Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	holy_a	scripture_n	19,615	5	6.1818	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A16531	The vnbeliefe of St. Thomas the Apostle laid open for the comfort of all that desire to belieue. Whereunto is added a comfortable treatise for all that are afflicted in soule or body. The first armeth vs against despaire in the houre of death; the second against impatience vnder the crosse. By Nicholas Bound, Doctor in Diuinitie.	Bownd, Nicholas, d. 1613.; Bownd, Nicholas, d. 1613. Treatise ful of consolation. aut	1628 (1628)	STC 3442; ESTC S113890	68,060	212

of God alone who onely is there to be serued and not of any Saint as in time past they haue beene And so ought the daies also As vnder the law all the Sabbaths were consecrated vnto the honour of God the creator of heauen and earth and vnder the Gospel vnto the honour of Christ the Redeemer of his Church and all other daies that are now put a part among vs from the common affaires of the world they are sanctified to that ende that God might be honoured in them and by them And therefore we put a great difference betweene these holy daies and the Sabbath or Lords day First of all in that we know this later to stand vpon a better foundation then they as hauing his institution from Christ and his Apostles and so doth binde all nations and is perpetuall neuer to be changed Whereas the former haue their warrant only from men and so doe not binde all Churches alike and may be changed yea taken cleane away and serue onely for Christian policie and good order in the Church that men vpon these daies might come together and serue God And therefore it is to be prouided that there should not be too many of them least thereby men should be hindred from the necessarie workes of their callings which hath mooued the reformed Churches as in this Realme so els-where to cut off many that were vsed in the time of Poperie and so to keepe thēselues in a mediocritie neither hauing too many nor putting downe all Secondly there is a difference betweene them in the manner of keeping the one and the other for on the Christian Sabbath the lawes of our kingdome and Church doe restraine all men from many things as from markets and faires and keeping of Assises and Sessions for the execution of iustice which they doe tolerate and permit vpon other holydaies Whereas in the time of blindnesse they sometimes preferred these daies before the Sabbath and had more solemne seruice and feasts vpon them and counted it a more deadly sinne then to worke then vpon the Sabbath day Besides this they appointing these daies to the honor of men did thereby greatly dishonour the Saints thēselues For what greater dishonour can there be vnto any man then to make him a traytor and to giue vnto him that honour that is due onely to the Prince And if any should in simplicitie and good will ascribe so much to the greatest noble man in the Realme that at the last he should giue him the titles that belong vnto the King and so bring him into the suspicion of treason against his will it were no honour but dishonour vnto him So the Papists in extolling the Saints so highly that they consecrate daies vnto them and thereby seeke to honour them and hope that therefore they will become Patrons vnto them all which are proper vnto Christ in so doing they dishonour them for they make them as much as lieth in them to be traytors vnto Christ in robbing him of that honor that is proper vnto him And these Saints if they were now aliue vpon earth would not onely not take this honor vnto themselues and thanke them for it but altogether refuse it and rebuke them for it as Paul and Barnabas did vnto the people at Lystra when they brought buls with garlands and would haue sacrificed vnto them They rent their cloathes and ranne in among them Act. 14 14 saying O men why doe you these things we are men subiect vnto the like passions that you be and preach vnto you that you should turne from these vaine things vnto the liuing God IN this text there are these foure things principally to be obserued first of all the great infidelitie of S. Thomas the Apostle who did not beleeue the resurrection of Christ reported vnto him by all his fellow Apostles who had seene him v. 24 25. Secondly the great mercie of Christ who did not cast him off and leaue him to perish in this vnbeleefe of his but most louingly in time conuenient sought to pull him out of it by all good meanes euen the very same which himselfe desired vers 26 27. Thirdly the increase of faith in Thomas by these meanes appearing by the confession that he made after that he was thus confirmed namely that he did beleeue not onely that he was risen againe but for him and therefore calleth him his Lord and his God v. 28. Lastly here Christ vpon this occasion deliuereth a generall doctrine and so applieth this fact of Thomas vnto the whole church euen that they should be blessed who should beleeue in him though they did not see him as he had done I doe not purpose to intreat of all these but onely of so much as doth concerne the vnbeleefe of S. Thomas But before I come to it it may seeme somewhat strange that S. Iohn in his Gospel doth write this of his fellow Apostle seeing it tendeth so wholly to his discredit The other Euangelists all of them haue left it out it may seeme in fauour of him and it might be thought that it had beene better if he had passed it ouer with silence also But this Apostle liuing longer then all the rest about an hundred yeares after Christ and so seeing all their writings doth adde this as a matter of speciall moment as indeede in it there is offered to the Church great instruction and consolation And this plaine dealing of his is a note of that integritie that is to be found in all the Scriptures as beeing penned by the spirit of God For they came not in old time as S. Peter saith 2. Pet. 1.2 by the will of man but holy men of God did speake and write as they were mooued by the holy Ghost And therefore they greatly differ frō the writings of men which sauour of the spirit of men and so are in many things partiall as this is a common fault in many Historiographers that they flatter great men and speak onely of their vertues which they set out to the full but their vices either they wholly conceale or lightly passe thē ouer especially when they are their friends and of the same ranke and order with them as S. Thomas was vnto the Apostle S. Iohn But it is not so in the Scriptures which proceeding frō the spirit of truth are no more partiall then God himselfe with whome there is no respect of persons ●om 2.11 in so much that the penners of them doe lay open the greatest sinnes of the greatest men in their time euen of the Kings and of the Priests Sam. 2.8 As of Heli how he honoured his children aboue God and caused the sacrifices of the Lord to be despised and troaden vnder foote and of Manasseh king of Iudah how he caused his sonnes to passe through the fire in the valley of Ben-hinnom Chr. 33.6 and gaue himselfe to witchcraft and to charming and to sorcerie and vsed them that had familiar

