Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	find_v	heart_n	lord_n	5,269	5	3.7260	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26870	A breviate of the life of Margaret, the daughter of Francis Charlton ... and wife of Richard Baxter ... : there is also published the character of her mother, truly described in her published funeral sermon, reprinted at her daughters request, called, The last work of a believer, his passing-prayer recommending his departing spirit to Christ, to be received by him.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing B1194; ESTC R1213	62,400	127

and trouble upon my spirits and well it may be so for the sins of this day have been very great My heart hath not answered the expressions of thanks which have been uttered by the mouths of those that spake them to God No no my heart hath not stirred and been drawn out towards my God! The thoughts of his love have not ravished my Soul Alas I scarce felt any holy spark to warm my Soul this day This day which was a day of the greatest mercy of any in all my life the day in which I have had an opportunity to give thanks for all the mercies of my life and thanks it self is a greater mercy than the rest All other mercies are to prepare for this This is the work of a glorified Saint even a Saint in heaven before the blessed face of God It 's his everlasting business to Sing the Songs of Thanksgiving and Praise to the Most High But my thoughts have not been filled with the sweet foretasts of this blessed work which I might have had this day O God I beseech thee forgive my sin and lay not my deadness to my charge but overlook all my transgressions and look on me in Jesus Christ my Saviour I am thine Lord and not mine own This day I have under my Hand and Seal in the presence of Witnesses nay in thine own presence who art Witness sufficient were there no eye to see me or ear to hear me Thou Lord that knowest all things knowest that I have devoted my All to thee Take it and accept my Sacrifice Help me to pay my vows Wilt thou not accept me because I do it not more sincerely and believingly O Lord I unfeignedly desire to do it aright O wilt thou strengthen my weak desires I believe Lord help my unbelief Thou that canst make me what I am not O make me what thou wouldst have me be In thee there is all fulness and to thee I desire to come by Christ. Wilt thou now cast me off because I do it not unreservedly Lord I confess the Devil tempteth and the flesh saith Spare something what let all go And I find in me a carnal selfish principle ready to close with the temptation But thou canst prevent and conquer all and speak death to these corruptions and bid the Tempter be gone It is thy pleasure here to suffer thy dear children to be tempted but fuffer not temptations to prevail against thy Spirit and Grace If temptation be like a torrent of water to smother quench or hide the flame yet wilt thou never let all the sparks of thy Grace be put out in the soul where once thou hast truly kindled it But Lord suffer not such floods to fall on my soul where the spark is so small already that it is even scarce discernible O quicken it and blow it up to a holy flame Most gracious God! O do it here who hast done it for many a soul O what have I said that I have a spark of grace why the least spark is worth ten thousand times more thanks than I can ever express and I have been dead and unthankful as is before confessed And is that a sign of grace Unthankful dead and dull I have been and still am but yet it must needs be from Gods gift in me that I have any desires after him and that this day I have desired to devote my self to him and that I can say I would be more holy and more heavenly even as the Lord would have me be Nay I do know the time when I had none of these desires and had no mind to God and the ways of godliness and do I not know that there be many in this condition who have no desires after Christ and holiness Here then is matter of comfort given me from him that doth accept the desires of his poor creatures even the Lord Christ who will not quench the smoaking flax nor break the bruised reed I see then that I have yet matter of rejoycing and must labour to be so humbled for my remaining sins as may tend to my future joy in believing but not so as to be discouraged and frightned from God who is longsuffering and abundant in mercy Rouze up thy self then to God my soul humbly but believingly repent that thou hast been so unthankful and insensible of the benefits this day received up up and lie not down so heavily God hath heard prayers for thee and given thee life and opportunity to serve him He hath given thee all the outward mercies thy heart can desire He hath given thee dear godly able friends such as can help thee in the way to heaven yea he hath set them to beg spiritual mercies for thee who prevailed for temporal for thee and oft for many others why then shouldst thou not watch and pray and wait in hope that he hath heard their prayers this day for thy soul as formerly for thy body They are things commanded of God to be asked and we have his promise that seeking we shall find It may be this night many of Gods dear children will yet pray for my soul I doubt not some will and shall I not be glad of such advantage I heard this day that I must not forbear thanks because the mercies are yet imperfect else we should never give thanks on earth Though therefore my Grace be yet but a