Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	blood_n	body_n	heart_n	5,603	5	5.0093	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62323	Jethro's character of worthy judges an assise-sermon preached at Northampton, March 22, 1663 / by Antonie Scattergood.	Scattergood, Antony, 1611-1687.	1664 (1664)	Wing S842; ESTC R38218	23,301	44

God Job 28.28 wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eminently emphatically so It is often put for the whole worship and service of God being the main root and foundation of Religion The Preacher saith it is the whole duty of man Eccl. 12.13 Let us hear saith he the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man Filial Fear and sincere Obedience that the fountain this the stream is both totum Codicis and totum Hominis the summe of God's book and the summe of Man's duty all that can be said all that ought to be done Eschew evil and do good is the Brief of the Bible Now this Fear maketh a man not onely to depart from evil Prov. 16 6. which the other Fear may do but to hate evil Prov. 8.13 and that not so much because it is deadly as because it is ugly not so much because God will punish it as because he doth dislike it and hath forbidden it It maketh a man also to do good and that willingly and chearfully Psal 112.1 Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord saith the Psalmist he hath great delight in his commandments He who hath his heart indued with this grace will not dare to commit any sin not to blaspheme God's name not to profane his day not to neglect his service but will with care and diligence perform the duties that God requireth of him Levit. 20.30 He will keep his Sabbaths and reverence his Sanctuary he will attend upon his Ordinances hearken to his word receive the Sacrament call upon his Name seek to inform himself in God's will and endeavour to conform himself unto it This made Joseph though shrewdly tempted abstein from uncleanness Gen. 39 9. Exod. 1.17 This kept the Midwives from murthering the Hebrew infants contrary to the express command of the bloudy Tyrant This withheld Nehemiah from oppressing the people Neh. 5 15. when Oppression was now grown customary and he might have pleaded precedent and prescription for it Other Governours before him were chargeable to the people exacting provision and money of them and suffered also their servant 's to be insolent and to domineer over them But so did not I saith he because of the fear of God Though he was higher then the people yet he forgot not that there was One higher then he who strictly observed his behauiour and would call him to account for all his actions And this held him within due compass and made him exercise his power to the people's advantage and not his own On the contrary where this curb is wanting men grow impudent in sinning and commit all wickedness even with greediness When the Apostle would shew the fountain of all impiety and iniquity amongst men he saith Rom. 3.8 There is no fear of God before their eyes This reason Abraham allegeth to Abimelech wherefore he was loth to own Sarah for his wife when he was come to Gerar Because I thought Gen 20 11. Surely the fear of God is not in this place and they will slay me for my wives sake Where the fear of God is not men will make no bones at all of murthering a Prophet and ravishing his matrone From what hath been said we may know what to judge of the men of this generation Concerning a great part thereof we may take-up the Psalmist's words Psal 36.1 The transgression of the wicked saith within my heart that there is no fear of God before their eyes The outragious and unbridled sins of this age Atheism and Libertinism Schism and Heresie Oaths and Blasphemies Sacrilege and Profaneness Sedition and Rebellion Bloud-shed and Cruelty Oppression and Injustice Drunkenness and Gluttony Pride and Uncleanness Covetousness and Uncharitableness these notorious and horrible sins do openly shew that there is little fear of God amongst us Those few who making conscience of their ways Prov. 1.14 will not cast-in their lot among the rest 1 Pet. 4.4 and runinto the same excess of riot are made objects of wonder and subjects of obloquy The world accounteth their courses strange and speaketh evil of them But let all ungodly wretches know that if they repent not reform not 1 Pet. 4.5 they shall ere long give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead and feel that Power which they now do not fear And for us Beloved let us labour to get this holy Fear into our inward parts and seeing it is an heavenly and Divine grace let us earnestly pray with David that God would unite our hearts unto him that we may fear his Name Psal 86.11 Psal 4.4 that we may stand in aw of him and not sin against him that we may set God alwayes before us and having still a due belief and apprehension of his presence with us his knowledge of us his power over us and above all of his goodness unto us Acts 24.16 we may exercise ourselves to have always a conscience void of offense toward him and to approve not our actions alone but also our very affections unto him Prov 28.14 Blessed is the man who thus feareth always Before I close-up this point which shall close-up my discourse at this time let me crave leave though indeed my Text and my Calling give me leave to tell Judges and Magistrates and all that are in authority that they ought to be such as fear God This Qualification standeth mee thinketh in the Text like the Sun in the middle of the Planets dispersing his beams all about being the fountain of light and life or like the Heart in the midst of the body which is primum vivens and sendeth bloud and spirits to all the membres or like the Poise or Spring in a clock which is primum movens and setteth every wheel a-going Thus this Grace hath influence upon all its fellows which are still wont to sprowt from it as branches from the root That Magistrate who truly feareth God will be also an able man both in head and heart a man of truth and an hater of covetousness 1. The Fear of the Lord will be unto him a principle both of Wisdom and Courage It will make him first pray and labour for a competent measure of knowledge for the discharge of his duty and then with an undaunted vigour and resolution perform it scorning to be drawn or driven from it by the fawns or frowns of the world For this noble Fear will banish yea quite extinguish all base relpects and carnal fears as fear of loss or danger or disgrace or imprisonment or death it self None of these nor all these shall be able to deter a religious Magistrate from doing his duty The Lord of hosts being his fear and his dread Isa 2.13 Isa 51.12 he will not be afraid of a Man that shall die and of the Son of man which shall be made as grass Not forgetting the Lord

