Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	flesh_n	law_n	sin_n	20,113	5	5.9622	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44932	The spirit of prophecy a treatise to prove, by the wayes formerly in use among the Jews, in the tryal of pretenders to a prophetic spirit, that Christ and his Apostles were prophets : together with the divine authority of christian religion and the Holy Scriptures, the insufficiency of human reason, and the reasonableness of the christian faith, hope, and practice, deduced therefrom, and asserted against Mr. Hobbs, and the Treatise of Hvmane Reason / by W.H.	Hughes, William, b. 1624 or 5.	1679 (1679)	Wing H3346; ESTC R19799	183,906	298

as makes us with David to have respect to All Gods Commandments and careful to keep them as well as we can Although for the Glory of God and Honour of his Laws for the patefaction of his most Holy Nature and most Just Dominion over us I say that although for these and such like great ends the Gospel hath made the most perfect unsinning Obedience to be our Duty yet not that but only sincere Obedience is indispensably necessary in order to our Salvation For Thirdly Those Sins which are really inavoidable the Gospel doth not impute to us for our Condemnation I would not be mistaken that that I say is that though according to the Rigour and Severity of the Law as a Covenant of Works the wages of every Sin be death yet such is the Mercy of God in the Gospel of Christ as that those Sins which to us are really and truly inavoidable shall not be imputed to us for our Condemnation Hereof one Reason is because the Gospel puts us into a state of Trial and Probation in this Life in reference to another after it Surely therefore there is no inavoidable guilt thereby charged upon us to our eternal Condemnation it is not imaginable it should so Tantali●e us with hopes of Heaven in the Confines and Power of Hell However evident it is Fourthly That the Gospel doth promise that our known Sins as well as others how heinous soever they be either in their Nature or their Aggravations yet if they are timely retracted by true Repentance and Humiliation Contrition and Confession change of Mind and amendment of Life they shall be forgiven us No mans Sins are either so many in Number or so heinous in their Quality but on these terms they may be forgiven insomuch that to me it seems most probable that the Sin against the Holy Ghost is impardonable not for want of Grace in the Gospel but for want of repentance in the Sinner Let then our modern Scoffers add these things as they ought to that against which they level their Objection and then let them tell us what Impossibility there is in obeying the Gospel so far forth as is necessary to Salvation Is it impossible to do what we can or to repent when we have done amiss I suppose not esp●cially while we have those Motives and Assist●nces which the Gospel gives us to keep the Commandments Since the nature of reasonable Crea●ures is to be drawn by the Alliciency of those Pro●it●r●icks that present themselves to it we may well wond●r at our own Disobedience For so many and so great are the Motives the Gospel gives to keep its Commandments as that there is no active Vertue in us but may receive the highest Incitement therefrom What entertainment so fit for the Mind as Truth and what Truth so sweet as that that is eternal What so desireable to the Will as Goodness And what Goodness so great as that that is Infinite And where can you find Eternal Truth and Infinite Goodness so clearly revealed as they are in the Gospel Where can the Affections have the like Motives to set us a doing Hath not the Rule of our Life the highest Majesty and Authority instamped on it Are we not promised the greatest Reward that can be desired in case we walk by it And are we not threatened with the greatest evil that can be feared in case we neglect it Are we not assured of a su●●iciency of Temporal Blessings and Spiritual Graces in this World if we will seek first the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness i. e for Glory and Honour and Immortality in the other Is it not then strange that being thus besieged with Motives to do well we should be so prone to do ill Although we know very well the Commandments are such as that it is not more our Duty than our Interest to do them we promote our own Good as much as Gods Glory by Obedience to them for they are apt not only to enlighten our Minds and perfect our Understandings to refine our Natures and sublimate our gross Affections to amend our Lives and purifie our Conversations but also to pr●serve our Estates and advance our Fortunes to secure our Reputation and promote our Honour and that in all Conditions and Capacities whatever insomuch that their own Goodness might be their own Eternal obligation How admirable then are that Wisdom Justice and Goodness which impose them on us and require Obedience of us Especially considering the Assistance provided for us to have in well-doing and truly 't is more than a little we do or should receive in our Childhood by being brought up in the nurture and admo●ition of the Lord for a Child being led by little of it self but a Chain of Imaginations Education hath the force of a Natural Agent rather than a Moral hence