Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	lay_v	young_a	youth_n	29	3	7.6783	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62960	An exhortation unto reformation amplified, by a discourse concerning the parts and progress of that work, according to the word of God, delivered in a sermon preached in the audience of the General Assembly of the Massachusets colony, at Boston in New-England, May 27, 1674, being the day of election there / by Samvel Torrey ...	Torrey, Samuel, 1632-1707.; Mather, Increase, 1639-1723.	1674 (1674)	Wing T1916; ESTC R13732	47,259	54

with the workers of iniquity but peace shall be upon Israel Psal 125.5 2. Let all the Friends Lovers Well-wishers Well-willers unto the Publick Good and Prosperity of these Churches up and be doing in the Work of Reformation You who are of the passing generation of the first undertakers of this Work of Reformation surviving and who have seen with your eyes and told us what works God did in your dayes as Psal 44.1 who have therefore yet a living remembrance of the gracious Wayes and glorious Works of God to his people in the first beginnings and prosperous progress of the Work of Reformation and so of the House of God of the Churches here in their first glory Hag. 2.3 You have also seen and observed the gradual declension and defection of these Churches and therefore you cannot chuse but be most sadly and sorrowfully sensible of our present necessity of Reformation O then be moved to do what in you lyeth by your Faith Prayer Life and Example to revive the Work of Reformation again before you die You also who are the present standing Generation the next and immediate Successors unto those first Reformers who have been actually betrusted with Church-Order Ordinances and Administrations with the whole Cause of God Kingdome of Christ and Interest of Religion and so with this great and glorious Work of Reformation and who are likely to be found most guilty of this general defection and have too much already endangered the loss of all O be you moved to stand up strongly unto the work under that Charge and all those solemn Obligations and Engagements which God hath laid upon you the weight and burthen of the Work lyeth upon you we have been raised up in the stead of our Fathers as Josh 5.7 to carry on this Work And truly if we should desert or be slight and negligent therein it will soon fall to the ground and sink past recovery and we shall thereby at once cut off the hope of our Fathers and lay the Foundation of the Ruine of Succeeding Generations utterly undo all Posterity O let us therefore make it our Prayer which is in 1 Kings 8.57 58. The Lord our God be with us as he was with our Fathers let him not leave us nor forsake us that he may incline our hearts unto him to walk in his wayes c. And you who are of the Rising Generation Adult Youth and Young men You are many of you if not most of you a Third Generation from those whom God first brought out into this Wilderness You are they who are likely to out-live Joshua and all the Elders of Israel that out-lived Joshua and all that Generation as it is said of them Judg. 2.7 8 9. You cannot many of you remember the works which God wrought for your forefathers You have never seen these Churches in their first Beauty and Glory nor the Worship and Ordinances of God in their first Spiritual Power and Purity It hath been so far your unhappiness that you have been brought forth and lived under the decaying state of these Churches and of Religion and therefore are like to grow up under the prevailing power of a Spirit of Apostacy And alas upon you is likely to fall all the Calamity and Misery of this Apostacy which is begun you will see and feel the sad and lamentable Effects of it O therefore that Youth and Young persons could lay this Consideration unto their hearts and be moved also to engage in this Work of Reformation before it be too late by labouring unto a sound Conversion and a religious Conversation in the dayes of their Youth O that All thus concerned would Vp and be doing True it is there are many great discouragements so that the hearts of those who are most and best disposed unto the Work are ready to fail especially considering that all means of Reformation have hither unto failed nothing hath hither unto done us any good So that God himself may justly complain of us as he did of that people Hos 6.4 O Ephraim what shall I do unto thee c. Jer. 6.29 the bellows are burnt Truly Reformation it is likely to prove a very hard and heavy Work yet we must never despair of Reformation as that people seemed to do Ezek. 33.10 If our transgressions and our iniquities be upon us and we pine away in them how then should we live q.d. You call us to Repentance and Reformation and denounce Wrath and Judgement against us if we do not do it but alas to what purpose for God is resolved to suffer us to pine and die away in our sins And therefore God doth instantly give them an encouraging call to Repentance and Reformation Ver. 11. Say unto them As I live saith the Lord I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn and live Turn ye turn ye for