Selected quad for the lemma: son_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
son_n	ghost_n	holy_a	trinity_n	32,243	5	10.2915	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47386	Mid-night thoughts, writ, as some think, by a London-Whigg, or, a Westminster-Tory, others think by a Quaker, or, a Jesuit: but call him what they please, they may find him a true penitent of the church of Christ.	Killigrew, William, Sir, 1606-1695.	1682 (1682)	Wing K463; ESTC R221028	80,494	230

to find how much better and pleasanter it is to delight in God and by our utmost endeavours to improve that delight by frequent and fervent Addresses until we obtain new Celestial joys which soon discard all our old Carnal fruitions by a constant fixing of our whole hearts on Heaven so as to be really offended at the most necessary diversions when they interrupt our Divine communication with Christ for the hastning on of our preparation towards that Eternal Glory he has purchased for us Which is the most joyful expectation of a Regenerate man who sees the difference between momentary Vanities and everlasting Bliss and sets him on fire to desire above all things to fix his heart on God and to delight in Holiness as his supreme felicity on this side Heaven CXCI. WHoever has the patience to read and the Piety to practice these plain Lessons if he observe it will find that his felicity does increase with his Devotion and that his days will grow fuller and fuller of tranquility in the midst of Worldly Storms and feel them not Let him also observe with what security he sleeps with what joy he awakes at all hours to find his heart at work with God before his Eyes are quite open giving God thanks for all his Mercies and above all the rest for thus turning him from all his Iniquities before it be too late that he might not trust unto the uncertain security of the best Death-bed Repentance but to live and die so reconciled to God as to manifest his pre-conversion by a chear●ul Righteous life and a joyful Resignation of his Soul unto Christ when he expires will be joy indeed CXCII JUdge not the serious looks of every pensive man as if his heart were oppressed with discontents who may that minute be conversing with God in Meditation and triumphing over the Glories of this World which thou enjoyest with all its delights and which he may have had as high as mortal man can fancy fading happiness But now as tired with busie Crouds and cloyed with glistering Vanities He entertains his Soul with inward elevated joys for so great a Victory over himself which thou seest not and dost therefore pity or condemn what thou wouldst admire if clearly understood CXCIII IF the Spirit of Divine Meditation were w●th sincere affection fully improved by the diligent practice of raising our Souls as near to God as our mortal fancies can reach the Holy Ghost would at such times assist us with such increase of Piety and such growing joys in our near approaches to the Throne of Mercy as would shew us some bright Rays of that glorious Majesty we adore to affect our Souls with such transporting thoughts as would set our hearts on fire with eager desires to be amongst those Angels that do attend on the Majesty of Heaven whose love and goodness in mercy admits us Dust and Ashes so to converse with Him as a clear Testimony to our own hearts of our Adoption by which pious practising to fix our affections on God we shall so delight in Him as now to conquer all those Imperious Appetites that have so often conquer'd us and may soon learn the Celestial Military Art to subdue all temptations that assault us and from their Ruines raise fresh Trophies every day most acceptable to God and so beneficial to our selves that we may discern our Souls mounting up to Heaven thereon CXCIV WE ought to look on Death as chief Goaler on Earth God's prime Officer by Him intrusted only with the custody of our imprison'd Bodies in the Grave until the great Goal-delivery at the day of Judgment when Death must deliver up our imprison'd Dust at a moments warning to meet our Souls at God's Tribunal where his Office ends with Himself who is then no more So that instead of quarrelling with Death for doing of his duty let us make peace and get a Reconciliation with his great Master that we be not lodged in Deaths Dungeon amongst the impenitent Malefactors but may be placed in his best Apartment with the Reconciled sinners by God's Grace become Saints and pray that we may with them appear in their glorious Resurrection with our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. CXCV. I That write my own thoughts only to review them for my own satisfaction must say again and again that whoever seeks God with sincerity will certainly find him and shall find that he has found him And though early seeking and early finding be best as most safe because no man can promise himself one minute longer to seek God then his first call to it yet if he find favour to be called again and be sent to work in God's Vineyard at the