Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bring_v	fruit_n	good_a	6,049	5	4.4512	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75896	An admonition given unto Mr. Saltmarsh: wherein his great sinne in writing those pamphlets intituled, A new quære, Smoak in the temple, Groanes for liberty, &c. is plainly laid open before him, and charged upon his conscience. Where also among other things spoken of, the calling of the ministers in the reformed churches, is proved to bee according to the Word of God. Imprimatur, Ja: Cranford.	M. W.; J. D.; S. B.	1646 (1646)	Wing A594A; Thomason E350_10; ESTC R201045	16,200	19

purged out If you had either used some arguments convincingly pressed home to provoke men to that love which Christ requires in us all and to that forbearance in love which might tend to the healing of breaches or if you had propounded some equitable wayes of Treating betweene the parties to come to a better understanding and reconcilement of differences or if you had shewed how the distemperat execesses of passionate men on all sides might be without violent courses which may reflect upon the Consciences of tender weak ones taken away I would have relished some sweetnesse in your spirit or some tendernesse towards your Brethren But in very deed your spirit if I can see any thing in the disposition of spirits 1 Cor. 4.6 is contrary to the Apostolical rule even there where your tendernes doth lye puffed up highly for one against another if your conclusion of the Treatise wherin you declare the aime you have in writing should be beleeved aswell as the title it wil appeare that the title of tendernesse is a meer flourish and baite to allure a simple soule to swallow a hooke for you professe in plaine termes that you write to provoke others to shew their strength against you as in a matter of high concernment and your self beeing a man forsooth that regard neither an University nor a Pulpit neither a Doctor nor a Teacher of these Reformed Churches as if they were all inferior unto your anointing because some of them have not much more then Art and Habit. What doe you meane by this Doth this proceed from a sweete fountaine Can there be tendernesse towards a brother without humilitie in ones selfe And can such unsavoury provocations in such high termes stand with true inward humility Only by pride commeth contention saith Salomon Prov. 13.10 And the Apostle James 4. tels us that warres and fightings come from our lusts Looke then to your aime and see what it lusteth after and in what manner your spirit doth expresse that lust which it hath and then tell me from your Conscience whether your lust is not to envy and to strife And if it be clearely by your own words found such doe not boast too fast of your anointing and doe not lye against the Truth of your aime with a pretence of tendernesse for though you lay no claime to Arts nor Habits yet the wisdome by which you are led in this matter descendeth not from above but is earthly and sensuall Which I grieve to see and wish that you would lay it to heart to be humbled before God for it that he may be mercifull unto you and give you indeed that anointing which you seeme to boast of for not he that commends himselfe or can discommend others is praise worthy but hee whom God commends by giving him the spirit of wisdome unto sobriety in thinking of himselfe and unto charity and meeknesse in dealing with others which I wish you from my heart henceforth The Second Grievance is the insulting over your Brethren of the Assembly in your Preface to them by triumphing over them as Humbled from that height wherein you seeme to intimate that they thought themselves set what doe you here gaine either for their edification or your owne and by reproaching them with a fault of going beyond their bounder I am afraid as you intend not to heale any thing in them but to exalt your selfe alone to be equall to them all in your own imagination so perhaps in depressing their estimation to the magnitude of your selfe you may have a worldly ende to please some that seeke pretences against them I leave this to the Consideration of your Conscience whether I have not cause to suspect some such thing where so much of worldly respect to greatnesse and in order to that such selfe-Love is expressed in so high a degree as to despise all their judgements in comparison of your owne Who is ignorant that as laying too much weight upon the voyces of Synods or Assemblies of men there hath beene or may be a Mystery of Iniquity but will you deny that there hath not beene or may not be as great or a greater Mystery of iniquitie in that Spirit which doth extoll it self above the spirit of the Prophets when it ought to be subject thereunto whereunto if you who boast your self so easily in vanity are not in danger to be tempted I am much deceived therefore it will be your wisdome to looke in humilitie to your standing lest you be also tempted seeing you think that a whole Assembly of men of greater abilities then you selfe may come to fall The Third Grievance to my Spirit is this that you are not afraid to informe the world of many Untruths to the prejudice of your Brethren that they may be disrespected in their Ministery And the Fourth Grievance is this that you have a peculiar Artifice in the Application of your accusations to exasperate mens spirrts with hatred against your Brethren beyond any man that I have knowne Under these two heads I comprehend all the particular Grievances which are in the whole Treatise which is nothing but a bush of thornes which scarse can be touched any where without a prickle and if your spirit can bring forth none other fruits which I hope by repentance it may your end will be sad for you that can kindle so much fire in other mens spirits must needes have a great deale of fewell within your selfe which you will do wisely to cast out betimes lest you taste of the fruit of your own doings and your backsliding reprove you when it may be too late I shall endevour only to point at matters briefly and to ease my spirit of the burden which you have laid upon it I shall rectifie your mistakes and shew what should have beene done for edification in truth