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	bishop_n	rome_n	24	3	6.7719	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44790	The glory of the true church, discovered, as it was in its purity in the primitive time also, a manifestation how and when the apostacy came, and how long it hath continued in the Church of Rome, proved to be in it, because she differs in doctrin & practice from the Church of Christ in the Apostles dayes : published for this end, that people may be informed, and their understandings opened to discern of the times and seasons, and see the difference between the lambs wife and the mother of harlots / by one who desires that all may come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved, and walk in the light of the Lord, Francis Howgill.	Howgill, Francis, 1618-1669.	1661 (1661)	Wing H3162; ESTC R38990	108,097	179

hardly stir from thence till they die except some greater advance offer it self also Commissaries Procters Parotters and these are subservient to the former then Chancellors Vice-chancellors Doctors of Divinity Batchelors of Divinity Doctors of Art Masters of Art Batchelors of Art Graduates under-graduates and these belong to the former then Prelates Parsons Vicars Priests Curates and Church wardens all which titles and names and Officers if they be but compared with the Scripture there will be hardly any parallel either concerning office work or Doctrine and notwithstanding all these orders and sorts who are fitted by humane learning or natural study though divers years exercised therein are not skilled in the word of righteousnesse neither hath the tongue of the learned to administer a word in season to the weary nor to turn the sinner from his sins and thus the form of things titles and names are holden up but who seeks after the power of God or to be made able Ministers of the Spirit Literal Ministers enough while maintenance lasts but the ministration of the Spirit few is acquainted with and if there be any such it is well if they be not Persecuted So in that which I have said the understanding will see that there hath been a great Apostacy since the Apostles dayes in the Ministry in Doctrine in Worship and practice divers of which I have touched upon to the intent that they that enquire after the Lord may depart out of the mist of ignorance and come to worship God in spirit and truth and in the Temple made without hands and be joyned to the Church which is in God which the Gates of Hell prevails not against though many will claim Authority from the Apostles few will own their life neither walk after their example so take but a few more Institutions which is called Apostolick to this day among them called Christian Churches Clatus the third Bishop of Rome was the first that wrote this tittle that is greeting and Apostolick blessing he ordained the order of Priesthood Everastus the fifth Bishop ordained that Priests should be honoured and that they should be shaven Alexander the sixth Bishop of Rome ordained that Matrimony should be only solemnized and that the married should be Blessed with the Priest there was the beginning of being married by Priests Sextus about the year 114. after Christ the seventh Bishop of Rome ordained Holy Water and ordered that it should be strowed abroad in Christians houses and when the People met to worship Telesphorus the eight Bishop of Rome ordained that the Communion should be laid upon an Altar and that Lay people should not touch the Holy vessels nor the Holy Garments of the Priests he ordained Lent which was to be kept by the Clergy in the year one hundred forty two Higinus the ninth Bishop ordained the Communion to be celebrated three times at Christmas and that Lent should be fasted Pius about the year 147 after Christ the tenth Bishop ordained that Crism should be Ministred as Baptism and that Children should have God-fathers and God mothers here was the beginning of this great Ordinance and he ordained that Easter-day should be kept on the Sunday Urbanus the seventeenth Bishop of Rome ordained Church-yards to be hallowed and forbad marriage of Priests Pontianus the eighteenth Bishop ordained that Psalms and Mattens should be sung in Church night and day to drive away evil spirits Sextus the twenty fourth Bishop in the year 222. after Christ ordained that Priests should wear Holy Garments as Coops and divers other things in imitation of Aaron and then came up surplices he commanded Images to be set up in Churches Foelix the twenty sixth Bishop of Rome ordained division of Parish Churchres and Diocesses to Bishops Leo the Emperor gave Commandment that all Images and Pictures of Saints should be taken out of the Churches for the avoiding of Idolatry but the Bishop of Rome withstood the Emperor the Emperor for his confirmation of taking of Images away called a Councel of