Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	jesus_n	lord_n	soul_n	17,358	5	5.0806	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90272	The labouring saints dismission to rest. A sermon / preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable Henry Ireton Lord Deputy of Ireland: in the Abbey Church at Westminster, the 6th. day of February 1651. By John Owen, minister of the Gospel. Licensed and entered according to order.	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1652 (1652)	Wing O766; Thomason E654_3; ESTC R203087	19,571	28

performance Make then this your aime that in sincerity of heart you do the work of God in your generation finde his presence with you his Spirit guiding you his Love accepting you in the Lord Christ and when ever you receive your dismission it will be Rest and peace in the meane time you will not make haste 2 See a bottome and ground of Consolation when such eminent Instruments as this departed worthy are called off from their station when ready to enter upon the harvest of all their labours watchings toylings and expence of bloud God hath better things for them in store abiding things that they shall not injoy for a day or two which is the best of what they could hope for here had they lived to see al their desires accōplished but such as in the fulnesse whereof they may lie downe in peace to eternity Why do we complaine for our ovvne losse is not the residue and fulnesse of the Spirit vvith him vvho gave him his dismission for his losse he lived not to see Ireland in peace but enjoyes the glory of that eternall Kingdome that vvas prepared for him before the foundation of the World vvhich is the condition held out in the third observation Obs. The condition of a dismissed Saint is a condition of Rest Go thy way untill the end be for thou shalt rest The Apostle gives it in as the issue of a discourse from a passage in the Psalmes there remaineth Therefore a rest unto the people of God Heb. 4. 9. it remains and is reserved for them this the Lord hath solemnly proclaimed from Heaven Revel. 14. 13. Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth yea saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them they go into a blessed condition of rest There is not any notion under which the State of a dismissed Saint is so frequently described as this of Rest which indeed is the proper end and tendency of all things their happinesse is their rest their rest is all the happinesse they can be partakers of Fecisti nos ad te Domine inquietum est cor nostrum donec veniat ad te Now Rest holds out two things unto us 1 A freedom from what is opposite thereunto wherein those that are at rest have been exercised in reference whereunto they are said to be at rest 2 Some thing which suites them and satisfies their nature in the condition wherein they are and therefore they are at rest which they could not be were it not so with them for nothing can rest but in the full fruition and enjoyment of that which satiates the whole nature of it in all its extent and capacity We must then briefly inquire 1 what it is that the Saints are at rest from and secondly what it is that they are at rest in which I shall do very speedily 1 The many particulars which they are at rest from may be referred unto two general heads 1 Sin 2 Labour and travel 1 Sin this on all consideration whatever is the main disquietnesse of the soule Temptations to it Actings in it troubles for it they are the very Egypt of the soule it's house and place of bondage and vexation either the power of it indwelling or the guilt of it pressing are here still disquieting the soule For the first how doth Paul complain lament yea cry out concerning it Rom. 7. 24. O wretched man that I am and what a sad restlesse and tumultuating condition upon this account doth he describe in the Verses foregoing The best the wisest the holiest of the Saints on this account are in a restlesse condition Suppose a man a conquerour in every battel in every combate that he is engaged in yet vvhilest he hath any fighting though he be never foiled yet he hath not peace Though the Saints should have successe in every engagement against sin yet because it vvill still be rebelling still be fighting it vvill disturbe their peace 2 So also doth the guilt of it our Saviour testifieth that a sense of it wil make a man to be weary and heavy-laden Mat. 11. 28. This oftentimes makes the Inhabitants of Sion say they are sick for though an end be made of sin as to the guilt of it in the bloud of Christ yet by reason of our darknesse folly and unbeliefe and the hiding of the countenance of God the conscience is oftentimes pressed with it no lesse then if it lay indeed under the whole vveight and burthen of it I shall not instance in more particulars concerning this cause of want of rest and disquietnesse the perplexity of Temptations buffettings winnowings of Satan Allurements and Affrightments of the World darknesse and sorrows of unbeliefe and the like do all set in against us upon this account This in general is the first thing that the dismissed Saints are at rest from They sin no more they wound the Lord Jesus no more they trouble their own souls no more they grieve the Spirit no more they dishonour the Gospel no more they are troubled no more with Satans Temptations without no more with their own corruption within but lie down in a constant enjoyment of one everlasting victory over sin with all its Attendants saith the Spirit They rest from their labours Revel. 14. those labours which make them faint and vveary their contending with sin to the uttermost they are no more cold in communion they have not one thought that wanders off from God to Eternity they lose him no more but alwayes lie down in his bosome vvithout the least possibility of disturbance Even the very Remembrance of sin is svveet unto them when they see God infinitely exalted and admired in the pardon thereof They are free from trouble and that both as to doing and suffering fevv of the Saints but are called out in one kinde or another to both these Every one is either doing for God or suffering for God some both do and suffer great things for him in either of them there is pain vvearinesse travel labour trouble sorrovv-and anxiety of spirit neither is there any eminent doing or vvorking for God but is carried on vvith much suffering to the outvvard man What a life of labour and trouble did our deceased friend lead for many yeers in the flesh hovv vvere his dayes consumed in travel God calling him to his foot and exercising him to understand the svveetnesse of that promise that they that die in him shall have rest many spend their dayes deliciously vvith so much contentment to the flesh that it is impossible they should have any foretaste and svveet rellish of their Rest that is to come The Apostle tels us that there remains a Rest for the people of God and yet vvithall that they vvho believe are entred into that Rest those vvho in their labours in their Travels do take in the svveetnesse of that promise of Rest do even in their labour

