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	jesus_n	lord_n	17,123	5	3.7490	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84653	Severall queries concerning the church of Jesus Christ upon earth, briefly explained and resolved wherein is shewed and proved, 1. That there is a church of Jesus Christ upon earth. 2. What this church is? 3. How a people become a visible church? 4. That the churches in England were at first rightly constituted? 5. What manner of government Jesus Christ hath ordained in and for his church? 6. What manner of persons those ought to be, that may be continued in, or admitted into the church? 7. What is the duty of church members towards Jesus Christ their head, and one another. / By John Flowre M.A. preacher at Staunton in the county of Nottingham.	Flower, John, b. 1623 or 4.	1658 (1658)	Wing F1386; Thomason E2141_2; ESTC R208378	33,318	112

shall continue me among you in this place my endeavour shall be by Gods assistance to set you in heaven-way to be plaine and faithfull to you in things of soul concernment To tell you that you are altogether such as ye ought to be all reall christians a visible Church such as have a right to the sacrament an interest in the promises I dare not sow such pillows under your armes if I should well might you suspect me of daubing I mean with untempred morter But I shall endeavour to shew you out of the Scriptures who are Christians indeed not only by a change of name but by a change of nature also who are a true visible Church of Jesus Christ what manner of persons they are and ought to be to whom Seals and Promises are given and if you be or become such then may I tell you without deceiving you that you are Christians indeed a Church indeed have a right to the Seals and promises of the Gospel indeed If a Parish or People be altogether profane atheisticall dead in sins and trespasses without any favour or taste of spirituall things To tell such a people that they are good Christians a visible Church have a right to the Sacrament is no other then to cheat them of the truth harden them in their sins and lead them blindfold to destruction A formall and generall Preacher that words and phrases out his own wisdom tickling the ears without touching the hearts or awaking the consciences of his hearers he may have the praise and applause of men but not the praise and peace of God give me the latter let who will take the former It will be worth all his pains and sufferings if a Minister drawing men to his latter end and ready to give up an account of his stewardship can appeale unto God and his Congregation as once Samuel ready to die did unto the people in another case 1 Sam. 12. Whose Oxe or whose Ass have I taken whom have I defrauded So when a Minister what soul have I beguiled What soul have I defrauded What soul have I hardened in sin by covering and not discovering the truth and danger of its estate to it What people have I deceived by telling them they were Christians when they were not a Church when they were not had a right to the Kingdome of heaven and the seals thereof when they had not to be able to say thus will be worth something one day O that all that take upon them the Ministry of the Gospel would consider this If plain dealing have outward disturbance yet it hath inward peace But indeed an ingenious people whose reason and understanding is not quite lost or infatuated will in time make good that saying of the wise mans Pro. 28.23 That he that rebuketh a man afterward shall finde more favour than he that flattereth with his tongue My endeavour therefore shall be to cause you to know your miserable estate by nature and the remedy thereof by grace To cause you to look into that great mystery the infinite love of God in Jesus Christ in that great work of your dedemption through him that ye may know the Lord Jesus the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death That when I am called to give an account of my Stewardship amongst you I may do it with joy and not with griefe Ministers of all men had need to look about them for they must give account for more souls than their own and if any be lost through their default Ezek. 3.18 that blood will be required at their bands I would not at the day of judgement be found in the condition of a negligent idle Pastor that hath fleec'd and not fed his flock for ten thousand worlds Not in his condition 1 Cor. 2.4 that daubs with untemperd morter that speaks smooth things that preacheth not in the demonstration of the spirit and of power but with the inticing words of mans wisdome For fearefull will be the end of such a man when Jesus Christ and he shall reckon together for so many sheep lost through the earelesness of the shepheard It was the saying of one That of all men that should be saved Ministers should be the fewest Indeed they have the greatest charge and are subject to the sorest temptations and it is to be feared that many Ministers either for fear or love or some other worldly respect may offend too much against their commission which bids them cry aloud and spare not Isa 58.1 lift up thy voice like a trumpet shew my people their sinns and the house of Israel their transgressions and so hazard themselves too neere the pickes of Gods eternall vengeance and displeasure which thing of all other I most fear and therefore through grace shall labour to avoid which I cannot do unlesse I look strictly unto you over whom I set an Overseer therefore blame me not if I be plain and earnest with you to press you forward towards the mark of the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus Phil. 3 14. If I should be negligent herein your blood would be upon my head The Lord pardon my neglects past I had rather disturbe my own peace if it must be so and trouble the water to stir you out of the lees of carnall security than to have you curse me and accuse me before God at the day of judgement for the deceiver and betrayer of your soules I blesse God I can say through the grace given me that my destre is so farre as I know my own heart not to seek yours but you I had rather see you thrive in spirituals than my self in temporals and my greatest encouragement among you will be to see you walking in and obedient unto the truth If you will give up your names to Jesus Christ if you will obey the Gospel and not run with the wicked of the world into the same excess of riot you must look for many oppositions affronts scornes reproaches but passe thorough all these with patience looking unto the End Jesus the Author and Finisher of your Faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame Heb. 12.1 and is now set down at the right-hand of God and there if you run with patience the race that is set before you shall you sit down also For which things sake I shall alwayes bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ and that he would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might Ephes 3.14 by his Spirit in the inward man That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge That ye might be filled

