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	sin_n	soul_n	13,963	5	5.3517	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43071	A sermon preached at St. Olave Southwark, September the 8th, 1700 occasioned by the recantation of Dr. Joh. Spire, lately a Quaker : which said recantation is added at the end / by John Haslewood ...	Haslewood, John, b. 1647.; Spire, John. Oration at the parish-church of St. Olave-Southwark.	1700 (1700)	Wing H1132; ESTC R14553	11,771	28

false Witnesses it will be as impossible to support the veracity and credit of the other Writers of the New Testament as it is to keep up a Superstructure after the Foundation is taken away And the Scripture not only bears Testimony to the Article it self but to all them that acknowledge it For every Spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God saith St. John and whosoever confesseth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God 1 John 4.2 15. And then as for them who set their faces against him who is declared to be the power and wisdom of God and tell us only of a Christ within we may very well allow them to have the Spirit but it is only that of lying But I would demand of these Men whether or no the Christ within was crucified dead and buried at Jerusalem and rose again the third day Whether he was afterwards seen by hundreds of People and did eat with the Apostles and convinced them that what they saw was a real Body by shewing them his Hands and Feet All which are expresly affirmed of our Saviour and therefore nothing but an infinite clemency could make him still endure such contradiction of Sinners against himself And yet it is the most common practise imaginable of Quakers to contemn and revile all those who speak to them of the coming of that just one of whom the Jews were the betrayers and the murderers Acts 7.52 Nay some of them have been so prodigiously audacious as to bespatter him with such foul and contemptuous expressions as I am afraid to utter and cannot think of without extreme horrour and amazement * What I here allude to may be seen in the Snake in the Grass Vol. 1. Pag. 78. The Author of which Book 1 know to be a Person of too great sincerity to affirm any thing positively which he is not sure of But if he hath accused them wrongfully it is somewhat strange that they should not call him to account for it I suppose their fondness of him is no inducement to conceal such a failing And then wherewithal shall they be cleansed who thus despise that Blood which alone can purify them from their Sins What Laver will be sufficient to wash away this deep stain of Infidelity But Lord Though they thus blaspheme the Name of thy Dear Son grant that we may earnestly beg and effectually obtain the Benefits of his Passion and turn that Curse of the Jews upon themselves into a Blessing upon us and let his Blood be upon us and our Children for our good But can Faith alone save us Will it be enough to fix our eye upon God No my Text requireth us to Incline our ear to him to fulfil his holy Will and Commandments or with a truly humble and contrite Heart to implore his Mercy for our manifold Sins and Trangsressions We must therefore in the next place come to him by Repentance 2. And this I suppose all but Quakers will grant to be necessary to Salvation that every one must either lead a good life or repent of a bad one But with them indeed it is a toyl as insignificant as tedious there being no need of their contrition who cannot offend for why should they afflict their Souls who are arrived to a sinless Perfection Which is an happiness that these mortified and humble Creatures lay claim to And therefore a great Preacher among them represents a Quaker as meeker than Moses stronger than Samson wiser than Solomon and more patient than Job Nay farther harmless and innocent as Christ himself (a) W. Shewen's Treatise concerning Thoughts and Imaginations P. 25. Whatever instances there may be of humane infirmities it is beneath a Quaker to increase the number for he boasts of as great a security from Sin as the Psalmist promised himself from bodily evilds Tho' a thousand should fall beside him and ten thousand at his right hand yet should not wickedness come nigh him for amidst all the Spoils of Sin and Corruption he is resolved to remain untouched and in this sense to be free among the dead I grant indeed that Scripture seems to favour this Principle and to allow of a state of unsinning Obedience when it affirms some to be so innocent as to need no Repentance but I conceive the meaning of that place to be no more than this that though they are within the state of Grace and so need not Repentance as it is a conversion of the whole yet they do need contrition for their single acts of Sin for how else could the Holy Spirit say That in many things we offend all And why did our Saviour in that absolute form of Prayer which he hath appointed bid us pray to Our Father which is in Heaven to forgive us our trespasses And let any one but consult the frailty of his own Nature and he will find the Diseases of his Soul to be at the least as numerous as those of his Body that betwixt his strayings and backslidings the burden of his Sins must needs be intolerable And then what way is there for him to obtain any ease but by casting that weight of his Sins from him By sweeping and garnishing his Soul not that those evil Spirits which had been ejected might return again or that other more unclean ones might be admitted in their stead but that the Holy Dove which loves not dark Houses might make his abode with him when he was become a Child of Light And to this consideration of our own weakness add we that other no less weighty one of the subtlety and watchfulness of our Enemy who hath been long practised in the arts of treachery and insinuation and knows too well when and how to seize upon our affections with the least difficulty and greatest success Now if we live thus in perpetual dangers both within and without how is it possible for us to be sure that we shall always escape them that we shall neither willfully betray our selves nor fall into our Enemy's hand unawares That we shall neither run nor be lead into captivity He therefore that thinks himself above Repentance needs it most of all and that very Pride of heart calls for plenty of Tears and Ashes for the deepest sighing and the humblest prostration I conclude then that since in God's sight no Man living can be justified the most righteous Person must necessarily stand in need of Pardon and the way for him to obtain it is to plead guilty that so he may avert that Wrath which he had deserved and regain that Mercy which he had forfeited And this brings me to my next Head viz. The encouragement that God hath given to all People to incline their ear and come unto him that he will give them the sure Mercies of David make them partakers of a joyful Resurrection 2. But if this be the certain reward of true Faith and Repentance