Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	holy_a	paul_n	7,516	5	6.4255	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30026	De Christiana libertate, or, Liberty of conscience upon it's [sic] true and proper grounds asserted & vindicated and the mischief of impositions amongst the people called Quakers made manifest : in two parts : the first proving that no prince nor state ought by force to compel men to any part of the doctrine, worship, or discipline of the Gospel, by a nameless, yet an approved author [i.e. Sir Charles Wolseley], &c. : the second shewing the inconsistency betwixt the church-government erected by G. Fox, &c., and that in the primitive times ... : to which is added, A word of advice to the Pencilvanians / by Francis Bugg.	Bugg, Francis, 1640-1724?; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714. Liberty of conscience upon its true and proper grounds asserted and vindicated.; Wolseley, Charles, Sir, 1630?-1714. Liberty of conscience the magistrates interest.	1682 (1682)	Wing B5370; ESTC R14734	148,791	384

certain evil that way But the Author proceeds and tells us In a little time it will remove the cause of the Error That is to say Forcing men if you do it long enough will convert them and the reason he gives is this Because Paul ranks his Heresies amongst the works of the Flesh and it is not seated so solely in the mind but that it hath often no sublimer motives then other sensual transgressions and as outward considerations are sometimes the cause so they may be the cure of it That ever any man did change an Opinion first or last by being forced since the World began is without instance and impossible in the nature of the thing to be One says well You may as well cure a man of the Cholick by brushing his Cout or fill a mans Belly with a Syllogisme These things do not communicate in matter and so neither in action or passion But Heresie is a work of the Flesh so is every mistake of the Soul Heresie is a work of the Soul rather in mis-believing than mis-doing 't is a thing in Opinion rather than Fact The Apostle in Galatians 5. where Heresie is reckoned amongst the works of the flesh does not put the distinction between works of the flesh as things outwardly acted opposite to what is inwardly believed but by the flesh he means the corrupt and carnal mind opposite to the Spirit of God for he says plainly in the Verse before The Flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh By the Flesh there he means the corrupt state of man in Soul and Body so that Heresie may be a work of the flesh and yet purely seated in the mind Every corruption in the mind is a work of the flesh and yet as 't is there only is in some sence a thing spiritual and speculative But saith he Outward considerations are sometimes the cause of an Opinion and may be sometimes the cure of it If outward considerations suitable to a conviction of my understanding have wrought upon my understanding and made me really believe a thing there is then no proportion at all of reason to say That force because 't is an outward thing wholly incapable of working upon my understanding may make me as well disbelieve it And if those outward considerations he means have not really convinced me then 't is not my Opinion Either outward considerations are the ground of such Opinions or they are not if they be they will best discover themselves in their effects such causes are best so known and only so known and those effects will be obvious if they be evil to a due punishment if they be not the cause of them 't is first a superlative want of Charity to make our selves evil Judges of other mens hearts and then an eminent piece of injustice to punish men upon such a false supposition He that will take upon him to judge the grounds of any mans Principles which he knows not may make any Opinion have what Original he pleaseth 'T is a most absurd thing to believe any man for outward respects should suffer all reproach and persecution You may as well say all the Martyrs suffered only to set up a Pillar and get themselves a Name 't is obvious enough to any impartial eye those outward considerations are more probably to be mens temptations that go another way Fourthly No man under the Gospel ought to be compel●ed to believe or practice any thing and if not to believe then not to practice for the practice ought to correspond with and be but the counter-part of the belief 't is strangely unreasonable to require uniformity in the practice where there is variety and difference in the Judgment 't is to bid a man go directly against his Light 't is miserable to rend a man into two pieces his Conscience in one part and his outward man and practice in another part God arrests him and draws him in a way suitable to his rational Soul one way and men by means wholly contrary another Who think we has the greatest right and whether is it better to obey God or man in such a case Those that thus impose upon men do what in them lies to ruin them eternally I say 't is not reasonable to compel men to believe or practice for practice should suppose belief because God tells so very often He only accepts a willing