Bishops about three hundred and thirty and they ordained and decreed that all Images should be taken away and burned in the 740. But in the year 769. Gregory the third called a Council together at Rome near a thousand Bishops and condemned Leo the Emperor and three hundred Bishops for taking Images out of the Churches and yet the former Counsel and this all of one Faith and Church which they use to say could not erre and the latter decreed they should be adored and Worshiped with all reverence Boniface the eighth he gave licence to the mendicant Friars to hear the private Confession of sins that people should confess to them Pope Alexander gave commandment that the Sacrament should be made of the Sweet Bread and commanded that water should be mingled with wine Innocentius the third ordained that People should confess their sins to a Priest once a year in the year at the least And these kinds of Decrees stand for Apostolical to this day among the Apostates and the reformed Churches so called do own many things that are too near a kin to them and preffeth them for Ordinances and holy Institutions yea in many Countries the self same things are both owned and practised in many particulars which I have mentioned before in other parts of this Book and are looked upon as divine service and holy Worship which the Ministers of Christ who have the word of reconciliation to publish are ashamed of knowing them to be such things as never was practised nor holden out by Christ or his Apostles but are brought in since darkness hath over-spread the Earth and the Power of God hath been lost And at the first Institution thereof though there might be some shew of a good intention in the formers of them but now they are become absolute Idols and however at the first some of the things mentioned might seem to some to be indifferent yet now being prest of necessity as the Ordinances of God they are become Idols and ought to be thrown away and departed from by all that professeth the Gospel of Christ Jesus and the worship of God in the Spirit For the Lord God hath drawn away his presence out of all formal and visible appearance since Antichrist and the false Church hath got them on for a Garment and to cover themselves withall to the deceiving of the Nations And now in this the day of his power hath appeared in a more mysterious and secret and hidden way and in a more spiritual appearance Into this deceit cannot enter nor transform and therefore all Babylons Merchants are angry and Antichrists followers are full of Wrath and the Dragon cast out floods after the heir and her that brings him forth and makes War with her Seed but the Lord is putting on her Beautiful Garments and Marrying her to himself and she shall reign and her Seed who are born of the Spirit when she that sat as a Queen upon the

Empire and led a Private life having Raigned one and twenty years which was in the year 305. these two latter Emperors Maximinius and Constantius who were called Cesars now became the Emperors of the whole one in the East and the other in the West Maxentius was set up Emperor by the Souldiers and goes against Maximinius the Emperor who sent Severus his Son to War against him which Severus being slain Lycinius Caesar was chosen in the room so that Maximinius Constantius and Maxentius continued the tenth Persecution after Dioclesian and his partner had given over saving Constantius and esepcially his Son Constantius were kind to the Christians Constantius Chused those who refused to offer Sacrifice and commit Idolatry to be in his Court and Banished the Heathen Idolaters as unfit for his service that were Traitors to God and this was about the year 311. On the other hand Maximinius the Emperor and his partner was very Wicked in Idolatry and Cruelty God struck him with a great Plague in the Belly and secret parts which purrifying broke our with swarms of Lice which caused such a stink that the Physitian could not endure the same wherefore he slew the Physitian and by the anguish of his Disesase he slacked Persecution making confession that his Persecuting of them had brought this upon him and so acknowledged his offence and the Infidels divers exalted the God of the Christians yet afterwards being incensed against the Christians this Emperor set up Decrees afresh to Persecute the Christians whereby many Bishops and others were Martyred here was no titles of Lord Bishops and Arch-Bishops not yet in the first three hundred years neither was there any Pope then that did lay claim to supremecy over all the Churches neither had these Bishops whole Counties and Provinces for their maintenance neither all Rome Constantinople Antioch and Jerusalem and all People therein for their Dioceses but them only of the Christians who believed in each of those places but afterwards in the great Persecution there