Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A30068
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A testimony to the power of God being greater than the power of Satan contrary to all those who hold no perfection here, no freedom from sin on this side of the grave / which doleful doctrine is here testified against by Richard Baker.
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Baker, Richard, d. 1697.; Baker, Mary.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing B541D; ESTC R28337
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19,678
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50
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A TESTIMONY TO THE Power of God Being Greater than the Power of Satan Contrary to all those who hold No Perfection here No Freedom from Sin on this side of the Grave Which Doleful Doctrine is here Testified against By a Witness of the Power of God against the Power of Satan Richard Baker When a strong Man armed keepeth his Palace his Goods are in peace But when a stronger than he shall come upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all his Armour wherein he trusted and divideth the Spoils Luke 11.21 22. I am the Almighty God Walk before me and be thou perfect Gen. 17.1 Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the World 1 John 4.4 London Printed and Sold by T. Sowle in White-Hart-Court in Gracious-Street and at the Bible in Leaden-Hall-Street 1699. TO THE READER THE Author of this little Book having been one with whom I had an intimate Acquaintance and strict Friendship for many Years And he having upon his dying Bed committed the Copy to my Perusal and Care I hold my self the more concern'd to give the World this short Account of both Him and It. I. Of Him As He at first received the Truth in the Love of it So he testified his Love to it in a three-fold way 1. By a circumspect Walking in it He was careful so to order his Conversation that he might not only not bring any Scandal upon the Profession he made of Truth but might shew himself a Pattern of good Works And therein he was Examplary 2. By a cheerful Suffering for it He never flincht in any Trial nor baulk'd his Testimony to the Truth for fear of Suffering for it either in Person or Estate But a Prison for the Truth 's sake was pleasant to him and he took joyfully the spoiling of his Goods Which shew'd He knew in himself that he had in Heaven a better and an enduring Substance 3. By an hearty Zeal for the Prosperity and Propagation of it A vigilant Watchman he was in his Station against every thing of what kind soever which he saw would hurt the Truth or bring any the least Reproach upon it A sharp Reprover of Evil As well as an Incourager of the Good An earnest Contender not only for the true Faith by which the Heart is purified and Victory over the World obtained but for the good Order and holy Discipline which Christ hath established in his Church rejected and opposed by too many Modern Libertines In the Work of the Ministry which the Lord had called him to he was diligent and fervent earnestly Labouring by a quick and lively Testimony to bring those he ministred to into an inward Exercise of Spirit towards God that therein they might come to be more and more acquainted with and subject to that divine Power of which in the following Sheets he treats II. Of It. As for the Book it self it treats of one of the highest and most noble Themes The Power of God Which from the Author's Experience of the effectual Working thereof it exalts above the Power of Satan The Drift of it is 1. To lay open the many Wiles and crafty Devices of the Enemy whereby he lies in wait to destroy 2. To set forth the Goodness and Power of God in discovering and breaking the Snares of that Wicked One and delivering the Soul therefrom 3. To invite and persuade Men to forsake and abandon the Service of Satan and enter indeed into the Service of God 4. To inform and direct Men how they may get from under the Power of Satan and how they may come to be guided and governed by the Power of God and be kept thereby through Faith unto Salvation How well the Vndertaking is perform'd thou wilt be best able to judge when thou shalt have read and weighed the whole with a sober and impartial Mind And that I may not anticipate thy Judgment by a Commendation of the Work I shall only say It is written in a plain familiar Stile not deck'd with Flowers of Rhetorick nor set off with Ornaments of Humane Learning which it needed not Being more comely to the Eye of the serious Mind and pleasing to the spiritual Ear in the native Beauty and unaffected Simplicity of Truth By the Date it appears to have been written many Years ago Which may raise Inquiry Why it was not published sooner or in the Author's life-time Of this I have no other Account to give but that which he himself gave me when he imparted the Copy to me a few days before his Death viz. That he had read of many in former days and observed some in his own time who had made fair progress in the Way of Truth and had said done and suffered much on behalf of it who yet had not held out to the end But through a too great Security or Self-confidence and for want of a continual Subjection to the Power of God in and by which alone Strength and Preservation is to be found have by the violent Assaults or subtle Insinuations and mysterious Workings of the Enemy been drawn back again under the Power of Satan to the Invalidating at least in the Eye of the World the Testimonies such had before given to the Sufficiency of the Power of God And that ' He having by others Miscarriages learnt to beware had from a Godly Jealousie over himself suspended the Publication of the following Sheets until he could with greater Confidence and more full Assurance say with the holy Apostle when the time of his departure was at hand 2 Tim. 4.6 I have fought a good Fight I have finished my Course I have kept the Faith c. How far this Consideration will justifie his depriving the World so long of the Benefit of so serviceable a Treatise I will not undertake to determine But certainly it is an Indication of uncommon Modesty and rare Humility of Mind a sufficient Proof that the Author did not seek Applause to himself It is now published in Love to Mankind God grant that It may be Instrumentally Serviceable to the turning many from the Darkness wherein Satan's Power works to the divine Light in which the Power of God is felt and Deliverance thereby from Satan's Power witnessed That God may be glorified his holy Name honoured his divine Power exalted his blessed Truth promoted and spread and Mankind benefitted thereby and blest therein for ever Which Reader is the earnest desire of him who heartily wishes thy Eternal Welfare Tho. Ellwood Mary Baker's TESTIMONY Concerning her Husband WE read in the holy Scriptures that when Jesus went into the Temple of God and cast out the Buyers and Sellers the many things that had taken up the room there and healed the Blind and the Lame that came to him the little Children crying in the Temple said Hosanna to the Son of David At which the Chief Priests and Scribes were sore displeased and said unto him Hearest thou what these say To whom
