Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A44337
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Judicious Hooker's illustrations of Holy Scripture in his ecclesiastical policy; Ecclesiastical polity. Selections
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Hooker, Richard, 1553 or 4-1600.; Barksdale, Clement, 1609-1687.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing H2634; ESTC R4356
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20,633
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51
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Gods Ministers there is not required in them an universal skill of every good Work or Way but an Habilitie to teach whatsoever men are bound to do that they may be saved And with this kind of knowledge the Scripture sufficeth to furnish them as touching matter S. 1. ii 1 Tim. 4. Every creature of God is good and nothing to berefused if it be received with thanksgiving because it is sanctified by the word of God and Prayer The Gospel by not making many things unclean as the Law did hath sanctified those things generally to all which particularly each man unto himself must sanctifie by a reverent and Holy use Which will not serve their purpose who have imagined the word in such sort to sanctifie all things that neither food can be tasted nor rayment put on nor in the World any thing done but this deed must needs be sin in them which do not first know it appointed unto them by Scripture before they do it S. 3. iii. Rom. 14. 23. Whatsoever is not of Faith is sin So Paul doth mean nothing else by Faith here but only a full perswasion that that which we do is well done against which kind of Faith or perswasion as St. Paul doth count it sin to enterprise any thing so likewise some of the very Heathen have taught as Tully that nothing ought to be done whereof thou doubtest whether it be right or wrong iv 1 Cor. 6. 12. What things God doth neither command nor forbid the same he permitteth with approbation either to be done or left undone All things are lawful unto me saith the Apostle speaking as it seemeth in the person of the Christian Gentile for maintenance of liberty in things indifferent whereunto his answer is that nevertheless All things are not expedient in things indifferent there is a choice they are not always equally expedient What light shall shew us the convenience which one hath above another but the Judgment of discretion ib. v. 1 Chron. 17. 4. Thou shalt not build me an House to dwell in To think that David did evil in determining to build God a Temple because there was in Scripture no commandment that he should build it were very injuriâ—us the purpose of his heart was Religious and Godly the act most worthy of honor and renovvn neither could Nathan chuse but admire his vertuous intent exhort him to go forvvard and beseech God to prosper him therein But God savv the endless troubles vvhich David should be subject unto during the vvhole time of his Regiment and therefore gave charge to defer so good a vvork till the days of tranquillity and peace vvherein it might vvithout interruption be performed David supposed it could not stand vvith the duty vvhich he ovved to God to set himself in an House of Cedar Trees and to behold the Ark of the Lords Covenant unsetled This opinion the Lord abateth by causing Nathan to shevv him plainly that it should be no more imputed unto him for a fault than it had been unto the Judges of Israel before him his case being the same which theirs vvas their times not more unquiet than his not more unfit for such an action S. 6. In Book III. i. Eph. 2. 16. All Christians make but one body The unity of which visible body and Church of Christ consisteth in that uniformity which all several persons thereunto belonging have by reason of that one Lord whose Servants they all profess themselves that one Faith which they all acknowledge that one baptisme wherewith they are all initiated Christians by external profession they are all whose Mark of Recognisance hath in it those things which we have mentioned yea although they be impious Idolaters wicked Hereticks persons Excommunicable yea and cast out for notorious improbity S. 1. ii 1 Cor. 7. 8. To be commanded in the Word and grounded upon the Word are not all one If when a man may live in the state of Matrimon seeking that good thereby which Nature principally desireth he make rather choice of a contrary life in regard of St. Pauls judgment that which he doth is manifestly grounded upon the Word of God yet not commanded in his Word because without breach of any Commandement he might do otherwise S. 8. iii 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man perceiveth not the things of the Spirit of God Those properties of God and those Duties of men towards him which may be conceived by attentive consideration of Heaven and Earth we know that of meer Natural men the Apostle testifieth how they know both God and the Law of God Rom. 1. Other things of God there be as the suffering and rising of Christ from the dead which are neither so found nor though they be shewed can ever be approved without the special operation of Gods good Grace and Spirit As Grace hath use of Nature so we hold that Nature hath need of Grace ib. iv Col. 2. 8. Philosophy we are warned to take heed of Not that Philosophy which is true and sound knowledge attained by natural Discourse of Reason but that Philosophy which to bolster Heresie or Errour casteth a fraudulent shew of Reason upon things which are indeed unreasonable and by that means as by a stratagem spoileth the simple vvhich are not able to vvithstand such cunning The vvay not to be inveagled by them that are so guileful through skill is throughly to be instructed in that vvhich maketh skilful against guile and to be armed vvith that true and sincere Philosophy vvhich doth teach against that Deceitful and Vain vvhich spoileth ib. v. 1 Cor. 1. 19. I will destroy the Wisdom of the Wise c. There are that bear tho Title of vvise men and Scribes and great Disputers of the World and are nothing indeed less than what in shew they most appear These being wholly addicted unto their own Wills use their Wit their Learning and all the Wisdom they have to maintain that which their obstinate Hearts are delighted with esteeming in the phranâ—ique Errour of their minds the greatest madness in the World to be Wisdom and the highest Wisdom Foolishness Such were both Iewes and Grecians which professed the one sort a Legal and the other Secular skill neither enduring to be taught the Mystery of Christ unto the Glory of whose most blessed Name whoso study to use both their Reason and all other Gifts as well which Nature as which Grace hath indued them with let them never doubt but that the same God who is to destroy and confound utterly that Wisdom falsly so named in others doth make reckoning of them as of true Scribes Scribes by Wisdom instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven ib. vi 1 Cor. 2. 4. My preaching hath not been in the perswasive speeches of humane Wisdome As Calling from men may authorize us to teach although it could not authorize St. Paul to teach as other Apostles did so although the Wisdom of man had not been sufficient to enable him such a Teacher
