Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	good_a	holy_a	word_n	8,021	5	3.9266	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77174	Epidiorthōsis or a modest enquiry into the nature and state of churches. In order to their through-reformation. By Thomas Boyer minister at Rempston in Nottinghamshire.	Boyer, Thomas, b. 1627 or 8.	1659 (1659)	Wing B3920; Thomason E1929_2; ESTC R209993	18,874	81

R. 2. A company of people met together by the Power of the Civil Magistrate to receive holy things P 3. The place of such meetings 4. A company of Apostates joyned together by a Jesuitical bond to seduce people from the publique Ordinances of Jesus Christ A. Q c. Resp 3. Thirdly This word Ecclesia or Church is very often used by the holy Ghost in Scripture but that which it seemeth good to the most blessed Spirit to call most frequently by this name is a Company of visible Saints joyned together by a special bond for the constant exercise of the Communion of Saints amongst themselves Quest What condition is every Church of Christ in Resp Every Church of Christ is either in a Reformed or in a planted constituted state Quest Is there any difference betwixt a planted and a Reformed Church of Christ Resp Yea Their Agreement is very extensive and emphatical and yet they differ In the discovery whereof these two considerations must be diligently eyed 1. It is one thing to preach the Gospel another thing to plant the Gospel and a third to plant Churches by the Gospel preacht heard and planted As it is one thing for Work-men to work upon those things that are to be the Materials of a Building in a preparatory way another thing for those things to be actually prepared and fit to be put into the Building and a third thing to have all those Materials so fitted joyned together and the building compleated 1 Cor. 3.9 2. Reformation supposeth the building not compleated and yet somewhat done in order thereunto be it more or less sometimes and in some places it finds the Gospel to have been preached only and not planted Sometimes it finds that the Gospel hath been received by some but that those are not united or agreed to walk together in Church-fellowship and so do not constitute a particular Church according to the Gospel sometimes it finds them joyned together but very loosely Sometimts it finds them fast joyned together but under a defect of some particular Officers Sometimes it finds the Church to have been builded and compleated but relapsed degenerated or apostatiz'd less or more as a decayed Building not utterly ruined or not having more of the Devil than of Christ in it though too much This supposed these four things may be concluded 1. A Planted and Reformed Church of Christ agree 1. In their Causes 2. In their Properties 3. In their Practices And 4. In their Priviledges 1. In their Causes and so first in their Efficient causes thus 1. Christ was the Institutor and Ordainer both of the first Planted and of Reformed Churches under the Gospel Mat. 16.18 Rev. cap. 2. 3. 2. Christ and his Officers by his Word and Spirit are the Makers of both the Ministry is before both and none but Ministers by divine Appointment and Commission as Paul Timothy c. are originally ordinarily and equally employed by Christ in either 2. In their matter Visible Saints are the matter whereof both the first Planted and Reformed Churches of Christ are constituted and made 3. In their form Both the first Planted and Reformed Churches of Christ are formed Et in unum coalescunt omnes sancti Ecclesiae by a mutual Consent and Agreement to walk towards God and one another respectively according to Gospel Rules 4. In their ends The end both of the first Planted and our Reformed Churches of Christ is his Glory and his Saints salvation 2. In their Properties Both the first Planted and Reformed Churches of Christ can visibly perform the conditions of the New Covenant and act according to Gospel-Rules of Church Communion 3. In their Practices Both the first Planted and Reformed Churches of Christ do visibly perform the conditions of the New Covenant and walk according to Gospel Rules of Church-Communion 4. They agree in their Priviledges Christ hath given very glorious Priviledges both to his first Planted and to his Reformed Churches Yet 2. They differ But 3. The difference that is betwixt them is but Parallel to the difference that was betwixt the Church at its first Constitution and the Church Reformed under the Law And 4. But accidental 1. In their Order 2. In their Officers 3. In their Matter 4. In their Form 5. In their End 6. In their