Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	knowledge_n	understanding_n	wisdom_n	6,916	5	6.5948	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47748	Liturgy's vindicated by the dissenters, or, The lawfulness of forms of prayer and liturgies proved from the very texts of Scripture urged against them by John Bunyan and the dissenters / by the author of the Religious conference between a minister and his parishioner about infant baptism.	Leslie, Charles, 1650-1722.	1700 (1700)	Wing L1137; ESTC R34970	43,840	127

Christians to offer in my Defence and justification 1st That when I reflect on Jo. Bunyan's Groanings I do it only to shew his false and absurd Interpretation of Rom. 8.26 where he misapplies the Groanings the Apostle there speaks of to himself and other Men which plainly belong to the Spirit of God being such as cannot be heard or uttered as the Groanings of Men are and I do not hereby condemn the Sighs and Graans which good People out of a deep Sense of their Sins and Sorrow for them may and often do utter in their Closet Devotions and private Ejaculations which tho' none but God sees and hears yet he approves and accepts them the better and meerly for their being Sincere and Secret he will one Day Reward them openly Mat. 6.4.6.18 but as for such Sighs and Groans which are vented in the Congregation a thing constantly practised among the Quakers as well as J. Bunyan and his Party and other Dissenters we have no Precept or Example for them either in the Old or New Testament We read or hear of no such thing in all their Religious Assemblies and particularly those three great ones wherein the Spirit of God assisted in a more extraordinary manner than he has ever done since that time I mean when the Apostles and Disciples to the number of an Hundred and twenty met together and Prayed to God to direct them in the choice of a Successor to Judas Acts 1.15.24 and when they were assembled on the Day of Pentecost Acts 2.1 when Three thousand were Converted by St. Peter's Sermon ver 14.41 when the first great Council was assembled at Jerusalem Act. 15.7.12 and when St. Paul Preached his farewel Sermon at Troas continuing his Speech till Midnight Acts 20.7 in all which places we read that the People either kept Silence or were sorrowful and pricked to the Heart or else spake in diverse Tongues the wonderful Works of God but we do not find there was one Soul that Groan'd among them which I the rather mention because all these were wonderful Conversions and extraordinary Effusions of the Holy Ghost so little Authority from the Scripture have any Dissenters for the frequent Groanings which are heard among them in their respective Meetings or for their making these Groanings an infallible Mark of their having the Spirit of God they are rather sometimes a Mark of Hypocrisie and that those that Delight and Pride themselves in them do this as the Scribes and Pharisees did of old only to be heard and seen of Men Mat. 23.2 And therefore whatsoever good Men may do in private between God and their own Souls when none sees or hears but God alone yet in publick they are careful to avoid such loud and frequent Groans at least to be very sparing in them least instead of passing for Saints they should be taken for vain-glorious Hypocrites 2dly As for my slighting J. Bunyans and the Dissenters Pretences to Pray by the Spirit I must confess I do so in that Sense they intend it who imagine and say That the Holy Spirit Invents and Dictates all the Words of their Prayer unto them which is to make Almighty God to multiply Miracles without necessity and to make also the Words of their Prayer as True Infallible and Divine as the very Words of Scripture being both equally Inspired by the Holy Ghost a thing that has not been known since the Apostolick Age and then it was always accompanyed with the Gift of Tongues and the different and contradictory Prayers of the Quakers Anabaptists Independents and Presbyterians who all confidently pretend to Pray thus by the Spirit and yet Pray one against another is a sufficient Confutation of it for the Holy Spirit is one and not contrary to himself and all his Intercessions for the Saints are to the same end in the same manner and according to the same good Will and Pleasure of Almighty God but all this is Perform'd in a Secret Invisible and Vnutterable way and so is the Assistance which he affords to good Men even by godly Motions and holy Desires which are kindled within them and which they can only feel in their Hearts but not hear with their Ears or express with their Tongues