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
A42142	Pax vobis, or, Gospel and liberty against ancient and modern papists / by a preacher of the word.	Brown, S. J.; Gordon, John, 1644-1726.; Griffith, Evan, A.M., Minister of Alderly.	1687 (1687)	Wing G1994; ESTC R31733	69,009	143

Lutheran Church and no other my Judgment and Conscience therefore is as much constrained as that of the Papist and our Separation from Popery will come to be but an Exchange of one Slavery for another in that our Judgments and Counsciences were Slaves to the Pope and Councils in this we are Slaves to the Lutheran Church We became a Reformation by shaking off the Yoke of Popery from our Judgments and leaving them free for to believe Scripture as with the assistance of Gods Spirit each one best understands it and if we will continue a Reformation we must not submit again our Judgments to any other but retain that blessed Liberty we recovered for to believe the Tenets of any Congregation I confess this Liberty is not allowed by any one particular Congregation as you observe out you must also grant me That it 's allowed and taken by the whole Body of the Reformation for in this whole Body as it comprehends Protestants Lutherans Presbyterians c. One Congregation believes what the other denies and in any of them a Man may live with a safe Conscience which you will not deny therefore any Man has full Liberty for to believe or deny with a safe Conscience the Tenets of any Congregation Hence it follows and to my Grief I speak it that no particular Congregation be it of England France or Germany has the true Spirit of the Reformation in doting so much upon their particular Tenets as to think they cannot be as well denied as believed and in looking upon them with so passionate Eyes as to censure check and force others to believe them You shall see by this discourse that the true Spirit of the Reformation is not in any one particular Congregation separately taken from the rest for each particular Congregation constrains as much as it can all People to believe its own Tenets Protestancy would have us all to be Protestants and would root Lutherans out of the World as well as Popery Lutherans would if they could draw all to their own Net Presbytery esteems it self to be the best of all and would crush Protestancy if it could This then is the Spirit of each particular Congregation a limiting confining Spirit to some particular Tenets with an exclusion of all others but look on the whole Body of our Reformation as it includes all Reformed Congregations distinct from Popery there is a Holy extension of Spirit and Liberty for to be either Lutherans Presbyterians Protestants and any thing but Popery and whatever any Congregation may say of another but all unanimously agree that the Spirit of the Lord is in the whole Body of the Reformation since therefore that in this whole Body there is a Latitude and Liberty for to Profess divers and opposite Tenets and that each Tenet is believed by one and denied by others we must grant that this Holy Liberty for to believe or deny any Tenets we please is the true Spirit of our Holy Reformation It 's not therefore to be wish'd as you do that I should stick to any one particular Congregation or Tenet for such a restriction is meer Popery and your bemoaning the multiplicity of our Congregation is profane and Popish No it 's a blessing of the Lord upon our Reformation for which we shall never sufficiently thank him that we see it divided into so many Godly branches In the House of my Father said Christ there are many mansions John 14.2 Ismael By your discourse you seem to allow that we may with a safe Conscience change Religions as often as we please and be to day a Protestant to morrow a Lutheran next day a Presbyterian and so run over all Isaac I know you will be startl'd at my answer For I am not Ignorant that all men apprehended it to be absurd to change and run over so many Religions but truth must be declared though it may seem a scandal to the Jews and a folly to the Gentiles It s therefore the Doctrine of the Reformation that we may with a safe Conscience be to day Protestants to morrow Lutherans in France Hugonots in Hungary Antitrinitarians in Poland Socinians and in London of any Religion but Popery Ismael For shame you foully impose upon the Reformation there 's not any Congregation that teaches such a scandalous and absurd Doctrine Isaac By your favour I love the Reformation as the Apple of my Eye and will never yield to any in my Zeal for its Honour and Doctrine I am so far from imposing upon it that I will evidence your error in denying this to be its Doctrine and it will appear that whoever will deny it to be very lawful to change Religions as time and occasion requires must renounce the best and Fundamental Principles of our Reformation and must impiously condemn the practice of our first Reformers Ismael How will you make it out that this Doctrine is grounded upon the the Fundamental Principles of our Reformation whereas there is not one Congregation of ours but abhors it Isaac Sir you may well perceive by the tenor of my discourse that I am Piously and Charitably jealous with each particular Congregation and that my drift is to shew that each of them none excepted swerves from and transgresses against the true Spirit and solid Principles of the Reformation as will further appear in this discourse It 's uncontestedly true that the Rule of Faith of the Reformation is Scripture as the humble of Heart assisted with the Spirit of the Lord understand it for Lutherans will never admit their Rule of Faith to be Scripture as Interpreted by the Church of England but as Interpreted by themselves nor will England admit Scripture to be the Rule of Faith as it is Interpreted by the Presbyterians but as Interpreted by the Church of England so that the Doctrine of each Congregation is but Scripture as interpreted by them and whereas all these Congregations joyntly compose the whole Body of the Reformation and each Congregation is truly a member of the Reformation the Doctrine of the Reformation comes to be Scripture as each Congregation and Person of sound Judgment in the Reformation says the Church of England in her 39 Articles Interprets it This being an uncontrouled truth what Man of ever so sound Judgment but may Read to day Scripture as Interpreted by the Lutheran Church and Judge in his Conscience that Interpretation and Doctrine to be true consequently he may with a safe Conscience Profess that Religion Soon after he may meet Calvin's Books and charm'd with the admirable strength of his reasons and glosses upon Scripture he may Judge in his Conscience he is to be preferr'd before Luther and so may lawfully forsake Lutheranism for Calvinism then again he hits upon Scripture as Interpreted by the Church of England whose Doctrine ravishes him with that decency of Ceremonies that Majesty of her Liturgy that Harmony of her Hierarchy he is convinc'd it's better than Calvinism and embraces it Then again