it is that Children of the same Parents are sometimes like Lycurgus his Whelps of the same litter whereas one ran to his dish the other after the Hare because he had brought them up so to do which Experiment he made in the sight of his Subjects on purpose to teach them to train their Children in the way they should go and that when they were old they would not depart from it But if they do the Gospel hath sufficiently provided for their reduction for it doth not only encourage brotherly Admonition and oblige us to pray for each other but it hath also ordained a Sacred Function for the per●ecting of the S●ints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Now not only Men on Earth but also the Angels of Heaven are obliged to afford us their assistance Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation And besides the assistance of Angels we may have that of the Eternal Spirit also to help us For the Fathers of Flesh here on Earth are not so ready to give good Gifts unto their Children as our Heavenly Father is to give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him and this it seems he doth so abundantly in the dayes of the Gospel as that it is called by his Name and the ministration of the Spirit and the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus which makes men free from the Law of Sin and Death Whereby it seems that though the History and Outward Communicatio●s of the Gospel be to us in Scriptis yet we are not to look upon it as a meer piece of Book-learning but as a Vital quickening thing able to give Life to those that are Dead in Trespasses and Sins to beget them again in Christ Jesus and to form divine Goodness in the Souls of Men and by so doing to help their

Moses which Promise Petrus Galatinus proves the ancient Jews themselves understood to speak of the M●ssiah and in the Acts of the Apostles St. Peter affirms that our Jesus is that Prophet And Christ himself gave such evidence of it as that his Disciples thought him a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people i. e. that God did demonstrate and the People did confess that he was a great Prophet and that they did so is manifest for the Jews themselves whose hearts were not subdued to his Doctrine did yet believe that of a truth he was that Prophet that should come into the world The Samaritan woman also perceived that he was a Prophet and the men of Samaria believed and knew as much namely that indeed he was the Christ the Saviour of the World a part of whose Office as they thought was to tell them all things and so to be a Prophet And then for the Apostles we do not only read that God by his Spirit revealed things unto them but moreover we find it recorded that he did it in this manner Our blessed Lord Jesus Christ promised his Disciples to send them a Comforter and that when He the Spirit of Truth should come he would guide them into all Truth which it seems fell out accordingly for when the day of Pentecost was fully come the Apos●les were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty Wind and it filled all the House where they were sitting and there appeared to them cloven Tongues like as of Fire and it sat upon each of them and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance Nor did they then receive only the Gift of Tongues but that also of Prophecy For the promise of God by the Prophet Joel that He would pour out his Spirit upon all Flesh and that their Sons and Daughters should Prophesie c. The Importance of which Promise is that in the days a little before the Destruction of the Jewish Nation there should be so great and unusual an effusion of his Spirit upon P●rsons of all sorts as that those who were not brought up in the Schools of Prophets should yet be indued with the Spirit or Gift of Prophecy This Prediction of Joel was fulfilled in the Apostles by the most auspicious Descent of the Holy Ghost upon them for St. Peter affirms this is that which was spoken by the Prophet Joel It seems then the Mystery of Christ which in other Ages was not made known unto the Sons of men as now it is was revealed unto his Holy Apostles and Prophets by the Spirit It is therefore manifest there can be no doubt made of our Assertion if the Holy Scripture be thought sufficient to prove it On this account I suppose it is that among those who believe the Scripture it seems an Hypothesis rather taken for granted than otherwise proved by any But because our Age is inquisitive and somewhat too apt to derogate from the Authority of the sacred Pandects because also since those parts thereof which make mention of Christ and his Apostles did drop from Their Mouths and Pens to alledge Texts from thence is but to produce their own Testimony concerning themselves and therefore whatever Truth there may be there certainly is but little Force in that way of arguing unless it be to those that already are well perswaded of their Authority For these Reasons I shall at present ascribe no more Authority to the Holy Scripture than is usually given to other Writings far inferiour and argue only from Reason and Testimony that cannot be suspected of Partiality by the help thereof together with Gods blessing I doubt not to prove these five Particulars 1. That the Notion of a Prophet is very