Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	worship_n	worship_v	wrought_v	66	3	7.8379	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02834	A vision of Balaams asse VVherein hee did perfectly see the present estate of the Church of Rome. Written by Peter Hay Gentleman of North-Britaine, for the reformation of his countrymen. Specially of that truly noble and sincere lord, Francis Earle of Errol, Lord Hay, and great Constable of Scotland.	Hay, Peter, gentleman of North-Britaine.	1616 (1616)	STC 12972; ESTC S103939	211,215	312

Scripture to signifie the Pagan gods which were things false and so nothing Esay saith of the gods of the Gentiles Behold you are nothing and your workes are of no worth Vnto the which Saint Paul alluding Wee know said he that an Idol is nothing in the world because howsoeuer it bee made of mettall timber or stone yet because the falshood which it representeth is nothing it is said to be nothing Now so ielous is God of his honour and worship That hee hath not only forbidden materiall images to bow down to them but there is also spirituall Idolatry forbidden whereof there is two sorts The first is of these who directly or indirectly haue society and company with the Diuell and trust in him as Sorterers Magitians Witches Consulters The second is of those who mainetaine any erronious opinion concerning the worship of God or against the word of God or who doe cherish and defend any great and odious vice by a displayed banner against God as the Prophet Samuel speaking of the disobedience of Saul Your rebellion saith he is the sinne of Witchcraft and your trangression Idolatry the reason is because hee who doth obey God after his own fantacie and not after Gods expresse Commandement he doth prefer his own conceipt and make an Idol thereof as Saint Ierome in this same sense shewes how there was oftentimes Idolatry among the Iewes when they had no materiall Idoles as the Gentiles saith he worship corporall Idoles so the Iewes hold for gods those Idoles which they haue forged in their soules and therefore they are Pagans and Idolaters Saint Austen expounding the meaning of Iosua when he exhorted the Iewes newly entred in Palestina to put away their strange gods It is not to be thought that in this time the Iewes had any Pagan god said hee because immediatly before he did praise their obedience neither is it to bee thought that hee spake these wordes without cause so it was said he that the holy Prophet vnderstanding them to haue in their hearts erroneous opinions of God contrarie to his honour hee desired them to leaue them Saint Paul doth cleerely testifie that the auaricious man and the glutton be Idolaters the one of his gold the other of his belly Quorum Deus venter est Many were among the Phylosophers whose wisdome did neuer suffer them to worship Creatures as Idoles yet were they spirituall Idolaters by denying of the Resurrection and of the immortality of the Soule in that true eternity which God hath appointed for it The Iewes and Turkes this day doe not worship any materiall Idol yea they worship the same God whom we doe yet they are Idolaters because they doe not acknowledge him as he is a Diuine Essence distinguished in three persons but after a fantasie deuised by Mahomet here and there be the Cabbalists of whom and of of all such Saint Basil saith Cursed be the men who forge false imaginatione in their owne braines and carry spirituall Idolatrie in their hearts And Gregorie Nazianzene more plainely How is it come saith hee euen to this that euery wicked man doth make a God of his wickednesse his filthy passions his wrath his murthers his lust and drunkennesse and other abominable excesse And Saint Ierome writing vpon Isay and Hosea in diuers places and Augustine in the City of God doth reckon monstrons numbers of false gods whom poore Gentility had forged to themselues aswell in their fantasies as in their Temples both which sorts of Iolatrie God hath very well forseene and very strictly forbidden by his precept of no grauen image in heauen aboue nor in the earth beneath wherein no doubt by the heauen are meant not onely the Planeticall bodies but imaginations of Angelicall figures to be counted of vs for gods and all intellectuall phantasies and falsehoods contriued by humane braine in matters of Gods worship that they shall haue no place in our mindes which point your Lo sees how cleare it is It being so then that the poore blinded Pagans who are strangers to doctrine of holy Scripture and kept backe from it by the lawes of Tyrants they are thus conuicted by the Doctors of the Church not onely for materiall Idolatrie but euen for spirituall through the excesse of euery predominant vice or erroneous phantasie which did transport them and that Saint Augustine introduces Iosua as we haue heard exhorting the Iewes to quit their Idolatry of wrongfull opinions I wil in like manner appeale to the diuine light of your Lo conscience how vigilant you thinke a good Christian must be about the points of Gods worship or what warrant there is this description of Idolatry admitted first to erect and maintain such number of images in the