Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bless_a	jesus_n	lord_n	6,161	5	3.6174	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63706	Clerus Domini, or, A discourse of the divine institution, necessity, sacredness, and separation of the office ministerial together with the nature and manner of its power and operation : written by the special command of King Charles the First / by Jer. Taylor.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.; Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Rules and advices to the clergy of the diocesse of Down and Connor.; Rust, George, d. 1670. Funeral sermon preached at the obsequies of the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down.	1672 (1672)	Wing T299; ESTC R13445	91,915	82

the life of man And we shall then come to the innumerable company of Angels and the general Assembly of the Church of the First-born and to the Spirits of just men made perfect and to Iesus the Mediator of the New Covenant The Oracle tells Amelius enquiring what was become of Polinus's soul that he was gone to Pythagoras and Socrates and Plato and as many as had born a part in the Quire of heavenly love And I may say to every good man that he shall go to the Company of Abraham Isaac and Iacob Moses David and Samuel all the Prophets and Apostles and all the holy men of God that have been in all the Ages of the World All those brave and excellent persons that have been scattered at the greatest distance of time and place and in their several generations have been the salt of the earth to preserve mankind from utter degeneracy and corruption These shall be all gathered together and meet in one Constellation in that Firmament of Glory O Praeclarum diem cùm ad illud divinorum animorum concilium coetúmque proficiscar atque ex hac turba ac colluvione discedam O that blessed day when we shall make our escape from this medly and confused riot and shall arrive to that great Council and general Randevouz of divine and god-like Spirits But which is more than all we shall then meet our Lord Jesus Christ the Head of our Recovery whose story is now so delightful unto us as reporting nothing of him but the greatest sweetness and innocence and meekness and patience and mercy and tenderness and benignity and goodness and whatever can render any person lovely or amiable and who out of his dear love and deep compassion unto mankind gave up himself unto the death for us men and for our salvation And if Saint Augustine made it one of his Wishes to have seen Jesus Christ in the flesh how much more desirable is it to see him out of his terrestrial weeds in his robes of Glory with all his redeemed Ones about him And this I cannot but look upon as a great Advantage and priviledge of that future State for I am not apt to swallow down that Conceit of the Schools that we shall spend Eternity in gazing upon the naked Deity for certainly the happiness of man consists in having all his faculties in their due subordinations gratified with their proper objects and I cannot but believe a great part of Heaven to be the blest Society that is there Their enravishing beauty that is to say their inward life and perfection flowring forth and raying it self thorow their glorified bodies The rare discourses wherewith they entertain one another The pure and chast and spotless and yet most ardent Love wherewith they embrace each other The ecstatick Devotions wherein they joyn together and certainly every pious and devout soul will readily acknowledge with me that it must needs be matter of unspeakable pleasure to be taken into the Quire of Angels and Seraphims and the glorious Company of the Apostles and the goodly Fellowship of the Prophets and the noble Army of Martyrs and to joyn with them in singing Praises and Hallelujahs and Songs of joy and Triumph unto our great Creator and Redeemer the Father of Spirits and the Lover of Souls unto him that sits upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever We are sure we shall then have our capacities fill'd and all our desires answered They hunger no more neither thirst any more for the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters What vast degrees of perfection and happiness the nature of man is capable of we may best understand by viewing it in the person of Christ taken into the nearest union with Divinity and made God's Vicegerent in the World and the Head and Governour of the whole Creation In this our narrow and contracted state we are apt to think too meanly of our selves and do not understand the dignity of our own Natures what we were made for and what we are capable of but as Plotinus somewhere observes We are like Children from our birth brought up in ignorance of and at a great distance from our Parents and Relations and have forgot the Nobleness of our Extraction and rank our selves and our fortunes among the lot of Beggers and mean and ordinary persons though we are the off-spring of a great Prince and were born to a Kingdom It does indeed become creatures to think modestly of themselves yet if we consider it aright it will be found very hard to set any bounds or limits to our own happiness and say Hitherto it shall arise and no further For that wherein the happiness of Man consists viz. Truth and Goodness the Communication of the Divine Nature and the Illapses of Divine Love it does not cloy or glut or satiate but every participation of them does widen and enlarge our Souls and fits us for further and further Receptions the more we have the more we are capable of the more we are fill'd the more room is made in our Spirits and thus it is still and still even till we arrive unto such degrees as we can assign no measures unto We shall then be made like unto God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 said the Areopagite Salvation can no otherwayes be accomplish'd but by becoming God-like It does not yet appear what we shall be but when he shall appear we shall be like him sayes our Evangelist for we shall see him as he is There is no seeing God as he is but by becoming like unto him nor is there any injoying of him but by being transformed into his Image and Similitude Men usually have very strange Notions concerning God and the enjoyment of him or rather these are words to which there is no correspondent conception in their minds but if we would understand God aright we must look upon him as Infinite Wisdom Righteousness Love Goodness and whatever speaks any thing of Beauty and Persection and if we pretend to worship him it must be by loving and adoring his transcendent Excellencies and if we hope to enjoy him it must be by conformity unto him and participation of his Nature The frame and constitution of things is such that it is impossible that Man should arrive to happiness any other way And if the Soveraignty of God should dispense with our obedience the Nature of the thing would not permit us to be happy without it If we live only the Animal Life we may indeed be happy as Beasts are happy but the Happiness that belongs to a Rational and Intellectual Being can never be attain'd but in a way of holiness and conformity unto the Divine Will for such a temper and disposition of mind is necessary unto Happiness not by vertue of any arbitrarious constitution of Heaven but the eternal Laws of Righteousness and immutable respects of things

