Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	salt_n	spirit_n	volatile_a	987	5	12.2917	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41549	The reformed bishop, or, XIX articles tendered by Philarchaiesa, well-wisher of the present government of the Church of Scotland, as it is settled by law, in order to the further establishment thereof.	Gordon, James, Pastor of Banchory-Devenick.	1679 (1679)	Wing G1279; ESTC R10195	112,676	318

of our Church do not by their applying violent Corrosives to some who are obnoxious to Error and too great Lenitives to others who are Scandalous give occasion unto any of applying to them that usual Observation concerning the Roman Church That she punisheth more severely the Violaters of her own Laws than the Transgressors of the unquestionable Laws of God I cannot deny but that it doth exceedingly grate my Spirit to hear the Adversaries of our Church upbraid the present Government with a Connivence at some Scandals by saying That it was not so in the Time of their Covenant for so they term that Rebellious Combination against Church and State and that Presbytery was a better Bulwark against Error and Prophaneness than Episcopacy I fail not indeed to tell them that it must needs have been a very precious Rampart which was cemented with the Blood of Kings and that I could give them an account of many Tyrants both in regard of Usurpation and Domination who made very good Laws and put them severely in execution For Ex malis moribus bonae oriuntur Leges Yet I wish from my very Soul That our Church as it is now Constituted did in Piety Charity and Purity both as to Errour and Prophaneness outvie all the Sects and Conventicles in the World See the Acts of the First General Council at Nice under Constantine the Great against the Arrians The Second General Council at Constantinople under Theodosius the Great against the Macedonians The Third General Council at Ephesus against the Nestorians Auspiciis Theodosii Iunioris The Fourth General Council against the Futychians under Martianus The Fifth under Justinian the Great against the T●ta Capitula And of the Sixth under Constantinus Pogonatus against the Monoth●●●es Not to speak of many Provincial Synods during that Interval Vide Concil Ta●raconens Can. 4. Concil Antisiodor Can. 34. Concil Tolet. 4. Can. 30. Tolet. 11. Can. 6. Tol. 1. Can. 5. Conc. Matiscon 2. Can. 1. Where we have these express words Nemo Die Dominico ●alem sibi necessitatem exhibeat quae jugum cervicibus jumentorum imponere cogat Fslote omnes Hymnis Laudibus Deo intenti Si quis vestrûm proximam habeat Ecclesiam properet ad eandem ibi Die Dominico seme●ipsum precibus lachrymisque afficiat c. Vid. etiam Concil Antisiodor Can. 16. Vide Hieronym Comment ad cap. 4. Thren Peccantes mansuetudine provocentur non austeritate abjiciantur August scribens ad Proculianum partis Donatianae Sectarium Doceri moderatä ratione ad Colloquia amicas Collationes invitari debent qui cogi non possunt Decere quippe ●erae Religionis cultores ut à perpetuo proposito non recedant vincendi in bono malum Idem ad Cecilianum Praesidem i●a scribi● Vt tumor sacrilegae vanitatis terrendo potius sanetur quàm ulciscendo resecetur Epist. ad Aurel. Episcop Si quando minae ab iis qui praesunt adhibeantur id cum dolore fieri oportere ultionisque ●●●tum ex Seripturis intentari debere ne ipsi in sua potestate sed Deus in corum sermone timeatur Et in Luculenta illa ad Bonifac. Comitem Epist. idem subdit In hujusmodi Causis ubi pergraves dissentionum s●●ssuras non hujus aut illius hominis est periculum sed populorum strages jacent detra●endum esse aliquid severitati majoribus malis sanandis charitate subvenien●lum Quod adeo in Ecclesia obtinuit 〈…〉 Sententia semel atque iterumin Gratiani Decretum transcripta sit B. Ambrosius à Valentiniano Imp. puero ad Maximum Imp. missus sub id tempus quo iste Tyrannus Priscilliani caput amputasset in Relatione sua testatur cum Treviris esset abstinuisse se ab iis Episcopis qui 〈◊〉 communicabant à side devios ad ●ecem petebant Vid. etiam Greg. 1. Moral Lib 2● Par. 4. c. 6. Et Lib. 2. Epist. 52. Lib. 11. Ep. 15. Article XVI 1 King 21. 19 20. 22. 14 15 16 17. 2 King 3. 13 14. Isa. 58. 1. Ier. 1. 17 18. Ezek. 2. 6. 3. 9. Mat. 10. 28. Act. 4. 19 20 29. 9. 27 29. 1 Tim. 5. 21. Tit. 2. 