Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	apostle_n	speak_v	spirit_n	2,923	5	4.8555	4	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

nor increase o● his Spiritual and Immor●al seed nor of the ●eaping of that Harvest which was not pu●chased with corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the precious bloud of his d●ar Son bu● leave it to ignorant careless or malicious Husbandmen It is he that is the Begetter an● 〈◊〉 of this Spiritual Seed the Planter Waterer and Increaser of it For neither is he that planteth anything ne●ther he that watereth any thing but God that 〈◊〉 And as they are sent ●orth by Him and his Spirit onely so th●● authority and weapons are spir●●ual not ca●nal or 〈◊〉 they speak in the power evidence and demonstration of the 〈◊〉 and with authority not like Scribes and Pharisees for the weapon● of their warfare are not carnal but mighty in God ●heir power ariseth not from Commissions and Licen●● given or gran●ed from Magistrats Parliaments or numbers of person proudly and Lucifer like stiled Divines from Committees or Colledges Presbyteryes or Academye● nor from any such but from the Lord of Hosts the God of Heaven and Earth from Iesus Christ the Iudg of quick and dead and from that Spirit of his that searcheth all things yea even the deep things of God The strength and might of their weapons is not Academick and Scholastical Learning the ●otten rubbish of Ethnical and Babylonish ruines nor Fathers Modern Writers Expositors Commentators the ayery bubbles that ignorance corrupt 〈◊〉 and humane Tradition hath blown up and gilded over with the unsuitable and Heterogeneous title of Orthodoxal Authours nor their wit reason nor collected notes the rotten Crutches to support lameness no nor any of these or whatsoever can arise from the flesh but onely that Spirit of Truth that lends into all truth And as their Calling and power is onely from God so man hath no power to obstruct or hinder it for Peter and Iohn sayd unto the Council of the lews Whethe● 〈◊〉 be right in the light of God to hearken unto you more than unto God judg ye for we cannot but speak the things that we have seen and heard If it be objected that though it be 〈◊〉 that God called many of the Apostles by his own power and Spirit on●●y yet that Calling was immediate and extraordinary and a●terwards those that were so called did constitute and ordain others in an ordinary way by Imposition or Extension of hands as divers places of Scripture do affirm For this cause left I thee in Cr●●● that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee And neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by Prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery And when they had layd their hands on them and fasted and prayed they sent them away And when they had ordained them Elders in every Church and had prayed with Fasting they commended them to the Lord on whom they beluved For those dist●nctions of Mediate and Immediate Ordidinary and Extraordinary I finde no mention of them nor ground for them in the Gospel and they are but the cunning and 〈◊〉 devices of the Schools and therefore need no further answer than rejection and denyal untill they be made good from a better ground than that fruitless and vain wisdom of man And though in the calling of many of his Ministers in divers ages there were divers circumstances used at the calling of some that were varyed or omitted at the calling of others which they have therefore made an Essential difference not knowing that Circumstantials do not absolutely change the nature of Essentials yet was it the same God that called and sent them and the same Spirit that enabled them and spoke in them as sayth the Record of Truth God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son So many of the Apostles were called by the External and audible voice of Christ in the flesh yet that verbal Call had signified little if the Spirit had not called them inwardly in their hearts for herein consisted their calling that to them it was given to understand the Mystery of the Kingdom but to others it was not given And yet were many others as truly called as they that never saw nor heard Christ speak in the flesh And Paul being called had a great light shined and a voice spake unto him which those that journeyed with him could hear though they saw no man and yet were Timothy Titus Barnabas and others as truly called as he in and by the power of the same Spirit though not in the same manner rela●ing to circumstances and yet did and do all the Ministers of Christ in all Ages speak from the same Principle and are sent forth in the same Power and Spirit so that Circumstance makes nor substantial Difference and so that part of the Objection is of no force for the Truth ●aith Knowing this first that 〈◊〉 Prophesie of the Scripture is of any private interpretacion For the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man but Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and so do all his Ministers still untill the end of the World For the Imposicion of hands it is manifest that it was used in divers cases as first by our Saviour in ●●ring of Disceases and after by the Apostles in the like cases and likewise upon little