Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	good_a	life_n	work_n	6,139	5	5.3471	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62625	The spirit of popery tryed, whether it be of God a sermon preached before the King at Whitehall, upon the fifth of November, 1699 / by the Right Reverend Father in God William, Lord Bishop of Oxon.	Talbot, William, 1658 or 9-1730.	1699 (1699)	Wing T126; ESTC R33894	14,395	26

to defer their Repentance in present in prospect of any after-Game or any but such as lay the most forcible Obligations upon all to live soberly righteously and godly in the present World Let them try whether she adds to or diminishes from Christ's Institutions whether she makes any thing to be a Sacrament which he has not made so or mutilates and halves any that he has Let them try whether she veils her Worship in a strange Tongue which the Ignorant cannot say Amen to whether she choaks it with Ceremony and Shew or makes it consist in external frivolous Observances and not in weighty substantial Acts of Devotion Let them try whether she divides her Service betwixt God and the Creature and does not confine it to him alone to whom it is due In short let them try whether there be any Term of Communion which she imposes upon her Members either as to Belief or Practice which can be proved to be sinful by the Scriptures and if they can find nothing enjoin'd by her which can make it a sin to communicate with her let them examine whether it be not a sin to divide from her These things let them examine with that impartiality and sincerity that becomes Men that are truly conscientious and afraid of offending God they that are such will be as fearful of sinning on one hand as on the other and then we may hope that we may go up together to the House of God and with one heart and one mouth glorifie him in the great Congregation But after all if any cannot satisfie all their Scruples at least let them unite as far as they can whereunto they have attained let them walk by the same Rule with us and mind the same things and for those Particulars wherein they shall be differently minded let them maintain a Spirit of Christian Charity towards us not censuring us not endeavouring to possess others with their Scruples or to harden themselves in them but disposing themselves to receive and submit to a Conviction when it shall be offered and may God in his due time reveal even those things unto them I am sure this which I have been now pressing upon them is no more than what the Protestant Interest not only in this Kingdom but all over Europe calls for from them As for us who have the happiness to be Members of this Church let us walk inoffensively and charitably towards those that are yet without pitying and praying for them bearing with condescending as far as we may to their Infirmities and endeavouring to restore them in the Spirit of Meekness Let all bitterness and clamour and evil speaking be far from us Let us labour to work upon their Affections by all Instances of Love and Kindness and upon their Understandings by good Reason and Argument Let all of us consider that we are Brethren have one God for our Father own one Lord Jesus Christ profess the same Reform'd Religion as to substance why then should circumstances hinder us but that we unite together for our common defence against our common Enemies But if we would effectually secure our selves against them we must further engage God on our side He has frequently delivered and hitherto preserved us from them but how should we expect he should go on to do so unless we live like a People saved by the Lord and in some measure answer the Ends for which he has spared us He has wonderfully secured to us a Reform'd Church and Religion but surely he thereby calls upon us to adorn that Holy Religion with reform'd Lives A Religion free from those Corruptions in Doctrine and Worship which that of Rome labours under but certainly he with good reason expects that we also should be free from their Corruptions in Life and Manners A Church pure in all her Administrations but sure at the same time he requires us to be pure and holy in all manner of Conversation Labour we then after Peace and Holiness after Union with one another by Love and Charity and with our God by Repentance and Newness of Life Let there be no other Strife among us but who shall be most zealous in promoting the Glory of God and the Publick Good Let us consider one another to provoke unto Love and unto good Works not forsuking the assembling of our selves together but endeavouring to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace And may the God of Patience and Consolation grant us to be ●ike minded according to Christ Jesus may his Peace rule in our hearts conquering and subduing all Malice and Envy all Prejudice and Partiality all private Interest and corrupt Designs and whatever may hinder us from godly Union and Concord inclining us to be kind and tender-hearted one towards another and disposing us to lay aside all Disputes among our selves about lesser Matters and to contend earnestly for the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints If thus our Jerusalem were as a City that is at unity in it self if the Tribes went up together to worship to the House of the Lord if we heartily join'd in praying and labouring for the Peace thereof she would be terrible to her Enemies as an Army with Banners If there were among us a Spirit of Reformation of Sincerity and Honesty of true Holiness and the Fear of the Lord we might hope to invite him to dwell among us and to rejoice over us to do us good We might then reasonably expect that he will go on to defend us from the destruction that wasteth at noon-day and from the evil that walketh in darkness from all the open Attempts and secret Plots of our Enemies that he will continue to us the Blessings of our great Deliverance and preserve that sacred Life in which they are so much concern'd that he will bless him and us in him with a long and prosperous Reign over us till he shall have so establish'd the thing he hath wrought for us by him that the happiness of our present excellent Constitution in Church and State may be transmitted to our Childrens children and all the Generations that are yet for to come FINIS

