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
A02628	A recantation sermon preached in the gate-house at VVestminster the 30. day of Iuly 1620 In the presence of many worshipfull persons, by Iohn Harding, late Priest and Dominican Fryar. Wherein he hath declared his iust motiues which haue moued him to leaue the Church of Rome, and to vnite himselfe with the reformed Church of England, whose faith and doctrine, the ancient fathers and holy martyrs haue confirmed both by bloud and writing. Shewing herein the grose errors of Rome, in matters of faith, their corrupting the Fathers, and their present declining to some strange and future ruine.	Harding, John, fl. 1620.	1620 (1620)	STC 12756; ESTC S115165	15,923	28

euery Spirit but try the Spirits whether they bee of God or no Likewise I did much ruminate and ponder with my selfe the place of the Prophet Esay where he saith to the Law and the Testimony If they speake not according to this Word It is because there is no light in them Whence I did gather that all Seruices and Doctrines of Religion are not acceptable before God For Faith commeth by hearing and hearing of the word of God so that if they speake not according to this Word it is rather fancy then faith humane traditions then Gods institutions and consequently condemned by our Sauiour in the 15. of Mathew where he expresly reprooued the Commandements and traditions of men And St. Paul reiecteth as Bastard slippes all voluntary Seruices what apparance or outward shew of deuotion soeuer they beare By which and other like places I was moued to examine my profession whether it were of Gods institution and especiall command specified to vs or whether God were the author of those Seruices and Ceremonies which now beate great sway in the Church of Rome and after due examination I found out for certaine that many points of the Religion now embraced by the Romanists are not to be found within the volume of Gods Word When I considered this and perceiued the weakenes of the grounds that must warrant our soules it gaue me occasion to forsake my communion with the Church of Rome in whose bosome I haue beene long detayned of whom I may iustly complaine as the Prophet Ieremy did of the false teachers in his dayes they haue reiected the Word of the Lord and what wisedome is then in them Likewise I often busied my selfe in reading of Books treating of Religion such as handled matters now in controuersie as the Apollogy of the most reuerent Father and learned Scholler Iohn Iewell Bishop of Sarisbury written against a friend and neere Kiseman of mine Docter Harding together with another no lesse reuerent then learned Marcus Antoniuus de dominis Archbishop of Spalato whom after I had well perused I found such comfort in my conscience and such sollid doctrine for my soule that I made no doubt to say with the Prophet Dauid a domino factum est hoc this is the Lords doing Now the Sunne is vp and the Clouds of ignorance are gone the truth shineth and the Kingdome of Heauen is at hand therfore I may say with my Text bonum est mihi quia humiliastime It is good for mee that I was in trouble for thereby I haue learned thy Statutes But what are these Statutes they are the Word of God contayned in the Law and the Prophets which are the rule of our Life and the square of our Faith and the very Oracle of Almighty God from Heauen to reueale his will vnto vs for certaine it is that Christ came not to destroy the Law but to fulfill it hee swarued not from the Law and the Prophets neither did the Apostles teach any thing vpon their owne will and discretion but the Doctrine which they receiued of Christ they faithfully deliuered it vnto the people and Nations And this they preached at the first in viua voce that is in a liuely Voyce and afterward deliuered it vnto vs in writing to be the foundation and Pillar of our Faith Qui hoc credit saith Tertullian nihil habet quod vitra credat He that beleeueth this hath no Obligation to beleeue any thing else and this is that which we ought to beleeue without either adding or diminishing I would now demand of the Pope and his Papalins in what Gospell in what Apostle in what Prophet or Euangelist or Book of Moses they find either Pope or his supremacy where are his Pardons where is his Masse where Images together with many other his Fopperies which now they hold to be very precious We reade in the 20. of Exodus that almighty God doth expresly forbid the making of any Image to represent the Person of Almighty God or to do any seruice and obey sance to any Picture or representation of the creature for first God is a Spirit invisible incomprehensible and Eternall and therefore hee cannot be signified by any Image or creature which is both corporall and momentary and therefore God in his second Commandement forbiddeth all seruice done vnto Images but contrary vnto this the Church of Rome doth command and allow not only the making of Images but also doth command the seruing and worshipping of them as by incensing them in lighting of Candles vnto them by kneeling before them and by yeelding vp their offrings and deuotions vnto