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
A58836	Massachusetts, or, The first planters of New-England the end and manner of their coming thither, and abode there: in several epistles ...	Dudley, Thomas, 1576-1653.; Allin, John, 1596-1671.; Shepard, Thomas, 1605-1649.; Cotton, John, 1584-1652.; Massachusetts	1696 (1696)	Wing S2098; ESTC R10108	23,148	60

manifold Criminations cast upon the same wherein we fear our lothness to intermeddle in these Controversies for fear of making the breach wider amongst Brethren and our desire rather to attend what light we might receive from others in these points wherein we profess our selves seekers after the Truth have made us guilty of neglect in this our duty But now we see our selves pressed hereto by a necessity of justifying our wayes against the many aspersions cast upon them as well as against the reasons used against them For we perceive by the first Letters of our Brethren how the withdrawing of Christians from the Liturgy was imputed to us and by this Reply both in the Epistle and divers passages we cannot but see what apprehensions are raised of us yea many are apt to think that if we had said nothing yet our very act in forsaking the Churches of God in our dear native Country and the Cause of Christ there together with the practise of these Churches thought to be so different from the reformed Churches have been not only a great weakening to the hands of the Godly that have stood by the Cause of Christ but also have caused great disturbance to the Reformation in hand To which much might be said but that we should exceed the bounds of an Epistle Yet let us intreat all the Godly wise to consider and look back upon the season of this great Enterprise undertaken by us and the manner of our proceedings in it with the admirable workings of Gods Providence first and last about it and we think though we were silent they may easily satisfie themselves whether this was of God or men a sinful neglect of the Cause of Christ or a manifest attestation to the Truth by open profession against Corruptions of Worship in use and for the necessity of Reformation of the Church and that confirmed by no small degree of Sufferings for the same For was it not a time when Humane Worship and Inventions were grown to such an intolerable height that the Consciences of Gods Saints and Servants inlightened in the truth could no longer bear them was not the power of the tyranical Prelates so great that like a strong Current carried all down stream before it whatever was from the Law or otherwise set in their way Did not the hearts of men generally fail them Where was the people to be found that would cleave to their godly Ministers in their sufferings but rather thought it their discretion to provide for their own quiet and safety Yea when some freely in zeal of the Truth preached or professed against the corruptions of the times did not some take offence at it judge it rashness and to be against all rules of discretion who since are ready to censure us for deserting the Cause Many then thought it is an evil time the prudent shall hold their peace and might we not say This is not our resting place And what would men have us do in such a case Must we study some distinctions to salve our Consciences in complying with so manifold corruptions in Gods Worship or should we live without God's Ordinances because we could not partake in the corrupt administration thereof or content our selves to live without those Ordinances of Gods Worship and Communion of Saints which he called us unto and our Souls breathed after or should we forsake the publick Assemblies and joyn together in private separated Churches how unsufferable it would then have been the great offence that now is taken at it is a full evidence And if in Cities or some such great Towns that might have been done yet how was it possible for so many scattered Christians all over the Countrey It is true we might have suffered if we had sought it we might easily have found the way to have filled the Prisons and some had their share therein But whether we were called thereunto when a wide door was set open of liberty otherwise and our witness to the Truth through the malignant policy of those times could not be open before the world but rather smothered up in close prisons or some such wayes together with our selves we leave to be considered We cannot see but the rule of Christ to his Apostles and Saints and the practise of Gods Saints in all Ages may allow us this liberty as well as others to fly into the Wilderness from the face of the Dragon But if it had been so that the Godly Ministers and Christians that fled to New England were the most timoorus and saint hearted of all their Brethren that stayed behind and that those Sufferings were nothing in comparison of their Brethrens for why should any boast of sufferings yet who doth not know that the Spirit who gives various gifts and all to profit withal in such times doth single out every one to such work as he in wisdom intends to call them unto And