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spirit_n baptize_v holy_a water_n 5,617 5 6.9294 4 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A59835 A practical discourse concerning a future judgment by William Sherlock ... Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707. 1692 (1692) Wing S3307; ESTC R14162 228,802 551

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iniquity I shall add but one thing more wherein Christians have a great advantage of Jews and Heathens and have received more from God than they I mean the plentiful Effusions of the Holy Spirit on the Christian Church I dare not say that Heathens themselves wanted all internal assistances to Vertue for I can by no means perswade myself that God who is an infinite Spirit should for so many Ages together have no commerce with Mens Minds and Spirits that he who governs the inanimate World who steers the Motions of the Heavens and keeps Nature in its regular course should wholly neglect the Rational World and the Moral Springs of Action should not influence the Thoughts and Passions of Men should not lay invisible Chains on their Lusts nor inspire them with great and vertuous Designs especially since he is a great Lover of Vertue and abhors Vice and knows the corruption and wickedness of Humane Nature without some restraints and its weakness and indisposition to Vertue without Divine impulses I am sure Heathens themselves called Vertue the Gift of God and ascribed all extraordinary Excellencies and Perfections of Men to the secret Influences and Assistance of their Gods The Jews had these internal assistances to illuminate their Minds to influence their Wills to direct their Choice to give warmth and vigour to their Affections as is plain from the Psalms of David wherein there are many Prayers to this purpose which prove what his belief was for had he not known that the Divine Spirit did use to assist good Men he would not have prayed for such assistance and yet this he frequently does O that my ways were directed to keep thy statutes With my whole heart have I sought thee O let me not wander from thy commandments Blessed art thou O Lord O teach me thy statutes Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law I am a stranger upon earth hide not thy commandments from me Make me to understand the way of thy precepts Strengthen thou me according to thy word Teach me O Lord the way of thy precepts Give me understanding and I shall keep thy law Incline my heart unto thy testimonies and not to covetousness Turn thou mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken me in thy way And in his Penetential Psalm he prays Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit But as devout Men among the Jews had a greater Portion of the Holy Spirit than the Heathens had so there was still a more plentiful effusion of the Holy Spirit on the Christian Church not only in those miraculous Gifts and Powers which were bestowed upon the Apostolick Age and continued in some measure in After-Ages till Christianity was well planted in the World but as to the renewing and sanctifying Influences of the Holy Spirit We are now born not only of Water but of the Spirit in Baptism 3 Iohn 5. And by one spirit we are all baptized into one body And have been all made to drink into one spirit 1 Cor. 12.13 So that at Baptism we are born of the Spirit which signifies that the Holy Spirit gives Life and is a new principle of Life to us in the Lord's Supper we drink into one spirit which signifies the fresh supplies and communications of Grace as we daily receive new supplies of Spirits from our natural Meat and Drink and I know not how we should have the Spirit in a more perfect manner than as a constant Principle of Spiritual Life But it is not my business to prove what all Orthodox Christians own that the Holy Spirit is more plentifully bestowed upon the Christian Church than ever it was upon Jews or Heathens which makes our Obedience to the Divine Laws more easie by encreasing our strength and exacts from us more perfect Attainments as we all expect more perfect Services from our Children as their age and strength increases All this God has done more for us Christians than he has done for the rest of the World and all this which he has done more for us makes it our Duty to live better and to do more Service for God than other Men and that makes it very just for God to expect more from us and proves that he does so and then we should consider what manner of persons we Christians ought to be in all holy conversation and godliness If Heathens shall be damned for their sins against the weak and glimmering Light of Nature and the feeble Convictions of a Natural Conscience corrupted by Education by Examples by prevailing Customs by the Cheats and Impostures of wicked Spirits what shall the Condemnation of Christians be who neglect so great salvation who when light is come into the world love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil who sin against the clear and bright Light of the Gospel against the Love of GOD against the Grace of CHRIST against the powerful Restraints and Assistances of the HOLY SPIRIT If those that despised Moses law died without mercy under two or three witnesses of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath troden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the spirit of grace 10 Heb. 28 29. Which is true not only of final Apostasie but of all wilful Disobedience The Grace of the Gospel makes our Work easie but our Duty more and the danger of a miscarriage greater It does not require unsinning Obedience but it requires greater measures of Purity ●nd Goodness and Universal Righteousness and has threatned an hotter Hell against wicked Christians Thus Christians will have a greater Account to give than Jews or Heathens because they have received more and as the Receipts of Christians are very unequal so their Accounts will proportionably differ Some Christians have but One Talent others Two others Five and as no Man shall account for more than he has received so how much soever we have received we must account for it all This needs no proof and it has been sufficiently explained and applied above The CONCLUSION How to know what our Sentence will be at the last Iudgment With an Exhortation to Reverence our own Consciences HAving thus largely discoursed concerning a Future Judgment I need not mind you of what Concernment it is to know what Sentence Christ will pass on us at that Day whether Come ye blessed of my Father or Go ye cursed into everlasting fire For if we must be happy or miserable for ever how can we content our selves to live in doubt and suspence which of these shall be our Portion What a Hell is this to live in perpetual fear of Hell How can we sleep without dreaming of Lakes of Fire and Brimstone without the