Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	holy_a	lord_n	spirit_n	6,929	5	4.9769	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

How does the old Levitical Law plainly appear to be but the Sciography or rough draught of the Gospel and the Characters and Lines of one exactly visible in the other For my part I think it impossible for so many though judicious and wise Men without assistance from God to carry any one design with that exactness that the Penmen of the Holy Scripture have but I am sure it is the greatest of Absurdities to assert that such a noble and uniform Design should be carried on through so many Ages by a parcel of wild Enthusiasts So that let the Writers of the Bible be what you please to style them either Inspired Men or Impostors I shall not dispute that now they must needs be Men well in their Wits and what is more Men of good sense Prophets had the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost 2. It is very evident from Scripture That Prophecy proceeded from another Cause viz. the Influence of God's Holy Spirit The innumerable Instances in Scripture of the Prophets and Apostles being in the Spirit of the Spirit 's coming upon them of their speaking things by command and of the Lord of their being caught up into heaven c. are undeniable Proofs of the cause of their Revelation viz. the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of God Indeed it is not easy to give a Philosophical and Notional account of this supernatural Influence or by what means it was conveyed or by what criterion or marks they could distinguish it from a Delusion because we who are not honoured with these supernatural Gifts and therefore can have no Idea of these things as having never been the Objects of our Understandings but it is not to be doubted but these Holy Men had as absolute certainty of the Truth of them as we have of things that do immediately strike our senses and did as perfectly know them to be the word of God as that those things are which we see to be and that they could as little question their Inspiration as we do our Senses For as the Senses are only the ordinary way of God's conveying Ideas to us and these are so clear to us by their familiarity and repeated Trials of their faithfulness that we cannot but rely upon them and cannot but give assent to them so the Inspiration of God to the Prophets by their clear Evidence continually and by their wonted Experience of it left no more doubt in them of the Truth of it than the Appearance of the Sun does leave in us that it is Day or that what we see is really seen by us and is not the Delusion of a Dream To say we ordinary Persons can have no notion of this Extraordinary Influx of God and therefore it cannot be is only to expose our own Ignorance and a Blind Man might with as much Modesty pretend to demonstrate against the Existence of Colours or a Clown laugh at Mathematical Theorems as we pretend to dispute against the certainty of this supernatural Influence which God Almighty has been pleased to give us no notices of Might not God Almighty as well have given us Ten Senses as Five And if he has been pleased to make an extraordinary Impression upon some Mens Minds which his does not on all must we therefore assert this as impossible because we who do not experience it do not perceive it Must all Men be blind because we are so Or must every Man be Mad and Enthusiastical that hath better Eyes than we I am sure this is a very mad way of Arguing and yet there is no more reason for Men to question the Truth of the Revelation of the Prophets than blind Men have to question our sight Nay the miraculous power which did usually attend Prophecy was more undeniable Evidence to the Beholders of their Divine Influence than the joint assertion of the generality of Mankind can be that there is such a Thing as Sight or Colours to a Blind Man Because Sensation is a greater degree of Evidence than Testimony and because a Man will sooner believe his senses than a Thousand Witnesses A Blind Man cannot believe there are Colours but only by being told so but when I see a Prophet doing Miracles I am sure he is influenced by God because I see he does works above the power of Nature 3. You are very much mistaken Prophecy not inconsistent with Wisdom when you assert that prophecy is inconsistent with Wisdom and that Men of good sense such as Solomon Kalcol Heman c. were no Prophets but only poor Shepherds Women and other Persons of mean parts were endowed with that Gift One would wonder how Men could lay down an Assertion which is so easy to be confuted as this is Pray what must be thought of Moses to whom there arose not since in Israel a Prophet like unto Does his noble Genius his invincible Courage his sagacious Prudence his vast Depth in Philosophy argue him a Man of mean parts Methinks the Heathen Longinus his Character of him that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 No mean Man should be enough to free him at least from his share in this Calumny What do you think of Nathan Israel and Daniel who were bred up Courtiers and made a great figure in the Ages when they lived and the Writings of two of them shew them to be Men of fine parts But I think you have a little outshot your self in the instance of Solomon in denying him to be a Prophet For it is recorded in Scripture that God revealed himself twice unto Solomon First at his Entrance upon his Kingdom when he asked Wisdom of God 2 Chron. 1.8 Secondly upon his finishing the Temple 2 Chron. 7.12 Nay what do you think of David who was a Prophet as well as a King And as for your Instances of Kalkol and Heman those great Masters of Musick as if they were Men of too good sense to be Prophets if you please to turn to 1 Chron. 25.5 you shall there find that one of them viz. Heman is there expresly called the King 's Se●● or Prophet Prophecies no● variable according to the Prophets Passions 4. You lay down also another very false Supposition that the Prophecies vari●d always according to the different Passions and Dispositions of the Prophets and therefore would hence conclude that their Prophecy was only Imagination But this is very false and very Illogical First it is false For Moses who is Characterized to be the meekest of all Men did Prophecy as dreadful judgments against the Israelites as any of the Prophets Vid. Lev. 26.14 Isaiah his Prophecy is in the several places very different sometimes he Prophesies joyful at other times very dismal things And even Jeremiah the most mournful Prophet of all does foretel the Jews joyful deliverance from their Captivity as well as the Captivity it self And Daniel at that very time when he was mourning and fasting in Sackcloth and Ashes had revealed to him by the Angel

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