Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	grace_n	holy_a	lord_n	14,167	5	3.6878	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62281	The necessity of adhering to the Church of England as by law established, or, The duty of a good Christian, and particularly parents and masters of families under the present toleration by William Saywell ...	Saywell, William, 1643-1701.	1692 (1692)	Wing S801; ESTC R40636	34,235	49

carefully performed according to the Rules of his Holy Word neither must we have an eye only to this or that particular Duty but have regard to all his Commandments Now Satan does often appear with strong delusions like an Angel of light and his instruments do with good words and fair Speeches deceive the hearts of the Simple and put many cheats and fallacies upon unwarie Souls to bring them into destruction But there are scarce any more weak and manifest then those that you have been hitherto abused withall and many of them now evidently false by your own confession as that we were all Papists we did worship Stocks and Stones were only morall Men without any dependance upon the Grace of God and the direction of his Holy Spirit And now these slanders are fully confuted they turn to other devices altogether as groundless and unreasonable as that 't is indifferent what manner of Governours Men live under in matters of Religion so they live Holy lives and that they in separating from the Church of England doe no more then she did in Reforming from the Church of Rome as if it were the same to have a publick Service that they do understand with having a publick Service they do not to have the use of their Bibles or not to have them to worship Images pray to Saints and Angels be content with half the Sacrament of the Lords Supper or not when our Lord requires the whole To omit many other errours And not only our Bishops and Clergy but Princes and Parliaments did all agree to Reform these abuses and settle our Church upon the sure foundations of Truth and Holiness according to the Word of God and constant Law and Order of the Catholick Church and there is not one duty of Piety to God Charity to your Neighbour and Obedience to the Catholick Church but you may better practice in the Church of England then in any other Society or Communion Deal seriously with your own Souls and Consciences What can you learn and practice in any Meeting that you cannot as well observe and be taught in the Church Will you then merely for Fancies and Humours expose your own Souls your Wifes and Children and the whole Nation to the danger of all Heresies and Schisms and bring so great a guilt and distraction upon your selves and Country If you are offended at the evil Lives of some of our Members do you come in and joyn with us and give them better example and by your Holy and Orderly conversation so strengthen our hands to their shame and amendment that we may all follow Peace and Holiness in this World and Reign with Joy and Glory in the World to come but if you still continue obstinate in your Separation consider how you will acquit your selves at the great Day of the guilt of Schism Contempt of Christ and his Ministers Disobedience to Parents and from being the sad occasion of those Heresies Profaness and Confusion that have been brought into the Church of God and that I do not say this as my own opinion only but that which was the fear and apprehension of Queen Elizabeth and the Parliament in the beginning of our Reformation we may learn from their Words wherein they did as it were by Prophesie foretell the miseries which since fell upon our Nation and were chiefly brought upon us by this Sin of Schism and neglect of resorting to the Church All and every Person and Persons inhabiting within this Realm or any other of the Queens Majesties Dominions 1 Eliz. 1. shall diligently and faithfully having no lawfull or reasonable excuse to be absent endeavour themselves to resort to their Parish Church or Chappel accustomed or upon reasonable let thereof to some usual place where Common-Prayer and such Service of God shall be used in such time of let upon every Sunday or other days Ordained and used to be kept as Holy-days and then and there to abide Orderly and Soberly during the time of the Common-Prayer Preachings or other Service of God there to be used and ministred upon pain of punishment by the censures of the Church And for the due execution hereof The Queens most excellent Majesty the Lords Temporal and all the Commons in this Parliament now assembled do in Gods Name earnestly require and charge all the Arch-Bishops Bishops and other Ordinaries that they shall endeavour themselves to the uttermost of their knowledges that the due and true execution hereof may be had throughout their Dioceses and Charges as they will answer before God for such evils and plagues wherewith Almighty God may justly punish his People for neglecting this good and wholesome Law Thô the mit ward Penalty be suspended in some Cases yet the Duty still remains and the reason is the same and we may mind Men of it But what miseries and calamities our Nation has suffered by the neglect hereof since that time need not be told the Men of this generation wish the hinderers of the due execution of this Law formerly that are left alive would in time consider and repent A Postscript to the CLERGY Reverend Brethren in Christ THE great business of our Lives as Clergy Men is so to instract and Rule our several Charges that we may be able to say with the great Apostle I am pure from the Blood of all Men Acts 20.26 27. for I have not shunned to declare to you all the whole Councel of God that will require a great deal of Care and Diligence but it is a Duty ought to be performed with our utmost endeavour and saw will it be if any should perish through the Ministers neglect 'T is true the Spiritual power Christ has given his Church is little understood and all her Authority is much slighted by too many in this Age and the many Divisions and Schisms will the rease this disesteem therefore 't is more necessary it should be vigoroussy asserted and maintained and the dangers and mischiess that are like to follow upon it should be discovered and laid open while in some measure they may be prevented For thô it may seem plausible to some and that there can be no harm now and then to hear a good Sermon at a Conventicle as well as in the Church yet in the end it will prove fatall to Religion to say no more what other evils will follow from such a practice if once espoused by Men of Interest and Quality as God be thanked commonly as yet it is not These things I have represented to you my Brethren at our Visitation and I doubt not but you have often urged the same to your several Charges but because things Read may be better weighed and considered and I can with the same pains inform all as a few I have sent these Papers the good effect whereof will in a great measure depend upon your further Discourses and Management in more fully enlarging upon and explaining the several particulars in your Catechising

