Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A90291
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The stedfastness of promises, and the sinfulness of staggering: opened in a sermon preached at Margarets in Westminster before the Parliament Febr. 28. 1649. Being a day set apart for solemn humiliation throughout the nation. By John Owen minister of the Gospel.
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Owen, John, 1616-1683.
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1650
(1650)
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Wing O808; Thomason E599_9; Thomason E618_7; ESTC R203108
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32,151
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58
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to him All our Doubtings are nothing but so many Questionings of his Love We cry Lord Jesus Lovest thou us and agaiâ—â—Lord Jesus Lovest thou us and that with distrustfâ—◠〈…〉 thoughts That it is not it cannot be 〈…〉 the Vnbelieving Jews the holy Ghost tells us Jesus was grieved for the hardness of their hearts Mark 3. 5. And as it is bitter to him in the Root so also in the Fruit Our Staggerings and Debates when we have a Word of Promise is a Grief to his holy Spirit as the unkindest return we can make unto his Love 2 It provoks him How can this be sayes Zechariah that I should have a Son This shall be saith the Lord and thou thy self for thy questioning shalt be a sign of it Thou shalt be dumb and not speak Luke 1. His Doubting was a Provocation And our Saviour expresses no less in that bitter reproof to his Disciples upon their wavering Matth. 17. 17. O faithless and perverse Generation how long shall I be with you How long shall I suffer you How long shall I suffer you That is in this Unbelieving frame Poor Souls are apt to admire the patience of God in other matters That he spared them in such and such sins at such and such times of Danger but his exceeding patience towards them in their carnal Reasonings and fleshly Objections against Believing this they admire not Nay generally they think it should be so God would not have them one step further Nay they could be more stedfast in Believing as they suppose might it stand with the good Will of God when all this while this fram of all others is the greatest provocation to the Lord he never exercises more forbearance then about this kind of Unbelief When the Spyes had gone into Canaan had seen the Land and brought of the good Fruit of it then to repine then to question whither God would bring them into it or no This caused the Lord to swear in his wrath that they should not enter into his rest When God hath brought men to the Borders of Heaven discovered to them the Riches and Excellency of his Grace admitted them to enter as Spyes into the Kingdom of Glory then to fall a staggering whether he intends them an Entrance or no is that which lyes heavie on him The like may be said of all Promised Mercies and deliverances whatsoever That this is a Provocation The Lord hath abundantly testified in as much as for it he hath oftentimes snatched sweet morsels from the mouths of men and turned aside the stream of Mercies when it was ready to flow in upon them If saith he you will not believe you shall not be established Isa. 7. 9. The very Mercy but now Promised concerning your deliverance shall be with-held Oh stop not Success from Ireland by Unbelief 3 It dishonors God In the close of this Verse it is said Abraham was strong in Faith or staggered not giving glory to God To be established in Believing is to give God the greatest glory possible Every staggering Thought that ariseth from this Root of Unbelief robs God of his Glory 1 It robs him of the Glory of his Truth He that believeth not hath made him a Liar because he believeth not his Record 1 Joh. 5. 10. Let men pretend what they please as most an end we give in specious pretences for our Unbelief the bottom of all is The questioning of the Truth of God in our false hearts 2 It robs him of the glory of his Fidelity or Faithfulness in the discharge of his Promises If we confess our sins he is faithful to forgive us our sins 1 Joh. 1. 