Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	john_n	truth_n	8,102	5	6.1149	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15109	A sermon preached at Paules Crosse the 17. of Nouember An. 1589 Inioyfull remembrance and thanksgiuing vnto God, for the peaceable yeres of her maiesties most gratious raigne ouer vs, now 32. By Thomas White professor in Diuinitie.	White, Thomas, ca. 1550-1624.	1589 (1589)	STC 25407; ESTC S102142	24,989	73

haue wee done wee could answere them to both in two words and counsell them also saying but this doe the contrarie Some there are that can speak smoothly enough as it were with Iacobs voice but feele them and you shal finde thē shrowde and rough for they haue the hands of Esau. The Lawe did not admit the Multitude to approch the mountaine of Syna more thē the very brut beast Exo. 19. And vnder the law they came not but to the Doore of the Tabernacle where the beast wēt further Leuit. 4. The Pharises counted the cōmon people vilde and cursed Men that knew not the Law Iohn 7. 49. And Papipists made the same reckoning of you when they called themselues Spirituall and you but Lay and Temporall men and bard you from the Reading of scriptures which Christ bad you to Search Iohn 5. 39. But now you are come not vnto that terrible Hil Sina but vnto the mountaine of the Lorde Sion not to the Doore of the Tabernacle but to the Altar not with Beasts for sacrifices for now they are all vncleane to be offered but with your Selues Soules which the Apostle calleth The reasonable liuing and acceptable sacrifice and seruice of God Rom. 12. 1. You haue heard and heard againe this word which is so effectuall heere but we haue neither hard nor seene of any great successe thereof in you the fault is somewhere either in the worde or in vs or else in you let vs al cleare the word because it is the Immortall seede And do not you accuse vs seeing we neuer sowed the seede which bringeth foorth that fruite whereof wee haue cause to complaine we make your selues the Iudges as God doth make his owne people Esa. 5. It is the Enuious man hath done it to whom you haue yelded rather then vnto vs for you will heare when whō you please what and howe you list there is no rule with the multitude teach them and they will teach you for euerie man maketh a crosse of his duetie And albeit they are not full so bad as those which answered the Prophet plainely We will not do what thou commandest vs Ier. 6. Yet they are nothing neere so good as those which said to Moses what soeuer thou commandest vs we will doe Exo. 19. I would they were but so forward as these to say What shall we doe except they feare the statute of troubling vs in preaching which in such a case I thinke they needed not to feare But this vertue and force which wee haue shewed to be in the word commeth neuer out of the word but as fire commeth out of flint when it is striken the word read profiteth but to prepare men for their teachers Most true was the answere of the Eunuch Acts 8. When Philip asked him whether hee vnderstood that he read he saith How can I without an interpretor Faith commeth by hearing of the worde all sides doe consent but the question is whether it bee wrought in vs by the word preached or read they that doubt let them consider the place Rom. 10. 14. and tell mee whether they finde not that that hearing which doth ingender beleeving be not inseparablie tied to Preaching or no. I would not that men should learne from hence to despise the reading of Scriptures as some haue done seing it hath his singular vse in the Church But that men so esteeme of vs as of the Ministers of Christ that is as The disposers of the secrets of God 1. Cor. 4. Therefore the Position and Proposition is necessary and not to be denyed that there must be mē teaching in the Church not onely Apt to teach but they must teach except it shall fare with them as it doth with Genus in Logicke to preach Potentially The labour of an Husbandman returnes into a ring that is it knoweth no ende and You are the Lords husbandrie 1. Cor. 3. Wherefore there are two other Requisites which hee may not bee without 1. Faithfulnesse to giue meate and not poyson The second Wisdome to giue to euery man his owne portion and that in season too Luke 12. 42. And all this is nothing yet without the Grace of God it standeth much in these but not all for men can goe no furthe● than men can goe as in Baptizing If Ihon goe before with water and Christ come not after with fire or in Preaching If Paul goe before planting and Apollo follow him watring but if that God come not after them both giuing increase I do not say our labor is lost because we haue it but you haue lost the fruit thereof because you haue it not if it be true that Heauen and Earth the common Parents of all worldly things be barren and the Sunne and Moone doe but lose their labour except God doe giue to euerie seede his seuerall bodie as it is 1. Cor. 15. howe much more shall it bee true in this pretious and heauenly seed when Christ him selfe hath pronounced to the world that No man can come to him except the fathe● draw him Iohn 6. That is before his spirit descend no spirit of ours not so much as one soule can ascend and this was the reason why Iohn caught so many here Peter more in the 2. of the Acts. and Paul more then they both whereas Christ himself whom I hope you do not thinke inferiour vnto these who is the Lord yet doth conuert fewer then they doe I speak of the externall dispensation of his Ministery in the worlde for otherwise I know that neuer any yet was conuerted or shall hereafter be conuerted for euer but Christ must conuert him And the reason of successe in all our labor is only of the spirit who in Iohn 3. is compared to the Winde which bloweth when and where it listeth Faith and religion do come with a spirit but take you alwaies heede of those spirits which come vnto you without the worde there be too many of them in the world which are both fanaticall freneticall and satanicall therefore after the difference and distinction made betweene God and Men then obserue you but the order of the spirit when he giueth grace or increase not without planting watering neither before but after as you may sufficiently perceaue in these conuerts and it is the second part 1. Who answered them 2. How he makes his answere and 3. What it is 1 Who answereth them it is Iohn the Baptist of whom it is written that he was the voice of a crier in the wilderness c. and not only so but it is further affirmed that he was a Prophet and more then a Prophet beeing of all the Prophets the very last and next forerunner vnto Christ whose way he made right and his paths strait with a wonderful resolution opposing himselfe to the chiefe and is not holden backe with the respect of any feare or danger but prouoketh euen them that knewe as well howe to reuenge him as they

