Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	worship_n	worship_v	worshipper_n	4,806	4	12.4611	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26915	Directions and perswasions to a sound conversion for prevention of that deceit and damnation of souls, and of those scandals, heresies, and desperate apostasies that are the consequents of a counterfeit, or superficial change / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1658 (1658)	Wing B1243; ESTC R15278	227,645	552

filial and of the right strain if Love be not its Companion Fear of punishment shews that you love your natural selves but it shews not that you love God and are true-hearted to him The Devils fear and tremble but they do not Love It is Love and and not Fear that is the Byas the Inclination and as I may say the Nature of the will of man By his Love it is that you must know what the man is The Philosopher saith Such as a man is such is his end which is all one as to say Such as a man is such is his Love You may Fear a thing at the same time when you hate it and it 's too common to have some hatred mixt with Fear You may be as much against God and his holy waies when Fear only drives you to some kind of religiousness as others are that scarce meddle with Religion at all The first thing that God looks at is what you would do and the next is what you do If you do it but had rather leave it undone you lose your reward and God will take it as if you had not done it For it was not you that did it if you did it not from Love but it was Fear that dwelleth in you God takes mens hearty Desires and Will instead of the Deed where they have not power to fulfill it But he never took the bare Deed instead of the Will A blockish kind of worship consisting in outward actions without the heart is fit to be given to a wooden god a sensless Idol but the true and living God abhorres it He is a Spirit and will be worshiped in Spirit and in Truth such worshipers he seeketh and such he will accept Joh. 4. 23 24. A begger will be glad of your Almes though you leave it with an ill will because he needeth it but God hath no need of you nor of your service and therefore think not that he will accept you on such termes That people worshipeth God in vain that draw near him with their mouth and honour him with their lips when their heart is farre from him Mat. 15. 8 9. A mans heart is where his Love is rather then where his Fear is If you should lie still upon your knees or in the holy Assembly If you should be the strictest Observer of the Ordinances on the Lords daies and yet had such hearts in you as had rather let all these alone if it were not for fear of punishment it will all be disregarded and reckoned to you according to your wills as if it had never been done by you at all It 's Love that must win Love or make you fit for Love to entertain If you give your goods to the poor or your bodies to be burned in a cause that in it self is good and yet have not Love it availeth nothing 1 Cor. 13. 1 2 3 5. You will not think your Wife hath conjugall affections that loveth another man better then you and had rather be gone from you if she could live without you It 's an unnatural Son that loves not his Father but had rather be from him then with him If God called you to a bestiall drugery or slavery he would then look but for your work and not care much whether you be willing or unwilling If your Ox draw your plow and your Horse carry his burden you care not much whether it be willingly or unwillingly Or if it be an enemy that you have to deal with you will look for no more then a forced submission or that he be disabled from doing you hurt But this is not your case It is a state of friendship that the Gospel calls you to you must be nigh to God his Children and the Members of his Sonne espoused to him in the dearest strongest bonds And do you think it is possible that this should be done without your wills and affections If you can be content with the Portion of a slave and an enemy then do your task and deny God your affections But if you look for the entertainment and Portion of a Friend a Child a Spouse you must bring the heart of a Friend and of a Child and of a Spouse Fear may do good by driving you to the use of means and taking out of your hands the things by which you would do your selves a mischief It may prepare you for saving Grace and when you are sanctified it will prove a necessary servant of Love to keep you in awe and save you from temptations But Love is the ruling affection in the sanctified and fear is therefore necessary because of the present imperfection of Love and because of the variety of temptations that here beset us Think not therefore that you are savingly renewed till God have your very hearts When you do but believe and tremble it is better then to be unbelieving and stupid and secure but you are not true Christians till you believe and Love We use to fly from that which we fear and therefore do apprehend it to be evil to us We avoid the presence and company of those that we are afraid of but we draw nigh them that we love and delight in their company We Fear an Enemy We Love a Friend We Fear the Devil naturally but we do not Love him It is Love that is that Affection of the soul that entertaineth God as God even as Good though that Love must be accompanied with a filial fear even a dread and reverence of his Majesty and greatness and a fear of displeasing him If you should toile out your selves in Religious duties with a heart that had rather forbear them if you durst you have not the hearts of Gods Children in your breasts The Magistrate can frighten men to the Congregation and outward worship You may lock a man in the Church that had rather be away And will any man think that this makes him acceptable to God You may keep a Theif from stealing by prison and irons but this makes him not accepted with God as a true man You may cure a man of cursing and swearing and railing and idle and ribbald talking even in a minute of an hour by cutting of his tongue but will God accept him ever the more as long as he hath a heart that would do it if he could There 's abundance of people at this day that are kept from abusing the Lords day and from swearing and stealing yea and from laying hands on all about them that are godly and this by the Law of man and the fear of present punishment And do you think that these are therefore innocent or acceptable with God By this account you may make the Devil a Saint when he is chained up from doing mischief You may as well say that a Lyon is become a Lamb when he is shut up in his Den Or that a mastiff Dog is become harmelss and gentle when he is muzled Believe it sirs you are

