Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	soul_n	union_n	7,019	5	9.6724	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53085	The best acquaintance and highest honour of Christians, or, A discourse of acquaintance with God by Matthew Newcomen.	Newcomen, Matthew, 1610?-1669.	1668 (1668)	Wing N905; ESTC R32164	42,574	130

providence is enough for the producing of the creatures into being but for the continuance of their being and for their operations there is required a continual efflux of providence so it is here Now when these influences of the Spirit are suspended and withdrawn the soul can neither keep up and carry on his acquaintance with God in a way of duty so as it should nor apprehend God communicating himself and Spirit to him so as it would and so cannot but from both conclude an interruption of that acquaintance and familiarity that hath been between God and it Now to those whose condition this is give me leave to propound First Some things by way of support and consolation Secondly Some things by way of counsel and direction And First By way of support and consolation several things I have to say The First is this That how sad and strange soever thy condition may seem to be thou art not the first nor art like to be the last of the Friends and Saints of God whose condition this hath been or may be Read but over the Book of the Psalms how often do you find there the Saints complaining of Gods hiding his face from them casting them out casting them off forsaking forgetting them shutting out their prayers and the like Now this may be some comfort to thee as it is to a man that is in a wilderness to find the tract and footsteps of men that have gone that way before him There are as Gerson observes three sorts of Christians Gerson de monte contemplat cap. 22. Some that are in a winter condition In winter you know the dayes are short and the nights are long and the dayes for the most part are cloudy and dark the Sun being obscured with many clouds and fogs there are sharp colds and great rains and now and then it may be a fair day but very rarely so some Christians they have short dayes and long nights short visits and long absence of God they have much darkness and little light Rara hora brevis mora Bernard much coldness and little heat in their spirits many showres of griefs and tears rarely now and then a gleam of comfort Other Christians saith he are as it were in the spring in primo vere In the Spring you know it is one day fair and clear another day cloudy and rainy but we see the Sun oftner in the Spring and the beams of it are more vigorous and warmthful than in the winter now these are such whom the Sun of righteousness doth more frequently visit than the former and sheds more warmthful and vigorous influences into their hearts and yet withdraws himself from them sometimes sometimes their Sun is under a cloud Ut modicum illum videant modicum non videant and they have their wet and sorrowful dayes and times too Others there are with whom it is Midsummer their Sun is seldom clouded but when it is it is more terrible there are greater tempests of thunder and lightning and rain many times in summer than in winter though not so constant rain These are the best and highest form of Christians who though they enjoy a more constant serenity and more constant peace and communion with God than the other yet now and then meet with more violent and strong temptations and deeper desertions than the former their temptations are very sharp but then they are short So that you see by this distribution there is no state of a Christian life on this side heaven exempted and priviledged from this hiding of Gods face and suspending the influences of his grace and love Whether then thou be in thy Winter or in thy Spring or in thy Summer clouds may come over thy soul that may hide the face of God from thee and intercept the influences of his Spirit and grace th s is common to Christians whatever degree of grace they have attained therefore say no more that never any was in such a condition as thou The Second thing I have to say to thee is this That the worst of thy condition is this It is a withdrawing not of the love of God from thee but of wonted expressions of his love it is but a withdrawing of the influence of his Spirit from thee not the presence of his Spirit from thee I say it is but a withdrawing of the manifestation of Gods love from thee God doth not look so kindly upon thee when thou comest to seek his face as he was wont to do God doth not speak so comfortably to thee he doth not speak so to thine heart when thou comest to hear his word as he was wont to do God doth not make thee so welcom to his table when thou comest there nor give thee such a double portion of the marrow and fatness of his Ordinances as he was wont to do I confess here is a great change in the outward carriage of God and a great abatement of the wonted expressions of his love but there is no change at all in the mind and will of God no abatement at all in the love of God which is as unchangeable as God himself David loved Absalom as dearly all that three years in which he would not endure him to come into his presence nor permit him to see his face as he did before in any time of his life though in wisdom he did conceal and smoother his love so God may conceal his love for a while but he loves thee still as well as ever He hath taken away the wonted influences of his Spirit from thee but his Spirit it self he hath not taken from thee Joh. 14.16 Christs prayer and ingagement is that the Spirit where once he is given shall abide for ever Therefore I say the influences of the Spirit may be suspended but the Spirit it self is not departed as it was with Eutychus when they thought he was dead his life saith Paul that is his Spirit his soul is in him and yet all the influences of his soul into his body either visible to others or sensible to himself were for the present suspended so is it here the visible sensible influences of the Spirit may be suspended but the Spirit is not departed the band of union is not dissolved Thirdly As it is the influence and not the presence of the Spirit that is withdrawn so it is not the total influence of the Spirit that is withdrawn from thee but only part of it all the influences of the Spirit are not withdrawn but only some of them For the influences of the Spirit are of two sorts Either such as are necessary to the being of a Christian in the state of grace and these are secret hidden and unsensible or else such as tend to the well and comfortable being of a Christian and these are evident and sensible as in the body there are some influences of the soul that are necessary to the animation and quickening of the

