Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	holy_a	john_n	17,081	5	6.2026	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13111	The looking-glasse of schisme wherein by a briefe and true narration of the execrable murders, done by Enoch ap Evan, a downe-right separatist, on the bodies of his mother and brother, with the cause mooving him thereunto, the disobedience of that sect, against royall majesty, and the lawes of our Church is plainly set forth. By Peter Studley, Master of Arts, and minister of Gods Word, in Shrevvsbury.	Studley, Peter, 1587 or 8-1648.	1634 (1634)	STC 23403; ESTC S117932	73,005	313

thinking For I know right well true faith such as you flatter your selfe to be endued with and effectuall conversion to GOD are the whole substance of a Christian mans New-birth by the Spirit of GOD and this Regeneration where it is sound and effectuall sets the soule of that man free from Satans prevailing in such measure and degree as he hath done in your heart and in all the powers of your soule For it is the testimony of Gods Spirit in His Apostle ● Iohn ● 18 They that are borne of GOD sinne not but hee that is begotten of GOD keepeth himselfe that the wicked one toucheth him not Enoch Sir I have heard some Preachers teach that faith once had can never be lost Min. And by hearing such doctrine preached your imagination deluded and Satanically bewitched became presumptuous bold and desperate to commit those vnnaturall flagitious and crying Sinnes which by continuall clamour call for vengeance at the hand of GOD's Iustice But better it were that such doctrines were never preached unlesse those just limitations prescribed in GOD's Word were both carefully judiciously and continually added thereunto The method and manner of the delivery of this doctrine by Ministers of your acquaintance and familiaritie is neither sound nor true For such Ministers suspend and hang the whole matter of a Christian mans preservation in grace in faith in obedience after his Conversion upon the Mercy the Will and the Act of GOD's power grounding themselves upon these Scriptures Rom. 11.29 The gifts and calling of GOD are without repentance And againe 1 Pet. 1.5 Yee are kept by the power of GOD through faith unto salvation And by these places of holy Scripture and such like the whole act of a Christians support in faith and holinesse is transposed and put off from the will and care of man himselfe unto the will the mercie the power of GOD. And thus the best of men who are naturally prone to selfe-flattery selfe-pleasing and spirituall securitie have the edge of gracious care vigilancie and circumspection blunted and abated But our LORD Himselfe in whose love mercie and holy degrees our preservation and salvation ●● firmely established commands all His children Matth. 26. To watch and pray that they enter not in●● temptation the spirit is readie but the flesh is weake And the Apostle of our LORD gives a caveat to all the true and faithfull people of the LORD 1 Cor. 10.12 saying Let him that thinketh hee standeth take bee● lest he fall And further by the same Apostle Philip. 2.12 13. Worke out your owne salvation with feare and trembling for it is GOD that worketh in you both to will and ●● doe of his good pleasure And the Apostle Iude hath pressed this godly care very home upon the hearts of all true Christians saying Iude 20 21 verse 20 21. But yee beloved building up your selves on your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Ghost keepe your selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Iesus Christ unto eternall life Vnlesse then our understandings wills affections and all that is in us doe willingly submit themselves to the gracious motions and operations of GOD's holy Spirit within us we shall not onely grieve the holy Spirit of GOD Ephes 4.30 1 Thess ● 19 but also wee shall quench the lively flame therof in our hearts and soules By all which places of sacred Scriptures so pregnant and convincing we may informe our understandings that in mans preservation in faith and obedience after effectuall conversion there is a mutuall concurrence of two speciall agents The one supreme and principall and that is GOD our Father Psal 37.23 24. our LORD and SAVIOUR by His Spirit enlightning guiding and supporting The other inferiour subordinate and concurrent with the principall and that is mans understanding will and all other his faculties and powers readily apprehending sweetly embracing joyfully concurring with the divine motions issuing from Gods blessed Spirit according to that voice of the Church Draw me Cant. 1.4 we will run after thee And if this latter at any time be intermitted neglected or suspended The actions of GOD's Spirit in mens soules cannot possibly yeeld any spirituall joy delight and comfort no nor so much as be sensibly felt in the soule of any man But it growes late I must bid you for this time fare-well Enoch Good Sir let me see you again as soone as you can I like well your speeches and I hope you are sent of GOD to doe me good Min. I will GOD-willing see you again the next weeke in the meane time know there is no comming for you to heaven but thorow the suburbs of hell I meane a great measure of Humiliation