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	flesh_n	john_n	7,151	5	7.0455	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42092	The compleat conformist, or, Seasonable advice concerning strict conformity, and frequent celebration of the holy Communion in a sermon preached (on the seventh of January, being the first Sunday after the Epiphany, in the year 1682) at the Cathedral, and in a letter written to the clergy of the archdeaconry of Durham / by Denis Grenville.	Grenville, Denis, 1637-1703.	1684 (1684)	Wing G1938; ESTC R8783	37,668	65

suffer for Trespasses and so Dear to God that he alone could prevail with him to turn his Wrath from us And therefore leaving all other Sacrifices we cleave only to him All other Sacrifices had all their Virtue from him the most sufficient Sacrifice in himself being The Lamb of God III. The Lamb of God Are not all Lambs you 'll say His The Lambs of God All the Beasts of the Forest are his and so are the Cattel upon a Thousand Hills Yes But this by an Excellency is God's Lamb God's Lamb in a most peculiar and especial manner The others are God's Lambs for the Priest to sacrifice this for God himself to sacrifice Therefore saith Ferus is Christ called Agnus Dei because God gave him So God loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son John 3. 16. Sacrifice and Offerings in Scripture are called theirs that presented them The Firstlings of the Flock which Abel offered are called his Offering Gen. 4. 9. And the Bullock which the People were to offer for their Sins is by Moses called the Peoples Sin-Offering and in this Sense Christ is called the Lamb of God because God gave him God offered him Christ being thus God's Sacrifice Offered by himself he is therefore called God's Lamb. See Hear and Admire then the wonderful Love of God Was there no Ransom for the Sin of Lost Man but only the offering the Son of God Was not a Lamb sufficient but it must be the Lamb of God And was there no other to offer him but God the Father to sacrifice his only Son Oh how great was God's Love to do so much for us How great our Sin to require so much to be done The Sacrifices of Beasts were but for a time neither were they sufficient of themselves at any time to make the Comers thereunto perfect as pertaining to the Conscience Heb. 9. 9. All their Virtue and Worth was from this Sacrifice of God's Lamb which was Typified in theirs the Substance of these shadows When their Time was fulfilled God put a Period to those kinds of Burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices for Sin Then his own Lamb comes to the Altar His own Son hath a Body fitted and comes to do his Father's Will by which Will we are sanctified through the Offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all as the Apostle speaks And thus having dispatched all the Particulars I proposed to discourse of give me leave to spend the remaining time in some useful Improvement of and Reflections on the Text the Time and the Sacrament to which we are approaching and whereto both Preacher and People ought chiefly to draw their Meditations And therefore I hope for pardon if I imploy a considerable part of the time allotted to this purpose Application We have lately Celebrated three great and solemn Festivals relating to our blessed Lord and Saviour his Nativity his Circumcision and his Epiphany In the first we remember his taking upon himself Humane Nature In the second his becoming obedient to the Law for Man In the third the manifestation of himself to be God The business of the Text then can be no unseasonable nor unprofitable Imployment the beholding him who has been so lately exposed to view especially on a Day when the very Sacrament of his Body and Bloud those Sacred Pledges of his Love are exposed on his Altar and to what end this Son of God was manifested we learn from St. John namely to destroy the Works of the Devil He was born that we might be New-born He was Circumcised in the Flesh that we might be Circumcised in Heart and Spirit And he was manifested to the Gentiles that their Posterity of whom we are part like the Wise men might throughout all Ages Worship and Adore him with all due respect and humility both of Body and Soul nay I might add likewise with their Estates too for otherwise we shall be very deficient in imitating their pious Example for they did during his low estate of Humiliation even to a Stable and Manger pay him Tribute not only from their Souls but from their Bodies also for they fell down and worshipped him a Respect which many of us too often grutch him now he is in his highest Exaltation and not only thus paying him Tribute from their Bodies but from their Estates Worshipping him with Gifts and Oblations offering him Gold Frankincense and Myrrh Which may serve as a sufficient Justification of our Churches Practice in requiring the Offertory to be a constant Companion of the Holy Communion yea and that too a very significant part of the Office and also a sufficient ground of Reproof to all those that shall presume to neglect so Laudable and Edifying a Practice an Imposition unexceptionable and reasonable to be performed by the Poor as well as the Rich since the poor Widows Mite is Recorded in Scripture to be as acceptable to God as the rich man's Abundance cast into the Treasury But to return to our glorious Spectacle whether we view him in the Inn in the Arms of his Mother or in the Temple bleeding under the Hand and Knife of the Priest or lastly receiving Divine Worship from Kings who came to Adore him we have before our eyes a Pattern of the greatest Love Purity and Condescension indeed the Grand Exemplar of all Vertue more especially of those Vertues which have been the subject of the Discourse Innocency and Meekness Certain it is that if we could but take a full and perfect view of this Prospect of all the most lovely it would have some blessed Effects on us in Transforming us into his Likeness in making of us at least in some small measure and degree Pure as he is Pure Innocent as he is Innocent Meek as he is Meek Were we but Obedient and Faithful to our God to our Church to our own Souls in frequenting the House of God on these solemn Occasions but with honest Hearts and good Meaning viewing him in his service viewing him in his Sacraments by Faith we should never want some comfortable Issue of our Indeavours we should not be so unsuccessful as we are in the Reformation of our Lives and the Conforming of them to the Life of Christ the Innocent Meek and blessed Jesus To do this and we can do nothing of greater importance should be the subject of all our Resolutions it hath been no holy nor happy Christmass if it hath not prevailed with us to resolve to be better men But such a Resolution doth most particularly concern us who are now approaching to God's Altar Brethren we can put no tricks upon the Almighty who searcheth and seeth the Heart as we see Faces It is not our demure Looks nor our outward humble Postures or most solemn Prostrations that can render us acceptable Guests and unite us to our Saviour but a lively Faith firm Hope a fervent Charity and sincere Resolutions of new Obedience especially in reference to those matters wherein we have