Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	law_n	righteousness_n	sin_n	6,923	5	5.3573	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78566	A brief apology in behalf of the people in derision call'd Quakers. Written for the information of our sober and well-inclined neighbors in and about the town of Warminster in the county of Wilts. by Will. Chandler, Alex. Pyott, Jo. Hodges, and some others.	Chandler, William.; Pyott, Alex. (Alexander); Hodges, Joseph.	1693 (1693)	Wing C1934; ESTC R229320	34,744	78

Scripture and with what reason People have derided us for our Belief herein terming it the Quakers Christ as though his manifesting himself in our Hearts were another or distinct from Jesus Christ of Nazareth that is glorified with God the Father in Heaven which we deny For though he be ascended into Heaven and sits at Col. 1. 16. Eph. 1. 23. 3. 9. the right hand of God far above all Principalities and Powers yet is not he so circumscribed but that as by him all things were made and created he is the life and filleth all in all in his Church and People Is the Divinity and Humanity of Christ divided Is not their inseparable Union the true and intire Christ Can then his God-head be present and he who is the Heavenly Man be absent What think you of him that appear'd to John and gave him his Commission to the Seven Churches whom he describes Rev. ch 1. who saith Behold I stand at the door and knock if any man hear my voice and open the Rev. 3. 20. 2. 23. door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me The same saith I am he which searches the reins and hearts and I will give unto every one of you according to your works Was not this Acts 17. 31. Rom. 2. 16. John 1. 16. the true Christ the Mediator by whom God will judge the World And can he make this near Inspection into the innermost part of the Minds of Men so as no Thought can escape his notice if he be not present there What made Paul desire that our Lord Jesus Christ 1 John 4. 13. might be with Timothy's Spirit if he thought it impossible Do not all acknowledge the Spirit of Christ who is the Anointed to be in his People and is he then absent Is its being a Mystery far beyond our comprehension to conceive how it can be a sufficient Argument that therefore 't is not so Ought we not in such cases to exercise Faith and acquiess in the Testimony of the Holy Ghost exprest in the Sacred Scriptures rather than interpose with our nice and curious Subtilties prying unnecessarily into things that are too high for us remembering that Secret Things belongs to God and that those that know most here know only in part the things that are invisible 1 Cor. 13. 9 12. and see them but as through a Glass Shall Men that neither know themselves nor have any intuitive knowledge of the Essences even of the meanest things wherewith Nature every-where presents us which are obvious to our Senses yet aspire to those more abstruce and undertake to account for that which is beyond the reach of the most pregnant Wits to penetrate We hope it 's no Error to avouch the Power of Christ to be stronger than that of the Devil that he is able really to Gen. 3. 15. bind him to bruise his Head and break his Power to dispossess and cast him out to fulfil to the uttermost the end of his coming to destroy the Works of the Devil and to save those from their sins who shall have true Faith in his Name and Power Surely it 's not inconsistent with Christianity to believe that Christ can or will throughly purge his Floor that he can indeed deliver out of 1 Thes 5. 23. the Prison-house and restore Man out of the Fall to God again and give him power to forsake the Devil and all his Works c. We find it consonant to Scripture and the Gospel-dispensation to believe that those who are regenerated and Rom. 6. 6 7 11. 2 Pet. 1. 4. born again of the Spirit have through the Spirit mortified the first carnal corrupt Nature which cannot please God and if dead and slain and buried too Eph. c. 4. v. 22 23 24. Colos c. 3. v. 9. 10. surely then it no longer lives but the mind is at liberty and restored to act in a new Life to walk after the Spirit and fulfil the Righteousness of the Law the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Rom. 8. 2 4. Jesus having set them free from the Law of Sin and Death which is its Wages 'T is for want of Peoples experiencing this real Birth of the Spirit brought forth and knowing Freedom in themselves by it which no Duties or Performances in the Will of Man nor entertaining of the most resined Opinions in Religion can administer short of the Law of the Spirit of Christ in their hearts 't is for want of this that People are so very apprehensive of difficulty even to impossibility of living a Holy Righteous Life which yet is so necessary to our Salvation that without Mat. 5 8. Heb. 12. 