Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	good_a	work_n	work_v	6,969	5	7.2984	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37263	Truth and innocency vindicated against falshood & malice exprest in a late virulent pamphlet intituled, (A true account of a most horrid and dismal plague began at Rothwell, &c.) without printer's licenser's or author's name thereunto) : together with an account of the Kettering visitation / by R. Davis ... ; to which is added, Mr. Rob. Betson's answer to so much as concerns him in the said libel.	Davis, Richard, 1658-1714.; Betson, Robert. Answer to some part of that pamphlet called, A plain and just account of a plague being at Rothwell.	1692 (1692)	Wing D435; ESTC R10047	98,027	94

to the whole revealed Mind and Will of God in his Word and upon his own Authority but as it is a saving Grace it is a work of the Spirit whereby a Sinner doth see and behold Christ in all his Excellencies and is persuaded and enabled to look to him to go forth from Sin and Self to lay hold of Christ and to rest and relie on Christ and his Righteousness for Acceptance with God and Eternal Salvation XVI Of Effectual Calling Effectual Calling is the powerful Voice of the Son of God by his Spirit accompanying his Word whereby a Sinner is enabled to accept of Christ upon his own Terms according to the Promise of the Gospel therefore it relates to Faith XVII Of Assurance Assurance is not a bare conjectural and probable Persuasion but the infallible certainty of Faith founded upon the Testimony of the Spirit of Adoption witnessing with our Spirits that we are the Children of God altho many Believers have not attained to this Assurance yet it is the Duty of all to seek after it and those that have attained to it may have it divers ways shaken and diminish'd through Sin and Temptations XVIII Of Perseverance The Perseverance of the Saints depends not upon their own Free Will or inherent Grace already received but upon the Immutability of the Love of God in the Decree of Election the Efsicay and Merit of the Intercession of Christ The Nature of the Covenant of Grace and the abiding of the Spirit of God Altho true Believers cannot fall finally and totally yet they may fall into grievous Sins and may continue in them for a while whereby they grieve the Spirit lessen their Comforts wound their Consciences scandalise others and do come under the Rebuke of God's fatherly Corrections for their Recovery and Amendment XIX Of Adoption Adoption is an act of the free Grace of God in and for his only Son Jesus Christ whereby all those that are justified are received into the number of his Children have his Name put upon them the Spirit of his Son given unto them are under his fatherly Care and Correction admitted to all the Liberties and Privileges of the Sons of God made Heirs of all the Promises and Fellow-heirs with Christ in Glory XX. Of Sanctification Sanctification is the Work of God's Grace whereby they whom God has before the Foundation of the World chosen to be Holy are in time through the powerful Operation of the Spirit applying the Death and Resurrection of Christ unto them renew'd in their whole Man after the Image of God having the Seeds of Repentance and of all other saving Graces put into their Hearts and those Graces so stirred up increased and strengthned as that they more and more dye unto Sin and rise up unto Newness of Life in the lively Actings and Exercises of Faith XXI Of Repentance True Gospel Repentance is a saving Grace wrought by the Spirit of God whereby we are enabled thorough believing on the Lord Jesus Christ for Life and Salvation to turn from Sin unto God XXII Preparatory Works Works done before Faith however good in themselves yet are vain fruitless sinful and not pleasing to God and therefore can't make us any ways meet for the receiving of Grace XXIII Of Good Works Good Works are then only Good when they are the Fruits of Faith and they ought to be carefully maintain'd by Believers not that they may thereby be justified or continued in a justified State but that they may glorifie God and answer the Ends of their Redemption by Jesus Christ XXIV Of the Moral Law The Moral Law holds the Elect during their Unregeneracy under its condemning Force 'till they believe and is unto all Believers a Rule for Obedience which they are enabled to conform unto by the Power of God's Grace XXV Of the State of Believers after Death and their Resurrection The Souls of Believers immediately after Death are made perfect in Holiness are received up to Heaven and behold the Face of God in Light and Glory Their Bodies in the mean time resting in the Grave till the Resurrection are then Re-united to their Souls in Perfect Blessedness and full Enjoyment of God forever XXVI Of the Last Iudgment God has appointed a Day wherein he will Judge the Quick and the Dead in Righteousness by Jesus Christ to whom all Power and Judgment is given of the Father for the Glorifying his Divine Mercy in the Salvation of the Elect and of his Divine Justice in the Eternal Damnation of the Wicked and Disobedient FINIS An Answer to some part of that Pamphlet Called A Plain and Just Account of a Plague being at Rothwell c. Wherein it will be manifest that they that gave the Account gave a very unjust Account in some Matters as in others they Charge as Errors the great Truths of the Gospel of our Lord. By Rob Betson Pastor of the Church of Christ in Wellingborough OH that my Head was a Fountain of Tears that I could Weep Day and Night for a Generation of Men professing love to Christ and Souls and yet their Mouths are full of Revilings and their Pens dipt in Gall as the first Page testifieth and several other places in the Book wherein they act like that Orator Tertullus in Acts 24. 