Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A49848
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A sermon preached at the anniversary meeting of the Eaton-scholars at St. Mary le Bow, on Nov. 22d, 1683 by Joseph Layton.
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Layton, Joseph.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing L760; ESTC R25797
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12,974
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34
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and Eminent Persons is a bold curiosity to enquire but all the ordinary Confidences which the Spirit of God creates in the Elect are built upon Duty and conditional Agreements Hereby we know we are Translated from Death to Life if we love the Brethren 1 John 3.14 And many the like Scriptures are but Rational Inferences from supposed Premisses And when departing Saints cast the last Eye upon themselves their securest Anchor next to the All-sufficient Merits of Christ is I say ordinarily but the Conclusion of a Syllogism whereof God makes the Major And every Man by the Assistance of his Reason and Examination of his Conscience is to add the Minor Such a joyful Prospect I presume shall ye one day have when after the Toil and Troubles of a busie Life ye shall seek Privacy and be glad to retire into the Simplicity of the years ye this day Commemorate For I reckon we must once more go to School to Con over this dull Lesson of the World again where Experience will be your Master and Repentance your Discipline It shall be a joy then I say upon rational grounds to conclude I have run my Race I have finished my Course henceforth a Crown of Life is laid up for me Lastly and not the least this Education this Ability this Knowledge is best to teach us our own Ignorance and consequently Humility Meekness and Condescention to others He that knows the intricacies of Things the variety of Apprehensions the different sizes of Understandings The Power of Prejudice and Passion must needs have compassionate thoughts for the generality of Men and can with equal affection maintain Reason and pity Ignorance In Sum Among all your Gifts and Graces there is none so Amiable so Honourable so becoming a Schollar as Humility and Modesty and Mercy Insomuch that though you could speak With all Tongues and work Miracles yet without this Charity they were nothing worth So that if we bethink our selves well we shall find this one of the most Reasonable Services of all These are some few of the many advantages of your Education as it qualifies to serve God Reasonably and with Understanding than which next to his Sanctifying Grace he has not bestowed a nobler Talent upon the Sons of Men and which therefore deserves our most serious Consideration and our most sincere acknowledgments To illustrate this a little more and settle it upon your affections it will not be amiss briefly from these Regions of Light to look down and behold the Children of Darkness grovling and wandering in the Mazes of Error whom I reduced to three ranks in our Second Part 1. Such as make no use Formal Customary Christians 2. Such as Enslave it by an implicit Faith 3. Such as renounce and despise it under Pretence of the Spirit 1. Formal The bred and born Christian he that sucks in his Religion with his Country Air and holds his Creed by the courtesie of England that distinguishes Christianity from Mahometanism by Crosses and Half-Moons and the Reformation from Popery by Beads and Bibles In short He that is a Proselyte to Custom and the Laws a Disciple of Leviathan rather than Christ And it is a sad truth How few are able to render a reason of their Faith and yet what a noise and a bustle do they make for the Cause and the True Protestant Religion to whose Support they Contribute no more than the Antick Faces do to the strengthning of a Church 'T is true 't is a mercy to be born within the Pale of the Church to open our Eyes in the Light of the Gospel and so 't is to be born in a Temperate Clime I make no doubt but God accepts the sincerity of the Plough-man as well as the reason of the Philosopher That he will favour his own Gift and receive those to Glory whom he has predestin'd to Grace Altho then These little Ones have their Angels and a Title to the Kingdom of Heaven yet in this blind Felicity they are apt to stumble and when Persecution comes to draw back It is little more then the Homage which Birds and Beasts pay It is seeing by the benefit of Clay and Spittle a Sacrifice without Salt Whereas the Excellency of Religion consists in a free and rational complyance with God's Commands to understand the Excellency of them and this is it that fixed David's heart that preserved Lot amidst a crooked and perverse Generation And made St. Paul so confident That nothing of any Nature should be able to separate them from the Love of Jesus 2. From hence turn your Eye to the Men of implicit Faith and you shall see them creeping before Images adoring of Wafers paying Pensions for Purgatory and Traffiquing for the price of Sins In the midst of all this Pageantry and this Nonsense Their comfort is they believe as the Church believes But God calls upon us to employ our Talent to Exercise our selves in these things to Build up our selves in our most holy Faith and to Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ has made us Free There can be no Articles de Novo impos'd upon the Church because