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	mourn_v	zion_n	54	3	8.7599	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47150	Help in time of need from the God of help to the people of the (so called) Church of Scotland, especially the once more zealous and professing, who have so shamefully degenerated and declined from that which their fathers the primitive Protestants attained unto ... / writ by George Keith, prisoner for the truth in Aberdeen in the latter end of the year 1664.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.; Jaffray, Alexander, 1614-1673.	1665 (1665)	Wing K173; ESTC R36221	73,094	85

thy Inhabitants O Scotland from the Lord who yet remembers the kindness of thy youth and the love of thy espousals in former dayes and the tenderness and simplicity and uprightness of heart that was among many of you then with a pure zeal for his Name And oh what meltings and breathings of soul was after the living God! and nothing could satisfie but his living presence which also no doubt hath been in a measure by some enjoyed but oh how have ye forsaken your first love and turned down-right enemies against that which was once your very life and is the life of those ye are persecuting at this day and blaspheming to wit the revelation of the Light Life Power Love and Spirit of God in our souls which filleth us with heavenly comfort joy unspeakable and full of Glory Oh how have ye forsaken the fountain of living waters and digged to your selves broken Cesterns that can hold no water Return O back-sliding Scotland for this I do declare unto thee in the name of the Lord he hath yet thoughts of loving kindness unto thee and a seed there is in thee which is very dear and precious unto him and he cannot forget it more then the tender-hearted mother the fruit of her womb and though she should forget yet the Lord will not forget thee for thou art set as a seal upon his heart and writ upon the palms of his hands O thou beloved seed and he will give redemption unto thee and raise thee up out of the holes and caves of the earth where thou hast lain so long buried as in the grave and the Lord hath raised and is raising up his seed in some already who are a kind of first fruits unto him and he hath brought us to walk in the light of his countenance and rent the vails and given us to behold his lovely amiable face with joy and made us an entrance into the blessed Land of Promise and we have eat abundantly of the good of the Land and the finest of the wheat and honey out of the Rock hath been given unto us and we have drunk of the wine and tasted the Vine-grapes thereof and the Land is a good Land and though there be Giants and the sons of Amaleck in the way yet it is conquerable and we cannot but report well of it and God hath blessed our testimony and shall bless it to hundreds and thousands who yet are not able to hear us nor will they because of the anguish of soul under the hard yoak of Pharoah in the Land of Egypt and house of bondage but God will break and is breaking the yoak of oppression from off the neck of his seed and will give it victory and dominion over all And now blessed are they who know and hearken unto the joyfull sound of the everlasting Gospel which publisheth peace and bringeth good tydings of salvation and proclaimeth the acceptable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn to appoint unto them that mourn in Sion to give them beauty for ashes the oyle of joy for mourning the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness that they might be called trees of righteousness the planting of the Lord that he might be glorified And now O Scotland prize the day of thy visitation and know the things that belong to thy peace before they be hid from thine eyes and the day of grace sett upon thee and put away thy abominations out of the fight of the holy pure God which are matter of provocation unto him against thee And whereas thou hast often assayed a Reformation unto the Lord but it hath never come to be perfect and thorow and ye have been so far from going forward that ye have shrunk back and turned again with the dog to the vomit wherefore now at last return to the Lord with whom there is yet mercy and plenteous redemption and reform thoroughly unto him who will not receive halfes off your hands And now I will shew you councel from the Lord which I do declare in bowels of dear and tender love unto you what ye shall do in order to a cleanly perfect and through Reformation Above all mind the Light of Christ in your Consciences and heed it diligently in its motion and shinings forth thorough the darkness and as ye give obedience to it in what it reveals unto you for duty and shun what it discovers to be evil it will more and more arise and shine forth in pure transparent brightness from one degree of glory to another and lay hold upon the darkness to the dispelling of it and swallowing it up wholly in the womb of its brightness and the Light will shew you the foundation on which ye shall build Jesus Christ the Wisdom and Power of God and the Word of eternal Life the chief corner stone from which the Light comes and it leads to him and will bring you into acquaintance with him and the leadings and teachings of his Holy Spirit to which yee shall do well to keep Chast else the Serpent by his subtlety will again ensnare you and Mystery Babylon will bewitch you with the cup of her Fornications And oh your not keeping chast to the Lord hath often marred the work in your hands and if ye come not in the future to keep closely and chastly to him ye shall never prosper in any of your attempts and all shall be but lost labour And take up the cross to every thought desire imagination motion and affection of your own hearts and this will steer your course aright and guide your feet in every step and stay and ballance your minds and hold down every thing which would arise out of the wrong ground and the pure Light will shine forth in your minds thus stayed under the cross with glorious beams of brightness and sweetly manifest unto you all whatsoever the Lord requires of you and as ye must not be forward in running on without the leadings of Christ the head in you so be not backward nor slow in following after him nor sit down by the way saying in your selves thus far will we go and no further Oh this hath also been a snare unto you and mind the pure holy living power more then the form and wherever the power and Spirit of life doth not move or appear in the forme disown it and stand against it and whatever form or appearance the living power leads into or moves in be for it and own it and as ye come to live and walk in Gods fear it will beget more and more a discerning in you to know and feel the power and distinguish manifestly the dead dry and life-less form and appearance from the living and be willing to be searched as with Candles thoroughly and hide nothing which the Lord requires to be given up nor keep up any thing whatsoever that his controversie and indignation is against and rid you of

