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	father_n	receive_v	8,589	5	5.7408	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43579	Israel's lamentation after the Lord, or, A discourse, wherein every well-wisher to Zion is excited, and directed how to lament after the Lord with prayers and tears, to maintain the ordinances of God, or God's presence with his ordinances amongst us being some meditations upon 1 Sam. 7.2.	Heywood, Oliver, 1629-1702.	1683 (1683)	Wing H1768; ESTC R22352	67,400	163

Gods for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy Hos 14.3 These are the Duties implied in the Text spread before you required of us all in this World work of lamenting after the Lord. But to help our hearts to and in the due performance of these required Duties I shall propound some qualifications as so many Directions to carry on this work successfully 1. See to your State and Principles except you be related to God you 'l not lament after him nor be much concern'd about him or his Ark whether going or coming Relation is the foundation of Affection A Child will cry after his own Father Now God is not our Father since the Fall till Regeneration make a real and Adoption a relative change of our State and when we have received the Spirit of Adoption then never till then shall we cry Abba Father Rom. 8.15 They only will cry after God that love him fear him honour him as a Father with a filial Affection and they only shall be entertained by him as for others he owns their out-crys no more than the howlings of a Dog Oh therefore examine your State God-wards Hath Converting Grace under Ordinances changed your hearts Hath the Spirit awakened your Consciences convinced you of your undone State by Nature transformed you by the renewing of your Minds translated you out of darkness into light deal faithfully with your Souls in this case you come into the World with your backs turned upon God and you will never lament after him without a turn Yea naturally there 's an enmity and antipathy in our hearts to God and his waies Hath God crushed and conquered that and planted right Principles in you to incline you to him if yet you find not a Divine Nature a new Nature begot in you flatter not your selves you will rather run farther from him than lament after him Let your Souls be chiefly concerned for this first then for the rest Union precedes Communion A real Title is antecedent to laying Claim A Principle of Grace is before an actual exercise of it There must be life before there can be any desire of or nutrition by food I have no hopes of prevailing with graceless Souls to lament after God till they have life and breath voice and lungs except formally for company or for carnal ends which is insignificant Oh for grace truth of grace a reality of interest in Christ and all the Priviledges he hath purchased 2. Inform your selves throughly of the terms we stand in with God Consider how the Lord carries towards us as to our particular Souls and the Nation in general We shall never lament after him till we see him withdrawn Ignorance of the State of things with us keeps Persons in senslesness What the Eye of body or mind sees not is never laid to heart Make some collections and constructions of things at this day Yea make comparisons betwixt former and present Times What think you Hath not God manifested himself more in his Providences for us than of late Have we not reason to take up the Church's complaint in Psal 44.1 9. or to expostulate as Gideon Judg. 6.13 Oh my Lord If the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us and where be all his Miracles which our Fathers told us of I have told you how much restraining grace is withdrawn from many how rare Conversion is by Ordinances how much God hath withdrawn both from the Societies and Spirits of his Servants I shall not trouble you with repetitions look over these things compare them with what you see and observe and if you find the Lord as formerly be thankful if otherwise be humbled and lament after him It 's to be feared that if you be observant discerning Christians you 'l yet find out more than hitherto hath been mentioned both demonstrations of God's remove and Prognosticks of future removes The most excellent and eminent Servants of God pluckt away by death from amongst us and God saith They are taken away from the evil to come Isa 57.1 The Spirit of Giddiness Atheism and Idolatry spreading at a strange rate beyond all parallel Other things I might mention but I leave them to your inquiry Only there 's one Text methinks is astonishing Zech. 11.8 Three Shepherds also I cut off in one month and my Soul loathed them and their Soul also abhorred me It 's one of the saddest words in all the Bible Whether they were good or bad Shepherds that were cut off it 's dreadful that it hath no better effect than mutual abhorrency Oh that this were not our case We lie under woful fruits of God's loathing us and it 's well if men do not loath him A Spirit of opposition to Godliness is the sad fruit of Divine