Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	advise_v	course_n	great_a	21	3	2.1554	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96684	God a Christian's choice, compleated by particular covenanting with God Together with an appendix, containing propositions, tending to clear up the lawfulness, and expediency of transacting with God in that way. In pursuit of a design proposed by Mr. R.A. in his book entituled, The vindication of Godliness. And by Mr. Tho. Vincent, in his book, called Words whereby we may be saved. To which is added, a brief discovery of the nearness of such a people unto God, on Psal. 148. 14. By Samuel VVinney, sometimes minister of the gospel at Glaston in Somersetshire.	Winney, Samuel.	1675 (1675)	Wing W3034; ESTC R231145	79,544	241

concernments of your Souls Query What shall I do what Course would you advise me to take that I may be near to God Answ 1. Pray to God for the Spirit of regeneration that thou maist be born of God thereby thou wilt be made partaker of the Divine Nature if thou art born of the Spirit then wilt thou be near to God As near and as dear as a Child is to his Father 2. Beg of God to communicate to you the Benefits of Christ's Sufferings For it is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that makes us nigh to God Eph. 2.14 For he is our peace who hath made both one and broken down the middle-Wall of partition c. between God and men as well as between Jew and Gentile Oh that we might by Faith and Prayer still apply him to our Souls He suffered the Just for the unjust that he might bring us near to God Now beg of God to bring you nigh to him by his Sons blood I wish I could engage every person of you not to lie down this night till you had prayed this Prayer that you might be brought nigh to God by the blood of his Son 3. Lay hold on the Covenant of God the Covenant between God and his people it is a matrimonial Covenant a Marriage-Covenant now it is the work of the Ministers of the Gospel to be wooers for Christ and to beseech you in the name of Christ to be married to him and I desire in the name of God to make this proposal Will you hearken to it and accept of it God in his Word doth offer to be married to your Souls God doth call you you have every one of you run away from God and he calls you as he did to Israel of old Return you back sliding Children for I am I will be married unto you Jer. 3.14 What do you say Will you give Consent or no shall your Maker be your Husband or shall he not ask your own hearts this question Art thou willing Oh my Soul to be espoused to the Lord Jesus Christ or art thou not we are ambassadors for Christ and he hath sent me to invite you to him And if this day there might be but one Soul brought in to accept of Jesus Christ as it would be the day of the gladness of his heart Song 3.11 so would it be the rejoicing of mine There is no such match as this no such Husband as Jesus Christ how near if espoused to God and Jesus Christ none nearer than Husband and Wife the Lord therefore prevail with you You have in the foregoing papers direction to and information of a Design of a worthy man and Minister of God proposing in several treatises advice about particular transacting with God between God and your own Souls apart not in word only but in writing and you have also a few things added to shew the warrantableness and advantage of so doing and I could wish that every Christian in the World might be prevailed with to do it effectually and speedily Blessed be God for the comfort of it never any one that hath tasted of the comfort of it would for any thing have it to do Besides the instance of one person I have given in the foregoing Appendix that in sore troubles improved it I shall here add one more of a person dying whom when I came to visit being near to death after I asked concerning the parties state I said I hope you are able to resign up your whole self Body and Soul into the hands of God Reply was made this have I done between God and my own self many a time in a Corner and the draught between God and the Person was sound after amongst other writings when deceased So that there is no greater preparative that fits for nor will there be a greater stay to comfort and embolden when at the point of death What can be greater encouragement hereunto than the experience of the Saints of God both living and dead Up therefore and delay no longer but do it that so you may live and die in full assurance that you are and shall be fully and for ever near to God 2. Branch of Exhortation Let me beseech you in the name of God that have made sure that you are a people near to God that you would walk as a people near unto him First make the matter clear and then be sure to have suitable Conversation and that will be so if the former be done indeed for the same Spirit of Grace that draws us to the one will enable us to the other Carry it towards God as becomes so great a Priviledg Query But how shall we do that may some say Answ 1. Be sure to have a care of that that will cloud your evidences and assurance of Nearness unto God and put you in your apprehensions at a great distance again from him You may get assurance but then take heed you do not meddle with that which will cloud it time was you rejoiced in God as your God and your Father that your selves were his Children taken into Covenant with him and into his family in the nearest relation to him And when you are near to God you will be ever near to God but yet you may lose your assurance by your sin for that will set you at a distance again it being a forsaking God and departure from him and so cloud your apprehension of Gods affection your adoption and regeneration and acceptation and thereby rob you of the Comfort of your condition and all your relation to God therefore have a care of sin of all and every sin whatsoever and specially your own iniquity Some persons are addicted to some sins more than others specially therefore take care of them these will crack your peace and cloud your evidences walk watchfully therefore and labour to have an unspotted Conversation for the spots and sins of a mans Conversation will be clouds upon his Soul and will blur all his evidences and so break his Peace 2. Keep near to God as much as you can and be as often with God as possibly you can Do not carry it strangely towards God be often in Gods Company and frequent in his presence often see his face and draw nigh to him my meaning is be often in the use of Ordinances and the Duties of Gods Worship specially in Prayer which is a duty wherein God and the Soul draw as near one to another as in any duty whatsoever Nobles are still about the King and if the King stir to any place without their privity away they go and post to follow after him so should we if God seems to withdraw himself so the Church after her beloved Song 3. 5. Psal 63.8 My Soul followeth hard after thee saith David 3. Bless God for his distinguishing Mercy to you above many others many thousands in the World how many are kept off and at a distance still and what are

