Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A61268
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A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen at the Guild-Hall Chappel, Jan. 20, 1683 by John Standish ...
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Standish, John, d. 1686.
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1684
(1684)
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Wing S5218; ESTC R13597
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15,137
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29
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Name in Vain And for all other lawful Diversions take that one Counsel of the Wise experienced King Prov. 25. Hast thou found Honey Eat so much thereof as is sufficient for thee and no more lest thou be filled therewith and womit it up again There 's no other way but that to prevent a Surfeit whether in Body or Mind But you 'l say perhaps what must I them do with mine Abundance For after this rate of Dieting my self I shall never live to spend it Why yes there is another a more excellent way to be rid of the overplus to better advantage and that shall be my 4. Direction Be Hospitable Charitable and free to Communicate what thou canst well spare to Relieve the Wants and Supply the Necessities of others For GOD hath made thee Rich on purpose to be their Steward and Almoner and as little as some Men heed it will one day expect a good Accompt of that Stewardship It is the Misers great mistake to think at his Choice and Liberty and purely in his own Power whether he will expend his Superfluities in good works or no for the Law of Justice requires it of him although from the mannor end and some other circumstances we commonly call it Charity That Fool in the Gospel needed not to have put himself to so much trouble and Charge in building his Barus bigger to lodg his plentiful Crop there was Barn-room enough in the World if he would have seen it for as St. Austine observes the Bellies of the Poor are GODS Granary If therefore thou hast any Bread to spare cast it upon the Waters as Solomon adviseth that is venture it among the Multitude rather then fail though never so troublesome and unworthy and thou shalt find it again after many days for however Men may be ingrateful yet GOD is not unrighteous to forget any work or labour of Love St. Paul bids us Charge them that are Rich in this World that they be Rich in good Works ready to distribute willing to Communicate And again that as they have Ability and Opportunity they do good unto all Men especially to them who are of the Household of Faith he means chiefly those that Minister at the Altar and daily watch over your Souls For this is pure Religion and undefiled before GOD whereby a Man shall not only preserve himself Innocent and impregnable to all the Temptations of a full and prosperous Estate but also make himself Friends of the Mammon of unrighteousness who when he faileth here may receive him into those everlasting Habitations of GOD and his Son JESUS CHRIST and all his Holy Saints and Elect Angels 5ly and lastly For yet thou lackest one thing without which all other directions will prove Vain and Useless and that is this Resolve with Penitent David to give thy self unto Prayer To implore the Grace and Assistance of GODS Holy Spirit day by day whose proper Work and Office it is to Sanctifie all Conditions of Life to us As well to keep us down when we begin to be Elevated into Pride as to buoy our Spirits up and be our Comforter in extream Distress Prayer is that powerful Engine whereby the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth Violence and the Violent take it by Force whereby Mortal Men wrestle with the Immortal GOD and will not let him go till he hath blessed them That Sedulous Importunity which once extorted Justice from an Vnjust Judge must needs be ever prevalent for Mercy with the Righteous Judge of all the Earth I had almost said that under GOD the KING ows his late never-to-be-forgotten Preservation in a great Measure to the Prayers of the Church offered up daily on his behalf that GOD would save him from all his undeserved Enemies whose tender Mercies are Cruel and their very Prayers and Preachments are of Cursing and Lies as the Psalmist speaks I 'm sure his Martyr'd Father of ever Blessed Memory whose Innocent blood perhaps GOD is making especial Inquisition for at this time hath left us an useful Note to this purpose amongst other his Sacred Reliques which I shall crave leave to Read you in his own Royal Words One of the Greatest Faults some Men found with the Common-Prayer-Book I believe faith that Great Good and Just Man was this That it taught them to Pray so oft for me to which Petitions they had not Loyalty enough to say AMEN nor yet Charity enough to forbear Reproaches and even Cursings of me in their own Forms instead of