Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	flesh_n	law_n	sin_n	20,113	5	5.9622	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17864	An examination of those plausible appearances which seeme most to commend the Romish Church, and to preiudice the reformed Discovering them to be but meere shifts, purposely invented, to hinder an exact triall of doctrine by the Scriptures. By Mr Iohn Cameron. Englished out of French.; Traicté auquel sont examinez les prejugez de ceux de l'église romaine contre la religion reformée. English	Cameron, John, 1579?-1625.; Pinke, William, 1599?-1629.	1626 (1626)	STC 4531; ESTC S107409	97,307	179

gift of God not by workes to the end that no man might boast They beleeue that we are saved partly by grace through faith partly by merits and workes that faith is partly the gift of God and partly an effect of our freewill Antiquitie beleeued that we are not saued by workes of righteousnesse which we haue done They beleeue that we are saved ex congruo by the workes which we doe before our regeneration and ex condigno by those which follow it Antiquitie prayed the Lord not to enter into iudgement with his servants because that before him no flesh shall be iustified They beleeue that the Lord shall enter into iudgement with them for they beleeue to be iustified by the merit of their workes Prim●tiue and Apostolicall antiquity beleeued that Gods election was every way free that election is of grace that if it be of grace it is no more of works otherwise grace were no more grace but if it bee of workes it is no more of grace otherwise workes were no more workes They beleeue that it is of grace and of works too Antiquity beleeued that it is God which effectually produceth in vs to will and to doe according to his good pleasure They attribute both the one and the other in part to their owne free will Antiquitie beleeved that we are not able to think any thing of our selues but that our sufficiency is frō God They attribute our sufficiency in part to our owne selues Antiquity beleeued that wee can doe nothing without Christ. They beleeue that we can without Christ while we are not yet engraffed into him doe workes which merit eternall life ex congruo as before our regeneration and that without the grace of God a man may for a time be without sinning Antiquity beleeued that of our owne nature wee are the children of wrath they beleeue that by the strength of our owne nature we are able to prepare and to dispose our selues for grace Antiquity beleeved that before Christ hath quickned vs we are dead in sinnes They beleeue that we haue freewill to good Antiquitie beleeued that the spirit fighteth against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit that they are contrary things in vs. They beleeue that we are able to fulfill the law of God perfectly that is to say without sinne Antiquitie beleeved that the lusting of the flesh is enmity against God and cannot bee subiect to the law of God They acknowledge even in the flesh a freewill to good Antiquitie beleeued that Christ prayed not for the world but for those whom the Father hath giuen him out of the world They beleeue that it is no certaine number for which the Lord hath prayed but that he prayed indifferently for all The Ancients beleeved that all they who haue heard of the father and haue learned of him come vnto Christ and that no man commeth vnto him vnlesse the father drawe him They beleeue that they who come not to Christ haue heard of the father as well as the other and that there is no grace nor particular election in the calling and conversion of a Christian. Antiquitie beleeved that it is Christ which chooseth vs and not we that choose him They on the contrary beleeue that wee choose Christ for they make that grace by which hee calleth vs to him vniversall and suppose it indifferently proposed to all so that in respect of Christ there is no election seeing he promiscuously calleth all but that we choose of our selues to goe vnto him Whence that is alwaies in their mouthes Fac vt praedestineris si non es praedestinatus Make thy selfe predestinated if thou art not Antiquitie beleeued that God hath mercy vpon whom he will haue mercy and compassion of whom he pleaseth to haue compassion that hee hath mercy on whom he will haue mercy and whom he will hee hardneth They bereaue God of this liberty and accuse them of blasphemie who attribute it vnto him Antiquitie beleeued that they who fall away who goe out from among the faithfull were neuer of the number of the faithfull for if they had beene of vs saith S. Iohn they would haue tarried with vs. They beleeue that they who are truely faithfull to day may fall away to morrow and that no man can be assured of his perseuerance Antiquitie beleeued that wee haue not receiued the spirit of bondage to be againe in feare but the spirit of adoption which cryeth in our hearts Abba Father They beleeue that the spirit of the faithfull is a spirit of feare that they must alwaies liue in doubt that to haue a setled assurance is presumption Antiquitie beleeued that whosoeuer beleeueth in Christ hath everlasting life They say that he who