them All which can bee no lesse then grosse Idolatry for albeit they do not worship their Images as stocks and stones but as they represent either God or some Saint So likewise did not the Isralits worship their golden Calfe as the true God but they did worship the true God in the Calfe and yet notwithstanding the Text saith that they did commit Idolatry and many of them were seuerely punished for the same Exod. 32. so that the Idolatry of the Church of Rome is as grosse as that of the Isralites What can bee more iniutious vnto God then to hope for helpe of him and yet notwithstanding to pray vnto a sencelesse stock The faith of the Patriarkes and Prophets righteous Fathers from the beginning of the world was the same as ours is and ought to be as the Apostle saith that they were all baptized in the red Sea and did eate the same spirituall meate and iniutious vnto drinke the same spirituall drinke as wee doe now But was Abraham Isaack or Iaacob Papists did they fall downe before stocks and stones before Idols or Images to pray or offer vnto them did they go on pilgrimage one to anothers Relikes to doe deuotion vnto them there is neither shew nor shadow of these things in the Word of God Chrysostome saith that Christ nee discessit a lege neque a Prophetis but none of all this is to bee found in the Law or the Prophets therefore in no wise to bee admitted As touching the distinction which they vse betwixt Duleiam and Latreiam affirming that they giue to Saints onely Du●●iam that is a kind of Religious Seruice and that they giue Latreiam vnto Almighty God intimating thereby that they both worship God and serue their Images Our Sauiour confoundeth them in the 4 of Mathew saying as is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serue And Saint Paul perswadeth the Corinthians to turne from Idols and Images and to serue the euerliuing God where hee doth vse the word Duliea for the Seruice of the true God shewing heereby the opposition that is betwixt the one and the other that he that serueth Images cannot in any wise serue the Almighty God yea God himself speaketh it plainely in his first Commandement to worship and serue him only neither will he giue his Honour to any other

faith So the same Author saith in the same Treatise that if a man in the departing hence doth sincerely acknowledge his sinnes and truly imbrace Gods Word thus confessing and thus beleeuing he hath free pardon and forgiuenesse granted him of all his sinnes by Gods goodnesse and free mercy and at that very instant passeth to immortality Euen in the last moment of his life God refuseth not Repentance and whatsoeuer is truely done is not to late done And Saint Ambrose in his Booke Debono Mortis saith that he that in this life receiueth not remission of his sinnes shall not haue remission in the world to come Now if their sinnes be forgiuen in this world likewise the punishment due to the same is also forgiuen in this world and so there can remaine no Purgatorie to torment them in the next life But certaine it is that the bloud of Christ doth clense vs from all our sinnes as Saint Iohn saith and is the onely Purgatory that a Christian man should hold which doth deliuer his people as well from the punishment due to sins as from the sinne it selfe for as the Prophes Esay saith our punishment was laid vpon him and with his stripes wee are healed Saint August in his Sermon De tempore 232. saith there are but 2. places hee that reigneth not with Christ at his departure hence shall perish with the Diuell without end so that in what stare the last day of our life shall find vs in the same state the last day of our life shall iudge vs. Now if this be true as most true it is then the propitiatory Masse so much esteemed in the Romish seruice is but a forgery For first it cannot be propitiatory for the dead for as the Tree falleth so it lyeth and as man is found in his departing so goeth he to Hell or to Heauen A third place is not mentioned now if any be in Heauen Masses cannot auaile them for they enjoy all blisse possibly already if they be in Hell we read ab inferno non est redemptio out of Hell there is no redemption for as the Prophet Dauid saith a man can by no means redeeme his brother he cannot pay his ransome to God so precious is the redemption of soules and the continuance for euer And so it is cleare that for the dead it cannot be propitiatory and as for the liuing it cannot benefite them for then were it derogatory to the Passion of Christ once offered for all vpon the Crosse whose Oblation was absolute and perfect as Saint Paul in the 5. to the Hebrewes 6.7 speaketh and therefore needeth not Masse or any thing else to helpe it yea it were grosse and damnable to suppose any imperfection in that Sacrifice and Oblation of our Sauiour once offred on the Crosse seeing that God the Father twise spake from Heauen with a loud voyce saying this is my beloved Sonne in whom I am well pleased The fourth Reason that moued mee to renounce my former profession with the Romanists is that they quite contrary to the words of our Sauiour and the whole vse of the ancient Christians