Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	heart_n	son_n	17,006	5	5.6134	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77007	Salvation in a mystery: or A prospective glasse for Englands case. As it was laid forth in a sermon preached at Margarets in Westminster, before the Honourable House of Commons, at their monthly fast, March 27. 1644. / By John Bond, B.LL. late lecturer in the city of Exceter, now preacher at the Savoy in London. A member of the Assembly of Divines. Published by order of the Commons House.	Bond, John, 1612-1676.; England and Wales. Parliament.	1644 (1644)	Wing B3574; Thomason E43_2; ESTC R1754	41,396	73

want of provision so as that the water should never have bin scant or bitter yea that they should never have met with an enemy these and all other hardships the Lord could have prevented But he did purposely suffer these intricate abstruse difficulties to fall in for the proving of his people for so it followes in the 16. verse of the same chapter He fed thee with Manna in the wildernesse which thy fathers knew not that he might humble thee and that he might PROVE thee Not but that he knew their hearts but because they knew not their owne hearts much lesse did others know their spirits Alas how few of us did know our owne hearts whilst we lived in peace and prosperity in our countries and callings untill the Lord by the intricatenesse of these carriages and by the mazes of his proceedings did pumpe-up and draw forth our inward parts Thus humbling proving improved and engaging were the Lords foure grand designes upon Israel And upon the same grounds did he lead Abraham Isaac Jacob and Joseph at their first calling in a strange country by extraordinary providence to prove and improve their graces yea and to diet them and breath them as it were for greater mercies and services And I am perswaded that by that time God hath brought together both ends of this mysterious salvation that he is now working every serious christian amongst us shall be able to say that he could not have beene without any one of all those obstructions and afflictions that we have met withall Nay I am perswaded that we shall all freely conclude at last that if we had not lost all we had bin undone if we had not beene plundred we had beene beggerd if all these mysterious abstruse difficulties had not fallen in we never had seene halfe so much of God of our selves of grace or sin reformation as I hope we shall now discerne But I hasten A third ground 3 For the enemies greater confusion why God delights thus to carry on his great salvations and especially his Babylonish redemption is for the enemies greater confusion either of their faces or persons First for the greater confusion of their faces when God having put them in hope of winning the day Of their Faces shall out-reach and out-do them at last when the Lord shall so befoole them that in the conclusion they shall see themselves wiped out of all their hopes this will be abundantly for their greater shame and confusion of face When an oraculous Achitophel shall find his counsell over-reached by a plaine Hushai that is the next way to make him become his own hangman When an insolent Haman shal see himselfe degraded by a modest godly female Esther it is the way to make him fall downe upon the bed and almost to wish himselfe dispatched upon his owne Gibbet When a Sisera a triumphant Sisera shall be nailed to the ground by the hand of a Jael When a Pharaoh and an Herod shall be beaten and eaten with lice so that they shall be faine to stand shrugging and picking like a begger in a bush Oh what confusion of face must this needs be not only upon the persons themselves that do so miscarry but upon all their Tribe and adherents What grosse confusion of face guesse we with our selves was there to Sanballat Tobiah Geshem and the rest when after all their secret fraud and open force after all their letters and machinations to hinder the building of the Temple yet the worke was perfected at last You shall reade in Nehemiah Chap. 6. vers 15. that the wall was finished in the 25. day of the month Elul in fifty and two dayes so that all their paines charge and diligence came short both their toyle and oyle was lost Therupon in the 16. verse saith the Text It came to passe that when all our enemies heard thereof and all the Heathen that were about us saw these things they were much cast downe in their owne eyes that is they knew not which way to looke nor where to bestow their faces but stood like so many theeves taken in the very act casting their eies towards the ground O doe but guesse with your selves doe but guesse with your selves Honourable and beloved when God shall bring about this present mysterious work of his salvation and put a glorious issue unto it for this worke must have a glorious issue I say it again in short when at the end of these troubles the worldly and wicked Politicians shall find themselves out-witted the Potentates over-powred and the wealthy men out-pursed and that all this shall be done by those whom they accounted meer foolishnesse weaknesse and poverty then then doe but guesse with your selves how will the most active industrious and impudent enemies be able to lift up their fereheads How will they look upon one another Surely just like a kennell of hungry Curs that all the day have been hotly pursuing their prey or game and at night have mist and lost it in a wood I cannot but think with my selfe that it will be worth all the paines and cost that an active man shall lay out in this work but to see that Babel that confusion of tongues and faces that will befall the enemies at last A shadow of this confusion of face and language you find prophesied in Revel 18. vers 15 16 17. The Merchants which were made rich by her shall stand afarre off weeping and wailing and saying Alas alas that great City that was clothed in fine linnen and purple and scarlet and decked with gold and precious stones and pearles for in one houre so great riches is come to nought And vers 19. They that is the Kings of the earth the Merchants the Ship-masters and saylers cast dust on their heads and cryed weeping and wailing saying Alas alas that great City wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costlinesse for in one houre she is made desolate Thus God doth it for the greater confusion of the faces of his enemies Or secondly if they want so much modesty as to be capable of confusion of face Of their persons yet these hidden carriages shall work for the greater confusion of their persons they shal be the more utterly confounded by these mysteries If the men of the old world will be so impudently wicked as not to blush at Noahs preaching building they shal wade knee-deep in the floud to begge admission into the Arke but not obtaine it If the King of Egypt and all his Gipsies will be so shamelesse as to dodge ten times with the Lord they shall at last cry and fly against the returning seas and all in vaine Exod. 14.26 So that all the Meanders and intricate carriages of the work until then did but ripen them for greater personall confusion Had Pharaoh come in upon the first summons the first miracle or upon the second or third the man might have