agreeable to Reason 2. That there were Prophets among the Jews 3. That for the Tryal of Pretenders to the Gift of Prophecy they had certain Rules Notes and Signs whereby to judg of them 4. that if Christ and his Apostles be tryed thereby it will be found that they were Prophets 5. That this way of proving they were so is very sufficient and rational CHAP. II. Of the Notion of a Prophet and that there were Prophets among the Jews THE Notion of a Prophet may certainly best be learned from the Nature of Prophecy before defined from which Definitions of Prophecy we may gather this of a Prophet viz. that He is a person who by the Influence of God upon his Rational Faculty doth attain to such knowledge as by his Natural Abilities would in one respect or other be unattainable In which Description it concerns us at present to observe only that it is not Prediction but Influence from God which constitutes a Prophet at least such an one as we are now speaking of And that this is no new Notion adapted to our present Undertaking is evident enough by the words of a late Author whose Principles are thought most unluckily of any to undermine such Foundations as we are now laying yet he expresseth himself in these words Although there be many significations in Scripture of the word Prophet yet is that the most frequent in which it is taken for him to whom God speaketh immediately that which the Prophet is to say from him to some other man or to the People Gods speaking to men immediately he himself saith is to be interpreted that way whatsoever it be I suppose he means without the Ministry of man by which God makes them to understand his Will Hereby 't is evident that in his Judgment as well as ours a Prophet was a Person on whose Understanding God had immediate Influence how else is it possible he should make him immediately to understand his Will and sure it cannot seem strange to any that there have or might have been such men in the World the Power and Wisdom of God together with the Capacities of Mens Souls are enough to remove all suspition of Its impossibility He that made the Mind shall not He be able to teach men knowledge and he that was made on purpose to know God and give him the Glory of his Handy-work shall not he be thought capable of learning from such a Teacher There is therefore no show of Reason to doubt the Possibility of Prophecy especially considering that all sorts of men how wide soever their differences are in other matters do yet agree in this viz. that there are or have been such Prophets in the World This is so manifest and vulgarly known to be the Belief of Christians Jews and Turks as that among all that have heard of Christ Moses or Mahomet all necessity of proving it is perfectly fore-stalled and that the Heathens also were of the same opinion is evident by what they have reported of some of their Law-givers viz.

Infirmities Yea not only the Spirit but also the Son of God himself notwithstanding his Exaltation now in Heaven humbleth himself to sympathize with us here on earth for we have not an high Priest which cannot be touched with a feeling of our Infirmities but was in all Points tempted like as we are yet without Sin if therefore we come boldly to the Throne of Grace we may obtain Mercy and find Grace to help in time of Need. And if we may have Mercy and Grace for coming for it I hope we have no cause be our Duty what it will to complain of hard usage Let 's then lay all these Things together viz. that the Object of our Faith is most ●l●arly revealed by the Gospel that that of our hope is most fully d●clared to be most excellent and certain and that the Rule of our Lives is most becomming the Attributes of God and agreeable to the Reason of man and withal is so compleatly suited to his Ability as that no other Law can possibly be so good for him in his present State of Nature Morality and Imperfection Le ts I say lay all these things together and then methinks we must needs see something of that Stupendious Wisdom and Goodness whereby Christ and his Apostles were guided in the OEconomy of the Gospel far more excellent than the Wisdom of Moses and the Prophets in the Institution of the Law And if they did excell the Jews in Wisdom much more the Gentiles for since by the Ministry of Moses and the Prophets they were taught of God it is evident they had more excellent Wisdom not than the vulgar only but than those also that seem'd to be Philosophers Yet at the bar of their Judgment we are willing to try the Truth as it is in Jesus viz. Whether it be real and true Wisdom yea or no Whereof we shall need no longer to doubt if we consider what the most famous Philosophers have told us concerning the Nature the Object and the End of Wisdom As for its Nature in general it seems the common concession of them all that Wisdom is one of the best if not absolutely the most excellent kind of Knowledg they therefore define it by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which with them seems to denote more than a bare Perception of things viz. some knowledg of them by undeniable necessary Arguments such as Command Assent rather than Beg it Now that Christianity is a sort of Knowledg founded on such Arguments I hope you will find in the end of this Treatise the design whereof is