Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	holy_a	send_v	spirit_n	14,001	5	5.8081	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30977	The genuine remains of that learned prelate Dr. Thomas Barlow, late Lord Bishop of Lincoln containing divers discourses theological, philosophical, historical, &c., in letters to several persons of honour and quality : to which is added the resolution of many abstruse points published from Dr. Barlow's original papers.	Barlow, Thomas, 1607-1691.	1693 (1693)	Wing B832; ESTC R3532	293,515	707

he may make Laws to oblige them to do such and such particular things as Christ hath Commanded them Thirdly As he may punish them for not doing so Thus much of the potestas ordinis in Ecclesiastical Persons But Secondly there may be considered in them the Power of Jurisdiction and that 1. In foro interno and this Power they have from Christ and not from Magistrates 2. In foro externo and Coactive and this Jurisdiction is wholly borrowed from the Civil Power and is directly subject to it Sacro fungi Ministerio nisi legitimè vocatus nullus jure potest IN the explaining the terms of the Question in order to the stating of it we shall First Take notice that the mentioning of the word Ministerium makes it obvious to us to distinguish it by Civile and Sacrum The Civil Ministry is generally taken for a publick Office or Trust committed to any by a Prince or State And so you may find it in the Imperial Laws l. 1. ff ad L. Jul. Repetund And this name of Ministers was given to the most Honourable Officers in the Roman Common-wealth But the Ministerium Sacrum is Munus alicui a Deo demandatum quo ipsi immediatius famulamur and which doth not look so much at the Political and External good of a State as Mens Ecclesiastical and inward concerns and at the Glory of God and at the Eternal Salvation of the Souls of Men. But Secondly This Ministry is not said to be Sacred in respect of its Principium a quo namely God Because although absolute loquendo the Ecclesiastical Ministry may be call'd Sacred respectu principii a quo namely God yet Comparative loquendo it is not more Sacred in order to God as the Principium a quo than the Civil Ministry for both of them do meet in this that they are a Deo And so they are both Sacred on this account For Kings in respect of their Authority delivered from God are Sacred Persons and were so called in all Ages and by all People So Sacra Majestas Caesarea Sacra Majestas Regia are the most known Epitheti of Supream Power But the Ecclesiastical Ministry is said to be Sacred in respect of its object and the matter in which it Converseth of the Management of Holy things Committed to a Man by God whereas the Civil Ministry handles not things Sacred but Civil This Sacred Ministry we affirm to have been committed by God to some certain Persons And that First Immediately in the time of the Gospel as when Christ chose the Apostles and 70. Disciples and employ'd them in the Ministry of the Gospel Secondly Mediately Thus the Apostles and their Successours did commit this Ministry to others by them chosen and ordain'd For this see S. Mathew 28.18 19 20. Jesus came and spake to them saying All power is given to me in Heaven and Earth go ye therefore and teach all Nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost c. There he committs to them the Authority given him by his Father And this is more clear out of St. John c. 20. 21. As my Father hath sent me so send I you Christ was sent by his Father they by Christ and others by them you may further consult Acts 20.28 Take heed therefore to your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers c. The Spirit of God did make them Bishops but not immediately for we know they were Constituted mediately by Man The Question therefore is whether any may perform the acts of this Ministry who are not Lawfully call'd to it We deny it and do distinguish of a double calling First Extraordinary when God doth call some Men immediately and having endow'd them with gifts sends them into the Vineyard So we know the Prophets and Apostles were call'd to the work of the Ministry and we believe that others by them were in ipsis nascentis Ecclesiae primordiis so call'd Secondly I do not doubt but that God by his infinite power may sometime call Men thus to it even at this Day But that he hath actually call'd any Men so extraordinarily and immediately the Church having been settled for so many years I deny Nor shall I believe it unless by manifest criterions they make it appear to us to be so But suppose it that Sempronius comes to me and Preacheth to me many new unheard of things and tells me that he was sent from God to declare them to me I say in this Case no Man is bound to believe Sempronius unless by some cogent demonstration he proves himself to have been thus sent by God But Secondly This calling is ordinary to wit that which is not immediately from God but mediately by the intervention of mens will and authority deriv'd from God and this calling is twofold First