not be desireable unto you that you had done these things will it be bitternesse in the end that you so laid out your endevours Vse 3. All men have but their seasons in any worke onely God abideth in it for ever in every undertaking let your eye still be on him with whom is the fulnesse and the residue of the spirit Jeremiah's great bewailing of Josiah's death was doubtlesse made upon the account of his discerning that none would come after him to carry on the worke which he had begun but the wickednesse of that people was come to their height else God can raise up yet more Josiahs let him be eyed as the principall and onely abiding Agent in any great undertaking In the residue of the observations I shall be very brief The next is Obs. 2 God oftentimes suffers not the choicest of his servants to see the accomplishment of those glorious things wherein themselves have been most eminently engaged The case of Moses is most eminently known he had a large share in suffering the persecutions which were allotted to the people 40 yeers banishment he endured in the Wildernesse under the reproach of Christ 40 yeers more spent in wrestling with innumerable difficulties dangerous perils mutinies wars and contentions At the close when he comes to look upon the Laud when the end of all that dispensation was to be wound up and the Rest and Reward of all his toile and labour to be had which formerly he had undergone for tvvice 40 yeers Go thou thy wayes saith the Lord thou shalt rest take thy dismission thou shalt not enter into the good Land lie down here in the Wildernesse in peace John Baptist goes and preaches the drawning nigh of the kingdom of God but lived only to point out Christ with his finger cryes Behold the Lambe of God I must decrease and is cut off David makes the great preparation for the Temple but he shal not see so much as the foundation laid Men must take their appointed lot God will send by the hand of him whom he will send Daniel must rest untill the end be It is said of some they began to deliver Israel The case of Zerobbabel was very rare who saw the foundation and also the top-stone of the Temple laid and yet the work of Jerusalem was not halfe finished in his dayes as you may see Zach. chap. 1. Reason 1. God oftentimes receives secret provocations from the choicest of his servants which moves him to take them short of their desires Those of his own whom he employes in great workes have great and close communion with him God usually exercises their spirits in neer acts of fellowship with himself they receive much from him and are constrained to unburthen themselves frequently upon him now when men are brought into an intimacy with God and have received great engagements from him the Lord takes notice of every working and acting of their soules in an especiall manner and is oftentimes grieved and provoked with that in them which others can take no notice of let a man read the story of that action of Moses upon which the Lord told him directly he should not see the finishing of the work he had in hand nor enter into Canaan Numb. 20. 7 8 11. It will be a hard matter to finde out wherein the failing was he smote the Rock with the rod with some words of impatience when he should onely have spoken to it and this with some secret unbelief as to the thing he had in hand God deales with others visibly according to their outward Actions but in his own he takes notice of all their unbelief fears withdrawings as proceeeding from a frame in no measure answering those gracious discoveries of himselfe which he hath made unto them and on this account it is that some are taken off in the midst of their work 2 To manifest that he hath better things in store for his Saints then the best and utmost of what they can desire or ayme at here below He had a heaven for Moses and therefore might in love and mercy deny him Canaan He employeth some eminently their work is great their end glorious at the very last step almost of their journey he takes off one and another le ts them not see the things aymed at this may be thought hard measure strict severity exact justice yea as Job complains taking advantages against them see but what he calls them to in calling them off from their greatest Glories and Excellencies on the earth and all this will appear to be love tendernesse and favour in the highest Whilest you are labouring for a handfull of first fruits he gives you the full harvest Whilest you are labouring for the figure here below he gives you the substance above Should you see the greatest worke wherein any of you were ever ingaged brought to perfection yet all were but as a few drops compared with that fulnesse which he hath prepared for you The Lord then doth it to witnesse to the children of men that the things which are seen the best of them are not to be compared with the things that are not seen yea the least of them in as much as he takes them whom he will honour from the very doore of the one to bear them into the other The meanest enjoyment in heaven is to be preferred before the richest on earth even then when the Kingdome of Christ shall come in most beauty and glory Use 2. You that are ingaged in the work of God seeke for a reward of your service in the service it selfe Few of you may live to see that beauty glory which perhaps you aime at as the end of all your great undertakings for God whereinto you have been engaged God will proceed his own pace and calls on us to go along with him and in the mean time untill the determinate end come to wait in faith and not make haste Those whose mindes are so fixed on and swallowed up with some End though good which they have proposed to themselves do seldome see good dayes and serene in their own soules they have bitternesse wrath and trouble all their dayes are still pressing to the end proposed and commonly are dismissed from their station before it be attained There is a sweetnesse there is a wages to be found in the work of God it selfe men who have learned to hold communion with God in every work he calls them out unto though they never see the maine harvest they aime at in generall yet such will rest satisfied and submit to the Lords limitation of their time they bear their owue sheaves in their bosomes Seeing God oftentimes dismisses his choisest servants before they see or taste of the maine fruits of their endeavours I see not upon what account consolation can be had in following the Lord in difficult dispensations but only in that reward which every duty bringeth along with it by Communion with God in its