Apostolical as it was an office extraordinary circumstantionate definite and to expire all that was promised should descend upon them after Christs ascension and was verified in Pentecost for to that purpose to bring all things to their mind all of Christs Doctrine and all that was necessary of his life and miracles and a power from above to enable them to speak boldly and learnedly and with tongues all that besides the other parts of ordinary power was given them ten days after the Ascension And therefore the breathing the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles in the octaves of the Resurrection and this mission with such a power was their ordinary mission a sending them as ordinary Pastors and Curates of Souls with a power to govern binding and loosing can mean no less and they were the words of the promise with a power to minister reconciliation for so Saint Paul expounds remitting and retaining which two were the great hinges of the Gospel the one to invite and collect a Church the other to govern it the one to dispense the greatest blessing in the world the other to keep them in capacities of enjoying it For since the holy Ghost was now actually given to these purposes here expressed and yet in order to all their extraordinaries and temporary needs was promised to descend after this there is no collection from hence more reasonable than to conclude all this to be part of their commission of ordinary Apostleship to which the ministers of religion were in all Ages to succeed In attestation of all which who please may see the united testimony of S. Cyril S. Chrysostome S. Ambrose S. Gregory and the Author of the questions of the old and new Testament who unless by their calling shall rather be called persons interess'd than by reason of their famous piety and integrity shall be accepted as competent are a very credible and fair representment of this truth and that it was a doctrine of Christianity that Christ gave this power to the Apostles for themselves and their successors for ever and that therefore as Christ in the first donation so also some Churches in the tradition of that power used the same form of words intending the collation of the same power and separating persons for that work of that ministery I end this with the counsel S. Augustine gives to all publick penitents Veniat ad Antistites per quos illis in Ecclesia claves ministrantur à praepositis sacrorum accipiant satisfactionis suae modum let them come to the Presidents of Religion by whom the Keys are ministred and from the Governours of holy things let them receive those injunctions which shall exercise and signifie their repentance SECT III. THe second power I instance in is preaching the Gospel for which work he not only at first designed Apostles but others also were appointed for the same work for ever to all generations of the Church This Commission was signed immediately before Christ's Ascension All power is given to me in Heaven and in Earth Go ye therefore and teach all Nations teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you and lo I am with you always even unto the end of the world First Christ declared his own commission all power is given him into his hand he was now made King of all the Creatures and Prince of the Catholick Church and therefore as it concerned his care and providence to look to his cure and flock so he had power to make deputations accordingly Go ye therefore implying that the sending them to this purpose was an issue of his power either because the authorizing certain persons was an act of power or else because the making them Doctors of the Church and teachers of the Nations was a placing them in an eminency above their scholars and converts and so also was an emanation of that power which derived upon Christ from his Father from him descended upon the Apostles And the wiser persons of the world have always understood that a power of teaching was a Presidency and Authority for since all dominion is naturally founded in the understanding although civil government accidentally and by inevitable publick necessity relies upon other titles yet where the greatest understanding and power of teaching is there is a natural preheminence and superiority eatenus that is according to the proportion of the excellency and therefore in the instance of S. Paul we are taught the style of the Court and Disciples sit at the feet of their Masters as he did at the feet of his Tutor Gamaliel which implies duty submission and subordination and indeed it is the highest of any kind not only because it is founded upon nature but because it is a submission of the most imperious faculty we have even of that faculty which when we are removed from our Tutors is submitted to none but God for no man hath power over the understanding faculty and therefore so long as we are under Tutors and Instructors we give to them that duty in the succession of which claim none can succeed but God himself because none else can satisfie the understanding but he Now then because the Apostles were created Doctors of all the world hoc ipso they had power given them over the understandings of their disciples and they were therefore fitted with an infallible spirit and grew to be so authentick that their determination was the last address of all inquiries in questions of Christianity and although they were not absolute Lords of their faith and understandings as their Lord was yet they had under God a supreme care and presidency to order to guide to instruct and to satisfie their understandings and those whom they sent out upon the same errand according to the proportion and excellency of their spirit had also a degree of superiority and eminency and therefore they who were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Labourers in the word and doctrine were also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Presbyters that were Presidents and Rulers of the Church and this eminency is for ever to be retained according as the unskilfulness of the Disciple retains him in the form of Catechumens or as the excellency of the instructor still keeps the distance or else as the office of teaching being orderly and regularly assigned makes a legal political and positive authority to which all those persons are for orders sake to submit who possibly in respect of their personal abilities might be exempt from that authority Upon this ground it is that learning amongst wise persons is esteemed a title of nobility and secular eminency Ego enim quid aliud munificentiae adhibere potui ut studia ut sic dixerim in umbra educata è quibus claritudo venit said Seneca to Nero. And Aristotle and A. Gellius affirm that not only excellency of extraction or great fortunes but learning also makes noble circum undique sedentibus multis doctrinâ aut genere