dereliction which produceth greater Spiritual and Temporal Plagues Hence he adds v. 9. Then said I I will not feed you that that dieth let it die and that that is cut off let it be cut off and let the rest eat every one the flesh of another They shall have no Gospel-Pastors to feed their Souls that 's a Spiritual Plague which fell on the Jews for rejecting Christ They shall devour one another with cursed rage and malice as in seditions conspiracies or in their necessity of food by the terrible Famine Thus the Jews were destroyed in Jerusalem's miserable Ruin The like Prognosticks are upon us Lord prevent the fame effects and awake our hearts to use God's appointed Means for prevention 3. Make diligent inquiry into the Reason of our present and approaching calamities Is there not a cause Surely affliction cometh not forth of the dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground Sin is the Mother and Nurse of sorrow Is not God bringing our iniquities upon us Doth not our own wickedness correct us and our backsliding reprove us Doth not this Rod say Thy ways and thy doings have procured these things unto thee this is thy wickedness because it is bitter because it reacheth unto thine heart or Soul Jer. 4.18 Let Ministers and People lay their hand on their heart and search our Consciences Conversations Is it not I that shut out Ministers as the good Woman said I broke my Ministers Leg My pride unteachableness unprofitablebleness formality neglect of duty censurings and uncharitableness sensuality worldliness hypocrisy and lukewarmness vain glory and mindlesness of Gods glory and my Souls eternal good these these made all the excluding banishing fining imprisoning Laws that ever came out against God's Servants These chiefly have broken all assemblies scatterred meetings armed all the Officers retarded our deliverance By our sins are our enemies strong and the hands of our friends weak Alas It 's my own iniquity that hath brought us low set back a good work banisht God lift up the right hand of our enemies Nor is it the Sins of profane but professors Of the Rock that begat us we have been unmindful and forgotten God that

is forgotten when mens private Chests are full Personal comforts thrust our spiritual as the Sun Beams eat out the Kitchin fire 3. From the want of quickening Means in the want of Ordinances When the Prophets are dead naturally or civilly their Monitors to duty are taken away Psal 74.9 We see not our signs there 's no more any Prophet neither is there any among us that knoweth how long When men want an Haggai or Zechariah they lie still asleep for want of awakening Helps It 's Samuel that promotes this lamenting after the Lord. 4. From the withdrawings of God's grace Psal 80.18 Quicken us and we will call on thy Name As long as God turns his back on us we shall be so far from kindly lamenting after him that we shall turn go back from him My Soul followeth hard after thee Psal 63.8 How comes that to pass why Thy right hand upholdeth me It 's God that gives a repenting heart a lamenting Soul Oh what are we if God leave us to our selves Study these causes of senslesness and let our Souls be ashamed Tremble at these causes and their effects bewail sin settle not in worldly injoyments beg quickening helps and above all Divine grace for our assistance in lamenting after the Lord. This is the first 2. That God's Professing People may and must stir up themselves to lament after the Lord. All men have rational faculties Gracious Souls have spiritual Principles sloth kills both Self excitation is possible and a furtherance to this lamentation after God Men as men have Consciences and Conscience is the Candle of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the belly by self-reflection discovering the want of God and goodness checking for evil putting on to what is good if you follow it not as far as it leads you you wrong it rebel against its Master and deprive your selves of further helps Contradict this Preacher in thy bosom at thy peril Means intervene betwixt a man's can and his cannot if thou canst not move a spiritual step thou must move a natural step after the Lord if thou canst not create a new heart yet thou canst and must endeavour to make thee a new heart and a new spirit If thou be not able to do God's work thou must be doing thy own work bemoan thy self tell him what an unruly Bullock thou art and desire him to turn thee and then thou shalt be turned Stir up thy self to take hold on God Stir up the Gift of God in thee Charge thy self as David My Soul wait thou only upon God Awake thou that sleepest arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee light Awake awake put on thy strength oh Zion put on thy beautiful Garments oh Jerusalem shake thy self from the dust loose thy self from the bands of thy neck oh Captive Daughter of Zion Isa 52.1 2. Now at last God expects you should labour to work your hearts to a discovery of your misery the necessity you have of God of his presence and Ordinances You may rouze your