why will ye die O house of Israel Surely God is yet calling of us unto Reformation and waiting upon us for Reformation It is yet a Probation-time with us wherein we are standing before God upon our Tryal God hath repented once more of the evil as Amos 7.3 the unprofitable Tree hath one year more to stand in the Vineyard Luk. 13.8 Yet truly now God seemeth to be limitting of us to a certain day Psal 95.7 To day if ye will hear his voice harden not your hearts O let us take heed then unto this day this limited day which will put a period unto Gods patience and long-suffering lest God swear suddenly and irrevecably in his wrath against us if once our day be past it will be indeed too late witness our Saviours mournful doleful Lamentation which he wept out over Jerusalem Luke 19.42 If thou hadst known even thou at least in this thy day the things of thy peace but now they are hidden from thine eyes And why see ver 44. Because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation therefore I say now now it is high time to reform It is pressed as a present as an instant duty Zeph. 2.2 3. Before before before before that is in all haste speedily Hos 10.12 It is time to seek the Lord that is it is high time more then time the onely time now if ever now or never I do now re-inforce the Exhortation at least by way of allusion to that in Hag. 2.4 Yet now be strong O Zerubbabel and be strong O Joshua the son of Josedech the high Priest and be strong all ye people of the Land saith the Lord and work for I am with you saith the Lord of Hosts according to the word that I Covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt so my Spirit remaineth among you fear ye not So let Magistracy Ministry and People be strengthned and encouraged to this Work believing and hoping that Gods Spirit remaineth among us according to the Covenant which he made with his people when he brought them forth first into this Wilderness

Idolatry in the Worship of God Sinners are sp●●●ed unto and with the sins of the Times those sins are even rooted and grounded in the Spirit of the Generation as Jer. 17.1 The sin of Judah it is graven upon the table of their heart so that there is no hope of Reformation except we make us a new heart and a new spirit And truly this is the reason that we do not reform that we cannot reform though we do promise and vow Reformation unto God Deut. 5.29 This people have well said O that there were such an heart in them q.d. the great thing which this people want is an heart Truly so the great thing which New-England doth want it is a new Heart and a new Spirit Here then we must begin and in order hereunto 1. All sincere Christians must begin this work of Heart-reformation by labouring to recover your Souls out of your Spiritual Declensions in grace and in the life and power of godliness This Spiritual Declension it is in the first and most strict and proper sense that having of our first love reproved in the Context and therefore restitution from this Spiritual Declension it is in the first most strict and proper sense Doing of our first works commended in the Text and therefore sincere Christians are first and most properly concerned in this duty of doing of their first works How generally and deeply Christians are thus declined both their hearts and lives do sadly testifie It is the great and general complaint of all sensible Christians O their decayes and declensions hence little of the life and activity of grace hardly enough to evidence the sincerity of it clearly and comfortably either to themselves or others little of the life of Obedience either in duties of Religion or Righteousness much Carnality Formality Hypocrisie in the Worship of God both in publick private and in seeret in all their Converse and Communion both with God and Saints their Souls languishing under a Spiritual Consumption and those things which remain even ready to die Rev 3.2 It is true first of Christians then of Churches in this sense That there is a universal deadness upon the hearts of Churches hence great unprofitableness and unfruitfulness under all Ordinances sin more unmortified then ever their hearts and lives deeply corrupted with the sins of the Times and many Christians fallen into a very dangerous way of Communion with and Conformity unto the wicked World and all this appearing upon some of those whose first life love sincerity purity and eminency in grace and godliness was sometimes a Beauty unto these Churches O how is our gold become dim and our fine gold changed Lam. 4.1 How is our silver become dross and our wine mined with water Isa 1.22 How are Zions Nazarites changed in their visage Lam. 4.7 How are the faces the Countenance the Conversation of many Christians changed O Christians what shall we say what shall we do what will become of us yea what will become of Religion in this next succeeding generation If you live and die under your declensions as truly many Christians are likely to do being fallen into such deep security under their declensions that they are not like to be awakened untill the Cry be made at Midnight The Bridegroom cometh and must bestir