Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	faith_n	gift_n	grace_n	6,936	5	5.6824	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44395	Golden remains of the ever memorable Mr Iohn Hales of Eton College &c.	Hales, John, 1584-1656.; Hollar, Wenceslaus, 1607-1677, engraver.; Pearson, John, 1613-1686.; Gunning, Peter, 1614-1684.; Balcanquhall, Walter, 1586?-1645.	1659 (1659)	Wing H269; ESTC R202306	285,104	329

Gods purpose to save him could not have finally miscarried though he had died without repentance as some have not stuck to give out is nothing else in effect but to maintain against God that David had he stayed in Keilah had not fallen into Sauls hands because we know it was Gods purpose to preserve David from the violence of Saul All the determinations of God are of equal certainty It was no more possible for Saul to seaze on David then it is for the Devil to pull one of Gods elect out of his hand as therefore the determinate purpose of God to free David from the malice of Saul took not away that supposition If David go to Keilah he shall fall into the hands of Saul so neither doth the decree of God to save his elect destroy the supposition if they repent not they die eternally for the purposes of God though impossible to be defeated yet lay not upon things any violent necessity they exempt not from the use of ordinary means they infringe not our liberty they stand very well with common casualty yea these things are the very means by which his decrees are brought about I may not stand longer upon this I will draw but one short admonition and so an end Let no man presume to look into the Third Heaven to open the books of life and death to pronounce over peremptorily of Gods purpose concerning himself or any other man Let every man look into himself and trie whether he be in the faith or no the surest means to trie this is to take an unpartial view of all our actions many deceive themselves whilst they argue from their faith to their works whereas they ought out of their works to conclude their faith whilest presuming they have faith and the gifts of sanctification they think all their actions warrantable whereas we ought first throughly to sift all our actions to examine them at the Touch of Gods Commandements and if indeed we finde them currant then to conclude that they come from Sanctifying Graces of the Holy Spirit It is faith indeed that gives the tincture the die the relish unto our actions yet the only means to examine our faith is by our works It is the nature of the Tree that gives the goodness the favour and pleasantness to the fruit yet the fruit is the only means to us to know whether the tree be good By their fruit ye shall know them saith Christ It is not a rule not only to know others but ourselves too To reason thus I am of the elect I therefore have saving faith and the rest of the sanctifying qualities therefore that which I do is good thus I say to reason is very preposterous We must go a quite contrary course and thus reason my life is good and through the mercies of God in Jesus Christ shall stand with Gods Justice I therefore have the Gifts of Sanctification and therefore am of Gods Elect for Peter to have said with himself I am of the Elect this sin therefore cannot indanger me had been great presumption but thus to have reasoned my sin is deadly therefore except I repent I am not of the number of Gods Elect this reasoning had well befitted Peter and becomes every Christian man whom common frailty drives into the like distress I made my entrance into my Sermon with the consideration of the wisdome of God in permitting his chiefest servants to fall dangerously I have largely exemplified it in the person of Peter give me leave to make this further beneficial unto you by drawing some uses from it for great profit hath redounded to the Church through the fall of these men Felicius ille cecidit quam ceteri steterunt saith St. Ambrose of this fall of Peter His sin hath more avail'd us then the righteousness of many others for wheresoever it pleases the Holy Spirit of God to work effectually I speak cautelously because I would give no place to presumption in him he makes excellent use oftimes even of sin and evil First of all it is a tried Case that many times through negligence and carelesness we suffer our selves to lie open to many advantages In such a case as this a blow given us serves us for a remembrance to call our wits about us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to stir up the Grace of God that isin us which many times is interlunio lies covered like fire under ashes for as a skilful wrestler having suffered his adversary to take advantage upon some oversight recollects himself and comes forward with greater strength and wariness et pudor incendit vires et conscia virtus shame of the foil and impatience of disgrace addes strength unto him and kindles him so oft times is it with the Saints of God The shame of having fallen makes them summon up their forces to look better about them to fulfil their duty in larger sort then if they had not slipt at all Hence it is that we see that of the bitterest enemies of the Church have been made the best converts of this we have a notable example in S. Paul how eager was he in the quarrel of the Jews against Christ None a more mischievous enemy to the Christians then he yet when it pleased God to shew him his error he proved one of the most excellent instruments of Christs glory that ever was on earth And so accordingly he gives himself a most true testimony I have laboured more abundantly not then one or two of them but then they all his writings being as much in quantity as of them all and St. Lukes story being nothing else almost but a register of the acts of St. Paul The sense and conscience I doubt not of that infinite wrong done to the Church provoked him to measure back to the utmost of this power his pains and labour in making up the breach he had formerly made here then is a notable lesson for us teaching us to make our former sins and impieties admonitioners unto us to know our own strength by Christian care watchfulness to prevent all advantages which the Devil may take by our rechlesness and negligence for beloved it is not so much our impotency and weakness as our sloth and carelesness against which the common enemy doth prevail for through the Grace of him that doth-inable us we are stronger then he and the policie of Christian warfare hath as many means to beat back and defend as the deepest reach of Satan hath to give the on-set The Envious man in the Gospel rusht not into the field in despite of the husbandman and the servants but came and sowed his tares whilst men slept saith the text Our neglect and carelesness is the sleep that he takes advantage of when David was so strangely overtaken the Scripture tells us he rose from his bed to walk on the top of his pallace from his bed indeed he arose but not from his sleep for mark I beseech you

