Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	holy_a	son_n	41,079	5	6.0417	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95810	Unpremeditated thoughts of the knowledge of God, whom to know, is life eternal. With some discoveries of the mysteries of creation, in the six days work, and the seventh days rest. : To which is added, a short discourse concerning those two great principles of natural philosophy, matter and motion. / Humbly offered to consideration, by one of the Philadelphia Society, who calls her self Irena.	Institut de recherches européennes sur les noblesses et aristocraties.	1697 (1697)	Wing U92A; ESTC R185871	42,220	173

throughout and I might instance in very many particular places of Scripture but this is done by excellent hands who discourse largely on this Subject as Charnock and others we have also in Holy Writ an account of Mankind his divine Original being made after the Image of God in a Blessed State a little lower then the Angels and also of his Deplorable State that he by Disobedience fell into and became worse then the beasts that perish we have also an account of the most Admirable Work of the Redemption of Mankind by Jesus Christ our Lord the methods our Blessed Jesus took are discovered to us by which this great Work was performed for us and also the operation of his Spirit in us all these admirable Mysteries are delivered to us with that Authority Majesty Sweetness and Love that we can never be enough thankful for them But O! How short are we in our understandings of them How little acquainted with their Worth and Excellency till we receive the third and last Blessed Help afforded by God to poor Mankind his own Holy Spirit by whom our minds become Enlightned in the Knowledge of God and of our selves and by being Illuminated by the same Spirit which the Holy Pen-men were Inspired with we come to have the Scripture opened to us clearly and indeed though of our selves we know nothing as we ought to know yet in this Spirit we come to know all things for the Spirit searcheth all things even the deep things of God and shews them unto us our Blessed Saviour tells us in John 16. v. 12. 13. I have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth and he will shew you things to come Now it is our duty to attend to this Voice of God in us to the Teachings of his holy Spirit who is an Interpreter one of a Thousand Those things in St. Paul's Epistles and other Scriptures hard to be understood are made easie by the teachings of this Spirit the Lord did strive with the old World by his Spirit in the minds of men there was not many Preachers in those days but Noah we read was a Preacher of righteousness he preached by his Faith which he shewed forth by his Works Tho' the Lord hath been from the beginning striving with Mankind by his Spirit yet this is the time when we have the greatest Encouragement to pray and wait for this great Blessing as the Fruit and Effect of the Resurrection and Ascension of our blessed Saviour who ascended up on high that he might give Gifts unto men this great Gift of the Father his holy Spirit Our Lord chose some to be Witnesses of his Resurrection and Ascension he hath also made some able to witness to this effect of his Ascension and to the Unworthiest less than the least of all is this grace given He hath been pleased to open the still Eternity and to shew the ever-blessed Deity in the most sweet harmonious Stillness deep holy Silence looking into his own Center of Light beholding his own Heart the lovely Image of Himself which caused that Joy and Desire of bringing forth his own lovely Image and this Desire brought forth into manifestation the only begotten Son of God the glorious Image of the Invisible God and the express Character of his Person who is God blessed for evermore from the Love-Union and Co-Operation of God the Father and God the Son did proceed God the holy Ghost from the Union and pure Mingling of the Awful Majestick Light of the Father with the Refulgent bright Light of the Son doth proceed the sweet meek peaceful Light of the holy Spirit and these Three who bear Witness in Heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit agree in One and all their Operations are conjunct as well as distinct As in the Creation and Production of the World the holy Father and Son impowered and impregnated the blessed Spirit in order to the production of this beautiful World and the Spirit of God moved upon the Face of its own Waters it Self being the Principle of the Water the Comparison of a Hen may not be unfitly used who first produceth the Watry substance of the Egg and then being impregnated or filled with Life and Heat she by moving upon and hovering over this moist substance produceth her own form and resemblance And herein it is that the pure immaculate Virgin Wisdom the holy Spirit of the Eternal God first performs the Office of a Mother or Female from this fruitful Womb it is that all Forms of Things are brought By his Wisdom he formed the Earth and by his Spirit he garnished the Heavens Hear what the Voice of our blessed Mother Wisdom saith of this concerning her self in the Eighth of the Proverbs begin at the 22th Verse and read to the 29th In the 21th verse When he prepared the Heavens I was there when he