Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	according_a	ghost_n	holy_a	5,624	5	4.7363	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86891	A second vindication of a disciplinary, anti-Erastian, orthodox free-admission to the Lords-Supper; or, The state of this controversie revised and proposed: for the fuller understanding of the most, as to the grounds whereon it stands; and more especially for the ease, and clearer proceeding of those, that shall write about it, whether for it, or against it. / By John Humfrey, min: of Froome.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.	1656 (1656)	Wing H3710; Thomason E1641_2; ESTC R209066	63,290	161

that do understand this text as well as Mat. 18. of Excommunication do reconcile them both pretty well together Some say the Excommunicate is not as a man quite dismember'd but as a diseased member under cure It is not said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some say he is cast out quoad us in se not quoad jus ad rem Others say he is indeed cast hereby out of the Church but this is conditionally he is not as an heathen absolutely but that such an expression may be used I will adde A man may be Relatively put into the state of a heathen through some misdemeanour when yet Really he may be a Saint and a true child of God 3. If this does not satisfie but that you think here is a censure and that not so high as excommunication it will not follow for all this that it must be necessarily this suspension because it may be any thing else as well unlesse there was something in the place to discover that the Apostle had some aim here in particular at the Sacrament which being a vain thing to affirm if you should frame twenty kinds of keeping not company or exclusions as well as from the Sacrament and should say the Text means one of them you would have quite as much from the place to prove the one as well as the other To conclude then these Scriptures about which I have been something long Mr. Col. argues thus still in the main and in particular p. 87. It is the duty of Church Officers to keep the fellowship of the Church pure for to this end is the rod of Discipline put into their hands Therefore must such and such persons be excluded the Sacrament But he should say therefore they should be excluded Church-fellowship for to plead for suspension from this Ordinance only instead of casting them out of fellowship in general to this end that it may be kept pure is nothing else but to yeeld openly that Church-fellowship in other parts of it should remain polluted and impure And then will all these texts return most forcibly on himself and overwhelme him Christ does not say keep the Sacrament only from Dogs and swine but give no holy things at all to them Paul does not say Purge out the leaven from this ordinance only but from the lump He does not say Keep not company only in the Sacrament but Keep no company Put such a one from amongst you Let him be as an Heathen The summe then is this according to what hath been before If these very Scriptures which are alleadged for suspension do respect the Sacrament no otherwise but as a part of Church-communion that is if they doe not prove a man is to be excluded from communion in the Sacrament at all but only that they prove he is to be excluded communion in general we shall not need any stronger proof against Suspension then that there is not such a censure in Scripture as distinct from Excommunication SECT 13. THere are some other Divines of something more candid spirits that look upon Suspension only as a prudential pastoral duty and no juridical censure and so labour to maintain it For such as these I must acknowledge that those reasons of mine laid down before do not strictly meddle with them It may suffice me as for such that they have Beza with the Presbyterians directly against them and no Scripture for any Suspension at all I speak as to the Sacrament whereon to build such an opinion And as for that they have to say for it for that is the whole that the Apostle commands a man to examine himself and discern the Lords body upon which we granting that infants and distracted persons are not to be admitted by the Minister therefore say they likewise neither ignorant nor scandalous persons I conceive it too insufficient a ground alone to build a businesse of so much practical weight and trouble upon I will adde therefore two or three reasons more against this opinion 1. A regenerate person that can examine himself and discern the Lords body in the strictest sense yet may be scandalous and for that scandal deserve exclusion as Theodosius by Ambrose It is not therefore because the Apostle commands a man to examine himself and discern the Lords body that a scandalous person is excluded but because the Apostle commands other-where let such be censured Put away from your selves such a person The same ground or reason that will exclude an unregenerate man will exclude the regenerate and no other From whence likewise I shall take away this argument from the hands of my proper opposers If the keeping of persons from the Lords Supper upon this ground or account that the Apostle commands those that come hither should examine themselves and discern the Lords body be a pastoral duty as these think and indeed so far as it is done barely on this ground in infants and distracted persons who being not bound hereunto through incapacity of reason are refused it is no other