Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	holy_a	lord_n	person_n	5,336	5	4.9465	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12177	The Christians end. Or, The sweet soveraignty of Christ, over his members in life and death VVherein is contained the whole scope of the godly mans life, with divers rules, motives and incouragements, to live and die to Iesus Christ. Being the substance of five sermons preached to the honorable society of Grayes Inne, by that learned and faithfull minister of Gods Word, Richard Sibbes, D.D. and sometimes preacher to that honorable societie.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1639 (1639)	STC 22485; ESTC S117259	45,936	138

it is a phrase impor●ing a direction to a duty And likewise to confirme and comfort us in this that we do our duty VVee doe not serve a dead Master but one that taketh notice of us living and dying So to die to the Lord is to acknowledge Christ to be the Lord of life and the Lord of death of death as well as of life Hee hath the keyes of Hell and of Death and the disposing of both Therefore wee must resigne up our selves to him in death And then study to honour him by death in any kinde yea by Martyrdome if he shal cal us to seale the truth of Religion with bloud And then to acknowledge him to be owner of us and one that wil receive us dying As he took notice of us living And so the words are a privilege as well as a duty As it is sealed up in the last words Whether wee live or die wee are the Lords Thus I have unfolded the text Hee first promiseth the general negative No man liveth to himself no man dieth to himselfe You must apply this to Christians onely that are true Professors and members of Christ. For other men that are not in Christ have not the spirit of Christ they live to themselves and die to themselves and ayme at themselves in all things and therefore they are not the Lords Therfore it is a fearful condition to live and die to our selves Yet you have some kinde of men not onely in their particular persons but in their callings are all for themselves but why should I call it calling for there is no calling but it is for publike good As an Vsurer for whose good is he Let all sink or swim what careth hee so times hold and moneths and yeeres continue hee wil have his returns And such are they that live in a cours● of oppression that live by the ruine and spoyle of others But there is a more subtile living to a mans selfe as all men doe that have not the spirit of Christ they live within that circle selfe the Devil keepeth them that they goe not out of it so that s●lfe doth run through all their actions their civill a ions yea their religious actions which are all tainted with self-respects Ever since the fall it is so Man withdraweth himself from Gods government and setteth up himselfe instead of God thought to have a secured happines from God in eating the forbidden fruit and therfore would not depend upon God to be happy He saw another way to be like God God hath highest place in our heart by order of Creation and according to the degrees of excellency in things should our esteeme of them be every thing being beautifull in his place But where God is put down as he is in all men till they be in Christ something self-love sets up in the heart above God Hence commeth the necessity of this method of taking us off from our selves before wee can live to Christ because self-love is an impediment and blocke in the way betweene us and Christ heaven end happines And therfore Christ begins the Gospel with self-denial Whosoever will be my Disciple let him take up his Crosse and follow mee Now there be foure degrees of selfe There is 1. Naturall 2. Civill 3. Sinfull 4. Religious Selfe First naturall selfe is the state wee are in as men Secondly Civill as we are poor or rich or honourable according to our severall places in the Common-wealth Thirdly sinfull selfe is as we are carried to sinfull lusts and the Cr●ature Fourthly Religious self is our Condition in Christ when we are ingreaffed into him and made new Creatures Now we must not live to our selves First not to our naturall selfe VVe must not live onely to live For as all other Creatures are to serve us so wee are to serve something else that is better For that that is not of it selfe cannot be for it self Now we have not beings from our selves but from God he giveth us beings and a being in that ranke of Creatures wherin we are Therfore our naturall self must be to a higher end A man is not the end of things there is another end then he and that is God who is of himselfe hath made all other things for himselfe And therfore riches and honours and the like wee should not live to our civill selfe Nature teacheth us that having spirits we are not for any thing meaner then our selves We do not live here to be rich to be great to command others for these things do not answer the soule of man First Nothing that hath an end can be a chief end That that hath ●inem consummatum cannot be finis consummans That that hath an end consuming it self cānot be an end perfecting it self We have a journy beyond all things and that cannot be our end that leaveth us in the way Riches and honour are determined in death Let our preferments be never so great thogh to the Monarchy of the whole World yet we have a being beyond them They have consumptions in themselves And then they be inferiour No truth in them can fill up the understanding no good in them can fill up the will But the understanding can pierce through them And the will in rellishing and tasting the good of them can looke on them as cast commodities It can quickly suck out all the sweet that is in them Therfore they cannot be a mans end because hee hath larger parts then they can fill That that must be mans end must be larger then the soule and that wherin hee can rest it must be some universall good fit for all turns and purposes Now there is nothing in the VVorld that hath more then a particular service for mens particular service for mens particular ends Honour can doe something but not all things Riches cannot command health they cannot cure a fit of an ague they be for a particular good onely They can command many things but not al things Men consider what they can do therfore desire them But they consider not what they cannot do and therefore they rest in them That which is a mans last end must be a satisfying general universal good an immortal good of equal co●tinu●ance with hi● as nothing in the world is It must be such a good as hee cannot offend or be defiled with all Such as hee cannot misuse And what is there in the World but Christ and the best things but a man is prone to defile himselfe in Knowledge is the best thing but that worketh like leaven it swels as the Apostle saith Knowledge puffeth up Therfore wee must live to no worldly thing And much lesse must we live to sinfull selfe Some things are to be denied in way of competition and in opposition but somthings are to be denied absolutly Absolutely a man must not owne or live to a base lust pride or sensuality Hee ow●th nothing to these

