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	pray_v	prayer_n	7,073	5	6.7309	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85208	The sacrifice of the faithfull. Or, A treatise shevving the nature, property, and efficacy of zealous prayer; together with some motives to prayer, and helps against discouragements in prayer. To which is added seven profitable sermons. 1. The misery of the Creature by the sinne of man, on Rom. 8. 22. 2. The Christians imitation of Christ, on Ioh. 2. 6. 3. The enmity of the wicked to the light of the Gospel, on John 3. 20. 4. Gods impartiality, on Esay 42. 24. 5. The great dignity of the saints, on Heb. 11. 28. 6. The time of Gods grace is limited, on Gen. 6. 3. 7. A sermon for spirituall mortification, on Col. 3. 5. / By William Fenner, minister of the Gospel Fellow of Pembrok Hall in Cambridge, and lecturer of Rochford in Essex.	Fenner, William, 1600-1640.; Stafford, John, fl. 1658, engraver.	1649 (1649)	Wing F699; Thomason E1241_1; ESTC R210449	136,683	333

1. as if he should say those that are in Christ God doth not condemne them they have not that condemnation nay their owne conscience doth not condemn them so that that man whom any condemnation either from God or from his owne conscience condemnes that man is not in Christ being not in Christ he can never be heard Indeede a mans conscience may be misinformed by Satan under a temptation as you may see in the verse before my text Thou hast heard my voyce stop not thine eare from my cry Here the Church being examined their consciences told them they were heard in their pra●ers but being under a temptation their consciences were afraide that God heard not So many a poore soule examine it and it cannot deny but that these and these tokens of grace and fruites of Gods Spirit are in it yet their consciences are afraide that the Lord will not give them these and these other graces that they want that the Lord will not heare them for such and such blessings I meane not neither a truce of conscience for there may be a truce of conscience in wicked men A truce may be betweene mortall enemies but no peace but amongst freinds Wicked mens consciences are like the Lion 1. Kings 13. who when he had killed the Prophet stood by the Corps and by the Asse and did not eate the body nor teare the Asse so a wicked mans conscience it is as the divells band-dogge or roaring Lion till it hath slaine the sinner it stands stone-still and seemes neither to meddle or make with him but lies as seared or dead in him I meane not this conscience But when God hath sprinkled the conscience with the bloud of Christ and made the conscience pure this is a signe that God heares his praier I meane not the stammering of conscience when it is dazelled or overwhelmed but when it speaks down right as it meanes A godly mans conscience sometimes may judge otherwise then the thing is But examine what thy conscience tells thee in sober sadnesse deliberately convincingly and then know that the Lord tels thee If thy conscience saies peremptorily that thy heart and waies are rotten and unsound then know that the Lord tells thee so and that the Lord sayeth so to thy soule Fifthly the getting of that grace that a man prayes for is a signe that God heares his praiers But this is not a true signe alwaies but with distinction When the grace given and the good will of God the giver cannot be severed then it is a true signe But when the gift and the good will of the giver may be severed then it is not a true signe Thou maiest pray unto God and God may give thee many temporall blessings and many common graces of his Spirit God may give thee good parts a good memory he may give thee a good measure of knowledge and understanding even in divers things he may give thee some kinde of humility chastity civility thou maiest be of a loving and flexible disposition so he may give thee a good estate in the world houses lands wife and children c. God may give thee all these and yet hate thee and never heare one praier thou makest thou maist pray for a thousand blessings and have them and yet never be heard so long as the good will of the giver is severed from them all outward blessings and common graces may be severed from Gods good pleasure to a man Therefore in temporall blessings or in common graces if thou wouldst know whether God heare thee or no know whether God hath given thee a sanctified use of them or no. If God hath given thee many common graces or temporall blessings and a heart to use them to his Glory then every blessing thou hast there is not a droppe of drinke nor a bit of bread that thou hast but it is a signe of Gods everlasting love to thee Why because this and the good will of the giver can never be severed But on the contrary if a man have not a sanctified use of that he hath then it is the greatest severity of God and the most eminent plague and curse of God upon the soule to give it for a mans parts may be his b●ne his civility may be his curse and meanes of the finall hardnesse and impenitencie of his heart Sixthly faith if a man have faith given him to beleive it is a signe that God heares him be it to thee saith Christ to the man in the Gospell according to thy faith so goe thou to God and be it to thee as thou beleevest Dost thou pray for grace according as thou beleevest so shalt thou receive I have no signe that God will heare me Object I have so many corruptions of my heart against me and so many threatnings of Gods frownes against me I have no signe that God will heare me Wouldst thou have a signe An evill and Answ an adulterous generation seeketh a signe this is a tempting faith to seeke for signes to believe Thomas said Christ Joh. 20. 