Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A52808
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The crown and glory of a Christian consisting in a sound conversion and well ordered conversation.
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Ness, Christopher, 1621-1705.
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1676
(1676)
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Wing N450; ESTC R26867
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31,261
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167
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wide Ocean which yet is but as a babe in the hands of the great God and as a little Infant in swadling bands Job 38. 9. If you or any that are near or dear to you be concern'd at Sea Oh how may this consideration comfort you that your God can as easily rule and repress the unruly Ocean as the mother doth her tender suckling when it is swadled up by her hands 't is the work of the Almighty to set bounds to that raging Element Job 38. 9 10. 2. Thus also it may mind you that though the Dragon cast forth flouds to drown the man-child Rev. 12. 15. and though the waters of affliction do rise rage against the Church and children of God yet at the rebuke of your God the waters shall be abated and the dry land shall appear Gen. 1.9 8. 3. and the Ship the Church shall come safe to shore whatever contrary wind she meets with in the world Mat. 8. 26. 14. 24. 3. The continual fluctuation of the Sea in its being tossed with tempests to keep it from stinking like a standing pool which if so would destroy the Earth This may teach you the wisdom of God in ordering all things in sending tides and winds to toss the waters and to make them some out their mire and dirt Isa 57. 20. and so keep them from corruption and likewise how needful it is for you to be afflicted and to be poured from vessel to vessel that you may not settle upon the lees as Moab did Jer. 48. 11. 4. Oh the divine Meditations that holy David had on this subject of the Sea in Psal 107.23 24 c. although his concernments lay very little in that Element as he had done before in looking upon the heavens Psal 19. 1. 8. 3. look upon all with Davids spectacles and spirit and the Sea as well as heaven and earth will afford you many divine Instructions It will teach you 1 that your heart like Reuben is as unstable as water for God and God lives Gen. 49. 4. 2 That the Lord sitteth upon the floods Psal 29. 10. and rules for ever all the fluctuations of your and the Churches afflictons God sits when they flote and fly away 3 That Merchants and Mariners in their trading and trafficking by Sea hang both their safety and success upon a few Ropes or rather upon a special immediate hand of Gods providence 4 That they which go down into the deep see such wonders of the Lord as may convince the worst Atheist in the world first as the ebbing and flowing of the Sea which should it always flow would soon overflow this Island if the hand of the Lord did not command it back by its ebb 2. As that it should not swell above its banks and break its swadling bands by the falling and flowing of so many great rivers into it 3. As the saltness of its waters although all those mighty rivers that flow into it be fresh and the innumerable company of fish in it be all fresh also 4. As those trade-winds that lay upon the face of the Sea to further Navigation every way with many other wonders 1. Thus far of occasional Meditation upon the book of Nature there is also Meditation appointed upon the book of Scripture which you must be acquainted with as far exceeding the other for the book of Nature though never so diligently read over yet will it not bring you to the saving knowledg of God in Christ nor throughly furnish you for every good work but the book of Scripture is a larger field furnished with all sorts of spiritual and fragrant flowers whereupon you may freely feed your best thoughts without ever hauseating If you can but unclasp the tables of your own heart when you unclasp your Bible a praying heart can never want a profitable subject Oh let it not please you that carnal hearts can think of things below not only an hour a day a week a month but even a whole year without weariness and that to think on Gods name Mal. 3. 17. should weary you so soon 2. This second sort of Meditation is a set and solemn acting of all the faculties of the soul upon some chosen subject till you can extract some sweet and soul-ravishing thoughts out of your own heart thereby your subject or matter of meditation must be some scriptural truth such as are summarily comprehended in Phil. 4. 8. that little Bible Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report if there be any vertue if there be any praise think on these things In that one verse is contained the whole duty of man the good and the all of man Eccles 12. 13. Mic. 6. 8. The second Religious Action is Prayer which well follows Meditation for as 1. Meditation is a blessed beginning to prayer so prayer is a blessed conclusion of meditation and therefore is the double reading of Gen. 24. 63. Isaac went out to meditate or he went out to pray So then when your heart is well warmed with the Angelical duty of Meditation then fall upon the Evangelical duty of Prayer then tender and render your homage to the God of all your mercies crying with David Oh the God of my mercies Psal 59. 10. 2. You must know that Prayer is the pouring out of the heart to God Psal 62. 8. 'T is not the pouring out of your speech but of your spirit unto the Lord. God looks not so much at what you do as with what spirit you do for him you must serve God with your spirit in the Gospel of his Son Rom. 1. 9. not resting in a bare gift of prayer without the grace of prayer Zach. 12. 10. you may not fetch materials or abilities for this work from your self but you must pray in the Holy Ghost Jud. v. 20. Rom. 8.26 The lifting up of your own tools upon Gods Altar will not polish but pollute it Exod. 20. ult That earnestness in prayer which flows meerly from a natural spirit is but the cry of the creature and not the groans of that holy Spirit which helps our infirmities but expressions without impressions 3. You must pray that God may rebuke Satan that resists you in prayer watch the adversary that watches you and watch your own heart likewise which will not only hang off from this work but will also conspire with Satan to give you disturbance when you are breathing out your desires into your fathers bosom and sending this winged messenger to him you will find it hard to serve the Lord in this duty without distraction as 1 Cor. 7. 35. No enemy like one treacherous within 4. Take heed of formality in this duty as a Musicians fingers will run over such a song as he hath often played although his mind all the while be employed about other things so many run over such a
