Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	worship_n	worship_v	worthy_a	83	3	6.7453	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94750	A vvord of reproof to the priests or ministers, who boast of their ministery and ordinances, and yet live in pride, disdain, persecution, &c. Shevving what such are; and how little cause they have to exclaim against those who separate from them. As also a word to the papists discovering their foundation to be carnal and sandie. In a letter sent to some supposed priests or Jesuites in the north, by William Tomlinson.	Tomlinson, William.	1653 (1653)	Wing T1855; Thomason E691_9; ESTC R206966	29,084	49

of them and yet men cry them up for the Ordinances of Jesus Christ the Spirit of the Lord arises up in indignation against them as they are so abused If you say where are those gifts of singing which are spoken off there 's no such thing to be found I Answer you They are not to be found with you you are the Land of Captivity you are Babylon we may sit down by the Rivers of Babylon weeping in remembrance of Zion while we are held captive by you for how should any sing the Lords songs in a strange Land The shadowes are not yet fled away the winter is not yet over and gone and therefore we cannot say to you that the time of singing is come we cannot tell you that the voice of the Turtle is to be heard in your Land It may be it is heard somewhere though you hear it not Lastly you have that among some of you which you call Communion But where that Communion lies I cannot tell If it were Communion with God and Christ then the Nature of God and Christ which they have communion with at that Supper as you call it though it be a dinner would put forth it self in the partakers of it They would walk as children of light and not as children of darkness in the works of darkness If any man say he hath fellowship or Communion with God and walk in darkness he lies and doth not the Truth 1 Joh. 1.6 But your Communion shewes forth no such thing accompanying it For men come to it proud and they go away proud They come covetous and they go away covetous They come persecutors and they go away persecutors They come worldly minded ones and they go away worldly minded Now they who are such know neither the the Father nor the Son nor have Communion or fellowship with them Yea it may be they come Extortioners Oppressors hard hearted task masters of Egypt liars cheaters Over-reachers defrauders drunkards swearers whore-mongers full of malice and revenge and such like Thus they come and thus they go as they came having no participation or Communion of the Divine nature in their Spirits to alter them But thus come and go in their sinfull nature having Communion with the spirit of darkness and unrighteousness while they pretend Communion with God and thus go on eating and drinking unworthily they know not what and you suffer them to do so and do it with them eating and drinking judgement to your selves while you thus take the Name of God and Christ in vain 1 Cor. 11.29 This is not to eat the Lords Supper This is not to eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood for then would ye become dead to this world with him and Christ would live again in you Take notice of the words which Paul the servant of the Lord spake 1 Cor. 10.16 The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ Now the right Communicants are one bread and one Body being all made partakers of that one bread vers 17. which bread is Christ But ye cannot be partakers of this bread nor have Communion with it so long as you are in your Gentilisme or heathenish Nature living in Pride Covetousness Persecution oppressing over-reaching uncleanness lies and such like For saith Paul v. 21. Ye cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of Devils ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the table of devils Now the things which the Gentiles sacrifice they sacrifice to Devils and not to God vers 20. Gentiles are every one in their Gentilising nature and what ever they sacrifice that is what ever worship they offer in pretence as to God it is to Devils and not to God Though they say it is to God as the Athenians did Act. 17.23 Yet God ownes it not such as worship him in Spirit and in Truth those are they whom he seekes to worship him As for those who walk in the works of darkness he hath not Communion with them nor they with him For what Communion hath light with darkness 2 Cor. 6.14 Further you have not so much as Communion one with another in that which you call Communion for which of you imparts to the rest of the Communicants as every one hath need You are so far from Community in these outward things that you will go to Law for your propriety one with another if you apprehend your selves but a little wronged therein contrary to the minde and counsell of Christ Mat. 5.40 Thus it is apparent for all your boasting of the Ordinances of Christ I say it is apparent that you have but a counterfeit image of the form of some of them and not the very true image of those which you have If you had the very expresse image of all the outward forms of Ordinances of Christ or practises of the Apostles and Beleevers yet these were poor things to boast of and to be exalted with Laodicean-like for if you had all these in form nearer then they are among any people in this Nation yet if your spirits fall downwards and become earthly the Lord would leave them and slip away from you to another people who arise in their spirits casting off every weight and the sins which beset them or hinder them that they might run with patience the race set before them Yea let me tell you that if you had not onely a true image and form of Ordinances but also a form of godliness in words and sayings of Christ and the Apostles alwayes in your mouthes Yet all this could not binde or hold the Lord with you But still he would slip away from under all these leaving these as huskes and chaffe for you who are disobedient and earthly to feed upon and boast your selves in while in the mean time another people should enjoy his presence for it is not any form of godliness that the Lord takes pleasure in but the Power the Truth the life the spirit And therefore he doth not binde us his servants to abide in Communion with any that live in any form of godliness without the Power But commands us by his Apostle to turn away from such 2 Tim. 3.5 And this is no unwarrantable Schisme or separation So that whether we look at the form of Ordinances or at the Power of godliness we have warrant enough to turn away from you and to have no fellowship in your holy things For as I said you have but an image of some Ordinances onely and that without the life and Power of them Others traditions of Christ you do altogether disown for they will not stand with your profit as namely to deny your selves to take up his Crosse daily and follow Christ which is a great Ordinance of Christ for without this one cannot be his Disciple Again you disown the liberty which Christ hath