29. because thou hast seen me thou hast believed blessed are they that have not seene and yet believe That man that believes bacause he feels griefe in his heart teares in his eyes groans in his spirit because he prayes long and earnestly and sweats in his praier or mourns in his humiliation I suspect his humiliation his teares his griefe his praiers and all that he hath Why these are good signes of faith but rotten grounds of faith the Word and promise of God must be thy ground But against this the soul may object That every Promise runnes with a Condition Object and therefore if I have not the condition how can I beleeve the promise God hath promised Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousnesse for they shall be satisfied There is a Promise of filling but it is with a condition of hungering Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God c. If I have not the Condition annexed to the Promise how dare or how can I believe the Promise The Condition is not the way to get the Answ Promise the Promise is the ground of faith and the way to get the condition because the promise is the Motive cause that moves the soule to get the condition Now the Mover must be before the Moved then if beliefe of the Promise move thy soule to get the condition of the promise then beliefe of the promise must be before that the soule can keepe the condition of the promise Saul made a promise to David 1 Sam. 18. that he should be his sonne in law in one of his two daughters upon condition that he should give him an hundred foreskins of the Philistims Now David did first believe the promise and thereby he was allured to fight valiantly to keepe the condition to get a hundred fore-skins of the Philistims So Psal 116.

against earthlines and worldlines and art earthly and worldly still thou hast praied against security and deadnes of heart and lukewarmenesse in Gods service and art lukewarm dead hearted and secure still to what end are all thy praiers when thou enjoyest not the end of thy praiers to what end is plowing of thy ground if it be not fallow when thy plowing is done to what end is the worke of thy servant if thy businesse be not done and dispatched when all is done As good never pray as pray to no end as good that thou never hadst begun to pray as to cease and to give over thy praiers before thou hast obtained the grace thou prayest for The prayers of the wicked are an abomination unto the Lord but the prayer of the upright is his delight Prov. 15. 8. that is the praiers of a wicked man that continues in his wickednesse when his praiers are done his praiers are an abomination to the Lord but the praiers of the upright though he were before he praied never so wicked yet if it be the praier of an upright and godly man when his praiers are done that his praiers rid him of his sin and make him an upright man his praiers are Gods delight Beloved many pray against distrust in Gods providence Infidelity in Gods promises Impatiency under Gods corrections c. and yet have never the more trust and affiance in God never the more patience under the hand of God all these praiers are endlesse Secondly thy praiers are fruitlesse to what purpose is a beggers begging of an almes if he be gone before the almes be bestowed his begging is fruitlesse so all thy praiers are lost if thou art gone from the Throne of grace before grace is given thee for if such a praier be endlesse then is it also fruitlesse it will never do thee any good what is a fruitlesse tree good for but to be cut down what is a fruitlesse Vine good for but to be burned So all thy praiers are lost all thy beginnings of grace are lost we know saith the man that was borne blind John 9. that God heareth not sinners we know it Why may some say how do you know that God heares not sinners why we know it by ezperience by examples A drunkard prayeth to God to cure him of his drunkennes yet he doth not leave his ill company all the world may see that God hears not the drunkards praier because he cures him not but lets him go on in his sin and so for all other sins seest thou a man goe on in his sinnes thou mayest see that God heareth not his praiers if a man should be sicke on his death bed and send for the Physicians and Apothecaries in the Country and send for his Father Mother and for all his friends to come to him to minister to him yet I know he is not cured by them so long as I see his deadly disease remaines upon him so if I see a mans pride hypocrisie security deadnesse of heart his lust anger c. lie upon him notwithstanding all his praiers I know God heares not his praiers he prayes to be cleansed from his sinnes and to be purged from his lust and to be redeemed from his vaine conversation if now God let his sinnes continue in him and lets him goe on in them we see plainely God heares not him O what a pittifull and miserable case are such men in that pray and pray and yet all