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	pray_v	prayer_n	7,073	5	6.7309	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86190	A peace-offering in the Temple; or, A seasonable plea for unity among dissenting brethren: in a sermon at St. Paul's Church, London, before the Right Honouable the Lord Mayor, &c. on the 14th of October, 1660. By Richard Henchman, Rectour of St. James-Garlick-Hyth.	Henchman, Richard, d. 1672.	1660 (1660)	Wing H1429; Thomason E1048_3; ESTC R208108	22,545	39

to endure the Cross The way to Mount Tabor is by Mount Calvary The way to a Canaan of Joy and Consolation is through a Wilderness of Sorrow and Lamentation Per Saxa per Ignes Tendimus ad Superos c. But you may Object again and say Why is God termed here a God of Patience and Consolation and not a God of Faith or Hope or Love or Peace as elsewhere To this I also Answer That in Prayer it is most comely to suit the thing we pray for with Attributes to God accordingly Now here the Apostle prays for unity and concord amongst them that were at difference The strong were not patient towards the weak nor the weak towards the strong They were furious hot spirits of fiery cholerick Tempers very peevish and impatient one towards another and therefore the Apostle applies suitable Epithetes in his Prayers to cure their Distempers He prays to the God of all Graces to grant them those Graces of all other No unity without patience no comfort without concord Now the God of Patience says he and Consolation grant you c. Secondly This Prayer is amplified by another Note of unity It must be according to Christ that is according to Christ's Rule example and commandment that they may be united in Truth and holiness not in Sin and wickedness in order decency and godliness not in faction disorder and prophaneness Never think of Unity any other way or terms unless it be according to Christ There can be no true Christian unity but in Christ the Redeemer and Head of the Church For how can the Members be united but in the Head or the Scholars but in the Teacher or the Subjects but in their Sovereign Can the Dead be united to the Living What concord between Light and Darkness Christ and Belial Whilest some are for Earth and others for Heaven it is not possible they should go one way If an Angel from Heaven should preach another Gospel he must be accursed Gal. i. 8. Christ must be the glue the cement and band of our unity The agreement of Sinners in mischievous practices is against Christ not according to Christ Psal. ii 2. The Rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against his Anointed All Agreements which are not founded upon Christ are rather conspiracies then agreements like the agreement of Simeon and Levi Brethen in Iniquity Or Absalom and Achitophel banding against David Or Herod and Pilate shaking hands against Christ All such are cursed agreements Let us therefore hold fast together for the defence of Christ his Truth his Laws his Gospel This is that which the Apostle prays for here to be alike-minded according to Christ That 's a Second thing here considerable Thirdly and Lastly his Prayer is amplified and enlarged in regard of the end of unity and concord It must be to glorifie God And this also is here amplified and illustrated two manner of ways 1. Inwardly That ye may with one mind 2. Outwardly With one mouth perform all to his glory In a word God is not glorified where there is no unity Where men agree not in Affection God takes no delight to be amongst them By Strifes and Contentions God is not glorified but blasphemed He cannot endure them which call him Father and will not live quietly and peaceably with their Christian Brethren And therefore seeing there is so near a Relation having one Lord one Faith one Baptism let it be a stronger Tye and Obligation to Unity and Concord and let us endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace Ephes. iv 3 and 5. We are all of one Nation of the same Church Baptized into one Body we have one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Let this move us all to be One as it were because the God and Father of us all is One And thus our blessed Saviour prays Pathetically in that last Prayer of his John xvii 11 and 21. Father I pray that they may be One as we are One And if none of my Arguments will prevail to unite you together this day in a firm and lasting bond of Amity unity and concord I will not onely now but all the days of my Life continue my Prayers and Supplications for you in the words of my Text and according to the Practice of this blessed Apostle St. Paul saying The God of Patience and Consolation grant you to be alike-minded one towards another Thus I have as briefly as I well could given you both the Logical Division and Theological Explication of the Words I should be too tedious if I should insist on every Particular and from thence raise several Observations I shall therefore as God shall enable me and the Time permit me extract one suitable and seasonable Doctrine as the Marrow and Quintessence of the