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
A51266	The grand inquiry who is the righteous man: or, The character of a true beleever in his approaches towards heaven. Whereunto is added The resolution of a case of separation betwixt man and wife, propounded to the author by a party much concerned. By William Moore rector at Whalley in Lancashire.	Moore, William, rector of Whalley, Lancashire.	1658 (1658)	Wing M2612; ESTC R214225	54,012	181

God and his doctrine be evill spoken on through your vain conversation As ye have received this righteousness of Christ so walk as those that are arrayed in these long white robes Get into the number of the righteous Beloved I know that ye desire it at least when you come to die I know there is none in this congregation but could wish with Balaam Num. 23.10 O let me die the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his And if we desire it at our deaths why should not we endevour it in our lives What a folly is it nay do but consider seriously what a desperate madness that we should desire this so seriously at our end and yet never look after it till we come to die that this should be the first the chief in our desires and yet the least the last in our endevours Nay whilest thus we cast off the care of Christ and of his righteousness in our health is it not just with him so to cast off the care of us when we lie upon our beds of languishing Go cry unto the gods whom ye have chosen let them deliver you now in the time of your tribulation Whilest we disown him in our lives have we not just cause to fear that so he will disown us at our deaths Depart from me ye workers of iniquity verily I know you not If there be yet a profane heart in this congregation Oh do not deceive your selves with the righteousness of your faith nor flatter your selves with the hopes of joy As Peter to Simon Magus I perceive thou art yet in the gall of bitternesse and in the bond of iniquity and hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God Repent therefore of thy wickednesse and pray God if perhaps the thoughts of thine heart may be forgiven thee This is a messe provided only for a Benjamin Rejoyce ye righteous Beloved we have now found out the righteous man I have been long in this discovery So it concerns us A wise builder will be carefull to lay his foundation firm And a steward must be faithfull to give every man his own portion So here lest on the one hand we should take the childrens bread and give it unto dogs or on the other hand lest we should withhold bread from the children Having therefore thus clear'd the way now we may more cheerfully proceed to The joy of the Righteous Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart In these words we finde a Trinity in Unity a trinity of expressions in an unity of sense Be glad and rejoyce and shout for joy all to set forth the greatnesse of the joy of these happy men Yet here not only to word it to the ear but to lay it open to the eye let us look about us Where can we fix our eye but we finde matter of the greatest joy I shall now give the reasons of it 1. While we look above us God is our father and have ye not here Homers Iliads in a nut-shel Heaven in a word 2 Cor. 6.18 I will be a father unto you and ye shall be me sons and daughters saith the Lord God Almighty Is not here matter of great joy How did it raise the spirit of David when Saul had given him his daughter Seemeth it a small thing unto you to be the son-in-law of a King But then 1 Joh. 3.1 Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called the sons of God But farther as God is our Father so Christ is our Saviour The birth of Christ is glad tidings of great joy so it was sung by a whole quire of Angels O ye that are highly favoured climb up into the Sycomore-tree Do ye not hear his voice and it is sweet This day is salvation come unto thy house Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace saith old Simeon for mine eyes have seen thy salvation And the blessed Virgin My soul doth magnifie the Lord and my spirit hath rejoyced in God my Saviour So the Ethiopian Eunuch when he had got but a glimpse of Christ he went on his way rejoycing Nay 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce even with joy unspeakable and glorious But yet further as Christ is our Saviour so the Holy Ghost our Comforter Joh. 14.16 I will pray unto the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive but ye know him Do we not finde the comforts of this Spirit confirming the Adoption of the Father He hath given us the earnest of the Spirit even the Spirit of Adoption whereby we cry Abba Father So sealing the redemption of the Son Oh grieve not the Spirit by which ye are sealed unto the day of redemption And now do not your hearts leap for joy whilest thus you behold God your Father Christ your Saviour and the Holy Ghost your Comforter the whole Trinity of Persons in the unity of your consolation Perhaps the world frowns upon you And what a poor thing was that of Haman so to vex and fret himself for want of the knee of Mordecai when he had the favour of the King himself But then what a pitifull thing is this in us to vex and torment our selves at the frowns of men whilest we have the love and favour of the Lord himself Why art thou cast down Oh my soul As once Elcanah to his wife Am I not better to thee then ten sons So is not the love of God better to us then ten thousand worlds Psal 4.6 Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us This puts gladnesse in the heart more then in the time that corn and wine and oyle increaseth Oh ye Favourites of heaven be not awanting to your selves If Haman had cause to pride himself in the favour of Ahasuerus that great King of Assyria how much more may it cheer up your spirits that ye have the favour of God the great God of heaven Rejoyce ye Righteous 2. Whilest we look below us Behold the Pit that bottomless pit Are you not affrighted with the horror of it such a fearfull pit So think upon that place of darknesse that blacknesse of darknesse Oh how comfortlesse how frightful to be reserved in everlasting chains under darknesse with the prince of darknesse And think upon those chains those everlasting chains Ah wofull eternity Were it on a bed of down if chain'd upon that bed how wearisome but there bound for ever Oh what heart is able to conceive the horror of this word for ever Nay yet worse Go ye cursed into everlasting fire Do not your sinews shrink to think upon this fire this everlasting fire Oh how afflictive and tormenting

