Gregory6. [36]Gregory the Great, upon these Words [He shall teach you all Things] saith, “That unless the same Spirit is present in the Heart of the Hearer, in vain is the Discourse of the Doctor. Let no Man then ascribe unto the Man that teacheth, what he understands from the Mouth of him that speaketh; for unless he that teacheth be within, the Tongue of the Doctor, that is without, laboureth in vain.”
[36] Greg. Mag. Hom. 30. upon the Gospel.
Cyrillus Alexandrinus7. [37]Cyrillus Alexandrinus plainly affirmeth, “That Men know that Jesus is the Lord by the Holy Ghost, no otherwise than they who taste Honey know that it is sweet, even by its proper Quality.”
[37] Cyril. Alex. in Thesauro, lib. 13. c. 3.
Bernard.8. [38]“Therefore (saith Bernard) we daily exhort you, Brethren, that ye walk the Ways of the Heart, and that your Souls be always in your Hands, that ye may hear what the Lord saith in you.” And again, upon these Words of the Apostle [Let him that glorieth, glory in the Lord] “With which Threefold Vice (saith he) all Sorts of Religious Men are less or more dangerously affected, because they do not so diligently attend, with the Ears of the Heart, to what the Spirit of Truth (which flatters none) inwardly speaks.”
[38] Bernard in Psal. 84.
This was the very Basis, and main Foundation, upon which the Primitive Reformers built.
Luther.[39]Luther, in his Book to the Nobility of Germany, saith, “This is certain, That no Man can make himself a Teacher of the holy Scriptures, but the Holy Spirit alone.” And upon the Magnificat he saith, “No Man can rightly know God, or understand the Word of God, unless he immediately receive it from the Holy Spirit; neither can any one receive it from the Holy Spirit, except he find it by Experience in himself; and in this Experience the Holy Ghost teacheth, as in his proper School; out of which School nothing is taught but mere Talk.”
[39] Luther. Tom. 5. p. 76.
Phil. MelancthonPhilip Melancthon, in his Annotations upon John vi. “Those who hear only an outward and bodily Voice, hear the Creature; but God is a Spirit, and is neither discerned, nor known, nor heard, but by the Spirit;By the Spirit alone God is known. and therefore to hear the Voice of God, to see God, is to know and hear the Spirit. By the Spirit alone God is known and perceived.”