Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A93207
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A short discourse concerning the work of God in this nation, and the duty of all good people, both governors and governed, in this their day.
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1659
(1659)
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Wing S3584; Thomason E986_19; ESTC R207794
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we yet deviate from it whilest every one is apt to measure his Brother from his harmony or dissent in opinion and worldly interest rather then from the new Birth and a meek Godly conversation Such as worship God in Spirit rejoyce in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in flesh such are the true circumcision they have the end of the Law and of all Gods Ordinances and Institutions fulfilled in them Nor doth this consideration slightly concern our Magistrates Every sort almost of professours is eagerly desirous of your countenance and too many endeavour to monopolize it to themselves nor only so but they would engage your Authority in suppressing whatsoever is contrary to their way But I trust the Lord will fully open your eyes to see the falshood and deceipt of this spirit which is so much the more dangerous as the form wherein 't is enthroned is more glorious then others or the people in whom it rules more zealous and in appearance holy There is but two sorts of Religion in the general of those who call themselves Christian The one hath its center in self or nature I mean not degenerate and polluted nature as in the Fall for nothing can dwell there except irreligion but renewed through the common light and grace of God to its primitive lustre and purity in kinde though not in measure wherein man was first created This sort of Religious persons are cleansed from the common pollutions of the world through lust by the knowledge of Christ They are a knowing enlightened people forward in serving God and strict in the obedience of his Ordinances according to their interpretation of them But their fear of God is taught them by the precepts of man t is derived to them in a humane natural spirit and light Self is indeed the ultimate scope of these mens Religion And therefore they delight to distinguish themselves by somewhat in the formal part or outward circumstances of their Religion that may serve to embody them in a right understanding between themselves and an open distinction from other and then from their own interest as thus a simple distinct body make judgement of all dissenting parties favouring or dis-affecting them as they do or do not conform to their model and opinions This kind of Religion wherever it is will unavoidably harbour a persecuting spirit which is the brand of Antichrist self-love is the very soul of this Religion Those that are of it can follow God so far as some gain accrues to their fleshly mind by his service but no further they would have somewhat whereof to glory in the sight of God and before men and would not glory in God himself only prosperity detects their filthyness and destroyes their souls Affliction shakes them off like untimely fruit but they must and will grow together with the Wheat until the Lord root them up and consume them at his coming The second kind of Religion hath its foundation and center in the love of God and unity of Spirit with Christ who is the Head of the Church Such as are of this Religion love Christ for himself and all his members for the love of him They judge of the members by their proportion and Symmetry with their Head not by comparing others to themselves They would have none follow them further then they follow Christ Nor do they comply with any implicitly having mens persons in admiration for advantage but receive and cherish the truth wherever they meet it for the love of it self They fight against errour with spiritual weapons and their faith stands not in the wisdom nor strength of man but in the power and free grace of God The Kingdom of God in which they are is not in meat and drink but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost He that in these things serves Christ is acceptable to God and approved of them so far as bodily exercise may profit themselves or their Brother in the best things they are willing to use it but Godliness is the thing they chiefly intend which hath the promises of this life and of the life to come The variety of forms cannot so disguise the true Saint as to deter these from acknowledging him nor so beautifie the natural man or carnal professor as to induce these to magnifie and exalt him Fulness cannot utterly alienate their hearts from God sufferings can never separate them from the love of Christ or a faithful patience in well-doing Gods out-goings in the midst of us have clearly discovered this distinction in Religion he now expects that the former of them which is outward in the letter and form only should not suffice us and the latter which is inward in the power and spirit should take place in us I know no greater sign of Christs hastning to set up his righteous Rule openly in the world then the embodying of all his Saints in a free fellowship with and hearty owning of one another in the substance of true Religion which is to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with