Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A64560
|
An apology for the Church of England in point of separation from it by ... William Lord Bishop of St. Davids.
|
Thomas, William, 1613-1689.
|
1679
(1679)
|
Wing T975; ESTC R33829
|
87,104
|
244
|
the approbation of the Christian World St. Paul conjures the Corinthians by the Examples of all Churches The same Argument unsinews your separation not to run counter with all Christian Churches Produce one Christian undoubted Church of your separate strain not universally branded for Schismatical Phyllida solus habebis The true Church shall be yours You may derive your Pedigree from the Novatians and Donatists who boulted some of your Tenets for Separation and Constitution These will discover some lineaments of your Complexion not the intire proportion However if you are Saints upon their account they were not Hereticks and if they were Hereticks upon your account your selves are not Saints If you acknowledge them not Hereticks you reject the Judgement of all Christian Churches in all Ages since their Heresies were broached Sysinnius counsel to Theodosius was prudent to move Innovators to stand to the Judgement of the Church before Division I tender to you the determination of our Question by the suffrage and practice of the Reformed Churches before your separation was raked out of the Embers it was enwrapped in or else to the Primitive Churches either before the flame of the Novatians and Donatists was kindled or after it was extinguish'd by the vigorous Confutations of the Fathers and the Pious Sanctions of Christian Emperors and Councils If in despight of these you will persist in contention in separation my Refuge is the Apostles Apology We have no such custome nor the Churches of God The LETTER Visible Saints must be but how far Saints must be discovered The Word I suppose carries in it a holy separation to God a people separated for his service for his glory and how wicked men having only a bare outward profession may be such is unknown to me whom the Scripture speaks otherwise of Tit. 1. Prov. 8. 9. The ANSWER There is not an exact necessity of that Visibility so far as to conclude no Sanctity if no Visibility no Church if no lustre There may be Gold in the Ore obscured not yet resplendent refined Bullion Where was the Visibility when the Primitive Christians during the brunt of Pagan persecution betook themselves for security to remote Deserts to obscure Caves when Prisons were the sole Oratories and Temples when the Churches were universally demolished the Sacred Scriptures burnt the Christians disrobed disfranchised stript of their Dignities immunities deprived of their liberties and lives by the fierce Edicts of Dioclesian Where was the Church visible when it was o'erspread with a cloud of Arrianism Athanasius against the whole World and the whole World against Athanasius Eliah discovered not one Saint but himself yet God vindicated seven thousand that had not bowed their knees to Baal We are not visible Saints to you nor you perhaps to us Veniam damus petimusque vicissim I pray God we may be all visible Saints to him I confess that to be a Saint imports a holy separation a people separated for the Divine Service and Glory Those you have abandoned are so servered dedicated by Baptism They who demonstrate only a bare outward profession may be Saints outwardly formally for profession though not inwardly really as touching affection touching sincere Religion Yet in this defect of entire genuine Purity the good are not to be eschewed for the evil but the evil are to be tolerated for the good I shall wave your first Quotation Tit. 1. no verse being specified I shall not contend in a roving conjecture in a dark conflict like the Andabates I presume you intended not the whole Chapter for a Proof this were a fondness of separation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like the vehement affection of the Platonists whose intellectuals being prepossest with numbers imagined number an Essential in every constitution Your second Appeal is to Prov. 15. 8 9. The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination to the Lord but the prayer of the righteous is acceptable to him The way of the wicked is abomination to the Lord but he loveth him that followeth righteousness If you can dispense with Charity to brand those you separate from to be wicked If you can dispense with Humility to repute your selves righteous yet this is no Argument for separation The Sacrifice of the wicked is abomination therefore The Sacrifice of the godly mingled with the wicked is abomination you conclude more than you premise Judas eating the Paschal Lamb as for his own personal action was an abomination but this had no reflection on his associates in that oblation the Apostles Their Piety did not sanctifie and acquit him nor did his iniquity defile and condemn them The LETTER The manner also of their coming into such a condition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saints called not Saints compelled or Saints making their Saintships their Calling their Profession not enemies to Holiness This by the way The ANSWER It is true Religion ought to be perswaded not constrained Faith and Innocence are not the products of power and violence Piety is not savoury if not voluntary Yet tempers are to be distinguished mens dispositions being as different as their complexions Some are moulded like Wax for the impressions of the Sacred Spirit Others are to be hewen like stones to be squared and polished Materials for the Temples of the holy Ghost Of some take compassion making a difference or commiserate those that are staggering according to a famous Manuscript others save with fear Beza interprets it with terrour pulling them out of the fire Though compulsion is not allowable in the grafting the planting of Religion yet it is in the fencing and pruning of it It cannot be compelled secundum actum imperatum for the inward apprehension it may to outward profession secundum actum elicitum I grant that Saints ought to make Saintship their Calling or rather their Calling makes them Saints When their conversation contradicts their Vocation their Profession the crime is the greater when our works confound our words our lives check with our names The title of a Saint is the impeachment of a Miscreant Your Proof if logically examined is fallacious Wicked men are enemies to holiness therefore not Saints Members of a Church It is ignoratio Elenchi In the same consideration they are not Saints and Enemies to Holiness Their Saintship is in appearance their enmity to Sanctity in substance Holy at least as Professors though unholy as Malefactors This by the way as you express it is indeed a by way out of the Orthodox road of the Jews and Christians It is with new Tenets saith St. Epiphanius as with new ways wherein when men are once engaged they will proceed on with hazard of safety rather than return with any fear of infamy The LETTER I shall briefly speak something concerning a separation from the Church of England in propounding these two Queries First whether ever the Church of England was as a Nation or National Church constituted according to the Word of God and
