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	speak_v	word_n	18,876	5	4.5025	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02497	A sermon preached at St Maries in Oxford vpon Tuesday in Easter vveeke, 1617 Concerning the abuses of obscure and difficult places of holy Scripture, and remedies against them. By Iohn Hales, Fellow of Eton Colledge, and Regius Professour of the Greeke tongue in the Vniversitie of Oxford.	Hales, John, 1584-1656.	1617 (1617)	STC 12628; ESTC S103638	21,539	44

He●od the voice of God and not of man If he then that abases the Princes come deserues to die what is his desert that insteed of the tried silver of Gods word stamps the name and character of God vpō Ne●ushtan vpon base brafen stuffe of his owne Thirdly No Scripture is of private interpretation saith the Apostle There can therfore be but two certaine and infallible interpreters of Scripture either it selfe or the holy Ghost the author of it It selfe doth then expound it selfe when the wordes circumstances doe sound vnto vs the prime and naturall and principall sense But when the place is obscure involu'd and intricate or when there is contain'd some secret and hidden mystery beyond the prime sense infallibly to shew vs this there can be no interpreter but the holy Ghost that gaue it Besides these two all other interpretation is private Wherefore as the Lords of the Philistines sometimes said of the kine that drew the arke vnto Bethshemesh If they goe of themselues then is this from God but if they goe another way then is it not from God it is some chance that hath hapned vnto vs so may it bee said of all pretended sense of Scripture If Scripture come vnto it of it selfe then is it of God but if it goe another way or if it bee violently vrged and goaded on then is it but a matter of chance of mans wit invention As for those marvailous discourses of some fram'd vpon presumption of the spirits helpe in private in iudging or interpreting of difficult places of Scripture I must needs confesse I haue often wondred at the boldnesse of them The spirit is a thing of darke secret operation the maner of it none can descrie As vnderminers are never seene till they haue wrought their purpose so the spirit is never perceaved but by its effects The effects of the spirit as farre as they concerne knowledge and instruction are not particular information for resolution in any doubtfull case for this were plainely revelation but as the Angell which was sent vnto Cornelius informes him not but sends him to Peter to schoole so the spirit teaches not but stirres vp in vs a desire to learne Desire to learne makes vs thirst after the meanes and pious sedulitie carefulnesse makes vs watchfull in the choice and diligent in the vse of our meanes The promise to the Apostles of the spirit which should lead them into all truth was made good vnto them by private and secret informing their vnderstandings with the knowledge of high and heavenly mysteries which as yet had never entred into the conceit of any man The same promise is made to vs but fulfil'd after another manner For what was written by revelation in their hearts for our instruction haue they written in their bookes To vs for information otherwise then out of these bookes the spirit speaks not Whē the spirit regenerats a mā it infuses no knowledge of any point of faith but sends him to the Church and to the Scriptures When it stirres him vp to newnesse of life it exhibits not vnto him an inventory of his sinnes as hitherto vnknowne but either supposes thē knowne in the law of nature of which no man can bee ignorant or sends him to learne them from the mouth of his teachers More then this in the ordinary proceeding of the holy spirit in matter of instruction I yet could never deserie So that to speake of the helpe of the spirit in private either in dijudicating or in interpreting of Scripture is to speake they knowe not what Which I doe the rather note first because by experience we haue learnt how apt-men are to call their private conceits the spirit And againe because it is the especiall errour with which S. Austine long agoe charged this kinde of men tantò sunt ad seditionem faciliores quantò sibi videntur spirit● excellere by so much the more prone are they to kindle schisme and contention in the Church by how much they seeme to themselues to bee endued with a more eminent measure of spirit then their brethren whilst 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St Basils speakes vnder pretense of interpretation they violently broach their owne conceits Great then is the danger in which they wade which take vpon them this businesse of interpretation temeritas asserend● incertae dubiaeque opinionis saith St Austine difficile sacrilegij crimen evitat the rashnesse of those that averre vncertaine and doubtfull interpretations for Catholike and absolute can hardly escape the sinne of sacrilege But whereas our Apostle saith their owne destruction is the destruction onely their owne this were well if it stretched no farther The ancients much complaine of this offence as an hinderer of the salvation of others There were in the daies of Isidorus Pelusiota some that gaue out that all in the old Testament was spoken of Christi belike out of extreame oppositiō to the Manichees who on the otherside taught that no text in the old Testament did foretell of Christ That Father therefore dealing with some of that opinion tels them how great the danger of their tenent is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for if saith he we striue with violence to drawe and apply those texts to Christ which apparantly pertaine not to him we shall gaine nothing but this to make all the places that are spoken of him suspected and so discredite the strength of other testimonies which the Church vsually vrges for the refutation of the Iewes For in these cases a wrosted proofe is like vnto a suborn'd witnesse It never doth helpe so much whilest it is presumed to bee strong as it doth 〈◊〉 when it is discouered to bee weake St Austine in his bookes de Genesi ad litteram sharply ●●proues some Christians who out of some places of Scripture misvnderstood fram'd vnto themselues a kinde of knowledge in Astronomie and Physiologie quite contrary vntosome parts of heathen learning in this kinde which were true and evident vnto sense A man would thinke that this were but a small errour and yet hee doubts not to call it 〈…〉 pernicios●● maxi●● cavendum His reason warrants the roundnesse of his reproofe For he charges such to haue beene a scandall vnto the word and hinderers of the conversion of some heathen men that were schollars For how saith he shall they beleeue our bookes of Scripture perswading the resurrection of the dead the kingdome of heauen and the rest of the mysteries of our profession if they finde them faultie in these things of which themselues haue vndeniable demonstration yea though the cause wee maintaine bee never so good yet the issue of diseas'd and crazie proofes brought to maintaine it must needs bee the same For vnto all causes be they never so good weakenesse of proofe when it is discovered brings great prejudice but vnto the cause of religion most of all St Austine obseru'd that there were some qui 〈◊〉 de aliquibus qui

