Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	divine_a	holy_a	son_n	7,564	5	5.7178	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62257	The sacred rite of confirmation discoursed of in a sermon preach'd at Okeham in the county of Rutland at a confirmation there administred ... on May 17, 1683 / by John Savage ...	Savage, J. (John), 1645-1721.	1683 (1683)	Wing S770; ESTC R34219	24,508	36

the inward effects ought not to prejudice any considerative person against the power and efficacy of this Office Will some say How is it possible that upon so slight an action as laying on of hands and the Bishops Prayers so much strength against all Temptations so much ability to perform all acceptable Duties should be conveyed unto us 'T is true the meanness and simplicity of the Ceremony is apt to scandalize him who understands not the invincible power of God which oftentimes effects great and stupendious Works by light and improbable means here is nothing as in the Church of Rome of pomp and solemnity to attract your eyes and raise your admiration nothing but what the holy Apostles did practise and that in a very plain yet comely dress My Father said the Servant of Naaman if the Prophet had bid thee do some great thing wouldst thou not have done it how much rather when he saith unto thee Wash and be clean Dispute not then the possibility or manner of its conveyance but since thou hast as much need of the Holy Spirit in thy capacity as the primitive Christians had in theirs fully perswade thy self that he will not be wanting to thy devout desires but as readily assist thee as he did them and will no more scorn to be invited down now than heretofore he hath been by Prayer and Imposition of Hands For if this Objection be of any force we may upon equal grounds be scandaliz'd at the two great Sacraments the visible signes whereof are altogether as mean and in themselves improbable Nihil adeo est says Tertullian quod tam obduret mentes hominum De Baptis quam simplicitas divinorum operum quae in actu videtur magnificentia quae in effectu repromittitur Others may again object that if Miracles did now as heretofore attend this Office they should then have reason to believe that great and valuable are the inward effects of it but since those are ceas'd they see not why this Office should not cease with them But in answer to this we must know that Miracles were not of the essence of this holy Office for if they had they would have been essential to other Offices which they did sometimes attend upon The Holy Ghost we find in a visible manner descended upon our Saviour at his baptism S. Mat. 3.16 and yet the Holy Ghosts visible descent never was lookt upon as essential to that Sacrament When St. Peter preacht the Gospel to Cornelius and his Companions we are told that while Peter yet spake those words Acts 10.44 46. the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the Word for they heard them speak with tongues and magnifie God and yet the Gift of Languages never was imagin'd to be of the essence of Preaching So that we may with equal reason be scandaliz'd at those two great Offices and pretend that the internal Gifts of Gods Spirit do not follow the performance of those Duties because the external ones are wholly ceas'd Neither ought this to scandalize any That they do not meet with sensible alterations violent motions strong convulsions and tremblings for though sometimes the Spirit upon strong convictions may produce such effects yet here where a due preparation is suppos'd and not a dispossessing of Satan but strength against him is wrought such a violent commotion of the Spirits cannot be expected But the Holy Ghost comes here in a soft voice works gently and mildly upon the rational and intellectual parts of man and by degrees moulds and fashions him into the perfect stature of the Sons of God As we are not sensible of our natural growth how every day new accessions are made to the several parts of our body and yet that we do grow our senses do sufficiently evince so neither can it reasonably be expected that we should understand the mode of the divine operations and the way how such vital strength and nourishment is convey'd to our Souls although after a competent progress in the ways of Vertue we may safely conclude that we are grown in Grace The Spirit of God bearing witness with our spirit that we are the Sons of God IV. Behold then the excellency the usefulness the necessity of this great Office an Office whose antiquity bears date with the holy Scriptures whose lawfulness the great Examples of our Saviour and his Apostles not to say any thing of the constant and uninterrupted usage of it in the Church for many Ages do vindicate an Office whose expedience and necessity of continuance the great ends and purposes for which it was instituted viz. the conveying the manifold Gifts of Gods Spirit do sufficiently evince an Office always accounted so sacred that our late Vsurping Presbyters never durst pretend to the actual exercise