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	person_n	trinity_n	6,364	5	9.9651	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70554	Early piety, exemplified in the life and death of Mr. Nathanael Mather, who ... changed earth for heaven, Oct. 17. 1688 whereto are added some discourses on the true nature, the great reward, and the best season of such a walk with God as he left a pattern of.	Mather, Cotton, 1663-1728.; Mather, Samuel, 1651-1728.	1689 (1689)	Wing M1097A; ESTC R20873	63,808	161

Heb. 10. 31. It is a fearful thing to fall into the Hands of the living God. What what shall now be done by us in short let us be Walking with God and we shall be taken by God. Say now every Soul as in Mic. 4. 5. We will walk in the Name of our God for ever and ever Elijah was taken as he was walking Let us Walk thus and God will take us Be sure God will take us if we take Him. Let us take him as our Lord take him as our End take him as our exceeding great Reward Thus take Him in our Walk and He will take us from our Walk to our Crown VSE II. Consolation Let it be our Joy that when we are not we shall be taken by the Lord. Behold a Cordial here against three sorts of Exercises First Against all the Troubles of this Life We are apt to be discouraged at the Difficulties of this Evil World But the Voice of our God unto us is that in Luke 21. 28. Lift up your Heads for your Redemption draweth nigh E're long you shall not be and then your Afflictions too they shall not be God will take you from them all And what says Paul's Calculation in Rom. 8. 18. For I reckon he speaks like an Arithmetician or an Accomptant that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be Revealed When two English Protestants one that was Blind another that was Lame were leading to be Burned they so cheared one another Well fare we we shall need our Crutches and our Guides no more after this Thus let us in all our Trials think When I am beyond the Stars I never shall be under the Clouds any more Have you any Sorrows hard to bear Are you afflicted in your Friends Hast thou like David a Son that makes thee say My life is spent with Grief Hast thou like Jephtah a Daughter that makes thee say Alas thou hast brought me very low thou art one of them that trouble me Hast thou Job's or Abigail's Yoke upon thee O think I shall shortly be gone from the Light and Sense of such things as these Are you afflicted in your Names Are you like Elijah counted a Troubler of Israel or like Jeremiah a Man of Contention or like Paul a Pestilent Fellow and a mover of Sedition O think I shall meet with none of these Reproaches where I am going Are you afflicted in your Bodies or your Estates Are you like Timothy cruciated with often Infirmities Or like Naomi going out full and coming home empty of Temporal Goods O think I shall quickly be where a Spital or an Alms-house tbere never was any occasion for Are there any snares that you are too often trepan'd into O think of the Time when all this Earth shall be to you as an Invisible point think The Dy'd and see how they Covenanted and Walked and Lived with the Lord. Methinks these do now call unto us as in Luk. 23. 28. Weep not for me but weep for your selves Does Jacob say Joseph is not Does Rachel say My Children are not Why has God taken them they belo●●ed unto Him. 'T is said in Joh. 11. 〈◊〉 Jesus wept over Lazarus One of the Ancients affirms it was not because he was Dead but because he was about to be made Alive again I do not justifie the Gloss but I am sure our departed Ones as it were call unto us from the lofty Battlements of Heaven We would not be with you again for all the World. Let us then rise and wash and change our Apparel and say I will go to them they shall not return unto me THE DUTY AND INTEREST OF YOUTH OR The Thought of an Elder on the Death of a Younger Brother Uttered Octob. 28. 1688. Eccl. XII 1. Remember Now thy Creator in the dayes of thy Youth THE great Emperor Augustus making an Oration to his mutinous Army began it with that surprizing Expression Audite senem Juvenes quem Juvenem senes audierunt when I was a young Man old Men counted me worthy to speak unto them now I am an old Man methinks young Men should not refuse to mind what I say Truly such might the Speech of our Solomon be by way of Preface to the Text now read unto us surely this old Preacher deserves the attention of every young Person among us all It is a Passage uttered by this matchless and inspired Prince in Prov. 22. 20. Have not I written to thee excellent things It is by some rendred so Have not I three times written for thee He hath indeed so we have three Books composed by that Royal and Renowned Pen one of which wears the Title of Ecclesiastes because that such was the Author of it We are told of some in 2 Chron. 11. 