Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	affliction_n	joy_n	zion_n	28	3	8.7167	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51702	An offer of farther help to suffering saints, or, The best work in the worst times wherein the necessity, excellency, and means of preparation for sufferings are clearly evinced, and prescribed : in which, as in a glass, the people of God may see how to dress themselves for death, or any other suffering to which the Lord shall call : added as an appendix to the Sufferers mirrour.	Mall, Thomas, b. 1629 or 30.	1665 (1665)	Wing M334A; ESTC R232064	84,072	143

these things which increase the difficulty yet God hath afforded his people a sure Light and sufficient means in the diligent use and improvement whereof they may attain a certainty of the work of Grace in them And there is a threefold Light by which it may most clearly and infallibly be discovered 1. Scripture Light which is able to discover the secrets of a mans heart to him and is therefore compared to the Anatomizers Knife Heb. 4.12 2. The innate Light of Grace it self or if you will the Light of Experience 1 John 5.10 It hath some properties and operations which are as essential necessary and inseparable as heat is to the fire and may be sensibly felt and perceived by the Soul Psal 119.20 3. The Light of the Spirit superadded to both the former which is sometimes called its Earnest sometimes its Seal The Spirit doth both plant the habits excite and draw forth the acts and also shine upon his own work that the Soul may see it and that sometimes with such a degree of Light as onely begets peace and quiets the heart though it do not fully conquer all the doubts of it And at other times the heart is irradiated with so clear a Beam of Light that it 's able to draw forth the triumphant Conclusion and say Now I know the things that are freely given me of God I believe and am sure And so much briefly for the opening of the nature of this evidence 2. I shall shew you the necessity of it to a suffering Saint in order to the right management of a suffering condition And this will appear by the consideration of five things 1. Dem 1 You will readily grant that the Christians love to God hath a mighty influence into all his sufferings for God This Grace of love enables him victoriously to break through all difficulties and discouragements The Flood 's cannot drown it nor the Waters quench it Cant. 8.6 7. It facilitates the greatest hardships 1 John 5.3 And whatever a man suffer if it be not from this principle it is neither acceptable to God nor available to himself 1 Cor. 13.3 But now nothing more inflames and quickens the Christians love to God then the knowledge of his interest in him and the sensible perception and taste of his love to the Soul Our love to God is but a reflection of his own love And the more powerfull the stroke of the direct Beam is the more is the reflex Beam also Never doth that flame of Jah burn with a more vehement heat then when the Soul hath the most clear manifestations of its interest in Christ and his benefits Luke 7.47 It must needs be of singular use to a suffering Saint Dem. 2 because it takes out the sinking weight of affliction That which sinks and breaks the Spirit is the conjunction and meeting of inward and outward troubles together then if the Lord do not strangely and extraordinarily support the Soul it 's wrackt and overwhelmed as the Ship in which Paul sailed was when it fell into a place where two Seas met Acts 27.41 Oh how tempestuous a Sea doth that Soul sail in that hath fightings without and fears within How must that poor Christians heart tremble and meditate terrour that when he retires from troubles without for some comfort and support within shall find a sad addition to his troubles from whence he expected relief against them Hence it was that Jeremy so earnestly deprecates such a misery Be not thou a terrour to me thou art my hope in the day of evil Jer. 17.17 This is prevented by this means If a man have a clear breast and all be quiet within he is like one that hath a good Roof over his head when the Storm falls We glory in tribulation because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts Rom. 5.3 5. It is a fountain of joy and comfort in the darkest and saddest hour Dem. 3 Hence the glorious triumphs of Saints in their afflictions Rom. 5.5 and in the Christians joy in the Lord lies much of his strength for sufferings Neh. 8.10 If once the Spirit droop and sink the man is in a bad case to suffer holy joy it is the Oyl that makes the Chariot-wheels of the Soul free to follow the Lord Non tardat uncta rota To suffer with joyfullness for Christ is a qualification that Gods Eye is much upon in his suffering Servants Col. 1.11 How did these famous Worthies magnifie Christ and glorifie Religion by the holy triumphs of their faith and joy under tribulation One kiss'd the Apparator that brought him news of his Condemnation and was like a man transported with an excess of joy Another upon the pronouncing of the Sentence kneels down and with hands and eyes lifted up solemnly