Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A67675
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An apology for the Discourse of humane reason, written by Ma. Clifford, esq. being a reply to Plain dealing, with the author's epitaph and character.
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Warren, Albertus.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing W950; ESTC R38948
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54,049
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168
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obscure and impertinent by the Gent. How the Author is guilty of both at once here I cannot imagine for it is very confessedly plain our Birth and Education do most times ingage us in our Religion where 's the Obscurity and it is accounted Scandalous to change our Religion above once at least that is plain and that we are not obliged to a blind unalterable obedience about outward Forms is also reasonable to say for any Protestant which non-obligation the Gent. also agreeth is unnecessary And I will admit the Gent. saith well that it becometh every Separator from the Church of England to inform himself from his own Reason and from the Reason of others especially from his Lawful Minister I loving to hear the word Lawful in this case whether she doth injoyn him any thing that is sinful in it self and if he cannot find her guilty of any such Command then his Separation can no wayes be excusable either before God or Men for it is mere Obstinacy But what if after all these Enquiries and Consultations with others mine own Reason that is my Conscience does inform me it is not lawful to obey her Commands must I violate that Light Surely the Gent. will not perswade me to do so if he doth I shall and ought to deny his Rhetorick for he is to know it is sinful for me to act without Faith and if I do not believe it Lawful and yet do it for Fear or Interest it is not onely sinful but argues a Servile and degenerous Spirit And though I may think there ought to be some visible Judge of these things that is either the Pope or my particular Sovereign or those he appointeth yet at last my own Reason you may call it Conscience or Light within will be my Judge do what I can And now as to the Reasons and Causes which moved some upon the Act of Distinguishment to take the Sacrament and yet to refuse hearing of our Liturgy which Refusal the Gent. instanceth and calleth a great Sin tho' it concerneth not the Author nor me neither and was drawn in by the Gent. after his Custom of abounding in his own Sallyes yet I shall adventure to say from an unexceptionable Authority viz. Bishop Andrews that de modo of Understanding the Subsistence of Christ in the Sacrament it was never disputed till some Centuries after his Ascention and is not considerable which satisfy'd a very learned King of our own and many the most authentick learned Protestants besides that to wit it is enough if a man after due Preparation take it reverentially in Obedience to Christs Command and live after the taking of it like a true Christian holily and vertuously as aware and minding the damnable Consequences of returning to Impiety and the great Assurance by hope of the Benefit accruable from future Obedience all which Complexion and Satisfaction to Protestants depended and still doth depend upon the Reasonableness of the Bishop's Argument where I leave it From whence I proceed to observe what an huge Crime the Gent. maketh it in the Author for saying A man may be a Papist at one time and seven years after a Protestant and yet the Faith of the Party so changing may remain the same for that saith the Author It is all the while actuated by the same Soul of Faith which is Conscience presuming that both when he was a Papist and when he is a Protestant he may truly say with these Eyes I shall behold my Saviour But I answer If it be a Crime to change from Popery to Protestantism upon rational Gonviction it wanteth a name and that great Witt Chillingworth was mistaken who was induced so to change alternately for he was first a Protestant then a Papist and lastly a Protestant and so died he alledging Reason always to be the Cause of his Changes but certainly it was Reason with its due helps which urged him to change that Chillingworth who out-witted the most learned Romanists putting them to Silence 't was he who first after Sir Walter Raleigh began and was stopt by Queen Elizabeth upon an Insinuation that it would bring in Atheism Cujus contrarium verum est from rational Inferences made it evident that insignificant scholastick Velitations were too weak to hold sagciaous men in that blind Obedience which had long muzzl'd the greatest part of Europe wherefore unless the Gent. be of opinion that any Power upon Earth is entit'led from above to subject us to an unalterable Obedience to Ecclesiastical Sanctions which is to admit one universal visible Monarch Ecclesiastical or if the Romanists have all truth though superadding many unnecessary things and probably impure I say if the Learned cannot agree then it is very charitable to conclude men that are actuated by Conscience to Holiness while on one side or other may be in a salvable Condition I cannot think otherwise than that the Question at the last day shall not be whether I have lived allways a Protestant or allways a Papist whether I have been an high Churchman a Latitudinarian or a Dissenter but whether I have lived holily and have used all rational ways to inform my Understanding of the Truth expressed in Scripture and Nature which is to pursue the main end of my Creation it necessarily begeting a rational Adoration towards God and Duty towards men Which last that is the Observation of the second Table is so indispensibly necessary that if there were neither God nor Devil Heaven nor Hell it is most undenyably true the World could not stand without the Observation thereof and was worthily intimated by the judicious Raleigh And if I should suppose this Plaster as the Gent. calleth it will serve an Heathen's turn under invincible Ignorance as to the truth of the Scripture which he never heard of yet living according to the Light of Nature I do not think it amiss charitably to suppose he may be saved But for that idle Question of the Gentleman 's to the Author whether he thinketh an erroneous Conscience shall excuse a man from all Crimes whatsoever it is scarce worth answering for as much as every sober man will grant it to be impossible for him who followeth the Dictates of Reason to be advisedly wicked Conscience being without all doubt an act of Reason or Intellect not a habit it is always a Judge yet may err as all other Judges but it sits a-top and is divine therefore who resisteth it resisteth his own Reason and what is done against either or without Faith is Sin what then is the best Medium to rectifie my Conscience which is erroneous Even the same way that I was lead into Errour will bring me out of it that is by giving my Reason its free Mediation without hud winking of it darling or strangling of it by implicite Faith insignificant Terms violent Distractions and Prejudices and Preoccupations Pride Interest or other Vices of all which pestilent Fevers I can assign no other cause than