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A44217
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The Holy Ghost on the bench, other spirits at the bar: or The judgment of the Holy Spirit of God upon the spirits of the times. recorded in Holy Writ. / And reported by Richard Hollinworth ...
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Hollingworth, Richard, 1607-1656.
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1656
(1656)
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Wing H2494A; ESTC R29484
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37,097
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128
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and may lawfully do it Now the word Prophet always imports a distinct Order Office and Calling from others The Apostle forbids women to Preach though the Corinthian women might be as well or better gifted then any woman or man now adays is yet certain the Apostles did not forbid those women whom my Text doth allow to Prophesie and whose Prophecying is here mentioned as a blessing as well as the Prophecying of men had such Prophetesses as Deborah and Huldah and the Daughters of Philip the Evangelist came to Corinth or if they were now alive they might Prophesie by virtue of a special Calling and Office and none should either forbid them to Prophesie or being uncalled what ever gifts he may seem to have imitate them in Prophesying And Thirdly Of the ordinary and perpetual Officers of the Church 1 Cor. 12.28 for some of the gifts which Christ gave to men at his Ascension did fall upon them also Eph. 4.11 The third Proposition This Prophesie is not rightly and regularly fulfilled in the Preaching of uncalled and ungifted men For First As they have no lawful ordinary Call as might easily be proved yea is already by those which professedly undertake that work nor have either Dreams or Visions or any other extraordinary ways of receiving the materials of their Preaching so they have not any extraordinary Call above what many others have which are gifted as well as they save that possibly these are less bouted and adventurous then then they to give it no worser name which yet do not dare not Preach nor can it be charged on these as a sin that they do not Preach as it would be a sin and a great one too if they did not Preach which are called to it Secondly They seem to be highly conceited of their Parts and Gifts they judge any one sufficient for these things being swift to speak slow to hear like humor hardly kept within its own bounds no Text too hard for them to expound no difficulties which they cannot unty once themselves said that the work of the Ministery was enough to take up the whole man and that it was not fit that the gravest godliest ablest Minister should be a Justice of Peace or in any civil Authority but not only Military men but even Handicrafts-men can all the week day entangle themselves in the affairs of this life and on the Lords day discharge the highest and hardest work of the Ministery whereas it is more scriptural and rational that Ministers should execute civil Offices then that Souldiers or Handicrafts-men should execute Ministerial Offices and there are more presidents of the one then of the other Thirdly They very frequently despise the Ministry which is an Office and a worthy work 1 Tim. 3.1 and Ordination by the hands of the Presbitery which is an unquestionable Ordinance of God used and approved by the Apostles and Apostolick men upon whom God poured out more of his Spirit then these can pretend unto and also prescribed and commanded by them in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus Fourthly All the Errors Heresies Blasphemies Rantings Quakings of these times have been bred and fed by the Preaching of uncalled persons in New England the Doctrine of the Familists Anabaptists Antinomians and Libertines was bred and brought up in those Nurseries saith Mr Weld All the Ministers of England since the Reformation have not broached so many Heresies and Blasphemies nor perverted a fourth part of the number that these pretended Prophesiers have done in a few years hence it is that the Arminians in the Netherlands and Heritical and Schismatical persons elsewhere are usually for this liberty of Prophecying now the abounding and tollerating of errors not to speak how distructive it hath been by consequence to the lives of men is far worse the most cruel persecution for the one is but destructive to the body and outward welfare of Christians but this is destructive to the souls of men divides and subdivides the Church subverts the faith and graces of the Spirit In the one true Religion was crowned with Martyrdome whereby the Gospel was much