spirits and soothsayers and did very much euill in the sight of the Lord to anger him yea the Prophets do not spare them that were nearest in blood to them or nearest in any bond of affinitie or friendship Num 12. For Moses doth set out the murmuring of Aaron his owne naturall brother and of his sister Miriam and how God did punish them for it which he did not to de●ame them or with a minde to be reuenged of them for the Lord gaue this testimonie of him that he was a very meeke man vers 3. aboue all the men that were vpon the earth And the Apostles doe write the truth boldly and sincerely of their fellow Apostles though their faults were exceeding great and not the like almost heard of Math. 2● As how Iudas did for thirtie pieces of siluer sell and betray his Lord and master Christ into the hands of his most deadly enemies And how Peter did not onely denie him once but the second time did forsweare him vers 7● yea did curse and banne himselfe if that euer he did but know him And to conclude this point their vprightnes in their writings appeareth so much the more that they doe not spare thēselues but publish their owne faults to the praise of God as his spirit in them did direct them For Moses declareth at large how slow backward he was to take vpon him that calling that God had appointed him vnto and what excuses and delaies he made in so much that the Lord was very angrie with him ●xod 4.14 And Dauid writeth of the adulterie and murder that he had secretly committed against Bath-sheba and her husband Vriah and confesseth openly that he had deserued death for both of them when he thus prayeth ●sal 51.14 ●iddamim Deliuer me from bloods O Lord. So likewise the Apostle Paul spareth not himselfe because it was not he but the spirit of God that spake in him Gal. 1.13 in that he had persecuted the Church of God cruelly and wasted it This kind of simple dealing is one argument not of the least moment among many other to euince that the Scriptures are written by Gods spirit and are therefore Canonicall for they are not partiall but the spirit of truth simple dealing doth maruelously appeare euery where in them But it may further be demanded though such things as these be written of the Saints whether they should be read openly in the Church vpon those holy daies that cary their name as if when we keepe the memorie of a man all his euill deedes should be reckoned vp tending to his infamie and discredit Concerning which as the prouidence of God therein is to be acknowledged who hath thus disposed of it so we are to reuerence and highly esteeme the godly wisdome of those holy fathers who did first appoint those daies thus to be kept For they did it to the honour of God and therefore would by the reading of these texts of scripture haue all men know what the Saints were of themselues and what infirmities vnbeleefe and other sinnes they were subiect vnto euen the same that we are as Paul and Barnabas saide of themselues ●ct 14.14 We are men subiect to the like passions that you are and as S. Iames saith of the Prophet Elias ●●m 5.17 that he was a man subiect to the like passions as we are That so if they were any thing we might know from whence it came and so as Paul saith of himselfe I am the least of the Apostles ● Cor. 15. ●0 which am not worthie to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God but by the grace of God I am that I am and his grace which is in me was not in vaine but I laboured more aboundantly then they all yet not I but the grace of God which is with me So we might say of them beeing put in minde by the Scriptures that are read euen vpon those daies wherein we keepe the greatest memorie of them what they were of themselues and what they were by the grace of God and so not so much honour them as praise God for them For the purpose of those ancient fathers of the Church who apointed these daies thus to be kept was not to set out the Saints themselues that we might glory in them and in their merits but in the merits of Christ in the mercie of God shewed to thē for his sake and so not only to teach vs how rightly to esteem of them but ●hat in them as in a glasse we might see what we are subiect vnto and yet ●ow gratious God is to pore sinners 〈◊〉 so might take comfort in the mercie of God shewed to them As here what great vnbeeleefe was in Saint Thomas and yet Christ did help him of it and saued him to shew vs that we are as full of vnbeleefe as he and much more yet Christ will not refuse vs if we do not obstinatly remaine in it but are willing to be holpen of it and haue a desire to beleeue by the meanes that he shall bestow vpon vs. And this is the vse that we are to mak of the vnbeleefe of S. Thomas euen then when we heare it read vpon his day The Papists did not so for besides that they had a great number of coūterfeit Saints in their Calēder whose names were not written in the booke of life some of them traytors and others as ill or worse then they vpon their festiuall daies they caused to be read out of Legenda aurea that is their Legend of lies a storie of their liues full of all vertues and miracles that they wrought some in their life some after their death whereof most were fained and some of them most absurd And thus they made them to be Gods vpon the earth not making mention of any fault of theirs at any time especially so great as these that we haue heard of in S. Thomas S. Paul and the rest Whereby it came to passe partly by the obseruation of those daies and partly by hearing what was then reported of them out of their stories that the cōmon people were brought into a superstitious admiration of them and had no hope by imitating their vertues to be like them but rather did worship them by meanes of the straunge and incredible things that they heard of them And so here was no comfort from them for poore sinners but only for their merits and mediation for they did not speake of their infirmities and falls But we see how the Scriptures set out the true Saints of God after an other manner not onely in their miracles and vertues but in their greatest corruptions and sinnes that we knowing what they were of themselues and what they are by the mercie of God and the grace of Christ the poorest sinner might be comforted in themselues by the one and giue thanks to God for the other Seeing that there is