Heb. 1. 6. And what are they all but Ministring spirits sent forth to Minister for them who shall be heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. And therefore sent forth by Jesus Christ the Lord of Saints Which makes some think that the title of Angels was never given to any of these Spirits till the Mediators undertaking and that it was only as they were his deputed messengers or servants for the Ends of that undertaking Sure we are they attended his birth with their acclamations and his life and sufferings as far as was meet with their service and that they are deputed to bear his servants in their hands that they dash not their foot against a stone that they are ascending and descending and are present with the Churches in their Holy Worship and that they rejoyce at the Conversion of one sinner and that the least of Christ's servants have their Angels beholding the face of God and that the Law was given by their disposition or ordination and they attend the departing Souls of Believers and that they contend against evill spirits for our good and are encamped about us and that they shall attend the Lord at his coming to Judgment and be his glorious retinue and Instruments in the work and that they are numbred with us as members of the same Heavenly Jerusalem and that we shall be like or equall to them Luke 2. 14 15. Marke 4. 11. Luke 22. 43. Acts 10. 6 7 22. Psal. 34. 7. 91. 11. Matth. 13. 39 41. 16. 27. 24. 31. 25. 31. 26. 53. Luke 16. 22. Matth. 18. 10. 2 Thes. 1. 7. Luke 20. 36. Marke 12. 25. Acts 7. 65. Gal. 3. 19. Heb. 12. 22. 2 Pet. 2. 11. Luke 15. 10. Joh. 1. 51. Yea men must be either confessed or denied owned or disowned before the Angels Luke 12. 8 9. See Rev. 19. 18. Rev. 3. 5. But if all this seem not sufficient to perswade you that the Angels are so far interessed in the affaires of God about the Redeemed as to behold and admire him in this blessed work take notice of the express affirmations of the Scriptures 1 Pet. 1. 12. Which things the Angels desire to look into And why but to see and admire the Wisdom and Power and Goodness and Mercy and Justice of God shining forth in the Redeemer If this be not plain enough mark well those words Ephes. 3. 10. To the intent that now unto the Principalities and Powers in Heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold Wisdom of God You see here that the Church of the Redeemed is that admirable looking glass which God hath set up to this very intent that his Angels may in it or by it behold the manifold Wisdom of God Yea and that upon the full revelation of Christ by the Gospel they saw that which did more fully inform and illuminate them No doubt but the very work of Creation yea of this inferior world that are made for the habitation and use of man are far better known to Angels then to man for we know but little of what we daily see and use And consequently it is by Angels more then by men that God is beheld admired and glorified in them And if it be so in these works of Creation we may well say it is so in the works of Redemption 3. But when we are perfected in Glory then we our selves shall clearly see the Glory of this Mystery and of God therein As it is not till we come to Heaven that we shall have the fullest benefits of Redemption so it is not till then that we shall have the fullest understanding of it and God have his fullest praises for it As we are here but sowing the seed of our own Glory which we must reap in the everlasting fruition of God so God is here but sowing those seeds of his Praise and Glory which he will eternally reap by this blessed work Do not therefore judg of the ends and fruits of Christ's undertakings by what you see him attain on Earth but by what he shall attain in Heaven when he hath fully seen the travail of his Soul to his satisfaction and hath presented the whole Church without spot unto God and when the glorious manage of the Lamb with the Heavenly Jerusalem is solemnized and the Kingdom delivered up to the Father Isa. 53. 11. Ephes. 5. 27. Rev. 19. 7. 1 Cor. 15. 24. It will be another manner of conceiving which we shall have in Heaven of this blessed work when we see the face of our Glorified Lord and fully possess the fruits of his Redemption then this is that we have now by our weak believing We shall then have another manner of sight of the Wisdom and Power and Love and Justice that appear to man in the face of Christ then now we have 4. Yea the tormenting discoveries of the Glory of Redemption to the condemned rejecters of it shall also contribute to the Glory of God You see then that this work hath most Glorious Ends which I have mentioned the more largely both to remove their temptations that are apt to think that it was an unnecessary thing and therefore the less regardable and to teach men the true value of it by shewing them the true Ends. For the former I say There was no necessity that God should make the world and reveale his Power and Wisdom and Goodness in this excellent frame but what did suppose the free Will of God the Original Cause Will you therefore say that the Creation is vaine and undervalue Gods admirable works in which he thus revealeth himself to the intellectuall Creatures So here we confess that there could be no necessity of Redemption but what was Originally derived from the Will of God though a necessity ad finem there was from the constitution of things upon supposition of what went before the undertaking But yet shall we undervalue so glorious a work in which the Divine perfections do so fully reveale themselves to the world And I say the more of this because I do observe that its the not apprehending the high and excellent Ends of Redemption that makes it so much slighted and consequently tempteth many to infidelity For the Ends and Uses do set the value on the means That is of little worth that is to little purpose and doth but little good If men understood more the Ends of Redemption and how much of God doth shine forth in the world in the Person and Life and Laws and Works of the Sonne of God they would then live in the admiration of it and be alwaies searching and prying into it and desire to know nothing but God in Christ Crucified and account all things else but as loss and dung for this excellent knowledg But alas the most do s●arce discern any higher Ends of Christ or other use of him then to save themselves from Hell and for want of Faith and through Humiliation they have but little sense