Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	holy_a	scripture_n	speak_v	14,888	5	5.2608	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10328	A letter of Dr. Reinolds to his friend, concerning his aduice for the studie of diuinitie	Rainolds, John, 1549-1607.	1613 (1613)	STC 20611; ESTC S100412	4,787	26

A LETTER of Dr. REINOLDS to his friend concerning his aduice for the studie of Diuinitie LONDON Printed by Iohn Beale for Ionas Man 1613. ¶ A Letter of Doctor Reinolds to his friend concerning his aduice for the study of Diuinity c. I Must request you to impute to my businesses which haue diuerse waies troubled me not to lacke of good will my slacknesse is not hitherto answering your letters Which assure your selfe if I had been able I would haue sooner answered so much the more willingly the better I liked of them as being sure witnesses of your good will to me ward and desire of godlinesse whereof for the one I haue heartily to thank you for the other greatly to reioice with you Then to shew my iudgement concerning the order which you may best follow in the study of diuinity I can tell you nothing but that you haue already better read in others and doe know your selfe Howbeit to satisfie your louing request I will briefly mention the chiefest points in my iudgement which are to be regarded which if you well consider and earnestly doe follow as I trust you will and God grant you may your labour shall be taken to the aduancement of Gods glory the profit of his Church your own cōfort The chiefest point of all to begin withis sith that diuinity the knowledge of God is the water of life the vessell must be cleane that shall receiue so precious a liquor the house must be clensed that shal haue Gods holy spirit not only a guest but also a continual dweller in it God forbid you should thinke diuinity consists of words as wood doth of trees diuinity without godlinesse doth but condemne consciences against the day of vengeance and prouoke the wrath of the mighty Lord and make more inexcusable before the seat of iudgement I will not ad that true diuinity cannot be learned vnlesse we frame our hearts and minds wholly to it But I will desire you to consider that only that as the Poet saith Symcrum est nisi vas quodcunque infundis acesssit so it is written in the book of Wisedome Wisedom cannot enter into the heart of a wicked man nor dwell in a body that is subiect vnto sinne I hope there is no great cause of standing vpon this point when I write vnto you who are as I trust the chosen of God and therefore appointed also to be sanctified Yet sith your selfe haue mentioned vnto me your owne remisse kind of liuing as you doe terme it as you loue me take heed that this remissenesse be not the same in a mans mind which a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in the body And in this to conclude consider with your selfe that if the heathens at their sacrifices were wont to cry out Procul ô procul este profani what study of holinesse ought there to be in vs whom God hath adopted Christ hath redeemed the holy Ghost hath sāctified to be a peculiar people vnto God zealous of good works which if it be required at the hands of all christians what shal be asked at theirs who studying diuinity to instruct others shold shine themselues as lights in the middest of a lewd generation Shall he euer perswade others to embrace godlinesse that hath not perswaded himselfe that it is a pearle to be redeemed with all treasures For the study it selfe which is next to be considered the knowledge of God must be learned of God if euer it be learned Of whom that we may learne it we haue to vse two meanes prayers and reading of holy scripture Praiers our selues to talke with God reading to heare God talke with vs. For because without the grace of the holy spirit all study especially in diuinity is vaine therefore we must earnestly desire of God that he will enlighten our minds and soften our hearts both to know and follow his will reuealed to vs. Now because the holy spirit doth teach the same doctrine which our Sauiour did which is set forth vnto vs in the Law and the Prophets and the Euangelists therefore we must diligently giue our selues to reading and meditating of the holy scriptures in tongues in which they were written by the holy Spirit Which how much more forcible it is then to be doubtfull among translations if S. Austin did not show who instructeth a christian preacher that the knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek tongues is very necessary to vnderstand the old and new testastament yet Themistocles might shew who hauing to speake to the king of Persia was afraid that his minde would not be perceiued by interpreters and therefore requested the king to grant him first a yeeres space to learne the Persian tongue Wherefore I wish that you also ioyne Hebrew to your Greeke though peraduenture you haue once began it and giuen it ouer For in that you may follow me sith you propose my example so much the better who my selfe when I was first Master of Arts began the study of it and being weary left it the next yeer perceiuing the necessary vse of it I set againe vpon it and I thanke God since continued a student in it Wherefore the word of God and that if it may be out of the very welspring not out of the brooks of translations if I may so tearme them must be diligently read and by often reading made familiar vnto vs though it be not in all places throughly vnderstood as the same Austin hath very well noted As for the parts of scripture besides this continuall reading of the whole to be read first ouer with more diligence then the rest I will giue you the same counsell which I heard of Doctor Villerius giuen to yong students that first you take your greatest trauaile with the helpe of some learned interpreter in vnderstanding S. Iohns Gospell and the Epistle to the Romans the summe of the new Testament Esay the Prophet and the Psalmes of Dauid the summe of the old Howbeit in the rest you shall doe well also if in harder places you vse the iudgement of some godly writer as Caluin and Peter Martyr who haue written best on the most part of the old Testament And because it is expedient to ioyne the reading of some compend of scriptures and summe of all diuinity together with the scriptures I would wish you to trauaile painfully in Caluins Institution of Christian Religion whereby you shall be greatly profited not only to the vnderstanding of the scriptures whereof it is a brief and learned commentary but also to the perceiuing of points of doctrine whither all things doe pertaine and may of vs be applied Of farther reading of Doctors and histories other treatises of religiō I wil not adde at this present we may hereafter if God will at greater leisure when these things are done which must bee laid for the foundatiō more conueniētly talk Howbeit if sometimes to recreate your selfe you intermingle with grauer studies the reading ouer of the history

