me the nothingness and helplesness of creaturely power either without or within me and graciously led me forth to witness with the Prophet David That he had drawn me forth of the horrible Pit and set my feet upon a Rock and established my goings And then and ever since carried me forth somtimes in much power somtimes in weakness according to the working of his own will to declare unto the sons of men what he had done for my Soul This no sooner appeared in me and others whom it pleased the Lord to reveal his Son in but the power of Babel in the Ministers of Satan transforming themselves into Ministers of Righteousness then in the Episcopal and Prelatical Form poured forth all their malice and spite against the Truth and against all those in whom it appeared then throwing dirt upon us and hotly raging in persecution against us in and under the terms of Puritans Seperatists Grindletonians and Antinomians And also continued the same bitterness in malice in the tail of the Dragon though then disguised under the name of Presbyterians and a new Form of pretended godliness by the former odious ●itles and addition of new as Libertines Blasphemers Sectaries and Hereticks and since hath not ceased under the new devices of Independency and Church-gathering keeping still the same appellations and super-adding of others as Dippers Quakers and indeed what not calling and accounting all others as Hereticks that were not of their Tribe and Trade Form and judgment and so the hierling merchants of Demetrius his Craft do still vociferate and continu it yet notwithstanding all their bloudy malice and insaciable envy the Lord hath delivered me and those that were his through his great mercy from the paws of all these devouring Lions and will still faithfully keep and preserve all his by his mighty power through faith unto salvation And now the Lord hath strengthened my spirit and hand to bear out my witness against all these and to manifest the same to you my dear brethren pertakers of the same heavenly calling and anointed with that spirit that teacheth all things and leadeth into all truth where there is neither Iew nor Greek bond nor free male nor female but are all one in Christ Iesus to the unity of whose Spirit he commends you who remains April 28. 1653. Yours in the Lord though the lowest and least of all Saints JO WEBSTER To all those that set up Forms and external Worship instead of the spiritual and those that call themselves the Ministers of the Nation Countrey-men IT is far from my purpose to asperse your persons or to condemn any of the least appearances of the Lord Iesus in you much less to oppose any thing that may tend to the building up of the spiritual and new Ierusalem Nevertheless the Lord hath put a few things in my mouth to speak unto you and some things in my spirit to inquire of you which I beseech you to receive in meekness as becometh th●se who have stiled themselves by the dear and precious name of Christians Hath the Spirit of Christ ever revealed in you or the record of his truth taught you that any Form of godliness how exact soever or any external worship or discipline though never so near the model that you may imagine is layd down in the Lette● of the Scriptures doth make a Saint where the life and power is altogether absent Or doth there appear in any of your gathered Congregations or select Forms the evident and pure power of spiritual self-denial and divine love Nay is it not as the Apostle foretels Having a Form of godliness but having denyed the power thereof Doth Pride Covetousness Censuring Envying Condemning nay murthering of others that follow not your Forms declare or evidence the power of godliness Is not he a murtherer that hateth his brother and therefore hath not eternal life abiding in him Or is there none a Brother but only he that is of your gathered Congregation Is this to worship the Father in spirit and truth or rather to worship ye know not what either at Jerusalem or pon some other Mountain The Lord open

truly said to be sanctified for acquired learning by it self and of its own nature is nothing else but sin and therefore remains so still and cannot truly and properly be said to be sanctified no more then sin But if by being sanctified they mean that the providential wisdom of God doth order it or make use of it for the good of his People I opose it not so that it be understood that that good flows not from the nature of acquired knowledg it self but from the Wisdom and goodness of the Spirit of God who maketh all things work together for the benefit of those that love him who are the called according to his purpose And so no more can properly in this respect be predicated of it then of sin it self which in that case though not as an entity for Non entia ad modum entium concipiuntur is said also to work for the good of Gods Saints Again if it be objected That though Learning be not effectuall to the understanding of the mystery of the Gospel yet it is prevalent to the compleating of the literal and historical knowledg thereof To this I answer Though it may conduce to the gaining of literal and historical knowledge yet this is not ad idem because it profiteth nothing for Truth it self bears record It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing and men are made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life So that all literall and historicall knowledge gained by mans power is but like the principle from whence it Flowed fleshly earthly deadly and destructive Consectaries Then all those that the world cryes up for learned from this principle of Humane Learning are but with God called and