themselves very hard to trim their Lamps in time to enter in with him O Christians It is your Spiritual Declension that is the main root of the degeneracy of this Noble Vine Jer. 2.21 It is your leaving of your first love which doth make way for the removal of the Candlestick your Spiritual declension will lead the way unto and lay the foundation for the general and total defection of these Churches in succeeding generations therefore as the defection hath been in part begun by your declension so the work of Reformation it must be begun by your restitution It is impossible that ever these Churches should be restored unto their first Spiritual prosperity and flourishing state unless Christians do first recover their first love life sincerity fervency purity activity eminency in the exercise of grace and in the performance of duty and in all practical piety both in heart and life O how can you hope to lye down in your Graves with peace and comfort before you have done what in you lyeth in the Work of Reformation How can you die in peace under your Spiritual declensions and thereby leave Religion decaying and dying and these Churches and this Generation your poor Posterity sinking under a general and total defection Sure in vain and frustrate will be all your prayers desires hopes of a Reformation except that you Christians do thus begin and lay the foundation of the work in your own hearts before you die 2. The work of Heart-reformation or making of a new heart consisteth in Conversion and Regeneration This is the most full and proper sense of those words Ezek. 18.31 Make ye a new heart and new spirit for why will ye die so Ezek. 33.11 Turn ye turn ye for why will ye die It is a Call to the unconverted when God doth restore his people from any deep and general defection and renew his Covenant with them he doth promise and actually pour out abundance of converting grace and so revive and renew the work of Conversion So Ezek. 36.26 A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you I will take the flony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh I will put my Spirit within you Let me be hold to say If ever these Churches be throughly recovered it will be it must be by such a dispensation of converting grace unto an unconverted generation It is Unregeneracy that is the radical and total degeneracy of any generation whereby it is wholly turned into the degenerate plant of a strange Vine unto the Lord. Here will be our deepest and most dangerous defection and that which will prove inevitably ruining unto these Churches unless the Lord have mercy upon us O our unbelief and disobedience unto the Gospel our rejection of Christ and his Kingdome It is a most sad and lamentable sign that these Churches and Religion are falling into an irreparable irrecoverable decay That there are so many of the generation growing up under the Ministry of the Word and the improvement of all means of grace in their Vnregeneracy under the prevailing power of Spiritual Apostacy and as we have cause to fear under a dreadful dispensation of divine Justice by Spiritual Plagues and Judgements being justly given up by God unto a spirit frame and way of unprofitableness under a Judicial Ministry sent to make their heart fat lest they should be converted as Isa 6.10 O it is a fearful word Lest they should see with their eyes c. and convert and be healed Observe there is no help no healing for any people if the work of Conversion cease amongst them Truly

untill the holy Seed will be wholly corrupted and the Purity if not the Constitution of these Churches be greatly endangered if not lost It is sad to consider how much many Churches are already corrupted by the Licentiousness and Profaneness of many if not most of the Children of the Covenant Many if not most of the sins of Youth which are many of them some of the most flagitious sins of the Times are become the sins of Churches and the guilt of them doth lye heavily upon Churches with this heavy aggravation that they are committed through the neglect of duty towards them by the due exercise of Discipline If yet there be any hope in Israel concerning this thing as it is spoken of a very difficult Point of Reformation Ezra 10.2 I say if there be any hope of Reformation in this matter it must be by a holy religious saving Education of the Children of the Covenant and that both in Private and in Publick Doubtless there is an extraordinary obligation upon Covenant-Parents to train up their Children for God and a great motive it is unto all care labour and diligence unto such Religious Family-Education for such Parents to consider that their Children are Children of the Covenant and in this fense Gods Children as Ezek. 16.20 21. and the Children of the Promise Acts 2.39 and so under a special Promise of saving grace and blessing on the one hand it is a very sad and lamentable consideration unto any Religiou●●●ent to consider that his Children should through his neglect 〈◊〉 ●●ucation be instrumental by their Profaneness and wickedness 〈◊〉 corrput pollute and defile the Church of God O if ever you would do any thing for the recovery and