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	son_n	way_n	5,888	5	5.0772	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84069	The great earthquake, Revel. 16. 18. or, Fall of all the churches. Discovering the apostasie of purest churches, not yet sensible of their spiritual whoredoms, EZek. 43.9, 10. Or, The great whore made bare and naked before she be judged, and her flesh burnt with fire, Rev. 27. 16. Proving, that none indeed deny the ordinances of Christ, but present churches not being in a Gospel-order. By William Erbery.	Erbery, William, 1604-1654.; J. W.	1654 (1654)	Wing E3227; Thomason E806_7; ESTC R207174	48,514	64

is Deus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John 6.70 Mat. 16.23 holy Fathers moderne Divines and Ministers are those Devils as the Worships which great and good Men have set up in the Churches are called the worship of Devils Revel 9.10 Let not this seem strange for not only Ju das was called a Devil but Peter was Satan indeed when he savoured the things of Men more then of God therefore let not our Ministers be moved if hereafter they hear their services called Sorceries as 't is there Rev 9 21 and themselves the Sorcerers of Egypt deceiving the Nation in nothing more then in their Forms of prayer For their preaching begins to appear more powerless flat dead having no discovery of God above the Common Form of Knowledge yea they know less and their preaching is more legal then once it was by the judgment of their wisest Hearers Yea as there are not the prayers of the Church this day as it was neither in power not Form so there is scarce a Christian prayer in private among them though they are full and flow with words at duty-times yet God and their own Conscience can tell how little they pray in their Closets how loose their petitions are in private how seldom they retire into their own spirits yea scarce ever doe they thus seek the Lord as the Prophet speaks that is Jer. 10.21 they seek not any nearer sight of the Lord nor any new discovery of God in them Alass New-lights are laugh'd at by these men though God indeed be the Father of Lights there being more Lights then one begotten and brought forth daily by our God and Father who will shine in us more and more to perfect day till we have a full discovery of himself as he is James 1.17 that is have the Fathers name on our Fore-heads Rev. 14.1 And as the Churches erre in their Formes of publique prayer so they fail in their Forms of private Prayers c. For they pray not to the Father nor secondly in the name of Christ nor thirdly can they pray in the Spirit First They do not pray to the Father but to the first Person in Trinity whom Christ never knew nor acknowledged for had there been a second Person or subsistence in the Godhead coessentiall and coequall with the Father surely Christ should and would have worshipped him but Christ never payed to any Person but to the Father and no Christian ever prayed to the Spirit till the spirit of Antichrist Veni Spiritus Sancte came into the world Not that I deny the holy Trinity according to Scriptures Col. 2.2 8 compared But disclaiming all the Traditions of our Fore-fathers and teachings of men I beleeve that God is Father Son and Spirit and that the Son of God Mat. 28.19 Rom 9.5 1 Cor. 8.6 Ephes 4.6 Isa 96. 1 Tim. 3.16 Luk. 24.49 Act. 1 4 1 Cor. 12.6 7. the Man Christ Jesus is God blessed for ever yet both in a Mystery which no man can manifest or reveal but the spirit Matth. 11.25 Ephes 1.17 The Father being none else but the one onely true God of himself and in himself inhabiting eternity The Son being the same God and Father manifest in Flesh and dwelling among men That one mighty God and Father powerfully going forth and exerting himself or appearing in manifold gifts and operations in flesh is the holy Spirit Which things are not to be carnally understood according to the letter as if God sent his Son 1 Cor. 2.13 John 14 9. Heb. 9.14 1 Cor. 15.45 and the Son sent the Spirit but comparing spirituall things with spirituall we shall perceive that the Son is the Father and the eternall Spirit is both Father and Son so the Father is said to send the Son where he himself appears in flesh from the beginning in the fulnesse of time or this day Heb. 13.8 for Christ is the same to day yesterday and for ever And Christ speaking in the dayes of his flesh that he would send the Spirit is nothing else but that he who dwelt with them should be in them that is when God even the Father who dwelt in his flesh should be manifest in theirs Joh. 14.17 18 19 20. Thus also I confesse that Jesus is the Son of God 1 Joh. 4.15 Joh. 14.7 10 20 