Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	death_n	law_n	sin_n	21,523	5	5.8429	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52110	Lex Pacifica, or, Gods own law of determining controversies explain'd and asserted in a sermon preached at Dorchester at the Assizes holden there for the county of Dorset, August 5, 1664 / by John Martin ...	Martin, John, 1619-1693.	1664 (1664)	Wing M843; ESTC R31215	24,813	40

when he hath made a Law that Law hath its force from its own specifical nature for that Law should bind is quid aeternum immutabile it is an eternal and immutable because it is an essential property of Law 5. Lastly The revival of this Law is not opposite to Scripture nor is the Scripture an adequate rule for all such things as are to be done by us in our several places and callings from whence it must needs follow that the multitude must stand in need of direction and determination either from themselves or from others in many particular cases Let no man think much that I have said that the Scripture is no adequate rule for particular actions for if this were not true it must follow as the late s Dr. Sanderson Praelect 4. Sect. 14. Reverend and Learned Bishop of Lincoln observes that such as never had the Scriptures never had any rule for particular actions which is not onely contrary to experience but to that of the Apostle Rom. 2.15 where he tells you that the Heathens who had not that Law which God gave unto the Jews did govern themselves in particular moral actions by that Law which was written in their hearts A principal but not an adequate rule of moral actions we must acknowledge the Scripture to be and therefore as the Law of nature by reason of its generality doth stand in need of a supply which it hath from the determination thereof by particular humane Laws so the Scripture by reason of its generality though not for that reason onely doth stand in need of a supply from particular rules of particular actions For in moral actions these two things are to be considered First The principal rule by which they are to be governed together with the principal end unto which they are to be directed and so the Scripture is a rule of all our moral actions directing us to do all that we do in Charity for edification of our Brethren and for the Glory of God The second thing is that immediate and adequate rule whereby the action we are about to do is to be govern'd and this as it is not necessary that it should so the Scripture doth not prescribe but as in things left unto our own choice we govern our selves by that rule we esteem best or good so as we are members of the Church or State Reason cannot but tell us that in particular actions our understanding as well as our will may stand in subordination to such as have a right and authority to govern us Dissenters will easily be convinc'd by an instance in both These Reverend and Honorable Persons my Lords the Judges have for performance of their duty this rule of doing it from Scripture Deut. 1.16 Hear the causes between your Brethren and judge righteously between every man and his Brother this is the Principal rule of that action their Lordships are now upon but the form manner time place yea the very rule of judging righteously between every man and his brother is not prescrib'd in Scripture but by the Laws of this Land unto which their Lordships hold themselves bound to conform as the adequate and immediate rule of their consciences in administring justice in this Nation The like instance I shall crave leave to give in a matter of exceeding great concernment to us as we are members of this Church and owe obedience unto his Majesties Ecclesiastical Laws It is the command of our dear Saviour our Lord and Master Jesus Christ that the Sacrament of the Lords Supper be received often in remembrance of his most pretious death and passion and for the actual application of the benefits thereof unto the worthy Receiver and that this be done with such reverence and preparation as becomes so holy and dreadful a mystery but the gesture time place manner and other circumstances are not prescrib'd by Scripture but left in the power of the Church to determine who hath the standart and rule of decency in her hands nisi fortè tantum Sacramentum minùs deceat ordo quàm confusio unless that Sacrament be the onely thing that is best set out by disorder and confusion as t de Rom. Pont. l. 4. o. ●● Bellarmine smartly if justly replies upon the Centuriators and the Apostle himself hath confuted with Judgements from Heaven 1 Cor. 11.30 Ob. But here it will be objected That if this be granted Christian liberty would be no more but an empty name and thousands of good Christians must hold themselves bound to submit unto such Laws as are not agreeable to their particular consciences which were to lose the sairest Jewel in the Crown of Reformation Sol. To this I say God forbid but that every good Christian should have a due regard unto such things as lye in common unto the whole profession as Liberty and Conscience do but we must remember that non plus nomini quàm veritati tribuendum that we do not sacrisice truths to titles and things to names Liberty is a word that the whole world in a manner first learnt from Luther as that which dropt from Heaven into his arms though many of his words and actions applauded and imitated both then and since could not be warranted by his very large Commission I mean it not so much of his burning the Corpus Jur is Canonici in the publique Market-place in token that he had set all the world free from Laws which he did thereby as truly as Xerxes bound the Hellespont when he cast a chain therein but rather of his contemning and reviling the Civil Magistracy on whom in his book de potestate seculari he bestows this Character sunt communiter maximè fatui pessimi Nebulones super terram which amongst other worse if there could be worse expressions rendred him obnoxious amongst his enemies to that sharp invective in the Diet at Worms Exlex homo leges ipsas omnes damnat c. and made his friend u Con. Gesn in universal biblioth Gesner doubt what would become of that prodigious liberty faxit Deus says he ne contentione impudentiâ oris obsit Ecclesiae suae Yoaks of unjust servitude may sometimes be broken but Christians must not fling the Pieces of them in the face of supreme authority But as for Christian liberty I shall say in one word that it is best known by its contrary and that is by that Spirit of bondage which was in the unconverted Jews so that Christian liberty is no more but a freedom from the burden of the Ceremonial and the curse and rigor of the Moral Law from the guilt and from the Law of Sin from the fear and from the power of Death This I take to be all that can be found in the Scripture which is the Christians Magna Charta the great conservatress of his Liberty Laws therefore that preserve Order and Decency and keep men from falling into sin the onely vassallage of a Christian can