Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bless_a	jesus_n	lord_n	6,161	5	3.6174	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15580	The saints aduantage or The welfare of the faithfull, in the worst times A sermon, preached at the Hage the 18. of May, 1623. before the most high, and mighty princesse, Elizabeth, by the grace of God, Queene of Bohemia, Countesse Palatine of the Rhene, &c. By Iohn Wing, an vnworthy minister of the gospel and pastor to the English Church at Flishing in Zealand.	Wing, John, of Flushing, Zealand.	1623 (1623)	STC 25847; ESTC S120119	54,386	92

THE SAINTS ADVANTAGE OR The welfare of the FAITHFVLL in the worst times A Sermon Preached at the Hage the 18. of May 1623. before the most High and Mighty Princesse ELIZABETH by the Grace of GOD QVEENE of Bohemia Countesse Palatine of the Rhene c. By IOHN WING an vnworthy Minister of the gospel and Pastor to the English Church at FLISHING in ZEALAND 2 Cor. 1.3.4 3. Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ the Fathers mercies and God of all consolation 4. Who comforteth vs in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we our selues are comforted of God AT FLISHING Printed by Martin Abraham vander Nolck dwelling at the signe of the Printing-house 1623. TO THE Most High and Mighty Princesse ELIZABETH by the grace of God QVEENE of Bohemia Countesse Palatine of the Rhene c. IOHN WING Pastor of the English Church at Flushing in Zealand wisheth all encrease of grace and peace whatsoever may enlarge all present happines on earth and assure that which is eternall in heaven MOST GRACIOVS PRINCESSE Inasmuch as it pleased your most excellent Majesty to vouchsafe a Gracious eare to the weake vtterance of these meditations I am comfortablely encouraged to present a more compleate discovery of them to your Princely eyes not that I account them worthy as they are myne of the least looke of Majesty but trusting wholy to that clemency favour which I humbly entreate may thyne from you vpon this my poore endeavour it having next to the honour of the most high God her only respect and ayme at your Majesties present and furture condition a true type wherof is here tendered by him whose soule doth daily sue vnto the King of Kings that as he hath measured vnto and you haue shared with Moses and David many tribulations in the entrance of their honour and renowne and after made them so much the more famous admired victorious So it might please the same Lord to alott you the sweete happines of their issue which was most blessed and glorious to alay the distaste of that bitter beginning which vnto nature seemeth somewhat tarte and greivous and together with that peerelesse greatnes which they enjoyed on earth the same glory and joy which they posesse in heaven The Great God of heaven and earth blesse with the richest abundance combination of his rarest and best blessings your Royall Head Husband your Highnes all your hopefull Plants Princely posterity that your Crowne may yet flourish your enemyes may ever perish and you all may be made mirrours of Majesty and Royalty to all generations Your Majesties in all duty to be commanded IOHN WING To my worthy and Right welbeloved Freinds Maister Caleb Cockcroft Treasurer to the famous followship of Merchant Adventurers of England resident at Delft And vnto Maister Iohn Barkelay Maister Arthur Tyndall Maister Iohn Quarlys Maister William Clarke Bretheren of the same Society Iohn Wing wisheth all present welfare and prosperity o● earth which may further their future felicity in heaven HOwsoever I haue hereto-fore saluted your whole society in that vnfayned affection which I beare vnto you all yet n being in some particuler engagements more bound to some in speciall then to all in generall I presume vpon your kinde acceptance of this poore manifestation of my loue to you having had large experience of yours to me A small token is welcome from a true freind and I nothing doubt but this shal be the better entertayned not only because it is sent from such a one but also for that it contayneth matter of Advantage and that as I trust I may boldely say to your selues as vnto those who desyring and endeavouring to be of that number to whome these most worthy preiveledges doe appertayne shall in your due seeking be right sure to enjoy those many most blessed benefitts which are here by vs discovered and by God himself entayled to all his faithfull ones for ever And inasmuch as it is noe good decorum to make a long Epistle to a litle booke I am more breife with you then otherwise my loue would let me be which could much more enlarge it self if it were meete at present soe to doe But what is not convenient now to say to your selues I shall not cease to vtter in my poore requests for you vnto him who is Lord over all and rich vnto all To whose grace loue I leaue you and all that are yours beseeching him to enrich you with all the graces of his good spirit that may giue you a blessed and abundant entrance into his glorious Kingdome by Iesus Christ both your Lord and ours in whome I rest Yours vnfaynedly for any good to my vtmost ability IOHN WING From my house in Flushing March 7. 