Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A61828
|
A sermon preached before the University of Oxford on St. Andrews-day by Tho. Stripling.
|
Stripling, Thomas, 1652?-1679.
|
1681
(1681)
|
Wing S5978A; ESTC R23726
|
14,699
|
38
|
murmuring or being disturbed in their Sufferings that they rejoyced in the midst of their Tortures and thanked their Executioners for tearing them in pieces Since then we have had such a cloud of Witnesses who have gone before us and obtained the end of their Hopes even the Salvation of their Souls let us not be discouraged or be disheartned in our duty but run with patience the race that is set before us resolving boldly to follow the Captain of our as well as their Salvation But we cannot become Martyrs for Christ as did his holy Apostles and those in the Primitive Times since our Religion is generally embraced and the Cross sits as an Ornament on the Foreheads of Kings and Emperours but although we do not suffer for him in the propagating his Religion among Heathens and Infidels yet we may suffer nearer home we have enemies in our breasts for this house of clay is divided against it self and wageth more than Civil War within us so that every Christian is permited to be his one Executioner and without swerving from his Duty to be his own Tyrant and Persecutor and he that suffers by afflicting his Body and contending with infamous pleasures by conquering his Passions and Subduing his Lusts by humbling his Pride and stifling in his Breast the desire of Riches and Honours may very well boast himself to be in the list and number of these Illustrious Heroes whom God was pleased to honour with Martyrdom in the first ages of Christianity and then received them into his Eternal Mansions in Heaven which brings me to my last Particular The Reward we purchase by Suffering We shall also reign with him Christianity is a life of Faith and Hope fastned on future Promises which God will accomplish when we have done what he appoints us in the interim to do or suffer for we cannot expect that he should satisfie our longing or fulfil our desires to all eternity unless we fulfil his Will for our Time of Trial in this Life we must behave our selves like our forerunner to be worthy of him and gain the victory here on Earth before we Triumph and wear the Crown in Heaven To describe this place express its joys or determine where it is surpasseth the understanding of Man since that very Apostle that seemed to have a glimpse thereof hath left us only a negative Description which neither Eye hath seen nor ear heard nor entred into the heart of man to conceive Let us not then endeavour to search out what God hath thought to conceal Quid animum divinis consiliis minorem fatigas say the Poet Why dost thou vex thy mind with the Decrees of the Almighty beyond thy reach It is Heaven what canst thou know that there is such a place we may assure our selves since Truth it self hath spoken it and in it many Mansions too where our Souls shall receive the full measure and compliment of Happiness being rewarded with the Participation of Christ's Glory and the boundless appetites of those spirits remain cempleatly satisfied In having a full and perfect knowledg and the fruition of the Beatifick Vision Knowledg is mans greatest perfection it distinguishes him from his fellow creatures and makes him to be Lord over them nay it makes a difference between one man and another for by how much the more a man advances in it by so much he is thought worthier and better than another this makes us Toil and Labour in its acquest and willing to increase in sorrow that we may increase in knowledg But what is it we with so much difficulty have acquired 't is no more than that which shall be then a Mole-hill to the greatest Mountain nay a Drop to the Ocean For our greatest knowledg is but the least part of what we are ignorant and Socrates himself said that he knew nothing Here indeed we do but darkly apprehend and can but guess at Causes by their produced Effects for if we endeavour to discover the Motions and Operations of the most inconsiderable creature our understanding is presently gravelled and our strongest reasoning at a stand and we are forced to cry out How unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out But there we shall have a full and perfect knowledg and be able to discern all things in their most Intricate and hidden Causes for our knowledg shall be advanced into a full grown Science and we shall arrive to the perfect Man at the measure of the stature and fullness of Christ Here we like the Spouse in the Canticles seek our Beloved onely in the dark view onely the Picture of his Habitation which is this Visible World behold only his back-parts in the Glass of his Creatures and tast somewhat more of him in his comfortable Ordinances and but sufficient to make us Sick with Love but hereafter we shall see God face to face know him as he is nay as we our selves are known and knowing him we shall know all things for he is all in all Nor shall we only know him as he is but enjoy him too our Happiness shall consist in the Contemplation of his most Divine Perfections which must needs create Pleasures as infinite as themselves that neither trouble nor sorrow shall interrupt for all tears shall be wiped from our Eyes here shall be a perpetual joy without the least mixture of the Gall of Bitterness and continual Praises issuing from our mouthes for the Psalmist says That those that dwell in his House will be still praising him Here the wicked do not approach to hurt us nor the workers of iniquity to do us any harm for the oppressor cannot take away our goods nor the cruel Tyrant deprive us of our lives we being as far above the envy of the one as we are the malice of the other Here a David may enjoy his beloved Jonathan and be for ever free from the Fury and Rage of a persecuting Saul Here pious Souls enjoy what Socrates of old could but wish for the intimate converse of those brave Heroes that have gone before them and Here with Angels and Spirits of Just men made perfect we shall always be celebrating the excellencies of the Divine Perfections in the Beatifick Vision Having an Eye then unto this so exceeding great reward Let us resolve notwithstanding the Malice of Men and Devils faithfully to adhere to this our profession to obey its Precepts of suffering even unto Death with Patience Constancy that at the last our Innocence may break forth as the Lightning and our just dealings as the Noon-day and for this Life of Temporal Sufferings we shall have an Eternal Life of Joy in his prescence where there is fulness of it and at whose right hand there are Pleasures for evermore To which God of his infinite Mercy bring us all through Jesus Christ our Lord to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be ascribed as is most due all Honour Glory Praise Might Majesty and Dominion now and for evermore The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us all evermore Amen FINIS
