Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	believe_v	faith_n	heart_n	7,913	5	5.2011	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20724	An apostolicall injunction for unity and peace. Or, a sermon preached by George Downame Master of Arts of Christs Colledge in Cambridge, to the parishioners of Saint Stephens in Walbrooke, at his departure from them	Downame, George, d. 1634.	1639 (1639)	STC 7108; ESTC S110125	23,771	45

that thou art not able to answer the cavils of these Seducers these Brownists Familists Anabaptists Papists and the like take my counsell and give no eare at all unto them lest thou be perverted and brought to believe lies and if thou wouldest increase in knowledge and be bettered in thy judgement that thou mayst not be seduced let me advise thee to search the Scriptures diligently and compare one place with another not in private study only but by conferring with the Godly With all pray unto Almighty God in true humility of heart for the illumination of his holy Spirit whereby thou mayst in minde rightly conceive of the truth by Faith embrace it in thy heart and by obedience honour it in thy life If thou shalt thus do constantly and faithfully thou shalt be sure to be preserved from errour both fundamentall and finall and in due time shalt know the truth for the promise is Aske and you shall have seek and you shall finde and If any man want wisdome let him aske it of God and it shall be given him And so much for the first sort of men that do infringe the Apostles charge to be of one minde and they are Hereticks We come now to the second and they are Schismaticks that do cut in sunder the unitie of the Church for small and trifling matters because forsooth there are imperfections and blemishes in the Church because Holy Discipline is not restored to the manner of the Apostles because the Eldership the Presbytry the Brother-hood or Seniory is not re-established which when it shall be done after their desire look for a masse of mischiefe a Chaos of confusion presently to follow These are the new-fangled fantasticall fashionists of these times who for the most part illiterate and unlearned take upon them to censure the Scripture and perversly defend and hold their own judgments rejecting all other interpretations These are they that leave the Society of the Saints and the appointed places of Gods Worship and Service and call assemblies themselves in private houses in secret corners in solitary places in fields in woods in barns and other unseemly places as unholy as themselves Surely these people are not of Hierusalem that is a Citie that is at unitie in it self They seem rather to come from Babylon they are so confounded among themselves they are not such as keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace but they follow the directions of a turbulent and fiery spirit in strife and discord They may bragge of the Spirit what they will but this I know that the holy Spirit did not descend upon the Disciples till they were all with one accord in one place till the whole multitude of them that beleived had all but one heart and one soule And St. Iude saith plainely that They that thus separate themselves have not the Spirit No no it is the spirit of errour it is the spirit of ignorance it is the spirit of rebellion It is the spirit of the Divell I was going to say but then I had wrong'd him for he is wiser than so hee knows full well that if his kingdome were divided within it selfe it could not stand The barbarous Souldiers themselves had this wit with them Not to divide Christs seamelesse coate but rather to cast lots for the whole None but a jadish Harlot will say Scindite puerum Divide the Child None but an enemy to the Church will seeke the division of the Church for that is one In Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to doe the commandement of the King and of the Princes by the word of the Lord and I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within them And We being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another And the multitude of them that went before and that followed after cryed saying Hosanna to the sonne of David blessed is he that commeth in the Name of the Lord Hosanna in the Highest They that went before and they that followed after sang the same Tune would to God that we were of that mind once that there were no divisions amongst us but that wee all spake the same things The Ministers that goe before and the people that follow after would wee were all of the same minde would we were but one body and one spirit even as we are called in one hope of our calling For what becomes of the member that is cut off from the body What becomes of the branch that is cut off from the Vine What becomes of the River that is cut off from the head you all know that the member dyeth that the branch withereth that the River dryeth up even so shall they that separate themselves from the Church of Christ perish and come to a fearefull end I remember a Story of Cyrus who going to fight against Scythia and comming to a broad River and not able to passe over it hee bethought himselfe and cut and divided it into divers armes and sluces and so made it passable for all his Army This is the Divels policy comming to invade us and finding his passage stopped by the over-flowing streames of Love Unity and Concord he then labours to divide and separate us into divers Sects and Factions and so hee will easily overcome us Would to God therefore that we were but as wise as those barbarous people of whom Quintus Curtius reporteth who though they were continually jarring and falling out and banding in Armes amongst themselves yet when Alexander the great came among them the equality of the danger wherein they all were joyned their hearts and forces together against their common enemy When Moab was against Ammon and Ammon against Moab and Edom against both sheathing their swords each into others sides Iehosaphat and the Iewes need not strike a stroke To this St. Paul alludes when he saith If you bite and devoure one another take heed that you be not consumed of one another How have the Kingdomes of Israel and of Iudah beene weakned but through divisions among themselves How could the Turke have ever made such inrodes into Christendome as he hath if Christians had not been divided among themselves I have read of a Stone called Tyrhenus which being whole swimmeth above water but being broken every part thereof sinketh to the bottome In like manner will it be with us if we remaine whole and undivided having but one heart and one soule and one minde we shall swimme above water all the boysterous surges and raging billows that our enemies can raise up against us shall not be able to overwhelme us but if wee be once broken and divided in our opinions if wee have divers hearts and divers soules and divers minds we shall incontinent sinke perish and come to nought I 'le conclude this with that prayer of the Apostle St.

