Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	break_a	heart_n	sacrifice_n	5,353	5	8.6130	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30734	A sermon preached at St. Mary-le-Bow before the Lord Mayor, and court of aldermen, and citizens of London, on Wednesday the 28th of April, a day appointed by His Majesty's proclamation for a general and publick fast by Lilly Butler ...	Butler, Lilly.	1697 (1697)	Wing B6283; ESTC R14783	15,229	32

Sorrow of Heart All Evils are to be lamented with a Sorrow proportionable to the greatness of them and therefore Sin being the greatest of all Evils our Sorrow for that should be the greatest of all our Sorrows It is to him that is of an humble and of a contrite Spirit that God hath a special regard to him whose Spirit is even ground to pieces with Sorrow as the word Contrite signifies The Sacrifices of God saith David Psal 51. 17. are a broken Spirit it is a broken and contrite Heart which God will not despise It must not only be the Sorrow of the Heart but also so great a Sorrow of it as may fitly be called the breaking and grinding it to pieces as much Sorrow as our Hearts are able to bear especially when we bewail as we profess to do this Day all our Sins at once the Sins which we and all the People of this Land have committed 3. It must be an impartial Sorrow a great and hearty Sorrow for Sin where-ever we see it or of what kind so ever it is Our love to any Person or Party must not lessen our dislike of their evil doings neither must our Displeasure against any make us unconcerned at theirs We must not delight in that our selves which we are offended with in others or take pleasure in seeing other Men do what we dare not do our selves we must not mourn for one Sin and rejoice in another we must not hate and dislike only those Sins which through some opposition in our Tempers or through satiety or some evil Effects we feel of them are become irksome and grievous to us and love and cherish and delight our selves in the commission of others which are more agreeable to our Humour or Constitution or Interest Our Laughter must be turned to mourning and our Joy to heaviness we must be afflicted and mourn and weep for those very Sins we were wont to take the greatest Pleasure in 4. It must be an humbling Sorrow We must so be afflicted and mourn and weep as to humble our selves in the sight of God for the Sins we have committed so as to wash away all the filth of Pride and every high Thought of our selves Our Sorrow should be attended with Shame and a deep sense of our own Baseness Whenever we bewail our Sins we should abhor and loath our selves for them and acknowledg the Justice of God in all the Evils they have brought upon us and his undeserved Mercy in that we are not utterly consumed for them Such a Mourner was Job when he abhorred himself and repented Job 42. 6. in Dust and Ashes Such was David when he confessed that he was foolish and ignorant even as Psal 73. 22. a Beast before God Such was Ezra when he fell upon his Knees and said O my God I am ashamed and blush Ezra 9. 5 6. to lift up my Face to thee my God for our Iniquities are increased over our Heads and our Trespass is grown up unto the Heavens And such was Daniel when confessing with Fasting and Sackcloth and Dan. 9. 3. Ashes the Sins of his People he thus expressed himself O Lord Righteousness belongs unto thee but unto Ver. 7 8. us Confusion of Face because we have sinned against thee Such Mourners should we all be this Day lying down in our Shame and our Confusion covering us and loathing our selves in our own sight for all the Evils that we have committed 5. It must be a lasting Sorrow It is not the Duty of one Hour or of one Day only Is this the Fast that I have chosen saith God a Day for a Man to afflict his Soul Isa 58. 4. The Sorrow which God expects from us is not such as vanishes in our Sighs and Lamentations or runs out with our Tears and then leaves the Heart to return to its wonted hardness It is not as a morning Cloud which overcasts the Soul for a little while but soon passeth away and then all is clear again and our Affections shine as bright as ever upon the Sins we bewailed It is not falling out with them and our selves for their sakes for one Day and renewing all our Love and Kindness the next No we must never smile any more upon our lamented Sins or remember them without Shame We must never suffer our Hearts to be lifted up again or to grow insensible of that load of Sin which we have felt so heavy upon them and hath given them so much Pain and Trouble We must always carry with us the same resentment of the filthy Conversation of the Wicked and be continually disposed to mourn and be afflicted in seeing and hearing their Abominations I proceed now Thirdly To consider the particular Reasons of this Sorrow and Humiliation for our own and others Sins These are the filthy Nature the base Ingratitude and the evil Fruits and Consequences of them We must be afflicted and mourn and weep and humble our selves for them because hereby our God is dishonoured his Authority despised his Laws trampled on and his Love and Goodness abused because hereby our most Holy Religion is disgraced and the Christian Faith exposed to the Scorn and Derision of bold and growing Infidelity because the Peace and Prosperity of our Country is undermined and so many Publick Mischiefs procured by them because hereby our Minds and Consciences are defiled and the Image of God defaced in us the Peace of our Souls destroyed and everlasting Wrath and Punishment incurred by us These are all of them very sorrowful Considerations and we must have respect to them all in afflicting and humbling our Souls for our Sins Thus much may suffice for the explaining the Nature of the Duty of the Text. I shall therefore proceed and shew II. The Necessity of it which will be manifest if we consider First That without this great and hearty Sorrow and Humiliation for our Sins there can be no true Repentance without which there can be no Pardon no Reconciliation with God no hopes of diverting the Judgments of God from this untoward Generation no escaping the Wrath to come no hopes of Eternal Life and Salvation This Sorrow and Humiliation for Sin is therefore very often expresly called for when Men are exhorted to repent and particularly mentioned in the account of their Repentance Thus said the Lord to the House of Israel when he called them to repent Joel 2. 12. Turn ye even to me with all your Heart and with weeping and fasting and mourning and rent your Hearts Thus when David repented of his Sin in the matter Psal 51. of Uriah he offered the Sacrifice of a broken and contrite Heart And thus the Prophet Ezekiel foretells the Repentance of the Captive Jews Ezek. 6. 9. They shall loath themselves for the Evils that they have committed in all their Abominations And thus we read of the Penitent Woman in the Gospel Luk. 7. 38. that she came behind our Saviour weeping

