Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	life_n	love_n	soul_n	7,027	5	4.9116	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36272	A sermon preached before the King, Aug. 14, 1666 being the day of thanksgiving for the late victory at sea / by J. Dolben ...	Dolben, John, 1625-1686.	1666 (1666)	Wing D1833; ESTC R15031	13,657	34

all our worldly concernments but especially the continual endeavours of his Grace and Holy Spirit to conduct us safe to the enjoyment of that Blessedness which his Infinite Wisdom and Goodness have prepared for us Such Reflections as these would we suffer them to settle and fix upon us must needs fill our souls with the Love of God and our mouths with his Praises This would kindle in us a zealous Concern and Passion for the Glory of God and we should apprehend no happiness upon Earth but in the promoting his honour among men Our hearts would be like Altars of Incense with a perpetual Heavenly fire burning on them and sending up continually our Eucharistial oblations that odour of sweet smell made of holy Oyl and fragrant Spices Love and Joy in the Lord and the Cloud of this Incense would cover the Mercy Seat The assistant Angels would as the Jews say go up in this Cloud to offer our Lauds unto God and bring back from him Grace and Peace and Salvation in returns unto us 'T is for want of this because we are such strangers to God and our selves that the life of every Christian is not a continual Eucharist That we come so seldom and with such coldness and Indevotion to join with the Church Militant in her Sacrifice of Praise the Holy Communion Hebr. 13 15. that great peculiar instance of our Religion wherein Christ hath commanded us to continue a perpetual thankful remembrance of all God's Mercies and particularly of his Death which comprehends them all and there to connect our poor Prayers to his powerful eternal intercessions that so both our Petitions and Praises may be acceptable to God 'T is for want of this that the Children of God are so unwilling to have their Conversation in Heaven to join and communicate in this Honourable delectable Duty of Praising God with the Church Triumphant where Saints and Angels incessantly Praise God having nothing to ask or beg of him but in behalf of us We deceive our selves grosly and dangerously while we think we can be Religious without Praising God often and heartily and cheerfully in Private as well as Publick Alas our loud and clamorous Prayers how many or importunate soever they be separate from this are but Hypocritical Devotions terminated in our own interests not in God or his Glory And our Prayers would be as few as our Praises but that the love of the world and our selves which damps the love of God in our hearts and suffers us not to delight and rejoice in Praising him sometimes prompts us to call on him to fly to his help in distress make us look up like the Jews in the Wilderness when we feel our selves stung And this strange fire on the Altar looks like the True burns and blazeth for a while and makes us think our selves very Religious when alas we are onely very fore or very fearful and our necessities and distresses are devout not we I need not Press that further whereof every one hath a sufficient conviction in this that while our case is thus Devotion comes upon us onely by catches and starts and even as in an Ague we have as many cold Fits as hot When the violence of that impulse pulse which warm'd us is spent we freeze again when the Calamity or terror which put us into a hasty fermentation is taken off immediately we settle upon our lees VVhen he kills us then we seek him we turn early and enquire after God when we remember that God is our strength Psal 78. and the most High God is our Redeemer but as soon as the Judgment is removed and we have swallowed and digested the Mercy we turn back and tempt the Holy One of Israel VVe think no more of his Hand and of the Day wherein he delivered us from our Enemies VVhereas were a habit of Religion firmly setled in us rooted and grounded on the love of God and conscience of our Duty it would be both Permanent and Uniform in all its exercises VVe should not think to use God onely as a Property or Convenience but adore the Majesty of our Almighty Soveraign Lord and delight as much to Praise him for the Benefits we have received as to receive any new ones from his hand VVhat then shall I say Shall I reproach a Christian Congregation by exhorting them to love God I am ashamed to do that and I have said enough already if any thing be enough by telling you that without Loving God you ought not to Trust in him you cannot Praise or Pray to him your Praises will be but Flatteries and your Prayers indignities and affronts Shall I desire you to be more frequent and more zealous in your Praises Sure I need not request you if you mean to go to Heaven to practice that beforehand here which must there be your onely Employment to beseech you not to think that a trouble now which then will be your Happiness and Glory I will rather tell you that God needs none of all these things from you Your Love does not benefit nor your Praises exalt him He is the same Omnipotent Majesty Infinitely happy in Himself whether you depend on his Protection and beg your daily Bread and all other good things at his hands or whether neglecting both those Duties you live as without God in the World But He is pleased when you love and honour him because he is delighted in the obedience of his Creature and nothing is so agreeable to him as that we should give him those occasions to love us and do us good which if you thus qualifie your selves to receive his favour I can assure you he will do as the Prophet David here assures himself Upon these Terms we shall be safe from our Enemies So shall I c. SO shall I be safe otherwise I shall not VVe cannot promise our selves to be safe by our own strength For were it never so great it may be matched and exceeded And were we never so much Masters of our Enemies we are not Masters of Occasion We may and have been obliged to fight upon disadvantage We are not Commanders of the Seas nor of the Winds which God keeps in his Treasure Last year they were helpful to us They were otherwise this year And if we cannot protect our selves Who shall protect us I have heard that one of our enemies hath said with contempt and scorne enough We have no Friend But God! Does he make such But 's I pardon his raillery and heartily embrace the good Omen of it If we have no Friend but God then we have him and if he be our Friend I am sure we need not fear what man can do against us Neither they we have so oft conflicted with nor they who hover further off expecting an opportunity to fall upon us when we are sore can be able to do us harm He is too much a Coward that dreads any Enemy when he hath Omnipotence it self

