Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	adoption_n	cry_v	father_n	9,732	5	5.0154	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48445	Some genuine remains of the late pious and learned John Lightfoot, D.D. consisting of three tracts ... : together with a large preface concerning the author, his learned debates in the assembly of divines, his peculiar opinions, his Christian piety, and the faithful discharge of his ministry.	Lightfoot, John, 1602-1675.	1700 (1700)	Wing L2070; ESTC R12231	207,677	406

Sept. 28. It appeared at Sun-rise and said Thou told'st Mr. Crompton the Town where Anne Harrison lived was Redstone but I told thee Barnstone Sept. 29. At Eight a Clock it appear'd and the Woman said In the Name of the Father c. How camest thou to be so long down and not to appear It answered she said certain Prayers over me when they struck down the Stake that I could not appear Upon Thursday about Sun-rise it appeared Isabel asked what became of his Horse It answered My Horse was sold on Midsummer-day at Beverly to one Mr. Weldbread that liveth in the South for 5 l. Octob. 4. It appeared to several of the Town of Driffield But Isabel was not at home and did not see it It appear'd in White all the time like one of Eighteen Years old Some Gentlemen bade Isabel ask it where he should abide after Seven Years were expired It said I must enjoy the happy Eternity and in the mean time the Lord is my Governour Signed Thomas Blackwell It is pity the Relation went no further For one would have been glad to have known to what Issue this Business came and whether this Woman accused by the Spirit ever came to her Trial. The Credit of this Story depended not upon Isabel alone for it appears the Spectre was seen also by others and the Circumstances were such as did mightily confirm Evidence of her to whom it chiefly reveal'd it self and its Cause And it appears that Crompton the Justice a Person as it seems of Sobriety and good Judgment slighted her not but advised her to put divers material Demands to it And the Story seems also to have found good Credit with our Divine as well as others in that he thought fit to transcribe the whole Relation which I have here exemplified And so I leave it I have one Demonstration more of his Piety to God that he continued as long as he lived constant and painful in the Word and Doctrine And as he was an assiduous and excellent Preacher so his Sermons ran very much upon a Strain of urging Holiness and a pure and good Life upon his Auditors in a plain but nervous Stile teaching them substantial Virtue and Goodness seldom meddling with Controversies unless they were such as tended to obstruct the Necessity of a Holy Life or to undermine the Purity and Humility required in the Gospel or enticed to a Revolt from the Protestant Religion Thus he shewed them that it was no such easie Matter to be a Christian but that it required long Pains and Diligence A Change from Sin to God is a continued Act and requires Space and Time to accomplish it Our Fall was in a Moment that Change from our Happiness to our Sinfulness and Misery was in an Instant but our changing back again requires time A Man may fall off from an high Tower in a Moment but to recover his Bruise and to climb up thither again is not so soon done And because many were apt to defer their Repentance by the Example of the good Thief hoping to have their great Work done in an Instant and to find such Success as he did therefore Dr. Lightfoot added That in all the Bible we have but one Example of a short Change and that was the Thief on the Cross who had his Work of renewing done in an Hour or thereabouts But it was at such a time as never was before and never will be again When the Son of God was undergoing his great CHANGE from Life to Death and was purchasing the CHANGE of his People from Death to Life If thou canst light on such a nick of Time which is impossible then thou mightest expect it possible that this Change should be wrought suddenly Otherwise expect it will take up no little time We must distinguish of the first working of Grace and of the Growth and Encreasing from thenceforward That first Work of Grace doth indeed translate the Person from one Condition to another but Succession of Time and Growing in Grace is required to transform him thorowly from one Temper to another Again the first Work of Grace doth indeed make a Man capable of Heaven but more is required to make him fit for Heaven He puzzled not his People with propounding to them nice and critical Signs to know whether they were in a State of Grace but shewed the plain way to be satisfied therein Who is there but if he will well examine himself may easily tell whether he be in the Ways of God or no Let him but try his Heart and Actions whether God in his Word hath commanded or allowed such an Heart and such Actions as he carries and acts or whether he hath forbade and cried out against them Who but his own Heart will easily tell him that God never commanded or allowed him to Lye and