standing in the midst betweene Heaven and Hell Never forget then the words of the Apostle Perfecti estote Be yee perfect never stand at a stay contenting your selves with what you have already much lesse go backward but be alwayes bettering be alwayes increasing in grace and godlinesse till you come unto perfection God saith unto us now as hee said at first unto his creatures foetificate augescite be fruitfull and multiply Increase and grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Iesus Christ. My dearly beloved Brethren be ye steadfast immoveable alwayes abounding in the worke of the Lord for as much as you know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Content not your selves with small beginnings thinke not your selves well enough if you have out-stript the hainous and enormous sinner but labour to excell the best of men To this end call your soules into question every day that you may know how they have profited in grace say with that young-man in the Gospell What lacke I yet What corruptions have I already abolished and what yet remayne in me unmortified and unsubdued What graces of the Spirit have I already attained and what do I yet stand in need of So the longer wee live the more wee shall learne the more yeeres upon our heads the more grace in our hearts so shall wee increase and multiply every day more and more in grace and goodnesse and like the trees of the Sanctuary shall bring forth most fruit in our age so shall wee adde unto our faith vertue unto our vertue knowledge unto our knowledge temperance unto our temperance patience unto our patience godlinesse unto our godlinesse brotherly kindnesse unto our brotherly kindnesse charity that so continually going forwards from one degree of grace and godlinesse to another we may at length come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Sonne of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ. Again if you would be perfect you must complere ea quae desunt Ministro make up that which is wanting to the Minister So the Apostle Let him that is taught in the Word communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things Gal. 6. and be not deceived God is not mocked but whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reape Mark God will not be mocked the injury is not done to man but unto God himselfe He will not be mocked if you wrong us you wrong Him if you rob us of our Tithes which are our due by the lawes of God and Man you rob God himselfe He that despiseth you despiseth mee saith Christ and therefore the Hebrews called the Priests because they were anointed Christs they beare the name of Christ himselfe and Christ doth beare the name of them They are Christs under Him and He is High Priest over Them If you did but see the fat cheeks of the Jesuits and the sowlne sides of the Masse-priests you would be asham'd to see the Ministers of the Gospell of Christ to want their daily bread The Priests of Baal sit at Ahabs table but the Priests of the Lord are put into a Cave or Den fed pane arido with bread and water So that we may truly invert that saying of our Saviour The harvest is plenteous said Hee but the labourers are but few but the labourers are plenteous say we and the harvest is but small Happy were many Ministers if they had but the gleaning of the Vintage if they had but one handfull of every heap one eare of every sheafe one grain of every eare But lest it should seeme unseemly for us to plead our own causes let me referre you to Saint Paul who spends a whole Chapter in defending the cause of the Minister which hee doth by divers strong and undeniable arguments although hee himselfe was as little beholding to them to whom he preach't as any man for rather then be burthensome you may read how hee laboured with his own hands And so much for the first admonition be perfect we come now to the second be of good comfort Graeca vox adhortationem consolationem comprehendit The word in the originall comprehendeth two things exhortation and consolation Vbi nota where note saith hee utroque opus esse that there is need of both first of exhortation Multa enim remo●antur jam ingressos viam opus est igitur stimulo tum publice tum privatim There be many things that stop and hinder us when wee are entred the way to Heaven therefore we have need to spurre on one another both in publique and private by zealous exhortations and admonitions So the Apostle counselleth the Hebrews Take heed brethren left there be in any of you an evill heart of unbeliefe in departing from the living God but exhort one another daily while it is called to day lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulnesse of sinne So shall we uphold those that are ready to fall and such as are through frailty and infirmity already falne we shall raise up again So the Apostle admonisheth the Galathians Brethren if any man be overtaken in a fault ye which are spirituall restore such a one in the spirit of meeknesse considering thy selfe lest thou also be tempted But I rather cleave to the latter interpretation of the word as Iunius and Tremelius and our English Translation renders it consolationi fruimini be of good comfort As if the Apostle should have said to them notwithstanding you have beene faulty in many kindes and have beene threatned and chastised for your faults divers and sundry wayes yet comfort yourselves in the mercies of God for though yee be troubled on every side yet yee are not distressed though perplexed yet not in despaire though persecuted yet not forsaken though cast downe yet not destroyed therefore consolatione fruimini be of good comfort Thus is God wont to send faire weather after foule the Sunne after raine the day after night Summer after Winter comfort after sorrow according to the Psalmist Weeping may endure for a night at mane adest cantus but joy commeth in the morning Thus doth he make us suck honey out of the rock and oile out of the flinty rock Thus are wee made whole by being wounded and healed by our stripes thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nocumenta documenta our crosse becomes our crown our destructions our instructions our corrections our directions God would not alwayes have his Prophets to be like Boanerges sonnes of Thunder but sometimes like Barnabas sonnes of consolation Comfort yee comfort yee my people saith your God speake yee comfortably to Ierusalem and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned for she hath received double of the Lords hands for all her sins A