Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A53750
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A true and lively representation of popery shewing that popery is only new-modell'd paganism, and perfectly destructive of the great ends and purposes of God in the Gospel.
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Owen, Thankfull, 1620-1681.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing O830; ESTC R18583
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46,596
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82
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a God but they who bestow these things upon us and afford us a continual supply thereof for our use have been therefore accounted by us Gods which Gods are not different to different Nations as if the Barbarians and the Greeks the Southern and the Northern Inhabitants of the Globe had not any the same but all other different Gods But as the Sun and the Moon and the Heaven and the Earth and the Sea are common to all though called by several names in several Countries so one Reason ordering these things and one Providence dispensing all and the inferiour subservient Ministers thereof having had several names honors bestowed upon them by the Laws of several Countries have been every where worshipped throughout the whole World And there have been also different Symbols consecrated to them the better to conduct and lead on mens understandings to divine things though this hath not been without some hazard or danger of casting men upon one or other of these two inconveniences either Superstition or Atheism From which Testimony of Plutarch we have these things observable 1. That all Nations agreed in the worshipping of one Supreme and Universal Numen Reason and Providence governing all things 2. They agreed in worshipping his subservient Ministers the Instruments of Providence appointed by him over all the parts of the World which being honoured under several Names and with different Rites and Ceremonies according to the Laws of the Respective Countries caused all that diversity of Religions that was amongst them 3. That the Pagans did not worship the very Images or Statues for Gods but only as symbolical representations of their Gods 4. That these Images or Symbols were to conduct and lead on mens Understandings as sensible helps to Divine things 5. That Image-worship in the judgment of Plutarch was an In-let and occasion of Superstition and Atheism Thus far what the Pagans declared concerning their Images Behold now an admirable and sweet harmony and consent between the Image-worship of the Heathens and that now practised in the Romish Church 1. They likewise with the Pagans declare that the Religious worship given to the Image is not terminated there but referred to the Prototype as to its ultimate Object So the Council of Trent after having declared that due honour and reverence be given to Images adds this as one reason of it because the honour exhibited to them Concil Trident. Sess 9. is referred to the Prototypes which they represent so that through those Images which we kiss and before which we bare our heads and prostrate our selves we adore Christ and worship the Saints whose similitude they bear which is so like the Apology of the Pagan in Arnobius that I think it worth the while to produce it entire Sed erras inquit laberis Lib. 6. Contr. Gentes nam neque nos aera neque auri argentique materias neque alias quibus signa conficiunt eas esse per se Deos Religiosa decernimus Numina sed eos in his colimus eosque veneramur quos dedicatio infert sacra fabrilibus efficit inhabitare simulachris i. e. Thou art deceived and grosly mistaken for we the Heathen do not believe the substance of Brass or Gold or any other thing of which these Statues are made to be in themselves Gods but we worship the Gods in these and pay Religious Veneration to those Deities which by Consecration are brought to inhabit and dwell in those Images or Statues So that the Pagans arguing after the same manner as the Council of Trent or rather that Council giving the same reason for Image-worship with the Pagans and establishing the same thing upon the same grounds that they did it must needs be guilty of the same Crime of Idolatry likewise For if the Heathens in worshipping the Images and Statues of their Gods were declared by the express Sentence of God Almighty to be heynously guilty of Idolatry though in the mean time they never worshipped those Images or Statues for themselves but in reference to their Prototypes it is a clear consequence that the Popish Image-worship established upon the same grounds and reasons with the Pagan will necessarily fall under the same condemnation To this purpose there is a pretty story in an Italian who wrote Commentaries of the Affairs of India When the poor Barbarians of Nova Hispania Pietro Martire Hist delle Ind. l. 20. c. 11. in the Kingdom of Mexico had one day of a sudden found their Idols taken down and broken they sent four Principal Persons of their Country to Alfonsus Zuasus the Licentiate who had commanded it they complaining of the injury suppos'd also and told him they did believe it to be done without his consent or knowledge as knowing that the Christians had Idols and Images of their own whom they valued and adored and worshipped and looking up and espying the Image of S. Sebastian whom Alfonsus had in great Veneration hanging by his Bed-side they pointed at him with their finger saying The same regard which he had to the Image of S. Sebastian the same they had to theirs The Governour being troubled with this quick and not barbarous discourse turn'd him about a little and at last told them that the Christians did not worship Images for their own sakes but as they represented Holy Persons dwelling in Heavenly places and to demonstrate that took down the Image of S. Sebastian and broke it in pieces They reply'd that it was just so with them and that they were not so stupid as to worship the Images for their own regards but as they represented the Sun and Moon and all the Lights of Heaven Alfonsus being yet more troubled was forced to say that the object was different though the manner was not that the Christians did by their Images pass honour to the great Creator of the World but they did it to Creatures to evil Spirits and false Gods But neither in this was there any difference between Alfonsus and the poor Indians since another Author Josephus Acosta affirms of the same Indians that they acknowledged the great and Supreme God and their worshipping of false Gods was equally true of Papists for by giving Religious worship to a good Angel or Saint that Angel or Saint is ipso facto made a false God and being so is all one with the Demons of the Heathens Now this Reference to the Prototype whether it be in Virtue of that Similitude the Images have with those Persons they represent or whether it be considered only as the Image is a Symbolical Presence at large it being not regarded whether the Symbol or Image have any Personal Similitude with the Party it represents or not but only as the Devotionist takes an occasion from that to direct his intention to the worship of Christ or any Saint let it be I say how it will yet it will no more excuse a Papist than a Pagan from Idolatry For the giving