14. it we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven nor see God Nor is the way broader or its passage less strait and difficult than they imagine nay 't is absolutely impossible for them to walk therein while they are immerc'd in their first corrupt unbridled Nature which cannot keep the Law of God while their Lusts and Passions are rampant their Affections inordinate and Wills unsubjected and follows the desires and evil inclinations of their Minds without restraint But if they come to know another Principle and Power to govern their Minds to create in them new clean Hearts to regulate and subject their Wills to subdue and tame their Passions to limit their Desires and direct their Affections and Inclinations wholly after that which is good to meliorate their Spirits throughout and make them heavenly minded having an aversion to all Evil and a great love to Vertue and Goodness Being thus perfectly transformed where is the extream difficulty now for the good Man out of the good treasure of his Mat. 12. 35. Heart to bring forth good things Will not this new well-inclin'd inside that now detests Evil and loves and delights in Righteousness as naturally follow after and bring forth that which is Good as before he did Evil Here is no force upon Peoples Natures but they are converted and throughly leavened in another Nature and are in their measures Partakers of the Divine Nature which only can work the Will 2 Pet. 4. of God We request our piously-inclined Neighbours well and seriously to weigh and consider the absolute necessity there is for every True Christian thus to know their minds moulded and Col. 1. 13 fashioned anew by the Power and Spirit of Christ working mightily in them in order to their pleasing God by a Holy Righteous Life having escaped the corruption that is in the World through Lust and considering that 't is not so soon attained as apprehended in the understanding to be necessary That with all diligence they address themselves to the performing that which is the main and proper business of our Lives Wherefore as it hath pleased the Divine Power to give us all things pertaining to Life and Godliness so let 2 Pet. 1. 3. Tit. 2. 11

plainly and possitively that none knows the Mat. 11. 27. Father but the Son and he to whom the Son reveals him That these strugglings in us should be the suggestions of Satan that he should disquiet and disturb people for their sins for serving him and put them upon endeavouring to be freed from their vassalage under his power were absurd to imagine no our Saviour puts that beyond a question when he asks Can a Kingdom divided against it self stand Mark 3. 24. 27. And by and by saith plainly that whilst the strong man arm'd keep the house his Luk 11. 21 goods are at peace till a stronger than he comes to bind him c. So that 't is clear it 's not the devil but the approaches of a superiour power that breaks the peace of people for sin and that follows and condemns them for Disobedience and Trangression and is the same that would and only can redeem their minds out of that miserable state and bind that strong man and break his power and cast him out would they but joyn thereto and accept of deliverance by it Nor does its being Extended to all men through all Ages from their youth upwards bespeak it to be therefore natural or contemptible but on the contrary of the greater moment to all men 1 Cor. 12 7. for besides that the Apostle saith a manifestation of the spirit is given to every man to profit withal the blessings and gifts of God are free and valuable from their intrinsick worth God in nature ordain'd nothing in vain but by how much any thing is of the greatest use to us for sustaining and accomodating our natural life the more common it is as the Sun that gives Light to all thro' all Ages c. 'T is we fondly rate things according to our fancies and esteem and prize them more for their rarity and curiosity than usefulness but God bestows most universally that which is of the absolutest necessity to man Are not all men that are born strangers and enemies to God in the dark and at a distance from him in the State of Nature Io. 3. 3. 5. and must therefore be enlightned converted and born again and made spiritual before we can be reconciled to him 1 Tim. 2. 3 4. 2 Pet. 3. 