the Soudiers them both and all of them God and his Christ yet notwithstāding at once preaching of the word so manie in number and such manner of men in Nature are suddenly here chaunged and as Isay prophecied it should be in the kingdome of Christ a VVoolfe is turned into a Lamb for so is this multitude and a Leopard into a Calfe for so are the Publicans and a Lyon or a Beare such as these Souldiers were into a verie Cowe and doe crie as Cowherds VVhat shall wee doe Esa. 11. 6. Howe excellent the word is the title that it beareth teacheth whē it is called the word of God and the ministers thereof in both the Testamentes are tearmed the men of God of the which the former prefers the word before all other things and the latter doth almost fellowe men with Angels but our point now is to consider the force and vertue of the word which you may see here to be as it is affirmed in the fourth of the Hebrewes Quicke and mightie in operation I speake not of the worde the Sonne and substance of his father but of that worde which bringeth the trueth which is from euerlasting As the Sunne by his beames brings downe the light vnto the worlde which light was made before the Sunne Gen. 1. 5. John cals himself a voice but not the worde much lesse the Trueth As the voice is before the word so trueth is before them both of the which truth mortall men shoulde neuer bee capable without the worde for by the worde the sonne of righteousnes doth arise vnto vs and by the worde things passed and to come are made present to our faith After manie waies and diuerslie this worde was giuen in former age as by Dreames Visions Reuelations and Angels c. But in these latter daies after one vniforme manner and order namely by the Sonne the Lord and heire of all Heb. 1. 2 A comparison here of the Law and gospell as two stones smitten together cast foorth fire would giue a light but I had rather applie my selfe vnto the Gospell whereof I am a minister And in the gospell how manie Metaphors hath the spirit to expresse this one thing vnto vs for after manie proper Epithetes As the word of faith and trueth The immortall seede 2. Pet. 1. The power of God to saue Rom. 1. and the like it is compared to leauen for seasoning to honie for swetening to the hammer for breaking the harde flinte Ier. 23. To fire for burning the drosse Ier. 5. To a Sword for cutting and to a two edged sworde Naïe it is said to be sharper thē any two edged sword Heb. 9. 12. The one can but enter the bodie and pearce the bones or if it can deuide betweene the bodie and the soule it is all But this sworde called the sworde of the spirit Eph. 6. can deuide betweene the Soule and the spirite Gaging the hare and renting the raines where no other sworde no not that brandishing firie sword of the Angel that kept the garden of Paradise can come Gen. 3. Neither are these things spoken of the worde as it goeth out of the mouth of God for so it exceedeth as it proceedeth out of the mouth of Christ which Iohn saw as a Sharp two edged sword Reu. 1. 16. but as it cōmeth out the mouth of mē therefore Peter when he called it the immortall seede 1. Pet. 1. 23. hee addeth straight this is the word which we preach vnto you Paul doth not say the word but wee are the sauor of life or death 2. Cor. 2. 16. I graunt that a hart well affected as an instrument well tuned doth sooner answere the sweetnes of it when it soundeth but where is that heart before the worde hath made him such a one likewise I confesse that men by despising thereof doe make it weake and wearish to themselues but if the worde bee weake to saue take heede for it is strong to destroye Water searcheth and Winde shaketh mightie thinges and the voyce of thunder smiteth with terror the harts of Lyons Psal. 29. But al these things can nothing moue Mans hart as the word doth which woorketh powerfullie as well in good as bad learned as vnlearned Kings as Priuate persons In all men that heare it one way or other it woundeth as well Caine as Dauid Saul and Achab as Iosias and Hezekias as well Iudas as Peter but after a diuers maner Baltasar the King when he saw it written his loynes loosed Dan. 5. 6. Iosias hearing it read his heart fayled 2. Reg. 22. 11. but after an other sorte Why the Prophets themselues when they were made but messengers thereof to other men they crie out one O my loynes my loynes Isay 29. 16. An other O my bellie Abac. 3. 16 For it searcheth all the bowels Prou. 20. 27. and cutteth as it goeth with a double edge either to plant or to supplaint the soule It sleyeth the wicked man aliue although hee woulde fayne haue it die in a tempest when he heareth it yet it leads him into a Labirinth and leaues him not vntill it sende him to death or desperation Antichrist if euer hee shall receiue his deathes wounde it is not with Iron or steele but with the breath of Gods mouth that is the word 2. Thess. 2. 8. The Diuell himselfe is put to flight in the desert with no other instrument then with the word Matth. 9. And it is a wonderfull aduantage that Sathan hath against Christ in that he holdeth the first possession in all men and except hee were more stronge in deede that commeth afterwards there were no hope of euer recouering anie one But these conuerted are good witnesses here who is greater Christ or Sathan and not onely these but their Corrupters and Captaines also euen the Pharises and Saduces doe witnesse the same thing who are said to be conuerted Matth. 8. and Iohn 12. Men doe verie hardly change their minds especially if they bee Learned or Rich and hence groweth all the mischiefe among vs that men proue Pharises in the Church Cammels in the common welth Knowledge maketh not the Pharise but the proud conceit nor Riches make a Cammel but wretchednesse by which meanes if it were possible Sathan would stoppe all the course of the word but he cannot for what Ground the gospel the Worde hath woon in the world in spite of the God thereof and all his followers the Pope the Turke and other Tyrants the Church euerie where doeth Witnesse and with vs Reioycing and Triumphing this day doth confesse to the glorie and praise of God saying that The truth is great and hath preuailed and praying that it may preuaile for euermore Amen All these here as it were with one voice do acknowledge their sinne past and their present ignorance O when wil our People Publicans Soldiers doe the like when will they say What shall wee doe I would they woulde but say What