Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	faith_n	lord_n	soul_n	7,621	5	5.0274	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23655	A word to the army, touching their sin and dutie if it may bee, to convince them of the greatness of the one, and their defectiveness in the other : with a word of advice in the conclusion, humbly tendred to them, in order to their recovery to that path of unfeigned repentance / by William Allen, late Adjutant-general to the Army in Ireland ...	Allen, William, Adjutant-general of the army in Ireland.	1660 (1660)	Wing A1053; ESTC R20056	16,036	22

furiously driven off it than fairly quitting it so that upon the whole this looks very unlike a peece of repentance in you the chief Officers but if any have a share more than others in this service it is the inferiour ranks of men in the Army who sinned not after the similitude of the chief Officers transgression in setting him up though some were drawn and others driven by them to sacrifice to him in those wretched addresses when up but were much more willingly helpful and truly joyful in throwing him down But fifthly You say you acknowledged your evils to the late Parliament when you brought them to sit again Answer You did very generally and cursorily mention some of your wandrings but how few of these many particulars aforementioned with many more of like kinde chargeable upon you is observable and the more so because when any comes to speak with you particularly they usually meet with that common question much in use amongst that poor people in Malachies time saying Wherein have wee done so evil And though demonstrations are clear now as they were then yet it is as hard to convince you as it was them and therefore that I might if the will of the Lord were a little help you in this main point of Repentance upon the truth of which and your being renewed depends so much in this case I therefore would a little treat you on this subject Repentance when in truth I take doth consist in these following particulars viz. 1 Conviction 2 Humiliation 3 Confession And 4 Forsaking sin confessed and would intreat you seriously to consider this first part to wit Conviction and ask your souls this single question which the Lord will one day ask you viz. Have you indeed been convinced that you have wandred out of the way with the causes effects and degrees thereof and sinfulness of your so wandring with respect to some Rule or Rules of the Law by you transgressed herein and what those Rules are as also what is the nature of your sin towards God towards Men towards those without those within those under your charge as also those that have been imprisoned opprest afflicted derided and scorned by you or some of you for their indeavouring to bee faithful to the Lord and his interest in this back-sliding day if you are rightly convinced you will see your sin in these its several aspects for as the Spirit of the Lord convinceth clearly so as no light doth like it so it convinceth very particularly and fully and usually laies the soul convinced under the weight of its sin in its several aggravations as it respects some Rule or Rules transgressed by it and so renders sin exceeding sinful Rom. 7.13 Now have you been so convinced hath that deluge of dishonour brought upon the Name of the Lord those stains blemishes and blasphemies brought upon that blessed cause of God together with that ignominy contempt and cruelty cast upon and exercised towards many of those poor unworthy witnesses to the Lord and his work in this day of declining been with weight upon your hearts yea or no if not sure you are yet very far from thorow convictions 2 As to your Humiliation that alwaies attends true conviction and includes contrition as Zach. 12.10 11 12. Ezek. 7.16 Have you been at this work families apart your wives apart and each soul apart mourning bitterly over your transgressions as an Army if so what means those sleighty extenuating expressions concerning your sin when spoken of as also the silence of you Leaders who have lead in transgression in your daies of seeming solemn mourning before the Lord you either contenting your selves that some amongst you speak largely in your names leaving you to your liberty of assent or dissent which you may possibly think you have in such eases or else otherwise discovering heart-risings against others using plainness amongst you which you brook not so well bee pleased to read Davids practice in such a case a King and Commander not inferiour to any of you 1 Chron. 2.8 And David said unto God I have sinned greatly because I have done this thing And vers 17. Is it not I that commanded this people to bee numbred Even I it is that have sinned and done evil indeed but as for these sheep what have they done let thine hand I pray thee O Lord my God bee on mee and on my Fathers house but not on thy people that they should bee plagued 3 To that of confession which ought to bee particular and publick where evils have been so Lev. 5.5 And it shall bee when bee shall bee guilty in one of these things that hee shall confess that hee hath sinned in that THING Ezra 10.11 Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of your Fathers and do his pleasure and separate your selves from the people of the Land and from the strange wives then all the Congregation answered and said with a loud voice As thou hast said so must wee do but the people are many and it is a time of much rain and wee are not able to stand without neither is this a work of one day or two for wee are many that have transgressed in