Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A32107
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A letter to a non-conformist minister of the kirk shewing the nullity of the Presbyterian mission or authority to preach the Gospel.
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Calder, Robert, 1658-1723.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing C277; ESTC R2364
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10,942
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118
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Christs Body and Blood revile the Church whereof I cannot say you but your Ancestors were made Members by Baptism with the Names of Superstition and Idolatry Preach your desperate Doctrine of absolute Reprobation and the impossibility of keeping Gods Commandments introduce your own extemporary inventions instead of Liturgy Levy Warr against your Soveraign and all this without any Authority For all these strange things I should think Sir your Ancestors had but need of some extraordinary Mission But perhaps you will Answer and tell us That there have been extraordinary Prophets sent into the World without Miracles as John the Baptist And 2ly That Miracles are no certain Signs of true Prophets As for John the Baptist you may remember the words of the Angel Luke 2. 15. he was filled with the Holy Ghost from his Mothers Womb he shall go before in the Spirit and power of Elias a Character to which your Brethren will not pretend he was a person prophesied of many Ages before his Birth Isa 40. 3. The Voice of one crying in the Wilderness make strait the way of the Lord c. 2ly That Miracles are no certain Evidences of true Prophets because there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets which shall shew great Signs and Wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very Elect Wherefore if they shall say unto you behold he is in the Desert go not forth behold he is in the secret Chambers believe it not Math. 24. 24. That false Prophets can work any miracle but deceptio visus I do not believe The meaning of our Saviours words is this That if any other Prophet after him shall arise assuming to be that Christ or Messias sent from God though he may pretend to strange things believe him not go not forth after him If new Prophets Sir though they come with a shew of miracles are to be suspected shall we presently receive all the Preachers of new Lights that have not so much as the pretence I find a late Writer asserting That in holy Scripture there be two marks by which together not asunder a true Prophet or one newly sent from God is to be known One is the doing of miracles The other is the not teaching any moral Doctrine adverse to that which hath been already preach'd of old Asunder he saith neither of these is sufficient and for proof alledgeth two places of Scripture Deut. 13. 1 2 3. compared with Matth. 24. 24. Our blessed Saviour and his Apostles fulfilled both these marks First in their Miracles Acts 2. 22. Secondly they taught no Doctrine of Morality opposite to that which they found already established Christ came not to destroy the Law but to fulfil it saying none other things then what Moses and the Prophets did say should come to pass But he Preached a Doctrine which had all the obliging Characters of Vertue and Goodness of Peace and Love witness his excellent Sermon on the Mount non vox hominem sonat There he presses the necessity of Moral Goodness and keeping the Commandments of God otherwise methinks then Calvin hath done I shall instance a remarkable passage in the Second Book of his Institutions the seventh Chapter and fifth Section Quod autem impossibilem legis observationem diximus id est paucis verbis explicandum simul confirmandum Solet enim vulgo absurdissima sententia videri ut Hieronimus non dubitavit Anathema illi denunciare at quid visum sit Jeronimo nihil moror impossibile appello quod nec fuit unquam ne in posterum sit Dei ordinatione decreto impeditur I shall now saith he explain and confirm what I have said of the impossibility to observe the Commandments which commonly seems a very absurd assertion insomuch that Jerom doubted not to denounce it accursed but what seemed to him I do not care I call that impossible which never was and which God hath decreed that it never shall be Vertuous Doctrine if the Commandments be impossible and that God hath decreed them so nemo tenetur ad impossibile Alas we are of our selves too prone to take an allowance of Sin without this License from Mr. Calvin To be short the Church of God may and ought to reform themselves in case of error or corruption of manners But if we once admit others to do it unauthoriz'd or unsent we open a wide door to all Sects and Heresies and another consequence is we shall rest no where but be tossed too and fro as Saint Paul speaks and carryed about with every wind of Doctrine with the various lights of all Pretenders This one would think hath been apparent enough in the experience of our Age. Not that we deny our need of amendment and Reformation in this World of imperfection but we give heed to the admonition of our blessed Saviour John 10. 