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	son_n	trinity_n	8,730	5	10.2166	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62636	Several discourses upon the attributes of God viz. Concerning the perfection of God. Concerning our imitation of the divine perfections. The happiness of God. The unchangeableness of God. The knowledge of God. The wisdom, glory, and soveraignty of God. The wisdom of God, in the creation of the world. The wisdom of God, in his providence. The wisdom of God, in the redemption of mankind. The justice of God, in the distribution of rewards and punishments. The truth of God. The holiness of God. To which is annexed a spital sermon, of doing good. By the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson, late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. Being the sixth volume; published from the originals, by Raph Barker, D.D. chaplain to his grace.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708.	1699 (1699)	Wing T1264; ESTC R219315	169,861	473

the Holiness of good Men. And it is a separation from moral imperfection that is from Sin and Impurity And this is call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the primary Notion of i● is Negative and signifies the absence and remotion of Sin And this appears i● those explications which the Scriptur● gives of it Thus 't is explain'd by opposition to Sin and Impurity 2 Cor 7.1 Let us cleanse our selves from a●● filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness where Holiness is opposed to all filthiness Sometimes by the negation of Sin and Defilement So we find holy and without blame put together Eph. 1.4 Holy and without blemish Eph. 5.27 Holy harmless and undefiled Heb. 7.26 'T is true indeed this Negative Notion doth imply something that is Positive it doth not only signifie the absence of Sin but a contrariety to it we cannot conceive the absence of Sin without the presence of Grace as take away crookedness from a Thing and it immediately becomes straight When ever we are made Holy every Lust and Corruption in us is supplanted by the contrary Grace Now this habitual Holiness of Persons which consists in a separation from Sin is a conformity to the Holiness of God and by this we may come to understand what Holiness in God is and it signifies the peculiar eminency of the Divine Nature whereby it is separated and removed at an infinite distance from moral Imperfection and that which we call Sin that is there is no such thing as Malice or Envy or Hatred or Revenge or Impatience or Cruelty or Tyranny or Injustice or False-hood or Unfaithfulness in God or if there be any other Thing that signifies Sin and Vice and moral Imperfection Holiness signifies that the Divine Nature is at an infinite distance from all these and possest of the contrary Perfections Therefore all those Texts that remove Moral Imperfection from God and declare the repugnancy of it to the Divine Nature do set forth the Holiness of God Jam. 1.13 God cannot be tempted with evil Job 8.3 Doth God pervert Judgment or doth the Almighty pervert Justice Job 34.10 12. Far be it from God that he should do wickedness and from the Almighty that he should commit iniquity Yea surely God will not do wickedly neither will the Almighty pervert judgment Rom. 9.14 Is there then unrighteousness with God God forbid Zeph. 3.5 The just Lord is in the midst thereof he will not do iniquity And so false-hood and unfaithfulness and inconstancy Deut. 32.4 A God of truth and without iniquity 1 Sam. 15.29 The strength of Israel will not lie Tit. 1.2 In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie hath promised Heb. 6.18 That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie Therefore you shall find that Holiness is joyned with all the Moral Perfections of the Divine Nature or put for them Hos 11.9 I am the holy one in the midst of thee that is the merciful one Psal 145.17 The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works Rom. 7.12 The commandment is holy and just and good Rev. 3.7 These things saith he that is holy he that is true Rev. 6.10 How long O Lord holy and true Psal 105.42 He remembred his holy promise holy that is in respect of the faithfulness of it Isa 55.3 The sure mercies of David 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the holy mercies of David which will not fail So that the Holiness of God is not a particular but an universal Perfection and runs through all the moral Perfections of the Divine Nature 't is the Beauty of the Divine Nature and the Perfection of all his other Perfections Take away this and you bring an universal stain and blemish upon the Divine Nature without Holiness Power would be Oppression and Wisdom Subtilty and Soveraignty Tyranny and Goodness Malice and Envy and Justice Cruelty and Mercy Foolish Pity and Truth False-hood And therefore the Scripture speaks of this as God's highest Excellency and Perfection God is said to be glorious in Holiness Ex. 15.11 Holiness is call'd God's throne Psal 47.8 He sitteth upon the throne of his holiness This is that which makes Heaven Isa 63.15 It is called The habitation of his holiness and of his glory as if this were the very