Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A33236
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A brief view and survey of the dangerous and pernicious errors to church and state, in Mr. Hobbes's book, entitled Leviathan by Edward Earl of Clarendon.
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Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of, 1609-1674.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing C4421; ESTC R12286
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180,866
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332
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partly wrought our conversion and partly wâ—rketh nâ—w by his Ministers and will continue to work till his coming again And it is very ill Logic to say that because they cannot mis-interpret and pervert Scripture nor preach Rebellion against their natural Soveraign since Christ hath commanded subjection and obedience to them they have therefore no autority to preach at all or interpret the Scripture but must publish whatsoever the King bids them in the Name and as the Commands of God yet even that and all he hath or can say may be true if the cases of Conscience which he hath taken upon him to determine have any dependance upon or affinity with the Christian Faith or common honesty What if the office of Christs Ministers in this World is to make men believe and have Faith in Christ and that they have no power by that title to punish men for not believing or for contradicting what they say doth that defect of power of compulsion abolish that power which he hath given them of instructing and preaching and using the Keys As Christ hath trusted them to do and qualified them with peculiar circumstances to perform those Offices so he hath trusted Soveraign Princes to assist them whil'st they perform their office with integrity or to punish them if they do not with their power of compulsion that their labors may be effectual And Princes are no less obliged to give them that assistance then they are to perform the office of the Apostles and Disciples nor can any Prince think his Soveraignty impair'd by being obliged to take care that the Laws and Precepts of God his Soveraign be punctually submitted to and that they to whom in special manner the publication thereof is committed be not only protected but obeied and reverenc'd whil'st they do their duty or â—urmise that the Word of God stands in need of or can receive any dignity or autority by any thing he can add to it by his Soveraign power God hath left and requir'd them to be Nursing Fathers to his Church and from the time of their being Christians hath communicated his Scripture to them which they have receiv'd and which they are equally bound to obey as their meanest Subject and if they are not good and faithful Nurses the miscarriage of the Children shall be imputed to them There is no cause of jealousie from the Soveraign towards his Subjects which Mr. Hobbes out of his constant good will desires to kindle for there is neither Bishop nor Priest who pretends to any Power or Jurisdiction inconsistent with the Kings Supremacy in Ecclesiastical as well as Temporal matters No man can be made a Bishop but by his appointment and grant No man can be ordained a Priest but by him whom he hath nominated to be a Bishop And if either Bishop or Priest mis-behave themselves to that degree they shall by his autority be degraded and depriv'd and suffer as Lay-men are to do he being no less Soveraign over the Ecclesiastical Persons and Laws then over the Temporal and whoever so become liable are to blame and for ought I know have to answer for somthing besides the departing from their dignity In a word Prelates assume no title of Honor nor pretend to any Jurisdiction that they have not receiv'd from him and therefore deserve to be countenanc'd and supported by him amongst his best and most useful Subjects He is not concern'd if the King forbids him to believe in Christ it is a command of no effect because belief and understanding never follow mens commands but if the King commands him to say that he believes not in Christ he is very ready to obey him pag. 271. Profession with the tongue is but an external thing wherein a Christian holding firmly in his heart the Faith of Christ hath the same liberty which the Prophet Elisha allowed to Naaman the Syrian He would be very much disappointed in the support of his monstrous Impiety if that Text ought to be rendred out of the Original as Dr Lightfoot a man eminently learned in the Hebrew positively saies at ought to be For this thing the Lord pardon thy servant for that when my Master hath gon into the house of Rimmon to worship there and he hath leaned upon my hand that I have also bowed my self in the house of Rimmon for my worshipping in the house of Rimmon the Lord pardon thy servant for tâ—is thing 2 Kings 5. 18. So that he craved pardon for Idolatry past and not begged leave to be Idolatrous for the time to come But admitting the Text to be according to the common Translation it can do Mr. Hobbes no good except he procures the same leave from another who hath as much autority as Elisha had Who doth not know that none of those Examples which were either enjoin'd or permitted to be don by the Divine Autority for some extraordinary end of Providence are for our imitation when they are opposite to the truth and justice and integrity of Gods Precepts He may as well justifie the breach of Faith and down-right Theft and Robbery in his Neighbors by the example of the Israelites borrowing the Jewels and other Goods of the Egyptians or the assassination of an Enemy by the example of Ehuds stabbing of Eglon and many other unwarrantable actions by the example of good men directed by the Spirit of God in the Scripture as maintain his own impiety by the example or permission if there were any of Naaman But if Mr. Hobbes be gratified by not urging the impiety nor the denunciation which St. Iohn pronounced upon him He is Anti-Christ that denieth the Father and the Son 1 John 2. 22. How will he justifie the prevarication and falseness in saying he doth not believe that which in his heart he dâ—th believe Ye shall not deal falsly neither lie one to another was a part of the Levitical Law and by Mr. Hobbes rules a part of the Law of Nature and so must not be violated nor can be controul'd by God himself He knows very well who is the Father of lies tho it may be he doth not enough consider what portion is allotted for his children And if they who said they were Iews and were not but did lie were pronounc'd by St. Iohn to be of the Synagogue of Satan Rev. 3. 9. There is very great danger that he who is a Christian in his heart upon any Kings commands shall profess with his Tongue that he doth not believe in Christ will not be admitted by our Saviour to be of his Church In vain hath the whole current of Scripture endeavor'd to raise such an awful reverence for truth that it hath scarce pronounced more severe Judgments against any Species of sins then against lying He that telleth lies shall not stay in my sight saies the Spirit of God by the Psalmist Psal. 101. 7. He that speaketh lies shall perish saies the same Spirit in the Proverbs Prov. 19. 9. Let him
