Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	holy_a	spirit_n	worship_v	3,077	5	9.0447	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44810	The true rule, judge, and guide of the true church of God discovered, and borne testimony unto what it is, and wherein it consisteth in opposition to the pretended Catholick Church of Rome her rule, foundation, guide, and judge, being returned in answer to Captain Robert Everrand his book, titled An epistle to all the nonconformists ... / by ... Francis Howgil.	Howgill, Francis, 1618-1669.	1665 (1665)	Wing H3185; ESTC R9586	60,220	70

believe others but thou hath been so busie abroad in quareling and contending about words and names and empty shews without substance and life that thy mind is all over grown with thorns and briers scrawling and scratching and entangling thy self and others so that that which should savour the things of God is over grown in these and it s buried and to them that are like heaths in a desart knows not when good comes neither doth know what they enjoy that dwell in the fat Vallies and the Pharisees had such unbelieving hearts though Christ was the express Image of God and did the works that never man did yet being without faith and without reason they said he was a Blasphemer and all his works was done by Belzebub and would never be convinced that any thing he did was of God and that spirit is near thee which would represent the fruits of the Spirit to be delusion and them that bring them forth like them in Bedlam and what though Turks Jews Pagans Mahomet and the false Christians do pretend to the spirit and guidance by it and yet bring forth the fruits of the flesh doth this make the spirit of God void or the certainty of it to them that believe or do make their fruits of none effect God forbid thy ignorance is manifest but here thou ceases not thy tongue being thy own and thou being at liberty and speaks thy own words which in the end shall become thy burden Thou vapours and vaunts over them to wit all the Nonconformists and saith what can you say for your selves any of you which these Enthusiasts who have gone before you to maintain their errors but the rule and judge and then thou concludes that which God hath appointed to be rule and judge to all the world and capable of being known and heard by all and cannot contradict it self nor must be contradicted by any under pain of damnation if you cannot shew it to have been your rule you ought to lay aside your folly as destructive to humane society and them that hath pretended the spirit the strongest party and sword upon the vote will prove it self the most convincing spirit and force the weaker spirits to submit or cry for thou concludes the Nonconformists have no other Testimony to try your contradicting spirits in matters of greatest moment but force and success if you have I pray you inform me what it is Ans. If the wind had not turned into another door divers Nonconformists believes we should have had another song from thee if time had but favoured thee so far as to have granted thee the privilege of thy Troop to be Captain which name thou holds up yet i' th pride of thy heart though thou have lost thy force success and pay which was the greatest plea when time was with thee and not long since too which makes thee measure every Man's foot by thy Last and thou might have received information before thou had made a conclusion had been the part of a wise man before thou had set thy self as Judge over all thy former fellowships which thou fainedly pretends so great love to and before thou had discovered their nakedness if it be nakedness to all the world in such a publick insulting bravado as this like Goliah of Gath and as for what some Nonconformists both to the Church of Rome and to the Church of England too which thou creeping and sneakingly flatters and saith its established and therefore thou will not meddle thou might have said dare not for thy spirit is well enough seen by them only to have the spirit of a slave and not a free member of the true Church of God and it s no part of vertue nor honour for thee to insult and glory over them who are in suffering and adversity when as thou dare not meddle with them who are as contrary to thee as the former this is but the spirit of a Coward and is ignoble and base and ever so to be accounted by all the Children of Light who dare put all to venture which they do enjoy on this side of Immortality and to suffer the loss of all visible things for their Testimony and the truth which they believe and for bearing witness against that which is contrary unto their faith as did the valiant Primitive Christians of old and that which some Nonconformists can say is more then thou can believe although demonstrated in the evidence of the spirit of God with sound reason and evident example from the Scriptures of truth and though thou and thy former fellowships then and thy new fellowships now have made this vapour which for ought I know might lay your hands upon your mouths all considering what contradictory Doctrines and fruits hath been brought forth since the night of Apostacy entered in and all the World wondered after the Beast some hath this to say he that pretends to the Spirit and the thing cometh not to pass that they speak or prophesie let him be accounted a false Prophet again they that pretend guidance