Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	abide_v	able_a	set_v	19	3	4.1541	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03339	The doctrine of fasting and praier, and humiliation for sinne Delivered in sundry sermons at the fast appointed by publique authority, in the yeere 1625. By that late faithfull and worthy minister of Iesus Christ. Arth. Hildersam.	Hildersam, Arthur, 1563-1632.; Hildersam, Samuel, 1593 or 4-1674.	1633 (1633)	STC 13459; ESTC S104100	106,897	227

as appeares by the next words but the righteous sing and rejoyce Ier. 2. 19. Thine owne wickednesse shall correct thee know therefore and see that it is an evill thing and bitter that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God and that my feare is not in thee Thy sinnes certainly will be bitter to thee one day sooner or later Take this for an undoubted truth thou must either temporally heere or eternally hereafter in hell lament and be waile and weepe for thy sinnes Luc. 13. 28. There shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see Abraham and Isaac and Iacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdome of God and your selves thrust out How much more when they shall see and feele the torments that are prepared in hell for them Now when God as an angry judge strikes and afflicts the soule with sorrow for sinne even in this life ô that sorrow is terrible and intolerable when hee smites the heart he so sets it on as no man is able to abide it Heb. 10. 31. It is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God Prov. 18. 14. A wounded spirit that is which God in his anger hath wounded who can beare Nah. 1. 6. Who can stand before his indignation and who can abide in the fiercenesse of his anger his fury is powred out like fire and the rocks are throwne down by him And the best way to prevent the Lord from wounding and afflicting our soules is to smite and afflict our owne hearts for our sinnes the way to prevent those intollerable and everlasting sorrowes which God in his fury will bring upon wicked men is to worke our hearts to this godly sorrow our selves and to humble our owne soules this is plaine by that speach of the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 31. If wee would judge our selves wee should not bee judged of the Lord hee meanes as appeares in the next verse O thinke of this thou merry Greeke that art all for mirth and pleasure thou drunkard and whoremaister that findest such joy and sweetnesse in thy sinne thou pleasant witted fellow that canst so wittily breake jests upon religion and the servants of God that thou canst set all the company on laughing the time will come when thy sinnes which thou canst not abide to thinke of shall be set in order before thine eyes that thou shalt not be able to looke of from them they shall never out of thy thought Psal. 50. 21. Thou that canst not abide to heare of thy sinnes nor to be told of them nor reproved for them by any of Gods servants who are as Elihu speakes Iob 33. 6 7 8. in Gods stead unto thee formed out of the clay aswell as thy selfe whose terror need not make thee affraid shalt one day heare the Lord himselfe reproving thee for them Psal. 50. 21. I will reprove thee saith he and that will be such a kind of reproving as is mentioned Psal. 2. 5. Then shall hee speake to them in his wrath and vex them in his sore displeasure better to have an hundred of Gods poore servants to reprove thee then to have the Lord doe it Thou that canst not abide to let any sadnesse or sorrow for sinne to come neare thy heart but hatest sorrow as the Devill and abandonest it from thee with all thy might doe what thou canst sooner or later it will seize upon thee When Gods servants that have beene much given to mourning for sinne shall sing for joy of heart thou shalt cry for sorrow of heart and howle for vexation of spirit Esay 65. 14. Luke 6. 25. Woe unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourne and weepe Yea 2. thinke of this all you that feare God were it not much better for you to take paines with your owne hearts to humble and afflict them then to leave it to God to doe it in his wrath You have heard hee will certainly doe it if you doe it not and the way to prevent him from doing it is to doe it your selves And these are the motives that may stir up in every one of us a desire to seeke for this grace of an humbled and broken heart It followeth now that I shew you the meanes whereby you may atteine it And these are of two sorts 1. Some such as wherein you must use the helpe of others 2. Some such as wherein you must be the agents your selves Of the first sort I will name to you but two The first is the ministery of the Word If thou wouldst have a soft heart able to mourne for sinne thou must conscionably frequent the faithfull ministery of the Word strive to live under a forcible ministery such as will search thy heart No meanes in the world have ever wrought so mightily to the saving humbling and afflicting of the soule as this hath done By this meanes they that had crucified Christ and were so hardned in their sin that when they saw that wonderfull miracle even the Apostles that were poore Galileans speake in all languages the wonderfull things of God they mocked them and said these men are full of wine Act. 2. 13. were so pricked and wounded in their hearts that they knew not what to doe till the same hand that wounded them had healed them againe as you may read Act. 2. 37 41. And what was it that brought David to such a saving sense of his sinne in numbring of the people that his heart smote him for it and he cryed I have sinned greatly in that I have done I have done very foolishly 2 Sam. 24. 10. Surely God had sent G●d the Prophet unto him as you may see in the next words verse 11. For when David was up in the morning the Word of the Lord came unto the Prophet G●d Davids Seer saying c. and though it be said of Manasses 2 Chron. 33. 12. that when he was in affliction he besought the Lord his God and humbled himselfe greatly before him yet if you looke into the 18. verse of that chap. you shall find he had a mightier and stronger meane to worke that humiliation in his heart then his affliction was the Lord had sent to him Seers and Prophets that spake unto him in the name of the Lord. His affliction was but a subordinate meanes to make him the better able to receive profit by the word the words and ministery of the seers was that that wrought this mighty work There is more force in the ministery of the Word to worke sound and saving humiliation then in all the afflictions in the world Psal. 94. 12. Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest O Lord and teachest him out of thy Law See a notable experiment of this in Rehoboam and the Princes of Iudah 2 Chron. 12. 2 6. When God had for their apostacy sent Shishak King of Egypt with a mighty and invincible army against them and brought them thereby into extreame perill and distresse

