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	ghost_n	holy_a	11,216	5	5.5398	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26615	Protestancy to be embrac'd, or, A new and infallible method to reduce Romanists from popery to Protestancy a treatise of great use to all His Majesties subjects, and necessary to prevent error and popery / by David Abercromby, D., lately converted, after he had profess'd near nineteen years Jesuitism and popery.	Abercromby, David, d. 1701 or 2.	1682 (1682)	Wing A86; ESTC R6382	30,832	174

our mind a World of illegal absur'd and irrational inferences and are besides contradicted through all Ages by the constant experience of all seeing and feeling men Let no Man nevertheless imagine we ground our mysteries on the Testimony of our Senses we only say nothing can be suppos'd as a mystery that is point blank against the evidence of sence and infallible experience which cannot be retorted against the mystery of the Trinity for though we neither see it nor feel it yet our Senses shew nothing to us evidently destructive to it and on this account this mystery is not against but above the reach both of Sense and Reason Secondly This Doctrine inclineth the meaner capacities to idolatry and the sharper wits to Hypocrisie and Dissimulation The common People because incapable to distinguish the appearance of Bread they see from the Body of Christ they see not and being taught to adore him hidden thus under the veils of Bread and Wine are apt to and no doubt do frequently adore the accidents they see which they call sometimes blasphemously God yea say commonly when the Wafer is lifted up by the Priest in the midst of the Mass on leve Dieu God is lifted their understanding finding no passage through the Consecrated Wafer to Christ's Body 9. As for the sharper sort of Romanists when they reflect 1. On what is said in Scripture that the Heavens must receive Christ until the times of restitution of all things 2. That a Body can no more be without its due extension for example of five or six foot than water without humidity fire without heat a stone without hardness 3. That the Bread cannot be miraculously chang'd into Christ's Body because all miracles are of necessity visible as is clear by all those we ever heard or read of But here the substance into which the Bread is converted is not visible This visibility nevertheless is necessary in a change really miraculous as it appears by that of water into wine of Moses Rod into a Serpent c. 4. That 't is inconsistent with reason to say Christ's Body is at the same time in Heaven and Earth yea and in as many places as there be all the World over Consecrated Wafers Who-ever understands these absurdities will never I am confident believe a true Transubstantiation though he profess otherwise outwardly through Hypocrisie and Dissimulation The Trinity I confess and Hypostatical Union or the Incarnation are far beyond the reach of our reason yet because they are not the Objects of our Senses we believe them with less reluctancy and more easily upon authority but that which hath ever been and still is evidently repugnant to the experimental knowledge of all our Senses as the Transubstantiation confessedly is can scarce ever be looked upon as a truth by such as make use of their discerning faculty The Romanists instance commonly these Words of Christ This is my Body as the ground of this Doctrine which they say must not be taken in a figurative sence because they are Christ's last Will and Testament and no man neither ignorant nor malicious expresseth his last Will by Figures and Metaphors But here lies their mistake that these words This is my Body are a true and real Testament or Christ's Legacy to his Apostles For he says not I leave you my Body which is the usual manner of uttering our selves in Testaments but This is my Body 'T is no Testament than as they imagine or at least not a proper one 10. Their Doctrine relating to the mediation of the Virgin Mary and other Saints withdraws them from rendering to Christ our only Redeemer due Honour and Glory For though there is no other Name under Heaven whereby we must be saved but that of Christ yet many of them pretend to Eternal Happiness by the merits of the Saints and the Virgin Mary whom they joyn still with Jesus in their Visits to the Sick either crying aloud to them or exhorting the sick to pronounce Jesus Maria as if they judg'd Christ's merits insufficient or that some other Name than that of Christ our Advocate with the Father could be a propitiation for our Sins hence 't is they extol so much their meritorious works that we have reason to say they ground thereon their best hopes of the other Life at least 't is certain the simple undiscerning sort relys more on what they do than on what Christ did for them I mean more upon their good works than on his infinite merits and mercys SECT II. Their Divine Worship and Ecclesiastical Discipline 1. THeir manner of Divine Worship is not unlike that of the ancient Heathens and on this account is far from the purity of the Primitive Church They adore God in Pictures and Images as he was adored by the Heathens in the Sun Moon and other less noble Creatures or rather to speak in their own terms they worship those Images as representations of that invisible and Soveraign Being we call God Though this was severely punished in the Israelites worshipping the Golden Calf as a representation of God for I cannot imagine they ador'd it as a true God unless you suppose they were as void of reason as it was if then this Worship of theirs be looked upon by all as Idolatry what may we judge of that Romish Image Worship the very same or at least in nothing material differing from it 2. Images are commonly called the Books of Ignorants but in my judgment they deserve rather to be denominated the Books of Ignorance because they occasion often mistakes and errors As for instance an Old Man representing God the Father a Dove the Holy Ghost are apt to make the ignorant sort believe they have indeed some such shape I shall not contest here about this point because it hath been discuss'd so often by others One thing only I shall say which I think is undeniable that Protestants serve God more in spirit and truth than Romanists do Because they make their Addresses to him immediately without having recourse to Images or imploring the help of Saints as Mediators I know they answer this by distinguishing a relative and Soveraign Worship The former they allow to Images the latter to God only But First This relative Worship was condemn'd and punish'd in the Israelites as I have insinuated above And Secondly They adore confessedly the Cross cultu latriae with that Soveraign cult belonging to God only What then can they instance in defence of their innocency I must as yet tell them in this place 3. They fall short of the end they aim at in covering the inside of their Churches with rare Pictures and Images of exquisite Artifice their aim is as I charitably suppose to stir up the people thereby to greater devotion But we find by experience a quite contrary effect they are diverted from Prayer by that great variety of alluring objects they have before their eyes you may see them in their Churches more gazing for

