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	receive_v	18,187	5	5.7163	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63706	Clerus Domini, or, A discourse of the divine institution, necessity, sacredness, and separation of the office ministerial together with the nature and manner of its power and operation : written by the special command of King Charles the First / by Jer. Taylor.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.; Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Rules and advices to the clergy of the diocesse of Down and Connor.; Rust, George, d. 1670. Funeral sermon preached at the obsequies of the Right Reverend Father in God Jeremy Lord Bishop of Down.	1672 (1672)	Wing T299; ESTC R13445	91,915	82

if all the Clergy may then all the People may and you may as well poison the Sea as poison all the Springs and it is more likely all the Ideots and the ordinary persons in the world should be couzened out of their Religion than that all the wise men and Antistites the Teachers Doctors and publick Ministers of Religion should And when all men turn Mariners or Apothecaries or that all men will live single lives and turn Monks and so endanger the species of mankind to perish for there is a great fear of that too that is when all the world chuse one thing for if two men do two thousand may do it if they will and so may all upon this ground then also we may fear that all the Governours of the Church may fail because some do and more have and all may till then there will be no need of an extraordinary Commission but the Church shall go on upon the stock of the first calling and designation which was extraordinary The Spirit issued out at first miraculously and hath continued running still in the first channels by ordinary conduct and in the same conveyances it must run still or it cannot without a miracle derive upon us who stand at infinite distance from the fountain Since then there is now no more expectation of an extraordinary calling and to do so were an extraordinary vanity it remains that the derivation of the ministerial power be by an ordinary conveyance The Spirit of God in Scripture hath drawn a line and chalked out the path that himself meant to tread in giving the graces of Evangelical ministrations At first after that Christ had named twelve one whereof was lost they not having an express command for the manner of Ordination took such course as Reason and Religion taught them They named two persons and prayed God to chuse one and to manifest it by Lot which was a way less than the first designation of the other eleven and yet had more of the extraordinary in it than could be reasonably continued in an ordinary succession The Apostles themselves had not as yet received skill enough how to officiate in their ordinary ministery because the Holy Ghost was not as yet descended But when the Holy Ghost descended then the work was to begin the Apostles wanted no power necessary for the main work of the Gospel but now also they received Commissions to dispense the Spirit to all such purposes to which He was intended They before had the office in themselves but it was not communicable to others till the Spirit the Anointing from above ran over the Fringes of the Priest's garments they had it but in imperfection and unactive faculties so saith Theophylact He breathed not now giving to them the perfect gift of the Holy Ghost for that he intended to give at Pentecost but he prepared them for the fuller reception of it They had the gift before but not the perfect consummation of it that was reserved for the great day and because the power of Consecration is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or perfection of Priestly order it was the proper emanation of this days glory then was the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the perfection of what power Christ had formerly consigned For of all faculties that is not perfect which produces perfect and excellent actions in a direct line actions of a particular sort but that which produces the actions and enables others to do so too for then the perfection is inherent not only formally but virtually and eminently and that 's the crown of habits and natural faculties Now besides the reasonableness of the thing this is also verified by a certainty that will not easily fail us by Experience and ex post facto For as we do not find the Apostles had before Pentecost a productive power which made them call for a Miracle or a special providence by Lots so we are sure that immediately after Pentecost they had it for they speedily began to put it in execution and it is remarkable that the Apostles did not lay hands upon Matthias he being made Apostle before the descent of the Holy Ghost they had no power to do it they were not yet made Ministers of the Spirit which because afterwards presently they did concludes fairly that at Pentecost they were amongst other graces made the ordinary Ministers of Ordination This I say is certain that the Holy Ghost descending at Pentecost they instantly did officiate in their ministerial offices they preached they baptized they confirmed and gave the holy Spirit of obsignation and took persons into the Lot of their Ministery doing of it by an external rite and solemn invocation and now the extraordinary way did cease God was the fountain of the power but man conveyed it by an external rite and of this Saint Paul who was the only exception from the common way takes notice calling himself an Apostle not of man nor by man but by Iesus