Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	apostle_n	holy_a	scripture_n	6,970	5	5.7262	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52134	Mr. Smirke; or, The divine in mode: being certain annotations upon the animadversions on The naked truth : together with a short historical essay, concerning general councils, creeds, and impositions, in matters of religion / by Andreas Rivetus, Junior, anagr. Res Nuda Veritas.	Marvell, Andrew, 1621-1678.	1676 (1676)	Wing M873; ESTC R214932	95,720	92

General Free Council is but a word of Art and can never happen but under a Fifth Monarch and that Monarch too to return from Heaven The Animadverter will not allow the second General Council of Nice to have been Free because it was over awd by an Empress and was guilty of a great fault which no Council at liberty he saith could have committed the Decree for worshipping of Images At this rate a Christian may scuffle however for one point among them and chuse which council he likes best But in good earnest I do not see but that Constantine might as well at this first council of Nice have negotiated the Image worship as to pay that superstitious adoration to the Bishops and that Prostration to their Creeds was an Idolatry more pernicious in the consequence to the Christian Faith then that under which they so lately had suffer'd Persecution Nor can a council be said to have been at liberty which laid under so great and many obligations But the Holy Ghost was present where there were three hundred and eighteen Bishops and directed them or three hundred Then if I had been of their counsel they should have sate at it all their lives least they should never see him again after they were once risen But it concerned them to settle their Quorum at first by his Dictates otherwise no Bishop could have been absent or gone forth upon any occasion but he let him out again and it behoov'd to be very punctual in the Adjournments 'T is a ridiculous conception and as gross as to make ●…m of the same Substance with the Council Nor needs there any strong argument of his absence then their pretense to be actuated by him and in doing such Work The Holy Spirit If so many of them when they got together acted like rational Men 't was enough in all reason and as much as could be expected But this was one affectation among many others which the Bishops took up so early of the stile priviledges powers and some actions a●…d gestures peculiar and inherent to the Apostles which they misplaced to their own behoof and usage nay and chalenged other things as Apostolical that were directly contrary to the Doctrine and Practice of the Apostles For so because the Holy Spirit did in an extraordinary manner preside among the Holy Apostles at that Legitime Council of Jerusalem Acts. 15. they although under an ordinary Administration would not go less whatever came on 't nay whereas the Apostles in the drawing up of their Decree dictated to them by the Holy Spirit said therefore no more but thus The Apostles Elders and Brethren send greeting unto the Brethren of c. Forasmuch as c. It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and us to lay upon you no greater burthen then these necessary things that ye abstain from c. from which if ye keep your selves you shall do well Fare ye well This Council denounces every invention of its own far from the Apostolical modesty and the stile of the Holy Spirit under no less then an Anathema Such was their arrogating to their inferior degrees the style of Clergy till custom hath so much prevailed that we are at a loss how to speak properly either of the name or nature of their function Whereas the Clergy in the true and Apostolical sense were only those whom they superciliously always call the Laity The word Clerus being never but once used in the New Testament and in that signification and in a very unlucky place too Peter 1. 5. 3. where he admonishes the Priesthood that they should not Lord it or domineer over the Christian People Clerum Domini or the Lord's Inheritance But having usurp'd the Title I confess they did right to assume the Power But to speak of the Priesthood in that style which they most affect if we consider the nature too of their Function what were the Clergy then but Lay-men disguis'd drest up perhaps in another habit Did not St. Paul himself being a Tent-maker rather then be idle or burthensom to his People work of his trade even during his Apostleship to get his living But did not these that they might neglect their holy vocation seek to compass secular imployments and Lay Offices Were not very many of them whether one respect their Vices or Ignorance as well qualified as any other to be Laymen Was it not usual as oft as they merited it to restore them as in the case even of the three Bishops to the Lay-communion And whether if they were so peculiar from others did the Imposition of the Bishops hands or the lifting up the hands of the Laity conferr more to that distinction And Constantine notwithstanding his complement at the burning of the Bishops papers thought he might