Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	holy_a	word_n	work_n	7,504	5	5.1951	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65328	The way of peace, or, A discourse of the dangerous principles and practices of some pretended Protestants ... being certain brief ... writings of several learned Protestant authors : with divers additions perswasive to peace / by the author, a Protestant of the Church of England.	Protestant of the Church of England.	1680 (1680)	Wing W1162; ESTC R9234	23,498	32

Religion the very principles whereof are many times subvertive of all Government Order and Peace And those Subjects who will not be satisfied without a general toleration of all Religions although it hath been found by experience that such persons will not give when they have power that to others which they now crave If their Prince and Governour comply with their desires I humbly conceive it will oblige him to have a good standing Army to keep them at peace among themselves and to support his Government and preserve himself in safety for every Sectary will take the Bible into his hand and as readily will interpret it as read it and say here is the Infallible rule and I have the spirit to interpret it And the consequence is They make their own fancies and conceits as the Oracles of God either in opposition one towards another or against their lawful Prince and Governour Something to this purpose the worthy Grotius speaks Some Protestants say they are led by the publick authority of the spirit in his word common to all Christians As much was said by Socinus Brown and so many others See into what perplexities the hearers minds are on every side involved Here saith every Sect is the Word of God pure and sincere according to the sense of the holy spirit They know not whither to turn themselves but must abide there where their Birth or Education or hope of profie and preferment hath placed them and applaud their own men speaking loud and confident Could any one free men out of this Labyrinth were it not a happy work and worthy of all acceptation Which question he elsewhere resolves thus Consuetudo veterum Christianorum est optima Scripturarum interpres The custom or practice of the Antient Christians is the best Interpreter of the Scriptures For as the said Author further adds Those Primitive Christians best understood the sense and meaning of the Scriptures and did best practice the Christian Doctrin contained in the Scriptures For doubtless if we will search for the Christian verity in its greatest lustre and purity we must have recourse to the purest streams flowing nearest to the fountain even the Primitive times But how can we but grosly mistake if we will wrest the Sacred Scriptures and expresly in contradiction to St. Peter Acts 2.17 apply the promises of the spirits guidance to our times which were intended for those first times of the Gospel I shall conclude my discourse with an excellent and wise caution given to Protestants by a Learned Divine of the Church of England D. Cudworth his Sermon at Lincoln-Inn 1664. which deserves to be imprinted upon all our minds that wish well to the Protestant interest That unless there be a due and timely regard had to the commands of lawful Authority in indifferent things and to order peace and unity in the Church It may be easily foreseen that the Reformed part of Christendom will at length be brought first to Confusion by crumbling into infinite sects and divisions and then to utter ruin Now dear Country-men what can I do more but bewail and lament our follies absurdities and confusions Oh! how great need have we of an Amphion with his Lute with his Charming melody to mollifie and soften our rugged and stony hearts Or rather of the great Hermostes as the aforesaid Author calls him that tunes the whole world to put us in tune to reduce us to the use of our reason again and cause us to live together in unity and peace Oh that we were wise that we would consider and that we might know in this our day the things belonging to our peace and that they might not be hid from our eyes And let it be all our Prayers that we may be freed from all Pride Error Prejudice and Partiality and understand and obey the truth that at the great day of reckoning when we shall all be called to give an account of our deportment in this weak and imperfect state we all may be found not in the number of them who have despised Dominions speak evil of Dignities But of those whose lives have been answerable to the holy Christian Religion which is pure and peaceable That which once moved Croesus his dumb Son to speak when his Enemies were about to kill him my affection to my Religion Prince and Country hath extorted from me this mean and unworthy Essay in tendency to quench those flames I fear are breaking forth among us And let us beware and be advised for if we persist in our wickedness the very stones in our Streets shortly will it is to be feared cry out in judgment against us to our confusion and destruction Farewell From all thy wrath and from all our sins Good Lord deliver us FINIS