wee had sanctified judgements and hearts set at liberty it were an easie thing if we had judgements to see that we are never more our selves than when wee are not our selves that wee have a better being in Christ than in our selves that our selves are our worst enemies If the judgement were thus posse●t and the will and affections made answerable to this judgement it were easie to deny ourselves But selfe hinders the knowledge of it selfe all it can Peccatum impedit sui cognitionem sinne naturally hinders the knowledge of its owne foulenesse That which should discerne sinne is clouded and that which should hate sinne is ingaged to sinne So that under the use of meanes we must labour to know our condition and the foulenesse and danger of that condition And that is the excellency of Gods ordinances and divine truthes that by them we come to know our selves But I will not inlarge my selfe in that What it is to live and di● to the Lord wee have declared That it is to make Christ his chiefe aime and end and doe all in vertue of that end Then is a Christian in his right temper when Gods end Christs end and his end have the same centre A qualification very excellent That that makes God delight in his children so much is that they have the same end the same God the same spirit with Christ. It is so excellent to prefixe a right end to ail our actions that it spirituallizeth common actions As Saint Paul saith of servants They serve the Lord in serving their masters Whatsoever the stuffe of our actions be yet in that aime and spirit in which they bee done they may be services of the Lord. Now life implyeth the whole course of our actions all our actions should be to the Lord immediately and directly or mediately and reductively as they are quickened by the Spirit of God And that is the excellency of a christian hee considers of every thing as it helpeth his last end As on the other side a base worldling considers Religion and all things else as they sute to his worldly aimes but to speake of the next point Whether wee live or dye wee are the Lords This is the inference drawne from the former two generals negative and affirmative None of us liveth to our selves or dyeth to our selves And from thence it is inferred whether we live or dye wee are the Lords And as it is an inference raised from the former So wee may consider it as a cause why we must live to the Lord and dye to the Lord for whether we live or dye we are the Lords The words are a certaine bottome and foundation for a christians comfort in the uncertainty of his condition here being between life death Sure he is of death as of life but when to dye and how long to live he is uncertaine But be that as it will be this is certaine living and dying he is the Lords So that take the whole condition of a christian take him in all estates of life or death which two divide the whole condition of man for all men may be ranked into these two orders of quick and dead I say consider a christian in either of them Christ is Lord of both take him in a condition of life while he liveth he is the Lords When hee giveth up his breath he is the Lords So that come of him what will in this uncertaine condition this is certaine and sure he is the Lords Now a Lord is he that hath Dominium in rem personam right to persons and things and the disposing of them pro arbitrio as it pleaseth himselfe and so Christ is Lord both of life and death First in generall as he is Lord of all creatures by Creation God having given all power into his hands both in heaven and in earth Secondly in a more particular manner and right Hee is Lord of all those that bee his by a peculiar gift from all eternity God hath given us to Christ in his eternall electing love Thine they were and thou gavest them me saith Christ. Thirdly and then we are Christs by his owne purchase we are the price of his bloud wee are bought with a price not of Gold or Silver but with his precious bloud by that price Gods justice is satisfied God so gave us to Christ that he gave him to redeem and shed his bloud for us that his iustice might be no looser Fourthly wee are his by Conquest For he being so excellent a person as God-man hath rescued us from all our enemies Sin Sathan Death Hell and whatsoever else what have they to doe with us when Gods iustice is once satisfied Fifthly those that are true believers are his in regard of a peculiar interest between him and them They give themselves over to him by a contract of marriage and covenant and therefore hee is Lord of them by their yeelding of themselves to him as a Lord they take him for a Lord as well as for a Saviour and that is the foundation of the spirituall marriage and the covenant of grace on both sides Christ giveth himselfe to us and wee by the spirit of Christ have grace to give our selves back againe to him By our owne voluntary Contract wee have given up our selves to him in our effectuall calling which is our answer to Gods call when hee calleth on us to be●lieve to take him and the soule answers Lord I believe and accept thee This by S. Peter is termed the answer of a good conscience 1 Pet. 3. and is when we can say I am thine thou art mine and I yeeld my selfe to thee to be disposed of by thee No Christian can claime Christ hi Lord but this contract hath passed between his soule and Christ. So that if ●ou looke to God the Father we are Christs by donation if you re●gard Christ himselfe wee are his by purchase if wee regard the enemies we have we are Christs by conquest if wee regard our selves we are his by voluntary acceptance of the covenant of grace and by contract past between him and us yea and Christ is so our Lord as that hee is our Husband our Lord as our King our Lord as our Head We owe to him a subjection as subjects a subjection as his Spouse a subjection as his disciples to be taught by him our Lord and Master Now the tearm of Lord is usually given to Christ rather than to God the Father both in the new testament the old too And if there were no other reason for it it is enough that God so stileth him But secondly God in the second person hath done those things that make him our Lord more than the Father or holy Ghost For hee in the second person hath taken our nature and died and rose againe for us and hath conquered all our enemies Hee hath in the second person made us his Spouse