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	spiritual_a	5,844	5	7.6525	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66351	The kingdom of God in power a sermon preached before the Right Honourable Sir John Shorter, Knight, Lord Mayor of the city of London, at Grocers-Hall, November the 20th, 1687 / by Daniel Williams ...	Williams, Daniel, 1643?-1716.	1688 (1688)	Wing W2652; ESTC R1845	22,380	40

God. That is Baptism lieth in the Souls true Correspondence to and Performance of our Baptismal Profession and Vows and not a meer sprinkling of water in an external act of the Minister Receiving the Lords Supper is not the bare partaking of the Consecrated Elements but Communion with our Crucified Christ by Faith and Love under the quicknings of the Spirit Joh. 5. 53 63. We see that God chiefly regardeth the inward Worship of the Soul and not bodily performances The same power extends to every thing wherein Religion is concerned if this Kingdom of Grace obtaineth in the Soul Gods Authority is set above our wills humours and lusts Satan is dethroned Sin hath not Dominion over us Rom. 6. 6 14. Spiritual things are relished above sensitive good we are brought to live to God and not to carnal self and there is an impartial respect to all Gods Commandments Psal. 18. 22. To finish this particular this Kingdom consists of Holy Inclinations in the Heart and implies a degree of strength to act those Inclinations Here are not faint Velleities and uneffectual Desires or Complaints but a Spirit of Power of Love and a sound Mind whereby Temptations are in a good measure resisted and Holy Actions performed This is the Model of the Kingdom this his Gospel Injoineth this his Grace Effecteth and any thing below it would not improve a Sinner to the Holiness our Redeemer designed reconciled Sinners to God's Kingdom never hath place where any of these Essentials are wanting or where there is only some dead form of them 3. Believers who are the Subjects of Gods Kingdom are not meer Professors of Christianity but truly Regenerate and Practical Christians They are of another spirit than what they once were or the rest of the World continue yet to be their extraction is higher being born not of the will of the flesh or of the will of man but of the will of God They have far different apprehensions of Spiritual objects than a carnal mind is capable of these practically know the great things of God in a Spiritual evidence being taught by him as the truth is in Jesus They are a people made willing in the day of God's power Then a mighty Arm subdued their obstinacy without violence silenced their prejudices and made them obedient by agreeable inclinations to the Law and powerful convictions of God's Authority and Goodness Their Religion is not in empty speculations As every truth tends to practice so they feel the power of Truth The objective Glory of Christ transformeth them into the same Glory in their measure They walk with God whom the world knows not they live above what Sinners dote on to please and honour God is their governing-aim To keep a Conscience void of offence towards God and men is their exercise and working out their Salvation is their chief business while as Pilgrims here they are waiting for the expected Inheritance These live the life of Christ are acted by his Spirit which dwells in them by an abiding Relation and are appointed for his glorious purposes They are not Hypocritical pretenders tho censured as Cheats by such men whose Corruptions represent all better pretences as Hypocrisie How much do the Conceptions Designs Experience Attainments and Actings of these men exceed the rest of mankind There is more Piety in many of their common Actions than in the Religious Performances of others these are they whom the Apostle describes as a chosen generation a royal priesthood an holy nation a peculiar people fit and designed to shew forth the praises of him who called them out of darkness into his marvellous light Can any of you doubt these express Characters of all sincere Christians Of these and only these Christs Kingdom doth consist There are such persons in the World or God hath no Kingdom in it Such as are wholly otherwise in their Temper and Actings are Rebels and Aliens in Gods esteem and declared incapable of Eternal Glory Perhaps some of you may Prophanely Scoff at this account as if it were impossible to be thus Sincere and Spiritual or it were needless to be thus Pious Just Temperate or Heavenly-minded but be it known to you that you will shortly be convinced your selves ought to be such men and passionately wish all this could have been truly said of you I have designedly given the Character of the Subjects of this Kingdom in Scripture-Expressions lest any should esteem it a Fancy which they owe not that regard to as to judge of themselves by it But I hope you cannot shut your eye against the Testimony of God nor put any Gloss on those Scriptures which can prevent your suspecting your own Condition Must not you think now how few are Members of this Kingdom How unlike am I to these Subjects of Christ when I never found any of these things nor proposed them to my self as things necessary to be attained by me What a change must there be in my Heart and Life before such a wretch can be meet to be partaker of the Inheritance with the Saints in Light as every real Christian is It remaineth that I apply more particularly such things as you have heard of the Nature and Power of this Kingdom 1. What you have heard of the Gospel may direct us in our judgment of a Gospel Ministry We Ministers are appointed by Christ to persuade Sinners both to yield subjection to God Redeemer and then to walk in all due Loyalty towards Him all our Administrations must be managed by those Laws which respect our Office otherwise we affront the Lord Jesus in whose Name we act and become useless to Men for whose good we are designed The matter of our Preaching ought to be the Gospel even the Kingdom of God and the things which concern our Lord Jesus Christ the manner ought to be such as most conduceth to render it effectual to those Ends for which it is published Ministers are to do their utmost that this Gospel may come not in Word only but in Power and that all may be brought to a compliance with it Therefore we ought not to make State Affairs human Conceits or dictates of Men the matter of our Preaching the Rules of the Covenant of Works nor the Law of Nature as under a respect to that Covenant are not to be urged by us tho the Law of Nature as a rule of our Actions is still of force in this Kingdom of God Redeemer and so must be insisted on The great things we ought to persuade are the things God hath made the terms of Life to redeemed Man. The methods of Reconciliation must be intended for God now dealeth with Men not only as his rational Creatures but as fallen Sinners under new Overtures for Life Sinners must be directed by us to Christ as He on whose Shoulders this New Government is and in whom there is Grace Strength and Pardon which our Apostacy made impossible

