Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	know_v	spirit_n	2,306	5	5.1083	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61678	Deceivers deceiv'd, or, The mistakes of wickedness in sundry erroneous and deceitful principles, practised in our late fatal times, and suspected still in the reasonings of unquiet spirits delivered in a sermon at St. Paul's, October 20th 1661 before the Right Honorable Sir Richard Browne Knight and Baronet, Lord Maior of the city of London, and the aldermen his brethren : being the initial also of the Reverend Dr. John Berwick, dean of the said church, at the first celebrity of divine service with the organ and choiristers, which the Lord Maior himslef solemniz'd with his personal presence from the very beginning.	Stone, Samuel, 1602-1663.; Browne, Richard, Sir, 1602?-1669.; Barwick, John, 1612-1664.	1661 (1661)	Wing S5735; ESTC R18742	26,609	51

part and so hath no help or conduct at all of the good Spirit Who moves no man contrary to the rule of his own word more then the Pen-man doth the hand of his Schollar contrary to his own Coppy but altogether according for else the Learner shal never write up to it And no more can any man whatsoever answer the form of Righteousnesse or Lawfulnesse in any of his actions that forsakes his coppy or rule he should be guided by That is the written word of truth which is the only tryall of every Spirit and of every motion and impulse whether of God or no. He that knoweth God heareth us saith St. John 1 Epist 4. 6. And he that is not of God heareth not us and hereby know we the Spirit of truth and the Spirit of error That is by their agreement or disagreement unto the words preached by St. John and the rest of the Apostles which were spoken and written for our instructions and delivered down unto us and now with the other books of Holy Oracle are called Scripture or the written Word of God The light and guidance whereof whosoever refuseth to follow the conduct of some pretended Spirit only diverse or contrary to it Instead of being led by the Spirit of God doubtlesse he is led by the Spirit of the Devill as I make no question those late wretched publick Murtherers were whom the Right Honourable the present Lord Maior had the Lot under Gods grace and providence to suppresse to his monumental honor the trophie whereof be his unto all posterity I say they were not led by the Spirit of God but by the Spirit of the Devill as indeed some said They fought like Divells Men had as good follow those spirits the Prophet Isa speaks of in the forementioned Chapter oppositely unto the Law and the Testimonie Spirits that peep and mutter that is spirits of witches and wizards with whom it may be doubted that these spirit-people are too familiar I shall superadd to this particular but one plain Similie of a blind metled horse let loose which by reason of his metall will be ever prauncing and frisking up and down till at length he getts upon the top of a steep bank or precipice and from thence for want of his sight down he tumbles and breaks his neck And such verily will be the end of all blind zealots who shut their eies against the light and direction of Gods word and right Reason to follow in the heat and metal of their zeal bare motions and impulses as pretended from some Spirit However in their conceits and imaginations divine they will certainly before they are aware fall at last upon some lewd unreasonable wicked practice or other that will break the neck of all their reputation both in Christianity and Civility and without mercy upon their repentance throw them down headlong the precipice of Hell St. Paul therefore shall conclude Let no man hereafter deceive you neither by Word nor Letter nor Spirit 2 Thes 2. 2. Which two words of the Apostle Letter and Spirit minde me of the Appendix mentioned in the Dedication Letter and Spirit having in the terms a very fair connection with the literal and spiritual sense of Scripture whereby notwithstanding what hath been said against the blinde motion and impulse of a Spirit some Mistakers conceiving themselves wiser and more defensible than the former do warrant themselves in their wicked actions not only in Politicks but Morals also from the sense and spiritual meaning of the Word of God itself as if upon conviction by the former Reasoning what they may not do by a bare impulse or motion they may nevertheless do in their thoughts by a spiritual meaning of the written Word the rule whereof they seem not to refuse But this also Beloved is a very fallacious imagination which I shall desire to Discourse by way of reduciblenesse as an Appendix unto the great deceit of Conduct by the Spirit last confuted and to that purpose do observe that a spiritual Meaning or sense of Scripture opposite unto or diverse from the sense of the Letter is very