Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	flesh_n	law_n	mind_n	7,026	5	6.6163	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43254	A call to a general reformation of manners and manifesting in several particulars the great lets and hinderances thereunto / preached at the arch-deacon of Sudbury's visitation, holden at Kentford in Suffolk in April last, 1700, by Clement Heigham, Esq., now rector of Barrow in Suffolk.	Heigham, Clement, d. 1714.	1700 (1700)	Wing H1370A; ESTC R36595	13,878	32

Maintenance and made more secure against contempt 2. The Officers of Parishes must be such as fear God and that understand the weight of an Oath and the great consequences of discharging it 3. Family Religion must be kept up 4. Children and Servants must be well instructed 5. The Spiritual Courts must give their utmost assistance to the Ministry 6. A Religious Magistracy must give their helping hand to punish Vice and encourage Goodness And when all these shall mutually conspire to promote the great ends of Religion we may then hope for a new face of things we may then hope for a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness we shall then behold the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour exalted amongst us which is the hearty desire of all Good Men. I proceed now to my third an last point which is to shew That to lead good Lives our selves and to remove all those Lets and Hinderances which keep others from doing the same is the only way to bring Glory to God Honour and Reputation to our Holy Church and true Happiness and Safety to our Church and Nation 1. Then to promote universal Goodness by our living well and discouraging Vice brings Glory to God as it doth sensibly and experimentally commend the ways of God to a poor ignorant brutish World It lets the World see that the ways of Religion are ways of Pleasantness and all her Paths are Peace A good Christian Life as it gives inward joy to the Practiser so it sweetly insinuates a good liking into the Beholders it strangely attracts the Affections of others and by a secret invisible force it charms the Passions and delights the Beholders The glorious Attire of Christian Graces such as Meekness Humility and Modesty of Mind fervent Piety to God and as fervent Charity to Man undisguised Friendship Sincerity in all our Dealings evenness and equality of Mind in all conditions and estates of our Life Conquest over Passions Contempt of the World and Sollicitousness for nothing but to keep up and maintain a joyful Entercourse betwixt God and our Souls Such a Divine Temper as this doth strangely affect and attract and must insinuate a good relish into all Beholders and it is my firm belief that were Persons that are of a good Communion but more exact in their Lives to the Reformed Copy that is before them it would mightily supercede the necessity of much writing to justify and recommend our way of Worship for were Mens inward Corruptions more subdued by the force of that Religion which they profess we should find little to do but to love God and love one another and the sweet Relish which ever attends a conscientious well-spent Life would so confirm and settle good Christians in their way that they would never doubt or stagger and many other Beholders that are unsteddy and unresolved would be more easily drawn to join with that Communion of Christians where they see a Divine Presence and Force and so much Comfort as a good Life produceth than by all other Arguments in the World And this leads to a second Consideration to enforce good Christian Practice in our selves and to discourage Vice in others 2. For it shews our Principles to be sound and good and that we firmly assent to them as such It convinceth the World that our Doctrine and way of Worship is from God This Men will be apt to believe when they see the powerful and visible Influences of it in the change of mens Manners from bad to good This satisfies men beyond all other Arguments that there is a Divine Presence amongst us and that there is a special Assistance and Blessing concurring with the means of Grace that we make use of and it doth most plainly evince that God's Grace is not bestowed upon us in vain I would to God that this most excellent Argument for so the Primitive Christians accounted it were not so much lost as it is as to its due force upon Beholders by the bad Examples of too many Christian Professors Those first and best Christians could boast of the Truth the Goodness and Excellency of their Religion and Soundness of their Doctrine from the admirable Efficacy and Power it had upon the Hearts and Lives of those that recieved it All this is plain from some memorable Passages in Lactantius's 3d Book de falsa Sapientia and also in several places of Origen too long here to be recited But 3ly It brings Glory to God and great Good to others as it demonstrates our Religion to be a practicable thing and that the hardest Duties may be performed Arguments alone will hardly invite the generality of People to serious and strict Religion where good Examples are wanting yea Examples will persuade more effectually than all the best framed Arguments in the World for men love to see whether the Ways be passable or no before they adventure themselves especially where Flesh and Blood tells them there are some Difficulties to encounter some Rocks and Uneasinesses to climb over and that they may happen to meet with much ill usage too in their Journy to Heaven even from such as pretend to be Friends and Fellow-Travellers But when men shall see by the Courage and Victory and good Examples of others that commend these ways of Religion that the worst of Difficulties may be overcome and are so by the same Flesh and Blood with themselves this animates and enlivens their Spirits and takes off all Objections arising in their Minds from the difficulty of the Attempt 4. A good Life and discouraging of Vice brings Glory to God as it declares to the World that we stedfastly believe that without a regular Piety and strict Obedience to the Laws of Christ none shall be saved This will visibly discover to the World what our Belief is and what our Opinions are This will manifest that we entertain no corrupt and dangerous Principles and we our selves might appeal to this as a Test if our Lives were but regularly pious and uniformly good for a Heresy or dangerous Error in the Judgment will for the most part appear in the Practice of him that owns it And let me tell you it will not be easy to convince any one that our Judgments in matters of Religion are sound if our Morals are bad and of this I am sure that few will be convinced that we believe a good Life to be absolutely necessary to Salvation if we do not lead good Lives our selves and shew also by our zeal our dislike of Wickedness in others 5. and lastly A thorow Reformation of Manners brings Glory to God as it gives the Almighty a free occasion to manifest himself in that great Attribute he most delights in which is in shewing mercy to a sinful Nation and disposing all things for the Happiness and Safety of it God will never look favourably upon us until our crying Sins be removed and therefore if we do believe that there is a Divine governing Providence which