God For when Zion the Mountain of the Lord his holy City shall once be raised out of the dust her King will soon shew himself in the midst of her in the apparent exercise of his glorious Dominion upon the earth Now the constitution of this Holy City the New Jerusalem is such as is described Rev. 20. at the end First it is comprehensive of all Saints so as to receive and gather into the Unity of the Spirit all godly and righteous ones every where whom God acknowledges to be his Beloved Seed though their measures be divers their haltings and blemishes great The Nations if them that are saved shall walk in the light of the glory of God and the Lamb which lightens this City And the Rings of the Earth do bring their glory and honour into it And the Gates of it shall not be shut at all by day for there shall be no night there and they shall bring the glory and honour of the Nations into it All the children of light must have free admittance into this New Jerusalem they are by the New birth made free of this City None may upon any pretence deny them free commerce in it Those Societies therefore that have not this largeness of heart to receive into the bonds of Brotherhood all the members of Christ from the most honourable to the most abject and the out-cast are not to be thought the Heavenly Zion or Holy City of God wherein God shall tabernacle with men as is promised in order to subject the Kingdoms of the world to his Scepter 'T is true such Societies may have many in them that are precious to God and actually Saints but they lie yet among the pots scattered abroad in the rubbish of Babel they are not framed together and built up in the visible frame and constitution proper to Zion This Holy City when she shall once manifestly appear in her beauty will send forth a collective influence able to attract and knit together the hearts of all Gods dear children out of every tongue Nation Language and people Secondly This New Jerusalem from above hath also in its constitution an exclusive power by which all the wicked and hypocritical are kept out of her vers 27. And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie but they which are written in the Lambs Book of Life That very light and glory of Zion which unites and gathers into one profest Body her own children shall be as a thick cloud and gloomy darkness to all her enemies And this by reason of the opposition between Zions constitution which is publique large and capacious for the receipt and entertainment of all the meek subjects of her King and the constitution of the worldly Church which is private and restrained within the compass of self glorying principles The Lord I hope hath begun this great work of uniting his Saints and embodying them to the view of all in the Spirit of holiness and in that love which is the Bond of perfectness the speedy progress whereof all the godly ought to endeavour As the defection of the Churches from their Primitive simplicity came through their cleaving to the persons opinions Ministry or Interests of men though good men saying every one I am of Paul I am of Apollo and I of Cephas and I of Christ so their return to the same simplicity will be by ceasing to glory in men and cleaving entirely to their Head Christ Jesus In so doing they shall have a sanctified use of all things All is theirs they are Christs Christ is Gods Happy are we if after all the shaking work that God hath wrought in these Nations we can be brought to sit looser from whatsoever may be shaken and removed that so an entrance may be given us into the Kingdom of Christ that cannot be moved But if upon the proof which the Lord is now bringing the good people of the Nation to they start aside from him and corrupt through prosperity and power if they apply not themselves with self denyal and singleness of heart to the advancement of liberty common good the power of godliness and the unity of all Saints we may well expect that God will yet proceed to shake us more terribly then ever FINIS
some more noble use then ever before you were prepared for and hath now with a high hand and an out-stretched arm gathered you together to put you yet again upon the proof whither you will be a willing and obedient people in the day of his power It greatly therefore concerns you and all the good people diligently to search out what the holy acceptable and perfect will of God is which by all his various dispensations he would discover to us and incline our hearts to the obedience of what the reasons of his carrying us back from the borders of liberty and rest which once before we were entring into under the conduct of this Parliament into a Wilderness of confusion sufferings and oppressions during the late usurpation and what his designs in thus mercifully rallying us in order if we be not rebellious to our more compleat entrance into the Land of Rest and Truth and fuller conquest over all the Canaanites The main thing in which all Gods people generally from the highest to the lowest have been too unskilful is denying of self not corrupt sinful self only but righteous and holy self and contemning those allurements of gain which puft up the mind of man with boasting and vainglory This surely is that which we are call'd to be more fully instructed in and in the first place those that are Rulers The Changes and Overturnings we have had in