Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A28673
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A new constellation discovered in a sermon preached at the visitation held at Leicester the 29th of April, 1674 / by Joshua Bonhome.
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Bonhome, Joshua.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing B3594; ESTC R24665
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12,478
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32
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Imprimatur Ex Aed Lambethanis Martii 3o. 1674. THO. TOMKYNS A New Constellation Discovered in a SERMON Preached at the VISITATION Held at Leicester the 29th of April 1674. BY JOSHVA BONHOME Rector of Saddington in the County of LEICESTER Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by W. G. and are to be sold by Moses Pitt at the sign of the Angel in St. Paul's Churchyard 1675. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE HENRY COVENTRY Esq Of His MAJESTIES most Honorable Privy Council and Principal Secretary of State Right Honorable I Could not presume to present this unpolished Discourse in it self unworthy of Your Acceptation under the high Patronage of Your Honour if I did not know by undeserved Experience that as the holy Angels of God which though they be called Principalities and Powers and behold continually the face of the Lord of lords and King of Kings our Heavenly Father yet are of so generous so noble and so loving Condescention that they joyfully undertake to be Ministring Spirits to the meanest Servants of their Lord and Master and to be Instruments in his Divine Hands for their Comfort and Deliverances So Your Honour doth dayly imitate those glorious Spirits in doing good with an unparallel'd Nobleness to all such whose Allegiance and Loyalty to our Soveraign is known to You proving Your self a true Imitatour of him who though he be of all that is good the best and of all that 's great the greatest yet delights to prefer his Goodness before his Greatness All our English Israel knows as well as my self the Eminency of the Place Your Honour enjoyeth in this Kingdom under our Gracious Soveraign but the Experience of Your Noble Favours to me upon several occasions forceth me to conclude this height of Trust and Dignity becomes yet more Honourable and deserves to be more admired in that You are pleased and that frequently to divert Your Eyes from the sight and glory of the tallest Gedars and to impart a glance to the lowest Shrubs like Solomon who spake not only of those goodly Trees in Lebanon but of the very Hyssop that springeth out of the Wall Sir This poor Sermon which I preached in the Audience of many Grave and Learned Divines and which some Well-wishers to the Church of England and the Ministry have thought not to be unworthy of appearing in Publick in order to Disabuse many poor Souls who by Recusants perswasions do not only lightly esteem our Calling but as if they were the only People of God and such they boast themselves to be look upon it as being no better than that of the Priests of Baal for so many of them are pleased to call us and on our most Reverend Prelates and the whole Clergy of this Land as being no better if not worse than the Priests of Antichrist This poor Sermon I say I make bold to present to Your Honour with all possible Respect the best of all I can do being justly due and devoted to Your Honour as a small discharge of my Duty and an hearty acknowledgement of my Obligation Beseeching Almighty God long to preserve Your Honour after the joy of our heart and the breath of our nostrils His Most Excellent Majesty a Friend and Support to all such as fear God and the King That as he hath called You by name to be one of the Valiant men of Israel which compass the Bed of our Solomon he may be pleased to make You more and more Instrumental for the good of this Land and the Service of our Soveraign and fill You like Bezaleel with the Spirit of God in Wisdom and Vnderstanding and Knowledge for the Service both of the Throne and Tabernacle the State and the Church For these and all other Blessings Temporal and Spiritual upon Your Noble person shall ever pray the meanest among the many thousands that are called to the Sacred Priesthood and YOUR HONOURS Most humble most obedient and most obliged Servant JOSHUA BONHOME Revelat. chap. I. vers 16. And he had in his right Hand seven Stars AS God at sundry times Heb. 1.1 and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets to the end that all men might know the greatness and the glory as well as the goodness the mercifull and loving kindness of the Lord so in divers manners and at sundry times hath he appeared in dreadfull and glorious Visions unto his Servants that they might with a better success convince all those they were sent unto of their own Vileness Rebellion and Prophaneness and if I may so speak breed and plant in their sinfull and deceitfull Hearts a godly fear and a holy reverence of so glorious a Majesty and in their Minds a true perfect and earnest submission unto the words of him that commands all men to be holy as he is Holy In such a glorious and fearfull Vision the great Jehovah was pleased to appear not to Moses only but to the whole Camp of Israel in the Wilderness when Mount Sina was altogether on a smoak because the Lord who is a consuming Fire descended upon it in fire Exod. 19.18 and the whole mount quaked greatly Of the same nature was that of the Prophet Esaias when he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up when his train filled the Temple and above it stood the Seraphims crying one to another Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory when the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cryed and the house was filled with smoak As you may see in the first Verse of the sixth Chapter of the Prophecy of the same Prophet And that the House of Israel might be convinced and left without excuse for their impudency stiffheartedness and rebellion against the Lord then sent he to his Prophet Ezechiel the Vision of a Whirlwind coming out of the North of a great Cloud a Fire and a Brightness that of the likeness of four living Creatures whose appearance was like burning Coals of Fire and like the appearance of Lamps And the likeness of the Firmament upon the heads of the living Creatures of the colour of the terrible Crystal and above the Firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a Throne as the appearance of a Saphire stone and upon the Throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it And as the living God by these fearfull Ideals and amazing Representations of his Glory would bring the Church of Israel to a sober consideration of the Excellency of his Word that they might at last be perswaded and drawn to an entire and true Obedience to the same and with more diligence and earnestness admit and receive the Holy Instructions of his Prophets whom he had Honoured with these glorious Images and Representations of his Greatness and incomprehensible Infiniteness So in the days of the Gospel wherein he hath spoken unto us by his
