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	see_v	word_n	7,457	5	3.9873	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34988	Charitable advice in a letter to the French Protestants, into whatsoever parts of the world dispers'd, by reason of their present sufferings and persecutions, from the hands of the Roman Catholicks / first written for the use of the French Protestants by Stephen Crisp ... ; and since translated out of the French, for more publick benefit.	Crisp, Stephen, 1628-1692.	1688 (1688)	Wing C6926; ESTC R37689	10,838	17

Regeneration without which all Divine Service all Religious Worship all Confessions and Absolutions all Alms and Prayers are nothing worth For Vnless a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven And you my Dear Friends who at this time are under so great Sufferings dispers'd here and there in several Countreys only because ye could not conform to a Religion which ye judge to be Idolatrous You I say cannot Exercise your Minds to better Purpose than in an exact and faithful View and Examination of your selves and your own Souls to find out what were the Reasons and Motives of such your Refusal Namely whether your Education or worldly Interest or Dependance upon another or some mighty Empire and Authority of others over your Consciences Or lastly whether it was only the Light of the Word and Spirit of Jesus Christ directing your Hearts and guiding your Understandings to perceive the Errors and Idolatries of the People of the Land that so enclin'd your Consciences to obey God and his Grace and Truth and did finally give you Courage rather to abandon the Land of your Nativity and all your Worldly Endearments than defile your Consciences by sinning against that Light and Grace which the Father of Lights had bestowed upon you If there be any among you that know this to be their Case what Consolation have these Men under all Adversities With what Joy must they needs be filled when they feel the Testimony of God in their Consciences bearing them witness that it is only upon this Account that they undergo all these Sufferings and Persecutions O! What Advantage will ye reap as many of you as give up your selves to this way of Conduct in all things In the mean while try search and examine if there be not yet something in your Consciences contrary and repugnant to that Light which shineth in your Hearts if there be not something that is heavy and cumbersome to your Souls and which hinders your Reconciliation with God The more ye set your selves after this manner to sound prove and search your Words and Actions by this Light which shineth in your Hearts the more clearly will ye see the Necessity which ye have to amend and reform your Ways your Manners and your Lives in the sight of God and will also be so far from believing that ye have done enough in obeying the Spirit of God in one particular that you will not cease to go on and persevere in bearing your Crosses all your days until ye have vanquished and surmounted all that stands in Opposition to the Holy Will of God so that in the end ye lose not the Reward of what ye have hitherto done For it is not Faithfulness in one thing only that will be accepted and approved by God but he expects and absolutely wills that we be obedient to him in all Things And thus Moses heretofore Prophesied of Jesus Christ And it shall come to pass saith he that the Soul which heareth him not in all things shall be cut off The most sure Way then to have Peace with God and to be reconciled to him is to follow the Lord intirely as did Joshua without any Reservation or Excuse that is to say Ye ought to forsake quit and abandon all that is Evil in your selves as well as the Idolatry of others who would have you run with them to the same Excess of Riot In the second Place I would advise you to consider what good Effects your present Sufferings have had upon you in Order to your Sanctification for this is the great Care and Concern of a truly Christian-Soul to grow better under what Degree of Afflictions soever God shall think fit to send to Kill and Crucifie in his People whatsoever is contrary to him that they may be like Gold tried in the Furnace of Tribulation It will be not a little advantageous to you to consider now if you seriously set your selves about the Work of MORTIFICATION and to Examine Whether that Vain and Giddy-headed Temper which Reigned so much in you in your own Countrey prompting and perswading you to follow and Embrace all the Modes and Customs of a Corrupted World be not still living in you at this Day And if ye have not too earnest Inclinations to suit and fashion your selves to the Wicked and Degenerate Modes Ways and Manners of the Countries whither ye are scattered O my Friends Had ye a true Sence of your Estate and Condition What Gravity Modesty and Sobriety would ye not express in all your Words and Actions This would easily perswade those among whom ye now live that it was out of a good Principle of Religion and Holiness that ye abhorred the Superstition and Idolatry of your own Countrey and not meerly upon the Account of some Forms and Ceremonies of Religion not agreeing with yours For ye are not ignorant that Religion consists not barely in Forms and Ceremonies since by them one Man is not made better than another Moreover ye cannot but remember that ye have read That the Apostles and Primitive Christians would have no Communication with those Men who though they observ'd the same Rites and Ceremonies would not be obedient to the Power of Godliness And indeed herein lies the Essence