Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	believe_v	holy_a	scripture_n	6,955	5	5.9774	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76079	A declaration demonstrating and infallibly proving that all malignants, whether they be prelates, popish-cavaleers, with all other ill-affected persons, are enemies to God and the King: who desire the suppression of the Gospel, the advancement of superstition, the diminution of the Kings prerogative and authority, with the oppression of the subject. All which is evinced by strong proofes, and sufficient reasons. By John Bastwick Dr. of Physick.	Bastwick, John, 1593-1654.	1643 (1643)	Wing B1061; Thomason E101_8; ESTC R1900	48,987	64

all ancient truth and the vetust est Bishops and by the whole Clergy of England in King Henry the Eights dayes as all the Learned and ingenuous doe well perceive and know both at home and abroad So that if the Informers with the Prelates will make this book a libell then let them make holy Scripture the Lawes of the Kingdome and all the ancient records of learned Bishops libells also for the Defendant in that hath said nothing concerning the Presbytery which is not agreeable to them all And for the matters in speciall he is charged with the information viz. That he hath causlesly enveighed against the oath ex officio and other ancient formes of proceedings in that Court and against the Sacred Hierarchy and orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons preferring a Presbyterian parity before it And that he hath falsly and scandalously defamed the witnesses produced against him and falsly and maliciously taxed the High Commission Court it selfe and the Judges therein in generall and some of them particularly and personally with cruelty and injustice with want of wisdome and temperance and that they are perswaders of his Majesty to bloodshed and are upholders of idolatry superstition Popery and Profanenesse and further most maliciously and falsly affirmeth that Canterbury London and Ely are disgracers and contemners of holy Scriptures and falsly traduceth them and the rest of the Bishops for Traytors and invaders of his Majesties Prerogative and that in the said booke there are contained divers other unlawfull and scandalous passages against the established government and setled discipline of the Church of England the Bishops and Clergy and their proceedings which being many and of various nature is delivered into his Majesties Court of Starchamber To all which things that he is here charged with the Defendant will answer with what brevity and the best Method he can and doubteth nothing but whatsoever he hath writ in his Apology against the Prelates and their proceeding shall be made evidently appear to this Court to be most true And to begin with the things laid to his charge in the last place that he accuseth the Bishops to be disgracers and contemners of holy Scripture to be invaders of his Majesties prerogative upholders of idolatry Popery superstition and profanenesse All which is most true for so they are as he hath sufficiently proved against them in that book and doth here also adde that they have greatly dishonoured the King their Master and King James his Father of perpetuall Memory all which he will briefly declare and demonstrate to this noble Court And that they are contemners and disgracers of holy Scripture what can be more manifest when they say that the Scriptures are the refuge of all Schismaticks Hereticks as much as if they should say the good Laws and Statutes of a Kingdom and the Kings Edicts Proclamations are the cause of all disorder wickednes withall what is it to be contemners and disgracers of the holy Scriptures if this be not to say That they can neither be knowne to be the Word of God nor distinguished from the Apocrypha and Prophane Authours nor to be understood and the meaning of them attained unto for their obscurity but by the Fathers If this be not to contemne Sacred Writ then all Orthodox Writers both in ours and all reformed Churches and King James himselfe have accused the Church of Rome most falsly whom they prove blasphemous against God and disgracers of the Holy Scriptures for the same assertions as all their learned writings witnesse with innumerable Arguments in them for proofe of the same The Defendant desireth to know what it is to prophane and contemne holy Scripture if this be not to slight and vilyfie the Authority of it and to preferre humane authority before it which the Bishops did blasphemously saying that they could not be knowne to be the Word of God without the help of the Fathers when every page and leafe of those Sacred monuments breath a Divine Spirit and they are called the lively Oracles Acts 7. verse 38. as if the Scripture had lost his ancient lustre life and Divinity by its antiquity and were inferiour to all other things both Naturall and Artificiall When notwithstanding there is such a Majestie and Splendour in the Scripture as it dazleth the eyes of all those that look into it with his transcendent and heavenly clarity and brightnesse the eyes of whose mindes the God of this world hath not blinded yea under the very law when there was a vaile