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	mean_v	6,969	5	6.7481	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89333	A messenger sent to remove some mistakes; or A desirous instrument for the promoting of truth, unity, peace and love in the church of Christ. By way of answer to a book, untruly and improperly intitled, A vindication of that righteous principle of the doctrine of Christ called laying on of hands upon baptized believers. / By Thomas Morris, a servant of Jesus Christ. Also Robert Everards Three questions propounded to Benjamin Morley about his practice of laying on of hands, with his answer, and R. E. reply.	Morris, Thomas, Baptist.; Everard, Robert, fl. 1664. Robert Everards Three questions propounded to Benjamin Morley.	1655 (1655)	Wing M2811; Wing E3541; Thomason E838_23; Thomason E838_23*; ESTC R207456	30,573	49

say Peter and John had no such power as through laying on of hands to give the Holy Ghost because Peter declared to the men of Israel Acts 4. ver 10. that by the Name of Jesus did he that was cured stand whole before them from whence you infer that as Peter had not the gift of healing so not the power of giving the Holy Ghost yet Acts 4. and the 10. doth not prove that Peter wanted power upon either acount for if you look into Acts the 3. the 4 5 6. where Peter bad the lame man look on them it is said he gave heed to them expecting to receive something of them but Peter said unto him silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I thee In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth stand up and walk from whence it is clear though Peter had no such power of his own procuring yet he had it by vertue of gift from God as appeares from these words Such as I have give I thee and if you look into Matth. 10. ver 1. you shall not only see how that the Apostles had such a power but also how they came by it for speaking of Christ the Text saith He called his Disciples and gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of diseases from all which it is clear that the twelve Apostles of which Peter and John were two had a power given them from God to do miracles and heal all manner of diseases and again if Peter and John had not received from God a power instrumentally to give the Holy Ghost through laying on of hands Peter should have reproved Simon for two faults First for thinking that they had such a power as they had not Secondly for thinking that power which God gives freely might have been purchased with money but you may see Acts 8. v. 20 22. when Peter comes to reprove Simon he reproves him only for one single sin committed by way of thought saying unto him Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God might be purchased with money and verse 22. Peter saith to him Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee from whence it is cleer that Simon did not sin in thinking Peter and John had a power as instruments through laying on of hands to give the Holy Ghost because Peter did not reprove him for two mistakes in the plural but onely for one fault in the singular in these words Pray God if perhaps the thought not the thoughts of thine heart may be forgiven thee so that it is clear the Apostles had a power instrumentally through laying on of hands to give the Holy Ghost And Simon was not mistaken in what he saw nor in what he thought as touching their power but this one thing was his sin viz. in thinking that that spiritual power which God then gave to those his servants Peter and John might be purchased with corruptible silver or gold Ben Again say you Antagonist Suppose it should be granted by way of supposition that these in receiving the Holy Ghost did receive the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit yet this is nothing to prove what they say viz. That laying on of hands upon Baptized believers was to this end that they might receive the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit and why here is a great mistake in laying down this to be one end for in this here is no difference put between the End of a thing and the Effect of a thing men commonly propose their end before hand that is before they do their work but the effect followes the work done as for instance the end wherefore the Husband-man plowes and sowes is that he may have his ground fruitfull the effect it may so fall out it will be barren again the end wherefore such a one builds a house is that he may dwell in it the effect perhaps may so fall out that it may be blown down of winds and so become useless Again I shall give you another instance two Ministers of Christ they go to such a place to preach their end is to convert souls the effect is they are claped up in prison and persecuted as some have been and so you conclude the gift of the Holy Ghost was not the end but the effect of their laying on of hands Tho. Answer you say suppose it were granted that these in receiving the Holy Ghost did receive the extraordinary gists of the Spirit yet it will not prove that they laid on hands to that end because as you say we greatly mistake in not putting a difference between the end and the effect of a thing but I must tell you I think that you have not dealt fairly for at first you seem to us as if you would distinguish between the end and effect of one and the same thing and yet in your three instances the ends effects you speak of relate to several causes For though it is true the end wherfore the husbandman plowes and sowes is that he may have his ground fruitfull yet though barrenness fall out it is no effect of his plowing and sowing for the natural and proper effect of plowing and sowing is to make the ground fruitfull and barrenness is the effect of some cross cause as either blasting