Nature of God and the sum of his Perfections The Knowledge of God is called the Knowledge of the holy one Pro. 9.10 To be made partakers of a Divine Nature and to be made partakers of God's holiness are equivalent Expressions 2 Pet. 3.4 Heb. 12.10 And because there is no Perfection of God greater therefore he is represented as swearing by this Psal 60.6 God hath spoken in his holiness Psal 89.35 Once have I sworn by my holiness The Angels and glorified Spirits they sum up the Perfections of God in this Isa 6.3 And one cryed unto another and said holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts the whole earth is full of his glory Rev. 4.8 And they rest not day and night saying holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come There is no Attribute of God so often repeated as this in some Copies it is nine times II. I shall endeavour to prove that this Perfection belongs to God First From the Light of Nature The Philosophers in all their Discourses of God agree in this that whatever sounds like Vice and Imperfection is to be separated from the Divine Nature which is to acknowledge his Holiness Plato speaking of our likeness to God saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dan. 4.9 King Nebuchadnezzar calls God by this Title I know that the spirit of the holy Gods is in thee In a Word whatever hath been produced to prove any of God's Moral Perfections proves his Holiness Secondly From Scripture There is no Title more frequently given to God in Scripture and so often ingeminated as this of his Holiness He is called Holiness it self Isa 63.15 Where Heaven is call'd the habitation of his Holiness that is of God His Name is said to be Holy Luke 1.49 And holy is his name He is called the holy one Isa 40.25 The holy one of Israel Isa 41.20 The holy one of Jacob. 49.23 He is said to be holy in all his Works and Promises Psal 105.42 In all his ways and works Psal 145.17 This Title is given to each of the three Persons in the Blessed Trinity To God the Father in innumerable Places To God the Son Dan. 9.24 To anoint the most holy The Devil cannot deny him this Title Luke 4.34 I know thee who thou art the holy one of God And the Spirit of God hath this Title constantly given it the holy Ghost or the holy Spirit or the Spirit of Holiness The Scripture attributes this Perfection in a peculiar manner to God 1 Sam. 2.2 There is none holy as the Lord. Rev. 15.4 For thou only art holy Holiness is a communicable Perfection but no Creature can

who gave him this Authority Our Lord tells us plainly his Kingdom was not of this world and that without any distinction of in ordine ad spiritualia and therefore he wrested no Princes Kingdom out of his hands nor seized it as forfeited to himself But this Power the Pope claims to himself and hath exercised it many a time disturbing the Peace of Nations and exercising the most barbarous Cruelties in the World under a pretence of Zeal for God and Religion as if because Religion is so very good a thing in it self it would warrant men to do the very worst things for its sake which is the ready way to render Religion contemptible and odious and to make two of the best things in the World God and Religion good for nothing If we would preserve in the Minds of Men any reverence and esteem for Religion we must take heed how we destroy the Principles of Natural Religion and undermine the Peace and Happiness of Humane Society for the glory of God and under pretence of following Divine Revelation and being led by a Church that cannot err for every Church doth certainly err that teacheth any thing plainly contrary to the Principles and Dictates ●f Natural Religion and utterly inconsistent with the essential Perfections of God and with the Peace and Order of the World for God is not the God of Confusion but of Order which St. Paul appealeth to as a Principle of eternal Truth and naturally known But they that pretend that Religion prompts men to Sedition and Cruelty do represent God as the God of confusion and not of order Therefore whatever men may through an ignorant zeal or for ambitious Ends pretend to be Religion let us place it in that which is unquestionable the imitation of the Divine Perfections and let us as the Apostle exhorts put on as the elect of God bowels of mercy kindness meekness long-suffering and above all let us put on Charity which is the very bond of perfection The great Perfection of the Divine Nature or rather the very Essence of God is Love So St. John speaks God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him And 't is very remarkable that in these very qualities of Charity and Kindness and Compassion which we peculiarly call Humanity we approach nearest to the Divinity it self and that the contrary Dispositions do transform us into wild Beasts and Devils And yet as severely as I speak against these Principles and Practices I have an hearty pity and compassion for those who are under the power of so great a Delusion and upon a pretence of being made the only true Christians in the world are seduced from Humanity it self and so far from being made good Christians by these Principles that they are hardly left to be Men being blinded