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	soul_n	work_n	7,291	5	5.7496	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34544	Self-imployment in secret ... left under the hand-writing of that learned & reverend divine, Mr. John Corbet ...; with a prefatory epistle of Mr. John Howe.	Corbet, John, 1620-1680.; Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1681 (1681)	Wing C6265; ESTC R32518	22,650	98

could live more by Faith in this trying affliction I indeavour to impress upon my Soul those arguments which the Scripture affords for Patience and Long-suffering with joyfulness But this will not do the work unless the Spirit of Faith and Patience be given from him from whom comes down every good and perfect gift I pray I cry to my Father that he would give me the Holy Spirit according to his Gracious promise that I might shew forth the Power of his grace and that I might not dishonour him nor discourage his Children nor reproach Religion by my weakness And in my bearing of it well my Reputation is nothing regarded by me in comparison of the honour of Christ. Him I desire to Gloryfy both in my obedience and patience I do not love God the less because of his correcting hand upon me As my necessities drive me so His Love draws me and my Love brings me to him I look to him as my Father And shall I not honour my Father and give him reverence when I am chastned of him The Lord is my Portion saith my Soul therefore will I hope in him I will wait for the Lord who hideth his face I will look after him He retaineth not his Anger for ever because he delighteth in Mercy Therefore he will turn again and have compassion upon me If he kill me I will put my trust in him for he will not cast me off for ever if I cleave to him with Faith unseigned but even through Death it self will he save me He will bring me forth to the Light and I shall behold his Righteousness When I say what shall I do in case of such or such troublesome or dangerous consequents my heart answers be not careful God will provide I will leave it to him Besides a Natural desire of ease and rest the sense of the temptation which I am liable in this condition makes me importunate to be delivered from it I feellingly know the weakness of my own heart and I am not ignorant of the Devil's malice and subtilty and how he will make the fiercest assaults where I am weakest Whereupon I tremble in my self for fear of being tempted and shaken and greatly amazed And upon this ground respecting my Souls safety I judg an humble and patient importunity with God for the removing or moderating of my distemper to be my Duty Yet to keep me from being over solicitous and anxious in this thing I consider that God doth govern and limit all our temptations and will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able but will with the temptation open a way for us to escape Nevertheless I find that I do much offend by too great a vehemence of desire to be delivered from this grievous burden without due submission also by too much disquietness and dejection when after some expectation of a benefit by that means I perceive that my hope thereof is like to be frustrated The Lord help me to carry it better and as I ought to do and keep my mind in its right frame My business under this Affliction is to be careful about my own part and to leave God's part to his care My part is to do my duty and to get the benefit of the Affliction but to remove it is God's part Let me perform what belongs to me and what belongs to God he will certainly perform in his own time and way The Sum of my duty is Graciously to comply with the dispensation and to behave my self suitably to it and to please and honour God under it Accordingly in this I Labour and in this way I seek for comfort And first I justify God and judg my self God exercises his own holiness and justice in this Castigation His justice and holiness I approve and accept the punishment of mine Iniquity and exercise an hatred of the Sin for which I now smart I will bear the indignation of the Lord because I have sinned against him and I repent with a self-abhorrence And I lye in the dust at his feet and wait on him untill that he have Mercy upon me and I am glad to receive Mercy upon his terms I have fled for refuge to lay hold on the hope that is set before me I do most heartily take God for my portion and I had rather Live the divine Life in Conformity to him and Fellowship with him here in the first-fruits of the Spirit and hereafter in the fulness of Glory than live in the fulness of the delights and Contentments that belong to the Natural Life upon earth in a way of Sin and allienation from the Life of God I do most heartily take Christ according to the offer of the Gospel not only to be justified from my Sins and delivered from the wrath to come by his merits but also to be Sanctified by his Word and Spirit and to be governed by his Laws and to be brought by him unto the aforesaid fellowship with God And my Life and practice in the main Bent and ordinary course thereof is according to this choice in a daily walking not by sight and sense but by faith not after the flesh but after the Spirit in setting my heart not on earthly but on heavenly things I cast off vain desires and hopes and my expectations of good are from God according to the tenor of his promises When I walk in darkness and see no light of outward comfort humane helps and visible means I will trust in the Name of the Lord and stay my self upon my God I strive with my own spirit to subdue it to the will of God And in whatsoever I am tempted to be most impatient therein I labour most for patience My great care is that I may not sin against my God in any kind and more especially that I may not sin by a rebellious impatience under his correcting hand In this present distress I look upon my self as being upon my Tryal and therefore I look more diligently to my behaviour in it Now a price is put into my hand for the proof of my sincerity and I labour accordingly to make good proof of it I am willing to serve God in pain and patience else I were unworthy of so good a Master I am willing to be conformable to Christ in suffering else I were unworthy of him But here I must say again the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak Lord help my unwillingness I am called to deny all the pleasures of sence and to mind them no more and I am heartily willing of it I am called to declare to others by the exercise of Faith and Patience the Righteonsness of the Lord and his tender Mercies and great Faithfulness and that he alone is Alsufficent O that the power of his grace may be thus magnified in me This is the fruit of the Afflictions that I look after And in this will I labour more and more And through the help of Divine

