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	holy_a	jesus_n	13,652	5	5.8822	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29164	A sermon preach'd at the Parish-Church of Richmond in Surry April the 5th, 1699 being the day appointed for a publick humiliation and collection for the Vaudois / by N. Brady ...	Brady, Nicholas, 1659-1726.	1699 (1699)	Wing B4182; ESTC R19532	10,115	28

of Guilt and Wickedness Nor can we hope to escape from God's just Severity since Sin is that dark Body which interposes between us and the light of his Countenance and punishment is the Shadow that inseparably accompanies it Neither will the Faults of those who seem to be the Ministers of God's Vengeance be any manner of Protection to us nor must we flatter ourselves that he will not fight against us on their side Executioners we know are seldom chosen out of the best of Men and the Rod may be made use of tho' it be afterwards to be cast into the Fire Nay even lice and flies the meanest particles of the Creation have oftentimes in the avenging hand of God been dreadful Instruments of his displeasure If therefore we are unwilling to lie under the same or greater pressures than we lately apprehended and were deliver'd from it we would not run through the same or a more dismal Scene of Afflictions than we formerly groan'd under and had in prospect if we would not rather have God act the part of an offended Judge than that of a tender and Indulgent Parent Let us follow the Advice prescrib'd us in the Text and Sin no more lest a worse thing come unto us God has been pleas'd to Visit us with Judgments and we continu'd incorrigible under them by which our Sins were highly aggravated but if his Blessings are in vain employed for our a●●ndment we offend to a Degree as high as is possible In the former indeed we sinned against his Justice but in this both against his Justice and his Mercy And will not God think you vindicate this his Beloved his Darling attribute from such a contempt What will become of us when his Mercy is turned against us When that which used to restrain and qualifie the Inflictions of his Justice shall then exasperate and make them sharper When that which used to be poured like Balsam into our wounds shall then be like Oyl to feed the Flames of his Fury and to make his Vengeance burn more fiercely When our depraved Natures like vitiated Stomachs that convert wholesome Nourishment into the aliment of ill Humors shall turn Blessings themselves into Curses Yet thus most certainly it will be with us if we still remain impenitent God will be glorified one way or other either by us or upon us Let us but seriously meditate upon those sad Calamities which oppress our Protestant Brethren in distant Countreys and we shall see in them what our Sins will bring upon us unless we prevent those Judgments by a timely Repentance We cannot look upon them as more guilty then ourselves nay I would to God we could vie with them for Innocence And how then can we escape with impunity when we see them so severely punished Some have been forced to submit themselves a long time to the licentious will of an unbridled Soldiery and to see and supply those excesses which they detested to be the Objects of their contempt when they were used most favourably and the Subjects of their Cruelty when Wine or Rage provok'd them Others have been torn from the Embraces of their Relations and condemned to the meanest and most laborious Drudgery being chain'd to the Oar as the worst of Malefactors amongst Stripes and Menaces and blasphemous Execrations Not a few have been call'd upon to resist unto blood and to suffer Martyrdom for the Cause which they defended being Sentenc'd to the Axe the Gibbet or the Wheel and glorifying God by a variety of Sufferings Multitudes have been driven from their Possessions and their Dwellings and reduced to seek in distant Countreys that relief and repose which was deni'd them in their own being barbarously Condemn'd to perpetual Exile only for the discharging of a good Conscience These are the Tryals which have exercised our Brethren abroad and which we must expect will fall to our share if Arbitrary Government or the Romish Religion should which God avert as a punishment for our impenitence ever be established within these Kingdoms How justly then does the pious Wisdom of our careful Governours both in Church and State recommend to our Prayers and to our Christian Liberality the distressed condition of these poor Sufferers whose Afflictions have made an Impression upon all the Protestants in Europe who unanimously concur to the Relief of their Necessities They are some of them such I mean the Vaudois as have been forced with a barbarous Inhumanity to forsake whatever is dear to worldly Men that they might retain the practice of their Religion in its Purity a Religion which by a happy and distinguishing Providence they have always kept untainted with those Errors and Superstitions which over-run the rest of the whole Christian World and which give them a just Title to the Respect and the Assistance of all such as are Professors of uncorrupted Christianity They are all Confessors for the Reformed Faith having been in perils by Sea and in perils by Land in perils from their own Countrey-men in perils from Aliens having wandred about in Deserts and in Mountains being Destitute Afflicted Tormented These are they who have made some Protestant Countreys their Refuge and Sanctuary against all their Misfortunes and yet through their Numbers and the greatness of their Exigences are in danger of perishing in the Harbor of their Safety But far be that reproach from Professors of Christianity a Religion made up of Mercy and Compassion far from all Members of the Church of England which is famous for a Charity the most diffusive of any Let none I intreat you of those little prejudices which are apt to affect mean Spirits and vulgar Vnderstandings prevail with Persons of Ability and Sense to shut up their bowels of compassion from them Let us not so far remember that they are Foreigners a word that sounds harshly in English Ears as to forget that they are Christians and Protestants It is below the Honour of the Brittish Nation not to relieve even an Enemy in distress and yet these have done nothing but what deserves our Friendship since we are Friends I suppose to the Cause for which they suffer and to the constancy which they express in adhering to it Let us tenderly and considerately reflect within our selves how like our circumstances might have been to theirs if the late Designs against our Religion had taken effect and we had continu'd Stedfast in the profession of it And let us then practice the great Rule of Justice and so do to those poor people as we would that they and other Nations if we had been driven out should have done to us To look back then to my Text from which I have so long digressed and to close up all that has been deduced from it I beseech you Beloved in the bowels of the Lord Jesus so to reflect upon your own past Sufferings and the greater Dangers which were ready to over-take you and upon your Sins which were the occasions of them as to detest and abominate the latter for the sake of the two former So to meditate upon the Almighty Goodness in rescuing us from those Miseries to which we were expos'd as to give God the glory of it by Piety towards him the blessed Author of it and love to one another the mutual sharers in it That so we who are made whole by sinning no more may avoid the danger of having a worse thing come unto us That so we becoming a peculiar People purified unto God zealous of good Works the Lord God may make us plenteous in every work of our Hands in the fruit of our Body and in the fruit of our Cattle and in the fruit of our Land for good that he may rejoyce again over us for good as he rejoyced over our Fathers Which he of his Infinite Mercy grant through the Merits and Mediation of Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be ascribed all Honour Power Might Majesty and Dominion henceforth and for ever more Amen FINIS