Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	good_a	grace_n	lord_n	7,245	5	3.6848	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44677	A funeral sermon for that very reverend, and most laborious servant of Christ, in the work of the ministry, Mr. Matthew Mead who deceased Oct. 16, 1699 / by John Howe ...	Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1699 (1699)	Wing H3025; ESTC R3677	24,534	76

observable and amazing that so few such cries are sent up to Heaven Men are involv'd in a common Ruine overtures are made to them of a common Salvation but they are in reference hereto destitute of common sense i. e of such sense as is common in less important cases Their misery lies in their having lost God but little do they apprehend this loss Amidst their other miseries they cry out when some that are mightier oppress others but none says Where is God my Maker Job 35. 9 10. The Lord looks down from Heaven upon the children of men to see if any will understand and seek after God but they are every one gone back or are in an averse posture none doth this good no not one Psal. 14. and 53. None till he give an effectual touch to their drowsie Spirits and say inwardly and vitally to their Hearts seek ye my face so as to make their Hearts answer Thy face Lord will we seek Preventing Grace doth this Psal. 27. 8. otherwise they feel no need of God they miss him not are content to be without him in the world yea say to him depart from us Distance from him is chosen and desired From him whose off-spring we are who is the Father of Spirits their Parent their Life their Blessedness of whom they are and to whom if they tend not they cannot but be miserable It is the Salvation of the Soul that is the end of Faith 1 Pet. 1. 9. that Faith by which we are to come to God believing that he is and will be the rewarder of them that diligently seek him being redeemed to God by the bloud of his Son Rev. 5. 9. And who suffered once the just for the unjust to bring us to God 1 Pet. 3. 18. and who upon his suffering intercedes for the same purpose and is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him because he ever lives to make intercession for them But this Salvation of the Soul this coming to God or redemption by Christ and his intercession thereupon who looks after neither the end the Salvation of their Souls coming back to God nor his Method for attaining this end are regarded or so much as thought on To have this Flesh saved from any thing that is grievous to it every one covets and endeavours in vain It must however rot in the Dust and be in the mean time a prey to Worms It s own Father Mother and Sister will devour it Job 17. 14. The Father of their Spirits would save and satisfy them but him they shun and will not know Who that observes how men spend their days even under the Gospel which makes their time a day of Grace wherein they should be working out their Salvation can think they have any concern to be saved Their life is continual trifling some pass their days in mirth and jollity doth this signify any sense of misery or fear of perishing and that destruction from the Almighty is a terrour to them These are not more idle than others are idly busie to get Estates and a Name on Earth but what is this to their being saved They are liable to the common more sensible miseries of life and they are without God but this is no misery with them This misery is their element and burdens them not Were their present case and future danger in this respect apprehended and felt how full of outcries would this World be O we are lost and perishing Such cries would ring through the Earth and pierce Heaven But the same carnality that is death and makes them miserable makes them stupid too and insensible of their misery And are these reasonable Souls intelligent immortal Minds and Spirits that are thus stupify'd turn'd into such Clods and Stones O deplorable case Methinks such an Office set up in the World of men that are to save their own and other mens Souls should make them consider and bethink themselves what is it for It must have had an original and so it hath a Divine Aspect a tast of Heaven upon it and must have an end suitable to the Wisdom and Grace of Heaven which claims to be entertain'd otherwise than with neglect and contempt And indeed this leads to take notice more expressly in a further Inference 3. That there is a saving design on foot in the World Set a foot by the Blessed God himself Otherwise in so great a ruine as is come upon this wretched World what could it signifie for any man to offer at saving either himself or others How vain an attempt were it for any man out of so deep and horrid a gulf of impurity misery darkness and death to think of lifting up himself and of plucking up others as high as Heaven This intimation carries hope with it It is a Voice from Heaven to such as are so imploy'd as Timothy was O save thy self and as many as thou canst besides It takes away all pretence for despair God puts not men upon vain attempts A lively hope ought to spring from hence And we are saved by hope Rom. 8. 24. As without Hope no man would ever design for Salvation or any thing else Hope is the Engine that moves the World keeps the intelligent part of it in action every where No man could rationally stir in pursuit of any design whereof he despair'd But as to other designs mens hopes are commonly self-sprung and end in shame But when one can say Lord thy word hath caused me to hope Thou hast put me upon aiming to be saved and to save others it speaks this to be a just and a hopefull undertaking I will therefore set about working out my own salvation and with my own other mens as far as is within my compass expecting he will graciously set in with me and work in order hereto to will and to doe of his own good pleasure without which all mine will be lost labour 4. We further collect That the Blessed God is most intent upon this design That which this supposes and that which it imports speaks him intent It supposes he hath appointed a Sovereign Saviour set over this work otherwise there could be none subordinate It imports he hath settled an Office on purpose Made it some mens special business to intend as every one ought his own salvation and withall to give himself up to this great work the saving all he can An Office set up for the saving of Souls ought to be a great thing in our eyes and is a standing testimony for God how willing he is men should come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved 5. They that bear this Office should be highly honoured for their works sake For how glorious an employment is it to be instrumental to Salvation To be in any kind Saviours I could tell you of some great Princes in the Pagan world that to their other splendid Titles have had the addition of Soter a Saviour as to

