Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	call_v	soul_n	13,519	5	5.4839	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75965	The male of the flock, or A sermon preached at St. Pauls, before the right honourable, the Lord Mayor, and the right vvorshipfull, the aldermen of the city of London, Septemb: the 9th: 1655. By Benjamin Agas, minister of Cheneyes in Bucks.	Agas, Benjamin.	1655 (1655)	Wing A758A; Thomason E861_3; ESTC R206648	27,438	38

understood one of the worst of the flock and consequently by a Male one of the best of the flock otheewise the opposition would be neither ful nor just 3ly The very corrupt thing here offered in all probability was a Male for this Deceiver as he had stronger so he had feebler Cattle sick and lame c. and questionless among these he had many Males one of which in all likelyhood he offered unto God which Offering of his though a Male was nevertheless a corrupt thing All which being put together do fully satisfie me that it it is an ecliptick expression a Male for the best Male in the Flock even as in Isa 1.18 Wool for the whitest wool 2. By his seeming piety and that in two things A Votary Sacrificer 1. A Votary He voweth either voluntarily by an act arising from the freedom of his own will or else occasionally moved thereunto either to obtain some good as Jeptah to subdue the Amonites Judg 11.30 And Jacob to return home in peace Gen 28.20 Or to remove some evill as Jonah in the belly of the Whale to be delivered from that living grave Jonah 2.9 2ly A sacrificer and sacrificeth not immediatly by himself but by the hands of the Priest But what this makes way for the third part of the description where we shall find this deceiver set forth 3ly By his real impurity for after all this ado he sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing We may see all along the Chapter what the Prophet means by this corrupt thing even ● vile and a base oblation some of his worser and rascal Cattle blind or lame or sick or diseased A corrupt thing possibly corrupted with worms putrified with sores ready to rot as it went on the ground with such a carren Carkasse instead of a lovely Lamb would this deceiver put off God Wherefore what is his Reward my Text tels you he is accursed that is He incurs Gods bitter Odium and renders himself most hateful and abominable God casts upon him an evil eye and will ere long plague him unto the very pit of Hell except he repent For cursed is the deceiver who hath in his Flock a Male c. The words being thus briefly resolved and explained me thinks I see a spations plain of matter lying before me and in it various and several paths for the Passenger to travel in but I am afraid to loose my self as to tire your patience wherefore I have determined to keep only the great Road and to insist upon the main truth of the words Take it in this following conclusion It is a thing most detestable in the eyes of God Doct not to sacrifice unto him the very choice and best of the Flock That we may carry on the Doctrine more smoothly a scruple or two is to be removed out of the way As Why do I so tacitely passe over this deceivers vow 1. Because I have work enough besides Ans and more than sufficient for my glasse 2. Because I see no great inconvenience if we look upon this deceivers vow by way of parenthesis For 1. The sence is undisturbed though that sentence be removed as thus Cursed be the deceiver who hath in his flock a Male and sacrificeth unto the Lord a corrupt thing 2ly Not the lest of any such thing is hinted at as vowing in the preceding part of the Chapter upon which I conceive my Text hath a great dependency 3ly Whether they vowed or not they were bound to sacrifice and without a vow that person would be accursed who offered not the Male of his flock though this deceiver much more because of a double obligation not from the Law only but from his own vow also this in answer to the first 2. At quid nostrâ interest What have we to do with sacrifice and Offerings were they not everlastingly abolished by the coming of Him who was the body and substance of all these shadows and resemblances In some sence I confesse it Ans Yet cum bono Deo vestrâ patitientiâ with the help of God and your good patience who before-hand I humbly bespeak I hope to make it manifest that this Doctrine equally concerneth the piety of Christians in our dayes as the policie of the Jews in antient times To this purpose I must intreat you to go a little more out of the Flesh into the Spirit and then yee shall see that even by the coming of Christ We are made an holy and a Royal Priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifice acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 1 Pet 2.5 And we read of several sacrifices thus to be offered as of praise and thanksgiving By him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually that is the fruit of our lips giving thanks to his name Heb 13.15 Again of Almes deeds and good works To do good and communicate forget not for with such sacrifices God is well-pleased ver 16. But I may not delay in particulars but come to one general sacrifice comprehensive of the rest with all the spiritual seed of Aaron even all appertaining to Christ are everlastingly to offer unto God and this we find called and christened by Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your reasonable service Rom 12.1 The whole Verse runs thus I beseech you therefore by the mercies of God that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice holy acceptable to God which is your reasonable service In which words Paul gives the Romans a compendious and yet a most compleat use of the fore-going Epistle As if he had said since yee have heard of the great priviledges of the Ghospell how God hath given you Christ and all things Gratitudinis ergò give up your selves again unto God and be devoted unto his fear and this by way of sacrifice I beseech you to present 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to set before as the sacrifices of the old men exhibited in the Temple presented or set before the Lord at the Altar Your bodies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an usuall grecisme for the whole man or person the Hebrews expressed it by souls Act 7.14 There went down into Egypt threescore and fifteen souls that is persons but the Greeks many times by bodies as we in our mother-tongue are wont to say such an one is a very good body that is a very good Man o● Woman thus Bodies must be taken viz by a synecdoche for the whole man yea I am bold to say chiefly for the soul with all its nobler faculties and powers otherwise how could they be called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a living sacrifice for the body without the spirit is dead Yet I conceive he rather maketh use of the word body for the greater concinnity of the 〈◊〉 because he bespeaks a sacrifice now it is evident that the bodies only of the beasts could be sacrificed and not their souls which did then immediatly Tenues vanescere in auras vanish away into nothing So that the summe of

