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
A28445	Religio laici written in a letter to John Dryden, Esq.	Blount, Charles, 1654-1693.; Dryden, John, 1631-1700. Religio laici.; Herbert of Cherbury, Edward Herbert, Baron, 1583-1648. De religione laici.	1683 (1683)	Wing B3314; ESTC R2743	24,729	118

the different Sects of Christian Religion alone took up more time in the study of them than I could possibly hope to obtain altho' I should live beyond the ordinary age of man so that whereas I thought my self obliged for the discharge of my Conscience to study not only all Religions that have been or are in the World I found the Romanish Religion in its divers Sects alone of greater Intricacie than that I could by any Reason or Authority dissolve or unty the many Scruples or Knots in them since flying somtimes from Reason to Faith and then again from Faith to Reason with a singular agility in both I found my self unable to follow them in any one certain way I confess that if they had adhered singly to either of these two nothing could have scandalized me since that which was delivered upon Reason I should have examined and finally accepted upon the same ground and as well should I have believed those Points of Faith which were delivered me upon the Reverend Authority of the Church especially when it could have been proved that any former Church or Congregation had under their hands and Seals or in any other Authentick manner subscribed as eye-Witnesses to that they consign'd unto Posterity and not as Hearers only it being of great moment in the affirmation of things past to set down what they knew certainly and to come afterwards to what was told them by others which they again had from others and so perhaps from many descents especially if such things were related as neither they from whom they heard it nor indeed any mortal man by Natural Means could know Neither would it be sufficient to say that their Knowledge was Supernatural or Divine since as that is more than could be known in following times so when it were granted it would inferr little to me but that which I would believe without it For if any under the name of a Prophet should bid me do a Sin or be Impenitent for Sins done I should not believe him though he pretended a thousand Revelations for it And on the other side if he bid me be Vertuous and Penitent though he had not any shadow of Revelation for it I should give entire Credit to him The Validity of Revelation proved by its Doctrine That therefore the Certainty of that Doctrine which is called Revealed or the word of God in any Age or Country comes not to me simply either from the Authority of him that said the holy Spirit did so dictate the word to him No nor from the Authority of them that believed it how many or great soever but from the Goodness of the Doctrine it self without which I should believe but little in any extraordinary kind Every man in what Age or Country that teacheth goodness speaks the word of God to me and if the Contrary he shall never make me believe he knoweth God or heard him speak so much as one syllable much less that he is so familiar with God as to know him by his Voice Four several kinds of Revelations The Learned Tostatus mentions four several ways whereby God is said to have made Revelations in former times as for Example First when God and his Angels assumed a visible shape as when he appeared to Gideon Judg. 6. and to Manoah and his Wife Judg. 13. Secondly When he was not seen but only heard as Numb 7. and when he called Samuel 1 Sam. 3. Thirdly When he wrought only upon the Imaginations of men sleeping or waking as when God told Abimelech in a Dream that he was a dead man for taking away another mans Wife Gen. 20. Fourthly and lastly When God raiseth the Understanding to know those things which otherwise he could not know either by a kind of Extasie or without and of this kind was Paul's rapture into the third Heavens at which time it may be doubtful whether the Soul remained in the Body or no. Having thus now recited his several kinds of Revelations it will be necessary in the next place to enquire whether there might not be Fallacies in all these ways And when there was no Fallacy whether their Proof was not only by single Witnesses The Popish Clergie in such a case will tell us That we must believe reverently of things delivered to us in Holy Writ for that they have neither Errour nor Fraud in them And if that does not satisfie you they will then tell you you must come to them for a further Answer Not considering that if the Gentiles should require the same credit to be given to their Revelations upon their own single Testimony how we should do to shake them off the same Reason lying for us to believe the one as the other both equally depending on Faith A Dialogue concerning Revelations Therefore in the first place I should demand in a Rational and Judicial way how I could be assured that the Priests had received a Revelation and what was the time place and manner thereof In Answer to which I conceive the Priests would tell me That Laicks ought not further to enquire into such Mysteries than becomes them that if this their Revelation were not accepted as an unquestionable and necessary Truth there could be no cause thereof but an obdurate heart and want of Divine Grace in me that if the Sacerdotal word might not be taken concerning the Truth of the said Revelation there was no other way to inform me thereof It being Gods manner to speak to his beloved Servants and not to such gross Sinners as I was and to be brief that if I did not give entire credit to this Revelation of theirs it was for want of Faith And therefore that no better counsel could be given me than to pray that all obstructions might be taken away and instead of my heart of stone that I might receive an heart of flesh such as may be capable of this heavenly Illumination Finally They would reply nothing concerning the time or manner of their Revelation but only in general say that the Place was God's holy Temple where none could be partakers of the Word of God but such only as were his near Servants and did ordinarily take their rest and sleep therein Now to this I should Answer That if I might not know the time and manner when and how this their Revelation was made I would yet gladly be informed what Language was used betwixt them and whether the words were of God's immediate invention or that there were only certain Notes and Characters in use betwixt them whereby they understood one another Or otherwise if they had not a particular Language betwixt them which was intelligible whether God spake the ordinary Language of that Country and in what Tone whether the same were lowder than Thunder or only the ordinary heighth or whether lower yet by some close or secret expression somewhat less than a whisper To which I believe the Priests would Reply That if a King or Principal Magistrate

