Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	holy_a	law_n	5,225	5	4.7359	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96973	Five sermons, in five several styles; or Waies of preaching. The [brace] first in Bp Andrews his way; before the late King upon the first day of Lent. Second in Bp Hall's way; before the clergie at the author's own ordination in Christ-Church, Oxford. Third in Dr Maine's and Mr Cartwright's way; before the Universitie at St Maries, Oxford. Fourth in the Presbyterian way; before the citie at Saint Paul's London. Fifth in the Independent way; never preached. With an epistle rendring an account of the author's designe in printing these his sermons, as also of the sermons themselves. / By Ab. Wright, sometimes Fellow of St John Baptist Coll. in Oxford.	Wright, Abraham, 1611-1690.	1656 (1656)	Wing W3685; Thomason E1670_1; ESTC R208406	99,151	247

stop their mouths Benjamin shal be bless'd with repose securitie and hee 'l gladly sit down with that Lastly surround Judah with a spatious crown and large territories you set him upon the highest pinacle of his ambition But now it is not wealth nor ease no nor honor that best suits with the Ephod all worldy blessings are jewels of too low a price too faint a blaze and lustre to be set there And therefore of Levi he said c. The text conteins the Levites portion and may be divided into three parts the Donor the Donative and as our Law terms it the Donee or partie endowed The Donor you have implied in the Pronoun Thy and that 's God who relates to each part for 't is Thy Thummim and Thy Urim and Thy holy One all are Gods And so 't is not our own perfection nor innate holinesse nor our own illumination or private spirit neither is this holy One one of our own making any invention of man but an order founded by God himself Secondly the Donative is double Thummim and Urim w ch are perfection and illumination as the Rabbins holinesse and learning as our own men interpret the two main things enquired after not onely by the Universitie in degrees but the Church in all her Ordinations And lastly the partie endowed with these gifts the holy One includes the whole Tribe of Levi by concomitance that of the Old by correspondence this of the New Testament For Thummim and Urim respects the Clergie in general and is as large as bot● Covenants Of these particulars very briefly and first of the Donor as he severally relates to Thummim Urim holy One Non per nos-ipsos necviribus natura sed perspiritum sanctum was the doctrine of Saint Austine and the Catholick Church our will here being like a lower sphere quae non nisi mota movet if no inspiration no co-operation and our graces are as the money in Benjamin's sack of anothers putting in all springing from Christ as the branches from the Vine and cease to be graces when they forget their Author Our strength then is but borrowed our going but leading in God's hand who is to us what his Cloud was to Israel if he please to make a stand we know not which way to turn our selves meer nature cannot direct to heaven and therefore wee say well in our praier for thine is the Power and the Glori● it being by that Power wee come to this Glorie Secondly as our Thummim so our Urim too is from God for there is no illumination but proceeds à Patre luminum saies Saint James from Him that enlightens every one that coms into the world à Patre per modum naturae as the child from the father à Patre luminum per modum emanationis as the shine from the Sun As well then the Fierie-tongues as the Dove come from on high Learning no lesse then Innocencie Thus if Saint Paul have a door of Utterance God himself keeps the Key if Isaiah's lips want purifying no lesse then a Seraphin must expiate them and hee too with no fire but the Altars neither Prophets nor Apostles can speak 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is in Acts 2. the wonderful works of the Lord unlesse the Holy Ghost first bring the Tongues But now quis vituperavit not the most factions but will agree that Thummim Urim all perfections and illuminations even those dim ones of their own private spirits are of God but this holy One not so far fetched therefore you take too much upon you yee sonnes of Levi seeing all the Congregation is holy even as your selves And it must needs be granted they are so all the Congregation of the Lord sanctified as well as his Priests yet not to the same degree of holinesse but they sicut populus as Gods people these sicut Aaron as his peculiar servants they are holy 't is true but these holiest of holies Hence it was that when the Law kept Ordinations certain pieces of the Sacrifice were put into the Priests hands and now instead of that a Bible into ours Not onely as a rule to direct but a sacred witness of that profession into which wee are by a Divine hand invested Hence also it is that we so often meet with a mittet operarios and a dabit Angelos all of Gods mission And indeed who more fit to appoint Laborers for the Vineyard then the Lord of the Farme who Steward for the house if not the Master None then may usurpe this holy charge assume