Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	angel_n	glorious_a	zion_n	39	3	8.7549	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33955	A cordiall for a fainting soule, or, Some essayes for the satisfaction of wounded spirits labouring under severall burthens in which severall cases of conscience most ordinary to Christians, especially in the beginning of their conversion, are resolved : being the summe of fourteen sermons, delivered in so many lectures in a private chappell belonging to Chappell-Field-House in Norwich : with a table annexed, conteining the severall cases of conscience which in the following treatise are spoken to directly or collaterally / preached and now published ... by John Collings.	Collinges, John, 1623-1690.	1649 (1649)	Wing C5305; ESTC R24775	174,484	300

he could not reasonably rely upon his promises for the blessing of his house with temporall mercies so as before And thence it is cleare that a Christian may truly rest upon the promises for salvation and pardon of his sinnes though he doth not so easily rest nor so constantly nor fully rely upon him for some particular promises of temporall mercies The sixt is this Thou mayst hang tremblingly upon the promises and yet hang upon them truly And there is a seventh Thou mayst truly rely and dwell upon the promises and yet not truly appropriate and peculiarize them and dwell on them as thy own portion to thy apprehension but of these afterwards The Tenth SERMON LUKE 17. v. 5. Lord increase our faith I Am come now to a sixth proposition which is this A Christian may rely and hang tremblingly upon the promises and yet depend truly a trembling faith is no contradiction faith breeds joy and hence is that of the Apostle The rejoycing of your faith but David hath bidden us Rejoyce with trembling I have read a speech of S. Austine that such as was the degree of sollicitous feare such was the degree of grounded assurance It hath been observed that such men as have had the palsey in their heads have lived to be aged men A Christian I am sure may be a true Christian though the trembling palsey of feare be in him It is the Apostles counsell Phil. 2. ●2 Work out your salvation with feare and trembling Sure I am the work of faith must be done in working out our salvation and this must be done with trembling It is a false and presumptuous tenet that is by some maintained in these times that will banish all feare and trembling from faith as utterly inconsistent with faith and will deny any to have faith but such as have got a confident presumption as if palsied hands were no hands Christ was never so cruell to poor diseased soules as these are Ephraim exalted himselfe by speaking trembling Hos 13. 1. The woman feared and trembled Mar. 5. 33. yet Christ told her that her faith had made her whole Paul trembling said What wilt thou have me to doe Acts 9. 6. And yet I think none in their right wits will deny that the seeds of faith were growing in Pauls heart though the stalk shaked The poor drowning man that catcheth hold of some twig to save his life he knowes he is drowned unlesse he doth it he therefore hangs truly and even casts his whole weight upon it and yet without question his heart trembles for fear though he cannot but think the bough will beare him such is the Beleever the true Beleever is a poor wretch that seeing himselfe undone in a wofull condition sinking to hell even just sinking onely spies a branch of the root of Iesse the Lord Jesus Christ in a promise upon this he claps hold here sayes he I will hang if this promise will beare the weight of a broken undone soule then I am saved if not I perish then the soule considers what burthen it hath to lay upon it and remembers it is the heavy weight of all its originall and actuall sins this makes it tremble and fear I doubt not but Esther when she went in to King Ahashuerosh had very good hopes that she should prevaile and did depend upon that as the last twig of hope she and her people had yet she went in trembling and sayd If I perish I perish Now there may be severall causes alledged for this trembling First It may be the deep apprehension of misery that did precede possibly the poor soule was under a spirit of bondage a long time and shaked in pieces almost with horrour and feare at last God opens a key-hole of mercy and bids the soule look through and see a Christ pardoning all its sinnes and washing it with his precious blood and cancelling all its debts and wiping away its teares the soule at the just opening of this now stands and trembles fearing lest the newes should not to be true and terrified with those late apprehensions not conceiving that hell can be so soon transformed into heaven When Peter had been in the Gaole and the prison and without question full of carnall feares for the next day he was to have been brought out and have been slain and the Lord just in the nick of time sent his Angel and delivered him Act. 12. 9. Peter could not tell what to think of it he wist not that was true that was done by the Angel but thought that he had seen a vision he was fain to stay a while before he came to himselfe V. 11. and said Now I know of a surety that God hath sent his Angel to bring me out So it is with many a poor Beleever he is in Gaole too God hath him in Gaole and the spirit of bondage keeps him in fetters and to his thinking there is scarce a minute sometimes betwixt him and death Alas death were a mercy but he thinks that there is not an haires breadth betwixt him and hell when he lyes downe at night he wonders that he doth not awake in hell in the morning now when under the saddest and deepest apprehensions the soule hath of eternall sinking into hell God beyond all his expectations sends his Angel to knock off these fetters and bring it into the glorious liberty of the Sonnes of God when the soule like Peter is sleeping betwixt two devils as it thinks and is bound with two bellish chaines of terror and feare and the spirit of bondage keeps the prison and the Angel of the Lords consolation comes upon the soule and the light the glimmering glorious light of mercy and consolation shineth into this dark bellish prison and smites the soule and raiseth it up and sayes Soule arise thou art delivered and makes the chaines fall off from the Soule and sayes to the soule Poor soul gird up thy self bind on thy sandalls come stand up from the dead Christ shall give thee light Come come out of this Hell cast thy garments about thee c. no wonder if the soule for a while like Peter wist not that this is true which is done and no wonder if it step a step or two further before its trembling is over especially considering that these terrours seldome are at once but by degrees abated from the soule it passeth like Peter through the first and second ward through one iron gate of feares and then another street of terrours I say considering this it is no great wonder if it be some while before the soule sayes with Peter Now I know of a surety now I know of a surety that the Lord hath sent his Angel and hath delivered me out of the hand of the Devill and from all the expectations of Satan It is an ordinary thing if a man hath been drowning and almost drowned pulld on to the land he trembles and quakes at first as if still hee