Deceive to be Cross and Contentious to be Proud and Scornful to be Wanton and Luxurious to be Envious and Revengeful to be Worldly and Covetous And therefore if he carry such an Heart and if he practice such Practices as these he must needs conclude that he is under God's Blaming and Complaint He checked those that tho' they were none of the best yet entertained a Confidence that they should do well and bolstered out themselves with good Hopes of their own Condition using these Words to such That Man that hath ever gone in a sinful worldly Way never minding any thing but to satisfie his own Mind and Lust and yet will not be driven out of Hope that he shall be saved as well as the best This is not Hope but Drunkenness As you may perswade a drunken Man to very strange Hopes This is Raving rather than solid Hoping For true and right Hope wheresoever it comes creeps out of Fear as poor Israel did out of their Caves and Dens when the Fear and Danger of the Enemy was past and over And again Hope never comes but where Fear hath been before As the still Voice to Elias came not but after Fire Earthquake and Tempest The Soul that will breed and bring forth a lively Hope must like Rebecca bring forth the rough rugged Esau of Fear before it bring forth the smooth Jacob of Hope There is first the Spirit of Bondage unto Fear before there comes the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father A Conscience that was never troubled startled or molested but blith debonair and fearless is not Peace of Conscience the Gift of God but Deadness and Stupidity of Conscience the Spirit of Slumber He gave Men this wholsome Admonition concerning the Exercises of Religious Worship Prayer confessing of Sin attending upon God's Service these are Sacrifices that God requires and they are Sacrifices with which God is well pleased if they be well done But there is one thing more that God requires and without which these are nothing and that is that which the Apostle speaks of Rom. xii at the beginning for a Man to

Bondage of Corruption in-the Glorious Liberty of the Children of God AMong the Children of Men there are some Children of God These Words speak something concerning them and their Condition The Prophets speak much of Multitudes to be brought in to be Sons of God Esay xliii 6 I will say to the North give up and to the South keep not back Bring my SONS from far and my DAUGHTERS from the ends of the Earth And Ch xlv 11 Thus saith the Lord the holy one of Israel and his Maker ask me of things to come concerning my SONS Hos. i. 10 And it shall come to pass that in the Place where it was said unto them Ye are not my People there it shall be said unto them Ye are the SONS of the living God And Caia●has that prophesied but once John xi 51 Prop●●sied that Jesus should die for that Nation And not for that Nation only but that also he should gather together i●to one the CHILDREN of God that were scattered abroad Therefore the Holy Ghost in the New Testament sets himself to speak to this thing and to shew who these Sons of God are John i. 12 13. shews who are and who are not But as many as received him to them gave he Power to become the Sons of God even to them that believe on his Name Which were born not of Blood nor of the Will of the Flesh nor of the Will of Man but of God As many as received him those were Sons of what Nation Quality or Rank whatsoever Not born of Blood nor of the Will of Man The Holy Ghost sets the Regeneration in Opposition to natural Generation In natural Generation Men are born of Blood and of the Will of Man but 't is not so in this Or else he sets the true Begetting and Birth of the Sons of God in Opposition to those fancied Ways the Jews thought Men were made Children of the Godly They concluded none were Children but of Israel And if they came to be of Israel then undoubtedly Children So Christ speaks according to their Sense It is not meet to take the Children 's Bread and cast it before Dogs And the Apostle confutes this Arrogant and Erroneous Opinion Rom ix 7 Neither because they are the Seed of Abraham are they all Children but in Isaac shall thy Seed be called that is they which are the Children of the Flesh these are not the Children of God Now they thought they became the Sons of God or Israelites these Ways I. By being born of Blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bloods that is long Descent of Blood of Ancestors even to Abraham or by Bloods of Sacrifice and Circumcision II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the Will of the Flesh As they took many Wives and desired many Children accounting all Children of Promise III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of the Will of Man as the Consessus or Sanhedrin did bring in Proselites and make them Israelites Not this nor that nor that makes a Son but he that is born of God and he is so that receives Christ and believes on his Name The Apostle is speaking of the same Subject in this Chapter ver 14 15 17. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the Sons of God For ye have not received the Spirit of Bondage again to fear but ye have received the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father And if Children then Heirs c. And then he comes on to shew whence these Sons especially should come ver 19. The earnest Expectation of the Creature waiteth for the Manifestation of the Sons of God c. By Creature here and whole Creation ver 22. is meant nothing but the Gentiles or Heathen World A Phrase among the Jews ordinarily put so to signifie Mark xvi 15 Col. i. 23 Now this whole Passage is to this Purpose God had prophesied of Sons to come from the Heathen and the earnest Expectation of the Creature that is of the Heathen waited for this Manifestation of the Sons of God Two or three things there were that might awaken the Heathen World a little to consider of their wretched Case 1. It may be they had the Greek Bible 2. Howsoever the Jews scattered abroad among them might something convince them of their Condition 3. We may conceive that against their Call God had stirred up their Hearts by way of Preparative to be weary of Idolatry and groping in Darkness As against the Reformation by Luther all Christendom desired some Reformation and as against the Coming of Christ the People were in Expectation of the Messias Observe that John iv 35 Lift up your Eyes and look on the Fields for they are white already to Harvest By which Words he hinteth at that Multitude of Samaritans and under them of Heathen that were ready to be reaped by the Gospel So the Earnest Expectation of the Heathen World waited now for the Manifestation of the Sons of God Ver. 20. For the Creature was made subject to Vanity c. Not a few understand this of the Frame of the World made subject to Vanity by Sin But the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vanity means Vanity of Mind So Rom. i. 21 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Gentiles become vain in their Imaginations Eph. iv 17 The Gentiles walk in the Vanity of their Mind So the meaning is that the Heathen were given up to the Vanity and Folly of their own Mind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Made subject put under such a Condition by the just Judgment of God as the Apostle handles it Chap. i. But they are put under in Hope that in time it should be better with them For the Creature it self also shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption c. By Corruption is signified here as generally in Scripture sinful Corruption not natural Corruptibility or fading away 2 Pet. i. 4 Having escaped the Corruption that is in the World through Lust. And Ch. ii 19 Servants of Corruption And elsewhere evil Men are stiled Men of corrupt Minds and corrupt Communication Meaning that the Gentiles shall be delivered from their sadly sinful Condition into the Evangelical and Spiritual Liberty from Sin that the Sons of God partake of Some understand it of the Change of the Frame of the World at the end of the VVorld and think Peter speaks of the same thing 2 Pet. iii. 13 He does indeed in some Sense but far from theirs viz. A new State of Affairs in the Church when the Gentiles shall be called This is the new Heaven and the new Earth that they looked for of their Calling the Text speaks which was now in Agitation And of that let us first speak a little partly for the observing of Providence in so great a VVork and partly for the understanding of some Passages in Scripture I. The casting off of the Gentiles was at Babel Gen. xi where there were four Punishments inflicted on them 1. Destroying their Building

Communion III. This Communion is twofold Doctrinal and Spiritual 1. Doctrinal As they do communicate in one and the same Faith or Profession of one and the same Religion So all Protestant Churches hold Communion in one and the same Doctrine of Faith and in regard of that Disunion with the Church of Rome Holland and We tho' so disunited in regard of civil Converse yet we are at Communion as Christians in the Profession of the same Religion But this is not the Communion the Article means It speaks of Communion of Saints Now every prophane carnal Protestant may hold such Communion in outward Profession of the same Religion Thousands of prophane Persons in England hold Communion thus even with the preciousest Saints viz. That they acknowledge the same Articles of Religion and yet are far from the Communion of Saints here spoken of Therefore the Communion of Saints is II. Spiritual A hidden Manna a Communion that the World knows not a Spiritual Interest and Communicating which they only partake of and which they only are sensible of Which we may discern the better by observing these things 1. That there is one and the same Spirit in every true Saint of God in the World 1 Cor. xii 4 There are Diversities of Gifts but the same Spirit True there are Diversities of Degrees of Grace and of Operations but one and the same Spirit that worketh all in all As Kinsmen have Communion in Kindred because the same