Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	appear_v	face_n	zion_n	18	3	8.9136	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46649	A sermon preached at the consecration of the Honourable Dr. Henry Compton, Lord Bishop of Oxford, in Lambeth-Chappel, on Sunday, December 6, 1674 by William Jane ...	Jane, William, 1645-1707.	1675 (1675)	Wing J455; ESTC R21231	23,378	49

need not fear Drowning as long as Christ is in the Ship And therefore let the Heathen rage and the Nations take Counsel together he that sitteth in the Heavens shall laugh them to scorn the Lord shall have them in derision he can shatter their Councils blast their Designs defeat their Purposes and ruin their Confederacies And will never fail openly to demonstrate that his Church is founded upon a Rock too firm to be shaken by the combinations of men even upon the promise of God and the Graces of his Spirit things eternally invincible by the gates of Hell Nor has God ever left himself without witness of this peculiar presence in the greatest distresses of his Church Even at the first founding of it when in all humane probability it was so little enabled to stand out against the machinations of the World yet then did the Almighty reveal his arm and exert his Power and in spite of all the oppositions both of Earth and Hell made his own Counsel to stand and flourish 'T was he of old that upheld an Athanasius contra mundum and effectually rescued his Church from that deluge of Arrianism which to all appearance had swallowed it up and overwhelmed it Lastly to name no more but this Church of ours under those signal instances of his afflicting providence the sinking our gates destroying our palaces and slighting the strong holds of Sion when that dreadful storm had utterly sunk both the Government of our Church and our hopes of its recovery yet even then did the Spirit of God move upon the face of the waters 'till at length the dry land appeared and again reduced it to that beautiful order which has made it ever since the object of Malice and the mark of Envy Surely therefore he who had a favour for Sion when her Stones were in the dust has not left off his concern for it now it stands upon its pillars But rather on the contrary if the present methods o his Providence can give us any rule for a conjecture he seems to have some further work in hand for the establishment of his Church while he singles out persons of such worth and eminence for the undertaking But thirdly if the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops you are entrusted by one who will assuredly take an account of the Administration It appears in the Records of the ancient Church that they never brought a Bishop to publick penance Of which practice this seems to be one reason among others that since there was no spiritual power on Earth above him they reserved him to the future Judgement the tribunal of a Lord who alone was higher than he And therefore though a Religious Constantine thinks fit to cover the faults of his Bishops with his own Purple and the whole Christian World at this day were as forward to hide as they are on the contrary to reveal their Fathers nakedness Yet all these coverings signifie nothing to him who looks through them all to him who pondereth the heart and weigheth the spirits of men All things are naked and open before him with whom you have to do and will one day appear so before the World Angels and Men. Take heed therefore unto your selves and to the flock as those that must give an account And do thou O Lord give that success to their Labours that they may give it with joy and not with grief Let thy Urim and Thummim be still with thy holy ones that their Doctrine may be no other than that whereto thy Holy Spirit hath set his Seal and their Lives and Examples may be as Sacred as their Callings Put Courage into their Hearts and a Terrour upon their Faces that with all boldness they may speak thy word and maintain a constant resolution to withstand the Corruptions of the Times that so in the last day when the great Shepherd of the Sheep shall appear to make his final Visitation they may receive the Blessing which belongs to those whom the Lord when he cometh shall find so doing Well done good and faithful servant thou hast been faithful in a little enter now into the joy of thy Lord. Now to God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost three Persons and one God be ascribed as is most due by us and by all the World all Power Glory Might Majesty and Dominion both now and for evermore Amen FINIS P. 13. l. 20. suppositious r. supposititious

prodigious that if ever the Church hath show'd her self undutiful to the State it is in suffering such a pestilent Enemy to Government to enjoy the benefit of her Communion There is a second pretence against the interest of the Holy Ghost in a Bishops Consecration That Christ gave the fulness of his Spirit only to St. Peter and his Successors but nothing to the other Apostles who seem to be joyned in Commission with him So that whatever power and authority is enjoyed by Bishops who succeed them they hold it not immediately from Christ but only as Suffragans of his pretended Vicar But since this is a point in which the Roman Schools are divided among themselves as appears by the contrary assertions of Soto Victoria Alphonsus à Castro and others and the Dispute seems at last to be resolved rather into the exercise of the Power or as the Schools love to speak the application of the matter of it than the power it self it is properly the subject of another consideration and does not so directly