spark and weak my body weak my heart sad all these administer matter of thanks and praise as well as of supplication Let me therefore keep close to both they being the life of my life while I live here and having daily need of supply from God let me daily be with him and live as in his presence Let him be the chief in all my thoughts my heart and life And let me remember to be earnest for my poor Relations and dear Friends and the Church and people of God in general And let me strive to keep such a moderate sense of sorrow on my soul as occasion requireth I have now cause of sorrow for parting with my dear friends my Father my Pastor He is by providence called away and going a long journey what the Lord will do with him I cannot foresee it may be he is preparing some great mercy for us and for his praise I know not but such a day as this may be kept here on his account The will of the Lord be done for he is wise and good we are his own let him do with us what he pleaseth all shall be for good to them that love God I have cause to be humbled that I have been so unprofitable under mercies and means it may grieve me now he is gone that there is so little that came from him left upon my soul. O let this quicken and stir me up to be more diligent in the use of all remaining helps and means And if ever I should enjoy this mercy again O let me make it appear that this night

taken where the Mother and the children were and saw part of their buildings burnt and some lye dead before their eyes and so Robert got possession of the children But at last she by great wisdom and diligence surprised them and secretly conveyed them to one Mr. Bernards in Essex and secured them against all his endeavours § 3. The Wars being ended and she as Guardian possessing her Son's Estate took him as only Son as her self and used his Estate as carefully as for her self but out of it conscionably paid debts of her Husbands repaired some of the ruined houses and managed things faithfully according to her best discretion until her Son marrying took his Estate into his own hand § 4. She being before unknown to me came to Kederminster twenty miles desiring me to take a House for her alone I told her that I would not be guilty of doing any thing which should separate such a Mother from an only Son who in his youth had so much need of her counsel conduct and comfort and that if passion in her or any fault in him had caused difference the love which brought her through so much trouble for him should teach her patience rather than forsake him She went home but shortly came again and took a house without my knowledg § 5. When she had been there alone a while her unmarried daughter Margaret about seventeen or eighteen years of age came after her from her Brother's resolving not to forsake the Mother who deserved her dearest love and sometime went to Oxford to her elder sister Wife to Mr. Ambrose Vpton then Canon of Christs Church both yet living In this time the good old Mother lived as a blessing among the honest poor Weavers of Kederminster strangers to her whose company for their piety she chose before all the Vanities of the world In which time my acquaintance with her made me know that notwithstanding she had formerly been somewhat passionate she was a woman of all that manly patience in her great tryals that prudence and piety and justice and impartiality and other Virtues which I mentioned in her Funeral Sermon Of her death anon It is her daughters case that this is the Prologue to CHAP. II. Of her Conversion Sickness and Recovery § IN her vain youth Pride and Romances and Company suitable thereto did take her up and an imprudent rigid Governess that her Mother had set over her in her absence had done her hurt by possessing her with ill thoughts of strictness in Religion yet she had a great reverence for some good Ministers especially Mr. Tho. VVright and she thought that she was not what she should be but something better she knew not what must be attained In this case coming to Kederminster for meer love to her Mother she had great aversion to the POVERTY and STRICTNESS of the people there glittering her self in costly Apparel and delighting in her Romances But in a little time she heard and understood what those better things were which she had thought must be attained And a Sermon of Mr. H. Hickman's at Oxford much moved her on Isa. 27. 11. It is a people of no understanding therefore he that made them will not save them c. The Doctrine of Conversion as I preached it as now in my Treatise of Conversion was received on her heart as the seal on the wax Whereupon she presently fell to self-judging and to frequent prayer and reading and serious thoughts of her present state and her salvation § 2. A Religious Maid that waited on her taking king notice of this for she kept all her matters so secret to her self as was her great hurt all her life acquainted her Mother with it and when it would be hid no longer but her frequent Closet-prayers were sometimes over-heard and her changed course of life discerned her Mother who as far as I could discern before loved her least of her three children began to esteem her as her Darling and all her Religious Friends and Neighbours were glad of so sudden and great a change § 3. I will here give you one of her self-judging Papers which I find since her death upon her then sad convictions When I had on Rom. 8. 