Lord is nigh saith he to them that are of a broken heart If we would strive in our daily prayers when wee make confession of our sinnes to doe it with feeling and not formally it would not onley make our prayers more effectuall with God but keepe our hearts from hardning and bring them to a good temper Luk. 18. 13 14. When the Publican made confession of his sinnes with that feeling smiting upon his breast and saying God be mercifull to mee a sinner It is said ●ee went home to his house justified rather then the other Fourthly This daily accustoming our selves unto this worke of calling our selves to account and afflicting our hearts for our sinnes would make it more easy and familiar unto us when we shall have extraordinary occasion to betake our selves to it That which is said by the Prophet of the Lords chastening of us may fitly be applyed to this chastening of ourselves Lam. 3. 27. It is good for a man that he beare the yoke in his youth and to have beene accustomed to stoop unto and to beare patiently the Lords afflicting hand By this that hath beene said you see it is good for us to be doing somewhat in this worke every day Yet are there five speciall times and seasons that will yeeld us great helpe in this businesse more then other times will doe The first fit time to worke our hearts to godly sorrow is presently after some fall we have received some grosse sinne we have slipped into A great advantage it will be unto us to humble our soules for it presently and without delay For first sinne newly committed may be better knowne and remembred with all the circumstances whereby it is aggravated And that is a great helpe to the humiliation of the soule as wee may perceive in Davids speech Psal. 51. 3. For I ac●nowledge my transgressions and my si●●e is ever before me Secondly The heart will not be so hardned by sinne that is newly committed but more easily wrought upon and softned then when sin hath lyen long upon it As a bone that is out of joint the longer it is neglected will be set againe with more difficulty and paine A Leopard may as soone leave his spots an Ethiopian his blacknesse as he can do his sinne that hath lyen long in it Ier. 13. 23. Secondly Another fit season for this worke is when wee prepare our selves to renew our covenant with God in the holy Sacrament For 1. at that time God requires of us a speciall care to examine our selves and call to mind our sins and to judge our selves for them else it is not possible we should receive worthily 1 Cor. 11. 28. 29 31. When thou bringest thy gift to the altar saith our Saviour Mat. 5. 23. as at the Lords table we doe offer and present our selves unto God our soules and bodyes as a holy reasonable and lively sacrifice unto him and there remembrest that thy brother hath ought against thee Teaching us that at that time specially we should remember and call to mind what our brother and much more what our heavenly father hath against us 2. At that time men if they have any spark of grace in them are apt to find in themselves some stirrings of their affections unto goodnesse some motions of Gods spirit some dispositions unto devotion and remorse for sinne Ministers that use to deale privately with their people at that time shall find them more easie to be wrought upon and so shal every man his own heart then at other times These good motions should bee followed without delay As it is said that they that lay at the poole of Bethesda stroue to get in so soone as euer the Angell had stirred the water Iohn 5. 4. And Iosuah so soone as God by a vision had stirred him up to search and find out the sinne that had provoked God against Israel Iosh. 7. 16. went without delay immediatly about it So should we doe in this case When we feele God begins to soften our hearts and to stirre up these good dispositions to devotion in us then should wee set our selves seriously to this worke of calling to mind our sinnes and bringing our hearts to sorrow for them For 1. when God stirs up such motions he knocks at the doore of our hearts and sheweth himselfe willing to enter in Rev. 3. 20. 2. Satan will bee ready to quench the spirit in these good motions As it is said he watched the infant to devoure it so soone as ever it should be borne Rev. 12. 4. Thirdly The dayes and times wee set apart for fasting and prayer upon whatsoever just occasion are a most fit season for us to goe about this work For 1. we find Gods people have had their hearts wonderfully softned at such times The Israelites in the fast that they kept for successe against Benjamin came into the house of God and wept Iudg. 20. 26. And in the fast they kept as Mispeh they wept so abundantly that they are said 1 Sam. 7. 6. to have drawne water as by buckets full out of their hearts and to have poured it out before the Lord. 2. This exercise of a religious fast is a great help and furtherance to this work As wee see heere in Davids example Psal. 35. 13. I humbled my selfe with fasting 69. 10. I wept and chastened my soule with fasting Fourthly When any judgements of God lye heavy upon our selves or our brethren that is a fit season to goe about this work When these men were in misery David fell heere to afflicting of his soule Psal. 35. 13. For 1. the Lord by every one of his judgements doth testify from Heaven that he hath matter against us as Nao●i saith Ruth 1. 21. Why doe you call mee Naomi seeing the Lord by taking away my husband and my children hath testified against me and the Almighty hath afflicted me 2. God by his judgements doth call upon us to examine our wayes and humble our selves before him Hag. 1. 5 6 7. Now therefore saith the Lord of Hosts co●sider your wayes yee have sowen much and brought in li●le thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider your wayes And Esa. 22. 12. In that day did the Lord God of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning 3. God by his judgements softneth the hearts of men and worketh in them more remorse more pronenesse and aptnes to repent then at other times Iob 23. 16. God maketh my heart soft saith Iob and the Almighty troubleth mee A man shall find himselfe fitter to pray then then at other times and we should take the advantage and opportunity of this time for it Iam. 5. 13. Is any afflicted let him pray This hath beene oft seene even in many notable hypocrites who how profane soever their hearts have beene at other times yet in their affliction have found in themselves a disposition to pray and to repent Psal. 78. 34. When he slew them then they sought him