verses Phil. 2.6 and that the Man Christ is God blessed for ever God even the Father dwelling in him and doing all in him being all in all in him His flesh being the form of God an image in whom the Godhead appeared to men The Son of God being nothing in himself Joh. 5.19 30. John 8 28. Gal. 4.19 but the Manifestation of the Father and could do nothing of himself but as the Father dwlling in him did all his works and words Again I conceive the Man Jesus Christ the Man-God being in us to be all in all to us Ephes 3.19 John 17.23 God dwelling in us as in him our flesh annointed and filled with the Godhead as his and we perfect in one with the Father as he This is the true Faith and Confession of the Son of God if once revealed in us Gal. 1.16 and 2.20 else how could the Son thus confess'd bring us to God God dwelling in us and we in him thereby 1 John 4.2 3 15. compared I shall not now declare at large how the present Churches deny all the Doctrine of God and of Christ c. which if God will we shall do in his due time onely we are now discovering all their forms of Worship to be false though some may worship the Father in spirit and truth yet in form of words they worship not nor pray to the Father at all Secondly They do not pray in the name of Christ but as saints of the Old Testament knew God in Covenant with them not God in Christ one with them that 's the Father So the Churches apprehend God at a distance standing a far off below in the Temple Heb. 10.19 not able to enter into the Holy of holiest into the Godhead himself but call upon his Name as great and terrible Deut. 28.58 Gal. 4.6 glorious and fearfull for so the Law presented God to Men they have not the spirit of the Son to cry Abba Father the Son being not revealed in them how can the spirit of the Son be sent forth at all I beleeve the Son is in them and the Spirit is there though hid in their flesh but they conceiving Christ at a distance Christ without them as long ago in flesh on earth and now afar off in heaven from them not nigh them and in them They do not pray in his Name Rom. 10.8 Joh. 16.23 They go not as the Son to the Father with that neernesse and confidence as Christ did to God but as strangers and forraigners or as far off from God being very low in the flesh They beg the Father still for Christ Jesus

his sake as if Christ procured the love of the Father to them or merited life and salvation for them or as if God would not hear them but for his worthinesse sake words not spoken of in Scripture neither hath his Intercession any such carnal sense For as the Son is none else save the Manifestation of the Father so the Son can do nothing of himself Joh. 4.9.10 but manifest the Fathers love to us and our life in God with him He being but the way to the Father God even the Father being the end and ultimate object of all our Christian knowledge confidence faith yea all that divine worship and honour given to the Son is to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2.10 11. 1 Pet. 1.21 John 1.14 John 17.21 22 23. it tends and ends in God though by Christ and through Christ that is thus We beholding in him the glory of the Father full of grace and truth I say we seeing Christ one with the Father and his flesh full of God God even the Father being perfect in union with him and he the beloved of God living in the Father alone We see by this the same true in our selves for he is the truth and life as well as the way and learning the truth as it is in Jesus Ephes 4.21 the life of God is thus revealed in us also God revealing his Son in us first so we pray in Christs name we pray as the Son to the Father as those who are perfectly one with God the onely beloved and living in the Father alone This is indeed to be with Christ Joh. 17.24 this to behold his glory nor carnally in heaven but here in us in the spirit Indeed the people of God who lived under the Law not knowing the Mystery of God and of Christ nor their union with the Father did worship God as at a distance for the Holy of Holiest they came not neer standing aloof off from that glorious Majesty whose name was great and fearfull therefore they did not yet draw nigh to the throne of grace Hebr. 4.14 16. nor had that accesse with boldnesse as to the Father but begg'd in all their prayers for his name sake for his own sake sometimes for the Lords sake Dan. 9.17.19 but in the Gospel state no saint did ever pray so nor did any Christian prayer end as ours For Christ Jesus sake neither is this speech once named in the new Testament We please our selves much with the often name of Christ though in truth we pray not in his name at all The Apostles