Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	heart_n	holy_a	lord_n	17,551	5	3.7649	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49835	The exercise of the spirit in spiritual things and the many good and peaceable fruits of righteousness experimentally witnessed ...	Laythes, Thomas, d. 1701.	1686 (1686)	Wing L751; ESTC R24001	4,532	8

THE EXERCISE OF THE SPIRIT IN Spiritual Things AND The many good and peaceable Fruits of Righteousness Experimentally Witnessed in that great Work of God upon my Soul and Spirit in the time of my first Convincement of the Truth and Since With some Experiences in the time of my Travel and Exercises therein To those whose Faces are turned Zion-ward and Travelling on towards their Eternal and Everlasting Rest And for all People to Try and E●amine themselves by that Manifestation of the Spirit that is given to every Man to profit withal 1 Cor. 12.7 No Chastning for the present seemeth to be Joyous but grievous Nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of Righteousness unto them that are Exercised thereby Heb. 12.11 Bodily Exercise profiteth little but Godliness is profitable unto all things having the promise of the life that now is and that which is to Come 1 Tim. 4.8 Printed in the Year 1686. The Exercise of the Spirit in Spiritual Things c. Dear Friends IN Dear and tender Love do I communicate these things following unto you who have travelled and are Witnesses with me herein and not only unto you my Friends is this given forth but in that universal Spirit and love of God really intended for the good of all People and more especially unto those whose desires are real and sincere after the living God and his Eternal Truth And be it further known unto all that great hath been the work of the Lord in this the day of his Power and many the great and weighty Exercises that the dear Children and People of the Lord hath been Exercised in since God in his Everlasting Love did first Visit our Souls and Convince us of our lost and undone State and Condition because of Sin and Transgression which we had long lived and delighted in for many Years yea I say when the Lord our God did first awake our Souls out of Sin and call us to Repentance by his Light and Spirit in our Consciences Oh then was the time of Sore Travel and great Lamentation and Mourning finding our Souls in a lost and undone Condition without a Saviour Till at length God in his infinite Love and great Mercy unto our Immortal Souls opened a door of hope unto us even that great Mistery that was hid from Ages and Generations but now made known unto us the believing Gentiles Christ in you the hope of Glory and believing in him and joyning to his Light which shined in our hearts our faith and hope increases more and more and though at the first this our Estate was not joyous unto us yet afterwards it brought forth the peaceable fruits of Righteousness as we were Exercised thereby First then As one of those good and peaceable fruits of Righteousness that was brought forth in this our sore travel and Exercise in Spirit the Lord did beget a true tender breathing desire in our Hearts and Souls after himself and the true knowledge of his way which desire in us could no way be satisfyed by any external visible thing but our Souls and Spirits still breathed and thirsted after him as the thirsty Hart after the water Brooks yea more then after our daily Food until the Lord in his good time satisfyed our ●ungring Souls with good things and did Administer Rest and Peace unto our troubled Spirits 2. Another good and peaceable fruit was brought forth the Holy fear of the Lord and Oh the Awe and Dread and Fear that was upon us in the time of our first Convincement And not only of things unlawful but even those things that were lawful in themselves and in meat drink and apparrel buying selling and otherwise and if I should here declare and speak of what God hath made some of us Witnesses of there is many that could not believe But this we may say as we have been kept in this holy fear we have been preserved out of much Evil And as the fear of God increased in us the fear of Man deceased and we grew bold and strong in the Lord. 3. Another good and peaceable fruit the Lord did not only beget good desires in our hearts and a fear to offend him but he hath also raised a love in our Souls unto him and his precious Truth which love did far exceed our love to all Natural and Earthly things So that by this love we have been Constrained to part with all other things tho formerly never so near and dear unto us yea I say because of that superabounding and over-coming love which God had shed abroad in our hearts 4. Another good and peaceable fruit hath been Exp●rienced Oh how hath the mighty power of the Lor● broken our hard Hearts and Mollified and Tendred ou● Spirits in a deep sence of our own Nothingness and God● great love and mercy unto our Souls yea with wha● Mourning and Lamentation have we besought the Lor● many time in secret going weeping on our way and seeking the way to Zion with our faces Thither-wards tho despised and rejected of the world yet the Lord hath remembred us in this our low Estate and turned ou● Mourning into Joy and our heaviness into rejoycing Yea he hath bound up the Broken-Hearted and comforted the sorrowful Soul Blessed be his holy Name 5. Another good and peaceable fruit was brough● forth that true Humility and self denial when we became little and low in our own Eyes and of mean Account in the Eyes of the World being made willing to do or to suffer any thing for the Lord and his Truth thinking no Pains too much nor Labour too hard that w● might meet with the beloved of our Souls waiting and depending upon the Lord alone that he which ha● thrown down would raise up again and he that ha●… kill'd would make alive and he that 〈◊〉 wounded 〈◊〉 sin that he would seal our wounded Spirits And how hath he poured Oyl into our wounds and lift up th● hands that hung down and strengthened the feeble Knee● and been a present help unto us in the time of our grea●est need 6. Another good and peaceable fruit was Experienced in this our holy Exercise in Spirit that tho our Peace was lost yea that Peace we had in our former vai● Conversation in the World while we lived and delighte● therein in their worship and going after their Teacher● and in the Forms Fashions Customs and followship thereof and not redeemed therefrom neither knowing the true Worship nor right Teachers nor yet the the holy Union and fellowship in the holy Spirit until the Lord by his dreadful and awakning Call reached unto our Hearts and gave our Spirits no rest often moving of us to come out from among them least we die in our Sins to come out of our vain Conversation and come into the Holy Life and Godly Conversation to come out of their Worship and to come into the true Spiritual Worship which Christ himself had set up and Established above Sixteen

