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	scripture_n	19,615	5	6.1818	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45328	An apologie for the ministry and its maintenance wherein is set forth the necessity, dignity and efficacy of a gospel-ministry against the Socinians, Swenckfieldians, Weigelians, Anabaptists, Enthusiasts, Familists, Seekers, Quakers, Levellers, Libertines and the rest of that rout ... / by Tho. Hall.	Hall, Thomas, 1610-1665.; Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696.	1660 (1660)	Wing H425A; ESTC R28055	88,780	120

22. The Church Triumphant is the Church and the onely Church that needs no ministry ministers or ordinances For God is all this to them Instead of the word of God they read in the God of that Word instead of the representation of Christ in Sacraments they have the enjoyment of him without the help of shadows or types The immediate enjoyment of God in this life without the means is sure then a fancy onely beseeming the heady brains or rather brainless heads of Anabaptists It is the proper Priviledg of the Church Triumphant to serve God immediately without Temple or Ordinances Amongst them it is that Prophes●●s shall fail 1 Cor. 13 8. But in the Church militant they are to be highly esteemed 1 Thes. 5. 20● 7. It appeares by the care of the Apostles for the continuation of their Successors and the perpetuation of a Ministry in the Church Paul commands Titus to ordain Elders and Bishops in 〈◊〉 city describes the persons to be ordained and prescribes rules for the ordaining of them T it 1. 5 6 7 8 c. He command● and cautions Timothy also about the same thing and ●●ds him keep the commands relating to this Ministry till the appearing of the Lord Iesus Christ which Injunction is not onely laid upon Timothy in his own person but upon all the Ministers of Christ that shall be in succession to the end of the world 8. It appeares by that honor reverence and submission which by vertue of the command is due to the Successours of the Apostles 1 Thes. 5. 12 13. Phil. 2. 29. Heb. 13. 17. Which things so long as they are due must needs have and prove Ministers of the Gospel to whom they shall be given And if you take a way them that are over you in the Lord your Messengers them that have the rule over you and that watch for your soules I pray you tell me where will you bestow the high estimation and love the reputation obedience and submission which the great Apostle commands to be given in the fore-quoted Texts 9. It appears by that constant provision that God has made for his Ministers ordering them honourable stipends for their work Gal. 6. 6. 1 Cor. 9. 13 14. 1 Tim. 5. 17 18. which provision is laid up in the store-house of the Gospell not onely for the Apostles sake but all theirs that are Ministers of Christ in succession Now to what purpose should these commands of God remain in the B●ble if there should not be a remainder of Ministers still in the Church God needed not to have provided meat for his Ministers if he had been minded that men should have sewed up their m●uthes Away with the doting crew of Anabaptists then that despising the Word of God and Ministry of that Word and Ministers of that Ministry gape for the downfall of Revelations into their mouths and stare after New Lights Away with them to the Law and the Prophets Why stand ye gazing up into heaven for new discoveries to the Law and to the Testimony If they be not according to this Word it is because your new Lights have no light in them Isa. 8. 20. God hath ordained and established a publick Ministry and forbids the consulting of Diviners Observers of times Enchanters Charmers Witches Wizards Necromancers Deut. 18. 10 11 12. No nor must mens own Fancies lead them their own inventions be set up to give Oracles But in all doubtfull matters consult the Ministers of God vers 15. Is there no light in the Word of God or whether are your eyes out that ye cannot receive it Is that nothing but a dead letter now which in S. Pauls dayes was so quick and spirituall Heb. 4. 12. Is there no God but in the still voice of your spirituall conceivements and Revelations now adayes Well let 's hear what your spirit has to say against our Christ who has bidden ●o and teach and baptise CHAP. V. The Cavills and Fallacies of the Anabaptists Socinians Swend●eldians and Enthusiasts are blown away Obj. 1. THe first harbour of these Libertines Opinion in this thing is pretended to be in Ierem. 1. 34. They ●hall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from ●he l●ast of them even to the greatest of them saith the Lord Therefore such a thing as the Ministry of the Word is needless under the New Testament Answ. 1. Words are not properly Scripture but the sense neither does the Scripture properly consist in the leaves of words but in the root of reason the Word of God is not to be taken formally as it is described by words and syllables but materially as it declares to us the minde and counsell of God we must not stick in the bark for that hath involved the ●apist● and Anabaptists in many Errours 2. If we must needs have so much regard to the letter of the Text it rather takes away Private Instruction then Publick Preaching for God does not say there shall be no publick Preachers but They shall no more t●ach every man his neighbour and every man his brother But neither can we dis●ard private Instructions under the Gospell if S● Paul be a Gospell-man who presseth this duty Coloss. 