Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	word_n	world_n	wrest_v	74	3	9.7941	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65358	The saints guide, or, Christ the rule, and ruler of saints manifested by way of positions, consectaries, and queries : wherein is contayned the efficacy of acquired knowledge, the rule of Christians, the mission and maintenance of ministers, and the power of magistrates in spiritual things / by Iohn Webster ...	Webster, John, 1610-1682.	1654 (1654)	Wing W1213; ESTC R17627	36,008	50

truly said to be sanctified for acquired learning by it self and of its own nature is nothing else but sin and therefore remains so still and cannot truly and properly be said to be sanctified no more then sin But if by being sanctified they mean that the providential wisdom of God doth order it or make use of it for the good of his People I opose it not so that it be understood that that good flows not from the nature of acquired knowledg it self but from the Wisdom and goodness of the Spirit of God who maketh all things work together for the benefit of those that love him who are the called according to his purpose And so no more can properly in this respect be predicated of it then of sin it self which in that case though not as an entity for Non entia ad modum entium concipiuntur is said also to work for the good of Gods Saints Again if it be objected That though Learning be not effectuall to the understanding of the mystery of the Gospel yet it is prevalent to the compleating of the literal and historical knowledg thereof To this I answer Though it may conduce to the gaining of literal and historical knowledge yet this is not ad idem because it profiteth nothing for Truth it self bears record It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing and men are made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life So that all literall and historicall knowledge gained by mans power is but like the principle from whence it Flowed fleshly earthly deadly and destructive Consectaries Then all those that the world cryes up for learned from this principle of Humane Learning are but with God called and accounted un-discipled un-taught as Peter witnesseth clearly where speaking of the Epistles of Paul he saith in them some things were hard to be understood which they that are untaught and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction Whereby it is manifest that by the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which though usually rendred in the English Translation heedlesly the unlearned yet properly signifies the undiscipled or untaught and therefore commonly in the Latine is turned indocti which points forth the same significantly for the word that signifies unlearned or unletter'd is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which is Homines illiterati idiotae He intends those that were undiscipled and had not the Teaching of the Spirit and yet in the strength of naturall reason and carnall wisdom wrest the word to their own destruction So that all that knowledge which flows from the naturall mans acquisition which the world calls wisdom is foolishness with God and though the wisdom of God which stands only in the teaching of ● is Spirit be accounted foolishness with men yet this foolishness of God is wis●r then the wisdom of men Then all those expositions and interpretations of Scripture that have been are or shall be made by the force and power of human learning and mans innate notions of wit and reason● are no more then earthly sensual and divelish destroying all those that rely upon them or trust in them And all preaching or expounding from this principle is damnable both to speaker and hearer If the blind lead the blind they fall both into the ditch Then are not the most that pretend to preach seeing they do it but from this principle those that take away the key of knowledge and enter not themselves neither suffer those that would come in to enter and therefore a most heavy wo belongs unto them and will fall upon them Therefore when men teach and affirm that without human learning none can be able Ministers of the New Testament and condemn those that speak only out of the teaching of the Spirit and have little or no human learning at all and make use of little or none but lay it aside do they not plainly shut up the Kingdom of Heaven from men and neither enter themselves nor suffer others that would Then if the quintessence of all humane learning were as a Magisterial extract monopolized in one man yet were it no fit qualification for a Minister of the Gospel for flesh and blood revealeth not these divine things unto men but the Father which is in Heaven Queries Whether of two men the one having a great measure of acquired learning but not the infused and experimental the other the infused and experimental but no human learning are fitter to be chosen to the Ministry Whether any be fit or able to judg of the Spirit in another that have it not themselves or to give approbation or witness to others of that which they have not experienced in themselves and consequently whether a Nation or Commonwealth can justly set up persons to judge of the Spirit of God in others and to give them licenses to exercise those gifts of the Spirit that have not experienced the work of this Spirit in themselves or not Whether or not all that much magnified naturall Reason which we think dignifieth us above and distinguisheth us from brutes and all that human learning which we conceive exalts and rectifieth Reason be the fruit and effect of the forbidden tree and is a spurious and adventitious faculty which man wanted in his innocency and was instilled into him by Satan in the fall Whether all that knowledge that a naturall man hath by nature and from the first Adam and all that which by the same power he can attain be not the same hellish and serpentine wisdom by which the Divell ruleth his kingdom or not And whether all the horrible and strange tenets sprung up in all Ages with the jars and disputes about the things of God arise not from this smoak of the bottomless pit of Satans malice stirred up in the Region of mans carnall wisdom and human learning 2. Concerning the Law By this word Law I understand a Light discovering what should be done and what ought not to be done commanding the one and prohibiting the other and this according to the tenor of divine Truth I find to be threefold 1. Internal and impressed upon the souls of all men naturally and therefore commonly called the Law of Nature which the Apostle makes clear in these words which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another And under this law were and are all men even as they are men 2. Externall as that of the Decalogue commonly called Moral ingraven in the Tables of stone given unto Moses and obligatory unto all the seed of Abraham according to the ●lesh and all the Iews were under this Law and it was their

