Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	gospel_n	holy_a	7,712	5	5.2396	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28911	A sermon preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the city of London, at Guild-Hall chappel, on Sunday, Novemb. 13, 1692 by Richard Bowchier ...	Bowchier, Richard, 1660 or 61-1723.	1692 (1692)	Wing B3867; ESTC R19525	13,626	34

Insinuations of wicked and designing Men desiring again to be under the Law and to observe Circumcision As the general drift therefore of the Apostle in this Epistle is to shew them that this new dispensation of the Gospel had freed them from the rigour of the Law that is from the necessity of Mofaical Rights and Observances and from that exact and perfect Obedience required under the Penalty of the Curse So again least under pretence of that freedom which the Gospel had given them they should be guilty of those vicious Practices which their false Teachers so industriously endeavoured to infuse He advises them particularly in this Chapter to order all their actions according to the Spirit of that Gospel which they had received and if they pretended to Christianity they should follow the Rules it prescribes If we live in the Spirit saith he let us also walk in the Spirit Having spoken thus much concerning that which gave occasion to the Words I shall now proceed to tell you First What it is to walk in the Spirit Secondly How we shall know when we are in the Spirit Thirdly I shall shew the Obligations which lie on us all to walk in the Spirit And Lastly From what shall be thus said I shall conclude all with some close reflections on our own Lives and Practices 1. Then What it is to Walk in the Spirit The word Spirit has many and very different significations in the Holy Scriptures and it would be no less tedious than improper to reckon them all up in this place Sometimes it is taken for that supream divine faculty that is in us the Soul of Man and for the various Passions of Joy or Grief which either please or disturb us Sometimes it is taken for a temper of Religion for an oeconomy or dispensation which is settled and prescribed us by God Thus the Law is called Rom. 8.15 The Spirit of Bondage which indeed was a severe and an harsh dispensation so opposite to that which in the same Verse is called The Spirit of Adoption which is that tender and gentle way of God's proceeding with us now under the Gospel And in this sence of a temper of Religion is to be taken our Saviour's Answer to his Disciples in his passage thro' Samaria when some of them were all transport and fury at the inhospitality of the Samaritans Luk. 9.53 who would not receive our Lord because his Face was as though he would go to Jerusalem and therefore they being impatient to shew a Revenge proportionable to the Affront they thought our Lord had received waited only for a Commission from him of Commanding Fire to come down from Heaven Lord said they wilt thou that we command Fire to come down from Heaven consume them as Elias did But the blessed Jesus turned and rebuked them Ver. 55. and said Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of that is ye know not that that oeconomy or dispensation which I intend to establish by the Gospel inspires Men with easie and with forbearing Tempers and with a higher degree of Charity than was ever yet required or practised by the Prophets under the Law For these Men were often moved and impowered with an inward Zeal to destroy without any more ado the Enemies of God But the temper of the Gospel is to be otherwise for The Son of Man saith he came not to destroy Mens Lives but to save them Ver. 56. Sometimes the word Spirit is taken for those super-natural and extraordinary Gifts of the Holy Ghost which were so very common in the first Ages of the Church Thus St. Paul arguing in this Epistle with the Galatians about the wonderful Advantages they had received upon their embracing the Gospel says Gal. 3.2 This only would I learn of you Received you the Spirit by the Works of the Law or by the hearing of Faith where by the Spirit is to be understood the several Gifts of it and the diversities of Operations of which we have a particular account given in the 12. Ch. of the 1st of the Corinthians Ver. 7. And which were given to every Man to prosit withal But not to run on in many and foreign significations of the Word by the Spirit in the Text is only and properly as I judge to be understood the Gospel it self in which sence both in this and in other places of St. Paul's Epistles it is taken as opposed to the Law set forth under the Title of the Flesh So then by walking in the Spirit is here to be meant the governing ones self according to the Rules and Precepts of the Gospel The imitating that sacred Temper of which we have the Commands and Pattern in Christ And instead of following the Lusts and Desires of the Flesh the secular and sensual Ends to which this World naturally carries Men and which are so eagerly pursued by the greatest part of Mankind We should strictly live up to the Religion we profess by ordering our Conversation according to the Gospel of Christ And this will 2dly inform us how We shall know when we are in the Spirit There have been in all Ages of the Church strange Pretenders to the Spirit and to the immediate Inspirations of it which is a thing no less vain in it self than pernicious in its Consequences Men of dark and melancholy Tempers are those who most commonly run this way for they being the Persons who generally Think most and in whom impressions being once made stick the longest when ever it happens that they entertain any false Opinions in Religion they are always defended by them with that Obstinacy and inward Pride as will not admit the least contradiction So that the most convincing Reasons and powerful Arguments which commonly have a happy and good effect on free and ingenuous Minds do but make these Men the worse and the greater opposition they at any time find from Reason or publick Authority the more they value themselves upon their opposition to both And thus the violent working of Conceit and a spiritual Pride raises within them an odd heat and Zeal which at last turns it self into down-right Enthusiasm and thus these Men unhappily mistaking a warmth and transport within them for Divine Inspiration and looking on that as a super-natural effect which really after all is but the pure notions of Blood and Spirits They are from hence often guilty of those extravagancies in which neither Reason nor Religion can justifie them and of which ours as well as other Neighbouring Countries have often felt the sad and lamentable Effects But after all let some Mens pretences be what they please to inward Motions and immediate Inspirations of the Spirit this is certain and infallible That as God has only left us his Word in the Scriptures as the sole Rule and Measure of our Obedience and according to which we are to direct and govern our Lives and Actions so he that performs the

