Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A44118
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A vvord to the saints from the watch tower. By a faithful embassadour, in bonds for the gospel divers years. F. H.
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Holcroft, Francis, 1629?-1693.
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1668
(1668)
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Wing H2374A; ESTC R216408
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7,204
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28
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A WORD TO THE SAINTS FROM THE Watch Tower By a Faithful Embassadour In Bonds for the Gospel divers years F. H. LONDON Printed in the year 1668. Cambridge-Castle 27 Decem. 1667. TO THE Faithful Brethren in Christ IN LONDON FRANCIS HOLCROFT Wisheth Grace Mercy Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ BEing in the morning before the Throne of Grace yesterday seeking the face of God the word of God came with power to my Soul with respect to the Church of God here and all the Israel of God with us in the Land Ezra 9.8 9. It 's said before Since the days of our Fathers we have been in a great trespass unto this day and for our Iniquities both we our Kings our Priests have been delivered into the hands of the Kings of the Lands to the Sword to Captivity and to Spoil and to confusion of face as it is this day Which hath been now our case for about seven years but that in part onely for how marvelously hath our God through this time of our affliction and confusion of face stayed the rough Winds and Storms of Persecution by one or other wonderful and remarkably wise and gracious work in his Providence and Administration of things in the world But as if that were not enough for us a sinful People of his Mark what our gratious God speaks by his providence and works to us at this time and that in this word I mention Vers 8 9. And now for a little space grace hath been shewed from the Lord our God to leave us a Remnant to escape and to give us a Nail in his holy place that our God may lighten our eyes and give us a little reviving in our bondage for we were bondmen yet our God hath not forsaken us in our bondage but hath extended mercy to us in the sight of the Kings of Persia to give us a reviving to set up the House of God and to repair the desolations thereof and to give us a Wall in Judah and in Jerusalem Having had many thoughts touching this word of God and the grace of God towards us his People therein declared for the help of our Faith I found upon further consideration that it may be you my dearly beloved Brethren in Christ both the Prisoners of the Lord with you and a the rest are in an especial manner concerned in this word and that foraâ— much as this grace hath been now for some time past given you from the Lord since the fearful Judgements of God by Plague and Fire have brake out on you I say grace hath been shewed you from the Lord to enjoy greater Liberties than your Brethren and again our God hath brought you to see somewhat of the glory of the solemn Assemblies for which you that are Mourners have been sorrowful our God hath in some measure been gathering you bringing you again the Ministers of God and others to the places of concourse God hath opened a wide door to some of You which our God make yet more and more effectual for which things we your Brethren I hope many of us in the Countrie in Prisons and others have and do rejoice blessing God by Jesus Christ I thank our God I have at some â—â—mes on the Lords Days especiallie been at libertie in my Soul being present in spirit with you somewhat in your Solemn Assemblies rejoicing with you in this Mercie brought to you by so wonderful a hand of our God Now observe the Language the Holy-Ghost here useth to set out this thing Now for a little space GRACE hath been shewed from the Lord our God Mark that word Grace and that from the Lord our God It s the language of Ezra by Faith laying hold of the everlasting Covenant of Grace on the behalf of Gods own People Under the Law God spake so to his people Lev. 2.13 And every oblation of thy meat-offering shalt thou season with salt neither shalt thou suffer the salt of the Covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat-offering with all bine offerings shalt thou offer Salt and so up and down in the Word we find the holy men of God in their Prayers and Preaching their spiritual offerings offering Salt even the Salt of the Covenant of their God as Ezra here Grace hath been shewed from the Lord our God whose Covenant is this I will be their God and they shall be my People saith the Lord. Now I desire that you and we may by Faith wrought by the Spirit of grace savour more the grace of this gracious dispensation of our God and Father Grace hath been shewed us from the Lord our God in it There is in it especial favour of grace grace flowing from the Covenant of grace where our God is making known to the Elect called Heirs of Promise the immutability and unchangeableness of his Counsels and eternal purposes of grace Liberty and reviving in Bondage given as a fruit of grace and given with the grace and shinings of the face of God is a mercy indeed such as the world have not they know not what it is Now My Brethren you know the grace of the Covenant of grace was made known graciously in the in the first Testament But now in the new and better Testament whereof our Lord Christ is the Mediator the Son of God himself Grace is more abundantly made known by Iesus Christ the great design of the Gospel of God being the manifestation of the glory of the onely begotten Son of God his Beloved in whom he is well pleased and so the love also with which God hath loved his Elect who are by the Father given to Iesus Christ of whom the Lord Christ thus speaks Iohn 17. That the World may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them as thou hast loved me Now the God of all grace pour out richly on you and us at this season through our Lord Jesus the Spirit of grace and supplication that he may fill our hearts with the Faith and sweet Savour of this grace of God shewed to Gods people at this time I was glad to observe of late what is said of Holy Mr. Rutherford one who faithfully testified and defended in his Generation the Doctrine of the Gospel of the grace of God It 's said that when the Lord at the beginning of these times took him to himself on his death-bed he had on his heart in some especial manner a desire that all the Saints might instantly wrestle with God for the pouring out of the Spirit of grace supplications according to the Promise Zach. 12.10 Thus shall great godly sorrow working repentance never to be repented of be given to the House of David and Inhabitants of Jerusalem both Jews and Gentiles in the last dayes who shall wall over Christ whom they have pierced even all the Kindreds of the Earth even so Amen Thus our Back-slidings from our God and our Breaches amongst our selves shall be