last hour of his day and God see that he works then with such vigour in that last hour as if he would equal or out-do any that came in to work before him the Lord of the Vineyard observes his endeavours and rewards him equal with the first comers Though no man ought to trust unto a Death-bed Repentance on this Argument Because the best Rule is to remember thy Creator in the days of thy Youth the next best is to remember Him in the time of full Manhood in the strength and vigour of thy Age but if not then the next best is to remember him in thy Old Age before thou hast quite forgot him lest it be too late for though it be last and worst yet then is not too late with God if we answer whenever He calls He will give us G●ace to do whatever he calls for And to give him then our whole hearts bathed in peni●ential tears full of contrition for all past offences he will accept th●m and make us see that his Mercy has ●ollowed us through all our wild insolent con●empts of the highest nature which aggravates repeated sins after pardons upon pardons begged So that when God doth not forsake but follow and watch over such Reprobates and does snatch them from the brink of destruction it is to bring them to a Reconciliation and such a Resurrection from sin as will support them for ever after by his Holy Spirit which shews that his Mercy and his Grace are beyond the power of our sins to deface for if our Repentance and Contrition be His own work within us the operation of that Grace will testifie that his Mercy endureth for ever Let no man then despair of Gods Mercy or think it too late to repent if he can forsake his Iniquities so as for the future to love and serve God as he ought for above all things we must believe that God does abound in Mercy and Grace more then we can do in sins and that Jesus Christ is the Lord our Righteousness and when we find that the Holy Ghost dwells so in our hearts as to create an effectual application of God the Father and the Sons work within us we may comfort our selves with an humble assurance that all three the whole Trinity together

hearts be inriched with some portion thereof to carry us to heaven and in our way thither so to arm us here that no approaching evils may divert us We are also to consider that the Gospel does not invite us to forsake the pleasures of this World to go into a Dungeon which were a hard lesson but to remove from hence to inhabit Heaven with all its glory to Eternity yet this natural cowardly disease of fearing to die being born with us is without cure until the Holy Ghost do fall so on us and dwell so in us as to overcome our frailty by his grace and to make us see and understand how to value our Interest in Heaven on Christs account and by that faith to raise in us such holy courage as to pass through the Grave with joy to our Eternal Bliss which requires a Divine valour beyond the reach of a Natural mans fancy with assistance from above VI. MOst men do forget that our greatest affair on Earth is to serve God frequently diligently and publickly to own him in the first place to secure our blessed Eternity by his favour while we have time to do it And in the second place to follow our Callings for a Subsistance by his providence prospering our labour during our abode here But we do often invert this by doing quite contrary all our Lives by hungring and thirsting after perishing Goods and serving God at spare times only as our least concern until the Agonies of a Death-bed shews our mistake too late For it is a great presumption to neglect God all our days and expect a Crown of Glory at our last gasp as a reward for our neglect it is dangerous to provoke God so VII IF we did set our hearts to take pleasure in Piety as we do to improve our delight in other things we should find that Heaven Gates would fly open to our sincere addresses and perceived the Spirit of God working in our hearts with Divine transports full of unexpressible joys while that Sacred flame burns bright within us And such Emanations from the Holy Ghost are the greatest invitations we can have to encourage us to prepare for a place in Heaven and to make us esteem those Celestial joys above all the glories of this world where the greatest Princes terminate their highest ambition to die the Sons of God or should do so VIII WHat God hath revealed to us at Mid-night alone shall be our portions in the next World And if we can repeat the same Communication with joy in the day-time which we had with Christ in the night we may entertain a comfortable assurance that the Holy Ghost was at first and is at last enkindling those Divine flames within us to raise our elevated transported Souls to Heaven IX THe greatest Epicure cannot have so much pleasure in satisfying all his Appetites as a regenerate man has in his conversation with God during his devout Addresses in which he finds the Holy Ghost raising up his heart to an assurance of his favour with God and giving his Soul a delight far above all Carnal fruitions by the very