and Life of Religion and the Glory and Crown of all Sufferings that one can undergo for the sake of Religion to wit when those who are afflicted feel in their Souls during the time of their Sufferings the Power and Life of him for the Love of whom they bear up manfully under all their Torments and Agonies and do wholly abstain from the defilements and pollutions of the world Thus did the ancient Disciples of Jesus Christ behave themselves who were by Persecutions driven from one Coast to another into Asia Cappadocia and Bithynia but were not content only to undergo great sufferings but were also accompanied with a remarkable savour of life for we read That the Word thereby grew and spread it'self abundantly But what advantage will a Protestant have above a Papist so long as they both continue the Subjects of the Prince of the Air who rules in the hearts of the Children of disobedience of what Religion Profession or Sect soever they be Wherefore I pray and exhort you by all the compassion that the love of God can suggest not to vaunt and boast your selves of the small Reformation already among you but rather to observe and consider what yet there is behind to be reformed and corrected before ye can arrive at that end toward which ye should always direct your aim to wit a life altogether pure and conformable to the blameless life of God himself in whose presence ye hope one day to appear and dwell for ever Now since we cannot attain hereto by good works but only by Grace all those therefore who are subject to the Pure and Free Grace of God are hereby engaged on the one side to renounce all sort of impiety and concupiscence and on the other side to live righteously soberly and godly in this present evil world Tit. 2.11 Try then and examine well your selves and see how your Lives Manners and Coversations answer that Grace and that Light of the Truth which has been communicated to you by Jesus Christ the Fountain of all Grace and Light and according to what I have before told you ye may know by your own souls how to make a true judgement for they will dictate to every one of you in what a condition he is in the sight of God. I have but one thing more to put you in mind of which is to excite you to all humble acknowledgments and thanksgivings to Almighty God that it hath graciously pleased him to open the hearts of many Kings and Princes to entertain and assist you as also of a great part of the world to succour you in your necessities This as ye ought to esteem it a great mercy of God's so ought the serious consideration of so many kindnesses infinitely to oblige you to put your whole trust in the Lord and to serve him Religiously in all places where God shall appoint your Lots in requiting as much as in you lies his love and bounty For his mercies and loving-kindnesses should strongly engage your hearts to love the Lord above all things in the World by which also the hearts of all others who love him will be more and more enlarged to assist you in those things which ye shall have need of both Spiritual and Temporal Truly my dear Friends I have often looked upon you with great sorrow considering you as a people under great afflictions and trials and wishing these sufferings and persecutions would have had better effects upon you than I fear they have produced Upon this account it was that I thought fit to visit you as I do at this time with these few Considerations being moved thereto by the pure love of God and hoping that most of you will accept my Advice with the same love and sincerity that it was indited And I pray God that what I have said may in some measure engage and affect your hearts with a desire of those Spiritual Qualifications which ought constantly to be your aim But if on the contrary any of you shall slight or reject my good Counsels and shall spend his time in cavelling and criticizing either upon my Person or the stile in which I express my self let such a one know he can do me no harm but only his own Soul and I cannot be any way affected thereby unless it be with grief for such a person for I have not said any thing but faithfully to discharge my own Conscience My reward I expect of the Lord only who hath taught me by his Holy Spirit to love all men and do what in me lies for the good of every one for I know full well it is not the will of God that any one should perish but that all should come to repentance and the knowledge of the Truth that they may be saved FINIS

CHARITABLE ADVICE In a Letter to the French Protestants Into whatsoever Parts of the World Dispers'd By Reason of their Present SUFFERINGS AND PERSECUTIONS From the Hands of the ROMAN CATHOLICKS First Written for the Use of the French Protestants by STEPHEN CRISP one of the People called Quakers And since Translated out of the French for more Publick BENEFIT Mat. 5.12 Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your Reward in Heaven For so Persecuted they the Prophets which were before you Mark 13.13 And ye shall be hated of all Men for my Names sake But he that shall endure to the End the same shall be saved With Allowance LONDON Printed by G. L. at the Two Swans without Bishopsgate 1688. To the READER THE following Papers though designed only by the Author for the Vse of the French Protestants yet containing in them so much excellent and wholesom Advice I deem'd it would not be altogether unacceptable to make them speak English that our own Countrymen may have before them a fresh Idea of that Poor Peoples Calamities which may at once excite their Charity to them and hearty acknowledgments