Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	call_v	heart_n	holy_a	6,891	5	4.7620	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61729	The rule of rejoycing, or, A direction for mirth in a sermon preached upon Trinity-Sunday, being the 18th of June in the year of our Lord 1671 / by John Straight ...	Straight, John, 1605?-1680.	1671 (1671)	Wing S5806; ESTC R15245	21,782	32

alway again I say Rejoyce THat which Seneca sometime said of Learning I may and that not unfitly affirm of Joy Vita sine Literis mors est vivumque hominis Sepulchrum so he Vita sine gaudio mors est vivumque hominis Sepulchrum so I. A Life without Learning He without Joy I is a meer Death and but the living Sepulcher of man A short Life if joyous is far better than a long Age if mixt and continually clogg'd with anxious Molestations Much rather should I chuse to live a few dayes here in merry gladness than desire to accomplish the prolonged years of Methuselah in sullen sadness Heaviness of heart is the Curse of God 'T is Deut. 28. 65. Pro. 15. 13. 17. 22. 1 Pet. 5. 8. a great enemy to our health which God hath bound us to take care of It dries the Bones and briefly it gives great advantage to Satan who like a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour 'T is an old Saying that Melancholia est Vehiculum Daemonus and Experience proves that we are never so weak never so apt to receive the Temptations of Satan never so unable to resist them as when we are oppress'd with Melancholy and Sadness of heart For this cause S. Paul chargeth the Corinthians to comfort the incestuous person lest Satan 2 Cor. 2 7 11. saith he circumvent us for we are not ignorant of his Devices Look upon David a man after Gods own heart as the Scripture stiles him and yet see to what an 2 Sam. 18. 33. inconvenience sadness and plodding too much on the loss of his Son Absolom brought him see how unlike himself it made him And so Job concerning whom the Job 1. 1. Lord gives also a large Testimony an upright and just man one that feared God and eschewed evil Yet observe how far he forgets himself by yielding too much to sadness and heaviness of heart he is angry with the Light Job 3. 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 c. quarrels with the Night hath a Saying to the Stars to his Mother to the Midwife there is no dealing with him in his Fit Instances of this kind there be more than enough but they are unpleasant Without Joy there is no contentment in any thing Who would wish for Life it self but to take some joy and comfort in it Joy is all in all Well therefore doth our Apostle apply himself to press this Duty upon the Philippians in the words of our Text Rejoyce in the Lord alway again I say rejoyce In which words observe these four Particulars 1. A Duty enjoyned viz. Rejoycing Rejoyce 2. The Limitation of this Duty our Rejoycing must not be carnal but spiritual non in Saeculo sed in Domino it must not be in the World but in the Lord Rejoyce in the Lord. 3. The Extent of this Duty of Rejoycing It must not be at one time and not at another it must not be only now at Trinity-Tide your usual time of Merriment and enjoyment of your Friends and Acquaintance and no more till that time comes again in a Revolution but it must be all the year long even as long as we live alway Rejoyce in the Lord alway 4. And Lastly The Ingemination of this Duty of Rejoycing Again I say Rejoyce As if S. Paul should have said I exhort you not unto this duty of Rejoycing suddenly nor rashly out of a merry pin as we commonly say but out of a serious and sober deliberation and therefore I say again Rejoyce Rejoyce in the Lord alway again I say Rejoyce Of these in their Order And first of the first The Duty enjoyned by the Apostle to every good Christian Rejoycing Rejoyce Doct. Doct. It is then the Duty of all Gods Children to be joyful It is the Duty of all Gods Children to be cheerful O come let us rejoyce unto the Lord saith the Psalmist Let Psal 95. 1. Psal 100. 2. Psal 100. 4. Psal 47. 1. us serve the Lord with gladness and come before him with joyfulness Let us enter into his Gates with praise and into his Courts with rejoycing All people clap your hands sing aloud unto God with a joyful voice saith David This Disposition we see was in the blessed Virgin Mary Luke 1. 47. when she said that her Spirit rejoyced in God her Saviour There is no man but would have his business done with Cheerfulness and therefore Solomon saith that a sluggish Pro. 10. 26. or dull Agent is as Vinegar to the Teeth or as Smoke to the Eyes It is a matter of vexation and trouble to see any thing performed with lumpish heaviness God himself is all Spirit and he will be served with our Spirits he can endure none but cheerful Servitors In the time of the Ceremonies when God had appointed that the first-born of a mans Beasts should be set apart to him it was with this exception If it were the first Foal of an Exod. 13. 12 13. Ass it should be redeemed with a Lamb if it were not redeemed the Neck of it was to be broken God would not have that to be sacrificed unto him Some not unaptly make this to be meant by it that God so appointed as an evidence of his detestation of dulness and want of Life and Cheerfulness in good things an Ass being one of the dullest Creatures for which cause I conceive Sloth is wont to be pictured riding upon an Ass God would not be honoured by the Sacrifice of such a Beast It is the Badge of Christs People that they come willingly at the time of assembling And I rejoyced saith David when they said unto me we will go unto the House Psal 110. 3. Psal 122. 1. of the Lord. Those Services that are offered unto God without cheerfulness they never find acceptance And truly great reason have Gods Children to rejoyce and to serve him with alacrity For Reas 1 First Their Sins are forgiven them and that is a just cause of joy Son be of good cheer saith our Saviour Christ thy Sins are forgiven thee Matth. 9. 2. Secondly God is reconciled unto them in Christ and delights in them and that is another just cause of joy Let him that glorieth saith the Lord glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which Jer. 9. 24. exercise loving kindness This is that loving kindness and mercy which being shed abroad in the heart by the holy Ghost is better than life as the Psalmist speaks The Soul is satisfied with it as with Marrow and Fatness Psal 63. 3. Psal 63. 5. Rom. 14. 17. Rom. 8. 16. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Luke 2. 10. John 16. 24. St. Paul calleth this Joy in the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost works it in the heart and that witness of the Spirit is the Ground of it St. Peter for the dignity of it commends it to be both unspeakable and glorious The Angels to the Shepherds