before the eyes of men so that they could not so clearly see into them as now Christians may yet then such dignity and excellency was discerned in them that at the first reading of them men cryed out the voice of God and not of man and tore their garments for very anguish and fear of the threats in them and never were so ungracious and impious to say How shall we know these bookes to be the Word of God for the holy Scriptures had ever such an innate and Domesticall light beauty and goodnesse in them and carried such testimony and witnesse within themselves ever able to declare themselves divine and holy and to be the very word of the everliving God that they needed borrow no help from without them or fetcht in humane witnesse for the declaring of their divinity There was no need to send unto the Prophets or the Church in old time to enquire whether the Scriptures were the word of God amongst any that were but any thing acquainted with the language of Canaan as is manifestly evident in the 2. of the Kings 22. verse 8.10 and the 2. of the Chron. 34. verse 14 15 19. where it appeareth that when the Booke of the Law was found by Helchia the Priest in the house of the Lord he knew it at the first reading of it to be the word of God the same did the King they were neither of them told by the Church or any Prophets or Fathers that it was the Booke of the Law neither did the King send unto Hulda the Prophetesse to know whether it were a true and authenticke Copy all this needed not it needed then no Godfathers and Godmothers to Christen and give it the name of the Law of God and holy Scripture as without the which it could not have beene knowne there was no need of any such thing or any humane authority for the proofe of that in those times all that were then true Israelites knew it by its own testimony to be the word of God and shall any man now think that the Scriptures are more obscure and dark and harder to be discerned by their own testimony to be Divine and holy then when they had a vail before them and their sacred treasuries of Divine truths were muffled up in so many tipes and mysteries Certainly this is not onely great ingratitude to Gods bounty but very contempt and disgrace of holy Scriptures that their most excellent self authority can have no credit amongst Christians without adventiciall assistance of vaine man Is not the witnesse and testimony of God greater then the testimony of man If we receive the witnesse of men the witnesse of God is greater saith Saint John in his first Epistle chap. 5. vers 9. But the Prelates affirme the testimony of man is to be preferred before the witnesse of God so that we ought not beleeve the Spirit witnessing but the testimony of the Fathers for they say the Scriptures cannot

be known without the Fathers Christ who was truth it selfe saith in the 5. of John vers 36. I have a greater witnesse then that of Iohn and what was that witnesse His works the witnesse and approbation of his Father and the Scriptures Christ here preferres the testimony of the Scriptures before the testimony of Iohn which was the greatest of all the Prophets and the Prelates preferre the testimony of the Fathers before the Scriptures and is not this to contemne the holy Scriptures Saint Peter in that glorious transfiguration of Christ upon the mount heard the voice of God the Father and notwithstanding he saith in his 2. Epistle chap. 1. vers 19. we have also a more sound word of prophesie And Christ himselfe to reverenced the holy Scriptures that he seemeth to preferre Moses his words before his owne saying if ye beleeve not his writings how shall ye beleeve my words And in the person of Abraham when Dives desired one might be sent to his Fathers house to warne his brethren of the danger of torment that he was in Christ saith they have Moses and the Prophets let them heare them and he said nay Father Abraham but if one went unto them from the dead they will repent and he said unto him If they heare not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rise from the dead By all which testimonies of sacred Writ it is evident that if the Scripture of it selfe cannot prevaile with men that then there is little hope that very miracles will do them any good for the begetting of faith in them or bringing of them to the truth much lesse the Fathers and this by Christs owne words is confirmed unto us yet the Prelates neverthelesse esteeme of the Fathers authority more then of the sacred Scriptures But can any man that hath but the name of a Christian thinke that those that will not be moved by the Majestie and authority of the Scriptures speaking in the Name of the Lord of hostes that the authority of the Fathers will prevaile with them who are not to be beleeved but as they speake out of the holy Scriptures and by their divine authority Christ denies it and therefore we are rather to beleeve that then the phantasies and impious grolleries of a few ungodly men Is not the Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and of his owne and selfe sufficiencie so able to declare its owne minde and meaning that it hath no need of the Fathers helpe Without doubt unlesse profane mouthes will make it a