Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bear_v	child_n	witness_n	5,986	5	7.7172	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

Strangers from the Covenants of Promise having no hope and without God in the World did by Baptism enter into that Covenant wherein God assured the promise of Eternal Life to all those who should believe and repent And this is what the Apostle intends by our having our Citizen-ship in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. and by our being Heirs of God and joint Heirs with Christ that we may be glorified together with him Rom. 8. 17. 5. Another Privilege which was represented and conferred by Baptism was the Influence and Assistance of Gods Holy Spirit All Persons that were baptized as their Bodies were washed and purified with Water so their Minds were sanctified by the Spirit of God But ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. 11. At their Baptism they received the Holy Ghost as a Gift constantly annexed to that Ordinance and unless they quenched and grieved it by their sins committed afterwards it always continued with them from thenceforward assisting and enabling them to perform their Duty strengthning and comforting them under Temptations and Afflictions and bearing witness with their Spirit that they were the Children of God At the first Preaching of the Gospel this influence of the Holy Spirit frequently discovered it self in those extraordinary Gifts of Speaking with Tongues Working Miracles c. as appears in the History of the Acts of the Apostles But these by degrees ceasing it afterward continued to evidence it self in the strange and almost miraculous change which it made in the Minds of Men from the most corrupt and vicious to the most virtuous and heavenly Disposition almost in an instant upon their being baptized And when this effect also grew less frequent as the Zeal and Purity of the Christians declined it yet continued always by its secret Power to renew and transform Mens Minds to instruct Men in their Duty and to inable them to perform it Hence Baptism is called the Renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3. 5. and a being born of Water and of the Spirit John 3. 5. and by the Antients frequently Illumination And Persons baptized are said to have been enlightned to have tasted of the heavenly Gift and to have been made Partakers of the Holy Ghost Heb. 6. 4. 6. The last Privilege which Persons Baptized were intitled to by virtue of that Ordinance was an Assurance of a Resurrection to Eternal Life They received as hath been said the Holy Spirit of God and that Spirit so long as it dwelt with them was a Seal and Earnest of their future Resurrection For if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal Bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you Rom. 8. 11. And this was most significantly represented by their descending into the Water and rising out of it again For as Christ descended into the Earth and was raised again from the dead by the Glory of the Father So Persons baptized were buried with him by Baptism into Death and rose again after the similitude of his Resurrection They were planted together in the likeness of his Death and they were by this Sign assured that they should be also in the likeness of his Resurrection Thus the Apostle St. Paul Colos. 2. 12. Ye are buried with him in Baptism wherein also you are risen with him through the Faith of the Operation of God who hath raised him from the dead To which St. Peter seems likewise to allude 1 Pet. 3. 21. The like figure whereunto viz. to the saving of the Ark by the Water of the Flood even Baptism doth also now save us by the Resurrection of Christ. 7. These are the Spiritual Graces or Privileges which were represented by the Outward and Visible Signs in Baptism and conferr'd by their means And These are what God on his part engageth and assures to us in that Great and Holy Covenant There are other things which the Persons Baptized obliged themselves to on their part in that Covenant and These are the Duties which by their Baptism they vow and take upon themselves to perform represented also by the same Outward and Visible Signs The first of these Duties which the Persons baptized promised and obliged themselves to perform was a Constant Confession of the Faith of Christ and Profession of his Religion They were admitted by Baptism into the Church and Family of Christ and they were bound at all times to own themselves his Disciples They were solemnly baptized into his Death and they were oblig'd not to be asham'd of the Cross of Christ and to confess the Faith of him crucified They owned publickly at their Baptism their Belief in God the Father Almighty and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord and they were bound at all times to make Profession of this Faith They had with the heart believed unto Righteousness and they thought that with the Mouth Confession was necessary to be made unto Salvation They were assured that if they confessed Christ before Men he would also confess them before his Father which is in Heaven and before the Angels of God but if they were ashamed of him and denyed him before Men he would also be ashamed of them when he came in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels And so mighty an effect had this consideration upon the primitive Christians that in the times of Persecution when they were tempted to deny their Saviour and renounce the Faith which they had once Embraced they chose rather to endure the most exquisite Torments that the wit of Man could invent than either to renounce or dissemble their Christianity and those who out of Fear denyed or were ashamed to confess their Faith they looked upon to have forfeited and renounced their Baptism as having crucified to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame 8. The Second Thing to which Persons baptized solemnly obliged themselves by their Baptism was a Death unto Sin and a New-birth unto Righteousness i. e. they engaged utterly and for ever to forsake all manner of Sin and Wickedness all Idolatrous and Superstitious Worship of false Gods all Injustice Wrong Fraud and Uncharitableness towards Men all the Pride and Vanity the Pomp and Luxury of this present World all the Lusts of the Flesh Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Lasciviousness Gluttony Drunkenness Revellings and such like And for the future they promised to make it the business of their lives to fulfil all Righteousness according to the strictest Rules of the Christian Doctrine and Discipline to Worship the only true God with all Devotion Reverence and Humility to be exactly just in their Dealings with Men and generously charitable upon all occasions in fine to be Temperate and Sober Chast and Pure as the Worshippers of

