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	lead_v	truth_n	7,417	5	5.9440	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87178	Trodden dovvn strength, by the God of strength, or, Mrs Drake revived. Shewing her strange and rare case, great and many uncouth afflictions, for tenne yeares together : together, with the strange and wonderfull manner how the Lord revealed himselfe unto her, a few dayes before her death. / Related by her somtime unworthy friend, Hart On-Hi.	Hart, John, D.D.	1647 (1647)	Wing H960; Thomason E1156_1; ESTC R204874	52,707	199

as unnecessary giving him leave to publish and make known after her death so much of her Case as might in some such misery be usefull unto others After this Mr Dod at his appointed time returned having seriously pondered all her business digested the same and was joyfully welcomed of her friends though by her in a muddy strange way former tentations by that time having againe growne somewhat strong upon her when yet hee in his usuall mercifull way cheared her up encouraging her what possibly he could And so in some few dayes after fell flatly upon the businesse how to beat down and convince her erroneous opinions wherein shee was so setled and wherein shee thought her selfe most secure in her owne judgement unremoveably setled The sinne against the Holy Ghost discussed and stated The maine grand matter troubling her and quite unhooking her off from all manner of duties as hath been said was That she had sinned that unpardonable sin against the holy Ghost which shee firmly believed Whereunto Master Dod thus replyed directly crossing all her thoughts herein in the negative affirming that she neither had sinned this sinne nor was ever hitherto so qualified as to be guilty thereof which seemed unto her very strange to prove but was easily done For he shewed unto her our of Heb. 6.4 That those who commit that sin fight against their convinced enlighting having tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come having also tasted of the heavenly gift being made partakers of the holy Ghost who in their practise crucifie to themselves the Sonne of God afresh and put him to an open shame and trample upon the blood of the Covenant maliciously opposing the known truth in a constant course remorselesse unto the end having lived thriven under powerfull means which yet they slight maliciously and purposly oppose and persecute But that shee being still in her natural estate A strong assumption by her own confession being farre from this enlightning never having tasted of this heavenly gift nor of the powers of the world to come was never thus qualified and so had never neither could have committed this sinne so that her temptations and feares in this kinde were but meer delusions onely And for that other sort who committed this sinne without the former inward illumination and taste such as were the Scribes and Pharisees Julian the Apostate and the like who maliciously persecuted and blasphemed Christ notwithstanding that by his Doctrine and Miracles they were convinced of his Diety of this he shewed her shee could not be guilty of All she could alleadge against her selfe consisting only in a matter of thoughts which could not without action and former qualification bee that sinne or within the compasse thereof Which were only things wrapt up in that we call tentatio Foeda strange injected thoughts of God as Rom. 1.23 representing him to the fancy in abominable similitudes likening him unto the vilest and basest things which were only Satans wild fire tentations for which seeing shee even then and since abominated them being sorry for them Satan must answer for they being hers no further then as shee entertained and allowed of them And also that these thoughts being thought of and injected betwixt the top and bottome of the hill whereupon her Fathers house stood never breaking forth into any speech or action which shee was sorry for could not be any such sinne as shee imagined and therfore prayed her to content her selfe and to rest satisfied and not suffer the Devill to delude and torment her any more in this kinde All this discourse shee heard willingly without replication untill he had finished what he would say when shee being very rationall and convinced of the truth of what hee had delivered acknowledged her error and Satans delusion promising no more to entertaine any such like thoughts of that sinne A further complaint But withall shee told him that it was no matter for this though shee were free thereof yet she had other sinnes enough to damne her and was assuredly a Reprobate and cast away being shee could not love God nor any other creature being devoid of all naturall affection and given over to a Reprobate sense so as shee was most certaine that the Decree of God against her was past being that shee had no heart or power to performe any holy duty but was like a creature starke dead yea twice dead good for nothing but for hell fire wherewith shee sometimes would laugh and smile but wee must conceive that even in the midst of this laughter the heart was sad for in private not long after shee would have sore fits of weeping In vaine it was now to dispute with her Knowledge of Gods Decree denyed unto any one or perswade her in any thing untill her judgement was convinced rectified in that matter of the Decree of God For shee flung off all with seeming assurance of her knowledge being sure that the Decree of her reprobation was past of her rejection whereof she was sure and certaine Therefore this being the next strong hold to be battered down he bent in the next place all his strength this way Denying unto her that it was possible either for the Devill or any other creature to know the Decree of God either for salvation or reprobation but that this revelation came in the use of meanes God blessing the same for which cause all must use the meanes who would bee saved not medling with the Decree of God nor prying into his secrets for which then was alledged that excellent Scripture Deut. 30.12 That what they were to performe and know Was not in heaven that we should say Who shall goe up for us to heaven and bring it unto us that we may heare it and doe it Neither is it beyond the sea that thou shouldest say Who shall goe over the sea for us c. But the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart that thou mayest doe it Further hee urged that if thus much were certainly know by her he shewed her Argu ∣ ment 1 it must be by a Spirit of revelation demanding of her what spirit had revealed thus much unto her If the spirit of the Devill as it could bee no other then he was a liar and the father of lies as Christ Ioh. 8.44 speaks hee speaking of his own and not from God therefore not to believed And as the for the Spirit of God he shewed who only searches knowes and reveales unto us the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 none but hee knowing the things of God not any creature This holy Spirit he shewed her had no such office assigned him of Christ in the word to be a spirit of discouragement to revealed reprobation being the Comforter appointed to lead the Saints in all Truth to reveale and tell things to come and teach us all things Ioh. 14.26 Argu ∣

