Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	faith_n	heart_n	true_a	7,214	5	4.9944	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97109	The vanitie of the present churches, and vncertainty of their preaching, discovered. Wherein the pretended immediate teaching of the spirit, is denyed, and the all-sufficiency of the Scriptures teaching, is maintained. With, a new and true method of reading thereof, for the peace of the mind, and rule of life.	Walwyn, William, 1600-1681, attributed name.	1649 (1649)	Wing W693A; Thomason E1367_1; ESTC R210498	20,838	55

do ye not tremble when you consider it to think that you should so frequently practice so grosse an imposture as openly to pray unto God that your eronious doubtfull uncertain conceptions for what other are your Sermons shall be heard and received as the word of the ever living God what greater impiety nay blasphemy then to call mans word Gods word to counterfeit a Preacher an Evangelist an Ambassadour of Christs and to deliver a Word a Message a Gospel mixt and made up of opinions and conjectures as if it were the true reall word of the ever living God What is this but even to debase belye and offer despite to the spirit of God himself for advancing your own false Honour and repute amongst men Consider this serioussy all ye that are captivated with the charmings of these Sophisters that are intangled in their formes of godlinesse that are drawn into their imaginary Churches that are deluded into an opinion that they are pastors feeders preachers of the word of God and be so true to God whose honour lyes at stake to your selves whose peace and comfort lyes at stake and to your Neighbours whose good name lye at stake also as to make a clear examination whether these pretended pastors Churches are taught immediately by the spirit of God or not as they pretend try them by the word they preach And you shall find however they have prepossest you to the contrary that neither they nor your selves have any understanding at all of such divine or heavenly things as bring peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy-ghost by any other way or meanes but only and solely by the Scriptures and that neither they nor your selves are taught by the spirit as they have long perswaded you and whereby chiefly they delude you into a belief that they are true pastors and your Churches true Churches of Christ For Judge you had they the spirit of God as they pretend would they need as they do when they have resolved to speak to you from a Text of Scripture to go sit in their Studies three or four dayes together turning over those authors that have written thereupon and beating their own braines to find out the meaning and true intent thereof no certainly had they the spirit of God it could in an instant in the twinkling of an eye inform them the meaning of his own writings they would not need to be studying seven ten or twenty years to understand the truth of the Gospel and when they have done so too be as farre to seeke as they were at first for any expresse certainty therein for do but observe that when they have for some years preacht up a Doctrine they are many times forst to preach it down again as ye well know most of them have done and that in very materiall points As for instance are they not one while zealous for the baptizing of Infants another while for the baptizing of Beleevers only and then again for no Baptisme at all for want of a true Ministry do not the Pastors differ amongst themselves and contentions arise not only between Church and Church but in every Church within it self are there not some that for many years have preacht up election and reprobation and afterwards have as much preacht it down and cryed up generall redemption and that man hath free will or a negative voice in his salvation and this in a Church gathered and taught by the spirit as they would make the world believe and those who by praying and preaching ex tempore would be thought to have yet a more immediate teaching of the spirit how extreamly are they to seeke in the ready understanding of the Scriptures what weake and indisgested matter issueth from them is too easily discerned yea what contradictions they huddle one in the neck of another though through confidence in the speaker and superstition in the hearer all passeth for currant truth But consider can it be of the true spirit to produce uncertain Doctrines if the Trumpet give an uncertain sound who can prepare himself to the battle so if the preacher preach uncertainly how can he affirm his word to be the word of God or how from such doubtfulnesse can true faith be begotten in the hearts of the hearers is not a Church founded upon such uncertainty founded upon the sand and built up with hay stubble not able to stand the least blast of a reasonable opposition and will ye that have Consciences towards God any longer be instrumented in this mocking of him and by your countenance thereof partake with them in this strong delusion What doth the Pope and his Clergy more then belye themselves and blaspheam God in saying they have the true spirit of God which leads them into all truth whilst by their lying miracles by their art and sophistry they lead the poor deluded people in the greatest errors for maintenance of their own pride covetousnesse and luxury The Bishops they come and by pretence of the true spirit discover abundance of faults in the Pope and his Clergy and make shew of great reformation but advance only themselves and their uncertain Doctrines for their own ambitious ends only without any regard to the glory of God or good of men then comes the Presbyters and they cry out against Common-Prayer that was faulty enough and