Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	good_a	work_n	work_v	6,969	5	7.2984	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66396	The divine authority of the scriptures a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Sept. 2. 1695 : being the sixth of the lecture for the said year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1696 (1696)	Wing W2704; ESTC R1959	15,908	41

and Authority by virtue of their Office Paul an Apostle c. requiring the same regard and the like submission to what they Writ as to what they Spoke when present And as they thus magnified their Office so they writ as from Christ himself after this and the like form Grace be to you and peace from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 1. 7 c. Nay they insist upon their Inspiration which they received when they writ to gain it Authority with those they wrote to So St. Paul Gal. 1. 1. Paul an Apostle not of men neither by man but by Jesus Christ c. Ver. 11 12. I certify you brethren that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man for I neither received it of man nor was I taught it but by the Revelation of Jesus Christ And that Apostle expresly saith The things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord 1 Cor. 14. 37. 2 Cor. 1. 13. So St. Peter 1 Epist 5. 12. I have written briefly exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand Now if they conceived themselves to be Inspired in Writing who themselves were Inspired as has been before proved and did Write with the same Apostolical Authority as they Taught it is certain that they were Inspir'd in Writing for they were the best Judges of their own Inspiration and could best know when they were Inspired And therefore if any would undertake to disprove the Divine Authority or Inspiration of the Holy Scriptures they must first of all prove that those Writers were not inspired nor did ever give sufficient Evidence that they were Inspired But if they were Inspired and do withal declare that they Wrote those Books by Inspiration we have as much reason to receive those Books as such upon their Affirmation as we have no believe that they themselves were Inspired or did ever Teach by Inspiration 4. There is the same Proof for the Inspiration of the Apostolical Writers in their Writing as their Teaching as what they Write is the same with what they Taught and therefore what they Taught being confirmed by sufficient Evidence to be from God so must what they Writ the same Proofs that belong to the one belonging to the other And accordingly they in their Writings often appeal to what they Taught as concordant with what they Writ and to the Testimony given to the one for the confirmation of the other They appeal to what they Taught So St. Paul 2 Cor. 2. 13. I write none other things to you than what you read or know and acknowledge So Gal. 1. 8 9. Though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received let him be accursed So they appeal to the Evidences of their Inspiration in Teaching for a confirmation of what they Writ So 2 Cor. 12. 12. Truly the signs of an Apostle were wrought among you in all patience and signs and wonders and mighty deeds Gal. 3. 5. He that ministreth to you the Spirit and worketh miracles among you doth he it by the works of the Law or the hearing of Faith From whence it is that the Apostles challenge the same regard to be paid to their Writings as their Teaching which they could not have done were not their Writings of as good Authority as their Teaching and were they not alike directed and assisted in the one as the other So St. Paul 1 Cor. 4. 1. Let a man so account of us as of the ministers of Christ or Apostles 1 Cor. 5. 3 4. I verily as absent in body but present in spirit have judged already as though I were present c. in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ when ye are gathered together and my Spirit c. All which is to give Authority to what they writ but what Authority could that be of to oblige others to receive it if they themselves received it not by Inspiration and that their Teaching and Writing were not the same and obtained in the same way 3. The Holy Scriptures are worthy of such Authors as were Inspired and have upon them the Characters of such Inspiration I have before proved That the Matter contained in Scripture has upon it the Characters of a Divine Revelation But the Design before us now is to shew That the Writing it self has upon it such Characters as will entitle it to Divine Inspiration and is worthy of such Persons to write as were Inspired And that 1. If we consider who the Persons were that were the Penmen of the Sacred Writ that were as well Ignorant and Illiterate as Learned Thus we find in the Old Testament an Amos that was no Prophet nor Prophet's Son nor bred up in their Schools but an Herdman and Gatherer of Sycamore fruit is made at once a Prophet and as Inspired as the Great the Noble and Eloquent Isaiah And under the Gospel we find a Matthew and a John as well as a Luke a Peter as well as a Paul For when the Workmanship proceeds not from the Hand but the Intelligent Mind not from the Instrument but the Efficient it is not what the Hand the Instrument and Agent is but what the Efficient pleases and so God could make an Apostle and an Inspired Person out of an Illiterate Fisherman as well as out of him that sate at the Feet of Gamaliel For God chose the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty c. that no flesh should glory in his presence 1 Cor. 1. 27. And as it was in Preaching so it is in Writing the Gospel in which God no less gave them a Mind to indite than a Mouth and Wisdom in Teaching to speak So that they needed no more to meditate before what to write than in that case what they should answer It was there as the Spirit gave them utterance and here as that did direct and assist or suggest St. Paul exhorts Timothy to give attendance to reading till he himself should come to give him farther Instruction and to meditate and give himself wholly to them that his profiting might appear to all 1 Tim. 4. 13 c. But we find no such dependance on human means in what they wrote Then it is Paul an Apostle not of men neither by man but by Jesus and God the Father the Gospel he wrote was the same he taught and which when he wrote he no more received from man than when he taught and which he was taught by the revelation of Jesus Christ Gal. 1. 1 11 12. And therefore where all was by Revelation it was not as the Man was but as he was made And as St. Peter was as much an Apostle an Inspired Teacher so he was as much a Divine Writer as St. Paul and writes with the same Divine Power and Authority and with as much