Popish Church Secondly what warrant to equall with God the power of the blessed Virgin And lastly and aboue all what warrant presumptuously to affirme that any elementarie thing is really the person of God himselfe I vnderstand that from such grounds as bee in the Romane Church your Lo will giue pretended reason enough but that is contrary to my protestation whereby I haue tyed your Lo. to that which the Diuine instinct of your conscience doth say to you in fauours of the meanest of those superstitions as for the last two of them I need not insist much because I thinke they bee extra controuersiam Idolatries But vnderstanding well how your Lordshippe will holde for the Images by reason of the good meaning and vse which is had of them and from the common ground ab abusu ad non vsum non est argumentum Certainely such fearefull abuses haue I seene which make me to say alas wee doe not remember what a peremptorie terrible and Iealous God hee is in the whole order and in the smallest circumstances of his worship he hath said hee is a Spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and no other will content him Let vs exhauste our whole meanes let vs distill our braines from neuer so good a meaning to worship him if our doing goe not with his owne rule it is hatefull abomination in his eyes and chiefly where any thing is added or altered to the substance and Essence of Gods word giuen out by himselfe it is Idolatry and which is more in the highest degree whereof that one instance of King Saul his disobedience might suffice for a thousand examples who could haue doubted of his extraordinary good meaning in sparing the fat beastes to sacrifice vnto the Lord more who would not haue imagined it should approue his thankefulnesse towards God and yet the Prophet Samuel called it the sinne of Witchcrafte which is Idolatry in the Superlatiue degree and for it had denounced the renting and transferring of his kingdome why because the Lord who knowes the heart of man he did see that Saul by his addition to his Commandement did preferre his owne inuention thereunto hunting thereby after a reputation of zeale in Gods seruice and so honour

that to doe miracles it is gratia gratis data a grace freely granted of God as is the gift of Prophesie according to Saint Paul and as the Saints by their praiers haue entreated God to grant them the reall gift of Prophesie so no doubt the faith and praiers of the Saints haue obtained from God for the good of his owne people to bee instruments and workers of Miracles and as the gift of Prophesie was not a constant and habituall vertue resident in their persons by the which they might Prophesie when they would As we see in Elizeus who beeing once demanded of the king vpon a secret Dominus inquit celauit a me the Lord hath hidden it from mee when King Dauid was bidden by the Prophet to build the Lords Temple because God was with him in euery thing the same Prophet did forbid him the morrow after confessing that he had spoken without Gods priuity and therefore falsely so that the gift of Prophesie is a transient passion as is the power of miracles which is not neither permanent but as the Sawe hath a vertue to cut a sunder not at all times but when the Craftesman putteth his hand to it This extraordinary gift was not onely not granted habitually but it was granted to a fewe in number and that in the beginning chiefely of Iewish and Christian religion for establishment of faith in the world which was then bewitched with Ethnicke Idolatry strenghthned with Diabolical miracles so that God well knew Quod contraria contrarijs curantur by the true miracles of his holy spirit wrought by diuers of his good Saints to the astonishment of people he did discredit the spirit of Satan and that was done in the beginning to purchase authority to the faith as our Sauiour saith Si mihi non vultis credere operibus credite si opera non fecissem quae nemo alius vnquam fecit peccatum non baberent But after the word of God and his Lawe hath beene once established and receiued as it was answered to the Rich man in the Gospel Mosen habent Prophetas and therefore they might not looke for one to come from the dead who had the holy Scripture to look vpon euen so we after so many miraculous works done by our Sauiour and his Apostles for confirmation of our faith and after the Gospell left in perfection by the Spirit of God and embraced of the Gentiles for eternall veritie we are no more to depend vpon miracles as Christ himselfe testified after the doing of all these Scrutamini Scripturas quia illa testimonium perhibent de me There is no doctrine more true then this that miracles haue beene onely appointed of God for the aforesaid vse for of themselues they are neither necessarie nor sufficient for saluation The Canancan and the Thiefe vpon the Crosse they did beleeue vvithout miracles and he himselfe hath saide Blessed are they who beleeue and haue not seene so as they are not necessarie Againe Pharoh did see a number of miracles and was euer the more hardened which makes that they are not sufficient Is it not then a great vanity that the Church of Rome should arrogate vnto