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	temple_n	7,031	5	7.9574	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61182	A sermon preach'd to the natives of the county of Dorset, residing in and about the cities of London and Westminster, at St. Mary Le Bowe, on Dec. 8, 1692, being the day of their anniversary feast by the Lord Bishop of Rochester.	Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.	1693 (1693)	Wing S5062; ESTC R13442	15,232	42

of Assistance of Interest of Benefit and Reward How they farther engage us by many most weighty Arguments drawn from the very Substance and End of our pure and undefiled Religion By the Unity of our Baptism into one Faith of our Hope which is one happy Eternal Life of our Head which is one Lord Christ of his Body which is one Church the Mother of us all and of that common Sense and mutual Participation of Helps Affections and Comforts that ought for ever to be maintain'd between all the Children of such a Mother all the Members of such a Body You see how we are all provok'd to Love and bound in our several Stations to labour for a Spiritual Unity by all these and other such unanswerable Grounds of Persuasion But that which especially sets it home to us is this That we see the Duty is practicable we see it lively set forth in that Blessed Model which is given us in this fourth and in the second Chapter of this Book It gives us the most perfect Example of Unanimity that ever was shewn to the World And that we may follow it as we ought it behoves us to consider which way the first Christians came into this state that we may take the same as far as we can in our Circumstances We see then how when all the Apostles of Christ and all our Lords own Disciples attended the fulfilling of his own great Promise of sending the Holy Ghost to Comfort them and to Teach them all things to Teach them and as a Comforter to Teach them to joyn with the Precepts and Counsels of a Teacher the Gentleness and Favours of a Comforter then the chief account we have of them in preparation to all this is That they were all with one accord in one place When that Promise was accomplish'd when the Holy Ghost was sent the next account we have of them is that They were all of one Heart and one Soul Observe I beseech you in that first General Meeting of the whole Church than which never any since was more Venerable nor will be till the last Day of General Judgment when the Blessed Spirit of GOD did not only hover above over all their Heads as he did over the Waters at the Creation from whence all the Order and Beauty of all the Creatures proceeded but sate upon each of their Heads and over-spread their Minds and enlarg'd their Hearts and loosen'd their Tongues to the Amazement of all Beholders who thereby soon became Converts There was then no one Circumstance that more advantageously contributed to their Universal Receiving of that Divine Revelation than that they were all united with one accord in one place There was no one Consequence of that Revelation which the same Holy Ghost thought fitter and more instructive to be everlastingly recorded in Scripture than that afterwards they all remain'd united in Doctrine in Devotions in Charity There are no other Principles or Practises here mention'd upon which they united but such as were truly Evangelical and tend directly to the uniting of the Mystical Body of Christ to the end of the World They continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine in Fellowship in Breaking of Bread and in Prayers They continued daily with one accord in the Temple and Breaking Bread from House to House or in the House that is in part of the Temple also or in the several Houses at Jerusalem where the Apostles had their Congregations There they did eat their Meat that is their Spiritual Food in the Holy Communion and also their Natural but Sanctifi'd Meat in their Feasts of Charity and did all this with Gladness and singleness of Heart praising GOD who had called them to that Excellent Way of Life and graciously accepted them in it and gave them a publick Testimony of all this in the Favour of all the People What could be done more towards uniting their Hearts and Souls After they had repented and were Baptized and were filled with Grace and Power from on high First they continued in the Apostles Doctrine in that and no other They receiv'd the Word with all readiness of Mind and search'd the Scriptures whether those things were so Having found the Truth they stedfastly adher'd to it without wavering and uncertainty whatsoever Inquiry they made into it it was without any needless Curiosity or over-subtil Inventions about it Secondly They continued in Fellowship that is either in a strict Communion of all the Offices of Christianity in general or as the Learned Dr. Hammond understands the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in a Charitable Communication of their good things to those that wanted Thirdly They continued together in Breaking of Bread that is in the frequent Participation of the Blessed Mystery of the Lord's Supper One part the Breaking of Bread being here as Drinking is elsewhere 1 Cor. 12. 13. put to signifie that whole Sacrament though never in Scripture was any one kind of it commanded to be Administred in stead of the whole as in the Church of Rome is most Sacrilegiously practised But in the due and constant receiving that Holy Sacrament in both kinds no doubt they all continued That most Sacred Ordinance which is or should be so much the great Instrument of Unity among Christians that it is most properly termed the Communion Fourthly After they had thus broken that Heavenly Bread and Eaten their Meat their Bodily Meat probably in their Charitable Feasts what follow'd but Gladness and Singleness of Heart Gladness the sure Companion at least in the end of a single innocent Heart endued with true Christian Simplicity as Darkness and Discomfort is the never-failing Attendant one time or other first or last of a double deceitful Mind and Hypocritical Spirit Lastly They continued daily with one accord in the Temple praising GOD. Though the Lord from on High had visited them with the most gracious Dispensation that ever was revealed from Heaven yet notwithstanding that extraordinary effusion of the Holy Ghost upon them they never intermitted but exactly observ'd the ordinary Course of their Religious Duties And for this they resorted daily to the Temple Which though they consider'd now as having lost all its Typical Sanctity by the renting of the Veil at the Death of Christ yet as Christ himself taught them immediately before his Death they look'd upon it as being still GOD's House by Consecration and as being a House of Prayer for all Nations Thus even at that very time when they had receiv'd the Blessed Spirit in so abundant a Measure yet from that so bright an Inspiration they took not any Opportunity nor framed any pretence to condemn or despise the common Offices of the Church or to think themselves above all the prescribed Ordinances of their wonted Worship but therefore the rather they frequented the Service of GOD according to their accustomed Manner They continued daily to shew the unwearied Fervor and stated Regularity of their Piety They continued daily with

