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	holy_a	life_n	6,877	5	4.4602	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26887	The certainty of Christianity without popery, or, Whether the Catholick-Protestant or the papist have the surer faith being an answer to one of the oft canted questions and challenges of the papists, sent to one who desired this : published to direct the unskilful, how to defend their faith against papists and infidels, but especially against the temptations of the Devil, that by saving their faith, they may save their holiness, their comfort and their souls / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1672 (1672)	Wing B1213; ESTC R5291	42,876	122

Science are Certainer to us than faith and its act and that both extensively Science having both certainty of Evidence and Adhesion if that be Certainty And intensively for Science hath no doubt permixt as faith oft hath And he is forced to conclude his faith into the further uncertainty following CHAP. IV. That the most Learned Doctors of the Church of Rome resolve their faith in earnest or jeast into such an Inspiration of the Pope and Prelates in Council as the Apostles had and so are meer Fanaticks And this against notorious sense and experience THe said Durandus saith ib. li. 3. d. 23. p. 573. Nothing is more certain than experience to which the resolution of other things is made that we may have the fuller certainty But experience telleth us that there is Bread after consecration And that he took the belief of humane authority for the weakest opinion I told you before And v. 12. he saith How are we sure that God saith what we believe Non nisi quia sic tenet Ecclesia Only because the Church so holdeth Which he brings to prove that Divine Authority is not surest to us And Ocham Quod l. 5. q. 31. so answereth the question Whether the substance of Bread remain after consecration as I verily believe he did but Ironically jear them and shew that he durst not speak his thoughts Mentioning three opinions The first that the substance of bread which was there before is after the body of Christ I think he meaneth Durandus opinion condemned by Bellarmine c. he rejecteth The second saith he that the substance of bread and wine cease to be and the accidents only remain and under them Christs body begins to be is the common opinion of all Divines which I hold for the determination of the Church and not for any other reason The third that there remaineth the substance of bread and wine with Christs body would be very reasonable if the Churches determination were not contrary for that opinion solveth and avoideth all the difficulties which arise from seperating the accidents from the subject And the contrary to it is not had out of the Canon of the Bible nor doth it include any contradiction for Christs body to consist with the substance of bread any more than with the accidents And after more answering the argument of Mass-miracles by every Priest he saith Sometime about some things there must more Miracles be put though it might be done by fewer and that because it pleaseth God And the Church knoweth this by some Revelation that so it is and therefore the Church hath so determined Either he jeareth them or else he professeth that their faith even of daily miracles against common sense is resolved into a Revelation which the Church hath of that which is not in the Bible which must be Prophetically The like you have in Paludanus Durandus save that he leaveth them as aforesaid Scotus c. I will end with learned Rada who Vol. 4. Contr. 7. a. 1. pag. 164 165. having shewed that This is my Body will not in its own proper sense infer what Aquinas and others gather saith Yet indeed now we must not take that sense but as the Church taught by the Holy Ghost understandeth those words For the Scriptures are expounded by that spirit which they were made by And so it must be supposed that the Catholick Church by that spirit which delivered us the faith even taught by the Holy Ghost so expounded and exploded the first sense and chose this being that other was not true as to the remaining of the substance of bread after consecration But this sense he chose which is true and so delivered by our Lord himself as it is solemnly declared C. firmiter c. And he concludeth that This is my body is not enough to convince a Heretick but as understood by the Church by that spirit by which they were given and delivered they exclude the substance of bread O all men of common sense and reason in the world we appeal to your humanity in the Controversie between the Papists and us While they assert a Miracle by every Priest every day that he masseth in all the world and deny the truth of Gods primary natural Revelation to all mens common senses they resolve their faith of the Certainty of all this not into the Scripture but into such an Inspiration of the Holy Ghost as the Scriptures themselves were written by The Scripture must not be our proof of this Inspiration but must be proved by it We must believe that thus every wicked Pope and the Prelates of the major vote in his packt Councils have this Inspiration When they do no Miracles they live so much worse than other Ministers of Christ that the Reforming of them hath long been the vain wish and attempt of the Christian world They murder the servants of Jesus in their Inquisitions and yet we must lay all our faith and salvation on it that they have all a Prophetical spirit Well If it be proved Certainly to the world that the Pope and his Church are all Prophets or Inspired by the Holy Ghost as the Apostles were then I declare that the Papists are in the right If not I will be no willing Subject of the KING of Rome while he so abuseth the Word the Church the Honour of the Churches King FINIS

