Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A02537
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The great impostor laid open in a sermon at Grayes Inne, Febr. 2.1623. By Ios. Hall D.D.
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Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.
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1623
(1623)
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STC 12665; ESTC S116594
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14,333
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76
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THE GREAT Impostor LAID OPEN in a SERMON at GRAYES INNE Febr. 2. 1623. By IOS HALL D. D. LONDON Printed by J. Havilano for Nath. Butter 1623. TO THE MOST NOBLE AND WORTHILY Honoured Societie OF GRAYES INNE AT WHOSE BARRE This IMPOSTOR was openly arraigned J. H. HVMBLY DEDICATES THIS PVBLIKE LIFE OF HIS WEAKE AND VNWORTHY LABOVR THE GREAT IMPOSTOR Laid open out of IER 17.9 The heart is deceitfull aboue all things I Know where I am in one of the famous Phrontisteries of Law and Iustice wherfore serues Law and Iustice but for the preuention or punishment of fraud and wickednesse Giue me leaue therefore to bring before you Students Masters Fathers Oracles of Law and Iustice the greatest Cheator and Malefactor in the world our owne Heart It is a great word that I haue said in promising to bring him before you for this is one of the greatest aduantages of his fraud that he cannot be seene That as that old Iugler Apollonius Thyanaeus when he was brought before the Iudge vanished out of sight so this great Impostor in his very presenting before you dispeareth and is gone yea so cunningly that he doth it with our owne consent and we would be loth that he could be seene Therefore as an Epiphonema to this iust complaint of deceitfulnesse is added Who can know it It is easie to know that it is deceitfull and in what it deceiues though the deceits themselues cannot bee knowne till too late As wee may see the ship and the sea and the ship going on the sea yet the way of a ship in the sea as Salomon obserues wee know not God askes and God shall answer What he askes by Ieremie he shall answer by S. Paul Who knowes the heart of man Euen the spirit of man that is in him If then the heart haue but eyes enow to see it selfe by the reflection of thoughts it is enough Ye shall easily see and heare enough out of the analogie and resemblance of hearts to make you both astonished and ashamed The heart of man lies in a narrow roome yet all the world cannot fill it but that which may be said of the heart would more than fill a world Here is a double stile giuen it of deceitfulnesse of wickednesse either of which knowes no end whether of being or of discourse I spend my houre and might doe my life in treating of the first See then I beseech you the Impostor and the Imposture The Impostor himselfe The heart of man The Imposture Deceitfull aboue all things As deceitfull persons are wont euer to goe vnder many names and ambiguous and must be exprest with an aliàs so doth the heart of man Neither man himselfe nor any part of man hath so many names as the heart alone For euery facultie that it hath and euery action it doth it hath a seuerall name Neither is there more multiplicitie than doubt in this name Not so many termes are vsed to signifie the heart as the heart signifies many things When ye heare of the heart ye thinke straight of that fleshie part in the center of the body which liues first and dies last and whose beatings you finde to keepe time all the body ouer That is not it which is so cunning Alas that is a poore harmelesse peece meerely passiue and if it doe any thing as the subministration of Vitall spirits to the maintenance of the whole frame it is but good no it is the spirituall part that lurkes in this flesh which is guilty of such deceit We must learne of witty Idolatry to distinguish betwixt the stocke and the inuisible powers that dwell in it It is not for me to be a sticklor betwixt the Hebrewes and the Greeke Philosophers and Physitians in a question of naturall learning concerning the 〈◊〉 of the soule nor to insist vpon the reasons why the spirit of God rather places all the spirituall powers in the heart than in the braine Doubtlesse in respect of the affections there resident whereby all those speculatiue abilities are drawne to practise It shall suffice vs to take things as we finde them and to hold it for granted that this Monosyllable for so it is in many languages comprises all that intellectiue and affectiue world which concerneth man and in plaine termes to say that when God saies The heart is deceitfull he meanes the vnderstanding will affections are deceitfull The vnderstanding is doubly deceitfull It makes vs beleeue it knowes those things which it doth not and that it knowes not those things which it doth As some foolish Mountebanke that holds it a great glory to seeme to know all things or some presuming Physitian that thinkes it a shame not to professe skill in any state of the body or disease so doth our vaine vnderstanding therein framing it selfe according to the spirits it meets withall if they be proud and curious it perswades them they know euery thing if carelesse that they know enough In the first kinde What hath not the fond heart of man dared to arrogate to it selfe It knowes all the starres by their names Tush that is nothing It knowes what the stars meane by their verie lookes what the birds meane by their chirping as Apollonius did What the heart meanes by the features of the face it knowes the euents of life by the lines of the hand the secrets of Art the secrets of Nature the secrets of State the secrets of others hearts yea the secrets of God in the closet of heauen Yea not only what God hath done but what he will doe This is Sapiens stultitia a wise folly as Irenaeus said of his Valentinians All Figure-casters Palmesters Physiognomers Fortune-tellers Alchymists fantasticke proiectors and all the rabble of professors of those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not so much curious as idle Arts haue their word giuen them by the Apostle Deceiuing and deceiued neither can these men make any worse fooles than their hearts haue made themselues and well may that Alexandrian taxe bee set vpon them in both names whether of actiue or passiue folly And as it commonly fals out that superfluous things rob the heart of necessary in the meane while those things which the heart may and should know it lightly mis-knowes As our senses are deceiued by distance or interpositions to thinke the stars beamie and sparkling the Moone horned the Planets equally remote the Sunne sometimes red pale other some so doth also our vnderstanding erre in mis-opinion of diuine things It thinkes it knowes God when it is but an Idoll of fancy as Sauls messengers when they came into the roome thought they had the true Dauid when it was but a Wispe it knowes the will of God when it is nothing but grosse mis-construction so as the common knowledge of men though they thinke it a Torch is but an Ignis Fatuus to leade them to a ditch How many thousand Assyrians thinke they are in the way to the Prophet when they are