or pointed out by the light of a true demonstration and the like Such disputes I ever thought Otiosorum hominum negotia the affairs of those that have no affair to busie themselves withal I judg'd them fitter to destroy than edifie to nourish and spread Errors than to increase Piety and dispell Ignorance 5. I studied several years the Jesuit School-divinity and I may say in all truth I reap'd no other benefit thereby save only that in my own conceit and perhaps in the opinion of some others I became an able Disputant about what About Chymera's beings of reason as they speak Impossibilities and such like whimsical notions 6. Yet in the midst of these hot disputes we had often for meer Punctilo's of honour and a vain repute of some sharpness I felt often the Spirit of God working interiourly my Conversion by the secret voice of his Holy Inspiration which caus'd me often to break out in these or the like words Quid haec ad aeternitatem What avails all this for my last end and eternal felicity 7. As to the practical part of the Romish School-divinity relating to Cases of Conscience the World knows how far from a true and sincere Conscience are those men commonly called Casuists I read several of them most exactly but was still displeas'd at their far fetch'd subtilties invented for the avoiding of sin but in reality are the true sources of all loosness and iniquity Whatever crime your Conscience accuseth you of consult but a Romish Casuist and he will instantly indeavour your repose by some byass or another tending to his own interest and the setling of your inward peace on some frivolous distinction or groundless precision 8. Such sort of men are great Patrons of self-love and always prone to pronounce in favour of our corrupted nature against the light of their own Conscience and Reason and under pretence of shunning severity they fall into th' other extream more dangerous by yielding through an interess'd complacency to the perverse Inclinations of such as require their advice 9. I had great intimacy with several Romanists perswaded of the lawfulness of such immoral Practices their common by-word was Les gens d'esprit ne pechent point that is witty men hardly ever sin Their reason was because sin for instance Adultery may be look'd on as a double fac'd medal the one side whereof represents to us a natural act th' other side an injust act their meaning is if you consent to an Adultery as 't is a natural act precisely you shun by this precision the guilt of sin since an act as natural is not sinful but if you consent to it as 't is an injust act you commit then a sin which witty and sharp men especially Casuists I fancy will never do knowing how to distinguish in the same individual act rationem actus rationem peccati the formality of an act from that of a sinful act 10. So the dultish sort only either incapable of or not reflecting on such precisions shall commit Adulteries or any other sins for want of this prescinding faculty Than which no greater illusion could I ever conceive as to commit a sin were not more than enough to desire an ill thing or what is necessarily tyed to an ill and unlawful object known to be such 11. These and the like dangerous opinions which we shall discuss in another place put often my thoughts to a stand in order to examine what truth could be in these ordinary reproaches made by Protestants against Romanists accus'd commonly by them of disconformity with the Primitive Church of Novelties Errors and Superstitions 12. Being thus perplex'd in mind and as Hercules in Bivio uncertain what way to make choice of I came to Scotland where because of some repute I had got abroad of a Scholar I was put instantly to work by the Jesuits against M. Menzeis Doctor and Professor of Divinity in Aberdeen I wrote then in a short time a Treatise of some bulk against his way of defending the Protestant Religion but neither to my own satisfaction though several others seeing things but under one light seem'd to be perswaded by my arguments nor to the satisfaction of most Romanists who thought and said my Doctrine in some material points was not unlike or the same with that of Protestants 13. After a stay of about two years in Scotland after an accurate parallel of Protestancy and Popery and a scrupulous scrutiny of the most material grounds they both stand on I came to London as to a safe Sanctuary where I might serve God in all freedom and security 14. The extream kindness of the Londoners to all distress'd Persons and their late unparallelable Charity to the Persecuted Brethren of the French Nation could not but inspire me with high sentiments of their Piety and Religion 15. I must confess here ingenuously that the English Nation exceeded not only formerly their Neighbours in Warlike Exploits and would yet if times and occasion put them to it but were ever and are still far beyond them all in beneficency and works of Charity the genuine Characters of Divine Faith and true Christianism influenc'd no doubt by the example of our most wise and most Gracious Soveraign who as he defends and conserves by all imaginable means the Protestant Religion so favours all such with his Royal Protection and Friendship that conform to it by renouncing their Errors and Popery 16. I foresee this change of mine how well grounded soever will stir up against me 1. My former Brethren the Jesuits 2. My nearest Relations who are for the most part and ever were Zealous Romanists I doubt not nevertheless but they shall put a favourable construction on what I have done provided 1. They condemn me not incognitâ causâ unheard and 2. Suspend their censure till after an impartial and intire perusal of this present Treatise all preoccupation Mother of error laid aside 17. They cannot say that any other motive but that of saving my Soul in the securest way caus'd me to withdraw from them and side with Protestants They know I was in a Condition amongst them to want for nothing being supplyed with necessaries sufficiently but now I must rely on Gods Providence and my own Industry Yet this I am not troubled at since Christ has said Search first after the Kingdom of Heaven and then all other things ye stand in need of shall be added unto you Since he can neither deceive nor be deceiv'd may we either think or say without Blasphemy he will disappoint such as have setled all their hopes in his infallible promises but to shun Prolixity I come to the main point I aim at which is to give to the publick an infallible method not written of for ought I know by any other to reduce Romanists to Conformity with the Reform'd Churches By the same means I shall lay open to the World on what grounds I have forsaken Popery and embrac'd Protestancy 18.