make them and unmake them with the same power as he did his other Lay-Officers But if the inferior degrees were the Clergy the Bishops would be the Church although that word in the Scripture-sense is proper only to a congregation of the Faithful And being by that title the only men in Ecclesiastical councils then when they were once assembled they were the Catholick Church and having the Holy Spirit at their devotion whatsoever Creed they light upon that was the Catholick Eaith without believing of which no man be saved By which means there rose thenceforward so constant persecutions till this day that had not the little invisible Catholick Church and a People that always search'd and believ'd the Scriptures made a stand by their Testimonies and sufferings the Creeds had destroyd the Faith and the Church had ruined the Religion For this General council of Nice and all others of the same constitution did and can serve to no other end or effect then particular order of menby their usurping a trust upon Christianity to make their own Price and Market of it and deliver it up as oft as they see their own Advantage For scarce was Constantine's Head cold but his Son Constantius succeeding his Brothers being Influenced by the Bishops of the Arrian Party turn'd the wrong side of Christianity outward inverted the Poles of Heaven and Faith if I may say so with its Heels in the Air was forced to stand upon its Head and play Gambols for the Divertisment and Pleasure of the Homoiousians Arrianism was the Divinity then in Mode and he was an ignorant and ill Courtier or Church man that could not dress and would not make a new Sute for his Conscience in the Fashion And now the Orthodox Bishops it being given to those Men to be obstinate for Power but flexible in Faith began to wind about insensibly as the Heliotrope Flower that keeps its ground but wrests its Neck in turning after the warm Sun from Day-break to Evening They could look now upon the Synod of Nice with more indifference and all that pudder that had been màde there betwixt Homoousios and Homoiousios c. began to appear to them as a Difference only

beyond their Reason To attempt any such Force though to the True Beliefe is to do Evil that Good may come of it But the Pastor ought first by plaine and sound Doctrine to stop the Mouths of Gainsayers When the Ministers have Preached and Prayed they have done all they can in order to mens Believing the rest must be left to the Justice or Mercy of God But if turbulent spirits broach New Doctrines Contrary to Scripture or not Clearly Contained in the Gospel and neither by Admonitions nor Intreaties will be stopt the Pastors may proceed to the Exeroise of the Keys Which if it were duely performed as in the Primitive Times and not by Lay Chancellors and their surrogates would be of great effect The Magistrate ought to sili●…ce and oppose such at preach what is Contrary to or not Clearly Contained in the Gospel and if they persevere in their perversuess he may use his power with Christian Moderation For his power reaches to Punish Evil Doers who Publi●… or Practise somthing to subvert the Fundamentals of Religion or to Disturbe the Peace of the State or to Injure their Neighbours but not to Punish Evil Believers But if the Magistrate shall conceive he hath power also to punish Evil Believers and on that pretence shall punish True Believers the Subject is bound to submit and b●…ar it to the loss of Goods Liberty or Life The Reader will excuse this one long Quotation for it will much shorten all that followes But now for which of these is it that 't is become a Duty to Expose him What is there here that seems not at first sight very Christian very Rational But however it is all delivered in so Grave and Inoffensive manner that there was no temptation to alter the stile into Ridicule and Satyre But like some Carle the Animadverter may browze upon the Leaves or Peel the Barke but he has not teeth for the Solid nor can hurt the Tree but by accident Yet a man that sees not into the second but the Thirteenth Consequence that is one of the Disputers of this World and ought to be admitted to these Doubtfull Disputations from which he ironically by St. Pauls rule forsooth excludes the Author what is there that such an one so subtile so piercing cannot distingish upon and Controvert Truth it self ought to sacrifice to him that he would be propitious For if he appear on the other side it will go against her unavoidably In his 27. P. he is ravisht in Contemplation how Rarachose it is to see or hear a material Question in Theology defended in the University-Schools where one stands a Respondent enclos'd within the Compass of his Pen as Popilius the Roman Embassador made a Circle with his Wand about Antiochus and bid him give him a determinate answer before he went out of it a most apt and learned resemblance and which shews the Gentlemans good reading But it is I confess a noble spectacle and worthy of that Theater which the munificence of the present Arch-Bishop of Canterbury hath dedicated in one may it be too in the