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	soul_n	whole_a	13,673	5	5.8632	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30957	The sacrifice a short sermon upon Psal. 51, 17, at St. Maries in Oxford, Sept. 3, 1637 / by Clement Barksdale ...	Barksdale, Clement, 1609-1687.	1655 (1655)	Wing B807; ESTC R38543	12,685	62

THE SACRIFICE A SHORT SERMON Upon PSAL. 51. 17. at St. Maries in Oxford Sept. 3. 1637. By CLEMENT BARKSDALE then of Glocester Hall LONDON Printed by T. W. for W. Lee and are to be Sold at his Shop at the Sign of the Turks-head in Fleet-Street M. DC LV. THE SACRIFICE A SERMON UPON PSAL. 51. 17. The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit a broken and contrite heart O God shalt thou not despise BOnaventure compares this Psalm the fiftieth in the vulgar Latin to the year of Jubile as in that year servants were restor'd to themselves and Lands to their antient possessors so in this Psalm we may behold a Man captivated by sin recovering his liberty by repentance and restor'd again to the possession of Gods favour which his high offence had forfeited David is the Man one of so firm and sublime a station in the Church of God that we cannot behold his fall without some horrour Cum dolore quidem dicimus c. I speak of holy Davids sin with sorrow and trembling saith St. Austin but yet I must speak of it for it was not written that it should be buried in silence 't was written at first and 't is now remembred not for imitation but for caution For as God out of his wisdom hath suffer'd his strongest servants to fall that hee might preserve them from pride and make them know by whose hand they are upheld so hath he caused their falls to be set upon record that others by their remembrance might fear to presume If a Peter the forward'st among the Apostles deny his Master a David the Man after Gods own heart prefer his lust before his God if these Hero's so grievously fall what circumspection and heed to my standing should I poor weakling have And on the other side if he that renounced Christ and he that added Murder to Adultery if these heinous offenders are receiv'd again into favour why should I despair of mercy Thus from the height of the persons that fell we may argue against presumption from the depth of the Sins whence they rose we may take comfort against despair Audiant qui ceciderunt ut surgant audiant qui non ceciderunt ne cadant nor is it easy to say from which of the two whether from the infirmities of the Saints or their vertues registred for our use in the Book of God the Church receives more good But alas as the Father complains multi cadere volunt cum David nolunt surgere cum David such is humane whether weakness or perversness that among the great number of those that accompany David in his Sin few there are that follow him in his Repentance Not to detein you too long from the Text upon the Prophets admonition our Penitent addresses himself to his Psalm of mercy Miserere Domine Have mercy upon me O God according to thy loving kindness according to the multitude of thy tender mercies blot out my transgressions and so he goes on like a pittifull suppliant untill toward the conclusion of the Psalm which is observable also in many other Psalms that begin in a sad tune in heaviness and distress but conclude in rejoycing and assurance to teach us that Humiliation is the onely true way to comfort I say toward the conclusion of the Psalm feeling in himself and tasting as it were what he prayed for the joy of the Holy Spirit he no sooner receives the benefit but is full of thankfulness in token whereof he voweth to serve and glorify the God of his salvation but his zeal is not suffer'd to outrun his discretion for whereas Gods service is either moral or ceremonial the ceremonial consisting in legall rites and sacrifices wherin God delighteth not not at all as they are considerd by themselves without respect to the end of them so as the sign and thing signified are separated Moses and Christ opposed or else not so much nothing in comparison of the morall service David therefore discreetly passeth over the ceremonial service in the precedent verse and comes to the morall consisting in spiritual Sacrifices and Oblations fittest for him to give and most delightfull for God to receive The Sacrifices of God are a broken Spirit c. In which words you may be pleased to observe these three parts 1. The matter of the Sacrifice the thing to be offerd expressed in two words Spirit and heart 2. The qualification or requisite conditions of the matter in the words broken and contrite 3. Gods gracious acceptance in the first and last words of the verse these are the Sacrifices of God these he will not despise What the meaness of the speaker cannot hope for in so grave and learned an Assembly let the ever honour'd name of our Lord and Master Christ Jesus challenge your patience and attention to that which by Gods assistance and with a sincere aime at his glory shall from the mouth of his servant plainly be deliver'd and first of the first part I. Spirit and Heart The Soul of Man is signifyed by both words and it is the ●●se of Scripture thus to multiply words of the same signification either propter emphasin or propter exegesin to shew the earnestness of the Speaker or to help the understanding of the Hearer If we will distinguish them then by Spirit may be understood the superior part and faculties the faculties which are inorganical and depend not on corporeal instruments by Heart we may conceive the inferior powers so called from that principal member of the Body the chief seat and original of life and affection Well then the Soul and the whole Soul is to be sacrificed As in the Mosaical Law God reserv'd the Inwards for himself so in our Evangelical service he requires especially our inward Man nay without it the Jewish Sacrifices were not accepted All their Ceremonies before Christ and our outward performances since Christ are of none account unless the heart concur and give value to them Flavius Josephus calls the Politie of the Jews 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God himself was immediatly the Author of it he gave them Laws both Civil and Ceremonial and so could not but be pleas'd with what himself commanded nevertheless when the Jews preferred those outward signs and ceremonies before inward and morall duties when they came once to this pass that they placed all Religion and holiness in them how sharply doth the Lord upbraid them by his Prophets Let me call to your remembrance two remarkeable places to this purpose which do fully shew how God stands affected In the first of Esay ver 10. the Prophet calls for audience and in the following words he expostulateth with the superstious Jews To what purpose is the multitude of your Sacrifices unto me saith the Lord I am full of the burnt of Rams and the fat of fed Beasts and I delight not in the blood of Bullocks If the Lord delight not in these what then would he have that the Prophet