blesses God for such a day as that Oh how is Christ magnified by this And this can not be untill interest be cleared It 's true the faith of recumbency gives the Soul a secret support and enables the Christian to live but the faith of evidence keeps him lively and prevents all those uncomfortable and uncomely sinkings and despondencies of spirit 2 Cor. 4.16 17. and therefore cannot but be of singular use to a soul at such a time Lastly Dem. 4 It is of special use to a Christian under sufferings inasmuch as it enables him to repell the temptations that attend upon sufferings Nothing sets a keener edge upon his indignation against unworthy compliances then this Indeed a poor cloudy and dubious Christian will be apt to catch at deliverance though upon terms dishonourable to Christ but he that is clear in point of interest abhors compositions and capitulations upon unworthy terms and conditions Heb. 11.35 Heb. 10.34 He that sees the gain and reward of suffering will think he is offered to his loss when life and deliverance are set before him upon such hard terms as sin is And thus you see what influence it hath into a suffering condition 3. In the next place I promised to prescribe some Rules for the attaining of this Evidence and the dispelling of those Doubts by which it is usually clouded in the souls of Believers And oh that by the faithfull use of them you may attain it against a suffering day come upon you And the first Rule I shall give you is this Rule 1 Make it your business to improve Grace more for the more vigorous it is the more evidential it must needs be 2 Pet. 1.5 6 7 8 9 10 11. Oh how much time have many Christians spent in enquiring after the lowest signs of sincerity and what may consist with Grace which had they spent in the diligent improvement of the means of Grace for the increasing of it they would have found it a shorter cut to peace and comfort by much Mistake not the Rule by which you are to trie your selves Rule 2 least you gain a false judgement upon your selves Some are apt to make those things signs of

we imagine the rage of Satan to be abated now that his Kingdome hastens to its period Revel 12.12 It 's confest God doth not call all his people to the same kinds or degrees of sufferings All have not a Martyrs faith and all shall not have a Martyrs fire The God that instructeth the Husbandman to beat outthe Fitches with a staffe Isa 28.27 and the Cummin with a rod and not to turn the Cart wheel upon the lesser and more tender Grain will exactly proportion his peoples trials to his peoples strength For he is a God of judgement Isa 30.18 but notwithstanding this it still remains a truth as much as ever that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer perfecution 2 Tim. 3.12 Augustine thinks that the bloody sweat which over-run the body of Christ in the Garden signified the sharp and grievous suffering which in his mystical body he should afterwards endure It is a truth that these are also called the sufferings of Christ Col. 1.24 and there are yet remains of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his personal sufferings were compleated 〈◊〉 Resurrection and are fully full he poured 〈◊〉 blood enough to fill that Cup to the brim by the former the wrath of God was fully quenched and satisfied but the later cannot satisfie the wrath of man Notwithstanding the lives of millions of precious Saints have gone for it in his Cause and Quarrel whose souls are crying under the Altar How long Lord how long Yet there are many more coming on behind in the same Path of Persecution and much more of that bloody work is to be done before the mystery of God be finished And though the Church have sometimes its lucid intervals yet the Clouds return again after the Rain Cain's club as Bucholcer saith is still carried up and down the world stained with the blood of Abel Thus you see to what hard things God hath called his people Now God may be said to call forth his people to suffer How God calls to sufferings when he so hedgeth them in by providence that there is no way to escape it but by sin Whatsoever providence labours with such a dialem●●a as this is a plain signification of Gods will to us in the case We may not now expect such an extraordinary call to suffering-work as some of me Saints had of old Gen. 22.2 Acts 9.16 but when we meet them in the way of our duty and there is no avoiding of them but by stepping over the hedge of the command God will have us to look upon that exigence as his call to suffer And the reasons why he doth so often hedge them in thus by his providence in a suffering path Why he calls his people to such grievous sufferings and bring them to these exigencies may be drawn partly from his own Glory which is thereby singulary illustrated and partly from his peoples good which is also thereby strangely promoted and carried on By these Sufferings albeit Satan and his Instruments think not so doth the most Wise God illustrate and advance his own glory For 1. Thereby he vindicates his Righteousness not onely in making good the Promises to his people under them and so silencing