Christians at present in the world do believe And the Martyrdom of all who have since suffer'd death for the maintenance of any particular opinion hath consisted only in that they would not deny what in truth they believ'd or pretend to believe what they thought apparent to be false which is not therefore to be condemn'd because Mr. Hobbes is resolv'd to decline it In this Rapsody of extravagant notions he proceeds to the dissecting the Commission granted by our Saviour to the Apostles and with the licence of a Grammarian translates the terms of their Commission to make their office of as little autority as he wishes it to be He saies Preaching signifies nothing pag. 273. but what a Crier or Herald or other Officer useth to do publicly in proclaiming a King and a Crier he saieth hath not right to command any man that teaching is the same thing with Preaching but to teach that Iesus was Christ and risen from the dead is not to say that men are bound after they believe it to obey those that tell them so against the commands of their Soveraign but that they shall do wisely to expect the coming of Christ hereafter in patience and faith with obedience to their present magistrate All which signifies nothing if it doth not signify that where ever Idolatry is the Religion of the Soveraign what ever they do believe themselves they are to practice Idolatry still and to perform all the Rites of Infidells till the coming of Christ himself to justify their conversion And this no question is his meaning to which I shall apply no other answer then the stating his proposition And if there could remain any doubt since that meaning is so very bad that it could not be his he will quickly remove that doubt in the Survey he takes of Baptism and the obligation thereof He saies that pag. 274. Baptism in the name of the Fathâ—r and of the Son and of the Holy-Ghost is dipping in their names you shall rarely find him call them three Persons for the incongruity it would introduce in Philosophy The meaning of which words of Baptism is this He that is baptized is dipped or washed as a sign of becoming a new man and a Loyal Subject to that God that was represented by Moses and to Iesus Christ his Son God and man that hath redeem'd us and shall in his human nature represent his Fathers Person in his eternal Kingdom after the Resurrection and to acknowledge the doctrine of the Apostles who being assisted by the spirit of the Father and the Son he tells us often that Spirit signifies nothing but mind were left for guides to bring us to that Kingdom to be the only and assur'd way thereunto And so that you may not suspect him to be a better Christian then he is he hath taken the pains to let you know again the little esteem he hath of the Trinity This being our promise in Baptism and the autority of Earthly Soveraigns being not to be put down 1. Cor. 25. 22 23 24. till the day of judgment for that he saiâ—s is p. 274. expresly affirmed by St. Paul it is manifest that we do not in Baptism constitute an other aâ—tority over us by which our externall actions are to be govern'd in this life but promise to take the doctrine of the Apostles for our direction in the way to life eternal So that the greater moiety of the world being according to the computation made by the Learned men mere Heathen men and Pagans and much the greater part of the other moiety being Mahometans no account being taken of the Jews neither the one or the other however they may in their hearts believe the doctrine of the Apostles are bound to make profession outwardly of the Christian Religion before the second coming of our Saviour to judgment except their own Soveraigns command them so to do And in all these ravings he hath Texts of Scripture at hand which he perverts and interprets to his own ends contrary to the genuine sense and indeed to the whole Analogy of Faith and Scripture as any man must conclude who examines them and the interpretation which hath bin alwaies made of them before Mr. Hobbes A man would imagine that he had bin contented that the Apostles and their Successors should enjoy some dignity and prerogative when he confesses that pag. 274. the end of Baptism is remission of Sins and to baptize is to declare the reception of men into Gods Kingdom and to refuse to baptize is to declare their exclusion and that the power to declare them cast out or retained in it was given to the Apostles and their Substitutes and Successors But he quickly humbles them from this exaltation and since no man can judg the secret thoughts of the heart he saies pag. 275. the Apostles and their Successors were to follow the outward marks of repentance which appearing they had no autority to deny absolution Besides they alwaies were and are but ministerial they have nothing to do to judg of pag. 275. the truth of repentance that belongs to the assembly of the faithfull the judgment belonging to them and only the publication of it to the Apostle or Pastor of the Church as Prolocutor after the Assembly had first heard the cause and determin'd it So that it seems St. Peter was a little too presumtious in undertaking to know the heart of Anâ—nias and Saphira and in pronouncing so severe a judgment upon them without so much as asking the advice of the Assembly I shall not accompany him in his disquisition upon Excommunication the use and effects of it upon whom it is to be exercis'd and for what faults or the conditions which are requisite to make men liable to it and whether the Teacher of Christian doctrine may as a master in any Science abandon his Disciples that obstinately continue in an unchristian life but he cannot say the excommunicate have wrong because they are not obliged to obey in all which he mingles great errors with some truth well expressed and the errors being of a less magnitude then those he is usually guilty of I shall not particularly insist upon them But I cannot but observe his close design to make the foolishness of Preaching of no effect by his absolving their Auditory from any kind of obligation to believe them which he would not attemt to do if he had less autority then from the Apostles themselves Acts 17. 3. 3. For from Saint Pauls behaviour in the Synagogue in Thessalonica pag. 280. when some of them believed and others did not believe he finds the reason was that St. Paul came to them without any legal Commission came only to perswade them and reasoned with them out of the Scriptures which were well known to the Iews and believed by them to be the word of God And the reason why when they all believed the Scripture they did not all alike believe him was that some approved