9. He hath engaged his faithfulness in this business of the forgiveness of Iniquities He whose Right it is calling that in Question calls the faithfulness of God in Question 3 It robs him of the Glory of his Grace In a word If a man should chuse to set himself in an universal opposition unto God he can think of no more compendious way then this This then is the fruit this the advantage of all our staggering we rob God of Glory and our own Souls of Mercy Vse 5 Be ashamed of and humbled for all your staggerings at the Promises of God with all your fleshly Reasonings carnal Contrivances issuing therefrom For the most part we live upon Successes not Promises unless we see and feel the print of Victories we will not Believe The engagement of God is almost quite forgotten in our Affairs We travel on without Christ like his Mother and suppose him only to be in the croud but we must return to seek him where we left him or our journying on will be to no purpose When Job after all his complaining had seen the End of the Lord he cryes out Now I abhor my self in dust and ashes You have seen the End of the Lord in many of his Promises Oh that it might prevaile to make you abhor your selves in dust and ashes for all your Carnal Fears and Corrupt Reasonings upon your staggerings When David enjoyed his Promised Mercy he especially shames himself for every thought of Unbelief that he had whilest he waited for it I said saith he in my haste That all men were Liars And now he is humbled for it Is this to be thankful to forget our provoking Thoughts of Unbelief when the Mercy is enjoyed The Lord set it home upon your Spirits and give it to receive it 's due manifestation 1 If there be any Counsels Designs Contrivances on foot amongst us that are bottomed on our Staggering at the Promise under which we are Oh let them be instantly cast down to the ground Let not any be so foolish as to suppose that Unbelief will be a foundation for quiet Habitations You are careful to avoid all wayes that might dishonor you as the Rulers of so great a Nation Oh be much more careful about such things as will dishonor you as Believers That 's your greatest Title That 's your chiefest Priviledge Search your own Thoughts and if any Contrivance any Complyance be found springing up whose seed was sown by staggering at the Promise root them up and cast them out before it be too late 2 Engage your hearts against all such wayes for the future Say unto God How faithful art thou in all thy wayes How able to perform all thy Promises How hast thou established thy Word in Heaven and Earth Who would not put their Trust in thee We desire to be ashamed That ever we should admit in our hearts the least staggering at the stability of thy Word 3 Act as men bottomed upon unshaken things that are not at all moved by the greatest appearing Oppositions He that believeth will not make haste be not hasty in your Resolves in any distress Waite for the Accomplishment of the Vision for it will come So long as you are in the way of God and do the Work of God let not so much as your Desires be too hasty after appearing Strengthnings and Assistance Whence is it that there is amongst us such bleating after the Complyance of this or that Party of the Sons of men perhaps priding themselves in our Actings upon Unbelief as though we proclaimed That without such and such we cannot be protected in the Things of God Let us I beseech you live above those things that are unworthy of the great Name that is called upon us Oh that by these and the like wayes we might manifest our self-Condemnation and Abhorrency for all that Distrust and Staggering at the Word of God which arising from Unbelief hath had such deplorable Issues upon all our Counsels and Undertakings FINIS
through unto the appointed Issue though it stand him in the laying out of his Power and Wisdom to the uttermost Hab. 3. 9. Thy Bow was made quite naked according to the Oath 's of the Tribes thy Word If Gods Oath be passed and his Word engaged he will surely accomplish it though it cost him the making of his bow quite naked the manifestation of his power to the utmost It is true Never did any wait upon God for the Accomplishment and fulfilling of a Promise but he found many difficulties fall out between the Word and the Thing So was it with Abraham in the business of a Son and so with David in the matter of a Kingdom God will have his Promised Mercies to fall as the Dews upon the parched gasping Earth or as the shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land Isa. 32. 2. very welcom unto the Traveller who hath had the Sun beat upon his head in his travel all the day Zion is a Crown of Glory in the hand of the Lord as a royal Diadem in the hand of her God Isa. 62. 3. The precious Stones of a Diadem must be cut and pollished before they be set in Beauty and Glory God will have oftimes the precious living stones of Zion to have many a sharp cutting before they come to be fully fixed in his Diadem but yet in the close whatever Obstacles stand in the way the Promise hath still wrought out it's passage As a River all the while it is stopped with a Damme is still working higher and higher still getting more and more strength until it bear down all before it and obtain a free course to it's appointed place Every time Opposition lyes against the fulfilling of the Promise and so seems to impede it for a season it gets more and more Power until the appointed hour be come and then it bears down