Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	acceptable_a	call_v	zion_n	27	3	8.1946	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60350	The protectors protection, or, The pious prince guarded by a praying people a sermon preached at St. Edmundsbury in Suffolk, upon the 13 Octob. 1658, being a day set apart for solemn fasting and humiliation and seeking a blessing upon His Highness the Lord Protector / by Sam. Slater ...	Slater, Samuel, d. 1704.	1659 (1659)	Wing S3968; ESTC R22448	38,832	77

THE PROTECTORS PROTECTION OR The Pious PRINCE guarded by a Praying People A SERMON Preached at St EDMUNDS BURY in Suffolk Upon the 13 Octob. 1658. Being a Day set apart for Solemn Fasting and Humiliation and seeking a Blessing upon His Highness THE LORD PROTECTOR By SAM. SLATER M. A. Preacher of the Word there Suspicientes in coelum Christiani manibus expansis quia in ●ocuis capite nud● quia non erubescimus denique sine monitore quia de pectore oramus precati sumus semper pro omnibu● Imperatoribus vitam illis prolixam Imperium securum domum tutam exerci●us fortes Senatum fidelem populum probum orbem quietum quaecunque Hominis Caesaris vota sunt Tertul. Apol. London Printed by T. I. for Wil. Fisher and are to be sold at his Shop at the Postern-gate near Tower-hill 1659. To the Worshipful THE JUSTICES of PEACE AND Other Inhabitants in St. Edmunds Bury who are Friends to the Churches Purity and Peace Worshipful and Beloved THe days into which Providence hath cast us are ev●l because they are days of trouble dark and cloudy but especially because in them iniquity abounds and the lo●● of many is grown cold He that considers the m●●strous Atheism and Profaneness of the Age the ●●ghting of Ordinances Opposition to Truth 〈◊〉 of Ministers notwithstanding the purity of the first the clearness of the second the faithf●lness and i●dustry of the third must say We are fa●● into the dr●gs of Time England may well 〈…〉 Gods goodness to her in her manifold De●●●erances miraculous Preservation outward Peace and Plenty and Gospel-enjoyments God hath not dealt so with all Nations as with her nor with her at all times as now but she hath cause to be ashamed of and blush at the ingratitude wantonness fruitlesness and bad returns of her children Not long since Providence frowned upon us and seemed to threaten the laying of our Vineyard waste by taking away the principle Stake in its Hedge had the Foxes and wilde Boars then broken in and devoured it had been just But in rich mercy the Lord hath again made up the gap and raised up another to stand in the breach What duty you and all owe unto him the following Discourse tells you which was calculated for no ●ther Meridian than yours prepared onely for your Table intended onely for your Direction and Instruction The truth is I judge not my self sufficiently accomplished to walk abroad if my plain dress will please you my Friends and Neighbors at home it is as much as I can promise my self and I can say to Gods glory and your deserved commendation that hitherto you have given very friendly entertainment to my poor labors having learned to rellish plain Truth and to make mu●h of the simplicity of the Gospel though it be not adorned and guarnish't with the gaudy and flanting words of mans wisdom Indeed your Town is not exempted from the common condition of all great places there are divisions among you under which let you and me groan We have many enemies to the Churches purity and we have some that are but small friends to the Churches peace some that would defile her with their sinful mixtures others that scratch her face and fetch blood with their causeless separations But blessed be God that you have learned to follow peace and holiness and to judge that these two are not inconsistent As for those who are godly but differ from you herein of what perswasion soever they be I shall pray for them long after them and wish that they were like-minded with you and shall wait till God shall reveal this unto them But since there are Divisions among us it would be a wonder if I should not meet with some opposition or not taste of that bitter cup which my Reverend Fathers and Brethren have ha● so large draughts of nay which my dearest Lord and Master drank deeper of than any though he spake as never man spake I thought the ensuing Sermon had been so harmless and inoffensive as that it might have past without a censure It was not my design neither when I studied nor when I preached it to exasperate the spirits of any my intention was to kindle praying affections in all not to inflame the choler of any one and I hope those that peruse it will think it hath a Dove-like innocency and brings in its mouth an Olive-branch of peace But he that doth not like the Cook will finde some fault with the Provision if the Minister be not acceptable his Sermons will be unsavory I will not say that for this Sermon I have been called A Sowe● of Sedition but because I there in spake against a lawless Liberty calling it as it is An accursed Toleration I have sate very heavy upo● the spirits of some But if this is to be vile I will God enabling me be yet more vile Not that I would call for fire from Heaven upon every one that is of a perswasion different from mine neither is my charity so strait-laced as to have a bosom open to none but those that jump in judgement with me I know Christ prayed that his people might be one as the Father and he are one and that prayer shall be answered because God heard him always but I am apt to think that a compleat oneness and perfect harmony will not be the happiness of the way but of the Countrey I verily believe there shall be a sweeter close among Christians here and that there shall be fewer differences than now if any at all and happy are they that live to see it in the mean while I condemn not every one that varieth from me nor dare I say all are out of the way that do not exactly tread in my steps Questionless we must bear one with another allowance ought to be given in matters controverted und of less moment But what then because flowers of several colours and different sizes ought to be continued and lookt to must weeds be suffered in the Garden Because we may without breach of charity differ about Circumstantials shall there be no hedge set about the Fundamentals Christians can you think it is pleasing to God that the Holy Trinity should be spoken against your Blessed Savior degraded your Publique Assemblies forsaken your Ministers made Antichristian I beseech you consult the Word and your own Consciences and then tell me whether that would not be an accursed Toleration which should suffer these and such like things What would become of Religion if that should be granted Surely the weeds if let alone will in time choak the Corn They need not be watered it is enough for them if they be let alone If I desire they may be rooted out I hope I am no enemy to Church and State neither to God nor Caesar and yet for so doing I am maligned and have been evil spoken of once and again So that being necessitated to vindicate my self and hoping