to take one sober and wise stop towards the securing the Protestant Cause but like men in the water ready to be drowned who lay about them for life being filled with the apprehensions of danger yet take not one wise stroak to swim or save their lives but all their actions tend to hasten their destruction and ruin Just thus it is with us It is true there are a sort of people that are mighty zealous for prosecuting Papists the innocent as well as the nocent and thereby to enrage and exasperate them more against us And will scarce suffer our wise Governours to take sober and just measures in that grand Affair But in the mean time take no thought for Union among Protestants in which consists principally our safety which is just as if a Captain of a Ship being ingaged in a Sea Fight who is very eager to assault and mischief his Enemy yet takes no care to suppress the Mutinies in his Ship or to stop her Leaks And who sees not the speedy fatal end of his Valour It is Enemies within doors that by the universal suffrage of mankind are always accounted worse than those without hino illae lachrymae And may we not be fully convinced by experience of the sad Consequence of unsound and wicked Doctrines and Principles especially meeting with Men of active Spirits which makes them industriously wicked happy were it if it might be said of them Operòse nihil agunt but of these men it must be truly said Operòse multum mali agunt Dr. Sibs in his Sermon on Cant. 1.2 But as a worthy Protestant Divine heretofore taught in our Church If we desire assurance of Christ's Love get a chast Judgment free from Error Heresie and Schism Christ is wonderful jealous of our Judgments Whosoever is corrupt in Faith is corrupt in Obedience in that degree evil Opinions breed evil Life To which I may add that saying Animus ager semper errat And Ex uno absurdo dato consequuntur mille Now although in other respects they may be accounted sober men yet it may be said truly of them Quid prodest vinum non bibere ira inebriari And do not these men place the main if not the all of their Religion in endless scrupulosities about indifferent things neglecting in the mean time the more weighty things of Christianity Is it not incorporated into the very Principles of these mens Piety and Religion to be always murmuring and clamoring against Government and Governours both in Church and State to be creating and raising jealousies and fears in the hearts of the People against their Prince to aggravate his personal failings when there is any to be dividing separating and rending the Church and State into pieces And alas to do thus wickedly is the way now adays to be accounted a godly Man a good Christian a good Protestant And those that are good and sound Protestants that love their Prince make Conscience of observing the good Laws Orders and Constitutions of both Church and State they are reputed and represented presently as Papists or popishly affected Et si satis est accusare quis innocens although by this imputation how highly do they tacitely and by Consequence commend the Papists whom they so hate and persecute And except in our forsaking Rome we will run along with them to Munster we must of necessity be all Papists although they cannot but acknowledge that in medio consistit virtus May it not therefore in reason be thought that if it were possible to raise Cranmer Ridley and Latimer and the rest of the famous Martyrs out of their ashes and that they were conversant among us as heretofore that assuredly they would be cried out on for Papists by these pretended Protestants of our times and as such be put to a second Persecution and Martyrdom also especially if they should take a Journy into Scotland And what can this tend to in the end Indeed as formerly so still do these men consult that wicked Rule or Maxim Audacter columniare semper aliquid haerebit And here it may not I think be impertinent to mention a passage of the before mentioned Historian In the Life of Lewis the 13. Mr. James Howel speaking of a fearful Combustion and Revolt of Catalonia from the Spaniard occasioned much by the preaching Friers and Monks whence faith he This Aphorism may be collected That the best Instruments being misapplied do greatest mischief and prove most dangerous And as of the sweetest Wines is made the sharpest Vinegar so Church men who by their holy Function and white ☞ Robes of Innocence should be the sweetest of all Professions who should breath nothing but Peace Vnity Allegeance and Love if they misapply their Talent and abandon themselves to the Spirit of Faction they become the bitterest enemies the most corroding cankers and worst vipers in any Commonwealth and most pernicious to the Prince in regard that they having the sway over the Conscience which is the Rudder that steers the actions words and thoughts of the rational Creature they transport and snatch it away whither they will making the Beast with many beads conceive according to the Colour of those Rods they use to cast before them Let us I beseech you dear Country-men call to mind former things and learn wisdom How hath this poor Nation suffered many times heretofore by our intestine broils as the Records of former times will inform us And will we not suffer the experience of these things to instruct us are we resolved not to consider Doth not Wisdom and Prudence direct us not to look only at the surface or first appearance of things but to view and consider them in their true and natural Consequences according to that saying Quicquid agas prudenter agas respice finem When we are in a Storm is it time them to be murmuring and mutining against our Pilot Have we any reason to suspect his wisdom or faithfulness may we not in all reason presume that he that is at the helm best understands the condition of his Ship both its course and working and therefore best knows how to steer her And can we be so maliciously absurd as to imagin that our excellent Prince and Pilot hath not a very great and intense Care for the safety of that Vessel in which he himself is embark'd Will not Caesar take special Care of the security of the Ship that carries Caesar and all his fortunes Caesar and all his Subjects Can it be otherwise but that the interest of the King and his Subjects must be both one and the same And for ever let them be accursed may I say that go about to divide them Is not the King and his Subjects as Hippocrates his Twins that mourn or rejoice together When did ever diffidence and distrust fears and jealousies in Subjects of their Prince make them happy Fears and jealousies in the People must needs cause fears and jealousies in their