Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	life_n	live_v	spiritual_a	7,714	5	7.2850	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85545	A defence of Christian liberty to the Lords table; except in case of excommunication and suspension. Wherein many arguments, queres, suppositions, and objections are answered by plain texts, and consent of scriptures. As also some positions answered by way of a short conference which the author hath had with divers, both in citie and countrey. All which are profitable to inform to truth, and lawfull obedience to authoritie. / By John Graunt, who beareth witnesse to the faith. Published according to order.	Graunt, John, of Bucklersbury.	1646 (1646)	Wing G1591; Thomason E330_22; ESTC R200727	25,078	32

separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you This Scripture you say proves the state of the question on your part for you say the Apostles here speake of the Antichristian church of Rome whose filthy unclean doctrines were such that notwithstanding they were Christians in profession yet Gods people could not communicate with them but they must there was no avoyding it by reason of their abominable canons be defiled with them And therefore you say these texts of Scriptures are a sufficient ground to separate from Christian congregations I answer they are a ground to separate from such Antichristian congregations as the Apostles speak of but I require of you to prove the abomination the unclean thing in the authorized congregations in England and then you say something but till that be proved this Scripture is not for your purpose For the Church of England by the Parliaments of reformation in King Edward the sixt and Queen Elizabeths dayes separated from the fals doctrines and unclean practices of the church of Rome and then made acts lawes and ordinances against the abominable tenets and false devised imagined religion their Priests Sacrifices and back't their decrees with the penalty of death yet notwithstanding in processe of time the Prelaticall clergy brought in many corrupt innovations tending to act again the old uncleannesses under new pretences yet this honorable Parliament hath rooted up and extirpated the Prelaticall Hierarchy root and branch and still sit spending their wits spirits and pains for the reforming of Doctrine and Discipline that all congregations may bee regulated in and by the neerest way agreeable to the word of God Now considering all these things we enjoy under this happy authority that is over us your condition being under this authority and so placed of God take heed therefore nay how will you avoid it but that your resisting this authority you doe therein resist the Ordinance of God and her in walk contrary to Gods word Rom. 13. 1 2. Nay do you not fulfil the Prophesie of the Scriptures in presumption and selfe-willednesse to despise such Governors and speak evill of such digniti●s as the Apostle foretold 2 Pet. 2. 10. How can you possibly cleare your way from the gainsaying of Core Jude v. 11. Nay is there not a plain parallell between him and his companies gainsaying and you and your companies gainsayings Num. 16. Did not they which were under authority usurp authority and in striving against Moses Aaron those that God had set over them did they not strive against the Lord Numb. 26. 9. I will forbeare the consequence the Lord give you grace to repent of your striving resistance and gainsaying and murmure no longer against them in saying they impose will-worship upon your consciences in requiring many things there is not a plain word for if it be not against the word but agreeing with the sense and meaning of the word submit your selves to their rules And if you conceive you know better then the Parliament your way is to petition and not to make resistance The next consideration is the Spirituall or voluntary congregation the communion of Saints The Prophet David calls them the Assembly of Saints the Congr●gation of Saints Psal. 89. 5. 7. The house of Aaron his Saint the house of Israel his chosen one the house of Levi his Priest Psa. 136. and the Apostle the houshold of faith Gal. 6. 10. the houshold of God Eph. 6. 19. the house and Church of the living God 1 Tim. 3. 15. This church is called The Lords body Col. 1. 18. 24. because it is made living by the life that is in him spirituall by his spirit for they are all begotten and born of the Spirit and that which is born of the spirit is spirit John 3. 6. as that which is born of the flesh is flesh This communion and whole congregation by the Spirit of God are all baptized into one body and have been made all to drink into one spirit 1 Corinth 12. 13. These are all the children of wisdome all sonnes of God and heires of the promises these all by regeneration are as Peter was made living stones and are built of God a spirituall house a chosen generation a peculiar people 1 Pet. 2. These are the little flock of sheep lambs of Christ to whom the Father hath given the Kingdome who by faith have both the earnest and the abundant entrance into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ having fellowship with God their Father the Son their Saviour the holy Ghost their comforter and with each other in joying and sorrowing comforting and lamenting beleeving and hoping suffering and expecting with a mutuall affection the morning and day of salvation 1 John 1. 3. 7. chap. 3. 2. These are they that fear the Lord that receive him and his and often speak and confer one with another that are alwayes mindful of his covenant in whose heart is his Law These are the Lords Priests with whom he hath made a covenant of life and peace who have alwayes the Lord in their thoughts Mal. 2. and 3. chapters These onely have received an unction from the holy One that teacheth them all things 1 John 2. 