Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A28673
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A new constellation discovered in a sermon preached at the visitation held at Leicester the 29th of April, 1674 / by Joshua Bonhome.
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Bonhome, Joshua.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing B3594; ESTC R24665
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12,478
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32
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40. their Blessed Master shews what account his makes of them when he telleth them He that receives you receives me Mat. 10.40 and he that receives me receives him that sent me And in the same Chapter of St. Luke vers 16. He that heareth you heareth me Luke 10.16 and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me These be Witnesses enough to vindicate the Excellency of our Holy Function but yet give me leave to add one word more to prove that the Ministers of the Church are called Stars in the same sense the Church is called the Host and the Kingdom of Heaven In the Prophet Daniel chap. 8. vers 10. the prophanation of the Sanctuary of the Lord by Antiochus and his Cruelty to the Church of God and her Priests is set down in these very words And it waxed great that is the little Horn spoken of in the ninth Verse even to the host of heaven Dan. 8.10 and it cast down some of the host and of the stars to the ground and stamped upon them In the eighth Chapter and the tenth Verse of this Revelation of St. John Rev. 8.10 When the third Angel sounded there fell a great star from heaven burning as it were a lamp where the word Heaven is taken for the Church and by this Star that fell down from it is meant a Doctor or Bishop of great Honour and outward Glory I need not tell you whom it relates to you know it well enough who forsaking the purity of the Gospel and the wholesom and saving Doctrine thereof that is revolting and falling from the true Faith will give heed to seducing Spirits and doctrines of Devils as St. Paul saith to Timothy 1 Tim. chap. 4. vers 1. And at the twelfth Verse When the fourth Angel sounded the third part of the sun was smitten and the third part of the moon and the third part of the stars By the third part of the Sun is represented the Doctrine of the Gospel and the saving knowledge of God and of his Son Jesus Christ by the Moon the true Church and by the Stars the Ministers thereof as most part of Learned Interpreters acknowledge Thus you see that not only in our Text but in many other places of Scripture the Holy Spirit of God is pleased to honour the Ministers and Servants of Christ with this glorious Title intending doubtless by it to curb and restrain the sawciness and malice of this wicked Generation who despising their comfortable Influences and calling their Light Darkness doth look upon them and account of them as of so many Blazing-Stars that portend nothing but Ruine and Destruction Now they are so called because in their Ordination they are created if I may so speak that is set apart and consecrated for the Ministry of the Word in the Church of God which is as a new Heaven or if you will have me to express my self in the words of Christ the new Jerusalem which cometh down out of Heaven from God for the very same ends and purposes Rev. 3.12 the Stars at first were created and situated in the Firmament Which if we consider a little will make good the second Branch of my first Part Why they are called Stars Which I think to be because of the many Resemblances they have one with another For First The Stars you know are thought to be of the same Substance and Matter the Heavens are but more thick and lightsom So the Ministers of the Church are of the same Nature and Substance all the other Members of the Church are and yet are not to be esteemed the worse for it no more than the Stars for being of the same Substance the Heavens are of Nay I say it is their Glory it is so for by it they better resemble their Lord and Master who being our High-Priest and the Everlasting Son of the Father yet called himself the Son of Man and though he be the true Morning-Star as he saith himself Rev. 2.28 nay the true God Phil. 2.7 yet took upon him the form of a Servant Secondly As the Stars do both lighten and quicken all Inferiour things by their Light and Influences are as the Eyes of the World and more bright and splendid than other parts of the Heavens So the Ministers of the Church are the light of the World and by their Doctrine Life and Example are to shine in the midst of a Crooked generation as Lights in the World as they have a special Command in the Epistle to the Philippians chap. 2. vers 15. Thirdly As the Stars brightness and light shines more gloriously in the night than in the day time and darts out more vigorous Beams in a cold dry frosty Night than when the Air drops the Dew upon the face of the Earth So the Ministers of Christ are bound to cause their Faith and Knowledge of the Truth to shine and sparkle with more lustre and radiancy in the Night of Ignorance and against the darkness and confusions of Hereticks and disturbers of the Peace of the Church than when she enjoyeth the Spiritual Dew of Tranquillity and Peace Fourthly The Stars are the Guide and direction of Travellers and especially of Sea-men The Ministers of Christ likewise by their godly Instructions do guide and direct men in the ways of Truth and Holiness and he that Rules both Sun Moon and Stars is pleased to use their Ministry Psal 107.30 to the bringing of them unto their desired Haven Fifthly Every Star hath its own degree of Virtue and Light for One star differs from another star in glory saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 15.41 though their Light is derived from the same principle So every Minister of the Gospel hath his own proper Gift and though there are diversities of Gifts yet there is but the same Spirit as the same Apostle witnesseth in chap. 12. vers 4. of the same Epistle Sixthly The Stars have every one their place order and situation Psal 8.3 and keep it inviolably without mixing together confusedly having been ordained of God to keep their several Ranks and Courses So every one that hath the priviledge to be called to the Spiritual Priesthood of the Church of Christ Heb. 5.4 as Aaron was to the Priesthood of the Law must have a special care of the Place and Rank God hath appointed unto him and not meddle with nor trouble the Order and Place of others lest they incurr such a censure as God gave against false Prophets in the Prophet Jeremy's time I sent them not neither have I commanded them neither spake unto them Jer. chap. 14. vers 14. Seventhly The Stars are not the Light but only burning and glistering Lamps So the Ministers of Christ are only burning Lamps and Witnesses of the Light in the Sanctuary of the Lord and not properly the Light it self as it is said of St. John the Baptist He was not that light