set a Compass on the Face of the Depth c. Now as at first the World was made by Ruach Elohim the Spirit Wind or Breath of God so it is continued by the same Power if he with-draws his Spirit and his Breath we die and come to nothing he returns with his Spirit and renews the face of all things Now I 'll sing the praise of the Eternal One I know besides Him there is none No sort of Being that can say It hath its Life another way But from this Deep Abyssal Ground The Life of all things may be found To Flow out from th' Eternal Source As Springs do from their Water-Course Springs may wander Sheep may stray The Sun be clouded at Noon-Day The Shepherd seeks the stragling Sheep 'T is not the Clouds the Sun can keep From shining forth so glorious bright As to dispel their Darksome Night Great Rivers from the Sea do flow And back into it swiftly go So our Great Alpha's Omega too Tho' we like a Bird from her Nest flew Wander about to find out Rest We must Return ere we are Blest And now I am inspir'd by Thee Blest Spirit I 'll praise the One Two Three For in th' Eternal One doth lie The All-Mysterious Trinity Oh that Men would praise the Lord for his wonderful Works to the Children of Men All Creatures ought to praise the immense Fountain of their Lives I cannot but put down here a Verse I read in Dr. Ingelo's Bentivolio We thank thee God the Father of us All And celebrate the Worlds Original This is brought to my remembrance and I am glad to receive help through the Vessel of another to quicken me in this sweet work of praising God nay I should be glad to be stirr'd up by the chirping of a pretty little Bird who in its kind sings its Creators Praise But O what cause hath Man to adore and praise the great good God after whose Image he was made in Righteousness and Holiness Gen. 1.27 So

thee shall be called the Son of God This answer Mary could only receive by Faith and Intellectual Light And to strengthen her Faith he further tells her With God all things are possible What our Belief commonly called the Apostles Creed saith of this Mystery is very Excellent that he was conceived by the Power of the holy Ghost in the Womb of the Virgin Mary Doubtless the Substance of the Virgins own Body was the purer for her being a Virgin and a holy Woman yet it was much purer when the holy Ghost came upon her the Spirit of the living and Eternal God the Virgin Wisdom the true Virgin Mother did not as in the Birth of the World produce the Substance purely from her self this would have been Creation but the holy Ghost did penetrate the Substance of the Virgin and did purify and rarisy it that it was a holy Thing indeed that was born of her It was a great Honour and Priviledge the Virgin Mary was made Partaker of and doubtless a good measure of the Spirit of God did abide upon her but this power of the Spirit did not rest upon her but it did abide upon that holy thing which was born of her our blessed Lord Jesus Now this miraculous Work the Conception of our Lord is the second time the Spirit of God the holy Ghost performed the Office of a Mother in such an immediate and extraordinary manner and as the Conception was wonderful so doubtless the Thing conceived was extraordinary the Body of our Lord was a very pure and in a great measure a spiritual Body and yet a true Body for no Substance is the less true but the more so for being Spiritual The World and all things in it as it came immediately from the Spirit of God in its first Creation was very good and therefore true and substantial for nothing can be Good but what is True And now I see how Truth Being and Goodness are One Words I have before heard but never understood till now After the Fall Man and the whole Creation sunk more deep into Materiality but thereby did not become a more real and substantial Being but a more shadowy one as it went farther from the Light Now Matter when it is most dark shadowy and at a distance is capable of being reduc'd to a spiritual state by the Power of God through the Merits of Christ by the Operation of his Spirit for he shall change our vile Bodies and make them like his glorious Body Wonderful changes do pass upon Matter in this lower World by Natural Productions and Alterations and also by Artificial ways As I my self have seen and handled Matter changed from putrified vile stinking to beautiful sweet and in a degree rarified and refined and I believe far greater things of this kind may be performed than I have yet seen And I know Substances freed in any degree from the clogs of Materiality may perform extraordinary things How much more might the Body of our Saviour that never was so strongly fettered perform Wonders while he was on Earth in the Body after his Resurrection and now since his Ascension especially being in all these various states united to his Divinity The Body of our blessed Saviour is now in the blessed State of Glorification and I will not dispute what he can do but I do not at all believe he will change this most glorious bright shining Body of his into Flesh Blood and Bone and give it us to eat and to drink raw whole with I know not how many Absurdities that some profest Christians dare to mention but I hope this is far from any to believe there is no need of this the Flesh profits nothing the Spirit quickens