Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bondage_n	receive_v	work_a	31	3	16.7749	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70157	A just defence and vindication of Gospel ministers and Gospel ordinances against the Quakers many false accusations, slanders and reproaches. In ansvver to John Horwood his letter, and E.B. his book, called, A just and lawful tryal of the ministers and teachers of this age, and several others. Proving the ministers calling and maintenance just and lawful, and the doctrine of perfection by free justification, preached by them, agreeable to the scriptures. VVith the Quakers objections answered. And the Quakers perfection by hearkning to, and obeying a light within them, proved contrary to the scriptures. And their practices in ten particulars proved contrary to the commands and examples of Christ and his apostles. By a lover of gospel ministers and gospel ordinances.	Gaskin, John, fl. 1660.	1660 (1660)	Wing G290; ESTC R223664	109,852	161

not build up themselves on their faith nor pray as is your practice and for Prayer some of your company are not ashamed to say and write that Ministers praying before and after Sermon is a will-worship and that you know not one example left for it either by Christ or any of his Apostles and that praying is for the honor and magnificence of our Idol and that is preaching they are Tomlinsons own words But let all sober minded persons judge whether your silent meetings or praying and preaching is will-worship and an Idol If you have no example of Christ and his Apostles of such silent meetings then it is an Idoll and a will-worship of your own devising which I challenge all you Quakers to bring any one example of Christ or his Apostles of any such meetings or any example of any Church since the Apostles dayes whether Separate or any other and do you think that the Apostles and all the Churches were ignorant of any part of the Service of God while now of late dayes you Quakers have found it or rather invented it had not they the light of Christ within them to direct them seeing you say all men have the light of Christ within them Wherefore I conclude that this your light is darkness and this your practice is a meer invention of your own brains and therefore are not perfect A ninth particular practice used amongst you is your Quaking fits with which many among you are strangely taken falling on the ground their arms and leggs shaking their mouths foaming their bellies swelling and some of them purging to which I may add your strange kind of disfiguring your faces and countenances hanging down your heads or holding them awry looking like a company of forlorn dejected condemned persons that were afraid to look up to Heaven Now for those quaking fits from whence you have the name of Quakers many are of opinion that they are Diabolical by a kind of witchcraft and to that end I have heard strange relations of inchanted ribins of giving of drink after which the persons have been taken with quaking fits and some say possessed with the divel And when I have read John Gilpins Book called The Quakers shaken and John Toldarns Book called The foot out of the snare in which they relate such strange kind of actings and workings of their bodies besides the relations of several others and compare them with those whom we read of in the Evangelist Luke I confess there is a likeness and a resemblance between them And lo a spirit taketh him and he suddenly crieth out and it teareth him that he foameth again and bruiseth him All which actions the Quakers have had in their quaking fits as you may read in the two forenamed books and many have been eye witnesses of the same effects in others in which fits some of the chief Quakers have said that now the good spirit was driving out of the bad But however if it be not a bodily witchcraft sure it is a spiritual witchcraft whereby the minds of the people are bewitched to believe that those shakings and quakings of the body are from the Spirit of God I have read in the Scripture that the Mystery of iniquity in the spirit of Antichrist even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power signes and lying wonders and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the Truth that they might be saved And for this cause God shall send them strong delusions that they should believe a lie I believe these are some of those signs and lying wonders with which the followers of Antichrist shall be deceived The Papists who have deceived you Quakers as that divine Lawyer M. Will. Prin doth at large prove in his book called The Quakers unmasked Also I have read in the Scripture that God hath caused such shaking and trembling to fall upon wicked men as a punishment for their sins as Belshazzar that his countenance was changed and his thoughts troubled him so that the joynts of his loyns were loosed and his knees smote one against another And in the Philistians Camp or Loft there was trembling and among all the people the Garrison and they all trembled so it was a very great trembling and among those curses pronounced in Deuteronomy against wicked men this is one The Lordshal give thee a trembling heart And it is threatned as a curse upon the wicked Let their eyes be darkned that they see not and make their loyns to shake I wish it be not your condition that your eyes be not darkned in that you take shaking for a blessing when it is a curse the Devils are said to tremble But you object that we read in the Scripture of shaking quaking and trembling rejoyce with trembling Psalm 2. 