Imprimatur Ex Aed Lambethanis Martii 3o. 1674. THO. TOMKYNS A New Constellation Discovered in a SERMON Preached at the VISITATION Held at Leicester the 29th of April 1674. BY JOSHVA BONHOME Rector of Saddington in the County of LEICESTER Chaplain in Ordinary to His MAJESTY LONDON Printed by W. G. and are to be sold by Moses Pitt at the sign of the Angel in St. Paul's Churchyard 1675. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE HENRY COVENTRY Esq Of His MAJESTIES most Honorable Privy Council and Principal Secretary of State Right Honorable I Could not presume to present this unpolished Discourse in it self unworthy of Your Acceptation under the high Patronage of Your Honour if I did not know by undeserved Experience that as the holy Angels of God which though they be called Principalities and Powers and behold continually the face of the Lord of lords and King of Kings our Heavenly Father yet are of so generous so noble and so loving Condescention that they joyfully undertake to be Ministring Spirits to the meanest Servants of their Lord and Master and to be Instruments in his Divine Hands for their Comfort and Deliverances So Your Honour doth dayly imitate those glorious Spirits in doing good with an unparallel'd Nobleness to all such whose Allegiance and Loyalty to our Soveraign is known to You proving Your self a true Imitatour of him who though he be of all that is good the best and of all that 's great the greatest yet delights to prefer his Goodness before his Greatness All our English Israel knows as well as my self the Eminency of the Place Your Honour enjoyeth in this Kingdom under our Gracious Soveraign but the Experience of Your Noble Favours to me upon several occasions forceth me to conclude this height of Trust and Dignity becomes yet more Honourable and deserves to be more admired in that You are pleased and that frequently to divert Your Eyes from the sight and glory of the tallest Gedars and to impart a glance to the lowest Shrubs like Solomon who spake not only of those goodly Trees in Lebanon but of the very Hyssop that springeth out of the Wall Sir This poor Sermon which I preached in the Audience of many Grave and Learned Divines and which some Well-wishers to the Church of England and the Ministry have thought not to be unworthy of appearing in Publick in order to Disabuse many poor Souls who by Recusants perswasions do not only lightly esteem our Calling but as if they were the only People of God and such they boast themselves to be look upon it as being no better than that of the Priests of Baal for so many of them are pleased to call us and on our most Reverend Prelates and the whole Clergy of this Land as being no better if not worse than the Priests of Antichrist This poor Sermon I say I make bold to present to Your Honour with all possible Respect the best of all I can do being justly due and devoted to Your Honour as a small discharge of my Duty and an hearty acknowledgement of my Obligation Beseeching Almighty God long to preserve Your Honour after the joy of our heart and the breath of our nostrils His Most Excellent Majesty a Friend and Support to all such as fear God and the King That as he hath called You by name to be one of the Valiant men of Israel which compass the Bed of our Solomon he may be pleased to make You more and more Instrumental for the good of this Land and the Service of our Soveraign and fill You like Bezaleel with the Spirit of God in Wisdom and Vnderstanding and Knowledge for the Service both of the Throne and Tabernacle the State and the Church For these and all other Blessings Temporal and Spiritual upon Your Noble person shall ever pray the meanest among the many thousands that are called to the Sacred Priesthood and YOUR HONOURS Most humble most obedient and most obliged Servant JOSHUA BONHOME Revelat. chap. I. vers 16. And he had in his right Hand seven Stars AS God at sundry times Heb. 1.1 and in divers manners spake in time past unto the Fathers by the Prophets to the end that all men might know the greatness and the glory as well as the goodness the mercifull and loving kindness of the Lord so in divers manners and at sundry times hath he appeared in dreadfull and glorious Visions unto his Servants that they might with a better success convince all those they were sent unto of their own Vileness Rebellion and Prophaneness and if I may so speak breed and plant in their sinfull and deceitfull Hearts a godly fear and a holy reverence of so glorious a Majesty and in their Minds a true perfect and earnest submission unto the words of him that commands all men to be holy as he is Holy In such a glorious and fearfull Vision the great Jehovah was pleased to appear not to Moses only but to the whole Camp of Israel in the Wilderness when Mount Sina was altogether on a smoak because the Lord who is a consuming Fire descended upon it in fire Exod. 19.18 and the whole mount quaked greatly Of the same nature was that of the Prophet Esaias when he saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up when his train filled the Temple and above it stood the Seraphims crying one to another Holy holy holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory when the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cryed and the house was filled with smoak As you may see in the first Verse of the sixth Chapter of the Prophecy of the same Prophet And that the House of Israel might be convinced and left without excuse for their impudency stiffheartedness and rebellion against the Lord then sent he to his Prophet Ezechiel the Vision of a Whirlwind coming out of the North of a great Cloud a Fire and a Brightness that of the likeness of four living Creatures whose appearance was like burning Coals of Fire and like the appearance of Lamps And the likeness of the Firmament upon the heads of the living Creatures of the colour of the terrible Crystal and above the Firmament that was over their heads was the likeness of a Throne as the appearance of a Saphire stone and upon the Throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it And as the living God by these fearfull Ideals and amazing Representations of his Glory would bring the Church of Israel to a sober consideration of the Excellency of his Word that they might at last be perswaded and drawn to an entire and true Obedience to the same and with more diligence and earnestness admit and receive the Holy Instructions of his Prophets whom he had Honoured with these glorious Images and Representations of his Greatness and incomprehensible Infiniteness So in the days of the Gospel wherein he hath spoken unto us by his