no less than for our own the Apostle with very sit terms commendeth as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Work commendable for the largeness of the affection from whence it springeth even as theirs which have requested at Gods hands the Salvation of many with the loss of their own souls drowning as it were and over whelming themselves in the abundance of their Love towards others is proposed as being in regard of the Rareness of such affections 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more than excellent ib. xxiii 1 Tim. 2. 1. Our Prayers for all men God accepts in that they are conformable unto his general Inclination which is that all men might be saved yet always he granteth them not for as much as there is in God sometimes a more private occasioned Will which determineth the contrary So that the other being the rule of our actions and not this our Requests for things opposite to this Will of God are not therefore the less gracious in his sight ib. xxiv Ioh. 1. 14. The Word saith St. Iohn was made flesh and dwelt in us The Evangelist useth the plural Number Men for Manhood us for the Nature whereof we consist even as the Apostle denying the Assumption of Angelical Nature saith likewise in the plural number he took not Angels but the seed of Abraham Heb. 2. S. 52. xxv Psal. 139. 7. Impossible it is that God should withdraw his presence from any thing because the very substance of God is infinite He filleth Heaven and Earth Ier. 23. 24. although he take up no room in either because his substance is immaterial pure and of us in this World so incomprehensible that albeit no part of us be ever absent form him who is present whole unto every particular thing yet his presence with us we no way discern further than only that God is present which partly by Reason and more perfectly by Faith we know to be firm and certain S. 55. xxvi Phil. 2. 9. The Son of God which did first humble himself by taking our flesh upon him descended afterwards much lower and became according to the flesh obedient so far as to suffer Death even the Death of the Cross for all men because such was his Fathers Will. The former was an Humiliation of Deity the latter an Humiliation of Man-hood for which cause there follovved upon the latter an Exaltation of that which was humbled for with Power he created the World but restored it by Obedience In which Obedience as according to his Man-hood he had glorified God on Earth so God hath glorified in Heaven that Nature which yielded him Obedience and hath given unto Christ even in that he is man such fulness of power c. S. 55. xxvii 1 Cor. 15. 24. The Scepter of Christ 's spiritual Regiment over us in this present world is at the length to be yielded up into the hands of the Father which gave it that is to say the use and exercise thereof shall cease there being no longer any Militant Church to govern This Government he now exerciseth both as God and as Man as God by essential presence with all things as man by cooperation with that which especially is present S. 55. xxviii Act. 17. 28. All things which God hath made are in that respect the Off-spring of God they are in him as effects in their highest cause he like wise actually is in them the assistance and influence of the Deity in their life Let hereunto saving efficacy be added and it bringeth forth a special Off-spring amongst men containing them to whom God hath himself given the gracious and amiable Name of Sons S. 56. xxix 1 Cor 15. 47. We are by Nature the Sons of Adam When God created Adam he created us and as many as are descended from Adam have in themselves the Root out of which they spring The Sons of God we neither are all not any one of us otherwise than only by Grace and Favour The Sons of God have Gods own natural Son as a second Adam frâ—m Heaven whose Race and Proâ—eny they are by Spiritual and Heavenly Birth ib. xxx Eph. 1. 4. God therefore loving Eternally his Son he must needs eternally in him have loved and preferred before all others them which are spiritually sithence descended and sprung out of him These were in God as in their Saviour and not as in their Creator only It was the purpose of his saving goodness his saving wisdom and his saving power which inclined it self towards them They which thus were in God eternally by their intended admission to life have by vocation or adoption God actually now in them as the artificer is in the work which his hand doth presently frame ib. xxxi 1 Cor. 12. 27. They which belong to the mystical body of our saviour Christ and be in number as the stars of heaven divided successively by reason of their mortal condition into many generations are notwithstanding coupled every one to Christ their head and all unto every particular person amongst themselves in as much as the same spirit which anointed the blessed soul of our Saviour Christ doth so formalize unite and actuate his whole race as if both he and they were so many limbs compacted into one body by being quickned all with one and the same soul. ib. xxxii Ex. 4. 24. God which did not afflict that innocent whose circumcision Moses had ere-long deferred took revenge upon Moses himself for the injury which was done through so great neglect giving us thereby to understand that they whom Gods own mercy saveth without us are on our parts notwithstanding and as much as in us lieth even destroyed when under unsufficient pretences we defraud them of such ordinary outward helps as we should exhibit S. 59. xxxiii Mat. 9. 13. He which requireth both mercy and sacrifice rejecteth his own institution of sacrifice where the offering of sacrifice would hinder mercy from being shewed S. 61. xxxiv 1 Tim. 2. 12. The Apostles ordinance was necessary against womens publick admission to teach because those extraordinary gifts of speaking with tongues and prophesying with God at that time did not only bestow upon men but on women also made it the harder to hold them confined with private bounds S. 62. xxxv Eph. 4. 5. Iteration of baptism once given hath been always thought a manifest contempt of that antient Apostolik Aphorism one Lord one Faith one Baptism baptism not only one in as much as it hath every where the same substance and offereth unto all then the same grace but one also for that it ought not to be received by any one man above once We serve the Lord which is but one because no other can be joyned with him we embrace that faith wich is but one because it admitteth no innovation that baptism we receive which is but one because it cannot be received often S. 62. xxxvi 1 Pet. 3. 21. The declaration of Iustin Martyr concerning baptism sheweth how such as the