Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	john_n	truth_n	worship_v	7,049	5	9.1128	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30676	The husbandmans companion containing one hundred occasional meditations reflections and ejaculations : especially suited to men of that employment : directing them how they may be heavenly-minded while about their ordinary calling / by Edward Bury.	Bury, Edward, 1616-1700.	1677 (1677)	Wing B6207; ESTC R23865	229,720	483

no fruit words but no works a shew but no substance their religion lies in the tongue and brain but never reaches the heart nor seasons the life they are most in externals little in internals they regulate their words and actions but the heart is not restrained or purified the heat of their zeal appears chiefly if not only in their words but the heart is cold enough they take up the easie cheap and safest part of duty but the difficult dangerous or costly part they meddle not with they make a shew of what they are not and brag of what they have not and then they laugh in their sleeves to think how they have couzened and put a cheat upon the world they worship that God in the Church that they matter not in the closet they do no religious duty without witness haply for fear God should deny what he hath received from them they are like rotten wood they shine in the night but look upon them in the day and you will finde the cheat they are like the red and blew flowers in the corn-field fine to look upon good for little but to pester the corn they are like candles they usually go out in an offensive snuff they are Saints abroad and devils at home and usually more dangerous when they appear like Saints then when they shew themselves in their colours and act the devils part bare-faced but doubtless these are not the men that God will accept nor this is not the service he requires he is a spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth yea the father seeketh such to worship him John 4.23.24 he calls for the heart my son saith he give me thy heart not thy tongue or hands but the heart for if he have that the rest will follow Pro. 23.26 as the heart is by nature God will have none of it till the heart be renewed and given to the Lord he will accept of nothing that comes from us he calls for the heart and says of it as Joseph did of Benjamin Gen. 43.3 ye shall not see my face without it or as David did of Michal 2 Sam. 3.13 thou shalt not see my face except thou bringest Michal Sauls daughter when thou comest These men would give the Lord any thing but the heart and he will own nothing without it these professors are like men in a boat they look one way and row another or like the kite that soares aloft towrs on high as if they were all for heaven and made light of all terrestriall things when still her eye is upon her prey and her heart glued to the ground and rooted in the earth they are like unto the peacock they have fine feathers but yet is but a dunghill-bird but these shews will not always serve turn God sees through their thin masks and will ere long pluck off their vizour be not deceived God is not mocked there are none can steal to heaven in a disguise God will know him well that shall enter there there is a sure guard and without this ticket of holiness none will be admitted this is Christ sheep-mark and those and those alone that have it shall stand upon his right hand at judgment when he comes to seek fruit and findes none he will take up his axe he hath long and may for a while spare the tree for the vine-dressers sake but his patience will not always last he will say pray not for this people for they are ripe for destruction when the sins of the Amorites were full their destruction drew neer when these borrowed robes are pluckt from the stageplayers backs for so the word hypocrite signifies then those that acted the parts of Kings will be found but peasants and those that acted the parts of honest men will be found but cheats indeed God hath many fans and much of this chaff is blown away in this life we have seen many that appeared to be something proved just nothing but when Christ comes with refiners fire and fullers soap who can stand before this burning the lamps of profession may light a man to death near to heaven oh my soul thou hast made profession of Religion a long time what fruit dost thou bring forth if thou hast nothing but tears thou maist expect that Christ shall say to thee as to the fruitless figtree never fruit grow more on thee for ever or if thy fruit be bad it will not be long but thou wilt be cut down what cause hast thou to fear that art so sensible of so much unsavory and rotten fruit and of so little that is good up then and be doing that thy last days may be thy best days and thy best wine last oh my good God though hypocrisy lodge in me let it not reign in me give me truth in the inward parts keep my heart sound in thy testimonies and I shall be safe Upon a dead tree 83. Med. OBserving a dead tree in the orchard that had neither fruit nor leaves and so was neither for profit nor pleasure for fruit nor ornament but rather an encumbrance to the ground and a deformity to the place I began upon this Observation to consider that this was the case of many a poor dead soul amongst us who though planted in Gods vineyard hedged about by his providence and watered with the dew of heaven and manured by the skilfullest vine-dressers yet remains dead fruitless and useless and hath done so many years and hath done nothing all this while but cumber the ground and keep a room and did but grow worse and worse and every day more fitter for the fire then other this minded me of Gods mercy and mans wickedness Gods mercy in sparing such unprofitable wretches some of them 50 or 60 years together and all that while sending his vine-dressers to dig and dung and manure them from year to year that never yielded any good fruit in their lives and mans wickedness that will not be won upon by all these entreaties and continued favours that are so hard that neither the sun nor the rain can soften neither fair means nor foul can work upon them and to this day do yet remain a reproach to the place they live in for sin saith Solomon is a reproach to any people Pro. 14.34 when righteousness exalteth a Nation True Religion and the power of godliness is the beauty and bulwark of a Nation but sin is a deformity and an evil disease it is the snuff that dims our candle yea threatens the removal of our candlestick Capernaum that once was lifted up to heaven is threatned to be cast down to hell if a dead tree deform a well-regulated orchard and is such an offence that it will not be endured by the owner nor be suffered to stand or if a dead carkass be so loathsom a thing that in a little time the nearest and dearest relations and the most intimate friends are weary of it how loathsome then is a

