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	truth_n	8,102	5	6.1149	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28911	A sermon preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the city of London, at Guild-Hall chappel, on Sunday, Novemb. 13, 1692 by Richard Bowchier ...	Bowchier, Richard, 1660 or 61-1723.	1692 (1692)	Wing B3867; ESTC R19525	13,626	34

Religion yet proposed so great Rewards and yet occasions fewer difficulties to obtain what is promised Every thing it commands is easie and natural either what directly tends to the Peace of the World or the Reformation of our selves And that which seems most harsh and dissicult is quickly overcome when one sets heartily and sincerely about it Of the many Religions which have appeared in the several Ages of the World some of them have tied up their Votaries to such severe and hard performances whereof many have been so cruel and unaccountable that Nature seems to shrink even at the very thoughts of repeating them As for the Religion of the Jews which of all others has the nearest relation to us Christians there was even in that such a multiplicity of Legal Rights and Observances so many attendances upon Feasts at Jerusalem which was the only place of Worship and whither Men were bound to repair so many times a Year as put them upon Journies no less tedious than expensive and from which nothing but an invincible necessity could excuse them But the Gospel tho' it raises Men to a more noble and excellent way of Devotion yet requires none of those servile and bodily Labours to perform it for instead of the laying on us such things as the weight of Legal Rights and Observances it only requires an inward disposition and a temper of Mind the Worshipping God in Spirit and Truth for the Father seeketh such to Worship him John 4.23 Instead of forcing us to take long Journies thro' the whole Kingdom to a fixt place of Worship which was exactly the case of the Jews we may now serve God at home here in our Chapels and in our Churches Instead of the Blood of Bulls and Goats as an atonement for Sin God only requires now of us a Broken and a Contrite heart And the most acceptable Offerings and Oblations we can make him are the Sacrifices of Prayers and Thanksgivings In a word the things expected of us under the Gospel being purely Spiritual the forming within us a new Creature by Crucifying the Flesh with the affections and Lusts This is a work which may be done in all times and Places and the difficulty of it is easily removed when we our selves are pleased but to use the means which are prescribed But lastly our Obligations of walking in the Spirit will farther appear when beside the easiness of the things enjoyned us it wholly tends to our own Interest and Advantage As God in his Wisdom endued Man above all other Creatures with a power of knowing and performing his Will so again by a Goodness as great as his Wisdom he has made him the promise of eternal Felicity to encourage him in the performance of his Duty we therefore see the end of all our just and good actions seem chiefly designed by God to our own Interest and Advantage For tho' God who is the Fountain of all Goodness has declared himself to be pleased with the justice and uprightness of our Actions yet as he is a Being infinitely happy in himself he cannot any ways be supposed to stand in need of the Services of his Creatures His Glory is not augmented by our poor Prayers and Thanksgivings nor is his Greatness diminished by any neglect of our Duties Can a Man Job 22.2 3. be prositable to God as he that is Wise may be prositable to himself Is it any pleasure to the Almighty that thou art Righteous Chap. 35.6 7. Or is it gain to him that thou makest thy way perfect If thou Sinnest what dost thou against him And if thy Transgressions be multiplied what dost thou unto him If thou art Righteous what givest thou him or what receiveth he at thy hands So then we see that the performance of the things which the Gospel requires of us tends wholly to our own advantage Which consideration alone should be sufficient powerfully to engage us to do the things that are requisite to obtain it For tho' Arguments drawn from ones Interest are not always good and proper to be urged in things relating to this World yet they are some of the best which can be used in respect of the happiness of the next Since God therefore has created us all with the design of making us eternally happy with him on the conditions required at our hands this should stir us up to such suitable and grateful returns of governing our Lives and Actions according to the Rules he has prescribed us that we may all at last be partakers of those endless Blessings and Joys he intends us If the walking in the Spirit is the only way of conducting us to Glory this should make us all become the Servants of God that having our Fruit unto Holiness Rom. 6.22 we may have our end everlasting Life What is said to all at large is applied but by few to themselves so that tho' a general Discourse like this may be most pleasing to Men because it touches them least yet 't is only a particular and an affectionate application of things to our own Persons and Circumstances which leaves the most sensible and lasting Impressions upon us Having therefore shewn what is meant by the Spirit and set forth the several Obligations which lie on us all to walk in the Spirit I shall now conclude this Discourse with some close reflections on our own Lives and Practices 'T is the peculiar Blessing of us who are now met together in this place that as we are all Professors of Christianity so we declare our selves likewise Members of that Reformed part of it which is established in this Nation and which is both the strength and glory of the Reformation But now let us examine our selves a little in that double relation we have both as we are Christians and Members of this particular Church The things to which the Gospel obliges us are as plain in themselves as they are easie in the performance of them The assistances of Grace which we receive are many and the promises of Reward are unspeakable We pretend all to be so far from disbelieving the Gospel that there 's not a Man amongst us but would think it the highest affront not to be thought a good Christian But now after all If we live in the Spirit do we also walk in the Spirit Does the sense of our Duty stir us up to the performance of it and does the Holiness of our Lives answer the purity of that Religion we profess Has Christianity I ask you that happy and blessed effect upon us as to make us every way better than those who either never heard or believed it and is the distinction as plain and as visible as it ought to be betwixt us and the rest of the World for Piety and Vertue as much as our advantages to Godliness are greater and more excellent than theirs Have we that true sense of God and Religion which becomes the Greatness and Majesty of the one

