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	lord_n	word_n	8,546	5	4.0602	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59266	A sermon on the restoring of the coyn with reference to the state of the nation, and of the church therein / by a minister of the Church of England.	Minister of the Church of England.	1697 (1697)	Wing S2629; ESTC R21327	12,449	33

rejected and refuse Silver to the flame all things shall become new and the Church restor'd to its Beauty and Excellency as the Coin is This is admirably represented in Ezek. 22.19 22. and in other places Now whatsoever way the Lord will work this whether by Magistrates whom he will spirit and stir up for it or by Afflictions sometimes called a Furnace or by greater Effusions of his Spirit in the preaching of the Word or whether by all these together sure we are that he will be like a refiners fire Mal. 3.2 And there will be these two things in it 1. Great Wrath upon such as shall be found debased and corrupted and so refused and rejected Psalm 119.119 Thou puttest away all the wicked of the Earth like dross They despised God his Ways and his People they counted them as the Off-scouring of the World and they themselves shall be lightly esteem'd Ezek. 22.20 21. As they gather Silver and Brass and Iron and Lead and Tin into the midst of the Furnace to blow the fire upon it so will I gather you in mine anger and my fury and I will blow upon you in the fire of my wrath c. The Judgments of God are very searching and desolating upon the wicked many times in this World as we have instances in Church-History all along even so as to be an Emblem of the great Judgment to come and to express Rev. 3. 3 I will come upon thee and thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee 2. Great Mercy to the Church afterwards for upon the rejecting the wicked the Church is restored Prov. 25.4 Take away the Dross from the Silver and there shall come forth a Vessel for the Finer which is apply'd in the next Words to the taking away the wicked verse 5. Divers of the Prophets spake of this Mal. 3.3 He shall sit as a Refiner and Purifier of Silver and he shall purifie the Sons of Levi and purge them as Gold and Silver that they may offer to the Lord an offering in Righteousness He may possibly begin with them in Judgment for their Corruptions and in Mercy for their Recovery that they may be instruments in restoring others Of whom another Prophet speaks in the same manner Zech. 13.9 And it shall come to pass that in all the Land saith the Lord two parts therein shall be cut off and die but the third shall be left therein and I will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them as Silver is refin'd and will try them as Gold is tried they shall call upon my Name and I will hear them c. Here is a remnant reserv'd and restor'd made bright and Illustrious like New and Beautiful Coin The like we may see in Isa 1.25 and 4.3 4. Of which further Use may be made in the Application to which we shall now proceed Vse 1. This may be used for a serious Exhortation that you be not found amongst the Corrupters and Corrupted Ones whom the Lord will reject The old debased Coin past a great while it went currant partly through faultiness and partly through ignorance The wicked have not been plucked away some have continued in the Church through neglect of Discipline and others by reason of their Washes and cunning Artifices have not been discovered to be what they are What will you do when you can pass currant to longer there is a day that will manifest every mans work for the fire will declare it If thou continuest a prophane Enemy of God and Godliness a malignant Hater of seriousness and strictness in Religion if under the wash of an outward Profession thou wilt still cherish Malice Uncleanness Worldliness or such like Lusts in thy Heart thou wilt be rejected refuse Coin reprobated and cast off by the Lord Hearken therefore in time to the Word of the Lord that God may hearken unto you 1. See that you have the image of God instamp'd and renewed upon your Souls When the Coin was debased they melted down the Money that had the right stamp they corrupted it with the baser Metals of Brass and Iron and placed a counterfeit Stamp upon it this was our ruine at first By the Fall the Image of God was lost and defac'd and a contrary image stamp'd on the Soul There must be a restoring the King's Image again the debased Coin must be broken with the Hammer melted with the fire and made susceptible of a new stamp How admirably doth this set forth the work of Grace upon the Heart Jer. 23.29 Is not my word like a Fire saith the Lord and like a Hammer that breaketh the Rock in pieces Thou must be broken by the Hammer of the Law and melted down by the Gospel and the Lord's Image must be renewed upon thy Soul Col. 3.10 And have put on the new Man which is renewed in Knowledge after the Image of him that Created him And in the other Epistle Eph. 4.24 it is said to be after God that is after his Image which we are told there doth consist in Righteousness and true Holiness So that the great Question which you must put to your Souls is Whose is this Image and Superscription Is it after Christ after his likeness have you receiv'd Grace for Grace Is there Grace in you answering to the great Patterns and Exemplar in him as in the Coin face answers to face and one part and feature to another It will come to that at last that no Coin will go currant but what is new All old things must pass away and all things become new 2 Cor. 5.17 The Apostles words respect another similitude but may be applyed to this 1 Cor. 5.7 That you must be a new lump or Mass on which a new Image must be stamp'd There must be a new Heart and a new Spirit Ezek. 36.26 From whence proceeds newness of Life and Obedience And as the old Coin is still wearing away and the new Money increasing so must the old Man be decaying as crucisi'd with Christ Rom 6.6 put to a lingering death till at last there be no more of it and the new man must increase till Grace comes to be perfected in Glory 2 See that in your whole life and course you be according to the Standard and full Weight It was the charge upon that Remiss Church of Sardis in which we are nearly concern'd that the Lord had not found her works perfect before God Rev. 3 2. not filled up but like Coin impaird and embezelled that would not hold weight The Gospel requires good Works as well as the Law though not for the same ends and the one is a Standard as well as the other if he weighs us in the Ballance of his Law and Covenant of Works there is no Righteousness but that of Christs which will hold weight But sincerity is a kind of Evangelical perfection and so own'd in the Covenant of Grace and sad is our case if God should