Service in his Worship and abhors all other God detests the smell of a Sacrifice where the heart is not where the heart is far from him and 't is impossible it should be near him where a man is compelled directly against his own judgment How much does the beauty of the Gospel lie in this that Gods People are made by him a willing People and that God hath his Creature wholly in his Service Such are the Converts of the Gospel where every man is in his rational Soul so satisfied enlightned and convinced that he does all freely 'T is a severe thing to enjoyn me by penal Laws to worship God in a way I neither like nor he accepts which he does not though it be what he has appointed for the matter if I come not in the manner he has likewise appointed to it I shall neither please him nor advantage my own Soul This was the case of the Jews when God hated their solemn Assemblies and said Incense was an abomination to him 'T is usually false worship that needs force 't was Jeroboam that upon Politick grounds began to force a Religion and 't is said of him He made Israel to sin by compelling them to Dan and Bethel If men intend to make Converts to God they must not do more for him than he does for himself he never violates the liberty of the rational Soul but approves things to the understanding if they under this pretext intend to make Proselites to their own power 't is very sinful Fifthly The practice of Christ and the Apostles positively contradicts this course they could have commanded what power they had pleased if that had been the way of setling the Gospel in the world Christ would have no Fire come down from Heaven but that of the Holy Ghost nor no Sword used in the Church but that of the Spirit he bids them Teach all Nations Baptizing them c. that is his way of initiating men into the Church Not as the Spainards Convert the Indians who leave them no choice but to be Baptized or Murthered Men are first to be enlightned and then led into conformable practice Paul prays for men That the Eyes of their understandings might be enlightned And our Saviour when he preached called for an eye and an ear to hear and discern his Doctrine 'T is no matter for either where force is the Medium This deserves to be very well weighed that the Apostles never urged the Truths of the Gospel in their infallible Ministry of them upon farther or other terms than Perswasion

that power Where will he find a Rule in the Gospel to bear with some kind of Heresies and not with others He must not make submitting to a civil Penalty to compensate for an Heresie unless Christ had appointed that as the punishment of it that 's a selling of sin and making a bargain for iniquity for his own advantage and profit That therefore which the Magistrate under the Gospel may not do and without him I am sure the Church cannot do in which negative restraint upon him all Liberty of Conscience is comprehended and the Freedom Christ hath so dearly and fully purchased comprised and which is chiefly intended to be made good by this discourse shall be declared in this following Position which is That no Prince nor State ought by force to compel men to any part of the Doctrine Worship or Discipline of the Gospel The proof of which shall lie in the Reasons following First 'T is a thing against the light of nature so to do and if the Magistrates Power be grounded in the light of nature then to do a thing against that light of nature must needs be very Heterogeneal and wholly out of his compass it must needs be against the common Light and Reason of mankind to force me to be believe a thing wholly out of the compass of my knowledge and capacity and which nature reveals not to me Such are all Gospel Truths they are not like the matters of the moral Law but they are things purely supernatural and of divine Revelation such things as from the beginning of the world eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor never entred into any mans heart to conceive of these things the Apostle saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A man with all the endowments of nature discerneth not because they are spiritually discerned No man can call Jesus the Christ but by the holy Ghost Will you punish a man for not having the holy Ghost that is no way in his power to get but is like the Wind that bloweth where and when it lists 'T is a strange contradiction to our common reason to force men about things wholly unknown to them and out of their own power If Force should be used at any time it should be to bring men from Paganism to Christianity for without that we cannot be saved but when once Christians we may be saved under different apprehensions and yet we may not force a man to be a Christian 1st because 't is unlawful and 2dly because 't is impossible 'T is not lawful because 't is not Christs way of making Christians nor a means by him appointed for that purpose 2dly 'T is impossible because force upon men will never beget or change Principles or Opinions And as we should not force men at the first to the Gospel because till God reveals it we are wholly ignorant of it so we should not force men that are under the Gospel to any thing they