Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A93389
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A rout, a rout: or some part of the Armies quarters beaten up, by the day of the Lord stealing upon them. Wherein is briefly discovered the present cloudy and dark appearance of God amongst them. / By Joseph Salmon, a present member of the Army.
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Salmon, Joseph.
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1649
(1649)
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Wing S416; Thomason E542_5; ESTC R203442
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10,871
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20
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A Rout A Rout Or some part of the ARMIES QVARTERS BEATEN VP By the DAY of the LORD Stealing upon Them Wherein is briefly discovered the present cloudy and dark appearance of God amongst them By JOSEPH SALMON a present Member of the ARMY He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what the Spirit saith Arise ye and depart for this is not your rest it is polluted c. The weapons of our warfare are not carnall but mighty through God to beat down strong holds c. London Printed by T. N. 1649. A Word to the Commanding Power in the ARMY By your leave Gentlemen I Hope in these dayes of Liberty I may be free to speak a word to my fellow-Souldiers I shall not trouble you with much at the present for I know you have more trouble already upon your spirits then you can well tell how to be rid of My speech is intended especially as I said before to my fellow-Souldiers those of the inferiour rank and quality I have very little from the Lord to declare to You as yet All that I have to say is this That you go on as fast as you can with the Work you have begun for the time draws nigh that is allotted you Make haste I say yet not more haste then good speed Make a short work but cut it short in righteousnesse for the day is at hand wherein he that helpeth and they that are holpen shall fall together Gentlemen you are the rod of God yea the rod of the Lords anger in his own hand the Almighty Arm acts you and so it appears for no manly glory can encounter with you in this day of the Lords wrath you strike thorow King Gentry and Nobility they all fall before you You have a Commission from the Lord to scourge England's Oppressors do it in the name of God do it I say fully hotly sharply and the same measure you mete shall be met to you again for the Lord will ere long cast his rod into the fire of burning and destruction It will be a sweet destruction wait for it Gentlemen Vnder an abrupt form I subscribe my self Yours in life and death JOSEPH SALMON To the Fellowship of SAINTS scattered in the ARMIE Dear Hearts I Know it will be a wonder to some of you to behold this Frontispiece faced with my Character and truly it is as much my wonder as yours I little thought that ever God would have called me hither Friends I am yet amongst you I own you I can say Amen to your Proceedings although I cannot close with you in the managing of them I have a fellowship with you in the Lord but I am distant from your dark and fleshly enterprises You are a scattered seed amongst tares and it is your name that upholds the fame of the whole You are that little Leaven hid in the meale whose reputation seasons the whole lump if it were not for you this power of the Sword would vanish and be annihilated Behold I shew you a Mystery it is yet hidden from many yea most of you Thus saith the Lord of Hosts The day is coming and now is when I will gather up my jewels in the Army from under this dark and carnall form of the Sword into my self where I will be unto them Life Liberty Priviledge and Satisfaction the fulness of Arrears and plenty of Accommodation when they shall no more contend with the world for outward Interest but beholding all in Divine fulness shall in the enjoyment of it sit down contented And this I partly see fulfilled in my self and others But now it may be you will wonder why I yet remain amongst you seeing I am brought hither I am sure many of your verdicts will passe upon me I shall not want the censure of most But it is no matter Cast all your cruelty and malice upon me the Lord in me is mighty to bear it I will own it all being willing to become sin for you though the Lord in me knows no sin that you together with me may be presented in the Lord an eternall righteousnesse I have but this at present to say I am now with you as Mary at the Sepulchre waiting to see the Lord but he is risen Your carnall affairs are the Sepulchre where the Lord is buryed to me he is not here he is certainly risen but where to see him in his next appearance I wait I must stand at the sepulchre till the voyce be uttered behinde me which I beleeve will be shortly both to me and many others Till the day break and the shadows flee away Farewell my Beloved be thou as a Roe or a young Hart upon the mountains of Bether Sirs I am yours JOS. SAL. A ROVT A ROVT OR Some part of the Armie's Quarters beaten up by the DAY of the LORD stealing upon them THat Power or Mystery which acts all things and by which whole man in his counsels actions and engagements is led out and disposed according to divine will and pleasure I say this Power which is God comes forth and offers it self in a diversity of appearance and still by a divine progresse in the affairs of the earth moves from one power to another from one dispensation to another from one party to another hereby accomplishing his eternally decreed designe in and upon the Creature This is manifest in all dispensations civil and spirituall Time was when God had faced the Jewish Ceremonies those carnall manifestations with a great beauty and splendor of divine Majestie the Lord was there seen under that form to vail and hide his beauty and glory In a time appointed he departed from them went out of them he would dwell there no longer but he casts off that form or garment and clothes himself with another swallowed up that glory in another the lesser in the greater and then all the brightness and lustre of divine appearance resided in and dwelt upon the flesh of the Son as being a more true pattern and exact resemblance of God the divine Power But the Lord was not here in his appearance where he would be neither and therefore having no resolution eternally here to tabernacle or abide in the fulness of Time he lays this form aside also Though he was the Son the dear Son the only begotten Son a Son so like the Father yet he must not be spared he must be crucified the Lord will move hence also whence note That this Divine power or Mystery admits of no eternall habitation in any thing below it self Now as This power God hath a daily motion out of one dispensation spirituall into another so also it is in Civil or outward dispensations This I have found in my own experience by tracing this Divine power in its going forth amongst the sons of Men that it sometimes owns this sometimes that form sometimes this sometimes that party daily moving from one to another as it pleaseth now the Lord lives in all these
