Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A95744
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To Friends in Ireland, and elsewhere a mournful word to the merry-hearted in Zion; with a word of comfort to her bowed down mourners. Written in great exercise of soul and spirit in obedience to the Lord. By Thomas Upsher.
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Upsher, Thomas, 1672-1704.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing U123; ESTC R230513
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5,651
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20
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That a dreadful day of distress was hastning on apace and should surely come in which the Lord would dung the Ground in this and other Nations with the Carcasses of Men and that the Lord would shake the fair and lofty Buildings of many with their pleasant things that they have delighted in And this will surely come to pass as ever it was spoken Therefore Friends be not of an unbelieving Heart O surely that Councel is good to you which the Lord by the Prophet Amos gave to Israel when he threatned them with fore Judgment which was on this wise Thus will I do unto thee O Israel and because I will do this unto thee prepare to meet thy God O Israel Amos 4. But my Heart mourns Ah I am dissressed in my Soul my bowels are pained within me for the sake of those that will have their own Will and go on their old Road let the Servants of the Lord say what they will as his Ambassadors and Ministers But I am satisfied there is a Remnant that will embrace this Warning and Councel and forsake leave off and turn their backs upon these foolish things and thankfully come and drink a bitter Cup of Condemnation and Judgment for their By-past-Jests Laughter and wantonness of speech and behaviour And they shall come to mourn for all these things by which they regardlesly past away much precious time and are greatly behind hand in their days work of Salvation which is to be wrought in fear and trembling Phil. 2. vers 12. Not in Laughter and Jesting and they shall mourn and lament because of their mis-spent time and they shall be diligent to redeem it and they shall redeem it And the Lord will make these brave and honourable Men and Women in his Work and Service and will make them shine in his comliness in the life of Righteousness and self-denial and their last days shall be their best days the nearer they grow to their Grave the nearer they shall be to the Lord and the clearer shall be their assurance by his Spirit of his eternal love to them Finally my Friends to whom I am writing in the bowed downness and grief of my Spirit I pray you I beseech you with beseechings take warning take the Councel and Advice of a poor Servant of the Lord haste and come away out of these foolish customs and practices and touch with them no more for ever then shall my sorrowful Soul rejoice in the Lord for your sakes and you shall reap the peace and advantage of it to your poor immortal Souls when life and time with all these lower Comforts shall fail you So to the Light and Spirit of Truth I commit you which will readily show you in your selves those things that are contrary to the life of Christ and will give you power against them if you be faithful to its blessed and holy discoveries And it will enable you to shine forth in sobriety gravity humility and temperance in all things to the Glory of the everlasting God and the promotion of a self-denying life then shall it be well with you whatever Judgments Calamities and Miseries come upon the Children of disobedience And now a few Words of Comfort to those that are bowed down Mourners in Zion who are faithful to the Lord but are deeply afflicted with Temptations Tryals and Buffettings many ways which makes them to fear they shall not hold out to the End Dear Friends I can call you dear for so you are to the Lord and to my Soul and I will surely shew you what the Lord has shown and sealed to me in the Word of life which is on this wise That you are his Peculiar and Choice Jewels and he hath a very tender regard to you and as you have your Eye to him and cleave to his Spirit in your Hearts he will surely keep you as the Apple of his Eye and he will not suffer the devourer to destroy you and tho' at times you may be tossed with tempests and deeply afflicted and hardly beset on every hand and may seem for a time as if you were forsaken of the Lord and you may be ready to doubt whether ever he will appear to your Joy and Comfort again And tho' it may be so that you think your Condition not to be equal'd and are like poor David who said in his distress after he had seen the great deliverance of the Lord at several times I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul Yet the Lord God of his sure mercies gave him to see the desire of his Soul at last and delivereth him out of all distress Even so will the Lord do for you whose minds are stay'd upon him and truly trust in him and therefore let patience have its perfect Work and endeavour to be content with the dealings of the Lord for he knows best what is best for you And have a great care you are not instrumental for want of Patience to encrease your Exercise For I know by my own Experience that when the Lord brings the Soul into the fiery Furnace which is the Spirit of Judgment and burning Isa 4. then the Enemy he works to make it uneasie and restless under the purifying Judgments of the Lord And then if it be not watchful it grows impatient and here a cloud of Exercises and Doubtings comes over it and someâ—imes is almost brought to the Gates and Jaws of Despair And thus a hultitude of unprofitable Afflictions has come upon some for want of Patience and for want of being resigned and given up in all things to the Will of God to trust their All in his hands being faithful and diligent in his Work Again sometimes the LORD is pleased to hide his Face for a moment for the exercise of the Soul according to his great Wisdom for its good Then the Enemy he works again to bring into impatience and if he prevails then he labours in the next place to set the Soul at work for it self without the LORD to get enjoyments of its own and kindle sparks of Fire by the heat and Struglings of its own Spirit And now again abundance of exercises follows upon this for these emty Flashes holds not long when the Soul comes to be sensible it lies down in sorrow and sometimes the LORD is pleased to suffer it to dwell as in a Land of Drought for a season and now is ready to be cast down into great discouragements again And all this is for want of true patience and a free and constant giving up of the will to the will of GOD and to become as Clay in the Hand of the Potter Read Isa 50. vers 10 11. And therefore this is the word of Advice which I tenderly give unto all such as are in deep exercises of Affliction upon your Souls account Wait often upon the LORD not only in Meetings but out of Meetings also that you may feel his Power to subject your Wills to his Will and in every thing to be resigned to his dispose and dealings and then Hard things will be made Easie and Bitter things will be made Sweet And in the LORD's time through many Tribulations you shall come forth as Gold Seven times Refined and your Warfare shall be accomplished and your Iniquity pardoned and you shall dwell for ever in that City where the Inhabitants shall not say I am Sick but the People that dwell therein shall be all Righteous and the LORD shall be your everlasting Light and their GOD their Glory and the days of your Mourning shall be ended for Sorrow and Sighing shall flee away And then you Bowed down ones of many Afflictions you shall lift up your Bowed down heads and by living experience sing that blessed Song of Zion That the LORD GOD eternal hath turned your Captivity as the streams of the South and has done great things for you whereof you are glad he hath turned your barren Wilderness and desolate Desert into an holy and heavenly Paradice where you Eat of the Tree of Life and Drink of the Water of Life freely I can say my Heart overflows with love to you poor afflicted Souls every where and I do simpathize with you according to my experience and do pray to the LORD for you that you may have Patience and be resigned into the hand of the LORD subject to his will in all things and then never doubt but he that has laid the Foundation will in his own time lay the Top-Stone also I say this flows forth in a Spring of pure Love to you From one who thô young in Years have past through many deep Exercises and have seen the wonderful deliverances of the LORD in many great Temptations and have as much reason as any man living to keep humble and low and watchful before the LORD all the remainder of the days of my Pilgrimage Thomas Upsher Dublin 15th of the 3d Month 1699. The End