this thing Act. 26.10 11. Which thing I also did in Jerusalem and many of the Saints did I shut up in prison having received authority from the chief Priests and when they were put to death I gave my voice against them and I punished them oft in every Synagogue and compelled them to blaspheme and being exceedingly mad against them I persecuted them even to strange Cities Where is now this free full publick particular confession of yours James 5.16 Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another that you may bee healed This is the way that God will bee glorified by persons that have so publickly dishonoured him as you have done in your publick actions Ezek. 44.10 And the Levites that went astray When Israel went astray which went astray away from mee after their Idols they shall even bear their iniquities v. 13. They shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed Take heed therefore of consulting with flesh and blood in this case it is a hard lesson for persons in that port and degree in the world that you are in but this is a part of that great lesson of self-denial wherein every cross that lies in the way of duty must bee taken up by you for if you have sinned you must rise out of it in the way of God or bee ruined by it for hee will assuredly distrain for his glory that you will not give him 4 As to your forsaking of sin that must not onely bee forsaking such particular acts of sin which its possible have forsaken you and you are not capable of committing those individual acts again but a departing from all of that kinde yea of every kinde and in this give mee leave once more to ask you what are you

doing herein are you not again instead of forsaking fallen and falling into some of your old steps that yet you would bee deemed to have repented of else why did you not long since come before the Lord in a very solemn day professing you were there like a company of poor children that knew not one step of your way to inquire of the Lord a right way when before your coming there you had resolved of so considerable a part of your way as the conduct of your Army and that not for that time onely as was then your pretence which had been somewhat more tollerable and whether not also of that rare composition since called the Committy of safety you may do well to consider at least whether in any rational mans judgement the constitution of it considered it can bee thought to bee the product of such a solemn daies seeking the Lord for direction and is not your Army thus setled intended to bee influential to the framing your whole fabrick of Government now in the forge and have not some of you already said that if it please not the people it is to bee offered to they must bee pleased whether they will or not and yet pretensions of all freedome to bee used towards all good people yea I have been told by some of you that you intended to do nothing in your Government without advice had with good people from all parts hath that been or is it intended what is this other than the very first step that Oliver Cromwell took and who seeth not that this Army will yet again notwithstanding all its mistakes be supream admit nothing above it or equal to it in all our greatest concerns of life liberty or estate which must needs have this effect to make good men nauciate it or what is to bee done by it as formerly and then those that will follow for the loaves and transgress for a morsel of bread shall again bee admitted in their sphear of subserviency to a competent share in this new gain'd dominion over the lives liberties and estates of such as cannot for conscience sake bow to such an Image when set up and if this bee indeed forsaking sin then I understand it not but this is your way to which if God will condescend to save by you will serve him in but not out of it as I perceive but know this you must come to his waies or bee broken by him and deceive not your selves I beseech you with pretensions of doing good out of the way of it though they may bee as high raised in your imagination as Heaven yet if not laid in deep humiliation for past transgression with thorow abhorring your selves in sense of them as also declining all paths that lead to the like in future they will prove but abortive and like a house built upon the sand that will assuredly fall and great will bee the fall of it and therefore since its most certain you cannot prosper in any work in your hands till the Lord have accomplished this great work of unfeigned repentance upon your hearts consider your waies and see if the Lord hath recovered you to this path of his good pleasure manifest it and bless him for it and if not take heed of pretending to it but rather confess your sin and give glory to the Lord who hath said Hee will indeed bee sanctified by all that draw neer to him and before all the people hee will bee glorified and truly till you are taught to glorifie him in this way of his that leading guiding presence of God in relation to his work in your hands will not bee with you but will certainly and visibly depart from you and oh that I could say it were not already departed as from Saul of old causing you to labour in the fire for vanity and run out of one fire into another which is too visibly your portion at this day and base fears of man for want of a Spirit of Faith as formerly to make the Lord your fear and your dread are upon you causing you to make undue haste many times and the spirit of rage and madness of the Nations rising against you cannot bee kept down by the spirit that yet appears to act you but