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	preach_v	46	3	6.3741	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19272	Certaine sermons vvherin is contained the defense of the gospell nowe preached against such cauils and false accusations, as are obiected both against the doctrine it selfe, and the preachers and professors thereof, by the friendes and fauourers of the Church of Rome. Preached of late by Thomas by Gods sufferance Byshop of Lincolne.	Cooper, Thomas, 1517?-1594.	1580 (1580)	STC 5685; ESTC S120768	201,470	274

words make marchandise of your soules c. The same is noted also by S. Paule in way of Prophecie as S. Peter doth that such should come in the latter dayes in greate number For of this sort sayth he are they which crepe into mens houses and leade captiue simple women laden with sinne and lead with diuerse lustes Who seeth not in these Testimonies of the holy Scripture those religious Wolues described whiche in swarmes haue ouerwhelmed the face of the earth and with great shewe and pretence of holinesse and long prayer haue sought not the glory of God but their owne inestimable wealth of the world For by selling their Merits their Prayers their Masses their Pardons by Pilgrimages by Purgatory by absolutions by dispensations and a number of other deuises they haue not onely deuoured an infinite number of Christian soules but crepte into mens Testamentes and from wife and children and kinsfolk got into their clawes the Wealth and Riches of the world I would to God this were not so notoriouslye knowne that it needed no further declaration or proofe Wherefore when you see this Angelicall or Seraphicall shew of heauenly life in these inclosed Wolues haue not by and by their Doctrine in admiracion but looke carefullye vnto their clawes least they crepe within you ere you be ware The second shepes cloathing vnder which false Prophets do hide themselues is Ordinary power and authoritie Long Succession and lawful calling to the Ministerie And as I said before of honest conuersation and Goly life so I must saye of this that it is and ought to bee one of the bewtifull Ornamentes of Christs true sheepe whiche they oughte not to make light accoumpt of nor wythout it to thruste themselues into the Mynisterye of Gods true Doctrine as the Anabaptistes and other phanatical spirits do For S. Paule faith How shal they preach vnlesse they be sent And agayne No man vsurpeth this honor vnlesse he be called thervnto of God as Aaron was If it should be lawfull for euerye man to come into the office of preaching or ministering without ordinary caling there would be broughte into the Church a marueilous confusion of all thinges together with infinite Sects and Erroures But vnder this fayre Title and bewtifull Garment haue many Wolues and wicked Heretiks crept into the church as after you shall perceiue And Christes warning in this place principallye toutheth suche for hee directeth his speeche agaynste the Scribes Pharisies and high Priestes that then were in ordinary Succession calling and authoritie And lykewise doth the spirite of God in al the course of the scriptures both of the old and new Testamēt Moyses sayth If there shall rise among you a Prophet or a Dreamer In medio tui sayth he euen among you or in the middest of you He sayth not a straunger or Forrener comming frō some other place but among you And Esay His watchmen are blinde and know nothing And a little after Behold their Sheapheards are voyd of vnderstanding They are all gone euery man after his owne way And in Hieremie In the Prophets of Hierusalem I saw abhominacion c. Filthinesse and vncleanes is proceded from the Prophets of Hierusalem ouer the whole earth And agayne My people is become a lost flocke theire Sheapheards haue deceiued thē and made thē to wander in the mountains And Ezec. Her Priestes haue peruerted my law vnaduisedlye and haue prophaned my Sanctuarie You sayth Malachi to the Priests haue gon out of the waye and haue caused manye to fall by the lawe Nothing can bee more playne then that whiche Paule speaketh to the Ministers of Ephesus c. I knowe this sayth he That after my departure shall greeuous Wolues enter in among you not sparing the flock Of your own selues shal men arise speaking peruers things to draw disciples after them And Saint John From among vs they came but they were not of vs. Yea S. Paule sayeth that Antechrist shoulde sitte not among Heathen persons or Infidels but in Templo Dei in the Church of God Wherfore