Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
lord_n	creator_n	young_a	youth_n	255	3	8.3787	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53719	Phronēma tou pneumatou, or, The grace and duty of being spiritually-minded declared and practically improved / by John Owen ...	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1681 (1681)	Wing O792; ESTC R32198	236,039	359

the things which are esteemed accidental whence it may be we are strangely delivered Sometimes we have so in the things which we see to befall others by Thunder Lightning Storms at Sea or Land For all the works of God especially those that are rare and strange have a voice whereby he speaks unto us The first thing suggested unto a spiritual Mind in such seasons will be God is in this place he is present that liveth and seeth as Hagar confessed on the like occasion Gen. 16.13 14. 3. Have frequent Thoughts of Gods Omnipotency or his Almighty Power This most men it may be suppose they need not much Exhortation unto for none ever doubted of it who doth not grant it on all occasions Men grant it indeed in general for eternal Power is inseparable from the first notion of the Divine Being So are they conjoyned by the Apostle his eternal Power and Godhead Rom. 1.20 Yet few believe it for themselves and as they ought Indeed to believe the Almighty Power of God with reference unto our selves and all our Concernments Temporal and Eternal is one of the highest and most Noble Acts of Faith which includes all others in it For this is that which God at first proposed alone as the proper Object of our Faith in our entrance into Covenant with him Gen. 17.1 I am God Almighty That which Job arrived unto after his long exercise and Tryal I know saith he thou canst do every thing and no Thought of thine can be hindred Chap. 42.2 God hath spoken once saith the Psalmist twice have I heard this that Power belongs unto God Psal. 62.11 It was that which God saw it necessary frequently to instruct him in For we are ready to be affected with the Appearances of present power in Creatures and to suppose that all things will go according unto their wills because of their power But it is quite otherwise all creatures are poor feeble Ciphers that can do nothing Power belongs unto God it is a flower of his Crown Imperial which he will suffer none to usurp if the proudest of them go beyond the Bounds and Limits of his present Permission he will send Worms to eat them up as he did to Herod It is utterly impossible we should walk before God unto his Glory or with any real peace comfort or satisfaction in our own Souls unless our minds are continually exercised with Thoughts of his Almighty Power Every thing that befalls us every thing that we hear of which hath the Least of Danger in it will discompose our Minds and either make us tremble like the leaves of the Forrest that are shaken with the wind or betake our selves to foolish or sinful relief unless we are firmly established in the Faith hereof Consider the Promises of God unto the Church which are upon Record and as yet unaccomplished consider the present state of the Church in the world with all that belongs unto it in all the fears and dangers they are exposed unto in all the evils they are exercised withall and we shall quickly find that unless this Sheat-anchor be well fix'd we shall be tossed up and down at all uncertainties and exposed to most violent Temptations Rev. 19.6 Unto this end are we call'd hereunto by God himself in his Answer unto the despondent complaints of the Church in its greatest dangers and calamities Isa. 40. 28 29 30 31. Hast thou not known hast thou not heard that the Everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is weary There is no searching of his understanding He giveth power to the faint and to them that have no might he increaseth strength Even the youths shall faint and be weary and the young men shall utterly fall But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint Take one Instance which is the continual concernment of us all We are obnoxious unto Death every moment It is never the further from any of us because we think not of it as we ought This will lay our Bodies in the dust from whence they will have no more disposition nor power in themselves to rise again than any other part of the mould of the Earth Their recovery must be an act of external Almighty Power when God shall have a desire to the work of his hands when he shall call and we shall answer him out of the dust And it will transmit the Soul into an invisible world putting a final End unto all Relations Enjoyments and Circumstances here below I speak not of them who are stout-hearted and far from Righteousness who live and dye like Beasts or under the power of horrible Presumption without any due Thoughts of their future and Eternal state But as unto others what comfort or satisfaction can any man have in his Life whereon his All depends and which is passing from him every moment unless he hath continual Thoughts of the mighty power of God whereby he is able to receive his departing Soul and to raise his Body out of the dust Not to insist on more particulars Thus is it with them who are Spiritually minded thus must it be with us all if we pretend a Title unto that Priviledge They are filled with Thoughts of God in opposition unto that Character of wicked men that God is not in all their Thoughts And it is greatly to be feared that many of us when we come to be weighed in this Ballance will be found too Light Men may be in the performance of outward Dutyes they may hear the Word with some delight and do many things gladly they may escape the pollutions that are in the world through Lust and not run out into the same compass of Excess and Riot with other men yet may they be strangers unto inward Thoughts of God with delight and complacency I cannot understand how it can be otherwise with them whose minds are over and over filled with earthly things however they may satisfie themselves with pretences of their Callings and lawful Enjoyments or not any way inordinately set on the Pleasures or Profits of the world To walk with God to live unto him is not meerly to be found in an Abstinence from outward sins and in the performance of outward Duties though with Diligence in the Multiplication of them All this may be done upon such Principles for such Ends with such a frame of heart as to find no Acceptance with God It is our Hearts that he requireth and we can no way give them unto him but by our Affections and holy Thoughts of him with delight This it is to be spiritually minded this it is to walk with God Let no man deceive himself unless he thus abound in holy Thoughts of God unless our Meditation of him be sweet unto us all that we else pretend unto will fail us in the