Internal which consists in this that he who desires to be chosen or admitted into this Holy and Religious Negotiation should seriously and sincerely examine himself and his Talents and look into the most inward recesses of his mind and at last determine himself to have this inward aptitude all things consider'd for the work of the Ministry so that he may Spontaneously offer himself up to God for no Man ought to be admitted into Holy Orders against his will Secondly This calling is external made by those who preside over the Church which consists in this First That the Overseers of the Church should approve the Mans gifts and qualifications for the work publickly Secondly After they have according to the Apostolical Canons and Rules delivered in the Scripture known and approved such a Man to be fit for the Ministry that they then impose hands on him in a Solemn manner initiate him in Holy Orders and Communicate to him the Spiritual Authority first given them by Christ For we say that without such a calling as this no Man can be a Lawful Minister And as for the necessity of this calling none of the Ancient Hereticks of the Primitive Church ever deny'd it and the Anabaptists born in High Germany were the first who deny'd it as is clear out of Sleidans Commentarys And for this you may see the Gangraena Theologiae Anabaptisticae per Johan Cl●ppenburgium This opinion of theirs was afterward own'd by Socinus as appears out of his Epistola tertia ad Math. Raderium where he saith p. 126. Jam vero verbi Dei Administratio quae ad Ecclesiam Colligendam Constituendamque requiritur nulli certae Familiae nulli eligendi rationi aut Successioni alligata e●t And he giveth his judgment in the like manner concerning the Lords Supper that it is not necessary to be given by a Minister But many Arguments might be brought from the Scripture to support the contrary truth I shall here refer to the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews c. 5. v. 4. And no Man taketh this honour to him but he that is called

apud Franc. Jover pag. 44 45. Sect. 1. Class 2. and Concil Carthag Ann. 418. Imp. Honor. 12. and Theod. Coss Can. 112 113. apud Justell in Cod. Can. Eccles Afric pag. 294 and Hist Pelag. Voss part 2. lib. 3. Thes c. And to each of these Reasons he subjoyns ample and learned Illustrations and confirmatory proofs and so after a short Reflection of Christian Commiseration upon the unhappy condition of the Church in these latter times in that such Disputes as these should arise among any Christians and especially among Protestants and a pious wish that they were all laid asleep he concludes with this modest and generous Protestation That if any person shall with that meekness and civility that becomes a Man and much more a Christian candidly and rationally answer that his Discourse by evidently overthrowing his Reasons and firmly proving the truth of his own he should be so far from being angry with him that he should thank God and him for shewing him his Errour and publickly acknowledge himself to be his Disciple and Proselyte A Young Man being Converted from Popery to Protestancy and being tempted by some Romish Emissaries to return again to their Faith by amusing him with many Sophisticate notions of their Church having an Infallible Guide Dr. Barlow being about the Year 1673. apply'd to to write somewhat that might Confirm the young Man in his choice of the Protestant Religion he wrote the following Paper by means whereof the Convert remain'd unmov'd and unshaken in that Religion THat the Romanists Position concerning their Infallibity is impious and without any real ground irrational That such a pretended Infallible Guide is not necessary nor since the Apostles death ever was in the World 1. Impious 1. They make themselves the sole and (a) una Ecclesia Romana vera duntaxat est Ecclesia una Fides c. Per honorat Fabri lib. 2. prop. 7. pa. 123. only true Church in the World and miscall themselves (b) Ecclesia Romana errare non potest Ibid. pag. 120. Infallible and then with a most unchristian and uncharitable censure deny Salvation to any but themselves and so (a) In Ecclesiâ duntaxat Romanâ homines salvari possunt Ib. p. 133. damn the far greater part of the Christian World Thus a late and learned Jesuite Honoratus Fabri in a Book published with all the Licence and Approbation their Church usually gives their best Books and to make it sure that not only the Jesuites but their Church also is of this uncharitable Opinion their Trent-Council has pronounced (b) Haec est vera Catholica fides extra quam n●mo salvus esse potest Concil Trident. Sess 24. In B●llâ Pii Papae 4. Super formâ Juramenti professionis fidei Damnation to all those who do not believe their new Creed which themselves excepted no Christian Church in the World ever did or to this day does believe If any Man think otherwise let him make it appear that any Church in the World even Rome her self before the Trent-Council which was but 111 years since had and believed that Creed and I will become his