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
A89672	A conference with a theist. Part II. Shewing the defects of natural religion; the necessity of divine inspiration; the rationale of the mosaical laws, and defence of his miracles : together with an account of the deluge, the origin of sacrifices, and the reasonableness of Christ's mediatorship. / By William Nicholls ...	Nicholls, William, 1664-1712.	1699 (1699)	Wing N1094A; ESTC R181001	142,863	328

by Oath or Compact linguâ juravi mentem injuratam gero would always be the burden of their Song and a good pretence too if the inward sense of their mind might be allow'd to be different from their Actions 6. As to what you lay down No folly to suffer for Religion That 't is a folly to suffer for a True Religion rather than to comply with a false one I take that to be a most false and pestilent Doctrine but however it is that which your Sect is founded upon For you Theists owe your Origin here in Europe to this pusillanimous Opinion and to the want of Christian perseverance and a patient bearing of Afflictions For as calamities make good Men better so they make often very ill Men worse Not a few sufferers in our late civil Wars took up with these damnable Opinions because their Religion had exposed them to some Losses and the same I hear has been the mishap of many poor Gentlemen in their late persecution in France But are Religion and a good Conscience things of so slight a value as to be parted with for such temporal profits Must Truth be thus Sacrificed to interest If a Man believes the Holy Scripture it will make him tremble when he but thinks of such a perfidious Defection He that denies me before men him will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven Mat. 10.33 'T is hardly possible that they that were once enlightened c. if they shall fall away to renew them again unto Repentance Nay if he considers but the words of a Heathen Poet it is enough to make him much more honest than this comes to Phalaris licet imperet ut sis Falsus admoto dictet perjuria Tauro Summum crede nefas animum praeferre pudori Et propter vitam vivendi perdere causas Juv. Sat. 8. Though Phalaris commands thee to deny The Truth or in his Brazen Bull to fry Tell the fierce Tyrant that his Threats are vain And Vice must not be chose to bribe off Pain That he 's the greatest Villain who will strive To lose the ends of living for to live K. of Siam's Argument answered 7. But for the King of Siam's Argument I wonder how so many Men should be dazled with such a Tinsel Reason as this Whether this be the King of Siam's Argument as is reported or no I shall not now dispute although by the sophistry of it one would guess it had more of the Jesuit in it than the Prince But I pray how he knows that God takes so much pleasure in these various forms of worship This is a thing taken for granted which no body that owns a Revealed Institution will allow For if God have revealed his Will by the command of any particular Worship as he has done to Jews and Christians then all other Religions do of course fall to the ground Well but God permits these different Religions by his not ordering all Men to be of the same Sentiments in Religion whereas he might as easily have done this as to have made their Bodies and Souls alike But is God's permission a sign of his good liking Why then by the same rule all the villanies which are committed in the World are well pleasing to him because they cannot be done but by his permission Besides 't is very true on the other side That God might have infused into all Men the same Sentiments of Vertue and Vice and have made all Men good alike but 't is plain that he permits the greatest number of Men to be vicious which is therefore an evident sign that he does not concern himself about Vertue and Vice and therefore 't is a wonder that Men should shew such a concern about Morality which God himself by this permission does seem to have little regard to Now you see this same Argument if there be any thing in it will make as much against Natural Religion as it does against Revealed and therefore you Theists ought to have a care how you make use of it for you thereby put a Weapon into the Atheist's hands and plainly give up your cause to him But on the other side you ought to consider that as God's permission of Vice is no sign of his liking it he having otherways declared his will by giving to all Men a Law of Vertue so his tolerating so many false Religions does not evince his Approbation of them when he has manifestly declared his will how he will be worshiped viz. in the Christian Religion This is that way which he himself has set out for us to walk in and to go in any other road is but wandering Simplicis ipse Viae dux est Deus ille per unam Ire jubet mortale genus quam dirigit ipse Sublimem dextro célsa ad fastigia clivo Prud. cont Sym. God is our Guide in one plain simple way He would not have Mankind in others stray That one steep Road which to the right does tend Is the sole way that does