Praying for me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ch 16. The Text is so very plain that it needs no comment were I worthy to make it and therefore so I shall leave it Mean while to return to may own Argument from this Digression I could not fairly avoid Who art thou O Man who upon any score canst trust to thine own strength It will betray and fail thee it is no better then a broken Reed for though the Spirit may be sometimes willing though thy Judgment be convinced and thy Will also made a Proselyte to resolve upon this or that good work yet it is often left undone in regard the Flesh is always weak Video meliora probóque Deteriora sequor is the natural Mans true Motto it is all he can justly pretend to to commend Vertue in the notion but condemn it still in his own Practice and I must observe it to you for a great Truth however some may seem to Preach quite the contrary Doctrine or at least not to press this so often nor so earnestly as they should That Mens trusting to their own natural Powers and not regarding nor duly asking GODS special Grace and help as if they meant to bid despite to his Holy Spirit is one main if not the only reason of their persisting in their old impieties and particularly of their abusing and forfeiting their temporal blessings and hazarding their hopes also of Eternal Life For thus saith the Lord GOD Jer. 17.5 Cursed be the Man that putteth his trust in Man or maketh Flesh his Arm Be it the Man himself or any other mere Man all 's a case he is still accursed Wherefore let no Man living boast of his infirmities nor Glory in his shame let us not presume upon our own Strength or Weakness rather nor magnifie the powers of Nature in derogation to the Grace of GOD by which alone we must be saved but rather let us with Holy David as in utmost duty bound Make the LORD our only confidence the most High GOD the Rock of our Salvation And forasmuch as the Eternal Son of GOD our Saviour hath solemnly and freely promised us that whatsoever we shall ask the Father in HIS NAME He will give it us and particularly this inestimable and necessary Gift of his Holy SPIRIT recorded for our great and endless comfort St. Luke 11.13 and St. John 15.16 which by the way is the true reason that all our Publick Prayers run in that Name and Style and are shut up and bidden GOD speed for the sake and merits of JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD Let us humbly heartily and incessantly mention the Holy Name of JESUS before the Throne of the Eternal TRINITY that GOD would vouchsafe his Holy SPIRIT to dwell in all our Hearts to help our Infirmities and lead us into all Truth to subdue our natural Pride and sanctifie all our Mercies Spiritual and Temporal that we may use this World and not abuse it and ever be careful lest in the midst of the many and great Blessings we now enjoy we should forget the LORD the Author of them all that so he may not be provoked to forget but may in much mercy remember us in that day when he maketh up his Jewels and may bind up our Souls in the bundle of Life which GOD grant for the same JESUS sake our only Redeemer to whom with the FATHER and the Holy GHOST Three Persons and One GOD be all the Power and Glory Praise and Thanksgiving now and for ever more AMEN FINIS
directive Rules how we may best reduce it to Practice I begin with the First And 1. To forget the LORD imports in general to contemn the power of Religion and with that old Fool to say in ones heart there is no GOD no Judge or Judgment to come at least to deny Him that Honour and Worship due to His Holy and Reverend Name and give it to Another to put ones trust and confidence in Creatures or Idols the works of God's or of Mens hands more then the Creator and cast his Commandments behind ones back as if he owed no duty either to God or Man It implies a stupid habitual neglect of Gods Service which is the great business and chief end of our Creation when a Man immerseth himself so deep in the fruitless cares the frothy Vanities of this World and the sinful Lusts of the Flesh that GOD is not in all his ferious thoughts that is not in one of them All but he lives and dies an Atheist Epicure Idolater or ungodly Infidel and so plungeth himself headlong into that dreadful Doom in the Psalm The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget GOD. 2. To forget the LORD signifies here more especially not to recount and value not to be duly sensible of and truly thankful for his past or present Mercies and Deliverances not to lay them to heart and call them to mind not to suffer them to have their proper effect upon us when his own beloved and of late distressed People forget GOD their SAVIOUR who brought them out of Aegypt with a high Hand and stretched out Arm who led them through the Wilderness and fought all their battels for them drowning some of their Enemies in the depth of the Sea and