Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A50410
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Certain sermons and letters of defence and resolution to some of the late controversies of our times by Jas. Mayne.
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Mayne, Jasper, 1604-1672.
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1653
(1653)
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Wing M1466; ESTC R30521
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161,912
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220
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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 maâ—… 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
Apollos Are ye not carnall sayes he at the 4. v. of that Chapter If to divide and separate from the Followers of S. Paul and to make themselves the Followers and Disciples of Apollos or if by way of Separation to make themselves the markes of severall Churches to which Apostles were the Guides were a sinne of Carnâ—…lity as S. Paul sayes it was what shall we say of some people of our Times who instead of severall Apostles to divide themselves by doe chuse to themselves Guides so meane so unlearned so liable to Errour that they perfectly make between them the picture of Mistakes The Blinde leading the Blinde and both fallen into a Ditch 'T is not now as 't was then When some said we are of Paul and when others said we are of Cephas and when others said we are of Apollos Others we are of Christ. Though to make the Names of Christ or Paul or Cephas names of Faction was a sinne But we are faln on Times so made of Separation that people doe divide themselves by Teachers whose second Trade is Teaching Teachers so obscure so bred to manuall Occupations Teachers so sprung up from the basest of the people Lastly Teachers so accustomed to the Trewell Forge and Anvill that I almost blush to name them in the Pulpit 'T is not now saâ—…d we are of Paul And we are of Apollos But we are of Wat Tyler We are of Iacke Cade We are of Alexander the Coporsmith We are of Tom the Mason and we are of Dicke the Gelder And whether to Divide and Separate under such vulgar Names as These be no a sinne of the Flesh I leave to every one of you who have read S. Paul to judge And here now if Time were not a Winged Thing or if it would but stay my leisure I might lay before you many other places of the Scripture which clearly doe demonstrate that Separation is a sinne For though like the Ghost of Samuel which you read of in the Scripture it usually appeare cloathed in the Mantle of a Prophet though it were Holinesse in the Tongue And precisenesse in the Face yet to let you see what an Apple of Sodome it is How it lookes with a Virgin cheek without and is nought but Rottennesse within I shall once more desire you to heare what S. Paul sayes of it In the 5. Chapter of the Galatians at the 19. and 20. verses of that chapter Where he once more reckons it among the sinnes of the Flesh. As for Example The Works of the Flesh are manifest sayes he which are these Adulterie Fernication Uncleannesse Lasciviousnesse Idolatrie Witchcraft Hatred Variance Emulation Wrath Strife Seditions Haeresies sayes our English Translation But the words in the Originall Greek which are the true Word of God will beare it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That is Divisions Sects Envyings Murthers Drunkennesse Revellings and such like Of the which I tell you before sayes he As I have told you in Times past That They which doe such Things shall not Inherit the Kingdome of God Where you see Seditions Sects and Schismes as well as Adulterie and Murther are there listed by S. Paul among those works of the Flesh which doe shut men out of Heaven and exclude them from salvation Many such like places of the Scripture I might lay before you But I will content my selfe with one Argument more which shall not onely prove to you That Separation is a sinne But one of the Greatest sinnes of which Christians can be guilty To make this cleare to you and beyond all Dispute or Question That which I will say to you and mark it well is this 'T is a Rule in Divinity and t is a Rule infallible That those sinnes are the Greatest which are most contrary and doe most oppose the greatest Christian vertues Now the Three Great Christian vertues which doe make and constitute a Christian are set downe by S. Paul in the 13. chapter of his first Epistle to the Corinthians at the last verse where he sayes Now abideth Faith Hope and Charity But the Greatest of these is Charity Thus then stands the case Distrust in Gods promises or an unbeliefe in his power is a very great sinne For 't is a sinne which doth oppose and quite cut off the wings of Hope Haeresie or the strife and obstinate Defence and persisting in a knowne Errour is a farre greater sinne For 't is a sinne against Faith a sinne which strives to draw a Cloud about the Beames of Truth But if it be true what S. Paul sayes as most certainly it is If it be true that Charity is greater then either Faith or Hope Then 't will follow by Good Logick and all the Consequence of Reason That that sinne which doth untie and break the Bond of peace That sinne which destroyes Christian Friendship and Communion Lastly That sinne which rends and teares the Cords of Charity asunder is a farre greater sinne then unbeliefe or Haeresie And the sin which doth all this is the sin of Separation First 't is a greater sinne in it selfe and the very formality of the sinne As being the worst Extreme to the best and greatest vertue Namely The vertue of Love By which Christ would have his Followers distinguisht from the rest of Mankinde For by this shall all men know sayes he that you are my Disciples if yee love one another As you may read in the 13. chapter of Iohn at the 35. verse And agreeable to this is that which is delivered here in this Text where the Authour of this Epistle to the Hebrewes sayes Let us consider one another to provoke one another to Love And not forsake the Assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is And as Schisme or Separation upon a slight or needlesse Ground is in it selfe one of the greatest sinnes So t is one of the greatest sinnes too in its dangerous Effects Besides the Hatred Envy Strife which it begets among Men of divided Interests and Mindes T is many times the Coale which sets whole States and Common-wealths on fire It pretends indeed very much to the Spirit And at first cloaths it selfe in the Dresse of Humility and Meeknesse But they who have written the Chronicles of the Church can tell you That those pretences to the Spirit have no sooner gathered strength but they have proceeded to bloudy Battells and pitcht fields Where the Meeke persons have throwne aside their Bibles and have changed the Sword of the Spirit into the Sword of Warre The proceedings of the Donatists in Affricke and of the Iohn-of Leyden-Men at Munster are two sad Examples of the truth of what I say The Grounds of Separation examined BUt here perhaps will some of you who heare me this day say What 's all this to us In saying this which you have hitherto said like those who wrote Romances you have but created an Adversary out of your own fancy and then foyl'd him or like