Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A33915
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A perswasive to consideration, tender'd to the Royalists particularly those of the Church of England.
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Collier, Jeremy, 1650-1726.
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1693
(1693)
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Wing C5259; ESTC R35653
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13,368
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32
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with Socinians Jews and Mahometans upon occasion For here the true God is worshipped and many Points of Morality are taught If this Liberty is too large then we must stand off in the present Case for here both the Meeting and the Matter are unlawful The Meeting because Schismatical The Matter for the Reasons above mentioned For if Deposing of Kings and Dispensing with Oaths and resolving Conscience into Public Good that is Convenience are not Tenents of a flaming Malignity the distinctions of Right and Wrong are unintelligible And to cut off all Excuse the Evil is as throughly incorporated and as Solemnly avow'd in the latter Case as in the other and therefore it must be equally impossible to make a Separation However I am loath to leave my Church You say well But can you expect to find the Church where its peculiar Doctrins are disown'd where its Authority is opposed and betrayed to the Secular Power Does the Being of a Church consist in Brick and Stone what would you do if Jupiter was worshipped there I hope the Chiming of the Bells would not draw you to the Service of the Idol If 't is urged that we may be so planted as to want the Advantage of an Orthodox Pastor what is to be done in such Circumstances must we Pray alone without the Assistance of Preist or Congregation To this Question after what has been said I think the Proverb a sufficient Return Better be alone then in ill Company If 't is farther objected that by this Principle we may lose the Benefit of the Blessed Sacrament To this I answer 1. That this Objection is oftentimes no more then Pretence For if People would take that Pains which the Regard to the Institution requires it seldom happens but they might receive it from proper Hands But 2. I answer that breaking the Unity of the Church by Schismatical Communion and making our selves partakers of other mens Sins 1 Tim. 5. 22. is a bad Preparation for the Sacrament To break a Moral Law for a Positive Ordinance tho never so valuable looks like robbing in order to Sacrifice And therefore when the Case is truly put a pious Desire of Receiving will be Equivalent to the Thing This being an allowed Rule in Instances of Necessity So that we can't be said to lose the Benefit of the Blessed Sacrament tho' we are not so happy as to partake in the Administration I confess this Branch of Modern Conformity has it's Advantages It keeps a Mars Honesty oftentimes from breaking out to his Prejudice 'T is a Pass-port to Business and a Protection to Trade And therefore 't is well if there is not something besides Religion at the Bottom However let the Intention be never so Sincere 't is no Warrant for an unlawful Practice Well! Tho' we are barr'd the usual Place yet we are not discharged from the Worship Let us not live like Independent Beings as if there was no Duty owing to God Almighty no Benefit in public Communion nor any effect of our Saviour's Promise to his Church Who the Apostle tells us gave Apostles and Pastors and Teachers For the Perfecting of the Saints for the Work of the Ministery and for the edifying of the Body of Christ. Let us take Care we don't overlook their Mission and loose the Advantage of their Office Always remembring that those who refuse the Means must fail of the End God grant none of our Freinds Mismanage these Church Distractions That they don't make their Orthodoxy a Colour for their Profaneness nor pretend an aversion to the Churches that they may go no whither with the better Grace As if it was a desirable Condition to be quit of the Fatigue of Prayers and deliver'd from the Discipline of the Pulpit and enfranchized from the Servitude of Religion To have our Time and our Conscience and our Sins to our selves without the least interruption or Reproof These are sad Privileges both in the quality and consequence and serve only to lay Men asleep in a fatal Security till they awake in those Flames which burn for ever Let us therefore be governed by the Apostles Advice and not forsake the Assembling our selves as the manner of some is I am sure the Occasion calls for the best Appearance of Religion for all the Aids of Union and Solemnity We see in what a Tempest the Nation is tossed What a Torrent overbears all Regards both Human and Divine Neither Nature nor Obligation Crown nor Mitre Law nor Gospel can stand before it No moral Difficulty can stop its Passage It breaks through all the Oppositions of Blood Heights of Station and Defences of Right So that now if ever we may make the Prophets complaint Truth is fallen in the Streets and Equity cannot enter And when this Civil Chaos will Settle He only knows who brings Light out of Darkness and Order from Confusion And a Consideration no less sad then the rest is the Infatuation which lyes upon Mens Spirits How they call Evil Good and Good Evil. How they dote on their Delusion and are enamour'd of their Disease and like those stung with a Tarantula expire in Pleasure And is it not an uncomfortable prospect to see Men seized with such a fatal Eethargy that neither Honour nor Interest Reason nor Sense this World nor the Other can work upon them Since They have so little Care of themselves do they not stand more in need of a Foreign Assistance Let our Charity equalize their Rigours and if 't is possible exceed them Let us intercede for them at the Throne of Grace and joyn in the Church's Devotion That God would bring into the way of Truth all such as have erred and are deceived And what Success soever our Charity may have the Office is Christian and Generous Besides we ought to apply for our own Security and lift up our Prayers for the Remnant that is left 2 King 19. 4. Thirdly and Lastly Our Behaviour ought to be remarkable for Resolution and decent Assurance Honesty without Courage is impracticable This Virtue of Fortitude is a Guard to all the rest without which they lye defenceless and exposed He that commands anothers Fears commands his Actions for what won't a Man do to escape an Evil he believes intollerable And as we are obliged to keep our Ground and retain our Integrity so we should do it in a posture of Hope and with an Air of Satisfaction To languish and repine and grow disconsolate looks as if we were weary of well doing it doubles the Misfortune and carrys danger in the Symptom God has given us the Post of Honour are we not to maintain it with a suitable Behaviour To suffer chearfully abates the Anguish and adds Strength and Lustre to the Virtue Let us keep our Thoughts easy our Imagination bright and our Spirits supported with the Justice of the Cause To be able to abide the shock has a great deal of Pleasure as well as Trouble in it