Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	confess_v	flesh_n	jesus_n	7,758	5	7.1789	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94750	A vvord of reproof to the priests or ministers, who boast of their ministery and ordinances, and yet live in pride, disdain, persecution, &c. Shevving what such are; and how little cause they have to exclaim against those who separate from them. As also a word to the papists discovering their foundation to be carnal and sandie. In a letter sent to some supposed priests or Jesuites in the north, by William Tomlinson.	Tomlinson, William.	1653 (1653)	Wing T1855; Thomason E691_9; ESTC R206966	29,084	49

A Word of Reproof TO THE PRIESTS OR MINISTERS WHO Boast of their Ministery and Ordinances and yet live in Pride Disdain Persecution c. SHEVVING What such are and how little cause they have to exclaim against those who separate from them AS ALSO A word to the Papists Discovering their Foundation to be carnal and sandie In a LETTER sent to some supposed Priests or Jesuits in the North BY WILLIAM TOMLINSON In the Cup wherein she hath filled to you fill to her double London Printed for Tho. Wayte and are to be sold at the Pavement in York 1653. A word of Reproof to the Priests or Ministers who boast of their Ministery and Ordinances and yet live in Pride disdain persecution c. O Ye Priests * I do not call you Priests out of derision I love not that though some must deride you But because most of you were ordained to your office under that very name and few or none of you have renounced that your Ordination Secondly because you conform yourselves more to the Priests under the Law then to the Ministers of the Gospel The truth is ye are not worthy of that name for it is a name peculiar to the Saints onely and to all the Saints under the ministration of the Gospel 1 Pet. 2.5 9. Revel 1.6 you call your selves the Ministers of Jesus Christ when as you do nothing resemble him You have nothing to bear you out to be so but onely great swelling words As the Jews once gloried in the Temple when the Lord was departed out of it crying The Temple of the Lord The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord as if those great words had been argument enough to bear it out to be the Temple of the Lord when he had left it So you cry the Ministers of the Lord the Ministers of Lord the Ministers of Christ the Ministers of Christ the Ministers of the Gospel the Ministers of the Gospel as if those great words were enough to prove you to be so when as the Lord is departed from you and your Ministery and leaves it to become as the blood of a dead man Revel 16.3 In which no life is to be found but death and stifeling of the Spirit For that holy unction which moves upon the hearts of the Babes of Christ and weaklings in stead of being strengthened is among you strangled and rendred as delusion and fancie and a thing which they must not trust to though this testimony be given of it from above That it is Truth and is no lie and is the onely preservative against seducing and the guide or Teacher that keepes us abiding in Christ 1 Joh. 2.26.27 For that Unction is Christ moving in us and as he is according to that obeyed and yielded to so he abides with us and we abide in him By that he leads on from truth to truth and so from strength to strength from comfort to comfort from light to light untill he lead into clearness and fulness and present us perfect before God and the Father without spot and blemish before his Throne Yet dare you blaspheme this holy Spirit which is no other but Christ himselfe in flesh which you deny fighting against him in every appearance of his in flesh and thereby manifestly declare your selves to be Antichrist and not the Ministers of Jesus Christ as you proudly boast your selves to be He is Antichrist that denies the Father and the Son 1 Joh. 2.22 He that denies the Son denies the Father also for they two are one And he that denies the Spirit or Unction that moves upon the hearts of Christs Schollars and fights against it when he would come and appear in flesh he denies both the Father and the Son for these three are one 1 Joh. 4.3 Every Spirit that confesses not Jesus Christ come in flesh is not of God and this is that Spirit of Antichrist whereof you have heard that it should come and even now already is it in the world I say every Spirit that confesses not Christ come in the flesh for so the words are more truely rendred as some of you know And so rendred they hold forth a constant Character or mark of that Spirit of Antichrist It doth not confess Christ come that is when he comes or appears in flesh or in his servants To say as it is translated in the English every Spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh To say thus is not a full Character of Antichrist For the Papists themselves and the Pope whom you all say is Antichrist He doth not deny but that Jesus Christ is come that is once came in flesh Therefore in that sence it discovers not Antichrist But both He and They and You