Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ignorance_n	young_a	youth_n	21	3	7.6737	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97021	None but Christ, or A plain and familiar treatise of the knowledge of Christ, exciting all men to study to know Jesus Christ and him crucified, with a particular, applicatory, and saving knowledge, in diverse sermons upon I Cor. 2. 2. / By John Wall B.D. preacher of the word of God at Mich. Cornhill London.	Wall, John, 1588-1666.	1648 (1648)	Wing W469; Thomason E1139_1; ESTC R210079	152,329	343

when Christ is so plainly preached in their own law search the scriptures saith Christ for they are they which testify of me John 5. 39. And yet they remain as judiciarily so wilfully blind and ignorant 2 Cor. 3. 14. as a just punishment of their own imprecation when they cryed His bloud be on us and our children 4. Papists who nourish ignorance teaching it to be the mother of devotion when as we know that ignorance is the cause of sin Matth. 22. 29. and punishment of sin Rom. 1. 21. Esa 6. 9. surely that religion cannot be good which hateth the light He that doth evill hateth the light John 3. 10. Neither is it likely that that should be the mother of devotion that is the mother of Atheisme idolatry and superstition as appeares Act. 17. 22. Psal 10. 4. Gal. 4. 8. But thus they pul out the peoples eyes as the Philistims did Sampsons and then they make sport with them And further though they know Christ to be a Saviour yet they make him not the alone Saviour but joyne with Christ their owne workes and make themselves at least in part their owne saviours But if wee adde but one mite to Christs treasure we say Christ is not rich enough to save us and so we make him no Saviour Rom. 10. 3. Gal. 5. 4. 5. And lastly it reproveth all ignorant An ignorant man little differs from a beast Psal 32. Ier. 4. 22. Esa 1. 2. Eph. 4. 17. persons among our selves a man would wonder how they can make a shift or study to be so ignorant who are even like the horse and mule that have no understanding As in the creation Darknesse covered the face of the earth so of their soules Ask them what Christ is They answer some of them that he is a God some a man some an angel a spirit c. Learned Master Pemble reports of a man dying being asked what Christ was he said he thought he was a towardly young youth c. But let all thus grosly ignorant consider first their ignorance is inexcusable because the Gospell shines so clearly in their faces The light shineth in the darkness but the darkness comprehendeth it not Joh. 1. 10. There is a three-fold ignorance 1. A privative ignorance 2. A wilfull ignorance 3. A negligent ignorance Now their ignorance is not ignorantia privationis invincibilis that is negative or invincible ignorance but first it is ignorantia pravae affectionis as the Schoolmen speak That is wilfull from corrupt affection It is one thing nescire not to know and another thing nolle scire not to be willing to know And these are they that shut their eyes least they should see with their eyes Math. 13. 15. Depart from us say they for we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes Job 21. 14. Or secondly at least it is supina ignorantia supine careless or negligent ignorance when men will use no meanes nor take any paines for knowledge these are said to hate knowledge Prov. 1. 19. And this ignorance doth much aggravate their sin and make it without any cloake or colour of excuse if I had not come among you saith Christ you had had no sin but now you have no cloake for your sin John 15. 22. How shall you escape that neglect so great salvation saith Paul Heb. 2. 3. 2. An ignorant heart is an evill heart Iohn 9. 41. without knowledge the mind is not good saith Solomon Prov. 19. 2. surely if the head be leprous the body cannot be sound If the head be giddy the body must needs stagger If the eye be dark all the body is dark Matth. 6. 22. 3. All their workes are evill and workes of darknesse they can yeeld no obedience to God acceptably because it is brutish and not rationall service for how can we shun evill when we know not what is evill Or do our duty when we know not our duty The blind eates many a fly and who so bold as blind Bayard Ignorance made them lay violent hands upon Christ himselfe but had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of glory 4. Fourthly They can have no repentance for how can we repent and be greived for our sins untill we know them and how can we cry for mercy when we see not our misery Ionas while he was asleepe in the ship feared not the tempest till awakened the child in the dark womb cryes not till it come into the light 5. How full of feare are they that walk Light is sweet but darknesse terrible in the dark The Egyptians when the plague of darknesse was upon them how uncomfortable was their condition But what horrour will possesse thy darke soul in that hour of darknesse how terrible will death be to thee The Sun ecclipsed at the death of Christ was dreadfull but more dreadfull will it be when the face of God is ecclipsed toward thee 6. Sixthly Such have no part in Christ for as in the creation the first work God made was light so in the regeneration Iohn 17. 3. Iohn 4. 10. the first grace God gives is light Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead and Christ shall give thee light saith the Apostle Eph. 5. 14. The Eagle tryes her young whether they be her owne by this signe if they can endure to look upon the Sun or else she ownes them not as they say but casts them upon the hard stones And certainly thy ignorance or knowledge discovers thee to be a child of light or a child of darknesse for God hath sworne an ignorant person shall never come into heaven It is a people that do erre in their hearts and have not knowne my wayes wherefore I sweare in my wrath they Hos 6. 6. Ioh. 7. 49. should never enter into my rest Heb. 3. 10. Neither will God shew them any mercy which is usually their excuse if they be ignorant as appeares Esa 27. 11. They are a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will have no mercy on them Nay Christ hath said he will come in flaming fire to render vengeance to them that know not God 2 Thes 1. 8. Ignorance will end in vengeance Neither will voluntary or negligent ignorance excuse a tanto but aggravate thy wrath John 3. 19. this is condemnation that is this makes their Ignorantia minuit à peccato quantum minuit à voluntario Aq. 2. 2. Qu. 76. condemnation the greater because light is come among them but they loved darknesse more then light and therefore it is affected darknesse Quest What should ignorant men do to come to the knowledge of Christ and their own salvation I answer First I advise them to get a Catechisme and if they cannot get it by heart yet let them read it over and over againe and againe and for poore servants let this be a part of their Sabbath dayes work I could wish likewise that Parents Masters

