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	work_n	7,405	5	5.2371	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81245	A model of true spiritual thankfulnesse. Delivered in a sermon before the Honourable House of Commons, upon their day of thanksgiving, being Thursday, Feb. 19. 1645, for the great mercy of God, in the surrender of the citie of Chester into the hands of the Parliaments forces in Cheshire, under the command of Sir William Brereton. / By Tho. Case, preacher in Milkstreet London, and one of the Assembly of Divines.	Case, Thomas, 1598-1682.; England and Wales. Parliament. House of Commons.	1646 (1646)	Wing C833; Thomason E323_4; ESTC R200593	35,919	45

c. And therefore this is to be found onely in the Saints Psal 33.1 Rejoyce in the Lord ye righteous for praise is comely for the upright Let the Saints be joyful in glory Psal 149.5 6. let them sing aloud upon their beds let the high praises of God be in their mouthes c. they be the Righteous onely the upright the Saints in whose bosoms this grace dwells and who can manage this Spiritual service and duty of rejoycing and praising the Lord in a right manner Indeed the holy Psalmist doth often expresse the workings of his heart upon the receipt of great deliverances and mercies under the notion of gladnesse all over the Psalms but you are to take it as a Synonymon or t'other expression of thankfulnesse not a meer stirring of natural joy and complacency in and for deliverances and mercies but the Spiritual movings and sparkling of his aff●●ction towards God in witnesse whereof you shall never sinde that notion stand single but like the * 1 Cor. 6.17 Spirit of the holy man himself joyned unto the Lord either as the Author or as the Object of his Gladnesse I will be glad and rejoyce in thee Psal 9.2 And Be glad in the Lord Psal 32.11 ye righteous And Thou Lord hast made me glad through thy work Psal 92.4 c. to shew that his gladnesse was sanctified and spiritualized into the grace of Thankfulnesse And indeed Grace is nothing else but the natural affection baptized as I may so say and regenerated by the holy Ghost and the Blood of Christ faced and pointed upon God as its proper and highest object Set your affection on things above not on things on the earth Coloss 3.2 Set and Set not the affection is not changed in the matter of it but in the object So natural sorrow and grief spiritualized and set upon the right object sc upon an * Mich. 7.9 offended God is the grace of * ● Cor. 7.9 Repentance And Anger sanct fied and faced upon Gods dishonour is Zeal And Love fired with a flame from Christ and carried up in that flame to Christ is no longer the affection but the grace of Love sic in caet And thus natural joy and gladnesse heavenlized and set upon God 2 Joh. 4.19 is the grace of Thankfulnesse And this is the first difference Gladnesse or Joy is but a natural affection Common to good and bad to man and beast but Thankfulnesse is that affection sprinkled with the Blood of Christ proper onely to the Saints because like the Saint himself it is made partaker of the divine Nature 2 Pet. 1.4 Secondly they differ in their Rise or Ground Second difference Rise or Ground The Rise or Ground of Gladnesse as it is a meer natural affection is meerly the poss ssion of some sutable desirable Good which comes in whether National or Domestick or Personal together with those natural fruits and improvements which arise and grow upon it As here in the Text Then are they glad what is the Rise Because they b● quiet●● they are now out of those fears and dangers which made their hearts work as tempestuoussy as the Sea it self Safety and rest are the ground of their joy glad the storm is over and they safe in the Haven And so you may proportion it in your thoughts in other deliverances and mercies National or Private Gladnesse riseth not higher then the bulk and body of the Good it self as the rich fool in the Gospel lookt upon his heap of wealth and glads his soul in it and in the advantages he promiseth himself from it Soul here are goods l●id up for many yeers Luke 12.19 he shall need to take no more care or thought as long as he lives take thine ease eat drink and be merrie The Grounds of Thankfulnesse But now the Grounds and Rise of Thankfulnesse they are of a more generous and divine Nature such as these 1. A Spiritual Title First a Spiritual and Divine Right to mercies a Scripture-title What is that Why the Saints have Fi st a Right of Sonship The wicked have a Right to what they have not onely a civil right before men but a divine right b●fore God but it is but a Right of Creation they have a right To the Creatures but it is but a right Of the Creatures But now th● S●ints have a right of Sonship If children Rom. 8.17 then heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ. Whatever mercy or deliverance they have it is part of their childes portion though they are not joynt-purchasers yet they are joynt-heirs with Jesus Christ they have all by inheritance Heb. 1.2 as Christ is Heir of all things so they in him All is you●s and you are Christs and Christ is Gods 1 Cor. 3.22 23. And thus ●eing Children and Heirs they have a Seco●d Right and that is a Right of Promise or Covenant and therefore Believers are call'd The children of promise Rom. 9.8 because they be both a 2 Pet. 1.4 begotten and b 1 Tim. 4.8 m●int●in'd by promise whatever they have they have by promise Godlinesse is profitable for all things having the promise of the life that now is and that which is to come Others are fed out of the Common basket of Providence they are fed out of the Ark of the Covenant which is the great List of the promises Every childe of God be he never so poor is served in Plate The words of the Lord are pure words as Silver tried in a furnace of earth He speaks of the word of promise Psal 12.6 So that if it be but bread and water yet it is served in to a childe of God in the silver and golden vessels of the Promises And this affects them more then all the bulk and heap of mercies and comforts which they do possesse or that worldlings do possesse Thou hast put more gladnesse into my heart then in the time that their corn and their wine encreased Psal 4.7 How Why by the shines of his face and favour as Vers 7. This is the Rise of a gracious Joy and Thankfulnesse That what he hath he hath not onely by Gods leave but with Gods love not by Creatureship onely but by Sonship not by providence onely but by promise With the men of the world the Principal is more then the Interest but every childe of God accounts his Interest more then the Principal Therefore you shall finde the Church glorying in this That all her deliverances and mercies are Covenant-mercies If God destroy her enemies she looks upon it as a fruit of the Covenant He is the Lord our God his judgements are in all the world She triumphs in the execution of Gods righteous judgements upon the enemies of the Church Psal 105.7 but upon what ground It follows He hath remembred his Covenant for ever c. It was a