had not the name of Christ sometimes in all their prayers Act. 1.24 yet prayed alwayes in his name in him and through him they went to God as having the same fellowship with the Father as the Son and seeing themselves as full in the love of the Father as he Therefore he saith In that day ye shall ask me nothing John 16.23 and yet at that day ye shall ask in my name ver 29. In that day in the day of the spirit when the Son should appear in the Father onely and in them John 14.20 they should not ask of the Son nor pray to Christ any more as they did indeed before but they shall ask the Father in his name onely not as men carnally conceive of Christ praying to the Father for us and so they pray to God for Christs sake nay saith Christ I say not to you that I will pray the Father for you for the Father himself loveth you Job 16.26 because ye have loved me and have beleeved ihat I came out from God that is Think not that my Father will not hear you but for my sake for the Father himself loveth you freely as he loveth me and so ye love me not for my own sake but as I am the manifestation of the Father as I came forth from God How falsly then is that Scripture as other Scriptures of this kinde translated Ephes 4.32 Forgive one another as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Whereas 't is no other in the Original then thus as God in Christ hath forgiven you For as God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself so God in Christ is All and Christ is all in all in us and we being in him do ask in his name Thirdly the Churches cannot pray in the spirit Eph. 6.18 not having that spirit sutable to a Gospel state as we shewed before at best all their prayers are legall as the prayers of Saints under the Law for though they repeat never so oft the name of Christ they do but take the name of God in vain not knowing God in Christ nor Christ in them nor the spirit of Christ the spirit of the Son which Gospel saints indeed had else they had been none of his Rom. 8.9 But I beleeve many now are the Lords that have but a legal spirit but the spirit of bondage the spirit of a servant not the spirit of a son Gal. 4.1 3. 6. compared much lesse the spirit of the Son Saints now deceive themselves in thinking they have the spirit of adoption the witnesse of the spirit the seal of the spirit the earnest of the spirit Alas how little assurance had saints a while ago what long discourses were learned religious men fain to make and find out what witnesse the witnesse of the Spirit was yea best men were scarce sure of their Salvation at last or must have signs to know the people of God questioning they might be hypocrites whereas no Saint under the Law even in time of desertion did ever doubt of his salvation Psal 22.1 Psal 88.1.15 Iob 13.16 Nor Secondly did they question whether they were the people of God or no Nor Thirdly That they were Hypocrites yet this was usuall with our Gospel-saints not long since and it may be were the better Christians then being sensible of their bondage but now Saints like those Jewes who counting themselves free see their liberty freedom by being in a Church-state Ioh. 8.33 as children of Abraham and people of God therefore for some conformity to the Law or to the Letter of Gospel commands but I beleeve few have that full assurance to the end Heb. 36.14 Col. 1.23 Eph. 1.19.20 few rooted and established in the Gospell none know the exceeding greatnesse of his mighty power which is indeed the Spirit the Spirit of the Sonne the Gospel spirit the Spirit of Liberty Alas How can Christians boast of this that are in Babylon in Bondage under the Spirit of Antichrist Antichrist being in that power in the best Saints who are in a farre differing dispensation from the Gospell state Rom. 12.12 1 Thes 5.16 1 Thes 3.10 But to pray in the spirit was to pray continually to pray without ceasing not twice or thrice a day as wt do but praying night and day which was not on their knees or at a