they are the Sons of God Rom. 8.14 Such cannot plead for Sin because they have Fellowship one with another in the Light and the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth them from all Sin 1 John 1.7 From whence then dost thou think the Impossibilities do arise for some have ignorantly said It is Impostble ever to be Perfect or Free from Sin on this side the Grave If thou canst not tell as some Tender-hearted Ones could not I will tell thee It is from the Man of Sin who rules in the Hearts of the Children of Disobedience From him proceeds these Thoughts of Impossibilities and not from the Lord. And now let the Witness of God in thee judge between the Precious and the Vile between those who serve the Lord and them who serve him not For a Separation there must be the Lord will no longer be mocked with an Hypocritical Pretence of Zeal for him while the Devil hath the Heart They that pretend the Scripture is their only Rule why will they not come to it and walk according to it that we might see their Fruits to be agreeable thereunto They have made use of the Scriptures to plead for Sin term of Life and have raked up the Failings of the holy Men of God recorded in them thereby incouraging others to Sin which never was the End they were written for But they were given that Men might come to be Perfect throughly furnished unto all good Works 2 Tim. 3.17 And it was the Labour of the Apostles to present every Man Perfect in Christ Jesus Col. 1.28 The Holy Scriptures were not written for Men to make a Trade of as in Buying and Selling the Words of the Holy Men of God who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and as the Spirit gave them Utterance No but that Men might come to the same Word in themselves which they testifie of And if thou Reader comest to that thou wilt come to know the Word of God which lives and abides for ever And then the Scriptures will be indeed precious to thee as thou comest to see the fulfilling of them in thy self and so thou wilt have Unity with that Spirit which gave them forth And the right End for which they were written thou wilt see which they are ignorant of who go from the true Light the Holy Witness in themselves The want of keeping to that makes them run into so many Heads and Heaps of Confusion as they are one calling This the Way another saying That is the Way So that Mankind is out of Order by refusing to be led by the Spirit of Christ Jesus which would bring all things into Order again And was it not so in the Apostles days Did not Demetrius and the Multitude make an Uproar though the most part knew not wherefore they came together But they all agreed to cry up Great is Diana of the Ephesians For by this Craft said Demetrius we have our Wealth And is it not the same in effect now tho' they have got more Plausible Words to cover themselves withal that they might not be discovered Do not both Priests and People cry out now Great is the Devil's Power Great is the Strength of Sin So great that it is Impossible to be set free from Sin on this side the Grave And hath not the World admired the Whore because she hath had a golden Cup in her hand by which she hath deceived and doth deceive the Nations O that Men would be so wise for themselves as to come to that which would open an Eye in them to see the Enemy of their Souls and would help them to work against him before the Night comes wherein none can work For it is the Light that makes things manifest and by that Light thou mayst see the Mystery of Iniquity still working under the pretence of Zeal for the Worship and Ordinances of God as Men call them but they will not come to Christ whom God hath Ordained to be a Light to lighten the Gentiles and the Glory of his People Israel Luke 2.32 But as Backsliding Israel made to themselves a Golden Calf in old time So these will needs have something that may appear glorious to their fleshly Eye which many in their Imaginations have made and set up and so are worshipping the Works of their own Inventions as they of old did the Works of their own Hands For whatsoever Man forms and sets up between Christ and his Soul is an Idol and must be broken down before Redemption can be truly witnessed But are there not many now a-days who persuade themselves they are Redeemed by Christ from their Sins whilst they live in their Sins O! what an unheard of Redemption was this in the Apostles days He said When ye were the Servants of Sin ye were free from Righteousness Rom. 6.20 And What Fruit said he had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed ver 21 That was not the Redemption which Christ Jesus came to purchase for his People But to purifie to himself a peculiar People zealous of good Works and to redeem them from all Iniquity Tit. 2.14 That they might serve him in Holiness and Righteousness all the days of their lives Luke 1.75 This was the End or Effect of the Redeeming Power of the Lord in Ages past And I give my Testimony for God it is the same now in this Age and works the same Effect even to redeem from all Sin Let the Enemy and his Instruments be never so much inraged at us for bearing Testimony to the Truth we matter not for we are Witnesses for God against them all and have boldness in the Strength of the Lord to Publish to the World the Greatness of the Power of our God and of his Christ who hath determined that Sin and Iniquity shall have an end and Everlasting Righteousness shall be brought in Dan. 9.24 Which is believed and waited for by the Upright in Heart who have turned their Faces Zion-ward And we know the Lord hath many more whom he will gather from off the barren Mountains into the same Faith with us to declare of his Noble Acts in this his mighty Day wherein he is shaking not only the Earth but the Heavens also that That only which cannot be shaken may remain Heb. 12.26 27. which will stand in stead when time shall be no more And friendly Reader If thou desirest to die the Death of the Righteous and to have thy latter End to be like his which most Men do thou must live the Life of the Righteous For there is not another way that is certain What though Men have cut out Ways to themselves and have made large and plesant Paths to walk in and say Come walk in our Way or be of our Society for it is the Way of the Lord. Before thou venturest into it ask them this Question Have you found out a Way to overcome Sin If they answer No that cannot be expected on