Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	holy_a	know_v	son_n	8,233	5	5.5694	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61115	The spirituall vvarfare a sermon preched in the parish church of St. Michael Crookedland in London : on the 30 of March being a fast day / by Mr. John Spencer sometime groom to a nobleman.	Spencer, John, Groom.	1642 (1642)	Wing S4955; ESTC R19817	15,816	16

cleansed no such kinde of creatures if ever you think to get the victory for if you appaar in Gods sight and presence with a polluted guilty conscience these sins will undo you Therefore in the first place if even you think to encounter with your enemies and do service for God get a holy life The second weapon must be all your glorious experiences you must say Lord I have been in six troubles yea in seven yet thou hast delivered me I have known when I have sate alone had all my bones broken the arrows of wrath drinking up my spirit I have known when I have lyen upon my sick bed been at the point of death incompassed round about with enemies yet then God did preserve and defend me why thou art the same God still You must goe further you must bring in all the glorious experiments you have had of Gods designes for his Church Tell the Lord you knew when the Church was helplesse and hopelesse and friendlesse when Moses would not go down to deliver the people nor Hester go in to the King nay further you must tell him you knew the Church in a most lamentable condition the enemies pursued them and was even at their heeles the red Sea before them Mountains on the sides of them yet then the Lord saved his people You must tell the Lord what he hath done for England at such a time how neare we were to destruction what dangers compassed us round about and how by a mighty hand and out-stretched arme he rescued us Let this be the second weapon you take up to fight against your enemies Thirdly the third weapon is Faith this weapon where ever God hath put it in any hand hath done glorious things for the Church of God If thou canst but get this weapon into thy hand and heart it will cause thee to live comfortably in the worst times thou canst meet withal and make thee say with the Prophet Heb. 3. Though the fig-tree should not blossome nor no fruit be left in the vine though the labour of the Olive should faile and the fields not yeeld their increase yet will I rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of my salvation Faith will cause thy soule to rejoyce in the worst dayes Faith will inable thee to see Gods love the same in every condition Faith will comfort thee in all thy straites make thee see God the Son when thou art sick as when thou art well when thou art rich as when thou art poor when thou art in the dungeon as when thou art at liberty Faith will cause thee to lay hold on that which God hath promised as if it were already performed Abraham desired to see my day he saw it and was glad Babylon is fallen is fallen Hee that commeth to me must beleeve if he have not this weapon he will doe nothing at all Daniel he understood by reading books that the end of the Captivity now was at hand which he verily beleeved therefore in his ch. 9. ver. 19. he saith O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do defer not for thy own name sake O my God See what out-cries he useth to God for the making good of his promises Even so must you lift up your voices as Trumpets and say Lord hear Lord hearken Lord defer not pluck down thy enemies destroy Antichrist and set up thy Son Thus did Jacob the Lord bid him go out of his country and afterward bid him return to his country and kindred again and he would deal well with him Gen. 31. 9. His brother Esau cometh against him with foure hundred men there was litle hope of life He then begins to encounter with God and tels him Lord thou hast blessed me and I hope thou wilt deliver me from the hand of Esau and so he overcame the Angell which wrestled with him and would not let him depart without a blessing The next weapon that you must take up must bee the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ Put on this caote of mayle and the swords point of your enemies cannot enter get this upon you and you need not to fear though ten thousands encompasse you round about David having this coat of male the righteousnesse of Christ upon him boldy encountred with all his enemies and got the day In the last place you must have the spirit of prayer this beloved hath done wonderfull things with God to overcome him with the enemies to overcome them with the Devils to overcome them this is that which caused the prison dores to flye open all the chains which Peter was bound withall to be unloosed Act. 12. This spirit of prayer wil draw your hearts into the bosome of Jesus Christ this spirit of prayer will unlocke the dore of heaven and let you in this spirit of prayer will cause the God of heaven to hearken what you say and give you audience this spirit of prayer will do wonderfull things what saith the Lord I have heard the cryes of my people and am come down to deliver them This spirit of prayer will