and Repentance This being our conference at that time I left him to his prison cold irons and spirituall meditations And after this the first newes that I heard concerning him was a common report spread in five daies space throughout our whole Towne and Countrey that ● was the man with whom hee had greatest desire to conferre and to impart himselfe by revealing and discovering what hee intended to make knowne And his reason was that although many Ministers had questioned freely with him to search out his opinions and the secrets of his heart yet none had at that time administred any counsell or directions unto him but my selfe and therefore he conjectured at my intentions by my actions 20 This purpose of Enoch concerning me being publikely knowne by the generality of report The Puritans of whose generation he was were greatly displeased herewith And one of them no honest man I warrant you said of mee Hee is of a great and ungodly Wit and comes to this man of purpose to discredit our party and will worke him to his owne will And godly persons shall thereby sustaine disgrace by the unnaturall cruelty and wickednesse of this bloudie man This report I heard and digested it with silence and patience being by many yeares residence here inured to their bitternesse of spirit and frequent railings But I doe hereby challenge all the Puritanes of this Kingdome of England to charge if they can my Wit or my Will with any peece of ungodlinesse in the execution of my calling or the course of my conversation For I never thought nor they shall never prove it That to defend the Orthodox doctrine of the Church of England against the Papists k Iude 3. B● contending earnestly for the faith once given to the Saints Or the ancient discipline of the sam● Church against the Puritanes ●● be any branch of an ungodly W●● But on the contrary part the resolved and constant practice thereof in my publike Ministrie as occasion was incident to be a gracious inclination to solid pietie and a publike declarat on of an honest heart disposed to peace and unity 21 On the Munday following being the fifteenth day of Iuly 1633. Two messengers from Bishops

words would have them to be new moulded corrected and framed thus The Body of our LORD IESUS CHRIST which was given for thee build thee up in thy body and in thy soule unto everlasting life These formes of words though they seeme to differ in the letter and sound yet they fully accord in sense and signification yet these verball differences in the pronunciation not signification of the words wrought such effects in the heart of this seduced man that he strongly conceited in his vaine thoughts and could never bee reformed and rectified by advice that the gesture of kneeling in the act of receiving was a Posture of body not onely idolatrous but absolutely rendred us incapable of that spirituall Nourishment which from the sacred Body and Bloud of our LORD did diffuse and stream it selfe into all the faculties o●● our soules and all the parts o●● our bodies For in the site o●● gesture of kneeling said th●● ENOCH the legs are cast behind the rest of the body and receive not that influence o●● Nourishment spirituall at leas● in proportion and measure o●● attraction as the rest of the body doth This is a conceit 〈◊〉 sublimate fine and subtile that it rightly fals under those elegant expressions which God Spirit hath made touching that Grand Impostour the Divell for his wiles and sleights attermed p 2 Cor. 211. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subtile devise to entangle mens thoughts And q Revel 3.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 depthes or profundities For these conceits are so subtill deepe and profound that Hales Aquinas or Scotus could never in their curious and deepe speculations rise to the height or fathome the bottome of them The gestures which this vaine light and seduced man conceited to himselfe as most convenient in that sacred act of GOD'S worship were either standing and bowing or sitting and bowing of the body For the gesture of standing hee alleaged full wisely I warrant you the words of our LORD and SAVIOUR IESUS CHRIST r Rev. 3.20 Behold I stand at the doore and knocke if any man heare my voice and open the doore I will come in unto him and sup with him and he with me For the gesture of sitting he had no Scripture at all to alleage nor any other warrant or argument but the apprehension of his owne dull and depraved imagination In these strange opinions of his ſ 2 Thes 2.10 we may behold the powerfull Working of Satan with all deceiveablenesse of unrighteousnesse For the postures of standing of sitting o● kneeling being all naturall and bodily actions without the addition of bowing which is● mentall and spirituall action and hath relation to some other nature either in the Creator or in the creatures to whom it is directed are i● themselves as they are action bodily and naturall neither good nor evill at all And do● onely partake of goodnesse or illnesse as the motion of bowing with intention of Adoration is added unto them And yet this Dolt not versed in the Principles of Catechisme touching worship given to creatures by bowing of the body would presume to talke to censure and