15. IN the foregoing Article we have hinted at the Execution of Discipline And seeing divers Appeals come from Inferiour Church-Judicatories to the Bishops and their Diocesan Synods Let me entreat them with a holy and discreet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to reprehend all who are found guilty within their Jurisdiction by discountenancing and Censuring all who are Contumacious in Schism obstinate in Prophaneness and pertinacious in Errour especially if they be Apostates from our Religion to Quakerism Popery or Atheism For if they be observed to be destitute of that Courage or Resolution which is necessary in any Governour it will give occasion unto many to conclude That God never Call'd them to that Office seeing they are not e●du'd with the Spirit of their Calling For as the Spirit of Government was imparted by Heaven to the Son of Kish before his Election to the Regal Office so the Almighty sends none to labour in his Vineyard but he first furnisheth them with competent Abilities to work there The Passion of Fear as Syracides tells us betrays those Forces which Reason brings into the Soul and many times argues an evil Conscience within For the Righteous are bold as a Lion but the Timerous and Wicked are hide-bound irresolute resty and unactive always obnoxious to a pannick fear and void of zeal for the Glory of God through Want of the Virtue of active Fortitude so that they are many times afraid of their own shadows And it was upon the account of that destitution that the Primitive Church did declare the Lapsi and Clinicks who were Baptized in that condition irregular and inhabiles to Ossiciate at the Altar the Former because they wanted Christian Courage as is insinuated Can. X. Concilii Magni Nicaeni and the Later should not be Ordain'd because their Faith who are Baptized on their sick Bed seems not to be voluntary but of necssity which is explicitly given as the reason of that Interdict by the 12th Canon of Neo-Caesarea And without all Peradventure He and he only is framed by Heaven to be an approved Governour either of Church or State who can say in sincerity with S. Chrysostome I fear nothing but Sin For as the Poet saith Degeneres animos Timor arguit Now the Courage of a Church-Governour imports such a Magnanimity that excludes Pusillanimity on the one hand and Temerity on the other that foelix temeritas which as Seneca observed attended the Actions of Alexander the Great being unsutable in a Church-man who ought alwayes to order his Affairs with discretion For Christian Prudence admits of the Sagacity of the Serpent in conjunction with the Harmlesness of the Dove Therefore this Virtue in an Ecclesiastick must also shut out that Volatile Salt which is observed in some who pretend to Greatness of

Spirit and should be reduc'd to such a Fixation that amounts to an immoveable Constancy in that which after mature deliberation hath once been well resolved upon in conformity to that Advice of Judicious Salust Antequam incipias Consulta ubi Consulueris maturè facto opus est But that Fixation must never come the length of a Caput Mortuum For as a faint-hearted Creature is easily frighted by the Audacious so an unconstant wavering Spirit is with no less facility imposed and wrought upon by the Crafty That Character of Socrates Semper eodem incedebat vul●u and that Prince's Motto Semper idem are decent Epithetes in a Church-man As the inflexible Justice of Aristides merited that Elogium That the Sun might be sooner diverted from its Course than that Noble Athenian from the Path of Iustice So the inviolable Resolution of Athanasius to adhere unto the Truth procured that deserved Encomium Sedem potiùs mutare voluit quàm Syllabam Yea less than a Syllable even the interposition of one Letter into the Churches Creed would have composed the Difference betwixt the Orthodox and Arrians and have procured eternal Peace to the Christian World all the Years of the Reign of the Emperours Constantius and Valens and that in all probability much more effectually than the Nine disparate Creeds Penned by the Arrians during the Reign of Constantius But they adhered closely to the Council of Nice and did choose rather to cast themselves upon the Providence of God than to consent to the least Alteration they perceiving that the substitution of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 did not only pervert the Sence and enervate the Authority of that great Synod but that it did totally invalidate its Determination for Consubstantiality For the Orthodox considered that as Wisdom is alwaies justified of her own Children So that Wisdom which descends from above is first pure then peaceable And that Optabilius est Bellum pace impiâ à Deo distrahente But I greatly fear that there are too many in this Iron Age so flexible that they would Cause to renounce not only any Letter of the Alphabet but also all the Dutch Consonants and Selavonian Words yea both Α and Ω before