beleeueth in Christ cannot be certaine of life albeit the Lord hath said it which is in effect to beleeue that wee must not beleeue in Christ for how shal he beleeue in Christ who doubteth whether Christ loueth him or not Whether Christ will loue him continually as they teach him to doubt Antiquitie beleeued that there is no feare in loue and that perfect loue casteth out feare They commend feare in those which ought to burne with loue not that feare of offending God that filiall feare but a feare of being damned a seruile feare Antiquitie beleeued that there is but one naturall body of Chri●t a●d that composed of the substance of the blessed Virgin They would seeme indeed to beleeue so too but by the infini●e multitude of their hosties or sacrifices each of which they s●y is Christs body attributing vnto him also b●dies ma●e of bread they betray their dissimulation and shew themselues to beleeue the quite contrary Antiquitie beleeued that the Sa●rament of the alt●r was broken bread they beleeue that it is the bodie of Christ which is not broken Antiquitie beleeued that the heavens must containe Christ vntill his second comming They beleeue that the body of Christ is evey where where their hostie● a●e Antiquitie be●eeved that those were not to be beleeued which should say Here is Christ there is Christ he is in the secret chambers They thinke and say the contrary every day when they haue him about the streets when they carry him to the sicke when they shut him vp in the Pixes Antiquitie beleeued that Iesus Christ is offered but once they beleeue that he is offered a numberlesse number of times Antiquitie beleeued that it was impossible Christ should be offered often vnlesse hee suffered often They beleeue that he is offered every day without suffering Antiquitie bele●ued that we haue but one Mediatour towards God They beleeue that we haue many Antiquitie beleeued that we ought to call vpon none but him in whom we beleeue They beleeue that we must call vpon many in whom it is not lawfull to beleeue namely the Saints and Saintesses of Paradise Antiquitie

commandement is of the nature of those which alwaies haue this condition vnderstood when the thing is possible The Lord had regard to the time wherein he liued and hath prescribed a law which ought to be obserued but alwaies the possibility of obseruance supposed and an estate of the Church semblable to that in his time when the Church discipline was not as as yet corrupted in this point This Commandement then presupposeth not that the Church should alwaies be obvious to the eyes of men but that in the case propounded recourse should be had vnto her when shee was so As for the Pastours of the Church they are called the light of the world not alwaies in relation to the effect but to the duety as they are called also in this respect the salt of the earth beecause they were ordained for this purpose and are bound to this duty But then when they are in effect the light it is a spirituall light not discernable but to the eyes of the soule mindes of those which are spirituall of those which are in the house as our Saviour expresseth it So that none of these considerations can yeeld a sufficient argument for the perpetuall outward visibility of the Church neither in the whole nor in her parts CHAP. XXIIII That the Church of God was before the last Reformation where shee was and who were her Pastors BVt if they will needs presse vs further yet demād where our Church was extāt immediately before our separatiō we tell thē that shee was in Babylō in captivity vnder the kingdome of Antichrist a Come out of Babylō my people it is written in the Revelation the people of God were then in Babylon albeit they served not the Gods of Babylon and which is more their Teachers were the Teachers of Babylon If this seeme strange to any mā let him call to minde the estate of the Iewish church before our Saviour had begunne his preaching Might it not at that time haue beene demanded where the Church of God had beene before and who were her Pastours What could one answere to this query Might it haue beene said that the Scribes and Pharises and their adherents the greater part of the people were the Church alas they were nothing lesse they were enemies of Christ and ●his Church the true answer then had beene to say that the Church was a small number of righteous persons which groaned vnder the burden of that spirituall tyranny which lamented the desolation come vpon them by the corruption of the ancient doctrine and discipline That the Doctors of ●he Church were the Pharises of whom the Lord testified that they sate in Moses chaire Now we say the very same thing That God before the reformation begun in the daies of our fore-fathers had a Church in the midst of Babylon in the midst of the Popish and Antichristian church but that this church howsoeuer was not the multitude of those who had received the marke of the Beast and worshipped it but the small company of those which misliked the Roman tyrannie and corruption of whom some from time to time being detected haue beene banished others cruelly put to death and slandered to haue beene