their praiers are endlesse and fruitlesse is not that man in a pittifull case that all physick all cost and charges is lost upon him when his eating and drinking his sleeping and winding and turning from this side to that side do him no good do we not say of him that he is dead man so if a mans praiers and supplications to God be endlesse and fruitlesse that man must needs be a dead and a damned man so long as he goeth on in that case Now we come to the second part of the Text the sensiblenesse of the godly soule whether it speed or no the soule that praies aright that praies unsatiably it is able to say the Lord doth heare me the Lord doth grant me the thing that I praied to him for Thus saith Jonah I cried unto the Lord and he heard me out of the belly of Hell cryed I and thou heardst my voice Jonah 2. 2. How could Jonah say God heard his voice if he had not known it therefore he knew it But against this some may object How can this be how can the soule Obje●●● know that God heares it we have no Angels nor voices from Heaven now to tell men as the Angel told Cornelius that his praiers were accepted and come up before God or to say as Christ to the woman in the Gospell Be of good comfort thy sins are forgiven thee I know God heares me with his All-hearing eare and therefore I have a good beliefe in God but how shall I know that God heares my praiers in mercy so as to grant that I pray for There be fixe wayes to know whether Answ the soule shall speed in prayer yea or no. The first is the having of a Spirit of further and further praying When God gives the soule a further and further ability to pray when God opens a way for the soule to the Throne of grace and gives him a free accesse to the gate of mercy and a spirit to hold out in prayer It is a signe that God meanes to hear it When a Petitioner hath accesse to the King and presents his Petition If the King imbolden him in his speech and let him speak all that he would speak it is a signe that the King meanes to grant that man his petition because otherwise the King would never have endured to have heard him so long but would have commanded him to be gone So it is with the soule at the Throne of grace if it come with a petition and prayer to God if God dispatch the soule out of his presence so that the soul hath no heart to pray nor to continue its suite but praies deadly and dully and is glad when he hath said his prayers and hath done it is a fearefull signe that God never means to heare that mans prayers but if thou praiest and praiest and hast not done in thy praiers but God by casting in a spirit of prayer and zeale and fervency in prayer imboldens thy heart in its petitions it is a signe that God will heare thee and grant thee thy prayers Blessed be God saith the Prophet that hath not turned away my prayer nor his mercy from me How could the Prophet say that the Lord did not turne away his mercy from him How because he turned not away his prayer from him Many Expositors expound it of not turning away his prayer from his heart as if he should say Lord thou continuest my heart to pray thou hast not taken away my

Hosea 12. 3. Thou canst never prevaile with God by thy prayers unlesse thou puttest forth all thy strength in praier If Jacob had reasoned I am but dust and ashes how can I strive with God I am sinfull and evill how can I contend with my Maker and so have beene discouraged in his wrastling he could not have used all his strength with God and so had never prevailed with God No Jacob he gathers all the arguments that he could make he gathers together all the promises he could finde in Gods Book or that he could heare off he displaies all the wants that he could shew he petitions all the graces that he could name he used all his strength and by his strength he had power with God If thy confession of thy sins be strengthlesse if thy petitions and thankesgiving for grace be strengthlesse if thou use not all thy strength in prayer thou canst never prevaile nor have any power with God For how can that man prevaile and have power with God that hath no power with himselfe Thirdly thou canst never pray and have a fearefull apprehension of evill in prayer thou canst not It is good to have a deepe apprehension of thy sinnes apprehend them to be as many hells as thou canst thou canst never apprehend them deeply enough but if thou hast a fearefull apprehension of them thou canst never pray When the Apostle would exhort the Philipians to continue in one Spirit and in one minde fighting together through the faith of the Gospell he exhorts them that in nothing they feare Phil. 1. 