Christ implying that he had a special honour done to be chosen an Apostle in an extraordinary way therefore others might be Apostles and yet not so as he was for else his expression had been all one as if one should say Titus the son of a man not begotten of an Angel or Spirit nor produced by the Sun or Stars but begotten by a Man of a Woman the discourse had been ridiculous for no man is born otherwise and yet also he had something of the ordinary too for in an extraordinary manner he was sent to be ordained in an ordinary Ministery And yet because the ordinary Ministery was setled S. Paul was called to an account for so much of it as was extraordiry and was tied to do that which every man now is bound to do that shall pretend a calling extraordinary viz. to give an extraordinary proof of his extraordinary calling which when he had done in the College of Ierusalem the Apostles gave him the right hand of fellowship and approved his vocation which also shews that now the way of Ordination was fixed and declared to be by humane ministery of which I need no other proof but the instances of Ordinations recorded in Scripture and the no instances to the contrary but of S. Paul whose designation was as immediate as that of the 11. Apostles though his Ordination was not I end this with the saying of Iob the Monk Concerning the order of Priesthood it is supernatural and unspeakable He that yesterday and the day before was in the form of Ideots and private persons to day by the power of the Holy Ghost and the voice of the chief Priest and laying on of hands receives so great an improvement and alteration that he handles and can consecrate the divine mysteries of the holy Church and becomes under Christ a Mediator Ministerial between God and man and exalted to hallow himself and sanctifie others The same almost with the words of Gregory Nyssen in his book De

of the Apostle But I suffer not a woman to teach but to be in silence And as for the men who had gifts extraordinary of the Spirit although they were permitted at first in the Corinthian Church before there was a Bishop or a fixed Colledge of Clergy to utter the inspired dictates of the Spirit yet whether they were Lay or Clergy is not there expressed and it is more agreeable to the usual dispensation that the prophets of ordinary ministery though now extraordinarily assisted should prophesie in publick but however when these extraordinaries did cease if they were common persons they had no pretence to invade the Chair nor that we find ever did for an ordinary ability to speak was never any warrant to disturb an order unless they can say the words of S. Paul Whereunto I am ordained a Preacher they might not invade the office To be able to perform an office though it may be a fair disposition to make the person capable to receive it orderly yet it does not actually invest him every wise man is not a Counsellor of State nor every good Lawyer a Judge And I doubt not but in the Jewish religion there were many persons as able to pray as their Priests who yet were wiser than to refuse the Priests advocation apud Deum and reciting offices in behalf of the people Orabit pro eo sacerdos was the order of Gods appointing though himself were a devout person and of an excellent spirit And it had need be something extraordinary that must warrant an ordinary person to rise higher than his own evenness and ability or skill is but a possibility and must be reduced to act by something that transmits authority or does establish order or distinguish persons and separate professions And it is very remarkable that when Iudas had miscarried and lost his Apostolate it was said that it was necessary for some body to be chosen to be a witness of Christs Resurrection Two were named of ability sufficient but that was not all they must chuse one to make up the number of the twelve a distinct separate person which shews that it was not only a work for that any of them might have done but an office of ordinary ministery The ability of doing which work although all they that lived with Iesus might either have had or received at Pentecost yet the authority and grace was more the first they had upon experience but this only by divine election which is a demonstration that every person that can do offices clerical is not permitted to do them and that besides the knowledge and natural or artificial abilities a divine qualification is necessary And therefore God complains by the Prophet I have not sent them and yet they run and the Apostle leaves it as an established rule How shall they preach except they be sent Which two places I shall grant to be meant concerning a distinct and a new message Prophets must not offer any doctrine to the people or pretend a doctrine for which they had not a commission from God But which way soever they be expounded they will conclude right in this particular For if they signifie an ordinary mission then there is an ordinary mission of preachers which no man must usurp unless he can prove his title certainly and clearly derivative from God which when any man of the Laity can do we must give him the right hand of fellowship and wish him good speed But if these words signifie an extraordinary case and that no message must be pretended by Prophets but what they have commission for then must not ordinary persons pretend an extraordinary mission to an ordinary purpose for besides that God does never do things unreasonable nor will endure that order be interrupted to no purpose he will never give an extraordinary Commission