1623. To the Christian Reader BEloved in the Lord seing promise is debt and performance alone the only discharge that can giue plenary satisfaction I must at present deale as poore debtors oft-times are enforced to pray where they cannot pay and to entreat yet longer time for that which was due long a-goe It is neere foure yeares since I began to engage my self vnto thee for the perfecting of my matrimoniall treatise then in part published To this day I confesse I haue not finished the same for I mett with such cumbrance hynderance and inconvenience in that litle which was but as a praeface to the rest that I durst not adventure to set vpon the remaynder being the farre greater part Yet I am not out of all hope ere long to doe it and in the meane time I thought good to send this Sermon abroad wherein I haue endeavoured the cure of one of the most common sores that hath come to my observation in these evill times to wit the hard conceit that not only the vngodly doe harbour of Gods people but they of themselues especially if outward things goe hard with them the times doe not favour but distaste and frowne vpon them Beholde here a man that was taught of God to know so much of the very meanest estate of the members of Christ that he willingly left to be mighty in the worlde to make one among them in their meanesse misery and by his practise made it manifest that his perswasion was quite contrary to the base opinion of men touching the saints of God And if he were led vnto this excellent estimation by extraordinary inspiration from God is it not extraordinary impiety to thinke or speake otherwise of them Surely soe farre as God did informe the one Satan doth infatuate the other Reade and ponder the particulers but first correct these few errors of the Printer and pray to that God for me to whome I am and shal be a suitor for thee for thy present and future welfare Farewell in the Lord in whome I am thyne IOHN WING ERRATA Pag. Lin. Error Correction 1. 4. as

dreadfull object in his eye as the like hath never beene heard or read off before a mooving hand writting wofull things against him on the wall and there with was he so distempered terrifyed and in such a taking as his chattering teeth his throbbing hart his knocking knee's and the rest of his quaking members though not mentioned may signify the state of his perplexed spirit and distracted mynde It were most easy to multiply many of this fearfull crew whome the Lord hath accursed many wayes and among the rest with such forlorne nay infernall feares as many a time are threatned vnto them from him who is FEARE it self even the most fearfull and terrible GOD who hath shewed all men now farre he can and doth and will for ever keepe them evē at their best vnder the bondage of base fare shewing himself vnto them evermore both it his word by those terryfying titles of a Iudge an Avenger a Consuming fire and in his worke by those amazing soule-distracting accidents which doe most vnexpectedly overtake them are as it were the very beginnings of hell vnto them wherein there shal be an infinite and endles I say not consummation bu combynation of all fearfull things for ever to abide and abound vpon them And this is the fourth difference betweene the righteous and the jrreligious and the fourth advantage we who are Gods haue of the other The faithfull are free from feare the profane are full of it it hath scarce and ought not to haue at all a being in those that are the Lords and belong to his loue and in the rest nothing is more powerfull not only being in them but being the greatest predominant that beareth rule and overbeareth both themselues and that when they are best at ease and all those things wherein they doe most boast and blesse themselues as their manner is to doe And which of these two to take is most easily and quickly determined by any man who is not feared out of his witts The fift advantage followeth 5 Advanage 5. That the very worst that ever befell any child of God in this world was sent of purpose to prevent the worst of all viz perdition in the world to come but the best that ever wicked man had was but to helpe him the neerer to hell The scripture is playne and plentifull for either part we will take a taste of both The Apostle writting to the Corinthians and in them to all true Christians doth assure vs that what correction or chastisement we endure here is to saue vs from confusion for ever we are saith he chastened of the Lord ● Cor. 11.32 that we might not be condemned with the world the Lord doth as good parents doe to bad children bestow many a whipping vpon vs to saue vs from hanging his sharpest rod is but to prevent a sharper sworde is it not better to smart then to bleede or to bleede a litle by the gracious hand of a good father then to bleede to death by the severe hand of a rigorous excecutioner Surely there was somewhat in it Psa 