Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bless_a	jesus_n	lord_n	6,161	5	3.6174	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49906	Reflections upon what the works commonly call good-luck and ill-luck with regard to lotteries and of the good use which may be made of them / written originally in French by Monsieur Le Clerk, done into English.; Reflexions sur ce que l'on appelle bonheur et malheur en matière de loteries et sur le bon usage qu'on en peut faire. English	Le Clerc, Jean, 1657-1736.	1699 (1699)	Wing L825; ESTC R17929	104,386	230

sure to dip upon that critical Place which should contain a Resolution of their Doubts Can it be urged that this Perswasion proceeded from a certain Knowledge of God's particular Direction of casual Events I shall not here repeat what hath already been delivered upon this Subject but I am positive that admitting the thing to be true yet even so it is not possible to prove that the Heathens could have any certain Knowledge of this kind It will perhaps be replyed that they know this pretended Truth by the Event having observed by abundance of Instances that these Answers by this way of Consultation were actually fulfilled To this I answer that if this was a sure way of consulting the Deity it is not sufficient that it succeeded in many Instances but it must never have failed in any one If what presents it self first at the opening of a Book upon such a Design must always pass for an Oracle the Event must constantly answer to justifie that Opinion otherwise there is no depending upon it and this will be in no better condition than the other ways of Divination which have hit right sometimes and by mere chance It is no strange thing that some out of a very great many of these prodigious Predictions should come true and in the present case we may the more easily conceive it possible they should do so because the words are capable of different Constructions and may with a little Address be applied to different Events When Men found themselves deceived those Answers were either forgotten or at least not Published to the World but when they fell in pat to the purpose then they were told at every turn and the Memory of them endeavoured to be made Eternal Hence we meet in History with so many Examples of Divinations which succeeded and with so very few of those by which Men have been miserably deluded Secondly There needs no deep Reason presently to convince Men how exceeding vain all these pretended Oracles must needs be Let us but draw out a Scheme of Enquiries what shall happen the next Campaign and consult Homer and Virgil upon each of these Queries Let us afterwards Write down these Resolutions and compare them with the Events This is an easie and effectual way for Men to undeceive themselves in these Matters and such as those People are capable of who are not of a pitch for regular Arguing Thirdly It must be allowed me that the Christians who instead of Heathen Poets made use of the Holy Scriptures with the same design had no express Revelation to assure them that God would answer them this way Now it is absur'd to suppose that God will answer us by Methods which he hath told us nothing of nay such as we take upon us to prescribe to him and in doing so tread in the Steps of Pagan Idolatry and Superstition For notwithstanding all St. Augustin says and tho Instances he produces we can have no assurance that God answers Men after this manner I expect it will be urged that somewhat like this happened to our Blessed Lord in the Synagogue at Nazareth Luke iv xviii on the Sabbarh day Where when he rose up the Book of the Prophet Esaias was presented unto him and he opened the Book upon that Passage The Spirit of the Lord is upon me c. And after he had shut the Book he said This day is this Scripture fulfilled in your Ears Now I make no question but it was by the direction of a particular Providence that Jesus Christ opened upon that place of the Prophet if he did not industriously turn to it or if it were not the Portion of Scripture in order to be read that day Our Saviour knew no doubt before he went into the Synagogue what would happen to him there for he himself had Power to order it as he pleased So that this example does not at all fute with the Superstitious Custom of consulting Scripture to learn Events which Men know nothing of before And Christians have no more ground to expect that God will Answer them by the Sortes Biblicae if I may call them so than the Heathens had to depend upon the Verses of Homer and Virgil for Oracles and Guides in all their Difficulties Fourthly To give us a full comprehension of this Vanity we must know that several who used this method did not content themselves with consulting one single Book but took several one after the other For example The Prophets the Evangelists and the Epistles of the Apostles If they found nothing to the purpose at their opening the Prophets they tryed the Gospels next and then the Epistles till something offered which they made a shift to apply to their own Circumstances Now we may easily conceive that they would not miss of something which they looked for after so many Experiments and especially when they contented themselves with strained and unnatural Interpretations But perhaps you 'll say All these Consultations were attended with Prayer beseeching God that he would discover the Truth to them Gregory Bishop of Tours hath thus described that Ceremony Greg. ●●r L. iv v. The Priests first of all lay three Books upon the Altar which are the Prophets the Epistles of St. Paul and the Gospels and then they pray to God that he will tell them what shall come to pass Now I would be glad to know who ever told these Men that God will hear such Prayers or how indeed can they tell that such impertinent Curiosity would not be highly offensive to him Hath God any where obliged himself to tell us every thing that we have an itch to know He hath only engaged to hear those Prayers which are attended with the three conditions exprest in these three Latin words à bonis bona bonè that is to say such as are put up to him by good Men such as ask good Things Things necessary to Salvation and such as are regularly and well offered to him with a becoming confidence in his Power and Goodness It were an easie matter to prove this by several Texts of Scripture were it necessary to my purpose Now it is plain that the knowledge of future Events which Men desire to obtain by these Openings of the Bible is not any of those things which good Men can seek as of importance to their Eternal Salvation and consequently not any of those which God is pleased to manifest to Men upon that consideration These Prayers therefore are unprofitable and vain nay we may affirm that they cannot be well-pleasing to God under the Gospel-state For God expects that Christians should refer all future Events to His disposal that they should rely entirely upon his Providence and receive all even those appointments which are most calamitous and ungrateful to Flesh and Blood with Meekness and Resignation There is but one thing in futurity which we ought to be sollicitous for and that is what shall become of us in the next

