Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	apostle_n	holy_a	lord_n	6,631	5	3.5276	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62129	A gentleman's religion in three parts : the 1st contains the principles of natural religion, the 2d. and 3d. the doctrins of Christianity both as to faith and practice : with an appendix wherein it is proved that nothing contrary to our reason can possibly be the object of our belief, but that it is no just exception against some of the doctrins of Christianity that they are above our reason.	Synge, Edward, 1659-1741.	1698 (1698)	Wing S6380; ESTC R24078	100,488	452

seem but a slight and inconsiderable thing yet since our Saviour Christ has expressly appointed and commanded it and since his Apostles were always most careful to perform it insomuch that even they who had received the extraordinary Gift of the Holy Ghost from Heaven were yet required to be Baptized in order to become visible Members of the Church This Ceremony I think ought not to be left off or discontinued Altho whether it be performed by dipping the Body under the Water or by sprinkling the Water upon it to me seems to be altogether indifferent and to be regulated only by Prudence or the Custom of particular places For neither does the word Baptize signifie any more than to Wash which may be done either way nor does it appear that the Apostles dipped all those whom they baptized Moreover since sprinkling as well as dipping may sufficiently denote the washing and cleansing of the Soul from sin and since Baptism is not expressly in the Holy Scripture determined to either of these ways to the exclusion of the other I conclude that God has left the matter so far indifferent to us and to be ordered according to Prudence as the Circumstances of things and persons shall at any time direct And as long as the Substance and Design of his Command is carefully retained I see no necessity of being so very solicitous about a Circumstance of it except it could evidently be made appear that he had appointed and determined it 53. Since then Baptism is as the Entrance or Door of Admittance into the Church of Christ it will follow that all they and they only who are duly qualified to be Members of his Church are fit to have Baptism administred to them If any person has been brought up out of the Chucrh until he comes to years of understanding and knowledge he is then and only then qualified to be a Member of the Church when having repented of all his former sins he believes and owns that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and consequently receives and professes that Faith and Doctrine which he has taught and authorized and obliges himself to live according to all those Laws and Rules which he has prescribed to us this being the very Condition which our Saviour indespensably requires from his Church and every Member of it according as they are capable of performing it But if a Child be born of Christian Parents or is so in the hands of Christian Guardians as that it is in their power to bring him up in the true Religion and they do promise and engage so to educate him such a Child as this even before he comes to any knowledge of things is yet qualified to be a Member of the Church of Christ upon the presumption that he will perform what God requires from him when he comes to be capable of it and so to continue if by Apostacy or wickedness he does not in process of time separate himself again from it For this beyond dispute was the case of In sants before the coming of Christ who at eight days old if Males were to be Circumcised and thereby admitted into the Church of God and within his Covenant if they were either the Sons or Servants born in the House of believing persons and who as well as their Parents are expressly said to enter into Covenant with God which is but another expression for becoming of his Church And no one surely will offer to say that the Case of Infants is made worse than it was by our Saviours coming into the World especially since he has expressly commanded that little Children should come unto him and not be forbidden for that of such is the Kingdom that is the Church of God I conclude therefore that not only adult persons who make a due profession of their Faith and Repentance but also such Infants as are in a way of being brought up in the Christian Religion are without any Obstacle to be admitted to Baptism 54. There are some passages in the New Testament which seem plainly to suggest to us that it was a constant Custom with the Apostles of Christ to lay their Hands upon all such as had been Baptized which laying on of Hands was undoubtedly accompanied with Prayer to God in order to their receiving the Gifts and Graces of the Holy Spirit of God But that this was a thing positively prescribed and commanded I do not find clearly proved And therefore altho I dare not hastily condemn those particular Churches where this same Custom is disused or intermitted yet since the Grace and Assistance of the Holy Ghost in order to the leading of a good life and obtaining eternal Happiness is for ever continued unto the Church as I have said Part 2. § 42. and therefore ought ever to be sought for altho the working of Miracles and speaking of all Languages without learning them be ceased from amongst us I cannot but conclude that the laying on of Hands upon persons that have been baptized together with Prayer to God for their growth and continuance in Grace which is commonly called Confirmation is a prudent and godly Custom and ever fit to be continued in the Church 55. As every particular Man whatsoever is obliged in his own private person to honour and worship God so the Church being a Society incorporated for the better serving of God is under an Obligation to do the same in her associated capacity that is to say to assemble together for his worship And because the whole Number of Christians which are dispersed over the Face of the Earth are not capable of meeting together in one place the Universal Church therefore lies under a necessity of subdividing it self into particular Churches and those again into particular Congregations according as they find to be most convenient for the pursuing that same end for which they are so incorporated Moreover since all these particular Churches and Congregations are still or ought to be but Parts and Members of that One Catholick Church which our Saviour Christ has appointed and founded it follows that none of them ought to constitute or act any thing amongst themselves which may give a just occasiou for the breaking of that Union and Concord which he designed and has commanded always to be maintained amongst them But on the contrary Matters ought every where so to be ordered as that if a Member of any one particular Church should travel into any other part of the World he may meet with nothing in any Christian Congregation where he comes which justly should be a hinderance to him from assembling or communicating with it 56. The particular acts to be performed in these Christian Assemblies are all such as tend to the Edification of the People in Virtue and Godliness which is the design of their Incorporation and consequently to the promoting of each mans eternal Salvation which is the end that every Christian is supposed to pursue All which are

