Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	hour_n	spirit_n	worship_v	4,747	5	10.0865	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38026	Polpoikilos sophia, a compleat history or survey of all the dispensations and methods of religion, from the beginning of the world to the consummation of all things, as represented in the Old and New Testament shewing the several reasons and designs of those different administrations, and the wisdom and goodness of God in the government of His church, through all the ages of it : in which also, the opinion of Dr. Spencer concerning the Jewish rites and sacrifices is examin'd, and the certainty of the Christian religion demonstrated against the cavils of the Deists, &c. / by John Edwards ...	Edwards, John, 1637-1716.	1699 (1699)	Wing E210; ESTC R17845	511,766	792

and imperfect Delineations of that compleat Frame of Religion which the Messias was to introduce This was the thing designed all along the Ritual and Ceremonial Law with all its external Rites tended to this pure and uncorrupted Model of Religion It was appointed that the Law should adumbrate the Gospel that that Oeconomy should prefigure this Therefore the Apostle saith the Law was our School-master to bring us to Christ which shews the inferiour Nature of the Law and that it was to indure but for a time for the Authority of a School-master over those whom he teacheth is but Temporary The legal Pedagogy was to cease and Christ was to be the end of the Law to every one that believeth Rom. 10. 4. It is then evident from the Premises that the Iewish Law is disannul'd for when the Reason of a Law ceases that is sufficient to change the Law because as it commenced upon Reason so when that is taken away the Law it self is abolish'd also This is the present Case the Ceremonial Rites and Types were designed to represent and foresignify Christ and the Evangelical Benefits Wherefore Christ being come and having brought with him those Benefits the former mystical Representations and Figures ought to have a Period So that the Reason and Occasion of these Ceremonious Observances being removed this is sufficient to repeal and reverse those Laws especially when you consider that Christ's Miracles of which I shall speak afterwards were plain Evidences of God's Intention to repeal the Law But to close this Point we are not destitute of a Formal Abrogation of the Jewish Laws for such we may justly reckon our Saviour's Words to be in Iohn 4. 21 23. The hour cometh when ye shall neither in this Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father The hour cometh and now is when the true Worshippers shall worship the Father in Spirit and in Truth Where first he acquaints us that the publick Worship of God shall not be restrain'd to one particular place which very thing is a cancelling of the Mosaick Law which gave Directions chiefly concerning the Temple-Worship They shall not saith he be confined to Mount Gerizim where the Samaritans had fix'd the Seat of their worshipping or to Mount Ephraim in Samaria where Shiloh was the place where the Tabernacle and Ark rested from the beginning of Ioshua's time till Samuel nor shall they be confined to Ierusalem whither the Tabernacle was afterwards brought and at length converted into a Temple nor in any other place exclusively shall Men worship God but every Place and Country shall be alike and God shall have Worshippers in every part of the World This utterly makes void the Iewish Ceremonial Service which was tied to a certain place And our Saviour adds this which doth yet further evacuate it that the Worship under the Gospel must be in Spirit and Truth in contradistinction to the legal Worship which was made up of carnal Ordinances and mere Shadows and Types which were but Representations of that which is true and real Thus he plainly erases and abolishes the Mosaick Service and calls those that worship God in the Evangelical Manner the true Worshippers Again the greatest part of the Epistle to the Hebrews is a direct and downright repealing of it Nay we want not the formal Words of Abrogation as in Heb. 7. 18 19. There is verily a disannulling of the Commandment going before i. e. the Legal and Iudaical Oeconomy which he calls a carnal Commandment ver 16. for the Weakness and Unprofitableness thereof for the Law made nothing perfect Here is an express disannulling of the Mosaick Law And moreover the Reason of it is rendred viz. because it was weak and imperfect and had little Power to amend and reform Mens Lives You will find it also formally repeal'd in Heb. 8. 