were not Captives not fettered but taught not hurried enforced but perswaded preached to their Religion You object the noise of Axes and Hammers to be heard in the Building This noise is no solecism in erecting a Fabrick no nor in repairing it and reducing into order a beam that is starting out But I pray unpartially recollect your own station How edifying is the noise of Drums and Guns Not the Ordinances of the Temple but the Camp A Church Militant without a Trope Had not Regiments been Arguments and Battels Proofs and Victories Demonstrations your separation might have been scanted for Proselites in this Climate quickly have shifted Scenes and like Cato on the Theatre vanish'd as soon as it appeared So that the Church of England is rather conquered than confuted not foiled gladio oris sed ore gladii Power and terror are the Pillars to support your separation wealth and honour the allurements the embellishments to engratiate it Such prevalent Principles may fortifie not justifie your separation By this Martial Topick the Bible must truckle to the Alcoran in the Greek Churches But you tax the Church of England for a promiscuous ungracious reception compulsion without regard of Knowledge Conscience Grace This confident Objection seconds the virulent imputation of the Romanists Were it so that many Churches were like Mishromes of a days growth that whole Nations became Churches 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by heaps God were to be the more magnified for so miraculous a conversion Were not three thousand Souls the Converts of one Sermon In so numerous a Congregation there was no possibility of St. Peters punctual satisfaction of the personal knowledge conscience of each If you look back to the Baptists Church there appears a larger confluence Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region round about Jordan and they were baptised of him in Jordan confessing their sins To close with you Do you charge the Church of England in its first Conversion or Reformation In its first Conversion there was no external force or power nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no influence but of conscience no Trumpet sounded but of the word that of Isaiah no Sword brandish'd but of the Spirit that of St. Paul In its Reformation Catechisms and Sermons took place of Edicts and Proclamations The Reformation was initiated by Henry the Eighth improved by Edward the Sixth compleated by Queen Elizabeth The Scriptures being translated into English many gross Errors were gradually discountenanced and at length fairly discarded Papal Supremacy Pardons Merits Images Pilgrimages under Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth made a further progress During the storm of the Marian Persecution the Blood of the Martyrs became the Seed of the Church After that Tempest was blown over the Pious Confessors reduced from confinement and banishment became zealous Propagators of the Reformed Religion Forrain Protestant Divines were entertained in England Peter Martyr and Bucer for purging the Universities that those eminent Fountains might be no longer corrupted Moses and Aaron both co-operated Commissioners assisted with Preachers were disperst into every Canton of the Nation the Bench being steered by the Pulpit The people were instructed weaned not constrained not scared out of their superstition If you aim at Truth not at Triumph to be furnish'd for satisfaction not cavil the Historical Narratives of Bishop Goodwin and Cambden Foxes Acts and Monuments will plentifully inform you in the holy and wary steps of the Reformation Happy it is for the Church any way to be refined from its dross It better becomes us to magnifie the Divine Mercy for the effects the Fruits of so blessed a Reformation than to quarrel for the Instruments the Formalities punctilioes of it and inconsiderately to gratifie our common adversary After your light skirmish of invectives conscience or none c. you muster up your grand Battalio Texts of Scripture for a more vigorous assault Psal. 110. 3. Thy people shall come willingly at the time of assembling This Testimony argues for voluntary assmbling not separating Such were the crowds of the Primitive Congregations whose Allelujalis sounded like claps of Thunder saith St. Jerom Thus Gods people the Jews thronged into his Temple Some desert our Congregations because they seem holy disgusting our Sacred Publick Ordinances out of their real prophaneness and others abandon them because our Congregations by reason of their mixtures seem prophane out of a formal critical Holiness These extremes exempted the rest assemble with an alacrity of piety who are affected with Davids solace to rejoyce when any say Let us go to the house of the Lord. Take the Psalmist in what acception you please Because those that are regenerated are convened and not constrained Will you hence infer that the unregenerate cannot by Edicts of Magistrates be constrained to the helps and requisite means that they may be regenerated They may be compelled to be assembled though not to be reclaimed to come in though not to worship when they are come in Nay unwilling Auditors may become willing Converts St. Aastin entred St. Ambrose Church with an itching ear to carp he departed with a bleeding heart to relent This Answer sufficiently manifests the invalidity of your second Testimony Es. 2. 1 2. which is a prediction of the propagation of the Gospel All nations shall flow to it in the 2. verse They shall serve God as St. Jerom expounds it Both verses flourish out the solemnity of an unanimous Congregation not the privacy of a disjoynted separation If you will appropriate these Prophesies to your selves like Homers Iliads contracted in a Nut-shell I pray exclude not the next verse Swords broken to plowshares and spears to pruning books The next text cited is Zach. 4. 6. Neither by an army nor strength but my Spirit saith the Lord of Hosts This portion of Scripture is the interpretation of a Vision Commentators apprehend Zorobabel to whom the Vision was interpreted to be the Type of Christ. It is saith Vatablus a Prophesie of his Nativity without humane concurrence Mary being over shadowed by the Holy Ghost others expound it Historically of the Jews rescued from their Captivity only by the Divine Power or Prophetically of the Church guided and guarded soly by the Sacred Spirit However this doth not cotten with the web of your separation that hath a Martial Countenance and Assistance Whereas the Church of England hath no arm of flesh to strengthen it no Army but the Heavenly Militia no General but the Lord of Hosts no Banners but the Cross. Your third Citation Rev. 12. 15 16. is a Mystery the Application a Riddle I must desire you to be your own Oedipus And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman that he might cause her to be carryed away of the flood And the earth helped the woman and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which