to Heaven ascend Of Revealed Religion and the Doctrine of the Mediator Phil. I think Sir we have talked enough about Natural Religion and therefore Sir if you will oblige me with your Thoughts concerning that Revealed one which is owned by Christians and will give me satisfaction as to some scruples I have conceived concerning it it will be a very agreeable favour I confess I am not very averse to think that there is a great defect generally in Man's reasoning concerning religious matters and Men's Thoughts do very much vary therein so that it is not a difficult supposition to suppose that the gracious Deity who had compassion upon all our infirmities has contrived a way more certainly to guide fluctuating Nature in such momentous concerns and may have been pleased sometimes to have enlightened Men with a Ray or two of his Wisdom from above by revelation of some divine Truths But then how shall we come to know to whom he has particularly vouchsafed this favour What marks of Grace shall we go by to distinguish who are Heavens darling Favourites that are blessed with such obliging manifestations The Jews and Christians indeed pretend to it but why not the Turks and Tartars as well as they But if a bold pretence to Revelation be an Argument for it every little Hedge-Sect of Idolaters in India shall bid as fair for Inspiration as e'er a Jew or Christian of you all And in truth if there be any such thing as inspiration for ought as I know all the different Religions in the World may be to use the Apostle's phrase but diversity of gifts of the same spirit The Chinese may have the same Divine Revelation to worship their Tanquam and Teiquam as we have to worship Jesus Christ The Banians and Bramins the Priests in India may have the same plea for all the Devotions they claim for their Deities there and so may the Japonese for their famous Gods

a Heathen should come at a sight of that Book or at least a Relation out of it For Trogus Pompeius who wrot the History which Justin Epitomized was a Retainer in the Family of the Great Pompey who Conquered Judea and therefore in the Expedition of his Master there without doubt he picked up this imperfect Relation of the Jews either by reading their Books and afterwards forgetting or mistaking them or by mixing the True History with the Fabulous reports of some Neighbouring Gentiles So that in short the Scripture-History must regulate his report And then see how finely This does agree with it He makes the Jewish Original to be from Damascus and that Abraham was King of that place where Arathes the Wife of Syrus one of their ancient Kings was worshipped That after Damascus who gave name to the City succeeded Azelus and then Adores and then Abraham and Israel which Israel divided his Kingdom among his Ten Sons but made them all to be called Jews from his Son Judah That Joseph was Israel's Youngest So● and that Moses was Son to him That the Jews were drove out of Aegypt for being Scabby that they were followed after by the Aegyptians because they had stolen some of their Sacra and that the Aegyptians were forced to return home by a Tempest That they were forced to fast seven days in the deserts of Arabia which occasioned the Institution of the Sabbath That the Memory of their being drove out of Aegypt for their scabbiness made it a part of their Religion not to converse with strangers lest the Knowledge of their Infirmity should render them contemptible That Moses his Son's name was Arvas i. e. Aaron who was an Aegyptian Priest who afterwards succeeded Moses in the Kingdom and from hence came the custom that the Jewish Kings were always Priests Now what a foolish and contradictious account of the Jewish History is this Report of Justin Who ever heard of the names of Azelus and Adores in the Jewish story When was such a Goddess as Arathes worshipped generally by the Jews who were always fam'd for the worship of one God where by the way this is only a simple mistake of the Author to say Arathe for the Astarte or Astaroth of the Sidonians Here is again Abraham mistaken for the Father who was the Grand-Father of Israel Here are Israel's Ten Sons set down for his Twelve his little Estate mistaken for an Empire and the Twelve Tribes for Ten Kingdoms Here is Joseph taken for Jacob's Youngest Son who was his eldest by another Venter and Moses passes for Joseph's Son who lived Three or Four Hundred Years after him Here is the name of Jews said to be imposed by Jacob which was not known till the time of the Captivity a Thousand Years afterwards Here are the Plagues which Moses inflicted upon Aegypt altered for the scabbiness of the Jews as if those heavy judgments came only by infection and the spoiling of the Aegyptians of their Bracelets Ear-rings c. turned into the running away with their Sacra Here is the History of the Manna and Quails confounded with the Institution of the Sabbath and their Injunction of not communicating with the Nations attributed to the foolish Fable about their Itch or Leprosy And besides here is again