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	call_v	deceive_v	26	3	9.6067	4	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

Surplices and the like Church Vestures are superstitious because some superstitious men weare them or that our Comm●…●…rayer booke is Poperie because part of it is to bee found in the 〈◊〉 of that Church or that the government of the Church 〈◊〉 bishops is Antichristian because in their beleefe Antichrist al●…ady is or when he comes into the world shall be a Bishop For here if I should presse them in a rationall logicall way un●…sie they will call Argument and Logick and Supersti●…●…oo ●…oo and banish Reason as well as Liturgy out of the Church ●…o think as they doe that Churches are unhallowed by reason of their ornaments or to perswade people to refrain them because some out of a blind zeale have paid worship to the Windows is to me a feare●…s ●…s on reasonable as theirs was who refused to goe to Sea because ●…ere was a Painter in the City who limned Shipwracks For certainly if that be all the reason they have to banish Images out of th●… Church because some if yet there have been any so stupid have made them Idols by the same reason we should not now have a Sun or Moon or Stars in the Firmament but they should long sin●… have dropt from Heaven because some of the deluded Heathen worshipt them And if that be all the reason they have to prove Surplices or white vestments superstitious because Papists wear them pardon the meannesse of the subject I beseech you which is score●… worthy of a confutation why doe not they also conclude Linnes to be superstitious because Papists shift and so make cleanlinesse to be as unlawfull as Surplices or Copes Thirdly to say our Co●… prayer-booke is Popish because 't is so good that some in the Church of Rome have praised it is to mee an accusation as sencelesse as theirs who accused the Generall of their Army of treason against the State because his enemies out of the admiration of his vertues erected a Statue to him Lastly to call the government of our Church by Bishops Antichristian because that Church which they make to be the seat of Antichrist is so governed is to me such a weak Imputation as by the same reason makes all the Christian Governments of the world pagan And therefore to be utterly extirpated and banisht out of the world because in some points of Government they resemble the Common-wealths of Infidels To all which vain unlearned impotent shallow objections raised against the Church when I have added their vain improbable conjectures and objections raised against the State too Where things possible nay in a civill politick way almost impossible have beene urged and cited as things present and done Where because some Princes have been Tyrants and grievous to their Subjects people in serene easie halcyon times have bin made beleeve that an Aegyptian bondage and Thraldome was ready to fall upon them And where because there was a time when a bunch of Grapes or two extraordinary was gathered for the publicke people after so many reparations so many acts of recompence have been entertained that those few irregular Grapes were but the prologues and fore-runners to the intended rape which should in time have been committed upon the whole future following vine I cannot look upon the Prophets who have thus preacht vanity to them thus amuzed them with false imaginary dangers but under that description which the Prophet Ieremy hath made of them in his 23. chap. at the 26. verse where he calls them Prophets of the deceit of their owne hearts Seers who coyne their owne visions Men who relying wholly upon the uncertaine illumination of their own fancies which they call the Spirit and having never acquainted themselves with the true wayes and principles either of reason or Religion which should cleare their mindes and take off the grosse filme which beclouds their understandings make it their businesse and profession to deceive themselves and others Building false conclusions upon weak irrationall premisses and supporting improbable conjectures by fictions and untruths Which suggests to me the second abuse of the Ministery and function of these Prophets here in the Text. Which was that they not onely saw vanity but divined lyes too The thing in nature which makes the expression hold true that man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sociable creature is that we are able to repay conversation with conversation and have a privilege bestowed upon us beyond that of beasts that wee can unite and joyne our selves to one another by speech Without which we who now make rationall assemblies and Common-wealths had been only a rude discomposed multitude and Herd of men Nay without Language to expresse our selves and to associate our selves to one another in Discourse every man had been thus like the first that he had been alone and solitary in the world For where commerce and entercourse and exchange of minds is denyed and where all that passeth between us of men is that we are Alter alteri spectaculum onely a dumbe speechlesse shew and spectacle to one another meetings and numerous Assemblies are but so many unpeopled Wildernesses and desarts And where all that we enjoy of one anothers company is onely the dull sight and presence every one of us may reckon himselfe single in a full theatre and crowd As speech then was at first bestowed upon us that we might hold conversation and discourse with one another so there was a Law imposed upon us too that wee should not deceive one another by our sppeech * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is Aristotl●…s definition of speech which hath a piece of commutative Iustice in it Words sayes he are the images of thoughts That is sayes the Divine they alwayes ought or should be so The minde is thereby enabled to walke forth of the Body and to make visits to another separated divided mind Our Soules also assisted by Speech are able to meet and converse and hold entercourse with other Soules Nay you must not wonder at the expression if I say that as God at first conveyed our minds and Soules into us by breathing into us the breath of Life so by Speech he hath enabled us as often as we discourse to breath them reciprocally back againe into each other For never man yet spoke Truth to another and heard that other speake Truth back againe to him but for that time the saying of Minutius Felix was fulfilled Crederes duas esse animas in eodem corpore there were enterchangeably two mindes in one Body But this as I said before is onely when Truth is spoken Otherwise as the Question was askt of fire Igne quid utilius What more usefull gift did God ever bestow upon us then Fire And yet the same Poet tells us that some have imployed it to burne Houses So we may say of Words Sermone quid utilius What more beneficiall gift of nature did God ever bestow upon us then Speech 'T is the thing which doth outwardly distinguish