would think that now there had not been much adoe but to have had a quick end of her troubles and sufferings But the Lord wonderfull in working and excellent infinitely in counsell and wisdome had otherwise so appointed the same that shee should yet a few years longer be storm beaten and sick and wander as it were in a wildernesse ere shee arrived at her heavenly Canaan And therefore out of her habituall impotencie seeing shee was so stiffe and slow to work out her own salvation or take paines for it Shee had at length her desire though hee made it cost her deare ere hee at length revealed himself unto her And therefore heareat shee stuck still even to the last expecting what extraodinary work God would work in her to enable her to take paines for her salvation A strange temptation which all her life time could hardly ever bee quite removed Untill God in a strange and unusuall manner for matter of feeling revealed himselfe unto her in such a measure as mortality was incapable of to the over-comming of her spirits who lived not long after to be in its place related About this time that famous worthy man of God Mr Robert Bruce some time Minister of Edenborrow then in prison amongst the wilde Irish for not preaching or assenting unto the truth of the Earle of Gowries Treason hearing by the Relator the trouble and true state of this Gentlewomans Case with the progresse thereof and how shee had been brought to reveale the Devils counsell wrote a letter unto the Relator touching his censure of her Case and hopefull issue thereof who being for afflicted consciences one of ten thousand he himselfe having beene for twenty yeares in terrors of conscience ere he was forced to settle unto the Ministry gave a judicious propheticall censure of the event of her case as in some sort it fell out too long here to insert but in conclusion with this upshot That now shee had bewrayed so freely the Devils counsell hee knew that all would shortly bee well are long and that her trouble would have to admiration a strange event and that for her finall estate he thanked God he made no more doubt thereof then of his own which he assured himselfe of because God had given him so large a heart to continue instant for her in prayer with a great deale of comfort concluding his letter with a patheticall speech turned in behalfe of the Gentlewoman towards Satan worthy to be written in letters of gold which being so rare and unusuall in the Presse speeches of this nature I have therefore adventured here to ensert A Speech to Satan O Enemy Satan although thy enmity for the present be troublesome unto this patient yet I thank my God through Jesus Christ that thou art an enemy unto her and that he hath put her in his Camp to fight against thee When I consider how in Paradice the Lord proclaimed irreconciliable enmity betwixt thee and the blessed seed I account her happy in that thou art her enemy and that strength is given her to fight against thee for hereby I perceive that shee is none of thine but stands on that side whereof Christ is the Captaine and all the Saints are Souldiers where the victory undoubtedly must bee both sure and certaine on her side O deceitfull Serpent If we finde such terrors and ensignes of thy fury for these smaller sinnes of frailty which we foolishly by thy enticement commit what should we have found if wee had followed thee in the rest of thy deadly assiduall and unmeasurable fiery injected temptations from the which the Lords preventing and restraining mercy hath kept us I have often by experience heard that thou art a faithlesse traytor because thou temptest a man to sinne and for the selfe-same sinne which by thy instigation we commit thou art the first accuser and the last tormenter The Lord encrease our faith and confirme his good purpose in our hearts that we never hearken any more to thy lying words nor suffer our soules to be circumvented by thee and thy deceitfull snares And as for the work of her salvation since it is a work which our God will work in spite of thee wherefore should shee or wee any more regard thy lying testimony Thou didst most malitiously put the question unto our Saviour whether or no he were the Son of God And then what marvell is it that thou darest say unto his children that they are none of his Is there any such undoubted truth that thou darest not deny or any falshood which thou darest not make good and justifie Why therefore should we enter in disputing with thee for her salvation consists not either in thy questioning or in her disputing against it but upon the Lords unchangeable Decree of Election If thou shouldest speak for her and plead her cause she were so much the worse and nothing the better and now that thou pleadst against her she is nothing the worse I love no testimony which proceeds from thee When thou confessedst that Jesus was the Son of God he rebuked thee and would none of thy testimony and when thou cryedst out that Paul and Sylas were the servants of the most High God although thou spakest the truth yet they would not accept of thy testimonie So although thou wouldest affirme that she were the child of God were she any thing the better no but so much the worse thou canst vent no truth but with an intent to deceive Therefore keep thy testimomie to thy selfe speak what thou wilt thou art ever like thy selfe a liar cursed art thou and cursed shalt thou be with all thy Confederates and cursed are they that are in friendship with thee So in conclusion thy pursuite of her and her safety hitherto from thy power shewes mee that shee is none of thine The Lord powre in his comfort and grace in her weak heart that shee may finde and feele the sweetnesse of the things we write of and from her feeling to give God the prayse of his glory and of her victory which I am sure to be most certaine in Gods good time and that her salvation is as sure as mine own I prayse God By this time three whole years having past since Mr Dod began with her having endured so many hot skirmishes with Satan made so many long journeys being toyld out in body and spirit and desirous now to rest awhile having facilitated his tough task and fitted it for some other to finish and build her up further hee having in all things convicted her judgement that God who does all things well and makes all things Rom. 8.28 work together for good unto his children who when Moses was old appointed the young man Ioshua in his place and who when Manna failed brought the people into Canaan flowing with milke and honey did now also out of his good Providence appoint a fit man to succeed as a helper in Mr Dods place meet for that