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
A52043	Meroz cursed, or, A sermon preached to the honourable House of Commons, at their late solemn fast, Febr. 23, 1641 by Stephen Marshall ...	Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1641 (1641)	Wing M762; ESTC R19516	35,043	59

excellent way and that is the way of love which he layes downe in the thirteenth chapter which will doe all things endure all things without which if men had the tongues of men and Angels all other gifts of prophesie knowledge c. they are but as sounding brasse or tinckling cymbals This is the reason why Saint Iohn throughout all his Epistles calls for almost nothing but love because in that he calls for all My little children love one another And this is also the reason why the Devil doth so infinitely labour to sow the tares of division in the field of the Church hee knowes if he can break the bond of love he breaks the bond of perfection and opens the flood-gates to confusion Rest not therefore who ever thou art that desirest to do good in the Church till the love of it be fixed in thy breast as deeply as the love of the Ark was in the heart of the wife of Phinehas who died for griefe when the Arke of God was taken Or as Calice is said to have been in Queen Maries who affirmed that if her body were opened Calice would bee found in her heart To this end consider often how deare the Church is to thy deare Redeemer how comely and beautifull it is in it self comely as the curtains of Solomon even when it is black as the tents of Kedar with persecution How deformed uncleane and every way vain all other societies are in comparison of this As the Lilly among the thorns How near to thy selfe begotten of the same seed laid in the same womb with thee and thou also wert laid in its womb and sucked its breasts redeemed with the same blood enjoyest all the same priviledges hast all thy welfare in this world wrapt up in its welfare and expectest to live with it to all eternity in the same glory These thoughts rightly working upon thy heart would make thee willingly spend and be spent for the Churches good thy services would not be as the motion of a stone cast out of a sling at first swift by virtue of a violent impression but constant and strongest rather toward the later end as those motions are said to be which proceed from a naturall inward principle So then you easily apprehend the excellent use and indeed the necessity of the concurrence of these three qualifications of godlinesse self-deniall and love to the making up of a good Chruch-man the Lord make them evident in all your hearts and wayes Next followes What men thus accomplished may and must doe for the Church The service required may be reduced to these two heads First somewhat to prepare us for action Secondly to act as we are prepared By way of preparation three things are requisite First carefully to informe our selves of the state and condition in which the Church is otherwise wee deprive our selves of all possibility of being helpfull to it Be a man never so willing and never so able to relieve the distresses of his brethren hee can neither heal the sick nor help the poor unlesse hee knew who and where they were that needed and what helpe they wanted This made Nehemiah so diligently to enquire concerning Ierusalem and his brethren which were left of the captivity This made Daniel search into Ieremiahs Prophesies to know the condition of the Church and learn his own duty 2. This enquiry must not be out of Athenian curiosity as most people enquire after newes but so to know as to work our hearts to a fellowfeeling of their condition otherwise all our intelligence will be as dry clouds flying over our heads without a drop of raine Thus did Nehemiah as soone as hee understood that his brethren were in great affliction and reproach the wall of Ierusalem broken downe and the gates thereof burnt with fire he sate down and wept this prepared him for the good service he did afterward Thus also did Daniel who when God had shewed him though but in a vision the calamities that were to come upon the Church of the Jewes by Antiochus Epiphanes he fainted and was sick certain dayes And the want of this fellow-feeling is both taxed and threatned by God in Amos 6. No man is sorry for the affliction of Ioseph God esteeming it an argument of little love to sit downe with Haman at a banquet when the City of Shushan is in perplexity 3. As wee must know and bee affected with the Churches want so we must enquire what is in our power to do for it wherein we may be helpfull This I shall have occasion to speak of afterward The second sort of directions are for action And these may be brought to two heads First somewhat we must do immediately to God for the Church Secondly somewhat wee must doe for the Church from God First that which wee are to doe to God for the Church is to pray for it I name this first because it is the first and chiefest service that we can perform If any other talent bee a penny Prayer is a pound This is the talent of all talents concerning which I shall speak a little more fully as the seasonablenesse of it requires First it must be granted that all the friends of the Church may help it with their prayers if with Peter they have no silver nor gold but will give such as they have they may afford a subsidy of prayer They have all the spirit of adoption enabling them to cry Abba Father So that what the Master of the ship said to Ionah What meanest thou O sleeper arise and call upon thy God though he could neither sit at sterne nor handle the tacklings yet he might pray may be said to any man in regard of the Church though thou canst neither runne nor ride nor write nor fight yet thou canst pray Awake awake And as plaine it is that God requires it should bee so O pray for the peace of Ierusalem You that make mention of the Lord keep not silence give him no rest till hee establish and make Ierusalem the praise of the earth You that have escaped the sword remember the Lord afar off and let Ierusalem come into your minde But the chiefe thing I aime at is to discover the power of Prayer Which I shall never bee able fully to expresse None can tell what Prayer can do but he that can tell what God can do Yet these few conclusions may give some light toward it First God hath not promised to do any thing without it It is confest he doth many things without Prayer but he hath not promised to do any thing for his Church without it All this will I doe saith the Lord but for all these things will I be enquired by the house of Israel Secondly As he hath promised to do nothing without so he will do all things by it I will visit you saith God and performe my good word