20. These according to the command of their Lord give unto Cesar the things that are Cesars and to God the things that are Gods Mark 12. 17. they love the Lord with all their heart and their neighbour as themselves they are all spiritual and so is their communion and fellowship and none but such as are spirituall are of this congregation this communion of Saints But a Minister in the North countrey told me the Independent congregations were this communion of Saints which is the last particular in the first Position To whom I answered His expression was very strange to me for I did not find any such name expressing creatures written in the book of life And I am sure all the Saints names are written there Wherefore said I hee that gives that name to any people and those that take that name unto themselves are both alike to be blamed for there is no one nor very many creatures can be said to be Independent but God alone the great creator I am the first and the last saith the Lord and besides mee there is no God Isaiah 44. 6. And thou even thou art Lord alone Nehem 9. 6. There is not a Saint nor congregation of holy ones can say one to another I have no need of thee for they are all members one of another and every one the members of Christ Ephes. 4. 25. chap. 5. 30. 1 Cor. 12. I wonder that so many learned that professe that way and own the name Independent I wonder I say that their learning doth not afford them a more proper terme for as much as under this notion they aim at liberty of conscience Were they not better to expresse themselves under the names of Religious

for the Word and Covenant of life is manifested and declared by preaching Tit. 1. 3. Now the way of preaching that was committed to S. Paul was the Scriptures yet he himself proves to the Romans that the same covenant of life and word of grace which he taught by the Scriptures is taught to the Gentiles which have not the Scriptures by the creatures as Rom. 10. 8. compared with v. 18 19 20 21. and Psal. 19. which is confest and acknowledged before in my opposites arguments but because this is beyond the question in hand which is to cleare the teaching use of the Sacraments by Scriptures I will therefore here wave the point of the creatures teaching without the Scriptures and prove it clearly by arguments drawn from the Scriptures that the Lord Supper hath a teaching operation for the strengthening or confirming use no man questions My first Argument Whatsoever doth declare or shew forth Christ to a Christian doth teach Christ But the Supper of the Lord doth declare and shew forth his death from the tree of his ignominy to the throne of his glory Therefore the Supper of the Lord declareth and teacheth Christ so often as it is communicated even untill his second coming And ths Argument I thus prove 1 Cor. 11. 26. For as often saith the Apostle as yee eat this Bread and drink this Cup yee doe show the Lords death till he come Agreeing to which is that of the Prophet when he spake to King Darius I will shew thee the truth said he Did not he therein declare and teach to him the truth So also our Lord signifying and shewing the truth to the Apostle John Revel. 1. 1. what was it but preaching and manifesting the truth to him My second Argument Whatsoever is ordained of Christ to commemorate call to mind or keep in remembrance himselfe or his death that preaches Christ and the benefit of his death But the communicating in the signes of the Lords body and bloud calls him to mind and keeps his death in remembrance to Christians Therefore the celebration of the Lords Supper teacheth or preacheth the benefit of his death And this Argument our Lord himselfe proveth whose testimony is beyond all Luke 22. 19 20. This is my Body which was given for you doe this in remembrance of me This Cup is the new Testament in my bloud which was shed for you I beseech you mark two things in these few words for the proving the Argument that is first that the Lords Supper the participation of the Elements they being set apart by blessing according to our Lords example and the Apostles practice the doing thereof is a remembrance of Christs death And secondly that thereby is made known and taught the Covenant of life and salvation in these words This Cup is the new Testament in my bloud then which nothing can be thought of to prove clearer the teaching use of the Sacrament And that whatsoever calleth to remembrance the truth preacheth the truth is plain and apparent For Peters putting the Saints alwayes in remembrance of the truth thereby preached unto them the truth 2 Pet. 1. 12 13 14 15. Your third Quere Whether the act of Christ in admitting of Judas be exemplary My defence to your third Quere If the Lord did admit of wicked Judas unto the Apostleship and so to the participation of Baptisme the Word Prayer and to the breaking of bread as hereafter shall bee particularly proved then such Ministers that teach that all unregenerate men are to bee kept from the Sacrament assume that to themselves which neither Gods law nor mans law gives them For the exception in the law of God is the case of excommunication the exception in mans ordinance is ignorance and scandall Your fourth Quere Whether there be like reasons of the Sacrament and the Passeover If there be the like reason then it followes not that the Lord did approve of every one that came to the Passeover 2 Chron. 30. they were to prepare themselves before they came My defence to your fourth Quere You both forget your selves to ask me a reason of Gods ordinances for to give a reason of them is peculiar to God alone that made them But this I say that there is the same use and meaning of the Lords Supper as of the Passeover in the common fellowship of all beleevers that is Christ typified and signified by both Christs death shewed forth and called to remembrance by both the beleevers informed to grace and confirmed in grace by both and the spiritual and truly faithful eat Christs flesh and drink his bloud by both they being both sacramentall for that purpose And as under the law they were to put away the leaven out of their houses and prepare and sanctifie themselves so under the Gospel Christians are to examine themselves repent c. For to keep the Feast and holy day the Apostle speaks of 1 Cor. 5. 