Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	church_n	head_n	7,573	5	6.7361	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53681	A discourse concerning evangelical love, church-peace and unity with the occasions and reasons of present differences and divisions about things sacred and religious, written in the vindication of the principles and practise of some ministers and others.	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1672 (1672)	Wing O735; ESTC R13316	129,318	262

interest in his present condition and circumstances And as this being once admitted will give the minds of men an Indifferency as unto the several Religions that are in the world so it will quickly produce in them a Contempt of them all And from an entertainment of or an indifferency of mind about these and the like noysome opinions it is come to pass that the Gospel after a continued Triumph for sixteen hundred years over Hell and the world doth at this day in the midst of Christendome hardly with multitudes maintain the reputation of its truth and Divinity and is by many living in a kind of outward conformity unto the Institutes of Christian Religion despised laughed to scorn But the proud and foolish Atheistical Opiniators of our dayes whose sole design is to fortifie themselves by the darkness of their minds against the charges of their own consciences upon their wicked and debauched conversations do but expose themselves to the scorn of all sober and rational Persons For what are a few obscure and for the most part vitious Renegadoes in comparison of those great wise numerous and sober persons whom the Gospel in its first setting forth in the world by the evidence of its truth and the efficacy of its Power subdued and conquered Are they as learned as the renowned Philosophers of those dayes who advantaged by the endeavours and fruits of all the great Wits of former Ages had advanced solid rational Literature to the greatest height that ever it attained in this world or possibly ever will do so the minds of men having now somthing more excellent and noble to entertain themselves-withall Are they to be equalled in wisdome and experience with those glorious Emperors Senators and Princes who then swayed the Scepters and affairs of the world Can they produce any thing to oppose unto the Gospel that is likely to influence the minds of men in any degree comparably to the Religion of these great learned wise and mighty Personages which having received by their Fathers from dayes immemorial was visibly attended with all Earthly Gloryes and Prosperities which were accounted as the reward of their due observance of it And yet whereas there was a Conspiracy of all those persons and this influenced by the craft of infernal Powers and managed with all that wisdome subtlety power and cruelty that the nature of man is capable to exercise on purpose to oppose the Gospel and keep it from taking Root in the world yet by the glorious evidence of its divine extract and original wherewith it is accompanied by the efficacy and power which God gave the Doctrine of it in and over the minds of men all mannaged by the spiritual weapons of its Preachers which were mighty through God to the pulling down of those strong holds casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalted it self against the knowledge of God it prevailed against them all and subdued the world unto an acknowledgment of its truth with the divine power and authority of its Author Certainly there is nothing more contemptible than that the Indulgence of some inconsiderable Persons unto their lusts and vices who are void of all those excellencies in notion and practise which have already been triumphed over by the Gospel when set up in competition with it or opposition unto it should be once imagined to bring it into question or to cast any disreputation upon it But to treat of these things is not our present design we have only mentioned them occasionally in the account which it was necessary we should give concerning our Love to all men in general with the grounds we proceed upon in the exercise of it CHAP. III. Nature of the Catholick Church The first and principal Object of Christian Love Differences among the Members of this Church of what nature and how to be managed Of the Church Catholick as visibly professing The extent of it or who belongs unto it Of Vnion and Love in this Church-state of the Church of England with respect hereunto Of particular Churches Their institution Corruption of that Institution Of Churches Diocesan c. Of separation from corrupt particular Churches The just Causes thereof c. IN the second sort of Mankind before mentioned consists the visible Kingdome of Christ in this wo●ld This being grounded in his Death and Resurrection and conspicuously settled by his sending of the Holy Ghost after his Ascension he hath ever since preserved in the world against all the contrivances of Satan or oppositions of the Gates of Hell and will do so unto the consummation of all things For he ●●●st reign until all his enemies are made his Foots●ool Towards these on all accounts our Love ought to be intense and fervent as that which is the immediate Bond of our Relation unto them and Union with them And this Kingdome or Church of Christ on the earth may be and is generally by all considered under a threefold notion 1. First as therein and among the Members of it is comprized that real living and spiritual body of his which is firstly peculiarly and properly the Catholick Church militant in this world These are his Elect Redeemed justified and sanctified ones who are savingly united unto their Head by the same quickning and sanctifying Spirit dwelling in him in all fulness and communicated unto them by him a●cording to his Promise This is that Catholick Church which we profess to believe which being hid from the eyes of men and absolutely invisible in its Mystical Form or spiritual saving Relation unto the Lord Christ and its Unity with him is yet more or less alwayes visible by that Profession of Faith in him and obedience unto him which it maketh in the world and is alwayes obliged so to do For With the Heart man believeth unto Righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation And this Church we believe to be so disposed over the whole world that where-ever there are any Societies or Numbers of men who ordinarily profess the Gospel and subjection to the Kingly Rule of Christ thereby with an hope of eternal blessedness by his Mediation we no way doubt but that there are among them some who really belong thereunto In and by them doth the Lord Christ continually fulfil and accomplish the Promise of his Presence by his Spirit with them that believe in his name who are thereby Interested in all the Priviledges of the Gospel and Authorized unto the Administration and Participation of all the Holy Ordinances thereof And were it not that we ought not to boast our selves against others Especially such as have not had the Spiritual Advantages that the Inhabitants of these Nations have been intrusted withal and who have been exposed unto more violent Temptations than they we should not fear to say that among those of all sorts who in these Nations hold the Head there is probably according unto a Judgment to be made by the fruits of that

