Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	call_v	faith_n	work_n	5,379	5	5.7492	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61101	A Protestants account of his orthodox holding in matters of religion at this present in difference in the church, and for his own and others better confirmation or rectification in the points treated on : humbly submitted to the censure of the Church of England.	Spelman, Henry, Sir, 1564?-1641.; Spelman, John, Sir, 1594-1643.	1642 (1642)	Wing S4940; ESTC R12772	24,078	35

contrarily Antichristianisme or fighting against God walks in singularities partialities sects separations and the like It is too apparant that the wayes wherein men now pretend that the true exercise of Religion lyeth do very much hold the byasse of Sectarisme who sees it not in our extraordinary running after choice and affected Teachers In which though the shew of godlinesse so awes our judgements that we distrust no errour in it yet does it concern us to take heed of a deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse in it To love desire and seek the lively delivery of Gods Word is good and our duty and so is it also to love and honour the Preacher for the Words sake But there is great danger in the comparing preferring and despising of one in respect of another For while we assume the judgement and choice of our Teachers and hear and follow them according as we like their Doctrine and no otherwise We under the shew of godly longing after Gods Word and honouring the choice Preachers of it discover an hidden exaltation of our selves and of our own mindes and judgements both above the Preachers and the Word they preach On the other side toward the Ordinance of the Church and our proper Ministers we do not only unduely exalt our selves but adde unto it disobedience yea even a faulting of Gods providence we make our own Jordans too shallow brooks to cleanse our Leprosies Our Siloams that are sent too unclean pooles to help our blindnesse Yea and we refuse the waters of Shiloah for no other reason then that they runne softly We choose our selves streams to our liking which like the Rivers of Damascus must be better waters and of more approved depth and current Every one must follow his Paul his Apollo his Cephas his Christ And as our selves encline to these wayes so have we Teachers that cherish that inclination in us and finde it no small advantage to them that by applying themselves to the present affectations of men they can so draw Disciples after them For the effecting of which Though the weak in faith ought not to be received to doubtfull disputations yet they making no difference between strong and weak School and Pulpit Governours and private Men do unto their vulgar Auditories who they know have neither capacity to judge nor authority to reform frequently preach their own apprehensions concerning the Government of the Church and the right exercise of Religion not only in things apparent and agreed on but even in things which they themselves have lately questioned and drawn in doubt whether they be right or no By which means private presumption insolence self-conceipt disdain uncharitablenesse and disobedience sins most incompatible with true Religion are grown so great and generall as that they are become like an Epidemick contagion putting all men in a maze what shall be the end and consequence of them Of which when we cannot have a greater admonition then where the Spirit of God sets forth the last and perilous times of the Church It is not amisse to summe up into one entire view what it is that the Holy Ghost doth there admonish us of Our Saviour himself first warnes the Church to beware of false prophets that come saith he in sheeps cloathing but inwardly are ravening Woolves Whom that we may know he gives a rule Ye shall know them by their fruits and in another place by their works Where we must note the fruits and works are to be taken as they are in themselves and as they are naturally taken notice of in all mens understandings otherwise we make our Saviour teach ignotum per ignotius It is true that in every fruit and work that is good in it self if an evill circumstance or way or end accompany it the fruit that was good in it self may by way or end be made evill as if mercy charity zeal c. be shewed for ostentation or for a cloak of pretence c. But in evill fruits and works it is other wise for no end or circumstance whatsoever can make that work good that is evill in it self as disobedience sedition treason c. For God having no need of a wicked man and forbidding us Thou shalt not do evill that good may come thereon he takes from evill works all the help that their good end or circumstances may do them When therefore we finde a deed that in it self is evill we must not make that good for the good end or good intent of the doer but contrarily we must make him a misdoer notwithstanding the good end and intent of the action Our Saviour further reveals That many shall come in his name and shall deceive many the manner of whose coming he intimates to be by way of secret insinuation here in the Chamber or by way of seperation there in the Wildernesse In the Acts of the Apostles Saint Paul gives warning of the like false Teachers and tells the Pastours of the Church Of your own selves shall men arise preaching perverse things to draw away Disciples after them In the second of the Thessalonians he foretells of a falling away and of the revealing of the man of sinne that exalteth himself above all that is called God or worshipped whose coming he shews to be after the working of Satan with all power and signes and lying wonders and with all deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse Again in the first of Timothy he foretells a departing of some from the faith giving heed to seducing spirits and that speak lies in hypocrisie forbidding marriage and meats In the second of Timothy he declares that in the last dayes perilous times shall come the perilousnesse of which he shews to be in this That men shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud truce-breakers false-accusers incontinent fierce despisers of the good traiterous heady high minded c. having a form of godlinesse but denying the power thereof c. Of which sort are they that creep into houses and lead captive silly women laden with divers lusts ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth And lastly That the time would come when they would not endure sound Doctrine but after their own lusts heap to themselves Teachers Saint Peter forewarneth also of false Teachers shewing that they should privily bring in damnable heresies even denying the Lord that bought them and an especiall description of whom he maketh in this that they despise Government are presumptuous self willed and not afraid to speak evil of dignities Saint John tells us That as we have heard that Antichrist shall come even now there are many Antichrists And them he deciphers by their inconformity and disobedience They went out from us saith he but are not of us for if they had been of us they would have continued with us Lastly Saint Iude in his generall Epistle warneth the universall Church of men of like singularities noted by this that they