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	sin_n	20,113	5	5.9622	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46725	Peace and love, recommended and perswaded in two sermons, preached at Bristol, January the 31, 1674/5 / by Tho. Jekyll ...	Jekyll, Thomas, 1646-1698.	1675 (1675)	Wing J533; ESTC R1429	32,018	39

a Consuming Fire Let therefore the time past of our Lives suffice that we have liv'd so directly contrary to our Interest and Duty Let the Wicked for sake his way and the Vnrighteous man his thoughts Let all sin and wickedness be banish'd both our hearts and lives Let us lay aside our former corrupt Conversations and let those Vices that do at this day rule and reign in our Nation for the future not be so much as once named amongst us as becometh Saints since whoever Indulges himself in the least sin shall never whilst he does so Inherit the Kingdom of Christ or of God and may the God of all Grace so sanctifie our hearts and lives in the ways of his Laws and in the works of his Commandements that we being cleansed from all filthiness and pollution both of Flesh and Spirit may so perfect Holiness in the fear of God that at last we may enjoy the happiness of his fight and presence for ever 1 John 4.20 21. If a Man say I Love God and Hateth his Brother he is a Lyar for he that Loveth not his Brother whom he hath seen how can he Love God whom he hath not seen And this Commandment have we from him that he who Loveth God Loves his Brother also WHoever considers the Nature of that New Commandment which our Saviour gave of Loving one another shall find it to be a Duty so rational and convenient that there cannot be any thing more becomming the Nature of a Man and more likely to win upon and prevail with him and therefore the Prophet calls the Cords of Love the Bands of a Man Hos 11.4 This Law of Love being so naturally fitted to the tempers and constitutions of men who will sooner be allur'd and drawn then forc'd and driven that even the most rude and savage tempers will be calm'd and mollified by it and made fit for Society and good Order But now when we come to consider it in its highest abstraction and take a prospect of it from that Influence it has not only upon all the actions of our Lives one towards another but even those towards God too we shall find the excellency of it to be far greater For if before it made us men it now makes us Christians and teacheth us to love our Brethren not for their own but Gods sake too since it has this excellent qualification also that hereby we are assur'd of the Truth of our Religion and the sincerity of our hearts towards God our Love to our Brethren being the mark and sigh of our love to him without which all our Religious pretences are but vain and foolish and at the best but Hypocritical and a Lye For if a Man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a Lyar c. In which words we have a Proposition laid down and two Arguments to prove that Proposition 1. A proposition which consists of a supposition If a man say I love God and hateth his Brother and a conclusion deduc'd from thence he is a Lyar the very thing it self carrying a contradiction in its terms for he that says he loves God with all his heart and with all his soul as every Good man ought to do and yet in the mean time hates his Brother or doth not love him so well as he should however he may perswade himself to the contrary yet all his Love is but false and counterfeit and he himself without mincing the matter is no better than a Lyar which the Apostle does not only say but prove from the two following Arguments the one drawn from the Nature of Love it self the other from the effects and consequences of it 1. From the Nature of Love it self For if he doth not Love his Brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen It being more Natural to us to love those things we see and converse with then those things we only hear of and believe in that Nature is before Grace and takes the first place in us and we are more apt to love those things that are visible and affect our senses than those things that are invisible and affect only our understandings And therefore if to men with whom we converse every day and meet with such opportunities we do not express any Love what reason is there to imagine we sincerely love God when of our love to him and the sincerity of it we were never able to make those Tryals because we never saw him nor had any opportunities offer'd us of shewing any real acts of love to him Besides something may be judged from the difficulty of the thing for he that will not do a thing that 's easie will hardly be suppos'd to do a thing that 's more difficult Now it s harder to love one we never saw than one that we see every day in that fight and conversation is one Motive of Love Now we see our Brethren daily but we never saw God at any time and therefore where there is one advantage to allure our love to our Brethren which there is not to invite and oblige us to the love of God if a man fail in the one that is so Natural how can it be imagin'd that he will perform the other which is less Natural But 2. The Apostles second Argument is drawn from the effects and consequence of Love which is Obedience to the commands and will of any person whom we Love And this Commandment have we from him that he who loveth God loves his Brother also So that its evident by the command of God that we are as really oblig'd to love one another as to love him himself and therefore if we would shew any love to him we cannot do it any better way then by Obedience to his commands And thus the notion of loving God in Scripture but more especially in the New Testament seems to be taken most fitly for one most eminent act of love amongst all men viz. that of doing those things that are most acceptable and well-pleasing to the Beloved either as tending most to his good or any other way desirable unto him for this indeed is the only way of expressing our love to another all others being but the effects of love unto our selves But because God wants no Contribution of ours either to the promoting of his good or the advancing of his glory and so our only way of doing grateful things to him is our performing what he commands It necessarily follows that our Obedience to the mind and will of God in the highest and most perfect manner is styl'd the loving of him this being indeed the prime if not the only way of demonstrating our Love to him and therefore it s the greatest contradiction and absurdity in the world for a man to say he loves God when he contemns and despises his Will and Commands and is as if a man should pretend to be a Loving and Loyal Subject