8. is to keep it with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth as I have briefly declared in my Admonition in Christians liberty to the Lords Table p. 18. Your fifth Quere Whether can a naturall man or a man indued with the common gifts of the Spirit so try examine and judge himselfe as to come worthily as the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 28. doth drive at My defence to your fifth Quere I answer An inward or spirituall Christian as an inward and an outward common Christian as an outward Christian may either of them discerne the Lords body to participate worthily or profitably according to their different gifts received the high way stony and thorny grounds may discern the Lords body and all the elect Christians unregenerate by the visible signes thereof in the Sacrament that therein Christ Jesus is manifested giving himselfe to death for mankind and that he is the bread of life declared and preached first by the words of consecration and prayer with admonitions then made by the Minister And secondly by seeing the wine powred out the resemblance of the shedding his bloud and then seeing the bread broken the resemblance of his death and passion with the consideration of all other circumstances the violence the Grape suffers in the Wine-presse and the cruelty offered to the Corn both in the Mill and in the insufferable hot Oven And as thus the eye affects the heart so doth the sweet comfortable refreshing nourishing delectable relishing taste also which are all evident sensible in-lets to the soule of the mercy and goodnesse of God And because the Christian hath received no other but common gifts it is but information to him to the speciall grace but the good ground the spiri●uall Christian his communion is sustentation and confirmation in grace to eternall life according to his speciall faith and grace received of God he spiritually eats Christs flesh and drinks his bloud and is hereby more and more inoculated and rooted in the true Vine Jesus Christ And in this differing consideration both may

wee speake when he speaks of these things Heb. 2. 5 even of the throne dominion and kingdome of Christ In the third place we are to consider how we are to understand the terme Sion in the Scriptures meaning In which we must mind a double respect first as the term Sion is referred to the Churches estate of regeneration in this present life And secondly as it is referred to the Churches estate of perfection in the life that is to come In the first sense the Prophet Isaiah speaks of her chap. 2. 3. For out of Sion shall go forth a law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem And again chap. 40. 9. O Sion that bringeth good tidings O Jerusalem that bringeth good tidings say Behold your God So saith another Prophet Out of Sion the perfection of beauty God hath shined Psa. 50. 2. even shined forth in the clear revelation of the truth and law of life the covenant of grace as the Apostle saith Eph. 3. 10. The manifold wisdome of God is made known by the Church which the holy Ghost calls the keepers of truth Isai. 26. agreeing with the Apostles testimony in another place Gal. 4. 26. But Jerusalem which is above and from above is free and is the mother of us all Now in another sense and in the second consideration Ierusalem or Sion so named is to be understood of her perfection and glory her deliverance and salvation as Isai. 26. 1. In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Iudah We have a strong Citie salvation will God appoint for wall bulwarks nothing shal enter therein but the righteous nation that keepeth truths these can be no other but the Saints of God Indeed they only are the righteous holy nation a chosen royal blessed peculiar people 1 Pet. 2. 9. And of these the Prophet Ezekiel speaks of None uncircu●…cised in heart and flesh shall enter into this holy City And this is the Citie the glorious and magnificent Tabernacle spoken of throughout the whole Scriptures the apprehension and contemplation of which makes another Prophet break out into a ravished spirituall expression considering the exceeding glory of her to come of whom it may be said in this present life that she slumbers possesses weaknesse contempt nakednesse in the fight of men seeming to die to be forsaken desolate troden down under feet no man no more regarding her then the dirt under their feet And yet in that morning of her Lords coming so exceedingly altered beyond all comparison as makes the holy man Isa. 52. 1. make acclamation in the words of admiration Awake awake put on thy strength O Sion put on thy beautifull garments O Ierusalem the holy Citie for from henceforth there shal no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean for saith he her Officers shall be peace and her exactors righteousnes violence shall no more be heard in thy land wasting nor destruction within thy borders thou shalt call thy walls salvation and thy gates praise Isai. 60. 17 18. Oh when can this strength these beautifull garments be injoyed by the faithfull this separation from the wicked when shall the oppressor the strong and violent hatred of the wicked cease and wasting and destruction be at an end but at the resurrection And where can Sions deliverance and glory be but in the world to come in the new heavens and new earth of the Lords own making and not of mans devising wherein the righteous and righteousnesse shall be no longer a sojourner and stranger but a ruler and a dweller Behold saith the Lord I create new heavens and a new earth and the former shal not be remembred nor come into mind Isai. 60. 