Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A61227
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Surely every man walketh in a vain shew: surely they are disquieted in vain he heapeth up riches and knoweth not who shall gather them, Psal.39.6.
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Stafford, Richard, 1663-1703.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing S5142; ESTC R221820
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22,526
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32
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food convenient for him Such an one whilst he fears and serves God and fulfils all righteousness shall be more happy and blessed in the end than he that heapeth up Riches and knoweth not who shall gather them or than he that lays up goods for many Years and is not rich towards God The reason and end of things is to be considered Wherefore is it that any one desires Riches If he be one who loves God with all his Heart and with all his Strength and with all his Soul and with all his Mind and who understands throughly the things pertaining to his Kingdom Then it is because he would Honour the Lord with his Substance because he would approve himself as a good Steward of the manifold gifts of God For so much as we have so much we are accountable for Let him that stole steal no more but rather let him labour working with his hands the thing which is good that he may have to give to him that needeth Eph. 4. 28. Hence it appears that even in the labour of our Hands which is to subminister the necessaries of Life somewhat out of that should be afforded to Alms and good Works Much more a larger Portion should be expended towards the same end out of the Plenty and Superfluities of Life Yea whatever is more than the necessity and conveniencies of each Family the same belongeth to the Poor and is their due Whereupon shewing mercy to the Poor is called Righteousness Dan. 4. 27. The more Riches or Money any one hath committed unto him in this Life proportionably a demand and account will be required of him at the Day of Judgment whether he hath expended accordingly for the relief of the Poor and for the maintenance of good works Titus 3. 8. As it is written Obey them that have the rule over you for they watch for your Souls as they that must give an account So it may be truly said to every one who hath or to whom this Worlds Goods are committed do thou so use expend and distribute them forth as thou that must give account thereof That time will come even upon the Death of each one Give an account of thy Stewardship for thou mayest be no longer Steward And it being afterwards commanded And I say unto you Make to your selves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations For we brought nothing into this World and it is certain that we can carry nothing out So in the Day of our Death and from thence forward throughout all eternity we shall have no benefit of our Money or the Riches we had in this Life but of what we gave to the Poor or distributed towards the maintenance of good Works For my part as I have a God to serve and a Soul to have which I desire as much to have saved as any Man living In that little Money which falls into my hands for the World hateth me because I testifie of it that the works thereof are evil If ye were of the World the World would love his own Besides the necessaries of Life provided for the same is the constant thought of my Heart and endeavour of my Hands so to expend the greater part thereof as that I must give account thereof before God and so that I may give up a good account of my Stewardship and that it may be most acceptable and pleasing in the sight of the Lord and that I may receive a full reward 2. John 8. Even the Reward of such who have done the best works Now of good Works there is a twofold sort either outward Alms which is a temporal kindness to the dying Body And seeing that we have this treasure in Earthen Uessels and by the good health and temperament of our Body we are better enabled to serve God and to follow the Duties of our respective Callings And they would Languish Sicken and Die without necessary Food and Rayment So that the Subministring of these to the Person who really wants them is a very great good in that it doth preserve Life But yet as the Apstle saith Covet earnestly the best gifts and yet shew I to you a more excellent way 1 Cor. 12. 31. As much as the Soul is better and a more enduring Substance than the Body so what doth good immediately unto the Soul is proportionably a better Work than what is a temporal kindness unto the dying Body Hereupon the words of eternal Life are better than Money or Food for the former are all one necessary to the feeding and nourishing up of the Soul unto eternal Life all one as Meat and Drink are necessary unto temporal Life According to what David saith by the Spirit which same Spirit gave him the Faith and Knowledge of the future and invisible things of God The Law of thy mouth is better unto me then thousands of Gold and Silver Psal 119. 72. So that the making known thy Truth Isa 38. 19. Or the words of eternal Life and the multiplying the Copies thereof is consequently the Best of works as much as the Soul is better than the Body Indeed in this ignorant but more especially Corrupt World where we know in part things do appear differently unto Christians although they all pretend to walk by the same Rule of the Scriptures Yet forasmuch as many called Christians who seem to be Religious and to make a fair shew in the Flesh have a secret inward enmity against Publishing the Word and Truth of God for the same and alike Reasons as the Pharisees did take Counsel to put Christ to Death Because they perceived that he had spoken the Parable against them Even so such apprehend that the Word Spoken or Published is against some of their own sinful Corrupt or Hypocritical doings therefore they conceive beforehand an enmity towards and afterwards an opposition or Persecution against it and They do not receive the Love of the Truth 2 Thess 2. 10. Nor will they do any thing for it But for my part though I cannot as yet so fully say as I could wish for that I have made my Heart clean nor have all my doings as yet been perfectly conformable to that great and compleat Rule of Righteousness in Scripture For in many things we offend all And the Scripture is against some of my doings which I desire to cease from once before I die and to bring them all yea every Word and Thought in me unto a conformity and agreeableness unto all the Words of God's Law for I believe and tremble that The Wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all unâ—ighteousness of Men. Which word Unrighteousness signifies what is a variation from the great Rule of Righteousness aforementioned Yet nevertheless I am so far from conceiving an Enmity Opposition or Persecution against that form of sound words in Scripture or any of them that I can do nothing against the Truth but for the