It should be done without hands only by the word of the Lords mouth as the Earth and Heavens were created But in Hag. 4. vers 14. You shall finde a threefold stirring of spirits that carryed on that work And the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel it was an immediate working upon his spirit which neither man or devils are able to reach the son of Shealtiel governor of Iudah and the spirit of Josuah the son of Josedech the high Priest the spirit of al the remnant of the people God moved the spirit of the temporall rulers of Zerubbabel that is as it were the Parliament God moved the spirit of those of the Church of Josuah the high Priest and of Haggai and Zechariah the Prophets as it were the Assembly of Divines and God moved the spirit of all the remnant of the people the whole commonalty they came did work in the house of the Lord of Hosts their God It seemes it was not for wages or out of any constraint but only because the Lord had touched their spirits and inclined their hearts to this service So it is said of Cyrus in Ezra 1.1 The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus King of Persia he gave the Jewes leave to build and did affist them and supply them with necessaries for the service And Chap. 5. verse 1. The Prophets Haggai and Zechariah the son of Iddo prophesied unto the Jewes that were in Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel even unto them Then verse 2. rose up Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel and Ieshua the son of Iozadek and began to build the house of God Why what moved them at that time above another Onely the Ministers preached them about the worke As before I shewed that the wals of Babylon must be preached down so it seemes here that the walls of the Temple must be preached up Haggai and Zachariah doe fall to preaching and then the rulers and the people doe fall to building How parallell is our case with this Hath might or weaknesse flesh or spirit I aske of your own consciences had the greatest stroake in our greatest salvations hitherto Have not the touched hearts the willing spirits ever bin the chief instruments Is it not most evident that the Lord hath toucht some hearts with the spirit of wisdome and counsell as sometime he touched the heart of Bezaleel and Aholiab filling them with his spirit in knowledge c. to devise cunning workes to work in gold and in silver c. Exod. 31.2 so amongst us hath he not given an extraordinary spirit of counsell and wisdome into the hearts of men even then when 't was feared that disuse and oppression had quite worne out all the old race of true English hearts Who had thought we had bin so rich in Parliamentary spirits as appears this day Againe others have beene as it were inspired with a Spirit of courage and magnanimity beyond president and even unto their own admiration Yea some like that Fabius or like Gideon in the story before have bin called off from meane imployments and yet have answered great expectations in the services of warre so that I cannot but guesse that succeeding generations writing the History of these times will speake rather of a Creation than of a Generation of souldiers in our age Once more How many Nobles Gentry Ministers and people every where are suddenly sprung up like Jonah his gourd against this hot season men accomplished with so many graces gifts qualifications for this work as if they had bin inspired cut out and created purposely for this service Beleeve it these are things that deserve a most serious consideration they do prove that the worke is carryed-on spiritually But that is not all Secondly Salvation is then carryed on in a mystery when it is carryed on PRAETER NATURAM I English it CASUALLY or accidentally that is thorow a multitude of extraordinary accidents and casualties By casualties I do not meane the acts or effects of Pagan fortune but the acts and effects of extraordinary and speciall Providence when there is a frequent confluence of such acts appearing in our salvations this must needs be besides natures rode for Quae casu fiunt ea rare fiunt that is casualties are rarities saith the heathen or things done by chance are seldome done Now when we shall see such events fall in frequently then we must conclude that the finger of God is there this is not according to the common rule and rode of men That you may understand my meaning a little more fully in this particular I will give you an instance of this confluence of casualties in the booke and case of Esther Chapter 6. When Haman had made sure with King Ahasuerus that is Xerxes for the utter extirpation of the Jewes and that Esther had now begun another Mine to counter-worke him see what a heape what a cluster of seasonable casuall circumstances do happily fall in for the advantage of Esther and the disadvantage of Haman Thus in short First in verse 1. It is said that on that night could not the King sleepe What night was that Just the next night before that Esther stood engaged to break Mordecai's matter to the King upon the morrow Chap. 5. vers 8. the very night before that day the King could not sleepe And it was also just the night before that Haman meant to beg the execution of Mordecai The night immediatly before that these two things were to be set on worke the King could not sleepe why what ayled him we heare of no extraordinary sad tydings which were brought him that could hinder his sleepe we reade of no distemper of body that lay upon him then doubtlesse Gods hand was in it therefore he could not sleepe But that is not all Thereupon secondly he commanded to bring the booke of Records of the Chronicls to be read before him True we say reading and preaching will bring men asleepe though they have little disposition to it before but al this could not incline him to slumber This farther shewes the hand of God Well thirdly It was found written in the Booke that Mordecai had done a choyce peece of service for the King Found how was it sound How did it come to hand did the Reader willingly turne to this place that so he might make way to ingratiate Mordecai That is improbable because Haman that was now the darling of the Court was Mordecaies knowne and profest enemy Or what did the King command that he should turne to that place No that is not probable neither because we find by the Kings next question that he did not know to the contrary but that Mordecai had bin already rewarded for this service How then came this about Surely that very God that directed the Eunuch when Philip joyned himselfe unto his Charet to be reading that place of Isaiah the Prophet Act. 8. And that voice that cryed to the Father