Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	spirit_n	true_a	worship_v	11,703	5	9.5822	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36270	A sermon preached before His Majesty on Good-Friday at Whitehall, March 24, 1664/5 by J. Dolben ...	Dolben, John, 1625-1686.	1665 (1665)	Wing D1831; ESTC R5322	28,655	60

so disagreeing with that Idea and Fancy which they had cherished of a fighting conquering triumphing Messiah Poverty was so unlike to raise and pay Armies Meekness so unfit to rout Legions Patience so unable to break the yoke of Servitude to shake and subvert the Roman Empire that their defeated Hope turns to Scorn their Kindness to Rage and Cruelty And because Jesus will not be their Captain he must be their Martyr and suffer for their seditious Thoughts and Designs because he will not act them You see what Scribes and Pharisees mean by King of the Jews and therein how ill Interpreters Carnality and Self-love are of the Mind of God how little room souls full of the world have for the entertainment of spiritual Benefits how hard it is for men whose Affections are riverted to the Earth to raise themselves up to heavenly contemplations Should I let my self loose to enumerate all the absurd and monstrous Dreams the contradictions and impossibilities which the Jews embrace how they confound all the Principles and Rules of humane understanding jumble and invert the Series of times and actions and disturb the whole frame of Nature meerly that they may force themselves to apprehend in the Shell and Outside of a Prophesie Flesh in stead of Spirit Earth in stead of Heaven a filthy robbing Barchocab a murdering Villain and Boutefeu rather then a Jesus Prince of Peace and Life you would extreamly pity such miserable Delusions and say their Fathers who long'd for Leeks and Onions but loath'd Mannah wish'd to return to slavery and making Brick in Egypt rather then enjoy the delights and plenty of Canaan had appetites far less corrupt wills less debauched then they But to our business 'T is most true all great things are said of Messiah in the Psalms and Books of the Prophets and they generally expressed under the Symbols of earthly power and happiness But that was Gods way of dealing with the Jews They were a fleshly People and God bred them under a suitable fleshly Oeconomy drew them on to his service like children with entertainments agreable to their infirmity That they might grow up under the Pupillage and imperfect institution of the Law and by its Carnal Ordinances and Rewards as by the art of a School-master be made fit for and led unto Christ Consider I pray you that no man apprehends any thing he knows not but by analogy and likenesse to somewhat that he already understands of which we have a ready vulgar instance in the impossibility of making a Negro of Guinee or even a Native of our own Barbados conceive what frost or snow can be till he hath seen a winter in England and you will presently discern how necessary it was that God should represent to Jews who thought of no happiness beyond a perpetual affluence of plenty in Canaan those infinitely greater but spiritual Blessings which he design'd them in his Son under the figure and shadow of such things as they were affected with St. CHRISOSTOME says well and judiciously That had the spirituality of Christs office been plainly and nakedly declared by the Prophets none of the Jews would once have thought on him before his coming or regarded him when he came And therefore though all the other Prophecies were so delivered as to be clear and intelligible to those who received them yet such as concern Messiah had a vail and shadow of earthly things drawn over them that the people might not be dazled and confounded with too much brightness and glory but approach chearfully and comprehend by degrees that Mystery which they contain'd being allured and engaged to taste and like its spiritual Divine intention by a Preparatory relish and pregustation of Carnal Promises All which we find distinctly exemplified in the carriage and temper of Christs own twelve chosen Disciples To the same purpose though on another occasion discourseth Maimonides himself assigning this for the reason why God prescribed by Moses such an outward and fleshly way of worship to the Jews Because saith he that people who had seen the Egyptians and all other Nations adore their Idols with sacrifices continually smoaking upon their Altars consecrating themselves and their oblations with bloud wine salt and perfumes and other sensible rites were not then capable of a mental internal Religion could not suddenly be brought to leap from one contrary to another and apprehend how to serve God onely in spirit and truth And therefore it was sufficient for that time to draw them from those false and ridiculous Deities from offering one Beast to another from burning incense before a Cat or Crocodile and engage them to worship the one true God though in a fashion not unlike that which they observed the Heathen to use toward their Abominations Which assertion as it expresly avows what I now insist on The necessity of Gods condescending to speak to the Jews in such a Dialect as they would understand and propose sublime and heavenly notions in termes suitable to their low thoughts as we see those curious men who establish a kind of discourse and correspondence with Birds are forced to whistle and chirp like them so does it by the way give us the confession of that learned Rabbi That the whole carnal Oeconomy of the Law was in God ' s original intendment temporary not design'd to continue always being but an imperfect rudiment attempered to their present infirmity A rough draught of a more excellent reasonable service Perfective of humane Nature Worthy of God and apt to elevate the soul and bring it near to him that should be revealed in the fulness of time or as the Jews sometimes speak in the days and Kingdome of Messiah which observation will go a great way towards the determining the main controversie between us and them Nevertheless this vaile upon the face of Moses was not so dark the cloud which cover'd the Mystery of Christs spiritual Kingdome was not so thick and impenetrable but that considering discerning men might have seen through it had there not been another vail and cloud upon their hearts had they not lov'd that too much which lay nearest to their senses For ISAIAH brings in Christ with the Spirit of the Lord upon him Anointing him i. e. making him his Messiah to the end that he might preach the Gospel to the poor whom Scribes and Pharisees thought unworthy prophane and such as it would be a kind of sacriledge to cast away their Doctrine upon To heal the broken-hearted not to add affliction and vengeance to their grief to preach deliverance to the Captives not to enslave and destroy all Nations of the world as the Jews expect to restore the blind their sight and set at liberty those that are bruised illustrating their souls with Divine light and Graces redeem the contrite from the pressures of sin and the bondage of Satan and proclaiming the acceptable yeare of the Lord the perpetual Jubile of lasting eternal comfort