Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A51995
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The purity of Gospel communion, or, Grounds and reasons for separation from persons of corrupt manners, or that hold erroneous doctrine in matters of faith essential to salvation, or that are guilty of false worship, or irregular administration of Gospel ordinances briefly discussed to prevent the increase of sin and disorder by a mixed communion in church fellowship / by Isaac Marlow.
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Marlow, Isaac.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing M694; ESTC R18243
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42,542
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83
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the upright There God has said he meets his people that remember him in his ways and Christ has much intailed his gracious presence on the faithful obedience of his Saints He that hath my Commandments Joh. 14.21 and keepeth them he it is that loveth we And he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him If a man love me he will keep my words And my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him And therefore the more obedient a Soul is the more of Christs fulness he shall receive John 1.16 and Grace for Grace But 2. If thou standest off from Church-Communion because thou thinkest thy self unworthy of it or unmeet for it or till thou hast a special inspiration to thrust thee forth in thy duty my Answer is that in this snare I was intangled my self for divers years but at last I was satisfied in my Conscience that seeing I had true saving Faith and Light in Gospel Ordinances my personal unworthiness through the infirmity of Nature was no sufficient Ground for me to neglect the Institutions of Christ and that I could not rationally expect any extraordinary motions to do that which the Word of God did plainly express to be my Duty Besides for Christians to wait for a more than ordinary impulse of Spirit to thrust them forth in their Duty when clearly exprest in the Holy Scriptures is thro' weakness of Faith a Tempting God to confirm his written Will by extraordinary Inspiration which is a Sin Math. 4.7 Moreover I shall farther remove this objection from 1 Cor. 11.27 Whosoever shall eat this Bread and drink this Cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord. This unworthiness cannot respect our natural infirmities for then the best of men would be excluded from that Ordinance but the unworthiness there mentioned is described to us in the same Chapter to be Divisions and Drunkeness See ver 18.20 21 22 33. and such like Disorders as should not be suffered in a Gospel-Church or that shew they despise the Church of God And therefore Christians having light in Gospel Ordinances tho' they are but weak in Faith and Babes in Christ and have not yet attained to the Faith of Assurance of their Election 2 Pet. 1.10 or to the clear witnessings of the Spirit of God with their Spirits Rom. 8.16 that they are the Children of God yet having the true Faith of cleaving to Christ with full purpose of heart and of reliance on his death and merits for Salvation and eternal life those have a right to full Communion with the Church at the Lords Table and we are bound to receive them Rom. 14.1 but not to doubtful Disputations But. If thou art one within the visible pale of the Church and such a wonderful and horrible thing is therein or shall happen as was in Israel tho' in a different manner the Prophets prophesied falsly Jere. 5.31 and the Priests bear Rule by their means and the people loved to have it so As the Lord said to them so will I say to thee if then thou art of their Spirit what wilt thou do in the end thereof when the Lord shall visit for these things canst thou bear yea like and plead for an Alteration in thy Church-Constitution or in Gods worship because thy Pastour will have it so Take heed lest thou givest ground to say of thee as it was said to Israel Isa 3.12 Ch. 9.16 O my People they which lead thee cause thee to err and destroy the way of thy paths and they that are led of them are destroyed 1 Cor. 10.22 Brethren beware lest ye provoke the Lord to Jealousy are ye stronger than he Deut. 12.32 hath he not said what things soever I command you observe to do it Thou shalt not add thereto nor diminish from it And have we not divers instances of his sore Displeasure for breaking his Rule of Worship as in Nadab and Abihu Lev. 7.11 to 19. who for offering of strange fire died before the Lord And might not some have thought it a small matter to have eaten of the Peace or Thank-offering after the first day or of the Vow-offering if any of it had been left on the third day but we see how great an offence it was to make so small an Addition to Gods Ordinance as that it should not be accepted neither should it be imputed to him that offered it It should be an Abomination and that soul should bear his iniquity Moreover we read how the Lord smote above fifty thousand of the men of Beth-she-mesh for but looking into his Ark and how Vzzah lost his life for touching the Ark of God 2 Sam. 6.6 1 Sam. 6.19 2 Chr. 26.16 because they sought him not after the due manner And how Vzziah the King for medling with Gods Ordinance and burning incense before the Lord 1 Chr. 15.13 contrary to his revealed Will was smote with leprosy unto his dying Day And Christ tells us Mat. 159. that in vain they do worship him teaching for Doctrines the Commandments of Men. Therefore to the Law and to the Testimony Isa 8.20 If they speak not according to this Word it is because there is no light in them Joh. 4.24 and let us keep the Commandments of God and worship him in Spirit and in Truth 1 Tim. 4 8. for Godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the Life that now is and of that which is to come Postscript AFter I had penned the preceeding Treatise meeting with some other Motives I thought it necessary to add a brief Discourse on two particular Cases The First to shew that it is the Duty of Gospel-Ministers and all true Believers in Order to Church-Communion to subject themselves to the Ordinance of Water-Baptism The Second is against Excess in Apparel And First I shall premise some few things that are worth our Observation which I find in Mr. William Kiffins Book Intitled A Sober Discourse of Right to Church-Communion Where in his Epistle he saith The sence I have of my own weakness and inability would have been a Bar to me to appear in this publick way did I not see a necessity lying upon me for the Truths sake and the sakes of many by reason of some that have lately risen up to weaken if not make void that great Ordinance of Baptism by endeavouring to maintain that all Persons that believe altho' they never did nor do practice the same may partake of the Ordinance of the Lords Supper and all other Gospel instituted Duties A Notion not only contrary to the primitive Pattern but the constant Practice of all that ever prosessed the Christian Religion or that own the Scriptures to be the Rule of Faith and Practice And speaking somewhat of the like nature in p.