unless it be to a proportionable end whosoever pretends to a licence of preaching by reason of an extraordinary calling must look that he be furnished with an extraordinary message lest his Commission be ridiculous and when he comes he must be sure to shew his authority by an argument proportionable that is by such a probation without which no wise man can reasonably believe him which cannot be less than miraculous and divine In all other cases he comes under the curse of the non missi those whom God sent not they go on their own errand and must pay themselves their wages But besides that the Apostles were therefore to have an immediate mission because they were to receive new inctructions these inctructions were such as were by an ordinary and yet by a distinct ministery to be conveyed for ever after and therefore did design an ordinary successive and lasting power and authority Nay our blessed Lord went one step further in this provision even to remark the very first successors and partakers of this power to be taken into the lot of this ministery and they were the Seventy-two whom Christ had sent as probationers of their future preaching upon a short errand into the Cities of Iudah But by this assignation of more persons than those to whom he gave immediate Commission he did declare that the office of preaching was to be dispensed by a separate and peculiar sort of men distinct from the people and yet by others than those who had the commission extraordinary that is by such who were to be called to it by an ordinary vocation As Christ constituted the office and named the persons both extraordinary and ordinary present and successive so he provided gifts for them too that the whole dispensation might be his and might be apparent And therefore Christ when he ascended up on high gave gifts to men to this very purpose and these gifts coming from the same Spirit made separation of distinct ministeries under the same Lord. So S. Paul testifies expresly Now there are diversities of gifts but the same Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there are different administrations differences of ministeries it is the proper word for Church-offices the ministery distinguished by the gift It is not a gift of the ministery but the ministery it self is the gift and distinguished accordingly An extraordinary Ministery needs an extraordinary and a miraculous gift that is a miraculous calling and vocation and designation by the holy Ghost but an ordinary gift cannot sublime an ordinary person to a supernatural imployment and from this discourse of the differing gifts of the Spirit Saint Paul without any further artifice concludes that the Spirit intended a distinction of Church-officers for the work of the ministery for the conclusion of the discourse is that God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers and lest all God's people should usurp these offices which God by his Spirit hath made separate and distinguished he adds Are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers If so then were all the body one member quite contrary to nature

confer the first grace which in the Schools is understood only to be expiatorious but the increment of grace and sanctification and that also is remissive of sins which are taken off by parts as the habit decreases and we grow in God's favour as our graces multiply or grow Now that these graces being given in Ordination are immediate emanations of the holy Spirit and therefore not to be usurped or pretended to by any man upon whom the Holy Ghost in Ordination hath not descended I shall less need to prove because it is certain upon the former grounds and will be finished in the following discourses and it is in the Greek Ordination given as a Reason of the former prayer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For not in the imposition of my hands but in the overseeing providence of thy rich mercies grace is given to them that are worthy So that we see more goes to the fitting of a person for Ecclesiastical Ministeries than is usually supposed together with the power a grace is specially collated and that is not to be taken up and laid down and pretended to by every bolder person The thing is sacred separate solemn deliberate derivative from God and not of humane provision or authority or pretence or disposition SECT VIII THe Holy Ghost was the first Consecrator that is made evident and the persons first consecrated were the Apostles who received the several parts of the Priestly order at several times the power of consecration of the Eucharist at the institution of it the power of remitting and retaining sins in the Octaves of Easter the power of baptizing and preaching together with universal jurisdiction immediately before the Ascension when they were commanded to go into all the world preaching and baptizing This is the whole office of the Priesthood and nothing of this was given in Pentecost when the holy Spirit descended and rested upon all of them the Apostles the brethren the women for then they received those great assistances which enabled them who had been designed for Embassadors to the world to do their great work and others of a lower capacity had their proportion as the effect of the promise of the Father and a mighty verification of the truth of Christianity Now all these powers which Christ hath given to his Apostles were by some means or other to be transmitted to succeeding persons because the several Ministeries were to abide for ever All Nations were to be converted a Church to