5. We have found this Man a pestilent fellow and a mover of Sedition among all the Jews throughout the World and a Ring-leader of the Sect of the Nazarens c. Thus he accused and the Jews assented saying That these things were so vers 9. And thus do the Writers of this Pamphlet accuse God's Servant Mr. Davis with many others which I question not but they are dear to our Lord Jesus But yet the People are ready to say all is true that can be spoken yea this I observe these Men will believe the Reports of the worst of Men against him when they will not believe their nearest Friends that speak for him tho what they speak they have seriously weigh'd which sheweth them to be of their minds Jeremy complaineth of Chap. 20. 10. Report say they and we will Report it But I believe the Lord in his own time will vindicate the Faith and Order of that Gospel which is now opposed by a Generation of Men that have not the Power of Godliness However I earnestly intreat all that fear the Lord to cease Reviling and take Paul's Counsel Ephesians 4. 31 32. Let all Bitterness and Wrath and Anger and Clamor and evil speaking be put away and be ye kind one to another And if you yet be in doubt take Gamaliel's Counsel Acts 5. 38 39. For we are very willing that whatever there is that is not of God should fall and we are also sure that whatever is of God you cannot overturn it therefore pray have a Care you be not found fighters against God And pray weigh very seriously what Mr. Davis hath written in answer to what is charged against him for I do trust that in

only think so Answ The Adversaries themselves make nothing of this and it needeth no Answer Our Lord there speaketh to the Pharisees who themselves judged the Scriptures to shew the way to eternal life but yet they did not see he was the Person the Scriptures testified of No doubt People may set up a bare knowledge of the Letter of the Scripture in the room of the Mediator as it was the Case of the Pharisees 8. Make me as one of thy hired Servants Luke 15. 9. Lo here is his unbelief when God would have him be a Son he would be a Servant Answ Questionless 't is Unbelief not to accept of what is offered and what we are commanded to receive That is the only true modesty that glorieth not in the Flesh but in Christ and his Righteousness And that 's Gospel-humility where the Soul is emptied of itself most receiving from the fulness of Christ There may be a legal humility and unbelieving modesty What think ye of their modesty mentioned Acts 13. 46. whom the Apostles Paul and Barnabas charge with high wickedness for judging themselves unworthy of eternal life 9. There shall go forth such from Rowell as shall sound the Gospel over these three Kingdoms Answ I cannot tell whether ever it was said so by any yet I can say it is my hopes the Lord Jesus e're long will send forth out of other Churches of Christ as well as that at Rothwell such as shall be made very instrumental for the conversion of Souls WE the Members of the Church of Christ over whom Mr. R. Davis is Pastor and his constant Hearers having seriously considered the aforesaid Principles laid to his Charge do declare and testify they are utterly false and that the current of his Doctrine has been as he himself has laid it down And further the design of his preaching amongst us has been to offer pardoning Grace through the blood of Christ freely to Sinners to press them to accept thereof on the pain of damnation To press us to Holiness from the principle of saving Faith To advance the Person and Offices of the Lord Jesus likewise the Person Offices Graces and Gifts of the Spirit And lastly to advance electing Grace reigning through the Righteousness of Christ Jesus We also attest that all those evil Practices laid to his Charge and especially the ridiculous-Falshoods about Admissions are abominable Vntruths Where unto we have subscribed our Names at the general Church-meeting it being a solemn Day of Fasting and Prayer Robert Tebatt John Taylor Jonathan Wells John Arnall William Watts Edward Coales Francis Cave Thomas Chambers Robert Hills John Mansfield Thomas Servell Thomas Rowlatt Nathaniel Chamber Samuel Lades John Bridges Thomas Kilingworth William Whittwell James Taylor Richard Tebatt Christopher Brett Jacob Harle Joseph Person Thomas Ladson James Bodymore Richard Gaurn John Wood Stephen Smith Jonathan Palmore Robert Hoeman John Tebatt Robert King Thomas Whittwell Thomas Hall Samuel Knight John Wills William King William Arch Thomas Paine Thomas Remington Samuel Rogers These following were pretended to be delivered about Kimbolton 10. There are five times wherein Christ intercedes c. Answ However the two Ministers represented it that which was said was this That there are five times of Christ's especial Intercession Not that his Intercession is changeable in itself but in respect of us as to the effects thereof As for Instance Christ intercedes for his Elect before called yet then only it takes effect when they are effectually called So again for his Children under Backslidings yet then made effectual when they are recovered And as for the time of greater sinning it was thus alledged That then he intercedes that their Faith may not totally fail It was illustrated by the Example of Peter Satan's design in his Tryal was not only to cause him to deny his Master but also to take occasion from thence to urge him to cast away all his hopes But says our Lord I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not I never held nor preached That his Intercession was Oral that was the Construction Prejudice put upon it This is my Judgment That he presents his Satisfaction to his Father in a way consistent with his glorify'd state The preverting the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and making it to signify a Comforter in 1 John 2. 