Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	require_v	spirit_n	worship_v	1,990	5	8.9686	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63937	A compleat history of the most remarkable providences both of judgment and mercy, which have hapned in this present age extracted from the best writers, the author's own observations, and the numerous relations sent him from divers parts of the three kingdoms : to which is added, whatever is curious in the works of nature and art / the whole digested into one volume, under proper heads, being a work set on foot thirty years ago, by the Reverend Mr. Pool, author of the Synopsis criticorum ; and since undertaken and finish'd, by William Turner...	Turner, William, 1653-1701.	1697 (1697)	Wing T3345; ESTC R38921	1,324,643	657

dreggy Body and outward gross material Part And what must he be then but a Spirit himself 2. 'T is impossible he should be made up of Matter and material Parts when he is the Creatour of the whole World For how should a Body be able to stand and fix his Presence to a particular Place when he must be present at the making of every particular Piece and Member of the Creation and that in a short time if not in an Instant A Body we know must be circumscribed limited to a Space so far it may take up and no further here it may be and not there or there and not here at the same time But God at the make of the World must stretch his Presence to a wide if not immense Capacity ●●e must be able to climb the Sun and fathom the Depths to walk about the Spheres and pierce the thicker Bodies he must search those Beings he makes within and without must see the outward shape and the inward form And what can this be but a Spirit 3. He searcheth the Hearts and knows the Thoughts afar off Those outward Cases we wear those thick Covers of our Bodies do not hide us from his Knowledge Jer. 17.10 His Eye walks to and fro upon the Earth scanning the Actions of Thoussands with a Glance in a Moment turning over the whole Book of the Creation which his own Hand wrote and folded up and reading any Page and Line with a single Cast of his Omniscience And what is this but a Spirit 4. He is invisible Exod. 33.20 He said Thou canst not see my Face Job 1.18 God may please sometimes to pourtray himself and shadow out his Excellency to us with a visible Form may appear in a Flame or mask his Glory with a Cloud but never come in his own proper and genuine Dress If he speaks to us 't is but a borrowed Lisping from our own Faculties if he be seen by us 't is but in a Coat borrowed from some of his Creatures Job 5.37 No God himself as he is in his own Nature pure and sparkling Essence is not obvious to our Senses never was caught by the Hand Eye of Ear of living Men and therefore is a Spirit and to be worshipped in Spirit and Truth According to our Apprehensions of God's Nature so are commonly our Devotions to him and indeed this is founded upon a sound Maxime sc That as God is in his own Nature so he requireth a suitable Worship a Worship correspondent to those Properties he hath he is good and therefore would have us do and be good And so in whatever Attributes are given to him if they are communicable to the Creature he is to be imitated by us Be ye Followers of God as dear Children like your heavenly Father And therefore as God is a Spirit so he requires such a Worship God's Motto in this respect is the same with Solomon's My Son give me thy Heart A pure Aim after God's Glory a sincere Compliance with our Duty an upright pursuance of Holiness and Piety are the Whole or the M●rrow of our Religion We should not only bring our Lips our Hands our Knees our Ears or Our Bodies to our Devotions but as the Psalmist My Soul follows hard after thee And Psal 62.1 Truly my Soul waiteth upon God Reader 't is certain when we have to do with God a Spirit an immaterial Substance we have not to do with a Man like our selves but a Quick-eyed Being Omnisciency itself a God all Sight that seeth within as well as without us Methinks such a Thought should strike us with an awful Reverence of his Majesty Such a Meditation as the Psalmist takes up Psal 139.1 might seize us with a filial Dread and possess our Hearts with Trembling in our daily Comportment before him it might awaken our Affections to go hand in hand and move joyntly with our ordinary Duty Inward Religion is the only acceptable Devotion to the Father of Spirits and therefore no running now to Mount Guizem no matter now for travelling to the Old Jerusalem no matter for running to the Stalls for a Kid or Hetfer to the Altar with an Offering or Sacrifice No matter now for these Ceremonies Washings Cleansings c. used by the ancient Jews Touch not taste not handle not and all the pompous Trade of a Ceremonious Worship once enjoyn'd to the Old Church and now imposed by the Antichristian is now an illegitimate a base-born Service usurp'd by Sacrilegious People who make it no Crime to steal from Christ's Prerogative and put themselves instead of him Head of the Church 'T is true we may and must Worship yet with Hand and Knee we may yet attend upon a Font and wash in Water and wait upon a