Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	life_n	spirit_n	worship_v	1,905	5	8.8109	5	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

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 late Chaplain in the Army LONDON Printed for Giles Calvert at the Black-spread Eagle at the West End of Pauls 1654. To all that love the Lord IESUS CHRIST in Truth and Sincerity Dear Souls BLessed be the God of mercies who hath satisfied my spirit that it is not the power of Argument the force of Dispute or Eloquence nor the efficacy of humane Reason that can more clearly make out the things that are freely given to us of God than they are by that Spirit that searches all things yea even the deep things that are of God in the experience of his Saints as they all witness having the same spirit opening unto them that Record which God gave of his Son Neither are these and poor weak things though we should not despise the day of small things made publick upon any such account but onely as it pleased the Lord to draw forth my spirit to give testimony with those Truths he had sealed in my breast against all the prejudice cenfures and unrighteous judgments of men For that immortal Spirit which raised Ies●s up from the dead and quickeneth the bodies of his Saints by its own light life power wisdom and strength worketh all in all in his people stands not in any need of the weak instrument of ●infull mans carnal and devilish wisdom For it is this Spirit that qu●ckeneth the flesh profiteth nothing Neither are the weapons of a believers warfare carnal but mighty in Christ not in us to the pulling down of strong holds and laying low of every imagination that stands up against Christ And also I have usually in experience observed that in laboring to make out the Truth by the force of our wit and arguments one carnal weapon is but set against another and so doth little else but engender strife and stir up passion so that Truth rather receives damage than profit by it And therefore the Scripture witnesseth that Saints should avoid foolish questions endless Genealogies and contentions with perverse disputings whereof cometh envy strife railyngs and evil surmisings And as the Lord in mercy hath cleared my spirit from these mysts so he hath led me forth to give my testimony with the rest of his Saints in behalf of his Cause and Truth against all perversness and unrighteousness of men For after the Lord about eighteen years ago had in his wonderfull mercy brought me to the sad experience of mine own dead sinfull lost and damnable condition in nature and fully shewed me the nothingness and helplesness of creaturely power either without or within me and graciously led me forth to witness with the Prophet David That he had drawn me forth of the horrible Pit and set my feet upon a Rock and established my goings And then and ever since carried me forth somtimes in much power somtimes in weakness according to the working of his own will to declare unto the sons of men what he had done for my Soul This no sooner appeared in me and others whom it pleased the Lord to reveal his Son in but the power of Babel in the Ministers of Satan transforming themselves into Ministers of Righteousness then in the Episcopal and Prelatical Form poured forth all their malice and spite against the Truth and against all those in whom it appeared then throwing dirt upon us and hotly raging in persecution against us in and under the terms of Puritans Seperatists Grindletonians and Antinomians And also continued the same bitterness in malice in the tail of the Dragon though then disguised under the name of Presbyterians and a new Form of pretended godliness by the former odious ●itles and addition of new as Libertines Blasphemers Sectaries and Hereticks and since hath not ceased under the new devices of Independency and Church-gathering keeping still the same appellations and super-adding of others as Dippers Quakers and indeed what not calling and accounting all others as Hereticks that were not of their Tribe and Trade Form and judgment and so the hierling merchants of Demetrius his Craft do still vociferate and continu it yet notwithstanding all their bloudy malice and insaciable envy the Lord hath delivered me and those that were his through his great mercy from the paws of all these devouring Lions and will still faithfully keep and preserve all his by his mighty power through faith unto salvation And now the Lord hath strengthened my spirit and hand to bear out my witness against all these and to manifest the same to you my dear brethren pertakers of the same heavenly calling and anointed with that spirit that teacheth all things and leadeth into all truth where there is neither Iew nor Greek bond nor free male nor female but are all one in Christ Iesus to the unity of whose Spirit he commends you who remains April 28. 1653. Yours in the Lord though the lowest and least of all Saints JO WEBSTER To all those that set up Forms and external Worship instead of the spiritual and those that call themselves the Ministers of the Nation Countrey-men IT is far from my purpose to asperse your persons or to condemn any of the least appearances of the Lord Iesus in you much less to oppose any thing that may tend to the building up of the spiritual and new Ierusalem Nevertheless the Lord hath put a few things in my mouth to speak unto you and some things in my spirit to inquire of you which I beseech you to receive in meekness as becometh th●se who have stiled themselves by the dear and precious name of Christians Hath the Spirit of Christ ever revealed in you or the record of his truth taught you that any Form of godliness how exact soever or any external worship or discipline though never so near the model that you may imagine is layd down in the Lette● of the Scriptures doth make a Saint where the life and power is altogether absent Or doth there appear in any of your gathered Congregations or select Forms the evident and pure power of spiritual self-denial and divine love Nay is it not as the Apostle foretels Having a Form of godliness but having denyed the power thereof Doth Pride Covetousness Censuring Envying Condemning nay murthering of others that follow not your Forms declare or evidence the power of godliness Is not he a murtherer that hateth his brother and therefore hath not eternal life abiding in him Or is there none a Brother but only he that is of your gathered Congregation Is this to worship the Father in spirit and truth or rather to worship ye know not what either at Jerusalem or pon some other Mountain The Lord open