if your aime had beene upright and to gaine your lawfull end if you had followed a commendable course Under the third head of grievances I ranke all the Untruths wherewith you asperse your Brethren and by the untruths I meane all the fals positions in matter of Doctrine which you father upon them either as their owne or such as they are bound to make good and all the false Assertions which you lay as grounds of truth to be received by all that they in their Ministery may be vilified and all the injurious inferences whereby you misreport their meaning in their Petition to the Houses 1. Here you tell us that they pretend a Right to the Ministery by vertue of that Ordination only which is derived by a Personall succession from Bishops and so upwards to the Apostles without interruption and from this false supposition of your owne which you father upon them as their position you spin out a great many absurdities which you will oblige them to make good or to be guilty of This is the matter of pag. 1 and 2. Secondly Then you oppose the Nature of their Congregational

to be consumed one of another saith the Apostle Gal. 5.15 Therefore he is carefull to Teach men that suppose they live by the Spirit of Christ to set themselves to walke also in the Spirit from ver 16. till the end of the Chapter shewing that he who endevours to walke in the Spirit shall not be led away to fullfill the lusts of the flesh because such as are Christs have Crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts and are not desirous of vaine glory by provoking one another or envying one another as in all that I have seene of your writings in this kind you are fully and strongly bent to doe and that under a kind of pretence of zeale for Religion and Moderation when as in effect I meet with none that useth more devouring words then you have done or that applyeth them with more cunning to deceive and to work mischiefe in the mindes of men Pardon these expressions they are not words of passion to reproach but of compassion to warne you of the Spirit by which you are led that you may reflect upon your selfe and take heed unto your way and not excuse the matter with colourable pretences For what although some Antagonists have set themselves to discover the shamefull nakednesse of your Brethren unto the world and to grate upon the sores that are painfull rather to warne others of a danger then to recover these that are the cause of the danger from the error of their waies I say what although some have done thus have not dealt with the men of a dissenting judgement as with Brethren overtaken in a fault to restore them in the Spirit of meeknesse should you therfore that pretend to be spirituall suffer your self to be provoked by them to follow the same way of irritation to increase the fewell of wrath and inflame the Spirits of men whom you judge carnall and destitute of the anointing Suppose they deale uncharitably with those that you stand for is it therefore lawfull for you or expedient to the cause of Religion or advantageous for your own aime to deale as uncharitably with them or rather more injuriously you that affect so much the Spirit and plead for love should you be overcome with evill to recompense evill for evill and not rather studie to overcome it with good recrimination is no just defence and chiefly with such a kind of reproachfull accusation as you make use of and in such away of applying it as you are fallen upon for if your accusations be not only railings but falshoods and if you apply them to the unsettlement of all mens affections towards each other namely to stagger the weake of all sides and incense the strong of each side to their utmost endevours of strife if I say this be so then let me intreat you to reflect upon your selfe and consider what use Satan makes of your tongue and pen for his endes for if you are not afraid to write in publicke that which I see under your name I may without uncharitablenesse imagine that your tongue in private will not spare to walke through the earth in a more desperate path perhaps then I can or will admit into my thoughts of him whom I do esteem a brother therfore as to a brother for whom I am sollicitous I speak it in the right of Christ let me intreate you before I come to the particulars which I purpose to lay before you from your writings to take heede to your speaking It is incident to men of nimble wits to speak freely to plot designes and uttering them to set themselves or others upon the acting thereof and I am afraid it may be made some part of your employment to worke the divisions of this State and Church to the height by private contrivements if your spirit in your more secret walking be not otherwise affected towards your Brethren and tempered towards the publike Peace than it appeareth unto me to be in your publicke counsels and writings wherof now to discharge the grievances which I have against you at them I should have said rather against them unto you I will give you a distinct and particular acount and lest I should seeme to complaine without a cause or take upon me towards you more then I would have you to doe towards my selfe in the like case therefore let this be said once for all all Cursed be he that doth the worke of the Lord deceitfully or that under the Colour of Christian love in such a case doth seeke any other advantage then the gaining of his Brother to a cleere dutie in the Gospell If then I shall erre in judgment for who can presume to be without error I desire you to rectifie my mistakes with the same affection whereby I offer my selfe now to discover your mistakes unto your Conscience beseeching the Lord in mercy to let you see the danger of them for your good and the preservation of others that may be endangered by them and wrought upon to follow your footsteps First it is a grievance to my spirit to find a specious promise in the title of your Treatise stirring up an appetite to taste of some ripe fruit of tendernes which my Soule desireth in all these Controversies when as in the Treatise it self I can finde no cluster at all of comfort or refreshment And therefore I have cause to cry out with the Prophet Mich. 7. Wo is me for I am as