Proselyte 2. But further 2. it is irrational I●rational to perswade or require us or any body else to believe an Infallible Guide when they themselves are not yet agreed who this Infallible Guide is For 1. the Jesuits and Canonists will have the Pope Infallible nay their Canon (c) Sic omnes Apostolicae sedis sanctiones accipiendae sicut ipsius Divini Petri voce firmatae Gratianus Can. sic omnes Dist 9. Law declares and cites the Authority of a Pope for it that the Pope's Decrees are as infallible as St. Peter's and if he succeed him in the University of his Jurisdiction as they say he may with as much reason challenge his Infallibility But this no less than (a) Concil Pisanum Anno 1409. Constantin Anno 1414. Basiliense Ann. 1438. Vide Concil Pisanum Sess 14. Constani Sess 12. Basiliens Sess 34. three of their own General Councils before Luther peremptorily deny and all of them deposed Popes as Simoniacal Schismatical Perjured Heretical c. The Fathers of those Councils were it seems well acquainted with their Holy Fathers the Popes and so could and did call them by their right names And the Church and State of France does likewise damn the Doctrine of the Popes Infallibility and not long since did damn it publickly both in the (b) May. 3. 1663. So Pope John the 2●th tells us that the council of Constance was Concilium Sanctissimum quod errare non potuit vide Constant Sess 12. Mediolani 1511. p. 11. Col. 2. Sorbone and Parliament of Paris the King's Advocate Mr. Talon making a long and Eloquent Speech to that purpose 2. Many would have a General Council to be Supream Judge and so if any be so Infallible This the three General Councils but now named unanimously define as all know who knows them This the Canonists the Jesuites the Court of Rome the Pope and his Parasites universally deny and think it if not an Heresie yet a great Error 3. Others therefore will have the Pope and Council joyned to be the Infallible Guide 4 And lastly others deny the Decrees of the Pope and Council to have any such Infallible Certainty 'till they be received by the Church diffusive France notwithstanding any pretended Infallibility never would nor did receive all the Decrees of the Council of Basil or Trent and 't is notorious that the Popish Writers tell us of General Councils whereof 1. (a) Long. a Coriolano sex Card. Bellarmino in Principio summae Coliorum 1. Concilia gen approbata 2. Reprobata 3. partim approbata parti reprobata 4. nec approbatum nec reprobatum Concilium Pisanum Some approved 2. Some rejected 3. Some partly approved and partly rejected 4. One that at Pisanum 1409. neither approved nor rejected If General Councils he infallible why are any or any part of them rejected And if they be not Infallible then 't is evident they cannot be an Infallible Guide hence I inferr 1. That it is Irrational to tell us they have an Infallibe Guide when they themselves are not agreed nor do nor can tell us who it is For admit some of those named the Pope or Council or both together or the Church Diffusive were Infallible yet 'till I can be assured which of them it is none of them can be an Infallibe Guide to me so that I may with certainty and safety rely on the determination for so long as I doubt of the Guide whether this be he who is Infallible so long I must necessarily doubt of his decree and definition it being impossible that I should yield an undoubted and infallible assent to his Sentence who for ought I know may be as fallible as my self or assent to any conclusion without doubting when the premises for which I give that assent are indeed

that tho' he had performed all the service and obedience that 〈◊〉 he 〈◊〉 of it was no more than what was 〈◊〉 Now since the Light of Nature 〈◊〉 perfect and in the state of innocence was no more than sufficient what can we imagine of our decayed lapsed and dim light which comes so far short of the former Whereas if it could teach us how to obey perfectly the Law of Nature it sh●uld be fully equal unto and run parallel with the same Reason III. This Natural light is much less capable to teach us the manner of that Worship which we owe unto God by vertue of the Covenant of Grace Because the Worship required therein is obedience unto God through Faith in Christ Jesus taking hold of the promises tender'd to us in his holy Gospel which Natural Reason can never conceive being ignorant both of the Object of this Gospel-Worship and the manner in which the same is to be perform'd as I shall more fully evince afterwards Assertion Fifth No Man by the sole light of Natural Reason without the help of Revelation can ever discover or comprehend that Sacred Mystery of the Holy Trinity viz. the distinct Hypostases of the Father Son and Holy Ghost one God Reason 1. Because if this Sacred Mystery had been cognoscible by the light of Nature then Pythagoras Plato Homer Aristotle c. would probably have known it But they have all past it over with a profound ignorant silence and where is the Man that hath ever discover'd it by the light of Nature Reason