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	absolute_a	promise_n	41	3	6.2686	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85985	The blessed peace-maker and Christian reconciler: intended for the healing of all unatural and unchristian divisions, in all relations: according to the purport of that divine oracle, pronounced by the Prince of Peace himself, Matth. 5.9. By Claudius Gilbert, B.D. minister of the Gospel at Limrick.	Gilbert, Claudius, d. 1696?	1658 (1658)	Wing G701; Thomason E939_3; ESTC R202209	119,212	155

that wherein God himself delights so far to shew himself active in all kind of Means that it must needs direct oblige and enable them to conform to him after their measure in their several places Every Creature moves after his kind by its proper instinct so doth the New Creature This Bent and Motion being natural is sweet and secret strong and successfull No difficulty can alter the same though it may for a while retard and hinder it The Children of God must needs be like God in the work of Peace as in all things else Nature being vexed gathers all it strength for the overcoming of all Opposition Vexata natura seme● mir● prodit Antiperistasis and surrounding contra-positions do often drive it into very strange and admirable effects The gracious nature given to Gods people meeting continually with such oppositions both from Earth and Hell is excited the more to recollect vigor out of Christs fulness and to work wonders through his Almighty Spirit for Peace against evil Reason 2. Gods Children have his charge imposed on them as well as his Nature thus put into them Their filial Relation engages them to this as it doth enable to that Having embraced Mercy on conjugal terms they have also engaged to Duty That gracious Covenant that gives them such a priviledge in giving Christ to them doth also afford them his Divine Precepts that they may know and discharge their Part. As he gives up himself to be wholly theirs in a faithful loving relation so doth he require their mutual subjecting of themselves in all loving and faithful Obedience That same Covenant which makes him to be theirs makes them likewise to be wholly His As he becomes their Master they become his Scholars As he becomes their Lord they become his Servants to attend his Will and to do his Work Ye are my friends saith he if ye do what ever I command you and hereby shall men know that ye are my Disciples if ye love one another in the wayes of Peace as I have loved you His Covenant with them is a Covenant of Peace as of Grace by Grace in Grace and for Grace A gracious Peace is the choise Mercy that he gives them and the choise Duty he expects from them This new Commandment is the substance of the new Covenant As his Promise engages him to write it on their heart so his Precept engages them to Copy it out in their life The Transcript of his Will he engraves on them by the hand of his Spirit that they may transcribe it by the hand of Faith in the work of Peace-making They must keep his charge being kept by him he fulfils to them his absolute Promises by enabling and exciting them to the performance of the conditional Ones He cannot abide Loyterers in his house nor Rebels in his Kingdom His Instructions are many and exact often enlarged and inculcated that none be found to neglect this great Work either through ignorance or sloth There is nothing more mannerly then Grace Who should have good breeding if Gods Children should not partake of it Ingenuity will teach all Inferiors to observe the charge of their Superiors though but fellow-Creatures Will it not much more prevail with Gods People to look to his charge who is so far infinitely above all What ever Traytors Enemies and Strangers may do against it yet his near Relations must needs find themselves obliged by all Ties to keep touch therein Encouragements he adds of all sorts in the back of his charge to add more force to its Efficacy His Precepts never want his Presence and Blessing which commends such a dignifying Duty so much the more to all his Children Because they are his his Work must be theirs to honor and bless them in acting like him through him and for him Reason 3. Gods Interest attends the Relation of his Children to him and gives sufficient ground of their being such Peace-makers in a peculiar way All things are his in a general sense by Creation and Providence-right but his Children are his peculiar Stock his Inheritance his Portion and Jewels by Redemption and Salvation-Right Other Sublunaries do serve his designs in a natural and common course of things often against their Will and besides their Knowledge But his Children are made for his Glory to serve his pleasure cordially towards Peace He is singularly concerned in them and they as choisly concerned in h m. His Interest is theirs then must needs his Work and his Peace be theirs This choise Duty faithfully performed glorifies him so much that it cannot but dignifie them much The dishonour of their quarrels and brawls doth cast so much reflection on him that the sence thereof must of necessity work much on them so far as they are his All his Attributes are laid in the dust by the disorders of his dividing People How can the though s thereof be ineffectual upon his own Children They rend his bowels whilst they rend each other Can his People see it and not labour for help In all their sufferings he is afflicted incomparably