THE SPIRIT of POPERY TRYED Whether it be of GOD. A SERMON Preached before the KING at WHITEHALL upon the Fifth of November 1699. By the Right Reverend Father in God WILLIAM Lord Bishop of OXON Published by His Majesty's Special Command LONDON Printed for Tho. Bennet at the Half-Moon in St. Paul's Church-yard 1699. ERRATA PAge 7. del the first Line and to the word Faith in the 2d Line p. 8. l. 17. for Burnings r. Fumings l. 26. for Zeal r. real p. 14. l. 28. after enjoy'd add who suffered p. 17. l. 3. r. Campanella's THE Spirit of Popery tryed Whether it be of GOD. 1 John iv 1. Beloved believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God THat by this Caution Believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God is meant give not up your Faith to the Doctrine nor your selves to the Conduct of every Teacher and Guide that shall pretend to instruct and govern you till you have examined and proved whether his Commission and Doctrine be of God is evident from the Reason wherewith the Apostle inforces this Advice in the latter part of the Verse viz. because many false Prophets are gone out into the World And truly if this Reason could justify the pertinency and usefulness of our Apostle's Exhortation at that time the pressing of the same Advice will appear upon the same Grounds to be no less seasonable and necessary in this Age wherein the great Author of Lies and Divisions has shewed himself such a Master in his Art so successfully imploy'd all his Stratagems and Instruments to corrupt the Faith and break the Unity of the Church that not only ancient Heresies are revived and improved but new ones broach'd and the seamless Coat of Christ torn into so many Shreds his mystical Body broken into so many Sects and Parties that it is almost as easy to reconcile as to number them And each of the different Parties all of which cannot be in the right would engross Truth to themselves confine it to their own Division and exclude those that differ from them from any title to it It might be of good use to bring these several Pretenders to the Test laid down in the Text to try the Spirits whether they be of God But to examine them all would be the Work not of a piece of an Hour but of a whole Year The Time usually allotted for such Exercises as this will not allow me to try more than one of them and the Day points out which I should pitch on That bold Monopolizer of Christianity which unchristians all the World besides her own Communion anathematizes excludes from Heaven and damns to Hell all that will not renounce their Reason and Senses and blindly submit to her Usurpation who sticks at no Methods for the extending of her Tyranny whether of Fraud and Treachery or Violence and Cruelty Witness that fatal Design fatal in the Event to the Authors of it but intended so to this Church and Nation which was as on this Day to have been put in execution the never to be forgotten Powder-Plot A Plot which say some of the Soberer of their own Authors Posterity will not believe for the Horrour of it Horrour indeed if there must have been so many Thousand of Men Women and Children as one of them says it was computed cut off at one Blow had it taken effect A Plot surely hatch'd in Hell that Lake of Sulphur and form'd in the dark Parts of the Earth and discover'd by him only to whom the darkness is no darkness and whose hand can find out those that dig down into Hell And so much though Faux when he was taken cry'd out that the Devil and not God was the Discoverer is own'd by some of their own Party who have acknowledged the Discovery to have been from God To express our grateful Sentiments of which miraculous Deliverance as also of another from the Designs of the same Enemies which we have more lately received on the same day and to pay our Just Tribute of Thanks and Praise to the Great God for them is the end of our present Meeting to which I hope I shall do Justice and that my Discourse shall not labour of Impertinence or Unsuitableness to the Text or Day if instead of relating the Story of which after so many Annual Returns of this Day no one can be supposed to be ignorant or forgetful or proving the Truth of the Facts which is as unnecessary habemus confitentes reos I rather chuse to bring that Religion which by these and other such ever to be abhorr'd Methods they restlesly labour to propagate to the Trial advised to in the Words I have read And if upon Examination it appears to be not of God as I. Imposing Doctrines and Practices that derogate from and undermine the Great and Fundamental Article of the Christian Religion II. As being in a great measure contrary to the Nature and Design of the Christian Religion III. As having bid very fair for the weakening those Grounds and Motives of Credibility whereby the Divinity of the Christian Religion was asserted and it recommended to the World And IV. As supporting and spreading it self by Methods directly opposite to those by which the Christian Religion was propagated and even to the Dictates of Morality and Nature I suppose I may with good reason endeavour in my Application to excite in you 1. A due Aversion to and just Abhorrence of that Religion 2. Gratitude to God who has so often discovered and defeated the Designs of our Adversaries and rendred their Attempts for the introducing and establishing that Religion among us hitherto insuccessful And 3. A willingness and readiness to comply with those means which may most effectually secure us against them for the future I am then to try the Religion taught and professed in the Church of Rome whether it be of God and it will appear not to be so for these Reasons 1. Because it imposes Doctrines and Practices that derogate from and undermine the great Fundamental Article of the Christian Religion which is this that Jesus is the Christ This our Apostle does in several Places of his Writings make the distinguishing mark to try the Spirits by by confessing of which they would appear to be of God and by denying it of Antichrist Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God cap. 5. v. 1. But cap. 2. v. 22. Who is a Liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ He is Antichrist denying the Father and the Son And in the Verses immediately following my Text Hereby know we the Spirit of God Every Spirit that confesses Jesus that is come in the Flesh to be the Christ is of God And every Spirit that confesses not Jesus that is come in the Flesh to be the Christ is not of God but is that Spirit of Antichrist So I construe that Proposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