Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A93053
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Advice to young persons, relating both to faith & practice contain'd in some plain directions how to demean themselves : together with some few motives to the observation of what is here recommended.
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Shaw, Samuel, 1635-1696.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing S3034A; ESTC R42460
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16,872
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50
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ADVICE TO Young Persons Relating both to Faith Practice Contain'd in some Plain Directions how to Demean themselves Together with some few Motives to the Observation of what is here recommended Wherewithal shall a Young Man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy Word Psal 119. 9. London Printed for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pidgeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil Price 2d To his much Honour'd Patron The Author THo' it is our great Calamity to live in a most corrupt Age Yet by the Influence of the All-wise and All powerful God who can derive good out of Evil you are so Prudent as to make an Advantage of it and to raise the value of your Vertue and to add to the Lustre and Worth of your Reputation and Family by being untainted in the midst of most dangerous Temptations SIR I might tell the World that the following Lines were drawn as a faint Copy from the fair Original which you give and that the ensuing Precepts are taken from your Pattern But lest I should call up the Blood into your Cheeks by offering Violence to your singular Modesty or throw my self under the Suspicion of Flattery I will convert my just Praises of you into earnest Prayers for you that that good God who hath hitherto preserv'd you would still preserve you that you may go on by an Vnspotted Life still to glorify him and by your most agreeable Temper to win over others to Piety and Vertue and to answer the Care and Kindness of that Learned and Worthy Person by whom your tender Mind was inform'd and your early Manners cultivated from whom in your Minority I receiv'd the largest share of what I have and so stand perpetually oblig'd to return the most grateful Acknowledgment And lastly That you may grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ until you come to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ This is the earnest Prayer of Sir Your most Obliged Most devoted and Most Humble Servant ADVICE TO Young Persons FOrasmuch as 't is generally acknowledg'd that to perswade Young Persons to be Dutiful and Good would prove an Effectual Means to recover Souls out of the hands of Satan to reform the World and to retrieve Religion and Vertue therefore this small Treatise is sent abroad on purpose to exhort and if it be possible for it to perswade those who in their younger days are more especially beset with Temptations and more easily invited into a compliance with them that they should by God's Grace preserve their standing Or if fal'n that they should speedily rescue themselves out of their Slavery and henceforward fear the Lord always and keep his Commandments And may that same Good God who puts into our hearts good Desires by his continual help make us to bring them to good Effect through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen First then Let me perswade young Persons to lay such a steady and Unshaken Foundation of Faith that the Gates of Hell may never prevail against it For them who design to answer the main End of Christianity this Advice is always seasonable But never was this Advice more seasonable than it is in our present Age An Age wherein almost every particular Person is ready to broach some particular Opinion Insomuch that the old Land-marks of Faith are removed and the main Principles of the Gospel of Grace and Salvation by Christ doubted of disputed and denied O let it be your great concern then First To believe in God the Father who hath made you and all the World Secondly in God the Son who hath redeemed you and all mankind Thirdly in God the Holy Ghost who sanctifieth you and all the Elect People of God First then let it be your Concern to believe in God the Father who by the Son Heb. 1. 2. and by the Efficacy of the Holy Ghost Gen. 1. 2. Made the whole World Heaven and Earth and all created Beings which are contained therein And upon this Belief let it be your Business to give God the Father that Reverence that is due unto him as our Wonderful Creator This is that great Lord who made Heaven and Earth and the Sea and all that in them is Acts. 4. 24. This is our Father which is in Heaven Mat. 6. 9. In his Hand are all the Corners of the Earth and the strength of the Hills is his also the Sea is his and he made it and his hands prepar'd the dry Land And therefore O come let us Worship and fall down and kneel before him Psal 95. 3. And say with the Psalmist I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made marvellous are thy works and that my soul knoweth right well Psal 139. 14. Secondly You are stedfastly to believe in God the Son For that he is truly God the Apostle expresly declares Rom. 9. 5. where speaking of Christ he saith that he is over all God Blessed for ever and so St. John we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ this is the true God and Eternal life 1 John 5. 20. But we are not only to believe this Son to be God but also that he redeem'd us and all mankind And that this Son of God paid the Price of Redemption for all Mankind who can doubt that believes the Scripture for there is one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransom for all 1 Tim. 2. 5 6. And again he tasted Death for every man Heb. 2. 9. And here common Gratitude prompts and directs you to your Duty For since ye were bought with a Price even with the Price of the most precious Blood of the Son of God You are strongly oblig'd to glorify God in your Bodies and in your Spirits which are his 1 Cor. 6. 20. Thirdly You are faithfully to believe in God the Holy Ghost who sanctifies you and all the elect People of God that the Holy Ghost is God is plain from Acts the 5th verses the 3 d. and the 4th in the 3 d. verse St Peter propos'd this Question Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and because Ananias thus lied to the Holy Ghost he tells him verse the 4th Thou hast not lied unto Men but unto God Nay before that when the Pharisees upon our Saviours casting out a Devil ascrib'd the operation to Belzebub the Prince of Devils our Saviour call'd this Sin that Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which shall never be forgiven By which words the most Learned and Reverend Bishop Pearson observ'd amongst several other Arguments to that purpose that it appeareth that there is a Sin or Blasphemy against the Holy Ghost distinct from all other Sins and Blasphemies committed against God the Father or the Son of God that this Sin hath an Aggravation added unto it beyond other Sins and Blasphemies But if the Holy Spirit were no Person the Sin could not