children brought unto him And lastly by the Apostles and Presbyteries in laying on of their hands with Fasting and Prayer Bu● it is as manifest that by their layiug on of Hands Fasting and Praying gifts of Grace {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} were given and those upon whom they laid their hands and prayed with did thereupon speak with Toungs and Prophesie and so thereby received the Holy ghost and this was that gift that Timothy was exhorted not to neglect and this was it that Simon Magus would have bought with money Now to imitate an Ordinance or practise an Administracion without the same Power Spirit and ●ifts is but hypocritical and vain therefore unless that they that pretend to ordain by Imposicions of hands had the same Power or thereby could confer the same gifts they ought not to practise the same Administracion because without the pr●sence of the same Power and operacion of the same Gifts wherein the Essence of it stood it cannot be sayd to be an Ordinance of God but a Tradicion of men Again the falling of the Holy Ghost and the manifesting of its visible Power or Power visibly by Prophecying and speaking with Tounges was not as hath been commonly mistaken a peculiar Ordinance for setting men apart for the Ministry but was commonly used to Converts as Converts and belonged to

truly said to be sanctified for acquired learning by it self and of its own nature is nothing else but sin and therefore remains so still and cannot truly and properly be said to be sanctified no more then sin But if by being sanctified they mean that the providential wisdom of God doth order it or make use of it for the good of his People I opose it not so that it be understood that that good flows not from the nature of acquired knowledg it self but from the Wisdom and goodness of the Spirit of God who maketh all things work together for the benefit of those that love him who are the called according to his purpose And so no more can properly in this respect be predicated of it then of sin it self which in that case though not as an entity for Non entia ad modum entium concipiuntur is said also to work for the good of Gods Saints Again if it be objected That though Learning be not effectuall to the understanding of the mystery of the Gospel yet it is prevalent to the compleating of the literal and historical knowledg thereof To this I answer Though it may conduce to the gaining of literal and historical knowledge yet this is not ad idem because it profiteth nothing for Truth it self bears record It is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing and men are made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the letter but of the spirit for the letter killeth but the spirit giveth life So that all literall and historicall knowledge gained by mans power is but like the principle from whence it Flowed fleshly earthly deadly and destructive Consectaries Then all those that the world cryes up for learned from this principle of Humane Learning are but with God called and accounted un-discipled un-taught as Peter witnesseth clearly where speaking of the Epistles of Paul he saith in them some things were hard to be understood which they that are untaught and unstable wrest as they do also the other Scriptures unto their own destruction Whereby it is manifest that by the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which though usually rendred in the English Translation heedlesly the unlearned yet properly signifies the undiscipled or untaught and therefore commonly in the Latine is turned indocti which points forth the same significantly for the word that signifies unlearned or unletter'd is {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which is Homines illiterati idiotae He intends those that were undiscipled and had not the Teaching of the Spirit and yet in the strength of naturall reason and carnall wisdom wrest the word to their own destruction So that all that knowledge which flows from the naturall mans acquisition which the world calls wisdom is foolishness with God and though the wisdom of God which stands only in the teaching of ● is Spirit be accounted foolishness with men yet this foolishness of God is wis●r then the wisdom of men Then all those expositions and interpretations of Scripture that have been are or shall be made by the force and power of human learning and mans innate notions of wit and reason● are no more then earthly sensual and divelish destroying all those that rely upon them or trust in them And all preaching or expounding from this principle is damnable both to speaker and hearer If the blind lead the blind they fall both into the ditch Then are not the most that pretend to preach seeing they do it but from this principle those that take away the key of knowledge and enter not themselves neither suffer those that would come in to enter and therefore a most heavy wo belongs unto them and will fall upon them Therefore when men teach and affirm that without human learning none can be able Ministers of the New Testament and condemn those that speak only out of the teaching of the Spirit and have little or no human learning at all and make use of little or none but lay it aside do they not plainly