of it an Office from which baptized persons may expect such great and admirable advantages as far surpass whatever the Gift of Tongues could express or Miracles declare an Office whose good influences nothing can hinder but the bars and obstructions that our selves do set finally an Office which in no part of it lies open to any solid Objections even from the worst of Adversaries To conclude then this our long and as I am afraid tiresom Discourse let all be perswaded in their several Spheres to promote the honour of this excellent Work Old men and maidens young men and children of what state or quality soever let 'em be ready to entertain this blessed Spirit who is now as it were hovering over your heads and willing to come down into all prepared hearts And you that intend this day to be partakers of this great Mystery that desire this holy Comforter to descend from Heaven and take possession of your hearts you that earnestly long for the refreshing and strengthening Graces of Gods Spirit you who are now to engage with Principalities and Powers with the deceitful World and your own Lusts and come hither to be enabled to fight that good fight and to come off Conquerours Let me request you deeply to imprint upon your thoughts not onely the excellency of this Duty with the gracious effects thereof but especially that solemn profession that you are here to make the Covenant with God and his Church that you are about to renew the strict Obligations that lie upon you from thence of being pious and devout just and charitable meek and temperate For if you come prepar'd with such generous Christian resolutions as these you need not question but the Graces of Gods Spirit will by the mediation of this his principal Steward be conveyed unto you for which you have the same warrant as the judicious Hooker observes which the Patriarchs Hook Eccles Pol. lib. 5. Prophets Priests Apostles Fathers and men of God in all Ages have had for such their particular Invocations and Benedictions Address your selves then to the holy Altar with decency receive the Blessing with Faith and Humility turn not the Grace you are this day to receive into wantonness but treasure it up in an honest heart and let the fruits thereof be discernable in your lives then will you secure to your selves that seven-fold Gift of the Spirit which the Bishop with the Congregation will presently pray for The Spirit of Wisdom and Vnderstanding the Spirit of Counsel and Ghostly strength the the Spirit of Knowledge and true Godliness and the Spirit of his boly Fear And for us of the Clergy as we have reason to glory in the number of our Catechumens and to magnifie the God of Heaven for this joyful fruit of our labours So let us be perswaded to continue this good Work that is so happily begun and by catechizing and wholsome instructions prepare the younger sort successively for the like Blessings This will engage his Lordship to continue his intended kindness in coming as it were to our doors though to his great charge to administer this Office and we shall all reap this comfort by it that the Children that are yet unborn will stand up and call us blessed And that this holy Office may have its desired effect that when the Bishop lays his hands upon them they may be filled with the Holy Ghost Let us All here assembled at the pronouncing of each Benediction unanimously say AMEN FINIS

by their hands we are abundantly strengthened against all spiritual Enemies in Confirmation from their hands we receive the holy Eucharist the benefits of our Saviours Death and the I ledge of his eternal Love from their hands if we fall under the censures of the Church we receive Absolution and from the laying on of their hands together with the holy Chrism a custom far different from what is now us'd in the Church of Rome the Primitive Christians were freed from their several bodily Distempers or at least from their hands they then received the symbol of Christs Body and Bloud as the last and eternal Viaticum of their Souls I should be infinite in recounting unto you all the Blessings which God by these his Servants was and is pleased to communicate unto men and that under this holy and significant Rite of Imposition of Hands Here then in this solemn Office of Confirmation great and unspeakable Blessings being to be convey'd and those by his superiour Servants the principal Stewards of his Houshold what fitter and more significant Rite could possibly be devis'd whereby to secure a Blessing to the one and Honour to the other than that which the Light of Nature hath affixt to Paternal Benedictions than what the holy Patriarchs before the Law did practise than what under the Law in several the like cases was enjoyn'd than what our Saviour did frequently use and to conclude than what humane Reason could not possibly invent any thing more plain and significant But will some say Was this all that the Apostles used and did the Blessings of God follow the Imposition of Hands onely No surely there was something