Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	ghost_n	holy_a	nature_n	20,678	5	5.8553	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62257	The sacred rite of confirmation discoursed of in a sermon preach'd at Okeham in the county of Rutland at a confirmation there administred ... on May 17, 1683 / by John Savage ...	Savage, J. (John), 1645-1721.	1683 (1683)	Wing S770; ESTC R34219	24,508	36

vulgar were it not that we see intelligent Kings and Princes to be every day impos'd upon with the supposed holiness of Toys and Trifles for surely this new-coin'd Sacrament must be presum'd to do as much good to the partakers of it if there be no real Obstacle to hinder its efficacy as the Consecrated Clouts and Rattles lately sent from Rome to the Infant-Duke of Burgundy But to wave the levity of their Pretences more fit for a Stage than a Pulpit We of the Church of England retaining the Primitive Institution and practice may comfortably expect a Blessing upon this holy Office here being no traditions of men imposed upon us as the Commandments of Christ no Prayers offered up upon this occasion but what the Church upon mature deliberation hath compos'd no Ceremonies as essential to the Office being here used but what the Apostles practised and all this as heretofore administred by the Apostles so now by the Bishops their lawful Successors And this brings me to the third viz. III. The peculiar Order of persons to whom the ministration of this holy Office is restrained We find by the Context that although St. Philip converted them to Christianity and discipled them by the Sacrament of Baptism yet this holy Office was perform'd by St. Peter and St. John v. 14. Now when the Apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God they sent Peter and John How what is this that we hear Was Peter sent were the Subjects so sawcy and presumptuous as to send their Prince on their Errand Is not this He from whom his present Holiness derives his Supremacy over all Dominions spiritual and temporal Did not St. Peter understand his power or was he so weak as sneakingly to betray the Prerogative of his Chair Or if he did for that time suffer himself like the titular Duke of Venice to be concluded in the general Vote yet could not his Infallibility guide him in executing the Commission Must he have a Collegue appointed him to seture his Superiouts that all things shall be rightly perform'd Behold then the sandy Foundation upon which the Romanists erect a supreme and infallible Chair to his Holiness O the miserable shifts that they make to avoid the force of this unhappy instance And yet amongst them all that which is the most plausible brings him to an equality with the rest of the Christian Bishops for A Lapide tells us that as the Father sent the Son In Loc. and the Father and Son together sent the Holy Ghost and yet all three equal in Glory and Authority so St. Peter may be said to be sent by the rest of the Apostles non imperio as he quotes Cajetan for it sed fraterua charitate impulsione Well be it so nay we may go far higher and grant him to be what they say the sixth general Council own'd him Conc. Constantin 3. viz. Primus Episcoporum upon condition they will grant on the other side what the same Council plainly determines viz. Vt thronus Constantinopolitanus aequalia privilegia cum antiquae Romae throno obtineat Let him have the honor of precedency let him upon all occasions be the Mouth of his Collegues let him open and conclude general Councils let him be what they pretend St. Cyprian owns viz. the Origo the Principium the Exordium unitatis provided they will grant him to be what the same holy Father says St. Peter was in his golden Tractate De Vnitato Ecclesiae where after he has told us that Christ hath given Apostolis omnibus parem potestatem he presently tells us Hoe erant utique caeteri Apostoli quod fuit Petrus pari consortio praediti bonoris potestatis which Rigaltias miserably endeavours to evade by granting an equality of Apostleship as to their persons but denying it to their Successors an Hypothesis altogether as absurd and groundless as their pretended Donation from Constantine the Great But though we may be so civil as to grant him to be major singulis yet his being sent by the rest of the Apostles clearly evinces him to be Minor Vniversis which though it be a great Soloecism in the Civil yet is not so in the Ecclesiastical Politicks St. Peter you see was concluded by the general suffrage and so his Successours ought to be as the Councils of Constance and Basil have strenuously asserted Sent it seems these Apostles were but what was the purport of their Commission It was this that by their Prayer and Imposition of Hands the Holy Ghost might descend upon the baptized Samaritans But what was the reason that St. Philip a Minister of Gods Word did not perform this Duty He was their Father in Christ and had begotten them to a lively Faith he had renew'd their Spirits in the Laver of Baptism and instructed them in the necessary Rudiments of Christianity 't is much that he did not solemnize this Office amongst them Besides Regeneration is of a higher nature than Confirmation and he that gave the greater why did he not give the less The reason is plain and evident Because St. Philip was a person modest and faithful and would not presume to act beyond his Commission he knew that the Apostles had reserv'd this holy Office to their own ministration and for him to attempt it would have been a sin equal to that of the Sons of Korah who invaded the Priesthood of Aaron But the Church of Rome says that his Holiness by the plenitude of his Apostolical Authority may make an inferiour Priest the Minister of this Sacrament If so 't is much that St. Peter would give himself such an unnecessary trouble that he would not take his ease at Jerusalem and appoint St. Philip his lawful Substitute giving him a Legantine power as they say Deacons are capable of Why it seems St. Philip was more modest than to ask it or if he had St. Peter was more prudent than to grant it Some things the Apostles did absolutely reserve to themselves and their Successors which we the inferiour Officers of the Church may not must not pretend to and amongst them this of Confirmation was one and this St. Cyprian fully testifies in his forecited Epistle to Jubaianus speaking of these Samaritans Quod deerat says he id à Petro Johanne factum est ut oratione pro eis habitâ manu impositâ invoedretur infunderetur spiritus sanctus And that this was reserv'd to the Bishops the Sons of the Apostles in his age himself being a Metrapolitan Bishop can best inform us Quod nunc quoque apud nos geritur ut qui in Ecclesiá baptizantur Praepositis Ecclesiae offerantur ut per nostram orationem ac manus impositionem spiritum sanctum consequantur c. And this the incomparable Hooker out of St. Jerom. adversus Luciser proves to have been the practice of the fourth Century who though no great friend to the Episcopal Order yet tells us