in them and dis-esteem the chiefest Benefit which is to be obtained by them whence should Zeal for them delight in them or diligence in attendance unto them arise Let not any please themselves under the Power of such decayes they are Indications of their Inward Frame and those infallible Such Persons will grow cold careless and negligent as unto the Duties of publick Worship they will put themselves neither to Charge nor Trouble about them every Occasion of Life diverts them and finds ready Entertainment in their Minds And when they do attend upon them it is with great Indifferency and Unconcernedness Yet would they have it thought that all is still well within as ever it was they have as good a respect unto Religion as any But these things openly discover an ulcerous Disease in the very Souls of Men as evidently as if it were written on their Foreheads what ever they pretend unto the contrary they are under the Power of woful Decayes from all due regard unto Spiritual and Eternal Things And I would avoid the Society of such Persons as those who carry an infectious Disease about them unless it were to help on their Cure But herein it is that Affections Spiritually renewed do manifest themselves When we do delight in and value the Duties of Gods Worship because we find by Experience that they are and have been unto us meanes of communicating a Sense and renewed Pledges of the Love of God in Christ with all the Benefits and Priviledges which depend thereon then are our Affections renewed in and by the Holy Ghost Secondly They come for Supplies of Internal Sanctifying strengthning Grace This is the second great Design of Believers in their Approaches unto God in his VVorship The want hereof as unto Measures and Degrees they find in themselves and are sensible of it Yea therein lyes the great Burden of the Souls of Believers in this VVorld All that we do in the Life of God may be referred unto two Heads First The Observance of all Duties of Obedience And Secondly The Conflict with and Conquest over Temptations About these things are we continually exercised Hence the great thing which we desire labour for and pant after is Spiritual Strength and Ability for the Discharge of our selves in a due manner with respect unto these things This is that which every true Believer groaneth after in the inward Man and which he preferreth infinitely above all Earthly Things So he may have Grace sufficient in any competent measure for these ends let what will befal him he desireth no more in this VVorld God in Christ is the only Fountain of all this Grace There is not one Drachm of it to be obtained but from him alone And as he doth communicate it unto us of his own Soveraign Goodness and Pleasure so the ordinary way and meanes whereby he will do it are the Duties of his Worship Isaiah 40.28 29 30 31. Hast thou not known Hast thou not heard that the Everlasting God the Lord the Creator of the Ends of the Earth fainteth not neither is weary There is no searching of his Understanding He giveth Power to the faint and to them that have no Might he increaseth Strength Even the Youths shall faint and be weary and the Young Men shall utterly fail But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their Strength they shall mount up with Wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint All Grace and Spiritual Strength is originally seated in the nature of God v. 28. But what relief can that afford unto us who are weak feeble fainting He will act suitably unto his nature in the Communication of this Grace and Power v. 29. But how shall we have an Interest in this Grace in these Opperations wait on him in the Ordinances of his Worship v. 31. The Word as Preached is the Food of our Souls whereby God administreth Growth and Strength unto them Joh. 17.17 1 Pet. 2.23 Desire sayeth he the sincere Milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby But what Encouragement have we thereunto if so be sayeth he you have tasted that the Lord is gracious If in and by the Dispensation of this Word you have had Experience of the Grace the Goodness the Kindness of God unto your Souls you cannot but desire it and delight in it And otherwise you will not do so When men have fate some good while under the Dispensation of the VVord and in the enjoyment of other Ordinances without tasting in them and by them that the Lord is gracious they will grow weary of it and them Wherefore Prayer is the way of his Appointment for the Application of our Souls unto him to obtain a Participation of all needful Grace which therefore he hath proposed unto us in the Promises of the Covenant that we may know what to ask and how to plead for it In the Sacraments the same Promises are seal'd unto us and the Grace represented in them effectually exhibited Meditation confirms our Souls in the Exercise of Faith about it and is the especial Opening of the Heart unto the Reception of it By these meanes I say doth God communicate all Supplies of renewing strengthening and sanctifying Grace unto us that we may live unto him in all Holy Obedience and be able to get the Victory over our Temptations Under this Apprehension do Believers approach unto God in the Ordinances of his Worship They come unto them as the meanes of Gods Communication unto their Souls Hence they cleave unto them with Delight so far as their Affections are renewed So the Spouse testifyeth of her self I sate down under his Shadow with great Delight Cant 2.3 In these Ordinances is the protecting refreshing Presence of Christ. This she rested in with great Delight As they come unto them with these Designs and Expectations so they have Experience of the Spiritual Benefits and Advantages which they receive by them which more and more engageth them unto them in their Affections and Delights All these things those who have a Change wrought in their Affections but not a Spiritual Renovation are Strangers unto They neither have the Design before mentioned in coming to them nor the Experience of this Efficacy now proposed in their Attendance on them But these Benefits are great as for Instance when Men find the worth and Effect of the Word Preached on their Souls in its enlightning refreshing strengthening transforming Power when they find their Hearts warmed their Graces excited and strengthened the Love of God improved their Disponding Spirits under Trials and Temptations relieved their whole Souls gradually more and more Conformed unto Christ when they find themselves by it extricated out of Snares Doubts Fears Temptations and brought unto Satisfaction and Rest they cannot but delight in the Dispensation of it and rejoyce in it as the Food of their Souls And it is a great Hinderance unto the Encrease of Spiritual Life and