is much more in store for us than is as yet discoverable for eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the thought of man what God hath prepared for them that love and fear him Seeing we shall escape such condemnation and judgment thorough grace in so reforming our selves as before Heb. 12.1 O let us then lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race that is set before us Josh 24.15 Let us of this Congregation imitate Joshua let us chuse with him let us say unto all the people and congregations round about us chuse you whom ye will serve chuse ye whether ye will reforme or not reforme your ways chuse you whether you will own us or disown us applaud us or hiss at us countenance us or contemne us joyn with us or separate from us strengthen us or labour to make our hands feeble say we do well or say we do ill Speak friendly to us or scoff at us yet we are resolv'd what we will do that we will leave Ashterch Basaam That we will say what have we to do with Idols And reforme and repent and engage our selves afresh to serve the Lord. Which that we may do let us put in practice the rules before laid downe First Assembling our selves together let us solemnly and sorrowfully confesse and bewaile our own sins and the sins of our forefathers before God 〈◊〉 9.6 let us say our God we blush and are ashamed to lift up our faces unto thee for our iniquities are increased over our heads and our trespasse is grown up unto the very heavens And having thus humbled our selves before God let us Secondly Renew our covenant with God our Covenant made so long since in baptisme which all of us have broken and backslided from let us say truth Lord other Lords besides thee have had dominion over us the devil the world the lusts of the flesh have ruled over us thou O Lord maist justly charge us to have forgotten thee and to have dealt falsly with thee in thy covenant and therefore because of all this we make a sure Covenant with thee for the time to come that we will have no other Lord besides thee that we will walke in a more professed subjection to all thy holy ordinances more carefully watching over our selves and one another that being clensed from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit 2 Cor. 7.1 we may perfect holiness in thy fear And having thus renued our covenant and engaged our selves unto the Lord to be his let us endeavour Thirdly to purge out from amongst us every thing that defileth and is unclean for a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump one Achan may distresse a whole Israel one incestuous person such as was in the Church at Corintb one adulterer drunkard or the like in a Church if countenanced and tollerated by the same and not reproved and dealt withall according to the rule of the Gospel may bring wrath and a judgment upon a whole congregation for by reason of such a tolleration and neglect of Gospel-discipline the Sacrament of the Lords-Supper may be profaned and abused as it was in the Church of Corinth for which cause the Lord punisht them with sicknesse and death for For this Cause saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 11.30 namely for the profanation of the Lords-Supper many are sick and weake among you and many sleep Therefore it much concernes every particular Church to purge out the old leaven that they may be a new lump and not to keep that feast with the old leaven neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness lest the Lord stretch out his hand against them Section XII BUt methinks I hear some say Ob. this Yoke is too straite this burden is too heavy these rules are too strict restraining us of all liberty and freedom we cannot drink and be merry but we must be reprov'd and To these I Answer Sol. First If the way be strait and strict 't is the more like to be Heaven way Mat. 7.14 for strait is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to everlasting life If the way propos'd were large and broad you might well suspect it the way to hell and death Mat. 7.13 for wide is that gate and broad is that way Secondly To such pleaders for unbounded liberty I say Rejoyce O yong men in your youth Eccl. 9.11 and let your hearts be merry Let the harpe and the violl and the tabret and the pipe and wine be in your feasts But for all this know you shall come to judgement Thirdly To such I say cursed is he that saith The yoke is strait that Christ Jesus hath said is easie that the burden is heavy that he hath said is light Cursed is he that discourageth the People of the Lord Mat. 11.30 and brings an evill report upon the land of Canaan let their carcases rot in the wildernesse and let them not see the salvation of the Lord. Fourthly I say that the wayes and rules of the Lord to which we are bound to submit are not grievous his commandments are not grievous These restrain not so 1 Joh. 5.3 but that we have liberty sufficient liberty to eat to drink to meet freinds with friends and to rejoyce together yea if we be such as are received into favour with God and justified by Jesus Christ there 's then cause enough for us to rejoyce and be chearfull the Scriptures then give and encourage us to this freedome * Eccles 9.1 Go thy way eat thy bread with joy and drink thy wine with a merry heart for the Lord now accepteth thy works Thus may it be said to any one that is truly a member of Jesus Christ The service of the Lord is not slavery but freedome But here is the madness and misery of men they account nothing liberty but what 's licencious they account it not liberty to eat and to drink unlesse they may eat to gluttony and drink to drunkennesse no liberty to be merry unlesse they may be prophane curse and swear But alass is this the liberty and freedome you so contend for Indeed this is hellish bondage hellish slavery Is this liberty to be overcome with wine and strong drink to have thy legs so bound thou canst not go thy tongue so tyed thou canst not speak Thy eyes so enflamed thou canst not see Thy reason and understanding so captivated and lost that t is hard to distinguish whether man or beast Is this liberty that thou canst not be merry but thou must mock God scoff at holinesse reproach the Saints O cursed liberty if this be it This is worse than that Egyptian bondage that made the Jews so sigh and cry under it and it would make thee also groan under it wer 't thou but in the least sensible of thy own condition T is the Lord