followed great famine and pestilence on the Heathen which caused the Persecution to cease and caused Maximinius to revoke his Decrees and punished the Inchanters that incensed him against the Christians Maxillianus who was joyned in the Empire with Dioclesian who laid down the Goverment of the Empire endeavoured to have slain Constantius the Emperor that he might have got up again into the Empire but failing of his enterprize was slain of Constantius Maxentius this time Reigns wickedly and tyrannically at Rome which caused the Romans to entreat Costantine to come against Maxentius for his Wickedness who made War against him and upon a Bridge made of boats over the River Tyber he was intraped by Constantine and drowned in Tyber and thus the Righteous Judgements of God at last came upon them for their Blood and cruelty as a recompenence and a reward for their deeds but Constantine set forth Decrees of favour to the Christians Marcellinus was Bishop of Rome about the tenth year of Dioclesian in the Persecution he sacrificed to Idols and was excommunicated by three hundred Bishops but afterwards was killed in the Massacre of Dioclesian Marcellus succeeded and one Lucina a rich maid of Rome dying made Marcellus her heir and gave him all her substance and from that time saith Pollidore lib. 1. the Bishops of Rome were greatly enriched and so began to grow up in earthly honours higher and higher But Constantine the Emperor about the year 318. caused a Cross to be made of Gold and precious stones and to be born before his Army instead of a Standard when he went to fight against Maxentius Maximinius and Lucimus these were the least Persecutors of the Christians in the Romane Monarchy which this Constantine did vanquish and set the Christians at liberty who had been Persecuted about three hundred years and so afterwards this Cross others began to Imitate and set up in their Churches and became a flat Idol notwithstanding after this some Persecution was stirring in the Eastern Counties yet in Rome and the Western parts and there was no general Persecution for many years and also in the East part he subdued those Tyrants and we read of no Persecution against the Christians untill the time that John Wickliff suffered which was when the Spirit of the Heathen was entred into the Bishops of Rome and Popes who had retained the name of Christian but lost the life and the Power he began with fire to Persecute the Members of Christ. But long before this time the Wisdom and Power of God was much lost among many of the Bishops of Rome and also divers others that the Apostacy was entred in and they made great contentions about Easter and about dayes which should be Fasted and some was for two and some was for three and some was for forty dayes all the Churches of Asia and their Bishops was for keeping it the fourteenth Moon as Eusebius saith lib. 5. For Asia observed the Feast of Easter and they called a great Council together and decreed that it should be observed the fourteenth Moon upon what day soever in that week the Moon fell and appointed fasting dayes and Meetings and Synods in all parts met together about this trivial matter in the year 199. At Rome likewise there was a Synod gathered together wherein Victor the fourteenth Bishop was President and the Eastern Churches decreed it the day aforesaid and fastings before it and a Western Church decreed it to be the day wherein Christ rose from death to Life but Victor Bishop of Rome with the adjoyned Congregations pronounces flatly all the Westren Churches to be excommunicated Persons and gives them up to Sathan so that it became a Proverb that the Bishop of Rome must judge all and be judged of none this was about the year one hundred ninety nine after Christ when they had respit from Persecution And Iraeneus Bishop of Lyons he was of Victors mind that it ought to be celebrated on the Sunday only yet reproved Victor Bishop of Rome Peters successor as they say for cutting off all the Churches of God in Asia for such a trivial thing And Policarpus and Anisatus contended about trivial things and although there was much good in them both yet this weakned the Christians and led the minds of People out into the observance of outward things and neglected the life and the Power Lucius the two and twentieth Bishop of Rome about the year 255. and Stephanus who succeeded him a great contention in their time about baptism the matter was whether they that returned from any heresie should be rebaptized or be received in with Prayer and laying on of hands only and so here was a great jangling and contention about outward things which were geting up as Idols And Cyprian Bishop of Carthage judged that Hereticks had no way to be purged from Error but by baptism but Stephanus was greatly offended with Cyprian for this After Stephen Xystus succeeded and