things which the Revealed Will of God requires of us may rest assured that he is in the Spirit For he saith St. John in his first Epistle chap. 3. ver 24. that keepeth God's Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him The Scriptures I say being the only Rule now left us by which we can judge of the goodness or pravity of our Actions every one may hence easily know and conclude in himself whether he is in the Spirit by being conscious to himself whether he forms his Life and Actions according to the Precepts laid down in the Gospel as the only measure of his Obedience And this I dare say that each particular Man or publick Communion of Christians of what denomination or Country soever it may be has most of the Spirit that comes the nearest to this Rule Christianity requires of us all a firm Faith and a sincere Obedience to the things it enjoyns and he that hath the first and faithfully dischargeth the latter that is he who hath a Faith to believe what is required and lives exactly according to his belief may be assured that he is in the Spirit because he does that which God requires of him and for which he shall hereafter receive that exceeding great Reward which God has promised in his Word That the governing ones Life and Actions according to the rules and temper of the Gospel is the being in the Spirit is a truth besides as safe as it is certain for he who orders himself this way will be sure never to do amiss because he will always modestly keep within the bounds which his duty prescribes him Whereas he who is led by other notions of being in the Spirit and has no other rule for his Actions but that motion and warmth he feels within him may easily by mistaking a hot and extravagant Fancy for the sacred impulse of the Holy Spirit be guilty of very bad things and thus too often be unluckily found a Fighter against God at that very time he thinks himself immediately Inspired by Him From what therefore has been said every sober and serious Man may easily know and conclude when he is in the Spirit if he shews in every thing he does that Temper which the Gospel requires of us if in a steady and regular Conversation of Life he expresseth that Love Joy Peace Long-suffering that Gentleness Goodness Faith that Meekness and Temperance Vertues against which there is no Law and that are all of them so eminently required in Christians let such a one go on as he has begun and never doubt of his being in the Spirit because he shews so much of that which St. Paul calls the Fruit of it On the other hand Gal. 5. ●2 let Men fansie what they please of their being in the Spirit if their Lives and Actions are not conformable to the Temper of that Gospel which is to be their Rule If their stiffness to their own Sentiments makes them value and consider none but themselves If their Zeal for their own Sect or Opinion makes them exclude all others from their Charity who are not of their own Communion and Party If that Love which is such a peculiar Mark and Character of a Christian is not extended even to those who perhaps may little deserve it at their hands If instead of that Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith which are all the beauties and excellencies of a Christian Life they are full of Hatreds Variances Emulations Strifes If instead of that Meekness and Temperance which are Vertues that make us easie both to our selves and others they are guilty of Envyings Murthers Drunkenness Revellings and such like In a word if Mens inward Temper or outward Deportment be such as carries them to such extreams as are inconsistent with the Duties which the revealed Will of God has enjoyned us let such of what Church Sect or Opinion soever they may be pretend to what they please and gild over their Actions with fine and godly Words they are such Ver. 19. however to whom we may justly apply that of St. Jude These be they who separate themselves being Sensual not having the Spirit And now I come 3dly to shew the Obligations which lie on us all of walking in the Spirit The walking in the Spirit being as I have already shewn the conforming our selves to the Rules and Precepts of the Gospel Our Obligations of doing this will appear 1st From the reasonableness that there is of living according to what we believe 2dly From the easiness of the Things enjoyned us And lastly Because this wholly tends to our own Interest and Advantage 1. Then I shall shew the Obligations of walking in the Spirit from the reasonableness of living according to what we believe The firm adhering to what a Man believes and the ordering his Life according to his Belief is a thing so very decent and pleasing in the Eyes of all Mankind that it is natural for one to commend such a practice even in that very Man whose Opinion we may otherwise condemn On the other side let a Man be never so Orthodox in his Faith if he is scandalous and irregular in his Life this raises such an inward scorn and disesteem in the Breast of all good and understanding Men as is sufficient to testisie what a low and mean Opinion the World generally has of such a Person For when there is not that harmony which there should be betwixt ones belief and practice when the Holiness of Mens Lives does not answer the purity of that Religion they profess it either argues a wonderful falseness and design in desiring to appear otherwise than they really are or a strange insensibility and neglect not to mind that which of all other things is their greatest concern 'T is mean and pitiful to be a bare Pretender in any thing but it is really wicked and unaccountable to be so in matters of Religion where the greatest sincerity of Mind is required and believe me all is but Hypocrisie and folly without it All Religion naturally supposes an Obedience to the Things it enjoyns and Christianity is so very exact in this above all others that whosoever shall keep the whole Law of it and yet ossend in one point he is guilty of all If those therefore who call themselves Christians are really perswaded of the truth of the Gospel is it not most reasonable they should be of that temper it requires If Men are convinced of the excellency of the Precepts which Christ has commanded is it any thing less than Madness not to follow them to the uttermost And what a strange degree of folly is it in them not to make that the constant Rule of their Lives which they themselves confess to be the only means of their Happiness But 2dly Our obligations of walking in the Spirit will appear from the easiness of the things enjoyned us Christianity is a thing so very plain and simple that never any