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	reap_v	sow_v	14,782	5	11.5940	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65648	A sermon preach'd at the anniversary meeting of the sons of clergy-men, in the church of St. Mary Le Bow, on Tuesday, Decem. 3, 1695 printed at the desire of the stewards of the feast, to whom it is humbly presented / by Tho. Whincop ...	Whincop, Thomas, d. 1730.	1696 (1696)	Wing W1665; ESTC R34743	10,856	31

Therefore saith St. Paul let us not be weary in well-doing for in due season we shall reap if we faint not And in the Verse before Verse 3. Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap He that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting This is the Ground of our Assurance That a good Life shall be crowned with Eternal Glory which was St. Paul's rejoicing having fought a good fight and finished his course that thenceforth was laid up for him a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous judge should give him of his own free Grace and Mercy as a Gift not a Debt as a Reward not the Purchase of his well-doing And though our Judgment at the latter day be according to our Works as the Scripture in many places expresses yet our Works shall be no Causes of this Judgment I mean our good Works we read indeed that every man shall be rewarded according to his works Rev. 2.6 Rev. 20.13 and that they were judged according to their works i. e. according to the quality of their Works not according to the Merit of them as their Works were not according as their Works deserved The Apostle therefore speaking of that Act of distributive Justice in God Rom. 2.5 whereby he dispenseth Recompence according to the quality of every Man's Person and Demeanour calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Revelation of the just Judgment of god as if he should say Then it shall appear to all the World how just the Lord is in his Rewards and Remunerations when every Man shall receive according to what he hath done I might instance further in respect of our own present Advantage even in this World which a Man shall sometime or other find by living well and doing good according to the Advice of Timothy That Godliness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Practice of Piety living religiously and holily as their Faith is sound so having their Manners uncorrupt and blameless is profitable for all things having the Promise of good things here and hereafter of Blessings in this World and the next as the Scriptures are frequent in Instances had I time to recount them unto you There remains now in the last place only to shew III. Why those are more indispensibly obliged to be exemplary in all good Works who have been more particularly acquainted with God's Will and early instructed in it As we may be supposed to have been whose Parents were our Spiritual Guides as well as Fathers of our Flesh and under whose Roof we were early seasoned with their daily Instructions and good Example We shall therefore reflect upon their Memory and Care we shall cause others to uncover their Ashes with Dishonour unless we adorn that Faith our Fathers believed which they taught us and which we saw them practise We therefore from Children having been trained uup in the way that we should walk should not ever depart from it but transmit the Honour of our Fathers Memories to Generations to come by walking after their early Directions Tit. 2.7 by shewing our selves patterns as they shewed us of good works in all things and as St. James more fully Jam. 3.13 out of a good conversation shewing forth our works with meekness Such a Practice might possibly win others or at least stop their Mouths whose Religious and Charitable Conversation while they behold might be either allured to practise the same or else silence their Clamours and Censures For the beholding our good Works is the best Argument to persuade an evil Generation from the Wickedness of their Ways and even an unanswerable Reason to an Infidel for his Conversion as they were to the Jaylour mentioned in Acts 16. who seeing the Constancy and Cheerfulness of Paul and Silas was thereby turned to the Faith By this Method was our Religion first recommended to the World when our Church-Histories also tell us of By-standers and Executioners too that at the Martyrdom of Godly Christians beholding their Patience and Universal Charity their Faith and Courage in suffering made them become Christians also Thus Justin Martyr of a vain Philosopher became a Religious Christian Justin Martyr Apol. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he himself gives an Account to the Roman Emperour in his first Apology And I might alledge other Instances even of Enemies Julian Epist 49. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Julian the Apostate himself in his Epistle to Arsacius the Pontifex of Galatia Epist 49. advising him To build Hospitals and take care of the Poor in every City according to the Practice of the Impious Galileans as his usual Style is who by their Bounty to the Poor and Strangers their Care in burying their Dead and their Holiness of Life propagate their Religion and overspread all By these good Actions many are wrought upon and won more than by any Arguments whatsoever and therefore the Apostate directs to the Practice of the like Bounty and Holiness of Life And by the same Methods still we may continue the Reputation of our Religion and wipe off all the Slanders and Reproaches of either that or us that profess it by doing what the Apostle advises the whole Christian Church That they have their conversation honest among the Gentiles 1 Pet. 2.12 that whereas they speak against you as evil-doers they may by your good works which they shall behold glorifie God in the day of visitation May we all therefore endeavour to bring Glory to our Maker by our abounding in all good Works especially of Charity to the Necessitous which makes us resemble God himself the Chief Happiness whose Excellency consists in being and doing Good I need not offer Arguments I am sure to you to perswade to that which you know is no Indifferent or Arbitrary thing but as strictly required the contrary as severely threatened and the Rewards of Bounty and Charity as firmly ascertain'd as any other Precept in the Gospel And who knows the wise Ends of God's Providence in not so liberally providing for some of the same Tribe as others perhaps that the most Wealthy and Great may wisely consider what even they are subject to as well as their poor Brother whose Necessities implore their Aid Perhaps to prove them whether they will say in their Hearts as the Israelites of old did Deut. 8.17 My power and the strength of my arm hath procured me this abundance Or lastly that the World may see whether those who are Rich in this World will be also in Good Works whether they will be ready to do good and communicate and be bountiful out of that Basket whereof they are but the Almoners and be liberal of that Store which was given them like Joseph's Corn to be laid up in Barns against a Famine and hard time to come That we may answer therefore the Design of God's Providence in suffering some to want while we are full And that we may make some grateful Acknowledgments for those Blessings we have in Plenty shower'd down upon us by his Bounty from whose Hand alone we receive all that we possess Put on Bowels of Mercies and make the Hearts of the Widows and Fatherless of those of the same Family and Houshold with your selves rejoice with you and praise God for you their Numbers and Necessities bespeak your Compassio and command your Assistance to love them not in word or speech only but in deed and in truth for your Compassion may perhaps cheer them a little in their Distress but it must be your Hands that must raise them and your good Works lift them up to a better Estate The Honour of God and our Holy Faith obliges us our own Descent and the Memory of them from whom we sprang require us to do as much good as we can to them of the same Houshold of Faith As we have therefore Opportunity and now once more one is put into our Hands dedicate to God some Portion of that Substance wherewith God hath blessed you and why may it not be the same Portion out of our own which our Heavenly Father allotted our earthly Parents out of other Mens Estates to bring up and maintain our selves By his Blessing on their Care we have been brought up and disposed of into our respective Stations in the World The Manest of which have their Mite and the more Honourable and Great by their greater Number of Talents have greater Obligations as well as greater Opportunities of doing Good therewith Both are obliged as the Son of Syrach and the Apostle advises To give unto the most High according as he hath inriched them and to lay by in store as God had prospered them and for their so doing they have God for thier Pay-Master who hath promised If they sow bountifully they shall reap bountifully and greater shall be their Reward in Heaven By making thus Friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness whenever they fail as sometime or other how soon we know not they will they may receive us into everlasting habitations and we shall lay a Foundation in the highest Heavens which no Disturbance on Earth shall ever remove or take away from us but our Blessedness shall remain for ever and we be rewarded with all the abundant Riches of God's Kingdom for evermore Which God in his infinite Mercy grant unto us all thro' Jesus Christ our Lord and only Saviour To whom with the Father and Holy Spirit Three Persons and One God be ascribed by us and all the World All Honour and Glory Praise and Power Might Majesty and Dominion now henceforth and for evermore Amen FINIS

their Names to Christ must not think that upon that account they have liberty more than other Men to do what they will or that they may sin the more freely because Grace abounds there is a Yoak to which they must submit and Laws to the fulfilling of which they stand oblig'd If ye love me John 14.15 says our Blessed Lord keep my commandments God hath sufficiently declared his Will that Faith in him intitles no one to a Neglect of Religious Duties or that any one's casting himself upon his Mercy or relying upon Christ's Merits for Salvation will be available unless as an Evidence of that Faith and Sincerity of that Relyance we examplifie and adorn that Faith by a conscientious and unblameable Conversation Whatever our Faith intitles us to hope for 't is upon this Condition that if we have right to the precious Promises we must cleanse our selves from all filthiness of flesh and spirit and perfect holiness in the fear of God 2 Pet. 1.3 4. and St. Peter calls the Gospel the knowledge of him who hath called us to glory whereby saith he are given the great and precious promises that by