Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A30672
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Not fear, but love a sermon preached before the governors of the Charity for Relief of Poor Widows and Orphans of Clergy-men, at St. Mary le Bow, on the 7th day of Decemb., 1682 / by Ar. Bury ...
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Bury, Arthur, 1624-1713.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing B6203; ESTC R37172
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30,572
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54
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Not FEAR but LOVE A SERMON PREACHED Before the Governors of the Charity for Relief of poor Widows and Orphans of Clergy-men at St. Mary le Bow on the 7 th day of Decemb. 1682. By Ar. BVRY DD. Rector of Exon. Coll. Oxon. Ama fac quicquid vis D. Aug. OXFORD Printed by L. Lichfield Printer to the University in the year 1683. ADVERTISEMENT THIS following Sermon dear Reader I send to wait upon the foregoing Treatise as being thereto both very neer of Kin and very Serviceable Neer of Kin as being a Restorer of Communion with our Lord for This laboreth to Restore our Communion with the Father and the Son to that Full joy which St. John declareth to be the Summ of his message as That doth to Restore our Communion with the Son in his Flesh and Blood to that Constancy which himself made due to it And Serviceab'l not only in casting out the spirit of Fear which is the common enemy but particularly in caling to a more strict account that Self-examination which as prescribed and practised by the best is the greatest discorager from the Lord's Supper Here tht Sermon advanceth beyond the Treatise denying it so much as adviseabl to a good person either upon That or any Other occasion I say to a good person For to others I acknowledge the Prophets admonition always necessary that they search and try their ways and turn unto the Lord but for those who have already do'n this necessary work I see no Reason to be always repeting it Many exhortations I find encoraging them to rejoice in the Lord alway but not one to be always tormenting themselvs with examining their interest in him This and another no less heterodox assertion concerning Repentance my design invited me to Touch but my time forbad me to Handl in any proportion to the need which defect I have now endeavoured to supply by additional Annotations wherein I have accounted for such texts as seem to discountenance them More or Less than this cannot be required A sound mind cannot acknowledg the Scripture to be the adequate rule of faith and manners yet fear to appeal to it But to manage the appeal is not every one's work it requireth good acquaintance with the Original language som Academical improvement of the understanding a Carefuley a Free Heart and a Good Key For the last of these we stand obliged to the great Erasmus who hath furnished us with This as the best key to understand mystical Scrpture that we observ what the speaker aims at With this key I have unlocked such texts as stood in my way And I add this to Erasmus's rule That as every particular word must be unlocked by the Author's aim as by its proper key so must every text and its particular key conform to the Universal Aim of the Gospel as their Common and Supreme King-key This then I say and inculcate and wish the whole Christian world would hear it As sure as St. John hath proclamed that this is the design of the Gospel that our joy may be full as sure as St. Paul hath determined that the Kingdom of Heaven is Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost c. so sure it is that the King-key wherewith we must unlock every abstruse text of Scripture the Test whereby we must try every Doctrine of Faith or Manners the Oracle which we must consult in all doubts of Conscience is this Whatever will most exalt the Joy of the Wise and Good is most properly Evangelical and most certainly True Were this as generally believed as throghout the whole New Testament it is plainly declared how great how happy a change would it work in the Christian world How would it advance both the Honor and Power of the Gospel How would it promote both the Joy of the Godly and the Conversion of the Profane How would it exalt the Glory of Gods love trward Us and the Ardor of Ours towards Him Whereas not to know what spirit we ate of is the most pernicios Ignorance It made our Lord's Apostls uncharitabl to the Samaritans and it still makes his best intentioned disciples Tormentors to Themselvs and Scare-crows to Others How serviceabl the discovery may be God grant Experience may verify as much as Reason promiseth beyond what this poor Sermon can express which that it may contribute its mite offers its self and its unvulgar assertions to thy most deliberate examination But remember we appeal from All Human authority to Divine Rom. X. 15. How shall they preach except they be sent as it is written How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the Gospel of Peace and bring glad tidings of good things WE shall not now consider these words as Part of an Argument but as an Entire one And since an Argument moveth more Gracefully perhaps from the Consequent to the Antecedent but more Strongly from the Antecedent to the Consequent it will be reasonab'l we should invert the Apostl's order for so we find a Sorites of three pieces The Gospel is glad tidings therefore the Messengers feet are beautiful therefore no man may preach except he be sent A Gospel A Gospel of Peace Glad tidings Good things How doth the Apost'l travel to bring forth an expression suitab'l Such glad tidings of great joy an host of Angels found worth a jorny from Heaven to bring and perhaps for that reason its first Preachers were stiled Angels of their Churches And their reception was suitab'l both to this title and those tidings You received me saith our Apost'l to the Galatians as an Angel of God even as Christ Jesus If it had been possibl you would have pluckt out your own eys and have given them unto me And here he saith not much less How beautiful are what the Lips the Eyes the Countenances yea the very Feet the very feet of Messengers the feet of Messengers in those countries where they must needs be Dirty bicause naked The charms of this beauty like Aaron's ointment run down from the Face to the very Feet And for this reason no man may take this high honour to himself but he that is caled of God as was Aaron For as this encoraged our Apost'l in his work so did it temt popularly ambitios spirits to dubl his task he must not only Execute his commission but Assert it His next words speak him no less troubled with Rivals than with Persecutors and This makes it necessary to urge as in my Text they must not preach except they be sent Thus may the order of my Text be inverted thus may it make a weighty argument not perhaps so proper to the Apost'ls own design as to that which hath brought us together If the beauty of the Preachers descend from their Heads to their very Feet needs must it descend from the head of the family to its neerest members and you may justly expect that from this expression I should take occasion to plead the right
