Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	know_v	scripture_n	speak_v	7,222	5	4.9707	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34532	An account given of the principles & practices of several nonconformists wherein it appears that their religion is no other than what is profest in the Church of England in vindication of themselves and others of their perswasion, against the misrepresentation made of them, and in hearty desire of unity in the Church, and of peace and concord among all true Protestants, for the strengthening of their common interest, in this time of their common danger / written by Mr. John Corbet ...	Corbet, John, 1620-1680.	1682 (1682)	Wing C6251; ESTC R224970	23,021	37

enemies as they had been given out to be to Episcopacy or Liturgy but modestly to desire such alterations in either as without shaking Foundations might best allay the present distempers And he expressed himself in reference to those things wherein the learned men of either persuasion were agreed as followeth If upon these excellent foundations in submission to which there is such a harmony of affections any superstructure should be raised to the shaking of those Foundations and to the contracting or lessening of the blessed gift of Charity which is a vital part of Christian Religion we shall think our self very unfortunate and even suspect that we are defective in that administration of Government with which God hath intrusted us And he saith farther That he doth not think his reverence to the Church of England as it is Established by Law in the least degree diminished by condescentions not peremptorily to insist on some particulars of ceremony which howsoever introduced by the piety and devotion and order of former times may not be so agreable to the present but may lessen that piety and devotion for the improvement whereof they might happily be introduced and consequently may well be dispensed with This gracious healing declaration was received with the thanks of the House of Commons and with the applause of the people and it was to our special joy Had the moderation therein specified stood in force we have no cause to doubt but that Tranquillity and Concord in the Church would have ensued But the frustration thereof lay not on our parts It is our comfort that we have earnestly sought Peace and Unity though we have not so far prevailed as to gain so much as the abatement of one Ceremony but our Bonds have been made stronger and the terms of our Ministerial liberty much harder to us than they were in the former times of Prelacy 22. Some indeed say that to indulge us any abatement of injunctions even in things indifferent and mutable would cherish us in our ungovernable perswasions and the Church would yield up her authority to those Principles that would be an everlasting hinderance of her settlement These men speak as if our exclusion not our conformity were desired But against their uncharitable and unsober assertion we offer our Principles already here testified to the tryal and judgment of all impartial and unprejudiced minds and challenge our adversaries to gain say them or to prove that we falsly pretend unto them 23. The extravagant Pens of some Writers have made ridiculous and odious descriptions of us to expose us to the common scorn and hatred They would make the World believe that instead of the Precepts of the Gospell intelligibly set forth we make a Religion of Metaphors and Allegories and new phrases of thin airy notions frivolous and senseless nicities and fanatick whimsies This they fix promiscuously upon the Non-Conformists from passages collected out of some Writers that go under that name But suppose those passages as erroneous and frivolous as they would make them would any party in the VVorld or they themselves be so dealt with Should a collection of errors absurdities incongruities injudicious expressions and such like weaknesses be pick'd here and there out of the writings of this and the other Conformists and then be Intituled the Religion of the Conforming Clergy Let the Divinity of the Non-Conformists that is extant defend it self we are not carefull about this matter Indeed we cannot boast that none among us are injudicious yea or that any one among us doth never write or speak an incongruous word If our adversaries so boast of themselves and theirs let them take the glory of it we are not called to this boasting or to compare our selves with others It is too well known how great a part of the Clergy throughout Christendom as indeed of all other sorts of men are defective and imprudent in their expressions But by insisting on this kind of exceptions our adversaries have done us this right as in effect to tell the VVorld that the Non-Conformists are not deprived and silenced for Treason Rebellion Drunkenness Swearing Incontinences Rayling Insufficiency Idleness seldom Preaching Pluralities Non-Residence and such like immoralities Let not the progress of our just and necessary defence be taken for self exalting For we do not exclude others but only include our selves in that sobriety from which some would exclude us and we do this to shew that others ought to receive us seeing we accord in the greater things notwithstanding our lesser differences 24. We earnestly disavow and teach the people to beware of the conduct of pretended inspirations and we own God's publick Laws written in Scripture and Nature for our perpetual Rule The World knows that the rational evidence of Christian Religion and of the Divine Authority of the Scriptures hath been as much owned among us and as largely asserted by some of ours as by any of them that so speak as if they were the only Propugnators and Preachers thereof We take the Spirit 's grand Testimony to the truth of the Gospel not to stand in some inward unaccountable suggestion and perswasion but in an objective evidence propounded to the reason of Mankind though we likewise hold the Spirits internal teaching and the gift of illumination to be necessary to saving Faith We do not hunt after mysteries in words and phrases yet we would not make void or lessen the great mystery of Godliness and make no more of it than a Scheme of Moral Philosophy We approve not affected Language yet we would not have the things of the Spirit of God spoken in Scripture Language called Canting We make it our business to understand the things we affirm and to speak sense to our Hearers in the plainest words and in preaching to avoid vain janglings and impertinent curiosities useless speculations novelties and vain ostentation of wit and fancy and to insist on things essential or of great importance to Christian Piety and whereinsoever we have done weakly we desire to do better and refuse not to learn even from our adversaries 25. In man's Conversion to God we urge not the necessity of any thing that is unnecessary We stand not on certain modes methods and circumstances in which it may be brought about wherein the wisdom of God proceeds variously towards several persons according to the different circumstances of their condition As for instance we assert not a general necessity of this or that measure of humiliation much less of a dismal despairing horror as some have said of us we press conviction and humiliation no farther than to make a sinner restless till he come to Christ and find rest to his Soul in him And we take not conversion to be as some have slandered us an imbracing of our opinions or an adhering to our party but an internal principle of Faith Hope and Love expressed in a sober righteous and godly life If this be it which some mean when they