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	lord_n	soul_n	18,529	5	5.0289	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54074	A warning of love from the bowels of life, to the several generations of professors of this age that they may awaken and turn towards the life, to be truly cleansed & saved by its powerful living virtue, before the storm of wrath break forth and the over-flowing scourge overtake them, which will sweep away the strongest and most wel-built refuge of lies, and sink those souls (even into the pit of misery) which are there found, when the storm comes : held forth in four propositions, assertions, or considerations concerning man in his lost estate, and his recovery out of it.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1660 (1660)	Wing P1218; ESTC R18690	7,652	8

till the springing up of the eternal vertue according to the Eternal pleasure nay the earth is not so much as prepared to receive the Seed until the Lord send his Plough into the heart So that it is impossible for fallen Man to attain to so much as one true breathing or desire after God again this must arise from the Grace from the Mercy from a New begetting by the free gift towards Life towards the Divine Image again which was slain in Man and the impression of it on him wholly lost ever since the Foundation of the world in his heart which God hath set there ever since he chose it And indeed fallen Man degenerated Man would the Spirit of the Lord let him alone and not disquiet him likes his own estate well enough The world being written in his heart his thoughts and desires are centred there of themselvs reach no further Might he but have the enjoyment of the creatures without and the enjoiment of such a kind of earthly knowledg Wisdom within as he now aspires after he would sit down in Egypt Babylon resting fully satisfied with Egyptian knowledg wisdom with the Babylonish treasures might he have enough of them and never think of Sion and the pure holy Land of Life any more But when the Eternal stirs in him when the pure Light opens at any time then he has some little Glimmerings of his estate then he has some sense of his fallen condition and some desire to remedy it What doth he then Then he bestirs himself to get somewhat to cover him then he gathers stones and makes mortar to build up a Wall and raise a Tower that he may not lye open to the deluge of Wrath for by this stirring of the life he hath some little taste and sight that he is not one with the life but departed from it The soul being awakened by the opening of its own spring in it begins to feel the want of its spring It wants the true Vertue the true Peace the true Joy the true Comfort and Refreshment the true Rest the true Liberty the true Life the true Light and for want of this its estate is miserable And in the stirring of the Spring it feels this misery and in this feeling it groans it mourns it pants it cryes out and the creatural earthly spirit can have no rest because of it What therefore doth the creature do to still this cry Why it joyneth as it were with the soul it useth all the means it can to attain that which the soul sees the want of It inquireth after God hearkneth out after those that know him studieth the Law observeth the Statutes and Ordinances performeth the Duties Believeth Prayeth Hopeth Waiteth nay what is it which the creature will nor set upon in this distress especially if the Convictions of the Eternal Light pursue and follow him close to still the cry of the soul and to attain the price of the Eternal Inheritance which is set before the Soul which the Soul can never be at rest or satisfied without some assurance of and progress towards But all this will not do Man in all his own obedience as well as in his disobedience is shut out There is a flaming sword which turns every way to keep the way of the Tree of Life insomuch as man can by no means come at the way to the true life nor enter into the strait and narrow Path that leads thereto but as he is cut to the heart his life let out and as he dyes and comes into unity with that which slayes him and keeps the way from him So that man in his running to God is thrust by as well as in his running from him in his willing and desiring after him he is rejected as well as in his willing against him It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that sheweth mercy Mark There is a Birth of Bloods a Birth of the will of the Flesh a Birth of the will of Man Joh. 1. 13. all these will all these run some of them very hard but they are all thrust by and dis-regarded by the Lord both in their willing and in ther running There are many found running the race but one obtains the prize which one is he that is born of God to whom when God gives the prize he will say to all the other Births notwithstanding all their Willing and Running their Beleeving Hoping Praying c. Depart from me I know you not ye are the fruit of a strange Womb not of my Spouse and so must not inherit my Kingdome And as all these will be cut short of the Inheritance at last so all that they do at present is loathsome to the Lords soul The sacrifice of the wicked is abomination how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked minde Prov. 21. 27. His Sacrifice his Worshipping of God his Praying his reading of Scriptures his meditating thereon and of God and his Works his Beleeving Hoping Waiting fearing of Threatnings and applying of Promises c. all is abomination The wicked man he whose heart is not circumcised by the Lords Eternal Spirit whatsoever he can or doth Sacrifice to God the Lord loaths and it cannot profit his soul Object Yea when he does them in hypocrisie so they are Answ. Nay more then so When he doth them with an evill heart they are much more abominable how much more when he bringeth it with a wicked minde but let him bring it with a good minde with that which he calls the good heart for the circumcised heart the heart of the true New Birth is only the good heart not that heart which every false Birth is apt to call good let him bring it with that heart which he takes to be the upright heart with an honest intention so far as he knows take his Sacrifices at the very best at the very purest he can attain to yet then they are Abomination And the reason hereof is plain and manifest The Fountain is unclean the Root in him is corrupt And who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean Make the Tree good and his fruit will be good But while the Tree is bad the Fruit cannot be good Now can the holy God be pleased with that Sacrifice which comes from the unclean Spring Can God own or approve that knowledge of himself that Faith that Love that Obedience that Integrity or Uprightness that Industry or Diligence those Prayers or Breathings which man pumps up out of the old Cistern Nay all these must into the Pit with the common Filthiness and Pollutions of the earth And when the Lord rakes this aside from the several sorts of Professors what will be left in them Oh how many have builded up a wall dawbing it with untempered Mortar which will not stand in the day of Trial nor shelter them from the Eternal Flames Oh what yelling and roaring will there