II. If the Mystery of the Trinity were cognoscible by the light of Nature then it would be such either as a principium unto which upon the first proposal we assent without any further probation or as a Proposition unto which we assent upon sufficient and demonstrative probation But to assert the former viz. that the Trinity is per se notum as a principium or axioma is too absurd and ridiculous to be refuted Besides many of the Schoolmen have deny'd that Deum esse is per se notum But we cannot assert Deum esse trinum unless we suppose Deum esse Ergo if the one be not of it self evident far less the other As to the other membrum viz. that it is cognoscible by us as a proposition which we assent unto upon sufficient and demonstrative probation Contrà All these propositions tho' they be not so evident as on the first proposal to gain an assent yet they are such as Nature can furnish us with sufficient media and praemissae whereby to know and prove their certainty as for Example This proposition God is infinite tho' i● be not of it self evident at the first proposal yet it is said to be cognoscible by the light of Nature because Nature can furnish us with sufficient means whereby to prove its certainty But this Mystery of the Sacred Trinity of the Persons in the Godhead is so far from being such as Nature could furnish us with media to prove its certainty that if it do not seemingly contradict Nature yet it far transcends its power to conceive what it is But 2. to use Aquinas's argument There is no other mean whereby we can ascend to the knowledge of God but by the Creature and all the knowledge we have of God from the Creatures is only deduc'd per modum Causalitatis as because I see such an effect therefore I conclude there must be a Cause endow'd with Power Wisdom c. Now how can the Trinity be deduced from the Creatures per modum Casaulitatis For God could have Created all the Creatures though he had not been trinus because the Divine Essence of the Father is a suppositum insinitae virtutis tho' there were no more persons in the Godhead than himself Assertion Sixth No Man can by the Light of Nature know the Works of the Second Person in the Trinity viz. his Redemption of Mankind his wonderful Incarnation Death and Resurrection c. Reason I. Because I have already proved that the three Persons of the Godhead cannot be known by Nature Light and consequently not the Second Person but if the Second Person be not known neither can the Works done by him be discovered that is quoad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to that special incommunicable manner and way that they were performed in by Jesus Christ It 's true indeed that the Redemption of the World is an opus ad extrà and competent to all the Persons of the Trinity and so may in some sense seem to be known by the help of Natural Light without the distinct knowledge of the Person of Christ But the particular and special way in which it was accomplish'd by him can never be known naturally for there were many things relating to that done in his Humane Nature such as his Death Resurrection c. which cannot be known without the knowledge of his Humane Nature whereas the Humanity and Miraculous Incarnation of one who is God is above the reach of Natural Reason to know Reas II. If any such thing had been cognoscible by Natural Reason it 's probable the Heathens would have found it but we find no such thing among them Ergo c. Reas III. It is not possible that the light of fallen Nature should know more of God and Christ than when it was in its Primitive Innocence but then it did not so much as Dream of the Death of Christ for the sins of the World Ergo c. Reas IV. The Redemption of the World by Christ depending upon and flowing from the meer good Will and Pleasure of God could never have naturally been foreseen before it came nor when accomplish'd understood by any except those unto whom God graciously reveal'd the same For how can any thing depending on God's free will be known by Natural Light since all the natural knowledge we have of God is by way of causality from the Creatures But the free Redemption of the World by Jesus Christ can never be deduced from the existence of the Creature by way of causality as though it be naturally known that Man is a sinner and miserable yet does it not follow that therefore God designs to redeem him by Christ no more than from the misery of some of the Angels can it be deduced that therefore God designs to redeem them by Christ Besides Man is fallen into this Misery by his own fault and it were just with God to leave him to wallow in that Misery that he hath purchased to himself for ever wherefore since God is no way obliged to Redeem Man how can we make the Misery of the Creature an Argument that he has or had any actual design to redeem the same yea dato non concesso that our own Miseries could demonstrate that God had a design to free us from it yet it could never discover that particular special way whereby our freedom is purchased viz. by the Blood of Christ