Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	earth_n	heaven_n	holy_a	7,009	5	4.7805	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52167	The covenant acknowledged by an English Covenanter, and the manifested wants of the common prayer, or divine service, formerly used, thought the fittest for publique worship by one vvhose hearty desires are presented to all the lovers of peace and truth in these nations, and shall be the prayers of a wel-wisher to both, and a very much obliged servant to all the promoters of this just cause, E.M., Mason.	E. M., Mason.	1660 (1660)	Wing M913; ESTC R7635	12,716	22

of Righteousness in the holy Scripture which saith That At what time soever a Sinner doth repent him of his sins from the bottom of his heart I will put away all his wickedness out of my remembrance saith the Lord and likewise When two or three are gathered together in my Name there will I be in the midst of them And humbly may I say and cannot otherwise think but that when so many multitudes of People at the known divine Worship of the immortal God in publick but that there be divers that worship him in Spirit and Truth and do not conceive it an Idol-worship as I have heard Mr. Pernes out of his Pulpit call the Common Prayer-Book an Idol although they knew the words they were to praise God with before they met rather than unpremeditated disgustings remembring the rule of a wise man God is in Heaven and thou art on Earth and also well knowing that The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak Therefore the Confession used in our well-ordered Church that all the Congregation might bear a part in the humble acknowledgment of their many faults meekly kneeling upon their bended knees with holy adorations to the Almighty glory clapping their trembling hands upon their sorrow-smitten breasts humbly begging pardon for our manifold transgressions of him who onely can grant us pardon and hear our petitions and most likely when so many millions of sin-sick humbled souls shall be invocating Heaven with one consent in the same words betwixt the hours of 9. and 12. upon his dayes and places appointed for his publick Worship in the three nations over it is now in our Churches when but one in a Congregation and that what he pleaseth and many times so low that few can hear or learn the matter being changed so often and many times so thin that it slides away unheeded and without an Absolution also of our sins though never more need Nor can I be of Mr. Pernes opinion who directed his Auditors to pray in their Families although their folks laughed at them when so many well-formed prayers are extant for poor Penitents to follow without oftentation or vain Fantasies of their own giddy brain as that Prayer of prayers taught us by the blessed lips of our dear Redeemer wherein all things needful at once are begged in that holy Epitomie which teacheth us how to pray and to whom and by him commanded When you pray say our Father which art in Heaven c. and yet by divers not at all used for what reason I never yet heard nor can I think unless they think it is too mean or too common for their high-gifted Fantasies or would help the Enemy to obliterate it that he might do us more evil Pardon me I pray all you that neglect it for it doth make the common people too too much slight it by such eminent examples Nor would I be herein mistaken as not to like and allow of voluntary prayers which ought to be often seriously practised before publiquely used by devout souls it being the onely remedy for the saddest complaints of any afflicting conscience to make his timely addresses to his offended God for the quieting of his sorrow-troubled soul and was alwayes allowed in our Churches before and after Sermons as I have often heard before these times and now praise be to the highest Lord by divers rarely gifted Divines as the Angel of the Church of St. Dunstans and many others whose heavenly expressing language pours forth the dictates of the holy Spirit filling their Auditors ears with such soul-ravishing meditations as if the Cloven-working power had inflamed their zealous hearts with heavenly firing raptures And it was well with us when such men steer'd the helm of publick Worship that being alwayes most for Gods glory Although private Worship ought to be in great esteem as best pleasing to God which our blessed Saviour doth direct those secret Closet-confessions of a broken and contrite heart with all the sorrow-shaking throws of a distressed soul pouring forth his saddest griefs before the heavenly throne that onely can help in time of greatest need which our old enemy knows is likeliest to prevail with God whose merciful goodness hath said Come unto me all ye that are heavy laden and I will give you rest But the subtile betrayer of our weak performances is apt to suggest his old cunning sophistries into our soondeluded souls as he did our first Mother These meditations in publick amongst the gifted Brotherhood would make thee highly esteemed and accounted wise in letting your inspired new-tinded Lights be seen before religious men for the most tear-melting Hypocrite that is best able to deceive himself and others is the Saint that liketh him best Herod had the applause that It was the voice of a God and not of a man For he by no means would have us take counsel of our most endearing Saviour nor follow his examples who often withdrew himself apart to pray unto his all-guiding God to hold an heavenly conference with his Almighty Father about the great work of our Redemption and he hath also directed us To enter into our Clossets to pray in secret to our heavenly Father where we should unburthen our sin-guilty souls with the grones of his heavenly Spirit no where else so sufficiently to unfold our troubled minds and the distresses of our dejected spirits before a powerful forgiving God who knows the secret thoughts of our deceitful hearts before our tongues or brinish tears unfold our shameful griefs not fit for others ears to hear Nor can such grief-expressing mones be made by a truly Penitents throbbing breast in publick but our old enemy will be distracting our thoughts with his subtile delusions which spoil the meditation of the serious prayers that we poor weaklings can perform in the sight of others The Lord preserve us from his trecheries whose whole work is to deceive us Therefore a known form of publick Worship that all may use is surely requisite For may we not observe by the vile things now done by divers what want there hath been of the due observance of the great commands of the everliving God delivered upon Mount Sinai by the voice of the powerful Master when the Heaven-shaking thunders made the earth to tremble and Jacobs whole posterity to quake to hear what indignations the wilful breakers of these Heaven-given Laws should be punished with yet now for more than 12. years in divers Congregations not read to the people nor observed as our duty binds us whereby our transgressions we may observe are multiplied our great Gods commands too much dishonoured and by many falsly worshipped his Name violently taken in vain by our too too many Oaths and breaches of Covenants and hypocritical Fasts breaking of Sabbaths marching of armed men all dayes alike dishonouring our Magistrates and Parents Murthering our King Priests and Commons odious Adulteries used among us and many false Witnesses for Sequestrations and unneighbourly dealings