Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	gospel_n	zeal_n	zealous_a	49	3	8.8215	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27065	The vain religion of the formal hypocrite, and the mischief of an unbridled tongue (as against religion, rulers, or dissenters) described, in several sermons, preached at the Abby in Westminster, before many members of the Honourable House of Commons, 1660 ; and The fools prosperity, the occasion of his destruction : a sermon preached at Covent-Garden / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Fools prosperity.	1660 (1660)	Wing B1448; ESTC R13757	102,825	412

his administrations so much less must we accuse God of negligence or injustice by stepping into his throne And though the Railers of these times excuse their sin with the name of Justice they must shew their Commissions for the executing of that Justice before it will pass in heaven for an excuse Is not God severe enough will not his judgement be terrible enough would you wish men to suffer more then he will inflict on the impenitent what more then hell and will it not be soon enough are you so hasty for so dreadful a revenge can you not stay when the Judge is at the door Mark both the usage and remedy of believers in Jam. 5. 5 6 7 8. To the rich and great ones of the world he saith Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter Ye have condemned and killed the just and he doth not resist you There 's your usage Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord There 's the remedy But must we stay so long he thus repeateth his advice Be ye also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Let your moderation be known to all men the Lord is at hand Phil. 4. 5. Shall not God avenge his own elect that cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily Luke 18. 7 8. There 's no contradiction between crying long and avenging speedily 5. Consider what compassion rather then reproach you owe to those by whom you suffer They do themselves much more hurt then they do you Are they great they have the more to answer for and their fall will be the greater Jam. 5. 1 2 3. If you are your selves believers go into the Sanctuary and ask the Scriptures what will be their end and then deny them compassion if you can Alas consider they are at the worst but such as you were formerly your selves as to the main Paul makes a sad confession of his own persecution of the Church when he was before Agrippa and doth not complain that he was himself so hardly used I verily thought saith he with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus 〈◊〉 of the Saints I shut up in prison little thinking that they were Saints I gave my voice against them I punished them oft in every Synagogue And being exceedingly mad against them I persecuted them Acts 26. 9 10 11 12. He would not tell Agrippa that he was mad but he might speak more freely of himself O sirs pitty poor men that have the temptations of worldly greatness and prosperity and must go through a Camels eye if they will come to heaven who stand so high that sun and wind have the greatest force upon them Who see so much vanity and little serious exemplary piety who hear so much flattery and falshood and so little necessary truth saith Seneca Divites cum omnia habeant unum illis deest scilicet qui verum dicat si enim in client●●am falicis hominis potentumque perveneris veneris aut veritas aut amicitia perdenda est If you were in their places you know not how far you might be prevailed against your selves If little temptations can make you miscarry in your places so oft and foully as you do what would you do if you had the strongest baits of the world and allurements of the flesh and the most dangerous temptations that Satan could assault you with Have you not seen of late before your eyes how low some have fallen from high professions and how shamefully the most promising persons have miscarried tha were lifted up and put to the tryal of such temptations of prosperity as they had never been used to before O pitty those that have such dangerous tryals to pass through and be thankful that you stand on safer ground and do not cruelty envy them their perils nor reproach them for their falls but pray and daily pray for their recovery 6. Consider this speaking evil of those by whom you suffer hath too much of selfishness and corrupted nature in it to be good If another suffered as you do and you were advanced as another is would you not speak more mildly then Or if not so yet the proneness of nature to break out into reviling words though it were for Religion and for God doth intimate to you that it hath a suspicious root Do you find it as easie to be meek and patient and forgive a wrong and love an enemy Take heed lest you serve Satan in vindicating the cause of God It s an unfit way of serving God to do it by breaking his Commands Read seriously the description of a contentious hurtful soul-tongued zeal in Jam. 3. and then tell me what thanks Christ will give you for it The two great Disciples James and John thought it would have notably honoured Christ and curbed the raging Spirit of the ungodly if he would have let them call for fire from heaven to consume a Town that refused to receive him But doth Christ encourage their destroying zeal No but he tells them Ye know not what spirit ye are of They little knew how unlike to the tender merciful healing Spirit of Christ that fiery hurting spirit was that provoked them to that desire nor how unpleasing their temper was to Christ This is the very case of many thousand Christians that are yet young and green and harsh and have not attained to that mellowness and sweetness and measure of charity that is in grown experienced Christians They think their passions and desires of some plagues on the contemners of the Gospel are acceptable to God and blame the charitable as too cold when they little know what spirit it is that raiseth that storm in them and how unlike and unacceptable it is to Christ Were you as zealous to serve all others in love and to stoop to their feet for their salvation and to become all things lawful to all men that you may win some this saving zeal would be pleasing to your Lord who comes to do the work of a Physician and not of the Souldier to save and not to destroy and therefore most approves of those that serve him most diligently in his saving work 7. Lastly consider your passions and evil speakings will but increase your suffering and make it seem just if otherwise it were unjust If you are not meek you have not the promise of inheriting the earth Matth. 5. 5 If you honour not your Parents or superiours you have not the promise that your daies shall be long in the land And your evil speaking will make men conclude that you would do evil if you could and durst As it s said to be Zoilus answer when he was askt why he spoke evil of Plato and such worthy men Quoniam malum facere cum velim non passum

