Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	truth_n	worship_n	worship_v	19,034	5	9.4594	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31408	Antiquitates apoitolicæ, or, The history of the lives, acts and martyrdoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour and the two evangelists SS. Mark and Lvke to which is added an introductory discourse concerning the three great dispensations of the church, patriarchal, Mosiacal and evangelical : being a continuation of Antiquitates christianæ or the life and death of the holy Jesus / by William Cave ...	Cave, William, 1637-1713.; Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Dissuasive from popery.	1676 (1676)	Wing C1587; ESTC R12963	411,541	341

enemies had taken him away by a most bitter and cruel death had guarded and secured his Sepulchre with all the care power and diligence which they could invent And yet he rose again the third day in triumph visibly conversed with his Disciples for forty days together and then went to Heaven By which he gave the most solemn and undeniable assurance to the World that he was the Son of God for he was declared to be the Son of God with power by the Resurrection from the dead and the Saviour of mankind and that those doctrines which he had taught were most true and did really contain the terms of that solemn transaction which God by him had offered to men in order to their eternal happiness in another World 11. THE last instance I shall note of the excellency of this above the Mosaical Dispensation is the universal extent and latitude of it and that both in respect of place and time First it 's more universally extensive as to place not confined as the former was to a small part of mankind but common unto all Heretofore in Judah only was God known and his name was great in Israel he shewed his Word unto Jacob his Statutes and his Judgments unto Israel but he did not deal so with any other Nation neither had the Heathen knowledge of his Laws In those times Salvation was only of the Jews a few Acres of Land like Gideon's Fleece was watered with the dew of Heaven while all the rest of the World for many Ages lay dry and barren round about it God suffering all Nations in times past to walk in their own ways the ways of their own superstition and Idolatry being aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the Covenants of promise having no hope and without God in the World that is they were without those promises discoveries and declarations which God made to Abraham and his Seed and are therefore peculiarly described under this character the Gentiles which knew not God Indeed the Religion of the Jews was in it self incapable to be extended over the World many considerable parts of it as Sacrifices First-fruits Oblations c. called by the Jews themselves 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 statutes belonging to that land being to be performed at Jerusalem and the Temple which could not be done by those Nations that lay a considerable distance from the Land of promise They had it 's true now and then some few Proselytes of the Gentiles who came over and imbodied themselves into their way of worship but then they either resided among the Jews or by reason of their vicinity to Judaea were capable to make their personal appearance and to comply with the publick Institutions of the Divine Law Other Proselytes they had called Proselytes of the Gate who lived dispersed in all Countries whom the Jews call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the pious of the Nations Men of devout minds and Religious lives but these were obliged to no more than the observation of the Seven Precepts of the Sons of Noah that is in effect to the Precepts of the Natural Law But now the Gospel has a much wider sphere to move in as vast and large as the whole World it self it is communicable to all Countries and may be exercised in any part or corner of the Earth Our Lord gave Commission to his Apostles to go into all Nations and to Preach the Gospel to every Creature and so they did their sound went into all the Earth and their words unto the ends of the World by which means the grace of God that brings salvation appeared unto all men and the Gospel was Preached to every Creature under Heaven So that now there is neither Jew nor Greek neither bond nor free neither male nor female but we are all one in Christ Jesus and in every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him The Prophet had long since foretold it of the times of Christ that the House of God that is his Church should be called an House of Prayer for all People the Doors should be open and none excluded that would enter in And the Divine providence was singularly remarkable in this affair that after our Lord's Ascension when the Apostles were going upon their Commission and were first solemnly to proclaim it at Jerusalem there were dwelling there at that time Parthians Medes Elamites c. persons out of every Nation under Heaven that they might be as the First-fruits of those several Countries which were to be gathered in by the preaching of the Gospel which was accordingly done with great success the Christian Religion in a few years spreading its triumphant Banners over the greatest part of the then known World 12. AND as the true Religion was in those Days pent up within one particular Country so the more publick and ordinary worship of God was confined only to one particular place of it viz. Jerusalem hence called the Holy City Here was the Temple here the Priests that ministred at the Altar here all the more publick Solemnities of Divine adoration Thither the Tribes go up the Tribes of the Lord unto the Testimony of Israel to give thanks unto the Name of the Lord. Now this was not the least part of the bondage of that dispensation to be obliged thrice every Year to take such long and tedious Journies many of the Jews living some Hundreds of Miles distance from Jerusalem and so strictly were they limited to this place that to build an Altar and offer Sacrifices in any other place unless in a case or two wherein God did extraordinarily dispense although it were to the true God was though not false yet unwarrantable worship for which reason the Jews at this day abstain from Sacrifices because banished from Jerusalem and the Temple the only legal place of offering But behold the liberty of the Gospel in this case we are not tied to present our devotions at Jerusalem a pious and sincere mind is the best Sacrifice that we can offer up to God and this may be done in any part of the World no less acceptably than they of old sacrificed in the Temple The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain Mount Gerizim nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth as our Lord told the Woman of Samaria in spirit and in truth in spirit in opposition to that carnal and Idolatrous worship that was in use among the Samaritans who worshipped God under the representation of a Dove in truth in opposition to the typical and figurative worship of the Jews which was but a shadow of the true worship of the Gospel The great Sacrifice required in the Christian Religion is not the fat of Beasts or the first-fruits of the Ground but an honest heart and a pious life and a grateful acknowledgment

