Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A26904
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A sermon, or, The survey of man taken by J.B. as it was delivered at his father's funeral, September 4th, 1638.
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J. B.
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1652
(1652)
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Wing B123; ESTC R32846
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17,502
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24
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that justifie the ungodly by often abusing the Pulpit with their pleasing tongues that savour more of Flattery then of Truth so neither would I be perverse to condemn the Innocent and rob vertue of her reward which doth here principally consist in praise The Object here set before our eyes is the subject of my Text a sad spectacle of Mortality Man If we search the Records for his antiquity and descent it appeareth that his Father was an Amorite and his Mother a Hittite even one of Adams own ofspring in that he was made subject to the Act the curse when he yielded up the Ghost Morte moriêris thou shalt surely die an irrevocable sentence denounced by Gods own mouth for our former fault and disobedience But and if we come neerer to our selves of his Descent and Parentage I will not speak for he was known as well to many others here present as my self onely I shall desire thus much that none here amongst you will despise him because he was your Neighbour and your Countrey man nor to say of him disdainfully as the Nazarites did once of Christ His Father and his Mother we well did know his Brethren his Sisters and his Children are they not all with us whence then hath this man any vertuous or religious Works In the first place at his Birth-day when the curtain of the attiring room was drawn he then did enter upon the Stage of this present world where his Prologue was but short and he spoke but little by reason of his Infancie only he shewed to the world the meekness of his disposition and good inclination of his nature But when he came to some riper years of Judgement he then well acted his part which was variable and full of changes to the life expressing the vanity and uncertainness of humane kinde where he left his paths for our feet to tread upon and drawed forth a pattern for us to imitate by a pious conversation His Zeal to God was expressed not only by his delight he had to frequent the Temple of the Lord but also by his daily prayers in his private family The chastity of his words and actions did declare that he never violated his plighted troth to his loving wife for his soul solely clave unto her And the love that he alwayes had to his needy neighbour did promulge his charity who only not omitted the occasion of well doing but also sometimes sought it well knowing that he had lost that day wherein he had not done some good It would here be tedious to speak of his domestick discipline to recite his publick conversation which was alwayes just honest and vertuous and that the words I utter may the better appear to be impartial I take all you to record that hear me this day how that he was pure from offence to all men and I am verily perswaded that no man can justly say as much as black unto his eye Truth was placed in his words and constancie in his deeds There was a freedom in his presence and in his visage cheerfulnesse He was easie to forgive courteous unto all yea even to his enemies for some he had because vertue cannot be without them In a word he carried himself in all his Fortunes with an equal mind not too much puft up with the swelling floods of prosperitie neither sinking to despair at the lowest ebbe of adversity Of whom me thinks the more I say the more is still behinde and unsaid I am taken with the largeness of his goodness even the plenty of his praises were enough to make me eloquent What shall I say of this mans uprightness when that of Horace might more then an hundred times be repeated of him Integer vitae scelerisque purus and what shall I say of his Constancie Faith and Patience with all which he was so excellently well adorned that whereas he was not second unto any so you shall finde out few that can equal him but to be excelled by none Thus have I in him represented to your view a short platform for your imitation in the way of Godliness a moral Comedie which the soul of our deerest departed Friend hath here acted amongst us in this now dead Trunk this Carkass to the general applause of all the Spectators only I shall desire you to hear his Epilogue and I have done to finish his Pilgrimage although it be Tragical The same magnanimity of spirit that kept him all his life time did not now forsake him even in his greatest sickness for being visited of the Lord by divers as I suppose and strong diseases he bore them all most patiently insomuch that although I was after my own recovery very often with him yet could not at any time observe him either to grudg groan or sigh for grief under the rod of Gods correction neither was his heart any thing dismayed at the remembrance of his dissolution for he told me again and again that although his bodie was weak yet his soul was strong by Faith in Christ for the remission of his sins he well knew it was that mans property to be afraid of death who is unwilling for to go to Christ accounting that the earth was not given us for a dwelling place but an Inne that our being here which we call Life is not so properly a life indeed as a journey to it that his Hope was not here fixt on Earth but Heaven that he knew full well whither he was going not by his own merits but the mercies of Christ in whom alone he had placed his confidence of eternal safety And in this assurance he devoutly took the holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper at my hands to furnish him with fit provision for his journey to his long home so that at length when his glass was run he willingly gave an ear to his Makers call and in the midst of his childrens tears their pious invocations he departed hence from this vale of misery He yielded up the Ghost and where is he As for his soul 't is fled we may go to him he cannot come to us why do we weep and mourn his gain doth far exceed our loss he is now in Paradise in Abrahams Bosom for the Angels have conveyed him to his place of rest But as for his Corps this breathless bodie which doth here remain with us let us accompanie it unto the Grave the last kinde office we can shew to our deerest Friend and interre it in the dust where it may lie in peace and rest until the resurrection at the last when we with him again may receive a joyfull union both of bodie and of soul and enter into that most glorious Heaven of everlasting happinesse Sing an eternal Halleluiah Salvation and Honour Justice and Power Mercie and Thanksgiving be ascribed unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for evermore Amen FINIS