of the spirit as some formerly have done and yet bring forth the fruits of the flesh as variance hatred emulation strife contention heresie false Doctrine persecution force and violence let them he counted as truly they are deceivers and deluders which have gone out into the world and deceived a great part of Mankind of which Rome hath not had the least share clear it when thou can Moreover he that pretends to have the spirit of God and layes down another foundation to build upon in matter of Faith in matter of Rule in matter of Judgment in matter of Doctrine then that which the Lord of Life and Glory hath laid down he is a Deceiver and an Antichrist but R. E. hath laid down another rule another way another Judge another foundation for Faith and let himself make the Conclusion if he once dare joyne to true Judgment other Foundation can none lay then that which is already laid to wit Christ Jesus the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and of the Church of God by which they were all builded up as a holy Habitation for God to dwell in through the spirit Again the Apostle saith All Judgment is committed to the Son both in Heaven and Earth and again he saith himself I am the Way the Truth and the Life and none can come to the Father but by me and again the Spirit of Truth shall lead and direct his Disciples into all truth and sealeth unto them their Justification Redemption and Salvation And this R. E. would lay all wast and void and why because many hath pretended to it and hath fallen short therefore all the aforesaid things must be laid aside as uncertain and not to be trusted unto and a certain sort of Men called the Apostles Successors who have sought their gain and worldly Interest and to enlarge their Dominions and to make themselves Lords over Mens faith and over Mens

one the Lay Gentleman he mentions and himself speaking to one speaks to both First Whether that any can be certain that the Christians in general is more true then the Turkes Jewes or any other and whether any can be infallibly assured of this that it is not possible for one to be mistaken in this and again the answer amounting to no more then this you conceive you are in the right you hope and believe you are not mistaken but it is possible you may be mistaken in this for every Man is a Lyer and every Man and all Men and every Church is fallible and subject to error and with these and the like words R. E. was extreamly troubled as he saith and knew not how to answer without shuffling Answer The true Christian Religion stands not only in name nor in words nor in conforming or transforming to this or that outward practice which the Disciples of Christ were exercised in which divers in the latter days in their old corrupt minds not having their hearts renewed have taken on the outside and have got the form and wants the life and the power and are not partakers of the Divine nature of Christ and such a bare profession as this has no certainty nor infallibility in it neither the assurance but that they may be mistaken and may be subject to err as well as Turkes or Jewes or any other but the true Christian Religion indeed whom Christ will own as true Worshippers of Him stands in power in life and in being obedient unto his living commands and precepts which he giveth forth unto his Disciples and manifesteth by his Spirit his Sheep hear his voice and know it from the voice of a stranger And he giveth the knowledge of his will to all that believe in the measure of his eternal Spirit which he hath given every one a measure of to profit withal and by it to be guided into all truth out of all error and this Spirit is infallible and gives certain assurance to all that receive it that they are in that way which is acceptable to God and they feel comfort unto their souls coming daily from the presence of Christ who is the Rock of Ages and the sure foundation upon which his holy Church is founded which is the pillar and ground of truth and they that are living members are not grounded upon a fallible certainty or upon a conjectural supposition or a vain hope which is without bottom but upon that which is sure and stedfast lasting and everlasting and all men in the unregenerate estate are lyers but they that are born from above are of the truth and lie not and are not subject to mistakes because the seed remains in them and walkes in the pure Religion which keeps unspoted of the World and they that have no other ground for their Religion but only without them and from the report of others are short of the true foundation for that may be truth in it self indeed which is not true to another nor he truly partakes of it and here is all the supposing conjectures and mistakes and fallible certainties which it seems R. E. and his lay Gentleman too when the axe is laid to the root of the tree indeed and not withstanding all the laying claim to infallibility and certainty its but grounded upon a report without and the traditions of men from Generation to Generation For them that believe but only because of the true report without and cometh not to witness the thing assured in their own hearts by the Spirit of the Lord these will not be long of that faith 't is true many did believe because of the Apostles Declaration and report but at last came to feel the witness of God in their own hearts testifying the self same