subordinate Agency which in distinct capacities may belong to it as in the mean time to reserve to God and Christ the supream Agency which is most peculiar and appropriate to Divine Power and Grace 1 Pet. 1. 5. Eph. 2. 8. 2. We now come next to shew That it was very manifestly agreeable to the most accurate Wisdom of God to imploy such in the design and work of saving others as were themselves concern'd and needed to be saved too that were to be upon the same bottom themselves with the rest and to venture their own Souls and their everlasting concernments the same way and into the same Hands And this we shall labour to clear and make evident by degrees 1. It was fit since Creatures were to be employ'd in this work to make use of Intelligent Creatures such as could understand their own errand and act with design in pursuance of it 2. Mankind was universally lost so as all do need being saved themselves 3. Therefore no intelligent creatures else could be employed herein but the unfall'n Angels 4. We may adventure to say after God and when he hath so determined the matter himself though it was not fit for us to have said it before him as if we would direct the Spirit of the Lord or as his Counsellours would instruct him Isa. 40. Rom. 11. that it was more suitable to make use to this purpose of sinfull Men than of sinless Angels Let us sever and lay aside herein what may at first sight seem specious but is really not considerable in this matter as that men in the same miserable circumstances with those whom they are to perswade that they may save them will be so much the more earnest and importunate use so much the more pressing arguments as having been upon the brink of hell and the borders of destruction for we suppose such as are most likely to promote the salvation of others to have been made sensible of their own undone lost state and to be in a way of recovery themselves But hereupon it may also be supposed they will therefore so much the more pathetically plead with sinners Their knowledge of the terrors of the Lord will urge them to perswade men 2 Cor. 5. 11. and make them eloquent at it But what more than Angels When the Apostle 1 Cor. 13. supposes one speaking with the tongue of Men and Angels doth he not intend a gradation and signify the latter far to excel And are we to suppose that the benignity of their own natures their kindness to man and their perfect conformity and obediential compliance and subjection to the will of their sovereign Lord would not have oblig'd them to do their uttermost if he had sent them upon such errands we cannot doubt it But 1. It is apparent that what the Blessed God doth in pursuance of this saving design he doth to the praise of the glory of his grace and that it might appear the more conspicuous in the whole conduct of this affair 2. That it is not within the compass of any created no not of angelical power to change the hearts of men and turn them to God If Angels were the constant Preachers in all our Assemblies they could not with all their heavenly eloquence convert one sinner if the immediate Divine Power did not exert it self The People are willing in the day of his Power who was God-man as Psal. 110. 3. The Jews at Mount Sinai received the Law by the Dispensation of Angels yet kept it not Act. 7. 53. 3. Yet if God should put forth his own power by such a Ministration If Angels should appear in glorious aray among us and speak to men with greater advantage and more perswasive eloquence than we can conceive and marvellous effects by divine concurrence should ensue Those great effects among a sort of creatures led by sense and who judge by the sight of the eye would all be ascribed to the visibly glorious Instrument not to the supreme Agent who is invisible and out of sight even as in effects of another kind the invisible Power and Godhead that do all are little regarded by stupid man whose dull eye stays and rests in the visible outside and fixes his mind there too 4. Therefore the rich treasures of the Gospel are put into earthen vessels that the excellency of the power might be i. e. might appear to be of God and not of the inferiour Instrument 2 Cor. 4. 7. 5. In this way of dispensation wherein God speaks to men liable to the same passions with themselves he accommodates himself to their frail state who cannot bear glorious appearances and to their own option and desires who say to Moses Exod. 20. 19. Speak thou to us and we will hear but let not God speak to us lest we die When they had heard the sound of the trumpet and the voice of words accompanied with thunders and lightenings they entreated that they might hear no more Heb. 12. 19. The celestial glory while our mold and frame is dust doth more astonish than instruct Those soft and pleasant words This is my beloved Son hear him spoken by a voice from the excellent glory in the Transfiguration made the Disciples that heard them sore afraid and fall on their faces Matt. 17. How would it unhinge the world and discompose the whole state of civil affairs if all conversions were to be as Saul's was when he became Paul with such concomitant effects not only on himself but all others present especially being wrought as most Conversions may be in numerous Assemblies the Convert struck blind for some days and all that were in the place speechless Perhaps we have one such instance to let us see how inconvenient it were such instances should be common or that this should be God's ordinary way of converting and saving sinners 6. The holding of men in this world under the ministery of Men not of Angels in reference to the affairs of their Salvation is certainly more sutable to the condition of Probationers for eternity and another world and more aptly subservient to the business of the Judgment-day when all the talents men were entrusted with their natural endowments and faculties as well as additional advantages are to be accounted for We shall hereafter understand better but may in good measure conjecture now why there is so fix'd a gulf by the Wisdom and Counsel of God between the two Worlds the visible and the invisible and so little commerce between them And whereas in the Old Testament the apparition of Angels was more frequent that passage the world to come being said not to be put in subjection to Angels seems to signify the time after the Messiah's appearing should be more entirely left to the conduct of a Gospel-ministery as the connection Heb. 2. vers 4 5. intimates 7. And tho' the compassions of men who have been in danger to perish themselves cannot be supposed more powerfully to influence them unto an