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
A97109	The vanitie of the present churches, and vncertainty of their preaching, discovered. Wherein the pretended immediate teaching of the spirit, is denyed, and the all-sufficiency of the Scriptures teaching, is maintained. With, a new and true method of reading thereof, for the peace of the mind, and rule of life.	Walwyn, William, 1600-1681, attributed name.	1649 (1649)	Wing W693A; Thomason E1367_1; ESTC R210498	20,838	55

taught unto them the truth whereof they were enabled and did confirm with miracles so as it might be as truly said of them as it was of Christ our Lord that they taught as men having authority and not as the Scribes nor as the uncertain pharisaicall teachers of these times Unto which word of theirs we are principally to give heed but therein also we are chiefly to discover and to mind what that Doctrine was which they by the spirit were ordained to preach because that being understood and believed doth give the beleever thereof the name and being of a Christian how plain and brief soever it be for we must note that there are many things written by the Apostles upon occasions that concerned only or chiefly the times wherein they wrote and the places and persons to whom they wrote which is the true cause that many things are too hard for us to understand but there was one universall Doctrine which they were to preach to all Nations where with all their writings do abound and which is very plain and easie to be understood And this is it namely that the same Jesus whom the Jewes crucified was Lord and Christ That he is the propitiation for our sins and not only for ours but for the sins of the whole world That it is the bloud of Christ which cleanseth us from all sinne That his love is so exceeding towards us that even when we were enemies Christ dyed for us This was the Doctrine which begot people unto the faith and made them Beleevers and they used no other inducement unto Beleevers to walk as becometh this Gospel or glad tydings of peace and reconciliation between God and us but this ye are bought with a price therefore honour God both in your bodies and in your spirits their strongest Argument to perswade being this and the like That the love of God which bringeth salvation unto all men hath appeared teaching us to deny all ungodlinesse unrighteousnes of men and to live righteously godly and soberly in this present world that we should love as Christ hath loved who gave himself an Offering and a Sacrifice for us so that if we would try each others Faith we are to consider each others love so much faith so much love so much love so much pure and undefiled Religion extending it self to the fatherles and to the Widdow to the hungry the naked sick and imprisoned it being evident that he who hath this worlds goods and suffereth his brother to lack hath not the love of God in him yea though he have never so great parts of knowledg zeale tongues miracles yet being void of love he is nothing plainly manifesting that all other Religions are but as defiled and impure in comparison of this And these are the Doctrines which make good the rejoyning of the Angels bringing glory to God in the highest in earth peace good will towards men These are sufficient and in these do all sorts of Christians agree and never had disagreed but for false Teachers Wolves in sheepes Clothing who crept in to devoure the flock causing divers strifes and contentions about genealogies and about the Law which made the Apostle abundance of trouble crying out O foolish Galathians who hath bewitched you telling them plainly if righteousnesse came by the Law then Christ dyed in vain others it should seem fell to observe Dayes and Times Sabaoths and Weeks justifying themselves and censuring others provoking the Apostle to tell them he was afraid of them that he had bestowed labor in vain upon them earnestly desiring them to let no man deceive them in respect of an holy day or of the new Moon or of the Sabaoth c. The truth is and upon experience it will be foudn a truth that once exceed these plain indisputable Doctrines and you will be ever to seeke for though it be a kind of happinesse to read in Genesis the proceedings of God towards our first Parents to Abel Cayne Enoch to Noah and the world that perished in the floud to see his mighty power at the Confusion of Babell his love to Abraham and Sarah to Isaac Jacob and the twelve Patriarks to see their way of worship to observe his mighty wonders in Egypt in the Wildernesse and in the promised Land under the Judges Saul and David Solomon and the rest of the Kings of Judah and Israel To know with what power he spake by his holy Prophets in all times even to John the Baptist Yet when we have done all we must acknowledge that very many things exceed our understandings and that we draw no comfort like unto this that unto Christ do all these beare witnesse and though we have great cause to blesse God for those wonderfull things we read of the life of Christ of his wisdom goodnesse and power by which he beat down the wisdom craft and policy of the Scribes and Pharices of the high Priest and great ones of the world and whereby he made it manifest that he was indeed the Christ yet draw we no comfort like unto that which the Apostles publish't by the power of the holy spirit the comforter promised by Christ before his Assention because by this dispensation of God only do we come to know the benefits of Christs death and that he is the end of the Law for righteousnesse and the propitiation for our sinnes whereby we have peace of Conscience and joy in the Holy-Ghost We Read with thankfulnesse to God the Acts of the Apostles all the Epistles of Paul of Peter James Jude and the Epistles of John the Revelat. to St. John But we must still acknowledge that there are very many things in them all which wee apprehend not fully We Read of Apostles E●angelists Prophets Pastors and Teachers and of the ordering and regulating of Churches and of gifts given to all these from on high but not so plainly exprest as to leave the Conscientious without dispute and difference thereupon nor so collected into any one Book as to convince that God now under the Gospel so exactly enjoyned Church Government as he did under the Law where Moses was expressely commanded to write particularly all that was required not leaving out so much as Candlesticks Snuffers or Besomes And when we come to compare the Churches or their Pastors and their abilities of our times with those we read of or the infallible power by which they spake with the uncertaine Doctrines of ours alas we must lay our hands upon our mouths and hide our faces as children use to doe when they are discovered by people of understanding at their childish immitations of Christnings and Feastings where in a low and miserable weake forme they counterfeit things reall so that if we shall deale plainely with our selves we must confesse wee are at a losse in these things and that hence onely is our rejoycing That wee undoubtedly know Jesus Christ and him Crucified and knowing him accompt all things as losse and

