Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A65927
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A discourse of the necessity of Revelation and an holy life deliver'd in a visitation-sermon at Guilford, October 7, 1697 / by William Whitfeld.
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Whitfeld, William, 1658-1717.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing W2014; ESTC R26358
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13,394
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24
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advancing his Knowledge of the Just one that inhabits Eternity than Memory or Wit He finds that Chastity Temperance and Purity in Heart do best dispose his Soul to receive a most lively Impression of the God of all Holiness Universal Charity will display upon our Minds the brightest Rays of Infinite Mercy A constant regular Worship in the House of God and the Returns which are made by him unto our daily Prayers will shew us truly God's Goodness And Lastly a Worthy Receiving of the Holy Communion will make us one with Christ and Christ with us This is to order our Conversation aright and from this Station God hath promis'd to shew us his Salvation I will conclude with some Considerations upon what hath been said by way of Application 1. If we are firmly secure of our true Knowledge of the Salvation of God in the Faith of that Church which we do profess Let us then keep this Faith in Purity of Heart and true Holiness of Life without which no Man shall ever see the Lord. 2. If any Man is doubtful amidst the many Disputes which do at this time wound the Christian Religion and break the Bond of Peace If he is serious in his Enquiries after that Knowledge which is to lead him to Eternal Life Let him then in the sincerity of his Heart make this Trial and from a good Life begin his searches after the Knowledge of the Salvation of God Let Piety Humility Integrity and Charity be the Foundation upon which he builds a true Faith and let him firmly believe and faithfully practice all that his Conscience shall tell him God hath assuredly revealed and commanded with a Mind free from prejudice and ready to receive greater Measures of Knowledge as they shall be tender'd unto him from his Word And for his Encouragement he hath an instance in the Scripture of a good and holy Man who came to the Knowledge of the Salvation of God this way Cornelius a devout Man one that feared God with all his House which gave much Alms to the People and prayed to God always His Prayers were heard and his Alms had in remembrance in the sight of the Lord and he was soon after this shown the Salvation of God From his sincere performance of that which he did know to be God's Will he was led on successfully to the Knowledge of the Salvation of Jesus Christ of which he was ignorant from a Proselyte of the Gate to be baptized into the Christian Faith And of a truth God is no Respecter of Persons but in every Nation He that feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted with him 3. Wickedness of Life is the most fatal step to Infidelity and sets us at the greatest distance from this Knowledge of the Salvation of God For Vice as the Platonists observe doth much cloud and weaken the Understanding and shews its Mastery and Dominion over the Mind by the Captivity it hath brought it under And without this Natural Incapacity if I may so call that Inability which proceeds from the Corruption of Nature impure Minds are very improper Judges of true Holiness and the wicked Liver insufficient for the Salvation of God from the Knowledge of which he seems to be particularly excluded God saying unto Him in the Psalm of my Text What hast thou to do to declare my Statutes Or that thou should'st take my Covenant in thy Mouth Whereas thou hatest Instruction and castest my Words behind thee The wicked Man hateth Instruction Even He that is often the much-boasted Master of right Reason and only impartial Seaarcher after Truth He that sets by himself as the best qualified for Knowledge because he doubts and disputes every thing treading servily in no Man's steps generously freeing his Mind from prejudice and raising his Understanding above all that have gone before him But still the wicked Man casteth the Words of God behind him the Words which God hath revealed to instruct him in His Faith and to direct him in an Holy Life and he hateth Instruction hating as the Psalter translates it to be reform'd For thou givest thy mouth to Evil saith God when thou sawest a Thief then thou consentedst with him and hast been Partaker with Adulterers And with these Qualifications thou settest up for a Reviler of Christ Jesus and a Director in Religion God forbid that this should be charg'd upon all Unbelievers Many of which have Modesty and many I hope Vertue whom God I trust in his Mercy will bring home to himself in his appointed time But yet the Observation which Grotias makes upon the Nataral Man from the comparison of the Greek Philosophers most of which History delivers down as unclean and impure in their Lives we find too often verified It being a most just Judgment of Almighty God that the Despisers of his Word should walk in the Lusts of their own Hearts and be given up to the Vices as well as to the Errors of corrupt Nature to shew them how uncertain a Guide they have to their Salvation which they experience to be so far deprav'd in their Morals And of all such we may be bold to say whosoever they are that shall join Infidelity and a vicious Life together that their Enquiries into Divine Truths are vain and absurd 'T is no wonder to hear them strenuously opposing the Belief of a suture State for it is