1. is indeed according to the Grotian Divinity I judge the Libellers would do well to consider that Christ there is represented as transacting above with his Father and not with us It is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Advocate with the Father And whether that be good Sense to render it thus That he transacts as a Comforter towards his Father I leave it to the Judgment of judicious and indifferent Persons E're I part with this I must fix a Falshood upon the Libellers who affirm That two Ministers discoursed me about it at that time whereas it was Mr. Chandler then only spoke to me and it was about the Sense of that Scripture Mat. 10. 32 33. 11. Justification by Faith is only a manifestation of it in our Conscience Answ That I said Only a manifestation of it in our Consciences is false like all the rest But that justifying Faith in the infused Principle thereof is a divine supernatural Manifestation or Revelation to the Conscience is undeniably grounded upon the holy Scripture of Truth Thus saith the Lord Hebr. 11. 1. Faith is the evidence or demonstration of things not seen but yet the demonstration of the Spirit and of power 1 Cor. 2. 4. Christ as working this Faith is said to manifest himself John 14 21 22. The Spirit as the efficient thereof is said to testify of Jesus John 15. 26. To take of the things of Christ and shew them to the Soul John 16. 14. God the Father also as the great Author of Faith is asserted to reveal his Son in the Soul Gal. 1. 16. And he that believeth hath the witness or manifestation in himself 1 John 5. 10. with divers other Scriptures Whence 't is evident That Faith is a Divine Manifestation in the Principle thereof and the Act flowing from it is the Soul's acceptance of manifested Grace and Principle and Act are of the essence of saving Faith Therefore it follows First They that contend for their word Illumination in opposition to Scriptural terms plainly prefer their own Phrases before the Words which the wisdom of the Holy Ghost teacheth Secondly But more especially they that exclude Divine-Illumination or Manifestation from the Essence of saving Faith either set up 1. An implicit Popish Blindfold Faith or 2 dly Set up Faith to act without a Principle which is monstrous and absurd or 3 dly Since in this Divine Principle of living Light Christ comes into the Soul by his Spirit and therein supernatural Power is communicated to the Soul to act as a living Soul in Christ they consequently set up a power in Man's Soul to believe antecedent to Christ's coming to

Subversion of the Hearers Whether you do not rather gratify their sinful Lusts both by your Discourses and Pamphlet and form them up to Pride Malice Strife and Contention than to heavenly-mindedness spiritual conversation and an holy walk How should they follow your Faith when you are the greatest Opposers of the grace of Faith in the Nation And how dangerous it is for them to consider the end of your conversation which is Self and Sin and not Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. 7 8. 3. Consider seriously Whether you have not exposed Religion as well by your former actings as by this Libel to the contempt and scorn of the common People Was it not the highest wickedness in you so to order the disposal of many of them as that they were put into the hands of Alehouse-keepers to vend away very cheap or give them gratis to their tipling Company to create them Sport upon their Ale-benches and so render our holy Profession to be the Mockery and Song of the Drunkards and also dispose of them to the poor harvest Folks to read under Hedges You have not only stumbled them from hearing of me but your selves also and every one that beareth the Name of a dissenting Minister You have not only made me odious but Religion our Profession and the dissenting Interest in general Their hatred and ignorance will neither know or make any difference 4. Search into your own hearts and consider by what Principles you have been carried forth in all your former opposition as well as this Libel Lee your Consciences answer truly in the presence of the awful Searcher of hearts as they are always open and naked before his eyes with whom you and I have to do And have they not been Self-gain Self preheminence Ambition Pride Malice and Revenge Is not your Cry like the old Cry of Demetrius and his Followers That your Craft is in danger to be spoilt and your Gain like to be lost Let the Apostle James if you are ashamed answer for your Consciences and for all Jam. 4. 1. From whence cometh wars and fightings amongst you come they not hence from your lusts that war in your members ver 2. Ye lust and have not ye kill and desire to have but cannot obtain ye fight and war yet ye have not because ye ask not ver 3. Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss that ye may consume it upon your lusts ver 5. Do ye think that the Scripture saith in vain the Spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy ver 6. But he giveth more grace wherefore he saith God resisteth the proud but giveth grace unto the humble 5. Consider seriously what spirit you have acted in all along Was it in the Spirit of Christ or your own spirits Nay was it not in the very worse dregs of your own spirits Weigh this well Whether you have managed your selves in opposition to supposed Errors according to those Commands of the Lord 2 Tim. 2. 3. But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they gender strife ver 24. And the servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach patient ver 25. In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventrire will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth Ah! Have not you rather carried it quite contrary even in your manifest fruits of the flesh such as variance emulations wrath strife envyings back-bitings whisperings swellings tumults c 2 Cor. 12. 10. Had your Cause been never so good yet your way of managing it has been enough to ruine it 6. Was it the honour and glory of Christ that you proposed at the end of such Actions or rather the advancement of some cursed Idols of Self Any unprejudic'd Man that reads your Libel can soon determine the Question Can you think this to be a likely way even in a spirit of bitterness and persecution to reclaim us from those Errors and Heresies that you assert we are fallen into Why did not you in prudence and good manners give way to the wiser learneder and graver heads at London to make the first tryal of their Skill And why must you with your printed Mint of Slander impertinently iuterrupt them and rudely anticipate their Essays and by a malevolent conjunction of so bad a Libel with their Ketterin Visitation cast such an Odium upon them and their Proceedings as cannot in haste be wiped away 7. Consider Whether it be not the greatest Uncharitableness to judge that the great Numbers converted by this erroneous Preaching as you call it are all under Delusions What is Conversion if this be not that those who were so grosly ignorant are so enlightned as to understand and speak so judiciously clearly and experimentally of the person and undertakings of the Lord Jesus and Justification by him alone of the beauty and excellency they saw by Faith in him his suitableness to their wants and the absolute necessity they have of him and his righteousness through a deep sight of their sin and misery and a supernatural discovery of him Is it not evident also that those who were formerly very wicked and profligate in their Lives and Conversations are now become religious serious and circumspect Yea those that are afflicted when they are themselves do adore the Doctrine of our Lord and Saviour and are most awful of God in Christ These many of them live in your Neighborhoods and no doubt many of them by their holy Lives and zealous Profession leave a Testimony in your Consciences for the work of God wrought upon their Souls If you approve not of their Conversion how came some of you to admit several of them into your Churches It seems their Conversion is good enough if they offer themselves to you Can you be then so censorious to judge them all acted by a Satanical Spirit and not converted If many of them are true Converts how dare you blast that Doctrine that God hath blest to reach them with the dreadful name of execrable Heresie It is an old and a true Maxim That the God of Truth never puts his Seal to a Lye We can say in great humility and self-abasing giving the sole honour to the excellency of the power that is of God that those despised Truths such poor Worms as we have deliver'd in the Name of the Lord and have been received amongst us have been sealed and attested to with Fire from Heaven I mean the Spirit of the Lord. 8. Consider this how grosly you abuse us to say we are against the Law of God No we constantly affirm The Law is good if a Man use it lawfully Nor are we against the preaching of it as it ought to be preached We always preach the Law of God demands of Sinners complete and infinite satisfaction and they that will satisfie the penalty of the Law in their own persons must go to Hell to do it

like the Merchant's Ship fetcheth its Goods from far even from Jesus at the Right-Hand of the Father We are apter to tabernacle within than to go out of Self for a Supply continually which is swimming against Wind and Tide going contrary to Sence and Humane Wisdom it is that that Flesh and Blood knoweth not Lastly Since Marks and Signs shine only in the Light of Faith and Faith shineth not but when it looketh directly to its Object the Grace that is in Christ Jesus then so to Examine our Faith when we cease to Act Faith is as if One should put out a Candle to see whether it burneth or not or to shut close the Doors and Windows to see whether the Room be light This I have preached at Willingham or to this effect though the Witnesses have made a woful Blunder about it Sanctification is no Evidence of Justification Faith and its Effects have a great share in Gospel-Holiness and sure they are Signs of Justification But such Holiness as they plead for is