they willingly abandoned their Seats they being Willows and not Oaks Which was given as the reason by an old Courtier why he stood but I suppose not uprightly in favour during all the Twenty four Years of Bloody War betwixt the Red Rose and the White such persons having a Versatile Ingenium as was said of Cato the Elder which can uti foro servire Scenae But a prudent Resolution with a Couragious Constancy in a Church-Governour will not fail to animate all the Presbyters within his Jurisdiction to exercise Church-Discipline impartially without any fear of finding their own subordinate Authority baffled in the matter of Appeals when Scandalous persons provoke from their Award to the Bishops Tribunal which is too frequently practis'd in this Age. But if in lieu of strengthening they perceive their Superiours palpably weakening their hands by conniving too long and indulging too much unto some Delinquents it will give occasion even to those who cannot but approve the form of Government to wish that they had never seen such Governours who regard not the Glory of God or the Good of his Church nor the Credit of their own Office nor the Reputation of their Clergy and that they are too like unto K. Saul given rather for a Curse than a Blessing unto the People of God All Laodicean Bishops and all who as the Satyr said blow hot and cold with one mouth being hateful in the sight of God and odious in the eyes of those who have a pure zeal for the Glory of God and the Good of his Church for Corruptio optimi est pessima Yet I doubt not but that this free Remonstrance though made by the most Conform of the Clergy shall verifie that of the Royal Prophet Tange montes fumigabunt which by some of the old Fathers is applied to these rancorous Vapors which barefac'd Truth exhales from some Mountains of worldly Dignity And from these little partial Policies which savour too rankly of a timorous sinful Compliance Judicious Spectators will take occasion to compare them unto Aesop's Dog who would neither do good nor let good be done and to the Crimaean Tartars who will not suffer the Polonians to manure a parcel of fertile ground interjacent betwixt them and that part of the Ancient Scythia Europaea neither will they be at the pains to cultivate it themselves I deny not but Pax cum hominibus Bellum cum vitiis is an Ancient Christian Maxim But sure I am Pax cum hominibus vitiis is an Antichristian Conjuncture But the impartial execution of Discipline hath also a Train of many other excellent Advantages following after it For all the Cardinal Vertues do evidently and eminently appear therein And it is an imitation of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our Great Master as also the best Expedient to perswade all Ranks of people to comply with their Admonitions and to submit enirely and cheerfully to the Yoke of Discipline when they perceive their Rulers to be no Respecters of Persons and that their Justice is so far blind as not to put any difference in their Censures betwixt the Noble and the Ignoble the Rich and the Poor But if any Byass be perceived towards the Left Hand of Secular Interest unbyassed persons will be apt to resemble those Canons whereby they pretend to be regulated unto Spiders Webs as one compared Solon's Laws which catch the lesser Insects but the greater ones pass through them Scot-free It was certainly the Consideration of the unmalleable impartiality of a Prelat which prompted that Great Emperor Theodosius to say That he knew no Bishop but Ambrose There is but little fear in this byassed Age of the World of the violation of that Antique Precept Ye sh●ll not countenance a poor man in his Cause but the Reverse thereof is too frequently transgressed it being an old Complaint Dat veniam Corvis vexat Censura Columbas Another Advantage of the impartial Execution of Discipline is a great Conformity to the Method of the Primitive Church And sure if the prudent practice of many disused Penitentiary Canons were retrived into this Age it would resemble the Face and Garb of the Ancient Christian Church much more than it doth Me thinks it cannot but be a matter of great admiration unto any that is acquainted with the Primitive History to find even before the Roman Empire turn'd Christian such a Crowd of Penitents especially the Lapsi willingly offering themselves to undergo the severest Penances enjoined by those Ancient Canons which were so strict and diuturnal that many of them required many years appearance in Sackcloth and Ashes before they were accomplished the Church-Guides wanting the Brachium Saeculare to second their Discipline and many times