with my Father in his throne But Lastly I think they may be said to be in the right hand of Christ in another sense that is that he may throw them down from the Firmament of the Church if they turn from the Holy Commandments delivered unto them 2 Pet. 2.21 For whereas every private Christian is commanded to work out his Salvation with fear and trembling Ministers have a double Charge to Save themselves and others by being Faithful to their Trust and fulfilling the Work their Master hath entrusted them withall lest he being angry shakes them out of his right hand as men use to throw off those things that displease them though they have been never so dear to them before And thus did God formerly deal with Nadab and Abihu the Sons of Aaron for Offering strange Fire before the Lord which he commanded them not And there went out a fire from the Lord and devoured them and they dyed before the Lord who will be sanctified in them that come nigh him and before all the people will he be glorified as Moses said after their Sin and Punishment Levit. 10.2 And thus did he deal with the two Sons of Ely in the First of Samuel chap. 4. vers 11. And so in few words have I cleared the matter in hand Now from these few particular Observations the House of Aaron and the House of Israel may learn these Lessons of Instruction and Comfort And First You the Tribe of Levi the Messengers of the Lord of Hosts learn to be Faithful Careful and Diligent in your Master's Work and in the Duties of your Sacred Calling lest as unprofitable Servants he throws you off from his Right Hand and upbraids you as the Priests formerly in the days of Malachy You are departed out of the way ye have caused many to stumble at the Law and you have corrupted the covenant of Levi Therefore have I made you contemptible and base before all the people according as you have not kept my ways but have been partial in the law Malach. 2.7 8 9. But what do I say God forbid this Censure should ever concern us let us rather say of it as Daniel to the King of Babylon concerning his Dream Let it be to them that hate us and the Interpretation thereof to the Enemies of Christ and the Disturbers of the Peace of his Church Dan. 4.19 Secondly Let it be your Joy and Comfort to be like the Prophets and Apostles of the Lord and as they were to be Defamed and made as the filth of the World and the off-scouring of all things as St. Paul complains 1. Cor. 4.13 since you are burning and lightsom Stars in the hands of our Lord Jesus Let me say to you what St. Paul to the Colossians chap. 4. vers 17. said to their Minister Take heed to the ministry which you have received of the Lord that ye fulfill it Go on boldly in the Work of your Master for you are as so many Stars in his Right Hand whom neither life nor death shall ever pluck out of his Hand For if the Shepherd be better and nobler than the Sheep then may you particularly apply to your selves that Excellent Promise of Christ Joh. 10.28 I give unto them eternal life they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand 'T is true there are now-a-days many false Stars wandring Stars as St. Jude calls them Iude 9.14 who as the Bramble would have been King over all the other Trees Iudg. 9.14 pretend to be the only Stars in the Hands of Christ and perswade a Crooked Nation Our Church is as the Chaos in the Beginning and that there is nothing but Darkness upon the Face of it Gen. 1.2 Ye therefore as the Lord said to Jeremy Jer. 1.17 gird up your Loyns and arise and speak unto them all that the Lord commands you Be not dismayed at their Faces for behold he hath made you a Defenced City and an Iron Pillar and a Brazen Wall against the whole Land And they shall fight against you but they shall not prevail against you for the Lord is with you to deliver you Come now O House of Israel and learn That if these be the Priviledges of your Ministers if they are Stars in the Hand of your Blessed Saviours to receive them therefore in the Lord with all gladness as St. Paul commanded the Philippians to receive Timothy Phil. 2.29 And as he exhorted to the Hebrews Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the word of God whose faith follow considering the end of their conversation Heb. 13.7 And at vers 17. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves For they watch for your souls as they that must give an account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you Pray for them pray for your selves that God may be pleased to fill in your Souls by their Ministry the sweet Influences of Grace and Mercy in Christ in whose right hand they are as so many Stars To conclude my truly Reverend and Beloved Brethren in the Lord seeing there are in our days so many False and Wandring Stars who that they may with more facility lead men in the ways of their own devising pretend to be as it is said of Simon Acts 8.10 the great power of God and the only Ioshua's appointed for the introducing of Israel into the Land of Promise Let our Light shine more than ever that all men may glorifie our Father which is in Heaven when they shall see we lead them in the ways of Truth and Righteousness Let us all be like that Star which led the Wise-men to Bethlehem let us point out and shew unto men the place where Iesus is to be found and to them and to us let the Lord Jesus give the Morning Star according to his promise Rev. 2.28 And since There is no enchantment against Jacob neither is there any divination against Israel Num. 23.23 let us as chosen of God and precious though disallowed indeed of most men let us I say so adorn our Holy Priesthood and Ministry by a diligent care and watching over the Flock of Christ that the Balaams of this time which are hired to Curse us may be compelled to cry out at last as their Patron of old How goodly are thy tents O Jacob and thy tabernacles O Israel Num. 24.5 Which that we may all see to our Eternal Comfort Malach. 4.2 let us beg of the Sun of Righteousness Jesus Christ our Lord that he may be pleased to dart upon us the Stars in his right hand the wholesom Beams of Grace and Understanding and Zeal to his Glory and the Good of his Church that when we shall have made an end of Trafficking with the Talents he hath bestowed on us and having given him a good and faithful Account we may all hear that Blessed and Comfortable word Well done good and faithful Servants enter into the joy of your Lord. You have been as so many Stars in my right hand whose Beams in the work of your Ministry have been darkned by many a Cloud of the Sins and Errours of a stiff-necked Generation but now I the Sun of Righteousness will dart Eternally upon you the sweet and ravishing Beams of Glory in my Glorious and Everlasting Sanctuary To Him with the Father and Ever-blessed Spirit be ascribed all Honour Power and Glory now and for evermore Amen FINIS