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	truth_n	word_n	7,274	5	4.1793	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56188	Philanax Protestant, or, Papists discovered to the King as guilty of those traiterous positions and practises which they first insinuated into the worst Protestants and now charge upon all to which is added, Philolaus, or, Popery discovered to all Christian people in a serious diswasive from it, for further justification of our gracious King and his honourable Parliaments proceedings for the maintenance of the Act of Uniformity.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1663 (1663)	Wing P4030; ESTC R7555	26,609	49

We have preached and do preach to you a Religion plain and close which requires not so much shrewd and subtle heads as good and honest hearts Luk. 8. 5. The Testimony of the Lord that is sure making wise the simple We made your way plain before you They of Rome will perplex you with those infinite rules of Faith which the Learned among them cannot comprehend When you have endeavoured to know the minde of God in the Scripture that you might believe and in believing might have lise you have d●… nothing there are endless traditions which no one man ever saw which you shall never know but yet must believe them many Volumes of Councils which you never saw you must receive all the Popes Decrees whereof some are not yet published you must assent to before you can be saved To day you may believe all the Traditions Councils Decrees and Impositions of the Church of Rome and be saved and to morrow the Pope may set out a new Decree or a new Article of Faith which if you do not believe you are damned While you are here secure you know not but that there is a new article of Faith defined by the Pope which you do not know and not knowing cannot believe and not believing may perish for ever Ah! happy you who need not say Who shall go into Heaven or Hell or the uttermost parts of the Earth to fetch down a rule of Faith from thence The word is nigh even in your hearts and in your mouths 3. We have perswaded and do still perswade you that without knowledge the minde is not good we have intreated you to grow in all knowledge and in all goodness and we cease not to pray that you may abound more and more in knowledge and in all judgement You have a sure word of prophecie to which we say you would do well to take heed as unto a light shining in a dark place a light to your feet and a lanthorn to your paths We say when an holy wisedom entereth into your hearts and knowledge it 's pleasant unto your souls discretion shall preserve you and understanding shall keep you to deliver you c. There are those abroad a part of whose Religion it is to make you perish for want of knowledge to keep you under the power of darkness that you may walk after the vanity of your minde having your understanding darkned being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in you because of the blindness of your hearts That Scripture which we have translated for you which is your meat your drink your delight sweeter then honey or the honey-comb of more value than the world must be taken from you and if they prevail as we know they will not it will be no less than death to read that word which is dearer to you than your lives your faithful Ministers to whom you would have given your right eyes must be removed into corners yea and must seal that Doctrine with their blood which they now deliver you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O the light is sweet and a pleasant thing it is to behold the Sun If the light that is in us be darkness how great how sad is that darkness A God we must own but shall not know him a Saviour we must have but we must that come to him though this is life eternal to know him and the Father who hath sent him Duties we must do that we may live but we shall not understand them Scriptures there are written to our comfort but we must not read them We erre not knowing the Scripture saith out Saviour we erre by knowing the Scripture say the Roman Catholicks Hear read saith God and your souls shall live Read saith the Papist and you shall surely dye O wretched mankind a great part whereof Mahomet hath taught not to hear reason that they may judge in themselves what is right a great part whereof the Pope hath traught not to hear the Scripture which is no vain thing which is our life A sad Religion if I may call it Religion that sets up the kingdom of darkness by which the Devil may rule in the children of disobedience A Religion that hoodwinks poor people in forced ignorance when alas we are all too willingly ignorant lest we should know Gods will or any way to Heaven but theirs so as millions of souls live no less without Scripture than if there were none that forbids spiritual food as poyson and fetcheth God's Book into the Inquisition 4. Although the Church and our selves by her appointment first discovered to you the eternal truth yet have we not suffered you to rest upon us who may deceive and be deceived but have led to the Rock that is higher than us and resolved your Faith into a foundation that cannot fail the truth and authority discovered in his Word by his Spirit They they of Rome who are now so busie will take you off from the foundation of God which standeth sure they will perswade you that the Word of God which you know is pure is corrupt that the Law of God which you know is perfect is defective that the Scriptures which you know in things necessary evident are dark and all this to what purpose but to settle you upon men who you know are a lie to make you rest on Councils who saith Bellarm. himself l. 2. c. 11. p. 153. May erre Particular Councils confirmed by the Pope may erre in Faith and Manners Some Catholicks affirm saith Bell. de Concil Ecclesiasticis l. 2. c. 5. p. 110. or upon Popes whereof some have been Infidels and privately conferring with their Cardinals said Oh how much gain this Fable of Christ hath brought us Others have been Witches others Murtherers others Whoremongers ravishing women in the Apostolick doors others as their own Records testifie by Bribes by Devils by VVitches have climbed up to the infallible Chair Oh can you trust your souls with those men which have confessed to have given their souls to the Devil that they might be Popes yea which is worst of all the poor Catholicks when they have relied upon this man as infallible today must tomorrow relie upon another Pope as infallible who may declare this man an Heretick if they believe not he is infallible they are damned and if they believe not he is an Heretick when declared by another Pope to be so they are damned too Ah poor men 5. We teach you to serve the true God and him onely to worship and we tell you he is a jealous God and he will not give his honour to another and that idolatry hath been the ruine of all Nations in this World and is the damnation of men without repentance in the World to come You know that Idolaters shall not inherit the Kingdom of Heaven for without are Idolaters Rev. 22. 15. Yet they they who now with fair words deceive the hearts of the

