Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	word_n	world_n	zeal_n	175	3	7.5394	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62594	A sermon preached November 5, 1678, at St. Margarets Westminster, before the Honourable House of Commons by John Tillotson ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1678 (1678)	Wing T1230; ESTC R217946	12,709	40

save them He says indeed else-where that he was not come to send Peace but a Sword which we are not to understand of the natural tendency of his Religion but of the accidental event and effect of it through the malice and perversness of Men But here he speaks of the proper intention and design of his coming He came not to kill and destroy but for the healing of the Nations for the salvation and redemption of Mankind not only from the wrath to come but from a great part of the evils and miseries of this life He came to discountenance all fierceness and rage and cruelty in men one towards another to restrain and subdue that furious and unpeaceable Spirit which is so troublesome to the world and the cause of so many mischiefs and disorders in it And to introduce a Religion which consults not only the eternal Salvation of mens souls but their temporal peace and security their comfort and happiness in this world The words thus explain'd contain this Observation That a revengeful and cruel and destructive Spirit is directly contrary to the design and temper of the Gospel and not to be excused upon any pretence of zeal for God and Religion In the prosecution of this Argument I shall confine my Discourse to these Three heads First To shew the opposition of this spirit to the true Spirit and design of the Christian Religion Secondly The unjustifiableness of it upon any pretence of zeal for God and Religion Thirdly To apply this Discourse to the occasion of this Day First I shall shew the opposition of this spirit to the true Spirit and design of the Christian Religion That it is directly opposite to the main and fundamental Precepts of the Gospel and to the great Paterns and examples of our Religion our blessed Saviour and the Primitive Christians 1. This spirit which our Saviour here reproves in his Disciples is directly opposite to the main and fundamental Precepts of the Gospel which command us to love one another and to love all men even our very enemies and are so far from permitting us to persecute those who hate us that they forbid us to hate those who persecute us They require us to be merciful as our Father which is in Heaven is merciful to be kind and tender-hearted forbearing one another and forgiving one another if any man have a quarrel against any even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us And to put on as the elect of God bowels of mercy meekness and long-suffering and to follow peace with all men and to shew all meekness to all men And particularly the Pastors and Governors of the Church are especially charged to be of this temper The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men apt to teach in meekness instructing those that oppose themselves if peradventure God will give them repentance to the acknowledgment of the truth To all which Precepts and many more that I might reckon up nothing can be more plainly opposite than inhumane Cruelties and Persections treacherous Conspiracies and bloody Massacres a barbarous Inquisition and a holy League to extirpate all that differ from us And in stead of instructing in meekness those that oppose themselves to convert men with fire and faggot and to teach them as Gideon did the men of Succoth with briars and thorns and instead of waiting for their repentance and endeavouring to recover them out of the snare of the Devil to put them quick into his hands and to dispatch them to hell as fast as is possible If the precepts of Christianity can be contradicted surely it cannot be done more grosly and palpably than by such practises 2. This Spirit is likewise directly opposite to the great paterns and examples of our Religion our blessed Saviour and the Primitive Christians It was prophesied of our Saviour that he should be the Prince of peace and should make it one of his great businesses upon earth to make peace in heaven and earth to reconcile men to God and to one another to take up all those feuds and to extinguish all those animosities that were in the world to bring to agreement and a peaceable demeanour one towards another those that were most distant in their tempers and interests to make the lamb and the wolf lie down together that there might be no more destroying nor devouring in all God's holy mountain that is that that cruel and destructive spirit which prevailed before in the world should then be banished out of all Christian societies And in conformity to these predictions when our Saviour was born into the world the Angels sang that heavenly Anthem Glory to God in the highest peace on earth and good will among men And when he appeared in the world his whole life and carriage was gentle and peaceable full of meekness and charity His great business was to be beneficial to others to seek and to save that which was lost he went about doing good to the bodies and to the souls of men his miracles were not destructive to mankind but healing and charitable He could if he had pleased by his miraculous power have confounded his enemies and have thundred out death and destruction against the Infidel world as his pretended Vicar hath since done against Hereticks But intending that his Religion should be propagated in human ways and that Men should be drawn to the profession of it by the bands of love and the cords of a man by the gentle and peaceable methods of Reason and persuasion he gave no example of a furious zeal and religious rage against those who despised his Doctrine It was propounded to men for their great advantage and they rejected it at their utmost peril It seemed good to the Author of this Institution to compell no man to it by temporal punishments When he went about making proselytes he offered violence to no man only said If any man will be my disciple If any man will come after me And when his disciples were leaving him he does not set up an Inquisition to torture and punish them for their defection from the faith only says Will ye also go away And in imitation of this blessed Patern the Christian Church continued to speak and act for several Ages And this was the language of the holy Fathers Lex nova non se vindicat ultore gladio the Christian Law doth not avenge it self by the sword This was then the style of Councils Nemini ad credendum vim inferre to offer violence to no man to compel him to the faith I proceed in the Second place to shew the Unjustifiableness of this spirit upon any pretence whatsoever of zeal for God and Religion No case can be put with Circumstances of greater advantage and more likely to justify this spirit and temper than the case here in the Text. Those against whom the disciples would have called for fire from Heaven were Hereticks and Schismaticks from