in so much that they could say and truly too though we have believed through your words at the first yet now we have heard him our selves and that which giveth perfect assurance which admits of no doubts nor fallibleness for such evidence all true Members of Christ's Church have in themselves which carries divine authority and satisfaction in it to every particular Believer and so I say with R. E. in this it seemes unreasonable to perswade any to receive this or that for a truth when they that so perswade are uncertain in themselves neither dare say their judgment is infallible which is that old Protestant Principle indeed and also the Principle of many Sects who differs from the pretended Catholick Church of Rome who persecuted one another about outward things even as the Heathen about their Idols and yet will need sit as Judge in Mens Consciences with their fallible spirit though I speak not of every individual person neither can I justifie the Roman Catholick Church so called who layes claim to infallibility and whatsoever they judge to be Heresie must be reckoned as such though never so manifest a truth and to place infallibility in men that may err and have erred from the spirit I like not neither for this is to give that to men that belongs to God and to make the Judgment of fallible men above the Judgment of the infallible spirit of God and this I look to be great ambition and pride in any to lay claim to the greatest things as infallibility and certainty of assurance and the most free of error and yet falls the shortest of it of any as hath been made appear by many learned and grave Men of former ages and also if a necessity were might be made appear that the Church of Rome who saith she cannot err have been as uncertain both in their Doctrine and Worship as any yea more one Pope contradicting and throwing down that which another did establish and one Council decreeing and another disanulling as I could easily make appear but that I would not be tedious to the Reader in things that have been so manifest neither do I desire to wade out into diversity of matters in so short a Discourse But that which R. E. and his Catholick instructer calleth late wild and loose opinions that men of different faiths may be saved and this countenanceth schisme and breeds rebellion as it is said 't is true faith is but one which is saving and there is no differance in that for the difference is among Men where that is wanting and only have the words and name of faith and want the life and power Neither am I so narrow spirited as R. E. and his Catholick as to exclude all out of the faith who may differ in their perswasions in some Circumstantial things if yet they hold Christ the head and what makes R. E. so verilent as to judge all in error and to be out of the true faith seeing the Protestants and all sorts of separates professe Justification and Salvation only through faith in Christ Jesus as well as the Church of Rome and it were unreasonably judged in me if I should conclude

passed through Fourthly The spirit of Christ is the gift of God which he giveth unto all that wait for his appearance and his Sheep have it and they that are Christs have it for they that have not the spirit of Christ is none of his and it is that which is every way sufficient and no way insufficient and it is every way sufficient to lead into all truth according unto Christs promise and to convince the World of sin of righteousness and of judgment again it is that which Christ promised for a director which was with them when they healed the Sick and cast out Devils and which was in them to consolate them and comfort them in the midst of affliction as it did Peter and John and made them bold who were yet illiterate Men and had not that sufficiency which many looks upon now they have to wit natural Tongues and Languages yet it was sufficient in them to give them wisedome to declare the things of the Kingdome of God to the salvation of many that did believe through their words it was sufficient to comfort Paul and Silas when they were shut in the inner Room and their Feet fast in the Stocks when there was no outward cause of joy but rather of sorrow yet they were made to sing and rejoyce because of the great comfort and joy that the spirit of God filled their hearts with again it was sufficient in the midst of great conflicts and tribulations which Paul and the rest suffered for the Gospels sake and for Christs sake and yet as suffering did abound it was sufficient to make consolation to super abound to ballance the suffering and to make it easie Fifthly It is that everlasting Covenant which the Lord promised by the mouth of his Prophets in former dayes that he would fulfill in the latter dayes or after times that he would write his Law in their hearts and put his spirit in their inward parts and that they should not teach every Man his neighbour saying know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least to the greatest and again in another place I will power upon them the spirit of prayer and supplication and they shall see him whom they have pierced c. and again I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh and my Sons and my Daughters shall prophesie c. and this was fulfilled at Pentecost in Jerusalem when the Disciples met together and the promise of the Father came to be fulfilled and the