by the Law of Works The great Doctrins of Regeneration Repentance Faith in Christ love of God and sincere Obedience as explained by the Gospel Standard are the things to be urged as conditions of Salvation should we mistake these Terms of Life or neglect to persuade your Compliance therewith other things would be vain and leave you dead in your sins What profit is it that you learn and do all things else if you submit not to the Terms of the Gospel For this is the lowest Rule of Gods judgment by which the salvation of any sinner is possible He will judge the secrets of all men by the Gospel The manner also of a Ministers preaching of these Truths is considerable We should publish these in the greatest Evidence and in a way most probable to be attended with the influence of the Spirit Much of that divine Power which persuades you is exerted in fitting the Preacher to plead with you Ministers of the Gospel are therefore to avoid the enticeing words of mans wisdom and must preach in the demonstration of the Spirit and of Power We must represent things in the greatest plainness urge Gospel Arguments with the fullest Evidence and Importunity approving our selves to every mans Conscience to the utmost for their Conviction and Persuasion It 's not invaluable to you that the Minister in all his work is under the power of what he preacheth and doth all in a humble dependance on the blessing and power of the Holy Ghost This Ministry answers the Gospel description this hath a tendency and fitness to subdue Souls to Christ this is that the Lord Jesus who ordinarily works according to the aptitude of means doth usually bless Such a Ministry is a sign that God intends the enlargement of his Kingdom and according to what appears of it among us we may expect proportionable Effects The Lord bring the vain Minds of Hearers to approve this sort of Preaching and convince us Ministers of all levity and mistakes in our Ministration 2. What you have heard of the nature of Grace and Loyal Actings towards Christ may sharply reprove all such who seem by Principle to place Religion in any thing short of this Power It 's needful they lock up the Scriptures those Royal Statutes of Christ who dare place Christianity in external Rites tho the Heart and Life be unsanctified It s Disloyalty to Christ to exchange his Institutions for human Inventions Yea it 's Disloyalty to exclude internal Worship for external and define Graces and spiritual Acts by no more than a dead Image of them How must they debase Religion who commend Pomp for spiritual Devotion and make carnal Observances serve instead of Gospel Faith and Love Surely they little regard the Authority and Constitutions of Christ who account Attrition to be Repentance and represent Pilgrimages Confession Penance and blind Obedience to the Church c. too like an Atonement for the absence of the essential Terms of Life What can more expresly contradict Mens pleasing God by meer external Acts or Profession than my Text doth But alas the Doctrin of Opus operatum is too natural to a dead sinner to be confined within the Walls where first avowed All are too apt to throw off Duties as a Penance and think the eternal Spirit is satisfied with bodily Homage Many judge that Ordinances edify them as a meer Charm without any due exercise of Soul in them A mistake in this essential Point is the reason also why many jear at the Graces of God promise Life to a just and civil demeanour and scoff at Holiness as Preciseness The like Effects of a carnal Spirit is Mens esteeming Regeneration to be no more than external Baptism when that is but a visible Representation of the nature of it and a Seal and Instrument of investitute in Gospel Blessing on supposition that we are inwardly Regenerated What a gross conceit is it that Conversion is but a turning from a gross Infidels State by a bare external Profession of Christianity tho the mind be still unrenewed and the Heart unimpressed by a divine Principle From these Sentiments Men ridicule all Pretences to those things which the Scriptures expresly declare concerning every Believer as praying in the Spirit Communion with God Union to Christ Spiritual Joy c. tho the things are intelligible by any that are judicious and experienced by such as have any converse by Faith with God and spiritual Things It 's pity that a prophane Spirit should arraign the Matters peculiar to a Life so far above its self especially when God hath told us A natural man cannot know the things of God because they are spiritually discerned But whilst they must be foolishness to them Wisdom will be justified by its Children as better Advocates and fitter Judges Nevertheless the Devil attains a destructive End by these Notions for his Dominion is supported and poor sinners are secure in a State of Rebellion against Christ whiles they flatter themselves as Subjects to him because they do a few trifles which neither Satan nor their Lusts forbid and Custom Interest or natural Conscience persuade to How will any Soul among you who stands guilty of this Charge dare to look the Blessed Redeemer in the Face What terror will surprize you when you are accused by him as disloyal in your very Principles and asserters of that for Religion whereby Gods Sovereignty over the Heart is excluded and all real actings of Grace unprovided for You have reproached that which God lays the greatest Stress on which his Kingdom chiefly consists in and his Saints most value themselves by Before I proceed to the Exhortations I design it 's needfull to insert two Cautions that may obviate our abuse of this Subject 1 Caution Do not deny this Power of Religion concerning any Person or Party without manifest Grounds Charity binds you to think all are truly Religious that profess to be so unless their Defects or Works palpably blast their Pretences or their Profession be nullified by a direct contradiction As the power of Religion should not be sacrificed to a Ceremony so lesser Faults do not warrant us to accuse men as wanting the power of Godliness Whatever is consistent with the habitual subjection of a Soul to Christ cannot justifie our excluding that Soul out of Christs Kingdom We may say yea must affirm of Men differing from us in many things The same Christ is their Lord and ours Peace and Love are essentials in Christs Kingdom and shall we challenge our own interest by being censorious or enviously narrow the Dominion of our Blessed Redeemer 2 Caution Despise not the external Institutions of Christ under pretence of this Power the Power and Spirit of Christ concur with his Ordinances and the life and vigor of our Graces are exerted in those Ordinances and nourished by them That Spirit is a delusion which puts Men above divine Appointments and the Guilty are as truly