Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	son_n	true_a	9,981	5	5.4328	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30338	A discourse wherein is held forth the opposition of the doctrine, worship, and practices of the Roman church to the nature, designs and characters of the Christian faith by Gilbert Burnet.; Mystery of iniquity unveiled	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1688 (1688)	Wing B5779; ESTC R7432	58,858	73

she is so poor as not to be able to maintain such Seminaries But on the way it is no great character of the Piety of their Church that she abounds so with great and rich donations when we consider the Arts they used for acquiring them by making People believe themselves secure of Heaven by such donations Indeed had we got our People befooled into such persuasions the cheat might have prospered as well in our hands but we are not of those who handle the Word of God deceitfully nor will we draw the People even to do good with a crafty guile or lye for God. But now as a conclusion to this Discourse I must consider if all things among us be so sound and well grounded that with a quiet Mind and good Conscience every one may hold Communion with our Church and hope for Salvation in it I shall therefore briefly run over the Nature and Characters of the Christian Faith to see if any contradiction to them or any part of them be found among us And first of all we worship God in Spirit as a Spiritual Being with suitable Adorations which we direct to no Image nor Symbol of the Divine Presence but teach that we ought not to figure God to any corporeal being no not in our thoughts neither do we worship any beside God the Father Son and Spirit We also worship Christ but as he is God and hath the fulness of the God-head dwelling in him bodily Angels indeed we honour but knowing them to be our fellow-servants we cannot pray to them or fall down before them We count the holy Virgin blessed among women but dare give her no share of the glory due to her Son All the Saints we reverence and love but knowing God to be a jealous God we cannot divide that honour among them which is only due to him and therefore do neither worship them their Images nor their Reliques We desire also to offer up to God such Sacrifices as we know are well-pleasing to him Prayers Praises broken and contrite Hearts and our Souls and Bodies but reject all Charms and Enchantments from our Worship as contrary to the reasonable service which is acceptable to God and do retain the genuine simplicity of the Gospel-worship in a plain and intelligible stile and form without any mixtures drawn from Judaism or Gentilism And thus there is nothing among us contrary to the first design of Religion And as little will be found against the second which is the honour due to Christ in all his Offices We teach our People to study the Scriptures and to examine all we say by them and exhort them to depend on God who by his Spirit will teach them as well as us neither do we pretend to an authority over their Consciences but acknowledg our selves men of like infirmities with the People who are all called to be a Royal Priesthood and thus we honour Christ's Prophetical Office by founding our Faith only on the Divine Authority of the Scriptures We also believe there is no Name given under Heaven by which we can be saved but the Name of Christ who laid down his Life a ransom for our Souls that by his Cross we might be reconciled to God and it is to that one Sacrifice that we teach all to fly for obtaining remission of sins and the favour of God trusting only to it and to nothing we have done or can do knowing that when we have done all we can do we are but unprofitable servants much less do we hope for any thing from any of our Fellow-creatures We apply our Souls to no Intercessor but Christ and trust to no Satisfaction but his and we acknowledg him the only King of his Church whose Laws must bind it to the end of the World. Neither do we acknowledg any other Authority but his over our Consciences It is true in things indifferent he hath left a power with his Church to determine in those Matters which may tend to advance order edification peace and decency but as the Church cannot add to our Faith so neither can it institute new pieces of Worship which shall commend us to God or bind any load upon our Souls We own a Ministerial Authority in all the Pastors of the Church which they derive from Jesus Christ and not from any visible Head on Earth and therefore they are only subject to Christ We also hold that the Civil Powers are of Christ whose Gospel binds the duty of obedience to them more closely on us and therefore if they do wrong we leave them to Christ's Tribunal who set them up but pretend to no power from his Gospel to coerce or resist them and thus we honour Christ in all his Offices and so are conform to the second branch of the design of our Faith. We also receive the third with the same fidelity and whatever the practices of too too many among us be yet there is no ground to quarrel our Doctrine we preach repentance to all and study to convince them of their misery and lost estate that they may mourn for their sins and turn to God by a new course of life we preach Faith through Christ in God as that which unites our souls to him by which we are in Christ and Christ is in us We stir up our people to love the Lord their God with all their heart strength soul and mind and to wait for his Son Christ Jesus who is the hope of glory and shall change our vile bodies into the likeness of his glorious Body And from this great motive do we press our people to the study of holiness with●ut which they shall never see God. We send them to the ten Commandments for the rule of their lives whose exposition we chiefly take from Christ's Sermon on the Mount neither can we be charged for having taught the People to break one of the least of these Commandments We exhort all our hearers to make the life of Christ the pattern of theirs and to learn of him who was meek and lowly in heart neither can our Church be accused of having taught any Carnal Doctrines for gratifying the base Interests of the flesh or for ingrossing the power or treasure of the World the subsistence of our Church-men being but a livelyhood and not a treasure In a word we preach Christ and him Chrucified and all the rules of his Gospel for ordering the conversation aright without adding or taking from it and thus our conformity to the third branch of Christianity appears We teach also according to the fourth branch of Christianity the Doctrines of Charity neither do we condemn any who hold the foundation though in some lesser matters they differ from us but hope they may be saved as well as we We abhor the Doctrine of cruel persecuting of any for their Consciences The outmost we allow of or desire of that nature being the preservation of our own Societies pure from the contagion of

