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	dwell_v	soul_n	7,338	5	5.6475	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52043	Meroz cursed, or, A sermon preached to the honourable House of Commons, at their late solemn fast, Febr. 23, 1641 by Stephen Marshall ...	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1641 (1641)	Wing M762; ESTC R19516	35,043	59

not out the good deeds that I have done for the House of my God And indeed there neither is nor can be any more certaine or infallible signe of a living member of Christs body and of our communion with Jesus Christ in his holy Spirit that Spirit which dwels and acts in his whole mysticall body then this to sympathize with the Church to suffer in the sufferings of it to rejoyce in the consolations of it and to preferre the good of it before that of our owne soules Secondly the honour of it may provoke you Ingenuous and Noble Spirits will doe more for their honour than for their gaine now if you waigh it in the Ballance of the Sanctuary you shall finde that to bee a publick servant of the Church to have an influence into the wellfare of many is the greatest honour which God communicates to any Creature The Creatures which are for publick and universall use are most noble and excellent the World might stand well enough without Pearles and Jewels and a thousand such like things but the fire the water the Sunne the Earth which are servants to all the World were ruined without them Yea this will make us like to the Angels the excellentest of all Gods creatures whose delightfull employment is to bee Ministring Spirits sent forth to Minister for them who shall bee heires of salvation What shall I say this makes us more than any thing else like unto God himselfe thou art good and doest good almost all the knowledge which we have of the glory of God comes from the good which God diffuseth into the Creature and they partake most of Gods nature and most eminently beare his Image who are his most usefull instruments in doing good to his Church and people and if we marke it wee shall seldome finde the Holy Ghost in the Scripture to point out any as truly honourable but under this notion that they study the wellfare and good of Sion Marke them whom Saint Paul commends in the twelfth to the Romans and yee shall see this is the matter of their praise Phaebe was a servant of the Church at Cenchrea shee was a favourer of many Aquila and Priscilla were Pauls helpers ready to lay downe their neckes for a publick good Mary Andronicus Vrban Triphena Triphosa and many other this is their commendation They laboured much in the Lord So the houshold of Stephanus Paul would have all of them subject to the houshold of Stephanus he would have them numbred among the Patricii What was the house-hold of Stephanus It may bee some honest Tradesman in his Civill ranke but here is the Crowne They addicted themselves to the service of the Saints and of the messengers of the Churches some good men that came on the Churches errand the Apostle saith if any inquired what they were what ranck or qualitie they were of hee answers they were The Messengers of the Churches the glory of Christ Yea Saint Paul of himselfe who seldome gloryed of himselfe who though hee were the greatest Apostle esteemed himselfe the greatest sinner yet could not forbeare glorying in this That hee laboured more abundantly than any others that the Care of all the Churches lay upon him that hee became all things to all men that hee might save some and the Stigmata the brands or markes that hee bore about his body for his service in the Church hee did more glory in than any Noble man can of his George or Blew Ribband You shall see it Galathians 6. verse 17. The Galathians had used Saint Paul somewhat coursely judged his actions and intentions and marke how Saint Paul seemes to take state upon him from henceforth let no man trouble mee What made him thus high in his Spirit I beare in my body the Stigmata the markes of the Lord Iesus this was a badge of his honour and therefore they must use him honourably and indeed if wee compare the honour and glory that rests upon men for the service of Christ and his Church and that which vaine men seeke in other things the truth of this would easily bee seene Suppose one man could say this would I received in fighting for a Mistris in a Duell Another thus my state is empaired in brangling suites at Law Another in gameing and Whoreing What fruit what glory is in these things but now on the other side when a servant of God can say Haec manus ob Ecclesiam pugnando c. these offices I lost this preferment I went without thus was I scorned thus is my body wasted for Christs sake and for his Churches sake this is glory indeed this glory exceeds the happinesse of mortalitie and will outlive all wealth and pleasure And all experience shewes us that however such men are most opposed and scorned by the enemies of the Church who alwayes most fight against the Capraines and Leaders yet among the Saints these are the most precious men one of them esteemed worth a thousand of others and this some thinke Saint Paul to aime at in the fifth to the Romans when he saith scarcely for a righteous man will one dye yet peradventure for a good man that is a usefull Man a serviceable Man a Man whose life and labours benefits many Some would even dare to die Thirdly nor is the Reward lesse at the present it may bee such instruments may loose Houses or brethren or children or lands and their owne lives but they shall finde it againe in this life a hundred fold besides the inheritance of everlasting life Bread cast upon these waters is seed sowen in fertile ground the bosome of the Church is the most fruitfull soile in the world Flesh and blood will never believe this but Jesus Christ the Lord of Life and Glory whose all the Silver and Gold in the World is who hath power enough to promote his servants and savourites hath sufficiently assured us of this in his Gospell Men will securely adventure their estates upon Ropes and Cables in the deepe Seas when the ensuring office is ingaged for their securitie if yee dare trust the insureing office of Heaven goe on serve the Church I promise in the Name of Christ to you yee shall bee paid every penny every houres sleepe which yee have broken every gray haire which is hereby scattered upon your head every disease which yee have contracted every reproach which you have suffered ye shall loose nothing by all or any of these he will repay it you in this world an hundred fold in better things it may be with trouble and persecution but in the world to come ye shall have life everlasting Thus farre the motives which would the Lord let sinke into your hearts how would yee with Paul rejoyce to be offered up a Sacrifice for the Church of Christ how willingly would yee continue to spend and to bee spent in so good worke Secondly some directions how we may be able to doe this