Aaron Moses his Brother mistaken into his Son and turned from a Jewish into an Aegyptian Priest here is the same Aaron made King of the Jews who was never otherways than Priest and that said to be the original of the Custom of the Jews having their Kings their Priests when never any such Custom obtained amongst them but only the Author has blundered the History of the Maccabees Government into this Fable So that Philologus I would have your Gentlemen for shame leave of to abuse the Jewish Nation with false stories out of Heathen Historians that knew so very little of their Country and are guilty of so many mistakes about it For in this short account of Justin you see there are almost as many mistakes as words whether they are willful and malicious or no I shall not determine but I am sure the account we find in Scripture to all reasonable Men must be ten times less liable to exception Phil. These are but small things Credentius for us to make many words about but I am afraid you Inspiration Men are guilty of a very great fundamental Errour in taking that for some supernatural Revelation of God which is only Natural Reason For I cannot be brought to think that the Prophets or other Writers of the Bible which are said to be inspired had the Mind of God revealed to them any other way than by the common natural way of reasoning and Knowledge For Natural Knowledge is but the Revelation of God wherein God reveals to our minds the natures of things which were unknown to us before so that God may he as well said to speak to us by our reason as by the Scriptures and Natural Knowledge may be allowed to be divine as proceeding from God as well as they And I doubt not but that it was the Hebrew way of using the word God that has betrayed both Jews and Christians into the fancy of Inspiration and Revelation in the modern sense when formerly nothing but pure natural Knowledge was meant by it For the Hebrews had always a very Religious and Devout way of talking and attributed almost all Natural Actions to God if they had gotten Money by their industry they would say it was given them by God if they had a good thought they would say God put it into their Hearts and the like So a great many other things were said to be divine or to come from God which were only natural but wonderful or extraordinary Thus the mountains of God is only another name for great mountains they Sleep of God for a deep sleep and the Sons of God Gen. 6. are but great Sons or Giants Now it would be a mad way of Interpretation to say all these things were inspired because they have God's name added to them Therefore why should we suppose that those Men who are called Prophets in Scripture had any divine and supernatural Revelation only because they are called the Men of God or are said to have the Spirit of God For this is only an usual Hyperbole to denote that they were extraordinary Men Men of sound Reasoning and notable parts and exquisitely gifted to move and perswade the People And this is no more than what the Greeks and Latins mean by Divine or Godlike i. e. extraordinary only because the Hebrews made use of Genitives instead of Adjectives they called him the Man of God which the Heathens would have called a divine or extraordinary Man So when the Prophets are said to have the Spirit of God what needs I pray of coyning an Inspiration or Revelation of divine Truth to explain this by For the Spirit of God has so many senses and those so very

am not able to guess at But why should Miracles make Men doubt of the Being of a God In my mind they do plainly prove his Existence For when ever a Miracle is done there is something done by a power superiour to nature now if there be a Power superiour to Nature then Nature is not Self-existent and consequently there is a God which created Nature This must be demonstration to all materialists that allow nothing in the World but infinite and eternal Matter and a necessary concatenation of Causes For if a Miracle or supernatural Power breaks or disturbs one Link of these Causes and Nature afterwards goes on undisturbedly again it is most certain that there is a Power above nature which directs it for otherways a necessary and fatal Nature would move on with an infinite disturbance So that I say Philologus that though to an Epicurean who would have all things come by chance Miracles are not so good a Proof of a Deity as the Frame of the Universe and the Wise Ends of things yet to a Materialist who will have all things to be nature the Eviction of a Miracle must be demonstration for this overthrows his whole Hypothesis and tells him to his face that Matter and Nature are but a limited and subordinate Power and in subjection to a superiour Mind or Power which is God Nay let the Miracle be true or false either wrought by God or the Devil it is home-proof against a Materialist for a Witch or an Apparition is total Destruction to that Philosophy Therefore it is no wonder that so great an outcry is raised against Miracles and preternatural Powers for if