Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	flesh_n	sin_n	soul_n	7,400	5	5.2096	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31658	A seasonable word and call to all those called ranters or libertines through-out the three nations, to come into the true faith and pure fear of the Lord ... written ... by John Chandler ...	Chandler, John, 17th cent.	1659 (1659)	Wing C1928; ESTC R19405	15,876	20

all words and actions issuing from thence which were seen to be of its own begetting David witnessed these two States Saith he Thou hast set my sins in order before me Mark He believed God's witnesse without disputings the Lord had set them before him he therefore believed they were sins or that which was against the Lord which his pure eye had a controversy with Now the Lord doth not set a thing that is not before us but that which is Again he saith Oh Lord I am thy Servant I am thy Servant the Son of thy Hand maid thou hast loosed my bonds There he felt God's acquittance and Justification not in giving him a liberty to do what he list without controul but in enlarging his heart to run the waies of his commandments in which he was accepted even in that which enlarged his heart so to do For saith he in another place Then shall I not be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments Consider also that they were the wicked and ungodly who did say Tush our Tongues are our own we will speak Who shall controul us As if they had asked in derision What is Sin or Evill Not because there was not such thing in reality but onely according to mens apprehension but because the Serpent had got such a head in them that they scarce felt a Controuler when they so spake But if you will be to learn what Sin is Paul and John in the course of their ministry but not in answering such a Question proposed to them by the Saints do experimentally declare The one saith I had not known sin but by the Law Mark the Law written in the heart by the finger of God of which the two Tables of stone were a declaration made Paul to know sin to be Sin Now God's Law in the heart is Light as David long ago witnessed and Christ is the true Light that Lightneth every man Now Christ was he which spake to Moses in the Mount Sinai from whom Moses received the Law to declare it to the People as Stephen when he was full of the Holy Spirit testified So then Christ the Light is the Law-giver whereby Sin comes to be known now if he hath enlightned every man and he be the true Light then he sheweth a truth to every man which is that he hath transgressed his Law or Light by dark motions words and actions arising from a contrary ground and so sin is not a fiction or fained thing in any man whatsoever because sin is known by a Law which Law is Light which Light is in every man which Light is true and discovereth nothing but a reall thing in every one The other saith Sin is the transgression of the Law He knew the Law in his heart or the righteous principle of God which he had been a Transgressour against He doth not say Sin is nothing but an apprehension that there is such a thing but that sin is a reall transgression of a reall Law or Principle of God Again John saith all Unrighteousnesse is sin There is Unrighteousnesse and that of sundry sorts both toward God and man and all this Unrighteousnesse is sin Now saith Peter by the Spirit of truth In every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousnesse is accepted of him But saith Paul all they that had pleasure in Unrighteousnesse should be damned Here are contrary works really so and they have contrary effects for the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all Unrighteousnesse with all which Unrighteousnesse the Gentiles were and are filled to wit with fornications wickednesse covetousnesse envy murther Covenant-breakers despisers of those that are good implacable unmerciful c. Who saith Paul knowing the Judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death not onely do the same but have pleasure in them that do them Here he witnesseth and we see and know it so to be that they were filled with all Unrighteousnesse and that the things mentioned were reall Unrighteousnesse to prove which none need go any farther than their own consciences wherein they knew and felt by the true Light the Committers of such things to be worthy of death even eternal death or separation from the life and enjoyment of God even as a Labourer is worthy of his hire which cannot be an imaginary but a real thing But ye will say to me The Patriarchs Prophets and Apostler spake according to the several dispensations or ministrations they were under The Jews before Christ were under a Vail and the Apostles after the renting of the Vail of the Temple though they saw clearer than they yet not so clearly as we see now in this last and highest dispensation The Vail that was over the Jews hearts consisted in this that their Church-Ministry and Ordinances being according to the flesh letter and written in Tables of stone they felt not for the generality of them the Spirit and finger of the living God writing his Law in the fleshy Tables of their hearts according to his new Covenant Their Church were Jews outward their Priests Ministers of the Letter which left their Souls in death who had need both to offer up Sacrifice for their own sins as for the sins of the People and so the Law outward made nothing perfect but it was the Ministration of condemnation to them for want of quickning life from Christ to ease them who is the Minister of the Spirit and of Righteousnesse and Peace at which Corner-stone they stumbled because of the old and long Vail that had been upon their hearts which Vail to this day when Moses is read in their Synagogues abideth on them who when hey shall turn to the Lord the Vail which is a false apprehension of being accepted in their carnal Services Performances and Ordinances from a literal rule without a feeling of the life of Christ in whom all Sacrifices should be offered up shall be taken away and then shall they feel a ministration of Righteousnesse in the Spirit in respect whereof their other ministration had no Glory But what is all this ô ye Libertines to your purpose for they were not nor are vailed in seeing sin which the true Light that lightneth every man reproveth to be sin for that is not from darknesse of Understanding but from light set up there without which they could not see it at all Yea this was that which ministred condemnation unto them all both the righteous and unrighteous so far as sin was standing and they could not nor ought not otherwise to apprehend because else they should as you do have believed against God's witnesse in them which is to make him a Lyar an abominable presumption As for the Apostles and Saints both Jews and Gentiles who had the Vail rent and lived in the dispensation or ministration of the Spirit and of righteousnesse which exceeded in glory that of condemnation which was and is also glorious in its time and