9. told them how it may be known whether we have Christs Spirit or not she thus repeated the signs with her self-condemnation Mark 1. The Spirit of Christ is the Author of the Scriptures and therefore suiteth your disposition to it and guideth you by it Judgm 1. I fear then I have not the Spirit of Christ for I yet feel no love to Gods word nor closure with it as suitable to me but I am questioning the truth of it or at best quarrelling with it Mark 2. The Spirit of Christ is from heaven from God our Father and leadeth us upward unto him It s work is spiritual of heavenly tendency making us cry Abba Father and working the heart by uniting love to God Judgm 2. It is not so with me for I have a Spirit tending only to selfishness and sin Mark 3. The Spirit of Christ uniteth us to Christ and one another by love and is against hatred division and abusing others Judgm 3. Mine then is the spirit of Cain for I cannot endure any that are not of my opinion and way and it inclineth me to malice and unpeaceableness and division Mark 4. The Spirit of Christ is a spirit of Holiness and doth not favour licentiousness in doctrine or in life Judgm 4. Though I am for strict Principles I am loose in practise Mark 5. Christs Spirit inclineth to love humility and meeknest and makes men stoop to each other for their good Judgm 5. None more uncharitable proud and censorious than I. Mark 6. The Spirit of Christ makes men little low and vile in their own eyes it is pride that puffeth up Judgm 6. My self-conceitedness shews that I am unhumbled Mark 7. The Spirit of Christ doth work to the mortifying of the flesh even all its inordinate desires and to self-denial Judgm 7. I am a stranger to the work of mortification and self-denial I can deny my self nothing but the comfort of well-doing I cannot deny my sloth so far as to go to prayer when I am convinced of my necessity Mark 8. The Spirit of Christ is a prevailing spirit and doth not only wish and strive but overcome the flesh as to its rule Judgm 8. The flesh prevaileth with me against the spirit Mark 9. Christs Spirit is the author of his Worship Ordinances and suits the souls of believers to them the Word Sacraments c. Judgm 9. They seem not suitable to my soul I am against them and had rather not use them if I durst Mark 10. Christs Spirit is in all the Saints and inclineth them to holy Communion with each other in love especially to those in whom this spirit most eminently worketh Judgm 10. It is not thus with me I desire not the Communion of Saints my affections are

him all my days 2. And an humble heart that I may be taught of God who looketh on the proud afar off 3. And a tender conscience that I may fear to offend him and hate all sin 4. And strength so to resist temptations that I be not led by Satan to dishonour God or to provoke him 5. And a meek and quiet frame of spirit that I may be contented to bear the afflictions that God shall lay me under without murmuring or repining § 3. This being that which she gave us in I find under her hand this secret renewal that same day of her Covenant with God which I annex This being a day set apart for returning thanks to God for his mercy in delivering me from the gates of death these people being they that have earnestly supplicated the throne of grace on my behalf I here now renew my Covenant with Almighty God and resolve by his grace to endeavour to get and keep a fresh sense of his mercy on my soul and a greater sense yet of my sin I resolve to set my self against my sin with all my might and not take its part or extenuate it or keep the Devils counsel as I have done to the wronging of God and the wounding of my own soul. I resolve by Gods assistance to set upon the practise of known duty and not to study shifts and evasions to put off those which are either troublesome chargeable or likely to render me dishonourable and vile in the eyes of the carnal persons of the world And this I do upon these considerations and for these reasons 1. My life hath been a life of great mercy God hath preserved it more than this once and hath done exceeding great things for me which engageth me more than many others though all rational creatures are obliged to live to God their Maker 2. God hath not only given me life but in some measure ability and opportunity to do him service yea and already some encouragement in the hopes of the success of some of my poor endeavours I suppose on some of her servants 3. God hath more engaged me to himself by taking me into his Family and planting me in his Garden and watering me with the dew from heaven He hath set me in a fruitful soil He hath given me the high priviledg of a part in the hearts and prayers of his people and I may say that I live to speak it That God is a God hearing prayers and hath heard and answered them Though the Tempter be busie to make me think diminitively of this mercy yet I must not but must acknowledg the greatness of it 4. As all these and more engagements are upon me so I am already engaged by the Baptismal Covenant to God the Father Son and Holy Ghost as my God and chief Good and only happiness and as my Redeemer Head and Husband and as my Sanctifier and Comforter and I have renewed it in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper and how can I go back that have thus far engaged my self and daily receive from God more obligations Yea God will expect more from me than from many others Let me therefore see that I be in good earnest with God and think not to put him