Propagation of these Churches labour herein The corruption of Churches doth begin in Families and it there be no hope of Family Reformation there is no hope of Church Reformation It is indeed sad to consider how many Families are already grown incorrigible and incurable Labour to imitate faithful Abraham Gen. 18.19 But that which I chiefly intend in this Particular is Publick Eaucation if I may so call it Surely Churches do owe much duty unto the Children of the Covenant commonly styled The Children of the Church they are doubtless the Subject of the especial care and industry of the Presbytery to be watched over warned instructed admonished both Privately and Publickly Churches also are to own them and acknowledge them visibly as they do gradually grow up unto maturity and capacity unto Church-watch and Priviledges If they be in any wise under the Covenant and so of the visible Kingdome of Christ they must needs be under his Rule and Government which is no way rightly administred but by the regular exercise of Discipline in Instituted Churches O they have been very unhappy Controversies to these Churches whereby the vigorous exercise of Discipline unto these hath been so long demurred and delayed that very many of them are grown up unto such an height and strength in Profaneness that they have even broken and cast off the Yoke of Christs Government in his Church and are grown incorrigible and incurable by Discipline And truly this neglect is grown so great and general at least in some Churches that there is very little hope of the recovery of the vigorous effectual exercise of Discipline toward them So that the current of the corruption of the Generation is likely to break in like a flood upon the Churches at this breach and in short time to carry all before it It is one of the most fatal signs which is upon these Churches that this one evil is likely to prove both ruining and remediless and is the more sadly signal because we are no more sensible of it and no more concerned by our Prayers and Endeavours to Reform it Let me say The Progress of the Covenant the Propagation of Churches the Preservation of Churches under their deepest defection in their lowest condition it must be by the succession of an holy Seed Isa 6.13 So the holy Seed shall be the substance thereof If we Vnchurch them either Doctrinally or Practically by the general and total neglect of them and our duty toward them we do thereby lay the foundation of the Apostacy both of these Churches and of the whole Generation 5. Labour unto the promotion and progress of the work of Reformation by a full faithful and religious improvement of your Christian Liberty There is a Spirit and Principle of Liberty in the hearts of all sincere Christians whom Christ hath made free indeed Joh. 8.36 Where the Spirit of God is there is liberty 2 Cor. 3.17 There is a very large and necessary use and exercise of this Spirit and Principle of Liberty in our whole Christian Conversation especially in all our religious converse with God and men Gal. 5.13 For Brethren ye have been called unto liberty Our Christian Liberty is regulated most exactly and strictly by Rules and Precepts in the Word of God there is a compleat directory for the exercise of our Christian Liberty in the Word of God which is the perfect law of liberty Jam. 1.25 Our habitual conformity to this Law of Liberty is the chief Principle of Liberty and our Practical Subjection to the Law of Liberty is the chief Practise or Exercise of our Liberty This Liberty is alwayes acted under the Power and Authority of Divine Truth Joh. 8.22 Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free Jam. 2.12 So speak and so do judged by the law of liberty This Christian Liberty doth not give men leave to believe Profess and Practise what they will as Libertines do vainly suppose and from thence plead for a Licentious Liberty of Conscience and a boundless Latitude both of Profession and Practise in matters of Religion True Christian Liberty holdeth Conscience fast bound to the Rule there are Priviledges and Immunities commonly called Christian Liberties in and about which our Christian Liberty is to be exercised as the proper Subject of this Liberty Those we must hold keep and stand fust in Gal. 5.1 Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made you free And we must be careful to exercise our Christian Liberty in a way of Gospel-order Liberty and Order are inseparable in the conversation of a Christian it is the Liberty of Order our Liberty is laid out and limitted by Order those therefore that do plead for Liberty unto the subversion of Order are Libertines and dangerous Enemies unto Liberty We must also exercise and improve our Christian Liberty in a way of full subjection unto the Power Rule and Government of Christ Ministerially exercised in his Church in the Administration of all his ordinances as the free Subjects of his Spiritual Kingdome Those who rise up in a way of opposition unto or rebellion against the Power of Christ regularly exercised in his Church under pretence of the defence of their Liberty are no true friends to true Liberty VVe