Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	serve_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	112	3	9.2027	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27065	The vain religion of the formal hypocrite, and the mischief of an unbridled tongue (as against religion, rulers, or dissenters) described, in several sermons, preached at the Abby in Westminster, before many members of the Honourable House of Commons, 1660 ; and The fools prosperity, the occasion of his destruction : a sermon preached at Covent-Garden / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Fools prosperity.	1660 (1660)	Wing B1448; ESTC R13757	102,825	412

his administrations so much less must we accuse God of negligence or injustice by stepping into his throne And though the Railers of these times excuse their sin with the name of Justice they must shew their Commissions for the executing of that Justice before it will pass in heaven for an excuse Is not God severe enough will not his judgement be terrible enough would you wish men to suffer more then he will inflict on the impenitent what more then hell and will it not be soon enough are you so hasty for so dreadful a revenge can you not stay when the Judge is at the door Mark both the usage and remedy of believers in Jam. 5. 5 6 7 8. To the rich and great ones of the world he saith Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanton ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter Ye have condemned and killed the just and he doth not resist you There 's your usage Be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord There 's the remedy But must we stay so long he thus repeateth his advice Be ye also patient stablish your hearts for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh Let your moderation be known to all men the Lord is at hand Phil. 4. 5. Shall not God avenge his own elect that cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily Luke 18. 7 8. There 's no contradiction between crying long and avenging speedily 5. Consider what compassion rather then reproach you owe to those by whom you suffer They do themselves much more hurt then they do you Are they great they have the more to answer for and their fall will be the greater Jam. 5. 1 2 3. If you are your selves believers go into the Sanctuary and ask the Scriptures what will be their end and then deny them compassion if you can Alas consider they are at the worst but such as you were formerly your selves as to the main Paul makes a sad confession of his own persecution of the Church when he was before Agrippa and doth not complain that he was himself so hardly used I verily thought saith he with my self that I ought to do many things contrary to the Name of Jesus 〈◊〉 of the Saints I shut up in prison little thinking that they were Saints I gave my voice against them I punished them oft in every Synagogue And being exceedingly mad against them I persecuted them Acts 26. 9 10 11 12. He would not tell Agrippa that he was mad but he might speak more freely of himself O sirs pitty poor men that have the temptations of worldly greatness and prosperity and must go through a Camels eye if they will come to heaven who stand so high that sun and wind have the greatest force upon them Who see so much vanity and little serious exemplary piety who hear so much flattery and falshood and so little necessary truth saith Seneca Divites cum omnia habeant unum illis deest scilicet qui verum dicat si enim in client●●am falicis hominis potentumque perveneris veneris aut veritas aut amicitia perdenda est If you were in their places you know not how far you might be prevailed against your selves If little temptations can make you miscarry in your places so oft and foully as you do what would you do if you had the strongest baits of the world and allurements of the flesh and the most dangerous temptations that Satan could assault you with Have you not seen of late before your eyes how low some have fallen from high professions and how shamefully the most promising persons have miscarried tha were lifted up and put to the tryal of such temptations of prosperity as they had never been used to before O pitty those that have such dangerous tryals to pass through and be thankful that you stand on safer ground and do not cruelty envy them their perils nor reproach them for their falls but pray and daily pray for their recovery 6. Consider this speaking evil of those by whom you suffer hath too much of selfishness and corrupted nature in it to be good If another suffered as you do and you were advanced as another is would you not speak more mildly then Or if not so yet the proneness of nature to break out into reviling words though it were for Religion and for God doth intimate to you that it hath a suspicious root Do you find it as easie to be meek and patient and forgive a wrong and love an enemy Take heed lest you serve Satan in vindicating the cause of God It s an unfit way of serving God to do it by breaking his Commands Read seriously the description of a contentious hurtful soul-tongued zeal in Jam. 3. and then tell me what thanks Christ will give you for it The two great Disciples James and John thought it would have notably honoured Christ and curbed the raging Spirit of the ungodly if he would have let them call for fire from heaven to consume a Town that refused to receive him But doth Christ encourage their destroying zeal No but he tells them Ye know not what spirit ye are of They little knew how unlike to the tender merciful healing Spirit of Christ that fiery hurting spirit was that provoked them to that desire nor how unpleasing their temper was to Christ This is the very case of many thousand Christians that are yet young and green and harsh and have not attained to that mellowness and sweetness and measure of charity that is in grown experienced Christians They think their passions and desires of some plagues on the contemners of the Gospel are acceptable to God and blame the charitable as too cold when they little know what spirit it is that raiseth that storm in them and how unlike and unacceptable it is to Christ Were you as zealous to serve all others in love and to stoop to their feet for their salvation and to become all things lawful to all men that you may win some this saving zeal would be pleasing to your Lord who comes to do the work of a Physician and not of the Souldier to save and not to destroy and therefore most approves of those that serve him most diligently in his saving work 7. Lastly consider your passions and evil speakings will but increase your suffering and make it seem just if otherwise it were unjust If you are not meek you have not the promise of inheriting the earth Matth. 5. 5 If you honour not your Parents or superiours you have not the promise that your daies shall be long in the land And your evil speaking will make men conclude that you would do evil if you could and durst As it s said to be Zoilus answer when he was askt why he spoke evil of Plato and such worthy men Quoniam malum facere cum velim non passum