Ecclesiasticall especially as it is written more for our country by good M. Fox you shal receiue of it togither with great profit great delectatiō I had almost forgotten your two last points Quae ratio annotandi Quae exercitatio adhibenda I haue so little to say of them For touching noting you know I do not like the cōmon custom of common places The best in my iudgemēt is to note in the margēt or in some paper booke for that purpose the summe and method of that which you read As for examples sake M. Bunnie hath done very wel in Caluins Institutions shewing all his method and sum of euery sectiō in his Compēdio c. which book you may wel ioyn with the reading of Caluin to vnderstand his order method the better For the other which is exercising it wil be good somtimes to occupie your pen either at large or briefly as you list of such godly meditations as the reading of the scriptures shall offer vnto you praiers vnto God reprouing of sin commending of godlinesse exhorting to righteousnesse dehorting frō iniquity consolation in miseries confirming of the truth refuting of heresies taking an occasion of doing these things som tims to other of your friends a liuely and godly exercise whereby you may perfit them or your self at the least If you cannot find such occasions to others I pray write to mee sometime of doubtes that you may find or whatsoeuer you list and I will acknowledge my selfe in that respect as in others beholding to you Now if God giue you grace as earnestly to follow these things as you haue been desirous that I should prescribe them you see the learning of the Hebrew tongue the reading of the scripturs of learned interpreters of the sum of religion of noting what you read and your exercise therin these things require much time a mind attent to speak nothing of prayers and the study of godlinesse which will also require some meditation Laborandum mi Iohannes non luxuriandum You know what Tullie saith for Caelius that to the bare attaining of eloquence omittendae sunt omnes voluptates relinquēda studia delectationis iocus ludus conuiuium sermo pene familiarium deserendus You know what Plato saith of his Philosopher what a great 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he would haue him if euer he shall be admitted a man worthy to gouerne his city If eloquence if philosophie require such trauaile for ciuill and base things in this comparison what shall we think that the knowledge of God the study of diuinity desireth for the greatnesse for the worthines deserueth Whether you will take such pains or no or whether you will fly al entisemēts from it I do not know I pray God you may Surely hitherto which I write with griefe your writing your friendship doth embolden me to write freely that which I trust you will take in good part you haue bin too much caried away by means of cōpany from earnest trauaile to your study to sweet inticemēts of the flesh seeing of vain spectacles ouer much eating drinking banqueting frequēting of the town deliting in vanity resorting to tauernes forgetting the word of God Be not filled with wine wherin is exces but be filled with the spirit Wil you pardon my loue for desiring to heale you or shall I become your enemy for speaking of the truth they haue made you to neglect your profit in study they haue hurt your wit weakned your memory corrupted your good desire stained your manners enfeebled your body toucht your good name grieued your friends and indeed almost quenched but yet I thāk God they haue not put out the liuely sparks of Gods spirit in you A great wel willer of yours though not greatly acquainted with you did ask me a day or two before the act since I receiu'd your letters what I thought of you as one that did hartily desire your profit in learning godlines When I had answered him for that good opinion which I had alwaies cōceiued of you both alwais for your towardlinesse and especially for your letters so friendly that I will not now report he said that he was very glad to heare it that he asked the question in some doubt because in few daies that here he had staid he had seen you somwhat often in the town But it might be that by reason of strāgers you had som occasion the Iudges being here to be the oftner abroad Howbeit about since the same time to absent your self from prayers an exercise so necessary for christiās that indeed desire the grace of God and know it coms from him only to absent your self from sundry exercises of diuinity wherein peraduenture some good might haue bin done to the furthering of your study me think these things did not so wel as I wished agree with the profession as it were protestatiō whichin your letters so shortly before you writ to me I may seem ouer-bold perhaps am to sharp in this my dealing with you agreeing as some may think rather to one that were a superior then fit for a friend whose degree state is equal But I know not how the good will which I did bear first being reader to you being scholar and euer since continued with my free aduise in all things wherin euer you haue asked my counsel as I thank you you haue done in many doth constraine me to poure foorth my inward affection to you so much the more willingly because I know you haue learned of Salomon that the wounds of a friend are beter then the kissings of an enemy Euen these things that hinder your study therfore at your request I was cōstrained to touch I haue touched the more boldly because I do not doubt but your selfe do mislike them I see in your letters the strife betwixt the flesh and the spirit which S. Paul setteth down as a marke of Gods children that you do not the good which you wold but the euill which you wold not that you do God giue you grace to stir vp your hart striue as a faithful seruāt to fly from the lusts of youth as S. Paul exhorteth Timothy that you may set your mind to praiers the reading of holy scripture It wil be cōueniēt that you haue your appointed times for the one and for the other Which to prescribe as your self knowing your own busines may most conueniētly so cōstātly to follow your order prescribed I hope the grace of God which earnestly you shall pray for will not be failing to you Iuly 4. 1577 FINIS