studied Sermons as stinters and suppressors of the true Spirit of God in them and they are no sooner in the Chaire and their Prayers preachings examined but they also are found to differ one with another to contradict themselves to mind only their own honour and profit and to be possessed as both the former with a persecuting Spirit which is abhorred of God of Christ and of all his true Ministers and Apostles Then comes the Independents and pretend to erect a holy pure and undefiled worship according to the pattern shewed unto them by the true Spirit indeed pleading for generall liberty of conscience void of all compulsion or restriction and professing the meeknes of the very Lambs of Christ and humility towards all men who now could have suspected what since hath been discovered Namely that they as the rest belyed the Spirit of God pardon the harshnes of the expression it s for Gods cause and must be spoken they being no more infallibly certain of the truth they raise from Scriptures then any of those whom they so much condemn they as the rest pray preach and do all for mony and without it they do nothing taking mony for that which is not bread but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sand mixt together that di● 〈◊〉 ●eople swallow it whole without 〈…〉 mination it would be as gravell between their teeth and they would 〈◊〉 it out of their mouths And since they are increased in number● and have as it were scumm'd the Parish Congregations of most of their wealthy and zealous members Do they not fully discover a serpentine disposition hankering after persecution Do

THE VANITIE Of the present CHURCHES AND Vncertainty of their Preaching discovered WHEREIN The pretended immediate teaching of the Spirit is denyed and the all-sufficiency of the Scriptures teaching is maintained WITH A new and true Method of reading thereof for the peace of the mind and rule of life Gal. 6. 15. 16 For in Christ Jesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but a new Creature And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them c. London Printed by J. Clows and are to be sold in Cornhill and Popes-Head-Alley 1649. To the Reader ALthough I dissent from some things in this Treatise and other things seème dark and doubtfull to me yet there are many plain clear and evident Truths of great use to all Christians Therefore that the Truth may be manifest to all And that all Believers and Churches of the Saints may be of one mind and may edifie the whole body in love And in all their Doctrines and Conversations hold forth the truth as it is contained in the written word the perfect rule of the spirit to guide us into all Truth and to make us wise unto Salvation through that one necessary thing Faith which is in Christ Jesus which is by the Gospel the power of God to salvation preached unto us And that errour may be discovered reproved and corrected and if possible that the guilty may be convinced and reformed Therefore I say to this Epistle and the ensuing Treatise February 23. 1648-49 Imprimatur THEODORE JENNINGS The vanity of the present Churches and uncertainty of their Preaching discovered c. AS there is nothing more cōmendable amongst men then a true correspondency between the heart the tongue the hand so no thing is more lovely amongst Christians then that the Conscience the profession and the practice do universally agree though somthing be allowable unto frailty yet when the defect or discord is continued and that to the reproach of Christianity in generall and to the prejudice of humane society then certainly a reproofe is not only requisite but the neglect thereof a sinne of an high nature And so those whom this discourse now deemeth worthy of reproofe did seeme to judge when they condemned the persecuting practices of the new raysed Presbyters whose positions and professions whilst they were persecuted by the Bishops did clearly hold forth a full and compleat liberty of Conscience in the exercise of Religion and justly and truly did the Independants reprove them as their many bookes of that Subject do sufficiently testifie their reproofes were sharp and their replyes driven home whereby they put the question of the utmost liberty of Conscience out of all question accompting nothing more base or mis-beseeming a Christian then to question or vex or reproach any man for his judgment or practice touching matters of Religion and inciting all men to peace unity love and true friendship though of never so many severall opinions or different wayes in Religion By which their ingenuity they as the Puritan Presbyter had done before them gained abundance of love and respect from all men their Congregations multiplied and in conclusion obtained much countenance from authority which they no sooner tasted but instantly some of them began to pride themselves and to dispise others and to reproach and villisie all such as upon tryall and examination of their Churches their Pastors and Sermons finding all to be but fained imitations nothing reall or substantiall forsooke their societies and thereupon as the Presbyters had used them so deale the Independant with these and all that any wayes adhered unto these raysing nick-names and bitter invective reproaches against them sparing neither art nor paines to make them odious to others and their lives if it were possible a burthen to themselves and though reasons have been offered and conferences desired that they might see their error and forbeare to deale thus contrary to their positive owned and declared principles yet have they persisted therein and go on still without ●easing manifesting a most destructive and persecuting disposition not only towards these but towards many others whom