guilty of horrible and hainous crimes to make their persons odious to the people their memories execrable to posterity had not God by his providence maugre the subtiltie and furie of calumnie preserved the monuments of their faith and pietie even vnto this day Such were the poore Waldenses constrained to wander to fro such also were the exiled Albigenses Concerning that which is further demanded of vs who were the Teachers of the Church during that time so full of confusion then when Babel raigned We answer that questionlesse the holy Ghost alwaies instructed his Church inwardly and that outwardly they were the very same which taught publikely namely the Doctours of the Romish Church But some man may here say that by consequent they were true Teachers to which we answer that in some sort they were true as the Scribes and Pharises were both true Teachers and seducers true when they sitting in Moses chaire teaching his doctrine the people receiued wholsome instruction by their Ministery Seducers when they sitting in their owne chaire teaching their owne traditions their owne inventions they who p●rished the people whom God had not chosen sucked in the poison which they tempered Thus it was in the Iewish c●urch before the Lord had begunne to manifest himselfe to the world otherwise God had not had a Ch●rch This being true and evident it should not be necessary sollicitously to insist vpon a farther answer to the demand How this could bee When there is an agreement about the thing it is curiosity to inquire after the manner of it Yet that we may leaue no scruple behinde we will tell them after what manner God vseth false Teachers to instruct his people The Scribes and Pharises propounded the word of God and read it amongst the Iewes before the comming of our Saviour so much as was necessary to salvation but they mingled their leaven with it they thrust in their expositions glosses and traditions the true Church sustained her selfe with the word and reiected the leauen the false glutted her selfe with the leauen and let passe the word What strange matter is there in all this The sheepe in their pasturage where there are some venomous hea●bes and others convenient for this nature knowe well how to choose that which is proper for them ●o let alone that which is hurtfull and shall the sheepe of Christ be vnfurnished of this discretion They of whom it is said that they heare his voice knowe it follow it and fly from the hand of a stranger Who then will wonder any longer that before the great Reformation which the Lord hath begunne in these latter daies as it were in the decrepite age of the world the Church hauing truth propounded vnto her mixed with lyes hath embraced the truth and reiected the lyes Surely this truth hath sounded alwaies in the Church it hath beene in the mouthes of the Romish Doctours as the benediction was in the mouth of Balaam This truth that there is one God Creatour and preserver of all things that the Father Sonne and Spirit distinguished but not divided are this God that the vniverse being created for man and man after the image of God he by his sinne hath drawne vpon himselfe anger and malediction That the s●nne of God hath taken our nature vpon him and in it hath expiated our offences that all th●se which beleeue in him which repent in syncerity obtaine mercy That therefore we ought to loue so mercifull a God to call vpon him to giue him thankes Thus farre the Scribes and Pharises were in Moses chaire in the chaire of the Prophets of Christ and his Apostles thus farre they were to be harkned to Thus farre the Church did heare them But whilst

amongst them doe preach it is not as they are Monkes That license was anciently granted them in the forme of a dispensation In St Hieromes time the office of Monks was not to preach but to weepe To imploy ones selfe in preaching is to bid the Monkish life farewell to renounce it in this respect And if every Monke should imploy his gift and talent as doe the small number of those amongst them which preach the Monasteries would remaine emptie and these Monks would be no longer Monks but secular men conversing in the world and busying themselues for the common good of it every one according to his abilitie every man in his ranke station one in pleading the cause of the Orphane another in applying convenient remedies for the prevention or expulsion of diseases another in distributing almes out of his abundance one in the exercise of one calling another in another But the Monkes by their vowes quite disenable themselues for the performance of these offices Some ancient lawes punished certaine cowards which that they might not be pressed for the warre got their thumbs cut off not only for hauing vsed an inhumane cruelty towards them selues but also for hauing cosened the Common-wealth of its due They then make themselues culpable after the same manner who wittingly depriue thēselues of those meanes by which they might giue a helping hand for the reliefe of the common necessities of mans life We are not placed in this life neither abide we in this world for our selues only but for others also every man for his