Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	aaron_n	appear_v	call_v	19	3	3.7932	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50410	Certain sermons and letters of defence and resolution to some of the late controversies of our times by Jas. Mayne.	Mayne, Jasper, 1604-1672.	1653 (1653)	Wing M1466; ESTC R30521	161,912	220

men altogether unletter'd men called from mending nets to preach the Gospell If this were so That God according to his good pleasure without any consideration of study or height of parts chose simple unlearned unstudied men to be Prophets and Apostles and Teachers then why should any thinke he hath so confined or entailed his free Spirit or vocation of men upon great parts and studies that he may not if he please call the like unstudied simple men from the Plough or Fisher-boat or Stall or Shop-board to be Ministers of his Gospel and Teachers of his people now My Brethren you see I have not prevaricated or diminished ought of the strength of the Argument which is urged in favour of Lay-mens preaching In answer to which laying aside all partiality to my selfe and prejudice against them I shall with the same spirit of meekness and Candour with which Saint Paul here in this Text bespoke his Corinthians beseech you who heare me this day to observe and weigh and consider well this which I shall say for a Reply First Far far be it from me so to flatter the place of my Education or so to biass my beleef by any false ovevarluing of humane Industry or great parts that I should pinion as it were or put limits to the power of the Almighty Or should be so irreligiously bold as to gain-say that piece of his Gospell which compares his holy Spirit to the Wind which bloweth where it listeth If they who thus pretend to a private Inspiration doe meane that whatever God did in the times heretofore he is able to doe now I shall easily grant it And here in the presence of you all confesse my selfe to be of their opinion Nor shall I make any doubt or scruple at all to say that if we looke upon what God is able to doe by the same power by which he was able to raise up Children to Abraham out of stones or to speake yet more neerly to the Argument in hand by the same power that hee was able to make a Herd-man a Prophet or a Fisher-man an Apostle he is able in our times also if he please to make the meanest Tradesman one of the greatest Luminaries of his Church Since to an Omnipotent Agent whose gifts are meerly Arbitrary and depend wholly upon the pleasure of his owne will the greatest endowments of men and the least are alike easie But though he be able to doe this and in the ancient times of the Scripture have imparted his Gifts without respect of Persons yet whether he now will or whether in our times hee doth still thus extraordinarily raise up Teachers to himselfe is extreamly to be doubted For here with all the Christian gentleness and reason which may possibly conduce to the clearing of this doubt were I to argue this Controversie with one of those men who invade our function and from gathering of Sycamore fruit step up into the Pulpit I would onely aske him this question What Commission he hath thus to usurp upon our Office Or who signed him his patent Since the Apostle tells us in the fifth Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrewes at the fourth Verse A place well worth your marking my Brethren That no man taketh this honour of a Priest to himselfe But he who is called of God as was Aaron I know his common answer will bee that God hath called him to this Office by the secret Instinct and Motion of his Holy Spirit But then he must not take it ill if I yet farther aske him by what signes or markes or testimonies or tokens he can either ma●… it reasonably appeare to himselfe or others that God hath dealt with him as he dealt with some of the Prophets or Apostles called him from his Trade by such a motion of his Spirit Elisha we know made Iron swim and knew mens Closet-discourses in a farre Countrey which was a sure and certaine signe that God had called him to be a Prophet The Apostles also we know wrought many of Christs miracles which was a most infallible signe that God had chosen them to be Apostles If any of these men who derive their warrant from the same sacred spring can make Iron swim or like Elisha remaining here in their owne Israel can tell us what the King of Syria saies in his Bed-chamber Or if like Saint Peter they can cure fevers and diseases by their bare shadowes passing over them Or if like the rest of the Apostles having never before knowne Letters they can of a sudden speake all Languages the Controversie is at an end It would bee a very great sinne against the Spirit of God to deny that hee is in them of a Truth But if all the proofe and signe they can give us that they have him be onely a strong perswasion of themselves Nay if by an infallible Illumination they could assure themselves that they have him yet as many as have not the like infallible Illumination to assure them so too will not be guilty of an unpardonable offence if they suspect they have him not For here I must once more repeat my former Question and aske by what effects or signes of the Spirit men shall know them to be called By what will some man say why Doe you not heare them preach expound Scripture unfold Prophecies interpret Parables nay plucke the veile and cloud from the Booke of Mysteries it selfe the very Revelation Can any of you great Schollers with all your study of Philosophers Fathers Councells Schoole-men Historians Oratours Poets either hold your Congregations longer or send them away more edified And will you yet ask Questions Or doubt of the certainty of their vocation I must not dissemble with you if I could meet with an unlearned Handicraft-man who without study can doe this to the same height and measure of Truth as those unjustly-cryed downe learned and well-studied men doe I should begin to alter my opinion And should reckon him as hee deserves in the number of the inspired But alas my Brethren as I am not come hither to disparage the guifts of the Holy Ghost in what person soever I finde them or to perswade that Scripture rightly expounded is not one and the same from the mouth of a Priest or an inspired Lay-man so this I must freely say to you That as many of those strange Teachers as I have heard have expounded Scripture indeed and have ventured upon some of the hardest places of the Prophets But then if all my studies of the Bible assisted with all those holy uncorrupted learned helps which might enable mee to understand it aright have not deceived me their expositions and Sermons how passionately delivered or how long soever are evident proofes to mee that they have not the Spirit If they had they would never certainely expound Scripture so directly contrary to his meaning Or make the writings of the Prophets or Apostles weare only that present shape not which the holy Ghost hath

