Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A61679
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A sermon against rebellion shewing deceivers to be deceived in their wicked mistakes. Preached at St. Paul's, October 20th 1661. By Sam. Stone, M.A.
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Stone, Samuel, 1602-1663.
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1662
(1662)
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Wing S5736; ESTC R222079
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26,397
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53
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motion and impulse whether of God or no. He that knoweth God heareth us saith St. John 1 Epist 4.6 And he that is not of God heareth not us and hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error That is by their agreement or disagreement unto the words preached by St. John and the rest of the Apostles which were spoken and written for our instructions and delivered down unto us and now with the other books of Holy Oracle are called Scripture or the written Word of God The light and guidance whereof whosoever refuseth to follow the conduct of some pretended Spirit only diverse or contrary to it Instead of being led by the Spirit of God doubtlesse he is led by the Spirit of the Devill as I make no question those late wretched publick Murtherers were whom the Right Honourable the present Lord Maior had the Lot under Gods grace and providence to suppresse to his monumental honor the trophie whereof be his unto all posterity I say they were not led by the Spirit of God but by the Spirit of the Devill as indeed some said They fought like Divells Men had as good follow those spirits the Prophet Isa speaks of in the forementioned Chapter oppositely unto the Law and the Testimonie Spirits that peep and mutter that is spirits of witches and wizards with whom it may be doubted that these spirit-people are too familiar I shall superadd to this particular but one plain Similie of a blind metled horse let loose which by reason of his metall will be ever prauncing and frisking up and down till at length he getts upon the top of a steep bank or precipice and from thence for want of his sight down he tumbles and breaks his neck And such verily will be the end of all blind zealots who shut their eies against the light and direction of Gods word and right Reason to follow in the heat and metal of their zeal bare motions and impulses as pretended from some Spirit However in their conceits and imaginations divine they will certainly before they are aware fall at last upon some lewd unreasonable wicked practice or other that will break the neck of all their reputation both in Christianity and Civility and without metcy upon their repentance throw them down headlong the precipice of Hell St. Paul therefore shall conclude Let no man hereafter deceive you neither by Word nor Letter nor Spirit 2 Thes 2.2 Which two words of the Apostle Letter and Spirit minde me of the Appendix mentioned in the Dedication Letter and Spirit having in the terms a very fair connection with the literal and spiritual sense of Scripture whereby notwithstanding what hath been said against the blinde motion and impulse of a Spirit some Mistakers conceiving themselves wiser and more defensible than the former do warrant themselves in their wicked actions not only in Politicks but Morals also from the sense and spiritual meaning of the Word of God it self as if upon conviction by the former Reasoning what they may not do by a bare impulse or motion they may nevertheless do in their thoughts by a spiritual meaning of the written Word the rule whereof they seem not to refuse But this also Beloved is a very fallacious imagination which I shall desire to Discourse by way of reduciblenesse as an Appendix unto the great deceit of Conduct by the Spirit last confuted and to that purpose do observe that a spiritual Meaning or sense of Scripture opposite unto or diverse from the sense of the Letter is very destructive and deceptive of foolish sinners such as St. Peter calls unstable and unlearned such as are apt to wrest the Scriptures not only to their own but others destination also even whole Churches Nations and Kingdoms as well Kings as their People may whereof there are who taking upon them a boldness through this perswasion to wave the sense of the Letter of the written Word where the Commands of God agree not to their humours engagements and inclinations they adventure to sense the text only to their own thoughts and purposes though never so contrary to the most righteous laws both of God and Man and in a policy of avoiding discovery herein it sounding harsh unto the most ingenuous sort of Christians that the plain meaning of the World should be slighted and baffled they boast most of all in their Spiritual Light of an easie and clear understanding and thereafter expound it of the most mysterious hidden and intricate places of the whole book of God as the Revelation and other the dark Prophetical passages which neither Time nor Learning hath yet sufficiently unridled or unclasped and in these they ostentate a familiar though wonderful Knowledge because they would be the readyer believed by foolish admirers in their abusings and wrestings of the plainer letter of other Scriptures Now beloved this fallacious Reasoning grounds upon a mistaken understanding of some texts of Scripture where you shall read an opposition betwixt the Letter and the Spirit As First 2 Cor. 3.6 Who hath made us able Ministers not of the Letter only but also of the Spirit Therefore say they There is a Litteral and a Spiritual sense of the New Testament But how false that consequence is may appear by observing that the word Sense or Meaning is not in the text read nor in the whole context but only Letter and Spirit in the Ministry or Ministration of the New Testament or Gospel there is the Letter or bare Word spoken and the Spirit of Grace that quickneth or giveth life unto the Letter or Word spoken or written making it fruitfull and effectual opening the minde to receive it and working the heart and affections to submit unto it which puts the great difference betwixt the Gospel and the Law the Law being only a bare or dead Letter engraven in stony tables without any assistance of the Spirit of Grace to quicken it and so the ministration thereof is of death and condemnation unto all mankind that hear it there being no promise or concurrence of spirit with it to work it upon the heart unto obedience man under the Covenant of the Law being left to his own self and strength which was become utter weaknesse through the corruption of the flesh and unable to perform whereas the Covenant of Grace or the Gospel hath the promise or assistance of the Holy Spirit to work the Heavenly words of life upon the Soul or Spirit of the hearers unto Life and Righteousnesse not by whispering or privately insinuating or infufing any other sense or meaning above or diverse from the literal but by seconding backing the same meaning of the words imported in the letter with power and efficacy whereupon I inferr that by Spirit here as opposite to Letter is not meant an Opposition of a Spiritual sense in the Gospell or any other part of Gods word different or above the sense of the Letter but only a lively concurrence of the