whose Text which is this I pray observe it Obs. 2. Vnity or Vnanimity amongst Believers is very necessary that thereby God may be glorified Or thus Christians ought to be firmly lincked in a bond of amity concord and affection all their days that God may be glorified See this first proved by Scripture 1 Cor. 1.10 There the same Apostle prays that the Corinthians may all speak the same thing that there be no divisions amongst them but that they may be perfectly * joyned together in the same Mind and in the same Judgment First he prays that they may speak the same thing that there may be a unity in their Language The Anatomists tell us of an Artery which goes from the Heart to the Tongue if our Tongues jarr our Hearts cannot make Harmony Vt sitis aptè compacti so Theophylact. Now the more sure course to bring this to pass is for all of us to be of one mind and of one meaning to speak as we mean and to mean as we speak else we cannot be perfectly joyned together but shall remain a tottered a dismembered and mishapen Body Secondly He prays there that they may be perfectly joyned together in one Mind and one Judgment that so they may praise God Non tantùm eodem verborum sono sed animo pleno mutuae charitatis as one Glosses God will not have onely of us a little lip-service an outward agreement but an hearty and unfeined affection one towards another We must be joyned together in one Mind and Judgment Again see some more Places of Scripture to confirm this Truth Phil. iii 16. Let us walk by the same rule and let us mind the same thing And Ephes. iv 3. Let us endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace We must labour to our utmost to preserve that unity in the Church which is kept in the Body by being animated by the same Spirit loving and living peaceably together We must use our utmost endeavour after this Unity so the word imports {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman}

Searcher of all Hearts knows I have no other Design in making choice of this Subject in this Place but that I might cast in my Mite and apply some Sovereign Balsame to cure the Epidemical Distemper of this Age That so if it be possible I may be Instrumental to the Healing of the Hurts to the closing up of those Wounds and Rents which many Empericks and Mountebanks in Religion have caused in this our Church The Romanes to whom the Apostle Saint Paul wrote this Epistle were at this time at much Variance and Discord amongst themselves censoriously Condemning and Passionately Contemning too one another for things indifferent Now the Apostle fearing that this Difference in Opinions would breed an Alienation in Affections and afterwards increase into more bitter Oppositions he frames a very prevalent Argument by way of Caution to avoid such Offences in the precedent Chapter at the 12th Verse So then saith he every one of us shall give an account of himself to God let us not therefore judg one another any more An admirall Inference that They kept such a stir about Days and Meats censuring and controling one another Nodum in Scirpo quaerentes for Toys and Trifles they did so vex and offend one another conilnually and therefore the Apostle in that Chapter uses both his Rhetorick and his Logick too to allay those storms and appease those contentions as you may read at large in the 14th 17th and 19th Verses And here in this Chapter he goes on and prosecutes his Argument in the first Verse We then saith he that are Strong that is strong in Faith strong in Knowledg strong in Grace ought to bear the infirmities of the Weak We that have received a greater measure of Gifts ought to exercise more charity towards our Christian brethren then others If they be hasty or froward or peevish or vexatious let us use Indulgence towards them bear with them help and relieve them their Deportment is inconsiderable because they are not so well-grounded and instructed as we are Let us not therefore Judg them Censure Disdain or Scorn them If such * be overtaken in a fault we that are spiritual should endeavour to restore them with the spirit of Meekness If they be impatient yet in your Christian Patience possess ye your Souls This is the Sum and Substance of the Apostle's former Discourse And having used these weighty Arguments to evince them he closes up with fervent Prayer in the words I have read for unity peace and concord amongst them Now the God of Patience and Consolation grant c. An excellent sweet Close indeed And it is brought in by a Prolepsis as if some should Object to the Apostle thus much True indeed You have brought many strong Reasons and notable Arguments to perswade us to unity concord but there is such a vast Difference amongst us our Wounds are so festered that they seem incurable we are so much divided that it seems impossible For can you imagine to bring the Weak to yield to the Strong or the Strong to forbear the Weak by Reasons or Arguments No I fear we are too much heated already to hearken to Reason Now to this the Apostle here may be supposed to Reply True indeed I see it so to my great grief Ye are very much to pieces strangely disjoynted and distracted yet though your Passions may seem to impede an harmonious Agreement in things indifferent my fervent Prayers may obtain it If I cannot effect it by Reason I 'le endeavour to do it for you by my hearty Supplication to God And if any thing in the world will prevail I am sure this will Now the God of patience c. Thus you see the Cohaerence and Dependance of these words with the former Before I proceed to the opening of them give me but leave to hint this Observation to you by the way Observ. 