Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	true_a	truth_n	word_n	7,456	5	4.2077	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35023	A letter written to a friend concerning Popish idolatrie	Croft, Herbert, 1603-1691.	1674 (1674)	Wing C6968; ESTC R3785	21,890	35

A LETTER Written to a FRIEND Concerning Popish Idolatrie LONDON Printed for and are to be Sold by Charles Harper at the Flower-de-luce over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleet-street 1674. A Word to the READER A Person whom I greatly honoured being much inclined to the Popish Religion was as I heard much altered by the ensuing Letter which made me very industrious to get first a View and then a Copy of it And conceiving it may prove very beneficial to others also the same way inclined I thought my self in Conscience bound to present it to publick view I hope without offence to the Writer who seems zealous to withdraw men from such Erroneous and Idolatrous Worship and therefore doubtless will be pleased to see the fruit of his labour much encreased by the Blessing of God upon it Amen SIR I Am very sorry to find that the Books I directed you to do not give you full satisfaction but still you press me to say something of my own and what can I say that hath not been already said Really most of the Books that are written in these latter days of the World are but as the same Cards shufflled and dealt into a new Game But you tell me their Discourses are so long as you cannot carry them in your remembrance the Quotations so numerous pro and con as there is no end in searching after them their Distinctions and way of arguing many times intricate and seem to you rather subtil Evasions than solid Answers in sum they do not satisfie nor work much upon your Understanding In answer whereto I must consess I have found by experience that Mens Heads are like Locks with several Wards which no Key will open but one fitted to those very Wards So Mens Understandings must be fitted and opened with such a way of arguing as suits with their Apprehensions and Fancy and many times it happens that weaker Arguments in a method agreeable unto them prevail more than the Scholastick pressing form This gives me some encouragement to set Pen to Paper with hopes that I may chance to light on that Method as may give you more agreeable satisfaction especially you so much desiring it weak Remedies strongly fancied for good have done great Cures when Learned Physicians have failed I shall be as brief as may be and the rather because longer labour may have as little success as the larger Tracts of others have had You seem much to applaud and lean on Doctor Thorndick's Judgment who in his Just Weights condemns those who charge the Papists with Idolatry and therein both wrongfully accuse them and also cast a wrong and foul Prejudice on our Church and by necessary consequence make it no Church For if the Papists be Idolaters their Church is not a true saving Church it is no Church Idolatry as he conceives being inconsistent with a saving Church 't is as a deadly poyson which presently destroys the vitals and brings inevitable death And then if the Papal Church be no saving Church no Church now they were none when those of the Reformation came out of it their Church being the same then as 't is now and so consequently our Church can be no Church coming out from theirs which is none Wherefore Dr. Thorndick is very desirous that the Papists gross erroneous Worship should be called Superstition rather than Idolatry for first this grievous accusation much incenses them by making them no Church and makes our Division the wider and cuts off all hopes of Reconciliation with them Secondly it makes by consequence our Church no Church as he said we descending from them As to the first I wonder that this good Man so knowing in Roman Principles could hope for Reconciliation with them but by wholly submitting to them for their Prime Principle being Infallibility whereon all that Babel is built the pulling down of any one Pinacle eradicates the very Foundation all being so link'd together with Infallibility that one and all falls together 'T is therefore bootless to talk of meeting them half-way or three quarters and a half who are so fettered to this Infallible Pillar you must be chained to it also no other way of being one with them As to the second of nullifying their Church by Idolatry and our own also as from them if they by their Infallible Spirit will declare the consequence against themselves let it be so but I fear it not against us They cannot deny but the Head of their Church Pope Marcellinus from whom their Popes ever since descended was an Idolater in the grossest sence sacrificing to a Heathen Idol in the time of Dioclesian's persecution if this makes them no Church let them be no Church but then we are none hold there I am not bound to grant though I pass the Antecedent much less the Consequent First 't is not so easie and quick a thing to determine what nullifies a Church some things are plain and easie some not 'T is certain the Jewish Church in our Saviours time was a Church wherein salvation was to be had for our Saviour bid the people then hearken to those who sat in Moses Chair and do what they thence commanded yet they were guilty of devillish practices opinions also but still they believ'd in the only true God and acknowledged his holy Word though they notoriously swerved from it And 't is as certain that the generality of the Jewish Church did often fall into Idolatry yet they continued still a Church to our Saviours days as I shewed before so that for my part I dare not presume to draw the exact Circular line of a Church over which the Transgression makes it cease to be a saving Church but as I said above some cases are clear General Infidelity as to renounce God and his Christ doubtless makes it cease to be a Church but Idolatry though it be as general as in Elijah's days when he conceived himself only free from Baal-worship doubtless doth make it not cease to be a Church For we do not find that the Priests and Levites were consecrated a new after their defection to Idolatry And therefore with Dr. Thorndick's good lieve though we descend from a Church too too much given to Idolatry yet our Bishops consecrated by them need no more a new Consecration than those Jewish Priests who were most certainly polluted with Idolatry but relinquishing their Idolatry and with penitential hearts sacrificing to the true God were reconciled again to God and in mercy accepted by the Divine Goodness Who then can doubt that those Bishops of this Nation who with penitent hearts renounc'd the Romish Idolatry and so zealously embrac'd the truth of the Gospel and God's sincere Worship in Spirit and in Truth as to die in defence of it I say who can doubt but through the infinite goodness of the same merciful God our Reformed Bishops were likewise accepted by him and thenceforth acknowledged true and faithful Shepherds of his Church Wherefore I

