Selected quad for the lemma: love_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
love_n	heart_n	know_v	spirit_n	5,607	5	4.8036	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38830	An epistle to the several congregations of the non-conformists by Cap. Robert Everard, now by Gods Grace a member of the Holy Catholick Church of Christ, shewing the reasons of his conversion and submission to the said Catholick Church.	Everard, Robert, fl. 1664.	1664 (1664)	Wing E3538; ESTC R12403	34,789	46

do and that I beleived the Scriptures to be Gods word from the infallible testimony of Gods spirit bearing witness with my spirit that they were Gods Words and that I was fully convinced that this proceeded from the infallible testimony of Gods spirit from a certain knowledge and feeling which I had of the same within my self and in my own Conscience To all which it was mildly replyed that upon the Grounds which I had laid and whereon I founded my self it was impossible for me to be infallibly assured that this testimony which I mentioned was infallibly the testimony of the spirit of God For having granted the Protestant Principle that I was not infallible that no man or number of men was or were infallible this spirit which I talked of might for ought I knew be the spirit of error And for farther evincing thereof I was desired to reflect on these Scriptures Jer. 17. 9. The heart of Man is deceitful above all things who can know it Eccles 9. 1. No man knoweth Love or Hatred by all that is before them And to consider the strange delusion which bewitched the Angel or Bishop of Laodicea Revel 3. 17. Because thou sayest I am Rich and encreased with goods and have need of nothing and knowest not that thou art wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked How much was he deceived in his own jupgement of his own Estate In fine what would you said he answer to an Arrian or Jew or Turk should they urge the like knowledge and feeling with the like confidence to prove they were in the truth and Christianity a delusion What you would reply to them suppose as said unto your self and see if it will not satisfie In the mean time said he you seem to imply and so to grant that we ought to have an infallible certainty of what we beleive with Divine Faith this the Apostles had in the time of our blessed Saviours conversing with them upon earth they had sufficient to prevail with their wills to command their understandings into the beleif of his being God consequently infallible and consequently that whatsoever he taught was to be assented unto as infallibly true without being questioned by our little feeble limited Reasons And this was necessary for the Church then otherwise they could not have been sufficiently assured that what Christ taught them was true consequently it would not have been a sin in them to have doubted This infallible assurance also the Christians who lived in the Apostles times and after the Ascension of our Lord enjoyed they had sufficient to enduce them to a beleif that the Holy Apostles were infallible guides and reachers and that whatsoever they taught and commanded them was as infallible true as if God had immediately spoken to them the same things and no more to be doubted contradicted or disputed against by their reasons which doubtless were as good and strong as ours then the immediate words commands or dictates of Almighty God otherwise those who refused to hear and obey them had been in no fault and it would have been an unsufferable Pride and presumption in St. Paul to have required such an absolute submission to what he taught as to oblige the Christians of his time not to have beleived an Angel from Heaven teaching contrary to what he taught them Hence it is that the remaining writings for so much as we have of them of the Blessed Apostles are by all Christians esteemed as the Words of God And this was necessary in the Age after Christ for the Church of God namely in the Apostles times to have a living infallible way of direction in so much as had we then lived and had encountred with any doubts or difficulties relating to Religion and to the true meaning of what was either spoken or written by any Apostle or by all the Apostles we should without all doubt have made our immediate recourse to them some or one of them for the solving of such doubts and the explayning of such difficulties and should have received and submitted unto such solutions as made by God himself without ever interposing our own reasons or senses in opposition This we see was the course taken in the fifteenth of the Acts when certain doubts were arisen amongst Christians the Apostles met in a Council they considered the things they determined with an It seemeth good unto the Holy Ghost and to us Their Decrees and Canons were obeyed and submitted unto by the whole and the Disputes were at an end But suppose some dispute had arisen touching the sence and meaning even of some of those Decrees must not it have been interprited by some judicial Authority Doubtless yes And questionless the then Christians would have appealed or applyed to the same Authority that made those Canons and Decrees for the interpretation of them and would have submitted to such interpretations otherwise it would have been with the Primative Christians then as it is with you now every one would have framed his own interpretation those who had been Masters of the greatest Wit power or interest would have framed Parties or Churches to themselves and in fine the Sword of the Flesh and not the Spirit of God must have given the Rule and Law to Christianity they would have been so far from any possibility of maintaining The Unity of the spirit in the bond of Peace from being One body that they would have divided into as many parts to speak without grateing as you now are and have gone to Cuffs and raised Wars for the decideing of Controversies as we have seen you do since you divided your selves from the Holy Catholick Church of Christ It is not hard for you to imagine into what confusion these Discourses put my poor soul to hear such things so great evidences of Reason produced by a private Gentleman of that party whom I had beleived so ignorant I had oftentimes in Disputations both publickly and privately encountred and I thought worsted several of the English Clergy in those points wherein I differed from them But I found nothing now to say against these Principles which I had yet hitherto supposed the most ridiculous that any people could imagine to set up Well I could no longer contest but resolved to have recourse unto Almighty God by Prayer for his Divine Assistance and to make it my business according to the utmost of my poor skill and understanding to take a full view of the Grand Principles of the Catholick Faith and of Christianity and laying aside all Prejudices Pride and Humour I resolved by the assistance of God to embrace and submit unto whatsoever I should understand to be most agreeable with his most holy will and pleasure without taking any regard to worldly interest or the censures of men which I had reason to beleive would run high against me And the better to enable me in this search and examination I borrowed from this Gentleman several books