1. Verily I say unto you he that enters not by the door into the Sheepfold but climbeth up some other way the same is a Theif and a Robber not entring in at the door signifies entring without any Authority either extraordinary when the Doctrines are new and strange or ordinary when they are already known and confest For grant saith Bishop Sanderson for the suppression of Idolatry in case the Church will not do her Office that it is lawful for any unauthoriz'd Persons such as Knox c. to take upon them to reform what they think amiss there can be no sufficient cause given why by the same reason and upon the same grounds they may not take upon them to make Laws raise Forces administer Justice execute Malefactors Malignants or do any other thing the Magistrate should do in case the Magistrate slack to do his duty which if it were once granted as granted it must be in case your Presbyterian Reformation be justifiable every wise man seeth the end can be no other but vast Anarchy and confusion both in Church and Common-wealth whereupon must un avoidably follow the speedy subversion both of Religion and State Second Sermon ad Clerum on Rom 38. This is our present case you a private Person pretending to no extraordinary things say all things are amiss the Magistrate and he a Christian too is of opinion yea perswaded in his Conscience that you do all things amiss who shall be Judge The Scripture 't is a ridiculous answer The Scripture is a Law and no Law can ever pronounce either for one or t'other but in the mouth of some Judg. From all these premises I perswade my self your Ancestors were no Prophets sent from God but intruded themselves into the Divine Function and as the Prophet speaks they followed their own Spirits and prophecy'd out of their own hearts To add one word more consider all the Prophets mentioned in Holy Scripture Samuel Elias Isaiah Jeremy Hosea c. At the beginning of their Prophecies that the World might understand their Divine Mission they usually declare how and in what manner
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chap. 14. The conclusion of the War makes it evident that the main Reformation intended was the Robbing the Church of its Lands and the abasing of Episcopacy into Presbytery but no necessity shall ever I hope drive me or mine to invade or sell the Priests Lands which even Pharoah 's Divinity abhorred to do If the poverty of Scotland might yet the plenty of England cannot excuse the envy and rapine of the Church Lands The next work will be Jeroboam 's Reformation Consecrating the meanest of the people to be Priests in Israel to serve their Golden Calves who have enriched themselves with the Churches Patrimony Again be pleas'd to reflect on your displeasure at the Liturgy of the Church of England Some of you are for no Forms at all others are for Liturgy but it must be reformed In the History of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth this passage is observable four Classes of Presbyterians complained of the Liturgy to the Lord Burleigh then Secretary of State his Lordship bad them go and make a better whereupon the first Classis went and fram'd a new one somewhat near that of Geneva this the second Classis dislikes and alters in six hundred particulars which alteration was excepted against by the third Classis and what the third resolved upon the fourth would not consent to Thus your Party expect a satisfaction about the worship of God which is impossible to be given you As to your praying by the Spirit there is a certain doubt in it which hitherto none of you would do us the favour to resolve Either you mean praying by the Spirit of God or by your own Spirits if you conceive the words and matter of your prayer by the dictate of the Holy Ghost then are your prayers as much the word of God as any of David's Psalms or as any part of the Bible and being written from your mouths may become Canonical Scripture If by praying with the Spirit you only mean that you are inspir'd with devout affections then there is nothing in your prayers but what others may pretend to as well as your selves In brief Since you do not pretend to entertain your people with immediate inspirations you oblige them to a Service they know not what to offer up prayers whereof they know not a syllable nor your self neither before you begin if you know them before hand either for matter or words then they cannot be extempore as you would have the people believe peradventure the reason why the people fancy your prayers is their variety they love not to go where they must be always entertain'd with the same expressions but if the sence of our own infirmities which are always the same cannot oblige us to pray why should a set of new words do it Consider those words of the blessed Martyr King Charles the First Some men are so impatient not to use in all their devotions their own invention and gifts that they wholly cast away and contemn the Lords Prayer I ever thought that the proud Ostentation of mens own Abilities for Invention and the vain affectation of variety for expressions in publick prayer merits a greater brand of Sin then that which they call coldness or barrenness nor are men in those novelties less subject to formal and superficial tempers as to their hearts then in the use of constant forms where not the words but mens hearts are to blame I make no doubt but a man may be very formal in the most extemporary variety and very fervently devout in the most wonted expressions Nor is God more a God of variety then of constancy nor are constant forms of prayer more likely to flat and hinder the Spirit of prayer then unpremeditated and confused variety to distract and lose it FINIS In vita Calvini His Commandments are not grievous 1 John 5. 3. In praefacione Monitoria About the Year 1585. See the friendly debate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