Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	law_n	life_n	sin_n	22,698	5	5.7840	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64062	B. Taylor's Opuscula the measures of friendship : with additional tracts : to which is now added his moral demonstration proving that the religion of Jesus Christ is from God : never before printed in this volume.; Selections. 1678	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1678 (1678)	Wing T355; ESTC R11770	78,709	214

the birth of this young Child which was thus glorified by a Star was also signified by an Angel and was effected by the holy Spirit of God in a manner which was in it self supernatural a Virgin was his Mother and God was his Father and his beginning was miraculous and this matter of his birth of a Virgin was proved to an interested and jealous person even to Joseph the supposed father of Jesus it was affirmed publickly by all his family and by all his disciples and published in the midst of all his enemies who by no artifice could reprove it a matter so famous that when it was urged as an argument to prove Jesus to be the Messias by the force of a Prophecy in Isaiah A Virgin shall conceive a Son they who obstinately refused to admit him did not deny the matter of fact but denied that it was so meant by the Prophet which if it were true can only prove that Jesus was more excellent than was foretold by the Prophets but that there was nothing less in him than was to be in the Messias it was a matter so famous that the Arabian Physicians who can affirm no such things of their Mahomet and yet not being able to deny it to be true of the Holy Jesus endeavour to elevate and lessen the thing by saying It is not wholly beyond the force of nature that a Virgin should conceive so that it was on all hands undeniable that the Mother of Jesus was a Virgin a Mother without a Man This is that Jesus at whose presence before he was born a Babe in his Mothers belly also did leap for joy who was also a person extraordinary himself conceived in his Mothers old age after a long barrenness signified by an Angel in the Temple to his Father officiating his Priestly Office who was also struck dumb for his not present believing all the People saw it and all his Kindred were witnesses of his restitution and he was named by the Angel and his Office declared to be the fore-runner of the holy Jesus and this also was foretold by one of the old Prophets for the whole story of this Divine person is a chain of providence and wonder every link of which is a verification of a Prophecy and all of it is that thing which from Adam to the Birth of Jesus was pointed at and hinted by all the Prophets whose words in him passed perfectly into the event This is that Jesus who as he was born without a Father so he was learned without a Master he was a Man without age a Doctor in a Child's garment disputing in the Sanctuary at 12. Years old He was a sojourner in Egypt because the poor Babe born of an indigent Mother was a formidable rival to a potent King and this fear could not come from the design of the Infant but must needs arise from the illustriousness of the Birth and the Prophecies of the Child and the sayings of the Learned and the journey of the Wise-men nd the decrees of God this journey and the return were both managed by the conduct of an Angel and a Divine dream for to the Son of God all the Angels did rejoyce to minister This Blessed Person made thus excellent by his Father and glorious by miraculous consignations and illustrious by the ministery of Heavenly spirits and proclaimed to Mary and to Joseph by two Angels to the Shepherds by a Multitude of the Heavenly Host to the Wise men by a Prophecy and by a Star to the Jews by the Shepherds to the Gentiles by the three Wise men to Herod by the Doctors of the Law and to himself perfectly known by the inchasing his humane nature in the bosom and heart of God and by the fulness of the Spirit of God was yet pleased for 30. Years together to live an humble a laborious a chast and a devout a regular and an even a wise and an exemplar a pious and an obscure life without complaint without sin without design of fame or grandeur of spirit till the time came that the clefts of the rock were to open and the Diamond give its lustre and be worn in the Diadems of Kings and then this Person was wholly admirable for he was ushered into the World by the voice of a loud Crier in the Wilderness a Person austere and wise of a strange life full of holiness and full of hardness and a great Preacher of righteousness a Man believed by all the People that he came from God one who in his own Nation gathered Disciples publickly and which amongst them was a great matter he was the Doctor of a new institution and baptized all the Country yet this man so great so rever'd so followed so listned to by King and People by Doctors and by ideots by Pharisees and Sadducees this man preached Jesus to the People pointed out the Lamb of God told that he must increase and himself from all that fame must retire to give him place he received him to Baptism after having with duty and modesty declared his own unworthiness to give but rather a worthiness to receive Baptism from the holy hands of Jesus but at the solemnity God sent down the holy Spirit upon his holy Son and by a voice from Heaven a voice of thunder and God was in that voice declared that this was his Son and that he was delighted in him This voice from Heaven was such so evident so certain a conviction of what it did intend to prove so known and accepted as the way of Divine revelation under the second Temple that at that time every Man that desired a sign honestly would have been satisfied with such a voice it being the testimony by which God made all extraordinaries to be credible to his People from the days of Ezra to the death of the Nation and that there was such a voice not only then but divers times after was as certain and made as evident as things of that nature can ordinarily be made For it being a matter of fact cannot be supposed infinite but limited to time and place heard by a certain number of persons and was as a clap of Thunder upon ordinary accounts which could be heard but by those who were within the sphere of its own activity and reported by those to others who are to give testimony as testimonies are required which are credible under the test of two or three disinterested honest and true Men and though this was done in the presence of more and oftner than once yet it was a divine testimony but at first but is to be conveyed by the means of Men and as God thundred from Heaven at the giving of the Law though that he did so we have notice only from the Books of Moses received from the Jewish Nation so he did in the days of the Baptist and so he did to Peter James and John and so he did in the presence of the Pharisees and many of the