and such an Assistance of the Holy Spirit our Common Prayer Book allows of and teaches us to Pray for it in the beginning of Morning and Evening Service after Confession of our Sins the next Prayer which is in Form of an Absolution runs thus Wherefore let us beseech him to grant us true Repentance and his Holy Spirit that those things may please him which we do at this present and that the rest of our Life hereafter may be Pure and Holy c. Before the repetition of the Ten Commandments the Collect has these words in it Cleanse the Thoughts of our Hearts by the Inspiration of thy Holy Spirit that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy Holy Name c. In the Litany one of the Petitions is That it may please thee to give to all thy People increase of Grace to hear meekly thy Word and to receive it with pure Affection and to bring forth the Fruits of the Spirit And 't is worth our Observation that what some are pleas'd to call the Gift of Prayer is not mentioned among the Fruits of the Spirit which are all particularly set down Gal. 5.22.23 as Love Joy Peace long Suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance neither is it reckoned among the Gifts of the Spirit which are recounted Isa 11.2 as Wisdom Vnderstanding Counsel Might Knowledge Godliness and the Fear of the Lord nor yet in 1 Cor. 12.8 9 10. where they are plac'd in this Order The Word of Wisdom the Word of Knowledge Faith the Gifts of Healing the working of Miracles Prophecy discerning of Spirits divers kinds and Interpretation of Tongues in both which places there is no mention of the Gift of Prayer tho' in one of them there is of the Gift of Prophecy and therefore these Mens Pretences to Pray by the Spirit as a peculiar Gift of his has no Foundation in Holy Scripture indeed for any to express themselves well on a sudden and to Pray with variety and fluency of Words is and may be called a Gift of God and so is Speech Memory and Invention which nevertheless are all common to good and bad Men and capable of being improved by industry and use and more apt to Puff up than Edify and to make such as have them despise and decry all that use Forms as Formal Superstitious and Graceless Men that want the Life Spirit and Power of Prayer and yet I doubt not but many good People can testify this by their own Experience that some notorious Hypocrites have this Gift of Prayer and some devout and sincere Christians continue in the use of Forms and reap the Comfort and Benefit of it And 't is farther observable that all the Gifts of the Spirit enumerated by St. Paul were

Dead but I have harkened to the Voice of the Lord my God and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me look down from thy holy Habitation from Heaven and bless thy People Israel and the Land which thou hast given us as thou swearest unto our Fathers a Land that floweth with Milk and Honey And both these Forms of Prayer and Thanksgiving were the Jewish People constantly to observe twice every Year in all succeeding Generations when they offer'd their first Fruits and Tythes before the Lord but according to John Bunyan's bantering way he would expose them thus The Wise Men of Moses his Days with himself the Priests and People were so well skill'd that they had both the matter and the manner of their Prayers at their Fingers end seting such a Prayer for such a Day and that twenty Years before it comes one for the Day wherein they Offered their First-fruits another for the Day wherein they Offered their Tythes they have also bounded how many Syllables must be said in every one of their Prayers at their publick Exercises for each of these Offering Days they have them ready for the Generations yet unborn to say so that if there be any weight in this way of Arguing it will cast as much disgrace upon the Prayers of Moses which yet were Dictated and Directed by the infinite Wisdom of Almighty God as upon the Prayers of the Church of England which were also Composed by the same Spirit If it be said that Moses the Jewish Priests and People had not the assistance of the Holy Spirit as we have and therefore they were tyed to Forms from which we are now set free I Answer or rather John Bunyan does it for me p. 53 You do not find any Words of Prayer that we read of come out of the Mouth of Moses when he was going out of Egypt and was followed by Pharaoh Ex. 14.15 and yet he made Heaven ring again with his Cry but it was the inexpressible and unsearchable Groans and Cryings of his Soul in and with the Spirit And this he repeats p. 75. so that by our Adversaries own Confession