as eternal as the God of those wonders And to that end Tenthly in longing to praise God in heaven Tenthly and lastly gracious spirits in laid and enamel'd with Thankfulnesse because they can live but a while to praise God on earth and their generations too shall not continue after them for ever to do this work therefore they breathe after heaven where in the presence of God their praises shall be perfected and perpetuated here they are weak weary full of natural and sinful mixtures and defilements there they shall be vigorous active pure perfect as unchangeable as interminable as eternitie it self They rest not day and night Revel 8.4 saying Holy holy holy Lord God Almightie which was and is and is to come Thankfulnesse is a pure flame of a restlesse motion ever mounting upward till it come to its element the Quire of Saints and Angels in heaven where it shall sing everlasting Hallelujahs to him that sitteth upon the throne and to the Lamb where it shall keep a day of Thanksgiving that shall never know an evening And thus have I done with the fourth and last difference between Gladnesse and Thankfulnesse sc their operations and so with the whole Doctrinal part of my Discourse I should now come to improve it to Vse and Application two ways especially 1. By way of an Examination 2. By way of Direction But truely the very opening of the Doctrine unto you hath done both these already to your hands or at least furnisht you with materials upon which you may do both your selves Take this Model or Platform of true Thankfulnesse lay it before you operate upon it in your serious and impartial thoughts and if you would know whether you are a thankful people or no you may easily resolve into an Vse of Examination while every branch under all these four heads of differences will serve you as Note of Trial whereby you may make some Judgement upon the question Whether you do more then others of the world in this great work of Thankfulnesse And if you would know how you might be thankful set this Model in your eye and it will serve you as Directory wherein every branch again will be a Rule whereby you may form and proportion your Thankfulnesse according to the Word and the example of those Saints who have excell'd in this grace and duty of Thankfulnesse Truely Honourable and Beloved you had need to do it and to do it with your best and purest intentions for I professe to you the most not most of men onely but of Christians do wofully mistake both this duty and themselves too The world yea the greatest part of the Gospel-world is extremely out in this great businesse of Thankfulnesse It is sad and fearful to observe with what skins and shadows and almost mockeries God is turn'd off in stead of this pure holy spiritual active grace and duty of Thankfulnesse God looks for praise and we turn him off with a natural lazie selfish Gladnesse Some haply go not so far but like the elder Brother in the Gospel stand murmuring quarrelling without whilst in our Fathers house there is feasting and musick Many malignant spirits there be who fret and repine and gnash their teeth at the glorious Successes wherewith God hath been pleased to crown the out-goings of his servants and people in these later days But truely that sads not my spirit so much as to see a people whom God hath strived to endear unto himself by so many miracles of preservation Deliverances and Victories to mock God out of his praise and themselves at length out of their mercies Surely we may weep over our Deliverances and turn our days of Thanksgiving into days of mourning and lamentation to consider how we dally with God and put him off with a few empty formal Complements in stead of that real and spiritual and vital dutie which he expects and deserves at our hands And therefore I said when I heard I was designed to the service of this day I will not stand to analyse this mercie nor take in pieces this work of God the surrender of that strong impregnable Hold of Chester though very great and worthy to be sought out by all them that take pleasure in the works of the Lord but I will tell the Parliament and tell the Kingdom what it is to be thankful that they may see how much they are mistaken and what wrath hangs over our heads for the carnality rottennesse hypocrisie of our rejoycings over all the wonders which God hath done for England And therefore Noble Senators and all you that stand before God this day or to whom the words of this day may come sit down I beseech you seriously examine your selves by and compare your selves with this Model of Thankfulnesse held forth to you this day and see whether indeed you do come up to the Law of that Service which all the wonders that God hath done for you doth call for at your hands and what course you are to take for the preventing and averting of that wrath which I am afraid is gone forth against us for this thing I cannot stand to convince you by each particular in this Model Give me leave to single out but one branch and to deal faithfully with you in that particular it is a main one and such as will include many other It is the fifth branch of the fourth head of Difference between Gladnesse and Thankfulnesse namely Paying of Vows or keeping of Covenant with God Noble Patriots and all you that come hither to keep a day of Thanksgiving to God this day come on set up tribunals and place Conscience thereon as an impartial Judge to keep a little day of Judgement in your bosoms this day We must all appear before the Judgemedt-seat of Christ one day 2 Cor. 5.10 and how soon the Lord onely knows Come start not back better judge our selves then be judged of the Lord If we cannot stand before our own Consciences how shall we be able to stand before that Judge who is greater then our heart and knoweth all things 1 Joh. 3.20 the great-heart-maker and the great-heart-searcher Come on then I say and see whether in this one branch of Thankfulnesse we can approve our selves to God to be a thankful people I will not ravel into your bosoms to enquire with what dispositions of spirit upon what grounds and interests to what ends and references you entred into the Solemn League and Covenant though I wish with all my heart that you would perhaps you would finde a pad in the straw in your entrance into this Covenant possibly you may discover rashnesse in opposition to judgement hypocrisie in opposition to truth and sincerity it may be base lowe carnal ends and aims in opposition to Righteousnesse which are the Qualifications of a religious Covenanter Jer. 4.2 perhaps such workings of heart as sometimes brought the Sichemites into Covenant with the sons of