accounted un-discipled un-taught as Peter witnesseth clearly where speaking of the Epistles of Paul he saith in them some things were hard to be understood which they that are untaught and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction Whereby it is manifest that by the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which though usually rendred in the English Translation heedlesly the unlearned yet properly signifies the undiscipled or untaught and therefore commonly in the Latine is turned indocti which points forth the same significantly for the word that signifies unlearned or unletter'd is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which is Homines illiterati idiotae He intends those that were undiscipled and had not the Teaching of the Spirit and yet in the strength of naturall reason and carnall wisdom wrest the word to their own destruction So that all that knowledge which flows from the naturall mans acquisition which the world calls wisdom is foolishness with God and though the wisdom of God which stands only in the teaching of ● is Spirit be accounted foolishness with men yet this foolishness of God is wis●r then the wisdom of men Then all those expositions and interpretations of Scripture that have been are or shall be made by the force and power of human learning and mans innate notions of wit and reason● are no more then earthly sensual and divelish destroying all those that rely upon them or trust in them And all preaching or expounding from this principle is damnable both to speaker and hearer If the blind lead the blind they fall both into the ditch Then are not the most that pretend to preach seeing they do it but from this principle those that take away the key of knowledge and enter not themselves neither suffer those that would come in to enter and therefore a most heavy wo belongs unto them and will fall upon them Therefore when men teach and affirm that without human learning none can be able Ministers of the New Testament and condemn those that speak only out of the teaching of the Spirit and have little or no human learning at all and make use of little or none but lay it aside do they not plainly shut up the Kingdom of Heaven from men and neither enter themselves nor suffer others that would Then if the quintessence of all humane learning were as a Magisterial extract monopolized in one man yet were it no fit qualification for a Minister of the Gospel for flesh and blood revealeth not these divine things unto men but the Father which is in Heaven Queries Whether of two men the one having a great measure of acquired learning but not the infused and experimental the other the infused and experimental but no human learning are fitter to be chosen to the Ministry Whether any be fit or able to judg of the Spirit in another that have it not themselves or to give approbation or witness to others of that which they have not experienced in themselves and consequently whether a Nation or Commonwealth can justly set up persons to judge of the Spirit of God in others and to give them licenses to exercise those gifts of the Spirit that have not experienced the work of this Spirit in themselves or not Whether or not all that much magnified naturall Reason which we think dignifieth us above and distinguisheth us from brutes and all that human learning which we conceive exalts and rectifieth Reason be the fruit and effect of the forbidden tree and is a spurious and adventitious faculty which man wanted in his innocency and was instilled into him by Satan in the fall Whether all that knowledge that a naturall man hath by nature and from the first Adam and all that which by the same power he can attain be not the same hellish and serpentine wisdom by which the Divell ruleth his kingdom or not And whether all the horrible and strange tenets sprung up in all Ages with the jars and disputes about the things of God arise not from this smoak of the bottomless pit of Satans malice stirred up in the Region of mans carnall wisdom and human learning 2. Concerning the Law By this word Law I understand a Light discovering what should be done and what ought not to be done commanding the one and prohibiting the other and this according to the tenor of divine Truth I find to be threefold 1. Internal and impressed upon the souls of all men naturally and therefore commonly called the Law of Nature which the Apostle makes clear in these words which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another And under this law were and are all men even as they are men 2. Externall as that of the Decalogue commonly called Moral ingraven in the Tables of stone given unto Moses and obligatory unto all the seed of Abraham according to the ●lesh and all the Iews were under this Law and it was their

others might more willingly receive them and their Doctrin 3. When Timethy was left at Ephesus and Titus in Creet to set things in order and ordain Elders in particular places this was but to appoint such as God had alread● called and gifted to remain at such part●cular places and to give their Testimony and witnes that they were so called which either they did by extending of the hand when divers so called and gifted were present or nominated or else that divers being proposed the believers of that Church did by extending the hand manifest which of them they desired to be over them in the Lord and then these they confirmed in those places and prayed that God might prosper them in that work To feed the flock of Christ which he hath purchased with his own bloud and these are the Pastors that should feed the flock not for filthy lucre but