Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	angel_n	body_n	soul_n	8,225	5	5.5180	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23767	A sermon preached in St. Peter's Westminster on Sunday, Jan. 6, 1660 at the consecration of the Right Reverend Fathers in God, Gilbert, Lord Bishop of Bristoll, Edward, Lord Bishop of Norwich, Nicholas, Lord Bishop of Hereford, William, Lord Bishop of Glocester by Richard Allestry ...	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.	1660 (1660)	Wing A1163; ESTC R8500	24,735	46

these diviner offices may be stil'd Angels well when they are call'd from all regards or notices of any body that belongs to them their gifts and graces set them above the consideration of flesh In the entertainment of these qualifications the Soul is swallowed up so that it cannot take cognizance whether it have a body of its own and is not sensible of that deer partner of it self it is so onely sensible of this Employment 'T is not for an Apostle or for his Successor to think of things below with much complacency When these have all their Uses all their glories on they but make pomp to dress the body which an Apostle does not designe for nor knowes whether he be concern'd at all in He becomes something without a body and above the Earth who for a preparative must be taken up to Paradise and call'd from all commerce and all intelligence with his own body Saint Paul was call'd from heaven to preach the Gospel but he was call'd to heaven to qualifie him for this higher separation to an Apostle and Church-Governour And now you see your calling Holy Fathers and to pass by such obvious unconcerning observations as at first sight follow that those who are not qualified are not call'd I shall onely take notice hence of the counter-part of this call the charge God takes upon him when he cals to this charge and that is he owns and will protect whom himself cals 'T was that he promised to the Founder and God of your Order I the Lord have call'd thee and I will hold thine hand and I will keep thee Isai. 42. 6. And when he said of Cyrus I have call'd him he said also he shall make his way prosperous Isai. 48. 15. And so he shall be the way what it will for thus he said to Jacob I have call'd thee when thou goest through the water I am with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee Isai. 43. 1 2. There was Experience of all this in one of the chief Princes of your Order when the Apostles were scarce safe within their ship they were so toss'd with waves and fears yet if our Lord will call him Peter is confident he shall be safe even in the sea Lord if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the Water saith he and the Lord did but call him and he went down and walked on the water safely as if the swelling billows did onely lift themselves to meet his steps and raise him up from sinking And when his own doubts which alone could were neer drowning him and he but call'd the Lord immediately he stretch'd out his hand and caught him He answers his call if we answer ours if we obey when he sayes come then will he come and save when we call to him And so Peter receiv'd no hurt but a rebuke O thou of little faith why didst thou doubt couldst thou imagine I would not sustein stein thee in the doing what I bid thee do in answering my call But why seek we experience of so old a date There is a more encouraging miracle in these late calls themselves Had God sustein'd the Order in its offices and dignities amidst those waves that wrack'd the Church of late it had been prodigy of undeserved Compassion to our Nation but whenas all was sunk to bid the sea give up what it had swallowed and consumed this is more then to catch a sinking Peter or to save a falling Church The work of Resurrection is emphatically call'd the working of God's mighty power and does out-sound that of his ordinary conservation And truely 't was almost as easie to imagination how the scattered Atomes of mens dust should order themselves and reunite and close into one flesh as that the parcels of our Discipline and Service that were lost in such a wild confusion and the Offices buried in the rubbish of the demolisht Churches should rise again in so much order and beauty Stantia non poterant tecta probare Deum This calling of the Spirit is like that when the Spirit moved upon the face of the abyss and call'd all things out of their no seeds there or like the call of the last Trump Thus by the miraculous mercies of these calls God hath provided for our hopes and warranted our faith of his protections yet he hath also sent us more security hath given us a Constantine if his own be not a greater Name and more deserving of the Church for which it is well known to some he did contrive and order when he could neither plot nor hope for his own Kingdome did with passion labour a succession in your Order when he did not know how to lay designes for the succession of himself or any of his Fathers house to his own Crown and dignity Nor is the Secular arme all your security God himself hath set yet more guards about his consecrated ones he hath severe things for the violaters of them Moses the meekest man upon the Earth that in his life was never angry but once at the rebellious seemes very passionate in calling Vengeance on those that stir against these holy Offices Smite through the loines of all that rise against them and of them that hate them that they rise not again the loines 〈◊〉 we know are the nest of posterity so that 〈◊〉 through the loines is stab the succession 〈◊〉 at once all the posterity of them that we ●●●ut off this Tribe and hinder its successior Nor was this Legal Spirit Gospel is as severe Those in 〈◊〉 Jude that despise these Governours tha● 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Corah and his Complices did who g●●●ered themselves against Moses and Aaron and said You take too much upon you ye sons of Levi since all the Congregation is holy every one of them and the Lord is among them wherefore then lift you up your selves above the Congregation of the Lord words these that we are well acquainted with and which it seems St. Jude looks on as sins under the Gospel these perish in the gainsaying of Core whom God would not prepare for punishment by death but he and his accomplices went quick into it He would not let them stay to dy but the Lord made a new thing to shew his detestation of this sin and the Earth swallow'd it in the Commission and all that were alli'd and appertain'd to them that had an hand in it And truely they may well expect strange recompences who do attempt so strange a Sacriledge as to pull stars out of Christ's own right hand from whence we have his word that no man shall be able to pluck any but if they shine thence on their Orbs below and convert many to Righteousness their light shall blaze out into glory and they shall ever dwell at his right hand To which right hand He that brought again from the dead the Lord Jesus that great Shepheard and

