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	soul_n	word_n	7,065	5	4.2672	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46700	A treatise concerning the indifference of humane actions	Jeanes, Henry, 1611-1662.	1669 (1669)	Wing J509A; ESTC R34477	148,823	174

and deciding controversies thereabouts is communicated to the publick ministers of the Church whether they execute their function severally and apart in some one particular Church or else jointly conferre and discourse among themselves concerning the true and genuine sense of the Scriptures in some assemblies call'd lawfully and in the name of Christ than unto severall private men who are neither endowed with so many gifts nor see with so many eyes nor by their private and single meditation can equall the united consultations and enquiries after truth of many And thus you see how farre Christian modesty requireth us to abstaine from assenting to doctrines upon the appearance of evill or falshood which they carry unto those who in interpeting scripture and deciding controversies have committed to them the publick office of direction and instruction of others but yet it taketh not from us the judgment of private discretion for Christian liberty alloweth us such a freedome of dissenting from or assenting unto what the Church and her ministers say as is to be specified in the next two following rules In a third place therefore although the Church or the greatest and cheifest part of her charge errour and falshood upon such a doctrine yet this bare and single testimony not seconded by any scripture or reason is not to gaine so farre upon our beliefe as that thereupon we should presently reject and dissent from the doctrine thus generally censured with an absolute and peremptory dissent This were to give unto the Churches decisions as high and over-ruling a suffrage in our hearts as is onely due to divine revelations to receive them not as they are indeed the word of men but as if they were the word of God to yeild unto them an absolute divine faith and credence This were a meere Vassallage of our soules understandings faiths unto the authority of an humane testimony a thing utterly unworthy the generosity and freedome of Christian Spirits If God hath indulged to any the exercise of such dominion over mens faiths and consciences alas then to what purpose hath he placed that glorious lamp of reason in our bosomes of what use are our intellectualls What place is there left for St Pauls proving of all things St John's tryall of the Spirits but the truth is 1 Joh. 4.1 that God is so farre from enslaving our understandings or captivating our beliefe unto the judgment of any mortall as that he approves not onely of a forbearance from a flat and absolute dissent from doubtfull doctrines thus publickly and generally disliked but also of a full and peremptory assent unto doctrines manifestly true though condemned in a generall Councill as is apparent from the fourth and last rule which is If a doctrine be as true in it selfe so also clearly and evidently by me apprehended to be so and yet appeare generally to be false unto others of what degree order or condition soever neverthelesse it Commands absolute subscription and assent of the mind without contradiction without hesitancy nay without so much as suspense of judgment If the verity then of a doctrine be apparent it must over-rule the assent of the understanding against the testimony of the whole world For the testimony of men of the wisest holiest men considered either apart or assembled in a councill admits as allwaies of examination and tryall by the ballance of the Sanctuary and rules of right reason so likewise of contradiction and denyall when in it there is an expresse and evident variation from either reason or divine authority In such a cause we may lawfully and safely dissent from it allwaies provided that it be not in an insolent manner but with a reverend child-like and respectfull bashfulnesse But to goe on if I am not to abstaine from assenting to a doctrine manifestly true because it appeares generally to others to be false must I not yet abstaine from publishing from spreading of it either by writing or preaching For answer thou must consider the generall nature and qualitie of the doctrine thus wrongly either accused or suspected of falshood and also of what use and importance it is in regard of the present times and places wherein thou livest and if it prove to be a doctrine either fundamentall or at least of such weight and moment that from the publishing of it will spring a greater good more glory to God and benefits to the Church then the trouble and disquiet it brings can be an evill thou art then at no hand to conceale it so should'st thou be unfaithfull both to God and his Church and become accessary to the betraying nay murther of the truth Si de veritate scandalum sumatur saith Gregory melius est ut scandalum oriatur quam ut veritas relinquatur If scandall or offence be taken at a truth which the estate and exigence of those soules committed to a mans charge requireth him to publish better suffer the whole world to be scandalized than such a truth disadvantaged either by deniall or but a cowardly smothering and dissembling thereof Quemadmodum enim saith Calvin Charitati subjicienda est nostra libertas Cal. lib. 3. Just c. 12. Sect. 13. ita sub fidei puritate subsidere vicissim charitas ipsa debet As our liberty is to be subjected to charity so also our Charity it selfe to faith's puritie But now if it be a doctrine either not fundamentall but of a lower rank and quality wherein both orthodox writers and preachers may vary and abound in their owne sense without prejudice to the foundation or if it be of so small use that upon its divulgement it is not probable there will arise so much honour to God and edification of the Church as may preponderate those mischiefes that hurly-burly those tumults and contentions in the Church which in all likelyhood will ensue thereby thou must then forbeare to vent it either from presse or pulpit so shalt thou best consult for thine own private quiet and publick peace And we must follow after things that make for peace and edification Rom. 14.19 About such matters to be contentious we have no custome nor the Churches of God and indeed about them to be contentious were the right pranke of a Schismatick for not only he is a Schismatick saith (r) Non enim Schismaticus eò agnoscitur quod fovet perversum dogma i nó conting it aliquando ut sententia schismatici hominis verissima sit tamen quia eam neque loco neque tempore debitis nulláque necessitate urget Schismaticus est scandalum objecit Dei popu●o●cum enim non agatur salus Ecclesiae ostendit se non adductum studio gloriae Christi sed suae potiu existimationis Ecclesiam turbâsse Cameron in selectiora quaedam N. T. loca Tom. 2. in Mat. c. 18. v. 7. Cameron who maintaines a perverse Tenet a man may hold a very true opinion and yet play the Schismatick and give scandall unto the people of God by