more then Tenants at will yet think our selves to be owners If this condition were proper only to our selves and Climate how unhappy should we seem to be But behold no place is secure from death Zacharie shall meet her though it be between the Temple and the Altar Men had a Sanctuary to flie unto of old yet there did Priamus there did Joab die and when is a man more sure then sitting yet Eli fell down backward from his bench and died And do not every Prince and Monarch dance with us in the same ring But what speak I of Earth the God of Nature the Saviour of men have trod the same steps and should we think much to follow him No. Consider but a little the Emblem of impartial death Vt pingitur per Gabrielem Inchinum as * some have pictured it and we need not A Carkass it is of man that only doth consist of bones united by the nerves ears eyes and nose it hath none naked and terrible to behold brandishing a sharp fickle with both her hands Mortis Icon. as if cutting down of corn This is the Icon the image of death wherein look how many parts so many mysteries First Death is pictured without eyes as an indifferent Judg 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1. Sine oculis she is no respecter of persons which have no fear of the mighty nor pitty on the poor no noble dignity nor resplendent shew no riches not the greatest treasure can procure her peace O you Emperours Popes and Kings Princes and the greatest Potentates your Thrones Diadems and purple robes Sceptres Crowns and Miters death casteth to the ground You that are clothed in glorious garments and adorned to pomp shall die like men Thou shalt not be safe O Caesar in the Senate House Death will as well finde an entrance to the stately Palace Horat. as the poorest Cottage Pallida mors aequo pede pulsat pauperum tabernas Regumque turres 2. Sine auribus Secondly without ears that will admit no prayers no supplications to pacifie her rage and fury O you wise and learned Doctors your eloquence your knowledge shall not now prevail she is deaf and heareth not your Reasons and Arguments of Philosophie not the pleading of the wrangling Lawyer or the sweet tongued Orator The Poet with his pleasant Jests the subtil Sophister with his fallacies shall not now deceive her She yieldeth not to the sighs of the afflicted nor their tears Finally the prayers of the humble the vain smooth speeches of Flatterers she doth not she cannot hear * Boet de consolat Philos Heu heu quam surd â miseros avertitur aure Et flentes oculos claudere saeva negat Next Death is said to have no nose 3. Sine naribus as not to be deceived by any delightful smell O you wanton and lascivious Girls your fragrant odours will now be nothing worth the apparel that is all perfumed and your sweetest powders 2 Reg. 9.30 Death will esteem as dust Jezabel no sooner looks through the Window with her painted face but it is torn in pieces by the ravenous Dogs To what purpose then are all these kindes of savours so many strange distilled waters your Musk Perfumes and Ambers Death also is represented naked 4. Nuda to shew the small regard she hath of Coin rewards and Earths abundance O you rich and wealthy men whose hope is placed in your large possessions think not when your Barns are full to be freed from death Thou fool if this night thy soul be required Luke 12.20 then whose are these Again Death is fained to have no flesh no blood nor skin 5. Sine carne no esteem of tender Age of strength nor of complexion Ipsa rapuit Juvenes primâ florente juventa Lastly Death doth shake her Sithe 6. Vibrans falcem to declare how she cuts down men like corn the good together with the chaff all shall down that which is ripe for the coelestial Garner and the green as straw to be burnt in eternal fire Luke 16. When Lazarus is conveighed into Abrahams bosom the rich Glutton shall be cast into the pit of Hell So thus Beloved by this Mortïs imago Deaths image you may well conceive how that all assuredly shall die There is a necessity it cannot be avoided why then are we unwilling for to die Morieris thou shalt die why it were foolishness to fear what I cannot shun I shall not be the first nor last many have gone before all shall follow Morieris thou shalt die Why it is our humane nature not a punishment I had a beginning and must therefore end Morieris thou shalt die Why it is no news I am sworn to it and should I then repent to this purpose I came into the world and every day am walking to the Grave Morieris thou shalt die Good God! what can be better unto mortal man if Heaven be our countrey earth is but a place of Banishment Morieris thou shalt die This is Jus Gentium to pay the Creditor what we have received why then should a man repine he knoweth this Coin not to be his own that his Soul is only lent him and he yieldeth up the Ghost which is the depositum the Act of this Subject and now comes next to be handled Homo moritur Man yieldeth up the Ghost Third part GHOST That divine Essence the Soul of man is in Scripture sometimes called a Spirit and sometimes a Ghost Stephen when he was stoned Acts 7.59 John 19.30 cryed out Lord receive my Spirit Acts 7. JESUS bowed and gave up the Ghost John 19. But there hath been great contention amongst Philosophers what this Soul this Ghost should be Thales Milesius the Athenian who lived in Kings Ahabs dayes was the first that ever would undertake to define it Of the Souls Essence and that was thus The Soul is a nature alwayes moving it self Pythagoras did make it no more then a number and Plato A moving substance that went by Harmony But Aristotle comes neerer to the purpose Aristotle lib. 2. de anim cap. 1. text 6. and calleth it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a continual Act of a natural of an instrumental Body that may have life But indeed we may more truly say what the Soul is not then what it is the greatest perfection we describe by Negatives She cannot proceed from the matter from the figure or qualities of the Body neither from the Harmony Conjunction and Agreement of the same this the soul is not The vital and animal spirits are only the Instruments of the soul and not the soul it self if otherwise she were not immortal but would perish together with the Body Now the soul can be without the body and vital spirits though the bodie and vital spirits cannot be without the soul without her the bodie moveth not all She in a moment by the cogitations