simple have a design to bring you to worship stocks and stones with the same honour that is due to God blessed for ever And lest your hearts should rise against graven Images lest you should not bow down to them nor worship them against the Letter of the second Commandment they leave out those words of that second Commandment as a needless illustration in their Chatechisms and Prayer-books to the people The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals and fashioneth it with hammers and worketh it with the strength of his arms yea he is hungry and his strength faileth he drinketh no water and is faint The carpenter stretcheth out his rule he marketh it out with a line he fitteth it with planes and he marketh it out with the compass and maketh it after the figure of a man according to the beauty of a man that it may remain in the house Thus he maketh a god even his graven image he falleth down unto it and worshippeth it and prayeth unto it and saith Deliver me for thou art my God They have not known nor understood for he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see and their hearts that they cannot understand And none considereth in his heart neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say I have burnt part of it in the fire yea also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof I have rosted flesh and eaten it and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination shall I fall down to the stock of a tree He feedeth of ashes a deceived heart hath turned him aside that he cannot deliver his soul nor say Is there not a lie in my right hand Isai. 44. 12 13. 16. to 20. In a voluntary humility do these men worship Angels who said expresly to St. John Worship thou God Now you seek God in his Ordinances and desire to see him in his holy Temple If you be seduced by them you must go onely to poor creatures like your selves 6. We or do we onely doth not our God likewise teach you that if any man adde to his holy Word he shall adde to him the plagues that are written in this book Yet if ever they prevail you must believe more Scripture then ever God inspired or his ancient Church received and you must do it upon no less penalty then if God himself should speak from heaven Sad You must believe what an Angel from heaven is accursed if he teach you They have a designe Beloved to set up a man in stead of God who may create new Articles of Faith at his pleasure and impose them upon necessity of salvation In vain it seems came Christ from the bosome of the Father to reveal his will in vain doth the Spirit lead us to all truth in vain have we thought that our Priests lips should preserve knowledge and that the people should seek it at their mouth in vain have we gone to the Law and to the Testimonies concluding that if men spoke not according to them it was because there was no light in them If we must lay aside all and wait upon the Popes Oracles how shall we be sure that he is infallible Not because he saith so for if he bears witness of himself his witness is not true Not because the Scripture saith so for that they say is no further true then he confirms it Not because he is St. Peters successour for we are not sure St. Peter was at Rome if he was there we are not sure that he was Bishop there being an Apostle of the Circumcision i. e. of the Jews and not of the Romans If he was there Bishop we are not sure he was infallible who denyed his Master thrice and dissembled once If he was infallible we are not sure he left any heirs of his grace and spirit or if any we are not sure he left one in a perpetual and visible succession at Rome That he so be queathed his infallibility to his Chair as that whosoever sits in it cannot but speak true that all which sit where he sate must by some instinct say as he taught That if Peter was infallible by vertue of Christs promise yet that what Christ said to him absolutely ere ever Rome was thought of must be referred yea tyed to it that the Pope whose life whose pen whose judgement whose keys may erre yet in his pontifical Chair cannot erre That the line of this Apostolical succession in the confusion of so many long and desperate schisms when there was one Pope in one place another in another shamefully corrupt Usurpations and Intrusions confessed Heresies open Profaness and celebrated Infidelity neither was nor can be broken If you are not sure of these and many more things whereof some are impossible most are improbable you are sure of nothing in Popery Oh the lamentable hazard of so many millions of poor souls that stand upon these slippery termes O miserable grounds of Popish faith whereof the best can have but this security that perhaps it may be true 7. We and our Church have taught you a serious Religion which Angels desire to look into which men reverence which carrieth a divine authority a heavenly awe a spiritual power along with it that prevails upon all that hear it Ten men are ready to lay hold on him who is a Jew i. e. a professor of the true Religion and say VVe will go with you for God is with you But alas they of Rome have set up a Religion that made sport to our plain fore-fathers with the remembrance of her gravest devotion How oft have we seen them laugh at themselves whilst they have told of their creeping Crouch their kissing the Pax offering their Candles signing with Ashes partial shifts merry Pilgrimages ridiculous Miracles and a thousand such Maygames which we are ashamed to name While you are taught that decent worship that solemn devotion those comely approaches to the Throne of Grace that make all Christians rejoyce to behold your order grave solemn and heavenly We cannot but pity that Religion whose vanities very boyes do shout and laugh at if for no more but this that it teacheth men to put confidence in Beads Medals Roses hallowed Swords spells of the Gospel Agnus Dei c. Ascribing unto them divine virtue yea so much as is due to the Son of God and his precious blood You are taught to draw neer to God to hear his Word in a Language you understand and to make your requests known unto God in a wholesome form of sound words you can assent to and there come in some it may be when you are gathered together in one place that believe not or one unlearned he is convinced of all he is judged of all and thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest and so falling down on his face he will worship God and report that God is in you of a truth When they of the Church of Rome are together in one