contradict what we have hitherto concluded from the Text. And therefore I shall proceed to raise an inference or two from the Holy Ghosts Concerment in the collation of Episcopal Power which will likewise take in the remaining part of my Division First then if the Holy Ghost has made you Bishops you may hence infer the weight and burden of your Calling It is sure no ordinary employment where the Commission for it comes under the Broad Seal of Heaven 'T was God that gave the Law upon Mount Sinai and therefore Moses who was to deliver it to the People exceedingly quakes and trembles And if St. Paul be rapt up into the third Heaven to receive Instructions for the Gospel we presently hear of his Reproaches and Distresses and the great trouble coming upon him from the care of all the Churches No wonder therefore if when he had acquainted the persons here in the Text with the derivation of their Authority he forthwith presents them with a prospect of their danger His own encounter at Ephesus could not procure that rest and quiet for the Bishops he left behind him but that after his departure there were beasts to be fought with still For this I know that grievous Wolves shall enter in among you I shall not here take upon me the work of an Historian nor give an account how in all Ages of the Church the lusts of the Flesh and the Devils of Hell have with their utmost Malice set themselves against it If we do but open our Eyes and behold the present face of Religion among our selves we shall find arguments enough to call forth your utmost circumspection A great door is open to you and many adversaries For if that turbulent Spirit of Rebellion and Disobedience which not long since possest rent and tore this Nation and was by a Miracle of his Providence a while since cast out walks about night and day seeking to return to the place from whence he came with seven other Spirits more wicked than himself so to make our last estate prove worse than the former If there are so many Tobiahs and Sanballats that envy the remainders of the prosperity of Sion so many Zebahs and Zalmunahs that say to one another Let us take unto our selves the houses of God in possession that seek to alienate or diminish the Churches Rights robbing God in Tithes and Offerings and then say Wherein have we robb'd him If the fiery Jesuit on the one hand and the restless Fanatick on the other bend all their wit and power first to smite the Shepherd and then to scatter and glean up the Sheep compassing Sea and Land to make Proselytes and when they have gained them making them ten times more the Children of Hell than themselves If what St. Paul Prophesied at Ephesus be now fulfilled with us that of our selves men arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them and stretching the Articles of the Church of England to so much a greater latitude than the Catholick Church allows that for as much as in them lies Pelagius and Socinus shall find here both shelter and encouragement Lastly if there be so many Hereticks in the World that corrupt the Church of Christ Schismaticks that divide it and Atheists that contemn it It is then surely high time for you to look about you to contend earnestly for the Faith which was once delivered to the Saints to joyn your Heads your Hearts and your Hands together to support the tottering Ark which is now no longer Criminal and keep it from ever returning into the Tents of the Philistins which we have seen so miraculously redeemed from them But secondly notwithstanding all these disadvantages if the Holy Ghost have called you to your Office you may rest assured that he will own and protect you in the discharge If you held your Callings from the World the frowns of the World might discourage you But since 't is God that sets his Seal to your Commission you serve a Master who let the World be never so impatient will assuredly make good your Patent assert and justifie your Authority When God says concerning Cyrus I have called him Isa 48.15 it follows in the Text and I will make his way prosperous If God say to Jacob I have called thee no wonder to hear the encouragement he forth with gives him When thou goest through the water I am with thee and through the Rivers they shall not overflow thee It seems to be an opinion among the Ancient Fathers that every Bishop hath two Guardian Angels For besides that which is common to him with every man he has another as he is a Bishop appointed him at his Consecration But the stability of your Function Holy Fathers has a surer ground than in these fancies of men Even the God of Angels vouchsafes to become your peculiar Guardian And if the Church like Jacob's Ladder though the foot of it be on Earth has its head in Heaven there are not only Angels ascending and descending but God himself leans upon the top of it and keeps it firm A consideration this of great weight and moment especially under the apprehensions of publick danger It being usual with men in such exigents as those to betake themselves to their own Counsels and Contrivances and when these fail to despond and give over nay sometimes with a more preposterous piece of Policy to make Ship-wrack of a good Conscience in hopes to escape the storm But surely if we own such a thing as Divine Protection which is never forfeited but by distrust we shall ever find it try it when we will that the best way to secure our selves from danger is to be doing our duty For this infallibly engages God of our side who will be with us as long as we are with him It is safer for the Mariner in a Tempest to ride out the Storm then to strike to Shore And we