Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	believe_v	faith_n	grace_n	8,077	5	5.8830	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52757	The great accuser cast down, or, A publick trial of Mr. John Goodwin of Coleman-street, London, at the bar of religion & right reason it being a full answer to a certain scandalous book of his lately published, entituled, The triers tried and cast, &c. whereupon being found guilty of high scandal and malediction both against the present authority, and the commissioners for approbation and ejection, he is here sentenced and brought forth to the deserved execution of the press / by Marchamont Nedham, Gent.	Nedham, Marchamont, 1620-1678.	1657 (1657)	Wing N389; ESTC R18604	109,583	156

to a stand by such Demagogues who have abused the Pulpit and the Ordinances of God to make them serve their purposes by bidding defiance to all Rule and Authority And how many are there abroad still upon the same design and it 's not impossible but Mr. G. may strike in among them Doubtless he will deserve to be a principal man with them if he can but perfect what he hath begun to level the Commissioners and lay the Publick Maintenance in Common for all sorts of Stray-Cattel to enter and by that means be enabled to lead the people out of the way to the disturbance of the Commonwealth and their own destruction By this you may apprehend the more than probable effect and tendencie of Mr. G. his Charity and Policie which being laid in the scales with the wisdom and liberality of our Superiors in reference to the Particular under question the judicious Reader is left to turn them at his own discretion Only for a Farewell let me have leave to tell Mr. Goodwin That these and the like Conclusions of his may stand well in tune with the Policie and Principles of his Brother Williams though indeed Mr. G. hath more policie then to vent them with the same plainness For Mr. Roger Williams speaks out with a full mouth in a Book of his printed Anno 1652. pag. 24. I humbly conceive saith he that the great duty of the Magistrate as to Spirituals will turn upon these two hinges 1. In removing the Civil bars c. the paiment of Tythes and the maintenance of Ministers c 2. In a free and absolute permission of the Consciences of all men in what is meerly spiritual not the very Consciences of the Jews nor the Consciences of the Turks or Papists or Pagans themselves excepted By Conscience he doth not mean the Faith a man hath to himself but a Liberty to profess and teach others accordingly And indeed this is the natural consequence and the very Fundamental of this Ninth Argument of Mr. Goodwin's and he may as well close with Mr. Williams in the full latitude of every point For the same Gentleman in the Book before-mentioned saith If a world of Arrians deny the Deity of Christ Jesus if a Manichee his Humane nature if the Jews deny both and blasphemously call our Christ a Deceiver nay if the Mahumetans the Turks prefer their cheating Mahomet before him What now must we cry out Blasphemers Hereticks c. Must we run to Cities or Senates and cry Help you Magistrates Or must we flie up to Heaven by Prayer This is a brave Latitude indeed and there being elbow-room enough Mr. Goodwin and he must needs shake hands if he means to maintain this his Ninth Argument And so I leave them together ARGUMENT X. BEing now arrived at the Tenth Argument of this Author I am come to the main matter and shall have an occasion to lance the Tumor and let out all the Corruption which disturbed his Stomach and that his Head and caused him to talk idly as men use to do in great and hot distempers The sum of the story in short is this For he speaks out now and tells us at large why he is so virulent angry at his Highness and the Council and the Commissioners even for no other cause but that neither maintenance nor countenance is like to be given to such as are tainted with his spurious heterodoxal pseudo-theological Phant'sies For saith he is not the simple professing and owning of those great and important Truths of God That Christ dyed or gave himself a Ransom for all men That God reprobated no man under a personal consideration nor intended so to reprobate any man from eternity That he vouchsafeth a sufficiencie of means unto all men to repent and be saved That he vouchsafeth a sufficiencie of means unto all men to repent and be saved That he neither constraineth nor necessitateth any man to believe or to be saved And that those who at present truly believe may put or thrust away a good Conscience from them and thereby make shipwrack of their Faith and perish Is not saith he the professing and owning of these most worthy Truths with others confederate with them a Bar against all Spiritual or Ecclesiastick promotion in the course of the Commissioners proceedings Before I make Reply to the Main let the Reader observe this by the way that I cannot admit one thing which he insinuates here in the Conclusion Viz. That the approving of men by the Commissioners for the Publick Maintenance should be reckoned an Ecclesiastical promotion when as I have already made it evident and the very nature of the