Moses had the Spirit and could Pray by it even in their Sense as well at least as any Gifted Brother of them all and yet this very Moses sometimes used a Form of Prayer himself and also prescribed a Form of Prayers for others even the Jewish Priests and People to be constantly observed by them on solemn Occasions and on such particular Days and Seasons of the Year 2dly Those two great solemn Festivals which my Author mentions as observ'd by our Church Christmas and Easter have good Authority for their Observation even in the New Testament for can we have better Warrant for our keeping Christmas-Day than the Holy Angels keeping of it in a full Quire as they did Luke 2.13 and suddenly there was with the Angel i. e. who brought the Shepherds the joyful News of Christ's Birth a Multitude of the Heavenly Host Praising God and saying and they did it all in the same Form Glory to God in the highest and on Earth Peace and good Will towards Men. Now What other Reason can there be given why so many if not all the Angels should be present on Earth at this time and unanimously Worship God except it were to teach us to set apart this Day in all future Ages for a Day of Thanksgiving to God for the greatest Mercy was afforded the World since the Creation even the Birth and Incarnation of the Saviour of it Well may we keep Christmass-Day our Humane Nature being assum'd into the Godhead and a Saviour being Born to us upon it which is Christ the Lord When the Holy Angels kept this Day whose Nature he did not assume and to whom he was not Born a Saviour as he was to us I shall say no more in behalf of this great Festival but Transcribe a Passage out of the Assemblies Annotations on this portion of Scripture Luke 2. 13. ‖ See the Assemblies Annotations on Luke 2.13 Thus God would say they have this publick Service for so their Multitude made it performed by all who have Knowledge of and Interest in the Birth of Christ as to manifest his Mercy and Truth so to Condemn their stupid Ingratitude who perversely refuse to joyn in this Duty as if general Precepts in Gods Word right Reason and the Examples of Men and Angels inspired by Gods Spirit chosen Witnesses of of our Saviours Nativity and for this same purpose sent by God himself from Heaven that they might thus Celebrate that Day were not sufficient Warrant to lead them to Imitation and joining in an Holy Harmony with them And as for our keeping Easter Day can we have better Authority than St. Pauls Command for it 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us therefore let us keep the Feast i.e. Easter which is our Christian Passover that comes in the room of the Jewish not with the old Leaven neither with the Leaven of Malice and Wickedness which is a plain Allusion to some of the Typical Ceremonies wherewith the Israelites kept their Passover and proves that we Christians should keep Easter with the substance of those Types even the unleavened Bread of Sincerity and Truth i. e. in a pious Preparation for and devout Participation of the Lords Supper in a Death to Sin and a Resurrection to newness of Life Yet besides this Scriptural Argument I shall add one Consideration more and that is King Charles the Martyrs Quaery propounded to the Parliaments Commissioners at Holdenby April 23. 1647. I desire to be resolved of this Question Why the new Reformers discharge the keeping of Easter The Reason of this Quaery it I conceive the Celebration of this Feast was Instituted by the same Authority which changed the Jewish Sabbath into the Lords Day or Sunday for it will not be found in Scripture where Saturday is discharged to be kept or turned into the Sunday wherefore it must be the Churches Authority that Changed the one and Instituted the other therefore my Opinion is that those who will not keep this Feast may as well return to the Observation of Saturday and refuse the weekly Sunday when any Body can shew me that herein I am in an Error I shall not be ashamed to confess and amend it till when you know my Mind C. R. Lastly As to the Observation of Saints Days those Men have no Reason to upbraid us with it who every Year keep their Festival Days in Memory of the Seiges and prosperous Rebellion they rais'd and maintain'd against their rightful Soveraign Indeed had they Fought for him and been preserv'd and deliver'd in so Just and Loyal a Cause to have kept an Anniversary Day in Remembrance of it wou'd have been a justifiable Practice and so it is to observe those few Saints Days whose Memory our Church requires us once a Year to Celebrate having the like Authority