to prove that it is so At present therefore I shall say no more of its general Nature but observe That the Object of Christian Doctrine as well as its Nature doth highly justifie its Claim to the Title of Wisdom for what I pray is it that Wisdom treats of about what is it conversant the first Causes saith Pythagoras the best things or the things that are most honourable saith Aristotle and which are those All men except Atheists will answer they are God and the things that approach nearest unto and partake most of his Nature otherwise Anaxagoras Thales and such like would not have had a Reputation for Wisdom as the Philosopher last mentioned reports they had because they knew matters of Divinity And where shall we find the greatest knowledge of these things Is it in the Wisdom of the Gentiles No verily their Philosophy is here dumb or worse Simonides though a Learned and Wise man in their esteem could give no account of the Divine Essence and those of the Heathens that undertook to do it had better been as sparing and modest as he was as is more than probable by the accounts that Plutarch and Cic●ro give of their Sentiments in this particular they were so weak and obscure so absurd and irrational so unworthy of God and unbecoming the Deity as that the Orator saith of them they were almost not the Judgments of Philosophers but the Dreams of Madmen We see then that men of great and excellent Wit after all their hard study and travel to find out the Truth have yet lost their labour and their Industry but blessed be God who pittying it seems the Ignorance and Weakness of Humane Nature hath sent his only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father and he hath declared him both his Being and his Nature his Attributes and his Will he hath more fully declared than either was or could be known without it and that which most highly commends the Revelation of God by the Gospel of Christ is that it is so far from contradicting those prime Notions of a Deity wherewith Nature hath endued us as that it doth exceedingly advance and improve them it becomes the Majesty of God and accords with the Reason of Man Hereof Origen was so confident as that he doubted not to bid Celsus see whether it were not the agreeableness of our Faith with the common sense of men from the beginning which made it so effectual as to work the Conversion of its candid and ingenuous Hearers How rash and ill-advised had he been in thus appealing to his subtile Adversary if he had not been well assured that Christianity opens and offers nothing but what is worthy of Heaven to those that embrace it here on Earth that here we may see the Express Image of that solid Wisdom and Felicity which the Jews in their Talmudical Rhapsodies and the Gentiles too in their Philosophy have hitherto sought in vain Hereof also we are assured by the designed End and Scope of it which in effect is the same with that which was pretended by the Heathen Philosophers And what was that Let Porphyrius answer for Pythagoras who as he tells us professed a sort of Philosophy the Scope whereof was to snatch and deliver the mind that is in us from Sensual Impediments and Fetters But to wave the trouble of many Quotations it seems by Maximus Tyrius that the pretended End of all sorts of Philosophy was to direct men to true Happiness They all agreed in the End but were miserably divided in the choice of the Means We need not wonder at either for as that Philosopher saith the Desire of Good God hath kindled as a spark in the minds of Men but the Finding of it he hath hid from them Thence it was that one sent his Scholars to one thing another to another to find it Pythagoras to Musick Thales to Astron●my Heraclitus to Solitude Socrates to Love Carne●des to Ch●stity Diogenes to Labour Epicurus to Pleasures They all aimed at Happiness but Epicurus was thought to have missed the mark so grosly as that the Romans and Messenians did banish and expell his followers from their respective Dominions calling them because of their softness and impiety the Pests of Youth and Spots of Philosophy They were therefore commanded to depart the Messenian Territories and being so thrust

two 1. Because the Apostles Power was no other than that of Our Saviour to invite men to imbrace the Kingdom of God which they themselves acknowledged for a Kingdom not present but to come and They that have no Kingdome can make no Laws It is very true They that have no Kingdom can make no Laws yet since as the same Page tells us God is the Soveraign of all the World they that have no Kingdom may Proclaim his Laws and this was the Office of the Apostles as Prophets or men Inspired by God and sent to Preach the Gospel Their calling of M●n to Christianity derived not its Authority Originally from them but from God that sent them and send them he did not barely to invite Men unto it but also in His Name to Command them to receive it for now God Comm●●deth all Men every where to repent and this is his Commandement that we should believe on the Name of his Son Jesus Christ Under these two heads of Repentance towards God and of Faith towards our Lord J●sus Christ St. Paul comprehends all Invitations that can be to Christianity and since they both are thus plainly and Emphatically commanded it is