you may not maruell though we say that false prophets greeuous wolues are his vnder this fayre shepes cloathing of ordinary Authority succession and calling for the spirite of God hath told vs that it hath so beene and shoulde so bee to the worldes ende You may not therefore thinke that Ordinarie authoritie and calling is a full and iust proofe of good Doctrine or of true preachers Wolues haue deuoured the Flocke vnder that clothing yea suche they haue beene that haue most cruellye persecuted Gods good prophers and the doctrine that they haue taught Who persecuted Hieremie and the other Prophets were they not those that sayde Templū domini Templū domini i. The Tēple of the Lorde The Tēple of the Lord And Nūquid veritas discedet á Sacerdotibus i. Shal the truth depart frō the Priests Were it not they y t stroke Micheas and caused Hieremie to bee cast into prison Who were they that put Christ to death and persecuted his Apostles Doe not the Euangelistes and Actes of the Apostles euidently declare it Doth not Christe giue his Disciples warning that it should bee so These things saith he haue I spoken vnto you that you may not be offended They shall excommunicate you out of their synagoges al for my names sake Were it not they that had ordinary Calling Succession that hadde Authoritye to excommunicate Seing then by testimonie of the Scriptures we learne y t it hath alway bene so among the people of god and the Scriptures witnes in way of Prophecie that in the latter dayes it shoulde bee so Why may not the faythfull people of God greatelye feare that nowe also in our age the false Prophettes bee hid vnder the cloake of Ordinary calling and Succession For this Cause did God extraordinarily rayse and set vp his true Prophets which might sharpely blame reproue those false Maisters Teachers y t did abuse this countenāce of ordinary Successiō Authority to deceaue Gods people carry thē from the law of god to superstition Idolatry Which prophets of god not w tstanding y t ordinary calling succession of the other in many places do tearme them Dumbe Dogs Idle sheapheards deceauers Lions Wolues Foxes Murderers c. And for so doing they which were in ordinary authority did esteeme thē as factious seditious stubborne obstinate deceauers of y t people It hath pleased the mercifull prouidēce of God likewise in these latter days extraordinarily to raise vp mightily to defend certain learned men and Godly preachers whiche might reueale vnto y e world earnestly reproue cōfound the great horrible corruptiō both of doctrine māners y ● haue now these many yeares ben brought into y ● church w t fagot fyre maintained by thē y t chalenge to themselues ordinary power

receaue the worde and shewe themselues to be delighted therewith and breake out to earnest praises thereof and shewe them selues with such cheerefulnesse to embrace the doctrine of Gods trueth as they moue great hope to all men that it wyll take successe to great benefite But in the ende if any vehement temptatiō either of worldly trouble or otherwise happē to them they waxe faynte and begin to chaunge and lastlye cleane reuolte and vtterlye forsake that truth whiche with great hope in the beginning they had receaued And of these many afterward become enimies and persecutoures of the Gospell And what I pray you may be the cause hereof Surelye this They lacked Earth and moysture to feede the seede that is they had not the true knowledge of Christ nor of his Kingdome nor a right and Christian fayth ●reo in them by the spirite of God but on 〈…〉 e opinyon conceaued in their own mindes whiche 〈…〉 e were possessed with a carnall delighte of worldelye pompes and pleasures and therefore when the Doctrine of the free mercy of God by faith in Christ only pardoning and forgiuing our sinnes is preached and when they heare superstition in fasting praying other such things sharply reproued and men exhorted to Christian libertie they imbrace this Doctrine very greedily and all because they thinke vnder pretence of Christian libertie to shake of the yoke of Discipline and obedience in Christian exercises and to vse the cloake of Gods mercy to couer a loose and licencious life in the meane time studying nothing but how they may vse the countenaunce of the Gospell to get Riches honour friendship and worldly peace and quietnesse But as I haue before sayd when the stormes of aduersity and heate of persecution riseth whereof they must be partakers if they will bee constante in the Gospell and when