this honour We are Embassadours and 't is treason to enter upon an Embassy before commanded by our Prince And therefore to bee 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a man 's own ordainer as Basil's word is to clap down into Moses chair upon a vain Enthusiasme is prophane presumption and not to undertake our Office but to invade it being so esteemed of God as may appear by that feareful Ironie to the false Prophets I sent them not yet they run run knowing nor why nor whither like Ahimaaz in Samuell and at length like him too they can tell no tidings Thus neither unbidden nor yet unprepared guests may come to this Supper of the Lord For a wedding garment is required Whom God imploies in his service hee calles and whom he calles he cloathes gives them as well abilities of doing as autority to do which leads me to my second part the double Donative Thummim and Vrim life and learning the two maine things enquired after by the Bishop in all Ordinations And of Levi hee said Let thy c. Thummim and Urim Religion takes place of Learning and he must first be good to himself that will be so to others For which end the antient Fathers led by example of the Prophets and Apostles saies our Canon appointed Ember-weeks before Ordination a strict severe government of our owne affections ere we have antority to guide the peoples example being the life of doctrine and therefore the Praedicants of old were called operarii quia opere magis quam ore praedicarent as Stella glosser and that both in respect of our calling and charge For our calling as 't is most eminent so most eyed and worst censured If an Apostle rub but an eare of corn on the sabbath 't is breaking of the day the peoples moates are the Priests beames and anothers indifferency is my evill somthings being expedient in respect of the man which are scandalous meerely for his coate None therefore to keepe within so strict lines as the Aaronite being one ever under monitors For behold saies the Apostle we are made a gazing-stock to the World to Angels to Men to men which are our charge Governors live not their owne lives alone but the peoples their actions being not personal but epidemical and whether good or bad are held authentick it being enough for the rout that their betters did so Do any of the rulers believe on him was thought

●rooke no defilement in the Priesthood we find Miriam ad Aaron both in the same sinne yet Miriam onely the Leper least saies S. Chrisostom Hom. 3 ad Colos the uncleannesse of the others person should sticke upon his office and therefore I find a leprous King but no where a leprous Priest in all the Scripture Now seeing our outward bearing and persons must be blamelesse why should not our condition be so To effect this nothing better then a continual meditation of that solemne pompe and Ceremony used in our Orders When the reverend Prelate laies his hand on thy head remember thou art then manumniz'd from all secular ties and sequestred no lesse from the Callings of the people then their vices and certainly the holy impression of Episcopal hands set o● from above is such an Elixar as by con●action if there be any disposition of goodnesse in the baser mettle it will render it of the propertie Again when thou takest the Bible with autoritie to dispence the Word and Sacraments Oh! let us not abuse our Masters trust in betraying that sacred pledge to the vain Pulpit applan●e and Church flatterie of a giddie multitude but may that Apocalyptical curse be ever before thee of adding or detracting from the words of Gods book quod dicitur in falsatores hujus libri doctrinae which is denounc'd saies a Father against such as ravish Scripture to force out doctrines for their own ends and then emptie their rancour by turning them to Uses But above all those divine extasying words Receive the Holy Ghost strike through the soul the very sound comes crosse me and ties down those hands which otherwise might stab my brother that tongue which else might curse my King or blaspheme my God Receive the Holy Ghost the syllables are an historie and present my thoughts with all those sacred breathings of the Spirit throughout the Scripture Here I finde a single Prophet possess'd of a double portion and heir no lesse to Eliah's Spirit then his Mantle there twelve Aprostles each speaking with as many tongues whose powerful Rhetorick did convert thousands at a Sermon their edifying being a conquest and their Proselites not so properly to be styled a Congregation as a people Receive the Holy Ghost Good God what more can we ask or thou bestow The holy Ghost Why then as S. Paul saies receive also the gift of Prophesie by the same Spirit the gift of Healing by the same Spirit the gift of Miracles by the same Spirit But these are Apostolical talents and wee O Lord the most unprofitable of thy servants are altogether unworthie the meanest of thy gifts yet vouchsafe us we beseech thee who have now devoted our selves for thy service to be filled though with the smallest measure of thy holy Spirit to be overshadowed but with a single feather of that Dove enlightned with the least ray of that Cloven-tongu'd fire and this for thy Gospels sake for thy promise sake for thy Son our Saviour Jesus Christ his sake to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be ever as is most c. FINIS THE Third Sermon Which is that in D r Maine's and M r Cartwright's Style or Way of Preaching Delivered before the Universitie at Saint MARYES in Oxford MAT. 10. 