Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	life_n	see_v	word_n	6,113	5	4.0840	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89004	A late printed sermon against false prophets, vindicated by letter, from the causeless aspersions of Mr. Francis Cheynell. / By Jasper Mayne, D.D. the mis-understood author of it.	Mayne, Jasper, 1604-1672.	1647 (1647)	Wing M1471; Thomason E392_15; ESTC R201569	52,704	63

constancy sake you would have them allow of prayers for the dead and in King Charls and Queen Mary's days to pray still for King James and Queen Anne which would be a piece of popery equal to the invocations of saints you will find nothing medern or of such new contrivance as past not Bucers ●xamen in the raign of Edward the sixth And was confirmed b● Act of Parliament in the raign of Queen Elizabeth In saying this in their defence who had the ordering of such changes I hope Sir you will not so uncharitably think me imbark't in their Faction which truly to me stil presented it self like the conceal'd Horses under ground a fiction made to walk the streets to terrifie the people as to perswade your self after my so many professions to fall a sacrifice to the Protestant Religion that it can be either in the power of the Church or court of Rome to tempt me from my Resolution Which is to go out of the world in the same Religion I came in Sir I gave warning in my last letter not to venture your writings upon the Arg●ment which deceives none but very vulgar understandings and which I in my Ser●on cal the Mother of mistakes which is from an accidental concurrence in some things to infer an outright similitude and agreement in all Because Bellarmine says tradition is a better medium to prove somethings by then a private spirit and because I in this particular have said so too you tacitely infer that I and Bellarmine are of the same Religion which is the same as if a Turk and a Christian saying that the Sun shines you should infer that the Christian is a Mahumetan and for saying so a Turk I confess you do not say we are both of the same Religion but that I in preferring Tradition which you your self in your s●●●●●h paragraph t●ow to be the Constant and uni●ersal Report of the Church befo●● he Testimony of the Spirit speaking in the Word to the Consci●●ce● of private men am more profane than he Heer sir you must not take it ill if I expose you to the censure of being deservedly thought guilty of a double mistake The one is that if Bellarmine in this particular were in an Errour and if I had out-spoken him in his Errour yet the Laws of speech will not allow you to say That in an unprof●●● subject either of us is profane more heretical or mistaken you might perhaps have said and this though a false Assertion might yet have past for right Expression But to call him positively and me comparatively more profane because we both hold That a Drop is more liable to corruption then the Ocean or the testimony of al ages of the Church is a fuller proof of the meaning of a text in Scripture then the solitary Exposition of a man who can perswade none but himself is as incongruous as if you should say that because Bellanmine wrote but three Volumn● and Abulensis twelve therefore Abulensis was a greater Adulterer then He. Your other mistake is That you confound the Spirit of God speaking in the Scripture with the private Spirit that is Reason Humour or Fancie of the person spoken to Sir let that blessed Spirit decide this controversie between us He sayes * * 2 Pet. 1.20 that no Prophesie of the Scripture is of private Interpretation That is so calculated or Meriduanized to some select mind understandings that it shall hold the candle to them only and leave All others in the Darke But if you will consent to the Comment of the most primitive Fathers on that Text The meaning of it is That as God by his Spirit did at first dictate the scripture so he dictated it in those things which are necessary to Salvation intelligible to all the world of M●n who will addict their minds to read it It being therefore a Rule held out to all mankind for them to order their lives and actions by and therefore universally intelligible to them it should else cease to be either Revelation or a Rule for you to hold that is ●●●not be understand without a second Revelation made by the same Spirit that wrote it to the private spirit of you the more-Cabinet Reader is as if you should inclose and impale to your self the Ayre or Sun-be●●es And should maintain that God hath placed the Sun in the firmament and given you only eyes to see him In short sir 't is to make as word which was ordained to give light to all the World a Dark Lanthorn In which a candle shines to the use of none but him that bears it Your Eighth Paragraph being the third of your eleven Questions as also the close of your ninth shall receive a latine Answer from me in the Divinity School Your next Paragraph is againe the Hydra with repullulating Heads Where first you put me to prove the purity of the Doctrine Discipline and Government in England Which being managed by a Prelaticall faction whom you say I call the Church was not excellent if I reckon from the yeare 1630. to 1640. As for the Doctrine Sir I told you before that the Primitive Church it selfe was not free from Heresies If therefore I should grant you which I never shall till you particularly tell me what those erroneous doctrines were that some men in our Church were heterodox nay hereticall in their opinions yet I conceive it to be a very neere neighbour to heresie in you to charge the doctrines of persons upon the Kingdome or Church Such Doctrines might be in England as you whether out of Choice or Luck have said yet not by the Tenets or Doctrines of the Land No more then if you should say that because M. Yerbury and some few others hold the Equ●lity of the Saints with Christ the whole Kingdome is a blasphemer and was by you confuted at S. Maries The publick doctrine of the Church of England I call none but that which was allowed to be so by an Act of Pa liament of England and that Sir was contained in the 39. Articles If any Prelate or inferiour Priest for the Cicle of yeares you speak of either held or taught any thing contrary to these as it will be hard I beleeve for you to instance in any of that side who did you shall have my consent in that particular to count them no part of our Church In the meane time Sir I beseech you be favourable to this Island and think not that for ten yeares space 't was hereticall in all the parts of it on this side Berwick Withall Sir I desire since you have assigned me an Epocha to reckon from that you will compare the worst doctrines which wore the date of the Trojan Warre amongs us with those which have since broke loose in the space of a Warre not halfe so long and you will find that our Church for those ten yeares you speak of wore a garment I will not say as seamless

this conflict I am very much pleased with your faire condescension to have all things in controversie rationally and spiritually examined 1. Sir you did as I conceive preach in defence of all images set up in any Chappell in the Vniversity you know there are divers Images of some persons in the glorious Trinity set up in some Chappels within this Vniversity You must then acknowledge all Images of that sort ought to be taken downe Imago nos tantism●t memoriale excitat uti Jesuitae passim Dico non esse tam certum in Ecclesiâ an sint faciendae imagenes Dei sive Trin●tatis q●â Ch●●sti sancto is hoc ●nim ad sidem ●ertin●t tilud e●t in opi●one B●lla deim g l. 2 c. 8 J●animata sp●ritualem quandam virt●●em exconsecratione adipiscuntu● c. Tho. p. 3. q. 83. art 3. Deum imaginibus inhabitantè colunt Deum cut●m virtu●e ●stam sp●●●tua●● ret●●he●e alquando sive ●●●●be es●t●n●m Casetanus hac in re●nc Gentilibus quidem sanientio● hab●tur You are not perswaded by any Scriptures which I have cited but nature hath taught you so pure is your nature that it is a breach of the second Commandement to draw a picture of God revise that fancy the Schoolmen whom you prefer before the testimonies cited out of the Word have taught you that it is not onely sinfull but impossible to draw any picture of God But be pleased to consider that the Scriptures are a perfect nay indeed the onely All-sufficient perfect Rule therefore you need not goe about to patch up the rule with the low generall dictates of nature School-men you may study the L●llian Art fill your braine with Sebund's fancyes but my Schoole-men as you call them are the best Tutors the best Schollars If you prove that is is impossible to picture God you doe not touch the point in Controversie for vaine men will fancy and endeavour to doe that which is impossible for to be done Beleeve it Sir they who had consulted as many Muses and courted as many Graces as you have done and were able to demonstrate out of their Poets that we are Gods off-spring yet were not able without the help of divine Revelation to infer from thence that the Godhead is not like to Gold as you may see it convincingly proved Act 17.29 For as much then as we are the off-spring of God we ought not to thinke that the Godhead is like to Gold or Silver or stone graven by Art or mans device I dare not therefore make the Schoolmen my Judges in this weighty point and I beleeve you cannot prove them to be Judges in any point which concernes the Mystery of faith or the power of godliness but enough of that 3. The word thereupon is sometimes Illative sometimes Ordinative you are sufficiently answered but let me adde that if no Image is like God then sure those Images which are not made to represent God and yet are by Idolatours turned into Idols and worshipped as if they were divine cannot reasonably be defended Sir I must guess at your meaning because I beleeve you have omitted two or three words such is your running negligence which should help to make your sophisticall criticisme perfect sense Truly Sir if it be so high a fault to picture God I may justly wonder that any picture of a Saint turned into an Idoll should be retained and pleaded for by any man that pretends to be a Protestant and if it be impossible to picture God it is also impossible to picture God-man And I beleeve that you will acknowledge our Mediatour to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. That the Sun and Images cannot be put in the scales of a comparison in point of fitness to be preserved is a truth written with a Sun-beame Sir I never durst argue from the abuse of a thing against the use of it if the thing be necessary But the Sun is necessary and Images are not necessary ergo there is no parity of reason between the termes of your comparison 5. It appeares to me by your shifting fallacy that you make Copes as necessary as clean Linnen 6. You will never be able to prove that all that the prelates and their Faction have borrowed out of the Missall Ritualls Breviary Pontificall of Rome are to be found in any Lyturgie received by the Primitive Church And I would intreat you to consider whether they who doe profess a seperation from the Church of Rome can in reason receive and imbrace such trash and trumpery And yet though you would willingly be esteemed a Protestant I find you very unwilling to part with any thing which the Prelates have borrowed from the Court rather the Church of Rome 7. Your next Paragraph doth concerne Tradition I shall give you leave to preferre the constant and universall consent of the Church of Christ in all ages before the reason of any single man but Sir you doe very ill to call the testimony of the spirit speaking in the word to the Conscience of private men a private spirit I thinke you are more profane in the stating of this point then Bellarmine himselfe 8. You have not yet proved that any Prelate can challenge the Sole power of Ordination and Jurisdiction Jure divino 9. I should be glad to know for how many yeares you will justifie the purity of the Doctrine Discipline and Government in England I beleeve the Doctrine Discipline and Government of the Prelaticall faction whom you call the Church was not excellent if you reckon from 1630. to 1640. and that is time enough for men of our time for to examine I beleeve that you will acknowledge that the Prelates did lay an Ostracisme upon those who did oppose them who were in the right both in the point of Doctrine and Discipline we shall in due time dispute Though Prelacy it selfe be an usurpation yet there were many other encroachments which may justly be called Prelaticall usurpations and the Parliament hath sufficiently declared its judgement in this point they have clearly proved that Prelacy had taken such a deepe root in England and had such a destructive influence not only into the pernicious evills of the Church but Civill State that the Law of right reason even Salus populi quae suprema lex est did command and compell them to take away both roote and branch you may dispute that point with them Sir you cannot prove that Prelacy is an Order of the Church as ancient as the Christian Church it self and made venerable by the never interrupted reception of it in all Ages of the Church but ours 10. I am no Turkish Prophet I never preacht any piece of the Alchoran for good Doctrine much less did I ever make it a piece of the Gospell all that I say is this that Christians incorporated in a Civill State may make use of Civill and naturall means for their outward safety And that the Parliament hath a

Legall power more then sufficient to prevent and restrain Tyranny Finally the Parliament hath power to defend that Civill right which we have to exercise the true Protestant Religion this last point is sure of highest consequence because it concernes Gods immediate honour and the Peoples temporall and eternall good Pray Sir shew me if you can why he who saith the Protestants in Ireland may defend their Civill right for the free exercise of their Religion against the furious assaults of the bloudie Rebells doth by that assertion proclaime himself a Turke and Denison the Alchoran you talke of the Papists Religion Sir their faith is faction their Religion is Rebellion they think they are obliged in conscience to put Heretiques to the sword this Religion is destructive to every Civill State into which true Protestants are incorporated therefore I cannot but wonder at your extravagancy in this point Sir Who was it that would have imposed a Popish Service Book upon Scotland by force of Armes You presume that I conceive the King had an intent to extirpate the Protestant Religion Sir I am sure that they who did seduce or over-awe the King had such a designe I doe not beleeve that the Queene and her Agents the Papists in England who were certainly confederate with the Irish Rebells had any intent to settle the true Protestant Religion you cannot but beleeve that their intent was to extirpate the Protestant Religion by the sword and to plant Popery inits stead I know Christ doth make prose●ites and breake the spirituall power of Antichrist by his word and spirit for Antichrist is cast out of the hearts and consciences of men by the spirit of the Lord Jesus but Christ is King of Nations as well as King of Saints and will breake the temporall power of Antichrist by Civill and naturall meanes If Papists and Delinquents are in readiness to resist or assault the Parliament by Armes how can the Parliament be defended or Delinquents punished but by force of Armes I know men must be converted by a spirituall perswasion but they may be terrified by force of Armes from persecution All that I say is the Parliament may repell force with force and if men were afraid to profess the truth because of the Queenes Army and are now as fearfull to maintaine errours for feare of the Parliament the scales are even and we may by study conference disputation and prayer for a blessing upon all be convinced and converted by the undenyable demonstrations of the Spirit Sir this is my perswasion and therefore I am sure far from that Mahumetan perswasion of which I am unjustly accused 11. I am glad that you speake out and give light to your darke roome I did not accuse you of Convenicles I beleeve you hate those Christian meetings which Tertullian Minutius Pliny and others speake of we had lights and witnesses good store at our meetings And as for your conceit that I deserve to be in Bedlam because of the predominancy of my pride and passion and the irregularity of my will Sir I confess that I deserve to be in Hell a worse place then Bedlam and if you scoffe at me for this acknowledgement I shall say as Augustine did Irrideant me arrogantes nondum salubritèr prostrati elisi à te Deus meus ega tamen confiteor dedecora mea in laude tua Sir be not too confident of the strength of your wit make a good use of it or else you may quickly come to have as litle wit as you conceive God hath bestowed on me 1. Doe you beleeve that your nature is corrupt 2. And doth not a wanton wit make the heart effeminate 3. Did you never converse with any woman of light behaviour rub up your memory 4. Superstitious persons are usually lascivious I could tell you more but I spare you 5. Are you more temperate then the Disciples to whom Christ gave that caveat Luk. 21.34 you may then apply your selfe to Prayer and Fasting doe not say that this is a filthy Caveat but beware of that filthy sinne and acknowledge that the Caveat is given you upon sad considerations 12. You tell me that God is not so fatally tyed to the Spindle of an absolute Reprobation but that upon your Repentance he will seale your Pardon Sir Reprobatio est tremendum Mysterium how dare you jest upon such a Subject at the thought of which each Christian trembles Can any man repent that is given up to a reprobate mind and an impenitent heart And is not every man finally impenitent save those few to whom God gives repentance freely powerfully effectually See what it is for a man to come from Ben. Johnson or Lucian to treat immediately of the ●igh and stupendidious mysteries of Religion the Lord God pardon this wicked thought of your heart that you may not perish in the bond of iniquity and gall of bitterness be pleased to study the 9. Chapter to the Romanes You say if we agree upon the true state of the Questions before hand nothing will be left us to dispute Sir it is 1. one thing to state a question for debate so that you may undertake the affirmative I the Negative or è contrat 2. another thing to state a question in a supposition as the Respondent usually doth and a third business to state a question after the debate in a prudent and convincing determination as the Moderatour should doe I speake of agreeing upon the state of the question in the first sense that the Question may be propounded in such termes as doe so farre state the point in Controversie that you and I may know which port to take the Affirmative or Negative The questions as I conceive are these that follow 1. Whether all that our Prelates have borrowed of the Church of Rome and imposed upon the people ought to be still retained in the Church of England 2. Whether the Images of our Mediatour and the Saints are usefull Ornaments in Protestant Churches 3. Whether any Prelate be endued with the power of sole Ordination and Jurisdiction Jure divine 4. Whether they who defend the Protestants of Ireland against the Rebells by force of Armes are therefore to be esteemed Mahumetans 5. Whether that faith which is grounded only upon Tradition ought to be esteemed a Divine faith 6. Whether the spirit speaking in the word to the conscience of private men ought to be esteemed a private Spirit 7. Whether any Reprobate can ever be converted or saved 8. Whether the Papists of England Rebells of Ireland with their Confederates did endeavour to extirpate the Protestant Religion and plant Popery in its stead 9. Whether they who endeavoured to impose a Popish Service-Booke upon Scotland by force of Armes were of the Mahumetan perswasion 10. Whether the School-men are Competent judges in any point which concernes the Mysterie of Faith or Power of Godliness 11. Whether the Nationall Covenant contradict it selfe Sir if you