Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	cup_n	jerusalem_n	wring_v	32	3	15.8667	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90402	A voyce out of the thick darkness: containing in it a few words to Christians, about the late and present posture of spiritual affairs among them. Together with a post-script about darkening the counsel of God. As also, certain Scripture-prophecies concerning some transactions in the latter times. / By Isaac Penington, (junior) Esq;.	Penington, Isaac, 1616-1679.	1650 (1650)	Wing P1217; Thomason E597_7; ESTC R203131	40,524	63

the earth must not enjoy theirs long after When Christ cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me there was immediately an Earthquake And when the people of Christ who are of the same Body feel the same things and cannot but express the same sence cry out O God thou hast cast us off thou hast broken us thou hast shut up the light of thy countenance which was ever our life in the displeasure of thine heart the earth shall feel somewhat to complain of too When he falls upon all the several parcels of his own holy Land to lay them flat he will likewise arise to shake terribly the earth And he doth here so tear and rent it that he makes it tremble under sense of what it feels and of what it further expects But this is no delight to the poor people of God They desire not to have the earth share with them in misery Though the earth has ever delighted to see them rent and torn has been still persecuting them even when God has smitten them yea most when they have been most smitten by him yet they have no pleasure in the breaches God makes on the earth but would fain have them healed and put up a very affectionate request here for it Heal the breaches thereof for it shaketh It cannot stand long in this posture visit it betimes with health with Salvation It shakes already relieve it rescue it before it shake quite in peeces Vers 3. Thou hast shewed thy people hard things Thou hast dealt very hardly with thy people Oh many hard things that we could mention many bitter sharp passages that our spirits have been sensible of We never looked that God should have dealt so with us Who ever would have told us that God would have dealt so with his people we should have accounted him an abominable lyar We looked indeed for hardships in the way hard graplings with enemies but we did not look for such things from him We thought he would have stood by us and have helped us we did not think that he himself would have wounded us deeper then any else could We did not look for such kind of things from thee O God and we cannot but complain of them as hard usage nay in no wise justifiable between God and his people according to the measure that we understood his Covenant and Promises by To give a particular instance of somewhat we have felt but never could expect or fear Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment Astonishment is an amazedness of spirit When one knows not what to think which way to look nor what to do then a person is astonished Spiritual astonishment is when the Soul is astonished in and about spiritual things when the Soul does not know what to think of any thing that is spiritual A spiritual man knows spiritual things He knows the Father of Spirits and the way of a Spirits communion with his Father the way of the Spirit of Lifes going forth in his own Spirit He knows God Christ Heaven Hell Life Death Joy Peace c. Spiritual astonishment is the amazement of the Spirit concerning these when the Soul does not know what to think of any spiritual thing as of God or Christ Heaven or Hell c. wonders whether there be any such things or no wonders whether his knowledg as he accounted it formerly of them was not a meer imagination wonders at every creature that he sees at every thing that he hears what it is what it means is in a condition that he is amazed how he came into it finds continual misery and torment attending him but cannot tell which way to stir for any relief can neither tell how to stir nor yet how to stand still cannot tell how to hope or how to despair would fain move some way but cannot would fain stand still some where but cannot would fain know or be quiet under its ignorance but can find no bottom to fasten either on This is spiritual astonishment true astonishment through astonishment If the Spirit could fix anywhere on any thing it were not perfectly astonished But when it knows nothing can own nothing can turn from nothing can turn towards nothing can move no whither nor abide anywhere it is confounded to purpose That which produceth this astonishment is wine drinking of wine it is a drunkenness with wine A wise man can search through the causes of things and is not easily astonished but if he drink wine hard it takes away his understanding from him The spiritual man is very wise can search into the causes of spiritual things and is not easily confounded at the variety of Gods ways till he come to drink wine and that strips him of his understanding likewise There is a wine of astonishment a wine that does naturally produce this effect as it was purposely made for this end A wine there is that God has made and prepared for the creature to drink which shall drink up all the excellency of the creature which whosoever drinks throughly of will quickly lose not only all his natural understanding but all his spiritual understanding also Psal. 75. 