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	heavenly_a	zion_n	296	3	8.6242	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33349	Three practical essays ... containing instructions for a holy life, with earnest exhortations, especially to young persons, drawn from the consideration of the severity of the discipline of the primitive church / by Samuel Clark ...; Whole duty of a Christian	Clarke, Samuel, 1599-1682.	1699 (1699)	Wing C4561; ESTC R11363	120,109	256

publick profession of at their Baptism They were fully instructed in the excellent Moral Precepts of that Divine Religion which they were to practise the remaining part of their lives And then they were thought prepared for the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost CHAP. III. In what manner persons converted to Christianity were baptized to what Privileges they were admitted and to what Duties they were ingaged by their Baptism 1. WHen the person to be baptized was thus prepared and the time appointed come which was usually at Easter or Whitsontide the Commemorations of our Saviour's Passion and Resurrection and of the great Effusion of the Holy Spirit things principally respected in this Sacrament though it might also upon occasion be celebrated at any other time When the Person I say was thus prepared he was brought by the Priest to a convenient place where there was plenty of Water and being stript of all his cloaths he in the first place with stretched out Arms in a most solemn manner renounced the Devil and all his Works the Pomps and Vanities of this wicked World and all not only the absolutely sinful but also the lawful desires of the flesh so far as to keep them within the most strict bounds and most exact obedience to the Laws of Reason and Religion Then he made Profession of his Faith in One God the Father Almighty c. in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord c. and in the Holy Ghost the Holy Catholick Church c. After which he was baptized in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost being immersed in the Water three times once at the Name of each Person in the ever Blessed Trinity Which being done he came up out of the Water and then according to the Custom of some Churches he was anointed with Oil with the addition of some other Ceremonies which as they were in their own nature indifferent so they were used only in some places and that diversly according to the different usage of particular Churches After all which he was clothed with a white Robe and so admitted among the Faithful to the Communion of the Church which last Ceremony the Greeks as a Learned Writer of our own observes keep up to this day putting upon the Child immediately after Baptism a white Garment with this Form Receive this white and immaculate Cloathing and bring it with thee unspotted before the Tribunal of Christ and thou shalt inherit eternal life 2. This was the Form and Manner in which Persons converted to Christianity were Baptized in the Primitive Church And by all these outward and visible Ceremonies were significantly represented certain inward and invisible things which were either the Privileges to the injoyment of which the Person Baptized was intitled or the Duties to the performance of which he was engaged by his Baptism 3. The first Grace or Privilege which God annexed to the right use of this Ordinance of Baptism and to which the Person Baptised was consequently intitled was Remission of all past sins The design of our Savior's coming into the World was by the Merit of his Death and Suffering to purchase Pardon and Remission for all those who should believe in his Name and obey his Gospel Rom. 3. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God Now the Means by which this Pardon is applied and the Seal by which it is secured to all those who Believe and by Repentance begin to Obey the Gospel is Baptism Whosoever therefore was converted to Christianity and was baptized was baptised into the death of Christ i. e. was by Baptism intitled to the benefit of the Pardon purchased by his Death and Passion As his Body was washed with pure Water so his Sins were absolutely done away by the Blood of Christ and his Heart sprinkled from an evil Conscience Heb. 10. 22. Hence Baptism is called the Washing of Regeneration Tit. 3. 5. and they who by the Apostles Preaching or by any other more extraordinary means were convinced of the Truth of the Gospel were exhorted immediately to be baptized and wash away their sins Acts 22. 16. And now why tarriest thou Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins calling on the Name of the Lord And Acts 2. 38. Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins To which those Places also seem manifestly to allude Rev. 1. 5. Unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Blood and Rev. 7. 14. These are they which have washed their Robes and made them white in the Blood of the Lamb. The plain meaning of all which passages is this That as a new-born Infant is without Spot Innocent and Sinless so every one that is born of Water i. e. regenerated by Baptism is in the account of God as if he had never sinned cloathed with the white and spotless Garment of Innocence which if he never defile by gross and wilful sins he shall walk in white with Christ for he shall be worthy 4. The next Privilege which Baptism principally and most significantly represented was the Admission of the Convert into the Church or Family of God All that received Baptism were thereby actually admitted into the Society of Christians and to the participation of all the benefits which God bestows upon his Church They were admitted to the Communion of the Saints of God and to the Fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 1. 9. They were made Fellow-Citizens with the Saints and of the Houshold of God Eph. 2. 19. being come unto Mount Sion and unto the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable Company of Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judge of all and to the Spirits of just Men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant c. Heb. 12. 22. More particularly they were made first Members of Christ i. e. they were incorporated into that Body whereof Christ is the Head Secondly They were made Children of God i. e. they were enroll'd in the number of those whom God had chosen to be his Peculiar and Elect People and whom he designed to govern with the same tenderness as an affectionate and merciful Father does his most beloved Children which is what the Apostles express by our being called the Sons of God 1 John 3. 1. by our having received the Adoption of Sons Gal. 4. 5. and by our having power given us to become the Sons of God John 1. 12. Lastly They were made Heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven i. e. they who before were Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and

