Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	gift_n	holy_a	21,083	5	5.7385	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50353	The publisher or translator of Nicholas Machiavels whole works out of Italian, faithfully into English, concerning the following letter of Nicholas Machiavels, wherein he clears himself of the aspersions alledg'd by some on his writings also, his judgment as to government, whether monarchie or democracie be the best : and lastly, (tho' a papist) shews their wicked and base errours, both of popes, Jesuits, priests, &c. and that they shall be brought to ruine / written by the author, April 1st, 1537.	Neville, Henry, 1620-1694.; Machiavelli, Niccolò, 1469-1527.	1688 (1688)	Wing M139; ESTC R23469	20,698	46

of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and ye ●hall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for this promise ●s to you and to your Children and to all that are afar ●ff even as many as the LORD our GOD shall call Next to judge infallibly of Divine Truth and to forgive sins as CHRIST did Then to be the Head of all Ecclesiastical Persons and Causes in the World to be so far above Kings and Princes as to Judge Depose and Deprive them and to have an absolute Jurisdiction over all the affairs in Christendom in Ordine ad Spiritualia yet all this the Canonists allow him and he makes no scruple to assume whilst it is plain that in the whole New Iestament there is no description made of such an Officer to be at any time in the Church except it be in the Prophecy of the A●ocalyps or in one of St. Paul's Episties where he sayes Who it is that shall sit in the Temple of GOD. shewing himself that he is GOD. CHRIST tells us his Kingdom is not of this World And if any will be the greatest amongst his Disciples that be must be serwant to the rest which shews that his Followers were to be great in Sanctity and Humility and not in worldly power The Apostle Paul writing to the Christians 〈◊〉 those times almost in every Epistle comman●● them to be obedient to the Higher Powers or Mag●●strates set over them and St. Peter himself from whom this extravagant Empire is pretended t●● be derived in his first Epistle bids us submit o●● selves to every ordinance of man for the LORDS sake whether it be to the King or c and this is en●● joyn'd although it is plain that they who go●● vern'd the World in those days were bot●● Heathens Tyrants and Usurpers and in th●● submission there is no exception or proviso for Ec●clesiastical immunity The practice as wel as precepts of those Holy Men shews plainly that the● had no intention to leave Successors who should deprive Hereditary Princes from their right o● Reigning for differing in Religion who without all doubt are by the appointment of the Apostl●● and by the principles of Christianity to be obeyed and submitted to in things wherein the fundamental Laws of the Government give them power though they were Jews or Gentiles If I should tell you by what Texts in Scripture the Popes claim the powers before mentioned it would stir you up to laughter and prove too light for so serious a matter yet because possibly you have never heard so much of this subject before I shall instance in a few They tell you therefore that the Jurisdiction they pretend over the Church and the power of pardoning sins comes from CHRIST to St. Peter and from ●im to them Thou art Peter and upon this Rock 〈◊〉 will build my Church I will give thee the Keyes of ●he Kingdom of Heaven whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou ●halt loose on Earth c. From these two Texts ridiculously applyed comes this great Tree which hath with its branches over spread the whole Earth and kill'd all the good and wholsome Plants growing upon it The first Text will never by any man of sense be understood to say more than that the Preaching Suffering and Ministry of Peter was like to be a great foundation and Pillar of the Doctrine of Christ the other Text as also another spoken by our Saviour to all his Apostles whose sins ye remit they are remitted and whose sins ye retain they are retained are all by the primitive Fathers interpreted in this manner wheresover you shall effectually preach the Gospel you shal carry with you Grace and Remission of sins to them which shall follow your instructions but the people who shal not have these joyful Tidings communicated by you to them shall remain in darkness and in their sins But if any will contest that by some of these last Texts that Evangelical Excommunication which was afterwards brought into the Church by the Apostles was here presignified by our great Master how unlike were those censures to those now