when they have gathered the summer frvits as the Grape-gleanings of the Vintage there is no Cluster to Eat the good man is perished they all lye in waite for blood they hunt every man his neighbour with a net c. If then you will ease me of this griefe I pray you shew me where the Brotherly tendernesse is and that sweetnesse which Master Bachiler commends your Treatise for If it be no where but in pag. 8 and 9. where you propound for the Parliament that all sides may enjoy their libertie in their judgement as now they doe which is in strife and contention for it with all manner of contrivements to make their practise according to their judgement prevalent against each other if this be all what the better will the State or Church be for this Counsell What love will this beget Will it not rather in the unsettlement of all relations and bands of mutuall edification and of orderly proceedings which should prevent offences which beget murmurings and disputes leave the Reines loose unto all men to runne riot one against another and in a Carnall way pleasing themselves as you I conceive have done in this Treatise they will not care whom they doe displease I did truly expect some lenitive and mollifying cataplasme or ointment to abate the inflammation of our paines and sores and behold a cold water sprinkled upon them only on the outside to make them burne more vehemently and ake more inwardly harden the boiles that the corrupt matter may never be

committed to each in their severall Administrations under God the one for the inward the other for the outward man which ought no more to bee at variance in a State then Soule and Body in one and the same Man in their facultties and operations upon their distinct Objects Here you shew the rayling disposition of your minde when you parallel the Nationall Assemblies of all the Reformed Churches against all evident experience of their behaviour to the contrary and against the cleere light of their Doctrine whereby they Challenge no interest in the Government of worldly matters with the Papal and Antichristian Power which hath exalted it selfe above all that is called God on Earth and in Heaven also The inferences which you make upon their Petition are such as truly deserve none other observation but this that it is an untruth which you say at the beginning of every inference namely that you may inferre from their words that which you doe inferre for I say that you may not make evill inferences and misconstructions of any mans meaning from his words if they can beare any better sense then you can put upon them to his prejudice may you bee injurious and uncharitable to your Brethren May you accuse them of wicked intentions against their cleare professions if you may doe this what may you not doe I pray you looke to your selfe what liberty you take you pressed to bee in a Spirituall liberty but looke now whether in using your libertie thus you give not an occasion to your flesh to sow the seede of divisions of Complaints of murmurings and disputes and of all evill affections against your Brethren Therefore the last grievance which I shall offer unto you to Consider in your way is the Artifice which you use to exasperate the Spirits of men by a misconstruction even of the best things which are in them to the worst sense with so much boldnesse and varietie of applications and in such a Tautologicall way to beate it upon the imaginations of Earthly men and to intricate the thoughts of the simple that it is a great matter of sorrow to see you so busie in a perverse zeale to sowe dissension amongst Brethren You builde upon your own false supposalls and inferences a kinde of Method to instruct people in the wayes of opposition wherein It will not trace you because it is tedious and unprofitable and needlesse to shew you all the deceitfull windligs of your Spirit to which you give an unlimited libertie to intangle men by fallacies I shall rather represent unto you what in your case if you had beene zealous for the Truth and not for deceiving and leading men out of the way you should have done Hearken now then and consider you that talke so much of Truth All The Truth which wee should aime at and beare witnesse unto one towards another is either of Doctrine or Practise The Truth of Doctrine is the Testimony of the Word and Spirit whereby God hath revealed himselfe and the things belonging to Christ and his Kingdome unto us that by this knowledge wee might receive all things pertaining to life and to Godlinesse The Truth of Practise is that upright and sincere dealing with others in God for their good according to our best knowledge of the things which wee would desire to have from them in the same kinde The meanes to make this Truth of both kindes effectually profitable to our selves and others is to endevour that which the Apostle exhorts us unto Ephes 4.15 Namely to speake the Truth in Love and the effect of this endevour will bee that which hee doth promise there shall follow thereupon Namely to grow up in all things into him who is the Head even Christ Thus then whether it bee a matter of Doctrine or of Practise whereunto we are to beare witnesse if we desire thereby to grow up within our selves or to build up others into Christ which is the onely warrantable aime wee can have wee must apply our mindes to speake the Truth in Love and to doe the Truth in Love For the originall words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 containe the sense of both in one expression If then this is the Rule by which wee should walke in all things that wee may approve our Consciences to God as his true servants and enjoy Christ by walking after his Spirit in all things then wee must never suffer any humane and worldly aimes to sway our thoughts to speake or act that which may tend onely to satisfie our own or other peoples humours but before wee undertake a businesse towards others whether the concernment be private or publicke we should settle the affections of Truth and discerne the way of uttering them in Love to gaine these with whom wee deale to some dutie of godlinesse wherein they and wee may grow up in Christ Now then to apply this Spirituall Method of proceeding to