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A81199 An exposition with practicall observations continued upon the twenty-second, twenty-third, twenty-fourth, twenty-fifth, and twenty-sixth chapters of the book of Job being the summe of thirty-seven lectures, delivered at Magnus near London Bridge. By Joseph Caryl, preacher of the Word, and pastour of the congregation there. Caryl, Joseph, 1602-1673. 1655 (1655) Wing C769A; ESTC R222627 762,181 881

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man chafed and enraged as a man full of wrath and fury but as a man most tenderly affected and full of pity for a bruised reade shall he not breake and smoaking flax shall he not quench a bruised read and smoaking flax are emblems of the weake of the arme without strength of those who are without wisdome Christ will not deale roughly with those he will not breake the bruised read nor quench the smoaking flax that is such as are broken with the sence of sin such as are weake in faith such as are so much over-powred by corruption that they doe rather smoake and make an ill-sented smother then burne or shine in a gracious profession such as are thus low and meane in spiritualls Christ will not breake with his power nor quench with his rebukes till he send forth judgement to victory that is till he hath perfected their conversion and hightned their graces to the full and caused the better part in them to prevaile over the worse as the house of David did over the house of Saul till it arive at a blessed victory And againe Isa 61.2 The spirit of the Lord God is upon me for wh●t because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meeke he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted to proclaime liberty to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Here is helping those that have no power and saving the arme that hath no strength Thus Christ handles those who through temptation affliction or any trouble are brought low For the neglect of this duty the Lord reproves the Shepheards Ezek. 34.2 3 4. Son of man prophesie against the Shepheards of Israel prophecy and say unto them thus saith the Lord God unto the Shepheards Woe be to the Shepheards of Israel that doe feed themselves should not the Shepheards feed the flockes That is should they not be more intent upon the feeding of their flocke with spiritualls then upon the feeding of themselves with temporalls should they not labour more to feed the peoples soules then their owne bellyes surely they ought But what did the Shepheards of Israel The next words shew us both what they did and what they did not Ye eate the fat and ye cloath you with the wool ye kill them that are fed These things they were forward enough to doe But see what they did not ye feed not the flock That 's a general neglect of duty then followeth their neglect of particular duties The diseased have ye not strengthened neyther have ye healed that which is sicke neyther have ye bound up that which was broken neyther have ye brought againe that which was driven away by force of Satans temptation neyther have ye sought that which was lost through selfe-folly and corruption Here is a large enditement against the Shepheards All which may be summed up in Jobs language to Bildad They did not helpe those who had no power they did not save the arme without strength nor counsel those who had no wisdome See againe how the Prophet describes the compassionatenesse of God to his people in an afflicted condition Isa 27.8 In measure that is moderately when it shooteth forth thou wilt debate with it he stayeth his rough winde in the day of the East winde that is when affliction like an East winde blowes feircely upon his from the world then he stayeth his rough winde he will not bring his rough winde out of his treasures to joyn with the East-winde God will deale gently with his when they are hardly dealt with by men And thus it is our duty when it is a day of the East winde a day of trouble and temptation upon any soule to stay the rough winde to breath gently to give refreshment and ease to the weary soule How hast thou helped him that hath no power how savest thou the arme that hath no strength Secondly Observe The manner how we performe any duty is to be attended as well as the matter Bildads businesse was to comfort the sorrowfull to strengthen the infirme how did he performe this his strengthening was a weakning his helping was a grieving of Job already weake and grieved and the reason was because he failed in the manner or mannaging of this worke we must be carefull as to doe good for the matter so to doe it effectually which cannot be unlesse it be done rightly Some goe with an honest purpose to helpe who yet administer no helpe at all to every such helper it may be sayd with rebuke How hast thou helped him that is without power how unhandsomely hast thou done it what worke hast thou made of it Thou hast but entangled the poore soule worse then before This runs through all