cause thy stony heart to break in peices thy ignorant heart to be inlightened free and deliver thee from all troubles within or without these are the weapons you must use The next thing is to shew you how you must fight a man may have abundance of strength be well weaponed yet if hee have not skill may lose his life therefore I will tell you how to fight if you look to overcome first you must fight with them not as they are your enemies and strike at you but as they are Gods enemies and strike at God men are too ready to appeare in their owne cause they will be revenged of such and such men but how few will stand up in Gods cause you must make war against them as they fight against God his glory his ordinances his worship his Saints This consideration you must have when you make war with your enemies that they are Gods enemies and fight against God As thus The soul beginneth to see the glory of Christ in his ordinances to be eclipsed all the Saints of God their lives and liberties lye at the stake if I rise not up and encounter all will be gone if I should hold my peace the very stones in the streete would cry out against me that is the first Secondly thou art to fight with full resolution never to give over whilst one of thy enemies is left alive Beloved many men seem to be somebody at first they gird their weapons about them couragiously they are very busie in the work of God for an hour or a day or two beseech the Lord to enlighten their blinde eyes to break their hard hearts to purge their impure souls but alas presently they leave off they have gotten something therefore looke no further Know a little leake will drown a whole ship a little fire burn a whole house a little sinne destroy the soul one

it is you fight this is that which puts life into a souldier you that have money estates parts and gifts liberties and the like you may come and lay out all here to your great advantage Jesus Christ seems now to set up his glorious standard and make a Proclamation Who will be on my side who O I beseech you flock to Jesus Christ you that have the gift of prayer run in with that you that have honors run in with them you that have riches run in with them see if they will do any good Let that I beseech you stir you up to the work of the Lord Nay again consider what a glorious opportunity you have a man might have lived when he could not have told what to have done that would have appeared famous in the world for Jesus Christ Now God calleth upon you mercie calleth upon you to send in your ayde and help to fight in this great quarrell to fight with fasting with prayer with tears sighes and grones God now likewise calleth for the outward aswell as the inward mans estate he calleth for spirituall and temporall things Again consider the Lord hath made choice of you you onely that are his people to fight these combates God could have destroyed his enemies himself if not he could have called to his Angels to have helped him but the Lord hath made choice of you he will not overthrow his enemies without his people set up the Gospel without his people you must tell him of what he said long ago that Babylon shall fall Consider this that the Lord hath chosen you out before many others And then again consider what you get in this battel is for your selves let this pluck up your spirits If a Captain should come to his souldiers and tell them if you take the Town all shall be yours would not this put life in the souldiers God comes in and saith Be of good comfort my sons and daughters all you win shal be for your selves I have no need of these and these things those that have mourned with him shall rejoyce with him God saith he will pluck down his enemies and set up his people and tels us when it is so his people shall rejoyce And then lastly consider you shall be rewarded though you do not overcome the Lord will one day bring in his account shew thee how many dayes thou hast spent for him how many bitter complaints thou hast put up before him and will as certainly reward thee for it as if thou hadst the benefit of it already This should incourage you to go on though you should never live to see the accomplishment of what God hath promised you shall be rewarded as if you did overcome But in the next place a word or two to those that for present are not the souldiers of Jesus Christ I beseech you hearken you will finde it a sad thing that you are not the souldiers of Jesus Christ surely it had been better for you that you never had a being then to be a Rebell from birth to death to Christ First consider if thou be not Christs thou must of necessity be the devils souldier Oh that men and women would but sit down alone and seriously consider whose servant am I whose work do I of whom do I take pay Beloved I beseech you consider it you cannot serve two Masters The Lord Christ speaketh to them that said they had Abraham to their father you are of your father the devil for his works you do If we are the servants of Jesus Christ we will fight in the cause of Jesus Christ think upon it what a sad thing it is to be a souldier of the devil Secondly consider