this corner of the world do loudly proclaim to us that which the Rock of Israel said to David 2 Sam. 23.3 He that ruleth over men must he just ruling m the fear of the Lord that is he must receive the Pattern for his Rule and the motives to it from Jesus Christ the Fountain of all just Government and not seek them in himself in his own single interest or glory A self-glorying and self-inriching spirit is perfectly opposite to the Kingdom of Christ and to the common advantage of our Neighbour Our Lord himself though so spotless and righteous as he was saith I seek not mine own glory If I honour my self my honour is nothing I speak not of my self and again Not my will be done by all which expressions and others such like we see plainly that Christ having consideration of himself as single and alone in his righteous Manhood utterly refuses to speak or act in that capacity I do saith he nothing of my self but as my Father hath taught me I speak these things he that sent me is with me the Father hath not left me alone For I do always those things that please him Look how Christ in this respect deports himself in the exercise of his rule towards his Head the Father so ought you most Renowned Patriots in Parliament and Army to demean your selves in the exercise of your Rule towards Christ who is your Head you ought to see an insufficiency in the wisdom and strength of flesh a weakness in your selves left alone even in your best estate and that your safety and force lies in being yoaked to Christ through meekness of spirit and submission of will to him in all your enterprises Although Popular Government in a Free State considered in it self may justly of all others be accounted here with us the most natural and adequate medium whereby to attain and secure the peoples Liberty and welfare which is one great end of Magistracy yet if the persons managing this Government be slaves to their ambitious lusts and servants to gain the Government will be difficultly preserved from corrupting Good rules indeed in its constitution as frequent change of office and residence and the balancing particular mens interests and setting bounds to their riches and greatness with the like may greatly avail to its preservation and are needful But we shall never be settled upon the right Basis of good Government till Christ reveal himself in our Rulers as the Corner-stone of the whole building teaching them to deny themselves and naturally to take care of the Common-weal by faithfully and impartially distributing to every man his portion of Freedom Justice and Encouragement in due season and doing right to all without respect of persons not siding with part of the good people in neglect of the rest nor engrossing to themselves the benefits of power and rule to the unjust exclusion or oppression of any the discovery of this just upright spirit in our Magistracy will terrifie their enemies make glad all honest hearts and convince the dis-affected of the excellency of the Good Cause so long contested for The wise King of Israel tells us Eccles 8.9 there is a time when one man rules over another to his own hurt And when is that but at such time as he rules in a self-promoting and self-securing way contrary to Gods heart and to the common right for this corrupts his spirit mis-leading him from the fear of God and sets him at defiance with the popular Interest so that he is exposed to their severe judgement when they shall recover power and liberty as also to the wrathful displeasure of God whose powerful arm executes his righteous will everywhere and upon all persons without controle or limitation that therefore which next follows in the same Chapter is considerable And so I saw the wicked buried who had come and gone from the place of the Holy and they were forgotten in the City where they had so done this is also vanity which we have seen too in part fulfilled upon some great men of this last age of the world that a long time went together with the upright to the House of God and had a mighty name in the visible Church the Jerusalem below But in the generation to come their name shall be blotted out and the memory of them be cut off from the earth because they were enemies to the Crucifying work of Saving-grace It is observable that God hath suffered some bitter degenerate root or other to grow up shew it self in so many visible forms of Worship and sects of Religious Professors successively from Popery to Episcopacy and so downward even to these very times when they have once come to greatness and increased into a Kingdom what envy pride self-confidence bitterness against dissenting Brethren and other such fruits of a private self-magnifying spirit have suddainly sprung forth and obtained deep rooting in the midst of them It is worth observation also on the other hand that some gleanings may be found in various and differing forms and sects of persons who we cannot but in our consciences judge and hope are accepted with God and faithful in the main From hence certainly the Lord would instruct us how empty a thing the form of Godliness is without the power of it and that the power of Godlinese does nevertheless well consist with divers forms Circumcision is nothing nor uncircumcision but the new creature and the peace of God is upon all those that walk according to this rule But alas how how greatly do