7 8 13. where the Apostle treating of the Old and New Covenant by which he means the Law and the Gospel as I have before shew'd he thus concludes If the first Covenant had been faultless then should no place have ben sought for the second For finding fault with them he saith Behold the Days come saith the Lord when I will make a New Covenant c. In that he saith a New Covenant he hath made the first Old Now that which decayeth and waxeth Old is ready to vanish away or according to the Greek it is near to vanishing Certainly this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speaks as much if not more than Abrogating And in another pl●ce where he speaketh of the legal Worship which consisteth chiefly in Sacrifices and Offerings for Sin and not in inward Holiness and sincere doings of God's Will which is the Evangelical Service he applieth the Psalmist's or rather our Saviour's words Sacrifice and Offering thou wouldest not Then said I Lo I come to do thy Will this is infer'd that he taketh away the first that he may establish the second i. e. the Messias abolisheth the Iudaical Service that the may set up and perpetuate the Evangelical one It can then be no longer questioned whether the Iewish Law was abrogated and that in formal and express Terms Those carnal Ordinances as the Apostle speaks Heb. 9. 10. were imposed upon them only until the time of Reformation i. e. of the Gospel When that came they were made void null and dead And this Epistle to the Hebrews seems to be the Sermon which St. Paul preached at their Funeral or the Office of Burial on that occasion Here is Ashes to Ashes and Dust to Dust a fatal Period put to the Iudaical Rites the Law interred and intombed never to rise again but the Gospel springs out of those Ashes a new and a more noble Dispensation succeeds in its room And thus I have abundantly proved what I undertook that the Law of Moses consisting in Ceremonies was not to continue but was in time to be nulled and dissolved and that by the coming of Christ they are accordingly nulled dissolved and abrogated Hitherto I have in a more remote manner proved the Certainty and Authority of the Evangelical Oeconomy and consequently of Christianity it self But now I will approach nearer and proceed to a more positive and particular Proof of the Authority of the Gospel-Dispensation Christ succeeds Moses the Gospel follows the Law but quo jure There must be as great Testimony for the one as there was for the other or else it cannot be received on good Grounds Let us see then how this Dispensation will acquit it self There are two kinds of Evidence Humane and Divine the Testimony of Man and the Testimony of God The first creates a humane Faith the second a divine one in us Both of these we have in the present Matter First we are furnished with Humane Testimony i. e. we are assured of the Truth of the Christian Religion by a sufficient number of credible Persons who have been either Ear or Eye-witnesses or both of all the Transactions relating to

Shadows Christ in this sense is call'd the tr●e Light and true Bread Joh. 1. 9. Joh. 6. 32. The Ceremonial Law was but a Figure of the Evangelical Truth And this is deservedly called Tr●th because all the Ceremonial Types are Verified and Fulfill'd in Christ. All those Iudaick Hieroglyphicks are now unridled and plainly discovered to the World and he that runs may read them The Types and Symbols are gone and now the Things themselves are present and are clearly understood by us This makes the difference between the Mosaick Dispensation and the Evangelical One. The Doctrine of Salvation and the means of Life by Christ are more intelligible and plain than they were before Their Conceptions of those things were intricate and obscure but we have arrived to clear and distinct Notions concerning them In short the way of Salvation was before more dark and general they saw Christ through ●ertain Perspectives afar off but now the fulness of time is come and hath given us a near and more perfect view of those things which they saw but in a glass darkly 4. The Religion of the Gospel is more Inward and Lively than that of the Law and the Jewish Administration There is now introduced a Rational and Manly Service our Religion is chiefly the employment of our Minds and Understandings and not so much of our Bodies and lower Faculties We now worship God in Spirit as well as in Truth of which I spake befo●e we worship in a spiritual manner opposed to outward and bodily Service as Sacrifices Purifications c. The Evangelical Righteousness is a Spiritual Administration a Vital Principle able to beget a Divine Life whereas the Law comparatively was an external dead Letter and did not sufficiently actuate the Minds and Spirits of Men. It is true the History of the Gospel or the Doctrin of the Evangelists as it is merely propounded and written is as much external as the Law but the ministration of the Spirit as the Apostle calls it going along with the Gospel in a more especial and peculiar manner is a powerful Principle in the Souls of Men whereby they are inwardly renewed and transformed And so the Gospel compared with the Law is of greater Power Might and Efficacy and is able to produce a heavenly and spiritual frame of Soul and a sincere performance of the Divine Laws This is the Law promis'd to be written in the Hearts of Men and to be put into their inward parts Jer. 31. 