Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	apostle_n	faith_n	word_n	5,163	5	4.0959	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27044	A sermon preached at the funeral of that faithful minister of Christ, Mr. John Corbet with his true and exemplary character / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1680 (1680)	Wing B1416; ESTC R17576	26,901	40

cry for Mercy and abuse it no more Christ did not blame the blind and lame for crying out Jesus thou Son of David have mercy on us Nor the Canaanite VVoman for begging for the Crums is any afflicted let him pray and send for the Elders Prayers The Thorn in the Flesh will make us feel and feeling will teach us to repent and pray and prayer is the means of hope for the deliverance of Body and Soul Grace maketh us not stupid yet there are some that think a man behaveth not himself like a Believer if he cry and pray that the Thorn may depart What think they of David in Psal 6. and 17. and 88. And many more What think they of Christ that prayed that if possible the Cup might passe by him He did it to shew that even innocent nature is averse to suffering and death through Grace makes us submit to the Will of God we continue men when we are Beleivers we must mourn with them that mourn and yet not love others better than our selves nor feel their Thorns more sensibly than our own VVe must neither despise chastenings nor faint But how doth Paul pray Doth he make any great matter of of his thornes He besought the Lord thrice that it might depart Observ 13. Even earnest and oft Prayer is suitable to sharp Afflictions There is a kind of Devils and so of Satans thornes which go not out but by fasting and prayer no not by Christs own Apostles The sense and means must be suited to the malady God can do it upon one prayer or upon none but we are not so easily fited to receive it And Paul in this also is conformed to Christ who in his Agony pray'd thrice against his Cup though with submission Vse 1. You see here that the Apostles gift of healing was not to be used at their own will nor for their own flesh that it might not suffer but for the confirmation of the Faith when it pleased the Holy Spirit Troplainus and Epaphroditus might be sick and Timothy need a little VVine with his VVater though Paul had the gift of healing Vse 2. O let our pains drive us all to God who hath not some Sicknesses are all abroad what house how few persons have not some and yet is there a Prayerless house or person If Faith have not taught you to pray as Christians methinks feeling should teach you to pray as men I say not that prayer must shut out Food and Physick but Food and Physick will not do if prayer prevail not with the Lord of all Vse 3. And think not thrice or continued praying to be too much or that importunity is in vain Luk. 18. 1. Christ spake a Parable to this end that men ought always to pray and not wax faint VVhether God deliver us or not prayer is not lost it is a good posture for God to find us in we may get better if we get not what we ask Obey and Pray and Trust God But what answer doth the Lord give to Pauls thrice praying He said My grace is sufficient for thee and my strength is manifested in weakness 1. It was not a promise that the thorn should depart 2. It seems to be rather a denial at the present and that Paul must not be yet cured of his thorn for it is called a weakness that must continue for the manifesting of Gods strength and what was the sufficiency of grace and strength for but to endure and improve the thorn 3. But this promised grace and strength is better than that which was desired Obs 14. Even oft and earnest prayer of the greatest Saint for deliverance from bodily pains may not be granted in the kind or thing desired For 1. we are not Lords but beggars and must leave the issue to the donor And God hath higher ends to accomplish than our ease or deliverance It 's meet that he should first fit all his actions to his own will and glory and next to the good of many and to his publick works in the World and then to look at our interest next 2. And we are utterly unmeet judges of matter manner time or measure what God should give us for the body and how much and how and when When should we be sick or pained or persecuted or dye if all our prayers must be absolutely granted We know not how much better God is preparing us for by pain and bringing us to by dismal death He will not keep us from grace and glory because our flesh is loth to suffer and to die 3. And in this Paul also was conformed to Christ He was heard in the thing that he feared when in his agony he prayed with strong cryes but it was not by the removing of the bitter cup but by divine strength and acceptance And so it is with Paul sufficient grace and strength to bear is the thing promised Vse 1. We see then that they are mistaken that think Christs promise of giving believers whatever they ask will prove him a breaker of his promise if the strongest believer receive not all that he asketh for the body Was not Paul a strong believer All that God hath promised and we are fit to receive God will be sure to give 2. Let not unbelief get advantage by Gods not granting such prayers for the body Say not Why then is it my duty to pray 1. You know not before-hand but God may give it Possibility bids you beg 2. Why did Christ pray against his Cup 3. You lose not prayer you draw nearer God you exercise repentance and desire you signifie your dependance you are prepared for much greater gifts Obs 15. When God will not take the thorn out of our flesh and deliver us when we pray from bodily sufferings he will be sure to do better for prepared persons even to give them his sufficient grace and manifest his strength in their pain and weakness It is not for want of Love or Power that he lets us tumble on our beds in pain or lie under slanderers or persecutors rage He that with a word could make the World with a word can save us from all this But if we suffer not how shall suffering-graces be exercised faith patience self-denial and hope Is not grace better than ease or life How shall we get the benefit of suffering if we feel it not How shall grace and divine strength be manifested to our selves and others Quest What is it that Grace is sufficient for Ans 1. Not to set us up above the frailties of humanity and mortality nor to raise us to the joy that souls in heaven have 2. Not to every one alike but in our several measures some fear pain and death more than others some have greater patience and joy and long to depart and be with Christ But to all the faithful it shall suffice 1. To keep them from revolting from Christ and repenting of their choice and hope 2. To save them from