11. and work out your salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2. 12. and Paul is said to tremble Acts 9 6. and the keeper of the prison came trembling before Paul and Silas Acts 16. 29. By trembling I understand no other then the fear and trembling of the heart generally spoken of in Scripture and not a quaking and trembling of the body as is usual amongst you Quakers and that fear and trembling is twofold First that which is at the first Act of conversion as that of Paul and the Jaylor whose trembling I understand of the soul and if it were of the body it was extraordinary and not to be brought to a rule and that fear or trembling of the soul at the first act of conversion is general to all that are truly converted called the spirit of bondage Ye 〈◊〉 not received the spirit of bondage again to fear and those that were converted at Peters Sermon being about three thousand souls they were pricked in their hearts We read not of any trembling or quaking of their bodies but that they gladly received his word and this fear or trembling of the soul at the first conversion is not in all alike but in some more and in some less though in all some We read that the Lord opened the heart of Lydia hearing the Apostles that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul and she was baptized and her houshold We read not of any fear or trembling much less quaking and yet no doubt but she had a conviction of her own unworthiness the Apostle John saith that perfect love casteth out fear that is all slavish hellish fear Secondly there is a son-like fear after conversion which is a fear whereby the soul is fearful of doing any thing that is contrary to the will and mind of such a good loving and kind God and Father and this fear or trembling is no wayes agreeable to the quaking and trembling of the body practised amongst you nor to the disfiguring your faces with holding down the head

the Scriptures They did not hearken to a light within them to see whether they were true But if you Quakers had such an infallible spirit that you cannot erre as you say you have then all that you speak and write musts need be truth and then we need not examine them by the Scriptures to see whether you write and speak the truth But I am not of that implicit faith to beleive what you write without examining the same by the Scriptures and by them I find you have a falable lying spirit that leadeth you into error but seeing you say you are so infallible that you cannot erre give me leave to examine some of your Books in Print Besides what I have already examined and proved many gross errors in them therefore not written by an infallible spirit so as that you cannot erre I shall examine some particulars in your new Primer made by George Fox the younger and some others in which there is as many errors as Pages I shall mention some few particulars by which we may discern what the rest are of the said Primer Children such are Deceivers who tell you that the way to come to know the truth is by the Scriptures Now if this be a true Doctrine then was Christ and his Apostles Deceivers for they taught the same Christ exhorteth to Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they that testifie of me Now if the Scriptures testifie of Christ then the reading of the Scriptures is a means to know the truth unless you deny that Christ is the truth if you do he affirmeth it saying I am the truth It was a true saying of a good man that The whole Scriptures are the swadling band that foulds the Child Jesus Also Christ saith to the Saduces ye erre not knowing the Scriptures Then by consequence the way to avoyd error and to know the truth is by the knowledge of the Scriptures and therefore Christ would have all to search the Scriptures And the Apostle Paul said that Timothy had known the Scriptures from a Child which are able to make thee wise unto salvation and that is by knowing the truth And the Apostle Peter saith We have a more sure word of prophesie whereunto you do well that ye take heed But you are enemies to the reading the Scriptures or expounding them Pag 15 Of the said Primer Children such are no Ministers of Gods word who tell you the Scriptures are the word of God Now if this be an infallible truth then I say the