THE CERTAINTY OF CHRISTIANITY Without POPERY OR Whether the Catholick-Protestant or the Papist have the Surer Faith Being an Answer to one of the oft canted Questions and Challenges of the Papists sent to one who desired this Published to direct the unskilful how to defend their faith against Papists and Infidels but especially against the Temptations of the Devil that by saving their Faith they may save their Holiness their Comfort and their Souls By Richard Baxter 2 Cor. 4. 1 2. Seing we have this Ministry as we have received mercy we faint not But have renounced the Hidden things of dishonesty not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully But by manifestation of the truth commending our selves to every mans Conscience in the sight of God LONDON Printed for Nevil Simons at the Sign of the Princes Arms in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1672. TO THE Protestant Reader IT is for your Reading and not for the Papists chiefly that I publish this short and hasty writing For I may probably prognosticate of them 1. That the lay men will not must not read it 2. That the Priests will not read it with any impartiality as Lovers of Truth 3. That what they cannot answer they will silently dissemble or if any meddle with it they will either take some scrap and leave the rest or they will spend paper in cavilling at my 40. Reasons against them because lest I be tedious I have not improved them by Syllogistical form and full confirmation and they will put off the full answers already given them in the former Books to which I refer them without a Reply And they will pass by the strength of what they meddle with 4. And when I am dead they will patch up some confident answer to some of my Books as vain as Mr. Iohnson alias Terret hath done to one and will borrow some lies from the writings of some against me that are of the same spirit with them wherewith to reproach my Name which shall be instead of an answer to my Books The Answer to their present Question I have already fullier given them 1. In my Reasons of the Christian Religion 2. And in my More Reasons 3. In my Life of Faith Part 2. 4. In my Safe Religion throughout especially Disp. 3. 5. In my Key for Catholicks 6. In my Preface to the 2. Part of the Saints Rest. And none of them that I know of are answered But they cant over and over the same thing and tempt or necessitate us thereby to write over and over the same thing to the wearying of the Readers while they silently dissemble all But the end of this writing is to tell young unstudied persons on what terms and in what order they must deal with this great Question and defend the foundations of their faith against Infidels Papists and the Devil himself who will here assault us with greater craft and force than Papists or Infidels can do Reader study it well till thy soul is clear and well confirmed For the Keeping or Losing of this Fort is the Keeping or Losing of thy Religion thy Comfort and thy soul. This following Paper was sent me from an unknown person in a Letter which had these words SIR THe business of this Paper is to beg a favour of you of a publick nature an Answer to the inclosed Paper which was sent me from a friend of mine who is a Papist with an earnest desire that I would procure it to be answered The resolution of which would be of use to us both in the things in Controversie between us I cannot but wonder at the confidence of this deluded people who though they are so often again and again Learnedly and Religiously writ against yet they can with as great confidence and boasting challenge and dare the Ministers of Truth to encounter and answer them in such kind of Papers as if their tenets had never been refuted at all And though I have referred my friend to your Books that will not satisfie but he doth as it were Goliah-like bid defiance to our Ministers telling me that if any be so hardy let them answer his Papers The Paper followeth ALL who call themselves Christians are agreed in this principle That every Revelation of God or whatsoever God says is most certainly true in the sense wherein he intends it And this is a matter of right on Gods part to have this granted But all Christians do not agree and it is the sole point wherein Christians differ Whether God hath Revealed or said what is proposed to us as his Revelation Or as the sense intended by him by that which they all agree to be his Revelation And this is purely matter of Fact viz. 1. Whether several Books affirmed and proposed to us as the Revelations of God be truly so For Instance the Old Testament affirmed by some to be and proposed as the Revelations of God are denied by the Valentinians and the Manichees The Gospels of St. Mark St. Luke St. Iohn and all St. Pauls Epistles proposed by some Christians as the Revelations of God are denied by others namely by the Ebionites So likewise several parties agreeing several Books to be Scripture and the Revelation of God do notwithstanding differ touching the Copies and touching the Translations Some affirming one Copie to be true and one Translation to be true whilst others expresly say that Copy is false and that Translation false And Lastly several parties agreeing the Books to be Scripture the Copies true and the Translations true and to be the Revelation of God do nevertheless differ touching the sense each party delivering a particular sense of such a Text and proposing such sense as the sense and the only sense Revealed by God to be intended by God by that Text and each proposed sense being contrary to the other It is clear in any difference arising touching matter of Fact there can only be one party which can have the true Faith touching that matter for it is impossible one thing can be a Revelation of God and no Revelation of God That one Copy or one Translation or one Sense can be true and not true It is now enquired whether Christ hath setled any principle or medium in the world And what principle or medium it is which Christ hath setled in the world for the determining of matters of Fact of this nature By which Unity in Faith may be conserved and Christians may with certainty know what is a true Revelation of God which a true Copy of such true Revelation which a true Translation of such true Copy and what the true sense thereof that Christians may not be carried about with every wind of Doctrine The solution of this is desired to be by fixed and solid principles and not by tedious discourses for the Nature of the thing requires that there be a firm Principle setled among Men for the final determining of matters of Fact THE CONTENTS THe Papists