things which the Revealed Will of God requires of us may rest assured that he is in the Spirit For he saith St. John in his first Epistle chap. 3. ver 24. that keepeth God's Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him The Scriptures I say being the only Rule now left us by which we can judge of the goodness or pravity of our Actions every one may hence easily know and conclude in himself whether he is in the Spirit by being conscious to himself whether he forms his Life and Actions according to the Precepts laid down in the Gospel as the only measure of his Obedience And this I dare say that each particular Man or publick Communion of Christians of what denomination or Country soever it may be has most of the Spirit that comes the nearest to this Rule Christianity requires of us all a firm Faith and a sincere Obedience to the things it enjoyns and he that hath the first and faithfully dischargeth the latter that is he who hath a Faith to believe what is required and lives exactly according to his belief may be assured that he is in the Spirit because he does that which God requires of him and for which he shall hereafter receive that exceeding great Reward which God has promised in his Word That the governing ones Life and Actions according to the rules and temper of the Gospel is the being in the Spirit is a truth besides as safe as it is certain for he who orders himself this way will be sure never to do amiss because he will always modestly keep within the bounds which his duty prescribes him Whereas he who is led by other notions of being in the Spirit and has no other rule for his Actions but that motion and warmth he feels within him may easily by mistaking a hot and extravagant Fancy for the sacred impulse of the Holy Spirit be guilty of very bad things and thus too often be unluckily found a Fighter against God at that very time he thinks himself immediately Inspired by Him From what therefore has been said every sober and serious Man may easily know and conclude when he is in the Spirit if he shews in every thing he does that Temper which the Gospel requires of us if in a steady and regular Conversation of Life he expresseth that Love Joy Peace Long-suffering that Gentleness Goodness Faith that Meekness and Temperance Vertues against which there is no Law and that are all of them so eminently required in Christians let such a one go on as he has begun and never doubt of his being in the Spirit because he shews so much of that which St. Paul calls the Fruit of it On the other hand Gal. 5. ●2 let Men fansie what they please of their being in the Spirit if their Lives and Actions are not conformable to the Temper of that Gospel which is to be their Rule If their stiffness to their own Sentiments makes them value and consider none but themselves If their Zeal for their own Sect or Opinion makes them exclude all others from their Charity who are not of their own Communion and Party If that Love which is such a peculiar Mark and Character of a Christian is not extended even to those who perhaps may little deserve it at their hands If instead of that Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness Faith which are all the beauties and excellencies of a Christian Life they are full of Hatreds Variances Emulations Strifes If instead of that Meekness and Temperance which are Vertues that make us easie both to our selves and others they are guilty of Envyings Murthers Drunkenness Revellings and such like In a word if Mens inward Temper or outward Deportment be such as carries them to such extreams as are inconsistent with the Duties which the revealed Will of God has enjoyned us let such of what Church Sect or Opinion soever they may be pretend to what they please and gild over their Actions with fine and godly Words they are such Ver. 19. however to whom we may justly apply that of St. Jude These be they who separate themselves being Sensual not having the Spirit And now I come 3dly to shew the Obligations which lie on us all of walking in the Spirit The walking in the Spirit being as I have already shewn the conforming our selves to the Rules and Precepts of the Gospel Our Obligations of doing this will appear 1st From the reasonableness that there is of living according to what we believe 2dly From the easiness of the Things enjoyned us And lastly Because this wholly tends to our own Interest and Advantage 1. Then I shall shew the Obligations of walking in the Spirit from the reasonableness of living according to what we believe The firm adhering to what a Man believes and the ordering his Life according to his Belief is a thing so very decent and pleasing in the Eyes of all Mankind that it is natural for one to commend such a practice even in that very Man whose Opinion we may otherwise condemn On the other side let a Man be never so Orthodox in his Faith if he is scandalous and irregular in his Life this raises such an inward scorn and disesteem in the Breast of all good and understanding Men as is sufficient to testisie what a low and mean Opinion the World generally has of such a Person For when there is not that harmony which there should be betwixt ones belief and practice when the Holiness of Mens Lives does not answer the purity of that Religion they profess it either argues a wonderful falseness and design in desiring to appear otherwise than they really are or a strange insensibility and neglect not to mind that which of all other things is their greatest concern 'T is mean and pitiful to be a bare Pretender in any thing but it is really wicked and unaccountable to be so in matters of Religion where the greatest sincerity of Mind is required and believe me all is but Hypocrisie and folly without it All Religion naturally supposes an Obedience to the Things it enjoyns and Christianity is so very exact in this above all others that whosoever shall keep the whole Law of it and yet ossend in one point he is guilty of all If those therefore who call themselves Christians are really perswaded of the truth of the Gospel is it not most reasonable they should be of that temper it requires If Men are convinced of the excellency of the Precepts which Christ has commanded is it any thing less than Madness not to follow them to the uttermost And what a strange degree of folly is it in them not to make that the constant Rule of their Lives which they themselves confess to be the only means of their Happiness But 2dly Our obligations of walking in the Spirit will appear from the easiness of the things enjoyned us Christianity is a thing so very plain and simple that never any