selves to this work you must and if you do God will help if not your destruction will be of your selves 3. This lamenting after the Lord and his Ark hath been the practice and is the true Character of God's Children Eli's heart trembled for the Ark of God Phinehas's Wife thought it not worth the while to live when the Ark was gone I will wait on the Lord that hideth his face from the house of Jacob and will look for him Isa 8.17 This was when it was said Bind up the Testimony seal the Law among my Disciples v. 16. Yea if you would seek and find God seek not to familiar Spirits but to the Law and to the Testimony v. 19 20. For should not a People seek unto their God Sirs shew what you are and act as you seem If you be God's Children run weeping after your Father cry after him and say Be not a terrour to me Yea why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the Land and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night Lord art not thou in the midst of us We are called by thy Name leave us not Jer. 14.8 9. Be not thou far from me O Lord for trouble is near for there is none to help Oh! where is that antient serious Spirit of lamenting after the Lord Where are those genuine workings of Child-like bowels after such a Father What 's become of that sighing frame of heart that Spirit of Adoption that God's Children of old were indued with It 's well if new Notions do not drive out that old Spirit of lamentation Shew you are Saints by this as those few declared themselves Saul's faithful Souldiers whose hearts God had toucht following him trembling or trembling after him So Hos 11. v. 10. They shall walk after the Lord he shall roar like a Lion when he shall roar then the Children shall tremble from the West Observe it God's roaring in terrible threatnings or executions drives not God's Children from him but to him only they come trembling appealing from God to God from an avenging Justice offended to tender Mercies through the Merits of Jesus Learn this Mystery an Christian Property 4. This is no controverted Point but a granted duty on all hands I am persuading to Who dare contradict it Yea who dare dispute it What exceptions can any bring against this of lamenting after the Lord I challenge any Caviller to produce any shew of reason against either branch of it either as to the Ordinances of God or God in his Ordinances I think all Parties are agreed in the Theory Oh that all were also agreed in the practice of this duty whatever disputes men make about other Rules or Canons of practice methinks there should be none about this Let us therefore as many as be perfect be thus minded and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule let us mind the same thing Phil. 3.15 16. Whence I discern 1. That it 's a vain praeposterous thing for persons to spend time in disputing about abstruse and dark Points while they neglect momentous and palpable duties 2. The only way to get Unity in less material Truths or Duties is conscientious practice of what is necessary and indubitable I may truly say that nothing is more likely to make us cordial Friends than the practice of the Duty in my Text when Judah Israel fall a weeping and seeking the Lord then they go together How amicable doth converting grace make those that were at deadly and desperate feud for Repentance turns the hearts of Parents and Children to each other Alas till our faces be set towards the Lord our backs will be on each other and we shall rush with fury one against another But if we agree in this best act and object

as Sampson I will go out as at other times before and shake my self But he wisteth not that the Lord is departed from him When he reflects on himself and finds it so will he not see sad cause to lament And have not some Godly Souls cause to say as Gideon Judg. 6.13 Oh my Lord if the Lord be with us why then is all this befallen us And where be all his miracles which our Fathers told us of But now the Lord hath forsaken us 1. In point of quickening exciting and actuating their graces May not that sad complaint be taken up Isa 64.7 There is none that calleth on thy name that stirreth up himself to take hold on thee For thou hast hid thy face from us hast consumed Heb. melted us because of our iniquities Where is that flaming love that working faith Gospel-repentance that lively hope that filial fear that spirit of adoption that found mind tender conscience and working affections as in former days It 's much to be feared there 's a general decay of grace or damp in point of exercise on the Spirits of living Christians it 's well if the Bridgroom find not even the wise Virgins asleep 2. As to strength and assistance against the assaults of temptation and out-breakings of corruption many Thorns in the flesh Messengers of Satan do too prevalently push forwards Gods Children to sin and they find not his grace sufficient for them as sometimes but stumble and fall and are broken snared and taken Yea sometimes to the breaking of their bones dishonouring of God scandal of their profession