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	holy_a	john_n	17,081	5	6.2026	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26371	A modest plea for the clergy wherein is briefly considered, the original, antiquity, necessity : together with the spurious and genuine occasions of their present contempt.	Addison, Lancelot, 1632-1703.	1677 (1677)	Wing A524; ESTC R21288	59,187	185

Ordain'd his Apostles it was according to the tenor of his own Ordination As my Father sent me so send I you and to shew wherein the Similitude consisted he breathed on them and said Receive ye the Holy Ghost John 20.21 22. Which clearly implies that as at his Mission from his Father to his Office he was Anointed or Consecrated by the Holy Ghost which visibly descended upon him at his Baptism when he entered upon his Ministry So when the Apostles had their Mission from Christ and were to enter upon their Ministry they also were Consecrated by the Holy Ghost Which they received not only to gift and inable their Persons but also to impower them for their Office as is undeniably evident upon the account of the words immediately following Receive ye the Holy Ghost which actually instate upon them the Power of the Keys 'T is true after they had thus received the Holy Ghost and were Commission'd to all the Offices of the Clergy the Apostles were not immediately to fall upon their Execution but were bid to stay at Hierusalem till they should receive such Miraculous Gifts by the visible descent of the Spirit as should render their entrance upon the Ministry more solemn and remarkable and their performance thereof more efficacious and convincing That men seeing the Wonders done by the Apostles none might have the least occasion to doubt of the truth of their Doctrine or their Authority to Preach it But not only in Christs Authorizing the Apostles for the Clergy but also in their Authorizing others and so forward the work is still ascribed to the Holy Ghost As to the Apostles the matter is evident in the Case of Barnabas and Saul whose separation of them to the Ministry is attributed to the Spirit And we find the same verified of the Presbyters of the Churches of Asia and in Timothy the Bishop of Ephesus Of whom it is said expresly The Holy Ghost made them Overseers Act. 20.28 Which according to some may signifie two things First their Ordination to the Ministerial Office attributed to the Holy Ghost as to the Original by whose descent upon the Apostles they were Authorized to Communicate this Authority to give Commissions to others who were to succeed them in the Dignity and Office of instructing and governing the Church Secondly it may signifie the Act of Designation Election Nomination to the Ministry which at that time was done by the Special Revelation of God and might properly be attributed to the Holy Ghost And after this latter manner Matthias was chosen to succeed Judas in his Office and Saul and Barnabas for the work Act. 1.24 Act. 13.2 And if we have recourse herein to Church Story we shall find how that the Apostles Ordain'd none of their Converts till they were Tryed and Approved by the Holy Ghost And that when St. John was return'd into Asia he ordain'd every where such as were signified by the Spirit And we are generally told by the Greek Fathers that the primitive Bishops did not make Clergy of their own Heads but by the order and command of the Spirit Which being understood according to the distinction now mention'd leaves no place of doubting of the manner or reality of the Spirits concernment in ordaining men for the Clergy especially when it is considered that all the sorts and degrees of Primitive Ecclesiasticks are ascribed to the Appointment of the Holy Ghost Eph. 4.11 And we have no ground of surmising that the Holy Ghost hath quitted his Interest in this great Concern but rather to believe that he doth still preside at Holy and Regular Ordinations Which are that Ecclesiastick Generation whereby the Clergy is propagated the Apostles still survive and Christ is still present with them And we have no reason at all to doubt but that the Spirit doth as Truly though not so Visibly assist at the present Ordering of Ministers as he did at the separation of Barnabas and Saul and that Christ is as really present by the same Spirit as when he breathed Him upon the Apostles and thereby gave them Authority for the Work of the Ministry And to this purpose we are to understand our own Church when she bids the Persons to be Ordain'd and Consecrated Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Priest in the Church of God now committed to thee by the imposition of our hands c. And Receive the Holy Ghost for the Office and Work of a Bishop in the Church now committed to thee by the imposition of our hands c. The Holy Ghost in both forms is I doubt not to be taken in the same sense and imports no more but the conferring of Authority for the Execution of the Offices there Specified Which Authority being convey'd by that we call Orders and Consecration is fitly expressed by the same words which were used by our Saviour in bestowing the same power upon the Apostles at his sending of them forth to Preach the Gospel and gather and constitute a Church I have not as yet met with any thing considerable relating to the Forms of Ordination used in the Ancient Church but I suppose they were all agreeable to that our Saviour used at the Ordination of the Apostles But the Form of Ordination being only of Ecclesiastical Institution the Churches might inoffensively vary therein In the Greek Church the form was to this effect The Divine Grace which always heals our Infirmities and supplies our wants doth create or promote N. the Venerable Deacon to be a Presbyter the Presbyter most beloved of God to be a Bishop In the Western Church they use another Form wherein they confer upon the Presbyter the power of Consecrating the Elements in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist and of Binding and Loosing Our own Church hath a Form peculiar to her self yet much resembling the old Greek Form mention'd by St. Clem. in his Constitutions Lib. 8. c. 16. Wherein the power of Preaching also is confer'd upon the Presbyter And though I am not able at present to give a full account of all the Ancient Forms of Ordination yet it sufficeth our purpose that none was ever yet met with wherein the Original and supreme power of Ordaining is not attributed to the Holy Ghost CHAP. VII Of the incommunicableness of the Offices of the Clergy THough what has been said renders the Holy Ghosts Interest and Agency in the Separation of men to the Calling of the Clergy to be undeniable yet there are still some who opine the Ministery to be a thing of Labour rather than Honor and to which Abilities without Authority are sufficient by which position the Concern of the Spirit must be wholly evacuate as to yielding any orderly power and certain Method of attaining unto the Sacerdotal Office And though the Socinian and Enthusiast are the more known and professed Assertors of this Conceit yet it is much to be feared that all Contemners of the Clergy are sowr'd with the

