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	name_n	son_n	14,571	5	5.9519	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54027	Concerning the church: or, of the church-state under the Gospel Whereby it may appear what a miserable apostacy from the truth hath overspread and covered the earth for many ages and generations, and how gross and thick the darkness yet lies upon it, though the light of God in his tender mercy hath broke forth and shined upon the people of his gathering, and through them hath also visited the world. The guidance of this in my heart, was particularly and chiefly towards the Papists, but I afterwards had a true sence, that it also extended to the state of such Protestants, as had not waited on the Lord, ... Written in Alisbury prison about the middle of the 6th month, 1666. By Issac Penington. Whereunto is annexed, Some observations upon the eternal judgment, as it is expressed by Christ, Mat.25.31 to the end of the chapter.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1666 (1666)	Wing P1157; ESTC R224045	15,114	20

them and as they prevail they bring death upon and engage God against that Person or Church where they get dominion See what danger one corrupt doctrine of the Nicholaitans brought the Church of Pergamus unto even of God's coming forth with his sword and fighting against her Rev. 2.16 And if God who is the Defender of his Church Himself fight against her how shall she stand 2. By negligence and sluggishness in the Truth by this means also life may languish and extinguish by degrees even till death come wholly over and swallow it up Rev. 3.1 2 3. If the first Love do but abate and wax cold Iniquity will be abounding Mat. 24.12 and the Church will be in danger of losing its Candlestick Revel 2.4 5. 3. By God's withdrawing his Presence and Power for these or such causes abovesaid which nourisheth and preserveth For the life of a Church as well as of a Disciple is fed and nourished from the Fountain or Vine and if it miss of the nourishment its life cannot long continue The Jews may keep up their Sacrifices and reading of the Law but yet they are a dead people to God after their cutting off from the Olive-tree And the Gentiles may worship in the outward Court and keep up the outward Ordinances after God's rejecting and cutting them off also and be as dead to God therein as the Jews in theirs Rev. 11.1 2. Rom. 11.21 22. 4. By their listning and yeelding to the power of the Enemy who quickly deceiveth with his Lies instead of the Truth destroyeth and layeth waste such buildings where God in his just Judgement letteth him forth upon them For the Gates of Hell will prevail against that building which the Arm of Christ is not stretched forth or ceaseth to defend And as the defence of every particular Building upon the Rock is in its abiding there and subjecting to the Head so the defence of larger Gatherings or Churches is no otherwise As their union and gathering is so is their standing to wit in believing and giving up to their Leader hearkning to his voice and obeying him only But if they hearken to a Stranger if they hear another voice than his if they follow another spirit letting in his lies and deceit they cannot keep their standing in the Truth but in so doing depart from it and lose the promise and protection of it For as before by God's gathering them from the spirit of darkness they became His and met with his Power Presence and Blessing so afterwards being again by any subtilty of deceit gathered from the Truth it self into some likeness and appearance of it which the Enemy hath formed they become the Enemies Synagogue not God's Church into which he entereth again and dwelleth there in that likeness and appearance And this House which was once cleansed swept and garnished by God being again recovered and repossessed by the Enemy becomes worse and more filthy in the nature of wickedness than it was before What is more pure glorious and excellent than a true Church of God which is sanctified by his Spirit and holds forth the vertues and pure nature of his Life in the world what is more filthy and abominable and where doth Satan more strongly dwell and act than in that which pretends to be a Church and is not The Promises of God are only to the Seed absolutely but not so to any man or society of men but as in the tender mercy of the Lord they are gathered into and preserved in the Seed in the way that the Lord hath chosen and appointed For the way of Life is glorious and perfect and the Lord will honour it so that those that expect to reap Salvation from Him must walk and abide with Him therein for besides Him there is no Saviour and besides his Way there is no way of Salvation either for any man or Church Quest 5. When hath a Church lost its state and being Answ When its nature is changed when it is overcome by and gathered into another power and spirit than it was first gathered into by the Lord when its standing is not in the Spirit nor after the Spirit but in the flesh and after the flesh when its wayes are carnal its weapons carnal when its hedge or wall is broken down and the spirit of