and endangering of their precious Souls Oh let not such things be told in Gath or published in Askelon lest the uncircumcised Philistins triumph over Gods People and be hardened in their sinful ways Alas where shall Gods tender Spirited Children hide their faces when their brethren prophane Gods holy Name and men shall say These are the People of the Lord and are gone forth out of his land Ezek. 36.20 These are your Praecisians and scrupulous Zealots that will not do as others now they shew that they are a pack of Hypocrites This cuts deep and wounds to the heart 3. As to communion with God Gods People of old could assert it with a truely however carnal men scorn it now 1 Joh. 1.3 Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ Not only in that secret essential fundamental communion whereby grace is maintained in its being and life but that sweet sensible Soul-refreshing fellowship that gives grace its activity maintains intercourse betwixt God and the Soul in duty But alas have not Gods Children cause to complain as the Church that God withdraws himself She seeks him but finds him not in publick Ordinances in secret Duties in communion of Saints Gods Children complain with Job chap. 23.8 9. Behold I go forward but he is not there and backward but I cannot perceive him c. He looks East West North South but in vain This is strange that God who is every where should be found no where but though the Child of God be aware of Gods general Omnipresence and feel his common Providence yet is not satisfied without his special presence and gracious influence And missing this he hath reason to lament after the Lord when he hides himself 4. As to assurance settlement and comfort sometimes Gods Children are left to a sad unsatisfyed and doubting frame full of fears troubles jealousies are much in the dark in point of state this is a very general complaint at this day Many have blurred their evidences by sins or carelesness and cannot give any distinct account how their principles are stated what condition their Souls are in are damped and daunted as to their interest in Christ title to the promises hopes of Heaven Have not these great cause to lament after the Lord And surely these must say as David Psal 51.8 12. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoyce restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free Spirit O my God! My Soul is cast down within me one while I argue with my own heart communing expostulating challenging charging my Spirit and alas I can do no good with it other whiles turning me to God but still I am restless cannot be quiet but am tossed with tempests and not comforted Well I am determined to look towards Gods holy temple and cast my self at Gods feet in the vertue of that promise Hos 6.3 Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord his going forth is prepared as the morning and he shall come unto us as the rain as the latter and former rain unto the earth Thus much for the Doctrinal part and the clearing of an objection All the Application I shall make of this point shall only be of Exhortation to put us all upon this so seasonable and needful a duty of lamenting after the Lord the Ark of the Lord and the Lord of the Ark. In prosecuting this I shall do these four things 1. Propound some Motives and Arguments to press this duty upon our Spirits 2. Discover what sort of Persons are concerned thus to lament after the Lord. 3. Lay before you some Helps to carry on this work of serious lamenting 4. Propound some Cordials to incourage our hearts till we overtake the Lord. 1. For Motives to persuade prevail with our hearts to practice this duty once at last and indeed it 's a very sad consideration that this People of Israel were twenty years before they began to feel their feet or come to themselves This shall be the First Argument That a professing People may lye long under dreadful Spiritual judgments without a sensible Spirit It was so with them here it 's well if it be not so with us And this sensless frame is greater evil than any other judgments Qu. But how comes it to pass that men may be so long senseless and not lament after the Lord all this while Ans 1. From the nature of sin sin is of an hardening stupifying brutifying nature when men fall into sin their hearts are hardened by it Heb. 3.13 Sin is of a cold congealing nature it freezeth the Soul rocketh conscience asleep and like the Fish Torpedo that diffuseth its benumming poison through the hand arm and creeping at last to his heart kills him so doth sin It 's not to tell how David's sin rockt him asleep and led him on to other sins till it indangered his Soul's sleeping the sleep of death 2. From the worldly enjoyments men have in room of Ordinances as the Captives in Babylon being well settled in their conveniences forget God's Appointments and Jerusalem comes not into their mind while their enjoyments afford contentment Yea though some returned they can sleep quietly in their Cieled houses while the House of God lies waste Hag. 1.4 God's Ark