though in some darkly in others more purely and all these motions are as so many footsteps of God whereby he gradually ascends out of the creature into a more compleat image or likeness of himself Time was when God dwelt amongst us in the darkness of absolute and arbitrary Monarchy The face and beauty of Divine mystery lived in it deny it who can that sees God in all things In this form of Monarchy God hath vailed his beautifull presence with a thick cloud of darkness He hath made darkness his secret place and his pavilions round about him have been thick clouds of the Skie Though the image and brightness of God have dwelt in it yet under such black darkness that man could never discern it Tyranny persecution opposition will nature and creature hath been as it were that vail betwixt God and Man in this dispensation all this and whatever you will call evil in Monarchy the Lord was pleased to hide himself under while resident in this carnall form I know its difficult to see God in this darkness the bright Sun under this black cloud the naked and pure Spirit u … er this foul habit and filthy attire but he that cannot here discern God is blinde and sees not afar off God having hitherto walked under this form is now and hath in these last dayes come forth to rend this vail in pieces to shake this form to lay it waste and cloath himself with another How God hath and does destroy Monarchy and what it figures out to us The power and life of the King and in him the very soul of Monarchy sunk into the Parliament and here it lost its name barely but not its nature its form but not its power they making themselves as absolute and tyrannicall as ever the King in his reign dignity and supremacy yet the Lord ascended a little nearer himself by taking of this form the Parliament and hereby made way for his after-design We see in a short time he layes aside that glorious shew and Idol the Parliament and cloaths himself with the Army And thus both King Monarchy and Parliament fell into the hands and upon the swords of the Army and thus the Army are to be the executioners of that beast Monarchy which they had formerly wounded and whose wound the Parliament had healed and salved over by a corrupt and rotten Treaty all which doth figure out to me the stain of the glory of all flesh as Monarchy or arbitrary regall power fals by the sword so also shall that Kingly and Imperiall power of all flesh be cut in sunder by the stroke of Divine Justice for by his fire and by his sword will the Lord plead with all flesh and the slain of the Lord shall be many The Lord will kindle a burning under that glory wherein he hath formerly appear'd God himself shall be the burning the holy One shall be the flame and all fleshly regality in us shall be the fuel which shall be burnt up and consumed But we shal hence proceed to our former Discourse and shall next in order consider How God lives in the ARMY Thus far we see God hath moved from party to party and sits down at present in the Army And here also God makes darkness his secret place living under a poor low carnal form and few can behold his beautifull presence under the power of the sword The Lord here besmears himself with blood and vengeance deforms his own beauty hides his aimable presence under a hideous and wrathful form And now in as much as God hath called me forth from an impartiall spirit to declare my Light I shall from some clear experience of the Armies present condition discover that dark and cloudy appearance of the supreme power God amongst them whereby may be discerned how far below the pure appearance of The spirit their present station renders them And I am very confident that which I shall say the Lord will testifie and bare record the truth of the same upon the hearts of many amongst them Friends Look about you for the Lord is now comming forth to Rip up your bowels to search your heart and try your reins yea to let loose the imprisoned Light of himself in you and if the Lord by this does not shake many of you then say That I have prophesied Lies in the name of the Lord. Then let him that hath an ear to hear hear what the Lord that spirit saith Thus saith the Lord yea the Lord saith it That the present condition of the Army or the present appearance of the supreame power amongst them renders them in darknesse and far below the pure Light and life of God That it is so I offer my appeale thus First let them and all others who are spiritually wise consider by and from what principles God acts these men I mean you Heroes of valour in the Army you Grandees of the present power in the Kingdom In patience possesse ye your soules till I shall race your foundation and discover your principles which God hath hitherto and still does act you in they are either publike or private commonor more properly peculiar your common and publike principles are the outward libertie and freedom of the Nation The establishment of outward lawes liberties and priviledges and some outward form of Government which may correspond with your sense of Justice what no farther yet This is a poor earthly Tabernacle which God at present hath taken up in you I wish I might not have cause to say It is a speckled pretence under which your private interests refides For I know this is the main spur that drives you on self-preservation This is your Dalilah your proper private and peculiar principle Resolved you are to save your Lives and preserve your self-interest though in this expedition you destroy all other powers and interests whatsoever Herein though you walk as men very carnally yet Dear hearts I blame you not I know God acts you in this cloud he goes out with you in this darkness and Le ts out his presence through this vail of self-preservation amongst you he hath crowned you with same success and victory while you have lived and acted in this earthly body of outward Liberty But how far inferiour and below this is to a Life in the purity of Divine light now God hath disclosed himself I am in some measure able to discern You know not yet what it is to be dead to your own Interests though you have professed a great deal of self-denyall yet I profess many of you never yet knew what true self donial was and what it is truly to be dissolved and dye out of your own carnal Interests I know your bonour and dignity is great in your hearts your renowned enterprises call for merit Your lives and safeties are also dear to you it is so so it must be God will have it so he lives in these low concernments and yet your hearts