whom the Lord will honour by suffering for his Cause by imprisonment c. he gives them spirits suitable thereto whom the Lord will reserve for other service or imploy in other places he inclines their hearts rather to fly giving them an heart suitable to such a condition It is a case of Conscience frequently put and oft resolved by holy Bradford Peter Martyr Philpot and others in Queen Maries bloody dayes viz. Whether it was lawful to flee out of the Land To which their an swer was that if God gave a spirit of courag and willingness to glorifie him by Sufferings they should stay but if they found not such a spirit they might lawfully sly yea they advised them thereunto Those Servants of Christ though full of the spirit of glory and of Christ to outface tho greatest persecuters in profession of the Truth unto the death yet did not complain of the cowardize of such as fled because they deserted them the Cause but rather advised divers so to do and rejoyced when God gave liberty to their brethren to escape with their lives to the places of liberty to serve the Lord according to his Word Neither were those faithful Saints and Servants of God useless and unprofitable in the Church of God that fled from the bloody Prelates The infinite and only wise God hath many works to do in the World and he doth by his singular Providence give gifts to his Servants and disposeth them to his Work as seemeth best to himself If the Lord will have some to bear witness by imprisonments dismembring c. we honour them therein if he will have others instrumental to promote Reformation in England we honour them and rejoyce in their holy endeavours praying for a blessing upon themselves and labours And what if God will have his Church and the Kingdom of Christ go up also in these remote parts of the World that his Name may be known to the Heathen or whatsoever other end he hath and to this end will send forth a company of weak hearted Christians which dare

MASSACHUSETTS OR The first Planters of New-England The End and Manner of their coming thither and Abode there In several EPISTLES Psal. 84. 3. Yea the sparrow hath found an house and the Swallow a Nest for her self where she may lay her Young even thy Altars O LORD of hosts my King and my God John 4. 21. Iesus saith unto her Woman believe me the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Ierusalem worship the Father Rev. 14. 4. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth Tantum interest non Qualia sed Qualis quisque patiatur In Tabernaculo Testimonij quod erat in Itinere populi Dei velut Templum deambulatorium c. Augustin de Civitate Dei column 46. ex Lib 15. Cap. 20. column 845. Vestra autem Pietas Viri exules quae maluit Patriam quam Evangelium deserere Commodisque carere temporarijs quam permisceri sacris a Christo alienis Egregiam sane meretur laudem Bullinger praefat in comment Apoc. p. 16. Boston in New-England Printed by B. Green and I. Allen. Sold by Richard Wilkins at his Shop near the Old-Meeting-House 1696. THE HUMBLE Request Of His MAJESTIES Loyal Subjects the Governour and the Company late gone for NEW-ENGLAND To the rest of their Brethren in and of the Church of ENGLAND For the obtaining of their Prayers and the removal of suspicions and mis constructions of their Intentions Reverend FATHERS and BRETHREN THE general rumour of this solemn Enterprise wherein our selves with others through the providence of the Almighty are ingaged as it may spare us the labour of impa●●●ing our occasion unto you so it gives us the more incouragement to strengthen our selves by the procurement of the prayers and blessings of the Lords faithful Servants For which end we are bold to have recourse unto you as those whom God hath placed nearest his throne of Mercy which as it affords you the more opportunity so it imposeth the greater bond upon you to intercede for his people in all their straits we beseech you therefore by the Mercies of the LORD JESUS to consider us as your Brethren standing in very great need of your help and earnestly imploring it And howsoever your Charity may have met with some occasion of discouragement through the misreport of our intentions or through the disaffection or indiscretion of some of us or rather amongst us for we are not of those that dream of perfection in this World yet we desire you would be pleased to take notice of the Principals and Body of our Company as those who esteem it our honour to call the Church of England from whence we rise our dear Mother and cannot part from our Native Country where she specially resideth without much sadness of heart and many tears in our eyes ever acknowledging that such hope and part as we have obtained in the common salvation we have received in her bosome and suckt it from her breasts we leave it not therefore as loathing that milk wherewith we were nourished there but blessing God for the Parentage and Education as members of the same body shall always rejoyce in her good and unfeignedly grieve for any sorrow that shall ever betide her while we have breath syncerely desire