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	lord_n	see_v	5,685	5	3.6798	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67361	Divine meditations upon several occasions with a dayly directory / by the excellent pen of Sir William Waller ...	Waller, William, Sir, 1597?-1668.	1680 (1680)	Wing W544; ESTC R39417	76,156	224

be the worse for Gods being good to us Though this sun-light be so pleasant to behold yet it doth mine eyes no good to gaze upon it If the lustre of a created light be so dazeling how unapproacheable must that divine light be wherein the great Creator dwelleth the resplendency whereof is the light of light Content thy self O my Soul with that prospect thou hast had of God's goodness so far as he hath been pleased to reveal himself unto thee but do not presume to speculate into his glory least thou be oppressed with it It is impossible to see this light but by its own light who ever beheld the sun but by the light of the sun as impossible is it to see the Father of lights but by the radiancy of the Son who is the brightness of his glory or to discern the things of the Spirit of God otherwise then by the revelation of his spirit The commandements of the Lord is pure inlightening the eyes we see it and see by it But what is become of all those heavenly tapers those spangles of light that did so lately adorne the skie How hath the lustre of this predominant light obscured and darkened them It is in one sence a sad exchange between the light of the Sun and the light of the Moon and Starrs that the Sun though it do open and reveal the sight of earthly things yet it closeth and shutteth up the prospect of the celestial Globe so that we cannot discerne the beauty and variety of those heavenly bodies above us as we may do in the night It is the misery of prosperity that as by reason of the brightness of that light wherewith it is environed it giveth us a clear view of the glory of this world and of all the vanities in it so withal it darkeneth and concealeth divine things and thereby indisposeth us to raise our affections unto them And on the other side it is the felicity of adversity that although the aire about it be very obscure yet therein we best discern God and spiritual things so Job in his afflicton could say Now mine eye seeth thee of whom before he had only heard by the hearing of the ear Lord thou knowest what condition is fittest for me and I presume not to appoint thy wisdome but so far as a poor beggar may be a chooser I beseech thee rather to keep me in the dark if thorough that vaile I may be admitted to see the light of thy countenance then to suffer me to be dazeled with the lustre of this vain world wherein there is nothing to be seen but that which is nothing and less then nothing O let me rather enjoy light in darkness then live in darkness when I am in the light In the beginning for the first three dayes of the Creation week there was no sun at all but yet there was light and that light was universally diffused thorough all parts untill it pleased God to contract it into one body O Lord thou alone doest great wonders how great are thy works how great this work wherein thou didst as I may say create the effect before the cause Thou art not limited to the methods of our weak reason but canst do every thing according to the council of thine own will not only by but without and contrary to meanes There is no glorying no trusting but in thee alone unto whom all means and more are alike subservient As in the Creation during those first three dayes God made and continued the light and then upon the fourth day made that light a sun so in his order of proceeding with his Children he giveth them a three dayes light the first of nature when he quickeneth them in their Mothers womb with a reasonable soul the second of Grace when he regenerateth them in the womb of his Church by his Sanctifying spirit the third of beatitude in a state of bliss when he receiveth their departed Souls into his rest and then upon the fourth day that is at the general resurrection when he reuniteth their Souls and bodies in glory he gathereth this light into a Sun from which time they shall to all eternity shine forth as the Sun in the Kingdome of their Father What a World will that be when we shall have no Sun again when we shall need none nay when instead of one Sun there shall be more Suns than there are Stars in the Firmament when every Saint shall be a Sun and yet all those Saints as if they were but so many stars shall receive their light from another Sun of infinite glory from the glory of God the Fountain of all light that light is sown here for the Righteous O when will the harvest time come Awake awake O my Soul and contemplate that happy time whensoever it shall come It is some anticipation of it to think upon it before it comes Watch for that morning more than they that watch for the morning But Lord it is not of him that watcheth no more than of him that willeth but of thee who shewest mercy O do thou by the irradiation of thy grace make such a clear day in my Soul as that I may not only see thy light here and receive in it and walk by it but be it so shall I be light in thee and according to that expression in thine own word thou shalt then walk in me my path shall then be as the shining light and I shall shine out more and more unto that full clear and everlastingly perfect day of thy Glory MEDITAT III. Vpon my rising out of Bed and putting on my Cloaths SLuggish Soul how long wilt thou lie lazing what yet a little slumber yet a little folding of the hands Awake they that sleep sleep in the night do not fancy thy self to be among the Antipodes as if it were night with thee when it is day with us If thou wilt but open thy window thou mayest with shame behold the Sun already mounted above our horizon and in his silent language seeming to reproach thee that he hath travelled round about the world but Yesterday and yet is up before thee this morning let no sleep like an unjust Publican exact more of thy time then is his due and make thy dayes shorter then God hath made them There is so much life gained as is saved out of sleep Be not too secure in this condition whilst thou art drouzing the devil is hunting and he hath a way to hunt Souls with Pillowes and night-caps Remember he is no sluggard but will surely roste what he takes in hunting How strangely do those people live that begin their morning at noone and their noone at night that turn day into night and live backward But it is no wonder to see Owls fly abroad at late hours O my Soul God never created thee to live in a feather-bed life consists in action idleness is but a living death And what doth the Lord require of