who it is you fight against if you be souldiers of the devil you fight against Jesus Christ and what a sad thing wil it be when God shall bring in a Bill of Indictment against you the Saints a Bill of Indictment against thee thy husband thy wife thy children Lord here is one that fought against me all my dayes did what lay in his power to take away my life liberty it were thousand times better thy hand should rot off then that thou shouldest do any thing against the Lord what will he say to thee such a time thou livedst when such and such a thing to my dishonour was put out against me and here is thy hand to it It were a thousand times better for thee that thy tongue should fall out of thy mouth then that ever thou 〈…〉 dest be knowne to speake a word against Christ and his cause take heed that thou beest not found a fighter against God Happily the wife may bring in sad bill of Indictment against the husband that he strive not only to keep himself but her out of heaven to keepe her from the places where she might edifie it will be a sad thing to thy soul that thou wilt neither go to heaven nor suffer others this Christ took notice of in the Scribes and Pharises that had the key of knowledge and would not enter themselves nor suffer those that would to enter Luke 11. 52. Thirdly consider what thou must have for thy worke thou that wilt not be broken off from thy prophaning of Gods day poluting his ordinances what doest thinke thou shalt have Jesus Christ hath a rich reward for those that serve him and so likewise for those that serve him not But Beloved them riches will make thy heart bleed to think of My freinds if you should come and look upon your tender hearted wife and see her upon the Rack but all about the place rejoycing it would make your hearts ake within you shall come to heaven and see happily a poor wife a poor husband a poor childe pulled one joynt from another God laughing and all the Saints and Angels laughing at it Beloved this will be an unspeakable torment to you the terrour of Almighty God will be upon those that fight against God In the last place I beseech you be exhorted to lay down your weapons Thou hast been a fighter against God this forty or fifty yeers O now be perswaded to lay down these weapons O my people saith God Micah 6. 4. what have I done to you wherein have I wearied thee testifie against me So saith God to many a man What have I done to thee that thou departest from mee and keepest company with such vile wretches Thus Jesus Christ also O why will you dye O house of Israel turn unto me my bloud shall make you clean So the Spirit saith Come and the Church of the living God saith Come the Embassadors of Christ wooe and beseech you to come in Never more be seen with a weapon against Christ These are glorious dayes that are a comming for the people of God but wo be to that man that Jesus Christ shall find persecuting his Church O the wretched estate of such a creature But to conclude what though thou canst not but confesse that thou hast been a fighter against God all thy dayes if now thou wilt come in and lay downe thy weapons thou shalt have as kind entertainment of God as those that have been his this forty years Abraham Isaack and Jacob shall not be more beloved of God than thou shalt be This often troubleth a poor child when it hath done that which is contrary to the parents will it will not come in their sight it is afraid of the frownes of the father O feare not the more polluted thou art the more will the Lord weep over thee he runs to meet a prodigall child you do not know what feasts the Lord will make in heaven at your conversion you shall see your name written in the book of life Me thinkes this should move you to come in and close with the Lord Jesus do not conceive that you shall not find entertainment for you shall be as welcome as any Nay and let me tell you the Lord will have a thousand times more glory by you than by the civil man Happily you have a neighbour that hath never bin known to swear an oath to tel a lye the Lord wil have twice more glory by you than by such a one if he should come in Consider also what good thou maist do to poor enemies Paul intimates so much I knew a man in Christ about 14. yeares ago he wil not name you who he is for feare of vain-glory yet he tels you by and by I Paul a persecutor O beloved how wil Gods people be encouraged yea the enemies of God when they shal see such a vile persecutor as Paul to come in to Jesus Christ Such a one as Mary Magdalen to come in to Christ this must needs be a mighty encouragement But to conclude all if thou dost not come and presently lay down thy weapons the time will be past And as the tree falleth so it lyeth the night commeth when man cannot work Therefore I beseech you lay down the weapons of your religion defer not I beseech you say not I will do it to morrow the next day or the third day no do it presently do not say I wil do it when I come home but now whilst you sit in your pews resolve to lay down your weapons come to Jesus Christ Many more instructions might have bin delivered but the time hath prevented FINIS