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	truth_n	worship_n	6,333	5	8.0657	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31656	An effort against bigotry, and for Christian catholocism being a discourse on Rom. 14, 17 / delivered at Andover in Hampshire by Henry Chandler.	Chandler, Henry.	1699 (1699)	Wing C1926; ESTC R32616	24,696	36

herein and so far Pests and Plagues to Christian Societies And 't is my serious Thought that if God in Mercy doth not by some speedy unexpected Providence prevent it this sort of Men will ruine our Liberty and bring us into miserable Confusion Friends if you call this Railing I cannot help it but this shall support me that God hath commanded me to mark them which cause Divisions Rom. 16. 17. and that if I uprightly do my Duty God will at last acquit me tho' Men for the present condemn me God will for Christ's sake shew me his reconciled Face tho' Men my Acquaintance and Friends turn their backs upon me and will not vouchsafe to hear me I say to you as the Apostle in another case 2 Cor. 11. 1. Would to God you could bear with me a little and indeed bear with me I have no delight in offending any Body be sure not in troubling those whom I have found Comforters of me and from whom I might possibly yet expect further Comfort I know Discourses of this nature are not pleasant to either the Guilty or Innocent and you may assure your selves I have as little pleasure in speaking them as you have in hearing them But I say as David to Eliah 1 Sam. 17. 29. Is there not a cause Is not this that I am speaking against a Sin And hath it not done Mischief these many Years in this Nation and particularly in this place Doth not this dividing Spirit naturally lead to the levelling the Ministry with the People and destroying the necessary distinction of Teachers and Learners Rulers and ruled in Churches And is not this the way the high-way to Christianity-Ruining Quakerism and Fanaticism And am not I a Watch-man and shall not a Watchman speak when he seeth Evil approaching You will cut a Dog's throat that will not open when he should and the Spirit of God compares cowardly silent Ministers that tell not the People of their Sin and Danger to dumb Dogs that cannot bark and what the Lot of a People is like to be that have such Ministers you may see Isa 56 9 10. All the Beasts of the Field come to devour yea all the Beasts in the Forest c. 4. Proud Contemners are to be reproved Such I mean who having Knowledge and a greater Latitude than others do therefore despise and contemn their Christian Brethren that having less Knowledge make more Scruples than they This was the fault of the converted Gentile in the Apostle's Time and this is without Rancour I speak it the fault of the more Knowing if more knowing and less Scrupulous Church-man at this Day There was in the Apostles Day a dispute between the converted Jews and Gentiles about the Lawfulness of Eating such and such Meats and the necessity of keeping such and such Mosaick Holy-days or Festivals the converted Jew thought that the coming of the Messiah was to Establish the Jewish Polity and Mosaick Institution therefore tho' he believed in Christ yet he durst not but observe the Ceremonial Law Wherefore he conscienciously kept the Jewish Feasts enjoined by that Law and forbore those Meats that were by that Law pronounced Unclean The Converted Gentile being better informed took no notice of the Precepts or Prohibitions of that Law but eat any Meats and took no notice of those Feasts Rom. 14. 2 5. This diversity of Opinion and Practice in these two Parties of Christians occasioned a sinful Distemper of Mind in both one against another the Distemper of Mind that the converted Gentile sinfully harbour'd against his Brother was proud Contempt as we learn by the Apostle's prohibition ver 3. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not By this it appears that he did despise him he looked upon him as a scrupulous humoursome Fool. Brethren we have a like Case in this our day Some there are that think we be under the Gospel tied up to all the Circumstances of Worship as strictly as the Jews were heretofore under the Dispensation of Moses and that nothing is to admitted in or about the Worship of God but what is commanded in Scripture There are others who think that we are not so strictly tied up under the Gospel but that if the Direction of Scripture be observ'd as to the Object of Worship the recommending Mediator and the assisting Spirit if God the Father Son and Spirit be Worshipped and we present our Adorations by the Lord Jesus in the strength and vertue of the Holy Spirit if the Doctrine preach'd be according to the Analogy of Faith our Prayers suitable to the Directory for Prayer commonly called the Lord's Prayer if we use no Sacraments but such as Christ hath appointed and all be done in Sincerity and Truth Decency and Order unto Edification they think their Worship nevertheless acceptable to God if in it they observe some Ceremonies of Man's appointing This is the profess'd Judgment of the Church of England for these are her Words sc We think it convenient that every Country should use such Ceremonies as they shall think best to the setting forth of God's Honour and Glory I undertake not to determine at this time which is in the Right here but this I say those Church-men are to blame that do despise and vilify those who differ from them 'T is their Sin if they look upon and treat a Person as an ignorant humoursome Fool meerly because he scruples those things that they can dispense with in the Worship of God 'T is Uncharitable and Unchristian for such to overlook the Substantial Piety and serious Godliness that may be in such meerly because they have not the Compliment and Finishing of supposed Orthodoxness in the business of Circumstance and Ceremony of which even the Church of England her self saith That the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony is in it self but a small thing When a Church-man therefore shall in scornful Pride look a-wry upon an humble peaceable pious just charitable Christian meerly because he is a Dissenter from his Ceremonies he sins against the Law of Christ and walks unsuitably to the Principles of his own Church 5. Vncharitable Judgers are to be reprov'd Such I mean as allow themselves to Condemn Persons as Graceless and Prophane upon account of their using such Liberty as they scruple This was the fault of the Converted Jew as we learn by the Words of the Apostle Let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth And this to speak impartially is the fault of the Censorious Dissenter As the Jews heretofore condemned the Gentile as a prophane wicked Person for his eating of Meats forbidden by the Ceremonial Law so some Dissenters thanks be to God 't is but some are ready to condemn those of the Church of England as Prophane and Graceless upon account of their use of the Church Forms and Liturgy Those of them that are not visibly Prophane and Irreligious they censure them as meer Formalists the best they can think of them

