Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	heart_n	life_n	sin_n	7,768	5	4.3216	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02549	An humble remonstrance to the High Court of Parliament, by a dutifull sonne of the Church	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1641 (1641)	STC 12675; ESTC R210029	12,040	46

over Presbyters to be grounded rather upon the custome of the Church then any appointment of Christ I must answer First that we cannot prescribe to other mens thoughts when all is said men will take liberty and who can hinder it to abound in their own sense But secondly if they shall grant as they shall be forced that this custome was of the Church Apostolicall and had its rise with the knowledge approbation practise of those inspired Legates of Christ and was from their very hands recommended to the then present and subsequent Church for continuance there is no such great dissonance in the opinions as may be worthy of a quarrell The second is intended to raise envy against us as the uncharitable censurers and condemners of those Reformed Churches abroad which differ from our Government Wherein we do justly complain of a sclanderous aspersion cast upon us We love and honour those Sister-Churches as the dear Spouse of Christ we blesse God for them and we doe heartily wish unto them that happinesse in the partnership of our administration which I doubt not but they doe no lesse heartily wish unto themselves Good words you will perhaps say but what is all this faire complement if our act condemne them if our very Tenet exclude them for if Episcopacy stand by Divine right what becomes of those Churches that want it Malice and ignorance are met together in this unjust aggravation First our position is onely affirmative implying the justifiablenesse and holinesse of an Episcopall calling without any further implication Next when we speak of Divine right we meane not an expresse Law of God requiring it upon the absolute necessity of the being of a Church what hinderances soever may interpose but a Divine institution warranting it where it is and requiring it where it may be had Every Church therefore which is capable of this forme of Government both may and ought to affect it as that which is with so much Authority derived from the Apostles to the whole body of the Church upon earth but those particular Churches to whom this power and faculty is denied lose nothing of the true essence of a Church though they misse something of their glory and perfection whereof they are barred by the necessity of their condition Neither are liable to any more imputation in their credit and esteeme then an honest frugall officious Tenant who notwithstanding the profer of all obsequious services is tied to the limitations and termes of an hard Landlord But so much we have reason to know of the judgement of the neighbour Churches and their famous Divines that if they might hope to live so long as to see a full freedome of option tendred unto them by Soveraigne Authority with all sutable conditions they would most gladly embrace this our forme of Government which differs little from their owne save in the perpetuity of their {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or Moderator-ship and the exclusion of that Lay-Presbyterie which never till this age had footing in the Christian Church Neither would we desire to choose any other Judges of our calling and the glorious eminence of our Church so governed then the famous Professors of Geneva it selfe Learned Lectius for a Civilian and for a Divine Fredericus Span●emius the now renowned Pastor and Reader of Divinitie in Geneva who in his Dedicatory Epistle before the third Part of his Dubia Euangelica to the incomparable Lord Primate of Ireland doth zealously applaud and congratulate unto us the happy as he conceiveth flourishing estate of our Church under this Government magnifying the graces of God in the Bishops thereof and shuts up with fervent prayers to God for the continuance of the Authority of the Prelates of these Churches Oh then whiles Geneva it self praiseth our Government and God for it and prayes for the happy perpetuation of it let it not be suffered that any ignorant or spightfull Sectaries should openly in their Libels curse it and maliciously brand it with the termes of Unlawfull and Antichristian Your wisdomes cannot but have found abundant reason to hate and scorn this base and unreasonable suggestion which would necessarily inferre that not Christ but Antichrist hath had the full sway of all Gods Church upon earth for these whole sixteen hundred yeares A blasphemy which any Christian heart must needs abhorre And who that ever hath looked into either Books or men knows not that the religious Bishops of all times are and have been they which have strongly held up the Kingdome of Christ and the sincere truth of the Gospel against all the wicked machinations of Satan and his Antichrist And even amongst our owne how many of the Reverend and Learned Fathers of the Church now living have spent their spirits and worne out their lives in the powerfull opposition of that Man of sin Consider then I beseech you what a shamefull injustice it is in these bold sclanderers to cast upon these zealously-religious Prelates famous for their workes against Rome in forraigne parts the guilt of that which they have so meritoriously and convincingly opposed If this most just defence may satisfie them I shal for their sakes rejoyce But if they shall either with the wilfully-deafe Adder stop their eares or against the light of their owne consciences out of private respects beare up a known error of uncharitablenesse this very paper shall one day be an evidence against them before the dreadfull Tribunall of the Almighty What should I urge in some others the carefull peaceable painfull conscionable managing of their charges to the great glory of God and comfort of his faithfull people And if whiles these challenge a due respect from all well-minded Christians some others heare ill how deservedly God knows and will in due time manifest yet why should an holy calling suffer why should the faults if such be of some diffuse their blame to all Farre far we know is this from the approved integrity of your noble Justice whiles in the mean time unlesse your just check doe seasonably remedy it the impetuous and undistinguishing vulgar are ready so to involve all as to make innocence it self a sin and which I am amazed to think of dare say and write The better man the worse Bishop And now since I am faln upon this sad subject give me leave I beseech you to professe with how bleeding an heart I heare of the manifold scandals of some of the inferiour Clergy presented to your view from all parts It is the misery and shame of this Church if they be so foul as they are suggested but if I durst presume so far I should in the bowells of Christ beseech you upon the finding of so hateful enormities to give me leave to put you in mind of the charitable example of our religious Constantine in the like case you cannot dislike so gracious a patterne I plead not for their impunity let them within the sphere of their