house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God they shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing those that draw sap from Christ and are grafted into him must need bud and bloom and bring forth fruit these are the trees planted by the rivers of water that bring forth their fruit in their season Psal 1.3 for as ancient men so especially ancient Christians have their judgement ripened by their experience and mellowed by time others may be and usually are more heady rash and sensorious and have a more hot and burning zeal but it is not according to knowledge now zeal without knowledge as one saith is like mettle in a blinde horse which ofttimes serves but to break his own or the riders neck their zeal is like that of the Apostles James and John Luk. 9.54 who would have called for fire from heaven to consume the inhospitable Samaritans as Elijah did but this wilde fire was never kindled on Gods hearth as Elijahs was this became not a gospel frame of spirit but this younger fruit is not so pleasant to the taste we may say of this as Christ speaks of wine Luk. 5.39 no man having drunk old wine presently desireth new for saith he the old is better Now as age clarifies wine and ripens it so doth experience ripen mens judgements young professors make a great noise and a great shew in the world they bud and bloom and many of them bring forth fruit yet is not their fruit so pleasant till it be ripened by age and mellowed by experience they are more heady as I said and sensorious and apt to condemn those that cannot see with their eyes that differ from them though it be in circumstantials and things of small concerns yea perhaps disrobe them of their graces as if their hearts liks Jehu's were the touchstone of sincerity and their judgement the touchstone of truth but ancient Christians have learnt Christ better and studied their own hearts more and will yield a grain of allowance to others as knowing they need it themselves and where they see the vitals of Religion preserved they will reach out the right hand of fellowship though it be to men of a contrary perswasion in lesser matters yea they will love those better and value them more then they do those of their own perswasion where they cannot see such evident signes of grace but many times in young professors a little difference about circumstantialls casts such a mist before their eyes that they cannot see any grace at all in their antagonists a grown Christian owns Christ whereever he sees him yea though it be in one that hath wronged him and he verily thinks hates him or though it be in one that stands in his light or in his way to preferment there is honourable mention made of an old disciple Acts. 21.16 a gray-headed experienced Christian a father 1 Joh. 2.13 you are they saith Christ that have continued with me and I appoint unto you a kingdome as my father hath appointed unto me Luk. 22.28.29 God will reward those that are ancient servants especially Age should speak saith Elihu and multitude of years should shew wisdome Job 32.7 It was a duty commanded by God and yet is incumbent upon us to rise up before the hoary head and honour the face of the old man Lev. 19.32 but then much more an old Christian the hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousness Pro. 16.31 Naturalists observe the herb Cudweed which the Herbalists call herbam impiam whose younger branches still yeeld flowers to overtop the elder such weeds grow too rise among us but it is an ill soil that produceth them Rehoboam neglecting the milder and safer counsel of his grave Senators and following the harsher counsel of green wits ruined himself and lost ten of the twelve tribes who revolted from him we seldome finde an antient professor apostatize or run into errours or heresy but it is too frequently seen in younger men there are many take up Religion suddenly and in a few weeks are above their teachers yea above all the Ministers in the Countrey and some of them get above Ordinances yea run the whole circle of errors till they end in Athiesm or profaness the place where they set out the devil deals by them as Elisha did by the Syrians 2 King 6.19 he brings them to Samaria when they thought they had been going to Dothan he leads them to hell and perswades them it is the nearest way to heaven oh my soul let not the devil thus deceive thee but ask advice of the wisest counsellors own Christ whereever thou seest him and make not thy own judgement the test to try all other mens nor with Jehu thine own heart the touchstone to try others judge the tree by the fruit not by the leaves and professors not by their words but by their works grow in grace as thou growest in years so maist thou be an old disciple oh my God make me fruitful and let my fruit be pleasant to thy taste and let the last be bitterer then the first Upon a leavy yet barren tree 82. Med. FInding a tree that at a distance shew'd fair but at hand produced nothing but leaves when I expected better fruit it minded me of the fruitless figtree mentioned Mar. 11.12 c. that deceived even Christ himself for he being hungry and seeing a figtree a far off having leaves he came if haply he might finde any thing thereon and when he came to it he found nothing but leaves for the time of figs was not yet probably the time of ripe figs was not yet but in his necessity he would have contented himself with those that were green and being thus disappointed he said never fruit grow more upon thee and the figtree withered and dyed and his Disciples marvelled and well they might for no conjurer with all his skill could have done the like me thinks this barren tree resembles many in our times that have a form of godliness but deny the power of it 2 Tim. 3.5 they have leaves but no fruit a shadow but no substance those hollow professors are like an old tree tall but pithless sapless and unsound these men do as players in a Comedy in voice and gesture act divine duties but in heart deny them formality as one saith is like a bull-rush the colour fresh the skin smooth but within nothing but a spungeous substance they have a name to live but are dead Rev. 3.1 they cry the temple of the Lord when they matter not the Lord of the temple they content themselves with a bare name without the nature of Christians they draw near to God with their mouths and honour him with their lips when their heart is far from him Mat. 15.8 all their holiness is in externals and nothing else but a brainless head and soulless body they have leaves to shew but