with flowers and adding as it were vermilion to the colour And yet Plus horret orationis in●legantiam quàm vitae deformitatem he regards not sordescere vita moribus how foule his life and conversation is And in conclusion they are but so many painted words or wise words at the best good onely to tickle wanton eares and deceive the simple But solid reality good matter clothed with decent words takes more with the wise Hence Demosthenes feared Phocion vera ad rem pertinentia simpliciter dicentem that is speaking home and to the purpose more then all other Orators And he called him securim orationum suarum the hatche● of his orations Hence many of the wiser heathens despised this art Socrates cals it Nec artem nec Scientiam sed sagacitatem servilem adulationem Neither an art nor Science but subtilty and flattery Plato esteemed them but as stage-players calumniators and sycophants Hinc innocens ut nocens damnatur contra making the guiltlesse guilty and the guilty guiltlesse Cato Refused that Rhetoricians should plead quia Orationis facundiâ facile possent aequa iniqua persuadere because by eloquence of words they could easily perswade to right or wrong Demosthenes boasted he could change the sentence of the judges at his pleasure and Cicero was cald Rex oratione sua omnia regens playing Rex with his oratory thereby ruling all things at his pleasure 3. The Logician he will tell you that he Irrationale hominū genus si absque Disciplina nesciat ratiocinari studyes how to see clearly with the eye of reason and therwith oft times he puts out the eye of faith which though never against yet it is oft times above our reason But we must walke by faith and not by sence or reason 2 Cor. 5. 7. Heb. 11. 1. 3. It s true voluntas est caeca sine ratione the will is blind without reason but it is also as true Theologia est sepulchrum rationis Divinity is the grave that burieth reason where we must learn oft times to shut the Plato Cicero Socrates and the Athenians condemned this Art Aug. cals it Vinum erroris Hier. Cibum daemonum Democritus Non artem sed insania●● eye of reason that we may see the better with the eye of faith 4. Fourthly The Poets how light and emply are they Like fits of musick which delight us for the present while the musick is in our eares but after leave us malancholy Of whom wee may say as Aug. said of Homer that they are Dulcissime vani but pleasantly vaine And what do they else but please the eares of foolish men with wanton Rhimes with measures and weights of words and syllables with fables and lyes Yea they are so given to lying saith one that they study nil sani dicere but stultis auribus cantillare And all their study is that they may not claudicare pedibus halt in their feet but yet they regard not claudicare moribus to halt in their manners 5. Fifthly The Historian he can tell you a long story of Nations cityes and countryes and of the lives and actions of other men but neglects to study the history of his own life he never studyes his own heart but is a stranger at home though busy abroad And how often do they take things upon trust by hearesay from others flattering some and detracting from others that as one saith Plerumque aliorum auditu nihil certi scribunt Non quod est sed quod cupiunt volunt That is very often they have things onely by relation and do not write the naked truth as things were but as they desired and would have them to be 6. Sixtly The Arithmetician he will tell you that he can number all things yea he can number the starres but never studyes to number his dayes that he might apply his heart unto wisedome 7. The Astrologian he will tel you that he was nuper è coelis delapsus lately dropt out of heaven And his though●s are celestiall as high as the starres but not supercelestiall above the starres And Quid futurum erit divinatur he can divine by the starres and tell you your fortune what shall happen to you hereafter And yet he knowes not Quid sibi ipsi quotidie imminet what hangs over his own head every houre or what shall happen to himself to morrow Jam. 4. 14. And let men phancy what they please certainly to conjecture of mens fortunes end● vertues vices c. * Picut Mirand Quae solius dei sunt astris tribuunt nos liberos natos siderum servos faciunt Some of the Heathens cald this art superstitiosorum hominum conjectura fallax 1. they know not certainly vires stellarum and therefore cannot give certain judgement of their effects 2. Propter innumeras cooperantes cum caelo alias causas 3. because influxus stellarum inclinant say they non cogunt 4. Si vita fortuna est abastris quid timemus 5 Saepe iis quibus maximè confidunt maximè infaelicissimi sunt as they were to Nebuchadnezzar Pharaoh Caesar Pompey Nero c. by the starres is I conceive very impious for as Picus Mirand saith they attribute those things to the starres which belong to God alone Esa 8. 20. 8. The musician he will tell you he studyes to tune his strings aright to make sweet harmony and will not endure a jarring string in his instruments of musick and yet forgets to tune the strings of Dulcisonum reficit tristia corda m●los his untun'd affections It is true it cannot be denyed but it is a great refresher of the spirits yet it is but vanity for the birds in the aire seeme to sing as sweet as any artificiall melody can be made The Egyptians denyed it to be learn'd by their youth because they thought it would make them effeminate Antigonus hearing Alexander making musick Citharam fregit inquiens aetati tuae regnare convenit non canere he brake his harpe and told him it beseem'd him rather to learn to reigne then learn to sing and make musick 9. The Philosopher he will tell you he studyes to know the nature of the whole fabrick of Gods creation as Birds and Beasts and creeping things foules of the aire fish in the sea c. And yet knowes nothing of God and Christ and his own corrupt nature he knoweth not that himselfe is wretched and miserable 10. The Physician he will tell you he studyes to know how to cure the diseases of other mens bodyes but regards not to cure the diseases of his own soule who lookes upon his own sins as he doth upon his Patients deseases as in a glasse wherein he sees other mens diseases rather then his own and is not pained with Dum dolet accipe ergo agit sepè ut dolca● them And though I will not say saepè plus periculi est à medico quàm à morbo that is