Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A51289
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A brief reply to a late answer to Dr. Henry More his Antidote against idolatry Shewing that there is nothing in the said answer that does any ways weaken his proofs of idolatry against the Church of Rome, and therefore all are bound to take heed how they enter into, or continue in the communion of that church as they tender their own salvation.
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More, Henry, 1614-1687.
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1672
(1672)
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Wing M2645; ESTC R217965
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188,285
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386
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for my fiery zeal that wears no mask the Apostle says Gal. 4. 18. It is good to be zealous in a good matter and as good to be zealous against a bad one And is not the spirit of God resembled to fire Which where it appears in truth it will burn off all masks of Hypocrisy and make men walk in all simplicity of Conversation before God and before men But why is my disputing open railing If I speak any thing false witness of the falâ—hood But if the corruptions of your Church be such that they cannot be named by their proper Names such as all solid Theologâ— Philosophy and ordinary humane Laws would call them in calling them so am I a Rayler or you very great and enormous sinners I speak of those two grand crimes Idolatry and Murder which are interwoven into your Religion And whetâ—er my Arguments be blustering words or solid Reason let any indifferent Reader judge by what has passed â—itherto in your pretended Confuration of this Antidote against Idolatry and in my â—o clearly proving my Reasonings therein to remain sound and unshaken for all the Battery you could lay against them And whereas you add not always too much concerned whether true or false it is such an equivocating Imputation that look one way on it it says less than is true For I confess I am never too much concerned whether I speak true or false especially considering of what moment the things are I write of But if you mean I am not always enough concerned whether what I affirm be true or false The tree is known by its fruits â—â—ow me where I have trip't or if I have any where trip't prove that it was out of carelesne's whether it was true or false which I uttered And this I think he pretends he will show in this Dehortation of mine For immediately he adds Witness the Contents of this Chapter whereof I shall give my Reader a brief Extract drawn up in the Form of an Homily yet in the Doctors own words and charitable Dialect Thus then begins the Dissuasive Repl. This is a Dissuasive of my Adversaries own making whom though I acknowledge a man of Wit and Eloquence yet I will not trust him in making speeches for me and seâ—ing his Dissuasive is pretended but an Epitome of mine and mine being already under the eye of the Reader I hold it altogether impertinent to set down his especially he putting his for mine and calling it so adding at the end of it This is Mellifluous Dr. Mores sweet harangue c. The truth is he has made as dry and lank an Homily as he could and heaped up those Titles their Church is adorned with in the Apocalypse barely and nakedly without the Occasions and circumstances I bring them in upon to make himself and his party merry and to make my serious Exhortation to deceivable People that they take heed of the frauds and danger of that Church to look ridiculously But this is one Artifice of theirs amongst the rest when the weight of Reason and Religion presses on them to any purpose to slip from under it by some ludicrous jest or profane raillery Wherefore letting this drollery pass let us observe what in good earnest he would weaken my Exhorration by or where is that place in it where he will make good that Imputation against me that I am not enough concerned whether what I say be true or false Now I would gladly know says he what there is in all this discourse which an ingenuous Son of the Church of England will not be heartily ashamed of and even blush for the Doctors sake Repl. Why did you then make such a silly Oration in my name that all the ingenuous Church-men in England should be ashamed of it as well they might if I had made such a jejune lank piece of stuff as your officiousness has made for me But for mine I dare say there is no ingenuous Son of the Church of England unless â—ou measure the Iâ—genuity and Disingenuity of men by their affection and disaâ—fection to the errors of your Chuoch as you seem to do in Dr. Taylor much less any genuine Sons of our Church but will approve of the firmness reasonableness and seasonableness of such an Exhortation Here is I confâ—ss quoth he stout railing Disingenuity more than is necessary for a Doctor c. Repl. Here the Reader may be pleased to take notice of the special sense of Disingenuity with my Antagonist namely that it is the plainly speaking such Truths as argue the gross errors and perillous Enormities â—f the Church of Rome Whenas it is ten thousand times more disingenuous according to the law of God and Nature to smother Truth to the great and real injury of both the Church of Rome and our own And then for my stout Railing which else where he calls that â—nmanly Rhetoâ—ick of Railing let us put them together The stout unmanly Rhetorick of Railing I demand If it be either ferine or womanish with a plain open Constancy to declare those Truths that are of such vast Concern and of so perspicuous a clearness to those that do not wilfully wink against them Or if the propriety of language and to declare according to the nature and true Notion of things and that without all ill will be any form of Rayling Unless Adam in the state of Innocency railed when he gave names according to the natures of the Creatures And this great Clamour against me of Railing is because I call Idolatry Idolatry and the killing of men because they will not commit Idolatry with the Church of Rome barbarous murder But if he mean because I call the Church of Rome by those Titles the Spirit of God calls her in the Apocalypse my Apology is already made in the twenty fourth Paragraph of this 10th Chapter Which I desire my Antagonist and every one it may concern in the fear of God toâ— peruse and to consider the latter part of it touching those eight last Chapters of the first book of my Synopsis Prophetica and my Exposition of the seven Epistles to the seven Churches of Asia In both which Expositions I challenge any diligent searcher to show any considerable flaw that will lessen the certitude of them for the main or if they think there is the least faultering in this proposal let them show any flaw at all if they can For as for my self though I have been an anxious searcher after Truth I was never yet satisfied concerning any more palpably than of these I speak of Which God knows I do not speak in the way of Boasting but merely to excite the ingenuous to try the strength and evidence I find them that they may thereby after a manner whether they will or no feel it also themselves and find it Nor do I use those Names of Infamy wherewith the Spirit of God has branded the Pontifician Clergy nakedly and without occasion as my Antagonist has