God and the Temples of the Holy Ghost This was indeed a Dying unto Sin and Living unto Righteousness This was properly a being Regenerated or Born again This was truly a being Washed Sanctified and Justified in the Name of Christ and by the Spirit of God And indeed this was the principal thing which was signified in Baptism and the principal end for which the whole Ordinance was designed This was what the Person to be baptized was to profess with his own Mouth when he renounced the Devil and all his Works and this was what was principally represented by that main part of the Ceremony the descending into the Water and rising out of it again For so the Apostle St. Paul most fully explains it Rom. 6. 3. Know ye not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his Death Therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into Death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of Life Knowing this that our old Man is crucified with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin that is the design of our descending into the Water to be baptized and rising again out of it was to mind us that as we then received remission of our past sins by Vertue of Christ's having died for sin so we our selves were in like manner to die and be buried to sin and rise again to walk for the future with Christ in newness and holiness of Life This therefore was the principal thing respected in Baptism and without this answer of a good Conscience towards God the washing or putting away of the filth of the Flesh could nothing avail in the sight of God Baptism is not the Washing and Cleansing of the Body but the Purifying of the Mind from every evil Work to serve the living God without which Baptism is so far from being available to the remission of sin that on the contrary it makes it far the more grievous and inexcusable But of this more in the next Chapter 9. The third and last thing to which Men were solemnly engaged at their Baptism was Self-denyal and Contempt of the World Our Saviour had told his Disciples That whosoever would come after him must deny himself and take up his Cross and follow him that whosoever was not willing to forsake all that he had Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own Life also he could not be his Disciple And therefore when any Man came to be baptized he was accordingly obliged to renounce the World and all its Glory the Pomps and Vanities the Splendor and Pleasures of it He professed himself a Candidate for the Glory that should be revealed hereafter and that therefore he would never be ambitious for that Honour which Men so earnestly contend for here He declared that he expected his Portion in those spiritual Joys which eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of Man to conceive them and therefore he would never set his heart and affections upon any gross and sensual Pleasure He professed that from thenceforward his Treasure should be in Heaven where neither Moth nor Rust doth corrupt and where Thieves do not break through and steal and that therefore he would never be covetous of any Riches or Possessions on Earth In a word he engaged to make it the main business of his Life to prepare and fit himself to be partaker of those things which God had for them that love him laid up in the next World and that therefore he would never be extreamly solicitous after any thing in this This was what the Primitive Christians understood by their Renouncing the World They thought themselves obliged not only to forsake all gross and palpably sinful Lusts but also to be very sparing in their Enjoyments of what was Lawful They looked upon this World and the next as Enemies to each other and that they were to fight as Soldiers under the Banner of Christ against the Pleasures and Temptations of this VVorld for the Glories of the other And for an Emblem of this it was that in some Churches they anointed the baptized Person with Oil He was compared to a Combatant to a Runner just preparing to start in the Christian Race and they minded him that if those who strive for the Mastery only to obtain a corruptible Crown are temperate in all things much more ought he to confirm and strengthen himself to prepare and harden himself to be ready and expedite to be temperate and abstemious and to get perfectly above all those earthly desires which would hinder and clog him in that great race which he was to run for the Crown of Immortality 'T is true the forsaking all worldly Possessions for the Name of Christ was a condition more particularly required in those Primitive times of Persecution But how far it still obliges us as it most certainly does in some Sense shall be considered in its proper place CHAP IV. What was required of Persons after Baptism 1. WHEN the whole Ceremony was finished the Person baptized was cloathed as has been already observed with a white Garment and then he was admitted to the Communion of the Faithful And that which was afterward required of him was this One Great and Necessary thing To keep his Baptism Pure and Undefiled the remaining part of his Life 2 To the keeping a Man's Baptism pure and undefiled through the remaining part of his Life that which was thought absolutely necessary in the Primitive Church was this First That he from that time forward preserved himself from falling not only into the Habit but even so much as into the single Act of any of these gross and palpable Wickednesses Idolatry Perjury Blasphemy Murder Sedition Theft manifest Injustice Cheating Adultery Fornication Uncleanness Drunkenness Revelling and such like of which St. Paul expresly and peremptorily declares and repeats it with great earnestness over and over again that they who do such things shall have no inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God One that was born of God might be surprized into an unheeded sin but into the gross Act of any of these manifest and notorious Impieties they thought he was never to be seduced and if he were that he ceased to be the Servant of God For whosoever abideth in him sinneth not and whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his Seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God From the Acts therefore of any of these great and plain Wickednesses which stare Men in the Face and at the first view terrifie Mens Consciences they thought it indispensably necessary that a Man abstained wholly and that these things were not so much as to be once named among Christians