Now Conversion is a work wrought upon every particular Soul and that Soul and as many Soul's as are converted do in particular turn to God every one for himself resolves to be for him only and none else 2. Another expression of this is by the giving of the hand Rom. 6.13 compared with 2 Chron. 30.8 Now be not stiffnecked as your Fathers were but yield your selves to the Lord * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hebrew Give the hand to the Lord as the Margin of some Bibles hath it which hath some resemblance to marriage also forenamed wherein as there is an express Promise by word of mouth so there is at the same time a solemn and publick Giving of the hand each to other And this action hath many times the virtue of a ratification of Promises in our civil Commerce and mutual contracts one with another The Greek Give glory to God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 LXX like that Jer. 13.16 give Glory to God by repentance and humiliation pressing to the same duty laid down in the first words positively though there negatively be not stiff-necked in both places yield your selves to the Lord in our translation 3. Another expression we shall said Psal 50.5 Gather my Saints which have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice Hebrew Cut a Covenant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for at holy Covenants the Sacrifices were cut asunder and both the persons went between the parts to shew that there was a mutual stipulation and engagement not one person only was tyed Ainsw but both did thus reciprocally transact one with another and were interchangeably obliged to and assured of the terms therein contained 10. Further this is no more than is already done virtually by us in our Baptism-Covenant and ther 's no person of sound judgment but thinketh himself to be really and fully bound thereby and wo be to every baptized person that lives and dies in the neglect of fulfilling that Covenant And this kind of express transacting between God and our selves by speech or writing is but a doing of the same thing in another way So also in the Sacrament of the Supper wherein every person takes both the Elements the Bread and the Cup into his own hand denoting his receiving Christ to himself in particular and giving up himself to him both receiving and resigning himself up back again is implyed thereby 11. Lastly doth not every Christian do the same thing when he comes to die It is the last work that all men that die in Christ and in the faith do viz. resign themselves up particularly Body and Soul into the hands of God and as the Apostle phraseth it Commit their Souls unto him after all their well-doing as into the hands of a faithful Creator 1 Pet. 4. ult How comfortably freely confidently will they do it then having done it solemnly before hand in their life-time for this we have our blessed Saviour for a patern See Luk. 23.46 Cryed with a loud voice and said Father into thy hands I Commend my Spirit and gave up the Ghost the very same words that David the type of Jesus Christ did use when he was alive in his life-time Psal 31.5 Into thy hands I Commend my Spirit thou hast redeemed me O Lord God of truth in the doing of this work when he was in great danger of death by the malice and mischief his enemies contrived against him the same did Steven the Protomartyr at his dissolution and violent death Act. 7.59 in effect though not in express words Lord Jesus receive my Spirit And thus much for the lawfulness and warrantableness of it which is the first thing Secondly that it is expedient necessary and advantageous appears very plainly by these things following 1. The person gets true and full assurance that the work is once done indeed so that the matter will no longer hang in doubt or if there be any doubts and objections arise at any time this draught will be a testimony of it which God will never disown it being done in sincerity of heart or if not this way yet if there hath been a transacting by word of mouth wherein an interest in God hath been humbly and heartily accepted and embraced and serious giving up our selves to God totally and for ever I say if it hath been done in this manner the Soul will have some ground of evidence and some plea with God when in the midst of detections and temptations This puts me in mind of one poor Soul that was in a mixture of Soul and bodily distraction together who though then as not otherwise in many things and cases sensible yet being set to prayer by some persons that visited her whereof some were Ministers and I my self was one she made use of this passage in these words or to this effect Lord Expressing here her came thou knowest me poor by name and thou knowest that in such a place naming it both House and Room I had Communion with thee and thou didst give me assurance of interest in thee and being thine And soon after through her bodily distraction taken off from the duty and diverted So that this is one beneficial advantage that comes by it that the work is surely and irrevocably done and so shall be able with humble boldness to plead with God for our acceptance with him in any Soul-distresses we are or may come into and being once thus in good earnest done shall never be undone for that the gifts and calling of God are without repentance Rom. 11.33 and though we are a people that shall while we are in the World through infirmity break Covenant yet it is God's Covenant-promise to forgive our iniquities and remember our sins no more Jer. 31.3.4 And it is not every infirmity that shall utterly disannul this Covenant and break off this marriage-Covenant and dissolve this marriage-knot see Jer. 3. throughout If we heartily and mournfully return to him as ver 22 c. For God is a God that keeps Covenant and mercy to a thousand Generations to them that love him and make it their whole bent and endeavour to keep all his Commandments Deut. 7.9 hence did David fetch Comfort in his personal and domestical troubles 2 Sam. 23.5 Although my house be not so with God yet he hath made with me an Everlasting Covenant ordered in all things and sure for this is all my Salvation and all my desire although he make it not to grow 2. This will be a most strongty and bond to keep our hearts close unto God in dependence and Obedience The best are used to find their hearts hang loose and to stand at a distance through the remainders of unbelief that makes their hearts depart from the living God Heb. 3.12 Now what a spur and goad will the Consideration of this be to us that we are in Covenant and have solemnly listed up our hands to God and yielded our selves to him How will this