honoured and sanguis Mariyrum was semen Ecclesiae but in the other true Religion is extreamly dishonoured yea lost in a crowd of false opinions and patience and perfeverance also the one did but occidere Presbiteros the other Presbiterium Fiftly These gifted mens preachings are either rude rambling loose discourses having no method nor matter of weight in them whereas the Spirit of God gave the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak apothegms Act. 2.4 wise and weighty sentences not many words to little purpose as phrantick phantastick men do Act. 26.25 or if their Preaching be sound and solid they either steal their matter from others as possibly some idle ignorant Ministers also do to pretend that they are Prophets too but the Lord is against them Ier. 23.30 or they have little variety thereof if our gifted men should be so much and often for many yeers together in one place employed as some Ministers of the Gospel are their shallowness and emptiness would easily appear Sixtly Satan I fear hath an hand in this business for how easily can he transform himself into an Angel of light 2 Cor. 11.14 and counterfeit the Spirit of God upon the soul as amongst the Jews he made use of false dreams and lying visions Ier. 23.25.27.32 Deut. 13.1 Isai 28.7 14.14 Ier. 23.16 so also amongst Christians I read that septemes pueri concionantur in the order of St. Francis and Cornelius Mus was an eloquent Preacher at twelve yeers of age and an assertor of Popery in the Council of Trent and many amongst us were much taken with the child-Preacher and though some gifted men as in charity I am bound to judge till the contrary appear have sincere aims and ends and do intend to glorifie God and edify the Church yet finis operis the end of the work though not finis operantis the end of the Worker and yet the end of the Worker also so far as Satan hath any hand in it is to cause the Ministry to be dishonoured and despised as the most eminent Ministers the Apostles were amongst them that did abound in all utterance and all knowledge and came behind in no gift 1 Cor. 1.5 and Chap. 4. yea to destroy the Ministry to make every one a Minister and a Magistrate is to destroy the Ministry and Magistracy to cause the Seals of the Covenant of Grace Baptisme and the Lords Supper to be sleighted and set at nought to cause sundry to turn aside unto vain jangling desiring to be teachers of the Law under standing neither what they say nor whereof they affirm 1 Tim. 1.7 being not able to clear up any one truth or solidly state or determine any controversie or interpret any obscure part of Scripture or vindicate the truth of God from Popish Socinian Arrian Arminian Errors To open a door to the Popish Priests and Jesuites
THE HOLY GHOST ON THE BENCH OTHER SPIRITS AT THE BAR Or the Judgment of the Holy Spirit of God upon the Spirits of the Times Recorded in Holy Writ And Reported by Richard Hollinworth Mancuniens London Printed by J. M. for Luke Fawn and are to be sold at his Shop at the Signe of the Parrot in Pauls-Churchyard 1656. To the Reader Gentle Reader IF thou beest Pious and Prudent and lovest Gods truth and the Churches Purity and Peace This plain Piece will not be unacceptable to thee The Subject is seasonable and suitable enough and I have endeavoured to handle it so far as I meddle with it solidly satisfactorily and also succictly omitting Illustrations Illations yea and Applications also that thou mightest have much fruit in a few small Leaves and not read long for a little If the Doctrine be sound I shall leave thee to make the use My desire and design is the suppression of sin and wickedness and whereas wickedness according as one or other of the three enemies of our salvation is predominant is either fleshly as Adultery Fornication Gluttony Drunkenness Or wordly as Covetousness injustice oppression extortion Or Divelish as Schism Heresie Blasphemy Contempt of Magistracy Ministery and other Ordinances of God The first of which was too much indulged in former times and the third to say nothing of the second is as much indulged in these times I am not now to fight against flesh and blood but against the spiritual evils of the times which are both sins and judgments and shew both mans wickedness and Gods wrath and are to say no more as leavening Matt. 16.6.11 12. Gal. 5.9 Antichristian 1 Ioh. 2.22 and 4.3 and 2 Ep. Ioh. v. 7. Sathanical Ioh. 8.44 1 King 22.22 1 Tim. 4.1 2. Act. 13.10 2 Tim. 3.8 as prophaneness is though now more practised Preached and pleaded for then formerly I am not able to encounter with them my self alone when these enemies come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a Standard against them I desire not to speak any thing my self but to hear