Chapter of his first Epistle at the first verse where as if he had prophecyed of our times he sayes Beloved beleeve not every spirit but try the spirits whether they be of God because many false Prophets are gone out into the world In which words you have two of the best Rules assigned you to go by that can possibly be prescribed for the settlement of minds First be not too credulous Doe not presently beleeve every man that sayes he hath the Spirit nor suffer your selves to be tost and carried about with every wind of doctrine For that is not the way to be all of one but of as many severall minds as the art or cunning of severall Teachers shall please to work upon you I am perswaded this easinesse of belief this credulity or as the Apostle calls it this admiration this overvaluing of some mens persons hath been one of the great parents of our present dissentions whilst some weak but yet well-minded people building their judgment meerly upon the outward appearances of men have mistaken the zeal and strict life of their Preacher for his sufficiency And taking their Logicke from the precisenesse of his behaviour have framed these charitable but false conclusions to themselves He is a man of a composed countenance of a reserved speech of a grave carriage and of a devout elocution therefore surely he is a holy man And because he is a holy man therefore whatever hee saies shall be to us Oracle as coming from the mouth of one so much in the favour of God that it is impossible he should deceive us or speak that which is not right My Brethren I have no designe or purpose to bring Holinesse into contempt nor can I bee so injurious to piety or a good life where ever I find it as to expose it to the scorne of the licentious by not giving it its due I am so farre also from lending encouragement to the lives of vitious Teachers Teachers who are the shame of their Mother and the scandall of their Flock that I could wish that every Congregation in England were furnished with such an exemplary Minister that his life as well as preaching might be Sermon to the people Nay give me leave I beseech you to extend my charity yet one degree farther I am so farre from disliking holinesse either in Preacher or people that I wish we all made but one united Kingdome of Priests Or if you will have me expresse my selfe in the words of one of the holiest and meekest men of the earth I could wish that all the Lords People were Prophets But then you must give me leave to say too That holinesse and strictnesse and austerity of life are no infallible signes that the Preacher may not erre Nor hath God so annext the understanding of his Word to the unstudied unlearned piety or sober carriage of the Expounder that he that is most zealous shall still bee most in the right As long as that saying of S. Paul remaines upon record That we hold this treasure this knowledge of Gods Will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in earthen vessells As long as the Preacher how holy soever he be is so much one of the people as to dwell in a fraile weake Tabernacle of clay Lastly as long as men are men they will bee liable to mens infirmities And as the learned scandalous Preacher may be sometimes in the right so it is possible that the ignorant zealous holy Preacher may be often in the wrong How to know this and how to distinguish them therefore you are to make use of the next Rule prescribed to you by Saint Iohn that is when you heare an Exposition or a Sermon or a new Doctrine preached to you not rashly without distinction or choice to consent to it till you have past the impartiall sentence of a cleare judgement on it compared and weighed Sermon with Sermon and Preacher with Preacher called every Doctrine every Proofe every confident Assertion to the touch-stone and measured it by some plaine evident place of Scripture and examined whether the Holy Ghost or his owne vaine popular ambition have for that time inspired the speaker or whether his Sermon have had some dissembled secular end or Gods glory for its marke And this Saint Iohn calls ●…ying of the spirits which is then done when as I said before you reduce what you heare spoken by the Preacher to the infallible Rule of Truth the Word of God and make that well considered the scales to weigh his Doctrine in Does hee preach charity and banish strife from his Pulpit Does he not flatter Vice though he find it clothed in Purple nor speak neglectfully of Vertue though he finde it clothed in rags Does he strive to plant the feare and love of God in his Auditory the forgivenesse of their enemies and pity towards the poore Dares he arraigne a publique sinne though never so fortunate or speak in defence of afflicted Innocence though over-borne by oppression Dares he maintaine his Christian courage in Tyrannicall doubtfull times And dares he call prosperous Sedition but a more successefull mischiefe Lastly does he preach such Christian Truths for which some holy men have died and to which he himselfe would not be affraid to fall a sacrifice This this man is to be hearkned to this man is fit to bee obeyed And this man speaking the same things which God himselfe doth in the Scripture whatever his gifts of pleasing or not pleasing sick fastidious delicate fancies be is thus at least to be thought of That though he speake not by the Spirit as a thing entailed upon him yet for that time the Spirit speaks by him which ought to be all one to you On the contrary does the Preachers Sanctity and Religion consist meerly in the devout composure of his looks and carriage Does he strive to preach downe Learning or does he call Study a humane folly Does he choose his Text out of the Bible and make the Sermon out of his Fancy Does he reprove Adultery but preach up discord Is he passionate against Superstition but milde and calme towards Sacriledge Does hee inveigh and raile at Popery and at the same time imitate the worst of Papists Jesuits urge Texts for the Rebellion of Subjects against their Prince and quote Scripture for the deposing and Butchery of Kings Does hee startle at a dumb picture in a Church-window and at the same time preach all good order and right Discipline out of the Church Does an Oath provoke his zeale yet does he count lying in the godly no sin Lastly does hee preach separation upon weake untemper'd grounds Or does labour to divide the minds which hee should strive to reconcile Let him bring what demurenesse or composure of countenance he please into the Pulpit Let him if he please joyne sanctity of deportment to earnestnesse of zeale Let him never so devoutly bewaile the calamities of his Country which