they now as compleat Judges of other mens Consciences judge to be erronious or heriticall and seeme to have placed their felicity in the ruine of those whom their own Consciences cannot deny to have been instrumentall in their preservations and who have not thought their lives too precious to purchase them that freedom which now they enjoy And therefore it hath been conceived not only just but of absolute necessity to publish to the judgments of all impartial people both of the Congregationall way and others this their hard measure and unthankful usage of a harmlesse well-meaning people and withall to discover to all those who are conscientious the error of their wayes and emptinesse of the things wherein they glory and to let all those who are wilfull or meere polititians amongst them beare their shame openly and since they are proofe against their Consciences and can take up and lay down principles professions and practices too as stands most with their advantage and like the Jewes in their worst estate make no reckoning of oppressing all that are not of their tribes it is but equall that such should bear their mark in their forehead that all men might be warned from conversing with such deceivers and if any tartnesse appear herein they are the occasion it being no more then they deserve And not only so but we have herein also indeavoured to support the weake and by establishing them upon the sure foundation of the written word of God inclining them to give eare thereunto as unto the only true infallible teacher of spirituall things in our times and by directing them in a brief and plain method in the reading thereof how to attain to that one necessary Doctrine and main design intended therein unto man for his temporall and eternall comfort To which end that we may neither seeme to wrong the one sort nor to delude the other and for full satisfaction of all that are or shall be concerned herein we affirm it to be most palpably evident That ye of the Independant Congregationall or of any Church-way whatsoever have not that true essentiall mark of a true Church to be found amongst you which only can distinguish the true from the false and without which a true Church cannot be A true Church in the Scripture sence being such only as wherein the very word of God is purely and infallibly preached that 's the mark Now though it have been usuall among you in your prayers to desire of God that your auditors may give eare to the word that you preach not as unto the word of a mortall man but as unto the word of the ever living God and this too with such solemn countenances lifted up eyes and earnestnesse of expression as if it were the sin of sinnes for men to doubt it Though this hath been your course

sillable but recite some place of Scripture which by serious intention hath imprinted it selfe in their minds If you demand a reall Demonstration of the Spirit they can give you none but peradventure will tell you that you must awaite Gods time and he will enlighten you That their Spirit is as the white Stone in the Revelation the name whereof no body knew but he that received it making use of false darke and misterious Scriptures intended for another end to prove that they are unable by any sound argument or sensible demonstration to manifest Whereas were they really endowed therewith they could not conceale it nor we be unconvinced of its devine and supernaturall Power but must needs bend our knees and hearts in acknowledgement thereof If we urge the Scriptures against them they tell us the Letter killeth abusing and that so grosly that place of Scripture to the upholding their own vain imagination nothing being more evident then that by Letter in that place of the Romanes is to be understood the Law and by Spirit the Gospel And if men did not too much Idolize their owne fancies it would soone appear That now in our times we have no Preacher of the Gospel but the Scriptures which being the infallible Word of God the Word of Truth Eph. 1. 13. not the word of man but as it is in truth the Word of God 1 Thes 2. ver 13. which was not yea and nay but yea 2 Cor. 1. ver 18 19. 20. The Word of God that abideth for ever Is it not strange that our pretended Preachers of all sorts should so far prevaile upon the minds of men as to draw them from giving eare to what this Word of truth plainly and evidently holdeth forth for the peace of their minds and direction of their lives and take up their time and thoughts wholly or principally with their uncertain fallible Sermons making them in effect forsake these living fountains and digg to themselves broken Cisterns that can hold no water Nay a wonderfull thing it is that it should be received for a currant truth That this the greatest blessing the World knows this word of the ever living God should now come to be esteemed but as a dead Letter this sword of the Spirit that forceth it self into our dead naturall understandings plants it self there makes us one with it and forms us new this regenerating word this immortall seed should be so undervalued as to passe but as a dead Letter Time was that it was otherwise in England when our fore-Fathers would have given any thing in the world yea many of them gave up their lives rather then they would part with the smalest part of this precious Word translated into English by the first sincere professors of true Christian doctrins but then Godlinesse was esteemed the greatest gain and the iniquity of Learning was not arived to so much impudence as to make a gain of Godlynesse to make a trade of Religion and to become rich by pretended preaching Nor weaned they the people from the Scriptures to give eare to their notions and opinions telling them they had the