119.17 that David tell 's vs it was soe good for him that he had beene afflicted which intimate's he had beene in an ill case if it had not beene soe Heb 11.8 And what may be that sweete fruit that come's to such as haue beene not once or soe smitten but excercised often vnder affliction if it be not this we speake of Or what colour of reason can be rendred Rom. why we should not only rejoyce but even glory in tribulation if it were not a sanctifyed and assured meanes to escape destruction Thy Rod and thy Staffe saith good David they comfort me why how soe it were a sencles speech and vntrue if he had not told vs before that the Lord was his shepheard and dealt with him as carefull shepheards doe vse the rod and staffe to saue them from the beare and wolfe and therevpon he tell 's vs that no danger can affright him because the Lord by correction deliver's him from the ruyine whereinto els he would run Better the shepheard smyte then the wolfe byte they are good stroakes that keepe vs from the pawes and jawes of the devourer And this was smel't of one of Iobs freinds long before these dayes who tell 's him Iob. 33.18.19 and God tell 's vs in him that when the Lord meaneth to saue a mans soule from the pit c he chasteneth him with payne c scourging him severely that he may saue him graciously And wherein but in this alone could his loue vnto vs and his chastisement of vs goe together But on the vngodly mans part you haue heard before that his best estate helpe's him to hell nothing doth more further his eternall misery thē the things he accounts his greatest mercy What sayd the Lord to Isaiah Is 6.9.10 make the hart of this people fatt their eares heavy c let them remayne insensible of any instruction incapable of any humiliation stirre them not never trouble them but giue them their owne way and will that they may be at harts ease but to what end is all this graunted why that their endles misery may be hastened to prevent their salvation which they refused to procure their damnation which they deserved And the same sayd Christ out of this Prophet to those of his time who resting in the same condition were reserved to the same destruction Doe we not reade of some that were free from all miseryes and had a kinde of exemption from all afflictions Iob. 21.11.12.13 all their dayes and passed their time as merrily as ever men did in royott and revelling and the next newes we heare of them is their everlasting overthrow for ever and ever what was it which was sayd to Dives being in hell torments Luk. 16.25 even this thou in thy life time hadst thy pleasure c but now thou art tormented as if he should say thy pleasure ease delicacy c were the things that hastened this perdition wherein thou art Note And you must jmagine this one to be the embleme or person representative of all that Great one's that ever came or shall come into hell nothings is a surer harbinger of eternall damnation to an vngodly man then his freedome from temporall affliction Did you not heare before that Therefore hell had enlarged her self and opened her mouth Isa 5.15 c because it seemed most greedy to devoure the fattest and greatest of those that were never taken downe nor abated by any earthly calamity as if such men were the sweetest morsells hell could haue And doe you not read againe on the contrary that Reu. 7.14.15 Therefore the saints of God are in his glorious presence day and night for ever and ever and haue all teares wyped from their eyes because they came out of great tribulation and persecution and had beene soe miserablely handled here

all things to wit the having of a good yea the best estate and condition that is to be had in this world and a much more better in heaven then can be had vpon any tearmes here And can there be a better estate then that or any so good as that which Is impossible to be had at the worst and The worst wherof is better then the best of any other Beholde out of this estate all prosperity is misery and in it all misery is prosserity haue we not made it more then manifest by such abundance of most infallible divine and vndoubted evidence as neither divells nor men can colourably gainesay And is not such a state worth seeking among those to whome it is solely and wholey appropriated of the Lord who would not be a Saint vpon such tearmes embrace piety because of the precious and peerlesse blessednes it bring 's with it vpon a mans vniversall state here and that which is eternall in heaven why let men learne to reason and dispute thus If there be a sort of people who are in such a state as hath beene sayd the worst wherof is simply good and jncomparably better then the best estate of any other whatsoever what doe I what am I out of that society I see my self miserable as I am at my best I will surely out of my self and strive with all my strength to be one of those men among whome the meanest fare soe well when they are in the worst estate that can be And if thus God make vs able to begin to argue for his glory against our selues when these first propositions be well vnderstood and applyed of vs we shal be able by his grace to frame more comfortable premisses and to goe forward in this divine disceptation with consideration of those further things the conclusion and inference wherof will minister vnto vs yet more courage to cleave vnto the Lord in the communion of his saints For why the former argument was taken from the miseryes greivances persecutions and oppressions of Gods people and yet it is powerfull and able to conclude both a necessity and includeth also an excellency of our separation from sinners to become of that number who are soe happy in their very misery but this latter may be taken from the graces of the same men from whose distresses alone we reasoned before and for the further wooing and faster glewing of vs vnto the heavenly corporation of such as are happily incorporated into Chrict Iesus it may in the second place be framed thus If the worst of Gods people viz their troubles miseryes and oppressions be such as doe exceede all the wellbeing of other men if in their greivances and vexations it goe soe well with them how happy must these men be considered in their graces and the employment of them if their bitter sorrowes be soe sweete how will the sweete sap and savour of God spirit taste and relish in them if out of cruelty tyranny and all manner of evill soe much good may issue when they haue to doe with wicked and vnreasonable men who can conceive the consolation that shall accrew vnto them in the free and peaceable excercise of their graces wherein they deale only with Gods owne majesty and such of their fellow bretheren and sisters as are truly gracious with themselues if the troubled waters which are soe muddyed with the foule fruit of Satans and mens mallice may yeelde such joy what will flow from the blessed jnfluence of God himself thinke yee when he shall leade them to those wells of salvation whence they shall draw freely and drinke their fill of those pure christall streames which himself hath distilled Surely every man must needes in all reason thinke that if their worst estate of greife and misery be so good this of grace and peace cannot but be better and yeelde sweeter fruit then the former and soe the best estate of a wicked man being so farre behinde their worst must needes be much more behinde this and vtterly incomparable there-vnto And yet though this be much the most and best of all is yet to come viz their state of glory which shal be the reward both of their greivances and graces also from that a man whose hart were set aright might lastly reason thus These men Gods saints were happier then I at the worst of their miseryes even in the midst of their enemyes They were yet more happy then soe when with their God and with each other among themselues they might peaceably vse their graces the least of these two was more then a litle beyond my best But their best of all being yet to come to wit their blessednes and glory in heaven with the God of heaven what shall I conceive of their inconceivable faelicity then and there and how infinitely vnhappy are I that am soe short of the good they haue in their very evill and am not yet come so farre as to be equall with them in their meanest and most afflicted condition Surely it being so well with them in their greivances it cannot but be much better with them in their graces and best of all in their glory O the hydden yet heavenly estate of these holy ones which is soe heavenly that it must be hydden there being no possibility on earth to reveale it Who would be out of that state wherein is soe much excellency that every evill therein is exceeding good and every good exceedeth each other If a mans hart be not chayned to the Divell by the Divell to the world to be kept here in that perpetuall prison of infidelity and profanes which will bring him to that perditiō which is due there vnto he cannot but be drawne out of himself and his sinfull state with this threefolde corde and be tyed fast for ever as one enamoured and enflamed to the Lord God in the felowship of those his saints who having beene faithfull before him here both in doing his will and suffering for the same haue now received the wages both of their faith and sufferings in the Kingdome for which they suffered wherein they shall see him as he is 1 Ioh. 3.2 and with him his blessed Son his eternall Spirit his beloved Saints in that life and jmmortality blisse and faelicity which God who is faithfull hath performed to them promised to vs and to all the rest of his holy ones Heb. 11.40 keeping them who are already in actuall pofession not absolutely perfect as being yet without vs till we shal be brought vnto them both they and we and all the elect vnto the Lord our God at the last day to be compleate in that entyre and eternall perfection of glory the hope wherof giue 's vs hart and make's vs wayte and sigh in our soules looking and longing for that glorious appearance of his which shall make vs to appeare in glory with him for ever and ever AMEN