Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A53432
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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 ...
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Orme, William.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing O437; ESTC R23123
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28,642
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60
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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
the Redeemer A voice or sound from Heaven was heard by all the Apostles on the day of Pentecost and it was to confirm our Faith in the Holy Ghost the Comforter A voice from Heaven was heard by Peter in his Vision and it was to confirm our Faith in the Holy Catholick Church A voice from Heaven was heard by John in this place and it was to confirm our Faith concerning the life everlasting and the blessedness of those that die in the Lord it was a sweet comfortable reviving voice it made amends for the sad cry of that voice we hear of Isai 40. 6. All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it surely the people is grass Whereas the voice heard by Isaiah the Prophet struck all the living dead the voice heard by John the Evangelist makes all the dead in the Lord alive and blessed This voice confirms Christs promise and our assurance of blessedness in the Life to come He promises us that if we will hear his voice believe in him and repent of our sins we shall have Life eternal and never come into condemnation but pass from death to life and to assure us he will be as good as his promise he sent this voice from Heaven to tell us that they that die in the Lord shall live again and be Blessed for ever This Heavenly truth is ever to be remembred and therefore the voice bid John commit it to writing Write say's the voice blessed are the dead which die in the Lord a sentence worthy to be writ by an Angel in letters of Gold never to be Obliterated but to remain legible to all succeeding Generations that all may read understand and receive comfort The voice from Heaven commanded John to Write How then dare any Papist say that the Evangelists and Apostles had no command from God to write their Gospels and Epistles but that they wrote upon the intreaty of some Friends or some emergent occasions when St. Paul saith All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and St. Peter That Prophecy came not by the will of man but Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost And St. John That the voice commanded him to Write and telling him what he should write namely Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord c. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. Blessedness is a thing that every man naturally desires and seeks after but in determining what it is and wherein it consists there is a great dispute some placing it in pleasure some in honour some in riches some in knowledge some in vertue St. Austin's Observation out of Varro is well known that there are between two and three hundred several Opinions concerning the Soveraign Good in the enjoyment of which Blessedness consists But among Christians it is agreed upon as an unquestionable truth that the supream Good which alone can make men blessed is God and that he may be enjoyed both in this life and the life to come The present enjoyment of him here in this life is termed the blessedness of the way the blessedness of expectation the blessedness of Grace the Future enjoyment of him hereafter in the life to come is termed the blessedness of the country the blessedness of fruition the blessedness of glory The blessedness of this life is so imperfect that it is scarce to be termed Blessedness we being so compassed about with sin and temptation trouble and sorrow No man is truly happy before death for that is the passage to a blessed life Though death be called an enemy and a terrible thing yea of all terrible things the most terrible yet this is but in respect of Nature for to men in the state of Grace it is but a rest from their Labours and an entrance into Blessedness But if this be so that the dead are the only Blessed Why say some do we not die that we may be Blessed like as Scipio hearing his Father tell of these Glories the Soul enjoys in immortality say'd why do I tarry thus long upon earth why do not I hasten to die No death is to be waited not hasted They that hasten their own death to avoid shame with Achitophel or to fly the terror of a guilty conscience with Judas or to prevent an intended villany with Pelagia or to be thought valorous with Rasis or to gain immortality with Cato Vlicensis and some others who hearing of the immortality of the Soul made-away themselves to go the sooner to that Immortality they that hasten their dissolution and prevent Nature are guilty of self-murther die in their sins and are therefore Accursed It is not sayd Blessed are all that die no it is far otherwise for they that die in their sins shall loose the vision and fruition of Almlghty God the society of Angels and Saints the joyes and pleasures of Heaven and they shall be cast into Hell the place of darkness torment and woe there to suffer unquenchable flames a worm never dying that is to say the perpetual guilt of a tormenting conscience binding in chains of misery conversing with Devils weeping and howling and gnashing of teeth to all Eternity but blessed are the dead which die in the Lord. And if the dead are Blessed then it follows that they are in being Non entis nulla est affectio that which hath no being hath no property but the dead have this property that they are Blessed therefore they must needs be alive again dead they may be to the world but alive to God for he is not a God of the dead but of the living for all live unto him Luke 20. 38. Hence we may likewise gather something to verifie that saying of the Apostle Death is swallowed up in Victory for being there can be no felicity where death hath a victory the dead's being blessed shews they have got a conquest and victory over death and therefore thanks be given to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ But here a doubt ariseth What is meant by dying in the Lord Some render the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Lord So Beza Domini causa vel propter Dominum in the Lords cause or for the Lord. Mede renders it as Beza does saying the Greek particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes the cause for which they died namely for the Lord and his cause but so Martyrs only are blessed That Martyrs are blessed is a truth sure and certain for our Saviour himself saith He that loseth his life for my sake and the Gospels shall find it But though Martyrs have a certain and a great share in this blessedness and though their Crowns may be deck'd with richer Jewels than other mens yet others may have Crowns and a proportionable share of Glory as well as they And therefore others do