Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	divine_a	holy_a	son_n	7,564	5	5.7178	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29242	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the lord mayor and aldermen of this city at the Cathedral Church of St. Pauls, on Sunday 3d. of April by H. Bagshaw.	Bagshaw, H. (Harrington)	1698 (1698)	Wing B428; ESTC R24719	10,441	27

so fatal a defect as blasts our pursuits tho' of things in themselves never so excellent This we find exemplifi'd in Simon-Magus who tho' he coveted a thing in it self very desirable the power of conferring the Holy Ghost yet desiring it upon undue conditions and for sinister ends he was immersed in the gall of bitterness and at last advanced to that height of Blasphemy as to set up himself for God thereby becoming a Lasting Monument how unsafe it is to prevaricate in Holy Things But there are a set of men who deal yet more unsincerely in their attendance on the Service of God and hear the Word insidiously on purpose to collect matter of objection and cavil against the Preacher that listen attentively but to no other en● t●…n to remark incoherencies and defects in th●●…tter of it which when they think th●… 〈◊〉 started they have gained their design and he 〈◊〉 use in any measure the same proportion of diligence how they may improve the doctrine delivered to the benefit of their Souls and their everlasting happiness in a life to come The Precepts and Threatnings declared against their darling Lusts are continually fretting and perplexing them whereupon they are resolved to discharge their malice against the Preacher But I shall not insist upon this reflection in this place because I will not suppose any who compose this Auditory so very disingenuous as to be concerned in any part of it A second Qualification which is necessary to accompany us in our attendanee on Divine Service at the House of God is Reverence If we look back upon the past Ages of the World we shall find that even among the Pagan Princes a Reverend deportment was always used in the Worship of their Deities and their Devotions perform'd in the most expressive postures of Reverence according to the different modes of the Countries they lived in insomuch that Numa made a Law that no man should meddle with divine things or worship their Gods in passing or by accident but make it a set and s●…emn business And every one knows that has the least acquaintance with antient History with how great ceremony and solemnity their Oracles were consulted How great a shame then is it for Christians to abate of that reverence to the True God which the very Heathens allowed their False Ones Now this proceeds somtimes for want of that habitual reverence we should always have to the Place of Gods Presence and sometimes for want of actual exciting it For if the habit lye only dormant in us and be not awakened by a lively and vigorous consideration it avails us as little for edification as the habitual strength of a man does for labour when he will not exert it to that end When we enter into the gates of Sion we should do it with other sentiments and apprehensions than when we enter into any other place of common and civil use considering that 't is the Temple of the God of Heaven the Seat of His more Immediate Presence the Instrument of our Salvation or upon abuse of our Ruine for the greater opportunities and advantages we have to improve our selves in the knowledg of God and Religion the more in proportion will b●…●…pected from us And sure this if duly app●…hended cannot but awaken our endeav●… controle all trifling fancies and make us frequent these Holy Places with a suitable reverence and becoming affection to this purpose we find the Royal Psalmist pathetically crying out O how amiable are thy Tabernacles O Lord of Hosts my Soul longeth yea even fainteth for the Courts of the Lord for a day in thy Courts is better then a thousand c. and in another place says he one thing have I desired of the Lord which I will require even that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the fair beauty of the Lord and to visit his Temple And as we ought to make it our deliberate choice to frequent the Place of Gods Worship so when we do it 't is our duty to stir up our selves with such solemn apprehensions as may render us apt to receive due impressions from the Word of God which is there delivered to us for where there is no reverence 't is not to be expected there should by any genuin or lasting obedience Set places and set times for Divine Worship have been made use of in all Ages of the Christian Church having been continued down to us more especially since Constantine's time And as they were at first instituted for this purpose that we might be more at leisure to retire 〈◊〉 our selves and seriously reflect upon the solemn Business we are going about so we shall all of us be highly wanting to our selves if we do not endeavour by a strict and dayly observance of them to improve these assistances to that Blessed End for which they were appointed we must take care that our Services be as free from irreverence or indecency of behaviour as the Sacrifices of the Law were required to be from infirmity and blemish assuring our selves that the God whom we serve is Jealous of his Honour as well as Holy in his Nature neither will he suffer Himself to be contemned or invaded within His Own Walls The third and last Qualification which I shall insist on as a necessary ingredient of our publick Devotion is Attention This is a duty so indispensably necessary that without it all places are alike and equally insignificant for he that attends not to the Duties and Offices of the Church the warmest and most perswasive devotion in the Priest shall affect him no more than the most artful and charming strains of Musick can move a person who has lost his Hearing We must therefore keep our minds fixed in our attendance on God in His 〈◊〉 Temples Inadvertency is a folly and ●…ness i● Civil and Temporal affairs but ' ti● 〈◊〉 in Divine for a man to be in the presence 〈…〉 one especially his superiour and not at all to mind what he says the rules of conversation interpret no small instance of Contempt yet this vile affront do all those put upon God who in their attendance on his Service give it no attention And much more they who come to the Church only to gratifie their curiosity or what is yet worse to pursue some ill inclination or vicious design Notwithstanding which I am afraid the practice is not more impious than 't is common for there are many who frequent the Gates of Sion who if at each time they should be called to an account I doubt could shew but little fruits of their edification thereby and this may be one reason why so many persons grow old in their ignorance understanding their Baptismal Vow as little when they should perform it as they did when they made it and are ready to leave this World before they know any thing of the other which is to succeed it This want of Attention forestals all possibility of good how shall the preaching the Word of God convince the understanding or perswade the affections which 〈…〉 much as enter the imagination so that in thi●●…e Seed seems more cast away than in any of those ●…es the Parable gives In those it still 〈…〉 the Soil but in this it never reaches that but ●…tered and dissipated as with a ●…y wind by those wandring and vitious thoughts which have prepossessed the mind Let none therefore presume to approach such Sacred Places till they have turned out all distracted fancies and have their faculties free and vacant for those nobler objects which will there present themselves and when they have so disposed themselves for Attention then let them contrive to improve that attention to the best advantage This will render what they hear opperative and effective and unless we employ our selves in this manner in these places and attentivly apply what is said to practice and experience the Word or God may fill our heads with high notions nay with many speculative truths which amounts to no more than the Theology of the Apos ●… Angels and will as little advantage us To conclude all let our Attention I say be reduced to practice that so others seeing our good works may glorify our Father which is in Heaven And if we fail here the most assiduous diligence in all the former will be but lost labour let us mean never so well attend never so close if after all we do not practis all the rest will serve but to inhance our guilt Let us all therefore keep a steady eye upon that mark and press towards it as the Apostle did faithfully and diligently frequent the places of Gods Holy Service that we may learn His Divine Will and pleasure and finally partake his promises which God of his infinite Mercy grant to us all c. To whom with the Son and Holy spirit Three Persons but one God be ascribed as is most due c. FINIS

determin'd It is sufficient for us that it hath pleased him to make known his Will to us by Revelation Our duty is obedience and submission but so far as we may be allowed to reason upon Divine Subjects we may probably presume that God Almighty by fixing upon and instituting of some places to this peculiar end was pleased to excite and promote the Devotion and Piety of his people by that awful reverence with which they are naturally apt to affect our thoughts A third Reason why we ought to bear a distinguishing respect to Places set apart for the Worship of God is that reverence and esteem which is due to all things of what nature or qualities soever whether persons or places that are appropriated more immediately to His holy Service and Worship He that despiseth you despiseth me saith our Saviour to His disciples and he that despises Me despiseth him that sent Me which Sentence tho' applied by our Blessed Saviour to such as should abuse or vilifie the Sacred Office of his Disciples may with equal verity be pronounced tho' in a subordinate degree of those who Sacrilegiously invade the Temples and Patrimony of the Church and serve all their mean and sordid ends upon her Have ye not houses to eat and to drink in says St. Paul in this first Epistle to the Corinthians or despise ye the Church of God The Apostle would have no feasting or otherwise lawful freedoms practis'd at the Altar which had been set apart and consecrated to a more Divine and spiritual entertainment It had been no excuse for the Corinthians to have pleaded