Spirit and that the Scriptures were but a dead letter but invited and perswaded all men to a diligent consideration of the true scope and intent of them Neither did they preferr the understanding of men with difficult points or obscure doctrins but as Luther insisted altogether upon the Doctrin of free Justification by Christ alone and in way of thankfulnes for so great a benefit invited all men to live righteously Godly and soberly in this present world therein following the example of the Apostles and the very end scope and main design of the Scriptures which is that unum necessarium and which if people did rightly and seriously mind they would not so easily be drawn to follow such Teachers or to give eare to such Sermons whereby they are alwaies learning but never come to the knowledge of this one necessary truth For how long work soever Ministers and pretended Preachers make of it to maintaine themselves and families in wealth plenty and honour necessary Doctrins are not at all hard to be understood nor require long time to learne them and if it did not concerne their livelihood and profession to make men beleeve they were people would soone understand sufficiently for their establishment and comfort and would fall to practice that so they might become an honour to their profession of Christianity for the Scriptures or word of God having once planted this truth in the understanding viz. That it is the bloud of Christ which cleanseth us from all sinne this Evangelicall truth of its own nature would instantly set man on work to do the will of him that hath so loved him and constrain him to walk in love as Christ hath loved so that after this all the care would be how to advance the Gospel by making our light to shine forth before men that others seeing our good works may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven But this is no profitable way for any of our pretended Preachers this Doctrin is to soone learned for if men once come to know that this short lesson is sufficient what will they regard either printed discourses or Sermons and if once they find them also full of uncertainty contradiction and unnecessary things they 'le not part with their mony for such trash when they may go to the two breasts of Christ himself freely at all times to the Scriptures and buy this sweet milk and hony without mony and without price and if men and women come once to understand this they will not comber themselves with many things but possessing this unvalluable truth will ever worship God in Spirit and in Truth and declare unto others this blessed one necessary comfortable way and that not by preaching or long set speeches which are apt to deceive but by conferences and mutuall debates one with another the best way for attaining a right understanding far excelling that which is called preaching But then how shall Demetrius and the Crafts-men live even by some lawfull calling this being the most palpably delusive of any in the world and it is very strange that all men do not discerne and avoid it It is so as cunningly as it is carryed as high in repute as it is hath long time been having no foundation but in the weake credulity of men for if men but once consider it their Sermons will appear to be but as common discourses full of mistakes errors and at the least altogether uncertaine and that all their preachings and prayings are only for mony and that their greatest skill and labour is to hold men ever in suspence and upon pretence of truth to give them a bastard Scholastick knowledge which only serve to make men proud wrangling Sophisters and Disputers vain boasters talkers busie-bodies censurers Pharisees wise in their own eyes and despising others void of all true piety

taught unto them the truth whereof they were enabled and did confirm with miracles so as it might be as truly said of them as it was of Christ our Lord that they taught as men having authority and not as the Scribes nor as the uncertain pharisaicall teachers of these times Unto which word of theirs we are principally to give heed but therein also we are chiefly to discover and to mind what that Doctrine was which they by the spirit were ordained to preach because that being understood and believed doth give the beleever thereof the name and being of a Christian how plain and brief soever it be for we must note that there are many things written by the Apostles upon occasions that concerned only or chiefly the times wherein they wrote and the places and persons to whom they wrote which is the true cause that many things are too hard for us to understand but there was one universall Doctrine which they were to preach to all Nations where with all their writings do abound and which is very plain and easie to be understood And this is it namely that the same Jesus whom the Jewes crucified was Lord and Christ That he is the propitiation for our sins and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole world That it is the bloud of Christ which cleanseth us from all sinne That his love is so exceeding towards us that even when we were enemies Christ dyed for us This was the Doctrine which begot people unto the faith and made them Beleevers and they used no other inducement unto Beleevers to walk as becometh this Gospel or glad tydings of peace and reconciliation between God and us but this ye are bought with a price therefore honour God both in your bodies and in your spirits their strongest Argument to perswade being this and the like That the love of God which bringeth salvation unto all men hath appeared teaching us to deny all ungodlinesse unrighteousnes of men and to live righteously godly and soberly in this present world that we should love as