destructive and deceptive of foolish sinners such as St. Peter calls unstable and unlearned such as are apt to wrest the Scriptures not only to their own but others destruction also even whole Churches Nations and Kingdoms as well Kings as their People may whereof there are who taking upon them a boldness through this perswasion to wave the sense of the Letter of the written Word where the Commands of God agree not to their humours engagements and inclinations they adventure to sense the text only to their own thoughts and purposes though never so contrary to the most righteous laws both of God and Man and in a policy of avoiding discovery herein it sounding harsh unto the most ingenuous sort of Christians that the plain meaning of the World should be slighted and baffled they boast most of all in their Spiritual Light of an easie and clear understanding and thereafter expound it of the most mysterious hidden and intricate places of the whole book of God as the Revelation and other the dark Prophetical passages which neither Time nor Learning hath yet sufficiently unridled or unclasped and in these they ostentate a familiar though wonderful Knowledge because they would be the readyer believed by foolish admirers in their abusings and wrestings of the plainer letter of other Scriptures Now beloved this fallacious Reasoning grounds upon a mistaken understanding of some texts of Scripture where you shall read an opposition betwixt the Letter and the Spirit As First 2 Cor. 3. 6. Who hath made us able Ministers not of the Letter only but also of the Spirit Therefore say they There is a Litteral and a Spiritual sense of the New Testament But how false that consequence is may appear by observing that the word Sense or Meaning is not in the text read nor in the whole context but only Letter and Spirit in the Ministry or Ministration of the New Testament or Gospel there is the Letter or bare Word spoken and the Spirit of Grace that quickneth or giveth life unto the Letter or Word spoken or written making it fruitfull and effectual opening the minde to receive it and working the heart and affections to submit unto it which puts the great difference betwixt the Gospel and the Law the Law being only a bare or dead Letter engraven in stony tables without any assistance of the Spirit of Grace to quicken it and so the ministration thereof is of death and condemnation unto all mankind that hear it there being no promise or concurrence of spirit with it to work it upon the heart unto obedience man under the Covenant of the Law being left to his own self and strength which was become utter weaknesse through the corruption of the flesh and unable to perform whereas the Covenant of Grace or the Gospel hath the promise or assistance of the Holy Spirit

very Pillars of the Church sometimes chinckt in with some stones of offence Errare p●ssum saith St. Augustine he might Err he confest only would not be an Heretick The High-Priest may have the Urim and Thummim on his breast but neither the one in his head nor the other in his heart I know no promise of Infallibility universal except to the Church-universal as comprehending all Persons Times and Places as Chillingworth gives it or unless to the Apostles themselves and that too as they acted their Supream Apostolick Commission not otherwise for St. Peter and St. Paul were at a contradiction and both parties could not have the right and Paul and Barnabas were at a contention The Spirit of truth shall guide you into all truth was the Promise of Christ He that said it is as true as his Word but well understood not in the whole circumference of the Terms but in the limitation of the Sense All truths fundamental the essential constituents of a Church the Spirit of Christ hath promised to lead his Church into And so he doth for the Church is the Pillar of Truth and the foundation of God standeth sure but as for other truth 's of analogie inference and remote consequence that like backer houses shew not at first sight in the building of faith into such truth's as these the Spirit of Truth hath not promised to lead us but sometimes leaves us to the spirit of Error who does his best to do his worst and deceive those that believe Instance whereof you may take in the most glorious Church of Christendom this of England whom the old Dragon according to his use of persecuting the Woman into the Wilderness hath endeavoured to bring in our late dayes of Tribulation into contempt and disgrace in the view of the whole World and to that end had insinuated such mischievous Delusions into the two chief Parties of her most considerable interest after once divided as the most remarkable in their own thoughts and their Disciples admiration for strictness and severity of life were grosly misled into the foulest miscarriage imaginable as to their