Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A93053
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Advice to young persons, relating both to faith & practice contain'd in some plain directions how to demean themselves : together with some few motives to the observation of what is here recommended.
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Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing S3034A; ESTC R42460
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16,872
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50
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be distinct from those sins which are committed against him whose spirit he is and if he were a Person created the sin could receive no such Aggravation beyond other Sins and blasphemies and consequently it remains that he is God But we are not only to believe this Spirit to be God but also that he is the Sanctifier of us and of all the elect People of God For what can be more positive and plain than that the Sanctification of God's people is ascrib'd to this Holy Spirit for thus it runs in the words of the Apostle Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification of the spirit 1 Pet. 1. 2. And therefore from this Principle of your Belief you cannot but infer this to be your Duty that since ye are a chosen Generation a Royal Priest-hood an Holy Nation a peculiar People you are oblig'd to shew forth his Praises who hath call'd you out of darkness into his marvelous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. Thus then in the Divine Essence which is but one there are three distinct Persons viz. the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost thus plainly distinguished by their peculiar Properties Nay the Scripture does not only mention these Properties but also proceeds to the exact numbring of these Agents or Persons in the Divine Essence For there are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one 1 John 5. 7. and so again Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the Water and lo the Heavens were open'd unto him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him And lo a voice from Heaven saying This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Mat. 3. 16. 17. I mention no more Places to this purpose tho' many occur lest I should swell this little piece beyond its designed bounds but that of St. Mathew Chap. 28. 19. Go ye therefore and teach all nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost And yet notwithstanding this Distinction of Agents or Persons there is but one entire Essence for there is none other God but one 1 Cor. 8. 4. and the Lord our God is God only Deut. 6. 4. And now O young Man since here is a main Principle of thy Profession here comes in a main Rule fot thy Practice since there is a God since there is but one God therefore thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Mat. 4. 10. But that the Father is God the Son God and the Holy Ghost God and yet that there is but one God how thus it is and as to the manner how these things can be this falls not within the Comprehension of thy Reason here on Earth but hereafter in Heaven will in all probability be the subject of a most pleasant and endless Entertainment Thou mayst with far more sence offer to contain all the Waters of the vast Ocean in the hollow of thine hand than pretend to measure such unfathomable and infinite Mysteries by thy dark and narrow and shallow Understanding No all that thou hast to do in this case is firmly to believe these and all other Divine Revelations and Principles of thy Holy Profession as the Resurrection of the Dead and eternal Life and the like and instead of prying too narrowly into these unfathomable Depths which the clearest and most enlarged Understanding of Mortals cannot bottom or find out thou art to proceed to Practice For secret things belong to God but reveal'd things to us and to our Children Deut. 29. 29. and if thou canst not take measure of one of the Divine Attributes nay if to unfold the manner of thine own Existence would puzzle thee O never pretend here to discover the exact manner of the Being of a God! And yet if upon the exercise of thy Sense and Reason thou believest the Existence of the one viz. thine own Being then upon the truth and goodness of God and the exercise of thy Faith believe the other and so I pass forward from Faith directly to Practice which is the Second thing I propos'd First Then let me advise all Young Persons as a main Spur to all Goodness as a strong Safe-guard to all their Vertues and as a powerful Antidote against and restraint upon all Vices to have an awful Regard and constant Remembrance of the Divine Omniscience and Omnipresence and the power of the Almighty O consider that God's eyes are over all your ways and that his eye-lids try the children of men Psal 11. 4. That he is about your Beds and about your Paths and spieth out all your ways and that there is not a word in your tongue nor a thought in your heart but he knoweth it altogether Alas 't is in vain for thee to offer to draw the Curtain betwixt this all-seeing eye and thy Deeds of Darkness for the Darkness with God is no Darkness at all but the night is as clear as the day the Darkness and light are to him both alike Ps 139. 12. All thy wanton and foolish Extravagancies and Rambles all thy stiffness and stubbornness to all thy natural and political Parents nay to thy spiritual Pastors and Teachers all thy head strong and untam'd Passions in the full career of Lust and Licentiousness all thy forgetfulness of thy God and thy Duty in the days of thy Youth all the strong Biasses that thou art ready to clap upon thy Soul bearing thee down to Sensuality and Sin all thy jests upon Religion and matters of the greatest moment and things of the most serious and an eternal Concern all thy trifling with and turning thy back upon the best of Friends Friends that offer thee the most wholsom Counsel and the safest Advice Advice that if follow'd will preserve thee from Danger and Evil and counsel that if observ'd will enrich thee to all Eternity all thy backwardness to do good and all thy promptness and aptness to do evil all the windings and foldings of thy heart all thy fig-leav'd excuses for thy past Iniquities and all thy pretences for and palliations of thy present Transgressions thy God plainly observes he clearly beholds Nay consider that as this all-searching Eye beholds and observes all these things so this all-powerful God is able to punish thee to the Uttermost and none can stand before him when he is angry He is able to consume thee with the least breath of his displeasure and to poste thee away to Hell in the midst of thy sins in the midst of thy strength when as Job speaks thy breasts are full of milk and thy bones are moistned with marrow Job 21. 24. And thou who canst not now endure the least of thy fingers to continue in a flame how wilt thou then abide the consuming Fire how wilt thou be able to dwell with everlasting burnings Isa 33. 14. But then on