least that what I have here done may move some more able and Judicious Person to take the Work in hand and supply those Defects of which I have been guilty THE CONTINUATION OF A Gentleman's Religion Being the Second PART 1. THE Holy Scriptures being the only authentick Record that I am able to find of the Christian Religion I take it for granted that they do express Divine Matters really and truly as the things are in themselves And therefore I cannot but believe that all the Doctrin therein delivered is most-certainly true altho many times I am not able to understand the Design and. Meaning of some Expressions and Passages which do occur therein I think it indeed to be very proper that Men of any reasonable Learning and Prudence should modestly offer their Thoughts to the World in order to the explaining of such Places of the Scriptures as appear to be abstruse and difficult But he who speaks his own Words and not those of Scripture can therein only offer his own Apprehensions to which no Man can be obliged to subscribe any farther than as he is in his own Reason convinced of the Truth of them and their Consonancy with the Scriptures 2. I do not apprehend that an implicit Faith is due to the Church of Rome which challenges it Part 1. § 21. much less sure to any other Church which does not require it When therefore any Church much more when any private Men do offer me any Doctrin of Religion in their own Words I think I ought to consider First Whether what they say is intelligible For tho we may be obliged to believe such things as are above our Understanding to comprehend Part 1. § 33. yet it is impossible for any Man to give an explicit Assent to any Form of Words if he does not Know the meaning of them Secondly Whether it is agreeable to the self-evident Principles of Reason for If I apprehend it to be otherwise it is impossible for me to believe it Part 1. § 33. Nor must any Text of Scripture be interpreted above the Level of plain and self-evident Reason whatever the literal Sense may seem to be And Thirdly whether the Truth of it can be proved by any solid Argument either from Reason or Scripture for tho a Doctrin be both intelligible and possible yet still it may be false and therefore is not to be believed except it can be proved These Rules I have endeavoured strictly to observe in the Trial of those Doctrins which I am now about to propose and I desire my Reader carefully to make use of the same in the Examination of all that I shall offer unto him But here I must desire him to take notice that I do fuppose him to be well acquainted with the Holy Scriptures and also with the common Arguments upon which the several Parties of Christians do ground and maintain their Opinions And therefore for his Ease as well as my own I shall save my self the Labour of mentioning such Arguments and Places of Scripture as are usually brought to prove those Points which are generally acknowledged by all Christians and even in those Points which are controverted between different Parties I shall ordinarily think it enough to hint at some of those Texts and Arguments which are used on either side of which I can scarce suppose any Man to be ignorant that is but moderately acquainted with the Principles of Christianity and the several Parties that profess it 3. To believe what God makes known and to do what he commands is what all Men call Religion But things that are impossible 't is certain that God requires from no Man Part 1. § 14. When therefore Damnation is denounced in Scripture against those who receive not the Gospel it must needs be understood only of them in whose Power it was to have received it and not of such who are invincibly ignorant either for want of Capacity John 9. 41. or of the means of Knowledge Joh. 15. 22. But for a Man who has both the Capacity and Means of Knowledge through Negligence to continue in Ignorance of God's Will my Reason tells me is a very great Sin besides all those Places of Scripture which do require us diligently to seek after Knowledge 4. That there is a God is sufficiently to be proved from our own Reason and Observation But fully to comprehend his Nature or declare in all Points what he is is by all allowed to be impossible to us 5. That God never had a Beginning I think I have sufficiently concluded Part 1. § 6. And if the holy Scripture had not told me that he is from Everlasting to Everlasting yet my own Reason would have inferred that he is subject to no Decay nor ever shall have an Ending 6. The Nature of every Material Being seems necessarily to imply a Possibility of having its Parts disjoyned and separated one from another and consequently of being dissolved and destroyed And theresore I conclude that the eternal God does not consist of Matter and that Being which is intelligent and does not consist of any material Parts I call a Spirit And this is what I mean when I say that God is a Spirit As for those Expressions the Eyes of the Lord the Arm of the Lord and such like which do occur sometimes in Scripture and seem to imply Bodily Parts it is manifestly obvious that they must be purely metaphorical 7. Our Experience does sufficiently testifie that whatsoever is visible to us is ever material Since therefore God does not consist of Matter I conclude that he is invisible to Mortal Eyes as the Scripture positively declares him to be And all those Texts which seem to say that he has been seen by Man I think must of necessity be interpreted some other way viz. either 1. Of an Angel appearing in a glorious and majestatick manner Or 2. Of the eternal Son of God assuming a Bodily Appearance as after he took our Nature upon him Or 3. Of some visible and extraordinary Signs and Tokens that the invisible God was there present in an extraordinary Manner Or 4. Of those mystical and Hieroglyphical Representations which God has sometimes been pleased to make of himself not to the Senses but to the Imagination and Understanding of his Prophets in their extatick Dreams and Visions 8. Amongst all those things which I can conceive possible to be done i. e. to imply no Contradiction I can find nothing which to me appears more difficult than what God has already done in the Structure of the Universe And therefore I conclude that God can do whatsoever in its self is possible to be done which is what I mean when I say that he is Almighty Nor is there any one sure who will venture to say that God can do such things as imply a Contradiction either in themselves or to his own Nature and Attributes 9. That God who made all things should be ignorant of any thing appears to