what the Spirit saith unto the Churches and to report what judgment he gives as he hath left it on Record in holy Scripture in which are written the great things of the Law and the gracious glorious things of the Gospel O let them not be accounted a small thing The ensuing Tract doth represent that the holy Ghost doth as it were cite or summon and cause several spirits to be apprehended and brought to Tryal and that he sets down certain distinctive Signes and Symptomes of the Spirit of God and other Spirits And Lastly That he doth examine and determine some particular cases brought before him concerning the Spirit of Prayer the Spirit of Prophesie the witnesing Spirit the Ministerial and Anti-ministerial Spirit And when this Treatise hath made this representation it gives up the Ghost It hath been my hearts desire and Prayer that I might represent these judicial proceedings aright It is my hearts desire and prayer that thou mayest receive them aright And that the high and holy Spirit of God may be with thy Spirit and with the Spirits of all Saints and particularly with the spirit of him who is the least of all Saints Manchester March 1. 1655 6 R. H. An Epistle Good Reader I Cannot conceal the contentment that I took in this little but judicious Treatise when it was brought to me for perusal The communications of Gods Spirit are made matter of scorn by some and by others a meer pretence what more usual now then for fanaticall persons to pretend to a peculiarity of the Spirit as the filthy Gnosticks in the primitive times gave out that all others were carnal they only were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spiritual men as having a special presence of the Spirit in them Vide Iraeneum Lib. 5. to adversus heresis cap. 11. passim alibi and therefore their pride is supposed to be taxed by the Apostle Jude vers 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sensual not having the Spirit that is by their bruitish practises they plainly shewed they had least of that Spirit to which they did pretend Tertullian when he turned Montanist wrot a Book Adversus Psychicos against the carnal or animal men intending thereby the Orthodox But this is not all how often do such kind of persons father the Brats of their own carnal hearts upon the Holy Ghost and intitle the suggestions of the Devil that evil spirit to the impulsions of that holy Spirit of promise by whom we are sealed to the day of Redemption Therefore it much concerneth the Ministers of the Gospel to vindicate the honour of God and to put people upon trying the Spirits and in a matter of such concernment to give them the best light they can You will bear with me a little in my folly for uch I account it to be to acquaint the world with the course of my private Ministery and indeed bear with me 2 Cor. 11.1 whilest I tell you that considering the necessity of the present times wherein some deny the Personality and God-head of the Spirit others counterfeit his Presence and Operations and many mishapen and monstruous conceits are obtruded upon the world concerning both I thought I could not better serve the present truth and accomplish the ends of my Ministery than by clearing up the whole Doctrine of the Spirit as touching his Godhead and Personality His Effusion first upon Christ as the Head sensibly at his Baptism Mat. 3. On the Apostles as the chief Agents and Factors for his Kingdom on the day of Penticost Act. 2. Then upon all Beleivers till his second comming especially on the Ministers of the Gospel who are ordinarily presumed to have a more plentiful measure of the Spirit according to that place which they sustain in the body Next my work was to state the manner of his Presence the quality of his Operations in Inlightning Sanctifying Witnessing Comforting Strengthning Quickning awakening thoughts of and desires after our blessedness in Heaven more especially the influence of the Spirit upon the duties of Prayer and Preaching And after all this I took occasion to speak of resisting grieving and quenching the Spirit on the one side and of gratifying and glorifying the Spirit on the other in all which discourses I mainly intended a Direction to Christians to guide them in the tryal of Spirits and whilest I was considering of making this work more publiquely useful how happily am I prevented by the pains of this Godly Learned and judicious Authour who hath treated of the same things almost in the same Method and that in such a succinct and strengthy way that if thou complain of any thing it will be of want of Words not of Matter so Much being spoken in so Little a compass for my part I cannot but profess my joy That the Lord hath inclined the heart of such an able person to such an Argument Now