Revelations acquainting the soul with Heaven are matters most worthy of lawful humble modest Glorying It was Pauls Heavenly Visions which he gloryed in as his advancement when he had mentioned his many persecutions and sufferings in the way These tend to that perfection and felicity of souls In these men have to do with the glorious Jehovah the Angelical Chore the heavenly Society our glorified Head our highest Hopes and matter of the greatest everlasting joys O if God would but give you and me this Heavenly sight and let us but once see what Paul saw what little things would Crowns and Lordships seem to us when we look down from such an height What trifling should we think most of the busles of this world what toyes and dreams their wealthy honour and sinful Delights I should then say Now I see what it is that we seek and hope and suffer for what it is to enjoy God and our Redeemer And therefore now I know what it is to be a Beleiver a Saint a man indeed O what a help to mortification would such a sight of Paradise be How easily should we after resist temptations deny the Flesh contemn the world and hate our sins O how it would overcome all these distrustful trembling fears of death and make us long and grown and cry to be with Christ VVhat life would it put into all holy duty How easily should we bear our short afflictions How would it mellow our sowre contentious minds toward one another and teach us better whom to love and live in Peace with than pride and VVorldliness or Faction will teach us Fellow Christians Though you and I may not expect such Raptures and Extasies as Paul's yet we have the Gospel of Jesus a Divine Revelation of this same heavenly glory not to be set light by because we see it not our selves It is by the Son of God that saw it and now is there preparing it for us it is by a sealed certain word And the heavenly beams are sent down from him upon our hearts to shew it us and lead us up VVe are capable of a lively beleif of the full assurance of hope of the pledges earnest and first fruits and of rejoycing with unspeakable glorying joy We are capable in our manner and are sure of traffick for heaven and with heaven of sending up our treasures and there conversing in spirit as in the City which is our home and hearing by Faith the joyful harmony of the heavenly Songs and Praises of Jehovah Here we are capable of such a powerful touch with the Loadstone of Divine Love or to have our Spirits so refined and sublimated as shall make it as natural to them to make upward towards Christ and long for full and perfect union O had we lived as Beleivers should have lived how much more of heavenly mindedness and delight might we have attained than we have done O thank God for the Gospel revelation and beg grace to bring it in power on your hearts And then let worldlings take their earthly portion VVe can spare them all that hindereth not the gathering and edification of the Church and the heavenly interest of souls Observ 5. There is a third Heaven and Heavenly Paradice where are the concerns and hopes of holy souls Paul was thither taken up had he no interest there no hopes no friends no business there VVhy then should he have been rapt up thither How many Heavens there be and why it is here called the third I will not interrupt your more necessary thoughts by conjecturing enquiries Most say the Air is called the first the Starry Heaven the second and the place of the glorified Spirits the third but these are vain conjectures No man knoweth how many there be the Globes or Stars are at vast distance from each other some great Philosophers have been tempted to think that VVorld is infinite as an adequate effect of infinite Power because God hath no unactive power All this is prophane rashness The Heavens which are our inheritance are the place where perfect Glorious Spirits shall live in blessed Society with Christ and one another joyfully beholding the Glory of God and feeling the delights of mutual Love And yet there are different degrees of Glory from the different degrees of the Capacity of Spirits Whether also from any difference in the place and communicating Causes we shall shortly better know There are more sorts of Spirits thatn we can now know Though I know not how to receive Aquinas's Doctrine that no two Angels are of the same Species the diversity as well as the incomprehensible Glory and Numbers are unknown to us Those that God employeth under Christ as his Pursuivants Messengers and Servants for his Church are called Angels Whether there be orders over orders quite above Angels and how Angels differ from the perfected Spirits of the Just we know not As it is designed for Saints its Glory consisteth 1. In the Glory of the Place 2. In the perfecting and glorifying the Natures and Persons that enjoy it 3. In the Glory of the Heavenly Society Christ Angels and Saints 4. In the Glory of their high and excellent work to Love and Magnifie God for ever 5. In the Communication of the Joyful Love and Light and Life of God upon these glorified Spirits O what doth every one of these words signifie Is not this a Paradise indeed that is a place of purest greatest pleasure Vse 1. And are we not taught by such a glass as this how Great and how Good a God we serve O look up to the Heavens and see what he is by that which he hath made Yea it s said Psal 113. 6. that he humbles himself to behold the things in Heaven as well as upon earth O sinners what a God do you despise neglect and forget and what a Heaven do you fell for fleshly lust and to feed a Corruptible Body for the Grave O Christians what a God have we to serve and fear and how Zealously and purely should we serve him What a God have we to trust and hope in and how great a sin is it to distrust him What a Heaven have we to seek and hope for and how chearfully and constantly should we do it Alas our cold Hearts and slothful Lives and worldly Cares and sinking Spirits beseem not such a God and Heaven Were we designed but to inhabit the Sun or some resplendent Star how high is it above this Earth Shall we creep only on Earth and feed on dust and defile our Souls as if we were preparing them by Sin for Hell when we have a third heaven and Paradise to look up to and seek and hope for Doth Satan say what is that to thee that is so far above thee It is to us it is the place where the Glory of God is which we seek where our glorified Head is The place of holy Spirits whither also Henoch and Elias were Translated where Abraham Isaac and