no Holiness and therefore no Evidence of Justification Animadversions on the foregoing Head IT is Remarkable Accusations under this Head tend to support these Two following Principles 1. That Divine Illumination is not of the Essence of Saving-Faith 2. To over-turn the Faith of Assurance or to set up one that 's not known in the Scripture and that can be of no use to Believers But I shall prove that Divine Illumination is of the Essence of Saving-Faith For 1st None can believe on what they know not None can see a need of Christ nor fly unto him but they whose Eyes have been opened by the Spirit to see the Beauty Excellency and Necessity of Christ Jesus Therefore Faith is not a blind Consent to the Will only 2dly As the Spirit does work in this Faith he is called the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of him that is Christ Eph. 1. 17. His Office is to open and enlighten the Eyes of the Understanding ver 18. As also to take the things of Christ and shew unto the Soul Joh. 16. 14. And to make known unto Believers the Mystery of his Will Eph. 1. 9. Having made known unto us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he hath purchased to himself 3dly Faith it self is called a Revelation of Christ in the Soul Gal. 1. 15 16. But when it pleased God to separate me from my mother's womb and called me by his Grace ver 16. To reveal his Son in me is also called the Assurance of Understanding Col. 2. 2. That their hearts may be comforted being knit together in love and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ I might add more Reasons but I judge these sufficient But observe I do not make Faith to be only a Divine Natural Illumination or Understanding but also an Act of the Will divinely perswaded accepting of and leaning on Christ As to the Second thing I must confess the new coin'd Faith of Assurance I do not understand to wie That it is when a Christian can find such and such Marks in himself and these in sincerity then he may be assured of his Salvation and this without any mention made of looking to Christ or leaning on him in the very Act of Assurance But I find no Foot steps of such a Faith in the Scripture These are my Arguments against it Arg. 1. The Object of Saving-Faith is Christ once Crucified now at the Father's Right-Hand But this sort of Faith of Assurance sets up a Christ within a Quaker's Christ as the Object of Faith Arg. 2. If it be granted that this Faith of Assurance takes its Grounds and Denomination from as Reflect Act of Faith yet a Reflect Act of Faith is but a Repercussion upon the Conscience of that Light that shines in a direct Act of Faith so that there can be no true Marks and Signs without Faith in that moment exercis'd He that doth truth cometh to the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are wrought of God Joh. 3. 21. So then they that bid People try their Faith by looking within and not bidding them at that time look to Christ and that first put them in my Judgment upon an impossible Test Arg. 3. As there can be no real Marks and Signs without Faith exercis'd upon the Object so to put People upon examining the Sincerity of their supposed Marks and Signs is yet to make the Matter ten times more difficult and perplexing to the Soul Gospel-Sincerity I find in Scripture to be this viz. To mix nothing with Christ and his Righteousness in our Justification 〈◊〉 and to have right Principles Means Aims and Ends in carrying of Sanctification 1 Pet. 2. 4 5. comp together Arg. 4. They that would examine their Faith whether it be sincere by Marks and Signs without Faith in the Exercise must have a Second Mark to know the First a Third to prove the Second and a Fourth to prove the Third and so ad infinitum Hence it is that poor Souls are quite be wilder'd to bring the Matter to a determinate issue so that despairing of making their Calling and Election sure they content themselves with lazy faint and languid Hopes which have no good bottom or else what is worst of all they embrace a Cloud instead of this Assurance I shall humbly offer my Judgment of Faith of Assurance as I find it in Scripture 1. I do not deny but that when we sensibly feel our inward Grace shining in the Light of Faith we may from thence together with the Evidence of Faith inferr the Certainty of our Believing as when we sensibly perceive our Love to Christ flowing from our Faith in him we may thence conclude we have the Faith of God's Elect and so of other Graces But perhaps this is but seldom the frame of a Believer's Spirit and yet he ought when he walks in the dark to hold fast his Confidence Therefore there must needs be that that is true Assurance though not so high and so sensible as this And 1st I find in Scripture it is a strong and constant reliance upon the Ability and Faithfulness of Christ as to the Grace promised This you have instanced in Abraham's Faith Rom. 4. 20 21. He stagger'd not at the promises of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God And in ver 21. And was fully perswaded that what he had promised he was also able to perform So also instanced in the Faith of Sarah Heb. 11. 11. Through faith also Sarah her self received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age because she judged him faithful that had promised So therefore in both these Instances you may see that this their Assurance was grounded upon the Ability and Faithfulness of the Promiser It is