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	trinity_n	9,904	5	10.2376	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65073	The saints nearness to God being a discourse upon part of the CXLVIII Psalm / written at the request of a friend by Richard Vines ...	Vines, Richard, 1600?-1656.; Drury, William.	1662 (1662)	Wing V567; ESTC R3254	27,474	152

they 1 Thes 2. 13. receive it as the Word of God not of men as if he should say there are two sorts of hearers of the Word some hear it only as the Word of man man teaching man instructing man exhorting or reproving c. but you receive it as the Word of God Faith makes them to hear God in his Word other men neither see nor hear any thing of God in it But as it was with Saul and his company Act. 9. 7. travelling to Damascus so are godly men and other men As Saul and his company were going to Damascus 't is said a voice was heard from Heaven Saul Saul why persecutest thou me and the men with him they heard the voice but they saw no man only Paul saw Jesus Christ the others did not So wicked men hear the sound of the Word but they see no man they see not Jesus Christ and God in his Word for 't is only the eye of faith that sees God in the Prospective of his Word and Ordinances And therefore though men have these Prospectives of his Ordinances yet they see not God in them because they want the eye of faith to unite them and God together So again Gods people are near unto him in the Sacrament which so oft as it is worthily received is a new Bond out of the great Court of Heaven to tye them and God together more nearly and 't is faith that writes this Bond and seals it in the blood of Jesus Christ Whereas other men are no nearer God in the Sacrament than they are at their own table nay 't is a Sacrament of seperation that even unglues them from their common nearnesse in common mercy for as it is an ascent which by worthy receiving makes men a step nearer to God so by unworthy partaking they go lower to evil and farther from him Thirdly They are near to God in prayer for so prayer in Scripture is commonly called a drawing nigh to God and therefore they are said to be Priests to God that as Kings and great Rev. 2. 6. ones have their Chaplains for them so the people of God are his Chaplains yea Chaplains in Ordinary such as wait continually on God and that not only for themselves but for others also That look as Kings have their Masters of Requests whereby the Petitions of suiters are preferred unto them so Gods people are his great Masters of Requests whereby Petitions of each other yea and wicked men also are preferred to him So Abraham was Gen. 20. 7 17. the great Master of Requests for King Abimelech Let Abraham pray for thee and thou shalt live c. So Job was the Master Job 42. 7 8. of Requests for his three friends So Moses for the Israelites And this is faith still that makes this nearnesse Faith is that which perfumes their prayers with the blood of Christ and so they ascend up to God and are accepted by him That as great persons choose still perfumed things as apparell and Gloves c. let the other alone because the perfume makes them acceptable so faith makes their prayers acceptable to God which else they would not be Lastly And so we The last nearnesse to God which is in his speciall Attributes have done with these severall branches of nearnesse Gods people are near him in his speciall Attributes They are near his presence and in his favour Others are like Absalom which might not see the Kings face Or at the best God frowns upon them They are near his eye Near his ear Psal 34. 15 And so near his hand that when danger is at hand he is at hand and puts forth his hand to help and faith takes him by the hand and gets out So I might shew how they are near the Trinity Near the Trinity The Father Son and holy Spirit which are with all in them most properly theirs If then by faith in it self they are near unto God in that eight-fold nearnesse Of Covenant Subject Servant Friend Child Spouse Branch Member And again in the work of faith which is holinesse Of Heart as Like God his Temple House Life in Thoughts Affections Speeches Actions Service Word Sacraments Prayer c. If near him in his speciall Attributes And to all the Trinity Then they are a people very near him But to all this it may Object be objected How then may some say doth it come to passe that God is said to Stand afar off Psal 10. 1. To hide himself as David and many of Gods people complain It thus falls out sometimes Answ with these near ones but this is when they themselves go away from God by sinne where God is not And therefore God may there be said to be a far off Because sinne is a place where God is not or ever was near to them in it as continuing in it but only he is near them as coming out of sinne so farre as they are sinnefull so farre is God remote from them he comes no farther into the heart than faith purifies it into no rooms of the soul but those that by faith are swept from sinne 2. Again though God seems to stand a farre off and to hide himself that we think him not near yet as Jacob said He Gen. 28. 27. was nigh and he not aware of it so God is near his people when they think not of it even as the father is taken by the child for gone when he is but behind the hangings 3. Thirdly God is many times near and actually helps when we think he is not and doth not because we look for him in a way of our own prescribing wherein he will not come There is a double way wherein God comes to Double way of help his people First An ordinary way or the Kings high-way the great roade of Providence and Mercy wherein he ordinarily is nigh them as helping them in ordinary means There is secondly a secret privy way or path wherein he comes sometimes and is at us before we are aware of it and so we think him not come because not in the common roade wherein we expected him Thus many times God is near in giving some other mercy than we ask as more fit for us Thus sometimes he gives not it may be wealth but friends or we it may be look to have a lust healed by fasting and prayer when they nor any so common means do it not but he heals it by confession of it to a godly friend Jam. 5. 16. 4. Though God stand a far off yet he then is near though not sensibly yet really and truly the essence of the nearnesse remains still though the sense and influence be somewhat cut off even as it is with the body of the Sun when 't is covered with a Cloud the body of the Sun is then as near as when the Cloud was not before it though the heat and light the influence were

