Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	holy_a	zeal_n	zealous_a	201	3	8.9266	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44826	The benefit of a well-ordered conversation as it was delivered in a sermon preached June 24th. 1682. On a day of publick humiliation. As also a funeral discourse upon the three first verses of the third chapter of Isaiah; occasioned by the death of the worshipful Major General Denison; who deceased at Ipswich, Sept. 20. 1682. By Mr. William Hubbard. To which is annexed an Irenicon or a salve for New-England's sore: penned by the said major general; and left behind him as his farewell and last advice to his friends of the Massachusets.	Hubbard, William, 1621 or 2-1704.; Denison, Daniel, 1613-1682. Irenicon.	1684 (1684)	Wing H3208; ESTC W9576	81,919	262

so strong of injustice cruelty and oppression he is ready to pull up the hedge of his Protection and lay them wast or leave them to final extirpation T was said the cry of the sins of Sodom ascended up to heaven and it was so loud a cry that they pierced the very seat of the Almighty and pulled down vengeance from Heaven and what were their sins Pride which is the mother of Contention and Cruelty marches in the van the filthy Lusts of intemperance bring up the Rear so as righteous Lot and his Family are almost crushed between them as between two Mill-stones Gibea and Benjamin are ripe for judgment when they will go about to maintain iniquity by a Law instead of seeing Gods Salvation they and all their Confederates shall feel his indignation and know that the righteous Lord loveth righteousness As before when in the dayes of the old World the Earth was fill'd with violence viviter ex rapto their unrighteousness opened the Flood-gates of Divine vengeance which carried them all away with a Flood And not long after when in the dayes of Nimrod the great Grandchild of Noah the Inhabitants of Shinar proclaims War with the Almighty and bid defiance against Heaven God blasts their vain enterprizes and makes them see their own confusion instead of his Salvation 4. The next Branch of a well ordered conversation is that which concerns our selves viz. Sobriety and Temperance which according to the assertion of the Apostle Paul is part of that Doctrine which brings Salvation along with it wherever it is put in practice As we find it expressed Tit. 2.12 And here lies the greatest danger of a professing People Open unrighteousness is restrained by the severe Laws and Edicts of civil Nations where Intemperance and Prophaneness may appear with open face upon the stage Injustice in civil affairs as it is obvious to humane and common observation so is it more apt to be restrained and punished as standing in direct opposition to the commerce and traffick of Nations every one will be ready to bring a stone to fling at an Oppressor Thief or Robber but now the Lusts of Intemperance are more secretly and silently carried on undermining those Banks that seem to keep it in and insensibly by degrees like the Ivy sucking out the heart and life of the Religion of those whom it seems to compass about and embrace These Lusts of the Flesh secretly eat out the life of holiness and damps the heat of our zeal They are also the more apt to prevail upon the minds of the uncautelous because they are seated in such things as for the matter of them are not unlawful yea are both natural and accessary which made one sadly complain In licitis perimus omnes When Israel could neither be enchanted by Sorcery nor corrupted by Idolatry yet they may be charmed by the Syren of sensual delights for when the people had committed carnal Fornication with the Midianitish Women they are easily led on to commit spiritual Adultery with their Idols Solomon might speak it by experience as well as by observation of the strange Women that strong men have fallen down wounded by her When the Devil came to assault our Saviour he found nothing in him to fasten his Temptations upon there was no combustible matter for his fiery Darts to sieze upon but when he comes to David though never so holy a man he finds something to fix upon especially when he lay at an open Guard having ungirt himself and laid aside the Armour of light A chast conversation coupled with fear is the best security against those Lusts of the Flesh that war against our Souls The seeds of Piety and vertue are in as much danger of being choaked with these Weeds of Intemperance as by the Thorns of Covetousness and other Lusts of like nature 5. There are other Branches of a well ordered Conversation very necessary to bring about this Salvation of God Sometimes Prophaneness and Impiety may get such an head in places that it is not possible to suppress or bear them down without an eminent degree of zeal God was so provoked with the sensual lusts of Israel at Baal-peor that if it had not been for the zeal of Phinehas that Generation as commendable as they were had seen but little of the salvation of God it was his zeal that stayed the Plague from consuming the People If our zeal be not as hot as fire it will easily be quenched by these Fleshly Lusts Eli did not want a principle of holiness and the fear of God but he wanted the holy passion of zeal to actuate and exert it No man had ever more experience of seeing the Salvation of God than David and what man did ever declare more zeal against sin and for the Glory of God and casting off the works of iniquity doth he not engage that a vile person shall not tarry in his sight and him that telleth lies he would cut off If such be suffered saith Solomon by the Ruler all his Servants will be mislead Then farewel Gods Salvation The Church of Laodicea lost her dignity for want of zeal and is severely threatned for this defect Be zealous and repent or else I will spue thee out of my mouth Rev. 4.16 a cold dull un-active luke-warm spirit will in a little time lose the very life of godliness when in the primitive Church the love of many began to wax cold it was a presage of their Desolation which soon after came to pass But here we must look to our zeal that it be not mingled with too much wild-fire for the wrath of man will never work the righteousness of God The Lord Jesus was as became the Lamb of God meek and lowly of heart yet was admirably zealous against Hypocrisie and secret iniquity T is good to be zealously affected in a good matter sayes the Apostle And so also in a good manner The Disciples were zealously affected against them that did not follow them this was not in a good matter nor was their zeal to be commended that forbad them bringing little Children to the Lord Jesus And if the Angel that contended with the Devil about the body of Moses had brought rai●ing accusations there had been a defect in the manner Zeal is an holy affection and will thrive best in a meek and quiet spirit No man so meek upon the face of the Earth as Moses and yet no man was found so zealous as Moses in reforming the Idolatry of the People when he set every man against his fellow that was gulty of the fact and at last grinding the Idol to powder that they might drink it down that so eagerly had drunk down that cursed Worship The zeal of Moses was far more acceptable to God than that of Jonah or Jehu It is not the hot fiery curst tempers in a place that will maintain and keep up the purity of Religion and good order so well as that which proceeds