sillable but recite some place of Scripture which by serious intention hath imprinted it selfe in their minds If you demand a reall Demonstration of the Spirit they can give you none but peradventure will tell you that you must awaite Gods time and he will enlighten you That their Spirit is as the white Stone in the Revelation the name whereof no body knew but he that received it making use of false darke and misterious Scriptures intended for another end to prove that they are unable by any sound argument or sensible demonstration to manifest Whereas were they really endowed therewith they could not conceale it nor we be unconvinced of its devine and supernaturall Power but must needs bend our knees and hearts in acknowledgement thereof If we urge the Scriptures against them they tell us the Letter killeth abusing and that so grosly that place of Scripture to the upholding their own vain imagination nothing being more evident then that by Letter in that place of the Romanes is to be understood the Law and by Spirit the Gospel And if men did not too much Idolize their owne fancies it would soone appear That now in our times we have no Preacher of the Gospel but the Scriptures which being the infallible Word of God the Word of Truth Eph. 1. 13. not the word of man but as it is in truth the Word of God 1 Thes 2. ver 13. which was not yea and nay but yea 2 Cor. 1. ver 18 19. 20. The Word of God that abideth for ever Is it not strange that our pretended Preachers of all sorts should so far prevaile upon the minds of men as to draw them from giving eare to what this Word of truth plainly and evidently holdeth forth for the peace of their minds and direction of their lives and take up their time and thoughts wholly or principally with their uncertain fallible Sermons making them in effect forsake these living fountains and digg to themselves broken Cisterns that can hold no water Nay a wonderfull thing it is that it should be received for a currant truth That this the greatest blessing the World knows this word of the ever living God should now come to be esteemed but as a dead Letter this sword of the Spirit that forceth it self into our dead naturall understandings plants it self there makes us one with it and forms us new this regenerating word this immortall seed should be so undervalued as to passe but as a dead Letter Time was that it was otherwise in England when our fore-Fathers would have given any thing in the world yea many of them gave up their lives rather then they would part with the smalest part of this precious Word translated into English by the first sincere professors of true Christian doctrins but then Godlinesse was esteemed the greatest gain and the iniquity of Learning was not arived to so much impudence as to make a gain of Godlynesse to make a trade of Religion and to become rich by pretended preaching Nor weaned they the people from the Scriptures to give eare to their notions and opinions telling them they had the Spirit and that the Scriptures were but a dead letter but invited and perswaded all men to a diligent consideration of the true scope and intent of them Neither did they preferr the understanding of men with difficult points or obscure doctrins but as Luther insisted altogether upon the Doctrin of free Justification by Christ alone and in way of thankfulnes for so great a benefit invited all men to live righteously Godly and soberly in this present world therein following the example of the Apostles and the very end scope and main design of the Scriptures which is that unum necessarium and which if people did rightly and seriously mind they would not so easily be drawn to follow such Teachers or to give eare to such Sermons whereby they are alwaies learning but never come to the knowledge of this one necessary truth For how long work soever Ministers and pretended Preachers make of it to maintaine themselves and families in wealth plenty and honour necessary Doctrins are not at all hard to be understood nor require long time to learne them and if it did not concerne their livelihood and profession to make men beleeve they were people would soone understand sufficiently for their establishment and comfort and would fall to practice that so they might become an honour to their profession of Christianity for the Scriptures or word of God having once planted this truth in the understanding viz. That it is the bloud of Christ which cleanseth us from all sinne this Evangelicall truth of its own nature would instantly set man on work to do the will of him that hath so loved him and constrain him to walk in love as Christ hath loved so that after this all the care would be how to advance the Gospel by making our light to shine forth before men that others seeing our good works may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven But this is no profitable way for any of our pretended Preachers this Doctrin is to soone learned for if men once come to know that this short lesson is sufficient what will they regard either printed discourses or Sermons and if once they find them also full of uncertainty contradiction and unnecessary things they 'le not part with their mony for such trash when they may go to the two breasts of Christ himself freely at all times to the Scriptures and buy this sweet milk and hony without mony and without price and if men and women come once to understand this they will not comber themselves with many things but possessing this unvalluable truth will ever worship God in Spirit and in Truth and declare unto others this blessed one necessary comfortable way and that not by preaching or long set speeches which are apt to deceive but by conferences and mutuall debates one with another the best way for attaining a right understanding far excelling that which is called preaching But then how shall Demetrius and the Crafts-men live even by some lawfull calling this being the most palpably delusive of any in the world and it is very strange that all men do not discerne and avoid it It is so as cunningly as it is carryed as high in repute as it is hath long time been having no foundation but in the weake credulity of men for if men but once consider it their Sermons will appear to be but as common discourses full of mistakes errors and at the least altogether uncertaine and that all their preachings and prayings are only for mony and that their greatest skill and labour is to hold men ever in suspence and upon pretence of truth to give them a bastard Scholastick knowledge which only serve to make men proud wrangling Sophisters and Disputers vain boasters talkers busie-bodies censurers Pharisees wise in their own eyes and despising others void of all true piety