healed as it 's said by the Prophet Ieremiah Chap. 50. In those dayes and in that time saith the Lord the Children of Judah shall come they and the Children of Israel together amongst whom there had been much bitter and lasting strifes for ages and generations they shall come going and weeping they shall go and seek the Lord their God they shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thither-ward saying Come and let us joyn our selves to the Lord in a perpetual Covenant that shall not be forgotten Holy Brethren Let our hearts desires and prayers be instant with the Lord still that this grace shewed us from our God may teach us to deny those worldly Lusts and Covetings and ungodliness for which our God hath thus wasted us and that we may be more taught now by the grace of God that brings Salvation the grace by which we are saved that which the Holy Ghost calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The grace of God that is saving or that brings Salvation Bygrace saith the same Apostle again are you saved 2 Eph. and also by this grace of God in giving us this reviving to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world waiting and looking for the Blessed Hope and the glorious appearings of the great God and our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ But I pray let us return again to the Word of God Now for a little space grace hath been given us from the Lord our God to leave us a Remnant to escape and to give us a little reviving in our Bondage Further Observe this word little and weigh it well It is here twice repeated And therein our God as by a Watch-word speaks to you in London and to us all for I am prone to hope that this grace may yet reach further to you and to your Brethren then yet it hath done this grace given he speaks of is but for a Little Space and to give us a Little reviving in our Bondage in brief thus I have not been alone perswaded of it from sundry weighty grounds taken from sundry weighty grounds taken from the word of God that the fiery Tryal that waits yet for us is not over yet are the ways of our God in the deep and he oft repents him graciously of â—he evil he threatens and so I or others I judge ought not to speak peremptorily in these secret things which belong to God But I oft have thought that word of God is for us that in Ier. 9. after the Prophet had cried out against the great sins of Gods own Children vers 7. saith thus Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts Behold I will melt them and try them for how shall I do for the Danghter of my People But now as the Lord speaks by anothe Prophet And because I will do thus prepare to meet thy God O Israel I am prone to think and believe that grace is now given us in this little space and little reviving from our Bondage that is come and may be yet coming For this very end that Israel may be prepared to meet God in that fiery Tryal that may yet be viz An hour of darkness before the utter downfal and judgment of the Whore which also hasteth greatly when God shall avenge the bloud of his Servants at her hand after which there shall be heard as the voice of many waters viz. Peoples and Kindreds Saying Alleluja for the LORD GOD Omnipotent reigneth as saith the Apostle Iohn Rev. 19. Then God will hasten the Coming in of that fulness of the Gentiles which shall be before the Iews be converted For blindness saith the Apostle Paul in part is happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in and so all Israel shall be saved And the fulness of the Iews Rom. 11. shall be also the Riches of the Gentiles as was their Fall and Diminishing Then the Kingdoms of this world shall become the Kingdoms of our Lord and Christ and he shall Reign for ever and ever And after this spreading of the Kingdom of God and the Grain of Mustard-Seed to which the Lord Christ compares his Kingdom shall be grown and that Least of all Seeds shall become the Greatest among Herbs and become a Tree so that the Birds of the Air come and lodge in the branches thereof After this shall come as it is written The Time of the Dead that they should be Iudged and God shall Give Rewards to his Servants the Prophets and to the Saints and to Them that Fear his Name small and great and he shall Destroy them that corrupt the Earth Till which time of the Resurrection of the Dead and of the Eternal Iudgment I thank God I dare not I do not with Gods Church of old look for any Personal appearing of Christ For any Third Personal Coming of the Son of man on Earth which I judge to be as Apocryphal and a dangerous Error touching those grand Fundamental Principles of the Oracles of God viz. The Doctrine of the Resurrection of the Dead and of the Eternal Iudgment Vnto them saith the Apostle that Look for him shall He Appear the second time without sin unto Salvation Dangerous and contrary to Scripture it is to expect any end to be put to the Ministration of the Spirit the Comforter in this World before the End of it He is now now come now Iesus the other Comforter is Gone away and now He the Spirit on earth continueth to bear witness with the Water and with the Bloud For these three bear witness saith the Apostle Iohn on earth And they agree in one I say dangerous is it to suppose a Coming of the Son of Man in Person that either shall not put an end to the administration of the Lord the Spirit here in the Church see 1 Tim. 6.14 and 1 Cor. 11.26 or that shall put an end to it before That moment the Apostle Paul speaks of when the Trumpet shall sound and the Dead shall be raised incorruptible and the Harvest comes which Christ calls the end of the World how unsafe I say either of these Assertions be let those that fear God judge viz. the Children to whom it is given to understand the Mysteries of the Kingdom Now dearly beloved Brethren let us mind what now lies before us and whatever our hand finds to do in this little space of reviving from bondage let us do it with all our might for I am prone to think the night comes again wherein little work will be done Now I shall conclude in the name of our Lord Christ earnestly admonishing you to redeem this season of Grace Let the Ministers of God the Dressers of Christs Vineyard that have by Jesus Christ prevailed for the Fig-Tree that it should not be Cut down but be let alone this year also Let us Brethren call to mind our Vows and Promises in the dayes of our wrestlings how that if God would trust us again with an Harvest-Season that