Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A26788
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A funeral-sermon for the reverend, holy and excellent divine, Mr. Richard Baxter who deceased Decemb. 8, 1691 : with an account of his life / by William Bates ...
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Bates, William, 1625-1699.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing B1107; ESTC R21548
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38,382
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145
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things to your Children how much more shall your heavenly Father to those that ask him The Inference is strong not only from the Divine Authority of the Speaker but from the native Perspicuity of the Things for the Love of an earthly Father is but an Infusion into his Breast from the heavenly Father and but a faint resemblance of his Love The Love of a Mother is more tender and endearing than of a Father Even a fearful Hen will fly upon Death to preserve its tender Brood from the Devourer Yet the Love of God to his Children far excels it Can a Woman forget her sucking Child What Heart what Marble is in her Breast so incompassionate and unrelenting as to neglect her helpless Infant She may but saith God I will never forget thee The Seraphims those bright and unperishing Flames are but faint and cold in comparison of God's Love to his Children 'T is observable how the Love of God to them expresses it self in all the Notions of Propriety and Preciousness to make it more sensible to us They are stiled his Treasure his Jewels the most precious part of his Treasure the Jewels of his Crown that are the richest Jewels Now will he throw away his Treasure or suffer the cruel Enemy to rob him of his Jewels Will he not take them into his safe Custody 'T is to be observed that the Esteem and Affection of God principally respects the Souls of his Children Their Souls have an original Affinity with him in their Substance as Spirits and being born again of the Spirit they are Spirit in their Divine Qualities Endowments and more endear'd to him than by their first Alliance His tender Care to preserve them will be correspondent to his Valuation and Love Moreover the Condition of departing Souls affords another Argument of reliance upon his Love for they leave this visible World with all their Supports and Comforts they are stripp'd of all sensible Securities And will he leave them fatherless in such a forlorn and desolate State His Love is express'd by Mercy Compassion Pity melting Affections that are most tenderly moved when the beloved Object is in Distress Our Saviour propounds an Argument for dependance upon the delivering Love of God from the Exigence of his People Shall not God deliver his own Elect the Designation of Love who cry day and night to him He will do it speedily Love is never more ardent and active than in times of Distress Therefore when his dying Children are deprived of all their Hopes and dependance upon Creatures and fly to him for Protection and Relief will he not hear their mournful Requests and grant their fainting Desires When their earthly Tabernacles are so ruinous that they are forc'd to dislodg will the Love of a Heavenly Father suffer their naked Souls to wander in the vast Regions of the other World seeking Rest and finding none Certainly he will bring them into his reviving Presence If Divine Love be so condescending that the high and lofty One that inhabits Eternity dwells with the humble and contrite Spirit to revive the Spirit of the Humble when they are confin'd to our lowly Earth we may be assur'd when that Spirit shall be devested of Flesh he will bring it to Heaven the Temple of his Glory to be with him for ever 'T is greater Love for a King to lay aside his State and dwell in a mean Cottage with his Favourite than to receive him into his Palace and communicate to him of his rich Abundance 'T is another most comfortable Consideration that the Love of God is unvariable towards his Children His Love is the sole moving Cause of our filial Relation to him Of his own Will he begat us by the Word of Truth His Soveraign free Love was the Principle of his electing any to the Dignity of being his Children This Love is as unchangeable as free and Election that proceeds from it is as unchangeable as his Love What can induce him to alter his Affection towards them For such is the perfection of his Knowledg that he can never be surprized by a sudden new Event that may cause a change in his Mind and Will He foresaw all the Sins of his People with their provoking Aggravations Now if the foresight of them did not hinder his electing Love in its rise can they frustrate its end the bringing of them to Glory Besides we may argue from what his Love has done for his Children to what he will do He has given his Son and Spirit to them the surest Signs of his Love if we consider the unvaluable Excellence of the Gifts and the Design of the Giver The Son of God is the most excellent Gift of his Love as undeserved as he was undesired And from hence the Apostle argues He that gave his Son for us all how much more will he with him give us all things Blessed God! What richer Evidence and more convincing Demonstration can there be of thy Love Will he not with him give us all things The Inference is direct and conclusive with respect to temporal and eternal Things He will give to his Children in the present World whatever his Wisdom in conjunction with his Love sees good for them To illustrate this by a low and familiar Instance If a Mother bestows upon her Daughter rich Jewels for her Marriage-Ornaments will she deny her Pins to dress her And we may as strongly argue that with his Son he will give us eternal Blessings Will he give us the Tree of Life and not permit us to eat of the Fruit of it What was the design of his Counsel and Compassion in giving his Son to be a Sacrifice for us but to restore us to his Favour The Apostle reasons strongly If when we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life He has paid our Ransom and revers'd the Sentence of Condemnation against us and it invincibly follows he can more easily accomplish our Happiness in Heaven If Love justify a Sinner it will glorify a Saint And as the Gift of the Son so the most precious Gift of the Spirit to God's Children to make them holy and heavenly is the most certain sign of his Love to them The Apostle in the fullest expression speaks of it God who is rich in Mercy for his great Love wherewith he has loved us even when we were dead in Sins quickned us together with Christ By Grace ye are saved Sanctification is the effect of rich Mercy great Love and saving Grace The Children of God are seal'd by the Holy Spirit to the Day of Redemption that Seal distinguishes them from the obstinate and polluted World and ratifies the conveyance of eternal Life to them The Spirit is stiled the Earnest of the Inheritance His dwelling in the Saints by his sanctifying and comforting Operations is an Earnest of their dwelling with
