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	outward_a	soul_n	5,744	5	5.4127	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A32860	A sermon preached preached before His Majesty at Reading by William Chillingworth.	Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644.	1644 (1644)	Wing C3895; ESTC R39211	21,847	36

A SERMON Preached before His MAIESTY at READING By WILLIAM CHILLINGWORTH OXFORD Printed by H. HALL for N. DAVIS 1644. 2. TIM. Chap. 3. v. 1 2 3 4 5. This know also that in the last dayes perilous times shall come For men shall be lovers of their owne selves covetous boasters proud blasphemers disobedient to Parents unthankfull unholy Without naturall affection truce breakers false accusers incontinent fierce despisers of those that are good Traitors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more then lovers of God Having a forme of godlinesse but denying the power thereof TO a discourse upon these words I cannot thinke of any fitter introduction then that wherewith our Saviour sometime began a Sermon of his This day is this Scripture fulfilled And I would to God there were not great occasion to feare that a great part of it may be fullfilled in this place Two things are contained in it First the reall wickednesse of the generality of the men of the latter times in the foure first verses For by men shall be lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud c. I conceive is meant men generally shall be so otherwise this were nothing peculiar to the last but common to all times for in all times some nay many have been lovers of themselves covetous boasters proud c. Secondly we have here the formall and hypocriticall godlinesse of the same times in the last verse having a forme of godlinesse but denying the power thereof which latter ordinarily and naturally accompanies the former For as the shadowes are longest when the Sunne is lowest and as vines and other fruit trees beare the lesse fruit when they are suffered to luxuriate and spend their sap upon superfluous suckers and aboundance of leaves So commonly we may observe both in Civill conversation where there is great store of formality there is little sincerity and in Religion where there is a decay of true and cordiall piety there men entertaine and please themselves and vainely hope to please God with externall formalities and performances and great store of that righteousnesse for which Christ shall judge the world It were no difficult matter to shew that the truth of Saint Pauls prediction is by experience justified in both parts of it but my purpose is to restraine my selfe to the latter and to endeavour to cleare unto you that that in our times is generally accomplished That almost in all places the power of Godlinesse is decayed and vanished the forme and profession of it onely remaining That the spirit and soule and life of Religion is for the most part gone onely the outward body or carcasse or rather the picture or shadow of it being left behind This is the Doctrine which at this time I shall deliver to you and the use which I desire most heartily you should make of it is this To take care that you confute so farre as it concernes your particulars what I feare I shall prove too true in the generall To come then to our businesse without further complement let us examine our wayes and consider impartially what the Religion of most men is We are baptized in our infancy that is as I conceive dedicated and devoted to Gods service by our Parents and the Church as young Samuel was by his Mother Anna and there we take a Solemne vow To forsake the Devill and all his workes the vaine pompe and glory of the world with all the couetous desires of it to forsake also all the carnall desires of the flesh and not to follow nor be led by them This vow we take when we be children and understand it not and how many are there who know and consider and regard what they have vowed when they are become men almost as little as they did being children consider the lives and publique Actions of most men of all conditions in Court City and Country then deny it if you can that those three things which we have renounced in our baptisme the profits honours and pleasures of the world are not the very Gods which divide the world amongst them are not served more devoutly confided in more heartily loved more affectionately then the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost in whose name we are baptized deny if you can the daily and constant imployment of all men to be either a violent prosecution of the vaine pompe and glory of the world or of the power riches and contemptible profits of it or of the momentany or unsatisfying pleasures of the flesh or else of the more diabolicall humours of pride malice revenge and such like and yet with this empty forme we please and satisfy our selves as well as if we were lively borne againe by the Spirit of God not knowing or not regarding what Saint Peter hath taught us That the Baptisme which must save us is Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh but the answere of a good consciene unto God When we are come to yeares capable of instruction many which is lamentable to consider are so little regarded by themselves or others that they continue little better then Pagans in a Common wealth of Christians and know little more of God or of Christ then if they had beene bred in the Indies A lamentable case and which will one day lye heavie upon their account which might have amended it and did not But many I confesse are taught to act over this play of Religion and learned to say Our Father which art in Heaven and I beleeve in God the Father Almighty but where are the men that live so as if they did beleeve in earnest that God is their Almighty Father where are they that feare him and trust him and depend upon him onely for their whole happinesse and love him and obey him as in reason we ought to do to an Almighty Father who if he be our Father and we be indeed his children will do for us all the good he can and if he be Almighty can do for us all the good he will and yet how few are there who love him with halfe that affection as Children usually do their naturall Parents or beleive him with halfe that simplicity or serve him with halfe that dilligence And then for the Lords prayer the plaine truth is we lye unto God for the most part cleane through it and for want of desiring indeed what in word we pray for tell him to his face as many false tales as we make Petitions For who shewes by his endeavours that he desires heartily that Gods name should be hallowed that is holily and religiously worshiped and adored by all men That his Kingdome should be advanced and inlarged That his blessed will should be universally obayed Who shews by his forsaking sinne that he desires so much as he should do the forgivenes of it Nay who doth not revenge upon all occasions the affronts contempts and injuries put upon him and so upon the matter curse himselfe as oft as he