thing speaks out for it self that it is a meer Civill Act and Provision But to proceed It is not a Business proper upon the present occasion to enter upon the disquisition of those Arminian Points by him enumerated and if there were an occasion it were but Actum agere seeing all in a manner that is necessary to be known for the confutation of them may be found in the Works of the late Reverend and Learned Dr Twisse and of these two Learned Reverend Doctors Dr Owen and Dr Kendal who yet live the Honor and Ornaments of the University of Oxford However because he hath clothed and presented them here in the plausible phrase of Scripture thus much may be said in general terms by way of return 1. That Christ died and gave himself a ransom for All 't is true but then it ought to be understood in a Gospel not in a Universal sence as if all men were ransomed into such a State that they may save themselves if they will 2. That seeing from all eternity God was pleased to take some as it were out of the lump and common mass of Mankind and design them to become vessels of honor and leave others as vessels of wrath fitted for destruction therefore questionles there are a sort of particular persons whom he never loved in Christ so consequently are concluded under a state of Reprobation 3. That he doth vouchsafe a sufficiency of means to all men to repent and beleeve but not so that the means should be so far in their own power that they should be able to beleeve and repent when it pleaseth themselves Lastly That he neither constraineth nor necessitateth any man to beleeve or be saved yet having by the power of his own Spirit so wrought and framed the heart of a man that it becomes pliant to the purpose of his grace then the heart is of it self induced and disposed not constrained to beleeve and by the same power of the Spirit is enabled to persevere in beleeving being sustained by continual supplies of Grace through the Spirit from Christ by vertue of the union with him through faith so that they cannot make shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience so far as to perish forasmuch as being the Sons of God they are kindly led and conducted

Commissions to punish any Minister either poenâ sensus or poenâ damni simply for not beleeving or which is the same in effect for not professing or not teaching others to beleeve as themselves beleeve so that when they do any such thing as this they act besides their Commission I answer first The Commissioners themselves at least such of them as are generally known to understand their Commissions as well as or rather better then their fellows do so construe and understand them as giving them power both to reject and eject for not finding their own sense and belief in those that come before them Secondly Their frequent if not constant practice in this kinde being sufficiently known unto and connived at if not approved of by those under whose authority and protection they thus practice clearly sheweth that the sense intended or at present owned in both the Commissions by those who are in authority and who have power to declare the sense of either Commission is that which hath been supposed in the Argument though deposed or denied in the Reply Answer This second Argument of his to prove the unlawfulness of these Ordinances is so stuffed with the Fustian of various Terms and false suppositions so confusedly extravagant that it is not to be reduced into any handsom Syllogistick form and therefore let us take a view of the Verbosities and Scandals as they-lie in or rather out of order First to omit his obstreperous Impertinencies which lie croaking in the way he supposeth That such men so imployed as the Commissioners are ought to have both Infallibility of Judgment and intemerable Faithfulness in matters of Faith and supernatural concernment That they ought to be men of Judgment I shall not deny but that like Mr. Goodwin they should have an opinion of their own Infallibility or of necessity be indeed Infallible before they undertake such a work sure there is no need Their Commission the Ordinance impowers them to pass their Judgments concerning men by approving or not approving them for the work of Preaching according as they have cause to believe them duly qualified or not qualified for it in reference to these three particulars viz. The Grace of God in them Their holy and unblameable Conversation Their Knowledge and Vtterance What need any Infallible Spirit be required in men to pass a Judgment upon other men in these Respects before they be sent out to Preach That which was the Apostles prescript to Timothy was written doubtless for our instruction and direction The things saith he that thou hast heard of me the same commit thou to faithful men who shall teach others also By which Text it appeareth 1. That men ought to be tryed and approved before they be sent to preach the Doctrine of the Gospel And 2. That the proving of their Grace and Faithfulness doth not presuppose there ought to be an Infallibility in the persons who are to prove and approve them because this proving and approving of the Graces of men that were to be