into one Spirit Here is say some a Baptism mentioned by which they are brought or initiated into this Body viz. the Church Ver. 28. but say they it is the Baptism of the Spirit and not of Water Answer That which is called the Baptism of the Holy Ghost Acts 1.5 Ch. 2.12 were those extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Spirit which Christ had promised his Disciples they should receive not many days hence and was fulsilled on the day of Pentecost Acts 10.44 45 46 and given to others afterwards And we no where find the common Gifts and Graces of the Holy Spirit called Baptism And therefore this Baptism in the Text having some Relation to these excellent Gifts as appears in the preceeding Verses it must be understood either only of those extraordinary Gifts of the Spirit in the Ministry whereby the Primitive Gospel Ministers were qualified to break down the middle Wall of Partition and unite all both Jews and Gentiles Bond and Free that were Effectually called into one Body or visible Church-state or rather thus that the Apostle speaks of the Gentiles with himself and other Jews that through the extraordinary Ministration of the Spirit were baptized with Water-Baptism into one Body For seeing it cannot rationally be supposed that those of the Church of Corinth to whom the Apostle could not speak as unto Spiritual 1 Cor. 3.1 2. but as unto Carnal even as unto Babes in Christ Or that every individual Believer included in the Text was Baptized with the Spirit but as it s said by the Spirit as the efficient cause It then follows that the Baptism in the Text must be taken for Water-Baptism considering also 1 Cor. 12.1 that those Brethren the Apostle wrote unto with himself and other Jews are said in the Text in Distinction to Baptism to have been all made to drink into one Spirit which Expression is far short of being all personally baptized with the Baptism of the Spirit and therefore to me it clearly appears that the Baptism spoken of in the Objection must be taken for Water Baptism as it s said Act. 18.8 that when the Corinthians had the Gospel preached to them many of them hearing believed and were Baptized viz. not many of the Church then already formed into an orderly Church-state Ver. 10. 1 Cor. 3 6 10. Ch. 1.12 but many of the People of that City Believed and were Baptized and so the Apostle laid the Foundation of the Church of Corinth and planted the same which Apollo watered III. Object The Apostle Paul saith That Christ sent him not to Baptize but to preach the Gospel 1 Cor. 1.17 Answer The Apostle Paul was Baptized himself Eph. 4.4 5. and he tells us that there is one Body one Spirit one Lord one Faith one Baptism viz. one Water-Baptism because it is here distinguished from the Spirit as pertaining to the Body or dwelling in its Gifts and Graces in the Church And he also instructed the twelve Disciples at Ephesus to be Baptized Acts 19.3 4. tho' they were Baptized before with Johns Baptism And he Baptized Crispus and Gaius and the Houshold of Stephanus so that if he were not sent to Baptize 1 Cor. 1.14 16. he acted beyond his particular Commission and had not so much Authority as other Gospel Ministers received from the general Commission given to them and therefore the Apostles meaning is That tho' his Commission to Preach and Baptize was as large as others yet his work was not so much actually to Baptize and spend his time in that Service as to preach the Gospel he being extraordinarily Gifted thereunto for he was counted the chief Speaker Acts 14.12 and those Ministers that were his Companions being qualified to Baptize were doubtless helpful to him in that Service for when he preached to the Corinthians it is said not only Crispus and all his House believed but many of the Corinthians believed and were baptized So that Pauls Expression that he was not sent to Baptize is to be expounded as it s said of Christ Joh. 4.1 2. that tho' he made and haptized more Disciples than John yet Jesus himself baptized not but his Disciples and as when Peter had preached there were other Gospel Ministers with him who did Baptize otherwise Peter himself could not have baptized in one day about three thousand Souls And so we find Acts 2.41 that Paul had Silas and Timotheus with him at Corinth when so many of them were Baptized and that as a Son with the Father so had Timothy served with him in the Gospel And therefore the Text being fairly and most properly thus expounded the aforesaid Objection is invalid and cannot prove an Admission to Church Communion without the Ordinance of Water-Baptism IV. Object Gal. 3.27 As many of you as have been Baptized into Christ have put on Christ From whence it hath been said that some of the Members of those Churches were not Baptized Answer To explain the Mind of the Holy Ghost I shall here recite the preceeding Words Ver. 26. For ye are all the Children of God by Faith in Christ Jesus and then it follows Ver. 27. For as many of you as have been Baptized into Christ have put on Christ From whence I observe that the Word all ver 26. is in ver 28. put for the same Persons to shew there is no Distinctions of Acceptance of Persons in Christ Jesus whether Jews or Greeks Bond or Free Male or Female all are one and by Faith in Christ are alike the adopted Children of God and so the Word all must be understood in ver 26. as having Relation to ver 28. and not of every individual Member of those Churches of Galatia for who can think they were all viz. every individual Person of them really the Children of God seeing they were so far Apostatized as that the Apostle said he was afraid of them least he had bestowed on them labour in vain And then Ch. 4.11 if the Word all must be restrained to all those only or to so many as were the Children of God by true Faith in Christ it is put for no more than the Word many viz. for so many or all of them as had received both the inward Grace as well as the outward putting on the visible Profession of it by Water-Baptism And the like instance we have that the Word all is restrained to many Rom. 5.18 compared with ver 19. And therefore the aforesaid Scripture can be no Proof that any Persons were admitted into Church-Communion without Water-Baptism And farther to clear this Objection from Rom. 6.3 There is this to say that that Epistle was written to all that were in Rome beloved of God called to be Saints which comprehendeth a Direction of that Epistle Rom. 16.5 14 15. not only to one or more particular Churches in the Order of the Gospel but to all the Saints in Rome beloved and called of God