17. The former are these present that are defiled and polluted but those that the Lord hath promised to make shall succeed the passing away and desolation of these that are now and shall remain for ever unmoveable and unshaken And this shall he doe at his second comming in the day of the Lord in the day of God as the Prophet before declareth and as here the Apostle testifieth 2 Pet. 3. 11. 12. This is Sion in her glory the holy citie the new Jerusalem And Rev. 21. 1. 2. when the beloved disciple saw in the Revelation of God the promise of the new heavens and the new earth fulfilled then in them he saw this citie this church in her glory prepared as a bride adorned that is beautifully cloathed to marry wth her husband and the great voyce of the Lord declared it Behold the tabernacle of God is with men and he wil dwel with them and they shal be his people and God himself shal be with them and be their God And this is the accomplishment of the covenant the salvation of the whole house of Israel when the Lord shall wipe away all teares from their eyes And that there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying neither shall there be any more pain for the former things are passed away And hee that sate upon the throne said Behold I make all things new And he said unto me write for these words are true and faithfull These true and faithfull words shall rise up in judgement against all such blind guides that teach their followers against the very letter of the text for though the word saith this estate of the churches perfection shall bee in that time when it shall be that there is no death for that shall be swallowed up in victory yet they dare to affirm to their deceived followers that the glorious Citie is a fancie of their own framing even in this life while death as an enemie raigning over them surely they cannot be said to be bright men but blackmen dark-men no light men men of this world and not of that to come men in the flesh and not in the spirit for the new heavens and the new earth are the inheritance of the Saints this new Jerusalem is the City with foundations whose builder and maker is God the better resurrection the promise the heavenly countrey that Abraham Isaac and Iacob lookt for as all the other Patriarchs did who when they were in this world professed themselves pilgrimes and strangers as all their fathers were Heb. 11. Now as by this that hath been said it plainly appeares that a multitude of unwary teachers have perverted the Scriptures in applying them to their carnal conceited meanings And as these so most of all other Scriptures they doe alledge for not till the Lords coming at the generall resurrection can come the churches deliverance and salvation the times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord And this Doctrine is justified by the testimony of Gods Spirit saying Hee shall send Jesus which before was preached unto you whom the heavens must receive and contain untill the times of restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began Acts 3. 19 20 21. Heare all you that have learned to speak contrary to the truth the words and meaning of the holy M●ssengers and Prophets of God and repent or else the Prophets themselves wil condemne you And that you may know your indictment behold and heare what they say further in evidence against your doctrines For thus saith the Prophet Zephany of the churches estate of the life to come which you affirm is meant of this life The remnant of Israel saith he shall not doe iniquity nor speak lies neither shall a deceitfull tongue bee found in their mouth for they shall feed and lie down and none shall make them afraid Sing O daughter of Sion shout O Israel Me thinks it is the same our Lord saith I will see you again and wil turn your sorrow into joy never again to lose it John 16. And so the Prophet goes on Bee glad and rejoyce with all thy heart O daughter of Jerusalem the Lord hath taken away thy judgements he hath cast out thy enemies the King of Israel even the Lord is in the midst of thee thou shalt not see evill any more Zeph. 3. 13. Is not this the Lords return again to his church for her everlasting comfort And of this return of our Lord and deliverance of his church are all other Scriptures to be understood which you have mentioned Then and not before will the Lord perform that good thing promised by Ieremy chap. 23. 14. Behold the dayes come saith the Lord that I will perform that good thing I have promised to the house of Israel and the house of Iudah In those dayes and at that time will I cause the branch of righteousnesse to grow up unto David and he shall execute judgement and righteousnesse in the land in those dayes shall Iudah be saved and Ierusalem shall dwell safely And this is the name wherewith he shall be called The Lord our Righteousnes And in the day of the Lords return to this Citie the Lambs wife it shall be said The Lord is here Ezek. 48. 15. But to leave these mistakers to their great mistakings I will speake one word to the blessed expecters the sonnes of Sion the children of hope Be comforted beloved for now it is but twenty dayes and the funerall day will come of Babylon the sonnes of confusion and it will hardly exceed fourty foure dayes more but your blessed expectation will be accomplished for in the midnight of that day there shall be a great cry made Behold the Bridegroome cometh and then blessed Bride go out to meet him for evermore to enjoy him with unspeakable joy to whom be glory world without end Amen Wherefore he that hath eyes let him see and he that hath eares let him heare and he that hath attained to a good heart let him understand FINIS Dan. 11. 2.