so Mat. Flac. Illyricus and Beza determine That it is so the Syriack Interpreter and after him Faber and after them our own great and learned (r) See his Annotations Doctor Hammond resolve But I would faine know upon what ground they are thus singular against the Current both of Ancient and Moderne Expositors Setting aside this place the word occurres as I thinke in the whole new Testament but foure times In Luke 3.22 and 9.29 John 5.37 2 Cor. 5.7 And in none of these places is it can it be taken in a Logicall notion If not elsewhere why here especially seeing such an acception is not inforced by the scope coherence any other circumstance of the Text or any absurdity otherwise unavoidable But some dreame of a foule absurdity that would ensue upon translating 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 species appearance If every appearance of evill should be abstained from then should good things the best things be eschewed for they commonly appeare to be evill unto sense and carnall reason that discerne not the things of the spirit of God How easily may an acute wit set false faces upon them and worke a bad conceite of them into either weake or ill appre ' hensions Unto this we may adde that of Dr Hammond in his treatise of scandall pag 9.10 Appearance of evill saith he is so uncertaine and unconstant a thing that to abstaine from it universim cannot be the matter of any possible Command This feare will quickly vanish and be discovered to be idle and vaine when anon we shall explaine that distinction of appearance of evill into reall and imaginary for the present therefore leaving these men proceed we secondly to others who agree with us in interpreting 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a vulgar familiar and common sense for appearance but then their exposition is not so generall as ours for they restraine the place to matters of Doctrine and will not allow it to be extended to matters of practise and countenance they think the context gives their glosse for the Apostle having at the 19 verse exhorted not to quench the spirit in verse 20. prescribes a meanes for cherishing the spirit viz a reverent demean our towards the word of God If ye will not quench the spirit despise not prophesying And next lest that some should except are we thus reverently to receive promiscuously all prophesyings and doctrines preached unto us and not to beware of some of false prophesyings and doctrines the Apostle say they more distinctly directs how we should demeane our selves First towards all prophesyings in generall how secondly towards true how 3dly towards false First all prophesyings and doctrines whatsoever must be diligently examined Prove all things Secondly all true prophesyings sound and orthodox doctrines are to be imbraced with a firme and unremoveable assent Hold fast that which is good Lastly as for false prophesyings and doctrines even their very appearance is to be shunned Thus they c. But first I propose unto the consideration of the learned whether or no an exact and acurate coherence be to be looked for in most of those precepts delivered by the Apostle from vers 13. usque ad vers 23. The loose and abrupt manner of heaping them together perswade me thinks that there is as little dependance of many of them upon either the foregoing or following precepts as is to be expected between Solomons Proverbs or Bede's Axiomes Hence is it that (ſ) Neque necesse est hanc partem interpretari ut quldam faciunt ut connexionem habeat eum iis quae proximè praecedunt nam potius videtur Apostolus refricare memoriam ejus quod praecipit cap● superiori ut honesti ambulent ad ecs qui foris sunt c. Estius Estius holds it not necessary to interprete the place so as that it should have conne●cion with those duties that immediately precede rather thinks he the Apostle seems to rubbe up the memory of what he commanded in the former chapter at verse the 12. That ye may walke honestly towards them that are without Secondly Suppose a coherence of the words with the former must it needs be that which they obtrude The words may sit under our interpretation and yet the Analysis of the Context run smoothly as thus The Apostle having at verse 19. dehorted from quenching the spirit next adviseth use of meanes tending to the preservation of its gracious and glorious residence in the soule which meanes are either negative or positive he assignes but one negative means viz a removall of a maine barre and powerfull obstacle unto the presence of the spirit contempt of preaching Despise not prophecying vers 20. of the positive means two concerne good one evill the two concerning good are boni diligens examinatio constans electio Prove all things hold fast that which is good This respecting evill est universalissima ejus rejectio an abstinence not onely from all kinds but even from all appearance of evill Lastly suppose the primary scope and intention of the Apostle be limited unto matters of doctrine yet because the maine reason for which they themselves conceive appearances of evill even in matters of doctrine to be interdicted is avoidance of scandall the precept of which is juris naturalis and not only doctrines but also actions are scandalous justly therefore unto these as well as those is the text appliable and applied too by all Schoolmen or others that ever I met with purposely treating on the point of scandall Should we then against the more generally received opinion of either former or later times admit of their narrow and curtaild interpretation for the cleare and indubitate sense of the Apostle Yet to make the words more instructive their use more generall we might warrantably put an enlargment upon them and extend them ad mores as well as ad dogmata ad agenda as well as ad credenda to the decalogue as well as creed not onely to doctrinall truthes but morall duties also Use of a division here is none but to bewray Logick and therefore without more adoe we will roundly betake our selves to Limitation Confirmation and Application of the plaine point here commended to us we are to abstaine not onely from things intrinsecally sinfull but from all shewes and appearances of sinne For Limitation appearance of evill is either in positions or actions First then t is questioned whether or no wee are to abstaine from all positions which have an appearance of evill of falshood For resolution we must distinguish 1. Concerning appearance of evill in positions 2. Concerning abstinence from such an appearance Appearance of evill in Positions is twofold 1. Either in regard of their matter and substance 2. Or else in the termes and expressions used in their proposall That which is in regard of their matter and substance is either to our selves or others Secondly to distinguish concerning abstinence from the appearance of evill or falshood in Positions we may