Selected quad for the lemma: body_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	blood_n	break_v	shed_v	10,145	5	9.7147	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17286	The excellency of a gracious spirit Deliuered in a treatise upon the 14. of Numbers, verse 24. By Ier. Burroughes minister of Gods Word.	Burroughs, Jeremiah, 1599-1646.	1639 (1639)	STC 4128; ESTC S107060	167,441	453

not sensible of their inability to holy desires though they may have many flashes like unto holy desires yet they are wholly strangers to those desires after God which are truly holy 3 These prize not the meanes of grace they long not after them they will not labour they will not bee at charge they will not endure hardship to attain them they are not conscionable in the use of them in any power they use not all meanes if one way will not bring their desires to effect they try not other wayes they are not solicitous about the successe of meanes they look not much after them but rest themselves in the bare use of them not examining not searching their hearts to see what is in them that hinders the blessing not bemoaning their unprofitablenesse under meanes 4 Their desires are not strong unsatiable other contentments quiet their hearts Time weares away the strēgth of their desires though they bee as farre from the enjoyment of the things that were desired as they were at the first 5 Their endeavours are not powerfull they are not working constant endeavours they doe not dedicate devote give up themselves whatever they are or have to the seeking after the Lord their consciences cannot but tel them that the strength of their hearts and endeavours is after other things David in the 119. Psalm 48. vers saith That hee would lift up his hands unto Gods Commandements which hee had loved and hee would meditate in his Statutes Hee did not thinke it enough to have a love to to have some wishes and desires to keepe Gods Commandements but he would lift up his hands to them hee would set himselfe on worke in labouring to obey them hee would meditate set his minde and thoughts to plot and contrive how he might best come to the fulfilling of them Psal 27. 4. One thing have I desired and that will I seeke after Certainly those slight vaine desires and wishes that there are in many peoples hearts are not the following this blessed God fully they are but the dallyings and triflings with God and their owne soules they are so farre from bringing them unto God as they prove to be their destruction The desire of the slothfull killeth him for his hands refuse to labour Prov. 21. 15. Thirdly others have good resolutions now and then in some good moods the truths of God come darting in with some power as they cannot but yeeld to them and then they are resolved that they will doe better that it shall not be with them as it hath beene they will set upon a new course of life things shall bee reformed and their lives shall bee changed but yet these vanish too they follow not God fully They are as those in the 5. Deut. 27. who seemed to have strong resolutions to walke in Gods wayes Goe thou neare say they to Moses and heare all that the Lord our God shall say and speake thou unto us all that the Lord our God shall speake unto thee and we will heare it and doe it But as the Lord said there concerning them Verse 29. So I may say of these Oh that there were such a heart in them How farre are they from having yet a heart to follow God fully For 1 Their resolutions are not fruits of their deepe humiliation for their former neglect of God and the former sinfulnesse of their wayes They are only to procure peace unto themselves for the present their hearts being stirred by the power of the truth darted in 2 They arise not from changed principles from a renewed nature from out of love to the Lord his blessed wayes hence they vanish and they never bring them up unto the Lord. Fourthly others have strong sudden affections they feele sometimes some meltings in sorrow for sinne in hearing the blessed truths of God revealed to them they feele some sweetnesse in the working of truths upon their hearts they are sensible of some joyes in good things they have a taste of the powers of the world to come When they heare Christ preached or see his body broken or his blood shed in the Sacrament they think with themselves Oh that Jesus Christ should come from heaven to save such poore wretches as we are that hee should shed his pretious blood that hee should die for such vile sinners yet these are a great way off from following the Lord fully For 1 these affections are sudden and flashing the truths of God passe by them leaving a little glimmering behinde them or as water passeth thorow a Conduit leaves a dew but they soake not into the heart as the water soakes into the earth to make it fruitfull 2 These are stirred with the pardoning comforting saving mercies of God but not with the humbling renewing sanctifying mercies when the word puts them upon any hard thing to flesh and blood it is unsavoury to them their hearts turne from it If the word urgeth to strict examination of themselves if it puts them upon the finding out of the deceits of their spirits their secret corruptions and would straine them to higher duties than their principles reach unto then their spirits fly off they seeke to blesse themselves in that they have already and think that these things trouble people more than needs if God should not bee mercifull to such who finde such affections such stirrings of heart as wee doe then Lord what shall become of us 3 These flashy affections doe not arise from spirituall judgement apprehēding the spirituall excellencies of godlinesse after a spirituall manner their apprehensions of spirituall and heavenly things are too too carnall and sensitive Hence afterwards when they come to finde the good things of the wayes of God to be spirituall and heavenly not sutable to those apprehensions they had of them their hearts are then taken off as those wee reade of in the 6. of Iohn 34. verse When Christ told them That the bread of God is hee which commeth downe from heaven and giveth life unto the world Oh say they Lord ever give us this bread their hearts were up exceedingly stirred Well as if Christ should have said You shall have it I am the bread of life hee that commeth to mee shall never hunger hee that beleeveth in me shall never thirst as if he should have said This must bee done by faith you must feed upon my flesh by faith and drinke of my blood by faith But now they having apprehended a strange kind of bread from heaven before and afterwards hearing of no other but comming to Christ and beleeving in Christ they were deceived of their expectations and so were offended and now their affections fall for verse 41. they begin to murmur at him and verse 60. they said It was an hard saying who could heare it and ver 66. From that time many of them went backe and walked no more with him The like example wee finde in the