Then must not exclusion of ignorant and scandalous persons stand upon this ground with the Presbyterians for that is an act that cannot be done according to them as Beza fore-quoted but by the power of jurisdiction This is what hath at large been said before Suspension from the Sacrament must not be held upon any argument from the nature of the ordinance but from discipline 2. It is manifest that the same grace is required of a person to be accepted of God in one part of Gods worship as in another The Scripture requires us expresly to pray in faith in love with understanding and the like when it does not expresly but by consequence command us so to receive and as for due preparation or self-examination and a right discernment of the Lord in his worship who will deny it to be required in every ordinance by the same consequence as in the Sacrament it is expresse It cannot therefore be said that the debarring of scandalous or ignorant persons from the Sacrament is a Scripture-result from the nature of that service and the requisites to it which is the whole can be pleaded to make this a pastoral duty any more than from prayer and other Ordinances It is true we may suppose according to the ratity solemnity of an Ordinance our addresses to it may and ought to be more solemn but yet is the Ordinance alike otherwise as to the nature and requisits to it and not to be preferred before others to the breeding such a superstitious conceit on the spirits of men that looks to me like to bowing at the name of Jesus and not at the name of Christ God and the Holy Ghost 3. It is not the part of Pastors to content themselves with keeping men away from the Sacrament without proceeding unto censure and debarring them other communion at least that of common familiarity to make them ashamed I know many happily may

Word that accompanies the Sacrament especially in things of the Sacrament as well as by that which goes before or after it And by the way as for the younger sort come out of their childhood my judgement is with Aquinas Quando pueri incipiunt aliqualem usum rationis habere ut possint devotionem hujus Sacramenti concipere tunc potest eis hoc Sacramentum conferri Part 3. Quaest 80. Art 4. For the Scandalous in the next place I would have some to know or consider that the Sacrament is an ordinance wherein the curse and wrath of God against sin is held forth in the sufferings of Christ as well as pardon upon repentance Herein is the joynt strength of the Law and Gospel applyed in power to the understanding and a most high-aggravating of sin upon the conscience saies Mr. Blake in his late Book called The Covenant sealed in reference to his former The Covenant opened ch 7. Sect. 13. Arg. 3. 4. A sin-aggravating heart-breaking soul-humbling ordinance as he calls it is a means to reclaim even a scandalous sinner Reader I speak not these things on the one hand to hinder Catechism Examination and any means of private conference for the bringing our people unto knowledge Nay I am not against a prudential making use of this season to this end but only in regard that few Ministers doe or can go to all their people and their people will not come to them I doe conceive it may be satisfactory to their spirits in doing their office that though some persons be ignorant yet coming to the Supper and hearing the nature and use of the Sacrament laid open there is hope through Gods grace that they may receive at the very time competent information to be edified and wrought on by it I will speak plainly they may receive instruction for the knowing according to their modell the wretchednesse of sin that Christ is the Son of God through whose name alone we can be saved and that he is held forth as crucified in the elements and tender'd to beleevers which is as much as Mr. Blake saies he dares require to admittance Cov. Seal p. 233. Again on the other hand I speak not neither to favour the scandalous my doctrine is rather too harsh in the casting them out yet am I not so far gone as to think that it is not possible for such a person not yet under censure to be wrought on or edified by this ordinance No let but a right application of what is held forth herein be made by every receiver according to the state of his soul and what can be more effectual through the word to break his heart Let the man which is most keen against sin consider what I have proposed in my Rejoynder p. 37 39 40 75 76. 112 113.235 236 237 238 239 255. and he will see this is no loose doctrine I have taught Neither may they say this is no means to work grace or repentance but confirm it this is not an ordinance for conversion but for edification For I say otherwise It is a means of edification and salvation and therefore unto some likewise of conversion The whole exercise of Christs officers in dispensing the word seales and all other ordinances of Christ say the London Divines in their Jus Divin Reg. Ec. p. 36. is for the edifying the Church of Christ or the visible body Eph 4.11 12. with v. 4 5 6. 