did send me a Message or Command by some one of his known Officers I would not then presume to make all these Questions they being not only uncivil but also impertinent and derogatory to the Supreme Authority and therefore that they who were known Ministers of God did without giving further account require Obeence from me in his Name But notwithstanding all this I should again take the boldness to ask them supposing they heard such words how yet they could know that God spake them and whether they were so familiar with the person of that God as to know him by his Voice and distinguish him from all others How they could assure themselves firmly that it was no inferiour Spirit that gave them this Revelation there being Spirits of both sorts both good and bad which use to deliver Oracles and Revelations according to the Doctrine of the Manichees who founded their Opinions upon that sentence viz. that the Devil is the God of this world But again supposing it was a good Spirit that spoke whether Camillus or his Boy who waited on him in the Temple did hear or understand the Voice as well as himself Here I know the Priests Answer would be That neither himself nor any else could come to the knowledge of God's Will but by their means and conveyance And for the rest would again require my Obedience on peril of my being condemn'd as an Infidel thinking by these words at least to overawe me But this would be so far from terrifying me that it would but put into my head more Scruples concerning the Truth of their Revelation when pursuing my way I should gladly demand of him how yet I could be assured that in the repeating of this their Oracle or Revelation they had omitted no part thereof through forgetfulness or added any thing to it by a Paraphrase or Explication And briefly whether nothing were interweaved or changed therein The Priests would here assuredly reply That it was but a prophane part in me to doubt any thing were either added to or taken from the Divine Revelation much less any thing mixed or interwoven with it and that the same God who gave them this Revelation did and would preserve it entire in their memory for further proof whereof they were ready to set it down and sign it under their Hands and Seals that so it might be transmitted to Posterity as an Authentick Record To which also the Amanuenses or Coppiers of it might repair to correct all that should be depraved either by their carelesness or wilful perversion of the Sense thereof that so their Errors might afterwards be rectified attested and subscribed by sufficient Witnesses as agreeing with the Original there being no other Means so good to ascertain us Laicks that nothing therein was counterfeit c. Which Method I confess if it had been used in all Ages and Countries where Revelations are said to have been made in private to Priests would have been much approved since Copies of Copies through many Descents may be subject to many Corruptions especially among those who would draw all things to their own Interest which might as well have become these latter Times as the former since our Modern Priests for the most part turn Religion into Faction striving to render all others of different Perswasions though in the least matters odious Which Bitterness of Spirit we find not evidently remarked among the Heathen Priests so that how Ignorant and False soever they were yet are they not recorded to have been Incendiaries and Persecutors of one another even unto Death for Religion and Conscience sake No they had no such hellish Contrivances as the Parisian and Hibernian Massacres no such Instruments of the Devil as Ravilliac Clement and the Priest that poyson'd our English Monarch in the Eucharist no such Traiterous Conspiracies as the Powder-plot Nor did they use to convert one another to their Opinions by Fire and Fagot and Rosting Kings alive as the Spaniards did in the Indies He that compares but the Behaviour of those of the Religious among the Heathens with the Carriage of our Popish Bishops here in England before the Reformation as related by our own Christian Writers would take the Heathen Priests for much the better Christians of the two So that notwithstanding all this I should not give the Priests over so but at least tell them I could have wished they had proceeded more clearly with me since the more they debased my Vnderstanding in Divine Mysteries the more was I obliged to stand to my Common Reason until they had made all things manifest or intelligible to me without going about to convince me of Infidelity because I believed not more than I understood or when a further Belief were required I hoped they would not charge me to believe it any otherwise than as a thing possible or at most but likely since this was all I could do when God had given me no sufficient Revelation for the confirming of theirs And to affirm it a good Plea in the Court of Heaven to say That a Man began at the Faith that was taught in his Native Country Who might not then excuse himself for adhering to the grossest Superstition that can be imagined in any Age or Country whatever where no less Esteem and Veneration was given publickly to their Sacerdotal College than is now paid to the present Church of Rome in Italy and Spain Finally therefore I should ask them How any Priest could assure and satisfie my Conscience that the Revelation made to him did so concern me that I must embrace it as an undoubted Axiom or Truth To which I am confident they would answer as formerly That they had discharged their Duty in delivering Gods Word and that I ought to take heed lest I be severely punished for want of Faith and so leave me after having with much gravity expressed their sorrow for my incorrigible stubborn Heart c. But notwithstanding all this I do not yet deny but that Revelations may be made to Men either sleeping or waking but where I suppose as we find in Holy Writ earnest Prayers have been made before-hand and some publick and miraculous Confirmation of the thing revealed hath followed However unless the thing in it self be right good and honest I should not conceive it was God that spake but some Evil Spirit that would deceive me it having pleased God so to implant the Love of Goodness and Truth in the Soul that he hath made them a part of Common Reason and conspicuous by their own Light from which therefore if we recede we shall find our selves cast not onely into much Errour and Darkness but even in the Court of our own Consciences criminal and condemned For which Cause also I believe God is so sparing in making publick Relations because if Men did wholly trust to them it might be a means of making them neglect their proper Duties It would be as the Learned Gregory in his