as crimson they shall be as wooll But now the Christian not clearly understanding the nature and vertue of these promises cannot make a particular application of them to its soule it stands off and cannot make a particular application Alas saith the Christian these are made upon condition of a wearinesse and an heavy load of hungring and thirsting of comming of washing and cleansing of putting away the evil of my doings of ceasing to do evil and learning to do well Hard sayings Who can heare them I cannot get my heart to hunger and thirst I cannot get my heart to be weary and heavy laden A Leopard can as well cleanse himselfe of spots and an Ethiopian as well wash away the blacknesse of his skin as I can wash my black soule c. One that hath no legs can as well walk to Rome as I can come to Christ But know Christian thy particular applying faith here is hindered by a meer misunderstanding of the promise for though those promises require conditions yet they require not conditions to he fulfilled in thy strength but those required conditions are as well parts and branches of the free covenant of Grace as those promises which thou desirest to apply therefore you shall find promises for the fulfilling those conditions in thy soul God requires a wearines of sin and a loathing of sin and a sorrow for sin as a condition Mat. 11. 29. Is 55 1 3. God promiseth to give this self abhorring frame of Spirit and to work this loathing in his peoples soules Ezek. 6 9 20 43. 36. chap. 31. Zach. 12. 10. God requires washing and cleansing as a condition Isa 1 16. ●7 18. He hath promised to work this in the soule Christ tels Peter he would do it ●oh 13. 8. And David prayes that God would do it for him Psal ●1 2. 7. which prayer was grounded upon a promise and this washing is attributed to God as the working of his spirit Isa 4. 4. v. When the Lord shall ●ave washed away the filth of the daughte●s of Sion and shalt have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the Spirit of judgement and the spirit of burning God requires turning and comming and learning and leaving sin as a condition but he hath promised to fulfill these Hosea 14. 8. but he hath said none can come unlesse the Father draw him Ioh. 6. 44. and the Spouse without question grounding her prayer on a promise saith draw me Cant. 1. 5. He hath required turning as a condition Ezek. 33. 11. Ier. 3. 14. but he hath promised to work this in the soule Mat. 4. 6. and upon this the Church prayes Ier. 31. 18. Turn thou me and I shall be turned So that this is a certaine rule God requires no condition of a promise which he hath not promised to fulfill in us And whatsoever spirituall action is anywhere required of us as a duty he hath somewhere promised to bestow upon us as a dispensation of free Grace Therefore I would have the soule in such a condition when it stumbles at the condition of a promise seek out those promises where God promiseth to fulfill those conditions in it and particularly apply them and rely upon God for making them good and direct its prayers accordingly So I have done with the first thing required in the Soule for the particular application of the promises viz. a cleare understanding of the promises for which I have given three Rules Now in regard that at all times there may be in a true beleeving soule a clear understanding of the promises I conclude there may be true faith in the soule that at all times cannot make a particular Application But I hasten to The second thing which is requisite in that soule that doth truly rely or that can particularly apply the promises and that is a cleare understanding of its own condition for how can I truly and particularly apply a promise to the wound of my Soule when I do not understand truly what wound my soule hath Now a true believing soule may have a very false estimate of its own condition Thus had David and Asaph and the Church they thought they were cast off Psal 43. 2. Psal 44. 9. Psal 60. 1. Psal 7● 1. 77 7 89 38. Now if I think that a part of my body is gangrened I will never apply Physick to it because I know it is in vaine so so long as the Soule conceives that its condition is irrecoverable its sins unpardonable that applying promises to it is but applying warm clothes to a dead man it will never apply Now such a temper may be in the beleeving Soule occasioned by the violent temptations of Sathan by dark clouds of melancholy or the like it apprehends its sinns nor pardonable or at least not pardonable as yet to the soule O! sayes the soule I have sinned against the holy Ghost what good will it do to me to apply promises I am dammed It is a temptation which Sathan ordinarily first or last troubles beleeving soules with I have answered that case of Conscience particularly and therefore shall not enter into a particular discourse of it now Now till the soule be brought so farr truly to understand its own condition that its wounds are curable and to cry unto God for the healing and cure of them it cannot be expected that it should particularly apply any Promises as pl●isters for the healing and in regard I say that there may be some misjudging of the soules true estate in a gracious soule there may also be a want of this peculiar faith It is true it is given by all sober Divines as the least degree of Faith to beleeve that my sins are pardonable and to run and fly and cry unto God for a pardon of them but yet through the distemperature of the soule even this thing that the soules sins are pardonable which is generally beleeved and is the soules foundation upon which ground it humbles it self and cries and prayes may not be beleeved by the soule that yet hath true Faith or at least beleeved very darkly and with a great deale of doubting The third and last thing which I will instance in which must be found in that soule that shall particularly apply a generall promise as its particular portion is a constant wonderfull working of the powerfull Spirit of God upon the soule For let a soule never so truly understand its own condition and never so truly understand the vertue of the promise and never so fully conceive that the promises have an adequate proportionable vertue for the healing of its particular wounds yet unlesse the spirit of God by a wonderfull powerfull worke of grace doth lay the salve upon the sore and apply the promise unto the soule it cannot be done as it is with a man that hath lost his hands or the use of them and suppose him to have a sorein his back let him never so truly understand the