imployed in any work of the Gospel was to be a thing of ordinary and continual practice as is cleer by that of the Apostle before cited it being a Rule of Direction now to succeeding Times and persons upon occasion as well as then to Timothy And by that of the Apostle in another place where he speaks of the proving and approving of a Deacon and saith That before their Approbation they must be proved whether they hold the mysterie of the Faith in a pure Conscience and then they may use the Employment Which is no other then a cleer Evidence of the lawfulness of the proving and approving of men in point of Grace before they be sent about Gospel-work And it being a Rule for constant practice it carrieth moreover along with it as cleer an intimation that there is no such need of a Spirit of Infallibility before men can be fit to act in the way of Approbation in respect of the Graces of men And as to the other Qualifications viz. Holiness and unblameableness of Conversation with Knowledge and Vtterance these two Points are cognoscible in Foro externo by enquiry into mens Lives and by examination of their Parts and their experiences of Gods dealing with them in the work of Conversion Secondly He supposeth That his Highness and the Council have by the Ordinances impowered the Commisisioners to exercise dominion over the Faith Judgments and Consciences of men To prove this he saith The Commissoners for Ejection do eject men out of their places because they cannot in conscience profess and believe as the Commissioners themselves do believe and on the other side the Commissioners for Approbation he saith do upon a like account disapprove men and shut them out from such places of livelihood to which they are called by Patrons and fitted by their own signal worths and abilities For Answer know It is no wonder that he who dares fasten so ill and groundless an Imputation upon our Governors as that they have impower'd persons to exercise an unchristian dominion over mens Faith whenas there is not a tittle in the Ordinances of any such matter to be found it is no wonder I say that he who presumes to prevaricate so unconscionably against them should under a pretence of making good the scandal which he casts upon them to shew his emptiness of proof fall to calumniating of those who are the Commissioners under them by raising an ill report upon their proceedings But this hath been his usual way of Argumentation fortiter calumniari upon other occasions and to observe neither Rule in Ratiocination nor to proceed secundum allegata probata to make out an Accusation I suppose whoever looks into the two Ordinances for Approbation and Ejection will find that the Commissioners have their work set forth to them by the present Authority with Rules whereby they are to proceed and how to behave themselves as Servants use to have when they are imployed by their Masters so that it appears to be a point of Service rather then of Lordship or dominion wherein the Commissioners are exercised It may with as much reason be said when a person offers himself to be a Member of a Congregation and to partake of the Lords Supper that the trying and examining of him in this case whether he be fit and worthy is the exercising of a dominion and lordship over him Then whereas he saith they exercise Dominion over the Iudgments and Faith of all the Ministers of the Gospel I answer 1. That as it is not a Dominion so neither do they exercise it over all the Ministers of the Nation Mr. Goodwin can if he please confute himself in this For I surpose he believeth himself to be a Minister and yet he knoweth neither of the Commissions have been exercised over him Alas he was ejected out of his Parish-Living in Coleman-street by a Committee of Parliament but that was before the

by the Spirit of God and kept by his mighty power to Salvation Now whereas Mr G. is pleased to understand these great and important Truths and the other which depend upon them not in the same genuine sence that the Scriptures hold them forth but hath set the whole Canon of Scripture upon the Rack to extort another meaning from them than was in all times confessed by the precious Saints of God in all the Churches I must needs make bold to brand his Tenets upon his own forehead with the black Characteristick Notes of great and most important Errors Errors indeed they are of the first Magnitude such as have spawned a numerous brood of most monstrous Anti-scriptural Absurdities into the World seemingly to support a miserable reputation by eating out the very bowels of Christian Verity as appears by Dr Kendals Answer to that strange Book of his called Redemption Redeemed But because 't is very requisite the Reader should have a Taste of them here I will transcribe some few out of those many consequential Absurdities which have been collected by the Doctor and thereupon leave the Reader to judge whether the Sons of Mr Goodwins delight whom he hath adopted into the same unhappy Cause and Opinion ought in reason to be allowed Maintenance or Countenance by any Christians in Authority Some of the Notions are as followeth The Places of that Book of his from whence