Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	law_n	life_n	power_n	7,129	5	5.5274	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30992	The authority of church-guides asserted in a sermon preach'd before our Late Gracious Sovereign King Charles II, at Whitehall, Octob. 17, 1675 / by Miles Barne ...	Barne, Miles, d. 1709?	1685 (1685)	Wing B856; ESTC R12523	19,284	35

is so far from lessening the Authority that it rather conciliates reverence to the Judge The Profession of Physick doth not therefore become useless because the Aphorisms of Hippocrates contain the necessary Rules for Health and may be understood by those who are capacitated and will take the pains to do it The Scriptures they do clearly contain the Doctrines of Salvation And one way whereby Christ prov'd himself the true Messias was by answering that Character the Prophets had given of Him that the Poor should have the Gospel Preached unto them i. e. Men as of small Capacities and less Estates so of humble and teachable Dispositions men who are Poor in Spirit as well as in Fortune And the perfection of the Christian Law consists in this that therein God hath prescribed a reasonable service The Rules of Life which are therein laid down are not so much the product of absolute Power and Soveraignty as the Result of infinite Mercy and Goodness And these His Attributes led Him to consult the wants and commiserate the Necessities of the meanest of Mankind And therefore as when He took upon Him to deliver Man He did not abhor the Virgins Womb and that He might become a Sacrifice for Sin was content to be disarray'd of His own Eternal Glory to take upon Him the Form of a Servant and to humble Himself to the Death the shameful Death of the Cross so likewise when He took upon Him the Office of a Teacher by a wonderful Condescent He accommodated His Doctrines to the Reason and humane Affections of His Auditors His Laws obtain'd as much by their suitableness to our Natures as the Authority of the Speaker When He preach'd His Divine Sermon to the Multitude He did not amuse them with Mystical Theology or torture their Understandings with profound Subtilties but as He was the Brightness of his Fathers Glory and the express Image of His Person so He declar'd the Law of God in a most Plain and Perspicuous manner Mahomet indeed that grand Impostor was well Advis'd to pen his Alcoran in swelling Words and mystical Phrases and as in some things to Restrain so in others to Indulge the sensual Appetite For by this Stratagem that sottish People with whom he had to do were content to part with their natural Right to gain an Unlawful Freedom and to Admire what they were never like to Understand But our new and perfect Law-giver Christ Jesus having no other design but the Salvation of Souls and being every way Adorn'd for so noble a Purpose though He made the Gate Narrow and the Path Strait yet He hath promised it shall be Open'd to all that Knock and none unless Wilfully need mistake the Way which leads to Eternal Life But then because He knew there was no Rule so plain but it might be Mistaken no Precept so clear but it might be Perverted no Doctrine so pure but it might be Corrupted Because He foresaw there would arise false Prophets and false Teachers whose business it would be to Seduce the Ignorant and Debauch the Credulous Because He foresaw a perpetual Succession of Gnosticks who in all Ages would set up the Dagon of their own lascivious Fancies in opposition to the Ark of His Covenant and be so audacious as even to confront Divine Revelations with carnal Reasoning therefore to obviate and prevent the mischiefs of such grievous Wolves before He took His Journey into his far Country out of a tender care of that Flock which He had purchas'd with his Blood He appointed Overseers and Pastors of his Flock committed to them and them only the care of Feeding his Flock amplified their Commission with the like Authority which he had receiv'd from his Father promis'd to be with them unto the End of the World and to assist them with that Spirit which should guide them into all Truth If then the Scriptures be so clear as to be understood even by the Multitude then much more by the Disciples in general If by the Disciples in general much more by the College of the Apostles who were His special Favourites and of his Cabinet-counsel If the Nations to whom these Ministers in Chief and Plenipotentiaries for Christ made known the Will of God were throughly instructed for the Kingdom of Heaven then much more both they and their Successors upon whom they in obedience to their Masters Command conferr'd the same Pastoral power which they had receiv'd from Him The Clearness then of Scripture cannot reasonably be urg'd in Prejudice of Christ's Ministers for whatsoever is from hence alledg'd in favour of the People the advantage will be still greater on their side Thus hath God promis'd the Assistance of his Spirit to all private men who sincerely endeavour to find out the Truth then much less will He be wanting to the Governours of his Church to whom He hath committed the care of the Souls of those private men and given power even to confer the Holy Ghost Are the Scriptures clear to them much more to those whom the Son of God hath signaliz'd and set apart for the Lights of the World Two Things are usually brought to hinder this Procedure Either that those Promises of Assistance were made only to the Apostles or else that they depend on the conditioned Righteousness of Men. Where by the way it may be Observ'd that by the First of these the Claim of the People is utterly cut off and by the Second they have as small Advantage But they who argue this might do well to consider that this Objection may strike at the very Foundation of the Faith For if those promises of Assistance which Christ made to his Church be Hypothetical if they depend on the Performance of Men then may the Foundation totter the Gates of Hell prevail Christianity decay and the Gospel it self be lost out of the World before the End thereof notwithstanding all Christ's fair promises to the contrary If they had been confin'd only to the Apostles the Christian Religion had not long surviv'd its Author every Martyrdom of an Apostle had pull'd down a Pillar of the Church and by consequence the whole Fabrick must have fallen to the ground in the very first Century of our Lord. Happy indeed had it been for Christendom that the Imperiousness of some Modern Bishops of Rome had not brought an Odium though unjustly upon Episcopacy in general that their too much Lording it over the Flock had not given Advantage to the Enemies of Church-Authority and their challenging to themselves at least an indirect Power in Temporals had not alarm'd the Kings of the Earth to stand up and take Counsel how they might destroy so dangerous an Vsurpation of the pretended Vicegerent of the Lords Anointed Happy had it been if for the Support of their Secular Greatness they had not wrested the Scriptures to countenance such Doctrines as have no clear and solid Foundation therein and that under pretence of making the Church all Glorious