A SEASONABLE WORD AND CALL To all those called Ranters or Libertines THROUGH-OUT The three Nations to come into the true Faith and pure Fear of the Lord in this his Day of grace and visitation by turning into the Light of Christ or witnesse of God in their consciences from which they have swerved and against which they have transgressed Written in tender Love to their Souls By John Chandler Who hath been taken in the same snare but by great Judgment redeemed out of it LONDON Printed for the Author 1659. TO all you who are or may be called Ranters or Libertines either for your loose practises or principles which ye esteem to be good pure and without deceit This is a word of knowledge or experience from one who hath obtained mercy from the Lord in turning to him that smote him and whether you hear or forbear know and remember that in a day of Grace and an acceptable time wherein the Lord is gathering all sorts of wanderers and stragglers into his fold Ye have been put in mind and warned to return Even you I mean in the first place who formerly have had convictions of trouble sorrow for sin against the Lord and after that some inlets and openings of peace and reconciliation and tasts of the good Word of God within you and of the pure powers of the world to come even of an endlesse life with and in God the Father of Spirits whom ye then believed to be an exceeding great reward to all that walked before him in uprightnesse and with a perfect heart as he declared to Abraham the Father of the Faithfull who saw Christ's day and rejoyced therein Which melted your hearts and made them tender and you conscious of thinking speaking or doing vainly idly or unjustly Now know this all such that in the pure and unfeigned love of the Spirit which dwelt in the Apostle James do I write unto you who truly and sweetly said to the Brethren If any among you shall wander from the truth and any one shall convert or turn him let him know that he which hath turned a Sinner from the Errour of his life doth save a Soul from death and cover a multitude of sins So it appears there were those in his daies who wandred from the truth and so fell into errour of their life as ye have done which brought their souls into death and danger of eternall death which they could not see at the present or at least were unsensible thereof by reason of their wandring minds and hearts which brought a Vail over the Understanding or stupified the Conscience whereby it is no wonder if such then and you now did and do call Evill Good and Good Evill put Darknesse for Light and Light for Darknesse bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter Bondage for Liberty and true Liberty for Bondage promising others Liberty when they and you were and are both the Servants of Corruption the cause of all which hath been I testify the going from or forgetting that which first convinced and troubled for the Sin and Evil whereby that conviction and trouble was thought to be raised up in the mind and conscience by misapprehension or imagination onely and not from a true thing or principle which was the true Light that enlightneth every man that comes into the World which could not lye dissemble or flatter but shewed Sin Evill to be so because they were so really therefore troubled vexed terrified the sinful Soul So by you called Ranters or Libertines when ye grew into a carnall freedom the Master of the House was called Beelzebub to wit the pure holy just and righteous Principle of God taken by you but for a Fancy whereby all that was truly good in you soon went to wrack for hereby shipwrack was made of Faith and a good Conscience of Faith because there is nothing that doth or can discover to a Man or Woman's Soul the true Object of Faith but the true Light within which first reproveth and then giveth the knowledge to the penitent and obedient which Object of Faith or Belief is Christ either as the living Hope Gain and eternall Reward to those that love him keep his Commandments and waite for him as the Saints formerly witnessed him for saith the Apostle He that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of those that diligently seek him or as an eternal Judge and Minister of the Father's justice wrath and vengeance to all that follow and obey him not but their own Wills and Lusts according as it is written Tribulation and anguish upon every Soul that doth evil both to the Jew and Greek So that ye miscalling the Reprover in you for sin as aforesaid soon fell from this belief of the eternall Reward and Punishment looking upon man as to his own particular self to dye and be but as the Beast that perisheth although in the course of one Generation succeeding another ye framed up a Unity and Salvation in your erring minds whereby even as a Ship that hath lost his Anchor runs at randome in the Sea so ye having lost the Anchor of your Souls were let loose to think Sin and Evil to be no such thing and some of you to commit all iniquity with greedinesse For the strong consolation in the light by the Spirit and hope which the Saints have which hope entreth within the Vail even into the Glory that was with the Father before the World or succeeding Generations began is the Soul's Anchor as it was of Christ's the Elder Brother Who for the joy that was set before him endured the Crosse and despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of God And the same that led you not to believe this particular and eternal Reward led you also to deny the eternal Punishment when as Christ who was the true Light and meant as he spake without dissimulation or equivocation saith If thy right hand or eye offend thee cut it off or pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is better to enter into life maimed than having two hands or eyes to be cast into Hell where their Worm dieth not nor their fire never goeth out To which truth the Holy men of God in the Scriptures plentifully witnesse as knowing the terrour of the Lord they perswading men for the Lord God is known by the Judgment which he executeth on the wicked as well as by the Reward which is himself that he bestoweth on the righteous but ye being erred from the right Spirit which David after a fall desired might be renewed within him in your own phansies and imaginations Satan having transformed himself into an Angel of light within you have put secret meanings and interpretations upon the Scriptures as though Christ and the holy men of God did not really mean as they spake of these and divers other things which I shall not now name particularly but