nearer the letter of the Scriptures then that other cast down by you yet it was as far from being the Temple or House of God being not of his Spirit for this ye had gone from in your own particulars and at length became so impudent as to deny such a thing could be expected to wit the leadings of the infallible Spirit of Christ to teach you and guide you infallibly in your proceedings and ye set the letter of the Scriptures above it and in it's room together with your own imaginations for ye being gone from the Spirit of Truth the eye which read the Scriptures aright came to be put out and the false eye opened which read them backward and the Scriptures were perverted by you to a wrong sence or meaning and ye drew them to the square and rule of your opinions which the erring mind through Satans suggestion had begot in you and now ye fathered your opinions upon the Scripture and they were but the brats of your own imagination And oh what were the materials of your building were they living stones polished and smoothed by the power of God or rather were they not the most rude profane rabble and multitude of the world the same whereof the Prelatical and popish frame was composed of and who were the builders were they men taught of God standing in his wisdom was your Ministry a spiritual Ministry were they able Ministers of the new Testament not of the letter but of the Spirit such as the Scriptures speak of were they called from heaven by the Revelation of Christ or rather was not your Ministry even such as the former of mens making which stood in man's wisdom and taught of men as among the very Papists yea it was even so Oh how little hath the teaching of God's Spirit been regarded were they not accounted able Ministers who could talk upon the letter and give many good and fine words to the people and speak the Saints experiences recorded in Scripture which generally they never knew themselves or if any knew somewhat of that nature as some did it was not principally regarded and men were let pass for Ministers who were gifted with humane learning and gifts under which the best induments of knowledge or utterance which come not immediately from the Revelation of the infallible Spirit of Truth may be comprehended and after ye had quit the Service-book and that way of worship in set forms and denyed them as dead life-less things your humane learning and abilities together with the customary way ye had inured your selves to prompted you to talk and utter many words before God which yet was as far from spiritual worship as the other and if at any time somewhat of the Lord's Spirit moved and breathed among you as it did for the Lord much pittied for his seeds sake yet it was much suffocated and choaked by your running forth after the imaginations of your own hearts ye not knowing the Cross which stayes the mind and gives a check to the forward proposterous spirit which is rejected of the Lord with all its services and because your minding more the words and form and visible things then the living power whereby the Lord was provoked more and more to withdraw from among you and leave your house desolate as at this day it is And your Presbyterian form of Church-discipline Order and Government it was nothing upon the matter better then the Episcopal there being no material difference in the sight of God to render it more acceptable to him be●wixt the one and the other neither of you knowing Christ the head in you teaching you by the Revelation of his Spirit to determine of things coming before you so that ye could not say with that Synod Act. 15.28 It seemed good to the holy Ghost and to us but ye went on in the same manner with them of determining of particulars in mans wisdom and by plurality of voices or consents which is but a very fallible way and hath done more evil then ever it did good and it is all one before the Lord whether one or a few should determine particulars as it is among the Bishops or whether many by an equality should do it as among the Presbyterians you being both out of God's wisdom and asking counsel and not out of his mouth and ye called Presbyterian Ministers did step into many things ye 〈…〉 the Bishops out of or things much what alike and of the same nature ye denyed their Lordships and took to your selves selves Masterships both being equally forbidden by Christ ye would not suffer them to Lord it over you but ye would Lord it over the People yea and did as tyrannically as ever the Bishops had done and ye were offended at the Surplices and the Canonical Coats and Belts of their Clergy and yet ye were equally superstitious and vain in your black cloaths and Gowns with Pasments and Ribbons upon them and other superfluity of naughtiness and ye were angry at their Revenues being so great and yet ye stept in also to many of them and some of you had as much by the year as some of them and into their pride covetousness lightness vanity ambition carelessness concerning the work of Jesus Christ and the salvation of poor people whereof ye took up the charge and many other iniquities they were found in for which the Lord was provoked against them ye have taken as it were a succession of and ye thought the Lord should have winked at you and indeed he bo●e much with you and had respect unto that poor honest tender simple zealous thing that was once among you in a day but he could no longer forbear for the cry of your sins was great and his oppressed seed in your hearts as a Cart pressed with sheaves under your wickedness cryed likewise against you and he heard and brought desolation upon you also and laid all your stately building in the dust and now great is the lamentation and sorrow of your hearts because of the fall of your building and ye are crying in the anguish of your souls for a day again wherein ye may have an opportunity to repair the breaches and build up the old ruinous heaps and ye are saying in your hearts the tyles are fallen but we will build with hewn stones the Sycomers are cut down but we will build with Cedars and make the frame more able and firm then before to stand out the storm But I say unto you in the name and authority of the living God should ye attempt such a thing till ye come to his Light and the leadings of the infallible Spirit of Truth in your particulars it shall not prosper it shall be as with them who attempted the rebuilding the walls of Ierico and have no better success and ye shall but labour as in the very fire and weary your selves for very vanity I have determined saith the Lord God Almighty to race all to the