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	lord_n	people_n	7,137	5	4.6663	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23655	A word to the army, touching their sin and dutie if it may bee, to convince them of the greatness of the one, and their defectiveness in the other : with a word of advice in the conclusion, humbly tendred to them, in order to their recovery to that path of unfeigned repentance / by William Allen, late Adjutant-general to the Army in Ireland ...	Allen, William, Adjutant-general of the army in Ireland.	1660 (1660)	Wing A1053; ESTC R20056	16,036	22

doing herein are you not again instead of forsaking fallen and falling into some of your old steps that yet you would bee deemed to have repented of else why did you not long since come before the Lord in a very solemn day professing you were there like a company of poor children that knew not one step of your way to inquire of the Lord a right way when before your coming there you had resolved of so considerable a part of your way as the conduct of your Army and that not for that time onely as was then your pretence which had been somewhat more tollerable and whether not also of that rare composition since called the Committy of safety you may do well to consider at least whether in any rational mans judgement the constitution of it considered it can bee thought to bee the product of such a solemn daies seeking the Lord for direction and is not your Army thus setled intended to bee influential to the framing your whole fabrick of Government now in the forge and have not some of you already said that if it please not the people it is to bee offered to they must bee pleased whether they will or not and yet pretensions of all freedome to bee used towards all good people yea I have been told by some of you that you intended to do nothing in your Government without advice had with good people from all parts hath that been or is it intended what is this other than the very first step that Oliver Cromwell took and who seeth not that this Army will yet again notwithstanding all its mistakes be supream admit nothing above it or equal to it in all our greatest concerns of life liberty or estate which must needs have this effect to make good men nauciate it or what is to bee done by it as formerly and then those that will follow for the loaves and transgress for a morsel of bread shall again bee admitted in their sphear of subserviency to a competent share in this new gain'd dominion over the lives liberties and estates of such as cannot for conscience sake bow to such an Image when set up and if this bee indeed forsaking sin then I understand it not but this is your way to which if God will condescend to save by you will serve him in but not out of it as I perceive but know this you must come to his waies or bee broken by him and deceive not your selves I beseech you with pretensions of doing good out of the way of it though they may bee as high raised in your imagination as Heaven yet if not laid in deep humiliation for past transgression with thorow abhorring your selves in sense of them as also declining all paths that lead to the like in future they will prove but abortive and like a house built upon the sand that will assuredly fall and great will bee the fall of it and therefore since its most certain you cannot prosper in any work in your hands till the Lord have accomplished this great work of unfeigned repentance upon your hearts consider your waies and see if the Lord hath recovered you to this path of his good pleasure manifest it and bless him for it and if not take heed of pretending to it but rather confess your sin and give glory to the Lord who hath said Hee will indeed bee sanctified by all that draw neer to him and before all the people hee will bee glorified and truly till you are taught to glorifie him in this way of his that leading guiding presence of God in relation to his work in your hands will not bee with you but will certainly and visibly depart from you and oh that I could say it were not already departed as from Saul of old causing you to labour in the fire for vanity and run out of one fire into another which is too visibly your portion at this day and base fears of man for want of a Spirit of Faith as formerly to make the Lord your fear and your dread are upon you causing you to make undue haste many times and the spirit of rage and madness of the Nations rising against you cannot bee kept down by the spirit that yet appears to act you but it grows and gains visibly yea runs upon you teareth and rends you daily and it is onely the Spirit of the Lord that can raise up a standard to give check to such floods and till this Spirit more appears to act you which will first carry you out of your own wisdome strength and every polluted path and make you as poor children not in word onely but in truth to say in the Lord you have all and not elsewhere you are I am perswaded with other poor ones that follow you like to wander in the wilderness and which is most sad without a guide till many if not most of your carkasses fall there or the Lord have purged out the rebels from among you there is but one Name under Heaven that Salvation shall bee had from for Nations as well as Souls the closing with whom in his own way as the wisdome of the word directs to would make you and these Nations also in their publick affairs happy and the contrary makes them miserable this is the foundation other than which what ever any poor deluded flattering Courtiers have formerly prophanely said of any of the projects of mens brains can no man lay nor any Nation or Nations with security by warrant from the word build upon but their buildings will tumble for hee hath said Hee will shake Nations thereby to remove what ever may bee shaken till their desire comes to him who shall alone bear the glory and not man or men with him My poor advice is therefore to you as ever you intend to prosper bee wise yee Rulers Officers and Souldiers kiss the Son not onely as a King and Saviour to your souls but as King of Nations lest hee bee angry and yee perish from the way for if his wrath bee kindled and that but a little onely blessed are they that trust in him And if you desire thus to own him do it by acknowledging him as your Law-giver by your receiving and magnifying that Law hee hath said hee will magnifie and make honourable and casting off the Laws of the Heathen that serve for little else but to lead into labyrinths yea Seek the Lord and wait on him for light and wisdome and consult his Word and see if it bee not able thorowly to furnish to every good work beyond what any Laws of men can do yea this were the way to lay such a Magna Charta as would stand more sure against any alterations than any you can lay both as to our rights as men and Christians which is the great thing in contest and would have a blessed instructing effect upon the administrators as in Joshua 1.8 As also upon them to whom they do administer teaching them the knowledge and fear of the Lord which is so much wanting in these Nations at present when every mans particular interest should lead him to consult the Law of the Lord in which his great interest is so much made known and by beholding the Righteousness of that Law should fall in love with it and into a more frequent delightful meditation upon it which being blest by the Lord might bee instrumental to turn water into wine to the converting of many poor souls that might begin at first but with their own interest besides the civilizing effects as to manners amongst men this Law of the Lord hath a blessed tendency to beget beyond any other Law whatsoever But for you or others that shall go after any other besides or short of him or his righteous Laws truly your sorrows will bee multiplied and you will lye down in them at the last and though you may think you have strengthened your selves in the unitedness of your Army under such a conduct yea much more strengthened your arm of flesh by your new-raised Militia or what else you may imagine remember that the wrath of God is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness And you have none of these coverings large enough to keep that from falling heavy upon you to the sudden dissolving of every Covenant with death and Hell and overflowing every hiding-place made up but of the refuge of lies how like to truth soever they may bee These things being of some weight upon my heart I durst not but speak to you though I had arguments enough from a sense of my own unworthiness upon all accounts to have silenced mee as well as my weaknesse for such an undertaking in a service in its own nature usually unacceptable and much more may bee so with you for my sake but I have in this matter consulted duty to the Lord who I have indeavoured to eye in it and secondly to your souls that I would fain see recovered out of such destroying paths I hope you will pass by weakness herein and accept my intention which hath been to serve you the most effectually I could I have not troubled you oft in this kind and for ought I know it may bee the last service of this nature I may ever discharge to you as an Army which if it bee of any use I shall rejoyce if otherwise my soul I hope shall mourn on your behalfs if it may bee to prevent that misery coming on you and all of us with you but that I trust the Lord who knows how to deliver when all other means fails will bee a little Sanctuary to all that in sincerity commit themselves to him desiring to hate every false way for hee hath said it that is able to perform it Upon all the glory there shall bee a defence and when the Enemy shall come in like a flood the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him Which I beleeve hee will yet do for his poor remnant for his holy Names-sake and so do it as to astonish and confound enemies of all sorts greatly discover and shame false-hearted friends take his people off from Idols yea every pleasant picture and cause them to sing to himself alone as the God of their salvations who remembers them in their low estate because his mercy endures for ever FINIS