Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	abide_v	able_a	child_n	21	3	4.9317	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65488	Eleaven choice sermons as they were delivered by that late reverend divine, Thomas Westfield ...	Westfield, Thomas, 1573-1644.	1655 (1655)	Wing W1414A; ESTC R38251	108,074	268

it then good for can you make a hook or naile of it to hang a vessell on You may doe it with other trees if they grow unprofitable the fig-tree or the apple 〈◊〉 others when they are unprofitable and beare no fruit you may make a pin of them to hang a vessell on but the vine what is it good for surely it is good for nothing but the fire from one end to the other of it you cannot make a pin to hang a vessell on So either there must be grapes there must be fruit or woe and eternall perdition To distribute and to doe good forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased Heb. 13. 16. To doe good and to communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well pleased HEre is an Exhortation and the Reason to enforce it That Exhortation is To doe good and to communicate And then doe wee doe good when we doe communicate that good that God hath given us to the good of others Wee have done with the Exhortation Wee come to the Reason that the Apostle useth to enforce the Exhortation with all For with such sacrifices God is well pleased Hee saith not With such workes God is well pleased but with such sacrifices There are spirituall sacrifices Prayer is one and Thanksgiving another and Repentance another and Beneficence another But the thing that is offered to God in all these spirituall sacrifices is the heart A devout heart in Prayer a broken heart in Repentance a gratefull heart in Thanksgiving and a tender compassionate heart in Beneficence And it is the tendernesse and compassionatenesse and the charitablenesse of the heart that makes it a sacrifice to God and well-pleasing to him and accepted of him Againe hee doth not say This is such a sacrifice as God requires though hee doo require it too but This is such a sacrifice as God is well pleased with It is motive enough to perswade a good child to doe this or that if it be a thing that will please his father It is motive enough to perswade a faithfull honest-hearted servant to doe a thing to tell him This will please your Master It is enough to perswade any good subiect to doe this or that to assure him the thing will please his Soveraigne It is motive enough to a Christian heart to perswade him to doe good and communicate to assure him that this is a thing that God is well pleased with But yet it is not every work done not every thing that is in it of the substance of a good work that is pleasing to God there is more required then so to make a sacrifice acceptable to God There is something required in the doer and There is somewhat required in the thing done There is somewhat required in the doer First hee must be in Christ that will offer a sacrifice acceptable to God Take these Rules First If the person of a man please not God his works can never please him God accepted Abel and his sacrifice Abel first and then his sacrifice God never accepts a mans offering till first hee accept of his person Now God accepts of no mans person but in Christ this is hee in whom I am well pleased The Apostle calls Christ the Sonne of Gods love and there are none that ever God loves but hee loves them in his Sonne the Sonne of his love Col. 1. 13. That is one ground Another is Though a work be good as it comes from the Spirit of God the Author of all goodnesse yet it cannot come thorow our fingers but wee soyle it All our righteousnesses are as menstruous cloaths If God should bee extreme to marke what is done amisse in our best works who were able to abide it Even as the offering of the children of Israel it was called a holy offering yet as holy as it was there was some iniquity in that holy offering but that was laid on Aaron and when hee bare the iniquity of all the other the men and their workes were accepted So it is here the workes of a Christian man may be good workes good in substance because they are works that God requires at his hands Then they may be good in the fountaine when they spring from the Author of all goodnesse And good in the end because they are done to the glory of God and the good of our brethren But yet as there was some iniquity did cleave to the holy offering of the children of Israel as holy as it was so there is some iniquity cleaves to our good worke how good soever it be when that iniquity that cleaves to our workes is laid upon Christ who in his owne body on the tree bare the iniquity of us all then our persons and workes are graciously accepted and all the iniquity that cleaves to our workes mercifully pardoned This is the first thing What is required in the doer to make his beneficence acceptable to God But here is not all there is something required in the thing done and that I shall shew you in the remainder of the time by Gods grace And I shall lay it down in foure Rules The first is about the end And you must not wonder that I begin at the end for howsoever the end is the thing last attained yet it is the thing first intended it is the first thing in a mans intention And besides God regards not so much quid as propter quid not so much what wee doe as for what we doe A man may doe good works for ill ends and then hee must not look that God should accept them It is the end that commends the action Now there are three ill ends of doing good works One end that some propound to themselves in doing good works is to make satisfaction to divine iustice for the sins they have committed The Apostle would have us doe good works for necessary uses but God never appointed this use of good works Our good works may be tokens of our secret predestination they may be fore tokens of our future happinesse but to think that by doing good wee can make recompense and satisfaction to divine iustice and appease the infinite wrath of God for sinne before the which the very Angels themselves are not able to stand it is a senslesse and gracelesse fancie tending much to the dishonour of Christ and that all-sufficient satisfaction that hee hath made for the sinnes of the world when hee offered up his flesh a sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour to God That is one ill end Secondly some propound another end that is to merit eternall blisse by it And our English men Rhemists Romish English men by birth and Rhemists by education and Romish by profession oft times stand to it to prove that good works are truly and properly meritorious ex condigno even of very condignity In so much say they in their Comment upon Heb. 6. Good works are so farre meritorious that God were uniust

stranger honoured among the Hittites as a Prince of God and had a choyce given him of a Sepulchre amongst the choycest of their Sepulchers Genesis 23. Jehoida that reverend High-Priest lived in honour and dyed as full of honour as of dayes having been matched in Marriage with the Sister of the King and buried in the City of David among the Kings and this was because hee had done good in Israel towards God and towards his house 2 Chron. 24. ver 16. But what doe I speak of such eminent Persons Saint John Baptist in his Eremiticall retired course of life wanted not his honour not onely among the people who held a common constant opinion of him that he was a Prophet but even with Herod the King who both feared him and observed him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because he was a just and an holy man Goodnesse may command honour when greatnesse must begge it It is this honour which nourisheth Arts Learning would soone decay if this honour were taken from it This encourageth to virtuous actions Virtutis Valerius Maximus uberrimum nutrimentum honos It is this that putteth a man upon the greatest services David durst adventure to fight with the Philistine after hee had heard how the man should be honoured that slew him There is no noble or generous spirit but doth value honour at the highest rate Interesse honoris est majus omni alio Interesse Wee reade of many in Gentile Stories as Ajax Brutus Antony Cato Uticensis and others which have willingly rid themselves of life to rid themselves of some dishonour Did not Saul the like in holy Scripture when hee fell upon his owne sword Did not Sampson the like when hee pulled the house upon his owne head and upon the heads of the Philistines that had so dishonoured him It troubled not Abimelech to thinke that hee should die it troubled him when wretched man hee should have thought of something else to thinke that he should die so dishonourably by the hand of a woman Judg. 9. ver 54. What hath caused so many duells and mortall quarrells between noble and generous spirits as that same too quick and sensible apprehension of some wrong done unto them in honour Doe but looke upon examples of Gods children in Scriptures You shall finde Elisha never so provoked or so unable to dissemble his provocation as when he was dishonoured though it were by wanton and waggish children Holy Job complaineth of nothing more than of that derision and scorn which he suffered from them whose fathers he would have disdained to have set with the dogs of his flock they were men of no Name viler than the earth and yet these men abhorred him and spared not to spit in his face Job 30. Miserrimum est fuisse foelicem hee telleth in the former Chapter in what honour hee had lived it went nearer therefore his heart to be thus dishonoured Wee never reade that good Nehemiah did use any imprecation against those sworne enemies of his Sanballat and Tobijah the Ammonite but only upon their contumelious reproaches Heare us saith hee for wee are despised O our God Turne their reproaches upon their owne head and give them for a prey in the Land of captivity Nehem. 4. ver 4. Have mercy upon us O Lord cry the people And again Have mercy upon us Why what ail they Wee are exceedingly say they filled with contempt our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorne of those that are at ease and with the contempt of the proud Psal 123. 3 4. What need I by more examples shew you how Gods children doe complaine of dishonours One of the bitterest ingredients in that Cup which our crucified Lord did drink for us was shame and dishonour which did wring from him that complaint in the midst of his sufferings Vermis ego non homo I am a worme and no man a scorne of men and the out-cast of the people Psal 22. ver 6. And indeed in that kind of death on the Crosse it is a question whether the paine or shame is greater but that glorious Author and finisher of our Faith both endured the paine of the Crosse and despised the shame and is now set downe at the right hand of the throne of God Hebr. 12. 4. and if wee desire to raigne with him wee must be content to suffer with him and learne to contemne that contempt that the world shall cast upon us in his cause hee was thus vile for us and how vile soever wee are for him wee are still to resolve with David that wee will be yet more vile than so THe two next Antitheta are good report and Good report and Evill report evill report 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bona fama Infamia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is first but how irksome and odious that is to us will best appeare when I have first shewed unto you how precious and comfortable a good report is But let me tell you first three things First we must not look for it from all men Woe unto you saith our Lord when all men speak well of you Luke 6. ver 26 It is enough if wee be well-reported of by the most yea it is enough if though wee be not of the most it be by the best Secondly wee must not looke for it alwaies from the mouthes of men Wee commend our selves saith S. Paul to every mans conscience in the sight of God 2 Corinth 4. 2. Our persons and actions may peradventure receive a good approbation from the consciences of men when wee cannot get a good word from their lips Thirdly we must not look for it at all times it is not alwaies a blessing it may sometimes doe us hurt an ill use sometimes may be made of a good report if the proud heart of the man sit and blesse it selfe in that for which hee is well reported and a good use may be made of an ill report when a man by it is made either cautior or humilior either more humble for what is past or more wary for afterward but a good report from the mouth of good men and from the conscience of evill men at such time as it may bring honour to God or good to us is to be reckoned amongst one of the greatest blessings of this life though it be no virtue yet it hath the originall from virtue therefore saith the Apostle Si qua Virtus si qua Laus Virtus first and then Laus Phil. 1. 8. First it is bonum utile accounted a second Patrimony Honesta fama alterum patrimonium rather to be chosen then great riches saith Solomon Proverb 22. ver 1. then a thousand great treasures of Gold saith the son of Syrach Ecclus. 41. 12. Ast Plautus in Mostellaria ego si bonam famam servasso sat ero dives saith one in the Comedy if I shall keep my credit I am rich enough Secondly bonum jucundum