and those that are touched with it will endeavour to work upon others and to make them like themselves so Philip will draw Nathaniel Andrew will draw Peter and Peter when converted wil strengthen his Brethen And of this the worst times are the best Witnesses when thorough the common opposition of wicked men the affections of those that are good are the more inflamed each to other for as Roses and Garlick set near together do by extraction of contrary juices out of the Earth become both in their several kinds the stronger sented and the Roses are the more sweet and oderate by the fetide and stinking neighbourhood of the Garlick so by the contrary workings of opposite parties the Good are made very Good and the Bad very Bad and those that are good are meliorated and imbettered even by the illness of those that are bad O my Soul be wary with whom thou dost associate it may be discretion to carry a fair civility to those that are without but let thy delight be fixed upon the Saints that are in the Earth the touch of their conversion will derive vertue to thee Be not conformed to the Men of the world but let their contrary qualities serve as by a spiritual Antiperistasis to strengthen thy vertue and to make it the more compact in it self so if thou canst not amend others thou shalt be sure however to be amended thy self But alas what are all worldly comforts this good fellowship will not hold We cannot sit by it like those long lived Fathers before the flood who might meet and be merry together two or three hundred years and part with a promise to see one another againe so many hundred yeares after We are but of Yesterday and know not what to morrow may bring forth a few yeares or months or possibly a less time may determine all our jollity This were sad indeed if we had no hope but having that anchor hold we may comfort one another with this that wherever we are separated we can enjoy the Communion of one anothers praiers and meet together at the Throne of Grace And tho death may part us here for a while it will be but with a good night one to another as when we go to bed and to morrow we shall meet never to part In the mean time O my Soul think what a blessing it is to have the eternal God to be thy friend who in the defailliance of all these transitory comforts will not faile to make up all losses with himself But will God indeed dwell with men on the earth will the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity vouchsafe to humble and abase himself so low as not only to take notice of but in an infinite condescention to enter into covenant into friendship with poor mortal sinful creatures with such a despicable worme as I am to call me friend as he doth those that obey his commands what friend worme friend dust O the depth Lord what is man what am I poor no man a nothing that thou so regardest me O my God I am unworthy to be called thine in any relation unworthy to be reckoned in the number of thine hired Servants much more to be accounted in the rank of thy friends but it is thy pleasure to call things that are not as if they were and such is the influence of thy power that by vertue of that call thou canst make things to be what they were not O let the power of thy gracious vocation have a perfect work upon me to change me and I shall be changed to convert me and I shall be converted so though by nature I am enmity against thee by grace I shall be reconciled to thee I shall then fear thee and thy goodness shall fear and love thee and I shall love those that are conformable to thy goodness because I fear thee I shall not only have fellowship with thine excellent ones here upon earth but together with them enjoy society with thee O Father Son and holy spirit to all eternity in heaven MEDITAT VII Vpon the sight of a full Table LOrd do not hold it a presumption in thy poor dust and ashes that I humbly desire as thy Prophet Jeremy did to talk with thee what is man that thou takest knowledge of him thy word is mine answer that tells me it is a pittiful thing compounded and made up of sin and corruption its Father was earth and its Grand-father was nothing it walketh in a vain shew and is in its greatest estate a Lye and at its best altogether vanity which is so much less then nothing before thee But behold I have taken upon me to speak unto thee O let not my Lord be angry if I ask thee now what man is not that thou makest such account of him and so providest for him thine other creatures even those that are the cheif of thy wayes are contented with their single portions thy Behemoth is satisfied with that ordinary which the mountaines bring him forth and he lookes no further so is the Leviathan pleased with his recreation in the great and wide sea and that element is enough for him But man as if all were too little for his grandeur hath no bounds thou hast put all things under his feet Earth Sea Aire Fire pay contribution to his subsistance and comfort what couldst thou have done unto him that thou hast not done O Lord our Lord how excellent is thy name all thy workes praise thee how should man praise thee for whose service thou hast made all thy workes what a deal of labour is here for the mouth what a concurrence of art with nature to please the gluttony not only of the mouth but of the eye people affect an ingenuity in luxury as if their wits lay in their bellies and not in their braines It is not enough to have good meat if it have not a rellish of the East-Indies it must be so spiced that an Aegyptian would think it were rather imbalmed to be buried and kept for Mummy then seasoned to be eaten it must be so diversisied and so disguised in the dressing that every dish must be a riddle as if it were a special point of reputation for a man to eat he knowes not what If our Forefathers could see our hachees and olliaes and hodgpodges and such like commixtures as we make of several meats together they would take them to be no better then the discharges of full stomacks and think that like doggs we affected to eat our meat twice But to what purpose is this waste how many empty stomacks might this superfluity have filled possibly less at the table and more at the door might have done better Certainly we are not the better for it this high feeding doth but cloud the understanding with fumes and vapours and pampers lust and breeds ill humours and makes provision for wormes and ends in excrement and who would place any felicity in that