Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	know_v	scripture_n	speak_v	7,222	5	4.9707	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27518	The life and death of James Arminius and Simon Episcopius, professors of divinity in the University of Leyden in Holland both of them famous defenders of the doctrine of Gods universal grace, and sufferers for it / now published in the English tongue.; Oratio in obitum reverendi et clarissimi viri D. Jacobi Arminii. English	Bertius, Petrus, 1565-1629.; Courcelles, Etienne de, 1586-1659. Short and compendious history of Simon Episcopius.; J. K.	1672 (1672)	Wing B2048; ESTC R833	34,143	72

that are unadvised and imprudent And it is better to prevent an occasion of offence than to excuse it Being come out of Italy he stayed at Geneva and some months after being called home he returned to Amsterdam to his Patrons and Masters furnished through the grace of Christ with a clear testimony from them of Geneva and with a mind very well fitted to do office if it might please the Lord God to use his ministry for his work in his Church For these are the very words of Mr. Beza's Epistle the original of which I have in remembrance At Amsterdam he did easily with grave and prudent men clear himself as to his Italian journey but indeed the weak brethren went on inveighing against it and in their assemblings blaming it till he himself began to be heard in the Church in which as soon as he was beheld it cannot be spoken with how much respect men of all ranks flocked together to hear him For there was in him as ye know a certain incredible gravity mixed with gracefull pleasantness His voice indeed was slender but sweet and loud and piercing but he had an admirable perswasive faculty If any thing were to be adorn'd he so did it as not to exceed the truth If he were to teach any thing he did it with clearness and perspicuity If he were to dispute any thing he manag'd the same distinctly Now the Melody and altering of his voice was so fitted to things that it seemed to flow from them And sith he did not use a Rhetorical dress and the Greeks boxes of pleasant ointment it was either because his nature did abhor them or because he judged it unworthy the majesty of Divine things to use curles and borrowed ornaments when as the naked truth is of its self sufficient for its own defence notwithstanding he so efficaciously perswaded by force and weight of arguments and by the pithiness of his sentences and by the authority of Scripture it self that no man ever heard him but confess'd that his discourses much affected him Some therefore at that time called him the polishing life of truth others the whetstone and sharpner of wits others called him the razor shaving off growing errors and nothing in Religion and sacred Theology was thought to favour well that did not relish with Arminius Also the Pastors and Preachers themselves of that City men both learned and eloquent did reverence him for his learning and ingeniously acknowledge themselves to have been daily very much advantaged by his Sermons And thus our Arminius with spread out sayles prosperous gales a full company of rowers and the good wishes of all that knew him was carried towards fame and glory when it pleased God to exercise his servant even with adversity and to make a tryal of his patience and humbleness by the cross and afflictions Now 't is a thing worth the knowing to understand the beginnings and success hereof There was carried about as it chanced in the hands of some pious men a little Book written by some of the brethren of the Church of Delf against Mr. Beza with this Title An answer to some arguments of Beza and Calvin out of a Treatise concerning predestination on the 9. Chap to the Romans This little book was sent over to our Arminius by Mr. Martin Lidyus of blessed memory who had been formerly a Pastor in the Church of Amsterdam but then was Professor in the Friezlanders new Academy and by him Arminius was requested to undertake the defence of Mr. Beza against the brethren of Delf For Arminius was verily thought a man very fit for this business by Mr. Lidyus who partly by report partly by experience knew the quickness of his wit the sharpness of his judgment and what a wonderful force and power he had both in preaching and in disputing Neither was Arminius altogether strange from this design being one that newly coming out of the School of Geneva carryed about with him in his ears the sound of Mr. Beza's lectures and arguments He therefore betakes himself to the work But whilst he endeavours a refutation whilst he weighs the arguments on each side whilst he confers the Scriptures whilst he torments and wearys himself he was overcome by the truth At first indeed he followed that same opinion which he undertook to oppose but he afterwards by the guidance of the holy Ghost was carried over to that doctrin which he constantly asserted even to the end of his life Which was this That Gods eternal Decree in predestination was not to elect or chuse precisely and absolutely some to salvation whom as yet he had not purposed to create which Mr. Beza would have neither was it precisely and absolutely to elect some to salvation after the decree of their creation and the foresight of their fall but without an antecedent consideration of Jesus Christ which the Delfian brethren held Bu● it was To elect to salvation them of the created and fallen who in time to come would by true obedience of faith answer to God calling them thereunto Which by learned Melancthon and Nicholaus Hemingius and many more divines besides hath been asserted And although such in times past hath been the liberty of our Churches and even now is in very many places that in this Argument in which no ancient Synod hath ever determined any thing any one of the multitude and a Teacher might always without offence to any one choose this or that for to omit others Dr. Jo. Holmannus Secundus who by the very grave advice of excellent Divines and especially of the Lords Curators was called forth after Mr. Pezelius and Mollenius and others were sollicited in vain taught it out of this very place He imbraced as we know the opinion of Hemingius and sharply defended it Not withstanding there were not those wanting at Amsterdam that in this matter were troublesome to Arminius and that accused him for departing from the common and received opinion in our Churches but their vehemency and fiercness was suddenly repress'd and appeas'd by the authority of the Senate and the equanimity and moderation of the brethren so that he always lived with his Collegues at Amsterdam quietly yea friendly and brotherly without any cloud of displeasure or hatred or envy And also this man of God was not only naturally dispos'd to candor and gentleness but also was moreover so formed and fashioned thereto by the holy precepts and Spirit of Chtist that he did quietly bear with him that dissented from him and did not easily despair of any one that was but willing to hear Christ speaking in Scriptures which by his divine moderation and equinimity we all knew and have by so much the more admired it by how much the further we by the testimony of our own conscience perceive our selves yet to be from these good things Now when the University deprived of her Professors by the death of those famous and excellent men Dr. Junius and Dr. Luke