the world not kept out but entred into it and become one with it Then it is no longer of God and separate from the world but one in nature state and being with the world Rev. 2.9 These things are written in the love and good-will of God that men may see that spirit which hath bewitched and entangled them from him with the wayes and false appearances wherein it hath entangled them and may wait on the Lord in truth of heart for his Light Guidance and Power to deliver them that so they may come into his Holy Land and within the limits of his Holy City out of all polluted Lands and Buildings where his Holy Nature dwelleth not and the Pure Dominion of his Holy Life and Power is not felt that they may sing Praise to Him among his Redeemed Ones for his precious Redemption who is breaking the bonds of Captivity and redeeming His out of all Lands and Countries wherein they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day Glory in the Highest to his Name for evermore Some Queries to the Professours of Christianity to provoke them to jealousie for their good Qu. 1. Have ye eat of the Bread and drank of the Wine in the Father's Kingdom which they that have received the Kingdom and are in the Kingdom eat and drink of Qu. 2. Have ye known the heavenly Jerusalem and are ye come to it as the Christians were in the Apostles dayes Hebr. 12.22 Qu. 3. Are ye in Him that is true and your Churches and Gatherings in God and in the Name of his Son Is your being and dwelling in the Eternal Life Qu. 4. Have ye received the Promise of the Father even the excellent Spirit of the Son Qu. 5. Have ye the true Faith Do the living Waters spring out of your bowels according as the Scriptures have said He that believeth on me out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water Joh. 7.38 ch 4.14 Qu. 6. Doth God tabernacle in you is his dwelling among you doth he walk up and down in your spirits and sup with you and you with him Qu. 7. Are ye in the New Covenant taught of God so as ye need no man to teach you and your sins so blotted out according to the Covenant as to hinder no good things from you These things were spoken of in the Law and Prophets to be fulfilled witnessed and enjoyed under the Power and Life of the Gospel which is not a state of the names and foretellings of things as under the Law but of the presence and enjoyment of the things themselves and so far as ye fall short of them ye fall short of

there is a possibility of their fal from the Faith wherein their standing is and from the Power which preserveth And if they so fall they are liable to be cut off as the Jews were as their Apostle tels them Rom. 11.20 21 22. In the fear in the humility before the Lord in keeping to the Faith their safety is but if they become high-minded because of their State and Church-priviledges if they think their standing so sure as that they are out of the danger of falling then they are out of the fear out of the humility out of the Faith which preserves and being out of the Preservation they must needs fall and so continuing must needs be cut off Now the same Apostle doth not only warn them to take heed of falling from the Faith but afterwards expresly foretels of a falling away even that there must come such a thing among them also yea and of such a falling away from the Truth and Power of Life as should give Antichrist advantage to get into God's Temple and sit there as God taking upon him the power and authority as if he had the true Power and Authority of God 2 Thess 2. ver 3 4. And what doth he then doth he not corrupt all even as God's Power and Presence purifies and preserves all And as he shews himself as God so doth he not also shew forth his Church as God's Church Yes it goes so in the World as God's All that drink of his Spouses Cup take it to be so who are very many and great ones even Kings and Inhabiters of the Earth Peoples Multitudes Nations and Tongues Rev. 17.2 15. chap. 18.3 and none are able to discern that it is not so but those that are anointed with the true eye-salve which giveth to see through his deceits 1 John 2.20 For he cometh with all deceivableness of unrighteousness 2 Thess 2.9 10. he makes the Church after he hath got possession of it and made it his sitting as God in it appear as like the true Church as possibly he can that he may hold up his mystery of deceit in the World which if once discerned would soon fall and come to nothing 2 Thess 2.7 Rev. 17.5 To open these things a little more fully and further from the Scriptures that they who yet cannot read otherwise may read them there and come in some measure to the acknowledgment of the Truth and wait for the Power from on high from whence is the true Faith wherin is the true Church and its standing for want of which the World is become a Wilderness full indeed of Profession but very empty of the nature and life of Christianity Christ tels his Disciples that false Christs and false Prophets should come and deceive many yea that they should prevail so far as if it were possible to deceive the very Elect Mat. 7.15 ch 24.11 24. The Lord God had sent forth his truth and now after it he