Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	call_v	church_n	holy_a	7,200	5	5.2401	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46649	A sermon preached at the consecration of the Honourable Dr. Henry Compton, Lord Bishop of Oxford, in Lambeth-Chappel, on Sunday, December 6, 1674 by William Jane ...	Jane, William, 1645-1707.	1675 (1675)	Wing J455; ESTC R21231	23,378	49

and to trace the interest of the Holy Ghost in constituting Church Governors from the first Foundation of Christianity to this day to find him not only once fitting Bezaleel and Aholiab with Skill and Wisdom for the Building a material Tabernacle But in every Age empowering and qualifying serviceable Persons for the Strength and Beauty of his Church This was the Commission which the great Bishop of our Souls produced for himself at his entrance upon his Pastoral Charge The Spirit of the Lord is upon me and hath anointed me to Preach the Gospel Luke 4.18 Nor was this merely personal to our Saviour as Baronius would have it who confines that Text to the first year of our Saviours Preaching but when he comes to Ordain a Succession we shall find this to be the Rite and Solemnity of the Consecration As my Father sent me so send I you Where if the similitude will not infer the Gift of the Holy Ghost the next words will express it And he breathed on them and said receive ye the Holy Ghost John 20.21 And after that he bids them tarry at Jerusalem till they were endued with power from above Luke 24.49 which is Interpreted Acts I. endued with the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost must first say separate before Saul and Barnabas undertake the Charge Acts 13.2 Nor could the laying on of hands have made Timothy a Bishop unless Prophecy had gone before And lest these should seem choice and peculiar instances of an extraordinary deputation of some persons to whom God was pleased to vouchsafe extraordinary Revelations of himself and we know those who have hence inferred that Timothy and Titus were Evangelists not fixed and standing Officers of the Church as Walo Messalinus and others We have the full attestation of Clemens Romanus in his Epistle to the Corinthians of the Apostles practice of Ordaining Bishops out of those whom they had Converted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after they had first tryed and approved them by the Revelation of the Holy Ghost whom Clemens Alexandrinus also calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as the Holy Spirit had designed and signified to them Nay so clear is this truth of the Spirits superintendency in these great Solemnities through the ancient Monuments of the Church that Cardinal Baronius however a stiff Asserter of the Popes Incroachments both upon the right of Bishops and the Holy Ghosts prerogative in their delegation yet is forced by the evidence of truth to confess that as Christ breathed the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles in like manner have they transferred the same upon all their Successors to this day in as much as they must undoubtedly partake of the Spirit of Christ who minister in Christs stead in the Sacred Offices of his Church It is an opinion fastned upon Durandus that when God made the World he threw it out of his Hands and left all things in it ever since to act of themselves from those several principles of Life and Motion which he distributed among them at the Creation A like conceit have some endeavoured to introduce into the Church that the world Spirit in Holy Scripture is to be confined to that plentiful effusion of it upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost those miraculous Gifts and Graces which in the infancy of Christianity accompanied the Preaching of the Gospel Which Commission being personal to the Apostles by consequence expired withy them so that their Successors in the work of the Ministry for any concern the Holy Ghost has in them are left to shift for themselves or at most to subsist upon that stock of reputation which was at first gained in the World by the mighty Signs and Wonders of their inspired and gifted Predecessors But as the Schools from the common Principles of Reason have solidly maintained against the former that so precarious and dependent is the Creature as such both in its being and operation that should God subtract his influence and concurse whereby every moment he makes it and works with it all its operations are immediately suspended the whole Creation falls asunder and molders into its primitive Confusion so a like assertion if the Scripture were silent would common sense and experience suggest to us for a Confutation of the latter For so powerful are the batteries that are daily made by the Lusts of Men and the Malice of the Devil and so impotent and unarmed a thing is the Church of God considered in it self to withstand the assaults of either that not only the gates of Hell but the powers of the World would long ago have finally prevailed against it but that it was ever Founded upon the Rock of Ages and Supported by the Hand of Heaven The daily Sacrifice had long since ceased and the abomination of desolation been standing in the Holy Place And Christs Mystical Body had not so long survived his Natural did not the same Spirit which was at first breathed into it go on continually to actuate and enliven it Surely therefore now as well as then there is a heavenly Treasure in earthen Vessels and the continuance of the Ministration is from God and not from us He is God and not Man and therefore the Sons of Jacob are not consumed Bishops are the Stars in Christ's own right Hand and from this arises the utter impossibility for the Tayl of the Dragon to sweep them away for the force of Men to pluck them thence or for the powers of Darkness to extinguish them The Apostles then did not carry their Commissions with them to the other World which they knew were left them for a perpetuity of succession in this both for them and their Heirs for ever 'T was he told his Disciples who was never yet taxed with being worse than his word Behold I am with you to the end of the World He could not mean it doubtless of their persons who did not long survive him nor can the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 notwithstanding some bold Criticisms upon the words refer to any other period of time than that wherein the Fabrick of the World shall be dissolved when Time it self shall be no more He is still therefore with their Successors as he was with them after his Ascension Vicariâ spiritûs presentiâ as Tertullian speaks though not in the various distributions and admirable virtue of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the extent of their Jurisdiction and extraordinary measure of their revelations yet in the effectual Administration of all those Ordinances which were to reside for ever in his Church in order to the salvation of the World Such are the Preaching of the Word Administration of the Sacraments Ordaining Ministers Ordering Church-discipline inflicting Censures and the power of the Keys All which as long as they are necessary for the edifying of the Body of Christ so long is the presence of the Holy Ghost necessary to authorize persons to dispence them Well therefore may we presume that our Veni Creator