the Chappel of a Saint in Pilgrimage in carrying about them a bone or some other supposed relict of a supposed Saint In confessing their sins so often to a Priest and doing penance if he impose it on them And so while they live in whoredom or drunkenness or swearing or lying or all these and many other such it is but confessing and doing penance and to it again on which account whatever some of them say for the necessity of contrition it is usual with them to venture upon the sins of whoredom drunkenness and the rest because they have so easie and cheap a remedy at hand And therefore I wonder not that among Infidels who after Baptism Apostatize to deny the holy Scriptures and the immortality of the soul and the life to come and among common swearers and cursers and whoremongers and drunkards the Papists find their labours most successeful and that no fish will so easily take their bait Nor do I wonder that it is a point of the Popish faith that none but the Children of the Devil that are void of the love of God and are unjustified can possibly turn Papists For they tell us that all are such till they are Papists saving that they are many of them for the salvation of heathens A poor wretch that is captivated to his odious lusts and goes under a galled accusing conscience will be content to take a Popish cure and quiet his soul with a few complements and formalities But to bring one of these men to a through conversion to a true humiliation to a deep hatred of all sin and a love of holiness to close with Christ as his only refuge from the wrath of God and to give up himself without any reservation and all that he hath to the will and service of the Lord to love God as his portion and the infinite transcendent good to take all the honour and riches of the world as loss and dung and use all in due subserviency to everlasting happiness to crucifie the flesh and mortifie all his earthly inclinations and live a life of self-denyal and to walk with God and serve him as a Spirit in spirit and in truth and to keep a watch over thoughts affections words and deeds to live by faith upon a world and happiness that is to us unseen and to live in preparation for their death and wait in hope to live with Christ this is Christianity and true Religion and this is it that they will not so easily be brought to It s easier to make an hundred Papists then one true regenerate Christian Children can make them a baby of clouts And the statuary can make a man of Alabaster or stone But none can give life which is essential to a man indeed but God There needeth the Spirit of the living God by a supernatural operation and a kind of new creation to make a man a real holy Christian But to bring a man to make such a congee or wear such a vesture or say such and such words and make to himself a mimical Religion this may be done without any such supernatural work O therefore take heed of cheating your souls by hypocritical formalities instead of the life and power of Religion Vse 2. ANd now O that the Lord of life would help me so to apply this truth and help you so to apply it to your selves that it might be as a light set up in the Assembly and in all your consciences to undeceive the miserable self-deceivers and to bring poor Hypocrites into some better acquaintance with themselves and to turn their seeming Vain Religion into that which is real and serious and saving And now I am to search and convince the Hypocrite I could almost wish that all the upright tender souls that are causelesly in doubt of their own sincerity were out of the congregation lest they should misapply the Hypocrites portion to themselves and think it is their case that I am describing as it is usual with ignorant patients especially if they be a little melancholy when they hear or read the description of many dangerous diseases to think that all or some of them are theirs because they have some symptomes very like to some of those which they hear or read of Or lest their fearful souls should be too much terrified by hearing of the misery of the Hypocrite as a fearful child that 's innocent will cry when he sees another whipt that 's faulty But if thou wilt stay and hear the Hypocrites examination I charge thee poor humbled drooping soul that thou do not misunderstand me nor think that I am speaking those things to thee that are meant to the falshearted enemies of the Lord and do not imagine that thou art condemned in his condemnation nor put not thy self under the stroaks that are given him but rejoyce that thou art saved from this state of self-deceit and misery And that thou mayst have some shelter for thy conscience against the storm that must fall on others look back on the foregoing description of the Hypocrite and thou mayst find that thou hast the saving graces which I there discovered him to want Let these at present be before thine eyes and tell thee Thou art not the person that I mean 1. Thou art humbled to a loathing of thy self for thy transgressions 2. Thou art willing to give up thy self to Christ without reserve that as thy Saviour he may cure thy miserable soul upon his own terms 3. The favour of God is dearer to thee then the favour of the world or the pleasures and prosperity of sinners and thou longest more to love him better and to feel his love then for any of the honours or advancements that flesh and blood desire 4. It is the life to come that thou takest for thy portion and preferest before the matters of this transitory life 5. Thy Religion employeth thee about thy heart as much as about the out side and appearing part It is heart-sins that thou observest and lamentest and a better heart that thou daily longest and prayest and labourest for 6. Thou livest not in any gross and deadly sin and thou hast no infirmity but what thou longest and labourest to be rid of and goest on in the use of Christs holy means and remedies for a cure 7. Thou dislikest not the highest degree of holiness but lovest it and longest after it and hadst rather be more holy then be more honourable or more rich 8. Thou unfeignedly lovest the image of Christ on the souls of all his servants where thou canst discern it and seest a special excellency in a poor humble heavenly Christian though never so low or despicable in the world above all the pompe and splendor of the earth and thou lovest them with a special love and the holier they are the better dost thou love them 9. Thou lovest the most convincing searching Sermons and wouldest fain have help to know the worst that is in thy

