Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A61265
|
A sermon preached before the King at White-Hal, Septem. the 26th, 1675 by John Standish ...
|
Standish, John, d. 1686.
|
1676
(1676)
|
Wing S5215; ESTC R13595
|
12,157
|
34
|
is too light and jocular when he 's for sending them that most desire and least deserve it that so they may be expos'd and laugh'd at For it is no laughing matter sure when Crowns and Kingdoms lie at stake They had more need be men of good Wisdom and Brains that can discern and nick the different Humour and Guise of divers Countries can soar aloft and treat the Italian in a Circuit of Pompous words before they stoop to the Point and be as blunt with the Switzers that hate all Language That understand the great Art of Timing things well there being says Solomon a proper season for every purpose under Heaven I am sure our Lord charges his Ambassadors saving their Innocence to be wise as Serpents as being to deal with that Politick Old Serpent and countermine the depths of Satan On this account St. Paul became all things to all men that he might by all means save some For one Remedy will not serve for every Disease nor are all Truths proper to be spoken at all times Our Saviour did not challenge the Jews for Idolatry or Usury but for spiritual Pride Hypocrisie and Traditions where the shooe pincht But then his Apostles turning to the Gentiles fell foul upon Superstition and Idolatry their common Distempers the first thing they did to inform their Successors that they should not spend their breath in declaiming against sins quite out of fashion or confuting old obsolete Heresies which were much like killing a man that was dead before or treating Christian Assemblies with the same Discourse that might better serve to convert the Great Turk They should not handle professed Christians though never so Carnal as Origen Justin Martyr or Tertullian did rank Heathen nor lay out all their pains and oyl about the first Elements though it be to demonstrate our Religion to be the best of all others and most perfective of Humane Nature For Principles are not to be made cheap and every day brought upon the Stage specially where they were never denied What though one man commit Murther another Adultery a third Treason a fourth Blasphemy must I go prove in all haste and upon every turn that there is a GOD They all know that as well as I unless they will in their Huffs deny their own Being and belye their own Consciences by Arguments too far fetch'd or proving too much we prove nothing at all or that which no man questions Prudence should rather teach us with due regard to time place and persons to bend our utmost strength and main counsels against the present and most predominant Errours whether in Faith or Morals 3. An Ambassador should have compentent Eloquence a Tongue well hung we say for that his proper business is to speak and he is said to have his Audience as an Orator He is to effect that which equity perswades or necessity requires by force of Argument to prevent the force of Arms and that is not to be done by a mere noise and flood of words without one drop of sense but he must be able to speak powerfully to move charm lead mens hearts in triumph and conquer minds with the pleasing Arms of Eloquence Antipater therefore desir'd the Athenians to send their Orator no more to Him because by his prodigious Art of speaking were the cause right or wrong he baffled and topp'd all offers made against him Now that St. Paul alludes here prfessedly to this property I appeal to the very stile of the Text Only there is this difference between CHRISTS Ambassadors and all others that they rely not upon their own strength of parts and Oratory nor take up with the common Artifices and enticing words of mans wisdom but their chief Rhetorick and height of Eloquence lies in the Demonstration of the Spirit Power and Wisdom of God 4. Lastly An Ambassador yet lacks one thing more before he goes that is a Commission to make his Acts Authentick which were otherwise null and void and himself a great Cheat. Demosthenes hath left a lasting Brand of Infamy upon Aeschines for going Ambassador to Philip on his own head But whether we should take the Orator for a faithful Historian in the case may be perhaps a question No question such an Act were crimen laetae Majestatis in all Empires nay Treason in a very high degree it being a greater affront to Sovereignty to counterfeit a King's Person than either his Royal Coyn Hand or Seal Thus St. Paul demands peremptorily How shall they preach except they be sent that is they are false Apostles Traytors to God's everlasting Crown and Dignity that do presume it Be a man never so gifted and able never such a Son of Thunder never so Eloquent and Mighty in the Scriptures yet without due Authority he hath no part or lot in this matter For no man taketh this honour to himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron Heb. 5. Now as the Apostles were in quality of Ambassadors extraordinary commissioned immediately by CHRIST himself and endued with mighty gifts of the Spirit necessary for the first planting of the Christian Faith So their lawful Successors are Leigers and in ordinary called also of God but by the Mediation of those Men on whom the Apostles derived their Mission and Unction they received from CHRIST Thus we see in what sense they are Ambassadors and pardon me if I hence infer that they ought to be received as such and accounted worthy of single honour and respect at least for their very Work and Office sake To assert the Dignity of this Holy Calling amongst Christians was once indeed superfluous when men were ready to adore and sacrifice to them as Gods and pluck out their own eyes for them But is perhaps as necessary now when the World is run into the other extreme and so far from communicating to them all good things Gal. 6. that they will hardly give them one good word When the Apostate Emperours Scoff is so often laid in their dish That CHRIST and his Apostles despised the Wealth and Honours of this World Though the arguing is most inconsequent from their times of Persecution to ours of Peace from Heathen Empires to Christian Monarchies Besides if they take the Context along with them they will find that in those days Lay-Christians had as little repute or wealth as the Clergy all they had though ne're so much was freely laid down at those poor Apostles feet for the publick service of the Church As for those little mighty Wits and goodly Masters of Reason that are ever whetting their Tongues and Pens to expose them to contempt alas they utterly miss their aim for it is the credit of our Religion and its Ministers that Nero spake Celsus wrote and Julian acted against them They are not moved at Celsus his prodigious Calumny that they conjured and dealt with familiar Spirits when God knows they only cast them out in the Name of JESUS They rejoyce to