her that power vvhich God thought not necessarie to leaue to his Church Yea and which he foresaw to be dangerous by reason of the vveakenesse of humane wisdome to discerne betwixt true and false miracles vvhat vvas it that did indure the heart of Pharoh vvant of beleefe in God no doubt but herewith also want of knowledge to discerne betwixt Mosaicall and Magicall miracles so that the leauing of this to the Church had beene an ambush to catch men and lead them to Idolatry and the seruice of Satan testified plainly by the Scipture The Prophet saith Seduxerunt Populum meum in miraculis mendasibus And in the Apostle Surgent Pseudo Christi pseudo Prophetae Dabunt signa magna prodigia in populum ita vt in errorem inducantur etiam Electi si fieri potest How many shall say of those Prophets in Nomine tu●… prophetanimus Demonia eijcimus How mightely did Simon Magus deeeiue the multitude so desirous of miracles and so ignorant of them Uir quidam Simon Magus seducebat Ciuitatem Samariae quem auscultabuntur omnes a minimo ad Summum dicentes haec est virtus Dei qui vocatur magna co quod multo tempore magicis suis signis dementasset cos The looking for miracles is a token of Iewish vnbeleeuing hearts Signa non sunt data fidelibus sed infidelibus saith the Apostle Therefore they are most proper to the incredulous Synagogue of the Iewes for the which cause aboue all the other Apostles so great power of miracles was giuen to Saint Peter the Apostle of the Iewes that he did heale the strongest diseases with his shadow which not onely was neuer done by none of his fellow Apostles but we doe not read the like of Christ himself Iudaei signa petunt Gentes sapientiam quaerunt saith Paul Secondly is it not more then madnesse in the Church of Rome by arrogating vnto her this perpetuitie of miracles which God hath made onely temporarie and personall in the beginnings shee doth manifestly cloth her selfe with those markes whereby the Spirit of God doth point forth the Antichrist Let vs heare Saint Paul Reuelabitur iniquus ille cuius aduentus erit secundum operationem Satanae in omni virtute signis prodigijs mendacibus omni seductione iniquitatis his qui pereunt And the Spirit of God in the Apocal speaking of that second Beast which had two hornes like to a Lambe and spake like a Dragon Edetquo Signa magna adeo vt faciat ignem c Coelo discendere in conspectu hominum seducet Incolas Terrae propter signa quae datum est ei vt faciat in conspectu Bestiae In which places as we see this Traffique of Miracles is plainely called Operatio Satanae and a seduction of those who must perish By these I doe appeale vnto the diuine light of your Lordships conscience whither you doe not thinke that we ought to content our selues with Moses the Prophets and Apostles following Christs owne precept Sorutamini Scripturas to search the Scriptures for the doctrine of Saluation and to contemne this ridiculous and impious profession of pretended Miracles I appeale to your Lordship as you will be answerable to him who hath said of that light which he hath giuen you Est lux vera quae illuminat vm●…m hominem venientem in mundum Whether you do not thinke that those who in this Sunne-shine of Gods word would ground their beliefe vpon Miracles doe not iustly merite that answere of Christ to the Scribes and Pharises demanding miracles Generatio mala adultera signum quaerit and whither you Lordship doe not hold all those who beleeue such poore and childish conceits bee not iustly giuen ouer to themselues as

as to say Ezekiel was rapt in his spirit from Babel to Ierusalem it might be in spirit or in body The Hebrew Doctours hold in their remote Theologie that the Angels make oblation to God of the soules of his Saints who become dead by way of this abstraction alleadging for it this passage of the 116. Psalme Speciosa in conspectu Dominimors sanctorum suorum Pretious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints but to denie that transportation which is both in body and spirit were to denie the Scripture Eliah Enoch Abacucke were transported and in the Euangelists our Sauiour corporally transported by Satan to the pinacle of the Temple and after vpon a mountaine The best Theologes hold that Habacucke was indeed soule and bodie transported and so Saint Philip the Apostle whereupon Thomas Aquinas reasoneth thus If it bee possible in one it is also possible in moe and in like maner both he and Durand Herne S. Bonauenture do make this argument If Satan can abstract the spirit from the body much more can he transport both because the separation is more miraculous of the two and is next vnto the veritie of Gods word the strongest argument we haue for the immortality of the soule and an argument subiected to reason For saith Aristotle in his ninth booke De Animalibus if the soule can doe any thing without the body then it should be immortall alwayes this Aphairisis Exstasis or ablation of the soule is a thing most vndoubtable the Scripture approueth it in diuers places specially in the persons of Saint P. aul and Saint Iohn the greatest Philosophers haue acknowledged it Plato and Socrates did call the bodie Antrum animae