Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bless_a	jesus_n	lord_n	6,161	5	3.6174	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28911	A sermon preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the city of London, at Guild-Hall chappel, on Sunday, Novemb. 13, 1692 by Richard Bowchier ...	Bowchier, Richard, 1660 or 61-1723.	1692 (1692)	Wing B3867; ESTC R19525	13,626	34

Insinuations of wicked and designing Men desiring again to be under the Law and to observe Circumcision As the general drift therefore of the Apostle in this Epistle is to shew them that this new dispensation of the Gospel had freed them from the rigour of the Law that is from the necessity of Mofaical Rights and Observances and from that exact and perfect Obedience required under the Penalty of the Curse So again least under pretence of that freedom which the Gospel had given them they should be guilty of those vicious Practices which their false Teachers so industriously endeavoured to infuse He advises them particularly in this Chapter to order all their actions according to the Spirit of that Gospel which they had received and if they pretended to Christianity they should follow the Rules it prescribes If we live in the Spirit saith he let us also walk in the Spirit Having spoken thus much concerning that which gave occasion to the Words I shall now proceed to tell you First What it is to walk in the Spirit Secondly How we shall know when we are in the Spirit Thirdly I shall shew the Obligations which lie on us all to walk in the Spirit And Lastly From what shall be thus said I shall conclude all with some close reflections on our own Lives and Practices 1. Then What it is to Walk in the Spirit The word Spirit has many and very different significations in the Holy Scriptures and it would be no less tedious than improper to reckon them all up in this place Sometimes it is taken for that supream divine faculty that is in us the Soul of Man and for the various Passions of Joy or Grief which either please or disturb us Sometimes it is taken for a temper of Religion for an oeconomy or dispensation which is settled and prescribed us by God Thus the Law is called Rom. 8.15 The Spirit of Bondage which indeed was a severe and an harsh dispensation so opposite to that which in the same Verse is called The Spirit of Adoption which is that tender and gentle way of God's proceeding with us now under the Gospel And in this sence of a temper of Religion is to be taken our Saviour's Answer to his Disciples in his passage thro' Samaria when some of them were all transport and fury at the inhospitality of the Samaritans Luk. 9.53 who would not receive our Lord because his Face was as though he would go to Jerusalem and therefore they being impatient to shew a Revenge proportionable to the Affront they thought our Lord had received waited only for a Commission from him of Commanding Fire to come down from Heaven Lord said they wilt thou that we command Fire to come down from Heaven consume them as Elias did But the blessed Jesus turned and rebuked them Ver. 55. and said Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of that is ye know not that that oeconomy or dispensation which I intend to establish by the Gospel inspires Men with easie and with forbearing Tempers and with a higher degree of Charity than was ever yet required or practised by the Prophets under the Law For these Men were often moved and impowered with an inward Zeal to destroy without any more ado the Enemies of God But the temper of the Gospel is to be otherwise for The Son of Man saith he came not to destroy Mens Lives but to save them Ver. 56. Sometimes the word Spirit is taken for those super-natural and extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost which were so very common in the first Ages of the Church Thus St. Paul arguing in this Epistle with the Galatians about the wonderful Advantages they had received upon their embracing the Gospel says Gal. 3.2 This only would I learn of you Received you the Spirit by the Works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith where by the Spirit is to be understood the several Gifts of it and the diversities of Operations of which we have a particular account given in the 12. Ch. of the 1st of the Corinthians Ver. 7. And which were given to every Man to prosit withal But not to run on in many and foreign significations of the Word by the Spirit in the Text is only and properly as I judge to be understood the Gospel it self in which sence both in this and in other places of St. Paul's Epistles it is taken as opposed to the Law set forth under the Title of the Flesh So then by walking in the Spirit is here to be meant the governing ones self according to the Rules and Precepts of the Gospel The imitating that sacred Temper of which we have the Commands and Pattern in Christ And instead of following the Lusts and Desires of the Flesh the secular and sensual Ends to which this World naturally carries Men and which are so eagerly pursued by the greatest part of Mankind We should strictly live up to the Religion we profess by ordering our Conversation according to the Gospel of Christ And this will 2dly inform us how We shall know when we are in the Spirit There have been in all Ages of the Church strange Pretenders to the Spirit and to the immediate Inspirations of it which is a thing no less vain in it self than pernicious in its Consequences Men of dark and melancholy Tempers are those who most commonly run this way for they being the Persons who generally Think most and in whom impressions being once made stick the longest when ever it happens that they entertain any false Opinions in Religion they are always defended by them with that Obstinacy and inward Pride as will not admit the least contradiction So that the most convincing Reasons and powerful Arguments which commonly have a happy and good effect on free and ingenuous Minds do but make these Men the worse and the greater opposition they at any time find from Reason or publick Authority the more they value themselves upon their opposition to both And thus the violent working of Conceit and a spiritual Pride raises within them an odd heat and Zeal which at last turns it self into down-right Enthusiasm and thus these Men unhappily mistaking a warmth and transport within them for Divine Inspiration and looking on that as a super-natural effect which really after all is but the pure notions of Blood and Spirits They are from hence often guilty of those extravagancies in which neither Reason nor Religion can justifie them and of which ours as well as other Neighbouring Countries have often felt the sad and lamentable Effects But after all let some Mens pretences be what they please to inward Motions and immediate Inspirations of the Spirit this is certain and infallible That as God has only left us his Word in the Scriptures as the sole Rule and Measure of our Obedience and according to which we are to direct and govern our Lives and Actions so he that performs the