person Wo to that Land whose Prince is not directed by the spirit of God nor curbed by the fear of God nor constrained by the love of God Wo to that Land whose Prince hath neither grace in his heart nor God in his eye Evils in Princes are the worst and greatest evils because they have the strongest influence if the Pilot miscarry the Ship is lost Thus you see it clearly proved to you that Princes have need of prayers and so have we done with the Reasons and finished the Doctrinal part Give me leave to speak something though but a little by way of Use And here I might justly take up a bitter complaint of and order out a sharp reprehension unto those who neglect this piece of their duty Some out of a profane spirit who spend days weeks and moneths and yeers without prayer they enjoy many mercies but they were never of their seeking If God wil do good to themselves or others he may but he shall never be desired by them How many are there that shut prayer and the whole worship of God out of their houses and closets and they that will not pray for themselves will never be suitors for others if they will not beg their own lives the lives of their souls at the hands of God they will not beg their Princes peace and prosperity But let such men know God hath wrath pure wrath fierce wrath full vials of wrath to poure out upon the Heathen that know him not and upon the families that call not upon his name God doth not heare from them now but one day they shall hear from him yea a terrible sound shall be in their ears and the terrours of the Almighty shall make them afraid Others neglect this duty out of a private spirit who do indeed pray and make conscience of it too dare not omit it but they extend their care no further then themselves their thoughts are wholly taken up about their own private interest They can pray for blessings upon themselves and upon their families but that is all and so things be well at home they care not how they go abroad Paul complained of this in the 2 Philip 21. all seek their own things and not the things which are Jesus Christs the things of Christ are shouldered out and the interest of the Church is not studied self-interest like Aarons rod swalloweth up all other and drowns the glory of God and the publique good but this spirit is below a man Heathens will condemn it It is said of Cato that he did toti genitum se credere mundo look upon himself as born for the whole world the care of the Community lay upon him This spirit is below a Christian and unworthy of the Gospel which teacheth us to look not every man on his own things but every man also on the things of others Timothy is said naturally to care for the Churches welfare This spirit is hateful to all men he that is wholly shut up within himself is an odious person and the place he lives in longs for a vomit to spue him out In a word this spirit is condemned by reason it self what dost thou think will become of thy Cabin if the Ship miscarry It is not like thy Closet should stand when the house is burnt down Others there are who utterly lay aside this duty out of a froward and discontented spirit who like Flies feed upon the sores of Magistrates thereby hindering a cure but will not go to heaven for a plaister that they may be healed they do not like the hand which sways the Scepter nor the things that are done by him who sits in the throne and therefore they will not so far befriend him as to give him a room in their Petitions They will shut him out of their prayers because they cannot approve all his doings and yet they may finde fault where there is none and look upon that with an evil eye which in it self is matter and ground of thankfulness Let persons that are guilty of this neglect from what principle soever they act know that they have little sense of the mercies which they enjoy Were Gods goodness to us in our Governours eyed and the blessings which by them we receive laid to heart and seriously considered of they would work another frame of spirit in you Such as these are small friends to our English Zion the Nation is much beholding to them is it not how can it be thought they should spend their estates shed their blood hazard their lives for the Nation who will not be at the cost of a few prayers for its prosperity I might also tell them that they will have little thanks for their forbearance at the last and that if the Nation miscarry its ruine may be laid at their doors If the wrath of God breaks in upon us like a sea and drowns all it was because you came not up to stand in the gap If God departs from England and carries his Gospel and spiritual and temporal Mercies along with him we may thank you and such as you are he would have stayed if he had been but more desired But I shall wave those things and proceed to an Vse of Exhortation And Let me prevail with you to set you upon this work Oh pray for your Governors and in a more special maner for him whom God hath made Chief over you and by his providence called to the supream place of Magistracy in the Nation God hath been pleased of late to make a sad breach among us taking away from us our former Pilot the late Renowned Protector who when he had fought the Nations Battels carried us thorow the wilderness preserved us from the rage and fury of our enemies and brought us within sight of the promised Land gave up the ghost laid down his leading-staff and his life together with whose fall the Nation was shaken his death covered all the faces of sober and considerate persons with paleness and their hearts with sadness as if Peace and Prosperity Reformation the Gospel all lay drawing on and would be buried in the same grave with him But blessed be God Divine Grace vouchsafed to cast an eye toward us and to visit us in our low estate there is another Pilot placed in his room while he directs the course let us fill the sayls with our praying breath Moses it is true is dead but we have a Ioshua succeeding him let us pray that what the other happily begun this may more happily finish and bring the accomplishment of all your right-bred hopes and what they said to Ioshua let us say unto his Highness According as we hearkened unto Moses in all things so will we hearken unto thee onely the Lord thy God be with thee as he was with Moses Iosh. 1.17 My Brethren let us leave disputing and quarreling and complaining and finding fault our work lies elswhere these proceedings will but roil our