of Psalms but his whole life could not otherwise have been so full of jealousie for God's Honour Delight in his Commands and every thing that may express a Will knit and united to that of God as the Chaldee hath it here which is the true and proper effect of Love Indeed David could not without such a love of God have perform'd well those acts of Piety and Devotion which he promiseth in my Text Could not Trust in him Praise him or Pray to him acceptably with hope to be saved from his Enemies Nor can we however our Fancies and Dreams of Religion deceive us and therefore must be sure to take it along with us throughout And first to help us and give us ground and foundation for our Trust in God the next thing in my Text. TRust we know is an act of Friendship and the greatest fruit it yields Mutual Confidence springing naturally from Mutual Affection I can safely rely upon that Person whom I therefore love because I esteem him so good that he will not fail any just expectation and whose affection to me is my double Pledg that he will surely answer mine But if I doubt either of these two things Love and Trust vanish together so that we must both love God and believe that he loves us before we can Trust in him For though God's Goodness be Infinite and have wonderfully abounded to us yet being free in its exercise it will be presumption and folly not trust to expect any thing further from him but according to the methods of his Wisdom revealed unto us in his Promises and he hath promised his favours onely to those that love him And if we love him then shall we Trust in him both with a steady and humble Confidence Not murmuring when we want the success we expect nor growing insolent when we have it Love will not suffer us to suspect his Goodness if every event come not up to our wishes Nor censure his Wisdom though sometimes we discern not the reason of his Providence Much less shall we justle him out of his Throne and put in for our share in governing the World setting up a Counter-Deity of our own Councel and Force These are generally the two great faults of men in our Condition Not submitting to the Wisdom and Goodness of God And relying too much upon the Arm of Flesh And have we never been guilty of either of them Have we never quarrelled and grumbled if there were a ship less taken then we had predestined in our Fancy Any thing fallen out otherwise then we had set it down in the Gallery or the Coffee-house Do we not in the computation of our strength for the War make false Musters passing our own Force and Courage twice over upon the Rolls and leaving God quite out Imagine our selves sufficient Deliverers and Saviours to our selves and forgetting that God is our Strength The Rock of our Defence and the Horn of our Salvation I fear something of this may have been the Provocation which hath mov'd God to Discipline us with his own Sword the Plague at home while he saves us from that of the Enemy abroad Lately to shew us danger in an unequal Encounter and even now to check our Victory and snatch much of its fruit out of our hands when we were just grasping it and seem'd to our selves almost possess'd of a full and final Conquest And this hath he done not by animating our drooping Enemies with new Courage or strengthning their feeble hands with fresh force and activity but meerly by withholding the Breath of his Wind that we may be convinced upon how Particular and constant attendance of Providence upon us our felicity depends which if it be suspended but for one moment we presently falter if the influence of God's Power and Goodness that soul of our affairs do not exert it self in every instance immediately our nerves are relaxed and our spirits damp'd and we begin to languish without strength or motion This being duly considered I hope will engage us not onely to Love God more ardently and Trust in him more entirely and firmly but doing both to Praise and Pray to him more affectionately That so we may both now and always be safe from our Enemies I will call upon the Lord who is worthy to be praised So shall I c. I fear there is not so much of my time left as of my Subject Wherefore I will join these two Duties of Prayer and Praise in my Exhortation as the Chaldee and Greek do in the Text it self who read both of them Praising I will Pray And they cannot be more joint and united in any Expression then they are in their own natures Praise being one and the most noble Part of Prayer that which is most peculiarly and eminently the Worship of God For though when we Petition him for the Benefits we desire or against the Evils we fear we do tacitly and by consequence acknowledg both his Power and his Goodness yet do we more expresly and directy Honour and Glorifie God when our souls are pour'd out in cheerful Hallelujah's hearty and joyful celebrations of his holy Name who is the Lord Blessed for ever Whoso offereth me Thanks and Praise he (a) Ps 50.23 Honoureth me saith David and how much David thought so appears by this that all his Psalmes are so full of those oblations as in the Original they are justly called The Book of Praises And why are not our lives as full of them too We mistake our selves if we think this Duty confined to great Festivals and solemn Thanksgivings to depend upon our Calendars or the Kings Proclamations Holy Job in the depth of his sorrows and the midst of his great distresses when he had at once lost both his Wealth and his Children all the supports and comforts of this life Even upon the Dunghil (b) Job 1 21. Blesseth the Name of the Lord his God who had both given and taken away To teach us that we can never be in a condition so wretched and uncomfortable wherein we may not find somewhat for which we ought to Praise God and adore and magnifie his goodness towards us not onely although we be afflicted and cast down but even because we are so Would we allow our selves some time to meditate seriously on the incomprehensible Excellencies of the Divine Nature To consider how all God's Attributes have been employed and exercised for our Good To understand what it was at first to be created out of nothing and put into a capacity of hapiness What need we had of Mercy and how unworthy we were of it when by a foolish Disobedience we had obliged and confined our selves to endless wo and then at what a rate our Redemption was procured That by the Bloud of Christ not onely Pardon but Eternal Happiness was purchased for us Would we recollect the several instances of God's Care and Providence in the preservation of our lives and