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	holy_a	mind_n	7,027	5	5.7568	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53432	The best guide in the worst of times delivered in a sermon at the Guild-Hall Chappel on March 27, 1681 before the honourable the aldermen and several eminent citizens of the city of London / by William Orme ...	Orme, William.	1681 (1681)	Wing O437; ESTC R23123	28,642	60

of Jesus Christ But leave we these to guide their conversations by what they please yet we that intend to be such Christians as the Gospel requires are obliged to make the written Laws of God the chief and principal Rule of our Conversations and that upon these three Reasons First Because of the undoubted perfection and infallible Truth that belongs to them for they are Laws and Rules without any flaws and errors which cannot possibly deceive or misguide us because so true and perfect as to exclude the most critical correction and addition Whereas the Laws of men though never so exactly weighed at first in the balance of the most considering judgments and made with the greatest foresight and circumspection will in a few years appear so weak and imperfect fallible and erroneous that no one can walk by them without fears uncertainty and danger But the Laws in the Gospel because composed by a Divine Wisdom are so sound and perfect and free from faults that no one can live by them but he walks with all courage and safety So that he who governs his Conversation by the Gospel of Christ need not doubt or fear his doing ill or amiss For in such ways as the Laws of God every man saith Solomon walks safely or as the Original confidently and securely Prov. 3. 23. Secondly We have just reason to make the Laws in the Gospel the sole rule of our Conversations because of their Universal benefit and goodness For though Laws by some men may be counted evil and perjudicial because they lay rigours and restraints upon that beloved darling thing call'd Liberty Yet the Laws of Christ contained in the Gospel are so easie and pleasant profitable and advantageous to men that there is no discreet or prudent person but would have chosen and taken such a method to live by could he have had the wisdom and judgment to have found it out Nor doth the goodness and benefit of these Laws give them a Reputation but the Universality of their Goodness swells their Character For let these Laws be put in use and practice in any corners of the Earth and by men of all Climates and Countries and they will be continually found beneficial to bodily Health preservers of mens Credits and Reputations encouragers of Industry and Faithfulness distributers of Justice reconcilers of Enemies favourers of the Oppressed promoters of Love and Peace union and agreement in all Societies and the great Conservators of all our Temporal felicities And what Nation is there though Heathenish and Barbarous that could possibly complain of mischief and prejudice should they govern themselves by these revealed Statute Laws of Heavens Thirdly We ought only to guide our Conversations by these because of their perpetual fitness and everlasting Equity The Laws composed and enacted by men are rightly call'd Temporary because they are but for certain times and seasons For these like all Humane Governments and Lives have their certain Stages and fixed Periods And are Born and Live grow Old and Die We our selves can observe and see that those Acts and Statutes which were good and useful convenient and necessary for one Age become weak and foolish and very fit to be Repealed and Abrogated in the next Nor have any the results and decrees of the gravest Councils in the greatest Nations been of any long duration but such as were either grounded upon or derived from the Laws of God and Christ For such is the Everlasting Justice and Righteousness of our Gospel Laws that they will never grow old or out of use as long as the world endures for men in all Ages and in all Countries will constantly find it fit and just and reasonable to live by them And in this sence perhaps it 's to be taken sometimes when the Holy Ghost saith That the Word of God abideth for ever that is the Laws and Precepts contained in it are so well ordered tempered and prepared that they will last for ever and be found fit and reasonable to be observed by all men at all times and in all places of the World So that if we consider the truth and perfection the Universal goodness and perpetual fitness of these Sacred Rules we may reasonably conclude there is no such Guide for our Conversation as the Gospel of Christ And therefore S. Paul did wisely advise his Philippians and all Christians to be principally careful in letting their Conversations only be as becometh the Gospel of Christ I come now to the Third Particular which is to shew wherein the Agreeableness of a Man's Conversation to the Gospel of Christ doth consist in these Two General Things First In the constant practice of Purity and Holiness Secondly In the exercise of Meekness and Moderation and whatever promotes Vnity Peace and Charity with all men First In the constant practice of Purity and Holiness And indeed we could not well expect that the design of Christianity should tend to any thing else because the Author of that Religion was himself a person that knew no Sin and led a most Exemplary life in all the paths of Piety and Vertue And because the Holy Ghost who prepared all mens hearts to receive the Gospel by a lively Faith is a pure and undefiled Spirit And if we will also but consult what was partly spoken by Christ himself and partly dictated by this Holy Spirit we shall easily see that a Good and Holy life is most agreeable to the Contents of the Gospel For First of all It commands us to abstain from all appearance of evil to withdraw from the first courtships of Sin For it lays restraints upon our Minds Thoughts and Lusts after any thing that is Vile and Wicked And assures us that we are defiled if Sin be but conceived in the Heart though it be not brought forth into Act As in the case of bare lusting after a Woman and of harbouring Malice and Revenge but in the inward thoughts and intentions Secondly It doth positively prohibit and that under severe penalties all and every action that renders a Man's Conversation vile and odious base and scandalous mean and contemptible Namely all carnal uncleannesses Surfeitings Drunkenness Swearing Cursing Lying Perjury Bribery Oppression Couzenage and Fraud Sloth and Idleness Irreligion and Profaneness And the reason why the Gospel would have us to abstain from all these things is That our God and Creator might not be dishonoured and that his and our Enemies might not have occasion to blaspheme us and our most Excellent Religion Thirdly It presses upon us the conscientious practice of every Grace and Vertue and to adorn our Profession and outward Conversation with the flowers and fruits of Good Works This is the will of God saith S. Paul our Sanctification And the Grace of God the Gospel of Christ which hath appeared and brings Salvation to all men teacheth us to deny Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and to live Righteously Soberly and Godly in this present world looking for

