Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	faith_n	heart_n	receive_v	5,822	5	5.5335	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

vulgar were it not that we see intelligent Kings and Princes to be every day impos'd upon with the supposed holiness of Toys and Trifles for surely this new-coin'd Sacrament must be presum'd to do as much good to the partakers of it if there be no real Obstacle to hinder its efficacy as the Consecrated Clouts and Rattles lately sent from Rome to the Infant-Duke of Burgundy But to wave the levity of their Pretences more fit for a Stage than a Pulpit We of the Church of England retaining the Primitive Institution and practice may comfortably expect a Blessing upon this holy Office here being no traditions of men imposed upon us as the Commandments of Christ no Prayers offered up upon this occasion but what the Church upon mature deliberation hath compos'd no Ceremonies as essential to the Office being here used but what the Apostles practised and all this as heretofore administred by the Apostles so now by the Bishops their lawful Successors And this brings me to the third viz. III. The peculiar Order of persons to whom the ministration of this holy Office is restrained We find by the Context that although St. Philip converted them to Christianity and discipled them by the Sacrament of Baptism yet this holy Office was perform'd by St. Peter and St. John v. 14. Now when the Apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the Word of God they sent Peter and John How what is this that we hear Was Peter sent were the Subjects so sawcy and presumptuous as to send their Prince on their Errand Is not this He from whom his present Holiness derives his Supremacy over all Dominions spiritual and temporal Did not St. Peter understand his power or was he so weak as sneakingly to betray the Prerogative of his Chair Or if he did for that time suffer himself like the titular Duke of Venice to be concluded in the general Vote yet could not his Infallibility guide him in executing the Commission Must he have a Collegue appointed him to seture his Superiouts that all things shall be rightly perform'd Behold then the sandy Foundation upon which the Romanists erect a supreme and infallible Chair to his Holiness O the miserable shifts that they make to avoid the force of this unhappy instance And yet amongst them all that which is the most plausible brings him to an equality with the rest of the Christian Bishops for A Lapide tells us that as the Father sent the Son In Loc. and the Father and Son together sent the Holy Ghost and yet all three equal in Glory and Authority so St. Peter may be said to be sent by the rest of the Apostles non imperio as he quotes Cajetan for it sed fraterua charitate impulsione Well be it so nay we may go far higher and grant him to be what they say the sixth general Council own'd him Conc. Constantin 3. viz. Primus Episcoporum upon condition they will grant on the other side what the same Council plainly determines viz. Vt thronus Constantinopolitanus aequalia privilegia cum antiquae Romae throno obtineat Let him have the honor of precedency let him upon all occasions be the Mouth of his Collegues let him open and conclude general Councils let him be what they pretend St. Cyprian owns viz. the Origo the Principium the Exordium unitatis provided they will grant him to be what the same holy Father says St. Peter was in his golden Tractate De Vnitato Ecclesiae where after he has told us that Christ hath given Apostolis omnibus parem potestatem he presently tells us Hoe erant utique caeteri Apostoli quod fuit Petrus pari consortio praediti bonoris potestatis which Rigaltias miserably endeavours to evade by granting an equality of Apostleship as to their persons but denying it to their Successors an Hypothesis altogether as absurd and groundless as their pretended Donation from Constantine the Great But though we may be so civil as to grant him to be major singulis yet his being sent by the rest of the Apostles clearly evinces him to be Minor Vniversis which though it be a great Soloecism in the Civil yet is not so in the Ecclesiastical Politicks St. Peter you see was concluded by the general suffrage and so his Successours ought to be as the Councils of Constance and Basil have strenuously asserted Sent it seems these Apostles were but what was the purport of their Commission It was this that by their Prayer and Imposition of Hands the Holy Ghost might descend upon the baptized Samaritans But what was the reason that St. Philip a Minister of Gods Word did not perform this Duty He was their Father in Christ and had begotten them to a lively Faith he had renew'd their Spirits in the Laver of Baptism and instructed them in the necessary Rudiments of Christianity 't is much that he did not solemnize this Office amongst them Besides Regeneration is of a higher nature than Confirmation and he that gave the greater why did he not give the less The reason is plain and evident Because St. Philip was a person modest and faithful and would not presume to act beyond his Commission he knew that the Apostles had reserv'd this holy Office to their own ministration and for him to attempt it would have been a sin equal to that of the Sons of Korah who invaded the Priesthood of Aaron But the Church of Rome says that his Holiness by the plenitude of his Apostolical Authority may make an inferiour Priest the Minister of this Sacrament If so 't is much that St. Peter would give himself such an unnecessary trouble that he would not take his ease at Jerusalem and appoint St. Philip his lawful Substitute giving him a Legantine power as they say Deacons are capable of Why it seems St. Philip was more modest than to ask it or if he had St. Peter was more prudent than to grant it Some things the Apostles did absolutely reserve to themselves and their Successors which we the inferiour Officers of the Church may not must not pretend to and amongst them this of Confirmation was one and this St. Cyprian fully testifies in his forecited Epistle to Jubaianus speaking of these Samaritans Quod deerat says he id à Petro Johanne factum est ut oratione pro eis habitâ manu impositâ invoedretur infunderetur spiritus sanctus And that this was reserv'd to the Bishops the Sons of the Apostles in his age himself being a Metrapolitan Bishop can best inform us Quod nunc quoque apud nos geritur ut qui in Ecclesiá baptizantur Praepositis Ecclesiae offerantur ut per nostram orationem ac manus impositionem spiritum sanctum consequantur c. And this the incomparable Hooker out of St. Jerom. adversus Luciser proves to have been the practice of the fourth Century who though no great friend to the Episcopal Order yet tells us