of attaining it are the chief cause of Offences unto them who are yet strangers from Christianity The Jews object unto us the Wars among Christians which they suppose shall have no place under the Kingdom and Reign of the true Messiah And we have been reproached with our intestine Differences by Gentiles and Mahumetans For those who never had either Peace or Love or Unity among themselves do yet think meet to revile us with the want of them because they know how highly we are obliged unto them But any Men may be justly charged with the neglect of that Duty which they profess if they be found defective therein Under the sad Effects of the want of these things we may labour long enough if we endeavour not to take away ihe Causes of it And yet in the entrance of our Disquisition after them we are again entangled Christians cannot come to an Agreement about these Causes and so live under the severity of their Effects as not being able to conclude on a Remedy The multitude of them is here divided and one cryeth one thing another another Most place the Cause of all our Differences in a dissent from themselves and their Judgments Yea they do so apparently who yet disavow their so doing And it may be here expected that we should give some account of our thoughts as to the Causes of these Differences whereof we also have now complained so far as they are contrary to the nature or Obstructive of the Ends of the Gospel We shall therefore briefly endeavour the satisfaction of such as may have those Expectations Particular Evils which contribute much unto our Divisions we shall not insist upon much less shall we reflect upon and aggravate the failings of others whether Persons or Societies Some of the Principal and more General Reasons and Causes of them especially amongst Protestants it shall suffice us to enumerate The Principal Cause of our Divisions and Schisms is no other than the Ignorance or Misapprehension that is among Christians of the true nature of that Evangelical Vnity which they ought to follow after with the ways and means whereby it may be attained and preserved Hence it is come to pass that in the greatest Pleas for Vnity and endeavours after it most men have pursued a shadow and fought uncertainly as those that beat the Air. For having lost the very notion of Gospel Vnity and not loving the thing its self under what terms soever proposed unto them they consigned the Name of it unto and cloathed with its ornaments and Priviledges a vain Figment of their own which the Lord Christ never required nor ever blessed any in their Endeavours to attain And when they had changed the End it was needful for them also to change the Means of attaining it and to substitute those in their Room which were suited to the new Mark and Aim they had erected Farther to evidence these things we shall give some account of the Nature of Evangelical Vnity the means of attaining it with the false notion of it that some have embraced and the corrupt means which they have used for the compassing of the same First that Unity which is recommended unto us in the Gospel is spiritual and in that which is purely so lies the Foundation of the whole Hence it is called the Vnity of the Spirit which is to be kept in the bond of Peace because there is one Body and one Spirit whereby that Body is animated Thus all true Believers become one in the Father and the Son or perfect in one It is their Participation of and quickening by the same Spirit that is in Christ Jesus whereby they become his Body or Members of it even of his flesh and of his bones that is no less really Partakers of the same Divine Spiritual Nature with him than Eve was of the Nature of Adam when she was made of his fl●sh and his bones The real Union of all true Believers unto the Lord Christ as their Head wrought by his Spi●i● which dwelleth in them and communicates of his Grace unto them is that which we intend For as hereby they become one with and in him so they come to be one among themselves as his Body and all the Members of the Body being many are yet but one Body wherein their oneness among themselves doth consist The Members of the Body have divers forms or shapes divers uses and Operations much more may be diversly cloathed and adorned yet are they one Body still wherein this Unity doth consist And it were a ridiculous thing to attempt the appearance of a dead useless Unity among the Members of the Body by cloathing of them all in the same kind of Garments or Covering But granting them their Vnity by their Relation unto the Head and thence to one another unto the Constitution of the whole and their different Forms shapes Uses Operations ornaments all tend to make them serviceable in their Unity unto their proper Ends. And saith the Apostle as the Body is one and hath many Members and all the Members of that one Body being many are one body so also is Christ. For by one Spirit we are all baptized into one Body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit And he doth elsewhere so describe this Fundamental Unity of Believers in one Body under and in dependance on the same Head as to make it the only means of the usefulness and Preservation of the whole They grow up into him in all things which is the Head even Christ From whom the whole Body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh increase of the Body unto the Edifying of its self in Love The conjunction of all the Members into one Body their mutual usefulness unto one another the Edification of the whole with its increase the due exercise of Love which things contain the whole nature and the utmost Ends of all Church-Communion do depend meerly and solely upon and flow from the Relation that the Members have to the Head and their Union with him He speaketh again to the same purpose in the reproof of them who hold not the Head from which all the Body by joynts and bands having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God This is the Foundation of all Gospel Vnity among Believers whereunto all other things which are required unto the compleating of it are but accessory nor are they without this of any value or acceptation in the sight of God Whatever Order Peace Concord Vnion in the Church any one may hold or keep who is not interested herein he is but like a Stone in a building laid it may be in a comely order but not cemented and fixed unto the whole which renders its station useless to the