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
A61575	The mysteries of the Christian faith asserted and vindicated in a sermon preached at S. Laurence-Jewry in London, April the 7th, 1691 / by the Right Reverend Father in God, Edward, Lord Bishop of Worcester.	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1691 (1691)	Wing S5610; ESTC R21437	18,888	42

everlasting that he was and is and is to come but shall we not believe the Truth of this till we are able to fathom the Abyss of God's Eternity I am apt to think and I have some thoughtfull Men concurring with me that there is no greater Difficulty in the Conception of the Trinity and Incarnation than there is of Eternity Not but that there is great Reason to believe it but from hence it appears that our Reason may oblige us to believe some things which it is not possible for us to comprehend We know that either God must have been for ever or it is impossible he ever should be for if he should come into Being when he was not he must have some Cause of his Being and that which was the first Cause would be God But if he was for ever he must be from himself and what Notion or Conception can we have in our Minds concerning it And yet Atheistical men can take no Advantage from hence because their own most absurd Hypothesis hath the very same Difficulty in it For something must have been for ever And it is far more Reasonable to suppose it of an Infinite and Eternal Mind which hath Wisdom and Power and Goodness to give Being to other things than of dull stupid and sensless Matter which could never move it self nor give Being to any thing besides Here we have therefore a thing which must be owned by all and yet such a thing which can be conceived by none Which shews the narrowness and shortness of our Understandings and how unfit they are to be the Measures of the Possibilities of things Vain men would be wise they would fain go to the very bottom of things when alas they scarce understand the very Surface of them They will allow no Mysteries in Religion and yet every thing is a Mystery to them They cry out of Cheats and Impostures under the Notion of Mysteries and yet there is not a Spire of Grass but is a Mystery to them they will bear with nothing in Religion which they cannot comprehend and yet there is scarce any thing in the World which they can comprehend But above other things the Divine Perfections even those which are most Absolute and Necessary are above their Reach For let such Men try their Imaginations about God's Eternity not meerly how he should be from himself but how God should coexist with all the Differences of Times and yet there be no Succession in his own Being I do not say there is such Difficulty to conceive a Rock standing still when the Waves run by it or the Gnomon of a Dial when the Shadow passes from one Figure to another because these are gross unactive things but the Difficulty is far greater where the Being is Perfect and always Active For where there is Succession there is a passing out of not being in such a duration into being in it which is not consistent with the Absolute Perfection of the Divine Nature And therefore God must be all at once what he is without any Respect to the Difference of Time past present or to come From whence Eternity was defined by Boethius to be a perfect and complete Possession all at once of everlasting Life But how can we form any Conception in our Minds of that being all at once which hath such different Acts as must be measur'd by a long Succession of Time As the Creating and Dissolving the Frame of the World the Promising and Sending the Messias the Declaring and Executing a general Judgment how can these things be consistent with a Permanent Instant or a Continuance of being without Succession For it is impossible for us in this Case as to God's Eternity to form a clear and distinct Idea in our Mind of that which both Reason and Revelation convince us must be The most we can make of our Conception of it is that God hath neither Beginning of Being nor End of Days but that he always was and always must be And this is rather a necessary Conclusion from Reason and Scripture than any distinct Notion or Conception of Eternity in our Minds From whence it evidently follows that God may reveal something to us which we are bound to believe and yet after that Revelation the Manner of it may be incomprehensible by us and consequently a Mystery to us Hath not God Revealed to us in Scripture the Spirituality of his own Nature That he is a Spirit and therefore will be worshipp'd in Spirit and in Truth For that is a true Reason why Spiritual Worship should be most agreeable to him Now if we could have a clear distinct positive Notion in our minds of God's Spiritual Nature we might then pretend that there is nothing mysterious in this since it is revealed But let such men Examin their own thoughts about this matter and try whether the utmost they can attain to be not something Negative viz. because great Absurdities would follow if we attributed any thing Corporeal to God for then he must be compounded of Parts and so he may be dissolved then he must be confined to a certain place and not every-where present he cannot have the Power of Acting and Self-Determining which a a meer Body hath not For the clearest Notion we can have of Body is that it is made up of some things as parts of it which may be separated from each other and is confined to a certain place and hath no Power to Move or Act from it self But some of these men who cry down Mysteries and magnifie Reason to shew how slender their pretences to Reason are have asserted a Corporeal God with Shape and Figure It was indeed well thought of by those who would make a Man to be God to bring God down as near to Man as might be But how to Reconcile the Notion of a Body with Infinite Perfections is a Mystery to me and far above my Comprehension But if it be no Mystery to such Men they must either deny God's Infinite Perfections or shew how a bodily Shape can be capable of them But some men can confound Finite and Infinite Body and Spirit God and Man and yet are for no Mysteries whereas these things are farther from our Reach and Comprehension than any of those Doctrines which they find fault with But to proceed If we believe Prophesie we must believe Gods fore-knowledge of future Events For how could they be fore-told if he did not fore-know them And if he did fore-know those which he did fore-tell then it was either because those only were revealed to him which is inconsistent with the Divine Perfections or that he doth fore-know all other Events and only thought fitting to Reveal these But how can they Solve the Difficulties about Divine Prescience Is there no Mystery in this Nothing above their Comprehension What then made their great Master deny it as a thing above his Comprehension Because nothing can be fore-known