27 28. For if a man be terrified with his adversary with the power of his adversary and feares he shall never be able to withstand him but must fall before him through his subtilty that he can never be wary enough for him Alas he can never strive with hope and courage against him So beloved if we have a fearefull and discouraged kinde of apprehension of evill we can never pray so as to prevaile Apprehend thy sinnes to be as hellish and as damnable as thou canst Feele even the fire of hell in every one of them but take heed of a fearefull apprehension of them so to apprehend the evill of them as to thinke with thy selfe that because thou art guilty of these and these sinnes that thou shalt never get in with God again God will never be reconciled to thee these will eate out thine heart in prayer Fourthly we can never pray if we have any secret dispaire that there is any difficulty too hard for us to grapple withall or to get through in our prayers Howsoever a man prayes yet if he have any spice of these feares in him to thinke now I have taken a great deale of paines but am never the better I have prayed and prayed but have got no good I may goe on and doe thus and thus but shall never prevaile or speed all my labours all my prayers and indeavours will be lost this takes away the very spirit and life of a mans prayers Judas after he had betrayed the Lord Jesus he was discouraged from ever praying for mercy Why because he thought it was impossible for him to get it I have betrayed innocent blood saith he Matth. 27. as if he should say I shall never out-wrastle this sinne this sinne is my death I have brought the blood of the Sonne of God on me I shall never claw off this sinne now Judas thus despayring we never read one letter of any prayer that he made to God to get out of it no he thought it too hard for him to get mercy Despaire drives a man from that he did hope for because now he thinkes there is an impossibility in getting of it Beloved mistake me not there is a double desperation First there is a desperation of infidelity and that deads and drawes the soule from God Secondly there is a desperation of extremity And if ever you meane to come to God and to get any grace from God you must come with desperation of extremity desperation puts life into a mans prayers and indeavours As a Souldier when he seeth nothing but to kill or be killed that he sees his state desperate why this will compell a very coward to fight this will make a coward fight as if he would kill the Devill saith the Proverb it will make him fight like a spirit he will be afraid of nothing Take a Souldier that fights desperately for his life with a kill or be killed he feares nothing neither Pike nor Sword nor Gun why he fights for his life Therefore one notes that sometimes it is the nearest way to victory to be desperate in attempts and in fight Therefore when William the Conquerour came first into England at Hasting he sent back his Ships againe that so the Souldiers might have no hope of saving themselves by flying back And so at Battle at one encounter a little Army of the English slew a great Army of the French Why they grew desperate So could men pray desperately could they pray with a pray or be damned beg with a begge or be damned seeke to God for grace that you want with a speed or be damned then would their prayers be more earnest and powerfull to get grace O did men pray thus they would pray otherwise then they doe Men pray but they pray deadly coldly and lazily as if they had no need of prayer or as if they had no need of the grace they pray for they pray for grace but get it not they pray for zeale but have it not for repentance and holinesse but obtaine it not Beloved either get zeale and holinesse or else there is no mercy either get grace and repentance or else there is no mercy for thee Pray then when thou prayest for grace with a speede or be damned say unto thy soule either we must speede and get grace Soule or else we must goe to hell If men would pray thus with a speede or be damned we should never see nor God should never heare so many cold and dead praiers as now we pray Despaire makes a man a Munke saith the Papist but this despayre makes a man a good Christian I say never doth a man pray indeede till he feels himselfe in extremity hopeles and desperate in regard of himselfe so that he seeth no remedie at all but get Christ get grace or be damned for ever Get power and strength over these corruptions otherwise they will destroy and damne thee this would make a man pray for life Men pray coldly and faintly why because though they see they have no grace no zeale no holines no repentance no evidence of Christ yet they hope to be saved notwithstanding O beloved the divell hath blinded these men to the intent they may be damned But if men would pray desperate praiers with a pray or be damned seeke with a finde or be damned men would then pray other praiers then they doe Such

ambitious and carnall thy passions are not christian Christ hath given a law to thy life that thy life may be holy therefore if thy life be not according to the Gospell of Christ thy life is not christian neither will Christ owne thee for his but will slay thee with curses as an enemy of his crosse and not as a follower of his death these mine enemies that will not that I should reigne over them saith Christ Luke 19. 