and indeavour the continuance abundance of her welfare with the inlargement of her Bounds in the Kingdom of CHRIST JESUS Be pleased therefore Reverend FATHERS and BRETHREN to help forward this work now in hand which if it prosper you shall be the more glorious howsoever your judgment is with the LORD and your reward with your God It is an usual and laudable exercise of your charity to commend to the prayers of your Congregations the necessities straits of your private neighbours Do the like for a Church springing out of your own bowels We conceive much hope that this remembrance of us if it be frequent and fervent will be a most prosperous gale in our Sailes and provide such a passage and welcome for us from the GOD of the whole Earth as both we which shall find it and your selves with the rest of our friends who shall hear of it shall be much inlarged to bring in such daily returns of Thanks givings as the specialties of his Providence and Goodness may justly challenge at all our hands You are not ignorant that the Spirit of GOD stirred up the Apostle Paul to make continual mention of the Church of Philippi which was a Colony from Rome let the same Spirit we beseech you put you in mind that are the Lords Remembrancers to pray for us without ceasing who are a weak Colony from your selves making continual Request for us to GOD in all your prayers What we intreat of you that are the Ministers of GOD that we also crave at the hands of all the rest of our Brethren that they would at no time forget us in their private solicitations at the Throne of Grace If any there be who through want of clear intelligence of our course or tenderness of affection towards us cannot conceive so well of our way as we could desire we would intreat such not to despise us nor to desert us in their prayers and affections but to consider rather that they are so much the more bound to express the bowels of their compassion towards us remembring always that both Nature and Grace doth ever bind us to relieve and rescue with our utmost and speediest power such as are dear unto us when we conceive them to be running uncomfortable hazards What goodness you shall extend to us in this or any other Christian kindness we your Brethren in CHRIST JESUS shall labour to repay in what duty we are or shall be able to perform promising so far as God shall enable us to give him no rest on your behalfs wishing our heads and hearts may be as fountains of tears for your everlasting welfare when we shall be in our poor Cottages in the Wilderness over-shadowed with the spirit of supplication through the manifold necessities and tribulations which may not altogether unexpectedly nor we hope unprofitably befal us And so commending you to the grace of GOD in CHRIST we shall ever rest From Yarmouth Aboard the Arbella April 7. 1630. Your assured Friends and Brethren Io. Winthrop Gov. Charles Fines George Phillips c. Rich. Saltonstall Isaac Iohnson Tho. Dudley William Coddington c. TO THE Right HONOURABLE My very good LADY The Lady BRIDGET Countess of Lincoln Madam YOUR Letters which are not common nor cheap following me hither into New-England and bringing with them renewed Testimonies of the accustomed Favours you Honoured me with in the Old have drawn from me this Narrative Retribution which in respect of your proper interest in some persons of great Note amongst us was the thankfullest present I had to send over the Seas Therefore I humbly intreat Your Honour this be Accepted as payment from him who neither hath nor is any more

not stay at home to suffer why should we not let the Lord alone rejoyce that Christ is Preached howsoever wheresoever And who can say that this work was not undertaken and carryed on with sincere and right ends in an holy serious manner by the chief and the body of such as undertook the same The Lord knows whether the sincere desires of worshipping himself according to his will of promoting and propagating the Gospel was not in the hearts of very many in this Enterprise he that seeth in secret and rewardeth openly knows what prayers tears have been poured out to God by many alone and in dayes of Fasting and Prayer of Gods servants together for his counsel direction assistance blessing in this work How many longings and pantings of heart have been in many after the Lord Jesus to see his goings in his Sanctuary as the one thing their Souls desired and requested of God that they might dwell in his house for ever the fruit of which prayers and desires this liberty of New England hath been taken to be and thankfully received from God Yea how many serious consultations with one another with the faithful Ministers and other eminent servants of Christ have been taken about this work is not unknown to some which clears us from any rash heady rushing into this place out of discontent as many are ready to conceive We will here say nothing of the persons whose hearts the Lord stirred up in this business surely all were not rash weak spirited inconsiderate of what they lest behind or of what it was to go into a