Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	aaron_n	beard_n	body_n	41	3	4.7569	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62257	The sacred rite of confirmation discoursed of in a sermon preach'd at Okeham in the county of Rutland at a confirmation there administred ... on May 17, 1683 / by John Savage ...	Savage, J. (John), 1645-1721.	1683 (1683)	Wing S770; ESTC R34219	24,508	36

Gospel a ready entertainment Some that would vilifie this holy Office as it is now administred pretend that none but such extraordinary gifts were at this time conferr'd and that for the constituting of a Church and enabling them to propagate the Faith But how weak and frivolous this assertion is appears from the number of these confirmed Samaritans who in all probability were all that believed and were baptized and those v. 6. were the people with one accord from the least to the greatest v. 10. both men and women v. 12. Now is it likely that a whole City which according to its name was not onely for stateliness of Palaces but multitude of inhabitants august and venerable should be destined and set apart by the Apostles to the holy Ministry What kind of Church were they likely to found at Samaria where like a Dover-court all should be speakers and no hearers especially where so many women were permitted to tattle what a uniform body was this likely to be which should be made up of Eyes and Tongues and Hands and no other Members to secure it from being monstrous whereas St. Paul tells us The body is not one member but many and the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal The holy oyntment that was poured on Aarons head ran down his beard even to the skirts of his cloathing and these great effusions of the Spirit were extended though not in the same yet in a sufficient measure to the meanest of Christs members In Acts 2.41 we read of three thousand souls converted in one day and in Chap. 4.31 we find that the place was shaken where they were assembled together and they were all filled with the holy Ghost Here was an extraordinary confirmation and yet no extraordinary gists as we read of bestowed all that is recorded of the effects of this holy Spirits descent is this that they spake the word of God with boldness that they were endowed with a true Christian courage and magnanimity to profess the Gospel nowithstanding the greatest discouragements they met with 'T is not unlikely but that in answer to their Prayers v. 30. God stretched forth his hand to heal and signs and wonders were done by the Name of his holy child Jesus but that any such new gifts were then bestowed we have no ground from Scripture to affirm and that so many thousands should be miraculously impowr'd to preach the Gospel in our modern sense we have no reason to believe Besides those extraordinary Gifts bestowed upon particular persons for special ends and purposes there were the ordinary and internal Gifts of the Holy Spirit the Gratiae gratos facientes that were common unto them all and did render them acceptable unto God Such were the inlightning of their minds the inflaming of their affections the endowing them with meekness and patience with courage and comfort the inward assistances of this Spirit by which their Faith was strengthned their Hope confirm'd their Charity enlarg'd and all their good desires became vertuous habits and all their holy resolutions arm'd with strength for their performance The former sort of Gifts were of a temporary nature to continue no longer than the infancy of the Church then requir'd they were signa tempori opportuna adapted to its present necessities but the second sort of Gifts are proper to all Ages and therefore to continue till the dissolution of the World according to that of St. Chrys in his 13th Hom. on St. Mat. thus englished by a Reverend and Learned Prelate of our Church Bish Sparrow's Ration p. 311 In the beginning of spiritual and marvellous Dispensations outward signes appeared to confirm the new-preached Faith but now that the Faith is sufficiently confirm'd although such Miracles be not wrought yet we receive those inward Graces and Vertues which were signified and demonstrated by those signes Now those Signes were the Gifts by which Simon Magus was at first detected at Samaria and at last baffled at Rome by these the Wise men and the Scribes were silenc'd the Athenian Philosophers confounded and the honest-hearted both Jews and Heathens converted This was the demonstration of Spirit and of Power which the Apostles and their immediate Successours did exercise and yet they did not make the comers thereunto perfect They were Gifts highly admirable and stupendious in themselves and as desirable for their effects and yet as desirable as they were I can shew you out of St. Paul a more excellent way and that is the second thing propos'd viz. II. That the consequents of it now upon its present administration by Episcopal are altogether as valuable as those were that heretofore proceeded from Apostolical hands The speaking strange Languages was a gift highly advantageous to the Church in general but did not sanctifie the heart or create any inward Grace in him that had it Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels and have not charity I am become as sounding Brass or as a tinkling Cymbal The working of Miracles was proper to produce Reverence in the Beholders and to command their assent to what should be delivered but though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains and have no charity 1 Con. 13.1 2. says St. Paul I am nothing Charity is the Bond of Perfectness the height and eminency of all Christian Vertues 't is that which actuates and invigorates all other Graces without which Faith would be dead and Hope would be presumptuous This intirely unites us unto God and makes us love our Neighbour as our selves This fixes our resolutions and arms us against all manner of Temptations This keeps us low and Infantlike under the most prosperous successes and buoys up our souls from under the hardest pressures This makes us humble and condescending to our Inferiours courteous and affable to our Equals lowly and submissive notwithstanding the greatest disappointments we meet with to our Superiours Finally to conclude this is the Holy Ghost in the Text I mean the complement and perfection of all his Graces that the persons now to be confirmed are to be filled with The promise of the Holy Ghost Acts 2.39 as St. Peter told the Jews was unto them and to their children and to all that are afar off afar off not onely in distance of place but in distance of time and relation and this promise though not of miraculous Gifts yet of what infinitely outweighs them the internal sanctifying Graces of his Spirit the fruits whereof are Love Joy Gal. 5.22 Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith Meekness Temperance that very Promise will on this day be perform'd and these Graces will now be communicated if they themselves do not put a bar and hinder the efficacy of this holy Office And that you may be confirm'd in the belief of this great truth let me request you to consider well the third thing propos'd viz. III. That the seeming disproportion betwixt the outward means and