all before it Were there any thing imaginable whereof we had not Experience that it hath been conquered to open a door for the fulfilling of every Word of God we might possibly as to the Apprehension of that thing stagger from some other Principle then that of Vnbelief What is there in Heaven or Earth but God and his ministring Spirits that hath not at one time or other stood up to it's utmost Opposition for the frustrating of the Word wherein some or other of the Saints of God have put their trust Divels in their Temptations Baits Subtilties Accusations and Oppositions Men in their Counsels Reasonings Contrivances Interests Dominions Combinations Armies Multitudes and the utmost of their Endeavours the whole frame of Nature in it 's Primitive Instituted Course Fire Water Day Night Age Sickness Death all in their Courses have fought against the Accomplishment of the Promises And what have they obtained by all their Contendings All disappointed frustrated turned back changed and served only to make the Mercy of the Promise more amiable and glorious I would willingly Illustrate this Demonstration with an Instance that the Almighty al conquering Power that is in the Promise settling all staggering upon it's own Basis of VNBELIEF might be the more evident I might here mention Abraham with all the difficulties and appearing impossibilities which the Promise unto him did pass through and cast to the ground the Mercy of it at length arising out of the grave for he received his Son from the dead in a Figure Heb. 11. 19. Or I might speak of Joseph Moses or David but I shall rather chuse a President from among the Works of God in the Dayes wherein we live and that in a business concerning which we may set up our Eben-Ezer and say Thus far God hath been a helper Look upon the Affaire of Ireland The Engagement of the great God of Revenges against Murder and Treachery the Interest of the Lord Christ and his kingdom against the man of Sin furnished the undertakers with manifold Promises to carry them out to a desired a blessed Issue Take now a brief view of some Mountains of Opposition that lay in the way against any Success in that Place and hear the Lord saying to every one of them Who art thou O great Mountain before my People thou shalt be made a Plain Zech. 4. 7. Not to mention the strivings and struglings of two manner of People in the womb of this Nation totally obstructing for a long time the bringing forth of any Deliverance for Ireland nor yet That mighty Mountain which some mis-named a Level that thought at once to have locked an everlasting Door upon that Expedition I shall Propose some few of many that have attended it 1 The silence that hath been in Heaven for half an hour as to this Business The great Cessation of Prayers in the Heavens of many Churches hath been no small Mountain in the way of the Promise When God will do good for Zion he requires that his Remembrancers give him no rest until he do it Isa. 62. 7. and yet sometimes in the close of their Supplications gives them an Answer by terrible things Psal. 65. 5. He is sometimes Silent to the Prayers of his People Psal. 28. 1. Is not then a grant rare when his People are silent as to Prayers Of how many Congregations in this Nation may the Prayers Tears and Supplications for the carrying on of the Work of God in IRELAND be written with the lines of emptiness What a Silence hath been in the Heaven of many Churches for this last half hour How many that began with the Lord in that Work did never Sacrifice at the Altar of Jehova nissi nor considered that the Lord hath sworn to have War with such Amalekites as are there from Generation to Generation Exod. 17. 15 16. They have forgotten That Ireland was the first of the Nations that laid waite for the bloud of Gods People desiring to enter into his rest and therefore their latter end shall be to perish for ever Numb. 24. 20. Many are as angry as Jonah not that Babylon is spared but that it is not spared Hath not this been held out as a Mountain what will you now do when such or such these and those men of this or that Party look upon you as the grass upon the house tops which withereth afore it groweth up wherewith the Mower filleth not his hand nor he that bindeth sheaves his bosome That will not so much as say The blessing of the Lord be upon you we bless you in the name of the Lord But now shall the faithlesness of men make the Faith of God of none effect Shall the kingdom of Christ suffer because some of those that are his what through Carnal Wisdom what through Spiritual Folly refuse to come forth to his help against the mighty no doubtless The Lordsees it and it displeases him he sees that there is no man and wonders that there is no Intercessour even marvels that there are no more Supplications on this behalf therefore his own Arm brought