3. 16. 1 Thes. 5. 11. 3. The Text is a Promise Now Promises must not shoulder out nor overthrow Precepts neither must the means be taken away because the primary cause is laid down and asserted God feeds all it does not follow therefore that tillag● is unnecessary or bread needless ●or by these means God ●eeds us No more does it follow that because God teacheth therefore the ministry of his word is unnecessary for God teacheth by the ministry of his Word 4. The genuine scope of the Text is to shew us that God teacheth his Elect not onely externally by the ministry of his Word but internally by the ministry of his Holy Spi●it Neither does the Prophet speak absolutely simply and inclusively but comparatively as the Holy Ghost frequently speaks Things spoken negatively in Scripture are oft times to be understood comparatively and are not to be expounded so much by not as by not so much which is plain in Hos. 6. 6. Psal. 50. 8. Psal. 51. 16. Iohn 6. 38. Iohn 7. 16. and many other places So that the sum of the Prophets words will easi●y be There shall be a ●uller and clearer knowledg of God in the times of the New Testament then there was in the times of the Old 1. Because under the Old Testame●t Christ was obscurely shadowed out in Types but under the New he is plainly preach'd and shewn openly insomuch that a very boy w●ll ca●echised and instructed doth understand the Gospell concerning Christ beter then many of the Priests of the Law did which is the accomplishment of that Promise Isa. 11. 9. The earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. 2. Because there are farre more that are

as men season sle●h with sal● so must the soules of men be seasoned by the Ministry of the word that neither the one nor the other may be corrupted The text is a Categoricall proposition consisting of a subject ● predicate and a Copulative The subject is ye i. e. ye my disciples and all the preachers of the Gospell that shall succeed you The Copulative is are not shall be for the time to come but at present ye are chosen and called so to be The predicate is the salt of the earth i. e. It is your office to season men who are altogether unsavoury untill they be seasoned with the salt of heavenly doctrines As salt is the seasoner of mea●s so the Ministers of the Gospell are called salt from their office by way of resemblance because they should by their edi●ying language and exemplary life season men that they may be kept from the corruption of vices and have the ●avoury rellish of graces And they are not onely Metaphorically called salt or the most excellent salt because they season as salt doth but emphatically called the salt or the most excellent salt because they season so as no other salt can doe Nay they are not only salt and the salt but the salt of the earth not the salt of one Town or City or Island only but the salt of the earth that is of the inhabitants of the earth ye are the salt of the earth And yet they are not properly salt neither they are but the salters or seasoners But our Saviour doth here ascribe that which is proper to the doctrine of the Gospell to them that preach it Observe by the way that our Saviour in calling them the salt of the earth implicitely prefers them before the prophets who were only the salt of Iudea But the Apostles and their successors are the salt of the earth of the whole earth Mat. 28. 19. Observe also that in calling them salt he doth as it were make a secret promise of the power and efficacy of the Gospell-Ministry to season the world and to keep men from putrifying in sinne The sence of the whole is plainly this ye my Apostles and all the Ministers of my ordinances and pastors of my Church in respect of the doctrine of the law and the Gospell which you shall preach shall deliver men from the corruption and filthinesse of sin and shall render them acceptable and savory to God whom by nature they cannot please Loe here the usefullnesse and necessity of a Gospell-Ministry When our Saviour compares it to sait he commends it almost as highly as if he had said it were incomparable For their is nothing according to the proverbe more usefull and needfull than the sun and salt Take this doctrinall conclusion for a foundation of the following discourse that The Ministers of the Gospell are the salt of the world This may easily be proved F●●st from the nature propertyes and manifold vertues of salt Secondly from the titles that the spirit of God gives them in Scripture Thirdly by arguments 1. The First property of salt is to season tastlesse and unsavoury things It is a soveraigne condiment and singularly usefull and necessary And it