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	holy_a	son_n	13,852	5	5.7878	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80782	An abstract of some late characters. Or, how the principall means appointed for our reformation is become the maine fuell of our wickednes. Laid downe in sundry characters of L. Bishops. Dumb dogs. Non-residenciaries. Men-pleasers. Unpreaching ministers, that edify to damnation, by their scandalous living. false wresting. mis-applying the Scripture. So turning the truth of God into a lye, that they may discourage the godly; incourage the wicked. In which the blind world may see, to their shame, how Satan guls them with a multitude of misprisions, and false surmises against the godly; that so he may barricado [sic] their hearts against all good. Necessary to be knowne in these times of discovery.	Cranford, James, d. 1657, attributed name.; Craufurd, James, 17th cent, attributed name.	1643 (1643)	Wing C6851B; Thomason E67_35; ESTC R7704	68,958	47

upon him the office of a Pastor and yet not Feede his people that depend upon him To be a Watchman and yet not give the people Warning of ensuing Danger To be a Leader and yet not Instruct GODS people in the spirituall Warfare To be an Ambassador and yet not Declare GODS Message to the people To be their Physitian and yet not See to the peoples Health Doth he not make himselfe Guilty of their Miscarriage and Betray the Trust which was committed to him It cannot be denied Neither is there much difference betweene the Shepheards destroying the Sheepe with his owne hands or leaving them to the mercy of the Wolse Or of a Captaines giving up a Castle or not defending it against the enemy when it is besieged But I have farre Worse then these viz. Vnpreaching Ministers to acquaint you with and must therefore goe forward Secondly Vnpreaching Ministers doe Edifie to Damnation and by their scandalous living or by their Serpentine preaching do pull downe and destroy more then GODS Faithfull Preachers build up 1. Great are the Number even of those that preach well whose Lives are most Vicious and Abominable Though one of them were enough to stagger a whole Nation considering how conversant they are in and about those Divine and Heavenly Mysteries contained in the Word That their whole trade and profession is holinesse That they are his Ambassadors and represent his person who in Scripture is call'd The Holy-One yea Thrice Holy Holy Holy is the LORD of Hosts Esay 6. 3. whose Law is Holy whose Spirit is Holy whose Will is Holy whose Word is Holy who is Righteous in all his wayes and Holy in all his workes Psal 145. 17. making us also which are his servants an Holy people Deut. 7. 6. An Holy Priesthood 1 Pet. 2 5. His Holy Temples 1 Cor. 6. 19. Yea when they are appointed Patterns of Holinesse and have undertaken by their holy conversation and zealous exhortation to draw others to Holinesse and yet no whit partake of holinesse themselves but remaine without the least tincture thereof in their hearts and lives what can men thinke of it There was a Woman much spoken of in some parts of this land that lived in a professed doubt of the Dei●y Yea even after illumination and repentance she could hardly be restored or comforted Shee often profest that the vicious and offensive life of a great learned man in the towne where she dwelt did occasion those damned doubts in her mind How may it then stagger poore Christians that heare of an hundred such yea when they shall perceive them so much the worse by how much the more they are conversant in the word when the very meanes of their reformation for want of a good and honest heart becomes the Fuell of their wickednesse when they shall verifie and fulfill that Spanish proverbe Come Sancto cagá Diabolo They have eaten downe Saints and voyd forth Devills As that Viper is the deadliest which feeds the sweetest It was the saying of a Bishops Cook That all the Noble mens houses that he had ever lived in were ranke Puritans to his masters I wish we could not apply it to hundreds of the Ministry who justifie that proverbe The nearer the Church the further from God As it fared among the Jewes the nearer they were to the Sanctuary the further they were from Sanctity Or as one gives testimony of the Romane Clergy That Of all Christians Italians are the worst Of all Italians the Romans Of all Romans the Priests Of all Priests the Cardinalls and commonly the most leud Cardinall is chosen Pope Not that the word of GOD which is holy and just and good Rom. 7. 