necessary that they either stifle the Thoughts of that or else forsake the Enjoyment of their present Pleasures And 't is no matter how they wrest and pervert or wholly deny the Written Word of God which being denied extinguishes the dread of Punishments to come and being perverted takes away the Eternity of their Torments 'T is no more than we may expect to find them disputing against the Eternal Law of Good and Evil For these are the Barriers fix'd against their Wickedness which they wou'd fain have remov'd And we may hear them but with Horror daily blaspheming the Divinity of Jesus Christ God blessed for evermore whom they shall find their Judge at the last Day but never their Saviour Prophaness and wilful Ignorance in these Men serve them for Pandars to their Lusts in this present Life and without severe Repentance they are the Pledges likewise of the Outer Darkness and Blasphemings which shall be their Portion and Torments hereafter O that God in his Infinite Mercies may forgive us these great Sins of Prophaness in Holy Things and Impurity of Life join'd together Sins which we see too closely united and too much triumphant O that in his Goodness He may preserve the yet Innocent and Faithful in their Integrity Faith and Vertue and open their Eyes to discover the Deceits and to avoid the Lusts of these impious Wretches And may that good and gracious God whose Mercies and Long Suffering are boundless give unto themselves a timely Repentance before he calls them to Judgment Lastly As to our selves my reverend Brethren shall I call it our Affliction or our Happiness that we have these Persons our implacable Adversaries It is to our unspeakable Grief that there will always be such Men and that this Age and Nation do too much abound with them Enemies to the Religion of Christ and to their own Souls But it is I think to our Honour that the Christian Faith and our Fanction have one Common Adversary and that the Revilers of the Ministry are likewise Blasphemers of Christ To make our Glory the greater we will be sure by the Blessing of Almighty God to adorn our Profession with an unblameable and upright Conversation the true ground-work of all our Knowledge in that Salvation which we are to teach others and to attain ourselves And herewith let us not be discourag'd They boast much of the strength of their Reason I wish it were sound and true for then there would be no Cause of difference but we I trust have that on our side experieneed from our Education how to wield the Weapon and from our Knowledge in the Scriptures where to let it fall in submission to Faith To which let us add what our Holy Function indispensably requires a good Life and our faithful Labours in the Word of God our best Security for our Knowledge in Jesus Christ Let these be our strong Hold our Rock of Defence and our Castle in which we will trust from which nothing shall ever make us to recede or draw us out beyond our Lines Not the Vanity of trying our Strength in New Schemes of Divinity not the Hardyness of rejecting the Receiv'd and Establish'd Terms of the Church of Christ not the Deceitfulness of Philosophy to forsake the Word of God And then with all assurance we may appeal to the good and unprejudiced part of Mankind which is the safest Guide to the Knowledge of the Salvation of God Reason with the Gospel or Reason without it It is the Cause of God in which we are engaged and the Redemption of all Faithful Christians through the Blood of Christ for which we contend Let us therefore play the Men for our People and for the Cities of our God! But let God himself be the Director in the Methods of his own Salvation And the Lord do that which seemeth him good And if this be Priest-Craft may our Right Hand never forget her Cunning May our Studies be serious our Endeavours strong and our Prudence and Charity always exercis'd in it That by it we may catch Men even them if it shall be the good Pleasure of Heaven who use their Craft for the destruction of those Souls for which Jesus Christ died And now O Lord behold their Threatnings and Revilings In thy Mercy renew a right Spirit within them And grant unto thy Servants that with all Boldness they may speak thy Word in Truth and Soberness That with Constancy they may teach that Faith which was once deliver'd unto the Saints That they may stand up in defence of thy Holy Scriptures not without much Blood rescu'd out of the Hands of unreasonable Men by our Forefathers of the Reformation And of thy Grace add to these Mercies Integrity of Life and Purity of Manners in thy Servants which wait at thy Altar So shall we be able O Lord by the Soundness of our Doctrine and Holiness of our Lives both to exhort and convince Gainsayers and to shew forth the Salvation of God FINIS
show in general the insufficiency of many Cavils against several Articles of the Christian Faith rais'd mostly by natural Men who have the Pride to think above what is written By one of which measuring the whole Power of God by the Scale of his own Reason it is affirm'd to be as Absurd to say that God hath taken upon him the Nature of Man as that a Circle should put on the nature of a Square Spinos Ep. 21. ad Oldenb If this is a Jest of the Philosophers 't is very unbecoming the seriousness of the Subject and all good Men will abhor his prophane Lightness in the main Article of our Redemption But if it shall be said in earnest by him 't is a weak proof of his Judgment to argue from the Comparison of a Square and Circle whose Properties do lye within the compass of our Knowledge to the Nature and Power of an Infinite Spirit which we cannot comprehend And to measure the extent of God's Power and Love to Mankind by a similitude of things natural and circumscrib'd