in this kind that ever was made was enacted by Theodosius against the Donatists but with this restraint that it should extend against none but only such as were tumultuous and till that time they were not so much as toucht with any mulct though but pecuniary till that shameful outrage commited against Bish. Maximian whom they beat down with bats and clubs even as he stood at the Altar so that not so much the error of the Donatists as their riots and mutinies were by Imperial laws restrained That the Church had afterward good reason to think that she ought to be salubrior quam dulcior that sometimes there was more mercy in punishing then forbearing there can no doubt be made St. Austine a man of as milde and gentle spirit as ever bare rule in the Church having according to his natural sweetness of disposition earnestly written against violent and sharp dealing with He 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being taught by experience did afterward retract and confess an excellent use of wholsome severity in the Church Yet could I wish that it might be said of the Church which was sometimes observed of Augustus In nullius unquam suorum necem duravit he had been angry with and severely punisht many of his kin but he could never endure to cut any of them off by death But this I must request you to take only as my private wish and not as a censure if any thing have been done to the contrary When Absolom was up in arms against his Father it was necessary for David to take order to curb him and pull him on his knees yet we see how careful he was he should not die and how lamentably he bewail'd him in his death what cause was it that drove David into this extream passion Was it doubt of heire to the Kingdome That could not be For Solomon was now born to whom the promise of the Kingdom was made was it the strength of natural affection I somewhat doubt of it Three year together was Absolom in banishment and David did not very eagerly desire to see him The Scripture indeed notes that the King long'd for him yet in this longing was there not any such fierceness of passion for Absolom saw not the Kings face for two years more after his return from banishment to Hierusalem What then might be the cause of his strength of passion and commiseration in the King I perswade my self it was the fear of his sons final miscarriage and reprobation which made the King secure of the mercies of God unto himself to wish he had died in his steed that so he might have gain'd for his ungracious childe some time of repentance The Church who is the common mother of us all when her Absoloms her unnatural sons do lift up their hands and pens against her must so use means to repress them that she forget not that they are the sons of her womb and be compassionate over them as David was over Absolom loath to unsheath either sword but most of all the temporal for this were to send them with quick dispatch to Hell And here I may not pass by that singular moderation of this Church of ours●● which she hath most christianly exprest towards her adversaries of Rome here at home in her bosome above all the reformed Churches I have read of For out of desire to make the breach seem no greater then indeed it is and to hold communion and Christian fellowship with her so far as we possibly can we have done nothing to cut of the favourers of that Church The reasons of their love and respects to the Church of Rome we wish but we do not command them to lay down their lay-Brethren have all means of instruction offered them Our Edicts and Statutes made for their restraint are such as serve only to awake them and cause them to consider the innocency of that cause for refusal of communion in which they endure as they suppose so great losses Those who are sent over by them either for the retaining of the already perverted or perverting others are either return'd by us back again to them who dispatcht them to us or without any wrong unto their persons or danger to their lives suffer an easie restraint which only hinders them from dispersing the poyson they brought And had they not been stickling in our state-business and medling with our Princes crown there had not a drop of their blood fallen to the ground unto our Sermons in which the swarvings of that Church are necessarily to be taxt by us we do not binde their presence only our desire is they would joyn with us in those Prayers and holy ceremonies which are common to them and us And so accordingly by singular discretion was our Service-Book compiled by our Fore-fathers as containing nothing that might offend them as being almost meerly a compendium of their own Breviary and Missal so that they shall see nothing in our meetings but that they shall see done in their own though many things which are in theirs here I grant they shall not finde And here indeed is the great and main difference betwixt us As it is in the controversie concerning the Cononical books of Scripture whatsoever we hold for Scripture that even by that Church is maintained only she takes upon her to adde much which we cannot think safe to admit so fares it in other points of Faith and Ceremony whatsoever it is we hold for faith she holds it as far forth as we our ceremonies are taken from her only she over and above urges some things for faith which we take to be error or at the best but opinion and for ceremony which we think to be superstition So that to participate with us is though not throughout yet in some good measure to participate with that Church and certainly were that spirit of charity stirring in them vvhich ought to be they would love and honour us even for the resemblance of that Church the beauty of which themselves so much admire The glory of these our proceedings even our adversaries themselves do much envy So that from hence it is that in their vvritings they traduce our judiciary proceedings against them for sanguinary and violent striving to persvvade other nations that such as have suffered by course of publick justice for religion only and not for treason have died and pretend we what we list our actions are as bloody and cruel as their own wherefore if a perfect pattern of dealing with erring Christians were to be sought there were not any like unto this of ours In qua nec saeviendi nec errandi per eundique licentia permittitur which as it takes not to it self liberty of cruelty so it leaves not unto any the liberty of destroying their own souls in the error of their lives And now that we may at once conclude this point concerning Hereticks for prohibiting these men access to religious disputations it is now too late to