Blood runs in all their Veins so Saints have Spiritual Communion because the same Spirit dwells in them all As in that Comparison that they are Members of the same Body because the same Spirit of Life is in every one of the Members It was the Custom with the Jews to enter into Communion by eating of the same Bread To which the Apostle alludes 1 Cor. x. 17 For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all Partakers of that one Bread And hereupon they might not eat with those with whom they might not have Communion So Christ feasts all his with the same Spirit 1 Cor. xii 13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have been all made to drink into one Spirit That it is that that gives their Souls Life and Growth because they are all fed with the same Spirit This is the Hunger and Thirst of a Child of God to be filled and refresh'd with his Spirit And this is the feeding and refreshing God affords them John vi 55 63. For my Flesh is Meat indeed and my Blood is Drink indeed It is the Spirit that quickeneth the Flesh profiteth nothing The Words that I speak unto you they are Spirit and they are Life And John vii 37 39. If any Man thirst let him come unto me and drink But this spake he of the SPIRIT which they that believe on him should receive This was David's Hunger and Thirst when his Soul was almost starved by his great Fall Psal. li. 11 12. Cast me not away from thy Presence and take not thine Holy Spirit from me Restore unto me the Joy of thy Salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit And this is a Trial whether a Soul be alive and healthy and whether a Person be a Saint or no by his longing and hungring for the Spirit of God Examine your Stomach what craves it Lord give me Corn and Cattel After these things the Gentiles seek not the Saints of God But Lord give me thy Spirit fill me with thy Grace support my fainting Soul with the Spirit of Grace This is a blessed hungring and thirsting which shall be blessedly satisfied Matth. v. 6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after Righteousness for they shall be filled Thus in the first place Saints have all Communion in the same Spirit of Christ drink of the same Fountain eat and feed upon the same Manna 2. Thus all communicating of the same Spirit of God they have by that Spirit Communion with God himself 1 John i. 3 And truly our Fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. A high Saying blessed Apostle Fellowship with God and Christ Let Haman brag of his great Friendship with Ahashuerosh Let Men b●●st of their accompanying with this and that great Man their Friendship and Acquaintance with this or that noble Person it is enough if I can say I am acquainted with God I have Friendship and Fellowship with God and his Son Jesus Christ. Acquainted with God Communion with Christ Brave Company That Man can never be alone never want excellent Company Ah! poor Paul how dost thou do for Company in a dark lonely Prison Daniel how solitary art thou in a Den of Lions when thou hast no Company but those cruel Creatures Oh! nunquam minus solus quam cum solus I have God and Christ with me they keep me Company and I can have no better And so God himself hath promised When thou goest thro' the Waters I will be with thee Observe that Promise Matth. xxviii ult I will be with you always even unto the end of the World Alas we shall be in Prisons in Stocks Ay but then ye shall not be alone for I will be with you to the end of the World What mean such Expressions but that God is present near to his own People in an extraordinary manner different from common Providence That Expression Walking with God doth hint special Intercourse and Converse 'twixt God and the Saint as 'twixt two Friends walking together Observe a feeling Exposition of it Psal. lxxiii 23 24 c. Nevertheless I am continually with thee thou hast holden me by thy Right Hand Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel and afterward receive me to Glory Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth I desire besides thee Here let us stay and we may stand amazed that poor sinful Men may have the Honour and Happiness of Communion with God Will God dwell upon Earth It was Solomon's Wonder So may we wonder at this that God should Converse be in Fellowship and in Familiarity with Men. If God should take Advantage of that Be not unequally yoked how far may this speak contrary to such Communion For what infinite Inequality is th●●e 'twixt God and Man Creator and Creature Dust and Glory An Expression of this Communion you have Rev. iii. 20 If any Man hear my Voice and open the Door I will come in to him and will sup with him and he with me And another Es. lxvi 1 2. Thus saith the Lord The Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my Footstool Where is the House that ye build unto me And where is the Place of my Rest For all those things hath mine Hand made and all those things have been saith the Lord. But to this Man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite