Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	aaron_n	apostle_n	moses_n	98	3	6.5392	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51848	Several discourses tending to promote peace & holiness among Christians to which are added, three other distinct sermons / by Dr. Manton.	Manton, Thomas, 1620-1677.	1685 (1685)	Wing M537; Wing T14_CANCELLED; ESTC R8135	192,514	502

Ignorance yet having knowledg of so many saving Truths we hope in time God will reclaim you from your Error Well then 1. Here 's a Difference or Dissent supposed Thus minded and otherwise minded 2. Lenity expressed towards the Dissenters If in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even ●his to you Doct. That when God's People are divided in Opinion all Lenity and mutual Forbearance should be used to prevent things from coming to an open Rupture So sweet and mild was the Discipline in the Apostles days that he would not compel Men to do what-ever he or others did conceive to be Good or to forbear what they did conceive to be Evil but without force leave them to God's Direction and Illumination Here let me shew you I. What Lenity and Forbearance should be used II. The Reasons why Lenity and Forbearance should be used I. What Lenity and Forbearance should be used Let us state it in these Considerations 1. There may be and often are Differences of Opinion about lesser Things in the Church Partly Because of the different degrees of Light All Barks that sail to Heaven draw not alike depth of Water And partly because of the remainders of Corruption in all Inordinate Self-love is not in all alike broken and mortified and so their particular Interests have an influence upon their Opinions And partly because of the accidental Prejudices of Education and Converse c. 2. When these Differences arise we should take care they come not to a Rupture and open Breach This is the course the Apostle taketh here he doth not by and by despair of the Dissenters and reject them as Hereticks but beareth with them hoping in charity God will at length reveal their Error to them by the ministry of his Servants through the powerful Operation of his Spirit and not suffer them to run on in dividing Courses from the rest of his People So should we do in like cases partly because when these Differences of Opinion breed Divisions and Separations the Church is destroyed Gal. 5. 15. For if ye bite and devour one another take heed ye be not consumed one of another Backbitings Revilings and Reproaches make way for a total Vastation of the whole Church a ruin to both Parties Partly because the whole is scandalized John 17. 21. That they may all be one that the World may believe that thou hast sent me Divisions in the Church breed Atheism in the World Partly because there are Enemies which watch for our halting and by our Divisions we are laid open to them Our Lord and Master hath told us with his own Mouth That a Kingdom divided against it self cannot stand Mat. 12. 35. Never was it so well with the People of God but besides their Divisions among themselves they had common Enemies and Nazianzen calls them Common Reconcilers because they should ingage God's People to an unanimous opposition to the Kingdom of Satan in the World And partly because then mutual Means of Edification are hindred As long as Charity and mutual Forbearance remaineth there is hope of doing good to one another but when Men break out into opposite Parties they are prejudiced against all that Light that they should receive one from another suspecting every Point as counsel from an Enemy Gal. 4. 16. Am I therefore become your Enemy because I tell you the Truth When Men are once ingaged in a way of Error whosoever is an Enemy to their Error is counted an Enemy to themselves Y●a they can hardly bear that sound Doctrine which doth directly cross their Opinions but are apt to cavil at all that 's said by a Dissenter And partly because when Men give themselves up to separating and narrow Principles the Power of Godliness is lost and all their Zeal is laid out upon their petty and private Opinions and so Religion is turned into a disputacity That 's the Reason why the Apostle doth so often tell them Gal. 6. 15. For in Christ Iesus neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but a new Creature And Gal. 5. 6. For in Iesus Christ neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor Vncircumcision but Faith that worketh by Love And 1 Cor. 7. 19. Circumcision is nothing and Vncircumcision is nothing but the keeping the Commandments of God Observe it where you will and you shall find that Separation and Distance from the rest of Believers doth not befriend Godliness but undermine it A Regiment fighting apart from the rest of the Army of Christ is always lost through their own peevishness at least they lose great Advantages of promoting the Kingdom of Christ. 3. To prevent this open Rupture there must be all Lenity used and mutual Forbearance we must not rigorously obtrude our Conceits upon others either by Church-Power or private Censure it may be done either way Sometimes by Church-Power especially when 't is possessed or invaded by the more self-seeking sort of Christians as we read in the Revelations of the Beast that pushed with the Horns of a Lamb that is used Church-Power and under a pretence of Church-Constitution destroyed them that were truly the Church of Christ. And our Lord telleth us Iohn 16. 2. They shall put you out of the Synagogues yea the time cometh that whosoever killeth you shall think that he doth God good service Putting them out of the Synagogues was an abuse of Ecclesiastical Power it may be so the Builders may refuse the Corner-Stone On the other side private Censures may as much break the Law of Forbearance as publick Censures When Inferiors promote their Differences with Turbulency Heat and Animosity and rend and tear all things yea themselves from the Body of Christ and sober Christians censuring all that dissent from them as no Christians There is such a Sin under the Gospel as the gain-saying of Corah Jude 11. The Sin of Corah is and may be committed in the New Testament The Sin of Corah was invading an Office that no way belonged to him and censured his Superiors as if they took too much upon them because all the Lord's People were Holy and erected another Ministry in their stead He being a Levite would do the Office of a Priest as well as Aaron and when summoned to appear before Moses said We will not come Numb 16. 11 12. Now the Apostle saith in the perishing of Korah their own Doom was foretold Again vers 19. These are they that separate themselves sensual not having the Spirit Whence 't is clear that private Men in their Sphere may rend the Church And the Factions at Corinth proved it 1 Cor. 1. 12. I am of Paul and I am of Apollo and I am of Cephas and I am of Christ As impailing and impropriating the common Salvation to themselves Much milder was the Apostle 1 Cor. 1. 2. Iesus Christ theirs and ours Now what Remedy is there but Lenity and mutual Forbearance This I shall state 1. As to the matter of the strife It must