27. Bring them hither and slay them before me Thou canst not looke for a Saviour to have mercy on thee if thou wilt not be ruled as a Disciple of Christ but thou shalt be damned in the presence of Christ Slay them before me saith Christ Christ Jesus which is the Saviour of the world will damme thee and see thee confounded before his face he himselfe will see thee in hell thou mayest cry for mercy and for the bloud of Christ yet if thou wilt not live as Christ lived but wilt rebell and sin against Christ Christ will see thee in hell and though he looke on thee yet he will destroy thee without mercy If ever thou beest in Christ thou must walke as Christ walked thou must be a Christian like to that good Martyr who to all demands answered that he was a Christian When they asked him what his name was he answered it was Christian his thoughts were Christian his words and actions Christian his countrey his hopes his aime all that ever he did they could get nothing out of him but all was Christian and so he gave testimony to the Lord Jesus So I tell thee thou must be a Christian all over a Christian in thy thoughts in thy words a Christian in thy calling and in all thy imployments being swayed by the Gospell of Christ or else thou art not in Christ The third reason is taken from the essentiall Reas 3 or rather from the integrall union that is between Christ and all these that are in Christ they are all members of his most gracious body Ye are the body of Christ and members in particular 1 Cor. 12. 27. now we know that all the members have the same life and are quickened by the same soule the soule is whole in the whole body and whole in every member of the body so if Christ be our head we are his members and the christian life of Christ must be diffused thorough us so that one man cannot be a drunkard another a worldling another an Epicure another a swearer another a whoremaster another a lyar another a lukewarmeling another a mocker another a vaine Jester another a man-pleaser and yet be a member of Christ All the members of Christ must have one life As in a mans body there be veines arteries and nerves that are the channells to convey life and motion and sence to every member that all the members may have the same life dispersed through the body So it is in the body of Christ every member of Christ hath fayth for his veines to convey the same life and the same spirits and the same gratious motions to all the body that it is not now the member that lives but Christ that lives in it Gal. 2. I live not saith the Apostle but Christ liveth in me As in the body it is not the eye that seeth if we speake properly but the man that seeth with the eye so it is not the knife that cuts but the man that cuts with the knife it is not the eare that heareth but the man that heareth with the eare so in the body of Christ it is no more the man that speaketh but the truth of Christ speaking in him We have the minde of Christ saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 2. 16. if we be in Christ Christ thinks in us Christ speaks in us Christ walkes in us Christ doth all in us As in the same body the soule rules and quickens every member The body of Christ cannot be a monster like those Locusts spoken off Revel 9. 7. that had shapes like horses heads as it were like Crownes of gold and their faces like the faces of a man and had haire like women and teeth like Lyons this is a monster and not a simple body such a one cannot the body of Christ be a mocker for one member an ignorant sot for another an hypocrite for another a carnall gospeller for another a covetous worldling for another As in the body of a man every member in this mans body must be this mans member and not the member of another man As for example Peter must have Peters legs and not Simon Magus his legs Peter must have Peters eyes and not Alexanders eyes Peter must have Peters hands and not Judas hands you cannot take the eye of an Horse the leg of a Dog and the paw of a Beare and put them together and say here 's a man no this would be a monster every perfect body must have its own members So it is in the body of Christ every member in Christ his Body must have Christ his Members every member in a mans body acts with reason so every member of Christ acts with direction of Christ it is informed by Christ his minde is quickned by Christ his life so that a man cannot be a member of Christ but he must walke as Christ walked I know the best Christian may fall seven times a day though he be in Christ it doth not therefore follow that every particular action savours of Christ but as every member in the body lives the life of the whole body or else it is a dead member so thou must live the life of Christ or else thou canst never be saved You know that all the actions of a man are guided by reason yet there are some particular actions that he doth and not by reason as it may be he shakes his head or moves his hand and jogs his foote and considers not what he doth they are the actions of a reasonable man though not reasonable actions so there may be many actions that are the actions of Christians though not Christian actions The sinnes of the godly they are the actions of a Christian but they are not Christian actions there may be stoppings in the body though the same life and quickening runnes through the whole body yet through the stopping of the liver and the pipes distempers and ill humours may be raised in the body so it may be in the body of Christ and so many a Christian may fall through infirmity but the course of a Christian the life of a Christian the ordinary trade of a Christian the walke of a Christian is to live with the same spirit that lived in Christ to walke in the same way that Christ walked in The last reason is taken from the neere Reas 4 relation that is to be betweene Christ and every member of Christ They are not onely the Servants and Disciples of Christ but they are the