Augmentations cease and there be no wages nor maintenance allowed by law ●how should we live what shall maintain our families who will then preach the Gospel The people are hard-hearted and will give us little or nothing if no publick maintenance no Gospel Are not all these the complaints of an evill adulterous and unbelieving generation that preach faith to others even of things high and spirituall and yet themselves dare not trust God for food and raiment Do not the heathen seek after all these things and have you no more faith then they Then those that are the true Ministers of Christ know that the necessity of preaching the Gospel is laid upon them and will preach in season and out of season whether they have any thing or nothing nay will not cannot in conscience take any thing carnall from any man to whom they have not sown spiritual and not that neither but according to the free-will-offering of their minds to whom they have ministred spirituall things and in this point by their fruits ye shall know them Queries Didst thou who callest thy self one of Christs Ministers when Christ called thee and sent thee forth if ever he did so make a bargain with him what thou shouldst have for thy labour without which thou wouldst not do thy work or but negligently and with murmuring Did ever Christ teach thee to clamour and cry to the Magistrate to settle thee some maintenance by a law or to exact it from the poor labourer who never yet received a spiritual benefit from thy teaching nor hath no heart to give thee any thing but against his will Canst thou ever make it appear to be a duty incumbent upon the Magistrate to settle thee wages by a law or it lawfull for thee to take it If thou canst it is high time to produce thy strong reasons lest thy god Dagon fall to the ground rise no more and with the rest of thy brother Craftsmen to shout high lest your shrine-making be mar'd for ever Will not thy Trade be as long-lived as the world if Academies can give thee qualifications men an Ordination and the Magistrates maintenance But Babel must fall Concerning the power of Magistrates in spiritual things That the Magistrate hath power both coercive and punitive against al evil either in words or works whether it be against a privat or a publick interest is manifest Because all men even as men have this impressed in them by the light of Nature principles suckt in by education or a light from God upon their spirits That the end of being is its own preservation and as this is ingrafted in one so it is in all individuals and as they would not be willing that any other should hurt or destroy their being nor hinder the meer necessaries of its conservation so it is contrary to natural justice right reason to hurt or destroy the being of another or to hinder them of meer necessaries for their conservation And all Laws were at first intended and should be exercised to preserve unto every Numerical person as far as possible these grand priviledges of Natures universall Charter and therfore what acts or words soever may tend to the obstructing or frustrating of this end is in the Magistrates power to restrain and punish And for this purpose the Apostle bears witnes that the Gentiles who had no external Law given of God were a Law unto themselves which did shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another The Scriptures make this clear commanding every soul to be subject unto the Higher powers because there is no power but of God The powers that be are ordained of God And whosoever resisteth the powers resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shal receive to themselves damnation And these are the Ministers of God for the defence and praise of those that do well and for the punishment of those that doe evil for they bear not the sword in vain And therefore the Apostle concludes that the Christians should be subject unto these Ministers though Heathens not only for wrath but also for conscience sake and for this reason was Tribute to be paid unto them because they were the Ministers of God attending upon that very thing continually And thus were al the Saints commanded to obey every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether of Kings or others and that prayers and supplications should be made for Kings and all that were in authority that they might lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty But now the grand scruple is what power the Magistrate hath in those things that are called spiritual And by things spiritual I understand those things that the Apostles other Saints taught and practised as Christians for as men they were in their words and actions as is proved before under the power of the Magistrate And in all those things that they held taught or practised I finde evidently these two 1. They never required any thing of the Magistrates as they were Christians but only liberty to speak out the things that Christ had manifested unto them and quietly to meet together to break bread pray baptize edifie or communicate to the wants of one another 2. Nothing that they spoke o● did as Christians was any 〈…〉 contrary hurtful or obstructive to the Civil Laws 〈…〉 Jews or Gentiles I never read that they desired of the Magistrate honour or riches Lordships or dominions nor to be called Doctors Masters Rabbies or to have the pre-eminence and chief seats one above another as ours now-a-dayes that call themselves Christians must have a Law to make them Masters Doctors and Batchelors of Divinity as they are pleased vainly to stile them and that not had but with a vast expence to the Commonwealth in allowing such large Revenues of Lands and Tithes to maintain an hive of Drones Wasps and Hornets in their Monkish Cells which might be better employed for enabling men in Arts and Sciences to fit them for Civil employments and not to paint up a blader-blown Clergy another fals title they have assumed to themselvs with such idle Terms and vain Epithites It is true that the Disciples being but earthly and carnal had much ado among themselvs Who should be greatest but our Saviour tels them That the Kings or Rulers of the Nations did bear rule over their people and were called gracious Lords but it should not be so among them but he that would be greatest should become least and he that would be master should become as a servant And Zebedees children being of the same carnall principle with the rest could desire to sit the one at his right hand and the other at his left in his Kingdom but he told them they knew not what they asked And