be so 4. Again That the exercise of those great Moral Virtues of Godliness Righteousness and Temperance is a thing indispensably necessary to prepare Men for that Happiness which is the Reward of Religion is evident from the Consideration of the Nature of that Happiness The Happiness which Religion promises to holy and good Men is this That they shall be received into the blessed Society of Angels and of the Spirits of just Men made perfect and that with them they shall be admitted into the immediate presence of God to enjoy that Satisfaction which must necessarily arise from the Contemplation of his Perfections and from the 〈…〉 of his Favour And if this be the Case then nothing is more evident than that the exercise of Virtue is indispensably necessary to prepare Men for the enjoyment of this Happiness For what agreement can there be between a sensual spightful or malicious Soul and the pure Society of the Spirits of just Men made perfect We see even in this Life how ungrateful the Society of good Men is unto those that are wicked and as it is in this so doubtless it will be in the other World Those Souls which have been wholly immersed in Sense and given up to the Pleasures of this present World can never be fit Company for those spiritual and refined Minds whose Desires and Enjoyments are as far exalted above every thing that is gross and sensual as Heaven is above Earth And those malicious Spirits whose delight upon Earth was in nothing but Hatred Envy and Revenge can never converse in Heaven with those Divine Souls who feed and live upon no other Pleasures but those of Goodness Holiness and Love In like manner what can be more impossible than for an earthly and wicked Soul to be made happy by the Vision and Fruition of God To see God is to behold and contemplate those glorious Perfections of infinite Goodness Purity and Truth and to enjoy God is so to love and adore those amiable Perfections as to be transformed into the likeness and resemblance of them And is it possible for a wicked Soul to be made partaker of this Happiness Tell a covetous Worldling of a Treasure laid up in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through and steal Tell him of a never-fading Inheritance in the World to come or of a City not made with Hands whose Builder and Maker is God Tell an ambitious aspiring Mind of the Glory that shall be revealed hereafter or a voluptuous Person of spiritual and refined Pleasures which Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither hath it entered into the Heart of Man to conceive them and will they have any relish of these things Will they not be much more inquisitive after the Glories of Earth and the Gratifications of Sense So that unless we suppose God should work a Miracle for these Men and when he removes them into another World should transform them also into new Creatures 't is no more possible for them to enjoy the Happiness of Heaven than for Body to enjoy the Pleasures of Spirit or for Darkness to have communion and agreement with Light I do not say That if God should transplant these Men into Heaven he could not make them happy there but while they are so exceedingly indisposed for it nothing is more certain than that he never will The exercise therefore of Virtue is the indispensable Condition of Happiness And in proportion as we draw nearer to the Perfection of Virtue so do we to the Fountain and Perfection of Happiness The greater degrees of Virtue any Being is indued with so much the higher Rank does it obtain in the Order of Creatures The highest Angels so much as they obey the Will of God more intirely and imitate the Divine Life more perfectly than Men do so much are they exalted above Men and have a nearer approach to the immediate presence and enjoyment of God And by how much one Man in this Life obtains a greater degree of Holiness than another so much a more excellent degree of Happi-ness is he prepared to receive in the World to come 5. And That God agreeably to this natural Order of things does truly and sincerely desire to make Men happy by the exercise of Virtue is evident both from our natural Notions of God and from the Revealed Declaration of his Will God who is a Being infinitely happy in the injoyment of himself and who created all things for no other reason but to communicate to them his Perfections and his Happiness cannot possibly but make every Man as happy as the condition of his Nature and the improvements of his Virtue make him capable to be And that he will do so he hath moreover assured us by most express and repeated declarations He declares that his Delight is in them that fear him and that he Rejoyces over them for good He invites men with all the tender promises of a compassionate Father to Repentance and Reformation and swears by himself that he hath no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked but earnestly desires that they should return and live And nothing can be more absurd than to imagine that God has secretly made any determination which may be contrary to what he has so openly and expresly revealed What sort of Men he has decreed to be happy or miserable he has clearly and fully declared to us in his Word And other Decrees than this if he has at all made any t is neither necessary nor possible for us to know Sufficient it is for us that as sure as God and his Scriptures are true so sure are we that he that believes and obeys the Gospel shall be happy and that God neither has nor can Decree any thing whereby a truly Religious Man may be excluded from Happiness or a Sincere Man from the possibility of becoming truly religious 6. Since therefore God truly and sincerely desires to make men Happy by the exercise of Virtue and since that Virtue which is the Condition of this Happiness is no other than the Practice of those great Moral Duties of Godliness Righteousness and Temperance which are the Eternal and Unchangeable Law of God as has already been shewn it follows necessarily that the great and ultimate design of all true Religion can be no other than to recommend these Virtues and to enforce their practice Other things may be Helps and Assistances of Religion many External Observances may for wise Reasons be positively commanded and may be of exceeding great use as means to promote Devotion and Piety but the Life and Substance of all true Religion the End and Scope in which all things else must terminate cannot possibly be any other than the Practice of these great and Eternal Duties 7. In Natural Religion this is very evident For the Foundation of its Obligations being nothing else but a due consideration of the Nature of