Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	act_n	church_n	zion_n	19	3	8.9584	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60131	An exhortation to repentance, and union among Protestants, or, A discourse upon the burden of Dumah	Shower, John, 1657-1715.	1688 (1688)	Wing S3663; ESTC R38911	54,488	64

there any better any other method to provide for our own Preservation and safety Whatever night of darkness and distress may come upon a Nation Men of this Character have alway been favoured with special Protection God hath set a mark on their foreheads for preservation Ezek 9.5 when the Destroyers have been Commissioned to execute Judgment He will cover their heads in the day of Battel when his Arrows are sharp in the Hearts of his Enemies He will hide them in the hollow of his hand provide a Zoar a Gath a Pella some place of Retreat till the Storm be over give them to find Favour in a strange Land or overshadow them in their own accompany them in Banishment and open the Hearts and Hands of others to show them kindness Moab shall hide his Out-cast and Cyrus let go his Captives and the Earth help the Woman Rev. 12.16 the most unlikely means and instruments assist and succour that Remnant whom he will save And if we should be called to bear Testimony to his Name and Truth by suffering for it such a Temper and Practice will best dispose and prepare us for it It will secure his gracious Presence with us it will interest us in the Promise of his Assistance and Help and after we have Confessed him before men he will publickly acknowledge and reward us before the whole World. Fifthly Earnest Prayer to God for the Peace and welfare of Jerusalem and that part of it to which we are most nearly related We are required not to keep silence or give him any Rest till he make Jerusalem both a peaceable habitation and a Praise in the Earth Isai 62.1 Ezek. 22.30 When the hand of God is lifted up there is need of an Enquiry after such Intercessors as will stand in the Gap and turn away Wrath. Numb 16. 'T is time to run with a Censer as Aaron when the Fire of God is begun to fall down in our sight to make haste and humble our selves and cry mightily to him as Ezekiel Ezek. 9. for the Residue of his People when the Executioners are gone forth with a Commission to destroy saying O spare thy People spare the Remnant of thy scattered flock spare our Brethren in France and Savoy the Witnesses of thy Truth spare Great Brittain and Ireland spare the Vnited Provinces Could I represent the languishing disfigur'd Countenance of the Reformed Churches mourning in Sackcloth and Ashes in several places whole Countries which have been as the Garden of God whose Inabitants are now as the Generation of his wrath the great multitude that once walked with Christ in the Profession of the Truth that now walk no more with him the many neighbouring Vineyards from whence a few years ago he had pleasant fruit now broken down and laid wast could I represent these things fully you would see the Necessity of more earnest Intercessions with God on the behalf of Sion than ordinary But tho she stretcheth out her hands Lam. 1.2 17. Who is there of all her Sons that she hath brought up to comfort her Who among all her Lovers to pity her Who among all her Sons to guide her and take her by the hand Even when she is shaken and in danger to have both her Pillars of Truth and Peace broken and cast to the ground She sits in the dust and few or none seem to care for her and tho they see her sorrow and hear her complaints will hardly offer up a prayer more than at other times for her Deliverance However we have the greatest Encouragement to make use of Prayer in this Case of all others because all the great things promised by God and expected by his People must come this way The Return from the Babylonish Captivity tho the time of it was adjusted in the promise must be brought about by prayer Jer. 29.10 The wrath of God was poured out on the Pagan Persecutors Rev. 8.3 4. in answer to Prayer The Judgements of God against the Adversaries of the Church come out of the same Censer into which the Prayers of the Saints are put The seventh and last Vial that shall make an end of the Enemies of Sion is to be opened by Prayer Let our own Case or the condition of our Brethren seem never so desperate we may obtain Relief this way Rev. 14.15 16 17. When every Reed on which we lean'd is broken and our fingers knockt off from all humane Dependance when the secular Arm of Help shrinks and withers and nothing but a Wonder can prevent despair when every Prop is remov'd and Confidence blasted When all our Physicians prove of no value when all Expectations of succor are defeated when only an Infallible Eye can direct our way and an Almighty hand preserve from Ruin when no Plaister will stick to our sore no balm cure our wound all our Anchors come home and our hopes ashamed when the Clouds return after the rain and threaten such a Storm that Affliction shall not need to rise a second time under the smartest sufferings and deepest distress for the present under the saddest symptoms and darkest prospect for the future thô we should hear the sound as of many Waters and every thing from day to day have a worse appearance than formerly yet by Prayer to God we may stay and support our spirits both with relation to our selves and the case of our Brethren * Such is the Harmony between the Prayers of the Church and the Counsels of God that a spirit of serious fervent supplication for Sion is a Token of approaching Deliverance * This succour will be able to reach our Brethren at a Distance in other Countries * This is the most speedy Assistance we are able to send them by engaging God for their Help * This is an Invisible Help which no Adversaries can hinder or prevent These Arrows against Babylon will kill in the dark and no force or powre can obstruct their Execution * This will avail sometimes when nothing else will some Devils will not be dispossest some difficulties will not be removed some Dangers not prevented some mercies can not be obtained any other way than by Fasting and Prayer * By this one Christian any one the poorest the meanest upright Christian may help and succour a great Many others yea the whole Church This Every Good man is capable of who can do nothing else this Bow and Arrow will fit the weakest Arm wherewith to combate the Adversaries of Sion * And there is no case wherein this may not be of some Advantage as no other means will be effectual if this be neglected We shall obtain spiritual Mercies for our own souls as the Reward of it and it may be a temporal Prefervation for our Persons and Families or we may prevail for the deferring of publick Judgments and a longer Time of Tryal or for the mitigation and lessening of them or for a Preparedness to meet

