Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	day_n	lord_n	word_n	7,457	5	4.1658	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95489	The preachers plea or, A short declaration, touching the sad condition of our clergy, in relation to the smalnesse of their maintenance, throughout the kingdome. / By William Typing. Esq;	Tipping, William, 1598-1649.	1646 (1646)	Wing T3566; Thomason E1111_3; ESTC R1965	7,786	36

Edward the sixt very hardly paid and did not the vicinity of of other Churches in this Populous City hold forth some ease and accommodation to supply the want of the deserted Churches aforesaid the Inhabitants there must necessarily have been reduced into as sad a strait as those in the Countrey who through the persecution of these times have lost their Teachers Now if things must stand at this stay what will become of us and where shall wee see the fruit of our Reformation Wee give God good words with our mouthes but if wee acknowledge him our Lord where is his honour Oh that we would sit downe a while and reflect into our selves forget our swelling thoughts and look a little backe to the dayes of our Calamity How did our Pulses beat three yeares since what Prayers and Cries and Teares did wee then send up to heaven in that our low condition and how did we then lift up our hands and hearts to the most high God and sweare and ingage that we would endeavour a Reformation as in Religion so in Discipline and Government also but what Reformation in Religion and Government are we or our Posterities like to joy in if no effectuall care or course should be taken as yet I humbly conceive it is not for the advancement of godlinesse and godly Preachers throughout the Kingdome But we thinks I heare some reply there is no cause of this complaint for the Honourable houses of Parliament have already made provision for augmentation of small livings out of Deane and Chapter Lands and Delinquent Impropriations To this I humbly answer that how plausible soever this provision may seeme at first sight yet I suppose it will stand at a great distance from a full supply For the first of these namely Dean and Chapter Lands These are in part already disposed of another way as for instance in the County of Oxon the Deane and Chapter in Christ-Church is comprehended under the Articles for Oxford And the Deane and Chapter at Westminster and that at Windsor provision is made out of them still as I am credibly informed for divers persons that were setled in those houses and had not slewed any disaffection to the Cause And this being agreeable to common equity and justice I beleeve the same rule is observed in all other such places also So that the Deane and Chapter Lands are not all disposed of at least for the present to the said intended use Besides all this divers Counties there are in the Kingdome which have no Deane and Chapter peculiarly belonging to them and where there are some small Proportions of these Lands lying scattered in severall Counties this is no way considerable to so great a want Now for Impropriations since the benefit that shall arise from them to this use must issue onely from those that are setled in the hands of Delinquents it cannot bee conceived that these should hold forth any great benefit or succour to the Church most of your Impropriations doubtlesse being in the hands of Colledges and Hospitalls or of such persons as are well-affected to the Cause But that which is also a maine obstruction and Remora to this great Worke is let it bee supposed but not granted that these Provisions before specified could possibly raise the maintenance of the Church to some reasonable Competencie yet how shall the Remedy bee applyed how or by what meanes shall it bee transferred to those that want it Will you suffer Malignant Parishes to lye destitute of the meanes of their salvation till they feele their misery and finde hearts to complaine above Or can you imagine that such Parishes as have for this twenty thirty forty yeares together been nusled up under an unpreaching Ministerie will all on a suddaine hunt about from one County to another for Dean and Chapter Lands or make inquisition after Delinquent Impropriations that out of them or either of them they may extract some considerable sustenance for a godly Minister Surely you may as well suppose the Pillars of a Church may hap to walke or that dead bones will stirre or that a man in a swoone will call for a Cordiall as conceive that men of unregenerate hearts and that are alienated from the life of grace through the ignorance that is in them will ever seek out for an able and sufficient Pastor and meanes for his support Leave such poore soules to the unhappy guidance of their owne corrupt hearts and doe nothing for them till themselves complaine and then the Lord have mercy on them Where Vision failes the people must needs perish but what will follow surely it will fall heavie somewhere in the end Oh thinke of this I beseech you I relate to those whom this great busines doth most properly concerne for plainenesse is most becoming in the Cause of God thinke of this whilst the LORD vouchsafes an opportunity in your hands for th eredresse hereof Yee cannot now suffer the Labourers in Christs Vineyard to be meanly provided for upon so cheap tearms as formerly For these things now cry so much lowder in the eares of God by how much your ingagements have been deeper to reform them Alas doe not your hearts yearne and the bowels of your compassions role within you when you living here by an especiall providence under the droppings of heaven under the plentifull Preaching of the Word do understand of the soule-afflictions of your brethren in your respective Counties How would they rejoyce in some places to glean after your Harvest to heare one of those Sermons once in a moneth which you have or might partake of if your leasure would permit every day The Lord direct your spirits that yee may no lesse speedily than carefully provide that due honour and reward bee given to them that labour in the Word and Doctrine and that yee may not expose poore senselesse soules to everlasting ruine by sus-spending your helpe and leaving of them to seek for that which they care not to finde nay which they extreamly decline to wit the means of their salvation but that you would be pleased rather to command the Committees of each Countie to look into the state of the Ministery and to certifie the defects in that particular And for the remedy of this great sicknessein the Land the poverty of the Clergy I think there cannot bee a more effectuall expedient than the buying in of Impropriations I doubt not but every man who hath any thing of Christ in him his hand will bee inlarged and heart inflam'd to so worthy a worke And in truth Free-willl Offerings are the most accepttable Sacrifices to God Where we give what is our owne and costs us something surely is more pleasing to the Almighty then where wee bestow that wherein we have no interest farther forth than as the iniquity of the times doth cast it into our hands though that may come in to help also Adde to this that some comfort and incouragement would arise to the dejected spirits of the poore Clergie in divers parts of the Kingdome if such Vicarages and Parsonages as are exceeding small as fifty pound per annum or under might bee freed in these pinching times from having any Contributions or Quarterings laid upon them And here although it may seeme a digression from the businesse in hand yet I cannot but vent my troubled thoughts for the spirituall bondage and affliction this whole Nation in all the parts thereof groans under in these distempered times for want of that care and conscience should bee had to instruct the ignorant in the maine grounds and principles of Religion Catechising is now growne almost quite out of use amongst us Hence it is so many strange abhorred unheard of opinions have lately sprung up in divers quarters of the Land for mens fancies are busie things and will set themselves on work where they are not wrought on and where the understanding is left like fallow ground until'd and hath no seeds of Gods word cast into it no marvaile if the Divell sow his tares O that the Honourable Houses of Parliament would bee pleased to take this into their deep serious consideration that some Directory for Catechising may speedily bee sent into all Churches of the Kingdome lest in the roome of formality and superstition for the purging out whereof such care is taken Atheisme and palpable prophanenesse creepe not in amongst them I say no more hee that is wise will ponder these things and the man of understanding will lay them to heart FINIS