be gathered and continued the new Converts to be made Confessors and consigned with Baptism sins to be remitted flocks to be fed and guided and the Lords death declared represented exhibited and commemorated until his second Coming And since the powers of doing these offices are acts of free and gracious concession emanations of the holy Spirit and admissions to a vicinity with God it is not only impudence and sacriledge in the person falsly to pretend that is to bely the Holy Ghost and thrust into these Offices but there is an impossibility in the thing it is null in the very deed doing to handle these mysteries without some appointment by God unless he calls and points out the person either by an extraordinary or by an ordinary Vocation Of these I must give a particular account The extraordinary calling was first that is the immediate for the first beginning of a lasting necessity is extraordinary and made ordinary in succession and by continuation of a fixed and determined Ministery The first of every order hath another manner of constitution than all the whole succession The rising of the spring is of greater wonder and of more extraordinary and latent reason than the descent of the current and the derivation of the powers of the Holy Ghost that make the Priestly order are just like the Creation the first man was made with God's own hands and all the rest by God co-operating with a humane act and there is never the same necessity as at first for God to create man The species or kind shall never fail but be preserved in an ordinary way And so it is in the designation of the Ministers of Evangelical Priesthood God breathed into the Apostles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the breath of the life-giving spirit and that breath was to be continued in a perpetual univocal production they who had received they were also to give and they only could Grace cannot be conveyed to any man but either by the fountain or by the channel by the Author or by the Minister God only is the fountain and Author and he that makes himself the Minister whom God appointed not does in effect make himself the Author for he undertakes to dispose of grace which he hath not received to give God's goods upon his own authority which he that offers at without God's warrant does it only upon his own And so either he is the Author or an Usurper either the fountain or a dry cloud which in effect calls him either blasphemous or sacrilegious But the first and immediate derivation from the fountain that only I affirm to be miraculous and extraordinary as all beginnings of essences and graces of necessity must those persons who receive the first issues they only are extraordinarily called all that succeed are called or designed by an ordinary vocation because whatsoever is in the succession is but an ordinary necessity to which God hath proportioned an ordinary Ministery and when it may be supplied by the common provisions to look for an extraordinary calling is as if a man should expect some new man to be created as Adam was it is to suppose God will multiply beings and operations without necessity God called at first and if he had not called man could not have come to him in this nearness of a holy Ministery he sent persons abroad and if he had not sent they could not have gone but after that he had appointed by his own designation persons who should be Fathers in Christ he called no more but left them to call others He first immediately gives the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grace and leaves this as a Depositum to the Church faithfully to be kept till Christ's second coming and this Depositum is the doctrine and discipline of Jesus he opens the door and then left it open commanding all to come in that way into the Ministery and tuition of the flock calling all that came in by windows and posterns and oblique ways thieves and robbers And it is observable that the word vocation or calling in Scripture when it is referred to a designation of persons to the Ministery it always signifies that which we term calling extraordinary it always signifies an immediate act of God which also ceased when the great necessity expired that is when the fountain had streamed forth abundantly and made a current to descend without interruption The purpose of this discourse is that now no man should in these days of ordinary Ministery

himself hath learn'd humbly and chearfully to obey his Superior For every Minister should be like the good Centurion in the Gospel himself is under authority and he hath people under him Be sure in all your Words and Actions to preserve Christian simplicity and ingenuity to do to others as you would be done unto your self and never to speak what you do not think Trust to Truth rather than to your Memory for this may fail you that will never Pray much and very servently for all your Parishioners and all men that belong to you and all that belong to God but especially for the Conversion of Souls and be very zealous for nothing but for Gods glory and the salvation of the World and particularly of your Charges Ever remembring that you are by God appointed as the Ministers of Prayer and the Ministers of good things to pray for all the World and to heal all the World as far as you are able Every Minister must learn and practise Patience that by bearing all adversity meekly and humbly and chearfully and by doing all his Duty with unwearied industry with great courage constancy and Christian magnanimity he may the better assist his people in the bearing