peremptorily to judge of things he understood not and therein resist his wise learned and religious Superiours But Pride and Ignorance are these mens cognisance 5 Now touching this ENOCH that I may give you the true and just measure of him for person and qualitie Know Good Reader that he was the son of one EDWARD ap EVAN a countrey Farmer of the Parish of Clunne in the Countie of Salop and Diocesse of Hereford a man who by a long course of industrious painfulnesse in the execution of his vocation and frugality of disposition in the governement of his family and management of his affaires had acquired unto himselfe a competent estate of livelihood for his owne support and the preferment of his children so that he passed in the reputation of all his neighbourhood among the number of rich men living in peaceable manner in the course of his life and good estimation among men of his ranke This EDWARD as he told me himselfe had two sons and five daughters His two sons Enoch aged 34. and Iohn aged 31. he detained in his owne family with himselfe and educated them in the practice of Husbandry to execute his affaires and to be a comfort and support unto him in his elder yeares Iohn the younger brother was of persontall strong and proper of quality affable and sweet natur'd of countenance comely most dutifully obedient to his Parents carefull of their welfare and thriving and never known in one and thirty years to have given any froward stubborne or undutifull reply in words to his father or mother though his father was of condition austere and held a severe hand of government and command over him Enoch was a fellow of a middle stature of complexion swarthy under the predominance of the humour of melancholy of Countenance nothing alluring and lovely but sowre and dejected 6 In this family of Edward ap Evan some sense of religion joyned with the domesticke worship of GOD had for some yeares made entrance and received entertainement For they had as Enoch told mee prayers twice every day not such as were conceived in their owne hearts by the private motions of the Spirit the raigning practice of this age but more commendable and regular being orderly read out of the Service-book of our English Church by Enoch one day by Iohn another in a constant course of well-ordered discipline at which all persons in the family were required to be present This taste of religion stirred up in Enoch a desire of further proficiencie in the knowledge of GOD'S will so that he bought him a Bible which he seldome omitted to carry about with him in his pocket in so much that at the plough in the field and in the barne when he threshed his fathers corne hee borrowed some time from his present imployments to cast his eye on this Sacred Booke so sharpe and insatiable was his thirstie desire of holy reading This practice of his grew in short time to a great forwardnesse in the profession of Piety to the eye of the world and an itching desire to bee accounted more zealous than his neighbours so cunningly wrought it selfe into his affections that his practice therein contained not it selfe within the sober limits of prudent moderation For hee was not contented to stint and confine his solemne and publike worship of GOD to the LORD'S day 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rev. 1.10 commonly called Sunday which together with those few other Holy-daies appointed by the wisdome of our Church might have satisfied a wise man and● sound Christian but hee busily harkened after weeke-day Lectures and would oftentimes ride three or foure miles to heare sermons the ordinary practice of this formall age Having continued this course by the space of two yeares 〈◊〉 began to distaste some ordinances of our Churches constitution for the peaceable and

uniforme regiment of GOD'S people hee disliked the superiority and government by Bishops the gesture of kneeling in the sacred Communion the signe of the crosse in Baptisme and such like 7 Hee would never upon any remonstrance perswasion or pregnant conviction of his errours and folly be drawne to confesse For though I pressed him often and seriously therein and left him destitute of all reply or colour thereof yet in the impadencie of his spirit and bold resolution of a stubborne minde I could never draw other answer from him but that b●● his reading the holy Scriptures he had apprehended these opinions his reading being enlightned and sanctified unto him by the Spirit of GOD. When I told him that all true illuminations of GOD'S Spirit in the hearts of his children did ever hold an exact consonancie with the letter of the Scriptures and never varied from them according to the words of our Lord ſ Ioh. 14.26 When the Comforter the HOLY GHOST whom the Father will send in my Name i● come He shal teach you al things and bring to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto your And againe Ioh. 6.39 Search the Scriptures for in them yee thinke yet have eternall life and they art they which testifie of me And further Esa 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimonies if they speake not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them When I pressed those Scriptures unto him which plainly demonstrate that the teaching of GOD'S Word and of his Spirit are one and the same in substance and nature And whē I requir'd him to produce some place of sacred Writ whereon he grounded his extravagant conceits He answered me that his judgement and mine might haply differ because the true Spirit and the measure thereof were not given by GOD to all alike but in speciall manner measure and degree both for the grace of Illumination and sanctification to GOD'S peculiar ones And for proofe hereof hee aimed at certaine words of o●● Lord which he could not remember till I perceiving 〈◊〉 scope furnished him with th● place and that was t Matth. 