A SERMON Preached before the UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD On St. Andrews-day By THO. STRIPLING M. A. and Chaplain of New-College LONDON Printed by J. Grantham for Edw. Gellibrand at the Golden-Ball in St. Pauls Church-yard 1681. 2 TIM II. 12. If we suffer we shall also reign with him THERE never was any Nation so barbarous or illiterate but still had some notions of a God and of that worship and adoration that ought to be paid unto him as the Author and Conserver of their Beings but such is the corruption of human nature such the perversness of our wills and affections that even the best of them have been always unwilling to obey his injunctions when they went beyond what the Law of Nature dictated unto them To do as they would be done unto to love the man that did them a kindness these precepts might be consented to but to do good for evil to love those that hated them and to suffer afflictions with patience and injuries without the least thought of revenge these are rejected as soon as proposed To offer in sacrifice a Bull or a Goat the firstlings of their Cattel or first fruits of their Grounds they are willing when it is proposed as a means to appease the Divine wrath but to crucifie their members and sacrifice their beloved lusts these are more dear than all other worldly enjoyments and to part with them they cannot be wrought upon Thus although the Gospel for the excellency of its precepts the nobleness and generosity of its design and its admirable fitness for the accomplishment of it was most agreable to the purest and sublimest Reason consisting chiefly in a regulation of the mind and spirit and such kind of practices as might promote the good of humane societies and most effectually conduce to the perfecting our natures and rendering them happy yet because it was fraught with such precepts as were destructive to their complacencies and carnal securities and laid the greatest restraints upon their passions and inclinations by no means complying with the former or answering the expectations of the latter it found no better entertainment at first in the Gentile world than to be derided and scoffed at and its professors persecuted even unto death by those with whose interest it could no ways consist for being immersed in all manner of sensual pleasure and wholly become slaves to their passions and their lusts their judgments were corrupted and biassed by their vicious inclinations and 't was as bad as death to them to undergo the strict forbearances Christianity would oblige them to This Religion say they would force us to part with all whatsoever renders our lives pleasant in the world our lusts to be satisfied by no means injuries and affronts not only to be forgiven but all kind of offices to be returned instead of revenge tribulation and persecution to be endur'd without the least regret or the greatest detriment even to the loss of our lives to be suffered with constancy and patience This cannot be endured Nature prompts every one to seek his own preservation and maintain his being this is the ready way to destroy it That which animates and enlivens our Souls and makes them capable of performing actions suitable to the dignity of their natures is by the severity of this Religion withheld that which makes our lives happy and pleasant must be parted with Father and Mother Friends and Relations and fair and ample possessions must be left and forsaken This can be nothing but the politick devices of men to whom Providence has not been so kind who endeavour to render our lives as uneasie as their own To bear injuries patiently derogates too from that principle of magnanimity ingrafted in man who is not yet reduced so low or become so degenerate as not to revenge an injury not to do harm to him that plots and contrives his ruine and we may as well deny sustenance to the body when its hungry or take no notice of an object presented to the sight as deny to gratifie our inclinations or satisfie our domineering lusts Nature is equally concerned in both But oh the sottishness of carnal reasoning How miserably art thou mistaken vain man making thy self no more than equal to the Beasts that perish to what purpose then hast thou receiv'd those noble faculties of thy soul thy understanding and thy will but with the one that thou mightest apprehend aright what is best for thee and chuse that which is so with the other So that if thou have the greatest aversation to what is commanded thee by thy sensual faculties yet here the intellectual are to be called in to thy aid which presently will pass their sentence If what thou sufferest be for thy good it is to be embraced The certainty of which assertion we have evidently set forth unto us in sundry places of Scripture as well as in this of Saint Paul to Timothy where he stirs him up to caution care and diligence and fidelity in the discharge of his office on occasion of the creeping heresies of the Gnosticks stollen in among them which had much debauched the people of Asia by indulging them in all manner of licentious practices He advises him not to suffer himself or his flock to be inticed or to fall in love with their profane Discourses and pernicious Doctrines but to repel them and all their sollicitations with the greatest industry and be ready to undergo the severest afflictions rather than to part with any precept of that Gospel delivered unto him or to recede from the least tittle of his Faith And this Saint Paul does by putting him in remembrance how he himself had suffered at Antioch Iconium and Lystra and how the Lord had delivered him out of all Chap. 3. 11. However if it were God's Will that he should not escape his enemies hands but that they should prevail so far even to the taking his life yet he had this comfort and assurance this was most certain a faithful saying That if we are dead with him we shall live with him if we suffer we shall likewise reign with him In which words we have a duty and a reward annexed unto it In the Duty I shall consider these following particulars 1st That to be a true Christian doth imply a necessity of suffering and that because Christianity is a suffering Religion 2dly The Reasonableness of suffering and that 1. Because Christ commands it 2. Because he suffered for us 3. That it is our greatest interest to suffer 4. I shall consider the Reward we purchase First then To be a true Christian doth imply a necessity of suffering and that because Christianity is a suffering Religion Christianity bears such a contrariety unto the inclinations of our natures and the inticements of our flesh the allurements of the world and the suggestions of the Devil that they who do sincerely embrace its precepts must necessarily suffer much by these Three potent enemies against which we in