Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	holy_a	part_n	5,261	5	4.5208	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50771	Religio stoici	Mackenzie, George, Sir, 1636-1691.	1663 (1663)	Wing M195; ESTC R22472	60,332	192

is much debated and most deservedly amongst Moralists for that which was good could not produce that which was evil seing that which works mischief cannot be called good Nor can we ascribe the efficiency of the first evil to evil for then the question recurres what was the cause of that evil And by this the supposition is likewise destroyed whereby the evil enquired after is supposed to be the first evil but if we enquire what could produce in the Angels that first sin whereby they forfeited their glory we will find this disquisition most mysterious And it is commonly believ'd but by what revelation I know not that their pride caus'd their fall and that they carcht their bruise in climbing in desiring to be equal to their Creator they are become inferior to all their fellow creatures Yet this seems to me most strange that these excellent spirits whose very substance was light and who surpassed far man in capacity and understanding should have so err'd as to imagine that equality fa●sable a fancy which the fondest of men could not have entertained And it were improbable to say that their error could have sprouted at first from their understandnging and to think it to have been so gross as that fallen man doth now admire it but why may we not rather think that their first error was rather a crookedness in their will then a blindness in their judgment and that they fretted to see man whom they knew to be inferiour to themselves by many stages made Lord of all that pleasant Creation which they gazed on with a stareing maze And that this opinion is more probable appears because this Sin was the far more bating seing it appeared with all the charmes wherewith either pride vanity or avarice could busk it and explicats better to us the occasion of all that enmity with which that Serpent hath alwayes since pursued silly man But whither God will save just as many believers as there fell of the Angels none can determine neither can it be rationally deduced from that Scripture Statuit terminos gentium juxta nu●erum Angelorum Dei But if it please God so to order it it will doubtless aggrage their punishment by rackling their disdain And seing the Angels have never obtained a remission for this crime it is probable that the correspondent of their sin is in us the sin against the holy Ghost For if their lapse had been pardonable some one or other of them had in all probability escap'd but if this was not that unpardonable sin I scarce see where it shall be found For to say that it is a hateing of God as God is to make it unpracticable rather then unpardonable For all creatures appete naturally what is good and God as God is good So that it is impossible that He can be hated under that reduplication It may be likewise conjectured that voluntar and deliberate sacriledge is the sin against the holy Ghost because Ananias and Saphira in with-holding from the Church a part of the price for which they sold their lands are by Peter said to have lied not to man but to the holy Ghost and his wife is there said to have tempted the Spirit but seing both of them resolved to continue in the Church a resolution inconsistent with the sin against the holy Ghost And seing many sins are more heinous I cannot interpret this lying to the holy Ghost to be any thing else but a sin against light in which most penitents have been involved albeit I confess this was a gross escape seing it rob'd God of His omnisciency and supposed that He was not privy to such humane actings as have not the Sun for a witness I do then conclude that the sin against the holy Ghost may rather be a resolute undervaluing of God and a scorning to receive a pardon from Him and this is that which makes the Angels fall irrecoverable and like the flaming sword defends them from their re-entry into that Paradise from which they exile And albeit to say that the Angels rebellion flows from God's denying them repentance may suit abundantly well with His unstainable justice yet it is hard to reconcile it with his mercy And this makes my private judgment place the unpardonableness of this sin not in God's Decree but in their obduration and rebellious impenitency And the reason why these who commit this sin are never pardoned is because a pardon is never sought That place of Scripture wherein Esau is said to have sought the blessing with tears and not to have found it astonishes me Yet I believe that if his tears had streamed from a sense of his guilt more then of his punishment doubtless he had not weept in vain and in that he tear'd he was no more to be pitied far less pardoned then a Malefactor who upon the scaffold grants some few tears to the importunity of his tortutes but scornes to acknowledge the guilt of his crime for pain by contracting our bodies strains out that liquid mater which thereafter globs it self in tears there could ●ome no holy water from the pagan font of Esaw's eyes and if his remorse could have pierc'd his own heart it had easily pierc'd heaven Whilst others admire I bless God that He hath closed up the knowledge of that unpardonable sin under his own privy Seal for seing Sathan tempts me to sin with the hopes of an after-pardon this bait is pull'd off his hook by the fear I stand under that the sin to which I am tempted is that sin which can expect no pardon And albeit it be customary amongst men to beacon and set a mark upon such shelves and rocks as destroy passengers yet that is only done where commerce is allowed and sailing necessar But seing all sin is forbidden God was not obliged to guard us with the knowledge of that sin no further then by prohibiting us not to sin but to stand in awe That first sin whereby our first Parents forfeited their primitive excellencies was so pitifull a frailty that I think we should rather lament then enquire after it To think that an aple had in it the seeds of all knowledge or that it could assimulate him to his Creator and could in an instant sublimate his nature was a frailty to be admired in one of his piety and knowledge Yet I admire not that the breach of so mean a Precept was punish'd with such appearing rigor because the easier the command was the contempt was proportionally the greater and the first crimes are by Legislators punished not only for guilt but for example But I rather admire what could perswade the facile world to believe that Adam was created not only innocent but even stored with all humane knowledge For besides that we have no warrand from Scripture for this alleadgiance this his easie escape speaketh far otherwayes And albeit the Scripture tells us that man was created perfect yet that inferres not that man