17. They walked in the way of David and of Solomon What way is that It was the way of David that he sinn'd he fell he dishonoured God exceedingly but he soon Repented and recovered and then by writing the fifty first Psalm he gave an Evidence of his doing so This was the way of Solomon too he departed from God with a wonderful Apostacy but being reclaimed and reduced from his Wanderings he now Publishes a Testimony of it unto all the World. This Book is a sacred and solemn Treatise concerning the chief good of Man It contains the Holy and Humble Retractations of a famous Monarch who had sought where he could not find the satisfaction of an Immortal Soul he had got up to the top of all sublunary Felicity and from thence beholding poor Men toil and sweat unreasonably to get up the rocky ragged Hill after him with a loud Voice he now calls unto them all You are mistaken there is nothing but Vanity and Vexation here Upon this the wise Man assures us all That in the Acquaintance and the Enjoyment of God alone is all our Happiness and in the inculcation of it Young Men are particularly apply'd unto We have a Dehortation given to them in the conclusion of the former Chapter and an Exhortation in the beginning of this In the former is a sharp Sarcasm but a grave Counsel in the latter Two things make up the Exhortation First A Duty enjoyned Remember thy Creator in the Hebrew 't is Thy Creators which notes a plurality of Persons in the adorable Godhead Secondly A Season advised In the dayes of thy Youth It intimates not that Persons past their Youth are exempted from this Command but that Persons in their Youth are peculiarly engaged herein wherefore the Doctrine before us is Doctrine It is the Duty of All Men and peculiarly of Young Men to Remember their Creator so as to acknowledge Him. Prop. I. The Blessed God who is Father and Son and Spirit is the Creator of Men Unto Man about God it may be said He is thy Creators Indeed in God there are more Persons than one In the New Testament that Mystery of a

Trinity is more particularly insisted on Athanasius of old would say unto them that had any Doubt about the Trinity Go to Jordan and you may see what you seek On the Banks of Jordan at the Baptism of our Saviour in Matth. 3. 16 17. we have a Glorious Representation of it But in the Old Testament too the Mistery of a Trinity is not concealed from the Church of God the History of the Creation alone may be enough to give a mention of it We find God the Creator we find a Creating Word and we find a Creating Spirit there distinctly spoken of The very first Clause in the Bible is In the Beginning God Created The Name God is in the plural Number but the Verb Created is in the singular which intimates that though there be but one God yet there is more than one Person in Him. The like Intimation is given to us in Gen. 1. 26. Where God said Let us make Man in our Image It is impious to suppose that the Angels are consulted or invited for the making of Man 't is expresly said God made him Nor in any Case would the Most High speak to Instrumentul Causes in the fi●st Person plural so The fond and blind Jews are put unto wretched shifts when they would banish their Notice of a Trinity from Scriptures thus plain and clear Now this great God who is thus Three in One is the Creator of the World. The most High God who is the Possessor is also the Creator of Heaven and Earth It is true that in some sort the Work of Creation belongs most properly to the Father but the Son and the Spirit also are not excluded from a glorious concurrence in it Unto him is every Man to ascribe his own Creation and Original We are thus called upon in Psal 100. 3. Know ye that the Lord he is God it is he that hath made us and not we our selves That style my Maker that is the style in which all Men that were not far worse than Devils have ever spoken of the Lord. Prop. II. It is the Duty of All Men to Remember their Creator It is a just matter of Enquiry here What it is to Remember God The Answer in short is this To Remember God is to Acknowledge God. Or Take Solomon's own Explanation of it in our Context here It is to fear God and keep his Commandments There is both Vnderstanding and Affection imply'd in this Remembrance To Remember God is to Remember all the Respect which we owe unto him and to Render all that we Remember The Phrase of Scripture is to be Interpreted by such comprehensive Rules as this It is the Character of wicked Men to forget God. 'T is said in Psal 9. 17. The wicked shall be turned into Hell and all the Nations that forget God. So then to Remember God this is the Character of Godly Men To be sensible of God that that is to Remember him There is a two-fold Remembring of a thing There is a keeping of it in our minds and there is a calling of it to our minds This Remembrance we are to acknowledge God withal In short we may observe that Solomon much imitated his Father both in the matter and the manner of his Preaching to the World particularly what Solomon here says to us is but an Expression of the same that his Father said to him in 1 Chron. 