believe not for they are as great strangers still to every farther attainment of knowledge in the Gospel till God please to reveal it as they were at first to the whole and therefore the Apostle calls us to patience in these things one with another till God please to reveal himself The light of nature must needs condemn that practice for another to force me about such things wherein my own eternal good or ill is only concerned where it is not to be imagined that I can have any aim but my own Salvation and can hurt none by my belief but my self When I have used rational suitable means to inform another I ought to acquiesce it being not a supposition to be made that a man would willingly design that which he knows will be his own ruin and which will hurt no body but himself He that forceth me to a Religion makes me hate it and makes me think there wants reason and other evidence to evince it Nature abhors compulsion in Religious things as a spiritual rape upon the Conscience No man by the light of nature was ever angry with another for not quitting his Conscience till his judgment was suitably informed because every man finds it an impossibility in himself so to do That which some say That though we may not force men to believe yet men may be forced to the outward means of believing is very little to the purpose for if by outward means they mean a bare outward act distinct from any Religious Worship no doubt Superiors may command it but if they mean any Religious means if the means be such as my Conscience is not satisfied in I ought not to be forced to it if it be such as I am satisfied in force is altogether needless and it belongs not to this Discourse Secondly To use force in Religion is wholly unlawful in any hand whatever because 't is no means appointed by Christ to bring about any Gospel end For the Magistrate to enforce the Laws of the Gospel by temporal power or compel men into the Gospel by such a power is to act without the least Precept or President and to induce an Engine to execute the Gospel contrary to the nature of Christs Kingdom which is not of this world and contrary to the nature of all Gospel institutions The Magistrate as he should be careful to see the Gospel put in execution so in the manner Christ in his wisdom hath appointed for the doing of it which is by his own Institutions and his own invisible power operating and working with them The great Rule of the Gospel is a rule of the Spirit in the hand of Christ as Mediator and 't is a Rule in the hearts and spirits of men and to set up a Rule by any humane power over any part of the Gospel is highly to derogate from that mediatory dominion of Christ nay to use force is not only to act without but against the declared mind of Christ Does not Paul positively deliver this That the Weapons of the Gospel are not carnal but spiritual and mighty through God 'T is not Faggots and Halters but spiritual means by which men are both to be brought in and cast out of the Gospel Church 'T is hearing and not forcing by which Faith is wrought The sword of the Spirit is the weapon by which Christ does all yea by which he will destroy Antichrist the greatest Gospel-enemy the world hath produced Among all the arguments that are brought to prove the Compulsatory Power of the Magistrate under the Gospel the greatest weight is laid upon the Practice of the Kings of Israel and Judah and what they did under the Law in compelling men to the Worship of God then established In the due consideration whereof we shall find the truth in hand no way invalidated and that what was then done by the Kings of Israel and Judah cannot reasonably be made a Rule to Magistrates now under the Gospel and that the Analogy will no way hold may be made

Instance in that Law about putting Idolaters to Death where if we consider the circumstances attending it we shall find it impossible nay unlawful now to be executed Whosoever tempted another to Idolatry was not to be conceal'd but the Person tempted was obliged to kill him himself whether he were his Brother Son Wife or whatever Relation it were In the 13th of Deut. vers 9. Thou shalt surely kill him thy hand shall be first upon him and then the hand of all the People and they shall stone him And afterwards we find there whole Cities of Idolaters are to be raced to the ground and their Children and Cattel utterly destroyed These are Laws that cannot be now executed under the Gospel nay they are forbidden for we are bid to walk in Wisdom to those that are without to do good to all men and to give no offence neither to Jew nor Gentile Nay Believing Husbands and Wives are bid to live with their Unbelieving Relations in hopes to convert them Who can avoid seeing that these Punishments as well as Promises were relative to that People and that state of things to preserve them from the rest of the World and expired with the distinction of Jew and Gentile Thus I have endeavour'd to oppose the Magistrates using the civil Power to force Religion under the Gospel First because 't is against the Light of Nature And secondly 't is not only without but against the Command of the Gospel so to do Famous is that saying of Tertullian