Self-Imployment IN SECRET CONTAINING I. Evidences upon Self-Examination II. Thoughts upon Painful Afflictions III. Memorials for Practice Left under the Hand-Writing of that Learned Reverend Divine Mr. Iohn Corbet Late of CHICHESTER With a Prefatory Epistle of Mr. Iohn Howe LONDON Printed for Thomas Parkhurst at the Bible Three Crowns in Cheapside near Mercers-Chappel 1681 THE PREFACE THE Character of this Holy Servant of Christ is already given by an every-way sutable Hand in what Part it lay open to the Observation of others His more Interiour Portrai●ture which is contained in these Papers was as it could only be drawn by Himself Why it is now exposed to publick view there is no need to be scrupulously careful in giving an Account It must be acknowledg'd there is usually with the Holiest Men a modest shyness of Communicating these privacies of their own Souls Their Inner Man doth shew its own Face with the more difficulty by how much it is more beautiful and worthy to be beheld And so it was with this excellent Person as his Inscriptions upon these Papers shew The State of my Own Soul and Qotes for my Self signifying their intended Use was that of a Mirrour to represent himself to his own Eye not to other Mens Yet this Aversion though great hath not been always Invincible or such as no Reasons to the contrary could oversway What are the Psalms of David and sundry Memoires of Holy Men in Scripture that were remotest from Ostentation and vain Glory but records of the most secret Dispositions and Motions of the hidden man of the Heart made publick for the instruction of their own and succeeding Ages As also the other published Meditations and Soliloquies of some of the greatest Worthies in the Christian Church must be understood to have had the same Pious Design Nor hath a generous Benignity in some Heathens permitted them to Ingross to themselves or envy to the World those pleasant Sensations of their own Minds which they thought might be some way Instructive and Useful to other Men. As that Renowned Philosopher and Emperour is instance that scrupled not to Write and leave behind him for this purpose Twelve Books concerning his own Life The thing cannot be Culpable if the Design be Innocent which will in great part be discernable in the manner of doing it when it is with unaffected simplicity and without studied Disguise As we commend a Picture not so much for its being Specious as that it is like the Face So have good Men in giving Accounts of themselves not spared to put in the Distempers and Disaffections of their Spirits that are as great Blemishes and Deformities as a Wart or Mole on the Face which the faithful Pencil must as curiously Express as the greatest Decencies However if this Publication be Praise-worthy nothing is to be Arrogated to the Author as if it be thought Blameable nothing is to be Derogated For though the Work it self which carries its sufficient Praise with it be owing entirely to him or rather to the Grace of God in him the making it publick is from the advice and desire of some Friends willing to impart what was once most private for a publick Good It is but the Dissection of his Soul less to be regretted by Friends when he is now cut of Sight and much more Useful than that of his lately Pained Body And as Anatomy discovers all the curious Contexture of our Bodily Fabrick Here are ●●ived Representations of Faith Love an Heavenly Mind of Humility Meekness Self-denyal Entire Resignedness to the will of God in their First and Continued Motions with whatever Parts and Principles besides Compose the whole Frame of the New Creature as if we could perceive with our Eyes how the Blood in an Humane Body Circulates through all the Vains and Arteries how the Heart Beats the Spirits Fly to and fro and how each Nerve Tendon Fibre and Muscle perform their several Operations Here it may be seen how an Heart toucht from above Works and Tends thitherward how it depresses it self in Humiliation Dilates it self in Love Exalts it self in Praise Submits it self under Chastenings how it Draws in its Refreshings and Succours as there is need To many who have seen so Steady Uniform and Amiable a Course and Tenour of of Life How grateful is it to behold the secret Motions of those inward latent Principles from whence all proceeded Though Some others would look no further than the Advantages in external Respects that accrue by it As though Some content themselves to know by a Clock the Hour of the Day or partake the beneficial use of some rarer Engine The more curious especially any that design Imitation and to Compose Some like thing would be much more Gratify'd if through some pellucid Inclosure they could behold all the inward Work and observe how every Wheel Spring or Movement perform their several Parts and Offices towards that Common Use. What is here Presented as it may be of great Usefulness to all that seriously design the Christian Life so it hath a special Use for such as design it not and who think there is no such thing It may peculiarly serve to Convince such as are willing to think as Ill as they can of the Calling and Office of the Ministry that there are Some that serve the Lord in that Work who do not Study such Subjects as are here Exemplify'd only to frame Discourses of them wherewith to entertain the People for an Hour but for their own Use and Practice too That do Live the things they Teach And Eat of the Food they prepare for others That are in good earnest and most intent to Save themselves and them that hear them And do really venture their own Souls upon the same Bottom upon which they would perswade their Hearers to venture theirs taking all possible Care Left when they Preach to others they should themselves be Cast-awayes The very Opinion that we Preach only for Forms sake and to keep up the Custom and believe or regard not what we our selves say as well as the thing it self is no small nor perhaps uncommon hinderance to the success of Preaching at this Day It is hard to be serious in Hearing what I think he is not serious in himself who Preaches it If I Apprehend he Trifles 't is a great Temptation to me to do so too You may see this Worthy Man considered the Gospel as a Gospel of Salvation and not only Taught but Used it accordingly How Sollicitous was he to ground Substantially and Strongly his Hope of Eternal Life How warily did he feel his Way and Labour to Understand and Know Practically upon what Terms he might safely appear before his Judge To them who do not so this ought to be taken for a Reprehensive Example and may be very Directive to them that do That it may attain its proper Ends is the serious Prayer of One desirous to promote the Common