signifies v. 16. Wash you make you clean cease to do evil learn to do well and then come saith the Lord v. 18. though your sins be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow In the sixt of Micah v. 6. a question is proposed Wherewithall shall I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God shall I come before him with burnt offerings with Calves of a year old will the Lord be pleased with thousand of Rams or ten thousand of Rivers of Oyl This is much and who is there that can repent at so dear a rate but there 's more yet shall I give my first Born for my transgression and the fruit of my Body for the sin of my Soul The Answer 's Negative none of this will do no the Lord hath not required it Why what then hath the Lord required that follows at the 8. v. and I pray you mark it well He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God there 's the top of all the humiliation of the Soul to walk humbly with thy God If the Prophets in the Old Testament by such pathetical passages endeavoured to lessen the esteem of outward ceremonial worship and press upon the Jews the inward and moral what may we expect from Christ and his Apostles in the New when Types and shadows are vanisht and have given place to the substance now exhibited Christ hath denounced no less then eight woes in one Chapter against Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites that appear beautiful outwardly and clense only the out-side of the Cup and St. Paul hath set it down for a rule to Timothy Bodily exercise is of little profit Wherfore if I were to speak to such as are superstitiously addicted to the outward form of Godliness denying the power thereof that there would be such the Apostle hath foretold such would I beseech to remember Esay's Quis requisivit who hath required these things at your hands and that frustra colunt which our Saviour urgeth Mar. 7. In vain do they worship me teaching for Doctrines the Cōmandements of Men. The aim of my Speech is not to cōdemn any humane Ordinance for the better ordering of the Church not repugnable to Gods word but this is my drift that we would all employ our chiefest care to serve God with that which he most cares for and therefore I beseech you Fathers and Brethren that you present your Souls a living Sacrifice holy and acceptable unto God A living Sacrifice Behold here a main difference between this and the legal offering the Beast was slain the Soul then truly begins to live when she is offered up to God for as the Soul is the life of the Body so is God the life of the Soul ye● somewhat in the Soul is slain Lust and Wantonness are slain and then as it were a Goat is offered Wrath and Anger are slain and then as it were a Bull is offered but these are enemies of the Soul by whose death she lives the better And hence from the benefit accrewing to the Soul by this oblation may be taken an incentive to the performance of it perform it we shall the rather if we consider that all the rest we can possibly do in Gods service without this is but meer simulation no more but the acting of a Religious part upon a Stage Could we pray unto God till our Tongues are weary and our Knees cleave to the dust could we fast as long as Moses and Elias could we feed the hungry and cloath the naked of the whole world whatsoever can be imagined to be done there be wanting an humble and religious heart all is to little purpose in Gods esteem 't is not piety but hypocrisy not Religion but ostentation Nor do I mean that the business of Religion is to be dispatcht privately between God and our own Souls only that 's the other extream The Soul indeed hath the first and choicest place both because it hath the greatest share in sin the rest being but instruments of sin and fewell for sin abused by the Soul and so the Soul in point of justice is to bear the greatest pain in the exercise of Humiliation and also because it is the best thing we have and most peecious in Gods account and so in point of gratitude to be chiefly offer'd Now as the Scripture saith of God Having given us his Son how shall he not give us all things so may it be said of us offering up to God our Soul that which is in our Bosome and dearest to us how shall we choose but give him all things else Our Bodies formed into reverent gestures at the performance of Religious exercises and chastned with those too much neglected works of mortification whereby the Soul as it were setting Foot upon the Body raiseth her self higher for Divine contemplation Our Estates too extending them to pious uses works of mercy wherein as God himself to our great comfort is principally exercised so when we resemble him therein he is in us most delighted Thus a broken Body is required and a broken Estate too but above all a broken Soul And here see the goodness of God in requiring that Sacrifice which the poorest Man may offer as freely as the richest Under the Law when a Lamb was wanting God accepted of a pair of turtle Doves Thou poor Soul that hast nothing dost thou ask me Quid retribuam What shall I render what shall I offer unto God Habes in te quod offer as August Hearken I will tell thee how thou mayst be as liberal as the best Give him thy self give him a broken and a contrite Heart If there be any advantage it seems to be on the poor Mans side for there is a certain thing that the Apostle mentions 1 Tim. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pride and high-mindedness usually waits upon rich Men quite contrary to this humbling of our selves and besides dant sua non se because they give unto God somewhat of their Estates they are the more apt to withhold and make the bolder to keep back from him somewhat of themselves but Men of a poor and of a broken Estate are more easily brought to that poorness and brokenness of Spirit which is of so high esteem with God and being able to give little else will give themselves wholly Wholly I say for the Soul and the whole Soul is to be offered God hath employment for every part and faculty of it To the understanding hee is truth to the will goodness it self our fear hath his wonderful judgements to work upon our love cannot but take flame from his loving kindness what greater joy then in his presence what better things can be hoped for then his promises Hee hath enemies of his glory for our anger and indignation to spend themselves upon especially those domestick enemies in our own