and led by the blind they fall into the ditch of the grossest and foulest Immoralities such as are plainly enough condemn'd by the light of Nature if there were no Bible in the World Not but that we Protestants have our Faults and our Follies too and those God knows too many and too visible we possess more Truth but there is little Peace among us and yet God is as well and as often in Scripture called the God of peace as the God of truth In this great Light and Liberty of the Reform'd Religion we are apt to be wanton and to quarrel and fall out we are full of Heats and Animosities of Schisms and Divisions and the way of peace we have not known God grant that at last in this our day when it concerns us so much we may know the things that belong to our peace before they be hid from our eyes You see in what things the Practice of Religion mainly consists in our likeness to God and resemblance of him in Holiness and Goodness and without this we are utterly incapable of happiness we cannot see God unless we be like him The Presence of God can administer no Pleasure no Felicity to us till we be changed into his Image till we come to this temper to hate Sin and delight in purity and holiness we can have no delightful communion with the holy God till our Passions be subdued and our Souls dispossest of those devilish and ungodlike Qualities of Hatred and Malice of Revenge and Impatience and till we be endued with the Spirit of universal Goodness and Charity we are not fit company for our heavenly Father we are not qualified to dwell with God who is love and dwells in love So far as we are defective in these Divine Qualities and Perfections so far we fall short of the temper of Happiness There is a direct and eternal Opposition between the holy and good God and the evil dispositions of wicked men and till this Opposition be removed it is impossible we should find any felicity in the enjoyment of God Now the Nature of God is fixt and unchangeable God cannot recede from his own Perfection and therefore we must quit our sins Thou canst not change God therefore change thy self and rather think of putting off thy corrupt Nature which may be changed than of altering the Divine Nature with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning God condescended to take our Nature upon him to make us capable of Happiness but if this will not do he will not put off his own Nature to make us happy SERMON III. The Happiness of God 1 TIM 1.11 The Blessed God The whole Verse runs thus According to the glorious Gospel of the Blessed God which was committed to my trust SINCE all Men naturally desire happiness and thirst after it methinks we should all desire to know what it is and where it is to be found and how it is to be attained by us in that degree in which Creatures are capable of it What Job says of Wisdom may be said also of Happiness God understandeth the way thereof and he knoweth the place thereof He only who is perfectly possest of it himself knows wherein it consists and what are the true ingredients of it So that to direct us in our search after happiness the best way will be to Contemplate and Consider the Divine Nature which is the perfect Pattern and Idea of Happiness and the Original Spring and Fountain of all the Felicity that Creatures are capable of And to that end I have pitched upon these Words wherein the Apostle attributes this Perfection of bessedness or happiness to God The Blessed God And tho' this be as Essential a part as any other of that Notion which Mankind have of God from the Light of Nature yet I no where find in all the New Testament this Attribute of Happiness given to God but only twice in this Epistle 'T is true indeed the Title of Blessedness is frequently given both to God and Christ but in another Sense and in a quite different Notion As Mark 14.61 where the High-Priest asks our

keep nothing close from God for he is present to our Minds and intimate to our Thoughts so that you see this Principle is deeply rooted in the Minds of Men and that Men do naturally Reason themselves into it 2. The natural fears of Men are likewise a secret acknowledgement of this and I take this to be a great Truth that a Man's natural Actions and such as happen upon Surprise and without Deliberation are a better argument of the intimate sense of our Minds and do more truly discover what lies at the bottom of our Hearts and what Notions are natural to us than our contrived and deliberate Discourse If I see a Man upon the sudden sight of a Serpent recoil and start back tho' he tell me never so often that he is not afraid yet I am sufficiently convinc'd of the contrary because I see in his Countenance and Carriage a natural acknowledgment of Fear and Danger so if Men find that upon the designing of a secret Wickedness which never went further than their own Hearts their Consciences do sting and lash them that they have a sense of Guilt and feel inward Frights and Horrours whatever they may say to the contrary this is a natural acknowledgment of an invisible Eye that sees them and disallows their wicked Designs If that be true which the Heathen Poet says That Scelus intra se tacitum qui cogitat ullum Facti