till your Vessel be cleansed and till you have some sense that your sin is pardoned you will not go to bed with a bone out of joint but it must be set right with expedition 't is pity that the soul disjointed with sin should be so long neglected 5. 'T is a blessed frame of spirit to nourish in you both the sense of your own sin and the fear of Gods wrath for your sin The heavier that your sins are to you the lighter will your afflictons be on you 't is wind and rain coming both together that makes the storm upon our bodies So 't is sin and affliction joining both together that makes the storm in our souls when your sin is your burden 't is then repented of and so pardoned this will make your affliction a far lighter burden 6. Take heed of putting holiness upon you as a loose garment to cast off or on at pleasure according to your differing companies and occasions but be sure that you gird it close to you with the golden girdle of truth Ephes 6. 14 that in all places you may be what you seem to be that you be to God what you seem to be to man and that you be to God at all times what you seem to be to man at any time 7. Take heed of grieving the good Spirit of God wherewith you are sealed to the day of Redemption Ephes 4. 30 and which is a delicate thing as some reads Psal 143. 10 res delicata est spiritus tuus and therefore loves to live in a clean house in a clean heart 'T is a foul fault to grieve an earthly father but 't is far greater to grieve this holy Spirit If you grieve the Holy Ghost how can you expect that he should comfort you When you are grieved you cannot do your work as you are wont and neither can the Holy Spirit do his work in and for you a guest that is grieved may leave the house that grieves him so this delicate thing the Spirit of God may leave your house desolate when grieved with your sins Mat 23. 38 and then wo to you if God and his good spirit depart from you Hos 9. 12. 8. But above all take heed of quenching the spirit 1 Thes 5. 19 to wit in his motions and graces If God have kindled from heaven the holy fire upon the altar of your heart be careful that it be kept burning there continually in your love to Christ and zeal for him it must never go out Lev. 6. 12 13. You must stir up this fire as the Apostle counselleth 2 Tim. 1.6 and not despise Prophecying for the Priests lips blows it up into a flame it may be quenched either by withdrawing of fuel to wit neglect of Ordinances or by casting on water to wit by falling into foul courses you must beware of both 9. Be not ashamed to become a fool for Christ 1 Cor. 3. 18. Self-conceit self-will and self-love like Noahs three Sons hath spread themselves over the whole World you must deny your own self-conceit and carnal wisdom you must account your self more brutish than any man with Agur Prov. 30. 2 3 when you come to Ithiel and Vcal which is Christ both goodness and power to be instructed in Christs school Act. 4. 13. Remember it was the Devil that spoke in the subtile Serpent Gen. 3. 4 and it was God that spake in the silly Ass Numb 22. 28. Remember also how it was an Ass that carried Christ to Jerusalem Mat. 21.5 10. Yet though you must be as silly as Doves you must also be as wise as Serpents Mat. 10. 16. You must have the silliness and the meekness of wisdom Jam. 3. 13. As you must be wise to salvation so you may be wise to safety in Gods way and not cast your self upon needless dangers Christianity allows you as much of the Serpent as of the Dove the Dove without the Ser is easily entangled and the Serpent without the Dove is venomously hurtful the head of the Serpent and the heart of the Dove makes up the best and the most blessed composition piety without policy is too simple to be safe and policy without piety is too subtile to be good 11. You must chuse any suffering rather than the east sinning you must not chuse iniquity rather than affliction Job 36. 21 for there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest suffering in as much as Moral evil is far worse and greater than that which is meerly Natural Quas non ergo oportet mortes praeeligere saith Zuinglius therefore what deaths ought not a man rather to make choice of what torments not rather undergo yea into what deepest gulf of Hell it self not rather enter than wittingly and willingly to sin the least sin against God The ancient Martyrs would not accept of deliverance upon ignoble and the sinful terms Hebrews 11. 35. They would not throw so much as one grain of frankincense to the Idol though it would have saved their own lives hence Daniel chose rather to be cast to the Lions than to violate his Conscience and so to have a lion roaring in his bosome he knew that in an angry Conscience he might feel the unbearable strokes of an angry God and a man had better anger all the Witches in the world yea and all the Devils in hell than anger God 12. You may not do the least evil no not for the procuring of the greatest good Rom. 3. 8 do no evil that good may come If a lie would save your life you may not tell it Gods people are children that will not lie as their father is a God that cannot lie Isa 63. 8 they will rather die than lie Non ideo negare volo ne peream sed ideo mentiri nolo ne peocem I will not therefore deny least I perish but therefore will I not lie least I sin said the good woman upon the Rack of whom St. Jerome writeth And Austin saith That a man ought not to tell a lie though he might save the whole World from Hell thereby for there is more evil in one lie than there is good saith he in the salvation of all the World and he would chuse Hell rather than sin if set before him for choice Thus the Primitive Christians cried Ad Leones potius quam ad Lenones Throw us to your Lions rather than to your Harlotry though this would save our lives yet would it destroy our souls The Armenian Mouse will die some write rather than be defiled with filth insomuch that if her hole be besmeared with dirt she rather chuses to be taken than polluted Such ought all the servants of God to be 13. Examine your call from God for every action you undertake be oft crying Quo warranto what warrant have I for this or that from the Lord whom I ought to obey in all things and for this end mind those four voices 1. Of Providence how it