write upon us TEKEL thou art weigh'd in the Ballances and art found wanting Dan. 5.27 There are many frothy vain Persons of empty light Spirits that have no solidity Examine your selves saith the Apostle prove your own selves 2 Cor. 13.5 Where he useth a word that is also made use of for the Tryal of Metals of which Money is made Vse 2. This may further be improv'd by way of caution that you take heed of murmuring and fretting about the difficulties occasion'd by the Coin at this day when you have more reason to lye low before God in sorrow and humiliation Murmuring hath been one of the prevailing sins of England of late as it was of the Children of Israel when they came out of Aegypt there are many circumstances that are much alike in both Nothing hath more exercis'd the Tongues and fill'd the Hearts of many this last year than the difficulties about the Money No Man smites upon his thigh and crys what have I done Each one murmuring at others the wisest Councellour and Counsels cannot escape them they fret themselves against God and the King and look up Sometimes they murmur at the inconveniencies occasion'd by the Calling in of the Coin the stoppage of their Trade and Commerce the hinderance of the War and of the Peace and Deliverance hop'd for by it at other times at the difficulties in amending the Coin the delay of it and the frustrating some attempts that have been made to restore it Now not to argue against this murmuring from the General Heads of the Sin and danger of it I desire only that they who murmur in this Case would reflect upon themselves and enquire whether they have not more cause to mourn than to fret upon this account Let it be considered 1. Whether you are not the Persons that have caused this Calamity this Debasing of the Coin I do not mean whether your sins as well as others have caus'd it meretoriously as sin brings down all Judgments but whether you have not been instrumental in procuring these inconveniencies which have lain heavy on your selves and others They that suffer'd justly for their Treason and a kind of Robbery of the whole Nation in Clipping and Coining were not the only guilty Persons it must needs be that they have other Confederates Accessaries to their Treason and Theft who helpt them to all that broad Money which they clipt and melted down which Confederacy is doubtless an Iniquity that ought to be punished by the Judges but I hope this guilt lies comparitively but among a few There is yet a more general Sin to be bewailed which was always accounted a heinous piece of injustice till the temptation grew too strong for many the putting off false and counterfeit Money in their dealings one with another How many made no conscience of putting off Brass and Iron for Silver because say they we took it for good our selves which is but in other words to cheat others because they themselves were impos'd upon It was this common practice that encourag'd the pouring in such vast quantities of debased Money upon us I doubt not now the Temptation is over the Conviction will be more easie that it is the same sin to put off counterfeit Money knowingly as to put off counterfeit Goods A sin so general ought to be publickly acknowledged and bewail'd by the Land and shall the guilty persons murmur at that which they caus'd at an Evil which they have encouraged and procured 2. Whether you your selves are not like this debased Coin this reprobate Silver this refuse Money which is now rejected How little good and how much bad would there be found if now you are brought to the Ballance Let me only put the Question to your Hearts in reference to the pretences of your present Murmuring 1. You murmur that the badness and deficiency of the Coin hath hindred your Trade and stopt the success of the War upon this some fly out into extravagant expressions which I list not to repeat Now I beseech you consider whether the greater corruption of your lives hath not more hindred the progress of the Gospel and the desired deliverance Is not the Gospel of more concern than your Trade and the interest of Christ in the Land than your private interest and yet this is that which you have hindred You are degenerated and debased become as the Prophet saith Brass Tin Iron and Lead Brass for Impudence in Sin Tin for Hypocrisie Iron for inflexibleness Lead for stupidity and hath not this more hindred the work of God in the Land than the bad Money hath hindred your work You your selves have been the Achans that have troubled our Israel It was not the want or the badness of the Coin that hindred the success against the Enemy so much as the abounding of sin in the Land Oh that my People had hearkned unto me and Israel had walked in my ways I should soon have subdued their Enemies and turned my hand against their Adversaries Psal 81.13 14. Or 2. You murmur that there are delays in amending and restoring the Coin that some attempts have fail'd and many disappointments are met with that were not expected But ought you not to consider how many more apparent miscarriages there have been of the attempts to reform you Here have been delays as to the Coin but you see something is done a great deal of new Money is come abroad but what hath yet been done amongst you though some attempts as to the Money have miscarried yet others do succeed but all the several methods to reform you have in great part failed Such exceeding difficulties do they meet with who have attempted a greater purity in Church and State that they are ready to give it over as a hopeless undertaking So refractory have Sinners prov'd and averse to Reformation that there is need of all fitting Arguments to persuade those whose work it is to overcome the discouragements they have met with and to set about it in good earnest which brings us to another Use Vse 3. By way of Address and humble Application to them who have been the Restorers of our Coin that they may become healers of our breaches and restorers of paths to dwell in I doubt not when the heat of Mens passions is a little over the whole Nation will thankfully acknowledge your Wisdom and Care in the late Regulation of the Money and the more serious part of it will especially take notice of your delivering us from so great a Snare as was the customary putting off bad Money to one another almost at last without Reluctancy Now it hath been prov'd that our Land is become by sin like corrupted and debased Coin and that the Reformation of it is Gods Work who useth what instruments he pleaseth And Oh that it might please him to put it into your hearts to do as much for the interest of his Church as you have done for the interest of the Nation that