Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	contrite_a	humble_a	revive_v	5,567	5	11.6295	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71233	Publick sorrovv A remedy for Englands malady. Being an explanation of the fourteenth verse of the first chapter of the prophet Joel. By Ellis Weycoe, M.A.	Weycoe, Ellis.	1657 (1657)	Wing W1524; ESTC R221984	81,520	112

speed accordingly for their cold Prayers bring but cold successe And this is true not onely of the wicked but even of the godly Psal 32.3.4.5 David roared and cryed but was never the better till he confessed his sin and was inwardly grieved for the same and then both sin and punishment were removed at once Therefore let us strive with the Lord in our Prayers and Supplications labouring for this fighing and crying this inward sorrow which is so needfull that doing as this people did in the time of Famine we may speed as they did in this time of our calamity For thus saith he that is high and excellent he that inhabiteth eternity Isa 57.15 whose name is the Holy one I dwell with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to give life to them that are of a contrite heart And the longer we wayt and cry the greater measure of comfort we shall have and the longer it shall tarry with us And therefore since servency in Prayer is so requisite let us not onely Pray but Cry Cry unto the Lord. And for our comforts we shall find God as ready to heare as we are to cry and if we send up our Petitions unto him with sighs and groans he will send down speedy and comfortable help unto us and we shall be sure of good successe even above that we can ask or think As it is in the Lamentations Lamt 3.5 c. Thou hast heard my Voyce thou drewest neer in the day that I called upon thee Whether we desire the suppression of our enemies or subduing of our own corruptions or whatsoever else we shall be sure to speed well God will draw neer unto us by his mercifull presence and with gracious deliverance if we draw neer unto him in our miseries and afflictions So saith our Saviour Mat. 7.8 Whosoever asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened Let us then knocke at Gods presence Chamber-doore and though we be never so mean never so contemptible we shall have no repulse For he will fulfill the desires of those that feare him he will also heare their cry their sins though never so many in number or grosse in nature cannot hinder Gods favour Witnesse the Israelites who lived many years without the true God 2 Chron. 13. yet whosoever returned in his misery and sought God he was found of him Another example of Gods goodnesse in this regard we have in Jonah who though for his Rebellion he was cast into the Sea yet God heard him out of the belly of the fish and set him upon the dry land again A third shall be that notorious Theefe who had spent all his life in the Devils service yet no sooner cryes Lord remember me Luke 22.42.43 but Christ not once casting him in the teeth with his sins gives him this good and quick and comfortable dispatch To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise The last for this shall be Manasses who had been a most weefull and miserable sinner 2 Chron. 33. yet When he cryed to the Lord in his distresse he heard him set him free and restored him to his Kingdome Here then is comfort for every distressed soule let us but call upon the name of our God and then help and comfort is at hand for God is neer to all that call upon him in truth though it be not with such strength of Faith as we should yet if we seek him he will be found of us and he limits us not to time conditions or things but we may look for help at all times in all straits and in all things and when we have most need then we shall be sure of the best help But now if we would be certain of this comsort we must observe these three Rules Job 11.14 First We must put all wickednesse out of our hearts and out of our hands we must humble our selves and turn from our wicked wayes we must remove our sins and then God will remove our crosses James 4.8 So Saint James exhorts Purge your hands ye sinners and purifie your hearts ye double minded And this is it we must doe if we will have God to draw neer unto us for God will not dwell in an heart defiled with sin he will turn both eyes and ears from us if we continue in our evill wayes because that when our Tongues cry for mercy then our Sins cry for vengeance and though we cannot come to him without iniquity yet we may come to him without the love and liking of iniquity we may come with shame and sorrow for our iniquity and then our sins neither hinder our Prayers nor stop or keep back Gods favour from us Secondly We must seek God according to all his means as we find in the Canticles Cant. 3.1.2 c. Who when the Church had lost Christ that is the feeling of his love and the sense of that Communion which formerly she had with him she then useth all private and publick means and at length commeth to conserence with Gods servants which few will doe till they be driven to it of necessity and then having wayted a while she finds him whom her soule loveth The same must be our practice if one medicine will not serve the turn use another Pray Fast Meditate Confer and then at last the Lord will be found in mercy but as we are slack in using any of the means so shall we fayle in our comfortable expectation of favour from God Thirdly We must use the means diligently and in good earnest for if we have a base account of Gods mercies its just that we should goe without them James 5.16 The Prayer of the righteous avayleth much but upon this condition Psal 72.12 if it be fervent God delivereth the poor when he cryeth but if they would have hearing there must be crying God poures forth Floods of grace but upon whom The Prophet tells us Isay 44.3 Onely on the thirsty ground God filleth the hungry with good things but they must be hungry they must be such as feel themselves pincht and starved with spirituall famine Luke 1.53 Christ was sent to Preach the acceptable yeare but not to the mighty and States of the world To whom then even to Prisoners and Captives that is to such as could grieve and mourn for their Captivity Hence is it that a number reade and heare and pray and yet prevaile not because they doe it so drowsily and carelesly the Lord desers to help them because they are not fit for help because they doe not strive and wrastle in their Prayers Let us therefore use all the means with constancy and carefulnesse and then we shall obtain our hearts desire even above that we can ask or think for if we would not have God to shut his ears to our Prayers we must not