body and these remain when the body is in a swoon though they be secret and hidden and neither felt by the body it self nor discerned by the beholders other influences there are that tend to the perfection of life in the body as tending to motion and sense these are both sensible to themselves and visible in the effects of them to others now these latter influences of the soul into the body may be suspended when yet the other are continued so it is here they are but the sensible and arbitrary influences of the Spirit that are suspended the necessary influences of the Spirit are yet continued Fourthly As it is the influence and not the presence of the Spirit that is withdrawn and as it is but some of the influences not the whole influence that is withdrawn so fourthly this influence is but suspended it is not quite cut off and there is a great difference between these two If water be conveyed through a pipe from a fountain to a cistern if that pipe be stopt the stream is suspended and it is but unstopping the pipe removing the obstruction and the water will flow as plentifully as ever it did before but if the stream be cut off or turned another way then the case is otherwise the matter is irrecoverable Poor soul because thou hast not those influences fresh and lively from the Spirit of God that thou hast had thou thinkest the stream is quite cut off the heart of God thou thinkest is quite turned away from thee Alas thou art mistaken it is only the pipe is stopt something lyes in the way that obstructs the influences of the Spirit of God into thee remove but that and the influences of the Spirit will come in upon thee in as full a stream as ever For which is the last thing that I have to propound to thee for thy consolation thou must not think In the fifth place That because God hides himself and withdraws himself and carries himself at present not as a friend but rather as a stranger as an enemy to thee do not think that he will alwayes do so When he hath said plainly He will not alwayes chide Psal 103.9 Isa 57.16 I●am 3.31 32. neither keepeth he his anger for ever He will not contend for ever neither will he be alwayes wroth He will not cast off for ever But though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies These are clear and express promises of a true and faithful God heaven and earth shall fail before one word or tittle of these promises shall fail It is therefore a great infirmity in thee to think that because God now hides his face from thee he will do so for ever or because that God seems to be fallen out with thee therefore he will never more be friends with thee Thus to think is I say a great infirmity in thee So Asaph acknowledgeth for himself when he had been questioning with his own soul Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Psal 77.7 8 9 10. Is his mercy clean gone for ever doth his promise fail for ever Hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies He concludes This is my infirmity As who should say It is a great weakness in me so to imagine so it is in thee if thou dost so think These things thus premised as grounds of hope and consolation I proceed now to shew what course you must take to recover favour with God and your acquaintance with him again And so First Enquire whether you have not given God cause thus to estrange and absent himself from you and break off acquaintance with you To that end make use of the particulars laid down before 1. Enquire whether you have not fallen into some known and gross sin 2. Whether you have not held too much correspondence with and delighted too much in the company of wicked and ungodly men 3. Whether you have not been too much carried away with the inordinate love of the world and of the things of the world 4. Whether you have not too much absented your selves from God and neglected your wonted and appointed times of meeting him and acquainting your selves with him 5. Whether you have not dealt unfriendly with God by entertaining jealousies and hard thoughts of God And 6. giving too much credit to Satans lyes and slanders Inquire seriously whether you have not been guilty in some or other of these particulars for usually I must tell you the breach begins on our part we give God cause to estrange himself from us When thou hast done this Then Secondly Take the counsel the holy Ghost gives Do this now my Son Prov. 6.3 and deliver thy self when thou art come into the hand of thy friend go humble thy self and make sure thy friend Or as the Margent reads it Go humble thy self and prevail with thy friend Humble thy self that is the way to prevail with God and to make him yet thy sure friend though he seems to be thine enemy Humble thy self and that upon a twofold account First For the sad condition that thou art in at present Secondly For the sin that hath brought thee into this sad condition First Humble thy self for the sad condition that thou art in Think and say thus to thy self Wo is me for my God my life is departed from me and how am I changed O how was I wont to meet God in his Ordinances and what sweet communion and acquaintance had I once with him but now he hides himself and will not come at me I pray but he hears me not I hearken after him but he speaks not I call but he answers not Behold I go forward but he is not there and backward Job 23.8 9. but I cannot find him On the left hand where he doth work but I cannot behold him he hideth himse f on the right hand that I cannot see him And say again as Job O that it were with me as in moneths past Job 29.2 3 4. as in the dayes when God preserved me When his candle shined upon my head and when by his light I walked through darkness When the secret of God was upon my tabernacle and the Almighty was yet with me It is an excellent meditation Bernard hath to this purpose Whence comes this barrenness that possesseth my soul whence is it that my heart is dryed up like a bottle in the smoke and my soul is like the dry and parched wilderness Non possum lachrymas fundere Bern. in Cant. Sermon 74. I cannot weep I find no savour in Psalms I have no delight in reading of the Scriptures prayer doth not refresh me I have no heart to meditation or any thing that is good Hei mihi Wo is me God visiteth the mountains of my companions but skips over my mountain and never toucheth it Here is one ravished