Prophets and Apostles were fallible and were no Ministers of Gods word for the Prophets Isaiah Jeremiah Ezekiel and most of the small Prophets said that The word of the Lord came unto them and they spake the word of the Lord. I beleive you may find what the Prophets preached called the word of the Lord or God above a hundred times and in the 20. of Exodus God spake all these words and what God spake is Gods word and what Christ spake and preached is the word of God unlesse you deny Christ to be God Also the Apostle James exhorteth Be ye doers of the Word and if any be hearers of the word and not doers c. And do you think the Apostle meaneth the word of man or the word of God Also the Apostle Peter saith We have a more sure word of prophesie whereunto ye do well that ye take heed And if the Apostles call the Scripture the word surely they are Gods word and by the word of Prophesie can be meant no other word I marvel that you Quakers who pretend to an infallible Spirit to know all things do not know that as Christ is called the eternal word of God so are the Scriptures written called the revealed will or word of God or his word revealed As when we write our mind or cause another to write our will or mind to another we are properly said to send word or what is so written to be our word Pag. 33. Of the said Primer That by the blood of Jesus Christ cleansing you from all sin is meant the life of Christ Now I would know where you ever read in Scripture that we are cleansed from all sin by the life of Christ or whether the blood of Christ were ever taken for the life of Christ in Scripture I would fain know your meaning of this dark mystical expression Whether you do believe that the blood which Christ shed upon the Crosse when he suffered without the Gates of Jerusalem be that blood that cleanseth from all sin I know partly your meaning by what I have heard from several of your company and read in several of your Books wherefore that I may shew you what I beleive concerning the same according to the Scriptures mind the Apostle saith Without shadding of blood is no remission And he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblamable and unreprovable in his sight And having made peace by the blood of his crosse But I fear you are strangers to this blood of Christ and it is a mystery hid from your eyes who pretend to know all mysteries but they are mysteries of iniquity while you count the blood of the covenant an unholy thing And as you are strangers to this blood of Christ that cleanseth from all sin so I fear you are Ignorant of the life of Christ For I would know whether by the life of Christ you mean the life that Christ lived in the dayes of his converse on earth from the time of his Birth to the time of his suffering death on the crosse or the life he now liveth in heaven or whether by the life of Christ you do not understand the life of a leigned Christ in you or a life imitating Christ his Life I know by what I have heard from the mouths of several and read in several of your books that you are strangers to the true life of Christ mentioned in Scripture and is a mystery hid from your eyes But mind what the Scriptures saith For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Wherefore he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them By which texts of Scripture you may see that we are justified or saved by Christ his life living now in heaven to make intercession for us But I never did read in the Scripture that our sins are washed away and that we are saved by what Christ wrought in us nor by imitating the life of Christ and yet I say that all those who are saved by the blood and the life of Christ have faith wrought in their hearts by the Spirit of Christ

whereby they beleive this blood of Christ shed for them and that Christ now liveth in Heaven to make intercession for them and this faith is not a dead idle faith but a lively working faith working love to God and man Faith worketh by Love But this faith doth not save as it is an act or work in us but as it apprehendeth and layeth hold on Christ the Object And what ever infallible knowledge you pretend unto without the knowledge of this you are in Ignorance and know nothing as your ought But the Devil hath beguiled you as he did Adam and Eve when he made them beleive they should be as Gods knowing good and evil but they became like the Devil by sin And as the Devil hath deceived you so hath the Pope your Grandfather deceived you by sending his Iesuits and Friers here to seduce and delude you as Mr. William Prynne that Patron and Defender of his Countries Laws and Liberties hath plainly proved in his Book called The Quakers unmasked in which he proveth that several Friers of the Franciscan order have been chief Speakers in your metings as Coppinger and others And I know none but the Pope and his Church and you Quakers that do pretend to an unerring infallible Spirit