D r WILLIAMS's SIXTH SERMON AT Mr. BOYL'S Lecture 1695. The Divine Authority of the Scriptures A SERMON Preached at St. Martins in the Fields Sept. 2. 1695. BEING THE Sixth of the LECTURE For the said YEAR Founded by the Honourable ROBERT BOYLE Esquire By JOHN WILLIAMS D. D. Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell and Tho. Cocke●ill Sen r Jun r At the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard and at the Three Legs in the Poultrey M DC XC VI. HEB. I. 1 2. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son c. IN these words we have as has been observed 1. A description of Revelation 't is God's speaking or declaring his Will to Mankind 2. The Certainty of that Revelation 't is by way of Declaration God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake c. 3. The Order observed in delivering that Revelation as to Time Manner and Persons In time past by the Prophets and in the last days by his Son 4. The Conclusion and Perfection of that Revelation 't is in the last days by his Son Under the Second I have shewed 1. That there has been such a Revelation 2. That the Scripture is of Divine Revelation and has upon it the Characters belonging to such Revelation For the better disposing of what I had to say under this Head I proposed Four Questions to be resolved viz. Q. 1. How we can prove the Matter of Scripture to be true Q. 2. How we can prove the Matter of Scripture to have been of Divine Revelation Q. 3. How we can prove the Books of Scripture to have been of Divine Inspiration Q. 4. How we prove these Books that are now extant and received by the Christian Church as Canonical to be those very Books I have already Treated of the Two former and shall now take the Two latter into Consideration Where we may observe somewhat as to the Writers and then as to Inspiration 1. As to the Writers of whom we may reckon Three sorts 1. Merely Human such as St. Luke speaks of that out of a good and pious intent took in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which were most surely believed And this may be done without any material Error by Persons duly qualified for it 2. Those that had what they wrote immediately dictated or at least approved by such Persons as were inspired So Eusebius saith that the Gospel of St. Mark was approved by St. Peter and St. Luke's by St. Paul 3. Such as were immediately Inspired in the writing as St. Peter and the rest of the Divine Writers are supposed to have been Now though the first of these may be sufficient in ordinary cases and of good use in the extraordinary where there is no better yet where the Salvation of Mankind is concerned there is somewhat farther necessary and that is that the Persons that write should be assisted and guided by the Holy Spirit of God or write by the direction and approbation of those that are Inspired 2. As to the Inspiration that is Twofold 1. Either when the Matter Words and Order are immediately Dictated by God himself as the Decalogue was and all that was Revealed by Voice for then it was as Discourse with us 2. Or When Persons Selected wrote by Direction or Command from God what was Revealed to them as to the Matter only whether by way of Declaration or Representation In which last case the Persons Inspired took their own way which is the reason of the difference in Style and Phrase between their several Compositions that for example Isaiah writ in a lofty courtly Style and that Amos a Herdsman writ after a more Rustical way So Erasmus saith of St. Luke that he writ in a purer and clearer Style because of his skill in the Greek Tongue Here the Office of the Divine Spirit was to suggest the Matter or to represent the case to assist and supervise so that no Error should be in the Original Copy though he left each to the liberty of their own way in expressing it As if we were to send several Messengers upon the same Errand we deliver the Message to them and tell them what they are to say but leave every one of them to express it as they think fit and as they are able Each of which is a faithful and wise Servant though he keeps not exactly to the very words of his Master and all agree in the drift and substance though they differ in the expression or circumstance So it is in the Evangelists where they all agree in the material parts of the History though they differ often in the words and sometimes perhaps in some minute passages relating to it In one or other of these two senses the Scripture may be said to be wrote by Divine Inspiration that is either by immediate and verbal Suggestion or by Direction And this I shall now endeavour to prove by answering the Third Question viz. Q. 3. How we do prove the Books of Scripture which contain the matter of Revelation to have been of Divine Inspiration In proceeding upon this I shall premise 1. That the proper course for proving the Divine Authority of the Scripture is to begin with the Matter abstracted from the Books as I have already done and then to proceed from thence to the Books And therefore they begin at the wrong end that would disprove the truth of the Revelation or Matter contained in Scripture by such Objections as they make from the Writing and the Books For the Matter stands upon a proof and evidence of its own as I have shewed and will stand though the written Word or Scripture should fail of supporting its own Authority Therefore those that will venture upon disproving the Revelation must in reason begin with the Matter let them there try their skill and call in question the proof by which that is supported But this we have already prevented by having proved the Matter of Scripture to have been of Divine Inspiration 2. Though there seems not to be so clear and full a proof for the Inspiration of the Books as there is for the Matter since the Matter has the utmost attestation it is capable of viz. Miracles but there were no Miracles wrought to prove these Books to have been of Divine Inspiration as has been before observed Yet if we prove that the Books were written by Inspired Persons and that what they Wrote is the same with what they Taught it is equivalent and much of the same Force and Authority For what need was there of Miracles to prove the Books to be written by Inspiration when the Persons writing them were Inspired and that what they wrote is the same with what they taught and when what they taught was confirmed by the Miracles