duties We may say to some How have you prayed and called upon God They onely speake a few words present a few petitions but without a heart without faith without a sense of the presence of God or of their owne wants how have such prayed call ye this prayer we may say to others how have you heard the word of God is this to heare what to re●eive the sound or the sense of the word and never to minde it more never to digest nor turne what is heard into practice is this hearing We may say to others how have you f●sted and humbled your soules before God Is this a fast that God hath chosen a day for a man to hang downe his head like a bullrush Is this fasting to God even to God No This is but a mock-fast a No-fast God hates such formality in praying hearing fasting with a perfect hatred A body exercised and a soule sitting still is not worship God is a spirit and will be worshipped in spirit and in truth In the truth or according to the rule of his owne word as also in the truth or according to the sincerity of our owne hearts unlesse we worship God in this twofold truth we worship him not at all as he will be worshipped how much soever we seeme to have a will to worship him As Job here puts a question mixt with admiration and indignation to his helper How hast thou helped him that hath no power How ilfavordly how bunglingly hast thou done it So the Lord will put such a question to many of his worshippers How have ye worshipped him that hath all power how slightly how formally how hypocritically have ye done it Therefore in all duties looke to the manner as well as to the matter and labour to doe them well as well as to doe them To neglect the doing of a duty or the doing of it negligently are alike offensive unto God and he will say to the latter with as much displeasure How hast thou done what I commanded as he will to the latter Why hast thou not done what I commanded yea Thirdly Observe That which is not done as it ought is to be judged as if not done That which we strive not
good It is not enough for a man to say he doth not judge his brother maliciously he ought not to judge him ignorantly Though to speake or judge ill of another because wee wish him ill be the greater sinne yet barely to speake or judge ill of another by whom we know no ill is very sinfull And then 't is most sinfull when wee doe it not onely as not knowing any evill they have done but because we know heare or see the evills which they suffer 'T is dangerous as well as improper to make the hardest and harshest dealings of God with any man the ground of our hard and harsh thoughts of him Thirdly Consider who they were whom Job is supposed to have oppressed they were not the great ones not the mighty men of the earth but the fatherlesse and the widow Whence note That the poore are usually the subject of oppression The greater fish in the sea of this world devoure and live upon the lesser The strong should support the weake and they who are upper-most should uphold those who are under them But because the weake and the underlings may most easily be opprest therefore they are most usually opprest As Covetousnesse is cruell so 't is cowardly and dares not meddle with its match God in reference to Spiritualls filleth the hungry with good things and the rich he sendeth empty away Luk. 1.53 Ungodly men in reference to temporals would send the rich away empty if they could but they are so farre from filling the hungry with good things that they take away all the good things they can from the hungry they care not if they starve the hungry if they make the poore poorer and take all from them who have but little Fourthly Job having been a Magistrate and so by his place a Minister of Justice is strongly pressed with the doing of injustice Whence note First That they who have power may easily though not alwayes justly be suspected for the abuse of it To have a power in our hands whereby we may doe good is a temptation to doe evill 'T is hard to keepe power within its bounds and to rule that by which others are ruled The Prophet Isa 1.10 calls the rulers of Sion rulers of Sodome because they ruled like them or rather worse then they eating up the people under their charge rather then feeding them and vexing those whom they undertooke to governe and to be a Shield unto against the vexations of others Secondly Note That as oppression is a sinne in any man so it is most sinfull in those who have power in their hands to releeve the oppressed Such act not onely contrary to a common rule but contrary to their speciall duty by how much we have the more obligation not to doe a thing by so much we sin the more if we doe it Thirdly Note That as it is very sinfull in Magistrates to wrong any man so it is most sinfull to wrong them or to deny them right who have most need of it the widow and the fatherlesse Magistrates are called Gods And God who hath honoured them by putting his name upon them expects that they should honour him by imitating or acting like unto him