experiments from outward providences from the writings of Poets and prophane Authors yea from all the Creation Therefore 't is plaine there is no preaching of the Gospell by any Independent-Church or preacher whatsoever But still our Ministers cry Do we not preach as the Apostles did not Paul and Peter hold forth Christ after flesh I answer againe The Apostles indeed did hold forth Christ after the the flesh 1 Because their Ministery was much in the Letter having but the first-fruits of the Spirit 2 They preacht much of Christ after the flesh to the Jewes proving him to be the Messias by Scriptures but to the Heathen who know no Scriptures nor expected the Messias thereby Christ after the flesh is never named to them by the Apostles but Christ only in Spirit God in mans flesh which they manifested yea God manifest in the flesh of the Creation as we said before for this is Christ in Spirit also 3. Though the Apostles did preach Christ after the flesh yet not as the end as the adequate or ultimate object of their ministry or of mens beleiving but Christ being the only way to the Father by him men were brought to God and by him did believe in God that all the Christian knowledg faith of men might tend end in God 1 Pet. 3.18 4. The Apostles were so much Ministers of the spirit yea could so minister the Spirit to men 1 Pet. 1.21 2 Cor. 3.6 Gal. 3.5 that in the man Christ Jesus they could manifest God even the Father in perfect union with Men as with Christ and so raise up beleevers from Christ after the flesh to Christ in spirit to God in their flesh as in his No Minister of the Churches this day has this ministry of the Spirit neither can they manifest the Mystery of Christ in us but carry their hearers no higher then Christ in flesh and there leave them in the flesh which profiteth nothing Joh. 6.63 though God in his free grace and love takes up all his to himself the quickening spirit living in them and revealing himself to men as he pleases Yet this we shall with God make good hereafter when we come to speak of Doctrines that the Churches know not the Doctrine of Christ nor yet so much as Christ after the flesh for what was the Man Christ Jesus but God in flesh the Saviour of men not the Man but God in that man was Jesus the Saviour For as God in Christ was the Reconciler c. 2 Cor. 5.29 so God in Christ was the Redeemer of the world God in him was the Head and Husband of the Church God even the Father was all in all in that flesh brought forth of a Virgin the hypostaticall Union so called being not between the person of the Son and humane Nature but the humane Nature united to God even the Father was the person of the Son The preaching of the Gospel was thus to manifest God in the flesh of men as in the man Christ and men in union with the Father as that Man that Man-God being in us Act. 10.38 Isa 8.8 10. because God was in him for as God was with him so God is with us and God with us is Christ Immanuel Without this knowledge taught of God men preach not Christ but they preach Man and themselves 5. A Psalm was the musick of Churches and the melody of the Gospel but the sound of the Gospel being not heard how we heare a Psalme sung in the Churches Indeed under the Law a Psalm was in ryme and meeter Secondly in tune and melody Thirdly the multitude altogether did sing but a Gospel Psalme was no such thing and the Churches of Christ had no such order women were forbid to speak in the Church much lesse to sing A Psalme then was a special gift of the spirit whereby some one filled with the Spirit and word of Christ did speake the praises of God with exceeding joy and full of Glory I say t was a special gift of the Spirit how is it brethren when you come together every one of you hath a Psalme hath a doctrine hath a tongue hath a Revelation hath an interpretation let all things be done to edifying 1 Cor. 14.26 The Apostle doth not there chide the Corinthians for their disorder as speaking together but he commends their order and decency ver 40. that every one spake that is none spake but according to the gift of the Spirit which each had some had a doctrine that is no common truth delivered but some speciall and glorious discovery of God Esa 29.24 again a tongue and interpretation were two other gifts of the Spirit and a Revelation or the manifesting of the Truth that was long hid from the Churches this was a gift so was a Psalme not which every one had no not all saints but some had a Psalme that is such a one who was filled with the Spirit and word of Christ or Gospel knowledge He could sing that is speak the prayses of God with exceeding joy men thinke they doe not sing unlesse they make a noise like a bird or tune their voice but to sing in the Gospel language is no more then to speak Speaking to your selves in Psalmes hymms and spiritual songs making melody in your hearts to the Lord there was no tune in the voice but in the heart no melody to men but to the Lord God for to sing was to speak his prayses as is plaine 1 Cor. 14 15 16 Ephes 5.20 Col. 3.17 not that every speaking or praysing God is singing but such as was with exceeding joy if any be afflicted let him pray if any be merry let him sing Psalmes Jam. 5. let him expresse his mirth the joy and melody of his heart in the prayses of God as those Re. 14.1 who had the Fathers