dispute of that for from this that they have already unadvisedly entred into these battels are they become that which they are Let us leave them therefore as a sufficient example and instance of the danger of intempestive and immodest medling in Sacred disputes I see it may be well expected that I should according to my promise adde instruction for the publick Magistrate and show how far this precept in receiving the weak concerns him I must confess I intended and promised so to do but●● I cannot conceive of it as a thing befitting me to step out of my study and give rules for government to Common-wealths a thing befitting men of greater experience to do Wherefore I hope you will pardon me if I keep not that promise which I shall with less offence break then observe And this I rather do because I suppose this precept to concern us especially if not only as private men and that in case of publick proceeding there is scarce room for it Private men may pass over offences at their pleasure and may be in not doing it they do worse but thus to do lies not in the power of the Magistrate who goes by laws prescribing him what he is to do Princes and men in authority do many times much abuse themselves by affecting a reputation of clemency in pardoning wrongs done to other men and giving protection to sundry offenders against those who have just cause to proceed against them It is mercy to pardon wrong done against our selves but to denie the course of Justice to him that calls for it and to protect offenders may peradventure be some inconsiderate pity but mercy it cannot be All therefore that I will presume to advise the Magistrate is A general inclinablenesse to merciful proceeding And so I conclude wishing unto them who plentifully fowe mercy plentifully to Reap it at the hand of God with an hundred fold encrease and that blessing from God the Father of mercies may be upon them all as on the sons of mercy as many as are the sands on the Sea-shore in multitude The same God grant that the words which we have heard this day c. A Sermon Preached on Easter-day at Eaton Colledge Luke 16. 25. Son remember that thou in thy life time received'st thy good things I Have heard a Proverb to this sound He that hath a debt to pay at Easter thinks the Lent but short How short this Lent hath seemed to me who stand indebted unto you for the remainder of my meditations upon these words is no mater of consequence to you peradventure it may have seemed so long that what you lately heard at Shrovetide now at Easter you may with pardon have forgotten I will therefore recal into your memories so much of my former Meditations as may serve to open unto me a convenient way to pursue the rest of those lessons which then when I last spake unto you the time and your patience would not permit me to finish But ere I do this I will take leave a little to fit my Text unto this time of Solemnity This time you know calls for a discourse concerning the Resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ of this you hear no sound in the words which I have read and therefore you conclude it a Text unbefitting the day Indeed if you take the Resurrection for that glorious act of his Omnipotency by which through the power of his eternal Spirit he redeems himself from the hand of the grave and triumphs over death and hell you shall in these words find nothing pertinent But if you take this Resurrection for that act by which through the power of saving grace Christ the Son of righteousnes rises in our hearts raises us from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness here in these words you may perchance finde a notable branch of it For to raise our thoughts from this earth and clay and from things beneath and such are those which here Abraham calls the good things of our life and to set them above where Christ sits at the right hand of God this is that practick resurrection which above all concerns us that other of Christ in person in regard of us is but a resurrection in speculation for to him that is dead in sin and trespasses and who places his good in the things of this life Christ is as it were not risen at all to such a one he is still in the grave and under the bands of death But to him that is risen with Christ seeks the good things that are above to him alone is Christ risen To know and believe perfectly the whole story of Christ's Resurrection what were it if we did not practice this Resurrection of our own Cogita non exacturum à te Deum quantum cognóveris sed quantum vixeris God will not reckon with thee how much thou knowest but how well thou hast lived Epictetus that great Philosopher makes this pretty parable should a shepherd saith he call his sheep to account how they had profited would he like of that sheep which brought before him his hay his grass and fodder or rather that sheep which having well digested all these exprest himself in fat in flesh and wooll Beloved you are the flock of Christ and the sheep of his hands should the great Shepherd of the flock call you before him to see how you have profited would he content himself with this that you had well cond your Catechisme that you had diligently read the Gospel and exactly knew the whole story of the resurrection would it not give him better satisfaction to finde Christ's resurrection exprest in yours and as it were digested into flesh and wooll 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To have read Chrysippus his Book this is not virtue To have read the Gospel to have gathered all the circumstances of the resurrection of Christ this is not Christianity to have risen as Christ hath done so to have digested the resurrection of Christ as that we have made it our own this is rightly to understand the Doctrine of the resurrection of Christ. For this cause have I refused to treat this day of that resurrection in the Doctrine of which I know you are perfect and have reflected on that in the knowledge of which I fear you are imperfect which that I might the better do I have made choice to prosecute my former meditations begun when I last spake unto you in this place For so doing I shall open unto you one of the hardest points of your Spiritual resurrection even to raise your thoughts from the things of this life and seat them with Christ above To make my way more fair to this I will take leave to put you in minde in short how I proceeded in the opening of these words when I last spake unto you out of this place You may be pleased to remember that after some instruction drawn from the first word Son