they heare their wicked and vngodlye doinges by Preachers sharpely reproued and begin to vnderstand that neyther christian libertie can be any warrant of licentiousnes nor Goddes mercye a Cloake to continue in wickednesse they flye from the word of GOD and betake themselues wholy to the world Such receauers of y e word were many of the Jewes which dreamed that Christe came as an earthly Prince or Conquerour that shoulde deliuer them from the tyram●y of the Romaines and make them Lords of the world And therefore at the beginning they flocked to him in great number and shewed such liking of him his doctrine that the Pharisies and high Priestes were afrayd to deale with him as otherwise they wold haue done But when they saw him once taken and in the hands of his enimies they reuolted shewed themselues to mislike w t him in the end cried Crucifige as frankely as y ● residue were cōtēted to haue Barrabas let go christ to be put to vniust cruell death I would to God there were not to many of this sort in England at this day which now shew thēselues to be hoat and eger gospellers either because they hope to haue some part of y ● spoile of Bishops lands or ecclesiastical liuings or for some such other worldly respect but whē the heate of affliction shal come for our vnthankfulnesse continually crieth for it before the seate of Gods iustice then I say I pray god they shew but halfe that constancie good liking of the gospell y ● becommeth a true Christian And y t which maketh me other to feare thē is that w t this earnest pretended zeale I see little amendment of life or none at all ioyned The remedy against this mischiefe and the means to amend this stony ground to breede more melow earth in their harts is truely sincerely to learn what the kingdome of Christ is what they must looke for by y e professiō therof in the world For so shal they easily put away that worldly perswasion y t maketh them to reuolt from the Gospell Christ himselfe confesseth y ● his kingdome is not of this world yea y e world Christ are cleane cōtrary for y e prince of this world is enimy to Christ The enmity was proclaimed by god himself in Paradise I will set enmitie betweene thee the woman betweene thy seede and hers and her seede shall breake thy head and thou shalt bruise his heele Therfore so soone as Christ the seede of y ● womā had once put his head into y ● world was born of y ● blessed virgine at Nazareth the Deuill raised his seede y ● wicked tyrant Herode to persecute christ and to seeke his death And so hath he cōtinued euer since in al times seasons to persecute Christ in his mēbers This Christ did not hide from his Disciples true followers but sundrye times told thē therof before hād y t whē it came to pas they might not be offēded Behold saith he I send you as shepe amōg the midst of Wolues be wise therfore as serpents simple as Doues c. And a little after You shalbe hated of al men for my names sake Here you may vnderstād what intertainment true Christians must looke for in this world that is hatred disdaine cruelty such curtesy as sheepe find among Wolues The cause hereof he setteth forth more largely in S. Ioh. If the world saith christ hate you you knowe it hated me before you If you were of the world the world wold loue that is his own but because you are not of the world but I haue chosen you out of the world therfore the world hateth you Remēber the word that I said vnto you the seruāt is not greater thē his maister if they haue persecuted me they will persecute you also Christ in another place resēbleth his people to a House builded vpō a Rock the raine fell the flouds came the winds blew beat vpō that house and it fel not because it was builded vpō a Rock By y e rain y ● flouds y ● winds beating vpō y ● house is ment y e storms of afflictiō trouble persecutiō other vehemēt ●ētaciōs y ● y e deuill y e world raiseth to assaulte y ● cōsciēces of christiās But their harts are not shakē ther w t but stād cōstantly in y ● truth because y t foūdatiō of their consciēce is sincerely groūded vpō y ● Rock christ Jesus By this it may appeare y t y ● kingdome of christ is not earthly but a spiritual kingdome by y ● power of y ● holy ghost raigning flourishing in y ● harts of mē setting it self against y ● works of y ● deuil of y ● world for y t cause loketh for none other thing at y ● worlds hand thē misery trouble Wherfore the first poynt of a true professour of Christ his gospel is so far as mās frailty cā suffer to renoūce y e world all