Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	dead_a	life_n	live_v	7,322	5	6.0283	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44794	The heart of New-England hardned through wickednes in answer to a book, entituled the Heart of New-England rent, published by John Norton appointed thereunto by the General Court. The doctrine of the Quakers uindicated [sic], his ignorance manifested, and his lying doctrines brought to light and judged with the word of truth, and truth cleared from his aspersions and slanders. By him that waits to see the throne of righteousness exalted above all deceit. Francis Howgill.	Howgill, Francis, 1618-1669.	1659 (1659)	Wing H3166; ESTC R223647	32,471	42

ignorance and darkness to say and what Rule are they under who have not the Spirit or no measure of it there is but the Spirit of Truth and the spirit of errour and they that are not ruled by the Spirit of Truth they are ruled by the spirit of errour though they may have the words to fight with and quarrel about without the life But last of all thou hast in plain words set the dead letter before the living Spirit and saith That the Spirit is no Spirit except it speak by the Scripture and if the words of Christ in the 17th of John give an uncertain sound it is but to thy deaf ear and to thy blind understanding for he spoke soundly and certainly and prayed to the Father that as the Father and he was one so they also might be one being guided by the one Spirit of the Father in the Son and that they might live in the Unity of it and have Unity one with another in it and with the Father and the Son In thy 15th page though thou hast set up the Letter for a perfect Rule of life yet here thou throws it down again and saith It is to be understood as including consequences for the greatest part of Scripture is consequences and the Scripture cannot be true without consequences for Thomas and Mary are neither commanded obedience or forbidden disobedience for we no where read thou Thomas or thou Mary are therein commanded obedience or forbidden disobedience such a one by name do this or that Answ. I told thee the Spirit of God is unlimitted and whether it speaks of degrees or measures of a greater or less thing or whether it speaks the greater first and the lesser after whether it speaks from Major to Minor or from Minor to Major or what may truly follow either from the greater to the less or from the less to the greater it is all truth but thy Consequences is no part of this the Spirit still demonstrates its own mind by what words and terms and expressions it pleaseth and will not be limitted or confined to this or that form of words and thou errs grosly neither knowing the Scripture nor the Power of God and thy Consequences are false for there are the individual persons or names of Thomas and Mary both commanded obedience and forbidden disobedience and if thou have never read this in Scripture I inform thee and instruct thee thou may read the 20th of John 16 17. where Jesus saith unto Mary she turned herself and said unto him Rabboni which is to say Master Jesus said unto her Touch me not for I am not yet ascended here is a Prohibition and forbidding that she should not touch him secondly here is a command of obedience But go unto my Brethren and say unto them I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God and in the same Chapter thou may read in the 27th where Christ spoke unto Thomas by name after his Resurrection then said he to Thomas reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side here was a Command to be obeyed and be not faithless there is a prohibition or a forbidding of unbelief and so thy foolishness is manifest and ignorance of the Scripture some of it thou sayes is an uncertain sound and the Scriptures fore-mentioned thou hast denied or else never hast read it and so art unacquainted with thy Rule which thou quarrels and fights so much about And then thou comes and sayes Thou wilt vindicate some Scriptures and cites 1 John 9. That this was the true light which lighteth every man that comes into the world hence they affirm that there is a light in every man which being followed is an Infallible guide and that this light which lighteth every man is the Rule of life and not the written word thy Answer is The sence of the Text is notoriously false and thy reason is if Christ the true light that lighteth every man be the Rule then righteousnesse should be by the Law for the light which is in every man is not Gospel light but there is a natural light or the light of Nature which is to be construed in opposition to spiritual and the light of Nature and the light of the Spirit are contradistinct and by this light of Nature there is a difference put betwixt that which is good and bad and it will teach us not to lye nor steal and it will lead to the Knowledge of one God and yet it is in opposition to one spirit and it will lead to know Eternity omnipotency and it will lead to know the Creator yet it is contradistinct to the spirit Answ. The Scripture needs none of thy Vindication for thou hast defamed it and sayes Christs words is an uncertain sound and thou hast said that neither Mary nor Thomas was commanded obedience thou may look back of thy lyes and repent of them and why is the sence of the Text utterly false that Christ was the true light that lighteth every man that cometh into the world without exception and why is this utterly false if he be followed that he who is the true light is an Infallible guide and the Rule of life hath he not enlighted every man that comes into the world if thou make exceptions where the Spirit makes none then thou perverts the Scripture doth not he say I am the light of the world the world in the Scriptures account is set in opposition to believers for believers are not of this world but are redeemed out of it as for example God so loved the world that he sent his Son into the world that whosoever did believe in him might not perish but have Everlasting life for it is manifest that the Saints and Believers had life given already that followed Christ and were his sheep and saith Christ I put them forth and go before them and give unto them Eternal life and he said to them who had not Eternal life While you have the light believe in it that you may be the Children of it and is not Christ Gods Righteousness who is given for a Covenant of light to the blind and dead and lame to the dumb to open their eyes to quicken them to make them leap as a Hart and their tongue to sing and utter forth praise we say Righteousness is not by the Law but by Christ that lighteth every man who is the end of the Law and why is not the light which lighteth every man Gospel light seeing it is said Go Preach the Gospel in every Creature under Heaven go learn what that means and if natural light must be construed in opposition to spiritual and the light of Nature contradistinct to the light of the Spirit then it must needs be sinful for that which opposeth spiritual light is set in opposition against its leading must needs be sinful and that which is contra