and except we do eat the Spiritual Flesh and drink the Spiritual Blood of Christ we have no part in him Not Flesh and Blood in a more gross sence than our Saviour ever had to give us but in such a sence as a spiritual Man by a spiritual Discerning may receive Lord evermore give me this Bread not only two or three times a year once a month or once a week or only in a piece of Bread so qualified and blest do I desire it but that it may be my daily Food that I may live upon it I can no more spiritually live without it a day than I can live without my daily Bread I desire continually to feed upon the hidden Manna and to drink the Wine of the Kingdom and to feel more of that blessed Promise made good in me that our blessed Jesus gave forth to those that believe on him That out of their Bellies shall flow Fountains of Living Waters I would have my spiritual Sences always exercised about spiritual Objects my Eye stedfastly fix'd on my blessed Jesus Here I must set down a Love-Desire and Breathing after Him Ah blessed Jesus Let me see thy Face Let me draw near to thy most Holy Place With Wings of Eagles let me mount on High There to behold thy Bright Divinity Tho' I am here encompassed with Clay Let me behold the Dawning of thy Day Shine forth O Lord from the Center of my Heart Let Light Divine fill me in every part O fill my Soul with thy Celestial Fire With thy pure Spirit do thou me now inspire That I may sing and bless thy Holy Name And may return to thee thy own pure Flame I will return to thee my Love my All Be always ready to obey thy Call Write in my Heart the Royal Law of Love That whilst Below I may be like those Above Whose blest Employment is to love and sing Hallelujahs to their Heavenly King Now I will joyn with this most blessed Quire With them I 'll Praise with them I will Admire O Holy Holy is the Lord for he Gives Life from Death he sets the Pris'ner free Vnbind my fetter'd Soul that it may be Above the Earth and Materiality c. Let all the People praise thee O God let all the People praise thee thy Saints shall bless thee While I have a being my Soul shall magnify thy Name thou hast done for me great things and that my Soul knows right well Tho' I am nothing nor can do nothing nor know nothing but in thee and by thee I cannot praise thee without thee thou art my Life thou hast begotten me again to a lively hope and through the Riches and free Grace of my God to a poor sinful Creature a worthless Worm to me is this Grace given to become the Child of God and to know this third and last Work of the Spirit of God in performing the Office of a Mother in making me partaker of the New Birth and to know what it is to be born again not of Water nor of Blood but of the Spirit of the living and true God Words are empty things and perish in their own sound but it is a blessed thing to be enabled with the holy Apostles to say What we

with thee in it as with the Three Children in the fiery Furnace when thou art brought to endure as they did Elijah was able to endure the fiery Chariot having been filled with the Spirit of the Lord that pure fiery Spirit had Tinctured him throughout and made him able to endure the fire Ah my God I am now in thy Furnace and have been some time Let me not think it strange concerning the Fiery Trial as if some strange thing happened to me make me to endure the time and degree of heat thou seest best for me I would be Gold seven times refined this I know cannot be done without entering into the Furnace again and again Lord continue this Work till thou hast finished Sin and made an end of Transgression Purge me that I may bring forth more Fruit Fruits of Righteousness Fruits of Renown that there may be Plants in me of thy own Right Hand Planting that I may be ready to every good Word and Work This do thou do for me and do not forsake me A Breathing after the holy Spirit of God Spring up O Well now spring in me Let me Refreshed by thy Waters be I feel thy Holy Quickning Breath Which brings me from the Gates of Death Thy Wind blows freely thy Water 's sweet The Power of thy Flames are great Thy Breath thy Fire thy Water-Spring Is the Life the Birth of every thing Outward and Inward both do grow y thy Pure Water's Over-flow If thou with draw'st thy Quickning Breath There 's nought remains in me but Death Do thou with Fire me now baptize That I may be a whole Burnt Sacrifice And into Ashes I would turn If thou O Lord wouldst be my Vrn Glory be to the Father and to the Son by the holy Spirit now and for ever Amen Amen Some may ask me What Right hast thou to Worship before the Altar to speak or write of Divine Things Thou art not qualified with Learning and Ordination of some great learned Man I say 'T is true I am neither Prophet nor Prophets Son in this sence I am not of the Aaronical or Levitical Priesthood nor capable of it However my God hath made me a King and a Priest to him in some degree and I doubt not but in my blessed Jesus by his Spirit I may offer some acceptable Sacrifice The Sacrifice of a broken and a contrite Heart thou wilt not despise O my God My blessed and glorious Jesus was not a Priest after the Order of the Aaronical and Levitical Priesthood but after the Order of Melchizedeck who was Priest of the most high God to whom Aaron paid Tythes in the