Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A30676
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The husbandmans companion containing one hundred occasional meditations reflections and ejaculations : especially suited to men of that employment : directing them how they may be heavenly-minded while about their ordinary calling / by Edward Bury.
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Bury, Edward, 1616-1700.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing B6207; ESTC R23865
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229,720
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483
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no fruit words but no works a shew but no substance their religion lies in the tongue and brain but never reaches the heart nor seasons the life they are most in externals little in internals they regulate their words and actions but the heart is not restrained or purified the heat of their zeal appears chiefly if not only in their words but the heart is cold enough they take up the easie cheap and safest part of duty but the difficult dangerous or costly part they meddle not with they make a shew of what they are not and brag of what they have not and then they laugh in their sleeves to think how they have couzened and put a cheat upon the world they worship that God in the Church that they matter not in the closet they do no religious duty without witness haply for fear God should deny what he hath received from them they are like rotten wood they shine in the night but look upon them in the day and you will finde the cheat they are like the red and blew flowers in the corn-field fine to look upon good for little but to pester the corn they are like candles they usually go out in an offensive snuff they are Saints abroad and devils at home and usually more dangerous when they appear like Saints then when they shew themselves in their colours and act the devils part bare-faced but doubtless these are not the men that God will accept nor this is not the service he requires he is a spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth yea the father seeketh such to worship him John 4.23.24 he calls for the heart my son saith he give me thy heart not thy tongue or hands but the heart for if he have that the rest will follow Pro. 23.26 as the heart is by nature God will have none of it till the heart be renewed and given to the Lord he will accept of nothing that comes from us he calls for the heart and says of it as Joseph did of Benjamin Gen. 43.3 ye shall not see my face without it or as David did of Michal 2 Sam. 3.13 thou shalt not see my face except thou bringest Michal Sauls daughter when thou comest These men would give the Lord any thing but the heart and he will own nothing without it these professors are like men in a boat they look one way and row another or like the kite that soares aloft towrs on high as if they were all for heaven and made light of all terrestriall things when still her eye is upon her prey and her heart glued to the ground and rooted in the earth they are like unto the peacock they have fine feathers but yet is but a dunghill-bird but these shews will not always serve turn God sees through their thin masks and will ere long pluck off their vizour be not deceived God is not mocked there are none can steal to heaven in a disguise God will know him well that shall enter there there is a sure guard and without this ticket of holiness none will be admitted this is Christ sheep-mark and those and those alone that have it shall stand upon his right hand at judgment when he comes to seek fruit and findes none he will take up his axe he hath long and may for a while spare the tree for the vine-dressers sake but his patience will not always last he will say pray not for this people for they are ripe for destruction when the sins of the Amorites were full their destruction drew neer when these borrowed robes are pluckt from the stageplayers backs for so the word hypocrite signifies then those that acted the parts of Kings will be found but peasants and those that acted the parts of honest men will be found but cheats indeed God hath many fans and much of this chaff is blown away in this life we have seen many that appeared to be something proved just nothing but when Christ comes with refiners fire and fullers soap who can stand before this burning the lamps of profession may light a man to death near to heaven oh my soul thou hast made profession of Religion a long time what fruit dost thou bring forth if thou hast nothing but tears thou maist expect that Christ shall say to thee as to the fruitless figtree never fruit grow more on thee for ever or if thy fruit be bad it will not be long but thou wilt be cut down what cause hast thou to fear that art so sensible of so much unsavory and rotten fruit and of so little that is good up then and be doing that thy last days may be thy best days and thy best wine last oh my good God though hypocrisy lodge in me let it not reign in me give me truth in the inward parts keep my heart sound in thy testimonies and I shall be safe Upon a dead tree 83. Med. OBserving a dead tree in the orchard that had neither fruit nor leaves and so was neither for profit nor pleasure for fruit nor ornament but rather an encumbrance to the ground and a deformity to the place I began upon this Observation to consider that this was the case of many a poor dead soul amongst us who though planted in Gods vineyard hedged about by his providence and watered with the dew of heaven and manured by the skilfullest vine-dressers yet remains dead fruitless and useless and hath done so many years and hath done nothing all this while but cumber the ground and keep a room and did but grow worse and worse and every day more fitter for the fire then other this minded me of Gods mercy and mans wickedness Gods mercy in sparing such unprofitable wretches some of them 50 or 60 years together and all that while sending his vine-dressers to dig and dung and manure them from year to year that never yielded any good fruit in their lives and mans wickedness that will not be won upon by all these entreaties and continued favours that are so hard that neither the sun nor the rain can soften neither fair means nor foul can work upon them and to this day do yet remain a reproach to the place they live in for sin saith Solomon is a reproach to any people Pro. 14.34 when righteousness exalteth a Nation True Religion and the power of godliness is the beauty and bulwark of a Nation but sin is a deformity and an evil disease it is the snuff that dims our candle yea threatens the removal of our candlestick Capernaum that once was lifted up to heaven is threatned to be cast down to hell if a dead tree deform a well-regulated orchard and is such an offence that it will not be endured by the owner nor be suffered to stand or if a dead carkass be so loathsom a thing that in a little time the nearest and dearest relations and the most intimate friends are weary of it how loathsome then is a