do all deny and fight against Christ come in flesh of his servants that is when he comes and appears in them Therefore in the same sence wherein it discovers him I mean the Pope to be Antichrist in the same it discovers you also to be Antichrist For as he fights against the Appearances of the Lord and confesses not Christ in those commings of his in flesh whereby he leads his people out of his mystery so no more do you confess Christ in those commings of his in flesh now whereby he would lead his people out from under your mystery So that I say the Spirit of Antichrist manifests it self in you and yet are you bold to cry up your selves The Ministers of Christ The Ministers of the Gospel as if you were able by these words to strike dead all Reasons to the contrary You do wisely in your generation to keep you there and so to fear and dazle the minds of men with those great words keeping them off as far as you can from reasoning about it making them by your great words of Gospel Ministers and I know not what to fear even to question whether you be so or not Oh ye Opposers will you always strive against the Truth how many of you who stand in the publique Ministery as you call it have been leaders of the People out of Error How many of you have lighted the People by your examples to forsake and renounce the world and the things thereof yea I may say The Relliques of the Romish trash that Idol service Book and all the trumpery of it Nay have not the People therein rather taught you are they first in the obedience do not you stick to it untill the stream of the People shame you from it and the fear of loosing of your livings as you call them make you to part with it Is it not thus with you also in other appearances of Christ when he comes in flesh in weakness in his servants to consume the mystery of iniquity do you not stand out striving and opposing untill the last If you can espie failings and weaknesses in that weak flesh in which Christ comes those you use as instruments to fight withall against

given to all his members namely Ye may all prophecie one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted You disown every gift that would bring to nought the magnificence of your Diana But what you can form to profit your selves withall that you retain And can adde also other things to make Merchandize of them which have no shadow of any footstep in the practises of the true Messengers of Christ as namely Your Marrying of Persons for mony your buryings for mony and your most absurd Mortuaries or stipend which you challenge for the dead Your funeral sermons for mony also I am weary with raking in these filthy puddles which are fit for nothing but swine to wallow in And thus though you both adde and diminish from the things of Christ and Counterfeit other things which you uphold for your gain yet all that separate from you must be cried against as Hereticks Sectarists Schismaticks Separatists Indeed there is a separation which I do not here plead for and that 's a separation upon conceit of ones own holiness because they are devout in some outward observations of worship more then other men such as are spoken of Isa 65.5 Stand by thy self come not near to me for I am holier then thou These are a smoke in my nose a fire that burneth all the day and these were devout in holding up Ordinances rather then they would have no sacrifice they would sacrifice in Gardens and rather then they would have no incense they would offer it upon Altars of Brick vers 3. They are charged to be a people who walk after their own thoughts vers 2. Such also were the Pharisees who stood glorying in their own outside painted holiness and thanked God that they were not as other men and even as this Publicane when as within they were full of rottenness and all uncleanness full of envy wrath malice persecution disdain covetousness pride and such like And all these they retained under a shew of godliness and outward observation of Ceremonies and traditions of their Fathers They were strict in washing off the defilement which they had any way contracted if water would have done it They bare great reverence to the sacrifices upon the Altar which were Ordinances then in force They made conscience of paying tithe of all they had even of Mint and Annise and Cummin They were not wanting in prayers and fastings to the Lord and their prayers were no short ones which gave all to think that they were not weary of serving the Lord. Yea they compassed Sea and Land too to beget people to the Lord to make proselites thus they appeared righteous unto men But yet for all that they were but whited Sepulchres full of Hypocrisie and iniquity when that light came which was able to discover them and to uncover their hearts by their works Even by their covetousness and hard heartedness to the poor Widowes by their love of honor by their neglect of the weightier matters of the Law Judgement Mercy Faith as also by that persecuting spirit which was in them and such like and yet these men added one thing