of Heaven as well as the other and as such are to be distributed by the same Laws They were therefore all of one Heart and one Soul than which a nearer Agreement cannot be described or imagin'd The Heart if there be any difference of the Expression in Scripture-Language being to be taken for the chief Seat of the Will and Affections and the Soul of the Judgment and Understanding Nor was this only spoken of St. Peter and the rest of the Twelve nor only of the Apostles and Seventy Disciples nor only of the first Hundred and Twenty in the Upper Room nor only of the Three Thousand Converted by one Sermon but of All of the Multitude of them that Believed Certainly some strange and unusual thing must needs happen as here it did that could bring together and cement such a Multitude so as to make them be of one Heart that could persuade such a Multitude to converse together and conspire in the same Thoughts and Desires as if they had but one Soul Whereas a Multitude however composed too commonly seems by its inconstant and fluctuating Counsels its partial Debates and perverse Opinions and head-strong Resolutions to have more Hearts and more Souls than it really has even more than it has Bodies In the Weakness and Ignorance or prejudicate Knowledge of a Multitude how easily are the Seeds of Dissention and Contradiction sown By the various Interests or wilful Humours or violent Passions of a Multitude how quickly are they rais'd and inflamed And when once a Multitude is engaged in Divisions how hard a thing is it to compose them again A Multitude therefore could never have been so united had they not been a Multitude of Believers Nor then neither had not the Holy Ghost the Blessed Author of all Peace and Truth inclined them to it Had not that taught them to make the Matter of their Belief to be the Cause and Ground of their Concord not of their Separation as too often since has been experienc'd The Difficulty of so Divine a Work to Unite a mixt Multitude of all People and Languages to Unite them so closely to Animate them all with such Cordial Affections did well become the Almighty Power of the Holy Spirit It well became and could only belong to that Blessed Person who is one GOD the same with the Father and the Son GOD Blessed for ever to inspire so great a Degree of Union into the Minds of all whom it fill'd with its first Gifts and Graces and Benedictions And Beloved in our Lord and Saviour this Heavenly Fruit of the Heavenly Spirit 's being thus pour'd forth on the Primitive Christians was not only intended as some of the other Fruits of it were to confirm our Faith but also to instruct us in one of our most necessary Duties The Apostles Miraculous Acting and Speaking with such Invincible Freedom and Power requires our Belief of the Faith that they Preach'd And GOD took this way to establish it But that Marvellous Unanimity of their first Converts concerns our practise and was design'd to direct it It is not given us to follow them Step by Step in their other extraordinary Privileges and Prerogatives But in their humble and Fraternal Condescentions to each other their peaceable Acquiescence in the same Divine Truths their meek Obedience to the same Holy Laws in these we may and ought to follow them The Glory of the Signs and Wonders which they wrought was enough for GOD's purpose in propagating the Gospel to all Times and Places But we of these latter Ages can never arrive at the same Abilities nor ought we to emulate them in what was Peculiar to their time and Personal to Themselves Whoever does he is likely to shew more Proofs of his own Natural Vanity or Spiritual Pride than of any Supernatural Power or Illumination Yet still it is left to us and it is incumbent upon us with the utmost of our Zeal to imitate their other Virtues and Graces which are though of a lower Degree yet of a Perpetual Duration for the Benefit of the Church Such as their Simplicity of Heart their Agreement in the same Acts of Piety and their Consent in the same Christian Faith In those their more exalted and inspired Endowments we must of necessity be defective since we cannot have any the least proportion of their immediately-Divine Helps to acquire them And because those are not so necessary indeed not at all necessary in this common and setled Course of Christianity as they were for the first Founding of it But as for these their other good and gracious Dispositions such as their Meekness Self-Denial Patience Long-suffering Forbearance of each others Frailties and Fellow-feeling of each others Infirmities such as inclined them to this Unity of Heart and Soul and are all still equally necessary to us towards our attaining of these we have still a sufficient Assistance from that Father of Lights from whom they are derived Of all these My Brethren it was especially design'd that there should be a perpetual Succession deriv'd down on all that succed them in the same Faith In these they are to be our lasting Patterns to the End of the World I mean in this Mutual Concurrence and Conformity of Minds This Charitable Compliance of Judgments and Endearment of Affections among our selves this mild gentle tender-hearted Temper towards all Men this submissive Uniformity in GOD's Worship All of them Virtues and Graces that exceedingly contribute to the very Being much more to the Well-being of the Christian Church All of them so peculiarly the Effects and certain Influences of the Holy Ghost that they are expresly call'd the Unity of the Spirit and that which is inseparably annext to it The Bond of Peace Wherefore in the Name of GOD let us all fix our Eyes and our Hearts on that uncorrupt Original of the first Christians Agreement in sound Doctrine and holy Worship which was as you have heard the genuine and immediate Off-spring of the true Spirit of GOD. That most Christian Communion which began so soon so gloriously That most happy Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That most Spiritual one Accord That most desirable Unity of Heart and Soul which was most frequently and most religiously enjoyn'd all Christians by the Author and Finisher of our Faith And which took so effectually in them that were the first Publishers of it When they come to recommend it to us you see with what Vehemence they do it Beseeching us If there be any Consolation in Christ if any Comfort of Love if any Fellowship of the Spirit if any Bowels of Mercies Fulfil ye my Joy saith the Apostle Phil. 2. 1. That you be like-minded having the same Love being of one Accord of one Mind And when they come to use Arguments for it you see how they press us all the ways that can be thought of to make it enter into our Souls how they oblige us to it by all the Considerations of Duty