13.11 It is g●ven to you to know the myster●● of the kingdome of heaven b●● to them it is not given for whosoever hath to him shal be given and he shall have more abundantly c. And from these word of our SAVIOUR IESUS CHRIST he had raised 〈◊〉 himselfe a very strong a●● pleasing imagination that h●● himselfe in speciall was a person elected of GOD inspire with His Spirit and continually guided and directed by 〈◊〉 same Spirit And this con●● hee so hugged and cherish in himselfe that many time when any preacher utted a●● point of doctrine which arrided unto him and relished his pallat hee would seeme to those who were neere unto him in the Church to be even wrapt up into admiration and transported with spirituall delight And on the contrary if any thing was delivered which hit not point-blanke with his toyish fancie of inconformitie he would visibly discover by his stamping on the ground by his inward fretting and the contracting of his forehead the impatience and rage of his fantasticke spirit 8 These things being perceived in him by his mother who according to those reports I have heard of her was a discreet woman of very good understanding and of a stout spirit she tooke occasion gently to reprove these thing● in him and told him man● times in very loving manne●● That the end of these thing● would bee nought Vnto th●● dislike of his mother Iohn 〈◊〉 younger brother adjoyned h●● endevour to reclaime Eno●● from his wilde and irregul●● opinions and peaceably to●● him That hee saw no men●● good honest and faire condi●●ned as they who were peaceable Religion and free from selfe 〈◊〉 ceited opinions Which wo●● of Iohn as the event declare●● shortly after cost him the lo●● of his head for though th●● perswasion was no more but sweet remonstrance of br●● therly affection and ought charitie and conscience so 〈◊〉 have beene taken yet it so irritated the secret rage of the spirit of Enoch that he inwardly boiled with rancorous malice both against his mother and his brother and for no other cause contrived the death of his brother Iohn but because he would not entertaine his opinions and comply with him in his schismatical courses From this time of conference and parley as Enoch himself ●old me he so distasted his brothers resolution in religion that hee resolved in his desperate and wicked heart to doe him a mischiefe only his purpose being yet but new had not attained to full growth and maturity 9 Now know here friendly Reader that this Enoch and Iohn had continued bed-fellowes together in their fother house from their infant years and weaning from the brests o●● their mother to the one an●● thirtieth yeare of age of th●● younger of them And during all this time as Enoch assured me and engaged his truth and salvation upon it there had never fallen out any verball quarrell or dissention between●● them no not so much as the terme Thou had ever passed in anger from the one to the other And being both of them arrived to years of judgement and experience able to manage affaires of life for their own●● profitable thriving they wer●● so well perswaded mutually betweene themselves of the integrity and soundnesse of lov●● in both their hearts each unto other and also of an upright and faithfull disposition of minde free from guile in their temporall affaires that they became Co-partners in occupying of ground in their neighbourhood and also in stocks of cattell and sheep yea their very money which oftentimes breeds jars betweene brothers themselves they kept in one chest together each having a key to himselfe and they never differed in one penny of account 10 Yet observe I pray in the middest of this sweet harmony of brotherly accord the truth of the words of our LORD and SAVIOUR u Matt. 10.34.3 Thinke not that I am come to send Peace on earth I came not to send Peace but a sword for I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter in Law against her mother in Law and a mans foes shall be they of his owne houshold For Enoch now puffed up with an high conceit of his spirituall estate his inspirations from GOD and his unchangeable assurance of his owne stablishment in the favour of GOD imagined himselfe warranted by these words of our LORD not onely to hate but to persecute to bloud and death whosoever should oppose contradict or refuse to concurre with him in not admitting his inspirations These illusions of Satan anciently entertained by the Manichees Messalians and of later times by the Anabaptists so blinded the eyes of his understanding and perverted the quality of his will that he judged himselfe called of GOD to vindicate the cause of GOD