suffers to go forth a power of Deceit a mighty power even having all maner of Deceivableness of unrighteousness in it 2 Thess 2.9 10 11. And it works according to its power it gathers all its own every where Not one but he that is of the Elect Seed can stand before it Now the reason why God suffered this to go forth was in Judgment Men had dallied with the Truth had took up a Form of Godliness and rejected the Power therfore God withdraws from the Form and suffers the unclean spirit to enter it and the uncircumcised nature of man to shelter it self there It arose also from the Devil's subtilty who finding himself dispossessing of his Kingdom played this Masterpiece both to save what he could at present and to recover the rest again in process of time He in his Apostles and Ministers takes upon him the profession of Christianity sending them forth as the Ministers of Righteousness 2 Cor. 11.13 15. but for all that they were still of the worldly nature of the worldly root spirit and principle And so by them he brings forth Christianity or the profession and observation of the Christian Religion in such a way as would please the worldly mind and nature And bringing it forth so he gathers to him all that were not gathered and preserved by the Power and so becomes the greater Body and Church in view and the rest as to the outwardness of their Church-state are fain to give way and retire into the Power cut of their former place and station in the world Rev. 12. Now as Christ had said that false Christs and false Prophets should come so John said they were come 1 Joh. 2.18 and also shewed from whence they come They went out from us ver 19. They were such as came into the Form among us but were not begotten of the Life nor subject to the Power with us And there were many of them chap. 4.1 and such they were as had a great power of Deceit and came therewith to seduce them 1 Joh. 2.26 Therefore he bids them in the Unction which they had received v. 27. which searcheth and discerneth all try the spirits If their spirit or the spirit that is in them confess Christ who is the power of the endless life the sum substance and end of all that which shadowed-forth life they are of God chap. 4.2 But if their spirit confess not Christ come in the flesh though they may seem never so much to preach him they are not of God v. 3. Now whose spirit confesseth Christ Surely his only that is subject to him He that preacheth Christ in words and denieth him in works whose works are not wrought in Christ nor brought forth by Christ his confession is but outward but formal it is no true confession It is but the confession of his mouth not of his spirit and he is in the sight of God not a confessor but a denier of him And who so is enabled by God to try spirits and waiteth in his Light and Anointing to try such findeth him to be so notwithstanding all his fair words and speeches of Christ and his pretending to be his Minister Rev. 2.2 For men with fine words and fair speeches may deceive the hearts of the simple but they cannot deceive those to whom God giveth ability to try spirits Could the Devil deceive Christ when he said Thou art the Son of God No Christ knew his spirit to be against him notwithstanding those words And can the ministers of Antichrist deceive the Elect of God when they preach up Christ in words to be the Saviour and Redeemer and yet own not that Life and Power which saves but persecute it wherever they find it No The same Spirit of Christ in them discerneth quite through their words to their spirit My Sheep saith Christ hear my voice Joh. 10.27 Man may be deceived and caught in the snare but the Elect the Sheep know the voice of the Shepherd from the voice of the Stranger If

the Stranger say Christ is the Son of God though he believes and owns the thing yet they receive it not from his mouth Well whence are these false Prophets and false Christs They are of the World That 's their root Thence they come They are of the worldly spirit the worldly wisdom the worldly nature only cloathed outwardly with a profession and shew of the Doctrine and Practices of Christ and his Apostles And what do they do They preach worldly things They suit their doctrine to the worldly nature principle and spirit And what is their success The World heareth them 1 Joh. 4.5 The earthly wisdom in man falls in with them judges them to be right owns them sets up their way of Christianity and Worship in the World and thus the World become Christians Those which came in the Name of Christ the World could not receive He that knoweth God heareth us not the World 1 John 4.6 There were but a few in comparison gathered here and there then a few in one place a few in another The Doctrine that comes forth in the Power scatters the worldly part Man's wisdom man's nature cannot receive it in the Love and Life of it But when these false Christs and false Prophets come the World can turn Christians then a whole City or a whole Nation can presently become a Church Why so These come in that which the World can receive which their wisdom can answer fall in with and subject to These can bring forth a Cross