abuse the Sacrament of the Lords Supper partly by adding and partly by diminishing from the same when our Sauiour spake these words hoc est corpus meum This is my Body hee expounded himselfe presently saying it is the Spirit that giueth life the Flesh profiteth nothing These words are spoken spiritually therefore you must vnderstand them spiritually Saint Augustine in his Commentaries vpon the 98. Psalme saith you shall not eate this Body that you see neither shall you drinke that Bloud which vpon the Crosse was once shed for our Sauior recommended vnto vs a Sacrament to wit that which you see on the Table is Bread and that which you see in the Cup is wine but touching that wherein your faith is to be instructed is the Body and Bloud of Christ For as Baptisme doth change a man according to grace yet notwithstanding he remaines the selfesame man according to visible measure as he did before but inuisibly by grace is made another man outwardly nothing is added but inwardly all is changed So in the blessed Sacrament outwardly nothing is changed but there remaineth true Bread and true Wine but inwardly by faith we apprehend the Body and Bloud of Christ But these words which our Sauiour spake figuratiuely the Papists expounds them literally and thereby they cause the people to commit Idolatry by adoring Bread as God for they hold that after the words of Consecration there remaineth no longer Bread nor Wine but there is really and Transubstantially the Body and Bloud of Christ But Saint Peter saith that the Heauens must containe the Body of Christ vntill the end of the World Now if Christs Body bee in Heauen then it cannot bee in the Earth at once and the same time for as Saint Augustine Tractatu 3. in Iohannem Corpus Domini in quo resurrexit vno tantum in loco esse potest If they say that it is done by miracle in the Sacrament then it should be visible to the outward eye and sences When Christ turned water into Wine it was visible Wine When Moses Rod was turned into a Serpent it was a visible Serpent and so if the Bread be turned into the Body and the Wine into the Bloud of Christ it must also be a visible body But if they expound these words of our Sauiour hoc est corpus meum literally to belong vnto all why should they not also expound the words following literally that when he tooke the Cup he said This is my bloud should be appertayning to all aswel as the Bread In the old Law Circumcision was called the Lords Couenant when it was not the Couenant but a Signe thereof For the Couenant was this to Abraham Ego ero Deus tuus Deus seminis tui Likewise the Pascall Lambe was called the Passeouer of the Lord when it was but the signe of the Passeouer as passing ouer the red Sea so that it may stand with good Reason that Christ called the Bread his Body as hee called the Pascall Lambe his Passeouer and yet was but a signe thereof so the Bread is called his Body and is but a signe or remembrance of the same and therefore it is called a Sacrament because that in it one thing is seene and another thing vnderstood that which is seene is Bread and Wine and hath a visible apparance or forme but that which is vnderstood hath a spirituall vse and profit So that the thing which signifieth is oft-times called by the name of the thing which it signifieth as Saint Paul calleth the Rocke Christ yet it was not Christ by substance but by signification euen so our Sauiour said This is my Body when he gaue Bread the sigue of his Body and the Apostle said the Rock was Christ for that the Rocke which they spake of signified Christ The Gospell standeth not in the words of the

A RECANTATION SERMON PREACHED IN THE GATEHOVSE AT VVEST minster the 30. day of Iuly 1620. In the presence of many worshipfull persons by Iohn Harding late Priest and Dominican Fryar Wherein he hath declared his iust motiues which haue moued him to leaue the Church of Rome and to vnite himselfe with the reformed Church of England whose faith and doctrine the ancient fathers and holy Martyrs hane confirmed both by bloud and writing Shewing herein the grose errors of Rome in matters of faith their corrupting the Fathers and their present declining to some strange and future Ruine LONDON Printed by Barnard Alsop for Roger Iackson and are to be sold at his shop against the Counduit in Fleetestreet 1620. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR ROBERT Nanton Knight chiefe Secretary to his Maiesties state and one of his Maiesties most Honorable Priuie Councell HE that hath passed a dangerous sicknesse and hath recouered his former health againe is bound in a double Obligation The one is to bee gratefull to the Person by whose meanes he recouered his health The other is to vse all meanes possible that those which be sick of the like disease may by his recouery be the better According to that of our Sauior Et tu cōuersus confirma fratres tuos And therefore right Honourable although it be somewhat besides custome to make Dedications of printed Sermons yet it is my duty to offer to your Honour the first fruits of my conuersion Your Honor being next and immediately vnder God the chiefe worker