Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	ghost_n	holy_a	47,258	5	6.0438	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61245	An assize sermon preached August 3, 1685, in the Cathedral Church of St. Peter in York before the Right Honourable Sir Edward Atkins and Sir Thomas Walcot, His Majesty's judges of assize for the northern circuit / by William Stainforth ...	Stainforth, William, d. 1713.	1685 (1685)	Wing S5170; ESTC R34591	17,755	42

power and turns it into so much fruitless and insignificant wind which is spent to no manner of purpose For God is an utter and irreconcileable Enemy to all sin he cannot look upon it without infinit Abhorrence nor upon those who deliberatly practise it without a proportionable Aversation His Ears are deaf to all their Prayers and it is neither the number nor Importunity of their Addresses which can soften and render him pliant and yielding to them If I regard Iniquity in my heart the Lord will not hear me saith David and God heareth not Sinners is a truth which the blind man in the Cospel could discern by the light and evidence of his own Reason So that if we would Pray successfully we must live Holily we must mortifie in us all vicious lusts and affections we must abstain from all manner of wilful and deliberat wickedness we must endeavour an universal and impartial Obedience to all the Laws of the Gospel And then our Prayers thro' the merits of Christ will be as Incense a grateful Perfume a Sacrifice of a sweet smelling savour to Almighty God Then all our Prayers for the King will have a blessed issue and a successful event and will return in showers of blessings upon him and upon us to the great and unspeakable Comfort of all our Lives But I must not forget to tell you that as we ought to Pray for the King so we ought to thank God for him Not only Supplications Prayers Intercessions but also giving of thanks must be made for all men for Kings and all in Authority Nothing is more natural than to be grateful to our Benefactors and he is a Benefactor to us who doth good to those whom we sincerely love and whose happiness we earnestly desire Charity which extends our regards and desires beyond our own particular interests multiplies every favour every mercy which is bestow'd upon any single individual Person into as many real kindnesses and distinct Obligations as there are men who wish and desire the Happiness of that Person And therefore if we had so much charity for the King as ardently and devoutly to Pray for his happiness we could not fail to bless God whensoever we found our Prayers answer'd in any instance of his welfare and preservation But mercies and favours which are bestow'd upon the King are not only favours to us because we have a Christian Charity and affection for him as we ought to have for every man living but they are favours to us because they enable him to derive upon us all the Blessings of a wise a just and peaceable Government For we are to consider the King as a Public Person and therefore besides that moral Union which is made by Love there is a Civil and Political Union between him and us which results from the Relation which he bears to us as supream head and Governour And upon this account every mercy which God confers upon the King is a publick mercy a mercy as universal as his Government and Coextensive with his whole Dominions It is not confin'd and limited to his Royal Person but has an influence upon the whole Community in its effects and emanations reacheth every Member of the Body Politick So that benefits and favours which God vouchsafeth to Kings and Princes are in this respect like fruitful and refreshing Showers which fall upon high and lofty Mountains and then descend and trickle down upon the Plains or Valleys beneath and impregnate them with a rare and admirable Fertility Now how great and manifold are the Mercies and Benefits which God has confer'd upon our Gracious Soveraign and therefore what strong and indispensible Obligations do we lye under to praise and adore the Divine Goodness for him How ought we to thank God for the wonderful Preservation of our King throughout the whole course of his Life for the Miraculous deliverance of him from those eminent and apparent dangers which he has been expos'd to both at Home and Abroad in his own and in Forreign Countreys at Sea and at Land in times of Peace and in times of War How ought we to thank God for his quiet and peaceable Succession to the Throne and that in despight of the extravagant fears and wild jealousies and desperat resolutions in despight of the rage and madness of the People How ought we to thank God for all those Royal and Princely Virtues which enoble his Mind adorn his Government and render his Administration so just and easie and consequently so great a blessing to his People How ought we to thank God for those fix'd and unalterable Purposes of his Mind to Govern us according to Law to preserve unto us all our Civil Rights and Spiritual Privileges And how ought we to thank God for those several and repeated Assurances which the King has given the whole Nation of those his Royal Purposes Assurances which can no more fail us than he can cease to be that just that Gracious and Generous Prince which he is How ought we to thank God for that late and intire Victory which