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	outward_a	26	3	7.2182	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

imprinted and stampt upon them but which tends to the division of a Kingdom and the confusion of a Church Nor would they as they do what ever the Text be presse that sense from it not which is genuine and naturall but which tends most to the destruction of a party or the fomentation of a most unnaturall Civill Warre Saint Paul tells us in the fift Chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians at the 22 and 23. Verses that the fruits or effects of the Spirit are love peace long-suffering gentlenesse meeknesse temperance He useth to speake to men in the voice and figure of a Dove But to entitle him to all those forbidden workes of the flesh of variance hatred sedition heresies envyings murthers and the like there reckoned up in the precedent Verses of that Chapter is to make him speake with the voice of a Raven In short my Brethren the Holy Ghost is not the Author of such Doctrines as breake Gods Commandements in the Pulpit Nor is it a long Prayer or a zealous two-houres reviling of the foot-steps of the Lords Anointed their lawfull Soveraigne which can make their Sermons to be any other then so much Libell or holy Detractation Or which can make their Intrepretations of the Word of God how moderate soever in other cases if they be not agreeable to the scope and minde and intention of the Holy Ghost to be any more then so many zealous mistakes and so many illegitimate births and creatures of their own deluded fancies Next in pursuit of this seasonable Argument give me leave I pray with all the plainenesse I can for I well know where I am and to what Auditorie I speake to make it yet farther evident to you that if I should grant what these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Basil calls them these Saints of a daies growth challenge to themselves who thinke that all that is required to make a Minister of the Gospell is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 onely to be willing and to start up a Preacher If I say it should be granted them that they have the inward calling of the Spirit yet God is so much the God of order that unlesse they will enter themselves into his service by undergoing those Rites of Consecration and Imposition of Hands which God hath prescribed in his Church to stand for ever as the outward formes and signes of their vocation too every act of the Ministerie which they performe is but a sacrifice like theirs who offered strange fire before the Lord and miserably perisht by their owne forbidden Censors Or if you will have me expresse the danger of it by a judgement as terrible Thus to put their hand to the Arke thus to support it if 't were ready to fall is such an unwarranted piece of officiousnesse as will certainely unrepented at some time or other draw the punishment of Uzzrah upon them provoke the abused Almighty to breake forth in a flame of fire upon them and consume them for their unnecessarie diligence For here all the Scripture examples which imbolden them to this worke do returne upon them as so many instances and proofes of their incroachment on our office For here let me once more ask them How was Elisha called to be a Prophet meerly by the secret unknown whisper and instinct of the holy Ghost Truly if he had yet this would not make much for them because God never tyed himself precisely to those outward formes in the choice of a Prophet which he then did and still doth in the choice of his Priests Yet the calling of this Prophet was not without its visible signe Goe saies God to Elias in the 19. Chap. of the first booke of Kings at the 16. Verse Anoint Elisha the Son of Shaphat to be Prophet in thy roome And whether the like Ceremony of powring oyle on his head were not also performed by some elder Prophet upon Amos as the younger as 't is not affirmed so 't is not denyed in Scripture but left probable In the Consecration of the Priests of those times the case is much more evident Read at your leisure the 29. Chapter of Exodus there you shall finde that before God would receive them into that sacred function first divers Sacrifices were to bee offered for them then they were to be brought to the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation and there to bee washt then the Priests Garments the Coat the Ephod the Brest-plate and Mitre were to be put upon them Lastly followed the anointing oyle which was powred upon their heads And this was the Consecration of the Priests of those times The Ceremonies of Consecration in the New Testament were different I confesse from those of the Old but yet equivalent and answerable to them in their kinde These were a publike meeting of the Church together a presentation there made of the person to bee made a Priest solemne prayers and supplications put up to God to make him usefull to his Church and for a seale of all the rest the Imposition of the Bishops hands assisted by his Presbyters Now my Brethren apply this to the strange Priests of our times who with unwasht feet thrust themselves into the Tabernacle not a sacrifice not so much as a handfull of meale or grain of Incense or drop of oyl spent towards their Consecration No solemne assembly no presentation of themselves made to God no imposition of hands not so much as a short Prayer or benediction or God speed you used towards their setting forth into the Lords Vineyard and you will find that these are the theeves and robbers pardon the hardness of the language I cannot make the Scripture speake mildlier then it doth which our Saviour Christ speaks of in the 10. Chapter of S. Iohn at the first Verse Men who enter not in by the doore into the sheep-fold but climbe up some other way In briefe men whose Sermons and Doctrines correspond to their consecrations By stealth they enter into the Ministery and by stealth they exercise it And whereas the mark and Character of all the true Ministers of the Gospel is to stand having their feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace these men wander and goe about having their feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of strife Men who never think themselves sufficiently Apostles till all the world doe call them the sons of thunder too Men who speake fire and throw lightning among the people and thinke they have then onely done the worke and businesse of an Apostle when they have cast the Congregation which they leave behind them into a cumbustion and flame I shall trouble your patience but with one Objection which may possibly be made against what I have hitherto said that is this Here some one of these moderne selfe-inspiring Teachers may say Sir you tell us of Ceremonies and Consecrations and I know not what Imposition of hands but either you have forgot your selfe or