may be called the condiment of condiments not only because it excells them but also because it helpes them and contributes to their goodnesse And it hath that to commend it which few of our spices have even it 's necessity Spices are the superfluous ornament of meats but salt their necessary condiment It is so necessarily subservient to the seasoning of meats and rendring them savoury and gratefull to the palate that it hath deserved and found the name of Natures balsome and the Soul of bodyes wherefore nature hath wisely mixt salt with all well compounded bodyes to season and preserve them from corruption as may be exemplifyed in the salt urine of beasts and the saltnesse of roots and is so commonly received that every Smatterer●in Chymistry will tell you that Salt Sulphur and Mercury are ingredients in all mixt bodyes Thus the Ministry of the Gospell is the salt of the world without which our condition is desperate and deplorable Neither could I tell what answer to make if one should aske me How it comes to pass that men abound with errors in their heads wickedness in their lives and corruptions in their hear●s but this They are not seasoned with this salt Our whole nature without this is unsavoury nauseous and indeed odious to God as the Psalmist describes a pure that is an impure nature Ps. 14. 1 2 3. without this salt what is the wisdome of the wold but a world of folly what are morall vertues but corrall vices which ●ub the gums indeed to make men appear well as to the teeth outward but not changing or cleansing the inward heart and mind Nay how can any oblation indeed please God That wants salt Lev. 2. 13. Or any thing please a judicious palate that is unseasoned Can that which is unsavoury be eaten without salt ●eb 6. 6. As if he had said can any one be delighted with meat that has not been seasoned with salt So take away the Ministry of the word and all wordly things are presently unsavoury gladness is converted into sadnesse or the best joyes are but toye sat best the purest gold is but dross and they deserve no better Character than Iob's friends Physitians of no value Iob. 13. 4. Miserable and troublesome comfort●●s Iob. 16. 2. It is necessary therefore that men be seasoned with this heavenly salt that they be not corrupted For there is nothing better to preserve our hearts from corruption than the savory Ministry of the Gospell 2. Another property of salt is Acrimony Salt by it's acrimony bites eats pierceth pricketh Flatnesse faintnesse and want of sharpnesse is a defect in salt Thus the preaching of the law pierceth and pricketh the consciences of sinners that they seek of the Gospell for a salve Act. 2. 39. This makes men sound in the faith therefore Paul commands Titus to corn the Cretians with this salt Tit. 1. 13. Rebuke them sharply that they may be sound in the faith As Elisha by casting salt into the spring of the naughty waters healed them so our naughty and ba●●en hearts being leasoned with the salt of Gods word and spirit becomes pleasing and acceptable to God Moreover as salt by its sharp heat penetrates attenuates and worketh the whole lump so there is nothing more piercing than the word of God hewing like an axe and slaying like a sword Ho● 5. 6. He that would understand this property of Gods word let him consult and examine the Apostles six Epithets Heb. 4. 12. It is quick powerfull sharpe pie●cing dividing discerning It is of such a subtile and sharp nature that it can divide where the subtile wi●s of Metaphysicians can scarce make a mentall or notionall distinction even between soul and spirit and where the sharpest instruments of Chirurgions

blessed with the saving knowledg of God in the times of the New Testament than were in the times of the Old the Preaching of the Word not being restrained to one Nation now as it was then but common to all 3. By reason of the more plentifull Effusions of the grace of God there shall not need so much pains and trouble to instruct the Elect now as formerly there needed This is plain from vers 33. where it is said I will write my Law in their hearts not in their lips not in tables of stones not on the fringes of their garments as it was sometimes among the Iews but in their hearts by giving them pious affections and inclinations for the Law of God That of Calvin upon the place gives the substance of the Interpretation God who had more darkly represented himself under the Law promiseth a more glorious discovery under the Gospell in so much that the knowledg of God shall be then as it were familiar and common But it is by an Hyperbole that he commendeth this grace when he saies that no one shall need any Master or Teacher but every one shall be sufficiently instructed Neither yet does he say exactly that they shall not teach every one his neighbour but they shall not teach every one his neighbour saying Know the Lord i. e. there shall be such a measure of knowledg that men shall be no longer Abecedarians For this phrase know the Lord seems to point at the first beginning and rudiments of Religion The minde