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	call_v	honour_n	96	3	5.9727	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85043	The churches and ministery of England, true churches and true ministery. Cleared, and proved, in a sermon / preach'd the 4th of May at Wiviliscombe; before a numerous congregation assembled together to hear the opposition, which had been long threatned to be made that day, by Mr Collier and others of his party, who, with the greatest strength the West would afford them, were present at the sermon. Wherein were these five things undeniably proved: 1. That a mixture of prophane and scandalous persons with reall saints, is not inconsistent with the Church of God or a true church. ... 5. And then, they also must needs be guilty, who forsake true churches and a lawfull ministry, to follow and hear unsent preachers. By Francis Fullwood minister of the Gospel at Staple Fitzpane in the county of Somerset. Before it there is an epistle and preface, shewing the manner, and a narrative subjoyned shewing the substance of the dispute after the sermon, (both which lasted nine hours.) Set forth by the ministers that were at the dispute, and attested under their hands.	Fullwood, Francis, d. 1693.; Darby, Charls.; Collier, Thomas, fl. 1691.	1652 (1652)	Wing F2498; Thomason E671_2; ESTC R202166	72,915	100

throughout and nothing warrantable with God or man Two things I should undertake here viz. to shew you the ground of this distinction of publick Preaching and private teaching and to clear and confirm my conclusion thereupon Rutherford Hall Collings Ferriby c. viz. That though private teaching be the duty of all yet publick Preaching is the sin of any but men in Office which having been done so fully by others to whom I refer you I shall dispatch in a word For the ground and reason of this clear distinction one instance of many shall serve the turn and it is of women whom we find in Scripture commended for private teaching yet also forbidden there in publick Preaching see Act. 18. 26. There Aquilla and Priscilla took Apollos unto them it is said and expounded the word Mark they took him to them aside into private and there the woman as well as the man expounded the way of God unto Apollos Well then here is an example of a womans teaching in a private way but doth this allow a womans publick Preaching no alas that 's clearly forbidden in another text which tels us we must not suffer a woman to speak in the Church neither to the end she may teach or learn And as women are forbidden to speak at all so are men forbidden to preach in the Church without a call For no man taketh this honour to himself unlesse he be called of God as Aaron was As if it had been said in the times of the Gospel Heb. 5. 4. a call is as necessary to licence a Preacher as it was in the time of the law For how shall they Preach except they be sent Rom. 10. 15. That is none can perform the Office of a Preacher as just before How shall they hear without a Preacher unless he be sent that is as we largely explained before ordained according to the order of the Gospel by the power of the Church Now we never read of any in Scripture that were sent to preach but they were thereby put into Office yea this Preaching in the Text is expounded there to be an exercise of one that is sent and none other and this being sent doth expound it selfe to make a Preacher as in the last words of the fourteenth verse and this word Preacher is never given to any in Scripture but to men in Office Then those that to presume to preach must needs pretend to be sent some way or other and I know no other sending but extraordinary or ordinary now I wish our Adversaries to take which they please Are they sent extraordinarily That though some of them have pleaded heretofore they are all ashamed of and do not now so much as pretend unto it for indeed it is great blasphemy Neither doe they pretend to be sent in an ordinary way according to the nature of the word sending or the Rule of the Gospel as we have this day declared to you How and yet dare to preach upon what account I beseech you Object There is a sending of Duty as well as Office saith one of them Answ How many absurdities are couch't together in these few words 1. It would devide betwixt the Duty and Office of preaching which differ no more than Ghost and Spirit the same thing in two words 2. It would devide betwixt a mans being sent by God and put into Office by him still one and the same thing 3. It is but the old distinction put into worse and harder words which is That private Christians may exercise their gifts in a way of love in a private way but there is a preaching in Office that onely is lawfull for men that are sent 4. To speak all in a word this sending in the very nature of the word and sence of Scripture doth plainly exclude what ever such men pretend unto to authorize their sinful disorderly practice of publick preaching even all the four things we nam'd before 1. It excludes the secret impulse of their own spirit for no man that goes of his own accord can be said to be sent the one is Active the other Passive and this is confirm'd by that known Text No man taketh this honour to himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron clearly expressing that going and calling are two things 2. Sending excludes the call of gifts also for we not imagine that every man that is fit eo ipso a Justice of Peace ability is one thing commission another as most evidently appears by that clear Text Mat. 10. 1 5. In the first verse they have their qualification and in the fift they receive their Commission and are bid goe and therefore examination or proving of gifts is but the way to Ordination as in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus doth plainly appear 3. Sending excludes Electing from the whole work and therefore we finde sending and electing two things and even perform'd in a different way and by different persons in Acts 6. 5 6. The people chose and set the men before the Apostles but they are not sent yet and therefore the Apostles lay hands upon them 4. Sending is more than desiring lastly for this is but an act of an equal but sending is ever an act of Superiors Desiring doth leave the power in the partee desir'd but sending implyes the power to be in the partee sending Desiring doth not while sending doth still put a man into Office and a Minister in special giving him authority to deliver his Message intrusted to him for how shall he preach except he be sent That is perform the Office of a Preacher except he hath receiv'd a Commission so to do except he be sent Which I conclude with this argument as the sum of this matter None may preach except he be sent But Self-will Gifts Election Desire or Invitations of the people are not sending Therefore those that have no other Commission then these four may not preach Object But though we have not the Doctrine of Scripture we have many examples of Scripture that favour our preaching Answ 1. Suppose it yet you must know these two things 1. That Example will never warrant the practice of any unlesse all circumstances of time place person c. that are materiall meet together if thou beest not in all respects in the same condition with that man thou lookst at in Scripture his action is no pattern to thee 2. That Examples in Scripture are not further to be imitated by us then they are agreeing with the Word of Scripture But secondly as you have not one Word so neither one Example in the holy Scripture that will stand you in stead in the least Object Did not Apollos preach Answ So may you in non-constituted Churches especially if you were known to be Ministers as he is called 1 Corinth 3. 5. Object But did not Philip preach Answ So may you in the same state of the Church especially being ordained as Philip was Acts 6.