Spirit and Holiness of the Reformation which having no other Rule of Faith but Scripture as each Person of sound Judgment understands it its Spirit and Holiness consists in framing our Life and Doctrine to that Rule as our blessed Reformers and Reformation in its beginning did believing those Tenets which you call Errours and Blasphemy and living that Life which you call Dissolution and Corruption of Manners because they judge by Scripture as they understood it that Doctrine and manner of Life was True Innocent and Good and if you like it as they did you may believe and live as they did and be a good Child of the Reformation Consider I pray all the Works and Doctrine of Luther the like I say of our other first Reformers the three parts of his Doctrine is against Popery and they say all are Heresies and Blasphemies the rest is contrary to the Church of England and she says this is also Errors and Blasphemy so you conspire with the Papists to destroy the credit of our first and best Reformer and betwixt you both you unplume him of all his Feathers and leave him not a bit of good Doctrine But I will stand to the Spirit and Principles of the Reformation and Congregations as now they are since that you do so much boast of its Purity and great Perfections and I will prove that Doctrine and Manner of Life may be believed and followed Lawfully standing to its Principles For if the Spirit of the Reformation be at present among us we must not be forced as in Popery to believe against our proper Judgments what others believe by Scripture to be true and holy but what each one thinks in his own Conscience to be such because even now at present our Rule of Faith is Scripture as each Person of sound Judgment understands it and this is the same Rule which Luther and the Reformation in it's beginning had This Holy Liberty is the best Jewel the greatest Perfection and most glorious Prerogative the Reformation has If therefore now at present any Man judges by Scripture that he can Marry ten Wives at a time that he can kill his own Son as Abraham intended that he may commit incest with his own Daughter as Lot did that there is no Sin but Incredulity as Luther believed nor any Mystery of the Trinity of Persons in one Nature as Calvin believed with what Justice can the Church of England say a Man does not believe and live as becometh a Reformed Child or that his Doctrine and Life is scandalous whereas he lives and believes as he understands by Scripture he may or ought to do which is the Rule of Faith of the Reformation even of the Church of England The Church of England says the Lutheran Doctrin of the Real Presence is not the Doctrin of Scripture that the Presbyterian Doctrin against Episcopacy is not the Doctrin of Scripture that the Anabaptist Doctrin against Infants Baptism is not of Scripture and yet you permit them all to live in Peace you Confess they are true Children of the Reformation though Dissenters from you why Because they follow Scripture as they understand it and this is our Rule of Faith And why will not you say the Belief and Life of that other Man is also of the Reformation though it may seem absurd to you since he believes and lives as he Judges by Scripture he may It follows therefore plainly that this is the Doctrine of the Reformation Ismael I confess our rule of Faith in the Reformation is Scripture as each person of sound Judgment understands it but you cannot doubt but that it 's needful to moderate and curb this Liberty or it may run too far for if every Man be licenced to believe and teach every thing he fancies to be according to Scripture as there is no Doctrine so execrable but some ignorant Reader may hit upon a Text which ill understood may seem to favour it so there will be none but may be believed and called the Doctrine of the Reformation for example Beza teaches and says it 's also the Doctrine of Calvin Sumaize and Geneve that the Lords Supper may be Lawfully administred in any kind of Victuals as well as in Bread and Wine in Eggs Flesh Fish c. Where there is no Bread and Wine says he we may duly celebrate if instead of them we use what we usually Eat and Drink And again in the same place If there be no water at hand and that Baptism cannot be with edification deferred I would Baptize in any other liquor Isaac And why should not it be lawful to any Reformed to believe this whereas it's Scripture as interpreted by a Man of so sound a Judgment but I do not in any wise like that Opinion of yours and of the Church of England that it 's convenient to limit and curb Men's Judgments lest they may run too far this is the policy of Rome They will not permit an arbitrary Interpretation of Scripture alledging forsooth for Inconveniency the multitude of absurd Doctrines which the World would swarm with if such a liberty were allowed No no far be it from any true reformed Child to mislike or blame that all People should interpret Scripture and believe what they judge by it to be true and if what they judge to be true should seem to you false and scandalous do not you believe it but let them believe it and they will be of the Reformation because they follow our rule of Faith. Ismael Luther Melancthon Musculus Ochinus Beza and others teach the lawfulness of Bigamy or Multiplicity of Wives and prove it with the example of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and Ochinus expounding the Text of St. Paul It behoveth a Bishop to be a Man of one Wife The Prohibition says he is not to be understood so that a Bishop should have but one Wife at a time for certainly he may have many but St. Pauls meaning is that he ought not to have too many Wives at a time that 's to say ten or twenty Isaac And will you deny this to be the Doctrine of the Reformation whereas it's Scripture as interpreted by Men of so eminent and sound a Judgment Ismael The Synod of Geneve and the Ecclesiastical Discipline of France printed at Saumure has decreed that a Wife whose Husband is a long time absent may have him called by the publick Cryer and if within a competent time he does not appear without any further Enquiry the Ministers may Licence her to marry any other or marry her himself Isaac I say all Women may practice this Doctrine without scruple or shame whereas it's Scripture as interpreted by that thrice holy Synod but let Seamen beware how they undertake long Voyages for fear their Wives may take other Husbands in their Absence Ismael Luther teaches it's lawful to a Wife if her Husband does not please her to call her Man-Servant or