that are his he corrects but for a time but his anger never asswageth towards the reprobate though for a long time he deferre And therefore grudge not to see the wicked flourish like a green Bay-tree for a time passe but by a little and upon your return his place will not be found for God holds not the wicked innocent But for you though you be afflicted here you shall be comforted hereafter for through many afflictions we must enter into the Kingdome of Heaven This is the Kings high-way to happinesse and there is not a Saint in Heaven but hath led this way and beaten this path before us For Stones cannot be squared for Pallaceworke without the stroke of the Hammar and we must be content to endure the stroaks of Gods Hammar of afflictions that we may be polished and squared and made lively Stones fit to be layd in the Heavenly Jerusalem What matters it then to see Dives here flant it in Purple and fare deliciously every day when at last he must be tormented in flames while hunger-starved Lazarus though afflicted here yet his comfort is hereafter and is transported from the Porch of a Tyrant to the Bosome of Abraham Besides though God useth many wayes to bring us home unto him yet none more then affliction It was Hunger that drove the Prodigall home to his Father And surely nothing so opens the Eyes of the soule as misery and trouble O how correction opens those Eyes which prosperity kept shut O how often doth the paining of the Body work the saving of the Soule O how often doe missortunes like the Rungs in Jacobs Ladder serve to mount out soules up to Heaven Let God then wound us so he will but heale us let him strik our Bodies with sicknesse with sores with restraint so he will but with these wounds heale out Soules Let come what will come so it but chase us to God drive us home to his House end in Prayer and make us cry unto the Lord. 10. But still the afflicted soule goeth on and sayeth Though God tell us that he holds not the wicked iunocent and will not surely cleare them but ordains them for judgement and reserves them for correction yet we dayly see that they doe not onely flourish here in this world but goe to their graves in peace and are not to any outward appearance in trouble like other men Well saith God in the tenth or last place Say they doe yet will I meet with them in their Children and punish their sins in their posterity Visiting the iniquities of the Fathers upon the Children and upon their Childrens Children unto the third and fourth Generation they shall be sure to tast of the bitter Cup of Gods wrath here as their Fathers doe in Hell Thus if this name of God in these ten severall properties were but rightly understood and applyed were it but as oyntment poured out and spread upon our hearts there is nothing in distresse nothing in trouble nothing in misery could hinder us from crying to the Lord considering he is strong mereifull gracious abundant in goodnesse and truth and forgiving iniquity transgression and sin c. But without any further enlargement upon these proparties in their severall particulars I will onely clap them altogether and make Application and so hasten you again to the House of Mourning to cry unto the Lord. Is the Lord thus strong and mercifull and gracious c. then why should a Christian trouble himselfe at any thing that befals him here Hath he crafty enemies let him goe cry to the Lord for direction his wisedome is infinitely beyond their policy Hath he strong enemies let him goe cry to the Lord he is mightier and stronger then they all In a word hath he any outward affliction or inward corruption that doth annoy or trouble him let him goe cry to the Lord and have recourse to his God and there he shall find remedy for all nay whatsoever mans ease be if he hut seek the Lord he shall have help Psal 145.18.19 So sayes that Princely Prophet God is neer to all that call upon him yea to all that call upon him in truth He will fulfill the desire of them that feare him he also will heare their cry and will save them And though their hearts be so oppressed that they can utter no words that 's no matter God will have respect to their very desires and surely their teares speak highest and their sighs cry loudest in the Ears of God Let us then groane for a broken heart and sigh and fob and weep and cry Cry unto the Lord. Thus having done with this peoples behaviour in the time of Famine and likewise with the Remedy they used they east their burthen upon the Lord as also with the Motives inducing them thereunto because he is able being the Lord and willing because their God Let us now close up all in our mourning garments and robing our soules with the inward sackcloth of sorrow not onely Pray but Weep nor Weep alone but Cry Cry unto the Lord. From whence the Point is this They who would not have God to shut his eares against their Prayers must be sure that they not onely Pray but Cry and that their Petitions proceed from a broken heart and an humble spirit For till the heart be even pulled in pieces by godly sorrow and rent in sunder with godly griefe sin and lust will not out and then there can be no acceptance looked for from God either of us or of our services The sacrifice of God saith David Psal 51.17 is a sorrowfull spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Mar. 7.35 And therefore did Christ groane in his Spirit when he Prayed for that poor man in the Gospel So did Hannah sigh and weep sore 1 Sam. 1.15 and poured out her soule before God And there is good reason to move us to labour thus to be inwardly touched for till we have a sense and feeling of our wants we may well speak but we can never Pray till the heart be pained with sin its impossible it should be fervent for the pardon of it He that hath no feeling of poverty cannot earnestly intreat for a supply of his necessities He that hath no feeling of his sicknesse can never be an instant suiter for the means of health So he that hath no feeling of his spirituall poverty can never covetously hunt after those true treasures which onely enrich his soule to all eternity And he that hath no sense of his sin-sick soule can never seek to that true Physitian who onely can apply Physicke to his bleeding heart and sin-sick burthened soule This serves for the reproofe of those that come with drowsie verball Prayers those that come with words of course to intreat God to pardon their sins and strengthen their Faith but never poure out their soules before God but onely spend a little breath and they