Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	holy_a	jesus_n	life_n	7,534	5	4.1727	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44110	An answer to a small treatise call'd Just measurs in an epistle of peace and love : by way of address, to such as esteem themselves elders amongst the people call'd Quakers ...	Hogg, John, fl. 1675-1698.	1693 (1693)	Wing H2367; ESTC R3382	64,276	94

this Age and who certainly are those Eminent Instruments and what this Dispensation is that you intend that so when this Age is over and those Instruments are all dead then People may prepare to watch for the Masters coming to change this Dispensation all this and more is the Genuin Consequence of those Positions and assertions which we must say is as carnal as they 'r presumptious and is a plain deferring of the Masters coming and what followes but what ever did A beating of your fellow Servants that this is truly the condition and danger of all those that assert as above own or stand by it is to us an undoubted truth and therefore in order to awaken some and forwarn others we can do no less then assert that he that is come is yet to come that so by a true watching and waiting for his coming some may avoid that great danger those are in that deferr it And indeed this presumption that the Dispensation is not to be changed in this Age is both your danger and mistake for this makes the Dispensations of God to lie chiefly in outward Modes of Worship in outward Forms of Discipline and in the Government of Men and this in stead of leading the mind to God leads from him because in stead of waiting for the Kingdom and Government of Christ and the increase of it which is Spiritual this sets up what is outward and Carnal which may be altered and changed from one thing to another and yet the mind unregenerated and therefore those dispensations of God that convert the soul to God are Spiritual and are the same now they have been through all Ages of which that unto Israel and the compleating of that Dispensation by our Saviour is a true and perfect Figure to us and all men but seeing you say there is to be no change of Dispensation in this Age Pray when is it that you intend to Present those that depend on you as chast Virgins to Christ That they may be married unto him for as this ought to be so certainly you will allow in that State such may simply depend on him it does not appear you intend it as long as you live because you say there is to be no variation or changing of Dispensation in this Age and when may it be expected then For those that succeed you in the Government may as justly deny a change of Dispensation in their Age as you do in this and to be sure they 'l be as unwilling to allow of it as you for why They must bear the Image that you beget and as they will make you their Authority they will build on you as it has been through all the Reformations and then as they are not like to know so much as some have done in this Age they 'l be but bigotted the more for indeed where there is not a constant waiting for the Lords Coming to do what he pleaseth with us a false rest is set up and such become as much as in them lyes the limiters of God and good Men and the preventers of the further discoveries of the mind of God but if we come to be a Figure of the Universal Church of which Christ our Lord is truly head we must know a change and alteration of the Dispensation by which this striving for Mastership and Ceremony may cease and that in our Age for 't is certain that Gods appearance is twofold to Man in the work of restoring Man unto himself and if we be of Spiritual Israel we must know a coming through the work of a first Covenant before we can know the Second whereupon it follows as there must be a Preparation before there can be a Choice there is a Legal Dispensation to be known or passed through before that of the Gospel can be fully understood 'T is true if we could consider rightly that the end of all Gods dealing with men is to bring them to himselfe and secure them for the future against the attempts of the Enemy we might call or esteem all Gospel according to Address to Protestants Page 82 where 't is said the Law is the Gospel begun the Gospel the Law fulfilled or finished they cannot be parted by the word parted we conceive he means the Gospel cannot come or be witnessed except it begin in the Law for when we consider that all men in their first State are concluded under sin and that in the work of regeneration there is trouble before peace and condemnation before Justification and that no suffering for the present seems Joyom then may we say those dispensations of Law and Gospel first and second Covenant are now in being and as distinguishable to the Spiritual Traveller as ever 'T is true Christ our Lord is Heir of all things but our first knowledge of him is in his descending where he devests himself of his glory in this he condescends to lay hold of us or otherwise it were impossible for us to apprehend or lay hold of him you know 't is written the holy Spirit was not yet given because that Jesus was not yet glorified and yet he both had Disciples and they was taught of him nay when raised from the dead and they were still taught of him they had not yet received the Holy Spirit for he was not yet ascended but when the Power from on high came upon them the true witness that Jesus was glorified then they received the Holy Spirit that was to abide with them But to apply it if our first knowledge of Christ be in his descending then must we know him ascend where he was before or the work cannot be compleated but this cannot be without a change of dispensation thus instead of denyit we ought to wait for it Again when we consider that since transgression at least Man is made under a Law wrote or to be wrote in the hearts or minds of all Men of which that wrote in stone to Israel was but as a Figure and that by this Law came the true knowledge of 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 this Ministration cannot pass away unfulfilled therefore does our Lord descend to assist us to fulfil this dispensation as a Servant and differeth not from a Servant tho he is Lord of all you know he was made under the Law to Israel that he might redeem them truly prepared by it from under the Law and he is now as well as then a Minister of the Sanctuary and then must we not know him first under a Legal dispensation as well as then For that dispensation given to Israel that he then fulfilled in the flesh was never given to us and as that was not to continue it is the Substance of that which remains that we are to inquire out God appeared by his servants and by his Son to the house of Israel after the flesh the first was to prepare the latter to perfect and those that are not faithful in the first part now can not

