Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	scripture_n	spirit_n	word_n	6,083	5	4.6960	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45356	A discourse of the excellency of Christianity	Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?	1671 (1671)	Wing H461; ESTC R25404	37,770	96

the Salvation and future Happiness of a Christian we may take a brief Abstract or Sum of our Duty which is this To love the Lord our God with all our hearts and to have a firm and radicated Faith in his Goodness declared to the World by his only begotten Son Jesus Christ an universal Abstinence from all Wrong and Injustice a hearty Love and Good-will to all men whatever to hold fast that which is Good and to abstain from all appearance of Evil to be of a compassionate and forgiving Spirit and if we have received an Injury not to recompense it again in any kind to abstract and withdraw our hearts and minds from earthly Goods and make Treasures for ourselves in Heaven and to be no more solicitous for worldly concernments than the Lilies of the field or the Fowls of the air but that having food and raiment therewith to be content to keep ourselves pure and undefiled not only from outward and grosser but inward and more refined Pollutions to be ready to do good and distribute to the Necessities of our Brethren to live peaceably if it be possible with all men In a word whatever things are true whatever things are honest just lovely and of good report if there be any virtue if there be any praise to think on such things What can be plainer and easier than this Nor is the Simplicity of the Gospel any derogation from it though that impious Epicurean Celsus deride it upon that account extolling the Writings of Plato above the Scriptures For as Origen acutely enough replies the Design of God in the Gospel being to make men good and virtuous it was necessary the Precepts tending to that end should be delivered plainly and perspicuously suitable to the Capacities of the illiterate Vulgar who are better allured and won by a common and usual form of Speech than by the artificial Deckings and gay Schemes of Rhetorick 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And therefore Christ and his Apostles did much more advance that which was their chief aim the Life and Nature of God in the World by that as Celsus calls it rude and rustical manner of speaking than all the elegant Writings of Plato which if they ever were advantageous for the rectifying and amending the Lives of men it was only to such whose Intellectual Faculties were raised and elevated above the Plebeian Strain Therefore did the Holy Jesus on purpose make choice of ignorant and illiterate Persons that it might appear that the things which they spake were not in the words which mans wisdom teacheth but which the Holy Ghost teacheth and that by the foolish things of the world God might confound the wise and by the weak destroy the things that are mighty Object But you will say To what purpose is that Intricacy and Perplexity which is found in many Places of Holy Scripture and wherefore are many of the chiefest of its Doctrines involved in such Darkness and Obscurity Answ 1. It was in some measure requisite that the Scripture should be obscure to conciliate Reverence and to beget a greater Esteem of its Worth and Dignity For the Gospel is often called a Mystery which supposes somthing venerable and secret and hidden from the eyes of vulgar Persons And God as in Nature he hath hid many pretious things in the Bowels of the Earth which cannot be obtained without great Labour and Diligence in like manner hath he veiled many inestimable Treasures in the Christian Mystery which are only attainable by the diligent Search and sincere Endeavours of pious men For should the Divine Wisdom have displayed at once all the Glories and Beauty of this sacred and recondite Method of recovering Souls it would appear contemptible and worthless as being the easie purchase of every profane and impious Person 2. The Reason of the Obscurity of Christianity lies not so much in the Nature of the thing itself as in the incongruity of mens Minds and Understandings with so high and raised an Object The Eye cannot behold the Sun unless it have some Resemblance and Similitude of it within itself for like is known by its like and if mens Minds be not purified and brought into some Cognation and Likeness with the Truths offered to them it is impossible they should ever have any true and genuine Apprehension of them There is a Learning and Knowing the Truth as it is in Jesus in that God-like meek and resigned Spirit and till mens Tempers be plain'd and smooth'd from the ruggedness of their Passions and the stubborn Asperities of their Lusts and won to the embracing of the Truth in the love of it in that Christ-like Nature of Humility and Self-Denial they may fill their heads with sapless and lean Notions windy and turgent Fancies but never nourish up their Souls with solid and substantial Knowledge The true sense of Religion and Christianity arises out of a mind devoid of Passion and in which the Life of God has taken deep root and flourishes and spreads itself throughout all the powers of the Soul giving a tincture relish and savour of itself to every Thought Word and Deed in the whole course of a mans Life And without this purified sense we feed upon nothing but the Husks and Shells of Religion and fall in love with Shadows instead of lasting and durable Substances And this is no more than what the Scripture speaks of itself 1 Cor. ii 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned There is required a spiritual Sense a Life of Holiness and Justice of Benignity and Righteousness to the true discrimination of Good and Evil. And further to the Knowledge and Understanding of Divine Mysteries there is necessarily required the Aid and Assistance of that Almighty and Omnipresent Spirit who by his fostering Incubation brought into Being the goodly frame of Heaven and Earth and that this Holy Spirit of Truth may begin the Efformation of the new and heavenly Nature a considerable part of which is Divine and Spiritual Wisdom there must be some previous Preparations and men must be morally good and virtuous or else they will be perfectly incapable of the illapse of his Celestial Influence And therefore it is no marvel if to brutish and immoral Persons the Mystery of Godliness be hid and obscure 3. That there might be somthing still reserved for the gratification of all degrees of Christians in all Ages of the World There are both weak and strong Christians some that are Babes in Christ and are fed with Milk others that are of full Age and have a discriminating sense of Good and Evil. For the one there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rudimental way of instruction whereby men were led as it were by the hand through the Principles of Religion as the Author to the Hebrews intimates Heb. vi where the first thing required