Canticles and the 7th it is said Much water cannot quench love neither can the flouds drown it that is All the evils in the world of afflictions for so commonly they are shaddowed out in the Scripture So Matth. 7. 27. affliction by rain persecution by flouds as temptations by winds by waters and persecutions which ordinarily are tearmed flouds cannot drown or overwhelm this love not wash it away or bear it down Afflictions cannot do it though they if any thing be as waters to quench it and which quench the love of many false Spouses But as the stone Asbestus being once fired can never be put out by any force though it consume it self so is it with this Marriage-knot this heating of the soul by the love of Christ when once it is hot by love throw whole Buckets of afflictions poverty sicknesse shame let fall whole showres of evils continued afflictions plunge it into a Sea of sorrows the longest and greatest pressures and trials and this love will not out but burn in the midst of the waters This fire of Heaven is like the other fire of destruction that never goes out Nor yet can the flouds drown it flouds are both deep waters and violent waters for those two things are included in a floud beside water namely depth and violence of water Some things cannot be drown'd because the water is not deep enough Other things because the water is not strong enough by its force of running to bear them down But when these two depth and force meet in one water that water of all others is most likely to drown So is it with evils some evils are not deep enough to swallow up those that lye under them and therefore they hazard not their love much or if they be deep yet not violent enough but creep on men insensibly and soe they keep some strength against them that they are not overcome by them as sicknesse coming more insensibly and slowly because not deeply rooted is oftentimes wrought out by the naturall strength or at least not so troublesome to nature Whereas those that are deep and strong to overthrow the body and lay it in the Dust so is it with some men they can endure afflictions and many but if deep and violent evils as persecutions if not by the length yet by the soarnesse and violence they make the love of men to moulder away to nothing Continuall shame it may be by ordinary men fellowes does but shake it but the deep reproach and violent injuries of great one drownes all by taking away their footing that hold they had of Christ because it was not deeply rooted so that they which are not able to stand against the flouds but their love is drowned quite and overwhelmed in them that it rises no more are no true but false Spouses of Christ And therefore to shut these two up together we may see it in that of our Saviour of the stony ground which when Matth. 13. 21. tribulations or persecutions come are offended The meaning of the words is this That there are two sorts of men which seem Spouses to Christ and are not Some that take him for better only and not for worse for when the worser tribulations or persecutions come they fall away Others that have a little faster hold on him but not in the right Spouse-like affection for when persecutions come though tribulations did not shake their love they fall away for so the words are to be understood that one of the two either tribulations or afflictions divide them from their supposed Husbands that they cannot stand against the flouds Whether then if thou canst stand against the Waters yet canst thou stand against the flouds Art thou so deep and strong in love as not to be covered and borne down by the depth and violence of persecution for they that are rightly espoused to Christ will hold him for better for worse yea in the worst that can come Lastly The last signe of a right conjugall love is to deny all affection to any other that would unjustly have it She that is a Wife tyed to her Husband in a right choice and affection so as to take him not by constraint but purely from love will let her love stirre to no other than to him which is her Husband So that soule which is rightly espoused to Jesus Luke 9. 23. Christ denyes her selfe of every Whorish affection to the world For that is to deny our selves when natural corruption would faine move too and askes leave to go out to the world for the satisfying of that old selfe But Spouse-like affection sayes no you shall not move to pleasure you shall not goe to credit you shall not run to profit again no I am espoused to Jesus Christ he it is that hath my love I dare not give it to any other besides Him have I given my heart and I will keep it for him As a Spouse may have such motions rising up to the beauty and excellencies of others which otherwise she could like well enough but because she hath given him her love she rejects such motions as not fit for her condition so the soul that is espoused to Christ may have such unchast motions rising up to the excellency of the creature which she otherwise could like but because she hath given Christ her heart she cast out such motions as the Sea doth dirt Doest thou then give way to false affections rising in thy heart to prevent the love of Christ thou hast no Spouselike affection and so art no true Spouse On the contrary doest thou beat down all false loves such affections as naturally boyle up in thy heart to the satisfying of the flesh that old self Doest thou give sin a peremtory denial when it would carry thee away from Christ to the creature it is then a sign the knot is tyed between thee and Christ and thou maist take comfort in it Other signs from the other degrees of nearnesse might here be added but these are the main If this unworthy Tractate may beget profit or acceptance it is that I wish The Lord Jesus Christ who is our nearnesse joyn our spirits nearer daily to his Father by his holy Spirit in faith and holinesse and preserve us all to his eternal Kingdome and glory Fare well FINIS