Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	act_n	ghost_n	holy_a	9,599	5	5.7057	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49700	Victory over death a sermon preached at Steeple-Ashton in the county of Wilts, upon the 17th day of April, 1676, at the funeral of Mr. Peter Adams, the late reverend, pious, and industrious minister of Gods word there, sometime fellow of University Colledge in Oxford / by Paul Latham ...	Lathom, Paul.	1676 (1676)	Wing L575; ESTC R7734	32,624	52

they disquiet themselves in vain and that every man living upon ground or in what capacity soever he stands is altogether vanity Psal 39.5 6. and to cry out with the wise man Vanity of vanities all is vanity Eccl. 1.2 And if the profit that is in all labour do encourage a man to take pains and to endeavour to shew himself wise under the Sun then sure these thoughts of the vanity of humane designs and attempts do take a man off from striving to do wisely and worthily in his generation Thirdly it duls the edge of the soul for good duties He that fancies himself to lye down under the burden of insuperable difficulties that apprehends God to be an austere Master Heaven to be unattainable and Hell unavoidable will have very little mind to stir up himself to lay hold upon God or to work out his own salvation Isa 64.7 Phil. 2.12 or to use that violence of holy endeavours that is required in taking the kingdom of heaven Mat. 11.12 For it is hope of success that quickens endeavours and despair of this doth disspirit a man and make him dull and unactive Secondly let us take notice of such a man when Death is at hand and begins to encounter him and here we find him in a very miserable estate that hath not attained victory over Death for First it dispossesseth him at once of all the fruits of his labours and ejects him from the enjoyment of all his worldly acquisitions Though whilst he lived he blessed his own soul he shall go to the generation of his fathers and shall no more see the light of comfort and therefore man that is in honour and underctandeth not is like the beasts that perish Psal 49.18 19 20. And is it not a dismal condition for a man that hath toiled and bestowed great industry that hath plotted and contrived to the disturbing of his head and interrupting of his sleep that hath pinched and denied himself the enjoyments of many worldly comforts to increase his heap by parsimony yea that hath too often stained his conscience and hazarded his soul to heap up that which might be called a plentiful estate in this world this man I say to hear on a sudden that dreadful and heart-breaking voice Thou fool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee and then whose shall all those things be for which thou hast laboured Luk. 12.20 Secondly It dasheth all those vain hopes of Heaven with which such a man had flattered himself As there are politick projecting hypocrites who know themselves to be no better than whited Sepulchres Matth. 23.37 so are there many foolish Virgins who bear about the lamp of an outward profession in their hands and want oil to make it burn Matth. 25.3 and yet are so simple as to expect at last to enter in with the Bridegroom as well as the best And how sad will it be to them when at death coming to the door and crying Lord Lord open unto us they shall be repulsed with Verily I say unto you I know you not What is the hope of the hypocrite though he have gained applause from the World when God taketh away his soul Will God then hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him Will he then delight himself in the Almighty will he always call upon God Job 27.8 9 10. Beside there are many who though they could not find in their hearts to day while it was called to day to hear God's voice Heb. 3.8 yet they verily intended to take a time more convenient for these things But now these mens hopes are over the Bridegroom is come on a sudden those that were ready are entred with him and the doors are shut Thirdly Death puts an end to his day of Grace Some men indeed have so long hardned their hearts against hearing the voice of God that he hath already given them up to their own hearts lusts Ps 81.12 they have so long resisted the Holy Ghost in its strivings Acts 7.51 that God hath resolved that his Spirit shall no more strive with them Gen. 6.3 But ordinarily mens day of grace is commensurate with the day of their lives and whilst men are alive there is no man so bad but he may become better But death puts an end to these expectations it shuts-men up in an unalterable condition and as the tree falls so it shall lye for ever whether toward the South or toward the North Eccles 11.3 Fourthly death commonly brings to a mans remembrance those sins which before he was unmindful of In the day of health and prosperity men are apt to put far from them the troublesome and ungrateful remembrance of their sins past Worldly business and company and divertisements worldly pleasures and delights suggest more sanguine thoughts to the mind But when death cometh God doth ordinarily to them that are of sound mind and memory shew that he hath set their iniquities before him and their secrets sins in the light of his countenance Psal 90.8 Yea after his long silence he doth then use to reprove men and set their sins in order before their eyes Psal 50.21 and causeth mens iniquities to compass them about as at their heels Psal 49.5 and lets them see and feel that it is an evil thing and a bitter that they have forsaken the living Lord and that his fear hath not been before their eyes Jer. 2.19 And judg how unwelcome this is to a man's mind that hath long lain asleep in security when it makes him cry out with Ahab to Elijah hast thou found me O my enemy 1 Kin. 21.20 Fifthly death puts the greatest affront imaginable upon the beautiful and majestick fabrick of the body This pile of dust and ashes that appeareth so stately through the Divine Architecture that is so fearfully and wonderfully made in its contexture Psal 139.14 that is rendred so glorious by the enstamping of God's Image upon it that is by God's ordination become so awful and formidable to inferior animals of far greater strength This painted piece of dirt that hath been so much doted upon and adored for its delicate feature and amiable intermixture of lillies and roses this well-formed statue which voluptuous persons have adored as a terrestrial Deity Phil. 3.19 to which they have constantly sacrificed whole hecatombs of all the dainties which the Earth the Air and the Sea could afford this flesh for which men have made provision to fulfill its lusts Rom. 13.14 This must then become equal to the beasts that perish a prey to the inferiour animals the very worms loathsom to the eye of its former admirers so that they that loved it best when informed with a Soul can afford it now no better complement than let me bury my dead out of my sight Gen. 23.4 This that was sometime fed and clothed by the contrivance and industry of so many heads and hands must go naked out of the world as it came naked in and lye solitary