Wilderness But if it were well known and considered or if we were able to express and recount the singular workings of divine Providence for the bringing on of this Work to what it is come unto it would stop the mouths of all that have not an heart to accuse and blaspheme the Goodness of God in his glorious Works Whatever many may say or think we believe after-times will admire and adore the Lord herein when all his holy Ends and the wayes he hath used to bring them about shall appear Look from one end of the heaven to another whether the Lord hath assayed to do such a Work as this in any Nation so to carry out a people of his own from so flourishing a State to a wilderness so far distant for such ends and for such a Work Yea and in few years hath done for them as he hath here done for his poor despised people When we look back and consider what a strange poise of spirit the Lord hath laid upon many of our hearts we cannot but wonder at our selves that so many and some so weak and tender with such cheerfulness and constant resolutions against so many perswasions of friends discouragements from the ill report of this Country the straits wants and tryals of Gods people in it c. yet should leave our accommodations comforts should forsake our dearest Relations Parents Brethren Sisters Christian friends and Acquaintances overlook all the dangers and difficulties of the vast Seas the thought whereof was a terrour to many and all this to go to a Wilderness where we could forecast nothing but care and temptations onely in hopes of enjoying Christ in his Ordinances in the fellowship of his people Was this from a stupid senslesness or desperate carelesness what became of us or ours or want of natural affections to our dear Country or nearest Relations No surely With what bowels of compassion to our dear Country with what heart-breaking affections to our dear Relations and Christian friends many of us at least came away the Lord is witness What shall we say of the singular Providence of God bringing so many Ship-loads of his people through so many dangers as upon Eagles wings with so much safety from year to year The fatherly care of our God in feeding and cloathing so many in a Wilderness giving such healthfulness and great increase of posterity What shall we say of the Work it self of the kingdom of Christ and the form of a Common wealth erected in a Wilderness and in so few years brought to that state that scarce the like can be seen in any of our English Colonies in the richest places of this America after many more years standing That the Lord hath carryed the spirits of so many of his people through all their toylsome labour wants difficulties losses c. with such a measure of chearfulness and contentation But above all we must acknowledge the singular pitty and mercies of our God that hath done all this and much more for a people so unworthy so sinful that by murmurings of many unfaithfulness in promises oppressions and other evils which are found among us have so dishonoured his Majesty exposed his work here to much scandal and obloquie for which we have cause for ever to be ashamed that the Lord should yet own us and rather correct us in mercy then cast us off in displeasure and scatter us in this Wilderness which gives us cause with Mich. 7. to say Who is a God like our God that pardoneth iniquities and posseth by the transgressions of the remnant of his heritage even because he delighteth in mercy Tho' we be a people of many weaknesses wants yet we acknowledge our God to have been to us a God of many mercies in respect of that sweet peace which he hath taken away from so many Nations yet continuing the same to us in respect also of that liberty we have in Gods house the blessed Ministry of the Word the sweet unity and communion of Gods Churches and Ministers increase multiplication of Churches Christian Government in the Common-wealth and many other mercies we enjoy but especially the gracious presence of Christ to many of our Souls in all these But we will not insist much upon this subject being perswaded it is in the Consciences and Hearts of many of our dear Country-men to think that we should be an object of love and tenderness to that State and People by whose Laws and unkind usages we were driven out into a Wilderness rather then to be judged as desertors of our Brethren and the Cause of Christ in hand with-whom excuse us if we now speak plainly it had been far more easie unto many of us to have suffered then to have adventured hither upon the Wilderness sorrows we expected to have met withal though we must confess the Lord hath sweetned it beyond our thoughts and utmost expectations of prudent men c. c. From New-England November 28. 1645. IOHN ALLIN THO. SHEPARD In Domini Nortoni Librum ad Lectorem Praefatio Apologetica GRAVIS ea quidem Calumnia est et c●ndore spiritus Christiani indigna admodum Fratres sive 〈◊〉 Belgio reduces sive in nova Anglia exulantes Rerum Anglicarum ruinam praesentiscentes tanquam sorices e domo labante aufugisse ut saluti quidem suae provide prospicerent