all their unbelieving fears and jealousies Micah 6.5 but he vindicates it also from the aspersions and false imputations of his enemies by this the world shall see that how well soever he loves his people yet he will not indulge or patronize their sins If they will be so disingenuous to sin against him he will be so just to make them suffer for their sin and in those sufferings will provide for his glory which by their sin was prejudiced in the eyes of the world Amos 3.2 Ezra 9.13 15. He hates not sin a jot the less because it is found in his own people and though for the magnifying of his mercy he will pardon their sin yet for the clearing of his Righteousness he will take vengeance upon their inventions Psal 99.8 2. And in these sufferings his glorious Power hath an opportunity to shine forth also and that both in their supportations under trouble and deliverances out of it It is one of the greatest wonders in the world how the Church subjects under such violent Assaults as are frequently made upon it I will turn aside said Moses and see this great fight why the Bush is not consumed Exod. 3.3 But especially in its marvellous deliverances which the power of God often effects so strangely that it over-matches the spirits of Gods ●own people and their souls like a Watch wound up above its height stands still with amazement and admiration Psal 126.7 When the Lord turned back the captivity of Zion we were-like them that dreamed 3. His Wisdome is triumphant in these dayes of Distress and trouble Now you may see the All-wise God going beyond a subtile Devil and in a moment frustrating the deepest and most desperate Designs of Hell and that at the very birth and article of Execution Hest 6.1 sometimes effecting their Deliverances immediately by his own hand Zech. 4.6 Exod. 15.6 Hos 1.7 to the end he may be exalted in his own Strength Psal 21.12 13. for he affects not Social Glory Sometimes by contemptible and improbable means out-witting an Ahithophel by a plain Hushai Haman by Hester Sisera by Jael Yea sometimes by dreadful means I mean such as rather threaten his peoples Ruine then seem to promise their Deliverance Psal 65.5 The fiery Furnace the Lions Den the Belly of a Whale are strange means of preservation And as Divine Wisdome is glorified in the way and manner of their deliverance out of trouble so in ordering those troubles to their singular benefit and advantage For 1. They are ordered to be the occasions of drawing out the magnificent Acts of your Faith and Patience which else could not shew themselves to the world as now they do There are the Ordinary and common Acts of Faith and there are its Magnificent and Heroick Acts that is its Resolute and High-raised Actings by which it triumphs over greatest Difficulties and enables the soul couragiously to break down all the Difficulties that lie before him in the way of his Duty Such were those of Hester Job and Daniel Hest 4.16 Job 13.15 Dan. 6.10 When this holy Gallantry of Spirit appears in Believers God is exceedingly glorified Poor timerous low-spirited Saints like young Swimmers are afraid to venture farther then they can feel Ground I mean some sensible Encouragement under their feet but these can cast themselves into the Sea of Troubles upon a naked Promise From these Trials of Faith God hath a great Revenue of Glory 1 Pet. 1.7 and these could not appear in the world were it not for such Troubles Revel 13.16 Here is the Faith and the Patience of the Saints 2. They are wisely ordered as means of severing and discriminating the Spirits of Professors By this means the Church is disburthened and rid of

many Hypocrites which were its Reproach as well as Burthen Amos 9.9 10. I will sift the house of Israel among all Nations like as Corn is sifted in a Sieve yet shall not the least Grain fall upon the Earth All the sinners of my people shall die c. All the heterogeneous Stuffe that mingles and embases the more pure and noble Metal shall be separated in this Furnace In Times of Peace Professors multiply apace the Sun-shine of Prosperity breeds Professors as an hot Summer doth Flies though Heaven will be little the fuller for this strange multiplication of them And this I suppose is the ground of that saying That it 's never better with the Church then when it hath most Hypocrites in it But now Persecution like a windy day causes all this rotten Fruit to fall Lightning and Thunder is terrible weather but it purifies and cleanseth the Air Some of these seem to be very beautiful Flowers in the Field of the Church where they stand during the Sun-shine of Peace in the Pride and Bravery of their Professions and Gifts but the wind passeth over them and they are gone and their places shall know them no more To allude to that in Psa 103.16 3. As God makes them separating Times in respect of Hypocrites so are they Times of endearing the Saints to each other Never are Saints more endeared then when most persecuted never more united then when most scattered Though in Times of Liberty they will bite and devour one another yet under common Persecution they will die one for another You