1 Cor. 12.11 12. From hence then I argue If the Lord hath appointed all his ordinances within the Church for the edification of the whole and there be some unregenerate within the Church then is the Sacrament appointed for some unregenerate mens edification and consequently their conversion for otherwise such cannot at all be edified unto salvation But the former is true therefore the latter Again The solemn application of the covenant to a mans self according to his estate to wit of salvation through Christ if he will beleeve and repent and of judgement from Christ if he continues in his sinnes and does not turn effectually to him is the very onely way whereby the Spirit usually worketh conviction and sincere conversion But actual receiving of the Sacrament is a solemn means of such an application Ergo. I pray see what I have written in the fore-quoted places for the clearing of this and compare it with the substance of what Mr. Blake hath put in since and it may be more cautiously exprest in the said place of his Cov Seal p. 204. 240. which hath much confirm'd me and I am perswaded when this matter is a litle more laid to heart that many will not only be ready to confesse with him ibid. p. 240. that there is more weight herein than personally hath been acknowledged but also that though it be objected against my doctrine that it strengthens the hands of the wicked Ez. 13.22 yet shall the godly find here a sword put in their hands for the smiting the wicked the secure and hypocrite up to the heart with this Sacrament it self while they are but taught to apply what is held forth to them according to their condition Indeed I conceive a forbearance sometimes for all this may be piously advised upon the account of prudence and the solemnitie of the ordinance to doe more good by it which I shall speak something of in the end to yield what may be to the satisfying the pious but this will not come up to a necessity All the disciples of Christ were ignorant in the fundamentals of Christs death and resurrection and Judas was scandalous See my Rejoynd page 15. yet Christ excluded neither of them at his Supper SECT 6. WEll now let thus much be considered that the Lord hath his Church in such a latitude to take into it whole Nations regenerate and unregenerate That the priviledge of ordinances belongs to this Church by way of distinction of it from the world That every member thereof therefore hath a right unto the ordinances devolved on him from this Church-covenant-relation While yet it is confessed that there are some which through their incapacity of reason cannot use the same The result of all will come to this that there is no person of discretion within the Church can be debarred any publick ordinance particularly the Sacrament before he be turn'd out of the Church with which this priviledge of ordinances is convertible and from it inseparable The Sacrament is the communion or token of our communion in Jesus Christ But every Church-member in statu quo is in Christ Jo. 15.2 and in some sense partaker of his blood so as to sanctifie him Heb. 10 29. and redeem him 2 Pet. 2.1 and therefore his right is good to that which is in the same sense the token hereof So long as he is in communion how can he be debarr'd the communion while he is in the body he may partake of the body The Church is the body of Christ and so

soon as it was light Mat. 27.1 Jo. 18.28 Pilate is called up The judgment hastened and dispatcht At As for that text Jo. 19.14 Disertè legitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Petrum Alexandriae Episcopum libello quem scripsit de Paschate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nine a clock in the morning he is fastned on the Cross Mar. 15.25 About twelve there comes the Ecclipse Luke 23.44 After three he gives up the ghost Mar. 15.34 37. is taken down and interred In the grave he lies the remnant of that day all the Jewish Sabbath being the next and part of the third which by a Synecdoche of a part for the whole is reckoned 3. dayes Mat. 16.21 Then he arises being their first day of the week Jo. 20.1 Is seen of his disciples for 40 dayes Acts 1.3 and so ascends to heaven v. 9. Blessed be his name for ever 8. Wheras I have recorded a certain president from a neighbour Rejoynd p. 240. in confirmation of that point whether the Sacrament be a means of conversion unto which others might be added of some men eminent for the good they do in their places who have told my self the l●ke as to the experiences of their own souls which is much satisfying I do think fit to take notice of those two stories which Mr. Coll. mentions in opposition hereunto p. 14. Of two Women the one under a Minister of his acquaintance the other under Mr. Simmonds who dying under carnal security attributed both their hardning to these mens admitting them to the Sacrament Now these two stories and the like I judge may be worthy very serious consideration something contrary and more likely than that for which he brings them for these Ministers I believe were congregational men or such at least who were more strict than others as to their admission and it is this I pray God it may be judiciously laid to heart whether it be so or no that while men pretend to have more pure communion and so be more careful of separating the vile from the precious than others ordinarily especially pressing that this Ordinance belongs only to the regenerate so that men must think themselves so when they come thither It need be no wonder unto any that are but little acquainted with the fancies and temper of folks Spirits that many weak people should think well of their estates that they are better than others being under these forms and so grow secure and harden so long as such holy Ministers that refuse others with such cautiousnes do receive them as worthy persons and visibly regenerate to their Communions whereas our