9. shall not God then that would have all repent and be saved cause the Light of the Son of Righteousness to shine upon all and give a measure of his grace and spirit to all to assist them in the accomplishment of that in themselves which they cannot do of themselves and yet is of indispensible necessity to our Salvation Wherefore God by his spirit strives with man so long as his day of visitation lasts Since then our opposers acknowledge the spirit and grace of God which also is Light to be in Man unless they can shew it by its manifestly different and superiour nature tendency and operation to be contradistinct from that we have been speaking of we see neither absurdity nor error in concluding it to be one and the same grace and free-gift of God to all which is always the same in nature though it differs in degree and is that Heavenly Treasure which God hath committed to our trust and blessed will they be who rightly employ and improve it and gives place and room to this seed of the Kingdom in Mat. 13. 31. 32. their hearts where though it may appear at first contrary to the expectation of man little mean and contemptable scarcely regarded amongst the stuff wherewith mens minds are filled yet joyn but to it that it may exert its power and force and 't will grow increase let but this leaven have its perfect work and 't will leaven the whole lump into its Mat. 13. 33. own nature Be pleased to consider whether we have justly merited the invidious invectives of our adversaries in believing that the Lord searches the heart of man and Luk. 13. 21. Jer. 17. 10. Ro. 8. 27. Rev. 2. 23 Amos. 4. 13. Jer. 31. 33 34. Ezek. 36. 26. 27. Joel 2. 28 29. Act. 2. i6 17 18. Isa 54. i3 Mat. 11. 27. Isa 42. 7. 61. 1. shews him his thoughts that he hath and will remember this latter age of the world and hath not forgotten to be gracious in performing those bountiful promises made in times past to the off-spring of the Gentiles in placing his Law in our Hearts and putting his truth in our inward parts in pouring out of his spirit upon all the Sons and Daughters of men in becoming our teacher and giving us the knowledge of himself through the Revelation of his Son Jesus Christ who is come to open our blind eyes and to bring us that were bound in darkness out of the prison-house who hath promised to be with his people to the end of the World in believing that God hath sent Joh. 14. 16 17 26. 16. 3. us the Comforter the spirit of Truth to be our Remembrancer and to guide and direct us in the way of Truth in attesting the sufficiency and utility of the 1 Joh. 2. 20. 27. Teachings of this Holy Unction sent into our hearts in believing that though Christ be in his glorified Body in Heaven yet that he is present also in the hearts of his People who is King of Saints and shall he not then rule in Joh. 14. 17 20 23 17. 23 26. Isa 57. 15. 2 Cor. 6. 16. Prov. 8 31. them The High and Holy One that inhabits Eternity hath promised to dwell also with the Humble and Contrite to revive and comfort them shall not he whose presence fills Heaven and Earth be present in the Heart of Man Shall not he that rejoyceth in the habitable parts of the Earth and delights in the Sons of Men reside in his People Are they not Members of him and he their Joh. 15. 4. 5. Head Can there be a more intimate Union and Communion than between the 1 Cor 6. 15 17 19. Head and the Body the Vine and the Branches The same Spirit of Life that is in the Head is the Life of the Body also and acts it he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit doth not the Life that is in the Root pass to the Branches also and preserves them living Are not all dead Branches in whom this Life is not Whosoever hath the Son of God and feeds on him hath Life by him and Joh. 6. 56 57. 1 Joh. 5. 13. those that have not Christ who is the Life of his Saints hath not Life How could his People in all Ages partake of him if he were not present in them Surely this Doctrine doth not deserve to be scoft but is most comfortable to those Ro. 10. 6 7 8. 2 Cor. 13. 5. Col. 2. 20 who are sick of Love and thirst ardently after the Enjoyment not Hear-say of him Consider seriously these things which are agreeable to

of a stranger and learn of him and follow him who is pure and ever leads to Purity and Holiness that so his offering up of himself for them may be of benefit to them and they experience the great Salvation of God for impress this upon your Minds and take it along with you That notwithstanding our Saviour hath paid a Ransom for us and made an Attonement through the precious Blood of his Cross yet if we experience not the end of his Coming and Death effected and answered in our selves it shall avail us nothing except we know him a Saviour and Supporter near except we know a Principle of Divine Light and Life to illuminate our Minds to revive and warm our languishing Hearts to beget and increase true Love to God and the living Faith that gives victory to convert us and govern our Thoughts to renew and regulate our Wills and limit our Desires and bridle our Tongues to excite holy Inclinations and keep up a due Heat in our Christianity and strengthens our Minds in that which is good and well-pleasing to God Except we know these things in and for our selves all our outside shew of Religion is but vain and our profession of Christ shall profit us nothing but we shall lye down in sorrow at last for none are Christ's but those that Rom. 8. 