Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A90276
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Of schisme the true nature of it discovered and considered, with reference to the present differences in religion. / By John Owen D.D.
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Owen, John, 1616-1683.
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1657
(1657)
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Wing O780; Thomason E1664_2; ESTC R203088
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121,002
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281
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are enquiring after But because there is very little security to be enjoyed in an expectation of the sobriety of men in things wherein they are or suppose they may be concerned that they may know before hand what is farther incumbent on them if in reference to us they would prevaile themselves of any such notion I here informe them that our perswasion is that this union was never utterly broken by any man taken into it or ever shall be to the end of the World and I suppose they esteeme it vaine to dispute about the Adâ—uncts of that which is denyed to be But yet this perswasion being not common to us with them with whom we have to doe in this matter I shall not farther make use of it as to our present defence That any other union of the Catholick Church as such can possibly be fancyed or imagined by any as to the substance of what hath been pleaded leaving him a plea for the ordinary soâ—ndnes of his Intellectualls is denyed Let us see now then what is our concernment in this discourse unlesse men can prove that we have not the spirit of God that we do not savingly believe in Jesus Christ that we doe not sincerely love all the Saints his whole body and every member of it they cannot disprove our interest in the Catholick Church It is true indeed men that have so great a confidence of their own Abilities and such a contempt of the World as to undertake to dispute them out of conclusions from their naturall sences about their proper Objects in what they see feele and handle and will not be satisfied that they have not proved there is no motion whilst a man walks for a conviction under their eye may probably venture to disprove us in our spirituall sense and experience also and to give us Arguments to perswade us that we have not that communion with Christ which we know we have every day Although I have a very meane perswasion of my own Abilities yet I must needs say I cannot think that any man in the world can convince me that I doe not love Jesus Christ in sincerity because I doe not love the Pope as he is so Spirituall Experience is a security against a more cunning Sophister then any Jesuâ—â—te in the world with whom the Saintâ— of God have to deale all their lives Eph. 6. 12. And doubtlesse through the rich grace of our God helpe will arise to us that we shall never make a Covenant with these men for peace upon conditions for worse then those that Nahash would have exacted on the men of Jabesh Gileadâ— which were but the losse of one eye with an abiding reproach they requiring of us the deprivation of whatsoever we have to see by whether as men or Christians and that with a reproach never to be blotted out But as we daily put our Consciences upon triall as to this thing 1 Cor. 13. 5. and are put unto it by Sathan so are we readie at all times to give an account to our Adversaries of the hope that us in us Let them sift us to the utmost it will be to our advantage Only let them not bring frivolous objections and such as they know are of no weight with us speaking as is their constant manner about the Pope and their Church things utterly forraigne to what we are presently about miserably begging the thing in Question Let them weigh if they are able the true nature of Vnion with Christ of faith in him of Love to the Saints consider them in their proper Causes Adjuncts and Effects with a sprituall eye laying aside their prejudices and intolerable impositions if we are found wanting as to the truth and sincerity of these things if we cannot give some account of our translation from death to life of our implantation into Christ and our participation of the Spirit we must beare our own burthen if otherwise we stand fast on the most noble and best account of Church Vnion what ever and whilest this shield is safe we are lesse â—mxious about the issue of the ensuing contest Whatever may be the apprehensions of other men I am not in this thing sollicitous I speake not of my selfe but assuming for the present the person of one concerning whom these things may be spoken whilest the efficacy of the Gospell accomplisheth in my heart all those divine and mighty effects which are ascribed unto it as peculiarly it workes towards them that believe whilest I know this one thing that whereas I was blind now I see whereas I was a servant of sinne I am now free to righteousnesse at liberty from bondage unto death instead of the fruits of the flesh I find all the fruits of the Spirit brought forth in me to the praise of Gods glorious grace whilest I have an experience of that powerfull work of conversion and being borne againe which I am able to mannage against all the accusations of Satan having peace with God upon justification by faith with the love of God shed abroad in my heart by the Holy Ghost investing me in the priviledges of Adoption I shall not certainly be moved with the disputes of men that would perswade me I doe not belong to the Catholick Church because I doe not follow this or that or any part of men in the world But you will say this you will allow to them also with whom you have to doe that they may be members of the Catholick Church I leave other men to stand or fall to their own Master only as to the Papall multitude on the account of severall inconsistencies between them and the members of this Church I shall place some swords in the way which will reduce their number to an invisible scantling I might content my selfe by affirming at once that upon what hath been spoken I must exclude from the Catholick Church all and every one whom Bellarmine intends to include in it as such namely those who belong to the Church as hairs and ill humours to the body of a man But I adde in particular 1. All wicked and prophane persons of whom the Scripture speakes expressly that they shall not enter into the Kingdome of God are indisputably cut off Whatever they pretend in shew at any time in the outward duties of Devotion they have neither faith in Christ nor love to the Saints and so have part and fellowship neither in the union nor communion of the Catholick Church How great a proportion of that Synogogue whereof we are speaking will be taken off by this sword of their Popes Princes Prelates Clergie Votaries and people and that not by a rule of private surmises but upon the visible issue of their being servants to sin â—aters of God and good men is obvious to all Persons of really so much as reformed lives amongst them are like the berries after the shaking of an Olive tree 1 Cor 6. 7 8