be distinct from those sins which are committed against him whose spirit he is and if he were a Person created the sin could receive no such Aggravation beyond other Sins and blasphemies and consequently it remains that he is God But we are not only to believe this Spirit to be God but also that he is the Sanctifier of us and of all the elect People of God For what can be more positive and plain than that the Sanctification of God's people is ascrib'd to this Holy Spirit for thus it runs in the words of the Apostle Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through the sanctification of the spirit 1 Pet. 1. 2. And therefore from this Principle of your Belief you cannot but infer this to be your Duty that since ye are a chosen Generation a Royal Priest-hood an Holy Nation a peculiar People you are oblig'd to shew forth his Praises who hath call'd you out of darkness into his marvelous light 1 Pet. 2. 9. Thus then in the Divine Essence which is but one there are three distinct Persons viz. the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost thus plainly distinguished by their peculiar Properties Nay the Scripture does not only mention these Properties but also proceeds to the exact numbring of these Agents or Persons in the Divine Essence For there are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one 1 John 5. 7. and so again Jesus when he was baptized went up straightway out of the Water and lo the Heavens were open'd unto him and he saw the spirit of God descending like a Dove and lighting upon him And lo a voice from Heaven saying This is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Mat. 3. 16. 17. I mention no more Places to this purpose tho' many occur lest I should swell this little piece beyond its designed bounds but that of St. Mathew Chap. 28. 19. Go ye therefore and teach all nations Baptizing them in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost And yet notwithstanding this Distinction of Agents or Persons there is but one entire Essence for there is none other God but one 1 Cor. 8. 4. and the Lord our God is God only Deut. 6. 4. And now O young Man since here is a main Principle of thy Profession here comes in a main Rule fot thy Practice since there is a God since there is but one God therefore thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Mat. 4. 10. But that the Father is God the Son God and the Holy Ghost God and yet that there is but one God how thus it is and as to the manner how these things can be this falls not within the Comprehension of thy Reason here on Earth but hereafter in Heaven will in all probability be the subject of a most pleasant and endless Entertainment Thou mayst with far more sence offer to contain all the Waters of the vast Ocean in the hollow of thine hand than pretend to measure such unfathomable and infinite Mysteries by thy dark and narrow and shallow Understanding No all that thou hast to do in this case is firmly to believe these and all other Divine Revelations and Principles of thy Holy Profession as the Resurrection of the Dead and eternal Life and the like and instead of prying too narrowly into these unfathomable Depths which the clearest and most enlarged Understanding of Mortals cannot bottom or find out thou art to proceed to Practice For secret things belong to God but reveal'd things to us and to our Children Deut. 29. 29. and if thou canst not take measure of one of the Divine Attributes nay if to unfold the manner of thine own Existence would puzzle thee O never pretend here to discover the exact manner of the Being of a God! And yet if upon the exercise of thy Sense and Reason thou believest the Existence of the one viz. thine own Being then upon the truth and goodness of God and the exercise of thy Faith believe the other and so I pass forward from Faith directly to Practice which is the Second thing I propos'd First Then let me advise all Young Persons as a main Spur to all Goodness as a strong Safe-guard to all their Vertues and as a powerful Antidote against and restraint upon all Vices to have an awful Regard and constant Remembrance of the Divine Omniscience and Omnipresence and the power of the Almighty O consider that God's eyes are over all your ways and that his eye-lids try the children of men Psal 11. 4. That he is about your Beds and about your Paths and spieth out all your ways and that there is not a word in your tongue nor a thought in your heart but he knoweth it altogether Alas 't is in vain for thee to offer to draw the Curtain betwixt this all-seeing eye and thy Deeds of Darkness for the Darkness with God is no Darkness at all but the night is as clear as the day the Darkness and light are to him both alike Ps 139. 12. All thy wanton and foolish Extravagancies and Rambles all thy stiffness and stubbornness to all thy natural and political Parents nay to thy spiritual Pastors and Teachers all thy head strong and untam'd Passions in the full career of Lust and Licentiousness all thy forgetfulness of thy God and thy Duty in the days of thy Youth all the strong Biasses that thou art ready to clap upon thy Soul bearing thee down to Sensuality and Sin all thy jests upon Religion and matters of the greatest moment and things of the most serious and an eternal Concern all thy trifling with and turning thy back upon the best of Friends Friends that offer thee the most wholsom Counsel and the safest Advice Advice that if follow'd will preserve thee from Danger and Evil and counsel that if observ'd will enrich thee to all Eternity all thy backwardness to do good and all thy promptness and aptness to do evil all the windings and foldings of thy heart all thy fig-leav'd excuses for thy past Iniquities and all thy pretences for and palliations of thy present Transgressions thy God plainly observes he clearly beholds Nay consider that as this all-searching Eye beholds and observes all these things so this all-powerful God is able to punish thee to the Uttermost and none can stand before him when he is angry He is able to consume thee with the least breath of his displeasure and to poste thee away to Hell in the midst of thy sins in the midst of thy strength when as Job speaks thy breasts are full of milk and thy bones are moistned with marrow Job 21. 24. And thou who canst not now endure the least of thy fingers to continue in a flame how wilt thou then abide the consuming Fire how wilt thou be able to dwell with everlasting burnings Isa 33. 14. But then on