Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A36314
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A sermon occasioned by the late earthquake which happen'd in London and other places on the eighth of September, 1692 / Preached to a congregation in Reading by Samuel Doolittle.
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Doolittle, Samuel.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing D1880; ESTC R32821
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22,758
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36
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thought of the condescension of the God of Heaven Lord saith he When I consider thy heavens the work of thy fingers the moon and stars which thou hast ordained What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him Holy David having studied the Heavens in which Volumes the Power Wisdom and Majesty of God are written in Capital Letters and Golden Characters Cryes out with admiration Lord what is man that thou visitest him How fit are all Gods visits to be the subject of a devout and silent admiration Doth God visit this mean this contemptible Creature Man Wonderful Grace 2. It is wonderful that Men sinful Men guilty Men may visit God That we are allowed the liberty of making a visit to Heaven God might scorn us and our visits too he might lock up himself in Heaven and deny access into his Presence to such undutiful and disloyal Creatures as we have been This great King this mighty Lord might not suffer such dead dogs as we are to lie at his door But oh condescending goodness He invites us to give him a visit and the oftner we visit him the more welcome are we He blames us for our seldom but he never upbraids us with our often visits Oh who would not visit and often visit such a God as this May Men and Sinners visit the God of Heaven the High and the Holy One Do his Gates continually stand open and may Indigent Creatures come daily for an Alms Invaluable Mercy 3. It is wonderful that Men should be so backward to visit God How necessary and excellent How sweet and comfortable How profitable and advantagious a Duty is this To visit God is equally our Duty and Priviledge while we do so we share with Glorious Angels in that which is the top of their Happiness beholding the face of our Father which is in heaven Now if ever do Holy and Devout Souls anticipate their future happiness in partaking of that fullness of joy which is in Gods Presence and in drinking large draughts of those rivers of pleasure that are at his right hand for evermore How oft have Holy Men come from this Mount with their faces shining How oft have they received support under all their burdens encouragement against their fears an answer to their doubts and a sufficiency of strength to encounter difficulties performe Duties to endure the fiery tryal and quench the fiery darts of the evil one to conflict with their Corruptions and overcome the World How oft even in the time of their visiting hath God wiped Tears from their weeping Eyes refresht their drooping and revived their fainting Spirits cleared up their evidences for Heaven and inabled them to see their Names written there spoken comfortably to their hearts assured them of their Covenant Relation to him and their Interest in his special love and favour Oh how oft have they come away with their Pardon Sealed their fears â—cattered their mournful complaints husht and silenced their Consciences pacified and those Clouds that darkned their Souls dispersed with that breath of God Son be of good chear thy sins be forgiven thee How oft and how heartily have they been welcomed by the Holy and Blessed Trinity Father Son and Spirit Yet notwithstanding all this Men will not oh fatal degeneracy of Humane Nature visit God Some are Atheistical and Prophane and hopeless Wretches they fall under that black and hellish Character God is not in all their thoughts Some are ignorant and