Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A96120
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The way to make all discerning lovers of truth of one mind: for the stronger opposition of those who would ruine them with errours and discords flowing from them. / By A lover of truth and peace ; published with authority.
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Lover of truth and peace.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing W1169A; ESTC R186320
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8,063
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40
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the Dead turn Water into Wine feed thousands of People with the miraculous multiplication of a few Loaves and Fishes and many more is as certain as universal Tradition which is surer than any Chronicle and the Testimony of the then present and succeeding Matters could make it To this I shall add the Testimony of an Adversary Josephus a Jew of Quality and Learning who liv'd about forty years after Christ in his Jewish History doubts whether he may call Jesus of Nazareth a Man his Miracles were so great But the constant Deaths of him and most of his Apostles are the surest of all Evidences for though St. Peter deny'd him yet he dyed for his Truth and tho' Judas betrayed him he accused him not for an Impostor but hanged himself for having betray'd just Blood. And the miraculous Resurrection of our Saviour was evident to so many Witnesses in several places as confirm'd them all As St. Matthew Chap. 28. ver 6. He is not here for he is risen as he said come see the place where the Lord lay And again ver 10. Then said Jesus unto them be not afraid go tell my Brethren that they go into Galilee and there shall they see me And ver 20. Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you and lo I am with you always even unto the end of the World Amen And in St. Mark Chap. 16. ver 14. Afterwards be appeared to the Eleven as they sat at Meat and upbraided them with their unbelief and hardness of Heart because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen And in St. Luke Chap. 24. ver 36. And as they thus spake Jesus himself stood in the midst of them and said unto them Peace be unto you And ver 39. Behold my Hands and my Feet that it is I my self handle me and see for a Spirit hath not Flesh and Bones as ye see Me have And in St. John Chap. 21. ver 14. This is now the third time that Jesus shewed himself to his Disciples after that he was risen from the Dead Now we need cite no more Texts to prove the Resurrection But his inspired Apostles being timerous and illiterate were so changed by the Holy Ghost that they had the courage to underake the Conversion of the greatest part of the known World and were suddenly made Masters of all Languages to enable them to propagate their hard and un-pleasing Doctrine as appears by many very plain Texts in the Acts of the Apostles Chap. 2. and begins ver 4. and so goes on to the 13. verse 4. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other Tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance 5. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews devout Men out every Nation under Heaven 6. Now when this was noised abroad the Multitude came together and were confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language 7. And they were all amazed and marvelled saying one to another Behold and are not all these that speak Galileans 8. And how hear we every Man in our own Tongue wherein we were born 9. Parthians and Medes and Elamites and the dwellers in Mesopotamia and in Judea and Cappadocia in Pontus and Asia 10. Phrygia and Pamphilia in Aegypt and in the parts of Lybia about Cyrene and Strangers of Rome Jews and Proselites 11. Cretes and Arabians We do hear them speak in our Tongues the wonderful Works of God. 12. And they were all amazed and in doubt saying one to another What meanes this Now the effects do clearly prove the truth of this Miracle For the Multitude of Converts in all these Nations could not be made without Language and a few poor illiterate Fishermen could not learn all their Languages at once without he miraculous Power of God. But the performance of this undertaking was the greatest of all Miracles that they and their Successors affected without the Compulsion of an Army which Mahomet used But their Doctrine did spring up in Blood in spight of all the Power and Tyranny of the Romans with their varieties of cruel Deaths and Tortures to suppress it till the miraculous Sign of the Cross in the Air Converted the Great Constantine with the greatest part of his Army to Christianity by those Legible Words In this Sign thou shalt overcome And though Mahometism hath usurped upon Christianity in Asia and Africa yet the greater part of the Turks Subjects are Christians still And God hath made as great an Addition to his Christian Flock as hath been elsewhere abated in America alone besides the Advancement of it in China Aethiopia and other parts of the East Indies And now though I have said nothing but what is expressed more learnedly and copiously in greater Volumes yet since Epitomies are soon read over by those who may be busie or negligent when larger Tracts are laid by I do not distrust but that I have here laid enough together to satisfie all discerning Lovers of Truth and that I shall engage many Readers to be of a mind as far as Christianity And now my next attempt will be the Union of Christians amongst themselves But because I am to cite several Texts of Scripture for the satisfaction of those who relie upon nothing else I shall also assert the Truth of the New Testament to endeavour the satisfaction of those who are no Lovers of Truth but doubt or mis-believe the Contents of it And to begin with the four Evangelists the first Writers of the New Law. THE Tradition of most Nations omitting the Church History and Fathers for Brevity sake assure us that they were all Men of Exemplary Piety and Sufferings and Two of them were of the Twelve Apostles who could mistake nothing they were Actors in And St. Matthew made good his miraculous Actions and Writings with his Blood. And St. John the beloved Apostle of our Saviour suffered Torments worse than Death The other two were fam'd through all the Believing World for their great Sanctity It is enough to say that their Writings with the rest of St. Paul and the rest of that mysterious Volume were water'd with the Bloods of their living and succeeding Disciples and that most of the Nations of Europe Asia and Africa had great numbers of Martyrs who dyed within the first three hundred years after Christ with variety of excessive Torments to justifie the Contents of this Sacred Volume And if we consider how it hath passed through many Languages and is preserved to this day by most Nations with very little difference We may well call it the universal Chronicle not to be doubted For if it be foolish to doubt the main of our own Chronicle written by four or five Authors what can we think of those who doubt the Word of God backt by so universal a Tradition but that they cannot see the Sun for too much Light. But though the whole Sacred Writ is a most precious Liquor yet
