Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A45488
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The pastors last legacy and counsel delivered in a farewel sermon, preached at St. Philips in Bristol, August 24th, 1662 / Mr. Edward Hancock ...
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Hancock, Edward.
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1663
(1663)
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Wing H640; ESTC R40546
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20,130
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40
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before your eyes and provide for it there are none wise but those and all such are truly wise that keeps death before their eyes most people in the world are looking the other way they are providing for long life not for their death Put your hearts into a serious meditation of death and seriously consider that although troubles here comes thick upon you and temptations daily assault you death when it comes will put you out of the reach thereof and make you happy for ever and ever Ninthly Conform solemnly to the terms of salvation to wit impartial dependance and affiance upon the Lord Jesus Christ if ever thou wouldst be truly wise here and eternally happy hereafter do this until thou hast done this thou wilt never be happy depend wholly on Christ exercising faith upon Jesus Christ alone for life and salvation And lastly Be resolved never to depart from faith and holiness let the issue and event be what it will never depart from it faith and holiness are the pillars that fail not heaven and earth shall fail us e're these shall go away therefore if God doth scourge thee and chastise thee keep fast faith and holiness whatever would keep thee from faith and holiness is not of God live therefore in the exercise of it here and thou shalt live in the reward of it for ever hereafter Pray consider these ten things and dwell upon them take my last counsel be truly wise Oh that they may stick upon your hearts and dwell there until your hearts come to dwell with God for ever which I wish from my soul may be your portion Give me leave to take my leave of you now I have endeavoured to give you the whole counsel of God and to nurse you up that you may grow stronger and stronger thereby My time approacheth that I must leave you stay but until I bid you farewel and then we will part here and I hope to meet you again at our journeyes end where we will rejoyce in the Lord our righteousnesse and our joy shall no man take from us The providence of God brought me hither at first in a way and by a means which many of you were pleased to acknowledge had much of the hand of God in it I was destinated from all eternity to be your Minister For you was I ordained you have I loved you have I taught with you have I lived and with you could I have continued nothing but the keeping of a good conscience could have hindered it on my part I came not hither on my own head neither do I go away upon a whimsie of my own making Great proffers of preferment formerly moved me not but the terrors of the Almighty now makes me afraid my heart could not be strong nor my hands endure in the day of the Lord should I against my conscience have continued amongst you This I can say Brethren in the presence of the Lord that although in much weakness and infirmity and much slightness and little seriousness I have laboured amongst you to the salvation of your souls for which I have prayed and waited for I desire this day to humble my self before God and you and beg the mercy of God in our Lord Jesus Christ for all my miscarriages and neglects and failings amongst you for the want of so good an example as I should have been before you that I have not melted in pitty and compassion over your souls nor have been so zealous in private admonition as I should yet let the good you have seen and heard of me abide with you let the spiritual rules and motives you have abundantly heard dwell richly in you take heed of hypocrisie be sincere watch and examine your hearts look into eternity and live by faith upon Jesus Christ I heartily bless God for my continuance hitherto amongst you for your willing reception of me for all your courtesies and civil deportments towards me for all your chearful and hearty hearing the word of God by me preached and most of all I bless God for any good that any of you have received by me I thank you for all the entertainments of my requests I thank every particular person that hath done me any good the Lord reward them I have endeavoured to live affectionately in the midst of you and pray if any person have any thing against me I desire to make it known unto me before my departure and I will give him satisfaction let no man lay any thing to my charge when I am gone that will not make it known before I go I thank you all for your desire of me to stay the Lord knows how loath I am to leave you might I continue amongst you with a good conscience Oh! that the Sermons you have heard of me may be practised we shall one day meet at the bar of Christ and then I wish I may not be a witness against any soul here present If any of you have been my spiritual children do so much in requital as to pray for your spiritual Father if I have been only a waterer and no planter yet let me reap the fruits of your Prayers and let my name live in your private prayers when it is dead in publick send tokens for me to Heaven when you shall see my face no more on earth let us meet at the Throne of Grace though we shall not meet in this house no more let your Prayers to Almighty God for me be continued that my whole soul and body may be ever present as a living sacrifice unto God holy and acceptable in his sight that I may live onely to Jesus that he would use me so as is best to his own glory in doing and suffering and enable me to be faithful to what he hath called me to and that himself would be my exceeding great reward and that he would not deny himself unto me for whom I have desired to have been stripped of all things Neither shall your prayers be without the answer of mine the Road where I travel on the Bed that I lie on the Room that I shall lie in shall testifie how much I bear you that have been my hearers in my bosom And my prayers continually shall be for you that you may fare well and the God of love and peace be with you that shall ascend from my heart and lips when you are asleep at work standing or sitting in your Shops or abroad in the Fields Oh may you fare well in all Estates in the day of your temptations and trials and the God of love and peace be with you Oh! may you fare well in the dayes of your sorrows and afflictions and the God of love and peace be with you in the fire and in the water that you may come out seven times refined and give you the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness May you fare well in your joyes and comforts and the God of love and peace be with