and I know none that hold and maintain more errors then the Pope and you Quakers whom I conceive are made drunk with Popish errors for all your pretending to an infallible Spirit that cannot erre by an inward light What I have here written is by the light within me which you advise me to consider and hearken unto because it convinceth of sin Concerning which we had some discourse when I affirmed that the Law in the heart doth convince man of sin in the estate of Nature according to the Apostle Paul his words The Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature the things contained in the Law which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while else accusing or excusing one another Also those that accused the woman taken in Adultery Christ said He that is without sin cast the first stone and they that heard it being convicted in their own conscience went out one by one the Law in the Conscience convicted them of sin And as the Law in the heart convinceth men of gross sins though they never had the Law written So doth the Law written convince of lesser and smaller sins As the Apostle Paul saith I had not known sin but by the Law and that he meaneth the moral Law is plain for saith he I had not known Lust except the Law had said thou shalt not lust Also the Apostle writing to the Corinthians to reform the evil custome of men wearing long hair saith Doth not nature it self teach you that it is a shame for a man to wear long hair And if it had not been sin they had no cause to be ashamed and the Apostle saith That nature doth teach it to be a shame But I see some Quakers that are not ashamed to wear long hair for I have observed some of those men Quakers wear longer hair then ordinarily Ruffins or Roysters wear and in stead of shame do defend and maintain the same to be lawful But I shall not beleive them for all their pretended infallible Spirit but rather think they are such as Christ spake of whose light is darknesse If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness how great is that darknesse like those Locusts that came out of the smoak of the bottomless pit who are said to have hair as the hair of women But this by the way But you objected then that Christ saith the Spirit will reprove the world of sin To which I Answer that Christ and the Apostle doth not contradict one another I shall shew how they agree The Law in the conscience convinceth them of sin by discovering what is sin as the Apostle expoundeth I had not known Lust except the Law had said thou shalt not Lust Rom. 7. 7. But the Spirit reproveth for sin by shewing or discovering sin to rest upon the conscience by reason of unbelief as Christ expoundeth the meaning of sin because they believe not in me that is the Spirit shall convict by their own conscience that because they believe not in him there is nothing but sin for because of unbeleif sin resteth on the conscience and by beleiving in Christ only sin is abolished and taken away Wherefore Luther saith If the whole world did believe in Christ God would see nothing but a meer cleansing according to that of the Prophet David Thou hast forgiven the iniquitie of thy people and covered all their sins Selah Psal 85. 2. This have written in love to thy soul and the rest of your profession to undeceive thee and others who are lead by a fallible erring spirit Ye erre not knowing the Scriptures I desire you to examine what I have written by the Scriptures and let them be the Judge between us Whether those that are lead by the Spirit are not subject to erre though the Spirit of God is infallible and cannot erre yet the man that hath the Spirit is fallible and doth erre and so I commit you and what I have written to the blessing of Almighty God and remain a friend and lover of thy Soul FINIS 1. Answ Acts 1. 20 21. 22. Act 1 23 24 25. Act. 14. 23. Titus 1. 5. 1 Tim. 4. 14. 1 Tim. 3. 1 Tim. 4. 22. 1 Tim. 1. 4. 1 Cor. 12. 28. Rom. 12. 7 8. Heb. 13. 7. 13. 17. Numb 16. 1 2 3. Numb 16 Matth. 23. 2 3. Acts 1. 17. 1 Tim. 5. 22. 1 Cor. 14. 18. Act. 22. 3. 1 Tim. 3. 6. ● Pet. 3. 15 16. Act 2. 3 4. Fox the Quaker 1 Tim. 4. 13 14 15 16. 2 Tim. 2. 15. Rom. 12. 7 8. 1 Cor. 12. 4 5 6 7 8. 1 Thes 5 21. Tit. 1. 9 10 11. Tit. 1. 12 13. 1 Cor. 9. 14. Math. 10 10. Act. 4. 37. Act. 5. 1 2 3. 1 Cor. 9. 4 5 7 8 9 10 11. 1 Cor. 9. 13 14. 2 Cor. 11 8. Gal. 6. 6. Luther on Gal. 6. ver 6. fol. 246. 1 Tim. 5. 17 18. 1 Tim. 3. 2. 〈◊〉 3. 8 9 10. Matth. 23 23. See Sir Henry Spelman Cancil Anno 855. 1 Object Answ Mal. 3. Ezek. 34. 3. Esa 56. ●0 11. Zeph. 1. 3 4. 2 Object Answ 3 Object Answ 1 Cor. 9. 4. 1 Cor. 9. 20 21 22 23. Acts 16. 3. Minde 1 Tim 4. 15. 2 Cor. 7. 1. Ephes 4. 24. Colos 3. 10. Act 13 38 39. Rom. 4. 5 6 7. 2 Cor. 8 18 19 20 21. Heb. 10. 14. 2 Cor. 4. 3 4. Levit. 16. 21. 22 23. Minde Esa 53. 4 5 6. Dan. 9. 24 25 26. Zach. 3. 8 9. Joh. 19. 30. Colos 2. 13 14. Colos 1. 21 22. Colos 1. 28. Heb. 10. Ephes 5. 25 26 27. Numb