or raise any above it in the eyes of others but only that confidence in the flesh wherein so many have stuck and miscarried might be wasted and consumed that so the Lord our God might be exalted over all for he that is come is yet to come and as His goings forth hath been from Everlasting they still continue a Riddle to the Rulers and a Mistery to all that is but born after the flesh and what is flesh in a Religious sense but Form the external part of Religion for all that stick here as they are great in the formality of it so such never fail'd to persecute them that 's born after the Spirit because such being dead with Christ to the World and the Rudiments of it have not nor never had that value for outward things which those born after the flesh have yet alwayes brings forth the righteousness of those things It was thus betwixt Israel and the Prophets and betwixt the Jewish Rabbys and our Lord and hath been much after the same manner in the Reformation and is after the like sort now if you could but consider it but for all this we can allow of Elders and that in a good sense for some have been before others in testifying to Gods appearance in our day and have been made instrumental to turn some to righteousness in the hand of the Lord but what then did such find out the Truth by their skill or cunning or the Lord fought them out did such send themselves or the Lord sent such into his Vineyard If the Lord is not all owing to him and cannot you be content with what honour he gives without seeking honour by bearing witness of your selves for the noise you make bears witness you are not satisfied with that honour he gives he that hath the Bride is the Bridegroom and in the best sense you can be but Preparers for him and as you have directed all to him you ought to be willing to present all to him for his increasing must be the decreasing of the Instrument for every true Preparer for Christ does certainly know as he comes to take the Government they must decrease therefore do they constantly throw down their Crowns by affirming that their Service must be fulfilled to every one that comes to know the sufficiency of our Lords Government And cannot you be glad and rejoyce in this If not all is not right yet for all the true Preparers for him as they know this ought to be so they both seek and defire it but such as are so much in the formallitys of Form they cannot because they gather to themselves that is to their own Opinions and Judgments grant that you have Preached to us Spiritual things What then do you desire we should know you after the flesh for that If so all is not yet right if God have made some of you Instrumental to turn some to Righteousness and in that sense may be termed as Fathers do you expect our Obedience as Children But if so consider you are under as great or greater Oligation to us as Children you should neither provoke not require of us what we can not give for Conscience sake for it would be cruel to seek to destroy what you might be Instrumental to beget 't is not a telling of us the cause of Difference is not matter of Conscience whilest we know and do most surely believe otherwise beware what you do for if by your distinctious of what 's Civil and Religious you destroy the tenderness of Conscience or reject such as are Consciencious your Work must suffer loss by the fire which must try your Works as well as others and indeed it seems already kindled the occasion of all this noise is for the saving of what is combustible whereas had you builded nothing but Gold and Silver had you infisted upon nothing but what had been Essentiall to Society and good Order there would have been no occasion of this noise because then there had been no fear or hazzard of loss nay such things would have stood the tryal and com'd through rather purified then hurt But to proceed is it not sufficient for you that we can acknowledg your Seniority as above expressed and can testifie that it was Truth you directed to in the beginning but we must alway be under your Tutorage is it not honour enough for you that we can say that having come to him with our hard Questions whose Fame you spread that we have found the truth of his sujficiency even beyond your report and now being come to him and heard him our selves would you have us back again to depend on you Nay verily rather give us leave frankly to say we believe not now because of your word but because we have heard him our selves whose word is Spirit and life and by what he has done for us we 're sure he only can compleat what remains and if your distinction of greater or lesser things were necessary Page 15 and 16 we find he does not only teach the great things which you seem to grant as our Duty towards God but the lesser things also as our Duty toward Men which you seem to reserve and what is this for but that we might alway remains Pupils that thereby we might be at your Devotion but to be plain if that distinction be needfull we find he teacheth the lesser things first and greater and greater as we are fitted to receive them for 't is impossible we should know the greater and not the less or be faithful in the greater and false in the less for he that performs his Duty to God cannot fail of paying what he owes to his Neighbour and indeed to know this Spiritual Birth by which God can in a peculier sense be truly called Father is needful for every individual Soul otherwise our Title and Interest is surer to this World and the things of it then it is to that which is to come when that and the things of it as it is more excellent so it can only be more sure this being but the Figure and that the Substance give us leave to say then where the sufficiency of Christ the Son of God is known such cannot depend on you nor any Man and they that know not your Service fulfilled by him knowes not yet his sufficiency nor is Christ yet truly formed in them as they ought to know him And truly every one that confesses that Christ is come in Spirit and does not wait and hope to have your Service fulfilled as Instruments they have either taken up a false Rest or yet never came into the true travel And whilst you seem to grant him the greater things and not the less it is because you do not know the greater or at least are not subject to the Government of Christ as you ought to be bear with us for the knowledge of his sufficiency and the necessity for every one ●…w it that professes his