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	word_n	5,237	5	4.2998	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63904	Charity recommended, in a sermon preached at the assizes held at Norwich, upon Thursday the 29th of July, 1686 by John Turner ...	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.	1686 (1686)	Wing T3304; ESTC R5344	20,642	37

to the same Degree to which he Loved us who lived a Life laden with Reproach and Scorn and died a painful and ignominious Death for our sakes and this therefore he calls a new Commandment a Friendship so strict inviolable and Sacred that it was never heard of in the World before A new Commandment I give unto you that ye Love one another as I have Loved you that ye also Love one another by this shall all Men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have Love one to another And how very great stress the Apostles in their Writings lay upon this eminent Gift and Grace of Charity I need not tell you but shall content my self barely to take notice First That St. Paul in the Thirteenth Chapter of his First Epistle to the Corinthians imputes so very much to this one Grace of Charity that without it he makes all other things however Pompous or Specious they may seem to signifie just nothing at all Though I speak saith he with the Tongue of Men and Angels and have not Charity I am become as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal and though I have the Gift of Prophecy and understand all Mysteries and all knowledg so that I could remove Mountains and have not Charity I am nothing and though I bestow all my Goods to feed the Poor and though I give my Body to be burned and have not Charity it profiteth me nothing Secondly Whereas most other Miraculous Gifts and Graces were in due time to cease having done the Errant upon which they were employed which was to give sufficient evidence and such as without willful blindness could not be resisted to the Truth and Divine Authority of our most holy Religion yet Charity was still to remain to the very end of the World So that whereever there is a true Church of Christ there must be a charitable Spirit visible and reigning in it Charity saith he never faileth but whether there be Prophecies they shall fail whether there be Tongues they shall cease whether there be Knowledg it shall vanish away And again a little after And now abideth Faith Hope Charity these three but the greatest of these is Charity As it were to answer that Passage in St. John There are three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one And there are three that bear witness in earth the spirit and the water and the blood and these three agree in one For in this partition of St. Paul Faith answers to the Blood it is Faith in a crucified and bleeding Saviour Hope to the Water or the Sacrament of Baptism in which we make Profession of this Faith and of the Hope that is in us which is built upon it And Charity which is the best and most peculiar Gift of the Holy Ghost that answers to the Spirit which is a Spirit of universal Friendship and Love the essential root and spring and source of Kindness abstractum in concreto the utmost mercy compassion and good-will assuming a Person and breathing forth its likeness upon every Subject capable of receiving it Faith and Hope are like Pisgah with respect to Canaan they afford us a prospect of the Land of Promise but they are not the Land flowing with milk and honey themselves but Charity in its utmost perfection and extent is that which in other words we call Salvation and Heaven it is the single Food and it affords the mutual relish and enjoyment of God and Angels and of the spirits of just men made perfect through all the vast Periods of an eternal Duration But wo to us vile wretches and miserable sinners if without Charity there be no true Church nor any true Disciple O generation of vipers that we are who shall deliver us from the wrath to come or will it not be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon for Chorazin and Bethsaida nay for Gomorrah and for Sodom too at the great and dreadful Day than for us who professing outwardly the Religion are yet so far removed from the inward Spirit of Christ and as if we had reason to blush and be ashamed of him and of his Gospel which is the power of God unto salvation have cast away the Badge of Charity that Men might not know us to be his Disciples We are unjust in our Dealings uncharitable in our Censures irreconcileable and implacable in our Animosities turbulent and uneasie in our Tempers contentious and litigious in our Conversations false to our Promises treacherous to our Friendships hypocritical in our Pretences and yet we pretend to be Christians all this while Nay so very far have we revolted from the true Christian Spirit so far is it now from being thought the Characteristick and essential Mark of a Christian to be of an humble meek and charitable Disposition that even Religion it self or at least the vain pretence and colour of it is made the fatal Bone of Contention and the Apple of Strife We quarrel about that very thing which was intended to unite us and which hath made no Promises but to Unity and Peace to the candid quiet and ingenuous frame of Spirit as if the nature of our Profession were inverted since the Apostolical Times when it was pronounced as a certain Maxim If any Man among you seem to be Religious and bridleth not his Tongue but deceiveth his own Heart that Man's Religion is vain We mistake Brawling and Contention for Zeal and when our Tongues are set on fire of Hell we imagine them tipt and sanctified by a Coal from the Altar not but that every Man ought to be very obstinate in what he firmly believes upon his best Enquiry to be the very Truth every Man 's own Conscience being without question his only rule and measure of Action and to relinquish or disown that of whose truth we have all the inward assurance our present light is capable of giving us is to betray the great Pillar and Principle of Life by which all Humane Society is supported which is bound up in truth and consists in the faithfulness of its Members to each other But there may be a Charity every whit as obstinate as the most fierce and most intemperate rage and Humility will stand its ground and gain upon its Adversaries by gentle but resistless Motions when Clamour an● Passion shall be put to silence and will be ashamed o● themselves or if there appear reason sufficient to persuade it Humility can own a conquest without shame and is easily induced to change its mistaken Sentiments for the better when Passion though it be inwardly convinced yet blushes nay faints and even dies to think of being reconciled But though I have said what I believe to be true That every Man's private Conscience is his only private and personal measure of Action yet I would not by any means be so interpreted as if I were about to insinuate That the non-execution of Laws against religious Dissenters