packe of nonsense Truly one would think that very reason might be able to convince these wretched wranglers if they had not hardened themselves to fight against the truth yea and set themselves to resist the holy Spirit of God for if we looke upon very nature art and reason they would convince us for there is no naturall thing but will prove and shew it selfe what it is and declare its owne nature as the Sun Moone and Starres declare their owne nature and tell what they are to every beholder of them fire by it selfe and of its owne nature and essence is knowne what it is earth and water do the same and the same may be said of gold silver and all other metals they are able to witnesse for themselves what they are and to distinguish their owne natures from each others to any rationall man Againe All Artificiall things are knowne what they are by their proper formes and so are discriminated the one from the other every one of them carrying a sufficient indication of it selfe yea all humane writings shew from whence they come by the spirit they writ with and do shew whether the Authours and Writers of them be learned or unlearned or be men in authority and place or not and there needs no Commentaries upon them to tell whose they are The Proclamations and Edicts of Kings and Princes do sufficiently without either marginall Notes or Annotations declare of themselves that they come from Imperiall authority and the Majestie and the Dignity of their phrase and expression do proclaime to all men that the Authours of them are sacred persons and he that should call them in question without a Councell or Parliament or the Fathers and Judges of the Laws authority would be thought no loyall Subject and not worthy to live and that deservedly for the very manner of their penning and writing do ever convince the readers both of the Dignity of their matter and of the excellencie of the personages that set them forth And shall any in this age of light be found so darkened in his judgement as to thinke the Word of God inferiour to all naturall artificiall and humane things Yet so it is to the infinite dishonour of our great God blessed for ever Truely besides the sparkles of Divinity and the Spirit of God illuminating in the Scriptures which writ them the excellencie and goodnesse of their object and matter the purity the perfection the antiquity the universall consent and agreement of them the Majestie and simplicity of the languages and speech they are writ in the conviction that is in them of wicked and rebellious consciences beating downe and humbling the strongest spirits the certaine event of things foretold in them the integrity of the Writers being farre from all fraud and guile setting downe their own infirmities and the weaknesses of their families which humane reason would never have done the preservation of these holy Scriptures in all ages from the fury of the persecuters and out of the hands of those that studied to destroy them the constancie of the Martyrs alwayes that beleeved and kept them and the fearfull and tragicall ends of such as were enemies of them These the Defendant saith and many more reasons there are to prove the Scriptures to be the word of the everliving God by themselves without any authority of Fathers But yet one reason more the Defendant thought fit to adde before he returneth againe to the holy Scriptures owne authoritie which is sufficiently able to declare it to be the Word of God And that is this All things that are mens owne whether Counsells Laws Ordinances Inventions Polities or Projects Orders of Government c. they are agreeable ever to the corrupt nature of man or else to carnall reason and men commonly hug their owne devices Now if the Religion that is set downe in holy Scriptures or the Scriptures themselves

upon his head and with all his State and Magnificence and his Nobles in their service with the reverence that is yeelded unto him then he beleeveth no longer because the Servant told him that it was the King but because by his own reason he is evinced of it knowing that such attendance and such a guard and so great pompe dignity and State belongeth to none but Kings And it would be thought not madnesse onely but treason to say if one had not told him that it was the King otherwise the King could not be known or that he that told him was greater then the King or his Authority greater The same may be said of the Holy and ever blessed Word of God that it is a great madnesse and impiety to conclude That the Holy Scripture cannot be known to be the Word of God without the Authority of the Fathers or Church or that the Authority of either is greater then the Scriptures which to affirme is without doubt blasphemy in a High degree against Almighty God and his blessed revealed will and able to provoke his indignation upon us because it is an error against the very light of nature art and reason and the apparent Words of the Scripture where the Word of God is called the immortall seed 1. Peter chap. 1. verse 23. which liveth and abideth for ever Now all seed by its inward vertue sprouteth into a blade and is by it self and his owne fruits knowne to be what it is So is the Scripture