which the World can like fall down and worship but the Cross of Christ they cannot for that crucifies and slayes the worldly nature wherever it is felt taken up and subjected to The way of Life is strait and narrow and few there be that can walk therein but a broader way more may walk in The true Church is not easily found or entred into but the false is wider and far larger yea desirable to the flesh The true Church is circumspect will admit none but in the way of God's Wisdom and Power but the false Church prostitutes and thrusts her self upon all She meets men in the streets and forceth them into her bed whereas the voice of the true Church is Wait for the preparation for the being changed by that which giveth entrance into the Truth for the Builder of the Church is God Heb. 3.4 he builds this House by Christ ver 6. as by Moses he built the House under the Law and he is the adder to the Building Act. 2.47 So Paul also writing to Timothy tells him of perilous times in the last dayes 2 Tim. 3.1 For when the last dayes come and the Antichrists and false Prophets appear then men are in great danger of being deceived and of making shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience Then he that is not in the Truth but only in the form and outward appearance will be swallowed up by the deceit and take up his dwelling in the Form with out the Power for so saith the Apostle concerning them v. 5. they have a Form of Godliness but deny the Power of it And all manner of Wickedness will shelter it self under this Form Self-love Covetousness Boastings Pride Blasphemy Disobedience to Parents Unthankfulness Unholiness c. ver 2 3 4. and indeed what not For what is so evil which cannot shelter it self under that Form of Religion and Profession where there is not the true Power and Life of Religion to resist and subdue it Now mark When these Antichrists and false Prophets had got up into a body and strength gaining Authority and Credit in the World what did they then do but endeavour wholly to crush and suppress the Truth with those that abode still in it Then the Dragon with his Angels fighteth with Michael and his Angels They had still been fighting with the Apostles and Ministers of Christ endeavouring to disparage them and eat out their esteem in the Churches as 2 Cor. 11. but they could not prevail Satan in all his enterprizes fell down like Lightning before the Glory and Power of Christ in his Apostles and Ministers But when the Apostacy encreased and the Churches provoked their Preserver growing cold in Love and faint in Faith being lifted up with their Gifts thinking highly of themselves and their standing to be firm and many received not the love of the Truth but only a profession of it for by-ends c. Then the Lord began to threaten some with the removal of their Candlestick and did afterwards proceed in Judgment even to let the false Prophets and Antichrists prevail and strong Delusions enter that they who had dallied with the Truth might be frustrated of the Salvation they expected by it meeting with a Lie which destroyeth in the stead of it 2 Thess 2.10 11 12. And so God who before built up in his jealousie and indignation afterwards threw down men abiding not in the Faith nor in the Power but in the Form and outward Profession which separated from the Power the Lord abhorreth What he loved he secured for himself his holy Temple his holy Altar his spiritual Worshippers and what he regarded not which was the Form and outward Ordinances now polluted he gave to the heathenishly-professing spirit and there they worship and magnifie their own state prizing it by its outward glory and appearance and not by a right sence and knowledge of it in the Truth Read these things outwardly in the letter or rather wait upon God that ye may read them who caused them to be writ to that end for to be read and understood Rev. 12. chap. 11. 1 2. where the battel of the Dragon is related and God's taking down his Building and disposing of it according to his pleasure Again mark Antichrist gets into the Temple upon the falling away sits there as God ruling giving Laws and exacting Obedience in the Name of God But when was this to be In the last times 1 Tim. 4.1 which would be very perilous through the power of wickedness and deceit then getting up When did those times begin They began in the Apostles dayes The Mystery of Iniquity was then at work 2 Thess 2.7 Yea saith John it is the last time by the coming of the Antichrists and Deceivers we know it to be so 1 Joh. 2.18 Christ said They should come John said they are come Paul saw them then at work in the mysterious Power of Darkness But they could not carry their work through the Spirit and Power of Christ in his Apostles stood so much in their way but after they were removed out of the way Antichrist got up his Mystery of Deceit apace Well how long doth he reign Even till the very coming of Christ in his Spirit and Power yea there is some remainder of him till the very brightness of his coming 2 Thess 2.8 This Mystery of Iniquity hath power and authority over all the wisdom of man but the appearance of Christ in the