as no Tree actually existing ever resembled Now when these two sorts of Ideas are to be defined we must proceed very differently with respect to each of them When an imaginary Idea is to be defined you are at your own liberty Say but what you will have it and the Definition is just and good But when a thing which actually exists is to be defined by the Idea we conceive of it we are not then at liberty to make this Definition what we please because the existence of the thing is independent upon us and to make this a good Definition it must shew what the thing defined hath in common with the rest of the same Species and what it hath peculiar to it self whereby it is distinguished from them So that after having heard and understood this we can conceive the thing before us clearly without confounding it with any other thing whatsoever Great care must be taken not to confound the Definition of an abstracted Idea with that which describes an Idea of a thing which really exists For else it is evident we shall not only attribute to things existing somewhat which in truth they have not but we shall also mistake abstracted and arbitrary Ideas for the Images of things which have an actual existence And this is directly the Errour of the Stoicks in the Matter now under consideration They saw not any thing in Nature which could oblige them to think that there is an unavoidable Destiny in all Events The Idea they have been pleased to form to themselves of this Matter cannot be said to be copied after Nature as that of a Tree is from something seen by us It is an Idea purely notional and abstracted such as they have tryed to frame as they could and in which these two things are observable First They take it for granted without any Proof that there is in reality such a Destiny as they had formed in their own imagination They confound an Idea framed at pleasure with an Idea of somewhat actually existing and this shews that they did not rightly understand themselves Secondly Setting aside the thing it self considered as somewhat existing otherwise than in our own imagination yet if we examine the Idea which answers to the Words I have now quoted even thus we shall find it loose and altogether indistinct Those Words A Connexion of all things in the Vniverse with each other signifie nothing particular and express upon this occasion and the rest of the Definition which follow one another from all Eternity are every whit as dark and confused as the former This is a blind Description of a chimerical Je ne scay quoy which hath some affinity and relation to the loose Ideas of Disposition Connexion and Consequence It is a Picture of an unknown Entity of which no Man hath a particular Conception and by vertue whereof according to the Principles of the Stoick Philosophy every thing is necessarily brought to pass Plutarch who frequently falls foul upon these Philosophers though he seem in part to concur with their Opinion of Destiny will furnish us with sundry and sensible Instances of Expressions which have no determinate signification In his Book how Men ought to study the Poets he tells us that several things attributed to the Gods are not to be understood of the Gods themselves but of Destiny or Fortune When Hesiod for the purpose forbids us to reproach any Man with his Poverty because this is the Disposal and Gift of the * i.e. the Gods Blessed that exist eternally Plutarch hath this Remark The Poet calls that the Gift of the Gods which depends upon Fortune He tells us we ought not to blame those whom Fortune hath made poor but that Poverty is then blamable and reproachful when attended with Idleness Meanness of Spirit Effeminacy and Prodigality in the Person labouring under it For the Name of Fortune being not yet commonly used and Men being sensible that their utmost Prudence could not obstruct the sovereign Power of a Cause acting without Rule or Method they described this Cause by attributing it to the Gods And afterwards having cited some Verses of Homer which seem to make Jupiter the Author of Evil he adds that by Jupiter we are to understand Destiny or Fortune which are Causes which we cannot comprehend and such as have no dependence at all upon our selves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Words shew plainly that those Expressions are Names for two very dark Ideas and which are little if at all different from Nothing Now though this Observation be most true yet men are so used to talk what they do not understand and at the same time to fancy they understand what they say perfectly well that the same Expressions continue still in use To say nothing at present of Fortune which will come under our Consideration by and by we every Day hear Men expressing themselves after this manner that such a one was brought to such a place by his Good or Ill Fate that his Good Fate put him upon venturing in such a Lottery where he got a good Benefit That his Ill Destiny ordained he should put in a greater Sum than he could afford in a Lottery where he drew nothing but Blanks That his Good Destiny brought him a good Lot That his Ill Destiny kept him from winning and a world of other such like Forms of Speech in common Conversation If the much greater part of Men who talk thus were called upon to explain their own meaning they would find themselves wretchedly at a loss For most People in speaking are governed more by Custom than by Knowledge and Consideration They use this Word upon some Occasions which they find it applied to before by others without attending to any Sense of it I have often made the Experiment and found that Men who had their good and ill Fate constantly in their Mouths have not been able to answer me when I asked what they meant by it They were surprised at my enquiring what they intended by so common an Expression but yet they were not able to make me understand what they would be at when they used it If we consult the Gentlemen of the French Academy they tell us in their Dictionary that the Philosophers gave this Name to a necessary Chain of Causes subordinate to each other which never fail of producing their Effect and that the Poets understood by it a Power to which the Gods themselves are subject This Definition is much the same with the former only not altogether so exact And besides these Gentlemen had no reason to make a difference between the Poets and the Philosophers for both agreed in thinking the Gods subject to Destiny as I could easily shew were it necessary to my purpose I need not insist longer upon this Definition after what hath been said to That of the Stoicks But they have given us another whereby they seem to intend an Explication of Fate and Destiny as they