of it selfe knowne to be the Word of God and as Paul saith in the 1. of the Corinthians chapter 2. verse 4. the Word of God is in the demonstration of the Spirit and in power and maketh the hearts of the beleevers burne within them as it did to those that went with Christ to Emmaus Luke the 24. verse 32. and as the Apostle saith in the first to the Thessalonians the 2. chapter verse 3. that they received the Word of God not as the word of man but as it is in the truth the Word of God which effectually worketh in those that beleeve and in the 4. of the Hebrews the 12. Paul saith that the word of God is quick and powerfull and sharper then a two edged Sword piercing even to the dividing asunder the soule and Spirit and of the reines and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart So that by these testimonies and thousands more that might be produced it is sufficiently evident that the Scriptures of themselves are declaratory and by their own native and inbred splendor doe conciliate Authority and credit to themselves neither have they any need of help from man or the Fathers Authority to prove them the word of God For before there were any Fathers the Scriptures had their Authority and were knowne to be Divine Neither did the Fathers or Church make them Authentick or the Word of God no more then a Pillar maketh a Proclamation to be the Kings will and pleasure because it stands upon it but the Church or Fathers declared them so to be neither doth or can the very Synagogue of Rome deny this How impious then and blasphemous are the Prelates that they dare thus vilifie the holy Scriptures and make their authority nothing And can any man of judgement see any reason why one should beleeve the Fathers more then the Scriptures Or why one should beleeve that these are the workes of Augustine or Ambrose and should doubt that this is the Gospel of Luke John or that these are the Epistles of Paul Of these things the Defendant for his part can see no reason Neither can there any solid reason be yeelded why one should beleeve the Fathers more then the Scriptures themselves when the Fathers are not to be credited but as they accord with Scripture as the very Popish Canons and Papists themselves acknowledge for in the Canon Law thus speakes the Pope Patrum quantalibet doctrina sanctitate pollentium Scripta ex Canonivis sacris consideranda nec cum cred●ndi necessitate sed cum judicandi libertate legenda sunt Neither is Baronius his opinion other concerning the authority of the Fathers as at large may be seene in his Annales ann 34. Sect. 213. and ann 44 Sect. 42. And for Bellarmine he is of the same minde in his 2. Booke concerning Councels in the 12. chapter in these words Sacra Scripta Patrum non sunt regulae nec habent autoritate obligandi And when the very adversaries do thus fully expresse themselves that whatsoever authority is in the Fathers Books and writings it is only as they harmonise and accord with the Scripture shal any man then think or suppose that there should yet be more authority in the writings of the Fathers or in the Decrees of Councels then there is in the holy Scriptures from whence as the fountaine those streams do issue very reason will confound the fatuity of this devilish doctrine for the streames and brooks are never so pure nor good as the fountain for it is ever the fountaine that gives authority of goodnesse and the name of excellency to the little sucking rivers as men know and they commend the waters ever from the fountaine they come so that the Spring hath ever the precedency and is of greatest Authority and without all controversie as it overthroweth all reason so it is exceedingly impious against our great God the fountaine of all good and the giver of every good and perfect gift and they that shall speak so contumeliously as the Bishops doe of these Fountaines of living waters the holy Scriptures is they did the Defendant will ever maintaine they are contemners and despisers of the Holy Scriptures and in this opinion he will live and die Neither did they lesse offend in saying that the Scriptures could not be knowne from the Apocrypha without the help and authority of the Fathers which point also the Defendant desireth this honourable Court to hear a little discussed it being a thing of so high nature concerning not onely the glory of God but the good of every mans soul the peace of the Church and the tranquility of the whole Kingdom And therefore he humbly craveth favour that he may agitate it here a little for the further Demonstration of the justnesse of his accusation he chargeth the Prelates with viz that they are disgracers and contemners of the holy Scriptures They say that the Scriptures cannot be distinguished from the Apocrypha but by the Fathers which assertion is against sense and reason it self and too impious for Prelates to speak Is not this an essentiall property of the Scriptures of the old Testament that they were written in the Hebrew tongue and that they did give witnesse of Christ and received Authority from him and that they were put into the hands and keeping of the elect and chosen people of God as a Treasury Now the Apocrypha had none of all this