name on their fore heads i.e. who had a full discovery of God in them were as the voice of Harpers harping with their Harps ver 2. none could sing that song but themselves ver 3. now all all can sing Davids Psalmes the Churches songs but those who sing the song of the Lambe have not Davids harp but the Harpes of God the joy of the Holy Spirit unspeakable and full of Glory Rev. 15.2 'T is too long at present to shew how the Churches as it was said of the Princes of Egypt do err in every work of their hand Isa 19.14 erring in all their Ordinances duties dayes of Fasting feasts of Thanksgiving conforming in all to the National Churches but especially in sanctifying the Lords Day There is nothing they are more dark in then in this whereas the Lords Day is no more then the Day of the Lord the Day of God when God shall reveal himself to men and in them cleerly as John saith of himself Revel 1.10 I was in the spirit on the Lords day that is the manifestation of God in flesh when God did fully reveal

himself in John John was all in the spirit his flesh fell down as dead ver 17. as Isaiah and Daniel were both undone when they saw the Lord in glory appearing in them Isa 6. Dan. 10. But how comes the Lords day to be the first day of the week or the fourth Commandment speaking of the seventh day prove the sanctifying of the first day Who can prove the change of the day by Christ or that the Apostolick Churches kept holy the first day as God sanctified the seventh especially seeing the next succeeding Ages even the primitive Churches of the first 300 yeers kept the seventh day as the Sabbath yea celebrated the Lords day and Sabbath together for a long time for the Apostacie presently succeeded the Apostles departure Ignatius being but about 100 yeers after Christ sheweth the same After the Sabbath day saith he let every one that loveth Christ celebrate the Lords day the Queen of dayes for the Sabbath day was King or chief as one expounds Ignat. Epist ad Magnes The celebrating of the Lords day alone was first instituted by Constantine the Great Hosp cap. 9. pag. 27. anno 300. Afterward it was established by the Laodicean Councel an 364. commanding Christians not to Judaise in keeping the Sabbath but to work on that day and keep holy the Lords day Hosp Orig. Fest cap 9. pa. 27. In all this 't is observed that the Eastern Churches which were the most part of Christendom did celebrate the Sabbath as I said and the Lords day together Socrates cap. 8. lib. 6. and cap. 21. lib. 6. Mr. Brierwood on the Sabbath against Mr. Bifield pag. 77. Perk. 1 vol. on the fourth Commandment But the Romish or Western Churches would not have their Church-Assemblies on the Sabbath as in all other Churches of the world so the Centuries report Cent. 4. c. 6. p. 477. I am the more large in this that Independent Churches may see their Judaisme in their strict observance of an outward Sabbath their simplicity in sanctifying the first day of the week as the Lords day Their ignorance or connivance not cleering those things which are so certain Their conformity with Popish Churches Their carnal complying with the Protestant State Religion Their Laodicean condition thinking they are rich and have need of nothing that they need no Order nor Ordinance nor Officer whereas they are so poor blind and naked that they have no Gospel-Ordinances nor a Day at all but walking in the dark deceive themselves and others The observation of the Lords Day therefore depends much on Popish Churches and the command of Christian Princes to which the Independent Churches are as conformable as ever Prelates were What I conceive of the Sabbath I shall in a few words declare 1. That the fourth Commandment is mystical as wel as moral for there is a mystery in the four first commandments even the mystery of God is there manifest In the first Commandment God the One onely true God even the Father is acknowledged In the second Ephes 4.6 Col. 1.15 Heh 1.3 the same God and Father is known in the Son the expresse or graven image of his substance and no other graven image is to be made of God but the Man Christ In the third God even the Father so known in the Son cannot be acknowledged Ephes 2.18 nor worshiped in spirit and truth but by the Spirit without this whatever men think of God and Christ they take his name in vain The fourth Commandment holds forth mans spiritual rest in God alone so known in the Son by the Spirit And this indeed is the morality of the fourth Commandment the Ceremoniall part thereof being the sanctifying of the seventh day which was so commanded to the Jewish Church not as a law natural to all Nations as other commandments