Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	church_n	scripture_n	word_n	7,625	5	4.5069	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49843	Observations upon a sermon intituled, A confutation of atheism from the faculties of the soul, alias̀, Matter and motion cannot think preached April 4, 1692 : by way of refutation.	Layton, Henry, 1622-1705.	1692 (1692)	Wing L756; ESTC R39115	14,582	19

thing may be otherwise and is truly so P. 35. He thinks that for Men to deny the Soul because they cannot see or any ways perceive it is not reasonable and it seems to me full as unreasonable to prove that man hath an Immaterial Soul because God cannot create Cogitative Body P. 36. He says He neither can nor will command God to come from Heaven to consume his opposers It is well he owns the defect of his power and it may be that therefore he will not do it For that page 26. he says Banging and Buffeting into Reason is the most proper and effectual to be used against his opposers It is says he the vigorous Execution of good Laws and not Rational Discourses only that must be used to reclaim such profane Persous He means Laws so good as to Establish his Opinion and set sharp Penalties upon all others who dare profess to believe otherwise So did Saul he haled Men and Women and committed them to Prison because they believed and worshipt after a way which he thought Heresie So did the old Romans and so do the Romanists the Turks and the French King are all of our Preachers mind viz. The Opinion which prevails and hath most worldly Power shall do best to make severe Laws with sharp Penalties against their competitors and this is all that Men can do And this our Preacher desires should be done on the behalf of his Opinion and this course detects first his own Inclination and next that he hath no great confidence in the force of his own Argument seeing he says Persecution and Punishment are the only means likely to prevail for reducing his opposers from their pernicious Errors forgetting the old Observation Hodie mihi cras tibi the Opinion cried up to day may fall to morrow He who thinks he stands may fall and therefore our Lord's direction is wise and good as ye would men should do unto you even so do ye unto them And in Mistakes of the Judgmedt Men should remember that none can come to Christ but whom the Father draws which it seems should pass for an Argument inducing Moderation and Forbearance towards our mistaken and therefore dissenting Brethren in Opinions which do not induce or encourage to an ill Practice or Course of Life Thus have I traced our Preacher and followed him with Observation through all the Pages of his Sermon which concern the Immateriality of a human Soul His Promise made P. 13. to prove there is an Immaterial Soul in Man seems somewhat unhappily performed and very unsuccessfully for he offers no positive Proof at all and his negative Proof seems very insufficient for the support of so great a Stress and Burthen as he hath laid upon it And it shall be left to the Opinion of our Perusers whether he have well performed his bold Undertaking and Promise or not Ready however to accept of and to desire a future performance of that which yet seems to be insufficiently attempted He said I will prove there is an Immaterial Soul in Man I think this Sermon to be no performance of this Promise and I do not believe that our Preacher hath said all nor the best that he is able to speak to that purpose he may consider an honest Man ought to be as good as his word and what he performs not at one time he will endeavour to effect at another as far as his Power or Talent can be extended What he hath done to that purpose in this Sermon seems to me very infirm and little considerable as depending upon Mens opinions what God is able to do Our Lord himself tells us that with God all things are possible and it seems somewhat an odd Assertion that the Incapacity of Matter should hinder God from making what he will out of it whereas it seems rather that he who made Matter out of nothing can make any thing out of any Matter and many other things than Men can imagine and the most Miracles are acted either contrary to or above and beyond the natural Capacities of the Agents therein imployed If the thing which he promised to prove be really true it seems he stands engaged for the Proof of it in the best manner and with the best strength he is able assisted by his Reading Contemplation and Conference The Point is of weighty Consideration and he hath built upon it the Power and Providence of a Deity whence it seems he stands engaged to make good the Immateriality of a human Soul and its Subsistence in a separate state from the Body This if scientifically he can and does do or with any apparent probability he shall be Magnus Apollo and receive Commendations accordingly and if he fail or fall short in the Attempt no more will be said by his present Opponent than magnis excidit ausis as magnum there is glory in the Undertaking and that he may not excidere ausis his best Forces are to be employed in the performance of that service to the Church and to the World In this Sermon he hath forborn the Quotation of Scripture as disputing with Persons who refused to accept the Authority of it but if he shall think fit to stick to his word and to prove or endeavour to prove that the human Soul is an Immaterial Intelligent Spirit he will therein have to do with some who are ready to submit to the Rules and Authority of Scripture and to be tried by them as well as by the Rules and Experiments extracted from Nature and Reason he will then I hope make use of that Holy Book to fortifie his Tenet and descendere in arenam armed with his best Forces drawn out of all Garisons and Magazines fit for such a design so may his Proof appear in the best manner that he can perform it and why not in the best manner that the same can be performed my desire is to see it done in such manner ready to submit to Truth made visible in any intelligible manner whatsoever We have learnt that whatsoever doth make manifest is Light the present Sermon seems to have little of that Light which manifests but I expect that when he shall undertake to write ex professo upon this subject and to make full proof of his Assertion according to his promise that then his Arguments shall place Truth in so good a Light and set it out in such natural and lively Colours as thereby she may be easily discovered for what she is And upon such a Discovery no Man well meaning and intelligent who dare trust his Faculties but will be ready with open Arms to accept and embrace her whom all profess to seek tho too many with Ixion's Fate embrace a Cloud instead of Juno My Meaning is to confide in some Measure that he will endeavour to perform his quoted Promise in the best manner that he is able and thereupon my desire shall be that Truth may be his Aim and that she may fulfil what Esdras declares of her viz. That She may endure be strong and live and conquer for evermore FINIS