family and bloudy house as God calls it 2 Sam. 21.1 strangely rooted out oh my soul are all these things so vain and transitory what is the reason then that thou lets out thy affections so much upon them and concernest thy self so much above them and spendest thy money for that which is not bread and thy labour for that which satisfieth not and moilest and toylest and carkest and carest for them in the neglect of more necessary concerns why art thou so taken with them when thy business succeeds and when thy perishing goard prospers and why art thou so troubled when it withers why art thou so affected with the worlds smiles and knows that Syren-like when most she fawns she most intends a wrack why art thou so troubled at a cross providence as if thy happiness did consist in these enjoyments and in the mean while when thou hast crosses and losses in thy spiritual state and nothing there prospers thou layest it not to heart when God withholds the rain from the ground thou art affected when he withholds the dew of heaven from thy soul thou regardest it not why art thou so good a husband for thy body and so bad for thy soul is not the soul of greater concernment Do these outward things really go to the making up of thy happiness or is not the maintaining of communion with God of much greater concernment if thou losest a days work in the field thou art troubled but hast thou not lost many a days work in the congregation and heard many a Sermon and madst little use of it and is this nothing to thee oh my God this bewitching world this crafty devil and this deceitful heart of mine hath conspired my ruine and without thy assistance will accomplish it oh my folly that I should so affect what I know to be vain and transitory and to signify nothing to my eternal happiness Lord wean me from the world and engage my affections to thy self give me an understanding heart that I may expect no more from the world then it can perform nor spend no more time upon it then it will recompense me for and though the world must have my head and my hands Lord keep my heart disengaged let me lodge none there but my husband Christ Upon the sympathy and antipathy of vegetables 35. Med. WHen I considered the sympathy and antipathy that is observed to be between some vegetables which the Naturalists treat of and the Philosophers call occulta qualitatis for which no reason can be given when some had rather die then live and grow together and others never thrive well excepte they are planted near one to the other the like antipathy we may observe among sensitive creatures where one kinde seeks the destruction of another and others love and delight each in other nay something of this may be seen where is neither life nor sence as in fire and water and the strange simpathy between the loadstone and the iron between the jet and the straw c. This consideration minded me of the strange antipathy between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman mentioned Gen. 3.15 I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed I considered also of the sympathy between Gods own people the former is lively expressed by the antipathy that Naturalists observe to be in the Panther to a man that bears such a perfect hatred to him that he will race out his image if he see it upon a wall In wicked men there is so perfect a hatred to God that they will if they can possibly race out the very image of God whereever they see it They hate every thing that God loves love every thing that he hates they hate every thing that is like him and that for this very reason because it is like him now no reason can be given of this why they should hate this God who is goodness it self who is also their creator and their great benefactor from whom they have their life and breath and being their food and rayment their limbs and sences their health and strength their peace and plenty without whom they cannot speak nor stir nor live a moment and yet this is the case of all wicked men on earth however cross each to other in their principles and contrary in their dispositions if they agree in nothing else yet they agree in this to oppose the power of godliness Herod and Pilate can both consent that innocent Christ shall be put to death though wicked men like snarling dogs are worrying one another yet joyn against the trembling hare so though they worry each other yet all agree against an holy man let a godly man be of never so pleasing a disposition and winning carriage never so open-hearted and open-handed yet this one ingredient holiness spoils all in the worlds account and renders him hatefull and contemptible in their eyes and the grossest drunkard swearer and adulterer shall be preferred before him Christ himself though never man spake like him and no guile was found in his mouth yet a seditious murderer Barrabbas was preferred before him oh the degenerate estate of poor man whither art thou fallen is the chiefest good become the object of thy chiefest hatred and is holiness wherein thou wast created and which is Gods image without which thou canst never be saved become thy scorn and more contemptible then the image of the devil is the devil become the better Master and is his work the better work and will also his wages be the better wages well praise in the parting the time is coming thy judgment will be altered and thou wilt be glad to eat those words that now thou speakest against the power of godliness I know all men are not actually persecutors but no thanks to them they have the same nature and have an aking tooth against holiness but for the preservation of his people the Lord restrains them thus he did Abimelech Gen. 20.6 I withheld thee from sinning against me therefore suffered I not thee to touch her and Laban God said unto him take heed that thou speak not unto Jacob either good or bad Gen. 31.24 viz. neither by flattery nor force by allurement or affrightment to bring him back God spake for him in the heart of his enemy The sympathy also that is amongst the children of God was minded by me they are sons of the same father and heirs of the same inheritance and therefore should be kindly affectioned one to another Rom. 12.10 arctior est copula cordis quam corporis they are brethren in Adam according to the flesh and brethren in Christ according to the spirit they rejoyce with them that do rejoyce and weep with them that weep Rom. 12.15 cum plangentibus plango saith Cyprian cum deflentibus defleo this is that brotherly love which the Apostle bids to continue Heb. 13.1 the communion with God and the communion