Loyns of his Father Abraham And this Melchizedeck was King of Righteousness King of Peace 't is an excellent introduction to the Priesthood to be made so within our Selves this Temper of Mind doth not only introduce but always accompany the True Priesthood who are made Priests unto God by Jesus Christ our Saviour who was made a Priest after the Order of Melchisedeck and bore a resemblance with him as he was without Father and without Mother Which words wherein Melchizedeck was a type of Christ I have not upon me to explain as it relates to our Saviour but in this sence as it respects my Self I am without Father to appoint me to the Priesthood I mean without Man to do this without Mother as any Visible Church for ought I know that will own me yet I am not very solicitous for this if I may be of the Church of the First Born whose Names are written in Heaven I would act as a Free-Denison of this City who is my True Mother I would act by that Free Spirit that Teaches and Guides her Children And it is a Promise to her that all her Children shall be Taught of God and Great shall be the Peace of her Children O my God do thou thus Guide me and Teach me that being Born of the Spirit I may be led by the Spirit and know the Truth as it is in Jesus though I am in a Wilderness full of Difficulties let me not be without a Guide if Thou leavest me a moment I Slip I Fall I find the way Strait the farther I go in it the more Strait but also Pleasant I can Truly Feelingly say Lord All thy ways are pleasantness and all thy paths are peace I would not wander about to change my way do Thou help me to make strait steps to my feet help me to Travel onward through all Difficulties having my Loyns girt my Lamp trimmed ready to meet my Lord in that City of Solemnities where I would always Praise thee always Adore thee always Love thee Thou Great God of Sabbaths for ever Some may say they fear I do not enough Value Ordianances I seem so indifferent about Ordination I say the Spirit of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets there are Babes in Christ there are also Young Men and Fathers or Elders such whose Age Long Experience in the things of God being filled with the Spirit of Wisdom Understanding and a Sound Mind makes them very Venerable such who have known him that is from the Begining who have the Spirit of the Holy God living in them who can Unfold Mysteries and Reveal Secrets such who not only Speak but by the Power of God are Enabled to Effect something in the minds of Men to convey of the same Spirit they have Received It is a Natural Maxim Every Like produceth its Like It is true in Spiritual Things the Apostles and Prophets had this Power and I doubt not but there are some have the same Qualifications now such indeed who feel themselves empty of such Power and Vertue are ready to doubt of this and positively sometimes to say these Things are Ceased we must not expect them now this apprehension of theirs must needs hinder their receiving this Great Blessing and I know no ground they have for it from Scripture our Saviour tells his People He will be with them always to the end of the World He promised the Spirit to Teach them to Guide them to Assist them to do Great and Mighty Works our Saviour no where says he will take away this Blessing again the Prophets had the Spirit in an extraordinary manner under the Dispensation of the Law they performed Wonders they had Servants and such as were called Sons of the Prophets under their Tuition whom they Instructed in the Sacred Mysteries to whom they conveyed much of the Spirit as Elijah to Elisha by casting his Mantle upon him let not the pretensions of any in our time to this who have not been real Possessors of it make us doubt the thing no more then we doubt of the Truth of Christian Religion because we see so many who in Words Profess Christ but in Works Deny him This is a certain sign of a True Prophet He is one who fears God hates Covetousness he Feeds the People with Knowledge and Understanding the

moved upon the face of the Waters Fire and Water are the two most substantial Principles Earth and Air are produced from them Water is the Root and Beginning Fire the Perfection and End of all things The Unctuousness Oyliness of the Chaos produc'd the Light or rather was the Light and Fire the Water was in this beginning of things the greatest quantity till the Fire gets the Predominancy the Firmament the Light and Heat divided the Waters from the Waters thus a vast quantity of Waters was most wisely placed part of it below the Fire that its piercing substance might not with its fiery heat penetrate the Earth too swiftly with its quick motion till the Earth was brought more towards a state of Perfection the Firmament was placed between the Waters to Concoct and Ripen them and to bring their Watry into a Fiery Substance the Oleous Quality of the Chaos was Fire but when it was expanded into the Firmament it much lost its force and became more properly Light and Heat than Fire as it is now placed so that we here see the meaning of that word The Voice of the Lord divideth the Flames of Fire the most compact Body of Fire is divided till it comes to be hardly any longer Fire Bodies are divisible Spirits not the nearer any Body is to Spirit the more