and humbled themselves before him he repented of the Evil he said he would do unto Jonah 3. them And when the King of Egypt had gathered a mighty Army against Israel because they had forsaken 2 Chron 12. God 2 Chron. 12. and the Lord saw that the great Men particularly humbled themselves he sent his Prophet to tell them that he would not destroy them but Ver. 5. grant them some deliverance and his Wrath should not be poured upon them by the hand of Shishak And accordingly we read vers 12. that in Judah things went well Is it then in our Power to do any thing so serviceable to our publick Peace and Prosperity and shall we still neglect it Are not these Blessings worthy to be sought with Tears and Sorrow and would they not be very cheaply purchased by the performance of so reasonable a Duty after so large an Expence of Blood and Treasure in vain for the recovery of them Secondly Our particular penitent Sorrow and Humiliation may prevail with God to lift us up above those Calamities it may be too late for us to prevent When Men are cast down then thou shalt say There is lifting up and he shall save the humble Person Job 22. 29. An eminent Instance of this distinguishing Providence of God we have Ezek. 9. 4. where God commands a Mark to be set on the Forehead of those that did sigh and cry for the Abominations that were done in the midst of Jerusalem that the Ministers of his Wrath might not come near any of them ver 6. For such Men are the particular Care of Heaven and the peculiar Objects of the Divine Favour To this Man will I look saith God Isa 66. 2. even to him that is poor and of a contrite Spirit and trembleth at my Word Thirdly God will lift up them that mourn and afflict themselves as the Command of the Text requires that is He will raise their drooping Spirits revive and comfort their humbled Souls He is therefore called by St. Paul 2 Cor. 7. 6. The God that comforteth those that are cast down The Spirit of the Lord is upon me saith the Prophet Isaiah he hath sent me to preach glad Tidings to the Meek to bind up the broken hearted and to comfort them that mourn Isa 61. 1 2. Such Men have an everflowing Spring of Comfort always abiding in them even the Holy Spirit of God who dwelleth with such as are of a contrite and humble Isa 57. 15. Spirit to revive the Spirit of the Humble and to revive the Spirit of the contrite Ones to give them such a Sense of the Divine Love such joyful and glorious Hopes as will abundantly sweeten the worst Condition they can be in So that to be thus sorrowful is the best way to be always rejoicing Fourthly God will lift them up who thus humble themselves in his sight here to his own everlasting Kingdom hereafter where they shall shine as the Sun and whither no Clouds can reach to diminish ought of their Glory and Joy Blessed are the poor in Spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Mat. 5. 3. As God delights to dwell with such Men here so will he receive them to dwell with himself hereafter when he will dry up all their Tears heal all their Wounds put an end to all their Sorrows and fill their Souls with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory when he will no longer speak to them as he doth in the Text Be afflicted and mourn and weep but will call them to enter into the Joy of their Lord to sing the Song of the Lamb and to exercise themselves in perpetual Hallelujah's Thus then you see how necessary how seasonable and how profitable the Duty of the Text and the Duty of the Day is And shall we not now at length set our selves in earnest to the performance of it Shall we still rejoice to do Evil and delight in the frowardness of the Wicked Shall we still maintain the Character which the Prophet gave of Niniveh Zeph. 2. 15. This is the rejoicing City that dwelleth carelesly God forbid Let us search and try our Ways then and know every Man the Plague of his own Heart and turn to the Lord with weeping and mourning for all our great and crying Sins And for the afflicting our Hearts with this Sorrow I shall V. Direct to some proper Considerations for this purpose First Let us consider the Goodness and Mercy of that God we have sinned against and try to afflict our Souls with Shame and Sorrow for the base Ingratitude of our Sins When David had put Saul in mind of the tender regard he had had for his Life and Safety we read that Saul lift up his Voice and wept at the thoughts 1. Sam. 14. 16. of his cruel Designs against him And will not our Souls melt with Sorrow when we consider the tender Love the great and innumerable Favours of that good God we have injured and provoked Was ever Love so great as his or Ingratitude so vile and monstrous as ours hath been How kind how compassionate how bountiful a Father have we offended O the Riches of that Forbearance and Long-suffering we have despised O the height and depth of that Love we have abused The Ox knows his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib but ungrateful Wretches that we have been we have not known we have not considered as we ought our innumerable Obligations to love and serve him in whom we live and move and have our being That we should thus requite the Lord the Lord that made and bought us that preserves and provides for us of whom and from whom are all the good things we enjoy What more than brutish stupidity are our Hearts depraved into if they are not pierced through with Sorrow at the remembrance of such prodigious Ingratitude Secondly Let us endeavour to afflict our Souls with Sorrow for the Sins we have committed by considering the bitter Sufferings of the Son of God by and for them They shall look upon him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn and be in bitterness saith the Prophet Zech. 12. 10. And methinks we should always be thus affected when we look upon him when we consider the Death and Passion of our Blessed Saviour who did bear our Sins in his own Body on the Tree How doleful were his Cries how tormenting his Pains how shameful his Death when he carried our Sorrows and our Iniquities were laid upon him Are we not pained at the very Heart to think how insensible we have hitherto been of all these things how we have renewed and increased his Sorrows Crucified him afresh and again and again put him to an open shame by the hardness of our Hearts and the scandal of our Lives O my Soul methinks we should every one of us be ready to say How canst thou any longer endure the Thoughts of these things without shame and remorse the Thoughts of