are written in every mans heart but as a positive law to that particular people now not a Sabbath or a seventh day but the Sabbath and the seventh day from the creation is that which the command speaks contrary to all our Protestant Interpreters who teach that the Christian Sabbath or Lords day is grounded on the fourth Commandment Now this Sabbath or the seventh day was meerly ceremonial as 't is called a signe between God and his people the Jewes that I the Lord sanctifie you and that you are a people sanctified and set apart onely for God Therefore that God is all in all to us and in us and that we are to rest in God onely and alone in the true mystery and morality of the Sabbath Prophets and Apostles witnesse The Prophet Isaiah speaking of the Sabbath saith thus Isa 58. If thou turn away thy foot from the Sabbath doing thy pleasure on my holy day and shalt c all the Sabbath a delight the holy of the Lord honourable and shalt honour him not doing thine own wayes nor finding thine own pleasure nor speaking thine own words then shalt thou delight thy self in the Lord c. Observe that the Sabbath indeed is nothing else but the Lord God rested on and rejoyced in by us when we turn away our foot from the Sabbath and turn to God onely else he had said rather If thou turn thy foot to the Sabbath from doing thy pleasure on my holy d●y but this last is not so read as we do from doing c. as if we were forbidden to do our pleasure on his holy day on the Sabbath Nay we are there commanded to do our pleasure as the words read For the Sabbath should be our delight the holy of the Lord honourable and we shall honour him For he himself is the Sabbath that is so honorable the holy day of the Lord is the Holy One the Lord himself only whom alone we are to honour in all our wayes workes and words for if God be all in all in us t is not our words that are spoken nor our workes that are done but as Christ saith The words that I speake I speak not of my self but the Father that dwelleth in me he does all the workes yea verily the sonne can do nothing of himself John 14.10 John 8.28 but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things this indeed is the sanctifying the Sabbath not to abstain from worldly thoughts and words and from working on the seventh day of the week but to sanctifie the Lord alone when he onely is our All when we are nothing but he is our Being and our being in Him when we do nothing but the Father dwelling in us doth all our works When we thus find not our own wayes nor speak our own words nor speak words as 't is in the Hebrew Man neither speaks nor does any thing indeed but God does all and is all in us This the Apostle holds forth to be the Rest or sabbath-keeping of the people of God Hebr. 4.9 not as if this were ●o rest to be entred into in this life ver 1. for we which

neck or slaying of a man because they see not God dwelling with men the great God appearing in the least and lowest Saints v. 2. whom yet they hate casting out their brethren for his names sake that is because of God manifest in them but he shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed v. 5. they shall leave their name their name is a curse to my chosen that is the legal Churches shall be left as accursed lying under the curse of the Law But the chosen or elect of God as they are called Esa 65.22 not saved persons for such may be deceived by false Christs that is by false Churches for the Church is Christ in truth such elect or chosen persons I say for whom it is impossible to be deceived by those false Prophets and Apostate Churches not deceived by all the fairest forms and flesh of the Whore these servants of God wait on God only who wait for the appearance of God in them these that wait thus on God shall not be ashamed but God shal appear in them to their joy yea God shal call them by another name not the shamefull name of a Church but the name of Christ yea the name of God shall appear in them they shall feast on God and all the Gods of the earth shall be famished that is all men and members of Churches also men of highest parts and purest graces shall be famished by God by Gods appearance in men for man shall be nothing and God shall be all in all Next to Famin to Judgement of the great Whore shall be fire she shall be utterly burnt with fire There is nothing so formidable and dreadfull to Churches and to all their fleshly forms as fire This fire is the spirit this spirit shall burn up all the flesh and forms and fellowship of churches The fire which first set up the churches in the first appearence of Christ the same fire shall burn down churches at the second