in evil wayes They have appetitum caninum and swallow down Hel at a bit as if they were afraid others should get the lest share of it besides themselves As I have seen an hungry Dogg swallow a bone without chowing for feare his fellow should come to touch it Oh how mad and how violent are wicked men in the prosecution of their Lusts shal not their excessive wickedness provoak us to exceed in goodness do we not serve a better Master are we not about a better work do we not expect a better reward when Job provided a sacrifice for the World 't was the Male of his flock and when we provide a sacrifice for our God shal it not be the Male of our flock God put us not off with Saints or Angels though he had store and choice but one better then all the only lovely Lamb in the Fold for brightness and perfection even his own dear Sonn He spared not his Son but delivered him up for us all Rom 8.32 what therefore shal we render unto the Lord gratitude wil answer I have nothing good enough but the best which I have sha● forever be at his service Which that we may do let us observe these following rules Let all our services be ordered according to the rule of the Word Meanes we may not presume to know above what is revealed To the Law to the testimonies we may expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Romans 12.1 by 1 Pet 2.2 where we have the same epethite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is there translated the milk of the Word and not reasonable Milk and then our sacrifice wil be the service of the Word viz according to the word of God Here we must stick otherwise we shal strangely vanish away in our own foolish imaginations and set up graven images which we all know is abominable in the eyes of God that service is peformed in the best manner which God saith is the best for God is sole Judg in this matter and not our foolish and fond opinions we may see groves and Idols a world of vanity and wil-worship in the world among all Sects and perswasions But while they take freedom to abound in their own sence doing what is right in their own eyes let us only do what is right in the eyes of God 2 Let all our sacrifices be offered upon the golden Altar Jesus Christ It is the Altar that sacrificeth the gift Mat 23.19 yea and inricheth it too and only makes it of worth and value Christ is Gods beloved Son in whom he is wel pleased and for his sake wil not quarrel with us or our Offering though we do not attaine unto the perfection of the Sanctuary yea the spots of our sacrifices are easily covered by his spotless righteousness so that God himself wil say here is an Offering according to my mind Where ever Christ is there God is fully satisfied for his eye is so taken with this lovely object that he cannot look off to see else-where what is done amiss 3. Time also and its opportunity is much to be observed for helping on this work especially there let us put our selves upon service when the good fit is upon us I intend soberly and seriosly when the spirit of grace moveth more sensibly upon the face of our souls warming and melting our affections and unkindling gracious desires in us and there are such golden seasons now strike while the iron is hot now to reading praying thanksgiving c for now thy hands wil drop with myrh and thy fingers with sweet smelling myrh O how holy are such breathings how seraphical such expressions how wil thy soul mount upward how near wil it come unto God! and thou whether in the body thou canst not tel or out of the body thou canst not tel 4. Keep a sacred reserve of the strength of thy Spirit and the best of thy affections for God and for his service and let them not consume and blaze out among the lying vanities of this world if we do not use the world as if we need it not we shal serve God as if we served him not There was a time when Solomon gave unto the Lord the Male of his Flock but when afterward he suffered his heart to be taken with si ver and gold with Wine and Women with Men-fingers and Women-fingers with Orchards and gardens and Vineards with Apes and Peacocks and all other the vainer delights of the Sons of men Solomon was another Man and now presently instead of a Male he offered unto the Lord a Corrupt thing The Lord said unto Moses Exod 30 34. take unto thee sweet spices and thou shalt make it a perfume a confection after the Art of the Apothecary tempered together pure and holy and as for the perfume which thou shalt make you shal not make unto your selves according to the composition thereof Whosoever shal make like unto that to smel thereto shall even be cut off from his people This was a sweet only to be smelled in the Sanctuary and not else-where upon paine of death so I conceive there are several aims and high breathings in our affections which are only for God but to spend them upon our selves would be the greatest sacriledg and moreover puts us upon an in possibility of performing the duty I have alwayes observed people high and hot in their pastimes and pleasure as low and as cold in their prayers and performances They who suffer themselves to admire Romances and Play-books and seldome seen to affect Sermons and Gods-Book but they hear and read with a certain kind of loathing and fastidiousness The reason is this the purer strength of their spirit is spent upon vanity and therefore feeble and weak in the things of solidity A tree running out in foolish excrescences the fruit is rare and little and that too of the basest sort In your common Limbecks the purer spirits being drawn out and gone nothing is left behind but a Caput mortuum fleam and dreggs Therefore we must be careful to keep in our spirits to moderate our Joyes and to check our desires and not to suffer our selves to love any thing beneath God with an excessive love midling affections are enough for these things as for those high breathings of soul let them wholly be sacrificed unto the Lord. Stop up the floud-gates that the pools may be ful when yee go unto God and now open all and let them flow as fast as they can the faster the better I love such a thing with all my heart a common saying but once a grave Christian replied not lesse piously than truly why for shame all thy heart for this trifle and that and for every vanity all thy heart must be for God else thou wilt have for God no heart at all To conclude Thou hast in thy flock a Male but if that be meat for thine own palate if that be consumed at thine own Table then when thou comest to offer thou wilt most certainly sacrifice unto the Lord a corrupt thing Gloria in exelsis AMEN POSTSCRIPT I Have under two or three Heads put in a little more filling which for fear of tediousness I thought good silently to passe over in the Pulpit B A.