point controverted between us Indeed it were strange if in so many points in difference they should not have some colour at least in Scripture for one or two Let us see what Scripture they have for their Transubstantiation A very clear one Our Saviour taking Bread in his hand said This is my Body Sure we believe our Saviour could change Bread into his Body why then do not we believe that he did change it I pray you give me lieve to make the like Argument to you Our Saviour as positively said I am the bread which came down from heaven Sure you believe our Saviour could change his Body into Bread why then do not you believe he did so Are we not upon equal Terms If then you deny the latter to me why may not I deny the former to you You see how unconscionably they accuse us as a sensual and faithless Generation that will not believe any thing beyond our Senses do not we believe the Trinity our Saviour's Incarnation the Resurrection and much more far above all Sense and Reason also and should as readily believe this were there any just ground for it in Scripture But the Papists come upon us again and urge doth not our Saviour say Joh. 6. My flesh is meat indeed and my blood is drink indeed and much more in that Chapter I must confess the words in this Chapter are far more pressing upon us than those in Matthew This is my body c. for'tis apparent the words in John made many take them in a literal sence as if Christ would give his very Flesh and Blood to be eaten and drunk whereat many of his Disciples were much offended and went from him but when at supper he said This is my body and gave it his Disciples to eat no man was offended at it or made any scruple to eat what he gave which no doubt some one at least would have done had they apprehended it to be his very Flem. Thomas who so hardly believed his Resurrection often declared unto him before hand and attested to him by all the rest after and the thing it self so much more easie for him to believe that the Soul should enter the same Body but two whole days after death when he had seen Lazarus raised after four dayes doubtless this slow believing Thomas would have somewhat boggled at believing the bread converted into Christ's Flesh and to eat it yet we do not find he or any other was startled at it but swallowed it down as readily as the former meat for our Saviour had before informed them that the words he spake were spirit and life therefore they ought not to be offended at them all which makes me confidently believe they did not believe it to be Christ's very Flesh but took the words as figuratively spoken as you and all others do those words I am the bread c. And I do as confidently believe that had they believed wrong our Saviour would have rectified their belief and would have fully instructed them But now I beseech you consider those words in Joh. which are so much more pressing for a literal sence of Christs very flesh given if those by the Papist Doctors are taken in a figurative sence and will not be endured by them in a literal sence have you not much more reason to take those in Matthew in a figurative sence The Papist Doctors dare not take the Words of St. John literally because they so clearly condemn the taking away the Cup from the Laity and denying them the Blood of Christ which our Saviour there so absolutely requires to be drunk by every one that will enter into Life Now consider into what a strait the Papist Doctors have brought themselves into if they take the words literally their taking away the Cup is declared damnable to the Laity if they take them figuratively their Transubstantiation is condemned as a grand Imposture But blessed be God we are free from both and fully confirmed in the figurative sence by St. Paul 1 Cor. 11. 23. Where he tells the Corinthians that he delivered to them what he received of the Lord who said This Cup is the New Testament in my blood which words differ much from those spoken by our Saviour and are as different in the sence also if taken literally for they denote a change of the Cup into Christ's Blood and therefore of necessity must and are taken by all figuratively and then they signifie the same with our Saviour's words and I hope the Papists will not accuse St. Paul to have told the Corinthians a false story and delivered that unto them which he never received of Christ. Sure you will rather stand up for St. Paul and accuse their Transubstantiation of falsity I could dilate on this Subject much more but I love brevity as well as you and when you desire more there is enough to be seen in Bishop Morton e. The Conclusion is made by the Papist Doctors that there being no Transubstantiation they are as great Idolaters in adoring the consecrated Hoste as any Heathens ever were God of his infinite mercy preserve you from having any Communion with them I shall now end this business as I began with Dr. Thorndick's Judgement thereon He in his Sixteenth Chapter speaking of the Papists praying to Saints saith there was no such thing in use till a good while after Constantine the Emperour who died Anno Dom. 350. so that by this Computation it must be about 400 years And can any one in reason think it fit to venture on so dangerous a practice in Religion unknown to the Church 400 years when Faith was purest Devotion most fervent Sanctity most eminent and when all helps to Salvation were most eagerly pursued yet no praying to Saints practised which is now come to that height as Dr. Thorndick himself there calls it A precipice of horrible danger sor saith he they ask the same things of the Saints and especially of the Blessed Virgin in the same terms in which they are desired of God even in the holy Scripture And this which the Doctor affirms is most evident in their printed Books of Prayer wherein though they sometimes mention the Saints Intercession and this we do to Christ also perfect God yet other times they pray to the Saints and Blessed Virgin directly for the things Thus you see they make no distinction between God Christ Blessed Virgin and Saints in their form of Prayer or things prayed for And is not this Idolatry far greater than to sacrifice to them Bulls and Rams to give them the divinest part of God's Worship Is not this to deifie them in the highest degree Is not this to worship false Gods They make them Gods as much as ever the Heathens made their Heroes Gods for the Heathens believed their Heroes to be mortal Men they knew them living they saw them dying but for their great Virtues believed their Souls were carried up into heaven and