Revelation is almost intirely made up of Prophecies concerning the future state and condition of the Church Sometimes by this spirit of prophecy God declared things that were of present concernment to the exigences of the Church as when he signified to them that they should set apart Paul and Barnabas for the conversion of the Gentiles and many times immediately designed particular persons to be Pastors and Governours of the Church Thus we read of the gift that was given to Timothy by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery that is his Ordination to which he was particularly pointed out by some prophetick designation But the main use of this prophetick gift in those times was to explain some of the more difficult and particular parts of the Christian doctrine especially to expound and apply the ancient Prophecies concerning the Messiah and his Kingdom in their publick Assemblies whence the gift of prophecy is explained by understanding all mysteries and all knowledge that is the most dark and difficult places of Scripture the types and figures the ceremonies and prophecies of the Old Testament And thus we are commonly to understand those words Prophets and prophesying that so familiarly occur in the New Testament Having gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us whether prophecy let us prophesie according to the proportion of faith that is expound Scripture according to the generally-received principles of Faith and Life So the Apostle elsewhere prescribing Rules for the decent and orderly managing of Divine worship in their publick Assemblies let the Prophets says he speak two or three that is at the same Assembly and let the other judge and if while any is thus expounding another has a Divine afflatus whereby he is more particularly enabled to explain some difficult and emergent passage let the first hold his peace for ye may all all that have this gift prophesie one by one that so thus orderly proceeding all may learn and all may be comforted Nor can the first pretend that this interruption is an unseasonable check to his revelation seeing he may command himself for though among the Gentiles the prophetick and ecstatick impulse did so violently press upon the inspired Person that he could not govern himself yet in the Church of God the spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets may be so ruled and restrained by them as to make way for others This order of Christian Prophets considered as a distinct Ministery by it self is constantly placed next to the Apostolical Office and is frequently by S. Paul preferred before any other spiritual Gifts then bestowed upon the Church When this spirit of Prophecy ceased in the Christian Church we cannot certainly finde It continued some competent time beyond the Apostolick Age. Justin Martyr expresly tells Trypho the Jew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the gifts of Prophecy are even yet extant among us an argument as he there tells him that those things which had of old been the great Priviledges of their Church were now translated into the Christian Church And Eusebius speaking of a Revelation made to one Alcibiades who lived about the time of Irenaeus adds that the Divine Grace had not withdrawn its Presence from the Church but that they still had the Holy Ghost as their Counsellor to direct them XI Secondly They had the gift of discerning spirits whereby they were enabled to discover the truth or falshood of mens pretences whether their gifts were real or counterfeit and their persons truly inspired or not For many men acted only by diabolical impulses might entitle themselves to Divine inspirations and others might be imposed upon by their delusions and mistake their dreams and fancies for the Spirits dictates and revelations or might so subtilly and artificially counterfeit revelations that they might with most pass for currant especially in those times when these supernatural gifts were so common and ordinary and our Lord himself had frequently told them that false Prophets would arise and that many would confidently plead for themselves before him that they had prophesied in his name That therefore the Church might not be imposed upon God was pleased to endue the Apostles and it may be some others with an immediate faculty of discerning the Caffe from the Wheat true from false Prophets nay to know when the true Prophets delivered the revelations of the Spirit and when they expressed only their own conceptions This was a mighty priviledge but yet seems to me to have extended farther to judge of the sincerity or hypocrisie of mens hearts in the profession of Religion that so bad men being discovered suitable censures and punishments might be passed upon them and others cautioned to avoid them Thus Peter at first sight discovered Ananias and Saphira and the rotten hypocrisie of their intentions before there was any external evidence in the case and told Simon Magus though baptized before upon his embracing Christianity that his heart was not right in the sight of God for I perceive says he that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity Thirdly the Apostles had the gift of Tongues furnished with variety of utterance able to speak on a sudden several Languages which they had never learnt as occasion was administred and the exigences of persons and Nations with whom they conversed did require For the Apostles being principally designed to convert the World and to plant Christianity in all Countries and Nations it was absolutely necessary that they should be able readily to express their minds in the Languages of those Countries to which they addressed themselves seeing otherwise it would have been a work of time and difficulty and not consistent with the term of the Apostles lives had they been first to learn the different Languages of those Nations before they could have preached the Gospel to them Hence this gift was diffused upon the Apostles in larger measures and proportions than upon other men I speak with Tongues more than you all says S. Paul that is than all the gifted persons in the Church of Corinth Our Lord had told the Apostles before his departure from them that they should be endued with power from on high which upon the day of Pentecost was particularly made good in this instance when in a moment they were enabled to speak almost all the Languages of the then known World and this as a specimen and first-fruits of the rest of those miraculous powers that were conferr'd upon them XII A fourth gift was that of Interpretation or unfolding to others what had been delivered in an unknown tongue For the Christian Assemblies in those days were frequently made up of men of different Nations and who could not understand what the Apostles or others had spoken to the Congregation this God supplied by this gift of interpretation enabling some to interpret what others did not understand and to speak it to