the Church signifies a Number of Men already agreed upon common Terms And to impose New is to alter the Primitive Constitution of the Church But this device serves the ends of both Parties And the Juggle is That what the People part with of their Understanding and the Use of their Reason is made up to them in Allowances and Indulgences for sin in easie Absolutions and cheap Penances 'T is a powerful Temptation to be freed from the trouble of Searching Discussing Examining and it is a strong support of the Papal Tyranny But where has God allowed this shifting and shuffling of Duties from one to another How is it possible for one Man to understand and believe for another But God accepts not the Sacrifice of Fools nor can any Man Redeem his Brothers Life And at the last day whatever aggravations there may be for our Pride and our Sloth in this Case yet there will be no Commutations of Punishments no engagements for one anothers Souls will there be accepted But every Man shall suffer in his own person according as He has done in the Body Lastly Behold the Enthufiast that is above Reason and the Carnality of Discourse and you shall find him to be given over to folly and madness to giddy Doctrines and destructive dangerous Impulses If he commits a murther 't is with the Sword of the Spirit and if he throws down Churches 't is with the Breath of the Spirit In the Transactions with Mankind God declared not only his Attributes but his Nature subsisting in a Trinity of Persons and as such he will be worshipped But is it reasonable that the manifestation of the Spirit should swallow up the work of the Creation and by being Christians we should cease to be Men. If the Scriptures which were given by Inspiration of the Holy Ghost be not
perfect all Mankind is at a loss in a Maze still and the Apostles did not as they said Declare the whole Truth of God and it would disparage the Divine Providence and affront the Spirit of God which is a Spirit of Wisdom and Knowledge of Order and Regular Dispensations And this in brief may be sufficient to let you see the folly and mischief of all other Methods and Institutions save those that Minister to a Reasonable Service Which brings me to the third and last Particular The Reasonableness of this present Service concerning which so much has been already said by my Predecessors that I may be allowed to be the shorter 1. Nothing is so Reasonable so Spiritual and acceptable to God as these Eucharistical Oblations As for other Services by way of Petition or Deprecation they are peculiar to this Life only and so of a lower Allay and are in some sort common to Beasts for even they lift up their Eyes to God and the whole Creation groaneth when it is in pain or want Only Intellectual Beings can return Thanks and Converse with God by Reciprocal intercourses It argues a deep sence of favours received and a thorough understanding of their worth and a Soul not only fram'd and moulded by the Holy Spirit to this Noble Work but Crown'd with Joy and Raptures and the unspeakable satisfactions of the Holy Ghost It was God's Command Deut. 16 That the Males should appear Three times a year before him and that not empty but bringing their returns of Gratitude with them Among Christians this is our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as at the Primitive Eucharists they us'd to offer Thanks for all the Patriarchs and Confessors the Founders and Benefactors of the Church so we do for all our particular Favours and Blessings And as in the Law every one was to give as he was able so we are to present him with our Souls and Bodies and the several proportions of Goodness Wisdom Wealth Honour we have attain'd to If the Souls of departed Saints have any Sence of what is done here below no doubt but all your glorious friends above will rejoyce and applaud themselves in their work and reap the abundant fruits of their labour in seeing their Pupils their Charge advanc't by the benefit of their Education to a work so like their own For I conceive Love and Learning to be the employment of Angels and glorified Spirits too as well as yours who after they have taken out their Lesson from the face of God the Beatifick Vision betake themselves to Laud and Thansgivings to Feasts such as Angels make and mutual Embracements If not if they be laid up in their secret Repositories till the day of Judgment God shall be a sufficient reward and recompence who will fill your hearts with more grace and your minds with more light and your Families with more Blessings and your Names both Living a Dead with the Perfume of good and faithful Servants 2. It is an act highly Reasonable and infinitely Commendable to declare your Gratitude in this publick Assembly to those worthy Persons the Instructors of your Youth your Guides your Teachers your Angel-Guardians here below when you were little Ones Among the other degeneracies of the Age there is this common one of Ingratitude to Teachers And the first act our Gallants do when they write Man is this piece of Inhumanity of despising and villifying their Education So that this Assembly may in some measure Atone for many others and your Charity cover a multitude of faults It is much that the regular Method and the Indefatigable Industry and the rich Stock of Learning in our Schools and Academies should so soon be out-stript by a Clubb and a Coffee-house but Vice abhors all Learning and Sloth invents Compendiums and a great deal