Hundred Years since Jo. 4. which is in the Spirit and in the Truth and to come out from their Teachers unto that Teacher that cannot be removed into a Corner Isa 30.20 And know the Lord to be your Teacher which was and is the Teacher of his People in all Ages and Generations Gen. 15.1 Isa 54.13 Jer. 31.33 34. Heb. 8.10 11. And so come out of the Forms Fashions Customs and Fellowships of the World into the Saints Fellowship which the Apostle declares of 1 Jo. 1.3 5. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ And as we hearkened unto this Holy Call and obeyed the Spirits Motions we came to know the right way and walking therein Then we which had long doubted in Religion and Worship came to be fully satisfyed and resolved Having often livingly enjoyed Gods Heavenly power and divine Presence in our blessed Assemblies and Meetings to our great Comfort Souls Satisfaction and Refreshment and thus we came to discern between the pretious and the vile both in our selves and others and those that had the form of Godliness from them that had the power and turning away from them that had the form only being made witnesses of the power and then coming out from the Worlds fellowship both of Professors and Profane and into the true Unity and fellowship in the Holy Spirit and waiting low therein our peace did spring and increase like good David who said Great peace have they that love thy Law and nothing shall offend them And then we witnessed the saying of Christ fulfilled in our hearts My peace I give unto you not as the world gives peace the worlds peace often arising from the increase and injoyment of worldly things like that rich man spoken of by Christ Luke 12.19 Which had goods laid up for many Years said Soul take thy ease but that peace Christ gives unto his is divine and spiritual arising from a living sense and feeling of the love and favour of God through Jesus Christ our Saviour and Reconciliation unto him thereby 7. Another good and peaceable fruit hath followed a holy War made in truth and Righteousness against those great and grand Enemies of our Souls the Devil the world and the flesh and all that doth spring up and arise from these evil grounds and would make a Separation between our Souls and the Lord and grieve and offend his holy Spirit against these our Spiritual Enemies and no other daily do we make war And our weapons are not Carnal but Spiritual yea mighty and powerful for the subduing and overcoming of the man of sin And as for carnal weapons we have laid them down long since and can no more take them up again having made them useless and unfit for that service according to that Antient Prophesie of old and now in a good measure fulfill'd in many in this our day Isa 2.4 They shall beat their Swords into Plowshares and their Spears into pruning Hooks and learn war no more And blessed be the God of Heaven that hath redeemed our minds out of Wars and fighting and brought us to live and dwell ●n love and peace with all Men according to Christs Doctrine Mat. ●… 44 where he saith Love your Enemies bless them them that curse ●ou and do good to them that hate you and pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you and herein we have found much Peace and Comfort to our Souls praises to the God of peace 8. Another good and peaceable fruit hath been Experienced that tho sorrow and sadness did continue upon us for a time yet joy and gladness followed yea that joy that did exceed the joy of Harvest being of that heavenly quality to ascend upwards with high praises to the God of Heaven singing and making Melody in our hearts unto the Lord. And according to David that Man of G●d who in his experience saith Light is sowen for the Righteous and joy for the upright in Heart and how did Christ comfort and encourage his before his departure from them John 16. telling them they shall be sorrowful but saith he Your sorrow shall be turned into Joy and I will see you again and your heart shall rejoyce and your joy no Man taketh from you as he had said unto them before It is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the comforter will not come unto you but if I depart I will send him unto you Oh the great love and tender care of Christ over his little Flock and many ●re made witnesses hereof in this our day praises to our God for ever 9. Another good and peaceable fruit hath been witnessed a ●oly growth and blessed increase unto God in that great work of Re●eneration and Sanctification for nothing doth more make for ●his our inward and spiritual growth in the things of God then this ●ur spiritual Exercise this is not like that outward and bodily ex●●●se the Apostle speaks of that profiteth little but here is true Godness which is profitable unto all things having the promise of the ●●fe that now is and that which is to come Lastly Another good and peaceable fruit hath been brought forth 〈◊〉 many whose hearts and minds souls and spirits are come to be ●●tled and established upon that sure Rock against all the temptati●ns and assaults of the Enemies of their souls peace both inwardly ●nd outwardly and these are the grown members of the true Church of Christ against which the gates of Hell do not prevail Glory glory to our God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ both ●ow and for evermore Amen ●rom Dailehead near ●eswick 〈…〉 Tho s Laythes Given forth from that experience God hath given me of 〈…〉