of the Apostle But I suffer not a woman to teach but to be in silence And as for the men who had gifts extraordinary of the Spirit although they were permitted at first in the Corinthian Church before there was a Bishop or a fixed Colledge of Clergy to utter the inspired dictates of the Spirit yet whether they were Lay or Clergy is not there expressed and it is more agreeable to the usual dispensation that the prophets of ordinary ministery though now extraordinarily assisted should prophesie in publick but however when these extraordinaries did cease if they were common persons they had no pretence to invade the Chair nor that we find ever did for an ordinary ability to speak was never any warrant to disturb an order unless they can say the words of S. Paul Whereunto I am ordained a Preacher they might not invade the office To be able to perform an office though it may be a fair disposition to make the person capable to receive it orderly yet it does not actually invest him every wise man is not a Counsellor of State nor every good Lawyer a Judge And I doubt not but in the Jewish religion there were many persons as able to pray as their Priests who yet were wiser than to refuse the Priests advocation apud Deum and reciting offices in behalf of the people Orabit pro eo sacerdos was the order of Gods appointing though himself were a devout person and of an excellent spirit And it had need be something extraordinary that must warrant an ordinary person to rise higher than his own evenness and ability or skill is but a possibility and must be reduced to act by something that transmits authority or does establish order or distinguish persons and separate professions And it is very remarkable that when Iudas had miscarried and lost his Apostolate it was said that it was necessary for some body to be chosen to be a witness of Christs Resurrection Two were named of ability sufficient but that was not all they must chuse one to make up the number of the twelve a distinct separate person which shews that it was not only a work for that any of them might have done but an office of ordinary ministery The ability of doing which work although all they that lived with Iesus might either have had or received at Pentecost yet the authority and grace was more the first they had upon experience but this only by divine election which is a demonstration that every person that can do offices clerical is not permitted to do them and that besides the knowledge and natural or artificial abilities a divine qualification is necessary And therefore God complains by the Prophet I have not sent them and yet they run and the Apostle leaves it as an established rule How shall they preach except they be sent Which two places I shall grant to be meant concerning a distinct and a new message Prophets must not offer any doctrine to the people or pretend a doctrine for which they had not a commission from God But which way soever they be expounded they will conclude right in this particular For if they signifie an ordinary mission then there is an ordinary mission of preachers which no man must usurp unless he can prove his title certainly and clearly derivative from God which when any man of the Laity can do we must give him the right hand of fellowship and wish him good speed But if these words signifie an extraordinary case and that no message must be pretended by Prophets but what they have commission for then must not ordinary persons pretend an extraordinary mission to an ordinary purpose for besides that God does never do things unreasonable nor will endure that order be interrupted to no purpose he will never give an extraordinary Commission unless it be to a proportionable end whosoever pretends to a licence of preaching by reason of an extraordinary calling must look that he be furnished with an extraordinary message lest his Commission be ridiculous and when he comes he must be sure to shew his authority by an argument proportionable that is by such a probation without which no wise man can reasonably believe him which cannot be less than miraculous and divine In all other cases he comes under the curse of the non missi those whom God sent not they go on their own errand and must pay themselves their wages But besides that the Apostles were therefore to have an immediate mission because they were to receive new inctructions these inctructions were such as were by an ordinary and yet by a distinct ministery to be conveyed for ever after and therefore did design an ordinary successive and lasting power and authority Nay our blessed Lord went one step further in this provision even to remark the very first successors and partakers of this power to be taken into the lot of this ministery and they were the Seventy-two whom Christ had sent as probationers of their future preaching upon a short errand into the Cities of Iudah But by this assignation of more persons than those to whom he gave immediate Commission he did declare that the office of preaching was to be dispensed by a separate and peculiar sort of men distinct from the people and yet by others than those who had the commission extraordinary that is by such who were to be called to it by an ordinary vocation As Christ constituted the office and named the persons both extraordinary and ordinary present and successive so he provided gifts for them too that the whole dispensation might be his and might be apparent And therefore Christ when he ascended up on high gave gifts to men to this very purpose and these gifts coming from the same Spirit made separation of distinct ministeries under the same Lord. So S. Paul testifies expresly Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there are different administrations differences of ministeries it is the proper word for Church-offices the ministery distinguished by the gift It is not a gift of the ministery but the ministery it self is the gift and distinguished accordingly An extraordinary Ministery needs an extraordinary and a miraculous gift that is a miraculous calling and vocation and designation by the holy Ghost but an ordinary gift cannot sublime an ordinary person to a supernatural imployment and from this discourse of the differing gifts of the Spirit Saint Paul without any further artifice concludes that the Spirit intended a distinction of Church-officers for the work of the ministery for the conclusion of the discourse is that God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers and lest all God's people should usurp these offices which God by his Spirit hath made separate and distinguished he adds Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers If so then were all the body one member quite contrary to nature