8. In the hand of the Lord there is a cup and the wine is red it is full of mixture Red wine wine mixed yea throughly mixed full of mixture sure it is very intoxicating very easily may he be brought into a state of astonishment who drinks such kind of wine But how come they to drink this wine Thou hast made us to drink It was not their love to the wine they had no mind to it they turned from it but thou hast made us to drink He poureth out of the same Psal. 75. 8. The dregs the wicked shall drink but they must drink the top They must begin to the world they must drink the first draught and be purged of all their earth and filth first Judgment must begin at the house of God Jerusalem must begin the Round to the rest of the Nations Though till they come to taste of it they are apt to mock at the mention of it Isai. 28. 22. thinking their nearness to God and interest in God to be such that they may laugh at destruction as beholding the evil day far from them and they themselves sufficiently fenced against its overtaking them No it must pass over all God holds the cup in his hand and if they will not drink he will pour it down their throats Thou hast made us to drink Therefore Jerusalem is said to drink it at the hand of the Lord Isai. 51. 17. Awake awake stand up O Jerusalem which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup of his fury thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling and wrung them out When the Lord is pleased with Jerusalem he has a cup of sweet wine a cup of joy and delight to chear and refresh the Spirits of Jerusalem But when the Lord is angry he has

declare things of this nature and till the time of judgment be come that light may be withheld The nature and end of the various passages between God and his people are many times then most hid when they seem most manifest There is commonly deepest love in the bitterest cup and the purest glory is frequently vailed over with the darkest covering Flesh hath been always bold in judging it may now be met with there may now be a trap laid to catch and ensnare it to its own confusion and destruction This occasion is so palpable that it will be very hard for Flesh to avoyd being drawn out to judg and condemn and yet its being drawn forth may be but an entrance into its own judgment Methinks I see how apt man is according to his own state in Religion and according to his own apprehension of things presently to give out his verdict This is because the foundation was not well laid will some say This is the effect of their leaving Ordinances and Duties will others say This is the fruit of their prying into Mysteries and Secrets may a third sort conclude But how knowest thou O vain man that it ariseth from any of these or who gave thee liberty to vent thine own Imagination concerning so intricate a passage as thine eyes never met with before I can tell thee of another cause different from any of these whence it may proceed for ought thou knowest There is a wine prepared for all to drink of to empty them of all their glory which the people of God must begin with God will have no glory stand in his way Religion is the highest glory stands most in his way therefore that must first down Nature is glorious and doth glorifie God in its kinde but yet it stands in the way of Religion which is an higher glory Therefore the first thing Religion does where it comes in power is to break Nature to dash the glory of Nature Religion is more glorious and does more glorifie God but withall being more glorious it stands more in the way of a greater glory then the glory of Nature does and therefore the present controversie is more sharp against it then against Nature There is a time to set up and a time to pull down a time to raise and a time to level And that which is truly excellent and glorious in its kinde and degree must vail and dye when the season of the discovery of a greater glory draws nigh And the people of God speak very lamentably of it as a thing they did not look for as a thing they thought to have avoyded but were forced unto by a Power which could not be resisted Thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment There is a wine of Gods mingling that will astonish a wine made by his art and skill purposely to astonish which can without fail effect it a wine that will quickly lay the Creature dead drunk and strip him as naked if not more of all the knowledg of God yea of all spiritual excellencies as a man drunk after the common natural way is of the knowledg of natural things and of natural excellencies There is a Consumption determined to pass through the whole earth upon every earthly person and every earthly thing in persons truly spiritual Every earthly thing must be consumed Not onely earthly relations earthly converse earthly imaginations earthly endowments customs with the whole fashion of this outward world but likewise earthly Religion earthly Ordinances earthly duties earthly graces earthly knowledg of God earthly desires after God earthly enjoyments of God earthly acknowledgments of God earthly praising of God earthly hopes evidences assurances of everlasting life and blessedness all that is earthly must be consumed every where And that which you call spiritual heavenly in this dark eclipsed-Moon-light God may call earthly in his clear Sun-light and whatsoever he calls earthly must under-go this Consumption All flesh is grass and the glory thereof as the flower of the field the grass withereth the flower fadeth because the Spirit of the Lord bloweth upon it There is a blasting breath of the Lord gone forth and going forth which shall make every thing that is fleshly that is not pure spirit to dye and give up the ghost There is a terrible storm and tempest to come forth Isai. 28. 