stupid without any sense and feeling and what is their unspeakable Misery is their voluntary choice too to be without God in the world Some are voluptuous given to pleasure Nay they carry that Death-mark in their foreheads written in such legible Characters That he that runs may Read lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God Pleasures charm and vain delights captivate their Souls they being sensual and having not the Spirit are constant Guests in the house of Feasting but utter strangers in the house of Prayer Among the vast multitudes of Men and Women that croud and throng the World there are some few who from a principle of a good Education the Remains of Natural Light and the urgent calls of an awaken'd Conscience do something of this kind but it is rather out of meer complement than real Friendship Thus it is with most and is it thus indeed Tremble thou Earth be astonished O ye Heavens at this and be ye horribly afraid How justly may God use that sharp and stinging Expostulation he did of old O generation see ye the word of the Lord have I been a wilderness unto England a land of darkness Wherefore say my people we are lords we will come no more unto thee Though Men live altogether upon the Alms of Heaven yet they seldom visit God stupendous folly This late Earthquake should put Men upon visiting God oftner and when you do remember to make these two following requests 1. Pray that God would visit you and all his people in mercy this was one notable Petition Holy David that Man of Prayer put up to God O visit me with thy salvation These visits how welcom and blessed how refreshing and desirable are they Oh beg of God for more of them Go to God and say Lord Thou hast visited thy People O visit them still with thy Salvation Lord Let not these visits of thine which are so much for thy Glory and the Creatures good be rare and seldom but frequent and oft repeated 2. Pray that God would visit no more in anger And methinks when there is so much dread and terrour in the visits of an angry God Men should earnestly deprecate them If God visit with a Plague Death becomes triumphant and Men fall heaps upon heaps into the Grave If God visit with a Famine our beauty faileth our strength consumeth and the Man becomes a walking Ghost before Death turns him into a Corps If God visit with an Earthquake Men are at their Wits-end and this beautiful World is turned into a confused Chaos O beg of God England may have no more of these terrifying and desolating visits If you won't pray the next shake may be your overthrow If you will not for all this visit God the Lord of hosts may visit with an Earthquake a second time and his second visit may carry more dread and terrour with it than the first did Turn the Text into a Prayer and say Oh that England Oh that London may no more be visited of the Lord of hosts with Thunder and Earthquake Lord grant it may not Amen FINIS Rom. 1. 9. Heb 5. 14 Gen. 27. 4 ver 20. Matth. 25 5. Jude ver 3. Jer. 48. 44. Psal 50. 21. Exod. 32. 34. Mic. â— 4. Job 〈◊〉 14. Matth. 22. 12. Job 40. 4. Am. 3. 2. Is 24. 2â— Am. 3. 6. Psal. 〈…〉 Isah. 〈…〉 5. Job 〈…〉 Is 45. 7. Psal 18. 7. Am. 4. 1. Mat. 24. 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ps 78. 30. Is 28. 21. Pâ— â—4 9. 〈…〉 Pâ— 1â— 6. Acts 16. 26. Marth 27. 51. Gen 13. 17. Luke 21. 9 11. Mat. 24. 2 7 8. 2 Pet. 3 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Sam. 15 32. Luke 2. 19. Is 5. 11 12. Prov. 23. 17. 1 Cor. 3. 3. Ps 17. 14. Matth. 6. 19. Ps 22. 2. Prov. 23. 5. Mal. 3. 1. Prov. 28. 1. Psal 46. 1. Ver. 2. Ver. 3. Si fractus illabatur orbis impavidum serient ruinae Hor. Car. lib. 3. od 3. Joel 3. 16. Heb. 12. 28. Colos 1. 5. Ps 62. 11. Mat. 10. 28. Psal 119. 120. Jer. 5. 22. La. 3. 40. Acts 16. 26. ver 30. Ez. 9. 13. Job 15. 4. Ja. 3. 10. Dan. 7. 10 Ps 82. 1. Psal 8. 3. â—er 4. 1 Sam. 24. 14. Mat. 18. 10. Ps 16. ult Mat. 9. 2. 〈…〉 Eph. 2. 12 2 Tim. 3. 4. Jude 1 Jer. 2. 31. Ps 106. 4. Judg 15. 16.