other of our Universities where no Apish Scaramuccio no Scenical Farces no Combat of Wild-Beasts among themselves or with men condemn'd is presented to the People but the modest Skirmish of Reason and which is usually perform'd so well that it turns to their great honour and of our whole Nation Provided the Chaire be well filled with an Orthodox Professor and who does not by Solaecismes in Latine or mistake of the Argument or Question render the thing ridiculous to the By-standers That the Pew be no less fitted with a Respondent able to sustaine and answer in all points the expectation of so Learned an Auditory That the Opponent likewise exceed not the terms of Civility nor Cavil where he should Argue and that the Questions debated be so discreetly chosen as there may be no danger by Controverting the Truth to unsettle the minds of the Youth ever after and innure them to a Disputable Notion about the most weighty points of our Re-Religon by which sort of subtilizing the Church hath in former Ages much suffered nor hath Ours in the Latter wholly escaped Now seeing the Exposer seem●… to delight so much as men use in what they excell in this Exercise he and I because we cannot have the conveniency of the Schools and Pew will play as well as we can in Paper at this new Game of Antiochus and Popilius I must for this time be the Roman Senator and he the Monarch of Asia●… for by the Rules of the Play he always that hath writ the last Book is to be Antiochus until the other has done replying And I hope to gird him up to close with●… in his Circle that he shall appear very slender For I am sensible yet could not avoid it how much of the Readers and mine own time I have run out in examining his Levity but now I am glad to see my labour shorten for having thus plumed him of that puffe of Feathers with which he buoy'd himself up in the Aire and flew over our heads it will almost by the first Consequence be manifest in his Argument how little a Soul it is and Body that henceforward I am to deal with The Author having said that That which we commonly call the Apostles Creed is and was so received by the Primitive Church as the sum Total of Christian Faith necessary to Salvation Why not now Is the state of Salvation alter'd If it be Compleat what need other Articles The Exposer p. 2. answers There may have been needful heretofore not only other Articles but other Creeds for the further Explication of these Articles in the Apostles Creed and yet in those New Creeds not one New Article 'T is safely and cautiously said there May and not there Were other Articles and other Creeds needful But the whole Clause besides is so drawn up as if he affected the Academical glory of justifying a Paradox nor is it for the reputation of such Creeds whatever they be to be maintained by the like Methods But seeing he disdains to explicare further how there can be a New Creed and yet not one New Article I will pres●… to understand him and then say that in such Creeds whatsoever Article does either explaine the Apostles Creed Contrary to or Beside the Scripture or does not containe the same Express Scriptural Authority which only makes this that is called the Apostles Creed to be Authentick that is a New Article to every man that cannot conceive the necessary Deduction But then he galls the Author The Apostles Creed is the sum of the Christian Faith True Yet I hope he will not think the Nicene the Constantinopolitan and the Athanasian Creed Superfluous and and unnecessary First it is not necessary to take all those Three in the Lump as the Exposer puts it for perhaps a man may think but one or but two of them to have been superfluous

Singing-mens dirty Surplices to hear him defend it so foolishly P. 29 30 35 36. The best of his reasons for it are the Apparitions in white in the Evangelists The Transfiguration The Saints in white Linnen The Purity of a Minister Why then does he not wear it all the Week The Bishop Sisynnius did so and a Churchman asking him why not in Black as 't was then the mode he gave the same reasons and I believe Gurnay the Non-conformist if as they say he went to Market in it learn'd them of him Why does not the Exposer there is more reason in Scripture Col. 4 6. Let your speech be alwayes seasoned with Salt that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man carry a Salt-box alwayes in his Pocket to be tasting of for I doubt he is of the Salt that has lost his savour however I am sure he is very insip●…d and this might correct it beside it must have been of great vertue when he was to animadvert on the Naked Truth that he might have known how to answer him See Fox Vol. 3. p. 500. col 2. what the Martyr the Conformable Bishop Ridley saith would not be forced to wear it he was no Singer See as to all these thing his beloved Tertullian de Cor. Mil. Si ideo dicatur Coronari licere quia non prohibeat Scriptura aequè retorquebitur ideo Coronari non licere quia Scriptura non jubeat Bishop Chrysostome Or. 1. adversus Judaeos Ostendite cos ex Dei sententi●… jejunare Quod ni id fiat q●…vis eb●…ietate sceleratius est jejunium Etenim contra-quod fit praeter Dei voluntatem est omnium p●…ssimum Non enim ipsa corum quae fiunt natura sed Dei voluntas ac Decretum essicit ut eadem vel bona sint vel mala P. 33. 