crimen habet He that meditates any secret Wickedness in his Heart is guilty to himself as if he had committed it this is a plain Confession that the Man stands in Awe of something besides Himself and is jealous that there is one that is Conscious to what he thinks 2. That to have a perfect and thorough knowledge of Mens Hearts is the peculiar Prerogative of God This is imply'd in the Answer to that Question Who can know the heart of man Jer. 17.10 I the Lord search the heart and try the reins this is the Prerogative of God and one of his chief Titles that he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a knower of the heart 1 King 8.39 Thou even thou only knowest the hearts of all the children of men Men may make a probable conjecture at the Thoughts and Designs of others from their Words and Actions but God only knows them Men are conscious to their own Thoughts and Purposes the spirit of a man that is in him knows the things of a man but they cannot see into the Secrets of another Man's Mind 't is God alone that knows the Hearts of all Men. The Heart of Man is a priviledg'd place and the secret and inward workings of it are not subject to the cognisance of any but God alone The limits of Humane Knowledge are the outward appearances of Actions 1 Sam. 16.7 The Lord seeth not as man seeth for man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart our Knowledge is but superficial and glides upon the outside and surface of things but the Divine Knowledge pierceth to the very center of every thing Now the darkest place the most inward retirement the privatest Closet in the whole World is the Heart of Man and this God only is privy to Deus autor omnium speculator omnium à quo nihil secretum esse potest tenebris interest interest cogitationibus nostris quasi alteris tenebris saith Min. Foelix God made all things and sees all things and therefore nothing can be secret from him he is present in Darkness and he is present to the Thoughts of Men which are as it were another and a thicker Darkness The Devil indeed pretends to this Knowledge he would take upon him to know the integrity of Job's Heart better than God himself and that notwithstanding the Testimony which God gave of his Integrity yet if he were but soundly tried by Affliction he would renounce God and curse him to his face but the event proved how groundless and malicious this suggestion was But there is a far greater difficulty in this matter from the passages of some Divines concerning the Devil's immediate access to the Minds of Men and his Power to cast in Wicked Thoughts into them which seems by consequence to grant him some knowledge of Mens Hearts for by the same Reason that he can imprint Thoughts upon Mens Minds he may see those that are imprinted there That the Devil is a very sagacious Spirit and can make very shrewd Conjectures at the bent and inclinations of Mens Minds and the probable workings of our Thoughts from a general Knowledge and Observation of our Tempers and Passions of our Interests and Designs and from the general tenour of our Actions in Publick and Private and from our Prayers and Confessions to God if he permit him at any time to be so near Good Men I think there is no doubt but this is far from a Knowledge of our Hearts all this is but Conjecture and such as men may make of one another in a lower degree But as to the business of casting in blasphemous and despairing Thoughts into the Minds of Men to this I would say these three things 1. That there are few of these cases which may not more probably be resolved into the Wickedness and Infidelity of Mens Hearts or into the Darkness and Melancholy of our tempers which are apt to raise and suggest strange Thoughts to Men and such as we may be apt to think have no rise from our selves not considering what an odd and strange influence the disorder of our bodily Humours may have upon our Minds as we see in violent Fevers and several other Diseases and Melancholy tho' the workings of it are more still and quiet is as truly a Disease as any other so that I chuse rather to ascribe as much of these to a bodily Distemper as may be because it is a very uncomfortable consideration to think that the Devil hath such an immediate Power upon the Minds of Men. 2. I do not see how by any means it can be granted without prejudice to this Prerogative of God which the Scripture plainly gives him of being the only Knower of the Heart that the Devil can have so immediate an access to our Minds as to put wicked Thoughts into them nor can I think that when it is said 1 Chron. 21.1 That Satan provoked David to number the people and Luke 22.3 That the devil entred into Judas and Acts 5.3 That Satan had filled the heart of Ananias to lie unto the Holy Ghost and Eph. 2.2 That the devil is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience I say I cannot think that any or all of these expressions do amount to such an immediate power of putting wicked Thoughts into Mens Minds but they only signifie that the Devil hath a greater hand in some sins than others and that a Heart wickedly bent and inclined give him a great advantage to tempt Men more powerfully by presenting the occasions of