2. to batter down all the beauty and glory of Ephraim of dear Ephraim of Ephraim the pleasant Childe Now hence it may proceed These persons may have been made to drink this wine This judgment which is to go over all may be begun in them The Spirit of the Lord which will blow upon and make the glorious beauty of all to fade may have already blown upon them and have so blown upon t●em that there may no remainders of that life and sweetness whereof their spirits were once full be left standing Therefore look about you Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall Consider what ye will do when ye come to drink of this cup how ye will keep off astonishment and preserve in you the knowledg of spiritual things when ye are made to drink the wine of astonishment how ye will do to retain the beauty and glory of your Religion when the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it Alass Sirs If these things be done to the green tree what will become of the dry If persons in whom there was such an eminent power purity and life of Religion as there was known to be in many of these be thus dealt with be thus stripped have the very foundation so struck at in them what will become of persons who have very little better then a Form whether of Presbytery Independency Anabaptism or any other kinde how will these stand against the tempest how quickly will the unquenchable fire devour such stubble If the Oaks of Bashan the Cedars of Lebanon persons of such height such strength be fell'd to the ground be burnt in the fire be so much consumed have so little if any thing at all left what shall become of the Brambles of the Forrest And yet none more forward and confident in judging then such as are least able to stand and shall soonest fall when they come to Judgment But I will insist no longer on this which is to the point in hand but circumstantial but proceed now to the thing it self which is of substance indeed and of very great weight which is this Whether we are to expect any other state which that we are or have been in and that the Primitive Christians were in is to give way to Whereunto I have this to say There seemeth to me to be a larger pouring out of the Spirit promised and to be expected in the latter days then hath as yet been dispenced larger both for extent and vertue it is to be poured out more generally upon the people of God I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and more

a cup of astonishment a cup of trembling a cup of confusion of sleep of death all which Jerusalem tastes in it when she drinks of it And Jerusalem cannot chuse whether she will dri●k the cup or no but must drink it which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord God stands like a mother that holds a potion of physick in her hand and will make her child take it though sore against the childs mind Yea some mothers will make their children drink the very thick of the potion the bottom of the cup And poor Jerusalem must drink the very dregs too if God will have it so O how sweet is God in building up how terrible in throwing down How pleasant how quickening is the cup of his love how dreadful how destroying is the cup of his wrath There is none can so much as imagine the power of his wrath that have not tasted the power of his love If Christ and his people had not felt and known so much sweetness in the Love and Life of God they could never have found so much bitterness in the cup of his indignation in that cup of death which he prepares to put an end to that kind of life The people of God must lose that very life that Christ lost by that very cup We must all taste of his Baptism O how sweet is that life in its season how pleasant is it to thrive and grow in it Communion with God The mutual opening of hearts one to another The continual meeting every where in everything in one and the same Spirit is very ravishing and transporting But to have this pass away or if the the life of be too strong so to do to have it killed by power by a cup of deadly poyson is so sharp and terrible that the pangs of dissolving the body are hardly worthy to be a shadow of it Yet if any have a desire before-hand to conceive what it is such as have tasted of the spiritual pleasure of this kind of life may give some guess at it This drink is the Wo God administers to expel the former drunkenness by This wine whoever is throughly made drunk with will quickly find all his former beauty and spiritual glory stained and his nakedness uncovered by it ISAI. 43. Vers 8. 21. Bring forth the blind people that have eyes and the deaf that have ears This people have I formed for my self they shall shew forth my praise This is the Issue the Result of all to Ephraim though little expected by him God liked not his beauty therefore stained it with his vomiting by the force of a new kind of wine But while Ephraim was drunk had lost his eyes and his ears could see nothing of God could hear nothing of God God was forming him anew and after he hath layn long enough in the grave for his former shape quite to rot and waste away he must be brought forth anew to the praise of him that formed him This people have I formed my self You thought I was destroying this people and perhaps they themselves because of what they felt thought so too They were become the blackest people under Heaven upon whom the blackness of darkness seemed to have seized for ever And indeed I was destroying that fleshly shape and