it the Badg and Character of his Disciples who were tied and linked more closely to one another by supernatural assistances of Divine grace by the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace By this shall all Men know saith he that ye are my Disciples if ye have Love one to another In my Discourse upon which words I shall do these Three things First I shall shew upon what Reasons or Principles the Obligation to mutual Charity and good Will is Founded Secondly In what Instances and to what Degrees it is to exert it self And Thirdly What are the great and glorious Advantages that may be reaped from it I begin with the First of these Upon what Reasons or Principles the Obligation to mutual Charity and good Will is Founded and they are these Three First The Love Imitation and Fear of God Secondly The Example and Command of Christ our Saviour And Thirdly The undoubted Interest and Advantage of any humane Society whatsoever First The Love Imitation and Fear of God That God is a Being infinitely Lovely he being the Source and Fountain of all Created perfection which in himself is contained in an infinitely more Eminent and Transcendent manner hath been already represented and this loveliness of his for the great Excellence and Perfection of his Nature is that which is the proper food of a reasonable mind to Meditate and Exercise it self upon there being nothing else that will afford it either so suitable or so lasting entertainment and it is likewise undoubtedly the noblest object for its Imitation so far as humane frailty is capable of aspiring to the Glory and Excellence of so Illustrious and bright a Pattern The Nature of God after whose Image and Resemblance the Soul of Man was Created is that which if it were not for the Cloggs and Impediments of the Corporeal part if we were not dazled by the Pomps and Gaieties carried away Captive by the false enticements and blinded by the steams of sense through which our finer part is weakned and refracted to which we should always naturally desire to be more closely and intimately united it is that in the study and contemplation of which when our minds are once fitted and prepared for so sublime an Employment we find the most perfect joy and satisfaction and it is impossible for us to think him as we always do when our thoughts are at leisure from prejudice and passion and have emerged out of the sink of Bodily entertainments to be so very excellent a Being to love him according to that loveliness with which he then displaies and manifests his Nature to us but at the same time we must be studying to be like him and to Copy out every day more and more exactly those Beauties in our selves which we Contemplate and Adore in him But if the Love of God will not perswade us to endeavour to be like him if the Excellence of his Nature will not entice and Charme us into an humble Imitation of it let his Terrours engage us let his Vengeance affright us let the consideration of his Omnipotence compel and force us let our Flesh tremble for fear of him and let us be afraid of his judgments who expects and requires from us that as he hath been so Gracious and Merciful towards us so we should be Kind and Charitable and Helpful to each other For God is not only the Maker but he is also the great Guardian and Protector of the World he is the King of the Vniverse and it his peace that is broken or in a way of tendency towards a breach and rupture by all uncharitable habits and dispositions of Mind and therefore it belongs to his Government it is included in the notion of his Providence and is a part of that great task and business which he hath imposed perpetually upon himself for the preserving by his Goodness the effects of his Power and for the Good more especially of the rational and intellectual Creation which is more peculiarly the object of his care not to suffer ill tempers and mischievous inclinations morose contentious and uncharitable Spirits so far as we Indulge and Cherish them in our selves to go unpunish'd either in this World or the other unless by a timely and sincere Repentance we return to the Love of God and of our Neighbour But Secondly The second Reason or Principle upon which the Obligation to mutual Love is Founded is the Example and Command of Christ our Saviour which with us who pretend to embrace his holy Profession and to have listed our selves as true and faithful Soldiers under his Spiritual Banner ought certainly to have very great Authority and Weight For his Example there is nothing more clear than that his whole Life was nothing else but one continued course of Patience Humility Meekness Condescention Charity Constancy and Equability of Mind of doing Good to others and of forgiving Injuries done to himself and for his Doctrin what a mighty stress he laid upon these excellent Virtues will appear undeniably by these Four particulars First That he sums up the whole Duty of Man under these Two general Heads the Love of God and our Neighbour Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy Heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy Mind this is the First and Great Commandment and the Second is like unto it Thou shalt love thy Neigbour as thy self on these Two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets Secondly In summing up the Duties of the Second Table he reduces them all under this single Aphorism Whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you do ye even so to them For this is the Law and the Prophets And under this general Precept there is no question to be made but all the instances of Charity and good Will are comprised for there is no Man certainly by his own consent that would be Injur'd or Defam'd that would be Kill'd or Murther'd Wounded or Beaten that would be Censur'd too severely Watch'd too narrowly Interpreted too hardly Punisht with a rigour altogether disproportion'd to the guilt and heinousness of his Crime there is no Man if it were at all times perfectly at his own Choice but he would be well thought of well spoken of kindly courteously and favourably entreated and therefore this Precept obliges us not only not to do any injustice but in all cases whatsoever to shew as much Mercy as the thing will bear to shew the same Friendship Gentleness and good Nature in all the particular instances that can happen which we our selves in such circumstances should reasonably expect or should be glad to receive and to interpret all Men not by particular Prejudices and Passions of our own but with an universal Justice Ingenuity and Candour Thirdly he gives it us in charge in his Holy Gospel not only in general terms to approve our selves as Men of Candid Courteous and Merciful Dispositions but to be so towards our very