bring in a generall Toleration and to put down the Ministers in a generall Toleration there being no hedge of Discipline to keep him out he hopes to crowd in with the rest and then trusts to his learning and parts to do well enough especially can he but get his greatest enemy the able Ministry down Which he attempts by rendring it odious to the people because of maintenance and to the Parliament by making them what in them lies to be enemies to the State But doth not the Parliament very well know that every County of the Land can produce divers Ministers that have been true to their Cause ever since they first sate to this very day but I need not blaze the friendship of Jesuits or indeed of our adversaries more immediate to civill Authority both in principle and practice and in this I am sure they agree that the Christian Magistrate hath nothing to do with matter of Religion which casts a greater blur upon Parliamentary proceedings of that nature for these many years past then the worst of the actions I think I may say that the Ministry hath done Honoured Sr I am too bold and tedious take this I beseech you as a pawn and pledg of that honour and gratitude I owe to you and the Lord inspire you with the spirit of discerning to search into these things more and more discouraging error and owning his truth who hath said those that honour me I will honour to whose grace and glory I am bold to commend both you and yours and subscribe my self as indeed I am Most Honoured Sir Your very much obliged and most humble servant FRAN FULLWOOD A Preface to the Reader CHRISTIAN READER FOr such a one I suppose my self speaking unto one who knowest thy self concerned in all the affairs of Christianity and upon that ground art the Lords Remembrancer at the Throne of Grace not only for thy self but for all others also who are partakers of like precious faith with thee and hast powred out many a prayer and tear for the peace and prosperity of Jerusalem Thou art it may be lately come out of thy closet where thou hadst sweet communion with him whom thy soul loveth and thou sawest so much of his comelinesse and beauty that thy heart was taken therewith more then ever and then thou hadst many such holy breathings as these Whom have I in Heaven but thee c I will suppose Psal 73. 25. this to have been thy last exercise as it is sometimes if thou art a Christian indeed Let me intreat thee then to retire to thy closet again and after thy former raptures and extasies let it not seem unseasonable to reflect a little with sad thoughts and weeping eyes upon the great distractions in the Church the spouse of Christ. Spirituall joy doth not use to streighten the heart but enlarge it and make it the fitter and freer to mourn nor doth it dry up the eyes but rather open the fountain of tears Beleeve me this would be a seasonable exercise nay it is the mark of a Saint The gracious soul as he grieves more for that he hath sinned against his God than for any Crosse which reacheth his person or estate so also he is much more troubled for the schismes and heresies wherewith the Church of God is rent and torn than for his own private afflications If thou hast a publike spirit and esteemest the honour of Christ and the promoting of Religion far more dear unto thee then thine own interest credit or preferment Tell me Would it not be lamented if possible with tears of bloud that the good Spirit of God should be grieved by reason of that Eph. 4. 30 31. Ut excontextu patet bi●ternesse and wrath and anger which are secretly fomented and too often break out into clamours and evil speakings of Christians one against another Se●meth it unto thee a small matter that the joy in the heart of Christ Jesus now in Heaven should be diminished by reason of the decay of love in those who are his members Certainly Joh 15. 10 11 12. Quondam est illud gaudium Christi in nobis nisi quòd ille di natur gaudere de nobis Aug. in loc when Christians are fruitfull in their lives and abound in love one towards another Christ rejoyceth over them even in Heaven And I see no reason why the contrary may not be implied viz. That when the love of the bretheren shall grow cold one towards another as wofull experience sufficiently sheweth that difference of opinion doth if not make a breach yet secretly withdraw affection the joy in Christs heart over them is lessened which how great an evilit is I leave to them to judge who love the Lord Jesus in sincerity Again Is it nothing to thee that the Diamonds of the Lord cut one another That the servants of Christ should as it were set the Spirit against it se●f misimploying those precious gifts which they received from him for mutuall help and furtherance in bitter invectives unsavoury discoveries of each others infirmities fruitlesse and endlesse logomachies so that instead of composing they widen the breach and instead of terminating rather perpetuate strife and contention Canst thou without a sigh remember how by this means our Religion suffers in its reputation abroad our profession is scandalized our hopeful Reformation flouted as if the holy endeavours of our Reverend Assembly had all this while produced a solemne Nothing or which is worse had midwived only to the birth of that monstrous brood of errors which now swarm and roar among us Doth not thy heart bleed to consider how the common enemy danceth at our discord which makes a pleasing harmony to them how the Jesuites triumph in our divisions feeding themselves with assured hopes of prevailing against us according to their old principle Divide impera How much 1 Pet. 5. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Kingdom of Satan is hereby promoted How many souls he hath drunk up how the power of godliness is almost laid aside and working out our salvation turned into talking praying into disputing and preaching into railing How much dirt hath been cast into the face of the most glorious Ministry that ever next to the Apostles the Church of Christ enjoyed And how some of them who at least pretended to the Ministry have cowardly shrunk from their station nay traiterously run to the enemy and as it is said of the Janizaries that they are the worse enemies to Christianity for having been once Christians so these are the most eager and violent sticklers against the Ministery Reader here are considerations which if thou hast a tender and gracious spirit may well make thee cry out My bowels Consider further how few faithfull labourers there are in the Lords harvest How many deceivers and impostors are newly started up What hideous blasphemies are now vented What a multitude of errours and heresies are now broached which are