33. 5. This Dispensation of the Gospel is larger and ampler than that of the Law and of other Dispensations before it For the Church was shut up in narrow bounds and confined to a few Families of the Patriarchs Afterwards it was limited to the Land of Canaan and to the H●brew People excepting a few that were without who knew God's Will and were graciously accepted But after Christ came the Church was not tied to one Place or certain Nation but hath been ever since the Congregation of all such as truly know and worship Christ in any part of the World The Christian Dispensation is not local and temporary not confined to place or time not circumscribed by a particular Country Now not one Nat●on only or a few of others are honoured with Laws given from God himself but Gentiles and Iews Greeks and Barbarians all Kindreds and Tongues all Countries and Regions of the Universe have heard the sound of the Gospel and have had the Divine Laws which were given by Christ himself offer'd to them Our Saviour bid his Disciples go into all the World and teach all Nations And accordingly as was observ'd before they travell'd into all the World which was at that time known and proclaimed the Messias to them Thus Christ came and preach'd Peace to them that were afar off and to them that were nigh Ephes. 2. 17. All Places and Countries had the privilege of the Gospel and might receive advantage by it This is one remarkable Difference between the Legal and the Evangelical Dispensation the former was Narrow and Contracted the latter was Full Ample Comprehensive and Catholick 6. Altho as hath been said the Conditions of Salvation are the same now as to the main with those before yet they vary as to several Circumstances To begin with Faith the first and chief Condition of Salvation the grand Fundamental Grace of Christianity This is reckon'd by the Reverend Bishop Taylor among the Instances of Duties which are new under the Gospel But the true account is this that Faith was not a Precept of the Natural or Moral Law but was a new Precept added to it by Revelation when the First Promise and New Covenant were made But ever since that it hath not been New for as I have proved the Antient Patriarchs were saved by Faith in Christ. He was the Object of Faith then as well as now the Faith of the first Believers was the same with the Faith of Christians Yet notwithstanding this this Grace of Faith hath a different aspect from what it had The Fathers believed in the Messias that was to come and we believe in the same Jesus who is come and hath taken on him our Nature and laid down his Life and shed his precious Blood for the redemption of lost Man and rose again and ascended into Heaven Thus the believing of Christ's Birth Passion Resurrection and Ascension is in this respect n●w that Faith looks upon them as accomplished But otherwise in respect of the things themselves it is the old Faith i. e. the same which those that lived before the time of the Messias exerted Christ that was to be crucified was the Object of their Belief and Christ already crucified is the Object of ours This is confirm'd ●rom Isa. 53. Acts 15. 11. 1 Cor. 5. 7. Heb. 9. 11. and abundance of other Texts St. Augustine having affirmed that the Saints of old were saved in the same way that we are viz. by Faith in Jesus adds this distinction They saith he were saved by Faith in Christ's future Sufferings and we by Faith in those Sufferings as they are already past This is that which our Church saith speaking of the People of God that lived before Christ's Incarnation Alth● they were not named Christian men yet was it a Christian Faith which they had for they looked for all the Benefits of God the Father through the Merits of his Son Iesus Christ as we now do This difference is between them and us that they looked when Christ should come and we are in the time when he is come Besides a more general Belief was sufficient for mens Salvation before the Messias's coming than is now It was not necessary to Salvation to believe so expresly and explicitly concerning Christ and his Undertakings as we are obliged to believe since So that tho there is not now a New Faith neither are there New Articles of Faith yet there are New Exertments of Faith and more clear