your eys and give you spiri●s to discern in what Principle ye stand Was ever the Spirit of Christ in his Saints in any Age a spirit of persecution Or were the Saints accusers of their Brethren by casting upon them any odious Titles Or did they complain of others to any secular Power or labored to punish or imprison any that followed not them and their way Nay doth not Christ teach them not to forbid such And is it not the Rule that Saints should not speak evil one of another for in so doing they judg the Law and fulfill it not And did not God so lead out their spirits that being reviled they did bless being persecuted they did suffer and being defamed they did intreat Nay is it fitting to bring a railing accusation against the Devil No but to refer it to the Lord that he may rebuke him Now whether it be so with you or not let your Consciences and carriage speak Did ever the Spirit of Christ teach you that any actions dutyes performances or any holy exercises of yours were well-pleasing unto God that were not the fruits and effects of his Spirit inhabiting and working in you No although you should give your bodyes to be bu●ned and your goods to feed the poor without the Principle of Divine Love which is Christ working the same in you it would profit you nothing Where is your Charity Where is your Love Doth all that you act in the way of his worship flow from this Spirit Try your selves Examine your selves know you not that Christ Jesus is in you except you be reprobates Must not every Plant which the heavenly Father hath not planted be rooted out And if your Religion and way of worship were of God it would stand without any assistance of man or worldly power that the Gates of Hell could not prevail against it for his Kingdom being not of this world is not upholden by the power or principles of this world but by the Almighty Word of his spiritual power But doth the house of your holiness stand founded upon this Rock of Ages or upon the sandy foundation of mans power and self-righteousness and therefore when the rain descendeth the windes blow ●nd the flouds beat it falleth and the fall of it is great And you that call your selves the Ministers of the Nation did ever the Spirit of Christ teach you to derive your Calling and Mission from man or the power of men Is it not the Lord of the Harvest onely and none but he by his own will and spirit that sendeth forth Laborers into his Vineyard Had you your Mission from him or from Rome from his spirit or from the vain and fruitless imposition of the hands of Bishops or Presbyters who apishly imitated the Apostles action without their spirit gifts or power Is not the calling of a Minister as was Pauls from God immediatly and neither of man hor by man Consider into what Places you have thrust your selves even whither the Lord hath not put nor placed you Nay have you not run when he never sent you Those that are his Disciples chuse not him but he chuseth them and ordaineth them to bring forth fruit But do you not pretend to chuse him to make a Trade of his service when you go and are sent to Academyes to be fitted for that end and to Bishops Presbyters gathered Churches or the power of the Magistrat to borrow authority and thereby to procure a fat Porsonage or Augmentation and then you set up shop to sell and vend your wares as though now you had served a sufficient apprentiship and were Masters of the Craft or Trade when yet God hat●● neither chosen fitted nor sent you forth in the power and demonstration of his Spirit And this appears by the fruits of your pretended Ministry being empty dull dead liveless and onely like teaching of the Scribes and Pharises for indeed men do not gather Grapes of Thorns nor Figs of Thistles and so by the fruits of their Doctrine the tru Ministers are known from the false and so are you Dare you presume to ●ver that you are Christs Ambassadors and know not the Message that you should deliver but have it to frame and hammer out by your study cogitations devices and the working of your carnal wit and corrupted Reason or to scrape and gather up out of this and that Author Father Schoolmen Modern Writers this and that Expositor Commentator and the like Is this to be made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit Those that Christ sends forth have that Unction that teacheth them all things that they need not to ask or inquire of vain Idols that have eys and see not ears and hear not mouths and speak not neither have any spirit of understanding in them at all but they are all taught of God and have received in some measure of that spirit which leads into all truth and need not take thought what they shall answer for it shall be given them in that hour for it is not they that speak but the Spirit of the Father in them and out of their bellies do flow fountains of living waters While in the mean time your broken Cisterns of wit learning and carnal wisdom can contain no water Can you be his souldiers when y●u have no weapons but what are carnal and not those spiritual ones of Christ that are mighty in him to the pulling down of strong holds and the laying low of every imagination that stands up against him and his power The Lord in mercy open your eyes to see your own emptiness and want of furniture to fight conquer and stand in this spiritual and great warfare otherwise none are sufficient of themselves to think any thing of themselves but every Ministers sufficiency is of God Did ever Christ teach you to preach for hire or to make Contracts how much you must have for exercising that Ministry the necessity of which is laid upon you if you be called of God even to preach in season and out of season and woe be unto them that do it not And yet it is your cry No publike maintenance no Ministry Oh hypocrites how can ye escape the damnation of hell Or hath he taught you to remove from place to place where you may have more mony or a greater benefit This is only to preach for hire not for the love of the truth nor out of your sensibleness of the necessity incumbent upon you With what faces can or dare you exact Tythes or pay from poor Labourers by the compulsory power of a worldly Law who perhaps never received any benefit from your Ministry or cry out for a publike maintenance to be established by the Magistrate Is there any other maintenance for a Gospel-Ministry but what those freely give that feel and