their souls act with the greatest ease and pleasure and constancy and delight he designed by the promulgation of the Gospel 2. In the first place the utter Extirpation and rooting Idolatry out of the World For this is a sin so heynous and so derogatory to the Perfections of the Divine Nature that however it may be subtilized and refined by the crafty Patrons of it yet it doth most certainly thwart and cross that glorious purpose of God in making men like to himself And the reason of it is because it sinks mens minds too much into Body and Matter and so instead of purging their Souls from the gross affections and allurements of the Flesh it depresses and debases their thoughts to the lowest degree of Sensuality Now that when the Evangelical Dispensation should take place upon Earth all Idolatry was to be extirpated and destroyed the Prophets of old have clearly testified Isai 2.17 18 20. The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day and the Idols he shall utterly abolish In that day a man shall cast his Idols of Silver and his Idols of Gold which they made each one for himself to worship to the Moles and to the Bats That this Prophecy respects the times of the Messiah is acknowledged by the Jews themselves and may receive a further confirmation from the second and third Verses And it shall come to pass in the last days that the Mountain of the Lords House shall be established in the top of the Mountains and shall be exalted above the Hills and all Nations shall flow unto it For out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the Word of the Lord from Jerusalem i. e. That in the days of the Gospel which is frequently denoted in Scripture by the last times the worship of the true God shall take place and be established among all Nations and that this Evangelical Dispensation which should be carried and propagated over all the world should begin from Jerusalem where the Apostles of our Lord Jesus received their full and compleat Inauguration into this Office of preaching the Gospel by the descent of the Holy Ghost upon them and then in that day all the false Gods and Images of the Heathens shall be utterly thrown asitle and men shall honour and worship the true God only and that in Spirit and in Truth And again Zephan 2.11 The Lord will be terrible unto them for he will famish all the Gods of the Earth and men shall worship him every one from his place even all the Isles of the Heathen i.e. God will abolish and destroy all the Idols and false Deities of the Heathen and all Nations shall be reduced to the worship of the true God the Creator of Heaven and Earth every one in his own Land so that men shall not need to go up to Jerusalem or be obliged to worship God here or there but as Christ speaks the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth And more plainly yet in Zech. 13.2 And it shall come to pass in that day saith the Lord of Hists that I will cut off the names of the Idols out of the Land and they shall no more be remembred and also I will cause the Prophets and the unclean Spirit to pass out of the Land And that this unclean Spirit which sollicited mankind to spiritual whoredome and fornication was chased out of all those parts of the world where the Gospel was preached by the Apostles and their immediate Successors is evident not only from Ecclesiastical story but from the complaints of the Heathen that since the Religion of Jesus prevailed their Oracles were silent and their Sacrifices were offer'd in vain to their phantastick Deities And that this was a main design of the Gospel of our Lord Jesus he himself assures us in his discourse with the Woman of Samaria Joh. 4.21 22 23 24. where when the Woman told our Saviour that the Samaritans worshipped in Mount Ephraim at Shiloh but that the Jews taught that God was to be worshipped only at Jerusalem v. 20. He replies Woman believe me the hour comes when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father Ye worship ye know not what we know what we worship for Salvation is of the Jews But the hour comes and now is when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth for the Father seeks such to worship him God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and in Truth The most genuine Interpretation of which-seems to be given by that pious and learned Person Mr. Mede viz. that the Samaritans who worshipped in the Temple of Mount Gerizim though they worshipped the true God yet it was under the visible representation of a Dove and circumcised their Children in the name thereof therefore says Christ ye worship ye know not what i.e. ye worship the God of Israel indeed but 't is under a Corporeal Representation which is an argument you do not know him but God must be worshipped in Spirit and in Truth that is conceiving him as a Spirit and not under any visible shape Therefore Idolatry is a belying God and Idols are termed lyes Amos 2.4 Their lyes caused them to err And Jer. 16.19 Surely our Fathers have inherited lyes the Chaldee have worshipped a lye Our blessed Lord and Saviour coming into the world to correct what was amiss and to reform the manners of mankind and to introduce a more spiritual Religion than the Jewish was it is not to be thought but he would in the first place design the Eradication of Idolatry which so much debases the soul of man and dishonours the Supreme Deity by representing him in a gross and material way and likewise by giving his Incommunicable Excellencies and Perfections to a Creature Sure it is the Primitive Christians retained so clear and vigorous a sense of the heynousness of this sin and the perfect inconsistency of it with the spirituality of their Religion that they chose rather to endure all manner of torments and die a thousand deaths than in the least manner pollute their souls with so gross an immorality Pertinent hereunto is that observation which is made that in the first part of the Jewish Talmud which was made about 200 years after Christ there is no accusation or complaint brought against the Christians for this Idolatry of Image-worship but in the second part which was finished about the year 500. when the Church of Christ began to Paganize there and in all the Commentaries of the Rabbins published in the Tenth or Eleventh Age the Jews call the Christian Churches the Houses of Idolatry It being plain then that Christ Jesus came to eradicate Idolatry which both spoiled the nature of the soul by sinking it into matter and fearfully dishonoured the true and ever-living God I come now to shew wherein the Pagan Idolatry chiefly consisted which was in these two things