Sacramental Table we may eat Bread and drink Wine as Signs and Seals of spiritual and abstruse Mysteries But these are derived to us by a Divine Institution they come with a Mandamus from God himself and we have so few Ceremonies besides except those which are natural and serve lively to express the inward Motions of our Hearts and so much inward spiritual Devotion is required with them That our Religion may deservedly pass under the Title of Spirit and Truth Learn we then to put an evenness of proportion between our outward and inner Man To compose not only our Shape and Visage but our Heart and Soul to the Knowledge and Presence of an All-seeing God Learn we to call upon our Spirits and summon our Affections when we address our selves to the Father of Spirits Think what a thin pure subtile spacious Nature the Sun and Light are of how they pierce through the Air dart their Beams through the Clouds pierce the Windows and shine into our Houses Chambers the Corners of our Habitations and think God Almighty is a purer a finer a more spiritual Substance and therefore can see through us scan our Thoughts and try our Reins afar off Heb. 4.12 13. II. Meditations on the Works of Creation and Providence 'T IS the Prerogative of Human Nature that we have not only a lofty Figure and Visage but Intellectuals too far superiour to all the Bruitish kind And this Endowment bestowed upon us by him that made us for very wise and good Ends Not to be more ingen●ously wicked and dishonest to immerge our selves deeper in the Concerns and Pleasures of a Material and Sensual World but to live above it My Design then in these Meditations having already proved the Being of a God is to climb a Jacob's Ladder to satisfie a little the Curiosity of my Nature to inform myself first of all and then my Fellows so far as soberly and modestly I may with all the Phenomena of the Aetherial Region To acquaint myself and others with the outward Face of Heaven first of all and all the visible Furniture of the outward Court those glorious Spangles of Stars and Planets those fiery Meteors and other strange Exhalations and Vapours

that they might well School and Catechise some of our old Professors Grey-hair'd Christians for Seven Years together It would be too large a Task now to tell you what Lessons they learn'd from the Contemplation and Study of these Things Their Books of Moral Philosophy writ by Aristotle Plato Cicero Seneca Isocrates c. where they preach'd in our Pulpits were enough to fill some Number of Years with Sermons strong enough for our Auditors of the Lower Form And convictive enough to shame the Major part of Christians among us into Blushing and Confusion Read over but the Roman Twelve Tables Plato's Republic the Laws of the several Heathen Nations about Religion Sobriety Justice c. And you 'll find Reason to fear lest the Queen of the South and the Inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon the Greek Scythian and Barbarian will escape better some of them at the Day of Judgment than many of Christendom that have both the Books wide open before them all the Days of their Life Rom. 2.14 15. 3. What might they learn Answ All the Articles of our Christian Creed and all the Precepts of our Christian Religion except those which refer to the Cause and Cure of our Misery viz. The Fall of Adam and the Intercession of the Second Adam That there was a God one only Supreme Maker of Heaven and Earth Infinite in the Attributes of Wisdom Power Truth Justice Mercy worthy to be worshipped with a Holy Life Prayer Praise Obedience and a pure Heart and Affection one that had a Good Will to save us one that would reward us with excellent Rewards or Punishments according to our Actions in the other World All this and more than this they might have discerned by their Glimmering Light of Nature in only the Frontispiece of Heaven if they had but used their Eyes And so much many of them did not only learn but teach and make a publick and stout Profession of it to the World The Existence of One Supreme God the Divine Governance of the World the Immortality of the Soul a Mediation between God and us and almost all the Moral Duties of the Law in Substance the Distribution of Rewards and Punishments after this Life distinct Places and Times of Worship Priests and Priestly Maintenance and Attonements and Purifications and something like the Dedicating of their Infants to God by Baptism with secret Devotions and Family-Worship as well as that which was publick in the Temples All these and much more were adopted into the Body of the Heathen Religion and excepting only some few Articles of our Creed referring to the Trinity and especially the Business of our Redemption and the true Notion of our Two Sacraments and it may be the Resurrection of our Bodies it were not very hard to make out all the rest of our Religion demonstrable by the meer Light of Reason The invisible Things of GOD from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the Things that are made 4. What Practical Deductions may be made from hence How great is God A Contemplation of the Heavenly Fabrick will directly lead us to this