to Scapula It appertaineth unto the Authority of the Law of Man and Nature that every man Worship as he thinketh good and one mans Religion doth not hurt nor profit another Neither is it any piece of Religion to inforce Religion which must be undertaken by a mans own accord and not through Violence So thought Turtullian antiently So saith Lactantius Who shall inforce me either to believe what I will not or not to believe what I will So saith Cassdor Religion cannot be forced And Bernard hath an excellent saying to the same purpose Faith is to be planted by Perswasion not obtruded by Violence Bede tells us That here in England so soon as King Ethelbert was converted by Austin the Monk he made a Law That none should be compelled to Religion having understood that Christ's Service ought to be voluntary and not compelled A third Reason against using Force Compulsion about things under the Gospel is Because 't is not adequate to the Malady for if the meaning be to make a man forsake Error and imbrace the Truth 't is no Remedy suitable to the Disease nor will it ever reach such a Distemper or effect such a Cure The Disease lies in the Soul and in the Understanding the compelling and punishing the Body will never help it the end will be wholly lost A man can never be forced to alter or imbrace an Opinion he may deny it or conceal it But if he had a desire through fear or other slavish considerations to do it yet he cannot and so a man is compelled to an impossibility This usually makes Hypocrites and at last Atheists but never makes a right Convert So the Souls of men this way are endangered the Devils Interest promoted but neither the Salvation of Souls nor the Honour of God by enlarging Truth any way furthered He that useth no other Medium but force to me makes a Lyon and a Mastiff-Dog as capable of converting me and giving Laws to my Understanding as he We are bid to restore Persons fallen into Error by a Spirit of Meekness considering our selves lest we also be tempted So Paul to Timothy The Servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle to all men in Meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if God peradventure will give Repentance No man ever yet did any good to himself or others by forcing a man against the Law of his own Light and Reason How many that through fear and oppression have gone against their Light have repented openly to the shame and disgrace of those who violently obtruded Principles upon them contrary to what was natively and properly their own Take amongst many one famous instance recorded by Socrates in his Ecclesiastical History The Emperor Valens by threats and menaces to confiscate and banish him made Elusius Bishop of Cyzicum turn Arrian and approve the Decrees of the Council of Arminium The effect of it was Elusius presently fell into horror of Conscience openly at Cyzicum recanting what he had done crying out of the Emperors unjust cruelty and made all men loath such a proceeding A late Author undertakes to justifie the use of Force in Religion from the Opinion of Saint Austine whose Opinion at first as is well known was That it was no way lawful to use Force to men of differing Opinions in Religion The retraction of that and the change of his mind was occasioned by a particular accident at Hippo and it may be if we consult all circumstances we shall find his last Opinion had more need of a retractation than his first and yet at last he is very positive against all capital punishment his words are Nullis tamen bonis 'T is a thing says he that pleaseth no good man that any Heretick should be put to death We may see by this how men do curtail and enlarge these things according to their interests and particular affections and set bounds at their own pleasure some are for one kind of temporal severity and some for another and so when we leave the Scriptures that give no direction for any we lose our selves and wander as the fancies and interests of men lead us But the Authors words are these Though Force saith he will not remove the Error yet it may prevent its spreading though it doth not take away the Cause yet it hinders most of the mischievous Effects The mischievous effects of an Opinion is considered as it relates to a man himself who is possessed with it and as it relates to others who may be by him infected with it Force doth in no wise hinder the spreading of an Opinion for if a man be punished for declaring to others what he thinks is right and he thinks himself bound in Conscience to declare others are more easily taken and by his Sufferings made more pleased with his Notion and sooner become his Proselites In the other case he that forceth me to deny my Opinion sins in doing it but I sin likewise if I comply with him for such mischievous effects as relate to the Person himself possessed with an Opinion hinders them not at all unless you can convert him by it for it either confirms him in one Error or leads him into a worse If he stand it out and suffer he will be the more rooted in his perswasion by it and be apt to think want of Arguments brings men to Club-Law If he comply against his Light he runs then into an apparent and