shut up the Kingdom of Heaven from men and neither enter themselves nor suffer others that would Then if the quintessence of all humane learning were as a Magisterial extract monopolized in one man yet were it no fit qualification for a Minister of the Gospel for flesh and blood revealeth not these divine things unto men but the Father which is in Heaven Queries Whether of two men the one having a great measure of acquired learning but not the infused and experimental the other the infused and experimental but no human learning are fitter to be chosen to the Ministry Whether any be fit or able to judg of the Spirit in another that have it not themselves or to give approbation or witness to others of that which they have not experienced in themselves and consequently whether a Nation or Commonwealth can justly set up persons to judge of the Spirit of God in others and to give them licenses to exercise those gifts of the Spirit that have not experienced the work of this Spirit in themselves or not Whether or not all that much magnified naturall Reason which we think dignifieth us above and distinguisheth us from brutes and all that human learning which we conceive exalts and rectifieth Reason be the fruit and effect of the forbidden tree and is a spurious and adventitious faculty which man wanted in his innocency and was instilled into him by Satan in the fall Whether all that knowledge that a naturall man hath by nature and from the first Adam and all that which by the same power he can attain be not the same hellish and serpentine wisdom by which the Divell ruleth his kingdom or not And whether all the horrible and strange tenets sprung up in all Ages with the jars and disputes about the things of God arise not from this smoak of the bottomless pit of Satans malice stirred up in the Region of mans carnall wisdom and human learning 2. Concerning the Law By this word Law I understand a Light discovering what should be done and what ought not to be done commanding the one and prohibiting the other and this according to the tenor of divine Truth I find to be threefold 1. Internal and impressed upon the souls of all men naturally and therefore commonly called the Law of Nature which the Apostle makes clear in these words which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their consciences also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another And under this law were and are all men even as they are men 2. Externall as that of the Decalogue commonly called Moral ingraven in the Tables of stone given unto Moses and obligatory unto all the seed of Abraham according to the ●lesh and all the Iews were under this Law and it was their

contract for none but only to receiv that thankfully of those whose hearts God stirred up to give it freely Thirdly when our Saviour was ascended and the Spirit was descended upon the Apostles and other Believers they did not force nor compel those that were converted to give them so much or so much out of their estates but those that freely would sold them and laid the money down at their feet then distribution was made according as every man had need and while their goods were un●old or not brought into the common pur● they might every one have don with their own as they listed as the Apostle told Ananias and Saphira so that they witnessed that they had no other warant to receive wages by but only what was freely given unto them Fourthly this Rule was not so strict neither that a Minister of necessity must receive it or else offend against the Rule but it was so indifferent that Paul did refuse it in the coasts of Achaia and said that none should rob him of that boasting in those quarters and adds the Reasons why he did so which was not that it was not lawfull for him to have taken what they freely offered as it seems he did in some other places but that he might cut off occasion from those which desired occasion that wherein they gloried they might be found even as he and that he might make the Gospel of Christ without charge for the necessity of preaching it was laid upon him as it is upon all those that are truly sent and therefore whether he received any thing or nothing a wo belonged unto him if he did not preach the Gospel If it be objected That in those days the Magistrates were Heathen and so took no care for those that were Christians yet now in our Nation the Magistrates are Christians and therefore ought and may make a law and appoint wages and maintenance for their Ministers I answer if suppositions were Apodictical proofs then many would make ready conclusions and the way to knowledge would be very facile for it is easie to suppose that all the Magistrates in a Commonwealth inferior and superior are all Christians nay the whole body of the Nation it self because they have a national worship and are all promiscuously called by that glorious name but there is a vast difference betwixt names things being so and being called so It is one thing to suppose and another to prove and but weak from the denotation to argue to the thing as though Iudas might truly be concluded one of the true Disciples of Christ becaus he is called one of the twelve No external forms do not demonstratively prove the verity of