routing all others at Land and planted them in a good Land in another Paradice even the Land of Promise a Land of Corn Wine and Oyl a Land flowing with Rivers of Milk and Brooks of Honey For them to Rebel and lift up their heel against Him merely out of wantonness and too much Peace and Plenty were beyond all Parallel if not all Pardon also for as the Royal Prophet observes the merciful and gracious LORD hath so done his marvellous works that they ought to be had in Remembrance And therefore 3. And Lastly To discover the full strength and force of the Caution we must fly to that usual figure in Rhetorick whereby much more is implied then is expressed like that of the Prophet Can a Woman forget her sucking Child and not have compassion on the Son of her Womb It is impossible in Nature That of St. Paul I am not ashamed of that is I glory in the Gospel and Cross of CHRIST albeit the wise Greeks account it Foolishness or that of the holy Psalmist If I forget thee ô Jerusalem let my right hand forget her cunning if I do not remember thee then let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth the sweet singer of Israel wisheth his curious right hand useless and his graceful Tongue disabled from chanting any more Hallelujahs to his Harp if instead of forgetting He doth not prefer Jerusalem's distress above his own chiefest Delight and Joy Then beware lest thou forget the LORD That is be sure that thou remember to love and honour him in the day of thy Prosperity for then thou hast all the reason in the world and the strongest obligations imaginable to praise and glorifie his holy Name and that not in Word and Tongue only saying GOD be thanked the LORD be praised though that sounds well but indeed and in Truth also as that dying Roman said to his Friend Quae voluerit meminisse quae mandaverit exequi To remember his Will and Pleasure and do all his Commands For to be truly thankful to GOD is certainly to love him and if ye love me keep my Commandments saith the LORD And yet after all that Jeshurun waxing fat in her fresh Pasture grew sturdy and restiff and Kicked against her Feeder and most shamefully forgot the Lord her Redemer appears by the Writings of the Prophets as a Cloud of Witnesses as also by those stupendious Showers of Judgments which fell upon them according to the Predictions of those Prophets and lastly by their utter Extirpation and Destruction their being Blotted out of the List of Nations for Crucifying the Lord of Life and Killing their only Lord and Saviour For to this day they are under a Curse they are Vagabonds over all the Earth they are no People they have no Laws or Government no King in Israel neither God nor Man Which things happened unto them for Ensamples says St. Paul and are written that is left upon Record Chiefly for our Admonition upon whom the Ends of the World are come And therefore lest we should tread in their Ungracious Steps and forget the Lord when we are full fed with his Manifold Mercies lest we should tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and be Destroyed of the Destroyer lest our Iniquity also should be our Ruine I proceed 2ly To back and Inforce this seasonable Caution with some proper Arguments or Confiderations that it may make the deeper Impression upon all our Spirits And 1. Consider we that by forgetting GOD and growing careless of his Laws in the midst of our temporal Felicities we provoke the best Friend we have to become our professed Enemy For they draw not GODS Attributes to the Life and Truth who allow him only Mercy for a Penitent and no Justice at all for a Presumptuous Sinner They are more False Prophets then Balaam himself who would stretch the Words of his Parable to signifie that GOD doth not behold but Connive at all manner of Iniquity in the beloved Jacob because he saw none there at that time that cried loud enough for Speedy and Publick Vengeance which is the undoubted meaning of that Place No GOD is not so fond of any of his Servants as to be in love with their Follies The dearest Child he hath must tast of the Rod if he deserve it David was indeed a Man after GODS own heart in other things but yet his Murder and Adultery were Damnable Sins for all that as he had found by woful Experience if he had not carefully washed them away with his own Penitent Tears more Richly Influenced with his Redeemers Blood St. Peter was a Man of Undaunted Courage and most forward Faith at other times but yet there is no excuse to be made for his denying his Lord and Master and that with an Oath saying I know not the Man Israel was once GODS Elect peculiar People of all others Engraven upon the Palms of his Hands and kept as the Apple of his Eye so tender he was of them but all this while their Sins were written with a Pen of Iron and the point of a Diamond saith the Prophet to shew that the Memory of them was lasting and they so far from being winked at