forme of prayer and such as that part of the frame prescribed by our Saviour was composed of the formes of devotion then formerly usuall And Gods people ever since Moses his daies constantly practised it and put it over unto the times of the Gospel under which whiles it is said that Peter and John went up to the Temple at the ninth houre of prayer we know the prayer wherewith they joyned was not of an extemporary and sudden conception but of a regular prescription the formes whereof are yet extant and ready to be produced And the Euangelicall Church ever since thought it could never better improve her peace and happinesse then in composing those religious models of invocation and thanksgiving which they have traduced unto us And can ye then with patience think that any ingenuous Christian should be so farre mis-transported as to condemne a good prayer because as it is in his heart so it is in his book too Far be it from me to dishearten any good Christian from the use of conceived prayer in his private devotions and upon occasion also in the publique I would hate to be guilty of pouring so much water upon the spirit to which I shall gladly adde oyle rather No let the full soule freely poure out it self in gracious expressions of its holy thoughts into the bosome of the Almighty Let both the sudden flashes of our quick ejaculations and the constant flames of our more fixed conceptions mount up from the altar of a zealous heart unto the throne of Grace and if there be some stops or solecismes in the fervent utterance of our private wants these are so far fro being offensive that they are the most pleasing musique to the eares of that God unto whom our prayers come Let them be broken off with sobs and sighes and incongruities of our delivery our good God is no otherwise affected to this imperfect elocution then an indulgent Parent is to the clipped and broken language of his deare childe which is more delightfull to him then any others smooth Oratory This is not to be opposed in another by any man that hath found the true operation of this grace in himselfe But in the meane time let the publique formes of the sacred Church-Liturgie have its due honour Let this by the power of your Authoritie be re-inforced as that which being selected out of ancient models not Romane but Christian and contrived by the holy Martyrs and Confessors of the blessed Reformation of Religion hath received abundant supply of strength both from the zealous recommendation of foure most religious Princes and your own most firme and peremptory establishment Amongst which powerfull inducements that is worthy of no sleight consideration which I humbly tender unto you from the judgement of the learnedst King that ever sate upon this Throne or as I verily think since Solomons time upon any other King Iames of blessed memory who however mis-alledged by some as letting fall disgracefull speeches concerning this subject after a solemne hearing of those exceptions which were taken by some against this open forme of Common-prayer as it is called in Queen Elizabeths Act for uniformity shuts up in his Proclamation given at Westminster the fifth of March in the first yeare of his raigne with these words And last of all We admonish all men that hereafter they shall not expect or attempt any farther alteration into the Common and publike forme of Gods service from this which is now established For that neither will We give way to any to presume that Our own judgement having determined in a matter of this weight shall be swayed to alteration by the frivolous suggestion of any light spirit Neither are We ignorant of the inconveniences that doe arise in Government by admitting innovation in things once setled by mature deliberation And how necessary it is to use constancy in the upholding of the publique determinations of States for that such is the unquietnesse and unstedfastnesse of some dispositions affecting every yeare new formes of things as if they should be followed in their unconstancie would make all actions of State ridiculous and contemptible whereas the stedfast maintaining of things by good advise established is the weale of all Common-wealths Thus that great Oracle of Wisedome and Learning whom I beseech you suppose that you still heare directing this prudent and religious advise to your present eares and consider how requisite it is for you out of the reason both of State and pietie to rest in that his sound and exquisite judgement As for those particularities of exceptions which have been taken by some at certain passages of that Book they have more then once received full satisfaction by other pens Let me onely say thus much That were the Readers but as charitable as the Contrivers were religiously devout those quarrels had either never been raised or had soone died alone Oh suffer not then I beseech you this holy form of Gods Service to be exposed to the proud contempt of ignorant and ill-affected persons maintain and beare up the pious acts of your godly predecessors yea make good your owne And if our holy Martyrs heretofore went to heaven with a Litany in their mouth Let not an ill advised newfanglenesse be suffered to put scorn upon that wherein they thought themselves happy As for that forme of Episcopall Government which hath hitherto obtained in the Church of God I confesse I am confounded in my selfe to heare with what unjust clamours it is cried down abroad by either weak or factious persons of either or both which I may well take up that word of our Saviour Father forgive them for they know not what they doe Surely could those look with my eies they would see cause to be thoroughly ashamed of this their injurious mis-conceit and should be forced to confesse that never any good cause had more reason to complain of a wrongfull prosecution Were this Ordinance meerly humane and ecclesiasticall if there could no more be said for it but that it is exceeding ancient of more then 1500 yeares standing and that it hath continued in this Iland since the first plantation of the Gospel to this present day without contradiction A man would think this were enough plea to challenge a reverent respect and an Immunity from all thoughts of alteration For even nature if selfe teaches us to rise up before the hoare-head and hath wrought in us a secret honour even to the very outward gravity of age and just policie teaches us not easily to give way to the change of those things which long use and many Lawes have firmly established as necessary or beneficiall Yea the wisedome of the ancient Grecians went so farre as to forbid the removall of a well setled evill But if religion teach us better things and tell us that nothing morally evill can be setled well and being however setled had the more need to be after too long delay removed Yet right reason and