God than others is more capable of the presence of God than others and God delights to let out himselfe more to him than to others These are filled with all the fulnesse of God according to that expression of the Apostle Ephes 3. 19. Now this fulnesse of God in their spirits must needs carry them on because it so satisfies them as they feele no need of other things Empty spirits are alwayes sucking and drawing of comfort from the creatures that are about them hence it is that their hearts are taken off from God so much Againe a spirit that is filled with God is not so sensible of any evils that are without so as empty spirits are as it is in the body when it is filled with good nourishment with good blood and spirits it is not sensible of cold and alteration of weather as the body is that is empty and filled onely with winde Secondly the choicenesse of a mans spirit raiseth it to converse with high things and so carries it above the rubs the snares and hindrances that are below and being above these it goes on freely and fully in its course and is not in that danger of miscarrying as other poore spirits are who converse so much with the things upon the earth as Birds that flie high are not catched by the Fowler they are not taken by his Lime-twigs by his Net or Pit fall so as others are who are much below upon the ground Broverb 15. 24. The way of Life is above to the wise that hee may depart from hell beneath It is the keeping in his way above that delivers him from the dangers snares that are laid for him below Thunders and Lightnings tempests and stormes make no alteration in the highest Region so the threats and oppositions against the wayes of godlinesse and all the troubles that the world causeth make no alterations in heavenly hearts that keepe above When the tree growes low it is subject to bee bitten by the Beasts but when it is growne up on high it is out of danger The lower the heart is the nearer the earth the more danger but when it is got up on high the danger is past and now what should hinder it from the growing up to the full measure of it in Christ Thirdly the choicenesse of a mans spirit changeth his end and so carries him on fully after the Lord for when the end is changed all is changed when there are but particular changes it is a certaine argument that the highest end is not changed but when that is changed there must of necessity bee an universall change upon these two grounds 1 Because the last end is alwayes loved for it selfe and therefore infinitely loved 2 It is the rule of all other things that are under it the good of all things under it is measured by it and is subordinate to it Fourthly this choicenesse of spirit causeth a suteablenesse a sympathy between the frame of the heart and the wayes of holinesse Now sympathies first are alwayes between the generall natures of things and not individuals not particulars as thus where there is a sympathy betweene one creature and another it is alwayes betweene the whole kind of those creatures wheresoever such Natures are found there will be this agreement Wee may see it more clearely in that which is contrary that contrariety of nature which wee call Antipathy it is not betweene any particulars so much as betweene the whole natures of things as between the Wolf the Sheep there is such a contrariety Now the nature of the Wolfe is not contrary so much to any particular sheep but to the whole nature of sheepe wheresoever the nature of it is found and therefore to all sheep Thus it is in the soule where there is such a kinde of opposition of it against sinne it is not against any particular sinne so much as against the whole nature of sinne wheresoever it is so where there is such an agreement which wee call a sympathie it is not so much with any particular way of holinesse or perticular Act but with the whole nature of holinesse wheresoever it is found and therefore such a soule must needs follow God fully Againe sympathies doe alwayes worke without labour and paine and therefore where there is such an agreement betweene the frame of the heart and the wayes of God the heart must needs worke fully because it workes delightfully and yet further this agreeablenes of sympathie is deepely rooted in the very principles of the creature it is founded in the very being of it and therefore it must needs worke strongly and constantly Vaine reasonings carnall objections subtill arguments strong oppositions can never prevaile against that soule where there is this deep-rooted agreeablenesse betweene the frame of it the wayes of holinesse But that you may see further what a wonderfull agreeablenesse Grace makes betweene the spirits of the godly and the Law of God which is the rule of those wayes wherein God would have the soule to follow him in observe the severall expressions by which the Scripture sets it out First it is written in the tables of their hearts Secondly it is their meditation day and night Psal 1. Thirdly it is the joy of their souls Psal 119. 14 vers and 47. verse Fourthly they love it above gold above fine gold Fifthly their hearts breake for the longing it hath after it Sixthly they lift up their hands to it Psal 119. 48. Seventhly their mouthes talke of it Psal 119. 13. ver 46. ver Eighthly their feet run in it Psal 119. 32. Ninthly their soule keeps it Psal 119. 167. Tenthly they will never forget it Psal 119. 16. Eleventhly they give up their members as instruments of the righteousnesse of it Rom. 6. 13. And lastly to name no more though there be many more expressiōs in Scripture to set this out they apply their hearts to it to fulfill it alwaies even to the end Psal 119. 103. Fifthly This choicenesse of spirit causeth a man to looke to his duty and not to regard what may follow The thing that hinders most in their following the Lord it is want of this it is not want of conviction what should be done but the reasonings of their heart about the hard and troublesome consequences that will follow if the things bee done But a true gracious heart saith onely Let mee know what is my duty let the right bee done though heaven and earth meet together Sixthly The choicenesse of a mans spirit causeth a man that if he doth looke at any consequences that may follow upon his way he lookes onely at the last issue of all what his way will prove in his last conclusion how things will goe with him when he comes to the last triall what will be the ultimate end of all Will it then be peace shall I then be glad of these wayes I now walke in Seventhly The choicenesse of a