that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Titus 2. 11 12 13 14 And it was the charge of Christ to his followers That they should let their lights shine before men that is be Examples and Patterns of Piety and Holiness to all the World In short The Gospel of our Lord and Saviour doth strictly prohibit all Sins and Vices and every evil work which defiles a Man's mind or weakens his Body or blemishes his Fame and wastes his Estate And secondly it doth with great Authority enjoyn the practice of all Goodness and Vertue and every thing else that is worthy of praise And therefore that Life and Conversation which becomes the Gospel must in the first place be Pure and Holy clean and undefiled Secondly The Conversation which becometh the Gospel of Christ is that which is managed with all meekness and moderation in the mind and spirit and which carefully promotes Union Peace and Love in the World This is apparent from our Saviour's command Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in mind and from the Apostles direction that we should be mean in our own eyes in honour preferring one another and to condescend to men of low degree and to let our moderation be known unto all men So that the frame and temper of Mind and Spirit with which we are to govern our selves is to be meek and humble soft and gentle calm and moderate to all we converse with Again the Gospel of Christ directs us to further all the degrees of Love Amity and Quietness Our Saviour having call'd all Peacemakers the Children of God and pronounc'd them happy and also declared who are the heavenly-born Christians even they that love one another And how frequently do all the Apostles command and order us to be of modest and peaceable behaviour and to live in an unfeigned mutual love one with another As Rom. 12. 9 10 17 18. Let love be without dissimulation Be kindly affectioned one towards another in brotherly love in honor preserving one another Recompence to no man evil for evil provide things honest in the sight of all men And if it be possible as much as in you lies live peaceably with all men Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace and things where with me may edifie one another Rom. 14. 19. And the most passionate and earnest request that ever St. Paul made in his life was that to his Colossians Put on therefore as the Elect of God Holy and beloved bowels of mercy kindness humbleness of mind meekness long-suffering forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you so also do ye And above all these things put on Charity which is the bond of Perfection Colossians 3. 12 13 14. And as the Gospel of Christ doth commend to our study practice unity peace and love every thing that promotes their flourishing growth so it forbids whateyer may obstruct and hinder it As namely all rash censuring and judging tale-bearing and backbiting whispering of lies and scandals publishing of Libels and defamations charging us not to give railing for railing but to avoid all occasions of janglings and quarrels and to keep our selves from proud peevish and passionate humours and sowing the seeds of strife and sedition And what is the great end and design of all these Evangelical Laws but only that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty 1 Timothy 2. 2. And thus very briefly I have shewed what that Conversation is which becomes the Gospel of Christ All which is excellently comprised in those words of the Apostle Rom. 14.17 The Kingdom of God that is the Gospel-dispensation doth not consist in meats and drinks in controversies and disputes about things Indifferent but in solid Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost And the like character doth St. James give of the Religion and Gospel of Christ For saith he If you have bitter envying in your hearts then the Religion which you have and profess is Earthly Sensual and Devilish But the Religion which is from above and came from God and Christ teaches all Men first to be Pure and Holy and secondly to be Peaceable and gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality without hypocrisie And the fruit of Righteousness is sown in Peace of them that make peace James 3. from Verse the 13. to the end of the Chapter And so much for the Third Particular I pass to the Fourth To consider the Reasons why in Evil and Perilous Times we should then more especially lead pure and peaceable Lives according to the Gospel of Christ. And the Reasons are these Three First That we may if possibly prevail with God to be our favourer and friend And this is no small Argument to perswade us to be more Holy and Religious in dangerous and evil Times than at any other Because then it is we stand most in need of having God our Assistant and Defender For it 's he alone which hath the ordering and managing of all Humane Greatness and Wisdom and worldly affairs which generally have their Events and Successes according as God approves or dislikes the persons in whose hands they are plac'd For you must know that let the Cause or Design be what it will that any Nation or number of Men do take in hand yet there is an Over-seeing Eye and an Over-ruling Hand which turns and disposes all things to the advantage of them that endeavour to please him and to the destruction of them whom he is justly provok'd to hate And therefore in all Humane undertakings and Publick affairs it will be the prudence and interest of men to gain if possibly the great God on their side For if men will coin Projects and Designs in their own inventions If they will use their own art and skill in the management of them and relye upon their own parts and power to bring them to pass and all this without any concern or care whether God be their Friend or not I think such persons have no good grounds to hope that any prosperous events will crown their enterprize or endeavours The Royal Prophet who had run through as many various stages of Humane affairs and Worldly changes as ever any Man or Monarch did and who had observed that Providence did always interpose his Wisdom and power in the ordering and disposing of all things here below did at last conclude with this Maxim That the Greatest worldly Power and the deepest Policies of States-men were weak and foolish if God did not take the Actors under his Countenance and Protection Hence it was that he attributed the Art and Abilities which Men use in the building of