Christians Which as I have begged of you I shall now beg of God THE Fools Prosperity A SERMON Preached at Coven-Garden published upon occasion of some offence and misreports By R. B. Printed in the year 1660. Prov. 1. 32 33. For the turning away of the simple shall sl●y them and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them But who so hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely and shall be quiet from fear of evil THE bounteous offers and vehement exhortations of Christ here in this Chapter were accompanied with a foresight and prediction of their rejection by many ye● doth not that prevent ●he offers and exhortations but occasion the pred●ction of the c●●●mity of the refusers God will not go out of his way because the ungodly will not walk with him He will do the part of a righteous Governour though he foresee that men will not do the part of obedient subjects But his primary end shall be attained upon the Righteous in the successes of his grace as his secondary end shall be upon the Disobedient in the honour of his vindictive Justice This is the sense of the words which I have now read to you Which 1. Describe the ungodly 1. By their present way of sin 2. And by their future state of misery Their sin is described by 1. The occasion 2. The act 3. The habit Prosperity and ease is the occasion turning away from God and rejecting his counsel is the act And folly or simplicity is part of the habit Simplicity is here taken for sinful foolishness and not as it is often for commendable sincerity Whether you read it The turning away or the ease of the simple it is all one as to the scope and use that I shall now make of it both being included as to the sense in the other words Folly is mentioned both as the cause of their abuse of prosperity and as the effect of prosperity so abused Because they are fools they turn Gods mercies to their own destruction And because they prosper they are confirmed in their folly 2. The words describe the godly 1. By their obedience they hearken unto Christ 2. By their priviledge or reward they shall dwell safely and be quiet from fear of evil We shall begin with the first and shew you 1. That it is so that the prosperity of fools destroyeth them 2. How folly and prosperity concur to their destruction or how prosperity befooleth and destroyeth them 3. How we should all improve this truth to our best advantage I. Scripture and experience concur in proving the truth of the conclusion 1. Though God tell us in his Word of a difficulty that all must conquer that will be saved yet it is a greater extraordinary difficulty that he tells us of as to the rich and prosperous in the world such a difficulty as is pathetically exprest by this interrogation Luke 18. 24. How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kingdom of God such a difficulty as is expressed by this proverbial comparison ver 25. For it is easier for a Camel to go through a needles eye then for a rich man to enter into the Kingdom of God such a difficulty as ●●st he hearers into admiration and made them ask v. 26. Who then can be saved such a difficulty as is to man an impossibility v. 27. and leaves only this hope that Things are possible to God that are impossible to man 2. And though its said of men indefinitely that it is but few that shall be saved yet is it noted of the rich and prosperous that its few of them among those few or few in comparison of other sorts of men that shall be saved Joh. 7. 48. Have any of the Rulers or of the Pharises believed on him 1 Cor. 1. 26. For ye see your calling brethren how that not many wise men after the flesh not many mighty not many noble are called But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty and base things of the wor●● and things which are d●spis●d hath God chosen yea and things that are not to bring to nought things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence And therefore Scripture speaketh in such general language as if salvation had been almost appropriated to the poor and the rich had been excluded because of the rarity of their salvation Luke 6. 24 25. But wo unto you that are rich for ye have received your consolation wo unto you that are full for ye shall hunger wo unto you that laugh now for you shall mourn and weep Jam. 2. 5 6. Hearken my beloved brethren hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him but ye have despised the poor Do not rich men oppress you and draw you before the judgement-seats Do they not blaspheme that worthy name by which you are called And therefore when Christ would describe a wicked miserable man he doth it in these words Luke 16. 19. There was a certain rich man which was cloathed in purple and fine linnen and fared sumptuously every day And Luk. 12. 16 19. The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully c. And when he would describe a godly happy man he doth it under the name of a Lazarus Luke 16. 20. Judge now by the success as it is discovered in the Scriptures what good prosperity doth to fools I might turn you to Davids observations in Psal 37. and 73. and mind you why it is that Christ himself went before us in a state of chosen poverty 2 Cor. 8. 9. and why his Disciples followed him in this tract and why he called them so much to deny and forsake the riches of the world and tried them so oft by selling all and following him in hopes of a heavenly reward Bu● the point is evident in wh●●'s said in my text and these annexed testimonies 2. But yet to make you more apprehensive of it I shall adjoyn the testimony of Experience And tell me whether prosperity be not the destruction of 〈◊〉 when you have noted the ●ruits of it in these few observations 1. Where do you find less serious ●ure 〈…〉 salvation then among the prosperous great ones of the world what abundance of them are de●d-hear●ed sensless disregarders of everlasting things what abundance o● them are of no Religion but the custome of their Country and the will of their superiours which are their Bible their Law and Gospel and their Creed what abundance of them are addicted to that worship which Christ pronounceth vain which is measured by the traditions of men and consisteth meerly in ceremonious 〈◊〉 How few of them are ac●●●●ted with the spiritual worship 〈◊〉 that God who being a Spirit can accept no worship but what is spiritual Alas poor souls they drown