our own defence and so far to turn Atheists as to wish there were no God Such fear as this Love certainly must cast out and it cannot be our duty to help It to cast out Love but on the contrary to cherish the Antecedent of the Apost'ls argument for the Consequent's sake We love him bicause he loved us first and thence take spurr to serv him by the mesures of thankfulness i.e. without mesure II. WE HAVE seen what an enemy Fear is to Religion in general Consider we now how much it is so to our own in particular and we shall soon discover that our enemies on Both hands the Papists and Nonconformists are made such by the spirit of Fear I. THE PAPISTS it is plain have corrupted the Gospel from a doctrine according to Godliness to a doctrine according to Interest especially in its two great limbs Faith and Repentance Articls of Faith they have multiplied and in every one multiplied difficulties on purpose to make an infallib'l guide necessary to determin them and Conditions of Repentance they have multiplied and imbittered on purpose to fright men not out of their Sins but out of their Reason and their Mony They drive men To Repentance by fear of Damnation and From Repentance by fear of its Torments and allow them no quiet but by the Priest's Absolution If now there be This only difference between Us and Them that We Drive men to Repentance by the same Fear and Torment them in it with the same Grief but do not reliev them by the same Remedies we have much less reason to wonder that som half-considering peop'l run from us to them than that so many scape the temtation especially seeing how greedily Fear and Pain catch at any however improbab'l offer of help II. That the NONCONFORMISTS on the other side are possessed by the same evil spirit needeth no other evidence but this That they are frighted from our Communion by such things as themselvs acknowledge Indifferent Fears and Jealousies fill both pages both in their Religion and Polity Their whole constitution is sowred by the melancholy humor uneasy both to Themselvs and others especially their Governors It is not possib'l in fewer and plainer words both to Describe and Condemn this unhappy spirit than we have found do'n by our Apost'l You have not receved the spirit of Fear but of Power of Love and of a Sound mind Love is opposed to Fear Power to Weakness a Sound mind to a Pained one I wish he had never spoken worse who said that to be much and long troubled with any scruple is a certain indication of a weak and cowardly spirit bicause if the weight be considerably greater in either scale the suspens will soon be ended if not the cause of doubt must be very light and to be much troubled about light maters must needs signifie great weakness Objection What then must we think any sin litl or can we be too fearful of the least Answ Distinguish between Sin Known and Sin Suspected We must more fear the least Known sin than the most cruel death But to fear that which we only Suspect to be sin as much as that which God hath declared to be so This is it self a sin against God bicause it maketh our own Suspicion equal to his Laws and against our Selvs our Country and our Governors bicause we troubl them without competent reason Our Lord's parab'l will illustrate this The Gospel is a great Lord's Fest and at such a Tab'l you may easily discern the Welbred from the Clown by the frankness of his cariage He payeth all due deference to his great Inviter careful not to do or say any thing that may offer him the least disgust nor to neglect any thing that may in any degree please him specially to cary himself with such a decent mixture of Humility and Chearfulness as may speak his joy and thankfulness for the favor do'n him In the Other you find not the least air of chearfulness but a Fear to mis-behave himself in every motion of hand or ey every bit that he bringeth To his mouth and every word that he uttereth Out of it and thus by too much fear of misbehaving himself falleth into it Thus differ the truly Religios and Superstitios the One serveth God with a Careful yet Chearful spirit will rather incurr the worst death than the least sin yet despiseth litl scrupls as unworthy to discompose his frank spirit the Other disordereth the whole frame of his conversation by timorosnes in such maters as he Knoweth to be Indifferent yet Suspecteth to be evil a mere Spiritual Clown Which of the two is best manners in the Kingdom of God our Apost'l taght both the Corinthians and Romans Both those Churches were troubled with a scruple concerning meats offered to Idols a scruple the more considerab'l bicause himself had taght them that it is impossib'l to partake the Lord's tab'l and the tab'l of Devils How doth the Apost'l treat this great question Why he spurns it as no other way considerab'l but in the mischief it might do to the peace of the Churches The Kingdom of Heaven saith he is not meat and drink but Righteosness and Peace and Joy in the holy Ghost for he that in these things serveth Christ is accepted of God and approved of men Let us therefor pursue the things that make for Peace c. Apply this decision of that Great controversy to those pety ones that troub'l our peace it will Determin them them the best way by Destroying them The Kingdom of Heaven is no more Vesture and Gesture than it is Meat and Drink Righteosness and Peace and Joy in the holy Ghost are still the best manners in sight of God and Man and to pursue the things that make for peace is still the best cours in such litl questions as endanger it We have therefore nothing to enquire but this Who best conform to this Rule They who in such small maters submit to their Governors or they who disturb the peace of the Church However obvios the answer be it is more obvios what the spirit is that maketh men in such things troublesom to themselvs and their country Nothing certainly but fearfulness can make a man so to fly his own shadow as to run into the ditch We see the Apost'l thinketh no way better to preserv the peace than by settling our Fundamental Position Peace and Joy in the holy Ghost are the best manners in the Kingdom of Heaven most pleasing to God and man and the best preservative both of Publik and Private quiet which is in other words The Gospel designeth not our Fear but our Love I HOPE I have now effectually performed the task I undertook which was not to exhaust all the contents of my Text but to dig up that root of bitterness which so undeservedly troubleth the world and especially the Ministers of the Gospel and most especially those of our Own Church who are