and by him to us Joh. 14. 16. being of old the great promise of the Covenant Is 59. 21. Ezek. 11. 17. cap. 26. 36. Now in the participation of the Divine nature consists the Vnion of the Saints with Christ Ioh. 6. 5. our Saviour tells us that it arises from eating his flesh and drinking his Blood he that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him This he expounds v. 63. it is the spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth not By the quickning Spirit inhabitation in Christ and Christ in it is intended And the same he manifests in his prayer that his Church may be one in the Father and the Sonne as the Father is in him and he in the Father Ioh. 17. 21. for the Spirit being the Love of the Father and of the Son is vinculum Trinitatis and so here of our Union in some resemblance The unity of members in the body naturall with one head is often chosen to set forth the union of the Church 1 Cor. 12. 12. 1 Cor. 11. 3. Eph 5. 23. Col. 1. 19. now every man can tell that union of the head and members whereby they become all one body that and not another is onenesse of soule whereby the whole is animated which makes the body be it lesse or greater to be one body That which answers hereunto in the mysticall body of Christ is the animation of the whole by his spirit as the Apostle fully 1 Cor. 15. 45. The union between husband and wife is also chosen by the Holy Ghost to illustrate the union between Christ and his Church For this cause shall a man forsake his Father and his Mother and cleave to his Wife and they two shall be one flesh this is a great mystery but I speake concerning Christ and his Church Eph. 5. 31 32. The union between man and wife we have Gen. 2. 24. they be no more twaine but one flesh of Christ and his Church that they are one spirit For he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit 1 Cor. 6. 17. See also another similitude of the same importance Ioh. 15. 5. Rom. 11. 16 17. This I say is the fountain radicall union of the Church Catholick in its selfe with its head and formall reason of it Hence flowes a double consequentiall Vnion that it hath also 1. Of Faith All men united to Christ by the inhabitation of the same Spirit in him and them are by it from and according to the word taught of God Is 54. 13. Ioh. 6. 45. so taught every one of them as to come to Christ v. 46. that is by bilieving by faith They are so taught of God as that they shall certainly have that measure of knowledge and faith which is needfull to bring them to Christ and to God by him And this they have by the unction or Spirit which they have received 1 Ioh. 2. 21 27. accompaning the Word by vertue of Gods Covenant with them Is 59. 29. And hereby are all the members of the Church Catholick however divided in their visible profession by any differences among themselves or differenced by the severall measures of gifts and graces they have received brought to the perfection aymed at to the unity of the Faith to the acknowledgement of the Son of God to a perfect man to the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ Eph. 4. 13. Nor was this hidden from some of the Papists themselves Ecclesia sancta corpus est Christi una spiritu vivificata unita fide una sanctificata saith Hugo de Victore de sacram lib. 2. as he had said before in the former Cap. sicut scriptum est qui non habet Spiritum Christi hic non est ejus qui non habet Spiritum Christi non est membrum Christi in corpore uno Spiritus unus nihil in corpore mortuum nihil extra corpus vivum See to the same purpose Enchirid. Concil Colon in Symbol With peculiar reference to the members themselves there is another necessary consequence of the union mentioned and that is the mutuall love of all those united in the head as before towards one another and of every one towards the whole as so united in the head Christ Jesus There is an increase made of the body to the edifying it selfe in love Eph. 4. 16. And so it becomes the bond of perfectnesse to this body of Christ I cannot say that the members or parts of this Church have their union in themselves by Love because they have that with and in Christ whereby they are one in themselves Ioh. 17. 21 23. they are one in God even in Christ where their life is hid Col. 3. 3. but it is the next and immediate principle of that communion which they severally have one with another and the whole body in and with it selfe I say then that the communion which the Catholick Church the mysticall body of Christ hath with and in it selfe springing from the union which it hath in and with Christ and in it selfe thereby consists in love exerting it selfe in inexpressible variety according to the present state of the whole its relation to Christ to Saints and Angells with the conditions and occasions of the members of it respectively 1 Cor. 12. 26 27. What hath been spoken concerning the union and communion of this Church will not I suppose meet with any contradiction Granting that there is such a Church as that we speake of Coetus praedestinatorum credentium the Papists themselves will grant that Christ alone is its head and that its union ariseth from its subjection to him and dependance on him Their modesty makes them contented with constituting the Pope in the roome of Christ as he is as it were a politicall head for government they have not as yet directly put in their claime to his office as a mysticall Head influencing the body with Life and Motion though by their figment of the Sacraments communicating grace ex opere operato and investing the originall power of dispencing them in the Pope only they have contended faire for it But if any one can informe me of any other union or communion of the Church described as above then these laid downe I shall willingly attend unto his instructions In the mean time to carry on the present discourse unto that which is aimed at it is manifest that the breach of this union must consist in these two things 1. First the casting out expelling and looseing that spirit which abiding in us gives us this union 2. The losse of that love which thence flowes into the body of Christ and believers as parts and members thereof This being the state of the Church under the first consideration of it certainly it would be an extravagancy scarcely to be parallel'd for any one to affirme a breach of this union as such to be Schisme under that notion of it which we