or overmuch drought or some such like And secondly it is true the end wherefore a man builds a house is that he may dwell in it but if the effect be blowing down yet this effect ariseth not from the mans building of it but from another cross cause viz. great winds And thirdly if any of Christs Ministers go to any place to preach it is true their end is to convert souls but if they be clapt up in prison it is no effect of their preaching though you seem to affirm it is for preaching bears no such bitter fruit as imprisonment but their imprisonment is the fruit or effect of a contrary cross cause viz. the malicious proceedings of wicked men the Devills instruments so that it is clear you said we were mistaken in not distinguishing between the end of a thing and effect of a thing it is clear your self is mistaken because the end and effect you speak of belong not to one and the same thing but receive their beings from direct contrary causes now that which a man desires or aimes at or layes down as the end wherefore he useth meanes is the same which through the meanes instrumentally is effected or brought to pass again the Husbandmans desire or aim or end is through the use of meanes to enjoy a plentifull harvest and if no cross cause prevent the thing effected or brought to pass is a plentifull harvest so that it is clear the end aim or desire and the thing effected is one and the same in substance and

all you have said makes nothing against their opinion who hold that the great and large gift the Holy Ghost was the end wherefore Peter and John laid on their hands Acts 8. for in verse 15. it is said they prayed for it which argues it was their own end and desire to have it and so much by way of Answer to your fourth Chapter Ben. As to your fift Chapter the substance of what you say here is included in your former grounds and is also answered in my foregoing matter and therefore for brevities sake I shall take notice onely of such things as I have not already answered and in the first place though you confess in your Book page the 51. that in former times the Holy Ghost did attend the practice of laying on of hands and in page the 53. do grant that those twelve men Acts the 19. did receive the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit and yet you deny that the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit are essential to it from Hebr. 6.1 2. and therefore you must tell your Antagonist that laying on of hands will stand as firm and unmoveable in these our dayes without any such extraordinary appearances of the Spirit as formerly for these Reasons first because the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit were to confirm the doctrine of the Gospel and it being confirmed there needs no such extraordinary gifts to that end and so you conclude they confirmed laying on of hands as well as the rest of Christs doctrine putting no difference between actions and doctrine a second reason why you conclude that miracles and the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit are not essential to laying on of hands is because these extraordinary appearances of God are not essential to any other Ordinances of God as you instance in Preaching and Praying Acts 10 and Acts 4. Tho. Answer although you grant the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit did attend laying on of hands Acts 19. yet you deny they were essential to it because you say Hebr. 6.2 no extraordinary gift followed laying on of hands but in this you have laid a ground for your own mistakes by comparing that sort of subjection to laying on of hands Hebr. 6.2 to that sort in Acts 19. where they subjected in order to the receiving of the Holy Ghost but in Hebr. 6.2 I shall hereafter make it appear that they subjected in order to the filling up the measure of the sufferings of Christ therefore you must not think to make us believe that the extraordinary gift of the Holy Ghost is not essential to that kind of laying on of hands Acts 8. and the 19. because it is not essential to that contrary kind of subjection to laying on of hands Hebr. 6.2 neither because it is not essential to preaching and some kind of prayer for indeed preaching and some kind of prayer were never appointed to be instrumental for giving the extraordinary gift the Holy Ghost but the proper effect of preaching is to convey the ordinary gifts of the Spirit as inlightning and many other comfortable Receptions so that though the extraordinary gift of the Holy Ghost be not essential to preaching it never being appointed as the means through which this gift should be given yet they may be and are essential to that kind of laying on of hands through which they were given and never failed as Acts the 8. Acts the 19. The Scripture speaking but of those two times that this sort of laying of hands was used so that I wonder that you should say as you do viz. That we may no more ty up the reception of the extraordinary gift the Holy Ghost to laying on of hands then we may to preaching the Word because as you say the extraordinary gift the Holy Ghost did attend preaching as well as laying on hands And this you say though you may see Acts the 8. the 10. this gift the Holy Ghost was given through laying on of hands but though we find Acts the 19. this gift was given when they were at preaching yet never through preaching And whereas you say the extraordinary gift the Holy Ghost did confirm laying on of hands Acts the 8. as well as it did Preaching Acts the 10. I answer it did confirm laying on of hands Acts the 8. so as to bespeak the lawfulness of the use of that means being used in order to the same end viz. receiving the Holy Ghost And so did miraculous healing confirm or bespeak the lawfull use of laying