Point viz. an admiration of the Divine Eternal Power of the Godhead For Rom. 1.19 That which may be known of God is manifest to all the World for God hath shewed it to them He hath shewed his Face in the Glass of his Works and his Features there appear so glorious that 't is a Wonder it doth not fill our Apprehensions with a pregnant and awful Conceit of his Infinite Majesty and Power The Splendour of the Divine Attributes gives Shine to all the World So that now all the Inhabitants of the round World have Scope enough for Spiritual Contemplation and the Exercise of their Rational Faculties and the Turk and Pagan both have a Book large and voluminous enough being wide open before them to employ all their Studies in all the Days of their Life Who that considers a while the Nature of that God that made the Heavens how he must stretch his Compass over the whole Vniverse how he must mete out the Heavens with a Span and comprehend the Dust of the Earth in a Measure and weigh the Mountains in Scales and the Hills in a Ballance and take up the Isles as a very little thing and measure the Waters in the Hollow of his Hand and make the Clouds his Chariot and ride upon the Wings of the Wind and climb up to the highest Orbs and extend every Globe with the present Thought and hang not only the Earth but the Heavens upon nothing and this in the exactest Order and Perfection that no remarkable Fault shall appear in 6000 Years in any part of all this magnificent Building Who that considers a little the Nature of the Supreme Architect shall not be ready to cry out with the Psalmist Psal 8.1 9. O Lord our Lird how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth who hast set thy Glory above the Heavens O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy Name in all the Earth 2. What little low worthless Creatures are we That God who is the Author of such excellent Handy-work that dwells in that inaccessible Light in such a glorious Palace who can make Heavens at his pleasure and garnish them in a moment and fill the whole World with the Beams of his Glory should yet place his Affections so much on such little silly things as we are Psal 8.3 When I consider thy Heavens the Work of thy Fingers the Moon and the Stars which thou hast ordained What is Man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of Man that thou visitest him Shall I speak my Opinion freely in this Matter I do conceive that one great Reason why God hath laid out so much of his Excellency and bestowed so much of his Infinite Wisdom and Power upon the Creation of the Things that are above us especially the Heavens over our Heads was on purpose to astonish proud Man into a Religious Admiration of his God and an humble Detestation of himself For that 's the very Frame and Temper which disposeth Man for the Impressions of Religion and the Exercise of a devout Affection Isa 66.1 2. Thus saith the Lord The Heaven is my Throne 3. A due Consideration of the Creation of the World and especially of the Heavens belongs unto us all Os homini sublime c. If God doth preach to us by these Things that are seen and thereby reveal to the World the invisible Properties of the Divinity then we ought to hearken to this Voice and make some good use of their Language The Curious Spectator looks up to the Heavens and examines every particular there Quidni quaerat Scit illa ad se pertinere Tunc contemnit domicilii prioris angustias Seneca And as he goes on what is all the distance from the utmost Coasts of Spain to the Indies But a Voyage of a very few Days if thou sail with a good

that was with him after he was condemn'd that his Mother told him that when he was a Child there crept always to him a Snake where-ever she laid him Sometimes she would convey him up Stairs and leave him never so little she should besure to find a Snake in the Cradle with him but never perceived it did him any harm See the Narrative published 1675. 70. Hither may be referr'd that Remarkable Accident which happen'd to the Statue of King James II. in the Exchange which is to be seen to this day the Statue I think fell to one side and the Scepter fell out of his Hand But by reason of the defect of my Memory I refer my Reader to a sight of the thing it self being not able to speak positively on the point at this time Also it is credibly reported That in his March to Salisbury when he went down to oppose the then Prince of Orange his Nose fell a bleeding Oh! the Depth of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God how unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out CHAP. XVII Promises fulfilled TO insist here upon Promises made by God to all the particular Graces recommended in the Christian Religion would be a Task too laborious and voluminous It shall suffice at present to take notice of the exact Performance of those general or more notable Ones mentioned in Sacred Scripture and made by the God of Heaven either to the World or Church in general or to some very Remarkable People or Persons in particular as 1. The Promise of a Messiah which was made with such a particular Notation of Christ's Nature to Adam that he should be