internal principles For he is not a Iew that is one outwardly neither is that circumcision that is outward in the flesh but he is a Iew that is one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart in the spirit and not in the letter whose praise is not of men but of God Therfore when the supposition is proved then it may be answered in the mean time ex suppositis suppositio sequitur Again if some of the Magistrates were truly Christians yet Christs kingdom being not of this world but a Spirituall one they ought not to intermeddle with carnal constitutions in his spiritual things which he makes good by his own Spirit Wisdom and Providence and not by the counsel or wisdom of the Princes of this world which comes to nought and his servants are to wait upon him by a simple believing and to walk by faith and not by sight Moreover if they were Believers they might every one of them in his single condition give to him that taught him what proportion of his own good things he had an heart to bestow but not to set down a law to judge over the conscience of his brother because these things ought to be done out of a principle of love and not from the law of an externall command If they were all Christians it was never yet that I could see proved that they had power to settle a maintenance for the Ministery of the Gospel and the contrary to me appears an undeniable truth and that from these grounds 1. Because the Rule of Christ and the practice of his Apostles were only for a free voluntary contribution from the free will offering of those whose spirits were wrought upon by that particular Ministery to which they should contribute now for Christians to pretend to have power to make a law for the maintenance of his Ministry and the good of his cause and walk contrary to the Rule of Christ himselfe to me seems strange that it should be accounted lawfull 2. There is no Magistrate hath any power to make a law of those things he perfectly understands not for how can a right judgment be given where the intellect is not clearly formed Now it no where appears that the Magistrates have the spirit of discerning to know the Ministers of Christ infallibly from the ministers of Satan therefore might as soon maintain advantage the one as the other 3. As was said before it crosseth the way of providentiall confidence and simple believing and waiting upon God and so cannot be lawfull for them to do Consectaries Therfore for a Magistracy by a compulsory law to settle a maintenance for a National Ministery by Tiches Augmentations or in any other way is to act against the ordinance of Christ and to make the Commandements of God of none effect by the traditions of men And therfore they should learn to give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and to God the things that are Gods Then for Ministers to be bred at the Academies and get Orders Licences or Seals from human authority thereby to get fat Benefices and rich Livings is to make the Ministry a meer Trade and to go contrary to the command of Christ and the practice of the Apostles To make bargains with the people to have so much and so much for exercising their Ministry is to preach for pay and not for Christ To press the Magistracy to provide for them is to distrust the promise providence of God and to flie to the arm of flesh and therefore they are doubly accursed both for making the arm of flesh their refuge and withdrawing their hearts away from the living God Hear ye this I pray you ye Heads of the house of Iacob and Princes of the house of Israel that abhor judgment and pervert all equity They build up Zion with blood and Ierusalem with iniquity The Heads thereof judge for reward and the Priests thereof teach for hire and the Prophets thereof divine for mony yet will they lean upon the Lord and say Is not the Lord among us No evill can come upon us And when the Ministers preach and cry out If Tythes be taken away and

Augmentations cease and there be no wages nor maintenance allowed by law ●how should we live what shall maintain our families who will then preach the Gospel The people are hard-hearted and will give us little or nothing if no publick maintenance no Gospel Are not all these the complaints of an evill adulterous and unbelieving generation that preach faith to others even of things high and spirituall and yet themselves dare not trust God for food and raiment Do not the heathen seek after all these things and have you no more faith then they Then those that are the true Ministers of Christ know that the necessity of preaching the Gospel is laid upon them and will preach in season and out of season whether they have any thing or nothing nay will not cannot in conscience take any thing carnall from any man to whom they have not sown spiritual and not that neither but according to the free-will-offering of their minds to whom they have ministred spirituall things and in this point by their fruits ye shall know them Queries Didst thou who callest thy self one of Christs Ministers when Christ called thee and sent thee forth if ever he did so make a bargain with him what thou shouldst have for thy labour without which thou wouldst not do thy work or but negligently and with murmuring Did ever Christ teach thee to clamour and cry to the Magistrate to settle thee some maintenance by a law or to exact it from the poor labourer who never yet received a spiritual benefit from thy teaching nor hath no heart to give thee any thing but against his will Canst thou ever make it appear to be a duty incumbent upon the Magistrate to settle thee wages by a law or it lawfull for thee to take it If thou canst it is high time to produce thy strong reasons lest thy god Dagon fall to the ground rise no more and with the rest of thy brother Craftsmen to shout high lest your shrine-making be mar'd for ever Will not thy Trade be as long-lived as the world if Academies can give thee qualifications men an Ordination and the Magistrates maintenance But Babel must fall Concerning the power of Magistrates in spiritual things That the Magistrate hath power both coercive and punitive against al evil either in words or works whether it be against a privat or a publick interest is manifest Because all men even as men have this impressed in them by the light of Nature principles suckt in by education or a light from God upon their spirits That the end of being is its own preservation and as this is ingrafted in one so it is in all individuals and as they would not be willing that any other should hurt or destroy their being nor hinder the meer necessaries of its conservation so it is contrary to natural justice right reason to hurt or destroy the being of another or to hinder them of meer necessaries for their conservation And all Laws were at first intended and should be exercised to preserve unto every Numerical person as far as possible these grand priviledges of Natures universall Charter and therfore what acts or words soever may tend to the obstructing or frustrating of this end is in the Magistrates power to restrain and punish And for this purpose the Apostle bears witnes that the Gentiles who had no external Law given of God were a Law unto themselves which did shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another The Scriptures make this clear commanding every soul to be subject unto the Higher powers because there is no power but of God The powers that be are ordained of God And whosoever resisteth the powers resisteth the Ordinance of God and they that resist shal receive to themselves damnation And these are the Ministers of God for the defence and praise of those that do well and for the punishment of those that doe evil for they bear not the sword in vain And therefore the Apostle concludes that the Christians should be subject unto these Ministers though Heathens not only for wrath but also for conscience sake and for this reason was Tribute to be paid unto them because they were the Ministers of God attending upon that very thing continually And thus were al the Saints commanded to obey every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake whether of Kings or others and that prayers and supplications should be made for Kings and all that were in authority that they might lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty But now the grand scruple is what power the Magistrate hath in those things that are called spiritual And by things spiritual I understand those things that the Apostles other Saints taught and practised as Christians for as men they were in their words and actions as is proved before under the power of the Magistrate And in all those things that they held taught or practised I finde evidently these two 1. They never required any thing of the Magistrates as they were Christians but only liberty to speak out the things that Christ had manifested unto them and quietly to meet together to break bread pray baptize edifie or communicate to the wants of one another 2. Nothing that they spoke o● did as Christians was any 〈…〉 contrary hurtful or obstructive to the Civil Laws 〈…〉 Jews or Gentiles I never read that they desired of the Magistrate honour or riches Lordships or dominions nor to be called Doctors Masters Rabbies or to have the pre-eminence and chief seats one above another as ours now-a-dayes that call themselves Christians must have a Law to make them Masters Doctors and Batchelors of Divinity as they are pleased vainly to stile them and that not had but with a vast expence to the Commonwealth in allowing such large Revenues of Lands and Tithes to maintain an hive of Drones Wasps and Hornets in their Monkish Cells which might be better employed for enabling men in Arts and Sciences to fit them for Civil employments and not to paint up a blader-blown Clergy another fals title they have assumed to themselvs with such idle Terms and vain Epithites It is true that the Disciples being but earthly and carnal had much ado among themselvs Who should be greatest but our Saviour tels them That the Kings or Rulers of the Nations did bear rule over their people and were called gracious Lords but it should not be so among them but he that would be greatest should become least and he that would be master should become as a servant And Zebedees children being of the same carnall principle with the rest could desire to sit the one at his right hand and the other at his left in his Kingdom but he told them they knew not what they asked And