Spirit of Grace with the ordinance of Gods word in the Letter of the words clauses and propositions of it to make it effectual in the hearts of the hearers for their Salvation without which work of the Spirit the Gospel it self would be as dead and killing a letter as the very Law Secondly Another opposition of Letter and Spirit is Rom. 2. the three last verses about the Jew and one of his Marks and Cognizances viz. Circumsion which the Apostle distinguisheth into outward and inward or in the flesh or in the heart and spirit verse the last resembling the outward circumcision in opposition to circumcision that is inward and spiritual of the heart by the terme or simily of a Letter which whether one or more in the composition of a word pronounced or written is but the mere outside of that word compared with its sense and signification and so it may well be put to resemble the outward circumcision of the flesh as contrary to the inward or spiritual circumcision of the heart or as the bare empty Letter of the Law is contrary to the quickning spirit of the Gospel as dead to living or old to new Rom. 7.6 But from thence to reason a double and contrary sense or signification the one Literal the other spiritual either of the words of institution of Circumcision it self which expressely declares both Mystery and Ceremany or outward and inward of that Ordinance or of any other text of Scripture is a most fallacious and pittiful non concludence Circumcision is outward and inward exprest by the opposition of Letter and Spirit therefore there are two different senses in Scriptures Literal and Spiritual of the same words or sentence is a most absurd consequence The third Text occasioning this deception is John 6.63 My words saith Christ are spirit the words that I speak they are Spirit and they are life therefore say the mistakers Christs words must be understood spiritually or in a spirituall sense not litterall Nay but my Brethren what an inconsequence is this For what were the words that Christ then spake they were verse 53 54 56. of cating his flesh and drinking his bloud in order to eternall life the mystery whereof they not understanding because he spake in a figure he explaines himself in the verse mentioned by a distinction of flesh and spirit the flesh profiteth nothing saith he but the spirit quickneth and my words are spirit as if he had said think not therefore that I mean you thould eat my flesh and drink my bloud after a carnal or corporal manner for that would not profit you The slesh profiteth not but feed upon me in communion with my spirit by faith and so shall ye be quickened unto eternall life 'T is a spiritual eating of my flesh that my words mean my words are spirit But neverthelesse beloved not to be understood of a diverse or contrary meaning from the Letter for the Letter as of all Scripture so of this is twofold Proper and Tropical First Proper which expresseth the thing by a word signifying a meaning plainly answering the nature of the thing Secondly Tropicall which expresseth the thing by way of allusion or similitude or types and parables conversively putting a word of similitude or parable for a word proper to the nature of the thing it self Now the eating Christ speaks of here is not proper of fleshly eating but in the Trope and Similitude that is spiritual eating for as Corporal eating nourisheth the body unto life Natural so doth Spiritual feeding upon Christ by faith nourish and quicken the soul unto life eternall and so though Christs words here are spirit as he saith my words are Spirit that is import a spiritual eating yet the sense of them is never the more spiritual as if different from the Letter for the Letter of this word Spirit gives the sense of the Trope denoting Spiritual eating yet with the help of a little Logick too the Abstract put for the Concrete Spirit for Spiritual and in the Concretion the adject Spiritual connoting its subject Eating is as much as Spiritual eating and so the sense being Tropical is in that respect nevertheless Literal the sense of Scripture with this amongst the rest being of two kinds Proper and Tropical as aforesaid and both Literal You will wonder it may be I should say There is no sense of Scripture but only Literal and thereupon Object What Divines should mean by observing a distinction of the Letter from some other thing differing in the meaning of the words besides it To which I answer 'T is true as I said at the first of this passage many wife and good Christians generally mistaking these oppositions of Letter and Spirit which I have but now oponed and are the only to that purpose throughout the whole book of God and all professing a Literal sense That for want of a term contra-distinct unto Literal have in that necessity allowed a sense Spiritual but unsatisfied therewith I conceive upon further disquisition have been found to understand themselves only in a sense of a Rhetorism or a Trope which not knowing what to oppose unto the Letter under the said mistakes they have called Spiritual though indeed it be in true understanding only Literal according to the common manner of speaking by Tropes and Figures which bear their part in expression of the mind in all Languages and together with Grammar make up the whole business of Utterance or the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word discovering the sense of the minde bearing a signification either plain and proper and so hath been taken for the Letter or Tropical and more mysterious and so hath been taken for Spiritual but in true judgement the literal word is common to both Proper and Tropical the Trope and Rhetorism both in word and sense being in the letter of the Scripture also as well as the Proper though not so frequent as the Proper and Grammatical yet so of a meaning literal as well as the other and in that respect all senses of words Typical Parabolical or otherwise Tropological as I humbly conceive with submission to better judgements can be thought no more then Literal and the mystery of them to be understood by endeavouring to find the extent of the Letter only Away therefore with that deception of a Spiritual sense of Scripture whereby the safety of Divine Truths hath been and may be still much in hazzard And let us conceive of Gods meaning in his Word speaking to us as we speak to one another according to the use of sensing the words in the practice of Nations without which we can never be supposed to understand him and if we cannot yet reach the mystery of every letter let us be content till God in the seasons of his Grace and Wisdom shall afford us helps of a further discovery by his blessing upon the labours of Pious and Learned men whom God hath set forth hitherto and doubtless will