off with hypocrisie let me not deceive my self for God will not be mocked what I sow I shall reap if I belong to God though I suffer whilst I am in the body they will be but light afflictions and but for a moment but the everlasting Kingdom will be mine inheritance and when this life is ended I shall reign with Christ I shall be freed from sin and suffering and for ever rejoyce with Saints and Angels But should I prove an hypocrite I lose my labour I lose my God and damnation with Devils and damned ones will be my reward for ever and rhis the greater as my mercies have been abundant and great Therefore I here desire this day to renew my Covenant with God and to beg the prayers of this people that God will not leave me to my self but help me by the sufficient Grace of Christ to keep the Covenant which I have made And I intend to keep this Paper by me to help to remember me and quicken me to duty and hinder me from sin and encourage me to go on cheerfully against temptations looking still to Christ who forsaketh not those that by faith and repentance come to him To all this let me add these Considerations of the vanity of the creature and of all false hopes It is contrary to the nature of the creature to be our peace they are our discomforts and troubles further than they help to lead us to the Creator Let me not forget the time when I seemed near death What comfort had I then in creatures What ease from them Was not all my hope in God All creatutes shewed me that side on which vanity was written and they had nothing that could satisfie my soul Though I had as much mercy in means and friends as I could possibly desire yet all this was nothing to me the trouble of parting with them was much more than the comfort of enjoying them and so it will be with me still which should teach me to keep my heart loose from the Creature and not over-love any thing on this side Heaven Why should my heart be fixed where my home is not Heaven is my home God in Christ is all my happiness and where my treasure is there my heart should be Come away Oh my heart from vanity mount Heavenward and be not dead or dull if thou wouldst be free from trouble and tast of real joy and pleasure Hath not experience yet taught thee that creature-comforts though they may be Roses have their pricks canst not thou be content to look on them and smell them at a distance and covet no other use while thou art in the Garden where they grow and be content to leave them there behind thee If thou must needs have them in thy bosome thou must scratch thy fingers to get them and when thou hast them though the smell a while delight thee they will quickly wither and are gone Away then O my carnal heart retire to God the only satisfying object There mayest thou love without all danger of excess Let thy love to God be fixed and transcendent Amen § 4. Though these were the strivings of her heart towards God her fears and troubles did not so pass away setled peace of soul doth seldom come quickly to young Converts though their sincere resolutions may be setled I find among her Papers yet more of that days work upon her after examination and review Bear with the length if I transcribe it as I find it under her hand Christ saith In the world you shall have trouble in me you shall have peace Something of both now I find at this time This night after returning thanks to God for my recovery I find my heart sad

duties for them besides the time and perhaps caring thoughts that all his Family expences and affairs will require And then it will disquiet a man's mind to think that he must neglect his Family or his Flock and hath undertaken more than he can do My conscience hath forced me many times to omit secret prayer with my Wife when she desired it for want of time not daring to omit far greater work 2. And a Minister can scarce look to win much on his Flock if he be not able to oblige them by gifts of charity and liberality And a married man hath seldom any thing to spare especially if he have children that must be provided for all will seem too little for them Or if he have none House-keeping is chargeable when a single man may have entertainment at easie rates and most women are weak and apt to live in fear of want if not in covetousness and have many wants real or fancied of their own to be supplied 3. In a word St. Paul's own words are plain to others but concern Ministers much more than other men 1 Cor. 7. 7 c. I would that all men were as I my self It is good for them they abide even as I 28. Such shall have trouble in the flesh 32. I would have you without carefulness He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord how he may please the Lord but he that is married careth for the things of the world how he may please his wife This is true And believe it both caring for the things of the world and caring to please one another are businesses and troublesome businesses care for house-rent for children for servants wages for food and rayment but above all for debts are very troublesome things and if cares choak the word in hearers they will be very unfit for the mind of a Student and a man that should still dwell on holy things And the pleasing of a Wife is usually no easie task There is an unsuitableness in the best and wisest and likest Faces are not so unlike as the apprehensions of the mind They that agree in Religion in Love and Interest yet may have daily different apprehensions about occasional