your Case let us State the Question which you make and consider how you should and I would have proceeded if it had beene my Case to desire a Resolution for my selfe or others in it The Question is Concerning the Divine Right of the Prebyteriall Churches to judge themselves of the scandalls of their Members according to the Word of God whether yea or no it doth belong unto them I would have set downe this Quaere distinctly as a Doubt and then would have sought out a way to resolve my selfe without partialitie onely for love to the Truth in it and to this effect I would have lookt upon the frame and constitution with the Doctrine and Practise of the Churches which are called Presbyteriall and set downe truly all that I should have found substantially materiall in them for their owne beeing or distinctively observable to difference them from other Churches Then in the second place I would have made enquirie of their true meaning of that which they call a Scandall in a Member and of that which is called Judging within themselves of Scandalls And lastly of that which is called a Divine Right whereunto they pretend in this act of judging and when I should have satisfied my selfe in this enquirie so farre as I could attaine if then I had judged them to bee in an error either of Doctrine or Practise hurtfull to the Kingdome of Christ and to their owne and others interest therein I would have taken a resolution to deale with them in Truth and sincerity to reclaime them from that error and answerable to such a resolution would have declared unto them my aime in dealing with them and desired them to weigh and seriously to consider the doubts which I had concerning their Pretence of a Divine Right perswading them to lay downe the plea thereof And if in their ordinarie Practises to maintaine and get possession of this Right I should have observed things destructive to the glorious Gospell of Peace or to the edification and true libertie of their Brethren I would with all zeale

and true affection have warned them of the danger and laying the fault cleerly before them on the one side I should have laboured to cause them to see the dutie which God requireth of them on the other and so commended them to the Grace of God having discharged my Conscience towards them And thus I have at this time discharged my Conscience towards you and I have endevoured to walke within the compasse of my Rule in considering you and your wayes and in dealing with you freely and roundly to pull you out of the fire so I shall desire you to deale with mee by the same Rule and if in this matter of griefe which your unruly dealing hath occasioned I have exceeded in a Word of censure too sharply heere or there perhaps I shall desire you not to take it in the worst sense I have not much time to spare from some other employments and therefore in the griefe of spirit and beeing in haste with-all to dispatch these thoughts unto you I may easilie have failed in some words for in many things wee faile all saith the Apostle James 3. not excluding himselfe and he that offendeth not in a word hee is a perfect man therefore I must plead for a Charitable construction of all my expressions and the rather because the former part of this letter to you is alreadie sent to London before I could deliberatly review it as I might have done if time would have given me leave nor have I any Copy of that which is gone which is at least three parts of foure but I hope the friend to whom it is sent will keepe a Copy thereof for mee and will not I know doe any thing in the divulging of these things to your prejudice but will faithfully concurre with me in this aime of your edification I pray you look not upon matters in appearance but look upon them in the Truth set your selfe to bee a Servant of the Truth in Love by provoking all men unto the love which Christ requireth of us and not to the wrath which our passions by conceiving of things according to their worst construction may waken in others to trouble them and increase their sin Remember that the wrath of man doth not fulfill the righteousnesse of God and if your zeale bee a wrathfull zeale rather to finde out faults and make them odious then to amend and heale the breaches of our spirits you will bee so far from doing good to those with whom you deale that you will not onely make them lesse corrigible but you will make your own side worse by being out of all patience against them for the Method that you follow as it is pleasing to the fancy of flesh and blood so it cannot but work upon those that are ignorantly zealous and that give credit unto your assertions most violent and distempered commotions against those whom they imagine to bee so hatefull to God and so injurious to the publick and to all their Brethren as you make them and if they bee not so hatefull indeed as you make them what judgement you may expect and reward for judging of others unjustly in the day of Accounts I leave you to consider It is very good to minde often that wee shall give an account of all our idle words and that by our words wee shall bee judged and by our words wee shall bee condemned The Lord teach us his feare in all things and grant that before all keeping wee may keep the wayes of our heart from double aimes in spirituall matters not to look a squint unto the worldly designes of States or great-Ones to serve their turnes with our indevours Doe not inquire who I am you may come to know mee in due time look upon mee as I doe upon you in your Writings I never saw your face to my knowledge and perhaps you will never see mine I desire to know no body after the flesh take you onely notice of that which I am to you in the spirit Your Friend for Christs sake willing to serve you M.W. J.D. S.B. Aprill 24. 1646. Post-script SIR IF you shall think fit to return any Answer to these things which I have offered to your consideration you may inscribe your Letter with the letters which expresse my name in the fore-going subscription and you may bee pleased to send it to the place which hee that doth bring this unto you shall name and from thence it will bee safely addressed to mee Thus again I rest Yours as before M.W. I.D. S.B. FINIS