Wisdom stands and life Eternal And what is this Hetrodox to profess perfection of degrees in this life is not this Orthodox used not you and do not you generally hold perfection in part or parts and is not that which is perfect in parts perfect in degrees He that feels victory over one sin by Christ the Power of God hath not he some part in that which is perfect and of that which is perfect And if he witness victory over more is he not come to a greater degree or degrees of the life which is perfect And he that knows the blood that cleanseth from all sin is not he perfect and compleat in him who hath made him so But art thou so offended at perfection that thou dost not admit of any part or parts degree or degrees thereof that thou sets this down as a Blasphemy And its time indeed to reprove you sharply who are puffed up in pride and knows nothing who teaches contrary to the perfect life of Christ or any degree or degrees thereof to be attained unto thou art perfect in wickednesse and a perfect Minister of Antichrist and a perfect Heathen and its time to bear Testimony against you and lay you open and your deceit in the sight of the Sun that them that have but the least glimring of the Light may behold you a pitiful Church is that like to be which thou art Pastor of by appointment of the General Court who cryes out against any degree of the perfect life of Christ in this life to be obtained or enjoyed a Minister of sin a Minister of Sathan and unrighteousness that is thy name own it In the ninth page thou art going about to prove thy Trinity as thou calls it and thou saist The Father is a distinct subsistance and the Son a distinct subsistance and the Holy Ghost is a distinct subsistance and thou brings John 5. there is another bears witness likewise speaking of the Holy Ghost he calls him another and this another thou sayes Is Intel 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Essence and then saith What is more manifest then another subsistance and another subsistance speaks distinct subsistances and thou saith The Spirit is called the hand of Trinity Answ. Another is not understood of another being of another life or another substance but is understood of another Manifestation or Operation of the same God who subsists in the same Power in which the Father the Son and the Spirit subsisteth as I said unto thee before another as to distinguish of the Operation and Work of the Spirit and of the Son we do not refuse but to make three distinct essences and beings is ignorance and errour as thou saith Another is intel●gible of the Essence and so thou hast made three Essences three Subsistances three Persons and three Gods but we say there is but one God and there is three that bears record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are one Now as for Subsistance and Essence they are unsound words coyned of your selves from your dark imaginations in which there is no truth at all but to cast a mist Now where the Holy Ghost is called a Person in the Scripture I have never read and where it is called the hand of Trinity I have never heard of before thee and so thy blind ignorant conclusions and Sophistical arguing will have little place with them that are come to know the Teachings with the Spirit and also keep to a form of sound words which thou cannot And thou saith He that sendeth and he that is sent are distinct and so the Father sending the Son and the Son sent of the Father and the Father and the Son sending the Spirit and the Spirit sent by the Father and the Son are distinct subsistances and not the same He that sends and he that is sent may be distinguished but he that sendeth and him that is sent is not so distinct afar off one another but that him that sendeth is with him that is sent and so God was in Christ reconciling the world and then how were they distinct one from the other and by him was all things made and Christ was not so distinct or afar off at a distance when the Heavens and the Earth was made so that it is truly said without him nothing was made that was made and the Spirit of God which may be distinguished in regard of its Operation yet it was not absent or distinct from the Father and the Son in the Creation neither is absent from the Son in the Regeneration or work of Redemption And then in thy Answer to an Objection which thou makest thy self How the Doctrine of life was Communicated vocally by the Patriarchs but it is not so now and in thy Answer thou saith The Scripture is not necessary absolutely but it being Gods Will to Communicate life through the Scripture hence the Scripture is necessary and then thou sayes Not the letter without the mind of the Authour nor the Spirit without the Scripture and that the words in the 17th of John 22. That they may be one as we are one these words give an uncertain sound thou saist and further thou saist Surely they are under a Rule of live who hare not the Spirit since the Canon of the Scripture is closed so far is the Spirit from being a Rule of life that to us it is not the Spirit except it move in the written word Answ. Gross darkness is thy dwelling-place and out of thick darkness all this pitiful confusion cometh the Doctrine of life was Communicated according to the will and mind of God sometime by Dream sometime by Vision sometime by Revelation to the Patriarchs and Believers from Abel till Moses and by Faith they were followers of Christ and doubtless they did Communicate in their Generation those things that were manifest unto them by the Spirit which was the then Rule and Guide to the feet of the upright in the way of Peace before any Scripture was written and if the Scripture be not necessary absolutely thou hast said as much as we say therefore we ' speak of a Rule and a Way which is absolute necessary without which no man can know the Father or the Son nor the way of Peace but by the Spirit of truth which gave forth the Words of truth which may manifest and doth manifest it self as it will when it will where it will and how it will for it is unlimitted and it will not be limitted by its own words as to sound but may speak words which it never spoke before as for instance Paul by the Spirit said The second Adam the Lord from Heaven is a quickning Spirit which none of the Scriptures before written speaks in these very words and if the Spirit be not Spirit without the Letter then where the Letter is wanting the Spirit is wanting and consequently them that have the Scripture have the Spirit which were no less then