Duty I Have made it evident beyond all doubt that there are Spiritual Governours appointed by Christ to continue to the end of the World and all Christian People must be under the Authority and Jurisdiction of some or other of those Ministers and that by direction of the Apostles and constant Law of the generall Councils and tradition of all Christian Churches and the Rules of Decency and Order all Countries that own the Christian Religion are generally divided into Provinces and Dioceses c. for the more peaceable management of all affairs Things being thus settled all those commands in Scripture that People ought to bearken to the Church obey them that have the Rule over them besides all those generall precepts Honour thy Father and Mother To know them that are over you in the Lord and admonish you to esteem them highly for their works sake c. do oblige all People here in England to obey their several Bishops and joyn in Communion with their respective Parishes and those that do obstinately withdraw themselves from their obedience do live in open contempt of Christ and manifest violation of his Holy Gospel which does require all Men to maintain Love and Charity especially with their Fathers and Governours and to keep the peace and unity of the Church All such Men that wilfully and obstinately continue in their Schism and disobedience are not only shut out from the priviledges and benefits of the Gospel but bring upon themselves all the curses and punishments denounced against such grievous Sinners for those that are disobedient to parents are reckoned up amongst the most heinous Offenders Rom. 1.30 2 Tim. 3.2 Consider therefore how you will answer it to God in the dreadfull day that do meerly neglect to joyn in the publick Service and Sacraments and thereby disobey your Spiritual Fathers and affront that Government which Christ has set in his Church for your good and as the means to promore his Glory and your Salvation 'T is not Man but God that you reject who gave us this Charge over your Souls and you do despite to the Holy Spirit of grace from whom we receive our Commission Besies the guilt of disobedience and contempl of Christs Ministers you that assemble in Conventicles are guilty of Schism which is a damning Sin and a root of all confusion AS nothing is more agreeable to the Nature of God then Love and Unity so nothing is more odious to his most Holy being then Schism and Division for the nature of Love is to unite all things in Peace and Order but the nature of Schism is to bring all things to misery and confusion Whatsoever therefore Schismaticks may pretend of Zeal for the glory of God their advancing Piety and setting up Religion in greater purity the Scripture calls such courses the works of the flesh and pronounces the Persons that follow them Men of carnal affections Rom. 16. Gal. 5. Those therefore that do not only withdraw from the obedience of their Lawfull Governours but set up separate Assemblies under colour of purer worship do plainly make a Schism in the Church and rend the Body of Christ in pieces and are marked out by the Holy Scrip tures for the grootest enemies of God and true Religion Our Saviour fays he that shall be angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the Judgment and he that says unto him Rache that is empty vain Fellow and so lighting and bringing his Person into contempt shall be in danger of the Gounoil but whosoever shall say thou fools shall be in danger of Hell fire Now if it be so heinous a crime in the sight of God to undervalue our Brother what is it to despise our Spiritual Fathers and contemn their godly commands and admonitions moreover to tear and divide the Church of Christ and instead of Love stirr up animosities and contentions strife and hatred as is too to evident and from thence do genenally follow Massacres Rebellions long and bloudy Wars Murder subversion of Kingdoms and States destruction of Countries and all the cruelties and miseries that Mankind are lyable unto As these things are manifest by experience so Scripture tells us Jude 18 19. they spring from Schism There shall be mockers in the last times who shall walk after their own ungodly lusts these be they that soparate themselves sensual having not the Spirit whereas none glory more of the Spirit then these Separatists whom the Apostle charges with carnal and ungodly Lusts Again Rom. 16.17 Mark those that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which ye have Learned and avoid them for they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own helly and by good words and fair Speeches deceive the heart of the simple The Apostle pursues the same matter 1. Cor. 3.3 Lor ye are yet Carnall for whereas there is among you Envying and Strife and Divisions are ye not Carnal and walk as Men For while one saith I am Paul and another I am Apollos are ye not Carnall Again Galatians 5.20 reckoning up the works of the Elesh that shut Men out of Heaven he says the worke of the Flesh are manifest which are these he puts down Strife Seaitions or Schism and Divisions Heresies and then adds v. 21. They that do such things shall not in herit the Kingdome of God So that as Schism is an heinous Sin of its own nature so it proceeds from a carnal mind and that is the root of all other Evils and Disorders James 4.1 From whence come Wars and Fightings among you Come they not hence even of your Lusts that war in your members Lust breeds Division and Division breeds War and War brings all other evils with it especially civil and homebred Wars which spring from this root of Schism If none of these temporal evils follow upon Schism which God grant they may not yet Schism brings in Heresie Ignorance and Prophaness DID Men keep to the Rule of Gods word and follow the interpretation of the Catholick Church they would be secure from all danger of Heresie ignorance and profaness and would have a sure direction to lead them into the way of Salvation For all the Schisms Heresies and mistakes that Men sall into come by forsaking the guidance of the Church and wresting the Scripture to their own destruction which St Peter says many of the unlearned and unstable do 2 Pet. 3.16 So that in this case the Scripture may be compared to an Apothecaries shop full of all fort of wholesome Medicines if rightly applyed with judgement and discretion but such as will prove deadly poyson if taken at adventure and misimployed Now our Saviour has given us the Scriptures for our direction which with much study and pains we may understand our selves for our own benefit and instruction yet because few Men who are engaged in worldly pleasures and business c. do give themselves so much leisure as