Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A93079
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The saints iewell, shevving hovv to apply the promise In a sermon preached by Thomas Shepheard.
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Shepard, Thomas, 1605-1649.
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1642
(1642)
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Wing S3115A; ESTC R232293
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10,658
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26
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cast an eye of pity upon thee thou art in the way that is the meanes God hath appointed to bring you home to Christ but yet untill thy condition be changed all thou doest is sinne for The very thought of the wicked Prov. 15. 26. are an abomination to the Lord. But oh strange Though firebrands out of hell be spitted in your faces yet you are not affected But it may be some of you thinke to doe it when you are sicke or upon your death bed but it may be too late then when God openeth and awakeneth your conscience and if you be not awakened here you shall be sure to be awakened in hell I remember I heard of a yong prodigall when he was dying looked on the fire and said as that fire burneth there so shall my soule burne in hell Another said on his death bed Oh that I might live though it were but the life of a toad God is very carefull to send his Angels for the godly but for the wicked the devils stand ready at his bed side to fetch him into hell as soone as his breath goeth out of his body and then they will cry out Oh the time of mercy that I have had but now it is past the gate of mercy is shut never more to be opened Obiect But it may be yet some will say thanks be to God I am not in hell yet and as long as there is life there is hope Answ Oh fearefull what hope still read that place and tremble in reading of it The Lord of that servant shall come in a day when hee Mat 24. 50 51 looketh not for him and in an houre that he is not aware of and shall cut him asunder and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites there shal be weeping and gnashing of teeth Oh consider this against the day of iudgment it is a sad day for all such when mercy and patience and Christ shall pleade against them yea The dust of ministers feet shall rise up against them Oh but if so then Luke 10. 11. what will their condition be when drops of blood and sweate shall rise up against Luke 22. 44. them yea more the husband shall rejoice to see the damnation of the wife The righteous shall reioyce when he seeth vengeance on the wicked because God hath gotten the Psal 58. 10. glory of his enemies Vse 4 The fourth use is An exhortation to the godly first and secondly to the wicked In the first place to the godly that complaine they cannot lay hold on the promise Go to God to enable you that you may so doe Consider in the first place that not to beleeve and lay hold on the promise is a sin of unbeleefe And he that beleeveth not is damned See the evill of this sin of unbeleefe in these particulars Iohn 3. 18. First Hereby we grieve the holy spirit of God whereby wee are sealed to the day of redemption What a grievous thing is it for Eph. 4. 30. thee who desirest to be assured that the promise is thine that thou by unbeleefe should est grieve that holy spirit which sealeth up the promise to thy soule see that place Heare ye now oh house of David is it a small thing for you to weary men but you must weary Isai 3. 17. my God also If a man promise to doe another man a courtesie and after some delay that man comes to him and saith Will you do as you promised me He saith yes but saith he will you indeed and thus he pleadeth with him a whole day and doth not beleeve him will not that exceedingly grieve his friend who promised him so to doe and fully intended no lesse even so is it with all those that are Gods people and will not beleeve what God hath said unto them but stand and plead with God two or three yeeres or more as those that bebeleeve glorify God so those that will not come in rob God of his honour and glory and grieve him It argueth a great deale of pride of heart in them that they will not beleeve because they have not what they would but something they must have of themselves like women that will not goe to a feast because they have nothing to carry Here is a great deale of unthankfulnes for all that God hath done for them yea evē for Christ himself where we love we are very thankfull and where we desire to be thankfull wee will be willing to take a kindnesse It argueth a great deale of impatience when we will not wait in a way of beleeving upon the promises of grace and cheerfully attend Gods leasure He that will not beleeve gives God the lie for He that beleeveth c. Hee that beleeveth 1 Iohn 5. 10. not in every ordinance he comes to he maketh God a lyar because every ordinance beareth record of Christ Not to beleeve is a denying of Gods power for they will not trust God especially in a great straight and by this wee may see what a many sins even Gods people may commit in this case Consider againe in the second place what a safe thing it is to beleeve I speak to Gods people As Surgeons when they let a man blood bid him looke another way so when the devill letteth you blood that is holds you pooring on your corruptions looke another way I meane on God and then you shal be safe from the devill and the world and your own corruptions And that you may lay hold on the promises of God take heed of those lets and impediments that might hinder you Sin is a let for it will wrest the promise out of our hands But your iniquities c. Isai 59. 2. The second impediment is our doubting and wandering in our prayers for We must pray lifting up our holy hands c. Iam. 1. 6. The third impediment to beleeving is slavish feare when we feare man more then God contrary to that counsell Feare not Isai 8. 12. their feare nor be afraid c. The fourth let is When we lay downe one thing that might afford us help and draw our selves to God and in the meane time take up another which can no way help us as when we lay downe the promise and take up the threatning Fiftly when we set our mind too much on the creature or honours and seeke our owne basenes or worldly pleasures In the next place take these helps to lay hold on the promise Labour to live by faith in all straits and conditions and by faith fetch a supply for al your wants by the promise from Christ Secondly marke the promise well which is the ground of all comfort and read them over often Do not flutter up down from one promise to another but lie a great while on some one and wring and squeese it by meditation upon it Thirdly apply the promise aright do not thinke it belongeth not to you because you have not that presently which is promised in it you must know that God setteth not downe the time when it shal be fulfilled Fourthly We are to wait patiently and humbly under our present condition vntill God grant our desire Gods time is the best time Blesse God for all his promises but especially when they are made good to us Psal 103. In the next place to those that yet stand out and are not closed with the promise I entreat you come in to God take his gracious offer lay hold on the promise which that you may doe take heed of those things that wil be le ts and hinder you Take heed of all sin for the Lord saith your sins have kept back good things from you Take heed of setting your mind to muc◠upon the creatures for they will shut one God the creator Old men do you come home to God yong men do you remember your creator in the dayes of your youth God this day calleth you it may be he will never call more how many hath the Lord struck with death sicknes and how soone it may be any of our turnes I know not sicknes is an unfit time to get Christ and to make our peace with God if you stand still you die If you go on in sin you die therefore turne from all your sin and come in lay hold by faith on the promise that so ye may live and this that I have spoken unto you may not be in vaine FINIS