of a ready minde and not as being Lords over the heritages Not but that they are called before this and this but a witness from others that they are so called If it were in the power of Magistrats Academyes Presbyteryes or Churches to send forth Ministers then this would be a continual and standing power to propagate this Tribe by a way of carnal generation as that of the L●vites who were born Priests or to the right of the Priesthood and so no age or generation need be without as hath been and is practiced in the Kingdom of Babylon to this day who all claim it by Succession and a carnal way of propagation Bishops from the Pope Presbyters from them and the Independent and baptized Churches from the Presbyters so that heer would be a perpetual Ministry set up by man whether ever God sent any or not When the mystery of his Truth hath been hidden from ages and generations and is onely manifest to the Saints according to the times and seasons that the Father hath put in his own power And so all along the time of the Apostasie these Locusts have swarmed out of the bottomless pit and covered the face of the Earth to devour the Fruits thereof and would continue so still though the Father of light never sent them but the Prince of darkness Consectaryes Then for a State or Common-wealth to set up and appoint a National Ministry from any judgment of men Ministers or Churches is to take unto themselves the power wisdom and right of the Almighty and to set themselves in his Throne and so to be like the Scribes and Pharis●es thieves and robbers stealing and attributing that honour unto themseves which is due to the Lord of the Harvest who onely 〈◊〉 Labourers into his Vineyard This is but to set up a c●rnal Image of a Ministry a Picture without 〈…〉 their trust in him Then those that have entred into the Sheep-fold not by the 〈◊〉 but climbed up some other way the same are thieves and robbers and the Sheep neither know nor hear their voice nor follow them And he that cannot evidence his Calling to be immediatly from and by the Spirit of Christ both by the witness of the same Spirit in his own Breast the power and authority of the speakings of God in him and by the Seal of his Ministry the Conversion and Confirmation of Souls is nothing else but a thief and a robber a deceiver and an 〈◊〉 and nev●r was sent of God but came of himself and had 〈…〉 but from the Devil and Man Then are 〈…〉 and Commissions from men to authorize others 〈◊〉 and r●●ch vain corrupt and abominable and men that pretend to derive their power from these are 〈…〉 And if any thing be not of him it will fall of it self for that which is crooked cannot be made straight Queryes I desire to know from whence the National Ministers have their Calling or Ordination If from Man who gave him that Power and wherein consists it If from God when and how did they receive it and wherein stands the Power of it Are not they Theeves and Robbers that steal and robb Christ of his honor And do not these so when they hold that being bred in an Academy and furnishd with such Arts and Learning as are taught there and to be Ordained by Bishops Presbyters or Churches is the true Calling and Ordination of Ministers If this be not to rob God of his Honor what is it then Do these that call themselves the Ministers of the Nation seek Authority Counsel Countenance and Protection from God only that sends forth true Ministers and bids them not be afraid of those that can kill the body and can do no more but of him that can throw both body and soul into hell fire or from Men and Magistrates Why do these men if they be ordained of God and sent out in the Power of his Spirit persecute condemn and scandalize others for witnessing that there is no other Calling but what in the power of that Spirit when it is certain That no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Iesus accursed Of the wages and maintenance of Ministers That the Ministers of the Gospel have allotted and allowed them a maintenance by the Gospel Order is evident Because The Labourer is worthy of his hire and the Lord hath ordained that they which Preach the Gospel should Live of the Gospel And he that is taught in his Word should communicate to him that teacheth in all good things Gal. 6. 6. But it is as evident that this maintenance ariseth not from Tythes and Oblations as to the Levites under the Jewish Ministry Nor by the power of a compulsory Law made by a Commonwealth or Nationall Power in giving or setling a National Maintenance But from the free Gift and Contribution of those individuall persons wrought upon by that mans Ministry to whom they are to communicate their temporal things and the proportion such as God shall move their spirits to bestow Because the Jewish Ministery is now fulfilled and ended which was but the pattern of the Spiritual and now we have no other High Priest but Christ and all his people being members of his mysticall Body and stones in his spirituall Building do not pay Tithes in him who received them of Abraham in whose loyns according to the flesh Aaron and his sons were And therefore the Priesthood being changed there is made of necessity a change also of the Law Secondly our Saviours command to his Disciples when he sent them into the World was not that they should have Lands and Livings Lordships and Dominion Tythes and Augmentations but only food and rayment and therewithall they were to be content And they were to provide neither gold nor silver nor brass in their purses nor scrip for their journey neither two coats neither shooes nor yet staves for the workman is worthy of his meat so that they were to bargain or