prodigious that if ever the Church hath show'd her self undutiful to the State it is in suffering such a pestilent Enemy to Government to enjoy the benefit of her Communion There is a second pretence against the interest of the Holy Ghost in a Bishops Consecration That Christ gave the fulness of his Spirit only to St. Peter and his Successors but nothing to the other Apostles who seem to be joyned in Commission with him So that whatever power and authority is enjoyed by Bishops who succeed them they hold it not immediately from Christ but only as Suffragans of his pretended Vicar But since this is a point in which the Roman Schools are divided among themselves as appears by the contrary assertions of Soto Victoria Alphonsus à Castro and others and the Dispute seems at last to be resolved rather into the exercise of the Power or as the Schools love to speak the application of the matter of it than the power it self it is properly the subject of another consideration and does not so directly contradict what we have hitherto concluded from the Text. And therefore I shall proceed to raise an inference or two from the Holy Ghosts Concerment in the collation of Episcopal Power which will likewise take in the remaining part of my Division First then if the Holy Ghost has made you Bishops you may hence infer the weight and burden of your Calling It is sure no ordinary employment where the Commission for it comes under the Broad Seal of Heaven 'T was God that gave the Law upon Mount Sinai and therefore Moses who was to deliver it to the People exceedingly quakes and trembles And if St. Paul be rapt up into the third Heaven to receive Instructions for the Gospel we presently hear of his Reproaches and Distresses and the great trouble coming upon him from the care of all the Churches No wonder therefore if when he had acquainted the persons here in the Text with the derivation of their Authority he forthwith presents them with a prospect of their danger His own encounter at Ephesus could not procure that rest and quiet for the Bishops he left behind him but that after his departure there were beasts to be fought with still For this I know that grievous Wolves shall enter in among you I shall not here take upon me the work of an Historian nor give an account how in all Ages of the Church the lusts of the Flesh and the Devils of Hell have with their utmost Malice set themselves against it If we do but open our Eyes and behold the present face of Religion among our selves we shall find arguments enough to call forth your utmost circumspection A great door is open to you and many adversaries For if that turbulent Spirit of Rebellion and Disobedience which not long since possest rent and tore this Nation and was by a Miracle of his Providence a while since cast out walks about night and day seeking to return to the place from whence he came with seven other Spirits more wicked than himself so to make our last estate prove worse than the former If there are so many Tobiahs and Sanballats that envy the remainders of the prosperity of Sion so many Zebahs and Zalmunahs that say to one another Let us take unto our selves the houses of God in possession that seek to alienate or diminish the Churches Rights robbing God in Tithes and Offerings and then say Wherein have we robb'd him If the fiery Jesuit on the one hand and the restless Fanatick on the other bend all their wit and power first to smite the Shepherd and then to scatter and glean up the Sheep compassing Sea and Land to make Proselytes and when they have gained them making them ten times more the Children of Hell than themselves If what St. Paul Prophesied at Ephesus be now fulfilled with us that of our selves men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them and stretching the Articles of the Church of England to so much a greater latitude than the Catholick Church allows that for as much as in them lies Pelagius and Socinus shall find here both shelter and encouragement Lastly if there be so many Hereticks in the World that corrupt the Church of Christ Schismaticks that divide it and Atheists that contemn it It is then surely high time for you to look about you to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints to joyn your Heads your Hearts and your Hands together to support the tottering Ark which is now no longer Criminal and keep it from ever returning into the Tents of the Philistins which we have seen so miraculously redeemed from them But secondly notwithstanding all these disadvantages if the Holy Ghost have called you to your Office you may rest assured that he will own and protect you in the discharge If you held your Callings from the World the frowns of the World might discourage you But since 't is God that sets his Seal to your Commission you serve a Master who let the World be never so impatient will assuredly make good your Patent assert and justifie your Authority When God says concerning Cyrus I have called him Isa 48.15 it follows in the Text and I will make his way prosperous If God say to Jacob I have called thee no wonder to hear the encouragement he forth with gives him When thou goest through the water I am with thee and through the Rivers they shall not overflow thee It seems to be an opinion among the Ancient Fathers that every Bishop hath two Guardian Angels For besides that which is common to him with every man he has another as he is a Bishop appointed him at his Consecration But the stability of your Function Holy Fathers has a surer ground than in these fancies of men Even the God of Angels vouchsafes to become your peculiar Guardian And if the Church like Jacob's Ladder though the foot of it be on Earth has its head in Heaven there are not only Angels ascending and descending but God himself leans upon the top of it and keeps it firm A consideration this of great weight and moment especially under the apprehensions of publick danger It being usual with men in such exigents as those to betake themselves to their own Counsels and Contrivances and when these fail to despond and give over nay sometimes with a more preposterous piece of Policy to make Ship-wrack of a good Conscience in hopes to escape the storm But surely if we own such a thing as Divine Protection which is never forfeited but by distrust we shall ever find it try it when we will that the best way to secure our selves from danger is to be doing our duty For this infallibly engages God of our side who will be with us as long as we are with him It is safer for the Mariner in a Tempest to ride out the Storm then to strike to Shore And we