Perswasion therein at the same time maintaining a Charitable Frame of Spirit towards his differing Neighbour Rom. 14. 5. If he had thought that an exact Uniformity in the Externals of Worship had been necessary he would not have given such Advice as he there gives no he would have Dogmatically determined which was in the Right and Authoritatively commanded the other to conform to him Third Inference A farther Union amongst Protestants is very desirable seeing these smaller matters that I have been discoursing of are of such a nature that a Man may be under the saving Influence of the Spirit of Holiness and a good Subject to the King of Heaven which way so ever he acts with respect to them 'T is ten thousand pities that a Difference in Opinion and Practice herein should cause such distances and withdrawings one from another as it doth I acknowledge there is great cause of Thanksgiving to God that there is such an Union in Doctrinals amongst us as there is and I account the Governments calling Protestant Dissenting Ministers to Subscribe the Articles of the Church of England a very good Providence as their Orthodoxy in matters of Faith is thereby manifested to all the World But that this is all the Union that is to be wished no Person of Understanding and Honesty will dare to affirm It were to be wished that what is sinfully imposed on one side was dropped and what is needlesly scrupled on the other side was for Peace sake complied with that the Names of Church-men and Dissenters Presbyterian and Independent might be happily lost in an honest and beneficial Union that our Name may be one our Hearts as one and our Way one to the painful Envy and Grief of Hell and Rome I do unfeignedly lament the Spirit of Faction and Partyism that I see amongst Dissenters as well as Church-men Biggotry is not the Sin of any particular Party Ah what a dismal thing is it that when our Holy Bible tells us plainly that the Kingdom of God is not promoted by these little Things we should stand aloof from one another upon account of them as if we were afraid of being Infected with mortal Disease Seeing a Man's acceptance with God depends not upon his using this way of Worship or that why should we totally separate from those who Worship with some little Irregularities as if they were Worshippers of a false God Or why should they totally deny their Presence at our Assemblies because of the absence of those Ceremonies that they themselves acknowledge to be indifferent Let us pray that where Persons are otherwise minded about the Worship of God than the Word of God directs God would reveal it to them as it is expressed Phil. 3. 15. that the domineering imposing Humour on one hand and the needless hurtful Scrupulosity on the other being laid aside we may all walk together in Love becoming the Gospel of Love and Peace You that desire the Peace of Jerusalem pray for this pray heartily pray without ceasing you shall prosper that thus love the Church of God Psalm 122. 6. Fourth Inference 'T is no sin for a Christian in some cases to conceal his Opinion as to these lesser Matters Yea 't is a plain Duty in some cases Rom. 14. 22. Hast thou Faith have it to thy self before God i. e. Hast thou more knowledge than he to believe those things to be lawful which he judgeth to be sin keep thy Knowledge and Belief to thy self to justify thy Judgment to God but use it not to the hurt of others Mr. Baxter This Text seems primarily to direct the strong Christian who hath more Knowledge of his Christian Liberty than his Brother and can without scruple do those things which the weaker Christian sticks at and the Duty enjoined seems to be this that such an one should not needlesly divulge his Opinion nor use his Liberty to the Scandalizing of his Brother It is also of use to direct the weak scrupulous Christian who though he hath a strong Perswasion that such or such a Thing would be sin to him yet should not needlesly divulge his Scruples when he is not call'd to do what he scrupleth and when the mentioning of his Scruples might disturb his Brothers quiet who can do that thing without wronging his Conscience or it may be offending of God the thing being indiffent and so lawful to be done or not done according as a Man is perswaded in his Conscience And thus the Apostle seems to mean by that in the 5th verse Let every Man be fully perswaded in his own mind Q. d. With respect to these disputed Matters let every Man act according to the Light he hath received but not be forward to spread his Opinion for the disturbing and troubling of others seeing the Glory of God is not promoted by our contending about these lesser matters seeing the Kingdom of Christ is not furthered nor the Souls of Men advantaged by gaining Men to our Opinions about them Let it suffice us that we have the liberty of our own Thoughts and Actions and not insist upon them when we have far greater and more useful things to talk of and press upon one another wherein we are all agreed Wherefore when a Man that hath no manifest Call to declare his Judgment about these smaller Matters shall purposely for peace sake refuse the distinguishing Name of suppose Presbyterian or Independent and shall rather chuse to be called a Christian a Protestant or an United Brother he is not I think to be looked upon and condemned as an Hypocrite walking Laodicean or Linsy-woolsy Christian Nor will any Person so judge such but those whose Opinion is as one said more than their Religion and who delight in the supposed Honour but real Shame of being the Heads of Schismatical Parties Second use of Reprehension And here these several sorts following are to be reprov'd sc 1. Tyrannical Church Imposers 2. Factious Preachers 3. Schismatical Dividers 4. Proud Contemners 5. Vncharitable Judgers 6. Hypocritical Triflers 1. Tyrannical Church Imposers I mean here all such pretended or real Church-Officers as make Conformity to their Opinions and Practices about these lesser Matters the indispensible condition of Communion with them I call such Tyrannical Imposers because they act herein Arbitrarily without the Divine Warrant and hereby Lord it over God's Heritage This Spirit is too visible in the World at this Day some deny Publick Baptism to Children if their Parents will not consent to have them signed with the sign of the Cross or if they themselves will engage for their Children and refuse to find Sureties or Godfathers and Godmothers for them though neither of these be commanded in the Word and both be look'd on as unlawful and sinful by those who offer their Children to be Baptised They refuse to give the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper to Persons in the Judgment of strictest Charity Penitent Believers competently instructed except they will receive it