them that love him Mine eyes dazle my hand trembles my heart faileth Me thinks I hear as the Lord once to Job Who is this that darkens counsell by words without knowledge Alas my apprehension is dull my affections cold my expressions low such joy is too wonderful for me it is high I cannot attain unto it Or as that holy Job I have uttered things which I understood not things too wonderful for me which I knew not Now we see saith Paul but through a glass darkly but here is our rejoycing the time is coming on that we shall see face to face now we know but in part but then we shal know as we are also known And if we know already so much reason of rejoycing Oh then what double and what treble joy Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart Rejoyce ye righteous Now reflect we in the application And the meditation of this affords us 1. An Information That there are true joyes in the way of righteousnesse It is the common error of the world and many are discouraged with it If a man turn religious then farewell all good daies we must never look for merry hour any more Spiritus Calvinianus est spiritus melancholicus The Christian spirit is a melancholick spirit Foolish man how apt to deceive himself and to be discouraged And it is the Devils policy thus to blinde mens eyes and pervert their judgements that he may keep them from the waies of righteousnesse What a wilde mistake Of all other men they only have the solid and true joy It is not an Isaac that is slain in the mount but the Ram in the bush of thornes It is not true joy which is lost in Religion but only those sinfull pleasures which are as thornes in our eyes and pricks in our sides to put us to an after sorrow Eccles 2.2 I said of laughter It is mad and of mirth What doth it Religion therefore doth not quash our mirth but only qualifie it it doth not deprive us of our pleasures but correct them It shewes us where true joy is to be found true solid and foul-satisfying joy Psal 36.8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatnesse of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the rivers of thy pleasures But do we not see the lives of some how exceeding comfortlesse And generally all the Saints are men of a strict and austere conversation not to be tempted with the cup of pleasure but spending their dayes in the valley of salt tears and wearing out their tedious lives in a sad retiredness For answer to this observe the worlds mistake and that 's twofold 1. They think there are no pleasures to be had but only in the things of the world The covetous man thinks there 's no joy to that of a full barn or a full bag the Epicure thinks there 's no joy to that of a full cup or a full furnished table the lascivious man thinks there 's no joy to that of a foul mouth and a bed defiled Generally the world thinks there can be no mirth but in their own waies and every man pleases himself in his own humour But do ye not see the folly of those waies Oh misert quorum gaudia crimen habet miserable men that cannot be merry without sin Yet because we are taken from these things from these filthy beastly and unreasonable pastimes from these sinful brutish inordinate lusts wherein they take pleasure therefore they think we have no joy at all As the worshippers of the golden Calf they ear and drink and rise up to play and they think it strange that we run not with them into the same excesse of riot speaking evill of us Fond world Is it any trouble to a man to lay aside his childish toyes What is all your merriment but vanity but childishnesse Nay worse then children in their harmlesse sports not only vanity but vexation As a man that hath the Itch how he pleases himself with scratching which yet works him to an after pain Do ye not blush at your own folly so to debase your selves in sensualities as if you had no better principles then a beast So I dare say sometimes in the height of your jollities full loath you would be to be seen by the eye of man And what fruit had you then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed But will it not be bitternesse in the latter end Nocet empta dolore voluptas And what is that joy worth which is bought with sorrow Prov. 14.13 Even in laughter the heart is sorrowfull and the end of that mirth is heavinesse So Job They spend their daies in mirth and their years in jollity and in a moment they go down into the pit And then Son remember thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things therefore thou art now tormented The more they have had their pleasures in this world the greater shall be their torment and sorrow in the world to come But as God gave Saul another spirit when he was set upon the throne he then followed no more his fathers asses so hath God set us above these things that now we take no delight in pursuit of such brutish pleasures But are we therefore deprived of all joyes because we take no pleasure in these things The Saints in glory neither purchase house nor buy land nor have gold nor silver neither do they eat nor drink nor marry nor are given in marriage but are as the Angels They have none of the pleasures of this world yet in perfect happinesse so the Saints in grace though they relish not the pleasures either of the covetous or of the voluptuous or of the lascivious yet they have their joyes Nay let me tell you further It is their joy that they are weaned from those sinful pleasures that God hath imbittered that cup to them and set them above worldly joy So are you mistaken whilest you think the joy of the world is the only joy 2. And as far mistaken whilest you think that inward spiritual joy of the Saints to be no joy but sorrow and a burden The joy of Saints is no outside joy Saith Paul There be that glory in outward appearance not in heart so there be that rejoyce in outward appearance not in heart Spem vultu simulat premit a●tum corde dolorem So they put a good face upon it when their soul perhaps is full of bitternesse So on the contrary the Saints many times have joy in their hearts when it appears little in their faces whilest their looks are serious their souls full of comfort The Kings daughter saith the Psalmist is all glorious within The glory of the world is an outside glory and the joy of the world is an outside joy but the glory of the Church is an inside glory and the joy of Gods children is an inside joy Saith our Saviour to