beyond what they endure as far as his Being and Interest excell theirs That Text in Esay admits such reading in many coppies In all their Affliction there was no Affliction comparable to his or He made it no Affliction to them by the presence of his Angel with them who took all on himself by Divine Sympathie Must it not therefore be their Property to sympathize with him as well for their own as for his Interest Are not Gods Children the Members of Christs Body and can they chuse but feel at their heart those sinful jars that reach his very heart Peace-making must needs be the dignifying Duty of Christians since Christs Interest is so much concerned therein and all his Attributes so much advanced thereby in the magnifying of all Divine Excellencies The Son of God himself made it his great Work in his progress from Humiliation to Exaltation that he might direct excite and enable his Adopted Brethren to the same according to their several Capacities Vse 1. The Application of this Truth offers 1. To our Inspection the ungodliness of our unchristian Divisions How few appear among us to be Gods Children How hard is it to meet with such cordial Peace-makers How unlike to God do Professors shew themselves in such Labyrinths of disorders and discords How much of Satan appears thereby in the most How little of God in the best of men What ungodliness is this Spirit of division come to thus to slight and oppose the Nature the charge and Interest of God! Its bad enough for carnal Persons and wicked Ones to quarrel and break but for Gods Children to wrangle and divide to slash and abuse each other this is ungodliness with a witness How sad is this evil aggravated by all our Professions and Engagements our Relations and Experiences Gods Mercies and Judgements our Dignity and Duty How woful to see our

and employed by him as Zerubbabel was to lay Foundations and rear up the Top stone of his Temple it s his favour dignifying them in the noblest way All the great Mountains of obstructions and difficulties shall become plain before such Instruments That any Nehemiah-like are honoured by him to repair the ruines of his house and Kingdom to restore his Temple City and Worship to fence both Church and State with a defensive Wall and setled Orders for each Relation it s of his Grace and for his Glory If any Samaritans without or false Brethren within discourage his servants in so great a work they shall have little credit or thanks for their labour If any Sanballats and Tobia's Geshems and Rehums gain now so much upon our Shemaias Noadiahs and other professed Reformers by their Impostures affinities and Baits as by false Prophesies and Insinuations to weaken our Rulers hands and debauch any of our Helpers their Judgement slumbers not What pitty it is that the glory of our Reforming Worthies should be so unworthily impaired and ecclipsed Hath not the Lord promised they shall be Repairers of our Breaches and Restorers of Paths to lead all his people into the wayes of Peace Should they not use all means in each Relation as becomes his eminent Instruments to fulfil his will and promote his end They shall fare no worse then Nehemiah's who are still active for God and his people as Nehemiah was through the help of Heaven Secondly The Ministers of Christ are also peculiarly concern'd in the great matters of a blessed Peace They are signally called thereto and employed about it by the God of Peace whose Embassadors they are Their Office and Commission challenges from them all possible diligence and care to the producing and preserving the restoring and propogating thereof All their Insignia and honorary Titles import clearly so much All their Gifts and Graces should concur still harmoniously thereto Their various functions qualifications and Operations should unite still in this one Center as they all flow from one and the same God Lord a nd Spirit that blessed Trin-Vnity So far as they labor to agree with him and with each other in him so far hath he promised that he would create the fruits of their Lips to be Peace Peace to him that is near and to him that is far of whether Jew or Gentile within or without Should not therefore such Messengers of Peace be most active and self-denying about their Masters work Should not all our Spirits be mightily inflamed with the Zeal of Gods House for his Glory and his peoples Peace How can we take a view of his Sacred Word and not be strongly moved thereto by so many Precepts and Promises prefigurations and Presidents so full of vigour and efficaciousness Have we not been too long followers of Levi joyning with Simeon in his former part to dishonour God and disgrace our selves by sinful mistakes and miscarriages the breeders of dismal wranglings and jars both with God and man though often coloured with Religion and conscience Is it not time to imitate Levi in his best and later part whilst our God is proving of us about our Massah and Meribbah in our wilderness and hour of tempting Contentions Should not we Levi-like be so sensible of our former provocations as to execute a holy Revenge by an impartial hand upon our rebellious and dividing Lusts that his Urim and Thummim the burning Lights of his Perfections may rest on us and animate us to his blessed Work and End Should it not be our industrious study and scope desire and delight design and labour to advance this in our respective charges and occasions Should we not with renewed vigour pray and believe wait and endeavour with mutual helpfulness till all Gods Promises be effectually fulfilled in all parts Is it not pitty that any of us should still entertain a selfish and dividing spirit which hath been found so wofully sinful in all sorts of men and especially among Ministers Should not the many Conjurations of the common Enemy quicken us the more into orderly Associations upon Christs account according to his Word Should not the sad experiences of our own and others follies teach us that Wisdom which coming from above is first Pure and then peaceable gentle and easie to be entreated that the fruit of Righteousness may be sown in Peace by such blessed Peace-makers Why should we not priZe an Act of Oblivion among all Christs friends and bury in Christs Grave all those Names and causes of Division that have crucified the Lords Name and Cause in the crucifying of our Peace Why should one be said to be of Paul another of Apollo another of Cephas May it not suffice us to be called Christians whilst we agree in the faith and holiness of Christ Why should circumstantial differences among Christs servants make such material distances and partition walls as long as we agree in the substance and main of Christianity Why should not we bear with each other as we would be born with that we may the better unanimously oppose the Fundamental enemies of his Truth and Grace that would destroy our Peace Why should we not own each other and walk together in all possible correspondency as far as our light reaches that we may the more amicably and efficaciously be helpful to each other through the Lords blessing in other things not so clear to us The Lord so teach us this mysterious Act of blessed Peace-making that we may still be practising thereof to the rolling away of our Reproach and Israelsshame that the Prince of Peace may own us in his Work and setle among us whilst we are labouring to own him and his in all the wayes of Peace All private Christians should likewise be moved to attend this Grand Interest of theirs wrapped up with Christs own in such a blessed Peace from his Divine Oracle speaking to all his in the following Tract The Contents THe Coherence of the Context page 1 The Text opened p. 2 I. Proposition Peace is a blessed thing The explanation thereof ibid. What an evil peace peace in evil means ibid. What a good peace peace in good imports p. 4 Eternal peace with God what ibid. Internal peace in man what p. 6 External peace with Man what ibid. Ecclefiastical peace Political peace p. 7 Confirmation ibid. Demonstration in three Branches 1. Reason from the blessed Author considered Essentially p. 8 Personally p. 9 Reason 2. From the blessed Nature of it p. 10 Reason 3. From the blessed Adjuncts thereof p. 11 Truth and Grace Righteousness and Holiness Joy and Bliss the happy Companions of Peace p. 12 Use Application 1. Information in two Corollaries 1. The sinfulness of sin ibid. 2. The wofulness of Division and Discord p. 13 Schism Characterized p. 14 Object Is not separation commanded and commended Answ 1. A Christian must separate from evil p. 15

made throughly sensible of their guilt and shame How far are the best from an exact performance of this great Duty How unlike are we to this dignifying Property of Gods People How short come we of that peaceable Spirit and Carriage that should te●tifie ou● gracious acquaintance with the Nature Charge and Interest of Christ the great Peace-maker Le ts all be humbled deeply before him at the sight and sence of so much unworthiness Let the conviction of our foolish mistakes and woful miscarriages awaken and shame us Doth the Lord suffer so much in his Cause Credit and Charge through our sinful jars and shall we not mourn Have we been such peevish and perverse Children and not judge our selves Have we so basely slighted such a Father in that which is so dear unto him and shall we not grieve Have we abused our Brethren and Fellow-servants so unworth ly and shall we not express the regret thereof Is not the fault of a child of a near Relation much more provoking then of any stranger Hath not our God used all possible means to teach us manners and press us with all might to Christian Peace-making Are not our wretched distractions much more provoking now to him and to all because of all the great cost and care he hath been at on a better account Have we lost our ingenuity have we forgotten our Duty and Interest so desperately as still to be senceless of our folly and misery herein Hath Satan so far deluded us hath sin prevailed so to the hardening of us that we see not the apparent ruin of all publique and personal Good following close our unnatural divisions our uncivil disorders All our miscarriages reflect on the Lord who will not alwayes bear with our frowardness His dearest people of old were frowned on and chid threatned and smitten very heavily for lesser faults then ours Their renewed Crimes after much indulgence from his fatherly hand forced him to turn them out of doors and disinherit them He bids us all go to his Shiloh where his presence dwelt and learn by the desolations thereof to observe the fruits of disorders and divisions in his Kingdom and Family All his dispensations to them were for Types and Examples to us to shame us all for those many sins wherein we so far exceed them The woful Ruins of so many Churches once so flourishing in each part of the World should prove a powerfull warnning to us all If we be indeed the children of God let it appear by our ingenuous shaming of our selves for our unchristian abusing of him in abusing his Peace his People and our selves so groundlesly and so frequently so sinfully and so wofully Vse 3. This Truth may be improved by way of Discovery Hence may we enquire into our own State and take a Prospect of the Posture of Affairs within and without us Doth this character of God● children dignifie us and others Is it ou● eminent property to be Peace makers Do we act herein in a way becoming the children of God This is a needfull and usefull enquiry for all sorts of persons in this self-deceiving and hypocritical Age so full of mistakes and distempers Bring we the case to the Lords own Test measure it by the line of the Sanctuary Do we act about Peace from him and like him for him and through him as becomes his Children 1. Do we act from God about all the matters of his Peace Is he our Principle and source of all spiritual activeness Is he the Supreme efficient of all good in us and to us Are we born again of his gracious Spirit to make us new creatures that we might walk in newness of Life As we have born the Image of the earthly do we now bear the Image of the heavenly Adam Do we receive from Christ the second Adam the Root and seed of spiritual Life as we received from the first Adam the Spawn and Beginnings of natural Life We naturally grow wild as the timber in the Forest as stones in the Pit and rock Hath the Lord hewen and digged us down by the hand of his Spirit with the tools of his Word and Providence to square and polish us for his spiritual Edifice Hath he translated us from death to life that were naturally dead in sins and trespasses Hath he by his Gospel-salve opened our eyes to turn us from darkness unto light and from the power of Satan to God Hath he poured clean waters upon us that we might be effectually cleansed from all our filthiness and from all our dividing Idols A new heart also hath he given us and a new Spirit hath he put within us Hath he taken away the stony heart out of our flesh and given us a new heart of flesh Hath he put his Spirit within us to cause us to walk in his Statutes that we may keep his Judgements and do them Hath he washed us in the Laver of Regeneration through the renewing of the holy Ghost shed on us abundantly according to his gracious Promises Hath the Lord thus begotten us again unto a lively hope through the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead that we might enjoy and promote Peace Have we put off the old man which is corrupt after its deceitfull lusts and put on the new man which af●er God is created in Righteousness and true holiness Have we learned in his school to strip us of self that we may put on Christ for our Garment Have we received his effectual Call to obey it efficaciously in order to his Peace Hath his Spirit convinced us applicatively of sin of Righteousness and of Judgement Hath he brought us into to the wilderness that he might speak to our hearts therein words of Grace and Peace Hath he given himself in giving us his Son upon conjugal terms by his sanctifying Spirit and have we thereby been enabled to surrender up our selves unto him by a lively faith of his own working Do we through faith partake of those gracious Promises which make us Partakers of the Divine Nature to escape the pollutions that are in the world through lust Doth Christ thus dwell in our heart by faith that being grounded and rooted in him we may thence receive out of his fulness Grace for Grace in order to Peace Doth he draw us so powerfully by the inward cords of his Spirits motions and the outward Bands of his Word and Providence as to make us to run after him and follow him fully in all the wayes of Peace Is he the Load-stone that draws our Iron-hearts by Magnetical virtue into all sutable operations Is he the Treasure the Magazin of all our supplies the Ground and foundation of all our desires delights designs and labors about all kind of Peace Do we thus receive and act all from him not from any Creature within or without us to manifest our selves his Children Secondly Do we act like him in

your profuse lavishing of all he had bestowed on you Is it not best for you to close with Christs terms for a sure Peace between God and you that you may be advanced in his house and Kingdom among his children to the dignifying property of blessed Peace-makers in every Relation Is there any thing in his Articles of Peace to be stuck at on any consideration Is there any Mercy in his Al-sufficiency that you may not receive in your conjugal entertaining of him Is there any Duty required of you that is not most just and Rational equal and beneficial Is there any Lust in your heart or Life that deserves not to be wholly crucified being so poisonous and so desperate an Enemy to all Good Is there any creature to be compared with or preferred before Christ Is there any part of your Religious self that can in the least satisfie Gods justice avert his wrath or merit his favour Is there any Good Divine or Humane that attends not his Peace Is there any Evil from God or the Creature that accompanies not that sinfull Peace which opposes and undermines Gods Peace Be then perswaded utterly to break with Sin with Self and Satan that you may conclude with God in Christ through his Holy Spirit