suffer shame and be Nick-named Fops Formalists and Thinking-Fools by men of the same spirit with them that said the Son of GOD himself had a Devil But yet these Hero's might remember in their cold blood and sober intervals if they have any that as it is against the Law of Nations to cast dirt upon and offer indignities to an Ambassador so the affront aims chiefly at his Prince and such as despise them despise him that sent them who will in due time redeem his own Honour and pay them that they have deserved Mean while we 'll be reveng'd of them too but only in our Churches Prayer and God speed it well that it may please him to forgive our Enemies Persecutors and Slanderers and to turn their hearts But 2. You need not fear the Sons of Levi should take too much upon them in this high Title if you consider their more special Character as they are Ambassadors for CHRIST A King indeed but one whose Kingdom was not of this World Who never used more secular Pomp in all his life but once riding into Jerusalem upon an Asses Colt A King indeed but his Courtiers poor Fishermen and Publicans his Scepter a Reed his Crown made of Thorns and his Throne an ignominious Cross And his Disciples are not greater than their Lord they pretend not to dispose of Crowns and Kingdoms let Him at Rome answer for that who says we know by what Right and Precedent All these will I give thee They claim no Secular Honours or Priviledges but what they owe to the pious Bounty of Christian Princes who are graciously pleas'd to treat them as Prophets and shall therefore receive a Prophets reward Their power says a Learned man is armed only with a spiritual Sword the wounds whereof are little felt or dreaded in this World supported mostly with a mean temporal Fortune yet it has stood hitherto against all Opposition and shall stand for ever But whether they meet with Friends or Foes Love or Hatred Frowns or Favours here they are sure of a Reward most glorious hereafter if they can but give their Master who is since declared King of kings a good account of their great Errand and Business here on Earth Which leads me to the second thing considerable The subject matter sum and purport of their Ambassy in those words Be ye reconciled unto God Reconciliation imports a returning into Favour and Friendship after a former Enmity or Falling-out between Parties Now though man be the sole Party offending that made the breach by sin his own voluntary act yet God hath been graciously reconciled to Him ever since the hour of CHRISTS death which he accepted as a full and perfect satisfaction for the sins of the whole World All the difficulty is which so many Ambassadors are daily sent about to prevail with man to be reconciled to God Reconciled Surely that must be an hard saying clogg'd with some impossible Condition that makes men start so at fly from and not endure to hear on 't Yes it is so for it requires them to do What shall I say to do just nothing in comparison rather to be passive as the Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is and not hinder God from making them happy Yes it requires them to renounce their own Merits and that 's a mighty piece of Self-denial for wretched sinners that never had any and then cry Peccavi before they can obtain Mercy It lays that grievous burthen upon them to be Friends with God or rather to suffer God to be so far Lord of their Wills as to advance them like the great Abraham to be his bosom Friends and Favourites In a word and not to mince the matter there being no name under Heaven whereby we can be saved but the name of JESUS it requires us all to believe stedfastly in and depend wholly upon Him both for pardon of our sins and power against them 1. For Pardon we must sue that out in and through his Death for without his precious Bloodshed there is no Remission of sins and without our acceptance none for us however Though there be Balm in Gilead and a Physician there yet if men will not use them no wonder if they perish and their blood be upon their own heads They may think never so well of their own Works and Ways but when all is done they must take Sanctuary in that new and living Way which he consecrated for us through the veil that is his Flesh Hebr. 10. or they 're undone for ever For as we are not of kin to CHRIST but only by the Mother's side as he is flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone and God the Father doth forgive no mans sins but for Christ's Merits offer'd in our Nature upon the Cross And so doth he convey this and all other Blessings to us only through his Son as our Mediator that is through his Humanity as the only Band by which we are united and reconciled to the Divine Nature Wherefore 2. We must depend upon him also for Grace and Power against sin by virtue of his Resurrection and Life to purifie our Hearts and Consciences and keep that Tyrant Sin from reigning at least in our mortal Bodies Never did the most Gracious Prince pardon Rebels but upon that one Condition That they would turn Loyal Subjects Therefore says St. Paul if any man be in Christ he is a new Creature he has a new heart new desires new principles new life all things new He 's not the same man he 's quite chang'd like the Prodigal Son come to himself to a sense of his former follies and present wants or like the man among the Tombs who when the Devils were gone out of him sate dutifully at Jesus feet clothed and in his right mind This is indeed the hardest Chapter in all our Word of Reconciliation but yet he that runs may read it if with holy David he takes the right course Commit thy way unto the Lord and put thy trust in him and he shall bring it to pass For is there any thing impossible with God The heart of all men even of Kings says Solomon is in the hand of the Lord as Rivers of water he turneth it whithersoever he pleaseth What though Nature of it self be weak and impotent so long as it is now endued with power from on high Indeed our Saviour tells us plainly to shew us our own insufficiency without Me ye can do nothing But St. Paul as truly answers for himself and us also I can do all things through CHRIST that strengthens me And when we read that such Vertue went out of Christ whilst in the form of a Servant that it cur'd the Woman of her Bloody Issue upon but touching the Hem of his Garment why should it seem incredible that his glorified Humane Nature now he is Lord of all should distil his vertual Presence and Life upon our Souls to heal our infirmities that he should impart