Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	aaron_n	beard_n	head_n	203	3	6.3158	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10037	Duties of communicants, or a treatise, teaching such as purpose to receiue the sacrament of the Lords Supper how they may rightly carrie themselues, before, in, and after the action of receiuing. By R: Preston, preacher of Gods Word at Rushden in Northampton-shire.	Preston, Richard, d. ca. 1624.	1621 (1621)	STC 20284; ESTC S100877	48,394	185

dangerous and fearefull for it argueth plainly that they haue sicke and leane soules though healthfull and fat bodies their faith and feeling is almost if not altogether dead and except they get some good helpe in some seasonable time they will vtterly perish 2. Here is a cooler to the itch of ambition to the thirst of couetousnesse Isa 55.2 Why lay you out your money and not for bread and your labour without being satisfied Our soule can finde no more rest in any earthly thing then Noahs Doue out of the Arke therefore as she returned to the Arke so must thou returne to God that made thee for himselfe The circular world cannot fill the triangular heart no more then a Circle can fill a triangle still there will be some emptie corners Nothing can fill the heart but that fulnesse which is in Iesus And therefore pursue thy desires these earthly things as earnestly as thou wilt and get of them what thou canst and delight thy selfe in thy fooles Paradise promising this and that contentment in the end thy thirst will be greater then it was in the beginning thy bread will proue grauell thy honie gall thy wine vineger thy fish Serpents Ipsa etiam vota post vsum fastidio sunt quae mereri optauimus vbi meruerimus abdicamus All earthly things are sweeter in the ambition then in the fruition After the vse we euen loath the things that wee haue often desired and those things that we haue desired to obtaine when wee haue obtained we reiect Vse 3 3. Take notice of the great lets and many impediments of this spirituall thirst and longing desire 1. The first is Ignorance men know not therefore they affect not Christ in this Sacrament If thou hadst knowne the gift of God Ioh 4.10 thou wouldest haue asked and he would haue giuen thee waters of life Because men cānot discerne with the eye of sense this spirituall water they neuer affect nor thirst after it whence it comes to passe that they stand as it were with Tantalus of whom the Poet speakes vp to the chin in water yet die for water they sit as it were in the midst of a richly furnished Table and yet pine away for want of cheare If we want them it is because we do not hunger and thirst after them for onely he that hungreth and thirsteth is called to them and Christ will only giue to him that hungreth and thirsteth to eate drinke of them 2. The second impediment is hardnesse of heart this is worse then the former for that cannot affect because it knoweth not this will not tho it know It is an hard matter to get a drop of water out of a flint and as hard a matter to soften it though riuers of waters be powred on it So it is with many a man the hardnesse of his heart is so inuincible that it cannot relent neither will one drop of the dewes of Heauen peirce it further then the outside like the heate of the Sunne that getteth not further into the tree then the outside 3. The third is securitie ioyned with extreme neglect men are carelesse of the benefits that may be reaped in this Sacrament and so cast it off like a begger that might grow to some better estate yet castes vp all care foldeth his hands together putteth them into his bosome and lets the squares goe as they will Vse 4 4 Vse Let vs thirst after Christ in this Sacrament exhibited to beleeuers Psal 42.1 as the heart panteth after the water brookes so let our soules pant after him Aristot de Historia animalium lib. 6. cap. 9. Lucretius lib. 6. Oppianus lib 2. de Venatione The Philosophers obserue of the Hart that being pursued by dogs in hunting by reason of heat and losse of breath he hasteneth to the Riuers or wearied in fight with a Serpent or stung or wounded by him while the Serpent resteth on the ground he seeketh to some colde fountaine whereby the infection of the venome receiued may bee abated Euen so such as are wounded and strucken of the old serpent must haue recourse vnto Christ not onely to behold him with the eye of faith but also to take him and taste him by the hand stomacke of faith that they may be headed For he is the fountaine and head-spring of all grace it is he that sendeth life sense motion and direction into all his members resembled in that holy oyntment which ran downe from Aarons head and beard Psal 133.2 euen to the skirts of his garment He is that blessed bread in this sacrament which being worthily eaten openeth the eyes of the receiuer Hee is that Rocke flowing with Honey 1 Sam. 14.27 that reuiueth the fainting spirits of euery true Ionathan that tastes it with the mouth of faith He is the true Bread of life and heauenly Manna which if we shall duely eate will nourish our soules for euer vnto life eternall How should then our soules make vnto Christ that request from a spirituall desire which the Capernaites did from a carnall motion Ioh 6.34 Lord euermore giue vs this bread The speciall meanes to come by this hunger and thirst is a consideration of mans miserie and Gods mercie the way to discerne this hunger and thirst is by the signes thereof 1. By a sense of paine in the stomacke 2. By a want and emptinesse 3. By an eager desire of a supply Thus much of the duties touching our good behauiour before we receiue The second sort of duties in our good behauiour at the time of receiuing follow in order They are foure 1. We are to receiue this Sacrament as an instrument appointed of God to conuay Christ and his benefits vnto vs if we beleeue 2. Wee must receiue it with feare and reuerence seeing it is Gods ordinance yet not to adore and worship it seeing it is not God but his ordinance 3. We must make a particular application thereof to our selues 4. We must receiue it with ioy and delight FIrst we must receiue this Sacrament being prepared and presenting our selues therunto not onely as a signe to signifie Christ and his benefits but also as a voluntarie Instrument 1 Thes 2.13 appoynted of God for the conuaying of sauing grace into our hearts I call it a voluntarie Instrument because it is the will and appoyntment of God to vse it as a certaine outward meanes of grace It is an Instrument because when wee vse it aright according to Gods institution then God answerable by it conferreth grace vnto vs. It may be sayd to be an Instrument to conferre Grace two wayes 1. By the signification thereof 2. By the confirmation First By the signification thereof for God testifieth his good will and pleasure partly by the word of promise partly by the Sacrament The signes representing to the eyes that which the word to the cares being also types and certaine Images of the very same things