1. That 't is the Duty of every faithfull Minister of God in their several places when they perceive there are Divisions Strifes and Contentions amongst the People if sound and solid Arguments will not prevail with them to unity and concord to add hearty and fervent Prayers to God to move their hearts to it This you see here is Praxis Apostolica 't was the Apostle Paul's Practice and it is the Duty of every Minister Oh that we could all endeavour to write after this Copy The words themselves contain a Prayer and in this Prayer there are two things most remarkable First The thing that is prayed for and that is unity and concord That they may be alike-minded one towards another that is mind the same thing among one another as Learned Doctour Hammond Glosses {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That they may be united in Thoughts Judgments and Affections that as they are concorporated into one outward Profession so they may be coanimated into one inward Love in Christ Paraeus Interprets it Consensum in Fide a mutual consent in Faith He prays says he that they may be of one Judgment and Opinion concerning the use of Indifferent things But I rather understand and referr it to Consent in Jugment and also Concord in Affection because 't is expressed one towards another where he touches all the Causes of this Concord First The Authour and Efficient Cause God Secondly The Material to be Alike-minded one towards another Thirdly The Formal According to Christ Jesus Fourthly The Final That ye may with one voice glorifie God That 's the first here considerable The thing prayed for viz. Vnity and Concord Secondly Here 's the Amplification or Enlargment of this Prayer and that is briefly in these three Particulars First From the Authour God who is here described by two admirable Properties Patience and Consolation Now the God of Patience and Consolation Origen says that he stiles the Lord The God of Patience and Consolation Quia Deus cum his est c. Because God especially is most with such who inherit such Virtues But I rather adhere to Haymo's Opinion who says he is therefore called a God of Patience and Consolation Quia ipse tribuit Patientiam ab illo solatia veniunt in illorum cordibus habitat that is Because it is he that gives us Patience in our Tribulations and comforts us in all our Afflictions according to that of the Apostle 2 Cor. i. 4. The God of Patience and Comfort because the Authour Approver and Rewarder of Patience and Hope and Comfort And therefore incomparable Grotius hath this excellent Note upon this Place Genitivus says he in his libris modò Objectum modò Causam Effectricem denotat Though these Graces come from us Instrumentally yet Effectually they are from God as the Giver of all good Gifts Object But why here stiled the God of Patience before the God of Consolation Answ. I Answer by giving you this to observe Because the way to true solid and serious Comfort is patiently

Christian Brethren Who because all things go not according to their minds presently fly out into open Railings against Authority Because some differ a little from their Humours Fancies and Opinions they quickly make a Separation and disagreement in Society and Conversation And that which at first perhaps begun in a friendly and Neighbourly dispute by Degrees takes flame and grows up to a mortal Feud and Hatred This is not according to Christ Such are Incendiaries and Firebrands of Christian Society Such as boggle at a few Ceremonies and make no Conscience of Committing Sacrilege Such as cry down an Organ in a Church but are pleased with it in a private House Such as are afraid of a Gown or a Surplice or a Canonical Habit but make nothing of being cloathed with Malice Envy and Vncharitableness Such as cry down all Forms but a Form of Godliness which they onely have and deny the Power of it This is not to be Alike-minded according to Christ It 's a sad thing that people of the next door should be no longer Neighbours one of another but ready to devour and pull out one another's Throats for a few shadows or Husks of Religion a few Senceless Aery Sapless Empty Notions and Opinions whereas the Life Substance Kernel Pith and Marrow of Christianity the Power of Holiness in our Lives a Conformity of our Wills to God's Will is not so Zealously Contended for but God knows is too much neglected by us This is not to be alike-minded according to Christ There is nothing can prevail to bring us to an happy agreement or