Magistrates and others who have to do in Courts of judicature would follow the counsel of this heathen Monitour and learn to fear God above and to exercise and exsecute righteousness here below This duty not onely the Scripture as ye have heard commandeth but even natural Reason also requireth as might further be made to appear by many other passages of sober Ethnick writers Surely then if Christians prove guilty of the non-performance hereof and be like the Judge in the Gospel Luke 12 2. which feared not God neither regarded man their sin will be sorely aggravated and their condemnation exceedingly increased by their enjoyment of clearer light and greater means to have done better Let me therefore earnestly intreat and beseech you Honourable Worshipful Beloved that ye will fear the Lord God of heaven and earth and order all your ways accordingly And that to this end ye will carry still in your breasts a serious apprehension of God's Presence his Knowledge his Justice his Power and his Goodness 1. For the first Epist 11. Seneca saith truly Magna pars peccatorum tollitur si peccaturis testis adsistat Privacy and solitude is a great temptation to wickedness and the presence of witnesses is oft an hindrance and prevention In this regard as much as in any Gen 2.18 we may say It is not good for a man to be alone Eccl. 4.10 and We be to him that is so Therefore the Stoick well adviseth his friend Lucilius to observe the precept of Epicurus Epist 25. Sic fac omnia tanquam spectet aliquis Still to phansie some grave personage such as Cato or Scipio or Lelius standing by him and observing his carriage Without phansying we have really and in good earnest a far more severe Arbiter then Cato continually present For we say of every place whether sacred or profane whether publick or private as Jacob did of Bethel Gen. 28.16 Surely the Lord is in this place though we were not aware The Psalmist telleth us that which way soever we bend our course Psal 139.7 we cannot go from God's Spirit nor flee from his presence But though he be present everywhere yet is he especially present in his own Courts and in yours Rev. 2.1 He walketh in the midst of the seven golden candle sticks and he standeth in the congregation of the mighty Psal 82 1. 2 Chron. 19 6. De Legib. 6. and is with them in the judgment Plato saith it was a custom amongst the antients to build their Judges Court close by the Temple of the Gods that the neighbourhood of that sacred place might strike reverence into the Magistrate and make him take the better heed what he did And the Ethiopian Judges they say were wont still to leave their highest seats empty for the Angels to come down and sit in They thought so great matters as the Lives and Livelihoods of Men might not be decided unless the Gods themselves were of the Quorum and therefore they reserved places for them But be ye assured that how full soever your Hall anon be thwacked and thronged the God of Angels and Men will find room amongst you He will be in every place in every corner on the Judge's bench at the Lawyer 's bar in the Jurour's chamber or meeting-place Therefore let every man stand in aw of him and none dare to misbehave himself in so dreadful a presence 2. But some haply may conceit like that foolish bird that because they see not they are not seen and consequently need not fear Let such therefore in the second place know and consider that God is not onely present with them but privy to them and though none see him yet he seeth all thorowly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He is acquainted with all our ways Psal 139.2 3 4. There is not a word in our tongue but he knoweth it altogether Yea 1 S m. 16 7. he understandeth our thoughts afar off He seeth not as Man seeth for Man looketh on the outward appearance but the Lord looketh on the heart Man whose eye can pierce no further then the outside may easily be deceived and cousened by the fair shews that crafty companions can cloke themselves and disguise their falshood withall But God trieth the reins Jer 11.20 Prov. 16.2 Psal 44 21. and weigheth the spirits and knoweth the very secrets of the heart Impossible therefore it will be for any to delude and mock him or to hide his very inmost purposes and intentions from him Oh who can choose but fear to commit sin that considereth he standeth before such an Ephor us as this It would be prodigious boldness for a man to cut a purse much more to cut a throat before the eye of an earthly Judge What high and horrid presumption then is it for Christians who profess a belief of God's Omniscience to go about by malicious and fraudulent practices to deprive their innocent brethren of life or liberty or goods or good-name That all-seeing Eye one would think might suffice to restrain us not onely from acting but even from thinking such mischief And so it would were it well thought of It would quench the sparks of sin ere they raise a flame It would nip those cursed buds and not suffer them to ripen It would crush the cockatrice-egs that they never should be hatched into serpents But alas it is to be feared few there are who set God continually before them and therefore few there are who walk uprightly before him Psal 10 11.13 73 11. This reason the Psalmist giveth more then once of the Fraud and Cruelty of the ungodly They say saith he The Lord shall not see Psal 94.7 neither shall the God of Jacob regard it Let me answer and silence such men if there be any thing of Man left in them with the words that follow Understand ye brutish among the people and ye fools 8. 9. when will ye be wise He that planted the ear shall he not hear and he that formed the eye shall he not see He doth see thee though thou thinkest he doth not from the height of heaven Job 22. ●2 13 and through the dark cloud His eyes saith the son of Sirach Eccl. 23.19 are ten thousand times brighter then the Sun beholding all the ways of men and considering the most secret parts He seeth and heareth and understandeth infinitely more then all the world and discerneth that which none else can that being true of him which the Delphick Devil said falsly of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Herdot Ci●● He counteth the Sands on the shore and the Drops of the deep and which is much more he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and knoweth what is in man Acts 1.24 John 2.25 He taketh exact notice not onely of that which cometh from thee but of that also which is contrived within thee of all the plots and projects that