Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	word_n	world_n	worse_a	60	3	8.0661	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33777	A sermon of conforming and reforming made to the convocation at S. Pauls Church in London / by John Colet upon Rom. xii, 2 ... writ an hundred and fiftie years since : to which is now added an appendix of Bp. Andrews and Dr. Hammonds solemn petition and advice to the convocation : with his directions to the laity how to prolong their happiness.	Colet, John, 1467?-1519.; Erasmus, Desiderius, d. 1536.; Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.; Andrewes, Lancelot, 1555-1626.	1661 (1661)	Wing C5096; ESTC R26033	47,218	88

more fit for some one of the Fathers themselves that is to say You Prelates might have done it with far more grave authority and greater wisdome But the command of the most Reverend Father and Lord the Archbishop President of this Councel must be obeyed who laid upon me this burden which is in truth too heavie for my shoulders for I remember that the prophet Samuel said Obedience is better then sacrifice Wherefore I pray and beseech you to sustain my weakness with your goodness and patience in the first place to help me with your good prayers And before all things Let us pray to God the Father Almighty first remembring our most holy Father the Pope and all spiritual Pastours with all christen people furthermore the most reverend Father and Lord the Archbishop President of this Councel and all Bishops and all the Clergie and all the people of England remembring finally this your congregation Desiring God to inspire your minds so accordingly to agree to the benefit and fruit of the Church that ye may not seem when the Councel is finisht to have been gathered together in vain and without cause Let us all say Pater noster c. To exhort you Reverend Fathers to endeavour Reformation because nothing hath so disfigured the face of the Church as hath the fashion of secular and worldly living in Clerks and Priests I know not where more conveniently to begin my discourse then from the Apostle Paul in whose temple ye are gathered together for he writing to the Romanes and under their name to you saith ROM xii 2. Be not conformed to this world but be ye reformed by the renewing of your minde that ye may prove what is that good will of God well-pleasing and perfect THis the Apostle writ to all Christen men but most chiefly to Priests and Bishops Priests and Bishops are the light of the world For he said unto them Ye are the light of the world and he said also If the light that is in you be darkness how greāt is that darkness that is If Priests and Bishops who should be as lights run in the dark way of the world how dark then shall the secular people be Wherefore S. Paul said chiefly to Priests and Bishops Be ye not conformed to this world but be ye reformed In which words the Apostle doth two things First he forbids that we be not conformed to this world and made carnal and then he commands that we be reformed in the spirit of God and become spiritual Intending to follow this order I shall speak first of Conformation and then of Reformation Be not conformed to this world By the word world the Apostle meaneth the ways and manner of secular living which chiefly consist in four evils of this world that is in devillish pride carnal lust worldly covetousness and secular business These are in the world as S. John witnesseth 1 Epist. 2. 16. For he saith All that is in the world is either the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes or the pride of life These same things now are and reign in the Church and Ecclesiastical persons so that we may seem truly to say All that is in the Church is either the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes or pride of life I. And first to speak of pride of life How much greediness and appetite of honour and dignity is seen now adays in Clergy-men How run they yea almost out of breath from one benefice to another from the less to the greater from the lower to the higher Who seeth not this and who seeing sorroweth not And most of those which are in these dignities carry their heads so high and are so stately that they seem not to be put in the humble Bishop-rick of Christ but rather in the high Lordship and power of the world not knowing or not minding what Christ the master of all meekness said unto his disciples whom he called to be Bishops and Priests The princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them and those that be in authority have power but do ye not so Whosoever will be chief among you highest in dignity let him be your servant The son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister Matth. 20. 25 c. By which words our Saviour doth plainly teach that a prelacy in the Church is nothing else but a ministration that an high dignity in an Ecclesiastical person ought to be nothing but a meek service 2. The second secular evil is carnal concupiscence And hath not this vice grown and encreased in the Church so far that in this most busie age the far greater number of Priests minde nothing but what doth delight and please their senses They give themselves to feasts banquetting spend their time in vain babling are addicted to hunting and hawking and in a word drowned in the delights of this world diligent onely in progging for those lusts they set by Against which sort of men S. Jude exclaims in his Epistle saying Wo unto them which have gone the way of Cain they are foul and beastly feasting in their meats without fear feeding themselves flouds of the wilde sea foaming out their own shame unto whom the storm of darkness is reserved for everlasting 3. Covetousness is the third secular evil which S. John calls the lust of the eyes and S. Paul idolatry This abominable pestilence hath so entred into the minds of almost all Priests hath so blinded the eyes of their understanding that we see nothing but that which seems to bring unto us some gain What other thing seek we now adays in the Church except fat benefices and high promotions And it were well if we minded the duty of those when we have them but he that hath many great benefices 〈◊〉 not the office of one small one and in these high promotions what other thing do we pass upon but onely our tithes and rents We care not how vast our charge of souls be how many or how great benefices we take so they be of large value Oh covetousness covetousness S. Paul justly called thee the root of all evil Of thee cometh this a heaping of benefices upon benefices Of thee so great pensions assigned from many benefices resigned Of thee so much suing for tithes for offerings for mortuaries for delapidations by the right and title of the Church For which things we contend as eagerly as for our lives O covetousness of thee it comes that these visitations of Bishops are so chargeable Of thee the corruptness of Courts and these daily new inventions wherewith the poor silly people are so vexed Of thee cometh the besyte and wantonness of u Officials O covetousness mother of all iniquity of thee comes this fervent studie of Ordinaries to dilate their jurisdictions of thee comes this peevish and raging contention in Ordinaries of thee insinuation of testaments of thee the undue sequestration of fruits of thee comes the superstitious