that wee will not seeme to stand as cyphars to make vp the summe of other mens opinions being cause enough to make vs disagree A fault anciently amongst the Christians so apparant that it needed not an Apostolicall spirit to discover it the very heathen themselues to our shame and confusion haue iustly judiciously and sharply taxt vs for it Ammianus Marcellinus passing his censure vpon Constanti●● 〈◊〉 Emperour Christianam religionem absolutam simplicē saith he and they are words very well worth your marking Christianam religionem absolut●● simplicē anili superstitione confudit In 〈◊〉 scrutanda perplexiùs quàm componenda grauiùs excitauit dissidia plurima quae progressa fusiùs alu●t concertati●ne verborum dum ritum omnem adsu●●● trahere conatur arbitrium The Christian religion a religion of great simplicitie and perfection hee troubled with dotage and superstition For going about rather perplexedly to search the controversies then grauely to compose them he raised great stirres by disputing spread them farre and wide whilst he went about to make himselfe sole Lord commander of the whole profession Now that it may appear wherefore I haue noted this it is no hard thing for a man that hath wit and is strongly possest of an opinion and resolute to maintaine it to finde some places of Scripture which by good handling will be woed to cast a favourable coūtenance vpon it Pythagoras Schollers hauing beene bred vp in the doctrine of numbers when afterward they diverted vpon the studies of nature fancied vnto themselues somewhat in naturall bodies like vnto numbers and therevpon fell into a conceit that numbers were the principles of them So fares it with him that to the reading of Scripture comes forepossest with some opinion As Antipheron Ori●tes in Aristotle thought that every where hee saw his owne shape and picture going afore him so indivers parts of Scripture where these men walke they will easily perswade themselues that they see the image of their owne conceits It was is to this day a fashion in the hotter countries at noone when the sunne is in his strength to retire themselues to their Closets or beds if they were at home to coole shadie places if they were abroad to avoid the inconvenience of the heat of it To this the Spouse in the Canticles alluding calls after her beloued as after a shepheard Shew me O thou whom my soule loueth where thou feedest thy flocke where thou dost rest at noone The Donatists conceiting vnto themselues that the Church was shut vp in them alone being vrged by the fathers to shew how the Church being vniversall came on a suddaine thus to bee cōfinde to Africke they had presently their Scripture for it for so they found it written in the Canticles Indica quem diligit anima mea vbi pascas vbi cubes in meridie In which text meridies doubtlesse as they thought was their Southerne countrie of Africke where the shepheard of Israell was and no where else to feed his flockes I may not trouble you with instances in this kinde little observation is able to furnish the man of slendrest reading with abundance The texts of Scripture which are especially subiect to this abuse are those that are of ambiguous and doubtfull meaning For as Thucydides obserues of the fat and fertile places of Greece that they were evermore the occasions of stirres and seditions the neighbouring nations every one striuing to make it selfe Lord of them so is it with these places that are so fertile as it were of interpretation and yeeld a multiplicity of sense they are the Palastra for good wits to proue masteries in where every one desires to bee Lord and absolute A second thing occasioning vs to transgresse against Scripture and the discreet and sober handling of it is our too quicke and speedy entrance vpon the practise of interpreting it in our young and greene yeares before that time experience haue ripened vs and setled our conceits For that which in all other businesse and here likewise doth most especially commend vs is our cautelous and wary handling it But this is a flower seldome seen in youths garden Aristotle differencing age and youth makes it a propertie of youth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to suppose they knowe all things and to be bold in affirming and the heathen Rhetorician could tel vs that by this so speedy entring vpon action and so timely venting our crude and vnconcocted studies quod est vbique perniciosissimū praevenit vires fiducia a thing which in all cases is most pernicious presumption is greater then strength after the manner of those who are lately recoverd out of some great sicknesse in whome appetite is stronger then digestion These are they who take the greatest mysteryes of Christian religion to bee the fittest arguments to spend themselues vpon So Eckius in his Chrysopassus a worke of his so tearmed wherein he discusses the question of predestination in the very entrance of his worke tells vs that hee therefore enterpris'd to handle this argument because forsooth hee thought it to be the fittest question in which hee might luveniles calores exercere The ancient Masters of sence amongst the Romans were wont to set vp a post and cause their young Schollers to practise vpon it and to foine and fight with it as with an adversarie Insteed of a post this young fencer hath set himselfe vp one of the deepest mysteries of our profession to practise his freshmanship vpon Which qualitie when once it findes Scripture for his obiect how great inconvenience it brings with it needs no large discourse to proue St Ierome a man not too easily brought on to acknowledge the errours of his writings amongst those few things which hee doth retract censures nothing so sharply as the mistake of his youth in this kinde In adolescentia provocatus ardore studio Scripturarum allegoricè interpretatus sum Abdiam Prophetam cuius historiam nesciebam Hee thought it one of the greatest sinnes of his youth that being carried away through an inconsiderate heate in his studies of Scripture he advētured to interpret Abdias the Prophet allegorically when as yet hee knewe not the historicall meaning Old men saith our best naturall master by reason of the experience of their of●en mistakes are hardly brought cōstantly to affirme any thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they will alwaies cautelously interline their speeches with it may bees and peradventures and other such particles of warines circumspection This old mens modestie of all other things best fits vs in pervsing those hard and obscure texts of holy Scripture Out of which conceit it is that we see St Austine in his bookes de Genesi adlitteram to haue written only by way of questions and interrogations after the manner of Aristotle in his Problemes that he might not for so he giues his reason by being over positiue preiudice others and peradventure truer interpretations that every one might choose