though but a corruptible crowne There is comfort in doing good to one but to advance the good of many especially of the Church of God how honourable how glorious is it Thirdly Gods cause is a successefull cause no weapon can prosper that is formed against it and every tongue that rises up in judgement against it shall be condemned The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it This Gamaliel saw when he advised the councell of the high Priests and Pharisees and Rulers to refrain from opposing the Apostles If this work be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot overthrow it it is in vaine to fight against God Since then the Churches cause is Gods cause and consequently a good cause a noble and succesful cause you may easily hence conclude the happinesse that accompanies the promoting of it And on the contrary as easily discern how cursed a thing it is not only to undergo the disgrace of mannaging a wicked and base enterprise but to fail of that which wicked men use to cherish themselves with the hopes of the comfort of reward and obtaining their desires Secondly consider our relation to the Church And that affords three other excellent arguments to prove men blessed or cursed according as they help or help not the Church of God First whatsoever abilities any man enjoyes wherewith he may any wayes be usefull they are all given him to this very end to make him serviceable to the Church All the manifestations of the spirit are given to profit withall All the gifts which Christ powred out when he ascended up on high are for the perfecting of the Saints and the building up of the body of Christ As every one hath received a gift so let him minister as good stewards of the manifold graces of God The Church is the common storehouse to which all our wealth must be carried Salus Ecclesiae suprema lex Which being so the happinesse of every thing being the attaining of the end for which it was appointed and the curse of it the perverting of it to a wrong end they must needs be blessed who serve the Church and he must needs be cursed that deprives the Church of its own due Salomon saith that he that withholds corne in a time of famine the people shall curse him though it were his owne corne but suppose a man had the keeping of the provision of the whole town corne which were none of his owne he only intrusted with the keyes of it and should let the people starve for want of that food which he should keepe purposely for them or that a man had the keeping of a Magazen for an Army to furnish them with what might make them victorious and their safety and victory hazzarded if not lost through his default were not this man a villaine and a traitor to his country Secondly Consider how neare the relation is betwixt the Church and us except we be of the malignant Church of the Dragons army and then no more need be said to prove men cursed The Church is our Mother and all the Saints are our Brethren a Relation which all Lawes of God and man do fasten duty upon The eye that mocketh at his father or despiseth to obey his mother the Ravens of the vally shall picke it out and the young Eagles shall eate it Paul thought he did no more than his duty when he had great heavines and continuall sorrow in his heart and could wish himselfe accursed from Christ for his Brethren his kinsmen who were Israelites Thirdly All our own blessednesse stands or falls with the blessednesse of the Church The Church is such a corporation or mysticall body as hath in it all the properties of a naturall body wherein no members can be happy in an abstracted sense but as parts conjoyned with the whole because every part hath besides the neare relation to the whole a subsistency in it which is the foundation of any other good it receives And so consequently the good or gaine of the whole is the gaine of every member and whatsoever tends to the dissolution of the whole cannot but be destructive to all the parts As when a company of Merchants have but one joyned stocke every penny gained or lost is gaine or losse to them all Or as it is with a company of passengers in the same Ship save the vessell and you save all sinke the Ship and every mans Cabbin is cast away Now this is a more prevailing argument than reason can make it is grounded in nature which must prevaile with all Nature makes heavy things to ascend rather than the whole should be endangered by a vacuum Nature teaches the tongue to cry out when the toe is trod upon the hand to work that the belly starve not the feet to runne that the back be not cold Every man finds this in the naturall body and Gods Spirit dwelling in all the Saints workes the same spirituall disposition in them that are partakers of the divine nature That there be no Schisme or division in the body of Christ but that all the members may have the same care one for another That whether one member suffer all the members should suffer with it or one member be honoured all the members should rejoyce with it By this time I hope it is cleare that if we look upon Gods promises or threatnings mens experience in all ages or the Churches interest in God his neare union with it his affection to it his owning the Churches cause or if we consider our own engagements to the Church our neare conjunction with it and under God the dependance of all our comforts and wellfare upon it we may and must conclude that all men are blessed or cursed according as they help or help not the church of God The rest of the time I shall spend in the Application of it that what is thus cleare to your judgement and conscience may by Gods blessing take due place in your hearts and conversations And there are but two collections which I shall make for use The first briefly for terrour and reproof the second more largely for exhortation and duty First for reproofe This speaks very sadly against two sorts of people whereof God knowes there are many hundreds of thousands who yet professe themselvs to be Christians As first Are all they cursed that doe not thus helpe the Lord against the mighty what then are they who instead of helping the Lord against the mighty do help the mighty against the Lord who instead of joyning all their strength and giving all their assistance to the Church in her distresse doe give all the assistance they can to the enemies of the Church that they may do mischief against the Church What shall we thinke of these men How many are there who have as it were entred their names into the