suffered to set up their Post by Gods Posts nor to sow the fields of Gods Churches with divers seeds none were suffered to disseminate the seeds of corrupt Doctrine they might with some measure of Truth have said with Elijah when God came to visit him in the Cave I am jealous for the Lord of Host The Pastors were jealous over their Flocks with a godly jealousie least their minds should be carried from the simplicity that is in Christ Rulers were jealous over their People least any corrupt Principles should be introduced to undermine the foundations of right Government none were suffered to enter into the sacred function of the Ministry before they were approved and none admitted to hold forth those truths of the Gospel to others which they had not first experience of in their own hearts even such as would take heed both to themselves and unto their Doctrine and continue therein that thereby they might both save themselves and those that hear them If this be the way of New-England now t is hoped they may yet see the salvation of God 3. They were not only pure in their Doctrine but peaceable in their manners As those that were endued with the wisdom from above which made them easie to be entreated If any seem to be contentious the Churches of New-England had no such custom They would ask counsel at Abel and so end the matter Care was taken that they who were to speak in the Name of the Lord Jesus should all speak the same thing and be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and judgment There was no noise of Axe or Hammer in the building of the Church of God every thing was so exactly squared according to the rules of the Gospel so as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that came in might report and say God was in them of a truth 4. They were also zealous against sin Judgment ran down our Streets like waters and Justice like a mighty stream iniquity dare not to appear bare-faced upon the Stage none were suffered to countenance any evil doers but they were even ready to be taken from Gods Altar and made to suffer the justice which they had deserved The Lord Jesus who wa● meek and lowly of heart yet was seen to scourge the Money-changers out of the Temple who had turned the house of Prayer into a den of Thieves There was no connivance at any evil no root of bitterness suffered to spring up lest trouble should be occasioned thereby and many come to be defiled They left Religion in a good equipage when they went off the stage and commended it to Posterity as their chief care 5. They were of an holy and serious frame of spirit all their deportment in their civil converse and behaviour as well as in the acts of Religious worship savoured of a spirit of Piety and the fear of the Lord. Holiness was written upon all their Habitations and instruments of their callings that which was said of Tyre might in its measure have been truly affirmed of New-England That her Merchandize was holiness to the Lord whatever their imployments were as to the occasion of the World yet their conversation might have been said to be in heaven They were careful not only to avoid gross and scandalous sins but even the very appearance of evil Such is the odious and filthy nature of sin that Christians cannot keep at too great a distance therefrom so as to hate the very garment spotted with the Flesh Our Rulers like Nehemiah would not take that liberty which is usual with men of that capacity in other places because of the fear of God The Priests or Ministers of the Sanctuary were also cloathed with Salvation There was no compliance with the World in the vain customs and foolish fashions thereof least they might seem to fall short of the promised rest They laboured rather to be transformed by the reniewing of their minds than conformed to the World Sobriety Temperance and Moderation were the guize of those times Civil imployments were so ordered and managed as not to hinder the higher designs of Faith and Holiness and promoting the glory of God They rested not in outward forms and modes of Worship and Religion without the life and power thereof If there be still the like awfulness and circumspection in the hearts and lives of Professors the sam● fear of offending and care of sanctifying the Name of God in all the duties of his Worship we may then hopefully conclude that our light shall rise in obscurity and our darkness be as the noon-day Vse of Exhortation If any design to see the Salvation of God here is the most compendious way leading thereunto viz. To order our Conversation aright what is required thereunto hath been described before which all may be reduced to these three heads 1. To set God at our right hand and then we shall never be moved by any temptation or tribulation Set up his Glory as the end we aim at in all our designes Gods Salvation will certainly fall into all those that will sincerely aim at his glory in all they undertake both as to their imployments and injoyments He is the life sayes Moses and thy length of thy dayes who gave us our lives at first and lengthens out our dayes which we should therefore direct all unto his glory as to our last end and chiefest good Whether we eat or drink do all sayes Paul to the glory of God It is the property of all rational Agents to act for some end otherwise we act but like bruit creatures that are led by a kind of sensitive instinct as things and objects are casually presented to their senses or fancies Now those who are guided by a principle of Reason can aim at no lower end than God himself who is the Author of our being and proposed that to himself when he formed us that we should be unto his praise He is the α and ω the first and the last Rom. 11.36 For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be glory for ever Amen 2. Make use of all the means which are requisite to the attaining this end which can be no other than what God himself hath propounded Non per venitur ad deum nisi per deum Of old time God himself foreseeing ou● readiness to shape unto our selves wayes of Worship suitable to our own fancies hath strictly forbidden all men from lifting up their tools to his Altar and this is the reason why David seems to be so much commended for a pattern of Obedience to all the following Kings of Israel and Judah because he was a Man after Gods own heart that is one that framed all his Actions Sacred and Civil to answer the Will of God as he sayes That then he should not be ashamed when he had respect to all the Commandments of God Psal 119.6 And this was the answer which our Saviour gave to that inquisitive young man