12. is the proper cause of their being the worse no more than the Sun shining upon a Dunghill is the cause of greater stinke or its heat reflecting upon venemous and banefull objects the b●eeder of horrid Serpents Well may it prove an occasion thereof or at least make manifest that which lay hid in the heart before as a furious Mastiffe dog is the madder for his chaine because it is so powerfull and operative that it will either quicken or kill either prove the sweet savour of life unto life or become the savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2. 16. 2 Pet 3. 16. For none ever heard it but they were either the better or the worse by it It is like a fructifying Dew or raine which fals not upon any ground in vaine but will produce either the Herbs Flowers and fruites of Faith and good Workes Or the weeds and bryers of impiety and prophanenesse And still the more of this raine falling upon Clay the dirtier it will be Briefly as a Cholericke stomach will convert all meates into Choler and as Spiders will sucke poyson from the most fragrant flowers So a wicked heart will make a Temptation of every thing and the frequency of distempers will weaken the vertue of any receit He that shall eate but a Graine of Opium and increase the quantity every day shall be able at length to devoure it as Bread and digest that which would kill twenty others Againe Take the dead carkasse of a man and cloath it with a thousand garments you shall never make it warme because it wants the naturall heat within which those adventitious helpes might cherish So if a soule be dead to goodnesse though you feed it with a thousand precepts till it become a quick Library of learning a Magazeen of knowledge yet you cannot put the heat of holinesse into it because the living Principle is wanting Grace divine But let that sparke be first in it and then all these helpes will blow it into a flame as experience proves abundantly blessed be GOD For although these degenerate yet the story of GOD makes other Ministers no lesse good than wise But which is the misery one of the former will doe more harme and give more deadly wounds to the Church by his scandalous life and wicked example than twenty of the latter can doe good or heale againe by their conscionable Preaching and pious example Indeed they may seeme to build up no lesse with their good Preaching for those who in their acts are fooles may in their words be Philosophers then they pull downe by their ungodly living But it is otherwise For First Who will regard the words of a knowne dissembler that shrowd an Egyptian heart under the habit of an Israelite who like Ethiopians are white in teeth only every way else cole-blacke when resembling the Devill in Samuels mantle they are Christians in skin Atheists at Coare Have Jacobs voice Esaus hands and head GOD in their mouthes and Satan in their hearts whose life and profession is a continuall incongruity and his workes Antipodes to his words when his hand and tongue give each other the lye like some foolish minstrell that sings one thing with his mouth and harps another with his finger When they shall speake like Angels in

then ever the Author meant it sometimes taking the words against the meaning Often making a meaning against the words Either suppressing some of the words or not expressing the true sense As if they would conveigh away the Gold and throw us the Bagge That to utter their Damned Commodities they deale as some Tradesmen about their badde Wares Put out the True lights and set up False in their stead That they wound the truth in her owne coat And as Jacob put on the garments of Esau his Brother to deceive Isaak his Father So these in the apparell of their Elder Brother CHRIST seek to beguile the Church their Mother That they have not the Scripture so much for a Text as for a Pretext In choosing whereof they e●re also by inverting the order For they first make their Sermons and then look for a Text which they take out too with the left hand Though indeed there is not a Text of Sacred truth which their Glosse corrupts not For as GOD brings Good out of Evill so these bring Evill out of Good Wherein they come so farre short of Paul who comparing himselfe with the false Apostles 2 Cor. 4. 2. saith We walke not in craftinesse neither handle we the word of God deceitfully But in declaration of the truth we approve our selves to every mans conscience in the sight of GOD. That they are worse then Balaam who when Balaak said What hast thou done I tooke thee to Curse mine enemies And behold Thou hast Blessed them altogether answered Though he had as good a minde to Curse the Children of Israel as these the people of GOD and said Must I not take heede to speake that which the LORD hath put in my mouth Numb 23. 11 12. Being such false teachers as Saint Peter foretels of that Bring upon themselves swift destruction 2 Pet. 2. 1 2. And Saint Jude Jud. vers 4. Being ungodly men crept in unawares who turne the Grace of GOD into Lasciviousnesse being before of old ordained to Condemnation It is said Revel 22. which is the Closing up of the Bible If any man shall adde unto these things GOD shall adde unto him the Plagues that are written in this booke And if any man shall take away from the words of this booke GOD shall take away his part out of the booke of life and out of the holy City and from the things that are written in this booke vers 18. 19. I wish these men would minde it and what a faire businesse they make of it so wresting the Book of Grace that they quite wrest themselves out of the Book of Life Yea Destruction is threatned to every Prophet that shall but Conceale the truth or forbeare to Reprove Sinne sharply Ezek. 3. 17. 18 19. 23 8. 1 Cor. 9. 16. and other places How much more in this Case For alleadging Scripture to maintaine thy sinne and to revile holinesse is to presume to wrest GODS weapons out of his hand and as it were to wound him with his owne Sword And I wonder how they dare climbe up into the Pulpit with such a purpose for feare lest Thunder should strike them downe againe But to speake to them who have sworne allegeance to the Prince of darknesse is labour in vaine 2. Another slight of theirs is this Knowing that if the Cup of their poyson were not rubd with Hony it would not downe And that their base Coine would not passe except they mixe it with a considerable quantity of good money They will not vent their devilish Doctrines without a mixture of some wholsome Truths like as Gardeners will sow among the herbs that are wholsome and pleasant others noysome and venomous Or rather Hannibal who to intrap his enemies mixed their Wine with Mandrakes whose operation is betwixt Sleepe and Poyson Or as Avicen was made away by Annoynting the booke with poyson which he was to read Or rather like the Devil who as Lactantius saith many times spake truth in Oracles to the intent he might shadow his falsehoods the more cunningly These men are the Servants of the most-high GOD which shew unto us the way of salvation Acts 16. 17. Who would look for the Devill under the habit of such good counsell But what 's his reason He makes a shew of under-propping the truth but he meant to undermine it This old Fox like the Fox in the Fable never praiseth the Law but when it may make away for his booty Wherefore Paul cast out the soule Spirit that confest him For though he spake true he knew to what hellish purpose he spake it And our Saviour another who worshipped him and confest him to be the Sonne of the most-high GOD. Mark 5. 7. 8. Deceit gets credit in small matters that it may cousen in things of greater weight The Dequoy will suffer the simple man to winne for a while till he hath whetted him on Then he foists in false Dice and after leaves him in the lurch If fraudulent Merchants had not some Good Wares their Base ones would not be saleable But the Good must help away with the Bad. So if these spake nothing but true they could not deceive us if nothing but false we would not beleeve them Therefore they mingle the one with the other as men mingle poyson with good and savory meat when they intend to destroy And this their crafty and deceitfull kind of wresting and mis-applying the Word they have immediately learnt from the Devil him selfe whose Chaplaines they are For he hath used this kind of handling the Scripture ever since Adam was in the state of Innocency as appeares by Gen. 3. 4 5. and many other instances 1 King 22. 21 22. 1 Sam. 28. 19. Psal 91. 11. Matth. 4. 6. Mar. 1. 24. c. Yet to give the Devil his due I doe not finde Satan in all the Scripture to be so injurious against GOD as these men For what is recorded of him worse then this uttering it by the month of that Assyrian Monarch I will Ascend and be like the most-High Isa 14. 13 14. It was great blasphemy for the Devil to say so But it is greater blasphemy to Personate GOD and bring him in saying I will Descend and be like the Prince of Darknesse And what is it better to make the Scripture GODS owne Oracles to Descend to the Disgracing of Verme and true Religion And to the Magnifying of Vice and Impiety The Discouraging of the Good and Incouraging of the Wicked Surely this is to make GOD like the Devill CHRIST like Anti Christ and to bring downe the Holy GHOST in stead of the Likenesse of a Dove in the shape of a Vulture or Raven So that however these Beasts like tha● other Beast Rev. 13. 11. have Hornes like the Lamb would seeme to deliver nothing but Scripture yet they Speake like the Dragon Yea worse then the Dragen And it is hard for ignorant people who are unacquainted with these kind of wiles not to