Christ hath loved who gave himself an Offering and a Sacrifice for us so that if we would try each others Faith we are to consider each others love so much faith so much love so much love so much pure and undefiled Religion extending it self to the fatherles and to the Widdow to the hungry the naked sick and imprisoned it being evident that he who hath this worlds goods and suffereth his brother to lack hath not the love of God in him yea though he have never so great parts of knowledg zeale tongues miracles yet being void of love he is nothing plainly manifesting that all other Religions are but as defiled and impure in comparison of this And these are the Doctrines which make good the rejoyning of the Angels bringing glory to God in the highest in earth peace good will towards men These are sufficient and in these do all sorts of Christians agree and never had disagreed but for false Teachers Wolves in sheepes Clothing who crept in to devoure the flock causing divers strifes and contentions about genealogies and about the Law which made the Apostle abundance of trouble crying out O foolish Galathians who hath bewitched you telling them plainly if righteousnesse came by the Law then Christ dyed in vain others it should seem fell to observe Dayes and Times Sabaoths and Weeks justifying themselves and censuring others provoking the Apostle to tell them he was afraid of them that he had bestowed labor in vain upon them earnestly desiring them to let no man deceive them in respect of an holy day or of the new Moon or of the Sabaoth c. The truth is and upon experience it will be foudn a truth that once exceed these plain indisputable Doctrines and you will be ever to seeke for though it be a kind of happinesse to read in Genesis the proceedings of God towards our first Parents to Abel Cayne Enoch to Noah and the world that perished in the floud to see his mighty power at the Confusion of Babell his love to Abraham and Sarah to Isaac Jacob and the twelve Patriarks to see their way of worship to observe his mighty wonders in Egypt in the Wildernesse and in the promised Land under the Judges Saul and David Solomon and the rest of the Kings of Judah and Israel To know with what power he spake by his holy Prophets in all times even to John the Baptist Yet when we have done all we must acknowledge that very many things exceed our understandings and that we draw no comfort like unto this that unto Christ do all these beare witnesse and though we have great cause to blesse God for those wonderfull things we read of the life of Christ of his wisdom goodnesse and power by which he beat down the wisdom craft and policy of the Scribes and Pharices of the high Priest and great ones of the world and whereby he made it manifest that he was indeed the Christ yet draw we no comfort like unto that which the Apostles publish't by the power of the holy spirit the comforter promised by Christ before his Assention because by this dispensation of God only do we come to know the benefits of Christs death and that he is the end of the Law for righteousnesse and the propitiation for our sinnes whereby we have peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy-Ghost We Read with thankfulnesse to God the Acts of the Apostles all the Epistles of Paul of Peter James Jude and the Epistles of John the Revelat. to St. John But we must still acknowledge that there are very many things in them all which wee apprehend not fully We Read of Apostles E●angelists Prophets Pastors and Teachers and of the ordering and regulating of Churches and of gifts given to all these from on high but not so plainly exprest as to leave the Conscientious without dispute and difference thereupon nor so collected into any one Book as to convince that God now under the Gospel so exactly enjoyned Church Government as he did under the Law where Moses was expressely commanded to write particularly all that was required not leaving out so much as Candlesticks Snuffers or Besomes And when we come to compare the Churches or their Pastors and their abilities of our times with those we read of or the infallible power by which they spake with the uncertaine Doctrines of ours alas we must lay our hands upon our mouths and hide our faces as children use to doe when they are discovered by people of understanding at their childish immitations of Christnings and Feastings where in a low and miserable weake forme they counterfeit things reall so that if we shall deale plainely with our selves we must confesse wee are at a losse in these things and that hence onely is our rejoycing That wee undoubtedly know Jesus Christ and him Crucified and knowing him accompt all things as losse and

dung in Comparison of him and that we may be found in him not having our owne righteousnesse which is of the Law but the righteousnesse which is of God in him so that the whole Scriptures to us is as the Field mentioned in the Gospel and this the JEWELL for which the wise Merchant sould all that ever he had to purchase it And truely if the Traders in Divine things truely consider this how learned soever they are in Arts and Sciences in all kinds of Readings and Languages and how mighty and skilfull soever they would be thought in the Exposition opening and interpretation of all places of Scripture when they come to cast up their account possibly nay certainly if they are serious therein they will accompt all as nothing for this Pearle which passeth value they will sell All to purchase it and rejoyce exceedingly in the exchange as the most profitable that ever they made And this certainly would be done frequently by all who with honest and good hearts Read the Scriptures were they not kept from it by fase Teachers who