16. Behold I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves be yee therefore wise as serpents and harmlesse as doves LONDON Printed for Edward Archer at the Adam and Eve in Little Britain Anno Dom. 1656. Canticles 2. Vers 2. As the Lillie among the thorns so is my love among the daughters AS Abraham's mystical Ram in the thicket when Isaac was offered up on mount Moriah and yet not sacrific'd was Christ crown'd with thorns so Solomon's typical Lillie in the text is Christ's Church inthron'd among the briers who though she bee born a King's daughter yet is her coronet but in-lai'd with thorns and though the 45 Psalm cloaths her with a robe of wrought gold and all glorious within yet is this glorie of her roial apparel at the best but the glorie of the Ermine shadowed over and eclips'd with the black spots and that gold but the gold of the Psalmists furnace seven times purified and martyr'd in the flame Now that the coat of Christ's Spouse hath been thus blazon'd all Historie both Ecclesiastical and Civil will be our Heralds and witnesse Ensebius with his fellow-pens of Church-storie have sufficiently written the Acts and Monuments of this truth their volumnes being so many books of Martyrs in which you may read the Christian baptiz'd in his own blood and receiving his confirmation from the fire being condemned ad bestias onely for the Roman sport and recreation and to the stake in usum nocturni luminis saies Tacitus to save the Citie-candle and light home passengers in a dark night Our religion in the mean time being scandalized for superstitio exitiabilis the very fate and bane of Common-wealths and the professors of it for novatoresrerum the grand Innovators and Boutefeus of the world Insomuch saies Tertullian that if an Earthquake shook town or territorie straight Christianitie was called in question as if the breath of Christian praiers vented in religous caves the onely Temples of those daies had rais'd that subterraneous winde and their grones caus'd the motion And for this reason etiam susp●ria lac●rimae scribebantur saith the historian their very tears were registred as the Malignant Partie and their ●ighs for plots against the State And all this ●t implere●●r that Gods Word might be fulfilled and written the second time in the afflictions of his Church Thus Nero persecuting in the Roman storie is the red dragon driving the woman to the wildernesse in S. John's Prophesie and the Churches martyrdom the truth of that type the sight of that vision and even the revelation of the Apocalypse Or if you will the Woman there is the Love here in the text that Wildernesse these Thorns representing to you the face of this glasse the original and person of this picture or similitude As the Lillie c. This text you heard me now call a picture or similitude in which picture as in all draughts of the pencil you may behold the lights the shadows the lights shining forth in the Lillie and the Love the shadows mask'd under the Thorns and the Daughters for those black Thorns are as the shadow to this white Lillie and these soul daughters the foil to set off that fair Love Now as all pictures must have their place of view so may it please you to look upon for a third particular the seat or standing of this Lillie it is in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the middle or among the Thorns and last of all to vouchsafe a glance or two upon the Artisan himself implied in the particle my As the Lillie among the Thorns so is my Love my who am the Limmer that hath drawn and owes this piece whose hand protects it here and

to say after him The flesh profiteth nothing If you onely know Christ as dying and rising without you it will profit you nothing unlesse you know him as dying and rising within you Any man is capable of remembring the storie of Christ and rehearsing it if hee have but common reason and can say as well as another that Christ died for him and can throw himself upon Christ and can hang upon Christ this is not faith this is not salvation for saith James Faith without works is dead and Rom. 8. 