know that this Gospel and these Books are true And all these are not to be confounded by the simple pretence of calling for a fixed medium or principle § 7. VI. Determining signifieth either the private decision or determining of doubts in the minds of particular persons or else the publick decision of doubts as they are managed in the Church by a publick Judge And this either as binding mens Consciences or Minds what to believe or only as ruling their tongues and actions in teaching and conversation § 8. VII By Vnity in faith is meant either unity in a general faith which they call Implicite or in a particular explicite faith And that is either a unity in all the essentials of Christianity or also in all the Integrals or also in all the accidentals which are revealed by God And it is either a secret unity of minds or a publick unity for communion that is meant If he think any of these distinctions needless let him prove it and then cast them by I am sure confusion is fit to deceive but not to edifie CHAP. III. The rude and summary answer to the confused Question § 1. LEst the Querist should pretend that by distinguishing I avoid a plain and direct answer to his Question I will here first suppose him to be as rude and confused as his Question would imply and give him such an answer as it will bear But so as that it cannot be satisfactory to a distinguishing understanding for whom therefore I shall afterward answer more distinctly § 2. I cannot answer with common sense in a narrower compass than by distinguishing these Questions 1. How know I the words and Bible 2. How know I that this Doctrine and Book is the same which was delivered by the Apostles to the Churches 3. How know I the meaning of the words 4. How know I that this Doctrine and these words are of God or a Divine Revelation 5. How know I that they are true § 3. I. To the first Question I answer that I know that I hear and read the words and that this Bible containeth in it all its visible contents by my sense my sight and hearing and my intellective perception of things sensible And though this be a principle in which the Papists agree not with us I am never the more in doubt whether I see and hear the words § 4. II. To the second I know that this Doctrine and Book is the same which by the Apostles were delivered to the Churches by Infallible History not such as dependeth on the honesty of the speakers only and so begetteth but a humane faith much less such as depends on the bare Authority of the King of Rome and his narrow selfish sect or party and Kingdom but by such History as hath a certainty in it from natural principles by which we prove it impossible that there should be deceit there being so full a concurrence of all sorts of Christians and enemies also and infallible circumstantial evidence Even as I know that there was such a man at Rome as Gregory 1. and Gregory 7. and such persons in England as Henry 8. King Edward 6. Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth c. And as I know that our Statute Books are not counterfeit And as your Doctors know that the Acts and Decrees of Councils the Works of Bellarmine Baronius c. are not counterfeit which is not because the Pope or a General Council saith so but by rational evidence of certain History which leaveth not mens minds in doubt § 5. But I am not equally certain of some questioned Books or Readings no nor of the sense of some difficult words as I am of all the rest which being more evident are more past controversie § 6. III. I know the meaning of the words spoken or written as you know the meaning of a man that talketh with you or of any other writings as of your Councils Decretals Mass-book Bellarmine c. that is by the significance of such words by humane usage from those daies till now which Lexicons Books and successive practice fully prove § 7. But there are plain passages in Scripture which I understand certainly not because the Pope saith This is the meaning Such are all the essentials of Christianity and abundance more And there are difficult passages which I am not certain of the sense of § 8. IV. I know that this Doctrine and the Bible containing it as such are of God or are his word by the spirit attesting and fealing it not in the fanatick sense as they think they have an inward impulse perswading them that so it is as some Papists think the Pope and Councils know that to be of God which they decree by Prophetical Inspiration But 1. As to the Gospel the spirit attested it by antecedent Prophesie 2. The image of Gods Power Wisdom and Goodness imprinted on the Scripture is its essential constitutive evidence being unimitable by meer man and that which is its intrinsick self evidencing light so that a spiritual well disposed soul may from a sensibleness tast that it is Gods word if a Bible had come to them by chance and they had never heard of it before I say that they may do so if you can suppose them spiritually disposed before But if not yet they may strongly suspect that it is Gods word when they read that it affirmeth it self to be so and that the image of God upon it is so clear 3. But the Concomitant Evidence of the spirit maketh up the proof in the miracles of Christs Life Resurrection and ascension and in the miracles of Apostles and primitive Christians abroad the world by which the Gospel was fully sealed 4. And the effected subsequent evidence of the spirit compleateth all the evidence which is the spirit of holiness given by the means of this same word to all true serious Believers in the world in all ages and nations which Holiness is the Image of God himself and is such a gift as none but God can give and as God would not give by a Doctrine which he abhorreth as a lie Therefore 1. It witnesseth objectively as an evidence 2. And it witnesseth effectively by inclining the heart to tast and close with and receive the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the innaturalized word as life and health cause a man to know suitable food by a gust which proceedeth from a suitable nature so is it in the new nature and the sincere milk of the word And indeed though the intellect be the proper apprehender of Truth as such suo modo yet the will is quaedam natura and hath a natural propensity to Good as Good which is natural to it and is the pondus motuum in the rational soul And it is not an universal notion or nothing under the name of good which it thus inclineth to but existent good in some being that is Vnum Verum Bonum as Rada and other Scotists well prove And therefore it hath