these are once evinced the Hobbist is at an End 5. False Miracles no Argument against true ones And whereas you object against Miracles that they are no Proof of an Inspiration from God because there may be a great many false Miracles and that Moses in the 13th of Deut. gives them warning of the same I think this is only puzzling the Case and raising a dust instead of arguing the Point For what though there be false and pretended Miracles are there therefore no true ones Because there have been many false Witnesses must therefore no true Evidence be credited Because there are very many Quacks and Empiricks are there no good Physicians in the World Because there are many Knaves are there no honest Men This is a mad way of concluding which would destroy all humane Society and Conversation out of the World Men must neither eat nor drink because some Men have been poisoned those ways They must receive no good money because there is a great deal of Counterfeit They must believe nothing that is told them because there are many Liars among Men. Now Man would be the most miserable Creature in the World if he were to square his Actions by this Method But God has given to all Men judgment and reason to distinguish between Truth and Falshood between sincerity and design And this we must make use of in considering miraculous powers and proving the Spirits whether they be of God By this we may discern whether the produced Miracle be above the Power of Art or Nature or whether it does not shew the finger of God whether it be the effect of a deluded Imagination and not rather the Evidence of clear and undisturbed Sense whether it be the operation of God or the power of the Devil whether it tends to the Advancement of the Kingdom of Light or of Darkness whether it tends to further Moral Goodness and Piety or else Wickedness and superstition whether it contributes to the strengthening or overthrowing of God's Laws whether it confirms what we are sure God has revealed before or contradicts it Now with this caution we may very well distinguish true from false Miracles and assent to the True whilst we reject the False And therefore Moses in the Chapter which you alledged does with very good reason give the Jews warning that they do not receive Impression from Miracles with too great precipitancy and gives them a good Rule to judge when they are false viz. namely when they contradict the standing Rules of Morality or any other Revelation of God If there arise among you a Prophet or a Dreamer of Dreams and giveth thee a sign or a wonder c. saying Let us go after other Gods c. ye shall not hearken unto the words of that Prophet c. but ye shall walk after the Lord your God and keep his Commandments and obey his voice c. This is but wise and discreet caution but to condemn all true Miracles for the sake of some Impostures is unreasonable Scepticism and would tend to dispute all Truth and Certainty out of the World and make all men turn Pyrrhonicks and Seekers 6. And it is likewise false Instances of the Jews and Solomon considered which you in the next place lay down That the Miracles and Inspiration among the Jews had no influence upon their Understandings or Lives from the Instances of the Idolatrous Jews in the Wilderness and King Solomon Indeed I can by no means excuse the Jews for their Perfidious Defection to Idolatrous Worship whilst Moses was in the Mount but yet I cannot go with you so far as to assert that the figure of a Calf was thought by them to be the Divine Image For this is such a Grosness as is not to be supposed in Humane Nature it is most probable that they designed this only as an Hieroglyphick or Emblem of the True God in imitation of the Aegyptians For as the Aegyptians with whom they had long conversed worshipped their God Apis under the Hieroglyphick of a Bull or Calf so the Jews who loved a pompous ceremonious worship thought to worship the True God so too For it is plain that they intended to pay their Devotion to the true God because in the relation of this passage Exod. 32.4 It is said This is the Elohim or God which brought thee out of the land of Aegypt Which is more particularly explained in the next Verse To morrow is a feast to the LORD or to Jehovah And as for those places in Ecclesiastes after all that is objected by Atheists and Socinian● I do not see any thing to the contrary but that these are only Prosopopoeia's of Epicureans wherein the Absurdities of these Opinions are exposed and brought into the number of those other Vanities which in this Book he is condemning Phil. But after all Credentius I cannot be perswaded but that it was the prejudiced Opinions of the Unphilosophical Jews and their pretence more immediately to the Divine Protection which gave occasion to the rise of so many Miracles in Scripture which might otherways be naturally accounted for It would be too long to run through all the pretended Miracles in Scripture which I could easily make out to be done by the power of Nature I shall only pick out one or two which may