Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A87500
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Heaven upon earth, or, The best friend in the worst of times. Delivered in several sermons by James Janeway, Minister of the Gospel.
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Janeway, James, 1636?-1674.
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1671
(1671)
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Wing J466; ESTC R178954
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227,422
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377
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are separated from our sins we cannot be united to God Thus ye see our separation from God and our necessity of returning to God before there can be any acquaintance with him Thirdly To our acquaintance with God is required an abiding with God We reckon not our selves acquainted with any person upon the first meeting or when there hath passed but a word or two between us but it is supposed to acquaintance that we have made a considerable stay with him and have had frequent access to him Thus it is between God and us we must not only come to him but abide with him or else we shall never be acquainted with him Joh. 8.13 If ye continue in my Word then are ye my Disciples So I say if you return to God and continue with God then shall ye be acquainted with him indeed Acquaintance signifies not a bare Act but a State or Habit. Now this is the difference between an Act and a State that an Act is passing and is gone but a State signifies an abiding and continuance There may be a drawing nigh to God without abiding and continuing with God upon some deep Conviction or strange providence or eminent danger as it is said In their affliction they will seek me early Yet they may soon forget and forsake God This is but a seeming and practical approaching to God a drawing nigh in appearance when the heart is far from God but that approaching to God which makes acquaintance with God is abiding with him Those that are acquainted with a spiritual life know these things what they are and that they are the greatest realities in the world they know that sometimes there is a greater nearness of their souls to God they are sensible of the approaches of their heart to God and of the withdrawing of their souls from God they know what it is for the soul to feel the approaches of God and his smiles sill their souls with unspeakable Comfort And to feel God withdrawing from the soul this clouds their joy and makes them go mourning They can tell you at such a time they were brought unto his Banquetting-house and his Banner over them was Love They can tell you at such time Christ came into his Garden to eat his pleasant Fruits at such a time they heard the voice of their Beloved saying Open to me my Sister my Spouse my Love my Dove my Vndefiled And when the soul hath neglected this knock of Christ to open to him that then he hath withdrawn I opened to my Beloved but my Beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone These things are the experiences of a precious child of God which I fear are little felt and little known amongst us but where these things are not there is no acquaintance with God For First They do know him Secondly They draw nigh to him they have near access to him Thirdly They have intimate Converse with him This is another thing required to acquaintance We are not said to be acquainted with any person unless we have had intimate converse with him We may be next Neighbours and yet have no Acquaintance unless our conversation hath been mutual So it is between God and us there may be a nighness between the Soul and God and yet no Acquaintance between the Soul and God We are nigh to God in our dependance upon him we are near to God by his immediate providence and sustentation of us and by his Omnipotence There is a nearness to God by way of Dedication As God set apart the Children of Israel to be a people near unto himself so the visible Church of God is nearer to him then those that are not of the Church There is a nearness of Dedication among us by Baptism But all this may be without Acquaintance There is therefore required to our Acquaintance with God an intimate converse with God We have great converse with those who are of the Family or society with us Now such is our acquaintance with God as those who are of his Family God is called the Father of the Families of all the earth and the visible Church is reckoned as Gods Family but in a great Family there may be little Acquaintance with those persons which be of remote employments but to acquaintance with God there must be such a relation as implies familiar converse This intimacy that the people of God have to him is expressed by the nearest relations in Scripture As Abraham is called The Friend of God 2 Chron. 20.7 Jehoshaphat prayes unto God and saith Art not thon our God who didst drive out the inhabitants of this land before thy people Israel and gave it to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh to his Friend Exod. 33.11 John 15.15 Henceforth I call you not servants but friends for the servant knows not what his Lord doth but I have called you Friends for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you Now by Friend is commonly understood a state of converse and society one with another And this intimacy is expressed likewise by the relation of Husband and Wife Isa 54.5 For thy Maker is thy Husband Hos 2.7 Then shall she say I will go and return to my Husband for then was it better with me than now By Husband there is meant God And the whole Book of the Canticles is a relation of the mutual converse betwixt God his people betwixt Christ and his Church under the relation of a Bridegroom and his Spouse Now what converse more intimate than between Husband and Wife Such is that between a soul acquainted with God and God Again this is shadowed out to us under the relation of a Father and his Children 1 John 3.1 Behold what manner of Love the father hath be stowed upon us that we should be called his sons And the holy Spirit is given to be the Spirit of Adoption in the hearts of Gods people Rom. 8.15.16 Ye have received the spirit of Adoption whereby ye cry Abba Father The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God What is signified by this Relation but a nigh union and intimate converse between the soul and God And this is necessary to our acquaintance with God even intimate converse with God By this I mean a nearness of employment when the Objects of our employments are the same then are we said to converse with God when we are employed about those things wherein God is most When there is as it were a mutual commerce and trading between the soul and God man giving himself up to God and God giving himself out to man man taking up the interest of God and God undertaking for the interest of man these such like actings are the converse which the soul hath with God I speak of things which the men of the world are not acquainted with