more to glosse all the rest over the better they abhorred to be companions to Publicanes and sinners and blamed Christ for eating and drinking with such Yea they made it matter of thankfulness to God acknowledging it to be his work that they were not such and thus they said in their hearts Stand by thy self for I am holier then thou There were some also spoken of in the Epistle of Jude ungodly men walking after their own lusts sensuall not having the Spirit ver 19. These separated themselves from the fellowship of those Saints who stood in the pure truth turning the grace of God into lasciviousness the pure Love into wantonness They crept in unawares and drew an image of the pure Love and grace of God shed abroad upon the Saints and in their carnall hearts it became wantonness and lasciviousness and so they withdrew themselves again and separated from that holy fellow-ship to follow their ungodly lusts of uncleanness covetousness gluttony and such like Now I say such separations as these I do not plead for But I own and defend that separation from the inventions and traditions and Formalities of men which is commanded in Scripture under the name Babylon Rev. 18.4 Jer. 50.8 Ch. 51.6 45. The whole chapters speak much thereof Oh ye Priests ye Merchants of Babylon out of the North there arised up a Nation against you which shall make your Land desolate Ch. 50.3 ch 51.48 It is time to separate from your Babylonish inventions for the hewers are already entered into your forrest Oh thou that dwellest upon many waters thine end is come and the measure of thy covetousness Jer. 51.13 Thy strength faileth the mighty men of Babylon have forborn to fight they have remained in their holds they are become as women Jer. 51.30 If my application fail it will not fail long Babylon the great is fallen is fallen and is becom the habitation of Devils and the hold of every foul spirit and a Cage of every unclean and hatefull bird All Nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornications and the Kings of the earth have committed fornication with her and the Merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies Rev. 18.2 3. And for this cause is she fallen Because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication Rev. 14.8 Therefore to obey that voice from Heaven which hath said in the hearts of many come out of her my people that ye be not partakers of her sins that ye receive not of her plague I say to obey this voice is not Heresie Schisme and such a separation as you have made it Heresie and Schisme and Separation and Sects rightly taken is this To separate divide or make a rent and breach from the truth and from them that dwell therein as namely from the Spirit and life of our Lord Jesus Christ and from such Apostles and servants of his as have walked or do walk in that spirit and in that life and from them in that thing wherein there is truth But you cannot be said to be such you are far enough from the pathes and spirit too that dwelt in them And therefore I leave it to the daylight which shall arise in mens consciences to discover whether you your selves be not Grand Hereticks grand Schismaticks grand Seperatists swarving from the Life and Spirit of them whom you cry up in words And such grand Schismaticks and Hereticks you are that you would stop up the way for ever if it were in your power to keep men from returning back again into the purity and Simplicity of that truth from which you are separated crying out to the people to take heed of Heresie and Schisme and separation scaring them with these termes when as you your selves are the

tribulation To the rest of your Blasphemies I think I may not unfitly adde this as one that you call a building made of wood and stone the Church whereas the Church is the body of Christ Surely surely the very boyes and children will ere long deride your folly Your are so wedded to this name that if any call it by any other name you deride them though there be no reason why it should be called Church What! is it the Body of Christ Why will you continue to Blaspheme the name of Christ thus to call a dead house his Body for the Church is his Body Col. 1 18 24. See if you can any where finde a house of wood and stone called Church in Scripture If we call it Synagogue or high place or Idols Temple or Cage of every unclean and hatefull Bird we can better justifie these because we finde these names given to such like places in Scripture but these you abominate Or if we call it steeple-house or Pulpit-house from the form or adjunct yet these you cannot bear I would you would tell us what to call them inoffencively But I must tell you that if no name will serve you to call them by but that which is proper to the Body of Christ we must in indignation trample them under feet with the names which the Scripture hath given to such houses calling them Idols Temples high places and such like Some I know will frivolously answer and say It s not the place but the congregation which we call Church I say that 's an idle conceit for if that were so then the name Church should go along with the Congregation But that it doth not let the Congregation move all together if they will to any place yet the name Church moves not with it but rests upon that Idolized Temple and when none is in it yet it s called Church Again if you should call the Congregation the Church yet consider what you do for as I said the Church is the very Body of Christ acted by that Unction which is Christ even by the same spirit wherewith the person of the man Christ Jesus was acted Take heed how you call a company of people living in Humane inventions and traditions satisfying themselves with the bare name of Christians having their spirits in the earth I say take heed how you call these the Body of Christ A company of people acted by a spirit of persecution vain glory covetousness worldly mindedness and such like are these the Body of Christ acted by his spirit whenas they walk most contrary to it No no it s somewhat else to be a Christian It may be some will say true too many do walk so but all do not so some walk otherwise and they are the Church I answer I do not deny but that some there may be of the Church and not of that earthly Congregation though among them but these cannot give the Denomination of Church to the rest because they are not of them but onely among them as captive children in Babylon So that I say now if it were the Congregation it self and not the stone house which you call Church yet consider whether this would be free from Blasphemie if they shall be found the Synagogue of Satan These now are some of those things which may be said concerning you and your Ordinances both which you wil needs father on Christ crying them up for his Ordinances and your selves for his Ministers and more then this will the Lord in time discover both concerning you and others You have set up your selves as leaders and guides of the people but you have hardened their hearts against the fear of the Lord and so keep them from entering into the very beginnings of wisdom for the fear of the Lord is the entrance into wisdom how should it be expected that they should be moved to fear him when as you their teachers say and do not Do not you thereby teach them to live in sayings without doings and that without fear For by your examples you harden them in an hypocryticall form of words without doing the will of the Lord for how do you think that they should learn to do the will of the Lord from your mouthes who are not moved through his fear to do it your selves You stand in the way letting and hindering men from entring into the Kingdom and neither enter in your selves nor suffer those that are entering to go in so far as you can hinder If they had not you to rest upon they would be stirred up the sooner to look after truth The people themselves can say of you that some of you say well but you do not as you say This they see in the best of you but because of your examples set before them they rest in doing as you do sheltering themselves under your practise and disobedience although they see further Thus by hardening the people in their evil wayes you rob and spoil them of that Peace and rest and light and comfort which obedience to the Truth would lead them into And so for all your boasting of your ministery and Ordinances yet you do not thereby lead up any of the People to those high and noble ends for which gifts and ministery and the Ordinances of Christ were given namely to a conformity to Jesus Christ in this world and to that end were they given even to lead up to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Eph. 4.8 11 12 13. But how should you lead up further then you goe your selves Nay your ministery is so far from leading up to that conformity that the nearer any comes to it the more are your mouthes opened against them in your Pulpits So that you are of that spirit that sets it self in the Temple of God over mens consciences opposing and exalting it self above all that 's called God calling that delusion and fancie 2 Thes 2.4 Thus I have hitherto finished my Testimony against that mystery which is upheld by you which the Lord is untwisting In witness against which I have been kept back from among you and have suffered the losse of all things and do suffer and not onely I but many others This mystery of Humane inventions mixed with some appearances of Truth hath driven many into the Iland of Patmos of suffering for many years even all those Johns who have been faithfull to the Revelation of it communicated to them I for my own part thorow weakness and hardness of heart mine own and others have been made for sometime to sojourn in Zoar. But now beholding so great burnings arising upon Sodom I am made to depart out of Zoar also Behold there hath been a great Deluge upon the face of the Earth overtopping all things but some have been preserved as in an ark and now I see innocent Doves sent forth again for some have returned to see if the waters be abated from the tops of the mountains