Unbelievers said they were filled with new Wine and the Lord hath a care of his people through ages and hath not left them comfortless nor without a guide and a certain and a sure one too which spirit is manifest among some Non-conformists whom thou takes liberty to call Sects and the sufficiency of it is witnessed praised be the Lord in our Assemblies both as to convince to convert to save to judge to guide to instruct to comfort and is that alone in which all true Christian men can worship God in the silence of all flesh and fleshly motions and thoughts it 's that that giveth assurance also of acceptation with God and is that which makes the Prayers of the Saints as sweet insence in the Nostrils of the Lord it is that which makes the words of him like Butter as pleasant as Hony or sweet Oyle who speakes by it through it and from it whereby the hearts of many hath been pricked and the thoughts of many hearts hath been revealed and many hath been comforted with joy unspeakable and filled with pure love from the sensible feeling of the sufficiency of its power opperating in the inward Man even as when the harvest had been gatheredin and the Press been full of Grapes and the Fattes had over-flowen with abundance so that they could have rejoyced and sung and danced for joy as sometimes David did when the Ark of God was brought from the House of Obed-Edom and placed in Jerusalem when David danced for joy and all Israel was filled with gladness what might I say for the certainty sufficiency and all-sufficiency of this holy spirit of God I might fill my mouth with arguments and time might fail me in speech to speak of the excellency certainty and infallibility thereof against all opposers and quarellers In a word it is that alone meanes through which God conveys eternal life to all man kind and it is that rule by which all the Sons of God were led Rom. 8. 14. It is that only sure Guide Judge Way Rule in which there is certainty and assurance of the love of God to Man kind it is that by which the deeds of the flesh are mortified and Men quickned and enlivened unto God in their hearts in which the Saints are accepted by which they are regenerated and through which they become Heires of the promise what shall I say but this let all flesh be confounded before it and all deceit stop its mouth and all the sons of Men bow before it all Councils and Churches all Rulers and Elders all Reason and Comprehension all Words and Writing of Men and holy Men yea of the Scriptures of truth it gave them all a being it was it is and is to come and will remain when all visible things are past away it is that by which God will plead with all flesh and bring a Consumption upon all the honourable of the Earth and burn up the Mountains and make the hills to melt and make all a plain before Him therefore make room make room make way ye potsheards and cease all your contending and babling and bow to it and learn of it in your hearts which R. E. like an ignorant man calls a private spirit that your souls may be saved in the day of the Lord and you my escape his wrath which is to come against all resisters of it Sixthly Your Catholick Church falsely so called who hath erred from the spirit the infallible Guide though you much boast of it both in doctrine and practise abundantly insomuch that your faces seem altogether to look another way and your course to arive at another Haven then the Apostles and all the primitive Christians attained unto to wit everlasting Happiness and rest for their souls and acceptation with God in their performances and sacrifices which they offered unto him in the spirit of which they and all that believe in it and have received it received perfect assurance in their hearts by the immediate spirit of God and likewise the Protestants in general whether Lutherins or Calvins or other Sects known by denomination are of so narrow and a pinching spirit as that you would pinch and shut-up the universal love of God unto all Mankind into a narrow corner and monopalise the free grace of God that hath appeared to all Men that teaches all men that receives it to deny all Heresie falshood opinions and humours private spirits and spirits of error which leadeth from

largly of by other hands and pens so that I need not say much But Miracles be not evermore undoubted proofes of a true Doctrine nor such absolute signes of a true Church nor such infallible arguments as from Heaven as R. E. saith his is and so I shall conclude with that which Austin said unto Faustus the Manicha Ye work no Miracles and yet if ye wrought any at your hands we would take heed of them and Jer. 23. saith the false Prophets have deceived my people by their lies and by their lightness and by their dreams and Miracles And so hath this false fained pretended Catholick Church done deceived The Nations and bewitched them with such lying fabulous stories and false and ridiculous miracles and sorceries and inchantments as is above mentioned and many more of the like nature might be mentioned but that I would not be tedious to the Reader which if they were summed up all would hardly make up a Heavenly argument and proof as R. E. saith it doth that their Church is the only true Church and fit to be the rule and judge of all matters of faith and now Reader view over their Miracles before mentioned and see if thou can receive them because the