The Way to make all Discerning Lovers OF TRUTH Of One Mind FOR THE Stronger Opposition of Those who would Ruine Them with ERROURS and DISCORDS flowing from them By a Lover of Truth and Peace Published with Authority LONDON Printed by N. T. at the Entrance into the Old-Spring-Garden near Charing-Cross MDCLXXXVII The way to make all discerning Lovers of Truth of one Mind for the stronger Opposition of those who would ruine them with Errors and Discords flowing from them THE first step to this is Charity For Men should rather love their Neighbours for the good they agree in than hate upon meer difference of Opinions The next is to dispute no more than we perfectly understand without violently imposing our own conjectural Opinions on others The Third is that right Reason and necessity obligeth us to prefer Council and an Umpirage of all our Differences before Blows with Murther and Rapine This hath been the Cause of all Governments and Laws that the Force of the Strongest may not oppress the Innocence of the weaker Multitude And our English Judges and Juries are nothing but so many sworn Umpires to determine right in our differences But whether there be the same necessity for the finding and following the Truth of Divine Worship shall be the Subject of the following Discourse It is generally known to Mankind that the most ingenious and Potent Nations of the Greeks and Romans with all the rest of the World except the Jews were for many Ages Idolaters but hey agreed not in their Idols For some adored the departed Souls of great Heroes amongst them in their several Statues Others set up the Figures of their own imaginary Deities But the most rational did either worship great Men supposed to be turned into Stars or the real moving Planets of Saturn Jupiter Venus Mars Apollo c. but even to the Sun it self that gives Life to so many Insects and according to Aristotle to the generation of Man is but a circumscribed Body or a point in respect of the Infinite space of the Universe And appears to be but a great fiery Globe by our contracting its Beams in a burning-glass to generate Fire here on Earth and therefore the Jews who were more ancient Philosophers and Historians than the Nations above-named were satisfyed by their light of Reason that the Grandeur Beauty Order and several motions of the infinity of great luminous Bodies with the admirable Architecture of Man and the several Species of all living Creatures could never be the work of Chance to unite the contradictory Elements nor of a Common-wealth of Gods imprisoned in the indifferent Spheres but of a Monarch infinite in Extent Power Wisdom Goodness and this immense goodness revealed this undoubted Truth to his Servant Moses whose miraculous March through the Red Sea with the drowning of the following Aegyptians and the opening of the Earth to swallow Corah with thousands of his rebellious Companions were too great and publick Miracles to be suspected of Eorgery since they were both acted and written in Moses his own time when they must have been contradicted by thousands of then living Spectators if not truly recited and we know what Credit these and many other Miracles have given to Moses his Divine Books over the World even unto this day But the infinite lover of Mankind did continually supply the Jews his then chosen People with a supply of Prophets and a Source of Miracles not only to confirm them in their Belief and Obedience to his Commands and his then written Law but promis'd them by his Prophets of several Ages concurring in point of time when a Messiah should come to redeem and instruct all Nations in the Methods of his future Worship and promised to be with them for ever as in Isaiah Chap. 21. Verse 29. As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my Spirit which is upon thee and my Words which I have put in thy Mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the mouth of thy Seed's Seed saith the Lord from henceforth and for ever And again in Daniel Chap. 7. verse 10 14. I saw in the Night Visions and behold one like the Son of Man came with the Clouds of Heaven and came to the ancient of days and they brought him next before him And there was given Dominion and Glory and a Kingdom that all People Nations and Languages should serve him his Dominion is an everlasting Dominion which shall not pass away and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed And there is all the assurance that can be in humane Affairs that the Jews could have no lies imposed upon them for their Twelve Tribes had their Notaries and Scribes to each of them who recorded all remarkable occurrences and they often conferred Notes together to prevent Forgeries and Mistakes so that never any Miracles were better warranted in confirmation of the rational Truth of their Law that there is one Omnipotent Creator who made Man to love worship and serve him and no other Gods in Confutation of Idolaters and all other sorts of Infidels And now since this learned and chosen People turned Apostate after the coming of Christ whom they Crucified as an Usurper and an Impostor we ought to be very particular in the Confutation of such a People and of all our present Infidels who because they would be cozened in nothing will scarce believe there was a Julius Caesar an Alexander or a Harry the 8th because they never saw them Of the coming of Christ THe Redeemer of Mankind came into the World at the very time prefixed by a Succession of Jewish Prophets and a concurrence of the Roman Cibils and other dis-interessed Persons and there was not other Pretender to be the Messiah near that time so that the blind Jews must either confess him to be their Messiah or their written Law and Prophets to be false But they pretended that he came not into the World like a King. But his low Birth was a clear demonstration that God would have nothing of Kindred or Power to mix in the miraculous Work of converting all the most considerable Nations of the World. And therefore his Disciples were chosen Men of as humble Birth as free from Wealth Power or Parts to get them as any great Undertakers could be His Doctrine was not easie to believe as the Trinity and Resurrection and it was so free from all Temptations to bait Mankind with that it forbid plurality of Women taught the suffering of all Injuries and instead of covering Power or Money which gets and keeps it he taught the selling all and giving the Money to the Poor and taking up his Cross and following him And now I would ask the greatest of his Enemies what could make this Doctrine grow and prosper but his Stupendious Miracles and the omnipotent Hand of God. And that he did recover the Lame and Blind raise