occurrences persons things words c. That will seem the best way to one that seems worst to the other And passions are apt to succeed and serve these differences Very good people are very hard to be pleased My own dear Wife had high desires of my doing and speaking better than I did but my badness made it hard to me to do better But this was my benefit for it was but to put me on to be better as God himself will be pleased That it's hard to please God and holy persons is only our fault But there are too many that will not be pleased unless you will contribute to their sin their pride their wastfulness their superfluities and childish fancies their covetousness and passions and too many who have such passion that it requireth greater skill to please them than almost any the wisest can attain And the discontents and displeasure of one that is so near you will be as Thorns or Nettles in your bed And Paul concludeth to be un-married is the better that we may attend the Lord without distraction v. 35 38. And what need we more than Christ's own words Mat. 19. 10 11 12. when they said then It is not good to marry he answers All men cannot receive this saying save they to whom it is given For there are some Eunuchs who were so born from their Mothers womb and there are some Eunuchs who were made Eunuchs by men and there be Eunuchs which have made themselves Eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heavens sake He that is able to receive it let him receive it Oh how many sad and careful hours might many a Minister have prevented And how much more good might he have done if being under no necessity he had been sooner wise in this § 18. Another Use of this History is to shew men that it is not God's or our Enemies afflicting us in worldly losses or sufferings especially when we suffer for Righteousness sake which is half so painful as our own inward Infirmities A man's Spirit can bear his Infirmities of outward Crosses but a wounded Spirit who can bear My poor Wife made nothing of Prisons Distrainings Reproaches and such Crosses but her burden was most inward from her own Tenderness and next from those whom she over-loved And for mine own part all that ever either Enemies or Friends have done against me is but as a flea-biting to me in comparison of the daily burden of a pained Body and the weakness of my Soul in Faith Hope Love and Heavenly Desires and Delights § 19. And here you may see how necessary Patience is and to have a Mind fortified before-hand against all sorts of Sufferings that in our Patience we may possess our Souls And that the dearest Friends must expect to find much in one another that must be born with and exercise our Patience We are all imperfect It hath made me many a time wonder at the Prelates that can think it the way to the Concord of Millions to force them to consent to all their Impositions even of Words and Promises and Ceremonies and that in things where Conscience must be most cautelous whereas even Husband and Wife Master and Servants have almost daily Differences in judging of their common Affairs § 20. And by this History you may see how little cause we have to be over-serious about any worldly matters and to mind and do them with too much intensness of Affection and how necessary it is to possess them as if we possest them not seeing the time is short and the fashion of this world passeth away And how reasonable it is that if we love God our selves yea or our Friends that we should long to be with Christ where they are far more amiable than here and where in the City of God the Ierusalem above we shall delightfully dwell with them for ever Whereas here we were still sure to stay with them but a little while And had we here known Christ after the flesh we should so know him no more Whereas believing that we shall soon be with him even those that never saw him may rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of Glory § 21. Lastly Here you may see that as God's Servants have not their portion or good things in this Life so they may have the same Sicknesses and manner of Death as others Lazarus may lie and die in his sores among the Dogs at the door when Dives may have a pompous Life and Funeral There is no judging of a mans Sincerity or of his future state by his Disease or by his Diseased Death-bed words He that liveth to God shall die safely into the hand of God though a Fever or Deliration hinder him from knowing this till Experience and sudden possession of Heaven convince him Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them Rev. 14. 13. Therefore in our greatest straits and sufferings let us comfort one another with these words That we shall for ever be with the Lord. Had I been to possess the company of my Friends in this Life only how short would out comfortable converse have been But now I shall live with them in the Heavenly City of God for ever And they being there of the same mind with my forgiving God and Saviour will forgive all my Failings Neglects and Injuries as God forgiveth them and me The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away And he hath taken away but that upon my desert which he had given me undeservedly near Nineteen years Blessed be the Name of the Lord. I am waiting to be next The door is open Death will quickly draw the Veil and make us see how near we were to God and one another and did not sufficiently know it Farewel vain World and welcom true Everlasting Life FINIS