observation of all those laws that sound to any lucre setting aside and despising those that concern the amendment of manners What should I rehearse the rest To be short and to conclude at one word all corruptness all the decay of the Church all the offences and scandals of the world come from the covetousness of the priests according to that of S. Paul which here I repeat again and beat into your ears Covetousness is the root of all evil 4. The fourth secular evil that spotteth the face of the Church is continual secular occupation wherein Priests and Bishops now adays do busie themselves becoming the servants rather of men then God the warriours rather of this world then of Jesus Christ. For the Apostle Paul writeth to Timothy 2 Epist. ii 3. that no man who is a good souldier of Christ or that warreth for God entangleth himself with the affairs of this life is turmoiled with secular business The warfare of Gods souldier is not carnal but spiritual Our warring is to pray devoutly to read and study Scriptures diligently to preach the word of God sincerely to administer the H. Sacraments rightly and offer sacrifice for the people For we are mediatours and intercessours unto God for men which S. Paul witnesseth writing to the Hebrews Every Bishop saith he taken of men is ordained for men in those things that be unto God that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins Wherefore those Apostles that were the first Priests and Bishops did so much abhor all manner of meddling in secular things that they would not minister the meat that was necessary to poor people although it were a great work of vertue but they said It is not meet that we should leave the word of God and serve tables we will give our selves continually to prayer and preaching the word of God Act. vi 2 4. And S. Paul cryes to the Corinthians 1 Epist. vi 4. If you have judgements of things pertaining to this life set them to be judges that be most in contempt in the Church Many evils doubtless do ensue from this secularity when Clergie-men and Priests leaving all spirituality turmoyl themselves with earthly occupations I. First the dignity of Priesthood is dishonoured which is greater then either that of Kings or Emperours equal with the dignity of Angels But the brightness of this great dignity is sore shadowed when Priests are employed in earthly things whose conversation ought to be in heaven 2. Secondly Priesthood is despised when there is no difference between such Priests and Lay-people but according to the prophesie of Hosea As the people be so are the priests 3. Thirdly the beautifull order and holy dignity in the Church is confused when the highest in the Church do meddle with vile and earthly things and in their stead vile and abject persons do exercise high and heavenly things 4. Fourthly the lay-people have great occasion offered them of evils and cause to fall when those men whose duty it is to draw others from the affection of this world do by their continual conversation in this world teach men to love the world and by the love of the world cast them down headlong into hell Moreover in such Priests that be so employed there must needs follow hypocrisie For when they be so mixed and confused with lay-people under the garment and habit of a Priest they live plainly after the lay-fashion And through spiritual weakness bondage and fear being made weak with the waters of this world they dare neither do nor say any but such things as they know to be pleasing and gratefull to their Princes ears At last through ignorance and blindness when they are blinded with the darkness of this world they see nothing but earthly things Wherefore our Saviour Christ not without cause did warn the Prelates of his Church in this manner Take heed to your selves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with gluttony and drunkenness and the cares of this world Luk. xxi 34. The cares saith he of this world wherewith when the hearts of Priests being sore charged they cannot minde the other life nor lift up their souls to high and heavenly things There be many other evils beside these that follow of the secularity of Priests which were long here to rehearse but I make an end These be the four evils that I have spoken of O Fathers O Priests by which we are conformable to this world by which the face of the Church is made ill-favoured by which the state of it is destroyed much more truly then it was in the beginning by the persecution of tyrants or afterward by the invasion of hereticks that followed For in the persecution of tyrants the Church being afflicted was made stronger and brighter in the invasion of hereticks the Church being shaken was made wiser and more skilfull in holy writ but since this secularity was brought in since the worldly manner of living crept in among Church-men the root of all spiritual life that is charitie hath been extinct which being taken away the Church can neither be wise nor strong in God In this age we are sensible of the contradiction of lay-people But they are not so much contrary to us as we are to our selves Their contrariness hurteth not us so much as the contrariness of our own evil life which is contrary both to God and Christ who said He that is not with me is against me We are also now adays troubled with hereticks men intoxicated with strange opinions but the heresies of them are not so pestilent and pernicious to us and the people as the naughty lives of Priests which if we beleeve S. Bernard is a kinde of heresie nay the chief of all and most perillous For that holy Father preaching in a certain Convocation to the Priests of his time had these words in his sermon Many men are Catholick in their speaking and preaching which are hereticks in their works and actions For what the hereticks do by evil teaching the same do these men by ill example viz. they lead the people out of the right way and bring them into errour of life And these men are so much worse then hereticks by how much their works prevail more then their words This that holy Father S. Bernard spoke with a fervent spirit against the sect of evil Priests in his time By which words he sheweth plainly that there be two kinds of heresies one arising from perverse teaching the other from naughty life of which two this latter is far worse and more perillous reigning now in Priests who do not live like themselves not priestly but secularly to the utter and miserable destruction of the Church of God Wherefore you Fathers you Priests and all you of the Clergy at last rouze and look up from this your sleep in this forgetfull world and being well awaked hear S. Paul crying unto you Be ye not conformed to this world Thus much for the