Politicks in the case of Subjection Government On the other side they which were most regular and best principled in understanding of Government and Learning were not altogether some of them in mens observation so perfect in their Morals as they should have been and therefore to conclude in both respects aforesaid to follow a Godly Party may be deceitful although caeteris paribas all things equally considered A Godly party especially truly godly is best imitable with Wisdom and Circumspection but not simply and absolutely So much for the second deceitful Reasoning whereby Wickedness hath been much improved A third Principle of deceit whereby wickedness doth much impregnate is a reasoning from contraries as in case some person or persons do act wickedly in their way that therefore others acting the quite contrary shall be allowed and warranted as righteous in what they do because contrary Which seems indeed to carry some reasonableness and probability with it it being backt with a shew of Logick Contrariorum contraria sunt consequentia Of contraries there are contrary consequences And so in Physick Contraria contrariis curantur Evils in mens bodies are remedied by their contraries And in Philosophy likewise Contraria mutuò se pellunt Contraries expel one the other But nevertheless this kind of Reasoning is most deceitfull without wary distinguishing To which purpose we must distinguish there is a contrariety natural and contrariety moral The contrariety natural is first betwixt the Elements as Fire and Water which are mutually destructive one of the other and much like are the extreams of Virtue as Avarice and Prodigality to instance in no more which are as inconsistent and expellent of each other as Fire and Water and therefore I call them Contraries natural for though as they stand in opposition to the mean which is Virtue they are morally contrary yet as in contra-distinction of one to the other they are but natural Contraries There is also another contrariety called moral as before that is betwixt the Extreams and the Mean alias Virtue which I call Contraries being opposite as Good and Evill moral they differing as much as Wisdom and Folly which we all know to be contrary the mean which is Virtue being acted by Wisdom according to Aristotle in his his Ethicks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the extream by Folly Now to apply this Distinction If men shall reason the lawfulness of their actions by practising the sense of Contraries natural or exteme or running from one extreme to another they are foully deceiv'd In vitium ducit culpae fuga si caret Arte saith the Poet The declining of one Vice incurs another if done without Prudence which governs all virtuous actions howbeit to decline one Contrariy in a moral sense and turn to the other that is from Vice to Virture from Evill to Good from Sin to Righteousness is a rational and wise practise otherwise false and deceitfull As for instance some men are lewd and vitious in their lives and conversations breaking all the rules of virtue others therefore presuming to themselves safety and lawfulnesse in their actions by running into an extream distance from them desire to avoid them in whatsoever they do although they are as good politically as to the government and laws of a Nation according to Aristotle that Malus vir may be Bonus Civis an evill man in manners may be a good Subject o his Prince as they are bad morally whence follows separations divisions and contentions betwixt them and thereupon occasionally civill dissentions and warr too even against the Prince himself because the contrary in vice is for the Prince in Loyalty Sic vitant stulti vitia This is the contrariety of fools and practisers of extreams The Church of Rome maintaines good works as causall and meritorious in the point of Justification others therefore French and Germane Divines thinking truth on their side by a quite contrary judgment have gon so farre from them into the extream as not to allow any good work at all before Justification albeit so confessedly necessary for the qualification of Faith itself in her existence and operation Sic vitant stulti vitia This is the contrariety of extreams The Church of Rome setts forth so many Ceremonies as amount to Superstition some therefore of our side to avoid that would have no Ceremony at all and so dis-robe the Church of all her externall decentials and badges of Antiquity Sic vitant Stulti vitia This is the contrariety of Fools The Church of Rome establishes as many Holydaies almost as daies and therefore our wise Assemblers and Religionists of late would have no Holydaies besides the Sabbath at all not so much as for the Celebration of the Nativity of Christ himself Sic vitant stulti vitia This is the contrariety of Fools The Church of Rome patter over their forms