A SERMON PREACHED November 5. 1678. AT St. MARGARETS Westminster Before the Honourable House of COMMONS By JOHN TILLOTSON D. D. Dean of Canterbury and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed by J. D. for Brabazon Aylmer at the three Pigeons over against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil And William Rogers at the Maiden-head over against St. Dunstan's Church in Fleetstreet 1678. A SERMON Preached before the Honourable House of Commons Novemb. 5. 1678. LUKE 9.55 56. But he turned and rebuked them and said Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of For the Son of Man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them AMong many other Things which may justly recommend the Christian Religion to the approbation of mankind the intrinsick goodness of it is most apt to make impression upon the Minds of serious and considerate men The Miracles of it are the great external evidence and confirmation of its truth and Divinity but the morality of its Doctrines and Precepts so agreeable to the best Reason and wisest apprehensions of mankind so admirably fitted for the perfecting of our natures and the sweetning of the spirits and tempers of men so friendly to human Society and every way so well calculated for the peace and order of the World These are the things which our Religion glories in as her crown and excellency Miracles are apt to awaken and astonish and by a sensible and over-powering evidence to bear down the prejudices of infidelity but there are secret charms in goodness which take fast hold of the hearts of men and do insensibly but effectually command our love and esteem And surely nothing can be more proper to the occasion of this Day than a Discourse upon this Argument which so directly tends to correct that unchristian spirit and mistaken zeal which hath been the cause of all our troubles and confusions and had so powerful an influence upon that horrid Tragedy which was designed now near upon fourscore years ago to have been acted as upon this Day And that we may the better understand the reason of our Saviour's reproof here in the Text it will be requisite to consider the occasion of this hot and furious zeal which appeared in some of his Disciples And that was this Our Saviour was going from Galilee to Jerusalem and being to pass through a Village of Samaria he sent messengers before him to prepare entertainment for him but the People of that Place would not receive him because he was going to Jerusalem The reason whereof was the difference of Religion which then was between the Jews and the Samaritans Of which I shall give you this brief account These Samaritans were originally that Colony of the Assyrians which we find in the Book of Kings was upon the Captivity of the Ten Tribes planted in Samaria by Salmanassar They were Heathens and worshipped their own Idols till they were so infested with Lions that for the redress of this mischief they desired to be instructed in the worship of the God of Israel hoping by this means to appease the anger of the God of the Country and then they worshipped the God of Israel together with their own Idols for so it is said in the History of the Kings That they feared the Lord and served their own Gods After the Tribe of Judah were returned from the Captivity of Babylon and the Temple of Jerusalem was rebuilt all the Jews were obliged by a solemn Covenant to put away their Heathen Wives It happened that Manasses a Jewish Priest had married the Daughter of Sanballat the Samaritan and being unwilling to put away his Wife Sanballat excited the Samaritans to build a Temple upon Mount Gerizim near the City of Samaria in opposition to the Temple at Jerusalem and made Manasses his Son in Law Priest there Upon the building of this new Temple there arose a great feud between the Jews and Samaritans which in process of time grew to so violent a hatred that they would not so much as shew common civility to one another And this was the reason why the Samaritans would not receive our Saviour in his journey because they perceived he was going to worship at Jerusalem At this uncivil usage of our Saviour two of his Disciples James and John presently take fire and out of a well-meaning zeal for the honour of their Master and of the true God and of Jerusalem the true place of his worship they are immediatly for dispatching out of the way these Enemies of God and Christ and the true Religion these Hereticks and Schismaticks for so they called one another And to this end they desire our Saviour to give them power to call for fire from Heaven to consume them as Elias had done in a like case and that too not far from Samaria and it is not improbable that their being so near the place where Elias had done the like before might prompt them to this request Our Saviour seeing them in this heat notwithstanding all the reasons they pretended for their passion and for all they sheltered themselves under the great Example of Elias doth very calmly but seseverely reprove this temper of theirs You know not what manner of Spirit ye are of for the Son of Man is not come to destroy mens lives but to save them Grotius observes that these two excellent Sentences are left out in a Manuscript that is in England I cannot tell what Manuscript he refers to but if it were a Copy written out in the height of Popery no wonder if some zealous Transcriber offended at this passage struck it out of the Gospel being confident our Saviour would not say any thing that was so directly contrary to the current Doctrine and practice of those times But thanks be to God this admirable Saying is still preserv'd and can never be made use of upon a fitter occasion Ye know not what manner of Spirit ye are of That is Ye own your selves to be my Disciples but do you consider what spirit now acts and governs you Not that surely which my Doctrine designs to mould and fashion you into which is not a furious and persecuting and destructive spirit but mild and gentle and saving tender of the lives and interests of men even of those who are our greatest Enemies You ought to consider That you are not now under the rough and sowr Dispensation of the Law but the calm and peaceable Institution of the Gospel to which the Spirit of Elias though he was a very good man in his time would be altogether unsuitable God permitted it then under that imperfect way of Religion but now under the Gospel it would be intolerable For that designs universal love and peace and good-will and now no difference of Religion no pretence of zeal for God and Christ can warrant and justifie this passionate and fierce this vindictive and exterminating spirit For the Son of Man is not come to destroy mens lives but to