that they practis'd only the inoccent freedoms of Conversation and used the Church of God as a means to promote mutual freindship and society among themselves these ends however exellent in themselves were to be attained in their proper and ordinary places And they were not under any pretence or colour or for any design or end whatsoever to abuse things that had been dedicated to the immediate Service of God to any other ends than those for which they were design'd If it be demanded whether the Consecration of Places does communicate any special sanctity or holiness to them beyond that of other things and places of ordinary and common use I answer that tho' it does not yet it will not from hence follow that therefore they are no more to be regarded by us than other things and places are For the places are already sacred by the donation and appointment of them to the Service and Worship of God And upon this account it is that we affirm they are to be respected not as absolutely but relatively Holy because of that relation they have to him who is the Fountain of all holiness If it be further asked to what purpose then is the Consecration of Things or Places which are already Sacred by their donation and appointment to this question I make answer that by their Consecration they are solemnly declared to be so And unless this manner of pronouncing or declaring places holy were admitted it is not easie to imagine how the common people should know what places they were to respect as holy and what not besides thus much at least we cannot deny but that such places as are peculiarly and solemnly appointed for Divine Service are more apt to quicken us with a greater spirit of Devotion than others of ordinary and common use A reflection of this nature cannot but correct our wandring thoughts and will more forcibly engage our affections than all the most pressing arguments though pointed with the clearest reason and dressed up under all the beauties of Rhetorick and elocution And therefore tho' these external things are neither essential parts of our devotion nor by any virtue of their own direct occasions of it yet because it hath pleased God after this manner by sanctifying these inferiour means to our spiritual improvement to help us forward in the exercise of our duty it will better become us to adore his Wisdom in thus expressing his Compassion to our Infirmities than by fondly relying upon our own to put a slight upon such assistances and unthankfully frustrate the gracious methods contrived for our Salvation And thus have I finished my first general Head proposed to be spoken to from these words namely that such places as are set apart for the performance of Religious Duties do justly challenge an extraordinary respect and reverence from us I proceed now to the second Branch of my Text wherein I promised to shew what influence the distinguishing respect we owe to those solemn Places of divine worship ought to have on our lives and Actions as also what qualifications are necessary to accompany us in our attendance on them In speaking to which head I shall not undertake any such exact ennumeration as may conclude all the general branches of our duty but shall confine my self in the remaining part of this Discourse to these three following Sincerity Reverence and Attention By Sincerity I mean an upright intention by which we direct our devotion to that proper end for which these Holy Places were design'd viz. the knowledg of Gods Will in order to the due performance of it This honest simplicity of heart is that which our Blessed Saviour represonts by the good ground where a●…e it was the Seed sprung up and bore fruit and he that brings not this along with him howsoever he may fondly flatter himself retains only the shadow not the substance of Christianity And to this we may probably impute that small influence which the Word of God hath on the minds of some among us who come to the places of Divine Service for the same end that they frequent the Exchange or the Court not out of any sense of Devotion or Piety towards God but in complyance with their own interest which amounts to no more than a State-conformity taken up in favour of their secular ease and profit to avoid the punishments or to grasp the Dignities presented to them 'T is with difficulty that they prevail upon themselves to come and with great impatience that they sit out the Service The Custom and Manners of the Country where they live oblige them to feign a decent Hypocrisie to avoid the Censure of the publick or the imputation of Singularity nay even when they are in Gods presence as tho' it were a place of Pennance or confinement they contrive by all the little Arts they can how they may render their stay the mote tollerable and divert that time which they look on as the Parenthesis of their lives Others likewise there are who are more constant attendants on Divine Worship who bring only their speculative faculties along with them and leave their wills and affections behind them They covet to know Gods Will for any purpose but to practice it and are Hearers of the Word only to become more knowing without ever suffering it to reach any further than their understandings which is