and prayed And for this cause how I my knees unto the God and Father c. And he requires the Christians to lift up holy hands without wrath or doubting 1 Tim. 2.8 So ceremonious were Christ and his Apostles that they would not sit when they could kneel they would not irreverently lean upon their elbows when they could lift up holy hands Sitting or leaning if that can be proved to have been the posture was well enough becoming the Apostles at the first institution of the Lords Supper Christ being then in the flesh in his state of humiliation and not requiring from them then those outward tokens of Divine Worship or Adoration But now being glorified as God and challenging obeysance from Men and Angels Holy Church for good reason hath changed that posture of Leaning for this of Kneeling For although we have known Christ after the flesh and leaning in his bosom might be the effect of his great condescention yet seeing we know him so no more seeing he hath declared himself to be Alpha and Omega the first and the last Rev. 1.8 11. God blessed for ever 't is fit we should change that familiar way of communicating with him and lest we should be accounted Socinians who use a Table-gesture as not owning the Divinity of our Saviour with all humility upon our knees revere and adore not the Consecrated Elements but the glorified Person of the Blessed Jesus But that we may speak particularly to the instance that is here before us the Apostles were not scrupulous to use this ceremony in the Text although joyned with Prayer a substantial part of Divine Worship nay although it was amongst the Samaritans who from a Doctrine that our Saviour had taught them might be as much prejudiced against such practices as our lately nice and scrupulous Dissenters They might have objected after this manner Did not your Master in whose name ye teach tell a woman of our City that God is a Spirit St. John 4.24 25. and he that will worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth and do you his pretended Disciples come into our City and act contrary to your Masters Doctrine either renounce your pretended Discipleship or lay aside these childish and Superstitious Ceremonies which are so inconsistent with the worshipping of God in Spirit and in Truth 'T is true the Samaritans might have objected this but we find they were wiser than to do so they well understood that our Saviour in that saying of his alluded to the Religion to which they had hitherto been addicted 2 Kings 17.24 26 29. a Religion of a mixt nature consisting of Jewish Sacrifices offered up not onely to the God of Israel but to Heathen Idols and therefore she hour would come when those Jewish Sacrifices would be laid aside and God would be worshipped with the spirits of men and not with the bodies of Bulls and of Goats and those Heathen Idols which are vanity or a lye must be dasht to pieces and God who is the eternal truth must be worshipped by them This they knew to be our Saviours meaning and that such innocent ceremonies were no way inconsistens with that Spiritual worship he required So that you see though these were babes in Christ and as tenderly to be dealt with as new-born Infants yet this ceremony joyned with Prayer as the Apostles would not wave it so the Samaritans were wiser than to be scandalized at it This then being a plain and undeniable truth that innocent and significant Ceremonies may lawfully be used in the Church of Christ Proceed we to the second thing II. To inquire into the nature of this particular Ceremony what it is significative of c. I need not tell you that the hand is the member or instrument by which we bestow our largesses or convey our gifts and kindnesses to others nor that even Nature carries the Fathers hand towards the Childs head although at that instant he knows not how or why he does it when he outwardly prays for or inwardly wishes him a blessing The Eastern Heathens were not strangers to this custom Naaman the Syrian being offended at the Prophet for directing him to so unlikely a cure as washing seven times in the River Jordan 2 Kings 5.9 huffingly replyed I thought he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the Name of the Lord his God and strike or lay his hands over the place and recover the leper And that this Ceremony long before the giving of the Law was usually joyned with paternal benedictions is plain from the Father of the Patriarchs Gen. 48.14 who by prayer and imposition of hands blessed the Sons of Joseph Under the Law the consecration of things or persons to the service of God Num. 8.10.12 was by Divine appointment to be performed by laying on of hands So when Moses made Joshua partner with him in his Government and conveyed to him the right of succession Num. 27.18 by Gods commandment he laid his hands upon him by which he did not onely impart the honour but the more necessary qualifications of Majesty for by this he became full of the spirit of wisdom Moses having laid his hands upon him Deut. 34.9 And as Blessings spiritual and temporal were convey'd by imposition of hands under the Law so our Saviour and his Apostles under the Gospel thought good to retain that Ceremony when they recovered the Sick when they absolv'd the Penitents when they blessed Infants when they Confirm'd the Baptized and when they ordain'd Priests and Deacons To instance in each of these would require more time than is here allotted it s own evidence makes it sufficient that I hint unto you that in all these several Offices together with the substantial duty of Prayer they made use of this very antient Ceremony and that probably for these two Reasons 1. To lignifie that at that time there were true and real not airy or imaginary Blessings convey'd to the partakers for what can be more real than the Spirit of Wisdom and godly Fear what can be more real than Courage and Magnaniimty sufficient to conquer the World and baffle the strongest Enemies of mankind as I shall have occasion presently to shew and what could better signifie the real exhibition of these than laying their Hands on them 2. To signifie that the Bishops and Pastors of the Church were the ordinary Means and Instruments the Hands which God makes use of to convey his Gifts and communicate his Blessings unto men Such publick and solemn Offices as these wherein extraordinary Blessings were invocated as they were not rudely and nakedly to be administred without the decent attendance of some significant Ceremonies so neither were they to be perform'd nor the Blessings to be expected without the ministration of consecrated persons 'T is their Office to attend us from our Birth to our Grave by their hands we are regenerated in the laver of Baptism