he gave him over his Rebellious Subjects and thereby deliver'd both him and us from the worst of Enemies Enemies to our God and Holy Religion Enemies to all that can be dear and valuable to us Enemies who would have stuck at no Methods shrunk at no Villany to have destroy'd the Government both in Church and State This is a vast and incomparable mercy and loudly Proclaims to the whole World that God has a more than ordinary tenderness and care for our Gracious Soveraign and that whosoever takes up Arms against his Authority Fights against Heaven and not only breaks thro' all the moral Obligations of the Divine Will which has forbid all resistance of the Supream Power but even vainly strives against the natural force and invincible strength of the Almighty Providence So that every Rebel has all the reason in the World without true and unfeigned Repentance to expect Damnation both in this life and in that to come And can we now seriously reflect upon these various and infinit mercies which God has bestow'd upon the King and not be affected with a due and suitable sense of them Or can we be affected with such a sense and not feel our selves prompted with all the force and vigour of an ingenuous Gratitude to be thankful to God for them Or can we be truly and sincerely thankful for them and not make that due use and improvement of them for which they are intended Now what is the use which we ought to make of all these Mercies but to look upon them as so many Arguments and Motives to an Holy Life so many Encouragements to repent of those Sins which we have committed against God and to continue in that just and indispensible Allegiance which we owe our Soveraign Lord the King But how can we do this so long as we listen to every disloyal Whisper and factious Murmurings and spightful Suggestions and reproachful Insinuations which are contriv'd and propagated by disaffected and evil men to Expose His Majesties Person and Government to contempt and hatred and to dispose and prepare his Subjects for Rebellion and Insurrections And therefore let us have a care how we give countenance and credit to any Factious and groundless Stories how we admit or cherish any Popish fears and jealousies which by as great a Miracle as that of Transubstantiation converts every idle Chimaera into a Reality and every improbable fiction into a solid Truth which Robs men of their Senses and their Reason and will not suffer them to believe the plain evidence of either For is any thing more obvious to Sense than that His Majesty takes all the measures of his Government from the Direction of the Laws And is any thing more reasonable to believe than that he will never vary from his present Practise nor depart from the Publick Constitutions Have we not the highest moral Assurance of this which a breast inspir'd with sincerity Justice and Generosity can give to the World What is it then that people would have Would they be happier than God and the King can make them If not why do they not study to be quiet and do their own business Why are they not content to enjoy all the Privileges and Comforts of our holy Religion and all the Advantages and Blessings of our excellent Civil Government Why do they not discourage all seditious Talk and factious Rumours Why do they not Pray for the King and thank God for him as Christians ought to do which if we could be perswaded to do heartily and affectionatly we should be so far from lifting up an hand that we should not so much as lift up a thought against the King or his Government but should be glorious Ornaments to our holy Religion by being Illustrious Examples of Loyalty and Obedience which God make us thro' the Power of his holy Spirit for Christ Jesus's sake to whom with the Father and Holy Ghost three Persons and one God be ascribed as is most due all Might Majesty Dominion and Praise both now and for ever Amen FINIS

and by Praying for all men which is the exercise and demonstration of such Good-will Lastly By Praying for all men we follow the example of our Blessed Saviour who had such an hearty and sincere Affection for Mankind that he laid down his Life for their Sins and offer'd up himself a Sacrifice of Atonement for the Transgressions of the whole World For he tasted Death for every man whether Friend or Enemy and shed his Blood for those who spilt it He endur'd all the shame and ignominy the pains and sorrows of the Cross even for those who led and fasten'd him to it and while he was under the quickest sense of the disgrace and torments of his accursed Crucifixion his love for his Enemies was so far from suffering any abatement or diminution that it broke out into the brightest Flame of Infinit Tenderness and Compassion and rose as high as Heaven in a most Ardent Prayer for Pardon and forgive●ness for his very Persecutors And the same Benevolent Mind the same Charitable Spirit appear'd in a most Illustrious manner in the Primitive Christians to the wonder and amazement of the Heathen World For those early Christians liv'd that Holy Religion which they Professed and put on the Loving Nature as well as the Honourable Name of the Blessed Jesus No Injuries or Persecutions no Torments or Death could overcome their Charity but this was still invincible as their Patience this Prosper'd and Triumph'd amidst the strongest