of the Seed of the Woman to Abraham of what Nation viz. to his Posterity to Jacob at what time when the Scepter should depart from Judah to David of what Family in that Tribe viz. his own to Isaiah of what Person in that Family viz. a Virgin to Micah in what place viz. in Bethlehem and to Daniel in what time viz. towards the Expiration of the 70 Weeks And this Promise so circumstantiated was by the Jews so strongly and earnestly expected that many of them hit upon the right time and were big with Hopes and Expectations in that very Season when our Saviour came as appears evidently by the concurrent Testimonies of all the Evangelists and Apostles And this Promise was withal so exactly performed that the Old and New Testaments kiss one another and give a mutual Suffrage one to another insomuch that for all the Material Passages of our Saviour's Life the Evangelists refer us to Moses and the Prophets Bishop Joseph Hall and some other Divines have reckon'd up the several Texts of the Old Testament we are either by our Saviour or his Sacred VVriters recommended to for Confirmation The Turks and Persians acknowledge this in great part and the Jews themselves scarce know what to say to it and who could do this but God Almighty 2. The Promise made to Abraham of the Land of Canaan is so far of the same Nature that it was as particularly made and as perfectly fulfill'd The Scripture gives a full Account of the Promise and all the VVorld almost is satisfied in the Performance It will pose an Atheist to invalidate the Scripture Testimony in one Respect or run down the Convictive Evidence of History in the other 3. The Promise of breaking down the Pale of the Jewish Church to make way for the Reception of the Gentiles as it was faithfully exhibited in the VVritings of the Old-Testament so it is fully accomplished in the New 4. The Promise made to the Apostles by our Saviour that He would be with them to the end of the World was considerable in several Respects as first that he should Assist a little Company of mean Persons and Obnoxious to Contempt and Injuries from all the Despite and Malicious Designs of their Adversaries and secondly in the Prosecution of a Business the Preaching of a Doctrine so contrary to the Humours and Secular Interests of almost all the VVorld and lastly that Twelve such mean Apostles employ'd upon such an Errand should prevail so far with so little Learning so little humane Policy without any ill Arts or Arms against both Jews and Gentiles Princes and Potentates Rabbies and Philosophers as to plant a Doctrine so ungrateful to Flesh and Blood in several parts of the VVorld so remote and far distant from one another that it could not be extinguished either with Arts and Stratagems or Arms and Bloodshed and all the Engines of Cruelty and Torture oppos'd and made use of against it to this Day 5. The Promise or rather Threatning or Prediction of our Saviour mention'd in Mat. 24. Mark 13. Luke 21. Concerning the first Glorious and Typical Advent of the same Jesus whom the Jews were then treating so despitefully and going to Crucifie as Judge and Avenger to ruin the Temple and destroy or disperse the Jewish Nation was so circumstantially deliver'd and so punctually put in Execution that the Account which Josephus gives of it is enough to Astonish all the World into Amazement and put to silence the Tongues of Gainsayers And the present Dispersion of the Jews and their frequent Disappointments when they have endeavour'd to return and repossess and rebuild their Ruinated Jerusalem which they were so fond of and these Disappointments so remarkably strange sometimes that they are an astonishing Confirmation of the Truth thereof 6. I Know of no uninspired Author that has done better as to a proof of Jesus Christ being the Messias says a late Writer this Convert being better read and acquainted than most of our Divines in the Jewish Talmud and Objections himself having been once a Teacher amongst them and we are inclined to hope that the Promise of God for the calling home his Antient People the Jews is now in the Embrio for it is impossible for any one amongst 'em that pretends either to Scripture or Reason after the reading of Theodore John his Book to expect the coming of another Messias all the Prophesies being so evidently fulfill'd in Jesus Christ that relate to the Messias But as for the Proof of a Trinity and with such a happy Success We have never yet met with any Author that pretended to do it further than in Promise till this Convert who being a Jew and a Teacher amongst them and thereby extreamly well acquainted with the Old Testament and the Opinions of the Rabbies has done it with that Evidence and Perspicuity as We think the most Sceptical Person that is not prejudiced to Sacred Writ can find no Objections against This Book we seriously recommend to all Christians to confirm 'em in this Truth That 't is no Fiction nor Device of Cunning or Politick Men to believe that all the Prophecies are fulfill'd concerning the Coming and Office of the Messias and that Jesus Christ whom we worship is the true Messias As for the Jews as we said before we hope