for us who can be against us Rom. 8.31 we are apt to question the Power of God this is at the bottom of our unbelieving Fears were it otherwise See Numb 11.19 21. we should not believe and trust God least when Dangers are greatest When Abraham's faith had overcome that Difficulty about the Power of God he was able to triumph over all discouragements Hebr. 11.17 18 19. God can do more abundantly for us than we can ask or think and give Spiritual and Temporal Salvation at once that upon Mount Sion there shall be Deliverance and Holiness too Obad. 47. Let us not then be discouraged God rules over all the Kingdoms of the Earth and changeth the Government and Governours of them as he pleaseth He hath tossed up and down the Powers of the world by turns and can and will do the like again as shall best serve the ends of his Glory and the accomplishment of his word Sometimes almost all the Princes of Europe have been Protestants and on a sudden the scene hath changed and the most of them have given their Power to the Beast In one year Anno Christi 1619. See Rushworths Collect 17 Jacobi 1. when in Holland the Synod of Dort was called the King of England was a Protestant and the Prince Elector Palatine a Protestant was chosen King of Bohemia and four or five Princes in Germany were also Protestants insomuch that some were ready to cry out the Golden Age was come and the Glory of the latter Times But within one year all was turned again when the Bohemians were routed and their new King and Queen forced to fly into Holland being over-thrown by the Imperial Forces in the famous Battel at Prague Upon which the Protestant Union in Germany declin'd and most of the Princes of it reconciled themselves to the Emperor and only interceded for the Palatine but in vain We must trust in God and live by faith notwithstanding all the changes and revolutions of the world tho the Kings of the Earth should not be Nursing Fathers to the Church as well as when they are The last Counsel is mutual Forgiveness and Forbearance with serious endeavors in our several Places after Christian Concord And because of the seasonableness of this advice to English Protestants I shall speak of it under several Considerations which may enforce the duty and assist us in the performance of it First Consider the Common obligations we are all under as Christians to Brotherly Love and Charity and to endeavor the Unity and Peace of the Church These things were never discommended by any and therefore it will not be needful to say much in the Praise of them as that Love is the fulfilling of the Law the End of Faith the badge of a Christian c. that all Knowledge Gifts Utterance Sufferings are in vain where this is wanting But 't is Ignorance and mistake concerning the nature of Brotherly Love and Union and of the way and means that lead to it that hath made our Divisions and the Consequences of them so mischievous to the Church of God. For the Unity of the Church in Faith and Love may very well be preserved without having just the same Conceptions of all Revealed Objects Such an Union as that is morally impossible and can never be expected and therefore to endeavor the Peace of the Church on that Foundation is an hopeless and vain attempt As much may be said concerning an Union in doubtful unscriptural Rites Orders and Ceremonies None of our Lords commands of Unity or directions for it do either require or so much as mention this Many lesser Differences in opinion and practice are consistent with the nature ends and fruit of that Vnity recommended and enjoyned by the Gospel if such differences be but manag'd with a spirit of love mutual Forbearance and condescention Our great care must be to Remember our Relation to the Vriversal Church of Christ upon Earth which is first in order of nature by our Baptism before our Relation to any particular Church and is both more noble more necessary and more Durable We must therefore take heed of confining our Love to any one Party of Christians because of our mind and way altogether as unreasonable as to love only those of our own Age Stature or Complexion lest the great and more comprehensive Interest of Christians and Provestants be forgotten and neglected lest a narrow Zeal for a small Party of Christians should prejudice the Interest of the Universal Church or cause of Christianity There is one God and one Lord one Head and one Saviour into whose name we are all Baptized one Covenant which all in Baptism make with this one God and Saviour One spirit whereby we are all Regenerated one New Creature in all Holy Christians begotten by this Spirit One Gospel the Rule of Faith and Life and Foundation of our Common Hope one Body of Christ both Mystical and Visible all real Christians are members of the former and all professing Christians of the latter by visible subjection to Christ as their Head one way of Faith and Holiness wherein all must walk one End and Happiness which all expect and one Heaven where all the Children of God shall meet and live forever however they fall out by the way with one mind and Heart in one Blessed work of Praising our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier From hence cannot but result an obligation to Brotherly love and Unity in seeking the Peace and Prosperity of the whole Christian Church not reproaching others as Hereticks and Schismaticks who are not of our mind in lesser things not partially excusing the faults of them who are and aggravating those of other Christians and Brethren whose salvation we should desire and endeavor and not lay snares before 'em much less hate and persecute 'em because in some things they do not think and speak and act as we do How unbecoming is it the Disciples of the Prince of Peace his Ministers especially to render the greatest part of Christians odious and tempt the weak to Slanders Judgings and Envies which are fruits of the Flesh If ever God will Heal his Broken Churches a spirit of Love and Unity and moderation must be reviv'd instead of fierce dividing zeal and the H. Scriptures alone be thought a sufficient Rule and no mens Confessions made the Test of Church Communion any farther than as plainly agreeing with the H. Scriptures Concord and Union upon such terms in which we are all agreed must be our Cure if ever we are cured But Healing Truths are never likely to be entertain'd among us till God give healing spirits to the Pastors and Leaders of the Church The Concessions of the moderate men of all Parties would be a sufficient foundation for Agreement in Christian love to one another for the Interest of the whole managing the lesser differences with mutual forbearance and condescention without endangering or troubling the Church Loving