A WARNING OF LOVE FROM THE Bowels of Life TO THE Several Generations of Professors of this AGE that they may Awaken and Turn towards the Life to be truly cleansed saved by its powerful Living Virtue before the storm of Wrath break forth and theover-flowing Scourge overtake them which will sweep away the strongest and most wel-built refuge of Lies and sink those souls even into the pit of misery which are there found when the storm comes Held forth in four Propositions Assertions or Considerations concerning Man in his Lost Estate and his Recovery out of it Propos. 1. That Man is fallen from God THere is an Everlasting Infinite pure Fountain and Well-spring of Life from whence all Creatures came from whence their Life Being Motion Vertue and Rest flows in which they all have a place and standing according to their nature estate temperature and course of operation in his eternal counsel who made all disposeth of all ruleth in and over all eternally Whose everlasting kingdom and dominion which was before all and will be after all cannot be excluded by any power or dominion which ariseth after it but onely so far as it self hath pleased it hath given way to that power of darkness which is contrary to it which how it sprang up what it hath to do and how it is to vanish is not for man's comprehension to fathom In this Spring of life man had an especial place and standing The Lord had created and placed him Supreme under himself over the works of his hands gave him his Kingdom here on earth under him gave him his Image to rule in even a sufficient measure of that eternal wisdom in which he formed him to which he was to be subject himself and by which he was to reign over and order all with delight joy and comfort in himself to the praise and glory of him who formed all and had given him the dominion over all Here was the sweet estate the sweet peace the sweet liberty the sweet unity of all all being kept and preserved in that Life Vertue Wisdom Goodness Power and Love wherein they were made the creatures naturally becoming subject to serving and obeying man man using them and ruling over them not in the Tyranny not in the Lust not in the Vanity not in the Excess but in the Righteousness in the Love in the Meekness in the Moderation in the Divine Wisdom in the pure power and virtue of the Life man likewise naturally vailing to his Maker walking in his Light living in his Life shining in his Beauty conquering and triumphing over all that might assault in his strength and continuing perfect and streight before him in purity and cleanness of heart in that sweet pretious preserving fear which naturally springs up in the heart of the creature not degenerated towards his Creator and Preserver Now what could man want having the Spring of Life so near him What could he desire in the Purity in the Life which the Father of Life could have with-held from him Had he asked the Spirit could the Father have denied him and had he stood still a while in the Life out of the Lust could he have forborn asking the Spirit Had he not so suddenly been tempted to the Tree of Knowledg surely he had eaten of the Tree of Life and had lived for ever But man being in honour lodged not one night HE FEL THE FIRST NIGHT read me who can but became like the beasts that perish He lost the Divine Image and then had at best but the Natural but that depending upon the Divine the beauty thereof was lost too He lost the Eternal Wisdom he lost the Spring he lost the Godhead he lost that which was to reign over the Creatures and then he became but as the Creatures nay worse then the creatures What he henceforth knows of God as he stands in the Degeneration he knows naturally like bruit beasts even by the natural exercise of his mind with the faculties thereof even as the beasts learn and know by their nature after their kind and in what he thus knows he corrupts himself worse than the beasts Let the Lord try him never so mu●h never so often drop down of the dew of heaven upon him send him line upon line precept upon precept now a little and then a little yet he still remains bruitish both in his understanding receiving and in his making use of it all Still he forgets the truth and loses himself in the image gets a notion an imagination a comprehension of somewhat into his natural part which changes him not inwardly but still he is the same in his root ground and nature but the Life the Eternal vertue he is still estranged from and so is bruitish in all his knowledg and apprehensions of God and his Truths bruitish in his worshipping of him bruitish in his belief and hopes and his immortal soul perishes under all Outward Israel was a true and full resemblance of him who had many Teachings a pure Law of Worship and sacrificing many Prophets to reduce and restore them to the right path of holiness and obedience but stil they were erring in their hearts from the Lord and his pure Law of Life not knowing their Owner or their Masters Crib so wel as the Ox or Ass did theirs Isa. 1. 3. Propos. 2. That Man by all the imaginations that can enter into his heart and by all the means he can use or courses he can run cannot return back to God again or so much as desire it The Fall of Man from God is such that it hath benummed all his sences yea so bereft him of them that he cannot feel his own estate He is dead spiritually dead and can no more feel his death his spiritual death then a man naturally dead can his natural death He is bewitched into a fools Paradice where he hath a new Life a new Vertue a new Wisdom a new Kingdom a new Dominion which is indeed but Death with which he is so transported that he forgetteth the old and in this new spirit and estate cannot so much as desire after it Men speak of the Reliques of the Image which the first man had Ah poor deceived hearts What Reliques of Life are there in a Dead Man What Reliques of purity in a man wholly degenerated and corrupted Nay nay The Spiritual Image the Divine Image the Eternal Life the pure Power and Vertue is wholly lost and there is nothing left but what is captivated and destroied through the degenerating power There is nothing at all of the Eternal Kingdom of the Spiritual Image of the Divine Life to be found in fallen Man but a little seed and that Seed not so much as sown in his earth as he stands in the degeneration for the sowing of it is the beginning of the work anew And now who can read this Riddle The Kingdom is within every man yet not so much as sown in any man