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	sin_n	22,698	5	5.7840	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44072	The necessity dignity and duty of Gospel ministers discoursed of before the University of Cambridge.	Hodges, Thomas, d. 1688.	1685 (1685)	Wing H2321; ESTC R13341	17,011	31

a reason of what went before viz. why the world should persecute the Apostles because they were the salt of the earth their work was to reprove sinners sharply and sinners will usually hate and persecute him that reproveth in the Gate or in the Pulpit those that dawb with untempered morter those that sew Pillows under sinners Elbows those that preach Placentia pleasing things those that skin over wounds shall be accepted and well entertained but sinners love not those that will apply corrosives that will apply salt to search their wounds and make them smart though this method and means most tend to the making a perfect and thorough Cure 3. Hence Ministers may learn their duty they are salt and they must have the properties of salt in their preaching Now 't is observed that the properties of salt applied to raw flesh or fresh wounds are principally three First Salt will bite and fret being of nature hot and dry Secondly it makes it savoury unto our taste Thirdly it preserveth meats from putrefaction by drawing out of them superfluous moistness So Ministers must apply the word of God to their Auditors first preaching the Law thereby making them sensible of their sins giving them no ease in them but making them cry out as they Acts 2.37 Men and brethren what shall we doe secondly Ministers must preach the Gospel to them that men being sensible of their corruption like rottenness in their Souls may by the spirit of God be seasoned with Grace may be reconciled unto God and made savoury in his Nostrils Thirdly both Law and Gospel must be dispensed by Ministers that thereby sin and corruption may be daily more and more mortified and consumed in the hearts and lives of their hearers even as superfluous humours are dried up by salt And Ministers must endeavour to be seasoned themselves with the word that they may be the more able and fit to season others Fourthly Hence the people may learn to suffer the word of reproof when we have a cut or wound in our flesh we put salt upon it to hinder it from rankling and corruption and shall we not patiently and quietly suffer the word of reproof from our Teachers though it make our Consciences smart again because it tends to the health of our Souls Fifthly Hence we may learn all of us what we are by nature we are like flesh subject to corruption unsavoury flesh yea we are like stinking carrion in God's Nostrils if there were no danger of corruption God would not be at cost for the salt of the Ministry of his word to prevent it and to season us that we may be a sweet savour unto him Here may be reproved unsavoury Ministers they have the name of salt but they want the property of salt they want their acrimony they are not seasoned themselves and how should they be likely to season others There are four sorts of this unsavoury salt here to be reproved 1. Blind Watchmen Seers that see not Teachers that teach not Shepherds that feed not their flock Dogs that do not or cannot bark Salt-cellars or Salt-boxes without salt or else salt without its saltness such as have the name indeed of salt but want the virtue of it 2. Heretical Teachers are unsavoury Salt and here to be reproved Haeretici saith St. Austin Cimicibus similes vivi mordent mortui foetent they are like Gnats that bite whilst alive and stink when they are dead Infatuantur Doctores saith Maldonat in loc Cum malè docent aut malè aedificant These especially are unsavoury salt or worse who do not onely not season but poyson their People Qui pravo sapore inficiunt 't is a saying of Maldonat Degeneres Doctores haeretici imprimis are good for nothing Nisi ut conculcentur nisi ut crementur Degenerate Doctours Hereticks chiefly are good for nothing but to be trodden under foot but to be burnt but that they are in his sense to be salted with fire because they are unsavoury shall be no determination of mine If a Protestant Minister should fall away to Popery and become a Mass-Priest and after return again to the Reformed Church by true repentance he may be thereupon readmitted to be a Teacher and Pastour amongst us but such surely ought to be humbled for their Apostacy and may do well to have before their Eyes the Example of Ecebolius Ezekiel 44.10 11 12 13. who having often denyed the Faith and after return'd to the truth threw himself down at the Church Door and cried out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kick me or tread upon me insensible Salt 3. A third sort of unsavoury salt may be reckoned a Preacher that preaches onely general truths but without application to his Hearers the use is the Salt and the Soul too of a Sermon Generalia non pungunt Such Preachers are like Fencers that make a great flourish but never strike to purpose like those Trumpets that give an uncertain sound and who then shall prepare himself to the Battel 4. Here are to be reproved those that have Salt for others but have no Salt in themselves or are unseasoned themselves such as preach well but live ill whose unsavoury Conversation makes that the word doth not season others as it should but becometh unfruitfull Oh what will become of you unsavoury Salt Expect you may to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of Men. Oh absurd and unreasonable Men you have a holy Calling and lead an unholy Life You call your selves spiritual Persons and the Spiritualty and yet live after the flesh the Ministers of God and yet are really the Servants of Sin If there be not such a thing as Religion why do you preach it if there be why do you not live it take heed lest while you preach to some others your selves become not cast-aways lest while you offer Heaven to others you fall short of it your selves lest whilst you warn others to take heed of Hell you your selves fall into it And so I come to the third sort of uses and they are of exhortation and that both to the Ministers and to the People And first to the Ministers Are the Ministers salt then labour to be like salt 1. Labour for the Whiteness and Purity of Salt get pure Hearts be of a pure Lip and sith ye are compared to Salt consider what manner of Persons ye ought to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness 2. Labour for the acrimony of salt be unto sinners a Reprover Salt is more necessary than Sugar sharp words than sweet and pleasing words to prevent the corruption of manners amongst your People 3. When sinners are wounded for their sins do ye stanch their bleeding wounds and keep them from rankling do ye preach the Gospel to wounded Consciences 4. Be ye universal Antidotes and Preservatives against Corruption every way against corrupt Doctrine and corrupt Affections against corrupt Speeches and against all those Children that are corrupt Yea labour to