neighbour It is the law of nature it 's the law of God it 's the precept of the Gospell that we should doe good to all and especially to those of the houshold of faith He then who purposely maketh himselfe vnprofitable willingly violateth this law shewing himselfe vnnaturall rebellious against God full of selfe-loue seeking that which is his owne and not the Lord Iesus any farther then the lips and outward profession But which is yet more intolerable they make themselues not only vnprofitable but also burdensome they liue vpon other mens labours they depriue those who are poore indeed of their reliefe intercepting that which might and ought to be giuen them They think it a more blessed thing to receiue then to giue quite contrary to the iudgement of our Saviour They labour not and yet they thinke themselues worthie to liue and be maintained notwithstanding the speech of the Apostle he which worketh not let him not eat They say that their prayers are their taskes their oraisons their businesse But St Austin in his booke de opere Monach where he hath taken vpon him to proue that every Monke which liues vpon almes and gifts is guiltie of theft hath amply refuted these flim-flamms shewing that the spirituall service of God doth not hinder vs from but incourage vs to labour The Grecians account him not a true Monke who is chargeable to others The Abyssin Monkes follow the same law And indeed though the Monkish profession be ancient enough in the Church yet the idlenesse of Monks and their begging is but new In St Austens time some beganne in fauour of them to alleage the example of the birds of the fields of whom the Lord saith that they neither sow nor reap But that good father answereth them as they deserued telling them that hee was of opinion that they might goe as the birds doe to feed themselues in the fields without bringing any thing home with them and that it would bee good if they had wings that they might be affrighted away like stares birds not be apprehended as theeues Concerning the second point the Monkish life doth not quench but nourish doth not cast water but oyle vpon the fire of concupiscence An honest liberty of marrying when one will if a man be not altogether gracelesse easily spends and exhales this passion and suffereth it not to breake out into flames whereas the constraint by vow taketh away all hopes of vent and shutteth it vp within vs. There is no man lesse troubled with hunger then he who hopes that he may eat whē he pleaseth he who despaireth of it betaketh himselfe to his owne flesh and as the Prophet speaketh eateth even his owne arme Now this is not spoken with a purpose to discouer the secrets of the Couent but only to giue a secret glaunce at that which all the world knoweth of it But what Can their fastings and scourgings afford them no remedy Yes if they would in due proportion fast continually if they would fast simply and absolutely otherwise for him which hath not the gift of continence to fast by starts and lash himselfe by fits this is but to stirre his disease insteed of remouing it and to anger his sore insteed of healing it There are diseases which are nourished by gentle lenitiue remedies The anodins such medicines as cast the sicke into a sleep take away the paine for a time but they either kill the persō out right or else the paine returneth with the greater violence as if it had gone backward for a time that it might come forward with a doubled furie Witnesse St Hierome himselfe my countenance saith he was wan by reason of my fasting and my flesh was dead before my selfe and yet my spirit boyled within me with the heat of my desires Did so holy and devout a man out of I knowe not what humilitie publikely divulge so base and scandalous a lye of himselfe No no. He spake the truth and thereby how highly soever he hath extolled virginitie vnwittingly confesseth that for concupiscence which is not moderated by the gift and particular grace of continence there remaineth only that remedy set downe by the Apostle that for avoiding fornication every man should haue his owne wife and every woman her owne husband True virginitie is r●dically in the soule if it bee not ●●ere principally it cannot be in the body and if it be there it will transfuse it selfe thence into the body whether it be in wedlocke or in a single life Imagine we that St Peter married as the most ancient testifie of him was lesse acceptable to God then St Paul vnmarried God measureth not men but by piety where he findeth that equall he is equally pleased with it be it in married or vnmarried persons What then shall the single life haue no prerogatiue Yes questionlesse if it conduce more to pietie then marriage but if it faile in this point it 's much inferiour to marriage Now it alwaies fayleth of that in them who haue not the gift of it There are some saith our Saviour which make themselues Eunuches for the kingdome of heaven but all men cannot receiue this saying saue they to whom it is given Which is clearely expounded vnto vs by St Paul telling vs that he could wish indeed that all had the gift of continence as well as he but that every man hath his proper