2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath `made me free from the law of sin and death he doth not say that such a proposition or text of the Gospel did set him free he doth not say that the hearing that Christ died for the sins of men doth set him free No there was the Spirit of life in Christ as well as the law or letter it is that entails life upon Christ and his seed There is an outward Covenant and there is an inward Spirit The outward Covenant is this I will be thy God and the God of thy seed and may not any man pretend to be in this Covenant of this seed do not thousands professe themselvs to be so Do not thousands in the world say Lord Lord Lord and presse to enter into heaven We cannot put a difference betwixt one or other except we know this truth for they say they are within the Covenant and of Christs seed and what hold they forth for this they hold forth the confession of Christ and say that he died for their sin and rose for their justification and this they believe and upon this they lay their souls for salvation May not the veriest hypocrite do so as well as the truest Saint but here 's that which puts the difference when the spirit of Christ brings this Covenant to the heart of a poor creature when the Spirit of Adoption the Spirit of son-ship revealing God as our Father revealing God in Union with us our righteousnesse our strength hee doth indeed seal us to the day of Redemption he sets apart Christs sheep and this distinguisheth them from the other So that if you lay salvation upon an historical Christ you 'l be deceived If you would have that in which you may confide you must have Christ revealed in you in the Spirit you must have the same Spirit of Faith that was in Christ and the same spirit of power that wrought in him you must have the same eternal spirit by which you must offer up your bodies offer up your flesh to God as a sacrifice yea your selves and your own righteousnesse this is true salvation this is salvation manifested unto life To make this yet more clear I shal shew you the difference between Christ in the flesh and Christ in the Saints between that work of God within us and that work of God in Christ the latter is the truth of the former Sanctifiethem through thy truth Joh. 17. 17. that is do thou act those things really in them which are done in a figure for them upon mee there is the truth I desire to clear this to you by some familiar experience You know that Jesus Christ is said to die for our sins and rise for our justification Here is now Christ in the flesh here is his ministration Why now hereupon salvation is preach'd to men and they are told that God is reconciled for he hath sent his Son there is nothing to be done God is reconciled his justice satitfied onely believ Here is the outward difpensation But now a poor soul notwithstanding all this lies under the guilt and weight of sin whereby he cannot believe or take comfort in these glad tidings Do you not see that there is need of another ministration Is there not need of the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus as well as the proposition of the Gospel You come and shew a poor soul the proposition of the Gospel that whosoever believeth in Christ shall have eternal life Yet all this while the poor soul lies dead till not onely the letter but the spirit of the Gospel comes and appears to him till Christ appears not onely in his first Court that is his own flesh or the letter of the Gospel but the inmost place of all that is in this man's conscience For wee may allude to Heb. 9. 24. That Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us These words are spoke figuratively It is true he went visibly into heaven that is a place remote from their sight a cloud received him out of their sight The true heaven and that heaven where Christ doth appeare to the comfort and releife of a poor soul is the conscience of a poor sinner and that is called heaven because as heaven is the place of God so is the heart of man He is sayd ●o be the searcher of the heart God sits there and wounds and heales there that is God's true place It is not in the understanding of a man in the Notions there but it is in the heart of man there it is gone Christ in the spirit is in the heart of his people that is Christs place and there it is that Christ Jesus speakes a word for a poor soul there it is that Christ Jesus sits as King in our conscience Christ may offer himself long enough in the letter in the history of the Gospel but if he appeare not in the spirit and sit in our consciences to quiet them we shall never have any true understanding of the word Now for this reason I shall desire you to looke within your selves and I make no question but if you do wait upon God without prejudicate spirits he will clear this truth unto you And now while I come to some application of this truth I shall desire you in the feare of God not to mistake me Let us take heed of idolizing even the humanity of Jesus Christ himselfe of idolizing his doings and his sufferings We see God through these doings and sufferings of Jesus Christ as through a glasse but it is not blasphemie to say that a believer may come to see a love born unto him above and before the manifestation of it in the sufferings of Jesus Christ he may see it in God himself though by Christ Do not think you know so much as you need to know in knowing the flesh of Christ in knowing the man Christ Jesus for unlesse you know God in his appearance under that form you mistake Christ and make him an Idol I am nothing saith Christ and hee that sends is greater then he that is sent If God be greater then Christ then Christ himselfe is but a medium through which you come to be acquainted with God and in which you must not rest Take