THE SAINTS IEWELL shevving hovv to apply the promise In A Sermon preached by THOMAS SHEPHEARD For the promise is unto you and to your children and to all that are afar off even to as many as the Lord our God shall call Act. 2. 29. Printed in the yeere 1642. To the Reader REader the body may as well subsist without the soule as the soule can without a promise and as the body is not wearied with bread being the staffe of life though it hath it every day for nourishment so likewise the fainting hungry soule can never be cloyed with feeding upon the promises for which cause I have also adventured this little Sermon not doubting but it may reape it 's due fruit from those whose hearts are rightly affected which God granting I shall account my labour abundantly requited Farewell T. S. THE SAINTS IEWELL shevving hovv to apply the promise Having these promises dearely beloved let us cleanse our selves from all filthines of the flesh and spirit perfecting holines in the feare of God 2 Cor 7 1. THe Apostle Paul in the former chapter exhorteth the Corinthians to beware of unequall yoking themselves with unbeleevers and hee gives a double argument for it one from the unequalnes of it the other from the promises as in my text Having these promises In these words are three parts First a loving appellation in these words Having these promises dearely beloved A gracious exhortation let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse of flesh and spirit perfecting holinesse in the feare of God An argument for instigation or motive that hee useth to presse his exhortation which is from the nature of the promise That which is in the last part of the division is first in order of the words and therefore we will looke upon the words as they ly in order and so from the last part and first words I shall handle this doctrine Doct. That God made many promises unto his people I am come to you this day not to set out unto you the excellency of wit or learning or the creature but the excellency of a naked promise according to that 2 Pet 1 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and and preâ—ious promises Now all the promises of God unto his people are such as concerne the body or the body and the soule those that concerne the body are with this limitation that is so farre as concernes Gods glory and the good of our soules but for the body and soule consider that place For the Lord is a sunne and Shield the Lord will give grace and Psal 84. 11. glory and no good will he withhold from them that live uprightly I Come to the reasons why God hath thus made many promises unto his people and they are three The first reason is this that his people might have a fit object for their faith to lay hold upon for if you looke upon all the creatures in the world you shall finde in all of them jointly or any of them apart a fit object for faith to worke upon or be satisfied in it is with faith as with a poore woman that hath a child and hath nothing in the world to give it shee takes the child at her back and goeth from doore to doore and what shee getteth shee giveth to the child so faith takes the soule and carrieth it to promise after promise and what ever she findes there she gives it to the soule The second reason why God hath made many promises unto his people is that they may have a ground of comfort for as it is the object of their faith so it is the ground of their comfort for all other things of this world cannot profite or comfort the beleeving soule as suppose we should go to friends for comfort it may be they want comfort for themselves and so are unfit to comfort us or it may be they will not comfort us or it may be they are a great way off and so cannot doe it or perhaps though able and sometimes willing yet they are mutable in their comforts so as though at one time they are willing and doe comfort us yet another time they faile us but Christ to whom the soule is led by the promise not onely hath comfort and is able to comfort us but he is willing also to give comfort to us who knoweth our wants and is neere to all that Psal 145. 18. call upon him in trueth and also he is immutable in his comforts And were the creature a sufficient ground of comfort to Gods people then to want the creature were a sufficient ground of misery to them but a man may want health wealth liberty and the like and yet through and in Christ his soule may have satisfying comfort but if he want Christ though he hath a fulnesse of the creature hee is most miserable and without all satisfying comfort the promise onely is able to afford comfort to the soule in health in sicknes in life and in death The third reason why God hath made many promises unto his people is that they may become mutuall comforters one of another by having somewhat by experience from a promise wherewith they may be enabled to comfort others so that you may see the promise is not given to comfort our selves with onely but also one another Now for use Is it so that God hath 1 Vse made many promises unto his people let us try our selves whether we have any right to the promises or no I will name but one note that you may the better remember it and it is a true one for you shall find it in Scripture But the Scripture hath concluded all under sinne that the promise by faith in Iesus Christ might be given to Gal. 3. 22. them that beleeve So that you may see it is to them and to them onely that beleeve he that can exercise faith in the promise hath right to the promise For ye walke by faith and not by sight 2 Cor. 5. 7. If Christians be in afflictions and see that it doeth them good then it is easie to beleeve that promise which God hath made All things shall worke together for the good of them that love God But to beleeve this Rom. 8. 28. promise when wee cannot see any good come of affliction that is to beleeve by faith and not by sight but when we can see no good come by affliction but finde our selves more dead and dull and also God to frowne upon us and yet wee trust in God and beleeve the promise and stay our soules upon Gods word this is to live by faith as we are commanded Who is among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth Isai 50. 10. the voyce of his servant that walketh in darkenes and hath no light let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God Faith maketh things absent to be present and maketh the promise good to us though