Church of Rome saith they are true and must not be questioned for if thou do thou art like to come under a hard censure by the verdict of R. E. and his Catholick Church first to be reckoned as an unbeliever secondly to be a hater of God and thirdly in not believing these Miracles or whatsoever else shall be declared unto thee by the said Church or else thou comes under no les penalty then eternal damnation as R. E. saith in the 80. page of his Epistle but it is a small thing to be judged by man and especially such a man who hath gaded abroad and changed his way so osft so that he hath forgotten the true path of Righteousness to walk in or else never knew it and hath turned and wheeled about and now at last doth as the poor Indian doth with his Deer skin hangs it upon one shoulder and so upon the other shoulder to shelter him from the wind and tempest that comes of that side But the day is dawned and mens spirits are discovered beyond their words and all the turnings and wheelings of things upside down is but as the Potters Clay for God measures every man not by his words but by his heart and spirit and works and will judge every one in Righteousness according to their deeds And R. E. goes on as confident that his arguments and reasons laid down hath prevailed and almost takes it for granted that it must needs be evident to all that the Roman Church is the true Church and saith he knows but one single point between the Catholicks and them that stand devided from them and that is saith he that we follow a several rule to guide and judge in the great affaires of faith for all sides are bound to believe all truths sufficiently propounded to them to be revealed of God and therefore if the presence of Christ in the Sacrament Purgatory worshipping of Images Invocation of Saints and prayer to the Dead and for the Dead if these or any other point of faith be sufficiently propounded by denying them Gods varassaty is denyed and God thereby made a lyer The difference stands betwixt you and them that are devided from you in more particulars then thou art aware of or ever will be able sufficiently to propound them to be revealed of God though it is true some are but devided from you in Circumstantials and Ceremonies and some others in some points of Faith and Worship yet some deny you in the very ground though 't is true the different rule by which each party are directed is a great and a main thing thou saith this Church Catholick is the rule but I say and am not alone that Christ is the way to the Father and the way to the Kingdom and the rule and means by which his Church is governed and he is the Lawgiver and the judge and all Judgment is committed to the Son and it is he alone that propounds truth sufficiently and they that are in him are new Creatures and that which is the new Creatures rule guide and judge is the rule guide and judge of the Church of God and Christ is the author of faith and it is nothing that availes any thing with God but the new Creature and as many as walk according to this rule peace is to them Gal. 3. 16. and Christ hath not left his people without guide for he said lo I am with you to the end of the world So as to commit the guidance thereof to fallible men who may assume authority without his power and to fasten those things upon God as to be revealed from him when the Lord hath spoken nothing and we are so far from looking that the main grounds that thou lays down to prove your Church to be this rule and guide and the many Doctrines propounded by you are not sufficiently propounded to be revealed of God but rather they are the imaginations of your own brain and things packt up since the Apostles days by different Popes and different mutations and alterations in your Church for filthy Lucres sake and so to deny them is not to deny Gods varassaty neither to make God a lyer as thou falsly saith but thou and you are the lyers as to propound those things to be revealed from God and to be received by all under pain of damnation when God hath revealed no such thing but the contrary and so thy own words at last shall turn to be thy burden because thou saith the Lord saith and hath revealed and sufficiently preposed the real presence of Christ in your Sacrament of the Alter as a devine Revelation worshipping of Images Prayer to the Dead and for the Dead and all the foolish imagination which you have brought in and intruded and thrust upon people by force and these are sufficiently propounded as thou saith as devine Revelations and the Father Son and Holy Ghost or the Incarnation of Christ silence deceit and for shame blush so to say the Prophets who spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and prophesied of things to come they declared of the Father Son and Holy Ghost all and prophesied long before that a Virgin should bring forth a Son whose name should be called Emanuel God with us and the Government should be upon his shoulders this the Pope hath usurped and you put it upon his Shoulders but your invented Doctrines aforesaid are meerly the imaginations of your own brain which neither the Prophets nor Apostles bore witness unto but against and therefore it is thy and your great presumption to make God Christ and Apostles the foundation of all this rubbish straw and stuble which thou would put off as devine revelation and as sufficiently preposed as the