〈◊〉 jeering at the Authors Oh my Fathers is inhumane and impious but Ch the pity of it that twenty such Oh's will not amount to one Reason They will Heb. 4. 12 13. that day which the Devils believe and tremble when all things shall be naked and bare before the Word of Truth P. 37. he is scarce proper to come in a Pulpit after what he saith that the Apostles received not the Sacrament sitting much less after p. 41. he has said We read that our Saviour kneeled in several places much less after p. 59. where of preaching he saith He knows not what the Author means by the Demonstration of the Spirit unless to speak as he does magisterially He never read 1 Cor. 2. 4. of preaching in demonstration of the spirit nor Mat. 7. 29. how Christ taught as one having authority there is such an Art if he knew it P. 42. he can never answer the Author upon Rom. 14. where the zeal us Observer of Ceremonies is the weak Brother He whiffles those were the Jewish Ceremonies The Jews had a fairer pretence than we for theirs were instituted by God himself and they know not they were abrogate His intolerably ridiculous Story out of Scholtus p. 15. of contriving a pair of Organs of Cats which he had done well to have made the Piggs at Hogs Norton play on puts me in mind of another Story to quit it relating as his does to screwing the Non-conformists into Church and I could not possibly miss of the rencounter because the Gentleman's name of whom it is told is the Monosyllable voice with which Cats do usually address themselves to us 'T was you have it as I had it the Vice-Chancellour of one of our Universities but now a Bishop Octob. 22. 1671. and 12. Febr. 1669 He came to a Fanaticks house they not being then at Worship yet one of 'm said They were come to pray to the God of Heaven and Earth he said Then they were within the Act. He wou'd force them to Church to Saint Maries himself laid hands on'm He commanded them to follow him in the Kings name His Beadle told them He would drive them thither in the Devils name The Vice-Chancellour said he had converted hundreds so at Reading They spoke of Queen Maries dayes he said he could burn them too now if the Law required it There was old tugging he had the victory They were placed in Saint Maries with Beadles to attend them As he carried them in he quoted Luke 14 23 Compel them to come in What pity 't is the Exposer knew not of this Text that he might have had one Scripture for his Doctrine of Compulsion But it chanced the Minister there preached one time Acts 5. 41. the other time Mat. 10. 16. Afterwards he took the penalty nevertheless for not having been at Church that same Sunday that he had hurried them thither P. 62. He speaks of Bishop Morton whose industrious Brain made up the fatal breach between the two Houses of York and Lancaster Much good do the Clergy with their Lay Offices He coggs p. 7. with the Bishop of Ely for his short Syllogisme he made a longer of the Holiness of Lent He complements I said he would not forget him my Lord Chancellor the Christian Cicero 'T is true of him but contradictorily exprest Ps. 35. 16. With the flatterers were busy mockers that gnashed with their teeth The Exposer has commenc'd in both Faculties But the Printer calls the Press is in danger I am weary of such stuffe both mine own and his I will rather give him this following Essay of mine own to busie him and let him take his turn of being the Popilius A short Historical Essay touching General Councils Creeds and Imposition in Religion THE Christian Religion as first Instituted by our Blessed Saviour was the greatest security to Magistrates by the Obedience which it taught and was fitted to enjoy no less security under them by a Practice conformable to that Doctrine For our Saviour himself not pretending to an Earthly Kingdom took such care therefore to instruct his followers in the due Subjection to Governours that while they observed his Precepts they could neither fall under any Jealousy of State as an ambitious and dangerous Party nor as Malefactors upon any other account deserve to suffer under the Publick Severity So that in this only it could seem pernicious to Government that Christianity if rightly exercised upon its own Principles would render all Magistracy useless But although he who was Lord of all and to whom all Power was given both in Heaven and in Earth was nevertheless contented to come in the form of a Servant and to let the Emperours and Princes of the World alone with the use of their Dominions he thought it good reason to retain his Religion under his own cognizance and exempt its Authority from their jurisdiction In this alone he was imperious and did not only practise it himself against the Laws and Customs then received and in the face of the Magistrate but continually seasoned and hardened his Disciples in the same confidence and obstinacy He tells them They shall be