worse than an infidel saith God by the Apostle 1 Tim. 5.8 How many such Masters and Parents are there in the pale of this visible Church that have the badg of Christianity upon them that consuem all in their lusts and are in this sense worse than the Infidels the Heathens and Pagans now will God lay that charge upon us and will he not do it himself doth God require us to provide for our houshold and will not God provide for his are not God's People his houshold and so his own as near as Wife Children and Servants and will not God then take care of them Will God teach us providence and care for our Relations and shall not God do so for his When you want your bread you that are poor remember this if you be a People near unto God he will provide for you and this should learn you the Apostles lesson to cast all your care upon him who careth for you 1 Pry. 5.7 And what a mercy it is to be able to beg our daily bread from God upon this Relation that we are a People nigh to him will not God provide for his own Surely he will God that requires us to do good to all men but especially to the houshold of Faith Gal. 6.10 he himself is also good to all by that general common Goodness which he extends to the whole Creation Psal 145.9 but specially to his own Israel truely God is good to Israel Psal 73.1 the People near unto him text It 's only the houshold of Faith that is near to God for Faith is the bond of our Union unto God and Jesus Christ 6. And Lastly remember and take comfort in this also as you are now near to him here so you shall be more near to him in Heaven hereafter and this closeth up and compleateth the Happiness of the People of God he will bring them all to be near to him in Heaven methinks these things should make our hearts a little burn within us with affection to be in a longing after this great Priviledg remember you shall be as near to God as Heaven and Glory shall make you and how near will that be God is near to you now and you are near to God now but yet notwithstanding in Heaven is the greatest and chiefest Nearness Here you have his presence in a measure with many interruptions here sin that makes a separation between God and you but hereafter you shall fully immediately and for ever have his presence you shall never be excluded or shut out of it time will come when there will be nothing that shall stand and interpose between God and you all that shall cause a distance shall be taken out of the way Oh what a blessed time will that be 3. Use By way of Exhortation in two branches First Labour to make sure with the greatest diligence and speed you are possibly able that you are a People near unto God And will not all those things that I hinted and proposed to you prevail with you may not the Consideration of all those Priviledges that follow upon this forenamed that you are near to God allure us and prevail with us do not be at a distance from God still as you have been may you not say truely It is good for me to be near as David said It is good for me to draw near to God Psal 73.28 run through in your meditations every one of the Priviledges I have mentioned be not hearers or readers only be perswaded then methinks this one well-thought of before-named of having every request answered should be a mighty thing It is a Priviledg beyond all imagination sufficient to Provoke to the highest admiration and greatest desire and endeavour about this that possible can be But Consider on the other hand what is the misery of being afar off from God how great is the evil of being far off why They that are far from thee shall perish thou hast destroyed all that go a-whoring from thee saith David Psal 73.27 well it is a sad case then to be at a distance from him If we do seriously lay it to heart and this is the Condition of every man Woman as they come into the World till Christ make them nigh I pray God make you and me more Considerate of it How long have you lived and yet continue far from God! It would make ones heart to ake to consider how many years we have lived afar off in point of reconciliation Consider one thing more what Patience hath God exercised to you all this while that he hath prevented your perishing in that Condition what wonderful Patience what a World of long-suffering hath God lengthned out towards you Let me add one thing more by asking you a question Will you live and die at last at a distance from God and not be made nigh unto him What do you say If I should ask every Man and woman of you as every one of you ought to apply the word of God to your selves Art thou willing to live and dy and not be made hear to God what do your hearts say to this the Lord God of Heaven by his Spirit awaken every one to a serious Consideration of it I dare say there is never a man or woman if they were going to die this moment but would be of this mind that he might be near unto God unless God had given them over unto a reprobate sense to be so blinded by the Devil in their wickedness that they cared not what became of body or soul or any thing for ever What a sad thing that many say in their hearts with those in Job 22. Depart from us for we desire not the knowledg of thy ways These do not desire God or to be nigh unto him but now weigh this as if you were going to die Would I be set at a distance from God for ever and for ever and can I ever expect to be near to God hereafter if I am afar off from God now Weigh these things above-mentioned in these five particulars for method and memories sake 1. You came every one into the World at a distance from God 2. How long have you lived at a distance from him 3. How much patience hath God exercised towards you all this while 4. Whether you intend to live and die in that Condition or 5. Whether you can expect to be near to God hereafter if you be not near to but far off from God here if you live and die at the same yea greater distance than you came into the World from God at how far then will you be removed from God and that for ever if you be now so far by nature and continue all your lives widening the distance and pie without having it made up you will never then come so near as to see the face of God with Comfort I beseech you look to it for these be the great truths yea the greatest