is truly absurd This may be one Instance amongst many of the weakness and pride of those Men who set up without God to know and measure his Power assaying without Revelation to penetrate into the Counsels of Divine Providence and into the Mysteries of Man's Redemption which even the Angels are desirous to look into but cannot And when thou chargest thy Angels with Folly what have we O God to rely upon without thy assistance How uncertain a Guide to eternal Happiness purchas'd to Mankind by so many amazing Wonders of Infinite Love is the single Clue of Natural Reason in it self much deprav'd and so unequally divided amongst the Sons of Men that it is not of the same strength in any two Persons Living And yet how weak soever it may be in some and how unequal soever it is in all is it said that we must trust to it for the knowledge of our Salvation even before the Reveal'd Word of God For Socinus dares to say and that more than once That tho' a thing were not only once but oftentimes reveal'd in Holy Writ he would not believe it if it did not agree with his Reason proceeding upon Natural Principles for Reason laying aside Revelation goes upon no other Now granting to Socinus that his Reason ought to be the only Rule and supreme Judge to himself in these Matters about which he voucher it yet the Understanding of all Men is not alike good And therefore others who shall reason wrong must believe falsely and of consequence hazard their eternal Happiness if they go upon the same Principle and have no other Guide of their Faith to Salvation For Socinus's Reason tho' it should be right can never be a Rule to all because in those Persons unto whom it shall not appear so to be and there are many distemper'd Minds and differing Judgments in Mankind another Man's Judgment can have no Power over their Belief And how then can this Principle build us up in Unity of Faith and Spirit and in the Bond of Peace and make us all to speak the same thing and to be perfectly joyn'd together in the same Mind and in the same Judgment to which the Apostle doth passionately exhort us in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We cannot be united in our Belief by that about which we shall perpetually contend and in which we do so far differ from each other But we may reasonably suppose that St. Paul had a greater Authority and better Grounds to prescribe Rules to our Faith than Socinus and that in perswading all Christians to Unity the Apostle knew that there was one General Principle in which they might all agree a common Standard which would regulate their Belief and give Law to the diversity of their Judgments by delivering the same thing to their Faith notwithstanding the different Ways and unequal Strength of Mankind in their Reasoning And if this Rule shall be no other than the Reveal'd Word of God we may surely with more safety rely upon it for what is necessary to be known of our Salvation than upon Socinus's Reason or upon our own For it is certainly more becoming the Truth of God and more secure for Mankind that their Belief upon which depends their everlasting Happiness should rather be founded upon that which is stable and for ever fix'd as his most Holy Word is than upon the sagacity of Humane Reason which varies and encreases and declines with Age in all parts of which Salvation is alike necessary It is most befitting the Justice of God and most equitable to Mankind that their knowledge of Salvation should be deriv'd from thence wherein they all have a common Right and an equal Possession as they all have or ought to have in the Scriptures who are to be judg'd by them tho' unequal to each other in the strength of their Reasoning and differing much in the natural Endowments of their Mind But Justice and Equity will plead for us that this Knowledge shou'd rest in something wherein we are all alike Partakers as we all are of the Reveal'd Word of God and in something wherein no Man excels his Brethren as no Man naturally doth in the Power of believing the Scriptures nor with Grace in his Abilities of obeying God's Commands to lead an Holy Life and to order his Conversation aright And this seems to be the distinguishing Character of the Salvation of God by Jesus Christ as we may presume to infer from our blessed Saviour's passing by the Scribes and Pharisees and Preaching his Gospel chiefly to the Poor and Unlearned where not acuteness in Arguing and largeness of Knowledge but Probity of Life and Humility of Mind were the proper Vertues that fitted them of all Mankind to be the first and the readiest Receivers of the Salvation of God And it is very remarkable that the Cross of Christ which brought Redemption and Salvation to the Souls of these Men prov'd immediately after to the Learned Greeks Foolishness for they sought Wisdom but these the Kingdom of God their Philosophy taught them to admit the Belief of nothing which was not fetch'd from self-evident Principles and from thence deduc'd into demonstration and therefore no sooner did they hear St. Paul preach of the Resurrection of the Dead but they as some amongst us do Marked As to the Mysteries of our Holy Faith they receiv'd them with Contempt being harden'd by their Pride against acknowledging any thing too sublime for their Understanding or believing any thing which was not consistent with their fancied Schemes of Arguing But as to the Duties of our Religion which lay plain and obvious to the meanest Capacity These were overlook'd by the high-minded Philosophers their Heads were warm with Disputing but not so their Hearts with Charity they train'd and exercis'd their Reason as they proudly imagin'd but it was at the expence of their Humility and so together with the loss