according to the Tenure of his Gracious Covenant Accept of him so as to resign up your whole self to him freely and fully surely and singularly As he engages for Mercy on his part be engaged also for Duty on your part that his Gracious Covenant may be compleated by such a cordial Reciprocation Receive by Faith what his Spirit gives that you may through his Help return in Duty what you receive in Mercy Improve his Promises to obey his Precepts Yield your heart to him to mend it for you that you may mend your wayes towards him Be you wholly His that you may know him to be wholly ours Let your Peace with him in the Court of Heaven be so well ratified by mutual consent that your Peace within may be thence evidenced by due Reflections in your own conscience through the Irradiations of his renewing Spirit in that Christal Glass washed in his Blood and purified from its defilements Thence attend that noble work of Peace both in Spiritual and Civil Relations which will characterize your Nature and Name among the Children of the God of Peace 2. The Friends of Peace should hence be exhorted to make good their Dignity and Duty as becomes the Sons of the most High Hath any of you concluded Peace with God in Christ by his Spirit upon Gospel-terms Have you thence enjoyed a pacified conscience through the purging Vertue of his Blood and Grace effectually applyed to your Soul by his Spirits saving Operations in his Word and Providence Have you learned in the School of Christ what that good Peace imports in each Society and condition of Men which is such a Blessing and so blesses all those children of God who make it their Business to be Peace-makers Do not all these Bonds twisted by the Lords hand oblige you strongly to attend this Work to the very utmost that you may act therein from him and like him for him and through him Are not the Vows of our Grand Peace-maker upon all His in a special manner engaging his children to demonstrate their Relation to him by the most effectual Improvement of such a Dignifying Property Be we then hence stirred up in earnest to make this our Business and to follow it with all prudent Zeal through the supplies of his Holy Spirit in each Relation and Occasion whether in the Church State or Family The Doors of Gods Sanctuary were made of Olive-Wood the choise Embleme of Peace Le ts believe and pray wait and labor in all fit means appointed of God gill those blessed Gates be opened unto us that the righteous Nation which keeps the Truth may enter thereby into the Rest and Glory of Christs Kingdom Let our Dignity quicken us to Duty and our Duty lead us to Dignity Observe we hence how to carry it towards all Friends Strangers and Enemies 1. Towards Friends in all Expressions of unfained Love and hearty compliance so far as Gods Honour their Good and our Duty will prescribe to us Let all the Friends of Christ be counted and used as our best Friends though some of them may be found weak sickly and froward should not our carriage and mind towards them answer the Lords mind and carriage according to his Word Turks and Jews Heathens and Papists labour to agree shall not Christians agree as far as they can Where Christs Image appears though but small and in a homely dress should it not be owned and cherished among his children What evil we see or suspect in others let it cause us to reflect on our selves and judge our selves for the seed and spawn of the like in us Should not we pitty and bewail their case labouring to help them as becomes the fellow-members of Christs own Body Family and Kingdom Should not those Divine Exhortations so frequently and abundantly pressed on all Christians in his sacred Word prevail mightily with us Should we not study practically with utmost Industry that more excellent way of Christian Love so highly commended so largely described in 1 Cor. 13. chapter throughout in Eph. 4. Phil. 2. Rom. 14. 1 Cor. 14. Gal. 6. Col. 4. 1 Thess 4. 2 Thess 3. c. as likewise in all the Epistles of James and Peter of John and Jude Was not this the great charge which Christ left with his Disciples in his last Sermons so full of his heart whilst he was pouring forth his tenderest Bowels in his loving and lovely expressions so copiously inculcated on them Did not he ratifie the same by the choicest Token of Divine Love in giving up himself to that bitter Passion and accursed death that he might be our Peace and commend Peace to us in the most efficacions manner that Heaven could afford Did not he give us the Seals of his Covenant and all the Blessings and the Means thereof to knit all His into One in himself that they might be orderly preserved in One by the effectual working of the measure of every part to the edifying of the whole in Love Should not we be moved by such an Interest so much concerning our own Advantage in the concernments of Christ and of his people Le ts then study the things that make for Peace wherein we may edifie one another Mind we that Axiom which the Light of Nature discovered to Pagans and the Light of Grace explains unto Christians Concordiâ res parvae crescunt discordiâ maximae dilabuntur the smallest matters flourish thrivingly watered by Concord the greatest things waste miserably blasted by Discord Suppose that we meet with sower crabbed Spirits that slight and oppose the wayes of Peace which we would promote do not we find more cause of caution care and information for compliance usque