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
A61467	England's faithfull reprover and monitour	Samwayes, Richard, 1614 or 15-1669.	1653 (1653)	Wing S547; ESTC R1746	86,140	264

covering of the head in the congregation where infirmity or sicknesse doth not plead for it tendeth to the dishonour of Jesus Christ whose servants we professe our selves to be especially at this time and to the contempt of his messenger representing the Office and Person of Christ before our eyes surely this is not to call the holy of the Lord honourable as we finde it Isa 58.13 Isa 58.13 but to make him a reproach A sixt instance we shal take from the Lords day by some called the Sabbath with a good meaning perchance but not without impropriety of speech because not known by this name either in the primitive times or in the ages immediately following for ought as I can learn but I shall not contend about words That which is observable of the day to our present purpose is the different esteem and observation thereof with the two adverse parties the one ascribing too much the other too little unto the same the one keeping it with almost Jewish rigour and extremity the other after a loose and formall manner at the best to omit their unchristian profanation thereof upon severall occasions and each walking contrary to other in their practise from the spirit of oppofition as well as from other principles For although it be no easie matter to assure our selves much lesse to convince others that this day is of divine institution as the sabbath was among the Jewes and we should be loth with many to give the strict outward observation of the time preheminence above all other morall duties and acts of Religion in which respect as I remember some have thought a slender trespasse or offence thereon worthy to be expiated by the death of the offender yet it cannot be doubted again but that there is a necessity of separating or setting apart such a day as this for the honour and publique worship of God as well in regard of humane wickednesse as weaknesse and of their pronenesse to superstition and Atheisme as well as of their worldly businesse and employment the which they would never intermit of themselves without the restraint laid upon them or else wholly bestow the remaining time upon the service of their own lusts and sinfull pleasures Wherefore they cannot be excused who in times past loosed the reins of discipline to the people yet more when God knows they were too remisse already and permitted them free liberty to spend a part and that not the least of this day in vain sports and pastimes scarse beseeming a brideale or marriage feast much lesse such a season as this of which abuse a Divine of the Northern parts sent thither by the King to preach the Gospell there doth greatly but justly complain in an Epistle to the Bishop of Chester as that which did exceedingly hinder the courses of Religion and frustrate the fruits of their Ministeriall labours and withall observes that they who did most abet and maintain publick piping and lascivious dancing on the Lords day were the open and professed enemies of our Religion Of so bad consequence are these merry sundaies as a profane person once affectionately called them saying that it was a good time when they did enjoy the former liberty but for whom I cannot tell except it were for him who is the author of all evill in which we sow unto the flesh and not unto the Spirit serve our own lusts and not the Lords will Wherefore it is needfull that this first day of the week be in due manner observed by us in all places especially considering that from the Apostles time hitherto it hath been consecrated by the Church of Christ to this holy use A seventh instance we shal borrow from the Lords Proyer the which we must acknowledge for the true and perpetuall pattern of our supplications unto the worlds end And yet how much hath it been of late decryed and vilified by some not as needlesse only but as hurtfull also Who have therefore rejected the use thereof in publick Assemblies and derided those who took pleasure therein and others have layed it aside for fear of displeasing the powerfull party however they still approve it in their judgement and have done by their practise heretofore Many pretend for the disuse thereof that the people did idolize it and impute a kinde of holinesse to the bare saying or repeating of the same the which supposing it to be true can in no wise warrant their omission of this form if it be good much lesse their preaching or speaking against it for if we may condemn every thing as bad in it self or noxious to us because it may or doth occasionally prove so through our perverse use or abuse thereof what can escape our censure be the thing never so good yea shall we not then very often call evill good Isai 5.20 and good evill put darknesse for light and light for darknesse bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter The patience of God we know is abused daily and his grace turned into wantonnesse by wicked and ungodly persons and yet it were the height of impiety to think the worse of either for this reason the fault solely resting upon man In like manner every creature of God which as the Apostle witnesseth 1 Tim. 4.4 is good 2 Tim. 4.4 and nothing to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving is made subject to our vanity and corruption and become the idoll of our pleasurable or of our profitable lusts How much better were it therefore for the Ministers in this case to shew the people their errour or failing in the use of that wich is good then to possesse them with a false opinion and wrong conceit of the thing it self as evill and to be avoided of them the which they use not dexterously and as they should But such is and ever will be the force of faction and schisme in the heart of men to make them opposite one to another in judgement and in practise without and against all reason whatsoever The which also we may further discover in the length and brevity of their prayers in the manner and matter of their praying in the affected difference of tone and voice of words or formes of expression of gesture and behaviour in the acts of solemn worship and such like with easie observation And so far hath their malice proceeded one against another that neither of them would by any means admit so much as praying for the adverse party though expresly commanded by the precepts of the Gospell but openly cursed each the other as desperate enemies of God and of his cause And now I shall crave leave to addresse my words unto thy sons according to their severall orders and degrees entreating them all to bear with the rude plainnesse of my counsell and not to be offended at the liberty of my reproof being free from malice and bitternesse of spirit from partiality from guile and hypocrisie And first I shall direct my speech