hard to have its parts divided Fire is that wonderful Substance I must not I dare not at this time say any more of the Nature of it But notwithstanding the Fire is brought into this peaceful Temperature in the making the Firmament yet it retains so much the Nature of Fire that if it is agitated and contracted it becomes Fire again as we see by a common Experiment it is done by the Burning-Glass But it is made out Excellently and Clearly by the account we have of the Last Great Conflagration in the Scriptures it is said The Element shall melt with fervent heat and that it shall be wrapped up like a Scroul which passage explains the former it s being wrapped up contracted and brought into a narrower compass will so increase the intense heat that the Element shall melt and the Earth and all things in it shall be burnt up And thus it is shewed mo the Conflagration burning the Earth by Fire shall in some respects resemble the Deluge by Water then the Windows of Heaven were opened and the Fountains of the great Deeps were broken up So in the Dispensation of Fire the Element shall perform its Office of Burning as hath been a little before described also the imprisoned Fires in the Powels of the Earth shall be set at liberty their Deep shall be broken up that they may meet their beloved upper Flames to which they always tend And it appears to me that as the World grows nearer its period nearer this Dispensation of Fire the Central Fires do more break their Prisons make their way out of the Earth gain Victory over the Waters under the Earth and sometimes above the Surface of the Earth as is seen by Vesuvius Aetna and other Burnings that in our time have wonderfully issued forth and shewed their Conquest over the Water by sad Effects And Earthquakes may be sometimes caused by the strife of Fire and Water which when Fire gets the predominancy causes the Earth to open for we commonly see the excess of Driness makes the Earth chap and gape Moisture makes it more continuous or clinging together Now I cannot but return with Admiration to behold the Beauty and Wisdom of this Second Day 's Work and say t It was very good And the Evening and the Morning was the Second Day O Admirable Order of things How am I ravished with the sight Who can enter into the deep of this one Sentence The Evening and the Morning was the Second Day According to my scanty measure I shall describe the Philosophers Second Day 's Work It is not to be wondred if I do it not so exactly as some others who have more of the Spirit of Wisdom and are Possessors of her Treasures while I profess to be only a Seeker and Lover It appears to me that the Philosophers Firmament is spread out like a Molten Looking-Glass and to me none but a wise Man can well understand this Passage he hath seen his Light arise out of the Darkness and expatiate it self to the filling his Recipient how large soever it be his Firmament is Light hath the Nature of Fire in it which is encompassed with Water above and underneath the Water is predominant in the beginning of his Work is the greatest quantity that he is ready to call it Superfluous Humidity but as his Work grows towards a state of Perfection the Fire prevails it becomes a Child of the Fire lives in the Fire feeds on the Fire I mean not Devouring Fire this appears not to be in it unless it is agitated and stirred up by too violent motion But Light or Fire so mingled by gentle procedure with the Water that it partakes of the Meek Peaceful Nature of the Water and gives forth so much of its own permanent compact Substance that they become one excellently qualified Essence Fire being in this state of Perfection predominant but such a Fire as is before described that doth not destroy but exalt the Substance to a more fix'd pure permanent state I say something of this Work as it is at the conclusion in this Second Day 's Work because Light and Heat whereof the Firmament consists are powerful Agents to begin and end the Work withal But the spreading forth the Light into a Beautiful Mirror is the end of his Second Day 's Work Now there is an admirable Teaching in this it is a Figure of the Work of the Spirit of God in illuminating the Minds of Men which is a Translating them out of the Kingdom of Darkness into the Kingdom of the dear Son of God This is done in some measure in the beginning in the first Day 's Work but is greatly increased in the Second till we are brought into his Marvellous Light When the Light Center is open in us which was shut and vailed in the Fall it is a blessed thing but when it spreads it self that the Understanding is enlightened in the Knowledge of God of himself and in some degree of the Creation round about him he comes again to be but a little lower than the Angels who are Intelligences who are Fire He maketh his Angels Spirits and those Ministers of his Flames of Fire Nay Man in his first Creation was an Excellently Noble Creature he was the Epitomy of the whole World he was the Little World in which the Great was comprised he had the Elements and all Creatures within himself We may well say We are fearfully and wonderfully made with holy David who had his Eyes opened to see his own Excellent Make. But if the first Creation was glorious how much more is the Second the New Creation in Man