victory over them But this is only intelligible by Pious hearts and requires a Divine Valour to encounter and overcome in such skirmishes with Satan and to relish the Felicity and Glory of such triumphant joys as follow every such victory X. IF we consider that God asks nothing of man for all his benefits bestowed but the heart of man and that nothing but man can give the heart to God and that we ever heard nor read of any man that ever made that sincere Present to God but did receive it back infinitely enlightned and enriched with treasures of never fading blessedness who then can believe this and omit to make so advantagious a Present of his whole heart unto God To shew his Faith his Love and Obedience as his greatest happiness on Earth For we may in a way of speaking and I hope without offence suppose the heart of man was made Triangular as three Seats for God the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost who are all one God as the three Corners are one Heart which can no more be divided than the Godhead Who will so fi● when he dwells therein as to leave no place for the World the Flesh or the Devil to abide there And from hence it is that God forsakes us when we forsake him When we deliver up his Habitation in our hearts unto his enemies when we thrust him out to admit of any of those Rivals into any corner of our hearts we then affront the whole Trinity and drive away all them all him to entertain and court a destroying Guest instead of the Lord of Life XI GOd will not suffer those that are his to live in the dark for if God be with us he will make us see that he is with us and will never go out of our sight until he has brought us where we shall never go out of his and will sometimes make us start with a surprizing joy to find he is so near us as to give our hearts a taste of the same joy we shall have in Heaven though infinitely increased then and superinvested with Glory How great comfort then must this be when long habitual sinners are thus Blessed thus Converted and thus reconciled to God by faith in Christ's blood when God does so eminently manifest his glorious goodness in visiting the Souls of sinners and powerfully calling us great Criminals to become chosen Vessels where himself vouchsafes to dwell To think fully of this is to think of nothing else in comparison of this our great concern which now begins and now assures our Eternity with God which is above all earthly Felicities that pass away like Dreams As what signifies the Persian Grecian or the Roman Empires now Where are those Great Glorious Glistering Bubbles now Never worthy to come into competition with the higher aims of regenerate men indued with Divine love whose Immortal Souls are fed with such Celestial joys as can only flow from their Immortal object God on whom their ambitious hearts are fixed with such a lively Faith as doth create a contempt of all earthly Fruitions and stand ever ready as adopted Sons of God with joy to pass through the Grave to an immediate possession of a Crown of Glory for when God is pleased so to descend and dwell with us here it is to assure our Souls they shall ascend and dwell with him in Heaven XII HE that has heard the Bell Toll for him to the Grave and lives after it will do well to call to mind what Agonies he then felt and what Vows he then made to God on his Recovery and now every day to examine his heart how well he has performed those Vows and how much fitter he now is for his next Summons thither For every Bell that he hears now Toll for others is his Alarm to make ready for his day

full of storms and calms more dangerous untill He brings him unto his Glory For if we believe it to be Gospel-truth that our bodies are capable to become the Temples of the Holy Ghost dwelling in us we must also believe that He will manifest Himself so as we shall discern his being in us by such a Divine Life with such extasies of joy as no Soul can reach without his assistance which if we practise to observe we shall find will prove to be our greatest consolation that the heart of man can have XXIX WE talk of Death as we do of Eating Drinking and Sleeping and do flatter our selves too much by thinking we are as ready for the Grave without a full consideration how nice and great a preparation is fit for our appearance at the Resurrection when our whole Lives here spent in the service of God is not too high a price for the Crown of Glory we then expect And yet few men do afford the hundred part of their time to become capable to receive that inestimable Purchase which Christ has made for us by his bloudshed And nothing is more strange then that we should so much forget what we are always a doing which is dying and is God's great mercy to free our Souls from the Dungeon of this World to fix them in his Eternal Bliss XXX GOD sees our first intentional approches towards Heaven so that we cannot make more hast in our Addresses unto Him then He makes to meet and welcom our sincere devotions with Raptures and Extasies of joy