of the Prephet in this place which we willingly yield can be nothing but this that God will send out a greater light and greater measures of knowledg in the times of the Go●pell and will deale more freely and familiarly with his people then than formerly 5. If having given the naturall sense genuine scope of the text we may use an answer ad hominem I would fain know why the Anabaptists and Quakers that stand up for this litterall meaning and apply the promise to our days can make themselves these new lights and the heirs of this promise and yet goe about saying know the Lord. Certainly if this be the meaning of the promise these be the times of the accomplishment of it and they the persons to whom it belongs they contradict their interpretation and even break the neck of the promise in going from town to town from street to street from house to house teaching men to repent to turn to the Lord to know the Lord and a great deal more of this and so take Gods work out of his hands for they should be all taught of the Lord. And if they say true men shall be taught of the Lord but it shall be by the means of men then why are not we as fit to teach as they This now brings to my mind their 2. Obj. Which they build upon Is. 54. 13. where God promiseth that all the faithfull shall be taught of the Lord. Therefore the Ministry of the word is needlesse Ans. 1. This rather raiseth up then razeth out the Ministry of the word of which there shall be need in the New-Testament no lesse then in the old All know that Scripture is the best interpreter of Scripture Now Christ reacheth us what it is to be taught of God Ioh. 6. 45. God teacheth us two ways by the outward preaching of his word and by the inward revelations of his spirits God here promiseth that his elect shall be taught not only by the teachers of the Church from without but by the Holy Spirit from within Christians in this text of the Prophet seem to be put in opposition to the lews whose teachings under the old Testament were more externall then internall And it is here promised that the spirit of God shall be mightily efficacious by the Ministery of the word and that it shall be more free and liberall in distributing its gifts and graces under the New Testament So that these two kinds of teachings are rather united in this text than divided To be taught of God is not to be taught of him immediately but mediately by the preaching of the word as appears from Luk 10. 16. Act 10. 33. But further if this text of the prophet be interpreted for the overthrow of the Ministry of the word how will it agree with Ier. 3. 15. Mat. 28. 20. Rom. 10. ●4 And agree it must unlesse you will have the spirit of truth to give himself the lye Cal●● speaks appositely It is evident how miserably they dote who abuse this text for the overthrow of the ministry of the Word so much used by and usefull ●o the Church They cannot be owned for the Children of the Church that reject her education And it is in vain to boast the revelations of the spirit for the spirit teaches none save those who submit themselves to the ministry of the Word Account we them therefore the brats of the Devill not the genuine begotten of God who reject this holy ordinance of his own institution For we see these two the Children of the Chu●ch and the taught of God are so much the same that they cannot be the taught of God who will not be taught in the Chu●ch 2. If we may make an answer ad hominem It little becomes the Anabaptists to decrye a Ministry and forbid prophesying who otherwise bid all to do it plead the cause of the gifted brethren so stiffly and give them a licence for prophesying at their pleasure No wonder if they would set Scripture together by the ears and make contradictions in them who themselves do contradict themselves and whose latter opinions do fall out and quarrell with their former 3. Obj. Is grounded upon 1. Ioh. 2. 20 27. Ye have an unction from the holy one and ye know all things And ye need not that any man teach you The Objection fram'd for the purpose of our Libertines and New lights will be of this form who ever hath the spirit of God understandeth the Scriptures without a teacher But we have this spirit of God Therefore we understand them without any teacher Ans. 1. The Major proposition is false For whom the spirit of God teacheth it teacheth by teachers Eph 4. 11. and not immediately as was made to appear before This anointing teacheth you all things that is The spirit of God is efficacious and powerfull by the preaching of the word to enlighten the minds of the faithfull in all things necessary to Salvation These elect persons knew all things and so St. Paul could do all things he sayes and yet I dare say there were many things that they did not know nor he could not doe what shall we say then Why not that these elect persons were so many Gods which they must be if they know all things Ioh. 21. 17 Not that Paul was Omnipotent not that these were Omniscient But Paul's Omnipotence and their Omniscience must be limited The one could do all things