am bold to advise you how you shall behave your selves when it comes Out of love to your souls I advise you what to do in the day of Jacobs troubles First have the mark of mourners on your foreheads let me beg it of you if you have not that mark on you in the day of Jacobs troubles without doubt the Devils black mark will be found on you at the last day In Ezekiel 9. v. 4.5 all that had not this mark on them were the persons destinated to destruction When the overflowing scourge comes when the destroying Angel goeth upon his circuit he is not to spare man woman nor childe but those that had this mark upon them even those that cried out for the abominations done in the land Read that text Now mark the difference that God and the world puts upon such mourners in Sion God puts a mark of preservation upon such as the world puts a mark of destruction seditious humorsome keeping a whining fasting and mourning behave your selves well in the day of Jacobs troubles get the mark of mourners on your foreheads let not God see that you are a careless people let not God that sees this Congregation this great number of people have cause to say that you are a careless company care not for your own sins nor for the sins of others care not for the wrath of God though gray hairs be here and there upon us you know it not care not for the Churches misery though Jacob be under the hatches and the Church like to be grownd to powder thou canst trudge about the world and endeavour to preserve thy Estate but carest not for the wrath of God nor the miseries of the Church Thou art not one of those persons that behavest thy self well in the day of Jacobs troubles I tell thee if the sins of a Nation be nothing to thee the judgements of a Nation shall be something to thee Remember that a messenger of Jesus Christ a poor dying worm who is just now leaving you told you thus much that if the ungodliness prophaneness sensuality blasphemy and atheisme of a Nation be nothing to thee then the judgements of a Nation shall be something to thee Either mourn for sin or mourn for woe and sorrow Oh! do you mourn for the wickedness that is done in this Land though sinners make sport of it and please themselves in it and look upon it as part of their glory that they can go to Hell quietly let me beg it of you all and leave it as my counsel with you to get the mark of mourners on your foreheads let it appear that the Angel may take notice of thee and mark thee when the overflowing scourge shall pass through the land Really there is hypocrisie in Professors on both hands in times of the Churches prosperity and in times of the Churches adversity the Devil may tell thee that thou art sincere though thou takest no notice of the Churches troubles nor mournest for it be not deceived thy heart is not right in the sight of God if thou carest not what becomes of his Church thou hast had a hand in their sins have a hand in their sufferings Thou hast helpt to bring sorrow to the Church by reason of thy sin Oh bring tears of godly sorrow to help to quench the flame that sinne hath kindled Secondly would you behave your selves well in the time of Jacobs troubles keep your selves pure from the reigning sins of the times wherein you live I speak not of any particular time but when God is angry with his Church let it be now be it when it will it then becomes Christians to keep themselves pure from the sins of those times In Revel 18. v. 4. hearken to that text of Scripture thou carnal complying temporizing and time-serving Professour I heard a voice from heaven saying Come out of her my people and be not partakers of her sin lest you are partakers of her plagues When mens sins are filling apace when the Ephah is near full keep thy self pure from the sins of the times lest thou be made partaker of the plagues of the times Consider what are the sins of such times if there be prophaneness superstition impiety malice against Religion sensuality impenitency and see little else but wickedness of this dye and nature touch you not one of them keep your selves pure I am giving you counsel as for my own life if I were dying on my sick bed as God knows how soon I may according to the measure that God hath given me of his free Grace I could not give you better counsel Oh that I could deliver it with that authority that I ought Purity is a condition of the Covenant 2 Cor. 6.18 He will be to you a Father and you shall be to him Sons and Daughters if you will come out from such uncleannesses A word to the wise is enough and according as God furnisheth you with his Spirit learn to behave your selves well in the day of Jacobs troubles keep your selves pure from the sins of the times Thirdly Feel the sorrow of the Church if the Church be nothing to thee Christ is nothing to thee and if Christ be nothing to thee thou art an enemy to Christ and thou mayest profess thou beleevest in Christ and hopes to be saved by Christ but if the Church be nothing to thee thou art but a dead Member a wooden Leg a glass Eye an artificial Tooth You must be either friends or foes to Christ if friends then friends to his Church if thou doest not gather with him thou scatterest and if thou takes not a common interest with the Church of God thou art but a false friend to Christ if thou dost not feel the Churches pain thou hast none of the Churches Spirit if a finger or a toe suffer the whole body is sensible Thou hast none of the Spirit of Christ if thou doest not feel the sorrows of the Church Woe be to those that dwell at ease in Sion very few great men are like good Nehemiah who was of the Kings Court and in great favour with him and ailed nothing yet his heart was full of sorrow for the Church of God insomuch that the King saw by his countenance that he was troubled and Nehemiah made use of the opportunity and rested not till he had accomplished his design for the House of God Men that have a great estate and in great places many times are the greatest enemies to the Church of God and they are ready to forsake Christ like the rich young man in the Gospel which you may read at your leasure In Amos 6. ver 6. read your doom there if the Devil do possess some of you with prejudice I profess seriously Brethren it is in love to your souls I speak read that 6. verse of the 6. of Amos poor Joseph lay by the heels the Irons entered into his soul But those that took their pleasure and was not