Heaven Air and Earth Lo This is he who shall visit Sometimes we read of man's visiting God Sometimes of one man's visiting another hers of God's visiting man 2. The visited Thou To whom is it the Lord of hosts makes this visit To Jerusalem v. 1. called Ariel the city where David dwelt Jerusalem though the place where the Temple stood and the Worship of God was performed Jerusalem the Metropolis the head City of the Jews must be visited Thou even thou O Jerusalem the City of David and the City of God too shalt be visited 3. The visitation it self with thunder and earthquake Sometimes God visits man in a way of Grace and Mercy when he comes to make a visit he bringeth many presents and love-tokens along with him And oh Blessed are they upon whom the great God bestoweth such visits as these Of such visits you read 1 Sam. 2. 21. Psalm 65. 9. and the greatest Mercy God ever vouchsafed to this wicked and apostate World of ours is called by this name Luke 1. 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people Sometimes the Scene is changed and God visits in a way of Judgment Not in Love but in Wrath not as a Friend but as an Enemy not as an Indulgent Father but as a Revenging Judge In these visits not Mercy but Justice is his attendant Psal 89. 32. Then will I visit their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes Jer. 5. 9. Shall I not visit for these things saith the Lord and shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this Hos 9. 7. The days of visitation are come the days of recompence are come and Israel shall know it And in this manner must Jerusalem the holy and once beloved City be visited by the Lord of hosts God threatens them more generally v. 1 2. Wo to Ariel to Ariel the city where David dwelt Add ye year to year let them kill sacrifices Yet I will distress Ariel and there shall be heaviness and sorrow and it shall be to me as Ariel q. d. Notwithstanding your formal customary worship in which you confide so much both City and Temple shall be brought into great straits Both City and Temple shall be like the Altar filled with the Bodies of dead men instead of slain beasts sacrificed to my Justice and the threatned evil is more particularly exprest in the Text thunder and earthquake From the words these three Doctrines may be raised Doct. 1. Gods executing of Judgments on a sinful people is his visiting of them A day of calamity is a day of visitation Great Persons have their set times for visiting And so hath the great God Men have their time of sinning and the Lord of hosts will have his time of visiting Amos 3. 13 14. Hear ye and testifie in the house of Jacob saith the Lord God the God of hosts that in the day that I shall visit the transgression of Israel upon him I will also visit the altars of Beth-el the time of punishing Moab is called the year of visitation Men sin boldly and impudently affront the Majesty of Heaven and Earth They provoke him day after day year after year and God seems to take no notice Nay notwithstanding the frequent repetition of their crimes he gives them many blessings but a visiting time will come Therefore now go lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee Behold mine angel shall go before thee Nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them Poor Sinner thou goest on in thy Rebellions addest new sins to thy old ones and God defers his anger But I may say the day of the visitation comâ—th and when it cometh God will make thee such a visit as shall cause thy countenance to change thy spirit to sink thy courage to fail and thine heart to tremble It will be a troublesome and unwelcome visit indeed Let me ask thee the same question holy Job askt himself when he visiteth what shall I answer him What wilt thou answer When God shall visit thee for all thy oaths and curses for all thine intemperance and excess thine extravagant mirth and drunken-bouts for all thine omission of duties for all thy formality and hypocrisie in them for all thine injustice and oppression for all thy contempt of his goodness and abuse of his patience for all thy slightings of his Grace and trampling on the Blood and Bowels of his dear Son for all thy resisting grieving quenching and vexing of his Holy Spirit when God shall visit for these things What wilt What canst thou answer him Answer him Alas Like the man that came to the marriage feast without a wedding-garment thou wilt be speechless Gods angry visits bring guilty Creatures to a defenceless silence O Sinner when the living dreadful and eternal God shall dispute the matter with thee with frowns in his brow and a drawn Sword in his hand thou wilt be forct to lay thine hand upon thy mouth and thy mouth in the dust for thou wilt neither be able to resist nor answer him Doct. II. Even those places where the worship of God is fixt even those people who enjoy the greatest Church-Priviledges and abound in the external performance of holy duties may be visited of the Lord of hosts in a very dreadful and terrible manner Was Sodom and Gomorrah visited of God Ay so was Jerusalem too Church-Priviledges though of the highest kind a multitude of formal and liveless Prayers a thousand Sacrifices laid on the Altar if our lusts be not sacrificed too won't keep off the day of visitation Thou even thou O Jerusalem shalt be visited You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities London in respect of others may be called the Holy City the Religious City in it God hath much people in it there are many that fear and worship God in that City there is frequent praying and much hearing for Spiritual Priviledges and the Worship of God it is another Jerusalem And yet London oh how impartial is the Judge of the whole Earth hath had its years of visitation in the year 1665 God visited London with a devouring Plague insomuch that that year was called the Visitation and a dreadful year it was for God and Death visited both at once The next year 66 God visited London again and when God made this visit a fire went before him and a mighty flame followed after he went through the City in clouds of smoak A little more than a Week ago in the same Moneth of September God visited London a third time he walkt through the Streets of London and the earth shook and trembled under him And if two such Cities as Jerusalem and London have been thus visited by the Lord of hosts what number of Sinners can hope to escape In the