thereof The which as it is a gretaer benefite then any worldly thing can afford me so doth it require a fuller acknowledgement then as yet I could at any time manifest howsoeuer I haue most earnestly desiredit In which respect being ouer intreated by some of my friends to publish this Sermon of my Recantation and to set downe to the open view of all the iust reasons and sollid grounds that moued mee there unto I haue made hold to passe it vnder your Honours name hoping by your former encouragements of your loning acceplance And albeit they be but my first Assayes in this kind and therefore may chance to seem but harsh yet because my desire is only to set forth God mercy towards me your Honors louing kindnesse shewed to me And to stop the mouthes of some malicious Papists that rayle against me I trust that your Honour will accept of this my weake endeauour as a token of my thankefull mind which I in all duty recommend vnto your Honours fauour and your selfe and yours in your affaires vnto the mercy and blisse of the blessed Trinity who ever so asssist your Honour in all your proceedings as that after these present toyles and troubles your Honor may receine that happy Crowne of glory Quam repromiscit Deus diligentibus se Your Honors euer in Christ Iesus Iohn Harding A RECANTATION SERMON PREACHED BY A DOMINICAN Fryar Psal 119. verse 71. It is good for me that I have beene in trouble for thereby I have learned thy Statutes De elementiaad Neronem SEneca a graue Phylosopher writing vnto Nero and tracting of Cinna an ancient Roman and publike Rebell hee vseth these words Periti medici vbi blanda medela non pracedat tentant contrarium It is the vse of good Physicians that when a gentle Meditine doth take no place they presently apply a sharper salue and more bitter corrasiue The like course taketh Almighty God with those that bee repugnant vnto his holy will and rebellious against his knowne truth when faire meanes and louing kindnes cannot preuaile then goeth he non alliciendo sed compellendo not by alluring or enticing them but by compelling and enforcing them vt quod non possit per disceptatione saltem pos sit per vim that those whom hee cannot win by louing exhortations he will bring them home by extremities For as Isocrates an ancient Grecian saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 afflictions are our instructions and extremitie is Gods opportunity The prodigal child would not returne vn-his father vntill extremity compelled him Manasses liuing in his pompe and pleasure in Ierusalem planted groues and set vp Idols against God and godlinesse but being in prison in Babilon and chained in a dungeon the Scripture saith that he did turne his heart vnto the Lord his God and besought him earnestly therefore saith Salomon to all things there is an appointed time and a time for euery purpose vnder the heauēs God hath his time to afflict vs that we may the more earnestly seeke after him multiplicatae sunt infirmitates eorum postea acclerauerme as our Sauiour saith seeke and you shall find But how must we seek it is said we must seeke him by Prayer Inuoca me in die tribulationis ego exaudiam te call vpon me in the time of trouble and I will heare thee The Prophet Dauid being much afflicted in many of his Psalmes doth often call vpon the Lord as in the 120. Psalme ad Dominum cum tribularer clamaui when I was in trouble I called vppon the Lord and in the 130. Psalme de profundis clamaui ad te domini domine exaudi vocem meam out of the deepe of my heart haue I called vnto thee O Lord O Lord heare my prayer so that as prosperity doth cause many to forget God and to neglect their duties towards him so doth aduersity call them home againe and makes them more carefull to seeke after him and to walke more warily in his wayes And therefore the Prophet Dauid in another place of this Psalme saith Before I was in trouble I went wrong but now haue I learned to keep thy lawes and so concludeth in the seuenth verse saying bonū est mihi quia bumili asti me it is good for me that I haue beene in trouble The like may I say at this time right Worshipfull and my louing auditors it was good for mee that I haue beene in trouble for before I was in trouble albeit I had a zeale to serue the Lord yet I had not the true way and meanes to serue him as he ought to be serued hauing liued as long time from the truth as from my country and friends being from my first arriuall into this Land deteyned in pryson sequestred from all conuersation and society In this my affliction and long misery I prayed both instantly and feruently to the Almighty that hee would vouhcsafe to open mine eyes enlighten my darkenes and incline my heart vnto his testimonies that I might serue him in holinesse and righteousnesse all the dayes of my life for in him only and for him only I desired to liue and dye refoluing my selfe that whatsoeuer shall bee fall me in this life I will esteeme it all happinesse for the peace of conscience and the glory of Gods most holy name As I was thus communing with my soule there came into my mind that worthy precept of St. Iohn when he saith Trust not