union untill we unite in the Spirit of holiness and righteousness If we once could prevail to bring men to this we should be the more easily able to bear with one another under all our lesser differences untill the time of full agreement come We should hold our differences with love and compassion and not with hatred and division We should lovingly consult together upon Rules or-Terms on which we might manage our unavoidable differences to the least disadvantage to the Cause of Christ or those common Fundamental Truths which we all maintain Oh that we would but observe that Apostolical Canon Let all things be done decently and in order Let not the foot or the hand take upon them to govern the Head but let us submit to our civil and Ecclesiastical Superiours and not disturb the Peace of the Church by crying Popery is coming in when they that say so are the greatest Idolaters and Worshippers of their own imaginations And seeing we agree in things of the greatest Moment and Weight let us bear one with another in smaller matters and manage our differences with more meekness and peace and Christian charity This is to be alike-minded according to Christ If we were once united I say thus in the Spirit of Holiness we should not differ so much as we do The very Fore-thought of an everlasting union in heaven would have a continual influence upon our hearts for the healing of our breaches We should be thinking with our selves Shall we not shortly be of one mind and one heart and all be perfected with the blessed vision and reconciling light of the face of God There will then be no dissension or division or unbrotherly censures or separations And shall we now live so unlike our future life Shall we now be so unlike to what we must be for ever Shall we now cherish those Heart-burnings and Dissensions that must not enter with us into Heaven but be cast off among the Rest of our Miseries and shut out with the rest of our Enemies Must we there be Cloathed in perfect Love and Vnity and be all imployed in the same Holy Praise of God and our Redeemer And does it beseem us now to be Censuring Contending and Separating from each other Oh Beloved Brethren Let me tell you it had been better you had never been Born then to make any Sinfull Divisions in the Church As Joshuah once faid to Achan Joshua vii 25. Why hast thou Troubled Vs The Lord shall Trouble thee this Day So I may say to some Troublers of our Churche's Peace Why trouble ye the Church and hinder Unity You shall one day have trouble your selves for this Mark them saith the Apostle that cause dissensions and avoid them who they are that make our breaches and keep them Open and shun them VVe are willing to agree to any thing that is reasonable or possible and yet they make us the Authours of our present divisions As Nero set Rome on Fire and then persecuted the poor Christians for it as if it had been done by them they pluck up the Hedg and yet complain that others let in wilde beasts into the Vineyard If they heartily desired Vnity and Peace with us they durst not make so great a breach in charity nor so arrogantly condemn or sleight their Brethren whose Piety and Soberness they cannot deny Beloved If any man desire to be contentious we have no such Custom neither the Churches of God 1 Cor. xi 16. That 's the first Vse Secondly Give me leave to lay down some few Rules by way of Direction to Peace and Vnity and then I will close up in a word of Exhortation First So far as there is an Agreement in Judgment let us close heartily and embrace one another in that It 's a Mercy that the difference is not in the very Fundamentals and Vitals of Religion Seeing therefore there are common Opinions wherein the Godly do agree let that Unity be nourished and this will be a Means to produce further Vnion amongst us It 's a great Frowardness in the Rigid Lutherans that they will not own the Calvinists as Brethren So far as men do retain Christ and Fundamental Truths with an humble godly Disposition desiring to be further informed Let not the want of what they should have make us despise the good things they have So far as there is an Agreement in Judgment let us close heartily and embrace one another in that That 's the first Secondly Let Private Christians highly esteem and submit to the Ministry God hath set over them For commonly there begins the Breach When they begin to be offended at them when men will not own that Publick Office which God hath appointed then they wander into By-paths See Eph. iv 12 13. There you may see a twofold End of the Ministers of Christ The One is to keep them from being carried about with every Wind of Doctrine The other for a Spiritual Edification till we come in the Vnity of the Faith So that a due and fit Obedience and Ackowledgment of them would in a special manner prevent Divisions Thirdly Get a Pitifull and Compassionate Spirit to those that go astray We are indeed I confess to have Zeal and an Holy impatience in the things of God Yet this is to be accompanied with Pity and Compassion Of some have compassion