9 14 have his Spirit and are influenced by it nor are any Children of God but those that are led by the Spirit of God which begets in the Mind a detestation of Sin and Evil and a love to Purity Goodness and Vertue wherefore laying aside all Strife and Animosities all Envying and Evil-speaking let us abhor that which is Evil and cleave to Rom. 12. 9. that which is Good and address our selves with a due and humble Application to the accomplishment of that most concerning and important Affair of our Lives the working out our Salvation And let every one follow the Lord faithfully according to what is made known to them knowing that we shall be judged according to our Knowledge and that 't will be happy for those whose Wills and Performances correspond with their Understandings in that Day when all must stand before the Judgment-seat of Christ and give an Account of their Deeds done in the Body and receive a Sentence thereafter either Come ye blessed or Depart from me ye workers of iniquity It won't be then of what Congregation or Confession of Faith or of what Perswasion amongst the many wast thou among all which there will then be but two sorts the Sheep and the Goats those that heard the Shepheard's Voice and followed him who were guided and governed by the good Spirit of God in their Hearts and those who wrapping their Talent in a Napkin stifled Convictions and neglecting the Day of their Visitation continued under the dark Power of the Evil One One may go a great way and make a fair shew of Religion and Piety and yet be turned to the left hand 't is not having our Heads filled with curious sublime Notions though of never so fine and elevated a Speculation let 's trim and garnish our Lamps never so finely 't will not administer an entrance without the Heavenly Oil without that Holy Divine Unction fills our Hearts enlightens our Minds and inflames our Affections to a due Watchfulness and Obedience to its Teachings which are the most assured Marks of our being really in Christ in whom only our acceptance is That you with us and we with you may so circumspectly live up to Light that and Knowledge given by Christ as that our Consciences may not condemn us but that having finished our Days here with comfort we may lay down our Heads in Peace with a well-grounded Hope of a Joyful Resurrection and have Boldness in the Day of Judgment is our Hearty Desire If what we have Written for your Information may find some place with those who being impartial and inquiring have room to receive it and that it Contributes to their Benefit and Satisfaction we have our End But for those who are full or are critical and ready to Carpe at every Word or Sentence that is not plac'd to their Mind if not also pre-judge it as 't is not intended for them so we don't suppose 't will Prove to their good Liking nor meet with a Reception amongst them For we don't propose to reconcile our whole Belief and Perswasion in Religious Matters to that of our Opposers who notwithstanding what we have writ we expect will yet accuse us of Error However having thus farr declar'd ourselves in the most necessary Points of the Christian Religion we don't think ourselves farther oblidged to answer the Cavils and Criticisms of such who may appear contentious and will never want something to object against those that comes not up in all things exactly to their Level whom yet we advise rather to be quiet and study to know and govern themselves according to that Religion that is pure and undefiled before God and leads to visit and assist the Fatherless and Widows in their Affliction Jam. 1. 27. and to keep themselves from the Spots and Defilements of this World Were this as it ought our Principal Care and Concern in our Conduct we should have little mind or leisure to differ about Matters of less moment and while we seem zealously to contend about Religion frustrate its end We should not be taken up in disputing what that Principle is which God hath plac'd in us to do us good and in mean time neglect its assistance and obstruct its Operation upon the Mind but be given up to be leavened and changed by it that we m●● partake of the Blessings thereof a●● 1 Cor. 3. 11 12 13 14. with it build on the Foundation whi●● God hath laid that which may abi●● the fiery Tryal To which we reco●mend you and remains your peaceab●● and loving Neighbours W.C. A.P. J.H. c. THE END