on of hands to that end viz. to heal But again it is true and you confess it in the 6. page of your Book that the non-being of the gift of healing in the Church doth bespeak the uselesness of laying on of hands to that end viz. to heal And so on the other hand I shall affirm that the non-being of power in the Church instrumentally through laying on of hands to give the Holy Ghost doth bespeak the uselesness of laying on of hands to that end And so I conclude that though God hath the same power now as he had then yet if in his wisedom he sees it no● convenient to will the giving of the same gifts now as he did then his power doth not accomplish it for his power doth act suitable to his will for if in his will he doth not determin a thing then by his power he doth not effect it and so he divides to every one severally as he will 1 Cor. 12.11 And when in his wisdom he sees it convenient to give those glorious gifts into his Church as he did formerly he can again begin the dispensation of them without the use of outward instruments as he did at the first to the Apostles Acts 2.1 2 3 4. And as to the things you call effects of your laying on of hands viz. as you say a most sweet and precrous communion and a delightfull fellowship in the Gospell Secondly more of the manifestation of Gods Spirit to their souls Thirdly to be further strengthened in Gods way for your first effects viz. A most sweet and precious communion you instance in those Acts the 2.41 42 46. in which place there is not one word mentioned that ever they had hands laid on them and therefore though they had a sweet Communion yet it did not arise from laying on of hands and as for these three particulars which you call effects you might more properly have laid them down as three more ends which though they are propounded before hand yet for such are the same with effects and then though you had not attained to them yet at the least we should have thought you should have desired them but now you have laid them down as effects what ever you may say I with many other can from sad experience testify that in insteed of a sweet and reall Communion in the Church of Christ your kinde of laying on of hands hath effected nothing but an unsavory outside Communion and hath furnished

sort or kind of laying on of hands which you conceive to be first practized and then go on to perfection in relation to the number of those sorts or kinds of laying on of hands which remain But that your opinion cannot be true upon this account I thus prove because though it is true that all the Saints may subject to on sort of laying on of hands viz. that of suffering persecution it s not possible all the Saints by way of subjection should perfect the number of sorts or kinds of laying on of hands because all the Saints shall never subject as Officers nor as sick parties nor by way of receiving the extraordinary gift of the Holy Ghost And seeing this therefore your opinion that Men should leave the beginning or first sort and go on to perfection as to the number of sorts that remain of laying on of hands cannot be true because it is not possible all the Saints should do it and as it cannot be true upon your account to leave the first and to go on to perfection as to the number of sorts of laying on of hands on the other hand it both may and must be true from Heb. 6.2 that Saints are to leave the first steps or degrees of subjection to one single laying on of hands and go on to perfection in the remaining degrees of the same subjection to one and the same sort of laying on of hands which will hold true in the case of suffering persecution and not in any other as I have already proved Ben. His third reason against subjection to laying on of hands Heb. 6.2 to be meant of suffering persecution is because the laying on of hands we here contend for it is a principle of Christs Doctrine whereas contrary ways for wicked to persecute the Saints is a principle of the Devils Doctrine Tho. Answer See how confused your own reasons render you in your opinion for in the beginning of your foregoing reason you confefs that the laying on of hands Heb. 6.2 peculiarly belongs to Christian Men in point of subjection and yet in this your third reason have turned the Case quite contrary in that you seem to note out unto us that those parties instructed by the Doctrine of Christ Heb. 6.1 2. were layers on and not subjectors to laying on of hands But if you agree with me that the parties instructed by the Doctrine of Christ Heb. 6.2 were subjectors to and not layers on of hands as that you must do except you can prove all the Church of the Hebrews to be Administrators So that Christ teaching the Saints to suffer for the Gospel though it be from or under the hands of wicked Men is no point of the Devils Doctrine but of his own and you have deceived your self because in this your third reasons you seem to apply this point of Christ teaching to layers on and not to subject to laying on of hands So that you may clearly see the weakness and unsoundness of all these reasons you have rendred against my opinion from Heb. 6.2 viz. that subjection to laying on of hands there held forth is meant of the Saints suffering persecution from the hands of wicked Men for the Gospels sake But again Master Fisher denyes that it is meant of the Saints suffering persecution from the hands of wicked Men because saith he it is included in the Doctrine of Baptisms and therefore would be confusion and a tautology to express it over again under the tearm Laying on of hands Answer Because I would have no objection unanswered I shall say something to this subtle reason and first it is improper to apply or call Baptism or any of the other five by the name of Doctrine as will appear because