they are cited I have noted here in the Margin 1. That the ordinary Effects Acts and Operations in the Sublunary parts are not so or upon any such terms attributed unto God but that they have their second Causes also respectively producing them whereunto they may as truly and perhaps more properly be ascribed than unto God 2. That Periods of particular Beings are not determined by God 3. That Periods of mens lives are not fixed by God 4. Christs actual dying not determined by God 5. Christs death not necessary for our salvation though upon sundry other accounts 6. For aknowledge not properly attributable to God otherwise then as hands and eyes 7. Knowledge not properly attributable to God 8. God intends many things which shall never come to pass 9. God acts nothing in time 10. God made all things at once by one act 11. By this Act Peter was made a Believer 12. This Act was God himself yea all Gods actions are nothing really but himself 13. Yea all things were God himself from Eternity 14. That God if he reprobated any Creature must needs reprobate himself 15. For all Creatures were nothing but God from Eternity according to the most true and common Maxim of Divines Quicquid in Deo est Deus est 16. Election not of Individuals but of Species 17. It was not in Gods power to have done more towards the preventing of wicked mens abuse of his gifts then he did 18. Men not saved are as much obliged to God as they should have been in case they had been saved Then by consequence those who are saved owe him no more then they should have done had they been damned 19. For God doth as much to render the means of Grace effectual to those that perish as it is possible for him to do 20. The Doctrine of Apostacie more comfotable then that of Perseverance 21. Such Doctrines as these All men without exception shall be saved whether they believe or not No man shall be punished for any sin whatsoever either in this world or that to come Men are as much approved of God in the committing of the greatest sin as in the performance of the greatest duty Such Doctrines saith Mr. Goodwin as these are much more sweet and comfortable in respect of their frame constitution and import that that which affirms a necessity of the Saints perseverance 22. Yea saith Mr. Goodwin which is yet more I verily believe that in case any such unchangeableness of Gods love were to be found in or could be regularly deduced from the Scriptures it were a just ground to any considering man to question their Authority and whether they were from God or no. Other stuff there is but I am weary of it How do you like the man now Hath he not drawn his own picture with most lovely lines and features When a man is once out of the way see how he runs out of one By-path into another before he comes to the end of his rambling These are Doctrines that would make a tender Conscience melt and tremble at hearing them No wonder then if the Commissioners be startled and think it concerns them to do what Mr. G. chargeth upon them here in this Argument of his as a Crime which is as he is pleased to express it to dive as far and as deep as they know into the Judgments of those that come before them to discover whether there be not some Touch or Tincture at least of some propension of Judgment towards those Opinions those Opinions I say which draw such a horrible Train of Absurdities after them as directly tend to the utter subverting of the Doctrine of the Gospel But Mr. G. saith The Commissioners lay snares and stumbling Blocks in the way of the Young men of these Opinions because when they come before them to be examined they are put to this Dilemma either to lose the hopes of their Preferment or get through by dissembling their Opinions As many of them have done if their own Boastings may be credited They will tell you of many throughout England and more than two or three now in London that have gone through this Test By such dissimulation it must needs be or else the Commissioners deserve not to be blamed by you for being so over-strict But what do you infer from this wild Assertion even as wild a Conclusion Ergo It is unchristian for the Commissioners to sift them touching those Opinions And they forsooth who lay such a stumbling-block as this in the way of their Brethren will not he saith escape the revenging hand of God more than Balaam did who taught Balack to cast a stumbling block before the Children of Israel This is like leaping over Blocks and a running over Hedge and Ditch in matter of Argumentation as if Balaam were alive again and had bewitched him Certainly if Balaam's Beast should revive and recover the use of his Tongue he would frame somewhat more like an Argument then this or else he would deserve his Masters cudgel But these things we must pardon for the old Man-and-Boy is very angry on the behalf of those his Sons whom he hath begotten through his perverting of the Gospel And so I leave him passing on to the Eleventh Argument ARGUMENT XI I Find him here too continuing in his angry fit yet the same good nature of his that was pleased a little before to furnish us with some of his deep speculations in State-Policie