What a Magistrate doth he should doe like God he should doe it so that every one may be convinced that God is in him and with him of a truth As God takes care of the widow and of the fatherlesse so should he God is knowne by this Title A father of the fatherlesse and a Judge of the widow is God in his holy habitation Psal 68.5 That is in Heaven for that 's the habitation of his holines and of his glory there he dwells Judging for the widow and the fatherlesse And as that is the speciall businesse as it were of God in Heaven so they who are Gods on earth ought to make it their speciall businesse to judge for the widow and the fatherlesse Hence wee finde the widow and the fatherlesse commended by name to the care of the Magistrate The fatherlesse have no naturall parents living or none neere of kinne remaining to maintaine and defend them therefore the Magistrate who is pater patriae the common father of his Country should be their Foster-Father They who want power are the charge should be the speciall care of those in power Thus they are commanded Psa 82.3 4. Defend the poore fatherless doe justice to the afflicted needy deliver the poore and needy rid them out of the hand of the wicked Here 's their worke and the neglect of this worke how busie so ever Magistrates are about other worke is often complained of aloud in Scripture as a crying sinne as a sinne that ruines Nations and drawes downe publicke Judgements upon a people Isaiah 1.17 Cease to doe evill learne to doe well seeke Judgement relieve the oppressed Judge the fatherlesse plead for the widow And at the 23 verse They judge not the fatherlesse neither doth the Cause of the widow come unto them Againe Jer. 5.28 They judge not the Cause of the fatherlesse It is a sin not to judge any mans Cause not to judge the Cause of the richest of the greatest yet it is more sinfull not to judge the Cause of the widow and the fatherlesse And when he saith They judge not the Cause c. the meaning is they judge not the Cause of the fatherlesse impartially and righteously And indeed he that doth not judge righteously doth not judge at all and when the Prophet saith They judge not the Cause of the fatherlesse it is as if he had said Among all the Causes that lye unjudged this is the Cause that God takes most notice of and is most displeased with the neglect of it even when the Cause of the fatherlesse is not pleaded or judged All are forward enough to plead the Cause of the rich but when the Client is poore and appeares in forma pauperis his cause seld me finds any but a poore and formal pleading We read Acts 6.1 That there was a great murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrew●s because their widdowes were neglected in the daily Administration Church-Officers in their capacity as well as State-Officers in theirs ought to have a carefull eye upon widows that are in want And the Apostle James Cha. 1.27 summes up as it were all Religion into this one duty Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visit the fatherlesse and the widow Not as if this were indeed all religion or the all of religion but as when the Spirit in Scripture hath to doe with prophane persons or meere moral honest men who place all religion in civill righteousnesse and workes of charity then he calls them to first Table duties or to the sincere worship of God so when the Spirit is speaking to those who place all their religion in worship or in first Table duties neglecting the duties of charity and righteousnes then we finde
dayes and yeares of our lives many such things are with him So when we have suffered and been troubled this day we may say hee hath other sufferings and troubles for us against next day when these are gone and blowne over this I suppose is the thing that Job aymes at so that he seemes to prepare himselfe for new rods and to say in the sweetest and humblest composure of a meek and quiet spirit It is the Lord let him doe with me what seemeth good in his owne eyes All that God hath performed to me-wards hee hath appoynted for mee yet I am not of opinion that God hath spent all his appoyntments upon mee surely hee hath not drawne his quiver dry hee hath yet more arrowes to shoot at my poore already wounded and bleeding breast My heart misgives or rather gives me that he hath not yet shewed me all the troubles which he hath appoynted for the tryall of my graces for the exercise of my patience and for the purging out of my corruptions For many such things are with him And this wee may take two wayes First In reference to the power of God hee can doe many such things as these he can doe what he hath done his arme is not shortned Secondly In reference to his owne deservings many sins are with me and therefore I have reason enough to suspect that many more sorrowes are appoynted for mee I may need more humbling and refining and therefore it is like I shall have it and that another furnace is heating for me In how holy a frame was the spirit of this good man He