28. 9. My Son know thou the God of thy Father and serve him In this manner we are to Remember God. First We should Remember God by our knowing of him We are to Remember That God is and That he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him We are to Remember that there is a God who is Infinite in his Power his Wisdom his Justice and his Goodness and that his Kingdom ruleth over all It is said in Jer. 51. 50. Remember the Lord afar off Part of the meaning is Know the Lord. Strictly 't is impossible for a Man to Remember what he do's not Vnderstand We should know God in his sufficience and Know God in his efficience we should know God as represented in his Words in his Works and above all in the Lord Jesus Christ It was of old counted a needful Counsel Know thy self it is no less important and pertinent Know thy God This Knowledge it hath Life Eternal in it Secondly We should Remember God by our Thinking on him The Psalmist could say in Psal 63. 6. I Remember thee upon my Bed and Meditate on thee in the Night-watches We should have a Remembrance of with a Meditation on the Holy God awful and serious Thoughts of God should come into our Hearts often in a day We should often be Thinking of God as our Judge and we should Remember with our selves I am now under the flaming Eye of God and I shall one day stand before the Judgment-seat of God. We should often be Thinking of God as our End and we should Remember with our selves God has formed me for himself I should shew forth his praise We should often be Thinking of God as our Good and we should Remember with our selves The Lord is my portion and I have a goodly heritage Briefly what the Lord is in himself the same is he to be in our daily Thoughts of him Thirdly We should Remember God by Turning to him It is a Prophecy in Psal 22. 27. All the Ends of the World shall Remember and turn unto the Lord. We should have a Remembrance of God that shall produce Repentance for sin The Psalmist has communicated this Experience of his unto us I Remembred God I was troubled O thus we should Remember God and be troubled for our forsaking of him be troubled for our provoking of him and when we are troubled for we should also be turned from all our evil wayes We are to Remember God so as to choose him and to take him for our God and sincerely say Lord What have I any more to do with Idols sincerely say I will be now for the Lord and not for another Fourthly We should Remember God by Living for him It is the Profession of that good man in Psal 119. 55. I have remembred thy Name and have kept thy Law There should an Obedience accompany that Remembrance which we have of God. The Prophet could say I Remembred the Lord and my Prayer came unto thee Thus we should be able to say I Remembred the Lord and I sought his Face Be able to say I Remembred the Lord and I heard his Word Be able to say I Remembred the Lord and with my whole care I pleased the Lord. An Honouring of the Lord is the best Remembring of Him. Fifthly We should Remember God by Trusting in him It was an Holy Triumph in Psal 20. 7. Some trust in Chariots and some in Horses but we will remember the Name of the Lord our God. A Remembrance of God should be with a Reliance on him That Believer could say

a Leaf of Grass in the Field which might not make an Observer to be sensible of the Lord. He apprehended that the idle Minutes of our Lives were many more than a short liver should allow That the very Filings of Gold and of Time were exceeding precious and that there were little fragments of hours intervening between our more stated businesses wherein Thoughts of God might be no less pleasant than frequent with us The Elegant and Excellent Meditations of Sir William Waller had particularly affected him unto a commendable Emulation of them and hence he did attempt to make even the more common and more trivial occurrents of humane Life the occasions of Great Thoughts within him He would with the Chymistry of Occasional Reflections Distill sublime Spirits from earthly Bodies and from the view of mean things fill his nobly imployed Mind with Lessons and Prayers which only the Father of Spirits was a Witness to Some of these his Occasional Reflections I find in his private Papers and one or two for a taste I will bespeak the Reader 's acceptance of Jan. 8. A. M. Being about to rise I felt the cold in a manner extraordinary which inclin'd me to seek more warmth in my Bed before I rose but so extream was the cold that this was not feasible Wherefore I resolved to dress my self without any more ado and so going to the Fire in my Cloaths I soon became warm enough Turn this O my Soul into an useful Meditation There is a necessity of my rising out of my Bed the Bed of Security which I am under the power of and to live unto Christ and to walk in the Light. In order hereunto I must put on my