Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	according_a	spirit_n	word_n	4,385	5	4.3087	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29333	Faith in the just victorious over the world a sermon preached at the Savoy in the French Church, on Sunday Octob. 10, 1669 / by D. Brevall ... ; translated into English by Dr. Du-Moulin ...; Foy victorieuse du monde dans les justes. English	Bréval, Monsieur de (François Durant), d. 1707.; Du Moulin, Peter, 1601-1684.	1670 (1670)	Wing B4402; ESTC R2130	23,314	40

of the Son of God to speak strictly can belong to none but him and it is by a metaphor meerly and a kinde of usurpation that it is attributed to others The Scripture doth fully witness it when it says so often that he is the only Son or only begotten of God and when by Excellence it saith in Rom. 5.32 That He is God's own Son and when it says in Hebr. 1. That it is to him alone that God bare this witness in Psal 2. Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee And finally that in the 110. Psal it is of none but him that the Father speaks when he says according to the Latin Version I have begotten thee of my bosome Now we find nothing either in Divinity or in the Scripture it self of this great Priviledge and of this proper and particular Title of the Word but the perfection of resemblance that he hath with his Father and which other things have not The holy Spirit it self which proceedeth from the Father as the Gospel teacheth us and who hath the same nature with him yet is not called the Son and it is not said that he is born nor that he is begotten because he doth not proceed formally as Divines teach us by way of resemblance since at the least as they say very rationally the holy Spirit is the production of Love and not of Knowledge so that proceeding from the Will and not from the Understanding of God it cannot have a formal resemblance with its principle Philosophie it self teaching us that resemblance is not an effect of the Will but of the Understanding because it is proper to the Will to carry it self to its Object whereas the Understanding attracts his Object by imprinting on it his resemblance Whence it is that Aristotle says that the Understanding becomes all things not by changing it self into them but on the contrary by changing them into it self Moreover it is from thence that the Production or Term of the Will is called a Weight a Propension an Inclination which does not at all signifie resemblance but the production of the understanding is called Verb Image Representation Therefore Scripture never gives these Names to the Holy Spirit but to the Son only whose Name saith St. John Rev. 19. is The Word of God Now this word Verb signifies either the thought or the word and we know that the thought is the representation of the object that one thinks of and the Word is the Image of the thought it self so that both in the one and in the other sense the word Verb applied to the Son in the Gospel is a name of resemblance But St. Paul willing more clearly to expound himself saith to the Corinthians and to the Colossians That he is the Image of God and to the Hebrews That he is the splendor of his Glory and the figure of his Substance according to the Latin Version or of his Person according to the Greek Original Thus by all these reasons and so many authorities it is properly the second Divine Person that is born of God Yet it is not of that our Text speaks when St. John saith That all which is born of God overcometh the World by Faith for though Jesus Christ who is this Adorable Person hath overcome the World as himself doth witness by the same Evangelist in the 16th chapter of his History verse 33. and though it be also in some manner by means of faith that he hath triumphed yet it is not of him that the Text speaks because it is easie to comprehend by that which goeth before and that which cometh after that it is of them that have faith that these words should be understood and that they cannot belong to Jesus Christ who though he be the Author and Finisher of our Faith as St. Paul calls him in the XIII Chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews yet he hath it not formally since he cannot have faith of that which he hath the knowledge the experience of the sight So when St. John speaks here of that which is born of God he speaks but of those which have onely an imperfect resemblance of him differing from that of Nature and yet he speaks not of all sorts for First it is clear that by that which is born of God he means not things meerly material which have only a Trace or Footstep of likeness to him it is true that God having produced them and they representing to us as they do all some of his perfections God may justly be called their Father Job in this sense calleth him the Father of the rain and saith It is be that hath begotten the dew he might say as much of all other creatures though destitute of intelligence and reason since besides that God made them they have moreover this advantage to represent him in some sort in the judgment of St. Paul who saith in the first Chapter of the Epistle to the Romans the 20. verse that the invisible things of him are clearly seen from the Creation of the world being understood by the things that are made But the end of our Text shews evidently that he speaks not of that sort of creatures although in some respects it may be said they are born of God Secondly neither is it of Angels or Men in the quality of intelligent and reasonable creatures for though the Angels are the least imperfect images of God which gave occasion to a learned man to call them The bright Looking Glasses of the Godhead and though by the right of this resemblance there is nothing in Nature that more justly deserves the title of the children of God then they do and though himself by the mouth of Job calls them so often by this glorious Name yet it is manifest that it is not of them that St. John here makes mention when he speaks of those who are born of God since he speaks of such as are in the world and have sought with it and have triumphed over it by faith which you see cannot be applied to Angels Nor doth he speak of men considered only as reasonable for though reason hath made them fair Copies and illustrious Images of the Divinity to answer what St. Paul highly in their praise saith that they are the Image of the Glory of God and to deserve that the Prophet Malachy should call God their Father by the general right of their Creation yet it is not of them at least in the quality of reasonable creatures only that the text we expound speaks who overcome the world by their faith and not by all the strength of their reason and understanding Then they must needs be either the Just or the Glorified that are here spoken of Doubtless they are not the Glorified for though they have this noble resemblance of Glory with God who doth almost transform them into himself as St. John expounds it in the third of his first Epistle and that they are called in the