to Almighty God that still preserves us in prosperity and quietness And no one need suggest to himself from these hints any fear to the contrary For under God we have an Infallible Security a Royal and Gracious Sovereign Promising and Resolving to protect us in the exercise of our Religion in Peace Plenty and Credit for which may he find at the hands of the Lord Mercy and Blessings here and a Happy Life hereafter I have no more to desire of the Reader but that he will pardoning the faults a hasty Translation seriously mind what is here said and heartily put it in practice so that if which God forbid it should chance to be our turn to fall under the like sufferings we may not be ashamed of Christ and his Cross and the Good Cause of our Forefathers but after those blessed Examples may manfully despise and patiently pass through all tribulations in this Life in hopes of that happy share in the Heavenly Mansions which God that cannot lie has promised to such his Servants and Followers And that God will give us his Grace to enable us thereto is the daily Prayer of Thy hearty Welwisher and and Brother in Jesus Christ J. F. CHARITABLE ADVICE By way of Letter to the French Protestants Into what Parts of the WORLD soever Dispers'd c. DEAR FRIENDS 'T IS by the Inspiration of the Spirit of God and the Holy Motions of Love which it produces in my Heart that I am prompted at this time to Write to you And I do by the same Spirit of Love and Charity intreat the good God that it will please him by his invisible Power to open your Hearts to receive this short Word of Advice which I present you with and which concerns only your Everlasting Felicity It is Evident that your Sufferings are great and the noise of them has reach'd many Provinces Kingdoms and Countries by which means a great part of the World has been able to make Reflections upon the Cruelty of your Persecuters and at the same time to lament your Miserable Estate which has so nearly affected most men that they have not been content only to be touched with the greatest Compassion for you but have stretch'd forth their Hands to lift you up and assist you in your Necessities shewing themselves thereby truly affected to Christianity it being the indispensable Duty of all Christians to do what good they can one to another or in the Phrase of the Apostle To do good unto all Men but especially to those of the Houshold of Faith. These Motives prevail'd upon me to visit you in this your Day of Tribulation with a few Lines of Counsel and Advice which you will do well to accept with a sincere Heart and Humble Spirit for you cannot but reap some Advantage from them I. To begin then Consider seriously in the first place what could be the cause of your Sufferings and why the Lord permitted these times of Tryal and Affliction to come upon you Where by the Way I would not have any Man think me so presumptuous as to pretend to judge you or to conclude That God is always angry with those whom he suffers to lie under the greatest Afflictions No God forbid For who ever underwent such Afflictions as the most dear Children of God But though many have born severe Sufferings for the Tryal of their Faith and to be thereby Purified and prepar'd either to serve as Witnesses of God's Holy Name among the Sons of Men or to possess his Heavenly Kingdom into which nothing that is filthy and unclean can enter Yet nevertheless it cannot be denied but that there are many who suffer for having provok'd the Lord to Anger by their Disobedience Now which of these Reasons was the Subject of your Sufferings you cannot better understand than by that Light of Truth which shineth in your Hearts and manifesteth it self in your Consciences For doubtless whoever of you will set your selves seriously and attentively to consider your Ways and Manners in times past will quickly find how it stands between GOD and your own Souls For the Lord God hath a Faithful and True Witness in the Consciences of every one of you which hath Enregistred and kept in Order all the Actions you have done from your Childhoods This Witness will help you to Recollect how you walked with the Lord in the days of your Prosperity and Liberty in your own Countrey when ye sat every Man under his Vine and every Man under his Fig-tree How little have you answered the Kindnesses and Bounty of God to you How little did ye prize that Light of Understanding which God gave to you in greater measure than to your Countreymen So that although it were as offensive to the Eyes of God for you to follow and obey the Lusts and evil Passions of your Hearts as for your Neighbours to be Prostrated to and Adore their Images of Wood and Stone Yet how great were your Luxuries your Debaucheries your Quarrels and Jealousies one against another How did the greater Part of you content your selves with a Religion differing indeed in Form from that of the Countrey but in Life and Conversation almost the same giving your selves full Career and Liberty in all sorts of unlawful Pleasures Vanities and Concupiscencies of the Flesh Was it not a thing most disagreeable to the Spirit of God to see you at that same time call upon him with your Lips and Dishonour him by your scandalous Lives which yielded Occasion to your Adversaries of reproaching you and your Religion And it has been a great while the Observation that most Travellers into your Countrey have made that there was little Difference between the Protestants and Papists of France as to matter of Life and Conversation unless it were that the latter frequented the publick Churches and the others