spot or wrinkle And much more of this Nature meeting us in Scripture declares how plenary his Satisfaction was nothing being left undone by him for removing the Guilt and Demerit of Sin. And what comfortless Doctrine this is we may soon apprehend how it takes away that Joy in God at the approches of Death since there is such hazard of direful Miseries following Now this was no small part of the Mystery by which the World was brought under their Dominion and therefore great pains was taken for rooting the belief of it deep in all Mens Hearts many Visions and Apparitions were vouched for its Proof and all the Lives of the Saints that were written for divers Ages were full of such fabulous Narrations some Souls were said to be seen standing in burning Brimstone to the Knees some to the Middle some to the Chin others swimming in Caldrons of melted Metal and Devils pouring the Metal down their Throats with many such afrighting Stories But for all this the Proof from Scripture was only drawn from one wrested place of the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 3.12 13 14 15. who saith That in the Day of the Lord such as built upon the Foundation of Christ superstructures of Wood Hay and Stubble should be saved because they kept the Foundation yet so as by Fire But this was only a proverbial form of Speech to express the risque they run to be such as of one that escapes out of a Fire such proverbial Speeches being usual in Scripture as that of the Prophet Zech. 3.2 Is not this a Brand plucked out of the Fire Or of the Apostle Jude 23. Some save with fear pulling them out of the Fire And any considering Person will at first view see how slender a Foundation this was for the Superstructure built upon it But the way was contrived for preserving Souls from or rescuing them out of Purgatory will discover what were the Inducements of advancing the belief of it with such Zeal which was thus framed It is believed by that Church that beside the Commands that necessarily oblige all Christians there are many Counsels in the Gospel in order to the attaining a higher pitch of Perfection such as the Counsels of Poverty and Chastity or the like and they teach that such as did not obey these cannot be said to have sinned but on the other hand those who have obeyed them shall not want a Reward by their so supererrogating beyond what was strictly bound upon them and the Reward of them is their meriting both for themselves and others an exemption from the Pains of Purgatory And of all these Merits there is a common Treasure of the Church wherein for good manners sake the Merit of Christ is the chief Stock and this is committed to the Successors of St. Peter to whom the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven are believed to be given who can communicate of that Spiritual Treasure as they will either for preserving Souls from Purgatory or for delivering them out of it This could not but work wonders for the exaltation of the Papal Dignity when he was conceited to be honoured of God with so high a Trust This was also made an Engin for advancing all the Papal Designs for upon any Quarrel he had with any Prince the Popes proclaimed a Croisade promising exemption from Purgatory to all who hazarded their Lives for the Service of the Holy Church And the contrivance of Purgatory being universally believed this could not fail to draw great numbers about his Standards And by this means he brought most Princes into that servile subjection to him under which they groaned for many Ages Another practice yet more base and sordid was the selling of Indulgences and Pardons for Mony. Certainly here was Simon 's Crime committed by the pretended Successors of him who had of old accused him that thought the Gift of God might be purchased with Mony and thereupon did cast him out of the Church It were endless to tell the base Arts and blasphemous Discourses of the Monks who were sent through the World to sell these Indulgences which in the end proved fatal to that Church since the excessive magnifying of them did first provoke Luther to examine their Corruptions It is true they will not hear of the harsh word of selling Indulgences but disguise it with their giving them to such as will offer Alms to the Church but really this whole Contrivance is so base so carnal and so unlike the Spirit of Christianity that to repeat it is to refute it Here was a brave Device for enriching the Church when the making great Donations to it was judged so effectual for delivering out of Purgatory Who would not out of love to his Friend's Soul if he believed him frying in these Flames give liberally of his Goods but much rather would a Man give all that he had for his own Security especially when on his Death-bed he were beset with Persons who were confounding him with dismal Apprehensions and thus trafficking with him for the exchange of his Soul. Hence sprung the enriching of Abbeys and Churches for every Religious Order hath its own peculiar Merits which they can communicate to one of their Fraternity If then a dying Man had gained their favour so much that he was received into their Order and died wrapped in one of their Frocks then was his Soul secure from the grim Tormentors below And what an endless heap of Fables had they of Souls being on the brink or in the midst of the Flames and of a sudden snatched out But now all this Trade hath quite failed them therefore Indulgences are fallen in their Rates and in stead of them there are Prayers to be used and especially to be said before priviledged Altars or at such Times or before such Reliques that it is no hard work for any among them to ransome the Souls of others or to preserve their own In a word doth not all this debase the Spirit of true Religion and expose it to the jealousy of Atheists as if it were a Contrivance for advancing base and secular Designs And doth it not eat out the Sense of true Piety when the Vulgar see the Guides of Souls making such shameful Merchandise of them and doing it with such respect of Persons that if a Man be rich enough he is secure whereby our Lord's blessing of the Poor and passing a Woe on the Rich is reversed But above all what indignity is by this done to the Blood of the Son of God And how are the People carried from their dependance on Him and their value of His Sufferings by these Practices Another Art not very remote from this for detracting from the value of Christ's Death and the confidence we should have in it is the Priestly Absolution wherein after the Sinner hath gone over his Sin without any sign of remorse and told them to the Priest he enjoins a Penance the doing whereof is called a satisfaction and the Vulgar do