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	john_n	send_v	6,701	5	6.5145	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94109	A sermon preached at the consecration of the Right Reverend Fathers in God, Gilbert Lord Bishop of London, Humphry Lord Bishop of Sarum, George Lord Bishop of Worcester, Robert Lord Bishop of Lincolne, George Lord Bishop of St. Asaph. On Sunday 28. October, 1660. at S. Peters Westminster. By John Sudbury, one of the prebendaries of that church.	Sudbury, John, 1604-1684.	1660 (1660)	Wing S6136; Thomason E1048_10; ESTC R203686	23,261	45

men to themselves in pursuance of which design they would preach down the Apostles to preach up themselves And what wonder to see a popular affection transport men to preach down Bishops when the same affection so early transported some to preach down Apostles But it is not only the Popularity and Pride of such Teachers but likewise a giddinesse in the people which makes more work yet for the Bishop The Apostle foresaw it and gave early notice of it to Timothy 2 Tim. 4.3 The time will come that they will not endure sound Doctrine but according to their own lusts they will heap up to themselves Teachers having itching ears And this must needs make more work for the Bishop for the more greedy they are in heaping up such Teachers the more vigilant and carefull must he be to pull them down In a word there is Work enough in the Church for the Bishop and for all other Officers under him wherein his care must be to mind that Work or service most by which he may most promote the Glory of God and the Good of his Church and to see that they to whom he commits the rest of the work doe their work as they ought to do it And so much for the Second Particular in these words the work which belongs to the Office of a Bishop I come now to the third Particular which is the Goodnesse of the Work It is very well rendred in our Translation a good work 3 The goodness of that work not an honest or a pious or an honourable work as it might be rendred not but that it is all these but because it is all these and all these are comprehended in this expression of a good work First it is an honourable work for it is the work in which they are call'd workers together with God And that for very good reason for that which our Saviour saith Joh. 5.17 my Father worketh hitherto and I work is as true now as it was then when he spake it and that more especially in this then in any other work For there is nothing on earth so dear to God as his Church nothing to which his Providence and Goodnesse extends more then to the good and orderly government of it It is the work for which he sent his Sonne from heaven no other name or title doth so well express the work for which he came into the world as that of the great Shepherd and Bishop of our souls For which reason diverse of the ancient Fathers by the lost sheep in the Parable understand Mankind in the state of his Fall by the ninety and nine that went not astray the Angels that kept their first estate by the man that left the ninety and nine to seek the sheep that was lost the man Christ Jesus that came down from Heaven the habitation of Angels to seek and save man that was lost It is the work for which he sent abroad his Apostles John 20.21 as his Father sent him The work for which he sent down his Spirit upon them soon after his return to heaven and his exaltation at the right hand of God The work for which he hath promis'd to be with them and with their Successors unto the end of the world Mat. 28. ult And this is sufficient to shew how honourable a work it is It is likewise as pious honest and Charitable a work as it is honourable It is the most acceptable work or service that men can do to God 2 Cor. 2.15 We are unto God a sweet savour of Christ saith the Apostle speaking of this work which is the work of a Bishop as well as an Apostle to signify that as a sweet and fragrant odour is gratefull unto us so is this work noe less acceptable to God And as it is so acceptable to God so it is no lesse for the good and benefit of men The good which it works most Directly and properly is the spirituall and eternal good which is so much better then all that is but temporall that there is no comparison between them But it is not so particularly for the spirituall and eternall good but that it is likewise very much for the temporall The Histories of all Ages since the beginning of Christianity bear witnesse abundantly of the manifold and great good which hath been wrought in the world by Bishops doing that work which belongs to their Office They have been and are the chief Ministers under God of upholding Tit. 1.1 and preserving that Truth which the Apostle calls the truth according to Godliness 1 Tim. 4.8 that Godlinesse of which he saith that it is profitable for all things having the promise of the life which now is and of that which is to come And to the End we might the better consider how true this is he adds in the next verse This is a true saying and worthy of all acceptation And to say nothing of the life which is to come of which no truth ever had so clear and ample promises there is nothing more profitable for the life which now is Nothing so effectual to restrain all the iniquitie which makes one man a Devil to another or to promote all that Vertue and Goodnesse which makes one man a God to another For every iniquity is then most carefully avoyded and every very good work most sincerely and exactly perform'd when he that avoyds the one and does the other is mov'd thereunto by a principle of Religion This is the great advantage which Religion hath above all the best Lawes that the wisdome of men can make or their justice put in execution The best humane Lawes can but lop off the branches of those iniquities which Religion plucks up by the roots The power of the one is only upon the Actions of men so farr forth as they fall under the cognisance of other men the power of the other upon the Affections It is much if the one can restrain men from being very wicked the other hath a power to make them very good men And there is no Religion so effectuall to take away all manner of Iniquity and to plant and cherish all manner of Vertue as the Christian the Precepts whereof which are in their nature the most pure are likewise in the extent of them the most perfect and complete reaching to all sorts of men in all manner of conversation to Princes Subjects Parents Children Husbands Wives Masters Servants Neighbours Strangers to make them all good in their severall relations and the better they are the more happy in each other The Promises annex'd to the observation of these Precepts are the most high and heavenly the confirmation of those Promises the most divine to the end that the Promises being so confirm'd might be the more stedfastly believed and the Promises being believed the Precepts might be the better observed and the Precepts being so observ'd all men might conspire together mutually to promote the