justifieth God in all that he had done and he was ready to submit though it made his flesh feare and tremble at the thought of it as he confesseth it did in the next verse yet I say he was ready to submit to whatsoever God would yet doe knowing that he could and being much perswaded that he would doe much and many things more then he had done yet For saith he Many such things are with him Hence note First God hath variety of wayes to exercise and chasten his in As hee hath more then one Blessing so he hath more then one Chastening as he hath many Comforts so he hath many sorrowes ready at his hand as hee is the God of all Consolation so hee is the God also of all tribulation and as hee can make all Consolation to abound so hee can make all tribulation to abound many such things are with him When you have suffered one affliction doe not thinke that you have suffered all there may be a second at hand They are usually twin-borne and sometimes we may say as Leah in another case Gen. 30.11 A troupe cometh Troubles come by Troupes We read the Lord threatning his antient people the Jewes after great sufferings and Judgements had been upon them with a succession of new Judgements The whole twenty eight Chapter of Deuteronomie is but a continued description of that variety both of blessings and curses which God hath at hand stored up in his Treasures Read how various his Judgements are 1 Kings 8.37 2 Chron. 6.28 I will punish you yet seaven times more for your sins Lev 26.18.24 And that seaven times more may be understood First in reference to the variety of their punishments you shall have seaven kindes of punishments more then you had secondly in reference to the degrees of their punishment I will make them seaven times greater then they were As Nebuchadnezar commanded the fiery furnace to be heated seaven times hotter so the Lord can command the furnace to be heated seaven times hotter And as the Lord can chasten and afflict his people seaven times more both in kinde and degree so they may need seaven sorts of afflictions more and a furnace heated seaven times more then formerly eyther for the purging out of their sins or for the exercise and proofe of their Graces For though the Lord hath a great variety of afflictions at his command yet he never layeth any one of them upon us but when there is need The Apostle Peter gives us assurance of this from God 1 Ep 1.6 For having said that Saints are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation wherein they greatly rejoyce he presently adds though now for a season if need be ye are in heavinesse through manifold temptations Wee see the temptations wherewith the Lord exerciseth the heires of heaven here on earth are many yet they never feele these but when need is And many have as much need of the rod for their spirituall estate as they have of bread for their naturall Many such things are with him Secondly Note Wee deserve more and sorer afflictions then God hath yet layed upon any of us They who sin least suffer lesse then their sin how much soever they suffer here Psal 103.10 Hee hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities so great is his mercy to them that feare him The Text is to be understood of them that feare God Hee hath not dealt with us after our sins that is in proportion to our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities that is wee have not had that measure of trouble which answers the measure of our iniquities Ezra made humble confession of this in the name of the Jewish Church Ezra 9.13 And after all that is come upon us much is come upon us for our evill deeds Non sunt condignae passiones hujus vitae 1 ad praeteritam culpam quae remitti●ur 2 ad praesentem consolationis gratiam quae immittitur 3 ad futuram gloriam quae promittitur Punit deus intra condignum retribuit bona ultra condignum and for our great trespasse seing that thou our God hast punished us lesse then our sins deserve c. Their punishment was great yet lesse then their iniquities As all the afflictions and miseries of this life are lesse then the glory that is promised Rom. 8.18 I count that the sufferings of this present life are not worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be revealed So all the sufferings of this life are not to be compared with the deserts of the least sin committed by us nor with the least comfort of the Spirit which is given to us As the good things which God bestows upon us are above and beyond any worthines of ours so the evills with which he chastneth his children yea or punisheth the worst of wicked men in this life are below and on this side what they are worthy to receave Vers 15. Therefore am I troubled at his presence when I consider him I am afraid of him c. This and the next verse expresse the state of Jobs spirit upon the former discovery or how he was affected with this thing that many such things were with God I have often met with other passages in this booke which have a neernes of signification with