the cauerne of the soule the chiefest Sorcerers who know it by experience haue acknowledged it Zoreaster did call the body the sepulchre of the spirit and the great Orpheus did call it the prison of the soule and to reason euen naturally we see that locall motion can be some times without touching of bodies but onely by vertue of the agent as the sea is mooued by the moone which is distant from it more then 50000. Leagues and the Iron is drawen to mooue by Magnes or the Loadstone without any touching which being so in things so insensible and Inanimal as Iron much more it may be in things not onely animal but who haue their greatest force and vigour in that locall abstraction as our soules be most Galliard when they be most remote from the body And for this point of Satans power to transport I say that while that Cherubin which moues the eight Spheare wherein there fixed stars doth role it Millions of miles in one houre what matter is there of admiration if Satan can transport a body some few miles vpon the earth Lastly there is the commerce or copulation of good and bad spirits with men and women and whether it be really locally or per exsta●…n experience doth commonly teach vs that sundry things which we may call spirituall because they are inuisible and intouchable doe take really possession of our bodies as the passion of loue which entering by the subtile spirits of the eyes doth wound the heart corrupt the blood weaken the vitall faculties and sometimes spoyle the life yea the vehemencie of loue towards God hath oftentimes hereby wrought as much in his best Saints Againe the plague of pestilence and such cotagious things doe enter in a mans body in a spirituall sort to possesse it The Scripture doth testifie this reall and locall copulation of good spirits with good men our bodies are said to be the Temples of the holy Ghost Our Sauiour hath said that the father and he would dwell in him who obey his will The Prophet Ezekiel speaking of his vocation by God to preach to the Iewes I fell downe said he vpon my face and the spirit which entered in me did raise me vp and set me on foote In like sort of euill spirits the euill spirit of the Lord is said to enter into Saul really and the spirit of Satan into Iudas and our Sauiour did eiect diuers reall and sensible deuils because their voyces were heard The oddes and distinction of these in my opinion is this the good spirits hath more celestiall and subtile bodies and so their possession of men and copulation with them being more spirituall then others It is also more perceiued by the actions of our spirit then by any change of our bodies whereas Demones as Saint August in his tenth Booke De ciuitate Det Thomas Aquinus in Summa 2. Questi 95. Origen in his booke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doe affirme that they be meere corporall so that Arist. Plato and diuers Philosophers who diuided them in aereall terrestriall and subterrestriall spirits they hold that the two inferiour species of them be in some sort grosse and elementarie more remoued from the celestiall intelligences of the supreme world and therefore giuen to a wicked commerse with men and women by all sorts of deceitfull and impious suggestions whose copulations are both bodily palpable and visible possessing the bodies specially of women as grosse filthy and contagious vapours breeding inflamation visible in the hearts and breasts mouing swelling and dumbenesse in the tongue depriuing the organicke faculties of hearing seeing and such like as daily experience doth teach Neither let any man imagine the carnall copulation of the euil spirits with women to be a thing extaticke or fantasticke that enemie spirit of whom the Prophet saith Ad conterendum erit cor eius ad internecionem gentium non paucarum whose heart shall bee bent for the ouerthrow and destruction of many nations and people hee delighteth to defile or extinguish the seed of man euen in the mothers wombe so farre that the profound naturallist Paracelsus affirmeth that those grosse and vncleane spirits of deuils doe mixe themselues with humane feed where it is lost by naturall weakenesse or nocturnall dreames that they doe cooperate with it to produce thereby those succumbent or incumbent spirits deuils which are found chiefly in the moystie and Northen Regions To which abomination it seemeth the lawe of God hath some relation where it is said that all these who should couple themselues with the deuill Peor should perish wickedly and who will marke these places in Exod. Leuit. Deut. Where sorcerie and brutall Paliardise or luxurie is forbidden will find vncouth and vnknown villanies couertly touched as there where it is said you shall not present to God the wages of a harlot nor the price of a dogge and againe where God doth say you shall no more sacrifice vnto those Buckes and Satyrs after whom you went a whoring which I doe not heere introduce impertinently nor curiously but that wee may learne to reuerence whatsoeuer meanes the Lord hath appointed for vs to withstand the malice of Satan which is so dangerous for two respects First because of his craft and skilfulnesse who