Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	catechism_n	prayer_n	revive_v	24	3	17.4020	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32857	The religion of Protestants a safe way to salvation, or, An answer to a book entituled, Mercy and truth, or, Charity maintain'd by Catholiques, which pretends to prove the contrary to which is added in this third impression The apostolical institution of episcopacy : as also IX sermons ... / by William Chillingworth ...	Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644.; Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644. Apostolical institution of episcopacy.; Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644. Sermons. Selections.	1664 (1664)	Wing C3890; Wing C3884A_PARTIAL; ESTC R20665	761,347	567

Personal Succession and not Succession of Doctrin Is not this to verefie the name of Heresie which signifieth Election or Choice Whereby they cannot avoid that note of Imprudency or as S. Augustine calls it Foolishness set down by him against the Manichees and by me recited before I would not saith he believe (r) Cont. ep Fund c. 5. the Gospel unless the Authority of the Church did move me Those therefore whom I obeyed saying Believe the Gospel why should I not obey the same men saying to me Do not believe Manichaeus Luther Calvin c. Chuse what thou pleasest If thou say Believe the Catholiques they warn me not to believe thee Wherefore if I believe them I cannot believe thee If thou say Do not believe the Catholiques thou shall not do well in forcing me to the saith of Manichaeus because by the Preaching of Catholiques I believed the Gospel it self If thou say you did well to believe them Catholiques commending the Gospel but you did not well to believe them discommending Manichaeus dost thou think me so very FOOLISH that without any reason at all I should believe what thou wilt and not believe what thou wilt not Nay this holy Father is not content to call it Fool shness but meer Madness in these words Why should I not most diligently enquire (f) Lib de util Cred. c. 14. what Christ commanded of those before all others by whose Authority I was moved to believe that Christ commanded any good thing Canst thou better declare to me what he said whom I would not have thought to have been or to be if the Belief thereof had been recommended by thee to me This therefore I believed by fame strengthned with Celebrity Consent Antiquity But every one may see that you so few so turbulent so new can produce nothing which deserves Authority What MADNESS is this Believe them Catholiques that we ought to believe Christ but learn of us what Christ said why I beseech thee Surely if they Catholiques were not at all and could not teach me any thing I would more easily perswade my self that I were not to believe Christ then I should learn any thing concerning him from other than those by whom I believed him Lastly I ask What wisdom it could be to leave all visible Churches and consequently the true Catholique Church of Christ which you confess cannot err in points necessary to salvation and the Roman Church which you grant doth not err in fundamentals and follow private men who may err even in points necessary to salvation Especially if we add that when Luther rose there was no visible true Catholique Church besides that of Rome and them who agreed with her in which sense she was and is the only true Church of Christ and not capable of any Error in faith Nay even Luther who first opposed the Roman Church yet coming to dispute against other Heretiques he is forced to give the Lye both to his own words and deeds in saying We freely confess (t) In epist cont Anab. ad duos Paroches to 2. Germ. Wit fol. 229 230. that in the Papacy there are many good things worthy the name of Christian which have come from them to us Namely we consess that in the Papacy there is true Scripture true Baptism the true Sacrament of the Altar the true keyes for the remission of sins the true office of Preaching true Catechism as our Lords Prayer Ten Commandments Articles of faith c. And afterward I avouch that under the Papacy is true Christianity yea the K●●n●land Marrow of Christianity and many pious and great Saints And again he affirmeth that the Church of Rome hath the true Spirit Gospel Faith Baptism Sacraments the Keyes the Office of Preaching Prayer Holy Scripture and whatsoever Christianity ought to have And a little before I hear and see that they bring in Anabaptism only to this end that they may spight the Pope as men that will receive nothing from Antichrist no otherwise than the Sacramentaries do who therefore believe only Bread and Wine to be in the Sacrament meerly in hatred against the Bishop of Rome and they think that by this means they shall overcome the Papacy Verily these men rely upon a weak ground for by this means they must deny the whole Scripture and the Office of Preaching For we have all these things from the Pope otherwise we must go make a new Scripture O Truth more forcible as S. Austin says to wring out (x) Cont. Donat. past collat c 24. Confession then is any rack or torment And so we may truly say with Moyses Inimici nostri sunt Judices Our very Enemies give (y) Deut. 32.31 Their faith wants Supernaturality sentence for us 33 Lastly since your faith wanteth Certainty and Prudence it is easie to inferr that it wants the fourth Condition Supernaturality For being but an Humane perswasion or Opinion it is not in nature or essence Supernatural And being imprudent and rash it cannot proceed from Divine Motion and grace and therefore it is neither supernatural in it self not in the cause from which it proceedeth 34 Since therefore we have proved that whosoever errs against any one point of faith loseth all divine faith even concerning those other Articles wherein he doth not err and that although he could still retain true faith for some points yet any one errour in whatsoever matter concerning faith is a grievous sin it clearly follows that when two or more hold different doctrins concerning faith and Religion there can be but one Part saved For declaring of which truth if Catholiques be charged with want of Charity and Modesty and be accused of rashness ambition and fury as D. Potter is very free in this kind I desire every one to ponder the whole words of S. Chrysostom who teacheth that every least error overthrows all faith and whosoever is guilty thereof is in the Church like one who in the Common wealth forgeth false coin Let them hear saith this holy Father what S. Paul saith Namely that they who brought in some small error (z) Gal. 1.7 had overthrown the Gospel For to shew how small a thing ill mingled doth corrupt the whole he said that the Gospel was subverted For as he who clips a little of the stamp from the King's money makes the whole piece of no value so whosoever takes away ●he least particle of sound faith is wholly corrupted always going from that beginning to worse things Where then are they who condemn us as contentious persons because we cannot agree with Heretiques and do often say that there is no difference betwixt us and them but that our disagreement proceeds from Ambition to domineer And thus having shewed that Protestants want true Faith it remaineth that according to my first design I examine whether they do not also want Charity as it respects a mans self The ANSWER to the SIXTH CHAPTER That Protestants are not Heretiques