of their crosses and overcoming of their difficulties He that is holy let him be holy still and still more holy and never think he hath done his work till all be finished by perseverance and the measures of perfection in a holy Life and a holy Death but at no hand must he magnifie himself by vain separations from others or despising them that are not so holy II. Of Prudence required in Ministers REmember that Discretion is the Mistress of all Graces and Humility is the greatest of all Miracles and without this all Graces perish to a mans self and without that all Graces are useless unto others Let no Minister be governed by the opinion of his People and destroy his Duty by unreasonable compliance with their humors lest as the Bishop of Granata told the Governours of Leria and Patti like silly Animals they take burdens upon their backs at the pleasure of the multitude which they neither can retain with Prudence nor shake off with Safety Let not the Reverence of any man cause you to sin against God but in the matter of Souls being well advis'd be bold and confident but abate nothing of the honour of God or the just measures of your Duty to satisfie the importunity of any man whatsoever and God will bear you out When you teach your people any part of their duty as in paying their debts their tithes and offerings in giving due reverence and religious regards diminish nothing of admonition in these particulars and the like though they object That you speak for your selves and in your own cases For counsel is not the worse but the better if it be profitable both to him that gives and to him that takes it Only do it in simplicity and principally intend the good of their souls In taking accounts of the good Lives of your selves or others take your measures by the express words of Scripture and next to them estimate them by their proportion and compliance with the publick measures with the Laws of the Nation Ecclesiastical and Civil and by the Rules of Fame of publick Honesty and good Report and last of all by their observation of the Ordinances and exteriour parts of Religion Be not satisfied when you have done a good work unless you have also done it well and when you have then be careful that vain-glory partiality self-conceit or any other folly or indiscretion snatch it not out of your hand and cheat you of the reward Be careful so to order your self that you fall not into temptation and folly in the presence of any of your Charges and especially that you fall not into chidings and intemperate talkings and sudden and violent expressions Never be a party in clamours and scoldings lest your Calling become useless and your Person contemptible Ever remembring that if you cheaply and lightly be engag'd in such low usages with any Person that Person is likely to be lost from all possibility of receiving much good from your Ministery III. The Rules and Measures of Government to be used by Ministers in their respective Cures USe no violence to any man to bring him to your opinion but by the word of your proper Ministery by Demonstrations of the Spirit by rational Discourses by excellent Examples constrain them to come in and for other things they are to be permitted to their own liberty to the measures of the Laws and the conduct of their Governours Suffer no quarrel in your Parish and speedily suppress it when it is begun and though all wise men will abstain from interposing in other mens affairs and especially in matters of Interest which men love too well yet it is your Duty here to interpose by perswading them to friendships reconcilements moderate prosecutions of their pretences and by all means you prudently can to bring them to peace and brotherly kindness Suffer no houses of Debauchery of Drunkenness or Lust in your Parishes but implore the assistance of Authority for the suppressing of all such meeting-places and nurseries of Impiety and as for places of publick Entertainment take care that they observe the Rules of Christian Piety and the allowed measures of Laws If there be any Papists or Sectaries in your Parishes neglect not frequently to confer with them in the spirit of meekness and by the importunity of wise Discourses seeking to gain them But stir up no violences against them but leave them if they be incurable to the wise and merciful disposition of the Laws Receive not the people to doubtful Disputations and let no names of Sects or differing Religions be kept up amongst you to the disturbance of the publick Peace and private Charity and teach not the people to estimate their Piety by their distance from any Opinion but by their Faith in Christ their Obedience to God and the Laws and their Love to all Christian people even though they be deceived Think no man considerable upon the point or pretence of a tender Conscience unless he live a good life and in all things endeavour to approve himself void of offence both towards God and Man but if he be an humble Person modest and inquiring apt to learn and desirous of information if he seeks for it in all ways reasonable and pious and is obedient to Laws then take care of him use him tenderly perswade him meekly reprove him gently and deal mercifully with him till God shall reveal that also unto him in which his unavoidable trouble and his temptation lies Mark them that cause Divisions among you and avoid them for such Persons are by the Scripture called Scandals in the abstract they are Offenders and Offences too But if any man have an Opinion let him have it to himself till he can be cur'd of his disease by