these ye might he partakers of the divine nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust and it is easie to observe that the main thing our Saviour aimed at all his whole Life was to restore Humane Nature to its primitive Purity and Perfection and to advance true Piety and Holiness in the World to bring Men to a good Opinion of and a ready Compliance with God's Laws so that it influences all their Actions Faith not being enough to denominate a Man a true Christian unless he goes on to add to his faith vertue to his vertue knowledge c. Religion not being such an empty Name as to consist in fair Shadows only in thinkink well or talking gravely in all the outward Performances imaginable unless our Actions are agreeable to the same unless we practise what we profess and are Doers of what we read and hear I would not be mistaken as if I thought Faith signified nothing so that a Man be an honest good moral Man it would be enough and he should be happy in the End tho' he did not believe aright and as he ought and had little or no regard to the Revelation of God's Will in the Old and New Testament the Subject of our Faith as some have improved the seeming difference between St. Paul and St. James which I will not now meddle withal Only assert that it is most certain that Faith in Christ is the main Condition of all our Hopes from the Gospel-Covenant the the Scripture being express Joh. 6.40.13.15 Act. 10.43 Joh. 12.46 1 Pet. 2.6 as whoso believeth on him shall have everlasting life he shall not perish he shall have remission of sins he shall not abide in darkness and that Christ is the end of the law to every one that doth believe so that Faith is the principal ground on which our Hopes of Salvation are founded But withal I further add that this Faith to make it truly saving must be always accompanied with doing the Will of God with a sincere Obedience to God's Commands and a Conscientious Discharge of our respective Duties for as he deceives himself that hopes to enter into Life who doth not believe as he should and ought so are they in no less Danger who believe aright but live not according to it Would any one not deceive himself he must join both together shewing his Faith by his Works and then with reason may he hope to be happy II. The Second thing I observed from these Words was that the Practice of good Works taken either for Piety towards God or Charity towards Man is absolutely necessary for all unto Salvation When I lay down this Position I would not be thought as if we believ'd our Works meritorious or that they wou'd commute for our Sins yet I say the Obligations to them is indispensible and as requisite as any other part of our christian Duty 'T is acknowledg'd and granted to be true that we cannot by the best we can do deserve Happiness and the promised Reward for them yet they are necessary to be perform'd by all the Branches of Necessity imaginable whether of Precept and Duty or as the Way and Means that without the Practice of which none can be admitted into the Kingdom of Heaven and thro' the Omission of which many forfeit that Interest they truly otherwise might have had in the Promises of Everlasting Life In the Promise it self all that are Partakers of the Word and Sacraments all that acknowledge the Word Revealed to be the way unto Everlasting Life have a true Interest but of the Pledge of that Blessing promised none are Partakers but such as are fruitful in good Works according to the Means or Abilities which God hath bestow'd upon them Dr. Jackson Vol. 3. pag. 587. as Dr. Jackson's Remark and Works are They are both the Condition and Means with respect to God and our selves which are required in our Christian Course Heb. 12.14 and without which no man shall see the Lord. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit Mat. 7.19 says our Saviour shall be cut down and cast into the fire and the Apostle tells us that it is the will of God even our sanctification 1 Thess 4.3 Eschew evil and do good cease to do evil learn to do well teach the Prophets God requiring the Beginning of our Obedience in this Life tho' he reserves the Perfection of it to a Life to come Nor are they the Condition injoined only but as the Way and Means whereby we must obtain those promised Rewards we are in hopes of Tribulation and anguish Rom. 2.9 10. indignation and wrath the Apostle denounceth against every one that doth evil whether Jew or Gentile but glory honour and peace to every one that doth good Hence are those Comparisons in Scripture of Mens good Works and the Rewards in another World one to a Crown or Prize the other to a Race or Course one to sowing of Seed the other to Harvest or gathering of the Fruit those who run in a Race must first strive before they obtain the promised Prize as every one in his Christian Race must contend earnestly and continue fighting before he must expect that Crown of Glory which the Lord the Righteous Judge hath promised to all them who continue in well doing As the Husbandman commits his Seed to the Ground and patiently waits the appointed Time allotted by God and Nature and then expects the Fruit so he that is fruitful in good Works his Labour is not in vain but he may reasonably expect the fulfilling of God's Word that from thence shall spring up unto him a glorious Crop and a great Reward of Bliss and Glory So that the Performance of these are Conditions and Terms upon which we are to build