seeming affections and such like you hereby deceive the hearts of the simple But these will not serve your turnes now your Covering is too narrow it will not hide your nakednes You are brought to the touch stone Your work Your works they are your discovery Your workes are the works of Sodom pride idelnes fulnes of bread covetousnes wrath malice backbiting persecution disdainfulnes Oh the proud disdainfull spirit that is among you Is it not just so with you as it was with the Pharisees What dost thou teach us said they and is not the same in your hearts also against all that say any thing against you if they appear not to be brought up in your Schooles But by such as you so scornfully disdain even by such shall you be overthrown and confounded You have clamoured against others calling them wandring Stars and falling Stars as if the region of your traditions and humain inventions had been the firmament of truth and as if all that fell from these things had falne from Heaven and from grace But it will be made manifest to all men that you are falne from the firmament of truth from the wayes and from the words of the Apostles and are found wandring in the foggy mists of humain inventions You have had a whores forehead impudent and bold to cast those names upon others which do most properly belong to your selves Whether are they the falling Stars who arise in their spirits casting off every weight that bindes down to the earth that they may walk up closer to the example of their Lord Christ and his holy Apostles or they who fall downwards towards the earth with Demas loving this present world but forsaking the footsteps of the Apostles fixing their roots into the earth being held fast with the allurements thereof You have called every one Deceivers and Seducers who have stepped forth from you groping after the truth But consider well whether you your selves shall not be found Grand Seducers First consider the Multitude of Deceivers how many they are whom this whorish spirit of fornication seducing doth possess It sitteth upon many waters Rev. 17.1 And those waters are Peoples and Multitude and Nations and tongues v. 15. And again it s said all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication Rev. 18.3 And again By thy sorceries were all nations deceived v. 23. Now at whose hands do all nations receive this cup of fornication but at the hands of the nationall ministeries and who are the sorcerers who deceive all nations but their nationall teachers who in some things imitate the true messengers of the Lord but thereby take advantage to oppose them the more strongly in other things and even in such things as wherein their removing out of Egipt spirituall lyes and so keep them as fast lockt up in the house of Bondage as they can Even as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses to keep Israel after the flesh still in Pharaohs house of Bondage A few that start aside out of these generall Delusions cannot be they who thus deceive and seduce all nations Again look upon the spirit of Persecution the Bloody spirit stained with blood and where find we that Who are the persecuters and who the persecuted Are not those whom the nationall teachers call seducers the Persecuted and are not the nationall teachers themselves the Persecuters Judge by this where to find the seducers for this is none of the least Characters It s not the nature of the lamb to persecute nor of them that follow the lamb No they come out of great tribulation They are nailed to the Cross of Christ and for his sake are slain all the day long and are as sheep appointed to the slaughter But on the other side the Seducers and Deceivers drink blood They thirst after and procure the blood of saints not under the notion of saints that was never known but under the notion of Deceivers and Blasphemers and Hereticks and such like And so in her is found Blood Blood Blood even all the blood of any that are slain upon the earth Blood of Prophets Blood of Saints Blood of the witnesses of Jesus Rev. 17.6 Chap. 18.24 Again we may guesse at the Seducers and Deceivers by the worldly pompe and Riches which they fall down to and deck themselves withall for the whorish spirit which seduceth is an earthly spirit and so delighteth in an earthly kingdom in the pretious things of the earth Rev. 17.4 They are every one for their gain from their quarter they can remove from worse quarters to better for a little more mony at their pleasure and this is usually their call from one place to another There be few of them but one may hire them from one place to another for forty pounds more per annum if there be but equall honor and other accommodations in both places and thus are they the hirelings of men bought and sold for earthly riches even as bruit beasts in a market and they that give most get them Thus they press after the waies of Balaam tempting the Lord untill he give them up to the swinge of their own hearts as he did Balaam But it is otherwise with the true messengers of the Lord. They prophesie in sackcloth and the nearer that any one comes to the truth the more he is made to die to this world and to the things thereof You call others Hereticks Schismaticks Sectaries and Separatists which are termes that signify a separation and division from the truth from the saints who stand in the truth and from Christ You are full of names of Blasphemy and that 's one character of the deluding spirit your mouthes I say are full of such names but which of you shewes the people how they come to be worthy of such names to whom you apply them and why you call them so as you do It s an easy thing to call any one by any name or odious terme falsly and as you do without ground for it That we may therefore understand better who they are that are hereticks and schismaticks indeed let us mind where is the knot of all true union the center in which all must meet who do not separate and make schisme Is it not in Christ who is the Truth Suppose that Christ were here in person upon earth and a few despised men break off from the body of the Jews as once they did and follow him all the rest cleaving fast still to their Judaisme tell me now whether are these few who forsake the body of the Jews their rites and ceremonies to follow Christ or they who stick still in them the Hereticks and Schismaticks So when Christs comes in Spirit and calls a People out of Babylon from the confusion of mens inventions which hath overspread the Earth and wherewith all nations are made drunk a few in comparison of the rest come out by degrees the rest stick still in the Confusion Which of these