judge the quick and dead Novv vvhatever a man cannot do in his ovvn person must be done by deputation if it be done at all And therefore Christ by his Ascension being become uncapable in his ovvn Person to take this care of the Church he deputed his Apostles thereunto appointing them in his Name and Stead to perform all those Offices vvhich vvere required to the Establishing and Advancement of the Gospel Giving them also povver to depute others to succeed them in the same Care and to deliver dovvn the same Povver successively to the end of the World And to the end that the Clergy might not be thought to expire in the Persons of the Apostles nor they to have died vvithout Successors in the Ministry Christ promised upon his Departure to be with them unto the End of the World Which vvords vve vvill take for granted to have been spoken to the Apostles as they vvere the Clergy or Ministers of the Gospel and that they vvere not limited exclusively to their Persons but in them did belong to the vvhole succession of the Clergy For hovvever the Apostles might be vvith Christ he could not be personally vvith them so much as unto their death much less unto the end of the World being so shortly upon the speech of these vvords to ascend up into Heaven vvhereof they themselves vvere Vndeniable Witnesses It is likevvise duly to be considered That Christ by his promise lo I am vvith you alvvay even unto the End of the World intended some benefits to the Church vvhich should be of no less continuance than the Church it self and that the Apostles vvere to be the first dispensers of those benefits And if it be demanded vvhat these benefits vvere it may from the Text be safely replied that they vvere the several functions of the Clergy to vvhich the Apostles vvere Commission'd viz. Preaching Baptism Administration of the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood the exercise of the Censures c. All vvhich vvere to end vvith the Apostles or they vvere not If they vvere to end vvith the Apostles then has the Church ever since the death of the Apostles been vvithout these Offices vvhich amounts to no less than that there has been no Church since their Decease Or if they vvere not to end vvith the Apostles but have alvvays been and are still to be exercised unto the end of the World then it cannot be denied but there ever have been and ever must be fit Persons vvho like the Apostles must have a just power to dispense these Benefits or exercise these Offices For no less can be conceived to have been intended by Christ in his promise of being with the Apostles alway Even unto the End of the World And we shall have no temptation to suspect this Interpretation of the Promise when we shall consider first that by the End of the World That State of affairs is to be understood which began exactly at Christs Resurrection when all power was given him in Heaven and Earth which was to continue to the end of the World or his coming to Judgment Next that the promise made unto the Apostles had respect unto this State and therefore the Benefits promised namely Preaching Baptism c. were to endure unto the full determination of the same Thirdly That seeing Christ could not possibly be with the Apostles personally nor they upon Earth Vnto the End of the World There must be some other way to verifie Christs presence with the Apostles and their being in the World unto the End thereof both which seem to be implyed in the Text. As to Christs presence with the Apostles it is unanimously concluded of the Vicaria presentia Spiritus in Tertullians phrase or of making the Holy Ghost his Vicar in sending him to be with the Apostles upon his ascension into Heaven Which mission of the Spirit cannot be meant of that that hapned at Pentecost when he sate upon them in bodily appearance and inspired them with such extraordinary gifts as were needful for those first times of the Gospel such as the gift of tongues to inable them to Preach to all Nations in their own Language and of other Miracles to confirm the truth of their Doctrin and to move men to believe it For if the promise of Christs being alway with the Apostles were to be understood of this mission of the Spirit upon them then it would follow that Christ were still to be thus present with the Church and that extraordinary gifts did still continue or that he who promised were not faithful And therefore it is necessary that we understand Christs being with the Apostles of his giving them the Holy Ghost to instate them with Powers not only in their own Persons to plant and govern the Church and to perform all the Offices of the Clergy relating thereunto but also to ordain others unto the same Functions and to give them Authority to do the like Vnto the End of the World So that by this promise made of his presence with the Apostles Christ provided for a successive Clergy in whom the Apostles were to continue or the Ordinary Ministry be preserved unto the Consummation of all things And we have no reason to be jealous of this sense of our Saviours Words when we find it universally agreed upon that one great end of sending the Holy Ghost to the Church was the sanctifying setting apart of Persons for the Work of the Clergy and to convey a standing Authority of Ordination of meet persons to mediate between God and the people to pray for and bless them in the Name of Christ to help their Infirmities by composing for them a Liturgy according to the Pattern of the Apostles of whose Liturgy several passages do yet remain And the Holy Ghost doth still impower the Church to Ordain and Consecrate Persons for the Ministerial Office for the Edifying of the Body of Christ Who when ordain'd are bound to take heed to themselves and unto all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers to feed the Church of God CHAP. VI. Of the Spirits Agency in respect of the Clergy c. HAving endeavour'd to demonstrate that the true sense of Christs promise In being with the Apostles doth respect that Authority that the Holy Ghost gave them for appointing a settled Ministry in the Church while militant upon Earth In subserviency to our present purpose it may not be unuseful to observe That among all those Offices which the Holy Ghost performs for the Church there is none wherein he seems to be more interessed or to have a greater agency than in the qualifying and separation of Persons for the Priesthood Which work indeed is so peculiar to the Spirit and so necessary for this purpose that even the Great Pastor and Bishop of Souls became not a Preacher of his own Gospel till he was thereunto Anointed and Consecrated by the Holy Ghost Luke 4.18 And when the same Great Bishop