thundered out as he calls it by the Pope these we● for edification and not destruction to affli●● the flesh for the salvation of the Soul that th● Apostolical Ordinance was pronounced for som● notorious scandal or Apostacy from the Faith and first decreed by the Church that is th● whole Congregation present and then denounced by the Pastor and reached only to deba● such persons from partaking of the Communi●on or fellowship of that Church till Repentance should readmit him but was followed by no other prosecution or chastisement as is now practised But suppose all these Texts had been as they would have them how does this make for the Successors of St. Peter or the rest Or how can this prove the Bishops of Rome to have right to such Succession But I make haste from this subject and shal urge but one Text more which is the spiritual man judgeth all men but is himself judged of none from whence is inferred by the Canonists that first the Pope is the Spiritual man and then that he is to be Judge of all the World and last that he is never to be lyable to any judgment himself whereas it is obvious to the meanest understanding St. Paul in t● is text means to distinguish between a person inspired with the Spirit of God and remaining one in the state of Nature which latter he sayes cannot judge of those Heavenly gifts and graces as he explains himself when he says The natural man ●●nnot discern the things of the Spirit because they are ●●olishness unto him To take my leave of this matter wholly out of the way of my Studies I shall beg of you Zen●bio and of Guilio and the rest of out Society to read over carefully the New Testament and then to see what ground there is for Purgatory by which all the wealth and greatness hath accrew'd to these men what colour for the Idolatrous worship of Saints and their Images and particularly for speaking in their hymes and prayers to a piece of wood the Cross I mean Salve Lignum c. and then fae nos dignos beneficiorum Christi as you may read in that Office what colour or rather what excuse for that horrid unchristian and barbarous Engine called the Inquisition brought in by the Command and Authority of the Pope the inventor of which Peter a Dominican Fryer having been slain amongst the Albigesi as he well deserved is now Cannoniz'd for a Saint and stil'd San Pietro Martine In the dreadful Prisons of this Inquisition many faithful and pious Christians to say nothing of honest Moral M●ors or Mahometans are tormented and samish'd or if they out live their sufferings burnt publickly to death and that only for differing in Religion from the Pope without having any crime or the least misdemeanor proved or alledged against them

but they will Rule with Clemency and Moderation and return to that excellent Maxim of the Ancients almo●● exploded in this Age that the interest of Kings and of their People is the same which truth 〈◊〉 hath been the whole design of my Writings to convince them of I am charged then in the second place with Impiety and villifying the Church and so to make way for Atheism I do not deny but that I have frequently in my Writings laid the blame upon the Church of Rome not only for all the misgovernment of Christendom but even for the Depravation and almost total Destruction of Christian Religion it self in this Province But that this Di●course of mine doth or can tend to teach Men impiety or to make way for Atheism I peremptorily deny And although for proof of my innocence herein I need not but refer you and all others to my Papers themselves as they are now published where you will find all my Reasons drawn from Experience and frequent Examples cited which is ever my way of Arguing yet since I am put upon it I shall in a few lines make that matter possibly a little clearer and shall first make protestation That as I do undoubtedly hope by the Merits of CHRIST and by Faith in Him to attain Eternal Salvation so I do firmly believe the Christian Profession to be the only true Religion now in the World Next I am fully perswaded that all Divine Verities which GOD then designed to rach the World are contained in the Books of holy Scripture as they are now extant and received amongst us From them I understand that GOD created Man in purity and innocencie and that the first of that Species by their frailty lost at once their integrity and their Paradise and intail'd sin and misery upon their Posterity that Almighty GOD to repair this ●oss did out of his infinite Mercy and with unparallel'd grace and goodness send his only begotten Son into the World to teach us new truths to be a perfect example of virtue goodness and obedience to restore true Religion degenerated amongst