Image of holiness wherein they formerly appeared and which their spirits too much doted upon this was I resolved to lay in the dust and not leave the least reliques of it They were the most deformed people too without eyes without ears could hear or see nothing of the greatest danger nothing of the greatest good but all good passes by them and every snare takes hold of them Thus did I deal with them thus did I undo them but withall I was forming them anew I was not only destroying the old form as men thought and they thought but I was likewise introducing a new form and that a very excellent one one for mine own self not to serve my design upon as allshapes I have hitherto cast my people in have been but for my self to possess enjoy and please my self in for ever These desolate spirits have I built into such a Tabernacle into such a Temple as shall never be pulled down again but here will I dwell for ever this is the true place of my rest these vessels shall indeed hold all my glory This fabrick shall be so perfect so fair so full of lasting beauty that all that behold it shall not chuse but praise the skill of the workman who hath prepared so fit an habitation for his own Spirit and so perfect glory pleasure and content for his own habitation Then shall the blind see and the deaf hear when those that now see and hear may be made blind and deaf When the new eye and the new ear is brought forth in new-made Israel the old eye and the old ear in old Israel will be out of request Amen saith my spirit within me Let old things pass away and all things become new Let the Scheam of this present world both outward and inward pass away and a new Scheam of both be brought forth A new light a new eye a new sound of things a new ear to hear that sound a new discovery of God a new mind to receive that discovery into a new Heaven a new Earth and new Inhabitants for both a new Worship new Worshippers new wine new bottles all new and he that is perfectly weary of the old cannot but say Amen with me Amen Halelu-jah Cursed be all the idol gods of the Heathen but blessed be the living God for evermore He shall be God indeed that doth these things Lo this is our God we have waited for him and he will save us and we will be glad and rejoyce in his Salvation Amen Halelu-jah Be not offended We must tune our Harps to the new Song when once we taste of the cup of this new Salvation ISAI. 65. Vers 13 14 15. Therefore thus saith the Lord God Behold my servants shall eat but ye shall be hungry behold my servants shall drink but ye shall be thirsty behold my servants shall rejoyce but ye shall be ashamed Behold my servants shall sing for joy of heart but ye shall cry for sorrow of heart and shall howl for vexation of spirit And ye shall leave your name for a curse unto my chosen for the Lord God shall slay thee and call his servants by another name O doleful O Joyful weeping wailing gnashing of teeth in some joy unspeakable in others The Prodigal shall be welcomed home with the fatted calf with mirth musick dancing which his other brother through grief and anguish of spirit cannot partake of nay perhaps it may prove the will of the father not to admit him to this feast which he makes to welcom home the unthrift He will fill the hungry with good things but the rich will he send empty away Yea the Lord God will slay thee Thou hast a name now that thou livest though thou art dead but the Lord will kill that appearance of life in thee wherewith now thou flourishest and cast thy name out for dead That name thou now hast shall rot and dye and be no more accounted for a living name He will call his people no more after that name but he will have a new name which the Mouth of the Lord shall name to write in the foreheads of his servants and to call them by ISAI. 35. Vers 5 6 7. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped Then shall the lame man leap as an Hart and the tongue of the dumb sing for in the Wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the Desart And the parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs of water Then the Wilderness shall become a fruitful field and the fruitful field shall be counted for a Forrest Chap. 32. 15. And there will be great joy and singing among the blind the deaf the lame and the dumb when they shall all be perfectly healed when the barren parched ground shal abound with that water which it thirsted after and grew so heartless and barren for want of EZEK. 17. Vers 22 23 24. Thus saith the Lord God I will also take of the highest branch of the high Cedar and will set it I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one and will plant it upon an high Mountain and eminent In the Mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it and it shall bring forth boughs and bear fruit and be a goodly Cedar and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord have brought down the high tree have exalted the low tree have dryed up the green tree and have made the dry tree to flourish I the Lord have spoken and have done it Then said I When when O Lord God how long Thou hast a long time holden thy peace Awake awake put on strength O Arm of the Lord Uncloath thine Arm of flesh and cloath it with strength if thou meanest to do these things Sleep no longer under the vail of flesh but rent it from the top to the bottom and come forth in thine own likeness and so soon as we see this in this Equipage we will sing and shout Hosanna in the highest Blessed be he who is and was and is no longer a coming but come Even so Amen FINIS