there must be a clear distinction put between Doctrine or teaching matter onely which comes from God and the thing taught which on the Creatures part is to be perforformed For Repentance Faith Baptism sufferings for the Gospel Faith in the Resurrection and general Judgement being the Creatures actions performed either internally or externally being capaciated thereto by vertue of the doctrinal or teaching matter which comes from God must needs be improperly called Doctrine and therefore Master Tindal in his Translation sets down the tearm Doctrine which our common Translations apply to be Baptism as a distinct thing by it self between Baptism and laying on of hands Heb. 6.2 and so partly Baptism and laying on of hands which you so often tell us follows next in order the one to the other so that you may see how improper it is to call Baptism or any other action of the Creature by the name of Doctrine seeing it belongs onely to the Creators teaching and not to the Creatures action In the next place Master Fisher reading it Baptisms Heb. 6.2 in the Plural number is not like to be true 1. Because most of the Greek Copies if not all and many of our common Translations and Master Tindals which is one of the antients plain and soundest Translations we find read it Baptism in the singular number Again to read Baptism Heb. 6.2 in the Plural cannot be right because it cannot be proved that all the Church of the Hebrews to whom this was spoken were either Baptized with sufferings or with the Spirit that they were not Baptized within or under sufferings is clear because the Baptism of sufferings consists of an over-flowing or an over-whelming measure of sufferings which many if not all times takes in death it self as for instance the two Sons of Zebedec and also Christ himself Luke 12.50 where saith he But I have a Baptism to be Baptized with and how am I pained till it be accomplished From whence its clear that every degree of sufferings is not the Baptism insuffering because Christ had suffered very many things before he spake these words and yet he saith he had his payning or streightning Baptism to be Baptized with still so that every degree of sufferings is not the Baptism in sufferings But as the tearm Baptism signifies in all cases so it must be an over-flowing or an over-whelming measure which renders a Man Baptized with sufferings with which measure of sufferings it cannot be proved that the Church of the Hebrews were all Baptized for though they had suffered great afflictions yet it was no other than what Christ had suffered before he begun his Baptism of sufferings viz. to be made a mocking stock And as it is in the case of being Baptized in sufferings so it is in the case of being Baptized in or with the Spirit for every degree of receiving the Spirit will not render a Man Baptized with the Spirit as is clear from Acts 1. ver 5. where in the 4. ver Christ commanded his Disciples not to depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father which saith he ye have heard of me And then in the 5. ver saith John truly Baptizea with water but ye shall b● Baptized not many days hence Where we may observe that the Disciples here spoken of too were not yet Baptized with the Spirit for if they had it need not be promised to be dispensed upon them a few dayes after And though they had not the Baptism of the Spirit when these words were spoken to them yet they received so much of the Spirit as that they were true believers true converts born of the Spirit which render Men capable of Salvation able to cast our Devils and to heal all manner of sickness and diseases Mat. 10.1 and yet not Baptized with the Spirit So that you see every degree of receiving the Spirit is not the Baptism of the Spirit but it must be such an overflowing measure of the Spirit whereby a Man is able by an immediate power to speak all Languages as appears from Acts the 2. ver 2 3 4. compared with Acts the 1. v. 4.5 Where Acts the 1. v. 5. it was promised to be given to them a few days after and in Acts 2. being some days after you see it was given and also it was viz. a power to speak with tongues which all beleivers in those days were not able to do as is clear from 1 Cor. 12.29 30. So that we may see from these grounds which I have laid down how at that time not any of those spoken to Heb. 6.1.2 were Baptized in sufferings Neither is it likely they could all speak with tongues and so not be Baptized with the Spirit so that Master Fisher reasons against that subject to laying on of hands Heb. 6.2 to be meant in the case of suffering persecution for the Gospels sake grounded upon that text reading Baptism in the Plural is quite taken of and he that well considers what I have spoken in this Book may see the weakness and unsufficiency of all the grounds he hath alleaged by his laying on of hands And also here is discovered the mistakes of those who put no difference between to be Born of the Spirit and to be Baptized with the Spirit which fits Men to Preach the Gospel to all Nations which was the special end of that gift as appears from Luke 24.49 compared with Acts the 1. ver the 5. Chap. 2. v. 4. Thus with as much moderation and tenderness as I could and not let you suffer I have answered to the substance in what is contained in your Book I might have been larger but that I think I shall be forced again to put Pen to Paper as in relation to this thing I intreat you and all others who it may concern not to slight or condemn any thing that is here spoken of till you have often read and well considered it and if God shall have used me as an Instrument to speak convincingly to the consciences of any I desire that they will give God the Glory and strive to learn that heard lesson of Self-denyal FINIS