Properties 7. In their Practices And 8. In their Priviledges Mat. 16.18 1 Cor. 3.11 Gal. 1.6 7 8 9. Quest What difference is there in their Order Resp 1. Christ in the first Planting of his Churches proceeded as it were in an Analytical Order he made the Gospel so successfull that thousands were converted at a time and made as it were one Catholick visible Church by joyning themselves voluntarily to the Lord and to the Apostles then altogether at Jerusalem out of which as out of a Fountain there issued at it were particular Churches Resp Christ in the Reforming of his Churches proceeds as it were in a Synthetical Order He first moulds particular persons into particular Churches and then those particular Churches into one Catholick Church Sensu Amesiano Medul lib. 1. cap. 31.32 Quest Wherein do the first Planters and Reformers of the Churches of Christ differ Resp They agree in the Essentials of the Ministery as 1. the Spirit of Christ hath furnisht both of them invisibly at the least with gifts and graces proportionable to the work whereunto he hath appointed them in the times and places wherein they live For eminency in gifts and graces is as necessary for all Church-Officers as sincerity in them is for all Church-members and therefore God sends none to Church-work but those that appear to their Judges to be such though they be not all of them equally qualified 2. They are both of them called and sent Licensed and commanded by Christ to be his Vicegerents and chief Ministers about soul and Church affairs on earth Heb. 5.4 3. Both of them have the same commission for the substance and body of it both of them may by the special Law of Christ dispence the Mysteries of God or preach administer Sacraments and govern according to his Word 4. Both of them may providentially be suspended as to the exercise of these Acts which are properly Ministerial but not ex humana libertate arbitrio proprio 5. Both of them have a right by Divine grant to a comfortable maintenance that may free them from being necessitated to work with their own hands and encourage them and put them into a capacity of attending wholly upon the execution of their Commission 1 Cor. 9 to the end 2 Tim. 2.4 Resp They differ accidentally and circumstantially in the extra-essentials of the Ministery As 1. in the manner of their receiving of their gifts graces vocation mission and commission For 1. the first Preachers and Planters of the Gospel John the Baptist and Christ had them all immediatly from the Spirit without any humane Instrumentality 2. The first Fathers and Planters of Churches by

ΕΠΙΔΙΩΡΘΟΣΙΣ OR A modest Enquiry into the Nature and State of CHURCHES In Order to their Through-REFORMATION By THOMAS BOYER Minister at Rempston in Nottinghamshire TIT. 1.5 For this cause left I thee at Crete that thou shouldst set in order the things that are wanting and ordain Elders in every City as I had appointed thee LONDON Printed by R. W. for Nathaniel Ekins at the Gun in Pauls Church-yard and for Stephen Lincoln in Leicester 1659. To all that wish well to SION Brethren IT being no less necessary to circumstantiate than it is to substantiate our Duty As the Word of God is assistant to us in the one so the works of God are in the other By vertue of this Constellation many have discovered most glorious things How it hath illuminated our English Orb is obvious to every eye It is long since by this means some saw that it was high time for Reformation to be in fashion And the spirits of Gods people have been working this way many a year but the largest contributions towards this work have issued out of the Treasury of those laborious Bees that have returned richly laden from the Wars These have laid us a right foundation and shewed us the Pattern of a compleat Superstructure It s our Interest to build accordingly though many do not Here 's my Mite which I must confess is but very little more than a Breviat of other mens voluminous Essaies but paradventure it may be accepted if not blessed by the Lord and not prejudicial if not beneficial unto you It aims if heart deceive not at his Glory and your good My desire is that it may hit the white If moreover it be as sharp arrows in the heart of the Kings enemies I intreat them not to be offended for corruption had better be let out than gangrenate No more at present but that I am An unworthy servant of Christs for your sakes THOMAS BOYER Επιδιορθωσις OR A modest Enquiry into the Nature and State of Churches in Order to their Through-Reformation Qu. WHat condition is England visibly in Resp England is visibly in a state of Lukewarmness She is neither hot nor cold She so partakes of both that she cannot be said to be either She is both Gradu remisso and neither Gradu intenso We are a little Christian and a little Heathen or worse a little Protestant and a little Papist or Mahometan Our hearts are stil divided we give God something and our lusts something We fear the Lord and serve our Idols so that our fear of God is equivalent to none at all We are still like Redwald King of the East Saxons the first Prince of this Nation that was baptized In the same place we worship God and set up an Altar Our spirits lie like that Haven Acts 27.12 towards the Southwest and Northwest two opposite points We are half good half bad or Mungrels and Hermaphrodites in Religion There is so much of Luke-warmness in the Nation and almost in every Town and Family if ex ungue leonem that it may thence receive its denomination The spirit of England is not so much a spirit of Opposition to as of Obstruction of the work of Reformation through the deadness unweldiness thereof It s grown so stiff that its much ado to get it go any further on in the work though its pitty hot love should be so soon and sadly cold but usually men when they have compassed their own ends are willing to give themselves a Quietus est and a Writ of ease and to have the infinite Mercies of God totally unanswered and his Glory to himself to vindicate It would rejoyce all our hearts to see any of us mend our pace in Religion and make it appear that we are not guilty of this sinfull distemper It would speak fair for our admission into Churchship in the quality of adult members of the visible Church of Christ Quest Whether is Lukewarmness a state to be rested in or no Resp Lukewarmness is not a state to be rested in Rat. 1. For 1. To halt between two opinions is a very unreasonable thing No Apology can be made for it at the last day 1 Reg. 18.21 2. To be Lukewarm is opposite to Christs express command Rev. 3.19 3. A divided heart is a barren and an empty heart Hos 10.1 2. 4. Professors of a divided and lukewarm temper are severely threatned by God both in the Old and New Testament Hos 10.2 Rev. 3.16 5. Men of that frame can have no Communion with God in Church-Ordinances 1 Cor. 10.21 22. 6. Such a state is opposite to exactness in Religion Through-Reformation and giving up our selves wholly to God and his Truth 7. A Lukewarm-heart cannot let out it self holily to any thing in the world Divided affections cannot run out upon any thing in subordination to the Glory of God nor aim singly at the honor of Christ c. Quest What is England to do in this Condition Resp It s Englands duty in this condition to lay aside all carnal considerations and in an orderly Scriptural way to attempt a Through-Reformation Personal Civil and Ecclesiastical For a divine Correspondency is the best Policy Quest What is Reformation Resp Reformation in the general is a working up of a thing to its regular state and condition or to the very mind of the Owner to what he would have it in his best conception to be Leu. 26.23 Isa 1.25 26 27. Amos 9.11 Mal. 3.2 3. Acts 1.5.16 2 Tim. 3.16 Titus 1.5 Heb 9.10 Quest What is Personal Reformation Resp Personal Reformation is the working up of a person to the regular state of a Reformed Saint Quest What is Civil Reformation Resp Civil Reformation is the working up of a people to the regular state of a Common-wealth Quest What is Ecclesiastical Reformation Resp Ecclesiastical Reformation is the working up of Reformed Saints to the regular state of a Reformed Church Quest What is a Church Resp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate Church amongst the ancient Greeks especially the Athenians from whom it is taken denoted three things 1. And most properly a Civil Society in Court or a company of great ones gathered together by a lawfull Authority or the Command of the Supream Magistrate for a Politique end or the good of the Common-wealth Act. 19.39 thus a Parliament or Councel of State is a Church 2. It denotes a Company of people called and met together by whom and for what cause soever though the Gatherer have no Authority and the gathered as little knowledge c. Act. 19.32 Thus a company of the most covetous and ignorant Mechanicks are a Church 3. It signifies a Company met together for wicked ends Act. 19.40 thus a company of Riotors are a Church Resp 2. Secondly During the Raign of Anti-Christ four things have been abusively called a Church 1. A Company of people joyned together by the Power of Anti-Christ to give obedience to his Traditions