appearing of Christ God shall appear with more yower in the Saints So that as God spake to the church of Israel They shall goe from one fire and another fire shall devour them so the christian churches have gone from one fire and another fire shall devour them or as 't is in the Hebrew they shall goe from fire and fire shall devour them 't is the same spirit is the first and second appearing of Christ the churches have gone forth from that fire in the first appearing of Christ the fire that comes forth in the second appearing of God in scattered Saints shall burn and devour all gathered churches only the fire of the last day is greater then before that is the manifestation of the spirit shall be more at last then ever in former ages To cleare up this know that all outward formes and Church-Ordinances at the best are but flesh but these forms defiled are called the flesh of the Whore the defilement of these forms and ordinances came by the loss of that fire and baptism of the spirit which did first constitute the Churches of Christ and kept their Ordinances pure for as Christ in flesh foretold that every one should be salted with fire so it came to pass that afterward the Church was baptized with the holy spirit and with fire The Apostles themselves though they had a call and a Commission before to go forth to all the world to teach and baptize yet they could do neither till they were baptized with the spirit and with fire They had the spirit at first and Christ breathed the holy spirit on them after his resurrection but the baptism of the spirit was not till after the ascension till Jesus was glorified 't is said the spirit was not yet given or as 't is in the Greek the spirit was not yet the spirit was before yea abundance of the spirit in some but the baptism of the spirit was not till afterward till then t is said the spirit was not yet and therefore this was the first command not to baptize or be baptized as baptized Churches cry but to wait for the spirit not to depart from Jerusalem but to wait for the baptism of the spirit and of fire This was the first Command which these last Churches will not obey 'T is confest they have been in Babylon and called to depart but yet they should not depart in haste or go by flight not fly out of their Country nor hasten into Churches till the Lord should go before them and the God of Israel should gather them up as the Hebrew reads 't was nor man but God that gathered the first Church of Christ the Apostles and primitive Saints were assembled and gathered together in company 120 at first but they were not gathered into Church-fellowship till the baptism of the spirit came upon them Acts 2. no preaching the Gospel nor baptism with water in a Gospel way could be but by the holy spirit sent down from heaven The spirit as I said was in them before and God was in men from the beginning God was manifest in the Saints with power also that 's spirit God powerfully appearing in the Saints and this is in Jerusalem indeed and in this sense the Disciples at first were commanded not to depart from Jerusalem and so the Saints in these last daies are commanded not to depart out of Jerusalem but to abide still in God to stay and wait on God in them till he should come forth in power and spirit till the appearance of the great God should be There was the appearance of Christ then when God did powerfully appear in the Church in manifold gifts there were not only gifts of the spirit but the spirit was so given to the Churches that the spirit did appear visibly among them as first in tongues of fire so still afterward the spirit said to the Churches of Antioch Separate me Barnabas and Saul Again the spirit spake to Philip and to Peter plainly so the spirit spake expresly to Paul many a time likewise to John He that hath an ear let him hear what the spirit saith the Churches Rev. 1.10.12 Rev. 2. and Rev 3. But the Churches are deaf of that ear they will not hear of the spirit they are sore afraid of fire but this was the baptism of the spirit and of fire which did set up the first Churches of Christ in a Gospel order the manifestation of the spirit in manifold gifts The Church under the Law had some gifts of the spirit manifest among them as the gift of prophesie the gift of healing yea raising the dead with signes and miracles and the Angels moving the waters of Bethesda wherein all diseases were healed at an instant this continued in the Jewish Church to the last this is more then present Churches have having less of the manifestation of the spirit then ●hat under the Law therefore must needs be more in bondage in Babylon not having one gift of the