Hear the Apostle It is with me a very small thing that I should be judged of you or of mans judgment He that judgeth me is the Lord Therefore judge nothing before the time untill the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will make manifest the counsels of the heart And then shall every man have praise of God Art thou so assured of what shall happen to thy self as to know for certain that thou thy self shalt not be tormented with more bitter pain and dolour And yet 't was not his right eye that was amiss neither was it blindness but only a dimness and his arm was not dried up but swelled His tongue truly even to the last moment of his life readily discharged its office Thus things above things below things on the right hand things on the left things divine things humane wait together on these wretched Hierophants Expounders of divine mysteries to serve them when they will There were somes who playing on his name devised Vani orbis amicus i. e. A friend of the vain world as if impiety was not sometime bold to do the same on the sacred name of Christ Go your wayes for beetles the unprofitable things of the world What will ye not attempt to do on the servant who have not spared God himself and the Lord of life But I return to that which I made digression from He although tired with all these evils yet notwithstanding kept a stedfast courage and quiet mind He therefore never abated any thing of the pleasantness and comely gracefulness and accustomed cheerfulness of his countenance and candor of heart his most ardent prayers ascending to God for himself and the concord of the church How frequent how fervent in his sickness were his ejaculations to Jesus Christ What joyes did he promise himself With what perseverance of faith did he expect his last day in the world If the brethren did compose themselves to prayers and he himself was hindred by pain he now and then desired them to stay till he should come to himself that he might together with them perform this brotherly office These few forms of prayers among many more were noted OH great Shepheard of the sheep who by the blood of the everlasting covenant wast brought again from the dead Oh! Lord and Saviour Jesus be present with me thy weak and afflicted sheep Oh Lord Jesus the faithfull and mercifull High priest who wast willing to be tempted in all things like unto us but without sin that thou learning by experience it self how hard it is to obey God in sufferings mightest have compassion on us in our infirmities have pity on me and succour me thy servant who am sick an pressed with many afflictions Oh God of my salvation make my soul fit for thine heavenly kingdom my body for the resurrection Now when upon the increasing of his disease he was admonished by the Physicians that by reason of the doubtfullness of his life he would set his house in order and that if any thing were to be given in charge by his last will and testament he would take care to do it he then composed himself for death with such great quietness of mind that friends standing by who had observed the whole manner of his life admired at his so great and so heroick moderation in the last act and they took from him the last example of dying blessedly of whom long before they had learned many things for the well ordering of their lives He then perceiving that the time of his dissolution was at hand and not being ignorant of the Devils stratagems took speciall care when he made his will to give a brief Account of his designs and of his life This because it contains the duty of a faithfull Teacher I shall recite for an Example and for a Testimony Out of his will or Testament BEfore all things I commend my soul when it shall depart out of its body into the hands of God its Creator and faithfull Saviour before whom I witness that I have with a good conscience singly and sincerely walked in my charge and calling taking heed with much solicitousness and carefulness not to propose or teach any thing which I had not found by a diligent search out of the holy Scriptures to agree exactly with the same Scriptures and that I have taught those things which might conduce to the propagation and amplification of the truth the Christian religion the true worship of God common piety and holy conversation among men Lastly to tranquility agreeing to the Christian profession and peace according to the word of God excluding from among these Papacy with which no verity of faith no bond of piety and Christian peace can be kept These things being thus finished some days were spent in the invocation of Christ and in thanksgiving and the meditation of a better life In which time Mr. Jo. Vtenbogardus and Mr. Hadrian Borrius did more frequently visit him then others did Both of them were his old and most faithfull friends But Mr. Borrius was even always present in the daily performance of prayer with his sick friend Now at length on the 19th of October about noon this faithfull servant of God being discharged of his warfare having finished his course fought the good fight kept the faith did render his soul now weary of cares now glutted with the miseries of this world now desiring deliverance now having a fore-tast of the joys of the Saints now seeing Christ his God and redeemer did I say with his eyes lifted up to heaven render quietly among the holy prayers of them that were present his soul to God the Father his creator to the Son his redeemer to the Holy Ghost his sanctifier all crying out Let me dye the death of the righteous Thus even this our Sun did set thus that just man dyed of whom this world was not worthy thus the father of so many prophets was taken away thus James Arminius by the charet of Israel and horsemen thereof was carryed from us into heaven and now is free and delivered from miseryes hath the crown sought for by so many labours by so great holiness and enjoys the heavenly Jerusalem in the great assembly of many thousands of Angels and the Church of the first-born that are written in heaven and he sees the Judge of all and the Spirit of just men made perfect and Jesus the mediator of the new Testament and the blood of sprinkling speaking better then that of Abel But he expecteth that day in which God will make his dead body which we have laid in the earth to be conformable to the glorious body of his Son according to the power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself But we so long as it pleases God shall be tossed with these waves till he having at sometime compassion on us also shall call us every one in his own order