it grows and gains visibly yea runs upon you teareth and rends you daily and it is onely the Spirit of the Lord that can raise up a standard to give check to such floods and till this Spirit more appears to act you which will first carry you out of your own wisdome strength and every polluted path and make you as poor children not in word onely but in truth to say in the Lord you have all and not elsewhere you are I am perswaded with other poor ones that follow you like to wander in the wilderness and which is most sad without a guide till many if not most of your carkasses fall there or the Lord have purged out the rebels from among you there is but one Name under Heaven that Salvation shall bee had from for Nations as well as Souls the closing with whom in his own way as the wisdome of the word directs to would make you and these Nations also in their publick affairs happy and the contrary makes them miserable this is the foundation other than which what ever any poor deluded flattering Courtiers have formerly prophanely said of any of the projects of mens brains can no man lay nor any Nation or Nations with security by warrant from the word build upon but their buildings will tumble for hee hath said Hee will shake Nations thereby to remove what ever may bee shaken till their desire comes to him who shall alone bear the glory and not man or men with him My poor advice is therefore to you as ever you intend to prosper bee wise yee Rulers Officers and Souldiers kiss the Son not onely as a King and Saviour to your souls but as King of Nations lest hee bee angry and yee perish from the way for if his wrath bee kindled and that but a little onely blessed are they that trust in him And if you desire thus to own him do it by acknowledging him as your Law-giver by your receiving and magnifying that Law hee hath said hee will magnifie and make honourable and casting off the Laws of the Heathen that serve for little else but to lead into labyrinths yea Seek the Lord and wait on him for light and wisdome and consult his Word and see if it bee not able thorowly to furnish to every good work beyond what any Laws of men can do yea this were the way to lay such a Magna Charta as would stand more sure against any alterations than any you can lay both as to our rights as men and Christians which is the great thing in contest and would have a blessed instructing effect upon the administrators as in Joshua 1.8 As also upon them to whom they do administer teaching them the knowledge and fear of the Lord which is so much wanting in these Nations at present when every mans particular interest should lead him to consult the Law of the Lord in which his great interest is so much made known and by beholding the Righteousness of that Law should fall in love with it and into a more frequent delightful meditation upon it which being blest by the Lord might bee instrumental to turn water into wine to the converting of many poor souls that might begin at first but with their own interest besides the civilizing effects as to manners amongst men this Law of the Lord hath a blessed tendency to beget beyond any other Law whatsoever But for you or others that shall go after any other besides or short of him or his righteous Laws truly your sorrows will bee multiplied and you will lye down in them at the last and though you may think you have strengthened your selves in the unitedness of your Army under such a conduct yea much more strengthened your arm of flesh by your new-raised Militia or what else you may imagine remember that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness And you have none of these coverings large enough to keep that from falling heavy upon you to the sudden dissolving of every Covenant with death and Hell and overflowing every hiding-place made up but of the refuge of lies how like to truth soever they may bee These things being of some weight upon my heart I durst not but speak to you though I had arguments enough from a sense of my own unworthiness upon all accounts to have silenced mee as well as my weaknesse for such an undertaking in a service in its own nature usually unacceptable and much more may bee so with you for my sake but I have in this matter consulted duty to the Lord who I have indeavoured to eye in it and secondly to your souls that I would fain see recovered out of such destroying paths I hope you will pass by weakness herein and accept my intention which hath been to serve you the most effectually I could I have not troubled you oft in this kind and for ought I know it may bee the last service of this nature I may ever discharge to you as an Army which if it bee of any use I shall rejoyce if otherwise my soul I hope shall mourn on your behalfs if it may bee to prevent that misery coming on you and all of us with you but that I trust the Lord who knows how to deliver when all other means fails will bee a little Sanctuary to all that in sincerity commit themselves to him desiring to hate every false way for hee hath said it that is able to perform it Upon all the glory there shall bee a defence and when the Enemy shall come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him Which I beleeve hee will yet do for his poor remnant for his holy Names-sake and so do it as to astonish and confound enemies of all sorts greatly discover and shame false-hearted friends take his people off from Idols yea every pleasant picture and cause them to sing to himself alone as the God of their salvations who remembers them in their low estate because his mercy endures for ever FINIS