of Conceit and a little of Mr. Hobbs sets up a raw young Man for a Philosopher and a Statesman and a Man of the World I shall not stand to reckon up the Honours that Emperors and Cities in all Nations have given to the Instructors of their Youth Of how great importance it is to Season wisely the growing hopes the Futurus Populus of a Nation it is sufficient that our Blessed Saviour in whom the Fulness of the Godhead dwelt bodily and in Whom all the Treasures of Wisdom were laid up yet in his Minority he went among the Doctors if I may so say to School and he honour'd and Authoris'd their Profession by his Conversing with them I will in your Names therefore return to as many as are living and capable of receiving them your unfeigned and acknowledgments thanks and pray that God would return an 100 fold into their Bosom all that Love and Care they have bestowed upon us 3. This Publick Legal Assembly is a suitable return for the mercy of our Publick Legal Education A Blessing no ways to be pretermitted since it brings so many considerable Advantages with it It is a common Question Which is the readier way to Learning Private or Publick Teaching For the former there is urg'd A constant Care and Attendance upon one or a few Persons a particular and exact observation of their Natural Inclinations Intellectual Abilities and acquired Improvements and so a just apportionating his Task to his Capacity On the other side There is the light of Example and the heat of Emulation and the joy of Society and a vivacity of Spirit thence resulting necessary to all the Parts and Duties of a Scholar and a very probable security of Success and it is better to know how to secure Harvest then how to hasten Fruits But if the Question be Which is the best way to make him an useful honest sound Scholar For a few Criticisms and Speculations or to teach the Greek Grammer a year before others hold no Comparison with Concord and Unity here without doubt the Advantage lyes on the Publick side For here are no unsound Documents no private poisonous Intermixtures no preparatory Doses for Schism and Faction but all things are Administred according to the setled Dispensatory of Laws and Statutes And the Domus Doctrinae joyns to the Synagogue and Men of Fame and Integrity teach in Solomon's Porch in the view and observation of the whole World Experience teaches us the mischief of Foreign Seminaries and unlicens'd Academies at home And as from the remote Corners of Scythia from Dens and Marshes the barbarous Goths and Vandals brake in upon and destroyed fair and Learned Italy so from these private Holes it was that our Locusts overspread the face of our Church and Nation But that which I would recommend to your observation and so I have done is That a private secret Education does not only expose a Youth to the Malignant Influences of evil Men but Secrecy and Solitariness it self does naturally poison the Candour and Ingenuity of his Nature For as soon as they are seated in their places they look upon themselves in a state of Opposition and Hostility with other Schools and so they catch at Paradoxes and Novelties and study Cavils and Quirks and Evasions and hunt after Slanders and Stories to advance their Party and illustrate the obscurity of their Education It is almost necessary they should grow either Proud or Splenatick or Sad and Gloomy or Sullen and Morose or Envious and Wrathful and with these accomplishments they come into the World and are exactly qualified at least to become the Author 's in Characters and your Julians and your Growth of Popery and all that Spawn of Pamphlets that have of late disturb'd and infected the Nation Solitude is a thing so dangerous that our Lord himself speaking of him as a Man would not venture into the Wilderness but under the Guidance and Protection of the Spirit In Sum The several Forms of Angels in gladsom Troops and Lightsom Places celebrate the Divine Praise and study the good of Mankind Only Furies in dark and desolate Caves and Witches in Melancholly midnight Meetings and Traytors at Secret Consults and Cabals Complot their Mischiefs and Destruction I have now done with your Patience And it remains only to pray That God would Inspire us with a due Sence and Acknowledgments of the many Blessings he has bestowed upon us That we may live like the Children of Light and Knowledge and shew our Gratitude by our right use and improvement of them to his Honour and Glory That God would showre down his Blessings upon the Head of our most Gracious Sovereign Lord King Charles the Heir of our Royal Founder's Piety and Patrimony and the Protector of our Fortunes and the Encourager and if I may say it with Reverence in some sort the Companion of our present Meetings and that he would Accumulate upon his Head all the Blessings due to the constant Defender of the Faith and the Munificent Nursing Father of the Church And that the Prayers of all the Poor and the Orphan and all that have received Life and Warmth or any benefit from the Charity of this Royal Foundation may descend upon Himself and his Posterity to all Generations Lastly May Love and Unity and all the good natur'd Vertues dwell amongst your selves and preserve you ever till you meet together again and Feast in the Kingdom of Heaven Now to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God be all Honour Power Praise and Glory attributed for these and all his other Mercies now and for ever more Amen FINIS