reward they must stay till a good day came but that was not to be at all in this World and when the day of restitution and recompence should come they should never know till it came but upon the hope of this and the faith of Jesus and the Word of God so taught so consigned they must rely wholly and for ever Now let it be considered how could matters of fact be proved better and how could this be any thing but such as to rely upon matters of fact what greater certainty can we have of any thing that was ever done which we saw not or heard not but by the report of wise and honest persons especially since they were such whose life and breeding was so far from ambition and pompousness that as they could not naturally and reasonably hope for any great number of Proselytes so the same that could be hop'd for amongst them as it must be a matter of their own procuring and consequently uncertain so it must needs be very inconsiderable not fit to outweigh the danger and the loss nor yet at all valuable by them whose education and pretences were against it These we have plentifully But if these Men are numerous and united it is more Then we have more For so many did affirm these things which they saw and heard that Thousands of People were convinced of the truth of them But then if these men offer their oath it is yet more but yet not so much as we have for they sealed those things with their blood they gave their life for a testimony and what reward can any man expect if he gives his life for a lye who shall make him recompence or what can tempt him to do it knowingly But after all it is to be remembred that as God hates lying so he hates incredulity as we must not believe a lye so neither stop up our eyes and ears against truth and what we do every minute of our lives in matters of little and of great concernment if we refuse to do in our Religion which yet is to be conducted as other humane affairs are by humane instruments and arguments of perswasion proper to the nature of the thing it is an obstinacy that is as contrary to humane reason as it is to Divine faith These things relate to the person of the holy Jesus and prove sufficiently that it was extraordinary that it was divine that God was with him that his power wrought in him and therefore that it was his will which Jesus taught and God signed But then if nothing of all this had been yet even the doctrine it self proves it self Divine and to come from God For it is a Doctrine perfective of humane nature that teaches us to love God and to love one another to hurt no man and to do good to every man it propines to us the noblest the highest and the bravest pleasures of the World the joys of charity the rest of innocence the peace of quiet spirits the wealth of beneficence and forbids us only to be beasts and to be Devils it allows all that God and nature intended and only restrains the excrescencies of nature and forbids us to take pleasure in that which is the only entertainment of Devils in murders and revenges malice and spiteful words and actions it permits corporal pleasures where they can best minister to health and societies to conversation of families and honour of Communities it teaches men to keep their words that themselves may be secured in all their just interests and to do good to others that good may be done to them it forbids biting one another that we may not be devour'd by one another and commands obedience to superiours that we may not be ruined in confusions it combines Governments and confirms all good Laws and makes peace and opposes and prevents Wars where they are not just and where they are not necessary It is a Religion that is life and spirit not consisting in ceremonies and external amusements but in the services of the heart and the real fruit of lips and hands that is of good words and good deeds it bids us to do that to God which is agreeable to his excellencies that is worship him with the best thing we have and make all things else minister to it it bids us to do that to our neighbour by which he may be better it is the perfection of the natural Law and agreeable to our natural necessities and promotes our natural ends and designs it does not destroy reason but instructs it in very many things and complies with it in all it hath in it both heat and light and is not more effectual than it is beauteous it promises every thing that we can desire and yet promises nothing but what it does effect it proclaims war against all vices and generally does command every vertue it teaches us with ease to mortifie those affections which reason durst scarce reprove because she hath not strength enough to conquer and it does create in us those vertues which reason of her self never knew and after they are known could never approve sufficiently it is a doctrine in which nothing is superfluous or burdensome nor yet is there any thing wanting which can procure happiness to Mankind or by which God can be glorified and if wisdom and mercy and justice and simplicity and holiness and purity and meekness and contentedness and charity be images of God and rays of Divinity then that Doctrine in which all these shine so gloriously and in which nothing else is ingredient must needs be from God and that all this is true in the Doctrine of Jesus needs no other probation but the reading the words For that the words of Jesus are contained in the Gospels that is in the writings of them who were eye-witnesses and ear-witnesses of the actions and Sermons of Jesus is not at all to be doubted for in every sect we believe their own records of Doctrine and institution for it is madness to suppose the Christians to pretend to be servants of the Laws of Jesus and yet to make a Law of their own which he made not no man doubts but that the Alcoran is the Law of Mahomet that the old Testament contains the Religion of the Jews and the authority of these Books is proved by all the arguments of the Religion for all the arguments perswading to the Religion are intended to prove no other than is contained in those Books and these having been for 1500. years and more received absolutely by all Christian Assemblies if any man shall offer to make a question of their authority he must declare his reasons for the Disciples of the Religion have sufficient presumption security and possession till they can be reasonably disturb'd but that now they can never be is infinitely certain because we have a long immemorial universal tradition that these Books were written in those times by those men whose Names they bear