Oppositions and fiercest Provocations this held out to the last and turn'd their expiring dying Breath into Articulat Prayers for their Enemies and when they could live no longer this clos'd their Eyes and Seal'd up their Lips and went Victoriously with them into another world there to receive its utmost Complement and Perfection by being Eternally exercis'd upon the noblest the most ravishing Object God himself And if we would be Christians in truth and reality as well as in Profession this Charitable Spirit which was so eminently visible in our Blessed Saviour and his first Disciples must live in and actuate us For we cannot upon any other terms be either conformable to his Example or Obedient to his Laws And without such Conformity and such Obedience we may be any thing but Christians For if we have not the Spirit of Christ we are none of his have no Relation to no Interest in him And it is plain that Charity is the Spirit of Christ his frame and temper of mind Ay Charity as it has all mankind for its Object and as it expresseth it self in devout and affectionat Prayers for the good and welfare of all men And this is sufficient to shew that we ought to Pray for all men 2. We may Observe That we ought especially to Pray for Kings and all that are in Authority Tho' our Charity ought to reach all men and tho' we ought to express it by Praying for them yet there are peculiar Reasons why we ought to Pray for Kings above all men whatsoever And these Reasons are such as either concern Kings themselves or such as concern us First Such as concern Kings themselves For if Kings have more need of our Prayers than other men then it is plain that upon their account we ought especially to Pray for them And it will appear that they have the greatest need of the Prayers and Intercessions of others if we consider these following Particulars First Consider that the Duty and Office of a King is an arduous and difficult Imployment There are in most men an inordinat appetite after Empire and Dominion and they greedily desire to bear a Part in the Government of the World But few men consider the Difficulties of such a Province the weight and incumbrances of such a Burden For if they did but seriously consider what are the proper and Natural Ends of Government what Abilities and Excellencies are necessary to qualify a man for the due Administration of it what infinit pains and care must be undergon in the faithful discharge and execution of it such thoughts such reflections would mortifie the most aspiring Ambition allay and extinguish the most violent thirsts after Empire and make men not only contented but joyful in the state and condition of Subjects For it is an easie thing to obey there is required no great skill to understand nor much industry to perform the duties of Subjection It is the business of Governours to contrive the Rules and prescribe the Measures of Obedience which generally lye in a small compass and are deliver'd in plain terms and by a clear Publication are made known to all who are concern'd to observe them So that Subjects need not torture their Brains nor strain their understandings to find out and discover their Duties Their work is Cut out to their hands and laid before their Eyes and a tractable Nature and an humble Spirit and a peaceable mind will enable them to practise it with great ease and chearfulness But it is far otherwise with Kings and Princes who have a large Sphere to move in and an infinit variety of Particulars to attend unto which require an excellent Understanding a Solid Judgement a prudent foresight a constant Presence of mind an active Temper an unwearyed Industry a patient Spirit an upright Intention a Courageous Heart a steady Resolution to dispose and order and manage them for the publick Good for which Government is Instituted and Governours are appointed But alas It is not for me to Discourse of the Art of Government nor to enumerate all those Particular Excellencies and Qualifications which are necessary to complete and furnish out a man of Political Prudence My business is only to convince you that it is an hard thing to Govern wisely and that so many Gifts and Graces are necessary to make up and constitute a Prudent Governour as few men enjoy and God only can dispense And therefore we are under the strongest Obligations of Charity to Pray for Kings and to beseech God that he would furnish them with Abilities proportionable to the difficulties of their Employment that he would direct them by his wisdom and assist them by his Power that in all cases of Publick Concernment he would enable them to judge determin and Execute in such a manner as may best comply with the ends of Government and the Reasons of their Institution 2. Consider that Kings are exposed to more numerous and dangerous Temptations than other men Temptation is a state of Danger and Hazard and no man can be secure in such a State who is not endu'd with such a measure of Divine Grace as is proportionable to the strength and Violence of the Temptation And tho' it be true that no condition of life can boast of an exemption from the Assaults and Incursions of Temptations yet none is crowded and press'd with such Numbers and such variety of them as that of Kings and Princes As Kings are born with the same corrupt Natures subject to the same