have two pregnant instances of this Acts 43.2 Mal. 3.17 Certainly there is something that is engaging in fellowship in the same Sufferings But there is much more in the discoveries that Persecution makes of their sincerity which it may be was before entertained with jealousie And there is yet more in the reproofs of the Rod whereby they are taught the evil of their former wayes and made to cry as Psal 79.8 Oremember not against us former iniquities 4. By these Storms they are awakened to their Duty and taught to cry more fervently Ah! what drowsie Prayers what heartless Devotions are presented to God sometimes But now they cry as the Disciples to Christ when ready to sink in the Storm Isa 26 16. O Lord in trouble they have visited thee they have poured out a Prayer when thy chastning was upon them Now they pray more humbly frequently fervently Musick they say is sweetest upon the Waters I am sure the sweetest Melody is made by the Saints upon these Waters of Trouble These few Hints may suffice to shew you the admirable Fruits which God aims at in exercising his people under afflictions and what one of these singly may not preponderate all the smart and pain they cost you And thus you see that God doth as also how and why he doth call forth his people to such hard Sufferings CHAP. II. Demonstrating the Excellency of a prepared Heart for the worst of Sufferings NOw to evince the Choiceness and Excellency of a ready and prepared Spirit to entertain and chearfully obey a call from God to the greatest Sufferings thereby to set an edge upon your Desires and quicken your Endeavours after it be pleased to ponder these following Particulars wherein much of its Excellency will appear 1. It will bring the heart to an holy Rest and Quietude in a Suffering hour and so prevent that Anxiety and perturbation of Spirit which puts the sinking weight into Affliction The more Care Fear and Trouble thou hast before a Trouble comes the more Calm Quiet and Composed thy Spirit will be when the Affliction is come indeed It is admirable to consider with what peace and holy submission Job entertain'd his Troubles which considering the kind and quality of them together with the manner in which they befell him one would think they should at least have startled and amazed him and put his Soul though gracious into a strange Confusion But you see the contrary he is very quiet and composed in his Spirit little Tumult or Disorder appears in his Thoughts but he worships God owns his Hand and submits to his Will Job 1.20 21. Whence was this Surely had they come by way of Surprize as holy as he was he could not have carried it thus but he had in the dayes of his Peace and Prosperity prepared for such a Day as this and so they neither came unexpectedly nor found him unprepared for them Job 3.25 26. I was not in safety neither had I rest yet trouble came The thing which he feared as he saith there came upon him He laid it to heart before it came and therefore it neither brake nor distracted his heart when it came So Habakkuk he stood upon his Watch-Tower i. e. recessum mentis saith Mr. Calvin his own retiring Thoughts making Observations from the Word upon probable Events Yea and seeing a Storm of Judgement gathering in the Clouds of the Threatnings he trembled in himself before it fell Cap. 3.16 17. And see what advantage this was of to him Vers 17.18 he had Rest in the Day of Trouble yea could rejoyce when all outward Staves and comforts were gone There is a double Rest in the Day of Evil a Rest of Deliverance and a Rest of Contentation it was this later that this holy man enjoyed in that Evil Day and that as the consequent of his serious Preparation But now if Troubles come by way of surprisal How amazing and ruining do they often prove 'T is a sad thing to feel Trouble before we see it and to be past hope before we have any ●fear Those Troubles saith one that find men secure do usually leave them desperate What advantage hath that Enemy to ruine you that comes upon your back and falls upon you unawares This is the misery of the careless World For Man also knoweth not his time as the Fishes that are taken in an evil Net and as the Birds that are caught in the snare so are the Sons of Men snared in an evil time when it falleth on them suddainly Eccles 8.12 Thus perished the old World But one Noah provided for the Flood and onely he with his Family preserved in it all the rest were eating and drinking marrying and giving in Marriage till the Flood came and swept them all away Matth. 24.38 Men will not use their fore-seeing Faculties but because it 's all well yet therefore they conclude it shall be so to morrow Philosophers tell us that immediatly before an Earth-quake the Air is very quiet and serene and before the great Rain falls the Wind usually lies We may not conclude Rest and Peace from the Report our Senses make to us from the posture of second Causes and yet what is there look which way you will but speaks Troubles and Distresses coming upon the World but rather we should make a Judgment from the Word upon condition of the Times for there you have the