to be also that false Prophet that is to be taken alive and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone Apoc. 19. 20 to be that great City that spiritually is called Sodom and Aegypt where our Lord was crucified Apoc. 11. 8. to be the Beast that has the horns of a Lamb but the voice of the Dragon Apoc. 13. 11. decreeing Idolatries and cruel Persecutions against God's people to be that Babylon the great Apoc. 17. Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth the Woman on the seven Hills that is drunk with the bloud of the Saints and with the bloud of the Martyrs of Iesus and lastly to be that Man of Sin 2 Thess. 2. that notorious Antichrist that opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or is worshipped whose coming is with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they receive not the love of the truth that they may be saved For which cause God sends them strong delusion that they believe a lie That they all might be damned that believe not the truth but have pleasure in unrighteousness As well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well all they that love the Romish Lies and Impostures as all they that invent them are here plainly declared in the state of Damnation With this Nosegay of Rue and Wormwood antidote thy self against the Idolatrous infection of that strange Woman's breath Prov. 5. 3. whose lips yet drop as an honyâ— comb and â—er mouth is more smooth then oyl And be assured that that cannot be the true Holy Church wherein Salvation is to be expected which the Spirit of God has marked with such unholy and hellish Chara â—ers let her boast of her own Holiness as much as she will 24. And if she return this Answer to thee That this is not to argue but to rail in phrases of Scripture do thou make this short Reply That whiles she accuses thee of railing against sinfull and obnoxious men she must take heed that she be not found guilty of blaspâ—eming the holy Spirit of God I confess these Propheticall Passages apply'd to such persons as to whom they do not belong were an high and rude strain of Railing indeed and quite out of the road of Christianity and common Humanity But to call them Railings when they are apply'd to that very Party to whom they are really meant by that Spirit that dictated them is indeed to pretend to a sense of Civility towards men but in the mean time to become a down-right Blasphemer against the Holy Ghost that dictated these Oracles And that they are not mis-apply'd any impartial man of but an ordinary patience and comprehension of wit may have all assurance desirable from that demonstration of the truth compriz'd in the eight last Chapters of the first Book of Synopsis Prophetica to say nothing of the present Exposition of the Seven Epistles to the Seven Churches in Asia 25. Wherefore O serious Soul whoever thou art be not complemented out of the Truth and an earnest pursuance of thine own Salvation from a vain sense of the Applauses or Reproaches of men or from any consideration what they may think of thee for attesting or standing to such Verities as are so unwelcome to many ears but of such huge importance to all to hear For no less a Game is at stake in our choice of what Church we adhere to that of Rome or the Reformed then the Possession of Heaven and eternal Life Wherefore stand stoutlâ— upon thy guard and whensoever thou art accosted by the fair words and sugar'd speeches of that cunning Woman who will make semblance of great solicitude for thy future Happiness most passionately inviting thee to return into the bosom of Holy Church be sure to remember what an Holy Church she is according to Divine description and that if thou assentest to her smooth Persuasions and crafty Importunities thou dost â—pso facto pardon the vehemence of expression adventure thy self into the jaws of Hell and cast thy self into the arms of the Devil Matth. 23. 15. God of his mercy give us all Grace to consider what has been spoken that we may evermore escape these Snares of Death Amen THE END CHAP. X. The Answers of my Antagonist to this 10th Chapter and my Replies put together without any distinction of Paragraphs HItherto I have reduced my Antagonists Answers to the Paragraphs of each Chapter But now he does so overflow with humour wit and confusedness and walks so aloâ—t in Generals that I cannot reduce this last Section of his on my last Chapter to any such particular distinctness but must make what I can of things in that order they lye First then my hearty Exhortation to men to take heed how they be drawn into the Communion of the Church of Rome he phancies may fitly be called Dr. Taylor revived or a second Disâ—asive from Popery Whereupon he takes Occasion to give the different Characters of Dr. Taylor and my self For Dr. Taylor is a Person says he of a more refined and plausible Insinuation a smooth tongue and oâ—ly Expression cloaking his many and great Disingenuities with fair glozing words in an affected strain of Scripture phrase pretending to the power of Godliness But Dr. More is a Polemical man of a quite different Temper His fiery zeal wears no mask His disputing is open rayling and his Arguments blustering words not always too much concerned whether true for alse To which I Reply Whether he call my hearty Dehortation Dr. Taylor revived or a second Dissâ—asive from Popery he may please his own pâ—ancy in that he shall find me a man of great humanity and facility in matters of that kind And let Dr. Taylor be of one temper and my self of another so there be no Immorality in these different tempers that is all one to me also But when he talks of the great Disingenuities of Dr. Taylor I suspect they are nothing else but great and hard Arguments against the errors of the Roman Church which they cannot Answer The same crime that I have been guilty of all along this book hitherto and it 's â—ell I be not charged with great disingenuities my self at last which now I think on 't I have been already under an harsher term he calling that calumny in me who seem to be a more rude Writer which in Dr. Taylor that more smooth and oylâ— Arguer he termes a disingenuity But it 's needless for me to say any thing more of Dr. Taylor his learned and eloquent writings will Answer for him and themselves too But now for my own Charge That I am â—olemical I am sure I am neither Souldier nâ—r disputacious Schoolman But if I be Polemical or warlike it is in that warâ—are whose weapons are spiritual as the Apostle speaks 2 Cor. 10. 4. for the pulling down strong holds and inveterate Imaginations raised against the truth of God and the Kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ. And