the Jews into Superstition ●orinality and Hypocrisie to die for the Salvation of Mankind and in fine to give to us the holy Spirit to regenerate our Hearts support our Faith and lead us into all truth Now if it shall appear that as the lusts of our first Parents did at that time disappoint the good intention of GOD in making a pure World and brought in by their disobedience the corruptions that ar● now in it So that since likewise the Bishops of Rome by their insatiable ambition and avarice have designedly as much as in them lves frustrated the Mercitul Purpose He had in the happy Restauration He intended the World by H● Son and in the renewing and reforming of H●mane Nature and have wholly defaced and spoiled Christian Religion and made it a Worldly and a Heathenish thing and altogether ●●capable as it is practised amongst them either of directing the wayes of its prosessors to viru● and good life or of saving their Souls hereafter● I say this do appear I know no reason why I 〈◊〉 detesting thus much and for giving warning to the World to take heed of their wayes should be accused of Impiety or Atheism or why 〈◊〉 Holiness should be so inraged against the p●● Inhabitants of the Valleys in Savoy and again● the Albigesi for calling him Antichrist but to fi●● that it is an undoubted truth I mean that 〈◊〉 Popes have corrupted Christian Religion 〈◊〉 need but read the New Testament acknowledg●● by themselves to be of infallible truth and the●e we shall see that the Faith and Religion pre●●ched by Christ and setled afterwards by his Apostles and cultivated by their Sacred Epistle●● is so different a thing from the Christianity th●● 〈◊〉 now profess'd and taught at Rome that we should be convinc'd that if those Holy Men should be sent by GOD again into the World they would take more pains to confute this Gallimaufry than ever they did to preach down the Tradition of the Pharisees or the Fables and Idolatry of the Gentiles and would in probability suffer a new Marryrdom in that City under the Vicar of CHRIST for the same Doctrine which once animated the Heathen Tyrants against them Nay we have something more to say against these Sacrilegious pretenders to GODS power for whereas all other false worships have been set up by some politick Legislators for the support and preservation of Government this false this spurious Religion brought in upon the ruines of Christianity by the Popes hath deformed the face of Government in Europe destroying all the good principles and Morality left us by the Heathen themselves and introduced in stead thereof Sordid Cowardly and impolitick Notions whereby they have subjected Mankind and even great Princes and States to their own Empire and never suffered any Orders or Maxims to take place where they have power that might make a Nation Wise Honest Great or Wealthy This I have set down so plainly in those passages of my Book which are complained of that I shall say nothing at all for the proof of it in this place but refer you thither and come to speak a litle more particularly of my first assert●● that the Pope and his Clergy have deprvied Christian Religion Upon this subject I could in●●nitely wish now Letters begin to revive agai●● that some Learned Pen would employ it sel●● and that some person vers'd in the Chronolig● of the Church as they call it would deduce o●● of the Ecclesiastical Writers the time and ma●●ner how these abuses crept in and by what A●● and Steps this Babel that reaches at Heaven w●● built by these Sons of the Earth but this mat●● as unsuitable to the brevity of a Letter and 〈◊〉 deed more to my small Parts and Learning shall not pretend to being one who never hithe● to studied or write of Theology further than 〈◊〉 did naturally concern the Politicks therefore shall only deal by the New Testament as I hav● done formerly by Titus Livius that is mak● observations or reflections upon it and leav● you and Mr. Guilio and the rest of our Society to make the judgement nor citing like Preachers the Chapter or Verse because the reading of Holy Scripture is little us'd and indeed hardly permitted amongst us To begin at the top I would have any reasonable man tell me whence this unmeasureable power long claim'd and now possess'd by the Bishop of Rome is derived first of being CHRISTS Vicar and by that as I may so say pretending to a Monopoly of the Holy Spirit which was promised and given to the whole Church that is to the Elect 〈◊〉 Saints as is plain by a clause in St. Peters Ser●●on made the very same time that the mira●ulous gifts of the Spirit of GOD were first given ●o the Apostles who says to the Jews and Gen●iles Repent and be Baptized every one of you in the ●ame