God in his Sanctuary above From hence the Apostle propounds a strong Argument to assure the Saints upon their leaving this World of their reception into Heaven Now he that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is God and the Almighty always obtains his End who hath also given us the earnest of his Spirit Holiness is the Morning-Star of the great Day Grace is the Preparative and Assurance of Glory For altho the Saints are in themselves mutable and while there remains Corruption within and a tempting World without are liable to falling away yet the free and powerful Love of God that revived them when dead will preserve them living that which raised them from the Grave will prevent their relapsing into it The Gifts of God are without Repentance How triumphantly does the Apostle express his Confidence Who shall separate us from the Love of God Shall Tribulation or Distress or Persecution or Famine or Nakedness or Peril or Sword These are the most powerful Terrors that the perverse World in combination with the Devil can make use of to constrain us to desert the Service of God but they are vain Nay in all these things we are more than Conquerors through him that loved us For I am perswaded that neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor Things present nor Things to come nor Height nor Depth nor any other Creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. This blessed Assurance of the Apostle is not rais'd from his extraordinary Privileges not from the apparition of Angels to him nor his rapture to Paradise nor special Revelations but from the Love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord that everlastingly embraces all his Children Briefly in that God has given his Son to die for us and his Spirit to live in us his Son to purchase and prepare Heaven for us his Spirit to prepare us for Heaven a dying Saint may with blessed Tranquillity commend his Soul into God's Hands I have more particularly considered the Fatherly Love of God what a strong Security it affords to his Children that he will never leave them in that no Point requires and deserves more Confirmation and weight of Argument to press it down into our distrustful Hearts 2. The Divine Truth affords a strong Security to the Children of God to commend their Souls to him at last Truth is an Attribute as essential and dear to God as any of his Perfections And in the Accomplishment of our Salvation he ordered all things becoming to his Wisdom that is for the illustration of all his principal Attributes and accordingly design'd the Glory of his Truth equally with the Honour of his Mercy Thus he declares to his chosen People Know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God the faithful God which keepeth Covenant and Mercy with them that love him and keep his Commandments The Attribute that is set next to the Deity as most sacred is the Faithful God and that further express'd keeping Covenant and Mercy for he delights in fulfilling his Promises as in the freest Acts of Mercy The Psalmist breaks forth with the affectionate Praises of these Attributes I will worship towards thy holy Temple and praise thy Name for thy loving Kindness and thy Truth for thou hast magnified thy Word above all thy Name His Word here immediately signifies his Promise that has its rise from his loving Kindness and its performance from his Truth This he magnifies both with respect to the matter of his Promises that are exceeding great and precious and the fulfilling them above all that we can ask or think God cannot repent or lie his Counsels are unretractable from the Immutability of his Nature his Promises are infallible from his Fidelity they are as unchangeable as the Sun and Stars in their appointed Courses nay more stable than the Centre for Heaven and Earth shall pass away but not a tittle of his Promises and our Hopes be unfulfilled If the Frame of Nature were dissolved it would be no loss to God who is glorious and blessed in his own Perfections but if his Promises fail the Honour of his Truth would be impair'd and blemish'd The Psalmist saith Those that know thy Name will trust in thee Those who know the Creature its Levity Mutability and Mortality will be discourag'd from trusting in it but those who know the eternal Constancy of God in his Nature and Promises will securely rely upon him Now the Promises the Declarations of God's Love without which we cannot have any solid and sustaining Hope in our Death assure us of God's receiving the separate Spirits of his Children There was a constant clearness tho not in that degree of Light as since the appearance of Christ of the Happiness of the departed Saints Dying Jacob breaks forth with a lively Hope O Lord I have waited for thy Salvation Job says Tho he kill me yet will I trust in him that is for his Almighty Mercy in the next State The Psalmist expresses his Confidence Thou wilt guide me by thy Counsel and receive me into thy Glory After the safe conducting him through a World of Troubles and Temptations he would bring him to Heaven a Place of equal Purity and Glory David when he was in pressing Peril addresses to God Into thy Hands I commend my Spirit to be preserved as a precious Depositum thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of Truth His Assurance is built on God's Right and Title to him Thou hast redeemed me and his everlasting Fidelity The Apostle speaks with full assurance We know that if our earthly House of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building of God eternal in the Heavens And we are confident I say rather to be absent from the Body and present with the Lord. St. Peter encourages Christians when surrounded with Death to commit their Souls to him Wherefore let them that suffer according to the Will of God commit the keeping of their Souls to him in wel-doing as unto a faithful Creator He encourageth them to encounter Death in its most formidable Pomp by considering their Souls shall be safe for ever upon the account of God's Right and Interest in them and his Fidelity he has an original Right in them by the first Creation as they are intellectual immortal Spirits in their Nature but a nearer and more especial Right by a new and nobler Creation as they are renewed Spirits made like to him in his Holiness the most Divine Perfection The Relation of Creator implies his omnipotent Love and the Attribute of Faithful his eternal Love declar'd in his Promises There can never be the least cause to charge him with Insincerity or Inconstancy The Favour of God is round about the Righteous as a Shield And his Faithfulness is round about him that he is always ready to perform his Promise to them They may