else belong'd to this great Office and that of a higher and more valuable nature in it self than what is here mentioned We are told vers 15. that the Apostles when they were come to Samaria prayed for them that they might receive the Holy Ghost Prayer is an essential part of the Divine Worship but Imposition of Hands is onely a decent and significant Ceremony proper and adapted to the present occasion Their servent and devout Prayers were the holy charms that invited the Spirit of God to descend from Heaven but Imposition of Hands must be acknowledged onely as a decent Rite made use of mainly to signifie that this Spirit would ordinarily come to none but by the mediation and ministry of those whom he had appointed 'T is very evident that Prayer was the main Duty and Imposition of Hands the principal Ceremony and this is All that we find here recorded concerning the nature of this holy Office Where then shall we find the holy Chrisin consecrated by the Bishop which the Church of Rome calls the Matter where stands recorded that jingling Sentence Signo te signo crucis confirmo te Chrismate solutis in nomine Patris c. which they say is the Form of their pretended Sacrament If you will find them you must search Pope Eugenius's Decretals to the Armenians with the approbation of the Council of Florence or if that will not satisfie you may consult the Council of Trent and the Roman Catechism which give a large and more plenary account of it but let me advize you not to search the Scriptures for it for there you shall not find the least tittle concerning it And yet 't is somewhat strange the Scriptures should be silent in a business of such importance to record nothing but Prayer and Imposition of Hands and to pass by the Matter and Form the two essential parts of a Sacrament seems to be an unpardonable omission in those holy Pen-men But you will find the mistake was not theirs this Sacriledge or holy Cheat must be imputed to the Church of Rome who ingenuously acknowledges that Loco illius manus impositionis datur in Ecclesiâ confirmatio i. e. if we may be so bold as to render it into its true English Prayer and Imposition of Hands is justled out and the holy Cross with sanctified Balsam and a kind of Charm at the end of it is got into the Chair and commenc'd a Sacrament Had the Romanists retain'd Prayer and Imposition of Hands not advancing it to the honour of a Sacrament but honouring it as a Sacramental completion which is as much as it will amount to and added the Cross and Oyl onely as decent and significant Ceremonies to attend upon it they had kept themselves within the bounds of modesty for the truth is Chrism was of very ancient use even in this holy Office together with the honourable badge of our Saviour's Cross as Tertullian who lived in the latter end of the second Century testifies in his Tractate De résurrectione carnis Caro abluitur ut anima emaculetur Caro ungitur ut anima consecretur Caro signatur ut anima muniatur Caro manus impositione adumbratur ut anima spiritis illuminetur Caro corpore sanguine Christi vescitur ut anima de Deo saginetur Where you see betwixt the two Sacraments he gives us an account of Confirmation and the three Ceremonies that did then attend upon it viz. The signe of the Cross Vnction and Imposition of Hands And St. Cyprian about the middle of the third Century mentions the signe of the Cross in this holy Office in his Epistle to Jubaianus Vt per nostram orationem ac manus impositionem spiritum sanctum consequantur signaculo Dominico consummentur So that it must be confest that these Ceremonies were of ancient use in the Church and had they been retain'd onely as such the more sober sort of Christians 't is likely would not have been offen●●● But for the Church of Rome to lay aside the Apostolical institution and to advance these extrinsick Ceremonies to the same honour with the holy Eucharist is a far greater crime than she committed in the Council of Constance where she onely denies the Cup to the Laity as resolving to keep them sober but retains the use of both kinds to her proper Representatives their Priests standing on tiptoe rather than leave the least drop behind them Here then you may plainly see the ignorance of some and the impudence of others who are Adversaries to our Church The ignorance I will not say the malice of our late Dissenters who alledg'd that this Office of Confirmation as it is us'd in our Church is a superstitious practice and no better than a Transcript of the Popes Decretals whereas if they are compar'd together they are as opposite as light and darkness their old Master Cartwright who first broacht this Scandal openly retracting it upon better information Here you may likewise behold the forehead of those who pretend to pay a great reverence to Antiquity who yet curtail one of the Sacraments with a Non obstante and to make amends for it adde five more as of equal dignity 'T would be matter of wonder that these things should gain so great a repute even amongst the