texts before cited and abundance such Christ will be a Saviour but he is the Saviour of his body and not of the affixed hypocrites Eph. 5. 23. And his body is the Church which is subject to him ver 24. He will save to the utmost but whom even all that come to God by him Heb. 7. 25. but not those that make the world their God and would put God off with a few running heartless words and duties It is the living fruitful branches that he will save but the withered branches he casteth forth to be burned in the fire Joh. 15. 2 6 7. No man can serve God and Mammon nor live both to the Spirit and the flesh he that hath two hearts hath none that 's acceptable unto God he that hath two faces a face of devotion in his formal customary services and a face that smiles on the world and fleshly pleasures when he hath done hath none that God will ever smile upon The leaves of the barren fig-tree saved it not from the curse of Christ Matth. 21. 18 19. Hew it down and cast it into the fire shall be the sentence of the most flourishing tree that 's fruitless Luk. 13. 7. The earth that drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it and bringeth forth herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed receiveth blessing from God but that which beareth thorns and bryers is rejected and is nigh to cursing whose end is to be burned Heb. 6. 7 8. So that if thy Religion be vain the blood of Christ and all the treasures of his grace will be vain to thee that are saving unto others An Infidel may then as well expect to be saved by the Christ whom he rejected as thou Nay it is Christ himself that will condemn thee It is his own mouth that will say to such as thee Depart from me ye that work iniquity And though thou couldest say Lord Lord I have Prophesied or cast out devils or done many wonderful works in thy Name he will profess to thee that he never knew thee or owned thee Matth. 7. 22 23. If crying would then serve I know thou wouldst not spare thy cryes But he must so pray as to be accepted and heard on earth that looks to be accepted and regarded then when the miserable soul with endless horrours in its eye is looking round about for help and findeth none when all the creatures say We cannot and he that can shall say I will not who can apprehend the calamity of such a soul What soul so sleepy and regardless now that will not then cry Lord Lord open to us when the door is shut and it is too late Matth. 25. 10 11 12. Then if thou roar in the anguish of thy soul and cry out to him that saveth others Condemn me not O Lord but save me also Now Lord have mercy on a miserable sinner save me or I am lost for ever save me or I must burn in yonder flames Turn not thy heart against an undone perishing soul If thou cast me off I have no hope A thousand such cryes would be in vain because thou hadst but a vain Religion Prov. 1. 24 c. Because I have called and ye refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but ye have set at nought all my counsel and would none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity I will mock when yonr fear cometh when your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon you Then shall they call upon me but I will not answer they shall seek me early but they shall not find me Therefore they shall eat of their own way and be filled with their own devices saith the Lord. And when hell hath once taken thee into its possession if thou cry and roar there ten thousand millions of ages it will be all in Vain Thy strongest and thy longest cryes cannot procure thee a drop of water to cool thy tongue tormented in those flames Luke 16. 24 25 26. In a word if thy Religion be Vain all 's Vain to thee Thy life it self is Vain Eccles 6. 12. thou walkest in a Vain shew Psal 39. 6. Thou disquietest thy self in Vain in all thy labours Psal 39 6. and 127. 1 2. and vanity and vexation is all that thou shalt possess Eccles 1. 2 14. Prov. 22. 8. And if conscience when thy day of grace is past shall force thee upon the review to say My piety was but seeming and self-deceit and all my Religion was Vain it will be the voice of utter desperation and will stab the heart of all thy hopes This and no better being the self-deceivers case is not conscience now at work within you and asking as each of the Disciples did Mat. 26. 24 25. Is it I If thou have a heart within thee beseeming a reasonable creature by this time thou art afraid of self-deceit and willing to be searched and to know thy hypocrisie while it may be cured For my part I shall pronounce no one of you personally to be an hypocrite as knowing that hypocrisie is a sin of the heart which in it self is seen by none but God and him that hath it But my business is only to help such to know and judge themselves Could I name the man to you in the Congregation that had none but a seeming vain Religion I am perswaded you would all look upon him as a most unhappy deplorable wretch Alas sirs Hypocrites are not so rare among us as some imagine There are few or none but Saints and Hypocrites in this Assembly or in most of the Assemblies in the land I think here are none that make not a profession of the Christian faith and of love to God All therefore that have not this faith and love must needs be Hypocrites as professing to be what they are not In your baptism you engaged and profest your selves the Disciples of Christ and gave up your selves in solemn Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost This Covenant you will say you stand to yet none of you will be known to have renounced your Christianity As Christians you use to come to these Assemblies and here to attend God in the use of his Ordinances and some of you to renew your Covenant with him in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper I meet with none that will say I am no Christian nor a servant of the God of Heaven I am an Infidel and Rebell against the Lord. I think there is none of you but would take it ill if I should call you such or should deny you to be Christians and men fearing God If therefore you are not such indeed you must needs be Hypocrites What say you Is there any of you that profess your selves to be ungodly unbelievers and servants of the Devil and will take this as your current title disclaiming the love and service of the Lord I