use sometimes to allure us and win our hearts to do that which shall please him other times to startle and affright us when we are about something contrary to his command And to say the truth This must of necessity be the issue of the former Doctrin For how is it possible to make these things hold together We are already perfectly reconciled to God by the death of his Son without any consideration had to our personal Faith and Repentance And yet unless we do earnestly repent us of our sins and with a lively Faith adhere to God's Promises we shall never be reconciled unto God! Or these All our sins are already remitted and that only for the vertue of Christ's satisfaction And yet unless we believe our sins shall never be forgiven us 25. So that by this reckoning we must be forced to purge the Gospel of those troublesome dangerous terms of Covenants and Conditions of those fruitless affrighting Conjunctions Si Credideris Si non poenitentiam egeris Or which is all one soften them into a sense utterly repugnant and warring against the natural force and signification of the words on this wise Where the Scripture saith If thou repentest not thy sins shall not be forgiven thee Thou art not to conceive that forgiveness of thy sins is a work yet to be done or that it has any dependance upon any thing in thee But this great blessing shall be hid from thine eyes thou shalt never come to the knowledg of it and thereby shalt live here a discontented pensive suspicious life Again If thou believest thou shalt be saved that is Thou shalt obtain a comfortable assurance of Hope nay an infallible faith of thy future Salvation though that was intended thee without any consideration of thy faith 26. So that the Gospel of Christ is not the power of God unto Salvation for How can the Word be an Instrument of that which was long ago absolutely perform'd and purchased And therefore Christ his preaching his miracles and tears The Apostles travels and persecutions The sending of the Holy Spirit Baptism Eucharist Imposition of hands Absolution and many more blessed means of our Salvation were not instituted for this end to make us capable of Remission of our Sins for that it seems was already not only meritoriously but effectually procured and without all manner of Conditions infallibly destin'd to Gods Elect but only for this end That whilst they live here to their thinking in danger and hazard but they are Fools for thinking so they may now and then be a little cheared and comforted with apprehending what Christ hath done for them and to what a comfortable state and Inheritance he hath destin'd them Thus the Covenant which God hath sworn shall be everlasting is by the improvidence and ignorance of some men rendred unprofitable yea utterly abrogated But Ne quid inclementius dicam we have not so learned Christ 27. The second Reason destroying the former Doctrin I told you should be taken from the necessity of Christ's Resurrection For if the immediate effect of Christs Death be the purchasing of a perfect reconciliation with God and full remission of Sins for us the Elect of God Then I will not say what Benefit but What necessity is there of Christ's Resurrection in respect of us For by this accompt after the Consummatum est upon the Cross when the satisfaction was perfected and our debts pay'd Though Christ had afterwards miscarryed though he had been detain'd by death though his Soul had been left in Hell and he had seen corruption Notwithstanding we should stand upon good terms with God unless we shall conceive of Him worse then of the most oppressing Usurer that when a debt is dischar'gd and the Bond cancell'd will notwithstanding not release the Prisoner unless the undertaker come in Person or by main force deliver him 28. I confess that to see a friend that had ventur'd so farr for us as our Saviour did that to do us good had put himself in such extream danger I say to see such a one to be utterly cast away without all hopes and possibility of being able to pay him our thanks would be a spectacle which would grieve and pierce our very souls it would be a renting to our bowels But this is only Charity and Gratitude or good nature in us which would procure this grief not that it stands upon our safety his preservation being a matter only of convenience not extream necessity to us 29. We all do worthily condemn and detest that blasphemous Heresie of the Socinians who exclude the meritorious death and sufferings of Christ from having any necessary influence into our Justification or Salvation making it of no greater vertue then the sufferings of the blessed Martyrs who by their death set their Seal and Testimony to the Truth of the Gospel which freely offers forgiveness of sins to all penitent believers Now the same injury which these Hereticks do to the merit of Christ's death In proportion the former doctrin fastens upon his Resurrection and new life by taking from it the chief and proper effect thereof which is an actual vindication of us from the power of sin into the glorious liberty of the sons of God by the power of Christs Spirit plentifully by him diffused and shed abroad in our hearts and making the chief vertue thereof to consist in affording us only matter of comfort and hope that God will deal no otherwise with us then he hath dealt with Christ and after a life full of disturbance and misery revive us to glory and immortality with his Son for evermore whereas St. Paul hath another kind of conceit of Christs Resurrection for saith he in Heb. 5.9 Christ being made perfect i. e. glorified c. 2.10 becomes Author of eternal Salvation to all that obey him And if Christ be not risen your faith is vain you are yet in your sins and if Christ be not risen neither shall we ever be raised but be utterly irrecoverably condemned to everlasting rottenness 30. And thus I am unawares fallen upon my second Proposition Prop. II. Namely That by the Dominion and power of Christ which at his Resurrection and not before he received as a reward of his great Humility we are not only enabled to the performance of the conditions of this New Covenant and by consequence made capeable of an actual application of his satisfaction But also by the same power we shall hereafter be raised up and exalted unto everlasting Happiness 31. Though by the vertue of the Incarnation of our Saviour the Humane Nature was raised to a state and condition of unspeakable glory Notwithstanding if in this place as well as before we shall be content to submit our Reason to Scripture We shall find that according to a Covenant made between Christ and his Father he was content not to challenge to himself any right of Dominion and Rule over us till he had perfectly deserv'd