Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	holy_a	john_n	word_n	6,977	5	4.1585	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63907	A discourse of the divine omnipresence and its consequences delivered in a sermon before the honourable Society of Lincolnes-Inn, upon the first Sunday of this Michaelmas term / John Turner ...	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.	1683 (1683)	Wing T3307; ESTC R5395	16,965	40

very reason and ground of all Religious Worship as indeed it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let us begin with God said he whom we mortals ought never to forget for all the Streets and Markets all the passages and avenues of Cities the Sea and the Sea Ports are all of them fill'd with God and we stand in need of him every moment And then follows that passage which St Paul hath cited out of him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for we also are his offspring And in imitation of Aratus a Latin Poet hath exprest himself in the same manner A Jove principium Musae Jovis omnia plena But Thirdly a third practical Inference which may be deducible from the Consideration of the Divine Extension is that we are not to make our application to Angels or to Saints as Mediators or Intercessors with God on our behalf for what need we any such to deliver our Message when he who alone is able to grant our Petition is united and twisted into our very thoughts at the same time when we ask it and how incongruous would it be when we are in the Kings presence and in his hearing to entreat another to supplicate in our behalfs when we are there our selves which is as much as to intimate that his Majesty would have more regard to the person of the Petitioner than to the reasonableness of the Petition or to the Circumstances of the person in whose behalf it was made besides that we have no reason to believe that either the Angels or the Saints departed are privy to our thoughts or that they concern themselves any otherwise than as the first of these are sometimes employed by God to be his ministring Spirits about any Humane Affairs We are sure they are but finite Spirits and consequently they cannot be present at all places at once and this makes it very suspicious considering the immensity of the Universal Space besides that the Seat of all the glorified Spirits is generally agreed to be at so great a distance that for both of these reasons they are too far from us to be able to hear what we say or to be present to our thoughts and wishes in order to present them before the Throne of God Neither does it help the matter what some of the Schoolmen have been pleased to tell us that the Saints behold the Prayers and the Necessities of their Votaries below in the Beatifical Vision or in the face of the Divine Glory which they fancy like a Glass wherein the Wants and Miseries of the Creatures may be seen for it is plain that this is a very dull and heavy Imagination and very unworthy the Majesty of God besides that if he did not only know as he does the wants of all his Creatures but if they had made such deep impressions and signatures upon his Nature it would be great impiety to urge him any further when of himself he had taken such particular cognizance of the desires and wants of all his Creatures but it is still more detestable in the Practice of the Church of Rome that so long a Beadroll of Saints shall be invoked by a Rabble of Worshippers in a solemn Procession as if neither they nor God could be prevailed upon without abundance of importunity and clamour A man would think that place of the Colossians might have been a sufficient Antidote for the Church of Rome to preserve her from the poyson of this foolish Heresie Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of Angels intruding into those things which he hath not seen vainly pufft up in his fleshly mind For if the worship of Angels be forbidden who are a Superiour sort of Creatures that are supposed to have a more familiar correspondence and a nigher access to their Maker then certainly that of Saints or Souls departed is much more especially if we consider that the Angels being sent so frequently as they are in Scripture upon a Divine Message they might be thought the fitter Instruments to convey a Message back again from whence they came nay the Christian Religion allows us to believe that men have their Angels in heaven that do in general intercede for them at the Throne of God though it is still to be doubted whether they have any particular knowledge of of our wants For so our Saviour tells us Matth. 18. 10. Take heed that ye despise not one of these little Ones For I say unto you that in heaven their Angels do alwaies behold the Face of my Father which is in Heaven And the Cherubims in the Sanctuary being placed upon the Ark of the Testimony and looking upon the Divine Glory and Majesty that sat between them is an Argument that the Jews had an opinion and such an opinion as was authorized by God himself that the Angels did make intercession in the presence of God on the behalf of men But yet it is true that we are not to apply our selves to the Angels though they should be allowed to intercede for us it is true likewise that they are not made miserable by a particular view of our Calamities and Misfortunes neither do they make any particular Intercession but they are kind and charitable Spirits that wish well to all mankind and that Intercession which they make is only a general thing that God would hasten to accomplish the number of his Elect and that his Kingdom may come and his Will be done in Earth as it is in Heaven Lastly it is still true that there is but one Mediatour between God and men the man Christ Jesus that is he is the proper Object of our Prayers and Intercessions and it is he alone that Mediates in Virtue of that Sacrifice which he hath made of himself as the High Priest did in the most Holy Place for all the Congregation of Israel upon the solemn day of Expiation Nay perhaps after all by Angels in that place of the Colossians the departed Spirits of the Saints may be understood for in this Sense the word seems to be understood Acts 12. 15. Where Peter being loosed out of Prison knocked at the door of Mary the Mother of John and when the Maid went in and told how Peter stood at the Gate they said unto her thou art mad because they knew Peter was in Prison and therefore they lookt upon it as an impossible thing But when she constantly affirmed that it was he then said they it is his Angel that is as I suppose his Ghost or his departed Spirit concluding that Peter had died or had been put to death in Prison So also Acts 23. 8. The Sadduces say that there is no Resurrection neither Angel nor Spirit but the Pharisees confess both By which it is plain that there are but two things mentioned for the word both cannot be extended to more one of them is the Resurrection and