to encourage and guide our frail nature to love and serve Him above the World that can in no degree afford so high delights as our Souls find when our whole hearts are offered up to Him in daily Sacrifice while that holy flame lasts XXXI OUr greatest concern is to live so Righteously as to be ever ready to die which no man can think of too often nor prepare to much for if he considers that every moment advances towards the Grave through which we must pass to Eternal joy or Eternal misery and is an argument enough not to mispend our time but Day and Night to call on God for his Divine guiding Light to shew us the way to Him XXXII SLeep is so like Death that it is no wonder if we Dream often that we are amongst the dead for though we are not now visited by Visions as of old yet such frequent conversation with dead friends when we Sleep may be looked on as kind notions from above to give us some reflections on the Grave towards which we do walk as fast in our Sleep as when we are awake so that we ought to imploy more of our thoughts on every minute that so hasts on to our Eternity then men generally do and by such Dreams we may learn to converse Day and Night with God in our humble Addresses to make us fit company for His departed Saints when we Die XXXIII IF we could attain to as great Faith as the first Martyrs had we might have as much felicity in Piety as they had who rejoyced so much to leave this World that no torments could de●er them from death to be with Christ. And if we could raise our Souls to fancy the Glory of Heaven as they did we should believe that nothing there is so dirty as our brightest Diamonds where the beauty of Holiness by Faith as by reflection does Eclipse all the beauty wealth honour and glory of this World in the hearts of such as are become Regenerate And if our Souls were so sanctified and advanced in Divine Love as those Blessed Martyrs were we should admit no Rivals with God in our hearts where He delights to Reign alone And then we should find our God every where with us carefully providing for all our wants and supplying all our defects as if He attended on us Dust and Ashes with his Providence to guard us while we sleep and to watch if our first waking thoughts be set on Him and to expect them as his due and his delight as if the Almighty courted us for favours more then we do him for his mercies and his blessings and when our Souls become thus enlightned by his Divine Rays from Heaven we shall find our hearts so full of Him that a Wilderness ● Prison or a Dungeon will seem a Throne and will be our Heaven here and then we shall know no joy like having God ever in our sight with hearts fixed on our Eternal Bliss already thus begun XXXIV IF we consider the extent of Miracles those we call the greatest are but as wonderful as the smallest for every thing we see all we think every motion that answers to our thoughts in every part of our selves is Miraculous as to Dust and Ashes and so in the same Ballance we may weigh our Birth and Dissolution and Resurrection to be equally Miraculous But if we consult our own consciences and throughly examine our own hearts we may be confirmed in the belief that there is no higher Miracle then when the Holy Ghost turns the hearts of men from their long habitual idolized carnal appetites into a Spiritual affection towards God with such Heavenly transports as do create the peace of conscience with such a settled joy in God's service as will accompany our Souls from hence to Heaven which Spiritual Resurrection from sin being God's work in us is a sure mark of our Adoption and by this Miracle of mercy to become thus Regenerate we may account it the highest because of highest concern to us to be so raised from Hell to Heaven And a greater Miracle to confirm the Christian Doctrine no man needs to seek after then what he may thus find in himself if thus led by the Holy Ghost and thus exalted from Reprobate Dust to be the Adopted Son of God XXXV PIety is the best policy because by it we obtain all that the heart of man can wish in this World and the next which every Pious man has a great proportion of here and the Fool only thinks he can mock God or flatter Him while he does only deceive himself in hoping to serve God and the Devil at once to satisfie vitious natural appetites and enjoy Spiritual felicities at the same time as if the way to Heaven were through Hell But if we do doubt whether Eternal happiness is preferable before short fruition on Earth we may enquire of a Voluptuous sinner when he is become truly Re●generate if he does not find that the peace of conscience is a more constant delight then the greatest Momentary gratifications of flesh and bloud For when he is so called to an assurance of his Sonship by his Spiritual comforts from the Holy Ghost within him and such transports as do afford Heavenly joys with some glimps of that Glory which he shall participate of at the Resurrection He will perceive it is the same gift of God beyond humane acquisition so that