taken in divers ways I observe three the first is very large the second less the third less then either for the first by the world the Scripture means sometimes all the Universe both Heaven and Earth and all that they contain you have Examples for it in many places where it speaks of the world as of the work of Creation Thus Acts 17. verse 24. Saint Paul preaching to the Athenians makes it evident that he speaks of the created world Secondly in many Texts it meaneth the Earth only as in Saint Matthew chap. 4. where it is said That the Tempter shewed Jesus Christ all the Kingdoms of the World Thirdly sometimes in the New Testament it signifies only men so it is expounded in many places of the Gospel and in the Epistles of Saint Paul and Saint John as when it is said in the second of the Corinthians chap. 5. verse 19. That God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself You see that there the World signifies only men To take it then physically that is in a natural sense The world in Scripture means always one of these three things either the whole Universe or the Earth or Mankind But to take it spiritually in a moral or mystical sense it sometimes signifies according to the style of Scripture those who seek only earthly things without caring to obtain the heavenly as John 16.20 where Jesus Christ said to his Apostles You shall weep but the world shall rejoyce again in this spiritual way it signifies all the corrupt principles that men commonly follow in their conversation in which sense St. Paul said to the Galatians chap. 6. that the World was crucified unto him and he unto the World I doubt not but it is in this sense that we must take the world in our Text because in Saint Johns Language throughout this Epistle we must imagine by the world a certain spirit of pleasure interest and ambition that reigns amongst men he explains it enough in the second Chap. verse 16. All that is in the World is the lust of the flesh the lust of the Eyes and the pride of life And in our Text he makes it appear that this is his meaning when having said in the verse before The Commandments of God are not grievous He gives this reason for it that those who are born of God overcome the World that is they overcome the things which make the Commandments of God grievous and what are those things Christians but the corrupt Maxims we have spoken of Pleasure Interest and Ambition You see then what the World is judge ye by that how illustrious is the victory of those that triumph over it how great a glory is it to vanquish an Enemy so strong and formidable the Caesars and the Alexanders that heretofore triumph'd over the material World knew not how to vanquish this mystical World because as St. Austin saith being Masters of the Universe they were Slaves to their guilty Passions and to the corrupt Maxims of sin In effect these Maxims and these domineering Passions have got so much Authority and so absolute an Empire over men that like a Torrent it hurries them away in spight of their reason making all resistance vain without the victorious help of Grace Alas how many people are there who are very witty whom Nature has made very sensible of Vertue and Honour who yet suffer themselves to be corrupted by these Maxims and unlucky Passions There are very few of whom Pleasure hath not made her self Mistress because the chief Maxim of the World is to love and seek Pleasure at any rate this Passion hath such Charms that the bravest men knew not how to defend themselves from it We have seen too much of it in the falls of David and Solomon who were both vanquish'd by it and neither the holiness of the one nor the wisdom of the other could save them from it The example of St. Austin and his own confession does yet more sensibly evidence unto us the power of this passion he acknowledgeth that after all his godly resolutions to live well one only word that Pleasure suggested to him plunged him more than ever in his former disorderly course Grace was two years continually and strongly labouring to convert him he sayes himself there were continual Combats within him and after Grace had sometimes made a good progress in the work of his conversion Pleasure came and overthrew all his heart was in the midst between these two Champions Grace drew it to the one side and Pleasure to the other and when he was ready to yield to Grace Pleasure pull'd him by the Cloak saying What Austin Wilt thou forsake this and that Can'st thou resolve to forsake me Can'st thou live without my Divertisements there needed no more to captivate the heart of Austin all that Grace had said made no more impression on him and when Grace would yet speak of conversion he put it off till another time for Pleasure held him so much her Slave that he could not nor would not shake off his fetters O how powerful is this passion what violent assaults it gives what pertinacious resistances since Grace it self hath so much ado to overcome it The Tyrants that persecuted the Church knew well the force and power that Pleasure had over the heart of man for after they had tryed to corrupt the faith of the Martyrs by the violence of punishments at last they tempted them by the sweetness of pleasures and it fell out oft-times that such as had generously resisted all the rage and cruelty of the Executioner sunk under the temptation of Pleasure Alas there were few found generous enough to do that which we read but of one who being importun'd on all sides by Pleasure to yield bit out his Tongue with his Teeth and spit it in the face of the fairest Lady of Rome who did sollicit him having nothing else free to defend himself from her bound as he was on a Bed strew'd with Roses and there were as few of those who were so far from yielding to the sweet perswasions of Voluptuousness that they dyed of sorrow for living among Pleasures as Ecclesiastical History tells us of another Christians we need not wonder that this Passion is so powerful and formidable an Enemy flattering that flesh of ours so pleasingly the thing we naturally love best in the world Interest and Ambition which are the two other Enemies that the World presents us to fight with have not much less force than Pleasure to corrupt the innocency of our hearts and where shall we find any almost which are not Slaves to the one or the other of these great powers Even in the Times that seemed most innocent did not Interest make an universal Corruption in the World Was it not the offence of Saul and all Israel 1 Sam. 15. where Interest had more power than the Commands or Threatnings of God when his people victorious over the Amalekites let