former Ministers and we that say with Paul Know ye not that all our Fathers were baptized in the cloud and drank of the rock which rock was Christ Know ye not that there is a common right as to this outward priviledge of Ordinances so that we esteem none of you better than your neighbours for your partaking hereof we are of the circumcision that worship God in the spirit and have no confidence in the flesh or externals I say while we teach thus we have no occasion to fear that any one should grow spiritually proud or fall into security thinking themselves better than others for our admitting them to the Sacrament any more than to other Ordinances where we teach and call upon them alike to make use thereof unto repentance acceptance of Christ and not suppose them converted already which lays the ground-work of folks hardning if herein there be any Whereas then Mr. Col. from Gillespy would fain know what fruit any godly Ministers found of their former promiscuous administrations I answer besides the peace and quiet of their people which they now may wish this fruit thereof they might have that none of their congregations could bless themselves in any supposed condition better than their fellows for their outward participation of what was to be in common to all of them the contrary whereof would by these men be fastned on us Even as all things say the wise have two handles and every reason a contrary reason 9. Whereas many worthy and pious Ministers do think it would do well to bring their people to the giving some account to them of their faith and knowledge before the Sacrament as a means for their future reformation and there are some of their people that have taken or be ready to take an occasion from my opinion to oppose their pious endeavours I shall humbly declare thus much for the sakes of these people that Although I will not justifie any of these Ministers that are more tender and fearful about the doing than neglecting their office and am perswaded that there is no Examination but of a mans own self can be pressed as necessary to the Sacrament yet do I both allow and reverence the piety zeal and pains of many Ministers that prudentially take occasion hereby to look into the state of their flocks only for their admonition and instruction without driving them from their duty And I do bewail the frowardnes and offwardness of most unto so easie a submission utterly disliking at the bottom of my heart the spirits of such Christians who either out of consciousness of their own ignorance or haughtiness of their minds will be contented to be deprived the Sacrament rather than give an account of their faith to those that ask it in the spirit of meekness for their edification Nay I do profess for my part were I under the Presbytery I should most freely subject my self to their trial as being afraid to grieve the spirit of my Pastor supposing him to require it meerly out of the tenderness of his conscience and give example of obstinacy to others As also most easily believing that the people may do ill in refusing examination when the Minister does but ill too in refusing them therefore the Lords-Supper Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account that they may doe it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you I speak not this for s●tting up any power over mens consciences that are to be left free but that I may so plead for Free-admission that I may not hinder any mens piety or reformation To this end I could wish that for the Ignorant there were Catechists in the Church and some prudent kind of Law for the bringing all such to submit to be catechized and for the scandalous that there were some authoritative way for the exercise of that most yielded and least practised duty of fraternal correption let a man be profane malicious and injurious I am perswaded one half hours serious rebuke of him before grave men that should awe him would doe more towards his repentance than many years keeping him from the Sacrament If after this the party does continue obstinate let him in the name of God be proceeded against by Church-censure or Excommunication A thing doubtless which if the main truth in my bookes I drive at first were well establisht would have its season to be pressed 10. Whereas I find that many of the most holy Christians have their faces set against our mixt Communions and that general way of Unity I look at the pantings and breathings of whose spirits after holiness and purity I cannot but reverence though I think them led more by their present affections than soundess of Judgment It is my purpose and resolution having now proposed my thoughts rather than grieve and exasperate them any more to leave the Controversy so that without some more than ordinary urgent reason be to the contrary which is not live to be I shall not engage personally with any of them agen about the same but shall commit my cause to the Lord humbly beseeching him to pardon me all my failings that have been in it and perswading my self that if there be any thing usefull for the Church in what I have written some one or other that are friends of truth will stand by her in a time and season fitting for it And farther by these my Son be admonished of making many books there is no end and much study is a weariness to the flesh Let us hear the conclusion of the matter Fear God and keep his commandements for this is the whole of man From Froome May 26. 1656 J. H. FINIS