hold them in suspence for their own advantage ever raising and starting new Questions and new Opinions whereby men are ever learning but never at rest in the knowledge of his one necessary truth but are tost too and fro with every winde of Doctrine and all by giving eare to those that call themselves Preachers but are not that pretend to expound the Scriptures when as they raise nothing but doubts and darken them that say they Interpret when they are to seeke for the meaning being altogether doubfull and uncertaine in all they doe And therfore much more happy are they who read with honest and good hearts and only Read and considerately lay to heart giving no eare to these charmers these doubtfull Eexpositors these mocke-Preachers with their trumpery Sermons stuft with naught but uncertainety and fantasticke doctrines which in the day of the necessity of mans Conscience prove like a broken Reed that instead of help further wounds Nor let any man henchforth wonder whence so many severall and strange opinions should arise by which the world becomes even rent and torne in peeces It is from this kind of Preachng and false Exposition of the Holy Scriptures It being so in more ancient times with the Law and the old Testament as Petrus Cunaeus de Republ. Lib. 2. chap. 17. brings to light affirming That howsoever the Law was Read amongst them in the former times either in puplicke or in private yet the bare Text was onely Read without glosse or descant Interpretatio Magistrorum nulla commentatio nulla but in the second Temple when there were no Prophets then did the Scribes and Doctors mock Prophets as our mock Preachers begin to Comment and make their severall Expositions on the holy Text Ex quo natae disputationes sententiae contrariae from whence saith he sprung up debates and doubtfull disputations and most probable it is saith another upon him that from this liberty of Interpretation sprung up diversity of judgements from whence arose the severall Sects of Pharises Essees and Saduces who by their difference of Opinions did distract the multitude and condemne one another Even so in these times when as there are no true Apostles Evaugelists Prophets Pastors or Teachers endowed with power from on high as all true ones are by which they are enabled to divide the word of God aright to stop the mouths of gainsayers and to say thus saith the Lord thus speakes the Lord and not I And if an Angell from Heaven preach any other doctrine let him be accursed In the absence of these are crept in swarmes of Locusts false Teachers men of corrupt minds making Marchandize of the blessed Word of Truth and for that wicked end dress it up in what shape their Art or Rehtorick can devise and upon pretence of exposition raise thousands of doubts and disputes write millions of books and preach innumerable Sermons whereby the people are divided and subdivided into Factions Sects and parties and whereby the end of the Gospel which directs only to peace and love is most unthankfully made use of as a fire-brand of quarrells and dissentions In the mean time the poor innocent Dove that desirs to injoy the peace of his mind in this Vnum necessarium that little Doctrin of Christ crucified and to walke in love ever worshiping God in Spirit and in the Truth dis-intangled from all formes as things he finds uncertain dis-ingaged from all false Churches and cannot find a true one that in all things gives thanks and dares not pray but for what he needs nor joyn with any where he is not before agreed what to aske This innocent dove findes not a place to rest his foot in but is become the game of these birds of prey these Ravens Vultures and Harpies O that all ingenious men would lay these things to heart that they would looke more exactly into these Churches more boldly firmly trying examining weighing them in the ballance that they would shake off that vaile of superstition and reverend respect to mens persons whereby they are over-awed into a high esteeme of meer vanities empty shels without kernells empty clouds that hold no water That they would consider how extreamly partial they are in judging of things For who is he that doth not exceedingly condemn the impudence of Simon Magus in offering to buy the holy Spirit of God with mony purposely to have made a gain thereof and yet can daily see men counterfeit the having of the Spirit and pretend to preach and to pray by it when as it is evident they have it not and yet are no whit troubled at this though they see it done also even for filthy luchre vain glory or other vile respects as he intended But all are not a like guilty many through weaknesse and a preposterous zeale being carryed with the stream and current of the times and many there are who have run themselves quite out of breath in searching after peace and rest in the various waies of these Churches and from one Church way to another but find none to comfort them nothing to establish them confessing that instead of reall ordinances they find only names instead of power in them they find only formes fashions likenesses and imitations meere pictures and Images without life altogether dead and comfortlesse and are held up meerely by the power of Art craft and pollicy of men not without the countenance of corrupt authorities oppressive States-men who find it as it hath ever proved a notable means to devide the people making use thereof to their wicked and tyrannous ends But God in these times hath had instruments to lay all kinds of delusion open so that henceforth if men continue in these evill waies they are altogether inexcusable Neither will men ever live in peace and quietnes one with another so long as this vaile of false counterfeit preaching remaineth