Officers mutually conspiring together in the same work to reform a city or town as they list and proportionably a whole nation under the chief Magistrate if he interpose not against it Therefore it is reported of Queen Elizabeth that in her progresse visiting the county of Suffolk and seeing every Justice of Peace with a Minister next to his body said she had oftentimes demanded of her Councell why her County of Suffolk was better governed then any other County but never understood the reason thereof till now It must needs be so said she where the Word and the Sword goe together But what may we expect when both these comply not or jarre one with another wherefore had this one course alone been taken for the suppressing of common and odious sins there needed not to have been so loud a cry for a reformation in the midst of thy people nor so much of thy childrens bloud shed like water round about thy cities and within the gates and also on the furrowes of the field in prosecution of this specious design which can hardly be compassed if at all in any wise by means so unproportionate as these to the end for which they are appointed by those who would be master builders in this work Lastly the great and common neglect of teaching the younger sort and educating them in a Catecheticall way of doctrine and instruction as it occasioned at first the blinde ignorance open profanenesse and meer formality in this Nation so it hath still continued and fomented the same unto this present day And from hence we shall draw another instance to shew the great force which enmity and opposition do gain in the mindes of men to hinder a mutuall consent and joynt concurrence together in those waies which tend to life and godlinesse For what could more conduce to the furtherance and encrease of sacred knowledge to the effectuall planting and growth of piety in the hearts of Christian youth then this necessary and profitable means of institution so much commended by the divine Spirit of God to our imitation and practise * see Gen. 18 19. Train up or chastise a childe in the way he should goe and when he is old he will not depart from it Pro. 22 6. Neither was there wanting the advice of a prudent and learned Prince for the setting on foot this practise with us by changing the afternoon Sermons into this more usefull exercise And yet the Ministers of the opposite party could never for ought as I can learn be induced to entertain a good opinion of it at least so far as cordially to embrace the counsell and submit to the judgement of their superiors therein notwithstanding the visible and apparent benefit thereof and nothing might be reasonably said against it And what was the cause of this Surely in all probability the ill affection and hatred which they bore against the Bishops who did also commend and preferre it to their inseriour brethren in the Ministery as more needfull and profitable for the people then their claborate and painfull preaching so much magnified by their Disciples above other Ordinances and who could not be pleased without a double portion thereof every Lords day although as some object against them with too great limitation and restraint but however better thus then not at all For as a chief Ruler well observed of thy children the omission of this sundamentall way of instruction and the custome of notionall teaching in which was more plenty of words then of matter have given occasion to the Apostasie or falling back of so many from thy Communion some to Popish superstition others to Monasterian confusion while after many years groundlesse and therefore unprofitable institution they were like rasae tabulae or unsealed wax apt to receive any impression or forme of doctrine whatsoever The truth whereof hath more then enough been confirmed by the experience of succeeding time in which we meet every where with aged Infants I mean such who when for the time ought to be teachers Heb. 5.12 have need that one teach them again which be the first principles of the Oracles of God and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat who notwithstanding have been constant hearers of Sermons for divers years together some twenty others forty and some perchance more that we may justly admire and be even astonished at their dulnesse and stupidity in learning Doe we not consider how unsutable this kinde of teaching is with the mindes of the rude and unprincipled multitude to make them skilfull in the word of righteousnesse it being all one in effect as if a man should seek to raise a frame of building where no foundation is laid before or to nourish an infant with strong meat in stead of milk which is proper for him because unable to bear the other 1 Cor. 3.2 Heb. 5.14 as belonging to them that are of full age even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evill Wherefore in them also is fulfilled the Prophesie of Isaiah which saith By hearing ye shall hear Mat. 13.14 and shall not understand and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive For this cause so many of the Nation at present being children in understanding Eph. 4.14 are tossed to and fro and carryed about with every winde of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftinesse whereby they lye in wait to deceive fixing on nothing long through the weaknesse of their judgement to discern what they hear and want of reason to maintain what they embrace as truth although upon tryall we have found some of their deceivers or false teachers like those 2 Pet. 2 Pet. 3.16 3.16 Vnlearned and unstable themselves while they boldly took upon them to instruct and guide others wresting the Scriptures both to the destruction of their Disciples and of themselves or like them of whom the Apostle S. Paul speaketh 1 Tim. 1.7 1 Tim. 1.7 Desiring to be teachers of the Gospell as they then did to be teachers of the Law and yet understanding neither what they say nor whereof they affirm But indeed their pretence of an immediate calling from God by the motion of his Spirit to the work of the Ministery and gathering of Churches here on earth like that in heaven glorious not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish Eph 5.27 together with their strange outward considence and presumptuous ostentation of themselves in a businesse of this high nature far exceeding the measure of their inward parts or gifts of minde easily begat in the weaker sighted and unsetled brethren an answerable opinion or erroncous belief of them that they were such in truth as they were in shew or professed themselves to be who therefore received them as Angels of God Gal. 4.14 even as Christ Jesus When as they were indeed no