poor Soul the Garments which are to be had from the Lord Jesus To awaken me out of my sleep and my security I am to set before me the Sun the Gospel of the Sun of righteousness doth inlighten my Mind and tell me that I was before muffled up in darkness and that if I continued therein I should starve and perish I am also taught That when Men are convinced of their miserable condition they will rather endeavour to Ease and comfort and cherish themselves by something in themselves than put on the spiritual Garments which the Lord Jesus Christ has provided for them An Evil to be by me avoided Again another time Upon Water taken from the Fire I saw a lukewarmness quickly seize like the frame of Spirit which many Pretenders to Religion have after a glorious and affectionate Profession of it Of this sort were some among the Laodiceans of old which is exceedingly displeasing to the Lord Jesus Christ Whence it is that he saith I will spew thee out of my mouth Let me endeavour to beware of this hateful and odious frame of Spirit and let the contrary thereto be my desire my endeavour Once more Among some Gentlemen that were sitting in a Room illuminated with a Candle one beginning to read unto us there was another Candle brought unto him for his assistance in it Which afforded me such a Meditation as this That those who are to be Teachers of others have need of as much light again as ordinary Christians have They if any need a double Portion of the Gifts that are in other Men and the helps of Knowledge that other Persons have they much more should be furnish'd withal It was not because they had better Eyes than him whose Office it was to Read that they needed but one Candle when he had two provided for him but the Work incumbent on him and expected from him was the occasion of it But I design little more than a Confirmation with an Illustration of my History for which a touch or two upon every Article will serve I am now to add That this Young Man had a Principal regard unto the Scriptures for the Subjects of his Meditations and he was very expensive of his Thoughts on the Book of God. He was daily digging in the sacred Mines and with delight he fetched thence Riches better than those of both the India's and he could say O how I love thy Law it is my Meditation every day Even in the time of his mortal Sickness he was very angry at himself if he had not heard a Portion of the Bible read unto him from day to day Once when he was near his End a good part of a day having pass'd before he had enjoyed his Meal of Scripture he said unto his Sister with some impatience Alas what an ungodly life do I lead pray come and read my Bible to me and read me the forty ninth Psalm Indeed he read the Scripture not cursorily but very deliberately and considerately and as an effect of his doing so he could give such an account of the Difficulties in it as the most not only of Christians but of Divines too would judge an Attainment extraordinary Not long before he dyed he had read over all the large and great Annotations on the Bible lately published by Mr. Pool and some other Non-conformist Ministers but having dispatched those two noble Folios he said unto one that was intimate with him Thus have I read the Bible but I have now learnt a better way And that way was this He would oblige himself in reading to fetch a Note and a Prayer out of every Verse in all the Bible to dwell upon every verse until it had afforded at least one Observation and one Ejaculation to him He imagined that an incredible deal both of Truth and Grace would in this way make its impression upon his Mind besides what Exercise of Wit it must have call'd for and so most certainly it would have done but before he had made much Progress in it the Chariots of God fetcht him away to that place in which a Jesus is a Bible to the there perfect Spirits of the Righteous Such a thinking Person was he and yet after so many kind of Thoughts in the day he could not rest a Night quietly unless he compos'd himself for sleeping by thinking a little more He knew that no better a Man than one of the Moral Heathens propounded a Nocturnal Self-Examination as a part and cause of no little Wisdom and that much more a sober Christian should endeavour to maintain a good understanding of himself by such Nightly Recollections Wherefore before the Slumbers of the Evening this Young Man would put three General Questions to himself with divers particular ones that were subordinate thereunto The Questions were Question 1. What has God's Mercy to me been this day Here he considered what favours God had newly smil'd upon his inward or his outward man withal Question 2. What has my Carriage to God been this day Here he considered what frames and words and works and what snares and sins he had newly been concerned with Question 3. If I dye this night is my Immortal Spirit safe Of this he judged by his Closure wit● God as his best