a strange over●ight or worse to say the Prec●pts of the Gospel are no Commands And yet more strange and worse than so it is to say 2. We read not any where that they who received not the Doctrine of Christ did therein sin but th●t they died in their sins that is that their sins against the Laws to which they owed obedience were not pardoned And therefore of Infidels St. John ●aith not the wr●th of God shall come upon them but the wrath of God remaineth upon them and not that they shall be condemned but that they are condemned Nor can it be conceived that the benefit of Faith is Remission of sins unless we conceive withall that the dammage of In●idelity is the Retention of the same sins But do we not read that when Christ sent forth His Disciples by two and two He gave them Order that in whatever House or City they were not received and heard they should shake off the dust under their feet for a ●estimony against them and withall assuring them that it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and G●m●r●●a in the day of Judgment than for that city And do we not read of Jerusalem whose Houses were le●t desolate because the Inhabitants would not be gathered unto Him and do we not read that This is the cond●mnation that light is come into the world and men love Darkness rather than light and do we not read that he who believeth not shall be Damned and do we not read that the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty Angels in fl●ming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and do we not read of the Comforter who was to come and reprove the world of sin because they believe not on him It is well known that if we turn to our Bibles we may read all these things therein how strange then is it and horrid to say we read not any where that they who received not the Doctrine of Christ did therein sin Is that no Sin which will make Eternal Judgment more severe and intolerable to otherwise the best of Cities than to Sodom and Gomorr●a is that no Sin for which God destroyed Jerusalem and cast off the ●eed of Abraham his Friend and the Children of Jacob his chosen Is that no Sin for which above all things the World is condemned Is that no Sin for which Men shall be damned Is that no Sin for which they shall suffer the vengeance of Eternal fire Is that no Sin for which the Holy Ghost reproves the World of Sin Who so blind in his apprehension or so perverse in his judgment as to think it is not even he that writ it I verily think did it with but at best a trembling Assent unto it His Allegations of Scripture and Reason to prove it are so impertinent and insufficient as that they rather conclude the contrary For what though St. John speaks in the present Tense and faith not the Wrath of God shall come but that it abideth upon him that believeth not and that he is condemned already Doth it thence follow that Infidelity is no sin who would not rather thence conclude that it is yea and that so great an one as that the Unbeliever shall as certainly be punished for it as if Gods Wrath were actually Inflicted or Eternal Condemnation had actually passed upon him this Construction of the Evangelists words is certainly far more probable than the other because He there assigns the Reason of the Unbelievers Condemnation which is not because he had sinned against the Laws of Nature and the Civil Laws of State but because he hath not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God Since then this is the moving Cause or Reason of his Condemnation it is here evident that this is his sin Nor doth the Reason that the Leviathan alledgeth to the contrary enforce any other conclusion for it cannot be conceived that the Retention of sin is the dammage of Infidelity unless we conceive withal that Infidelity doth displease God nor can we conceive it to displease Him unless withal we conceive it to be a Sin And indeed when we well consider it we cannot possibly methinks conceive it to be any other for very evident it is that Christ Crucified is either a Rock of Offence or Foolishness unto it it sets at naught the Counsel of God in contriving and despiseth the Riches of His Grace in effecting the Redemption of the World by Him it counts the Blood of the Covenant an Unholy or Trivial thing not worth minding and does despite unto or at least resists the Spirit of Grace it makes God a Lier and all the Witnesses to Christianity it impudently chargeth with Falshood in short it frustrates the whole Gospel and breaks the Commandment of God and therefore it is a great sin Nor indeed can it possibly be otherwise because it is a Notorious transgression of the Gospel and the Gospel is a Law Namely the Law of the Spirit of Life and the perfect Law of Liberty Nor can it be thought that these Apostles do improperly style the Gospel a Law for a Law being little or nothing else but an Ordinance and Preception Promulgated for the common Good by Him that hath the Care of the Community it is very easy to discern that the Gospel hath in it the Nature of a Law because all the parts of its Definition are very agreable thereto it concerns Me at present to take Notice only of its Obligation and this is so inseparable from a Law as that it receives its Name therefrom and indeed the most Essential difference of a Law