with severities such as this age I doubt will not believe and when they had no temporall sword to be auxiliary to these Spiritual weapons And now to make reflections on this is not for me to undertake in such a state of the Church as ours is wherein the very faults of some do give them an Indemnity who having drawn themselves out of the Church from under its authority are also got out of the power of its Censures So children that doe run away from their Fathers house they doe escape the Rod but they do not consider that withall they run away from the inheritance and many times in those that do not doe so but stay within the family long intermission of the Rod and indulg'd licence makes them too big and heady to be brought under discipline And is 't not so with us Among many of those that stay within the Church I know not whether I do well to say so when of these I mean there is little other Evidence of their doing so but this that they will swear and drink of the Churches side Blessed Sons of a demolished Church who think to raise their Mother a temple by throwing stones at her by reason of the late overthrow of government and discipline and the consequent licences Vice hath been so nurst up not onely by an universal barefac'd uncorrected practise but by principles of liberty that can dispute down all Ecclesiastical restraints and have set up the Religion of Licence that now sin is grown so outragious as to be too strong for discipline nay rather then it should be set up t is to be feared they would endeavour to renverse all in the Church and enterprise as much in their vices quarrel as others have done for mistaken Religion And indeed to what purpose were the Censures whose first and medicinal effect is shame amongst men where t is in very many instances the onely shameful thing not to be vitious where men stand candidates for the reputation of glorious sinners take to themselves sins they have not committed that are not theirs and usurp Vice sins and damnations hypocrites What work is here for discipline But this state wants not precedents the censures of the Church were not only lay'd aside in the Vastations of the Arrian heresy and persecution when the weapons of the Churches warfare were too weak to make defence against all their cruelties and impieties and before that in Diocletian's daies against the Lapsi But we find also that Saint Paul is forc'd to break out onely in a passionate wish 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I would they were even cut off that trouble you by excommunication he means Gal. 5. 12. When he saw the ill humors were too spreading and too tough also Sedition and Schisme wide and obstinate so that neither his authority could reach nor his methods cure but were more likely to exasperate them then he does excommunicate them onely in desire And again 2 Cor. 10. 6. and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfil'd It becomes therefore every one that hath good Will for Sion to labour to fulfill his own obedience that so the Church may be empower'd to use Christ's Methods for reforming of the rest And they that will not do so must know they shall not onely answer for their sins but for refusing to be sav'd from them that they resist all medicine as men resolv'd that nothing shall be done towards their Cure as men that rather choose to perish and prefer destruction And for the seasons and degrees of putting this work into Execution Wisedome must be implor'd from that Spirit of Wisedome that calls unto this work The last Part Whereunto I have called them The Nature of the calling of the Holy Ghost is a Subject that would bear a full discourse But waving those pretensions which Necessitie and inward incitation doe make to be the Calls of the Holy Ghost I shall positively set down that the call of God and of the Holy Ghost to any work or office for I enquire not of his calling to a priviledge or state of favour is his giving abilities and gifts qualifying for that work or office The call immediate when the gifts were so but mediate and ordinary when the abilities are given in his blessing on our ordinary labours 'T is so in every sort of things Exod. 31. 2. See I have call'd Bezaleel and I have fill'd him with the Spirit of God in Wisdome and in understanding and in knowledge and in all manner of Workmanship to devise cunning works and to work in all manner of Workmanship and behold I have given him Aholiab and in the hearts of all that are wise hearted I have put wisedome that they may make all that I have commanded thee and he repeates the same again Chap. 35. 30. adding that he hath put in his heart that he may teach both He and Aholiab so that giving this skill to work and teach is nam'd Gods calling So in another case the Lord does say of Cyrus I have call'd him Esay 48. 15. which he explaines in the 49. I have holden him by my right hand to subdue nations before him to loose the loins of Kings I have girded him So when Isaiah saith the Lord hath call'd me from the Womb or rather saies that of our Saviour Isa. 49. 1. he tells you how ver 5. he form'd me and prepared me from the Womb to be his servant to bring Jacob to him And throughout the New Testament as his Call to a priviledge is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his grace in allowing such a state of favour so his calls to a Work are his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his gifts enabling for it The Gifts of these Apostles by which they were enabled for their Office and which made up their call are set down those of Barnabas in the fore-cited 11 Act. He was a good man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost and Paul's call was a little Extraordinary If we look into times we shall finde reason to believe those revelations in 2 Cor. 12. were given to Paul a little before this Consecration of him in the Text. That Epistle was writ saith Baronius in the second year of Nero and this separation was in the second of Claudius as may be gathered also in some measure from the famine mention'd in the 28. verse of the 11. chap betwixt these two were fourteen yeares now saith Saint Paul when he wrote that he had his revelation somewhat above 14. years before a little therefore before this solemnity Here was a call indeed call'd up to the third heaven to receive instructions for his office and for ought he did know call'd out of his own body too that he might be the fitter for it whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell God knows verse 2. and that again verse 3. They whom Gods Spirit qualifies for Consecration to separate to