Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A45688
|
A sermon preach'd at the funeral of Capt. John Briggs at Dunstable, March 23, 1694/5 by Thomas Harrison.
|
Harrison, Thomas.
|
1695
(1695)
|
Wing H912; ESTC R40945
|
17,078
|
32
|
the Heavenly Inheritance in his Royal Palaces and holy Temples Our Apostle expresseth the like Assurance 2 Tim. 4.8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judg shall give me at that day Holy Job also exprest his Assurance of future Glory in his adverse State Job 19.25 26 27. I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth And tho after my Skin Worms destroy this Body yet in my Flesh shall I see God c. Tho all who have a Faith of Affiance do not attain to a Faith of Assurance yet it is attainable in a Mortal State Thus much by way of Explication II. I shall present you with some Inferences from the Words First I infer The prodigious Folly of those who give their Bodies the Preference to their Souls It is the part of a wise Man to value things in proportion to their Worth and Excellency But the generality of Mankind show that their Corporeal Part hath a greater share of their Esteem than their Spiritual Part They carefully provide Food and Raiment for the former but never seek after the Bread of life to feed and the Robe of Christ's Righteousness to array the latter They will labour hard to erect or purchase a comfortable Habitation for their Bodies but do not at all endeavour to secure an happy Dwelling-place for their Souls when they enter into an invisible World They will hazard the loss of their Souls to secure their Bodies from Temporal Evils or to procure those things which will gratify the sensitive Appetite What Madness is it to prefer a Clod of Earth to a Spirit Is not that a foolish Soul that values its sojourning-place more than it self and will expose it self to eternal Ruine for the Preservation of its Earthly Tabernacle What stupid Fools are they who esteem their Bodies which are continually advancing towards and must speedily return to the Dust more than their Souls which shall survive them and live for evermore Surely such Persons are as the Horse or as the Mule which have no Understanding Secondly I infer The Folly of those who are proud of or glory in their Corporeal Strength or Beauty As Men are apt to boast of the exact Form and Strength of those Houses wherein their Bodies dwell so likewise of the Excellency of those Bodies wherein their Souls tabernacle But this will appear very foolish to us if we consider our Frame and remember that we are Dust Our Bodies were formed of the same Matter for kind that we trample under our Feet and disdain to touch with our Fingers Tho our Bodies are very robust yet they are but Earthen Vessels and will soon be broken to pieces In a very short time our Bodies must be dissolved and then all their Beauty and Strength will vanish and become a Prey to the King of Terrors Thirdly I infer The Vanity of placing our Happiness in our living Comforts our near and dear Relations We are exceeding prone to let out our Affections immoderately towards them to give them too high a Place too large a Room in our Hearts to think our selves happy in an Husband Wife or Children not considering they are frail mortal Creatures They can be no longer enjoy'd by us than while their Souls continue in their Bodies and those curious Fabricks which we behold with Pleasure and Delight keep their Station Did we seriously consider what frail brittle Houses their Souls inhabit how soon they may be demolished and in how short a time they shall be dislodged from them we should see it highly reasonable to moderate our Affections towards them O let the everliving everlasting God be the Darling of our Souls and the Soveraign of our Affections Fourthly I infer How necessary it is for us all speedily to endeavour after a Right and Title to an Heavenly Habitation To confirm this Assertion and to press you to this Duty I shall offer these things that follow to your Consideration 1. Your Souls are designed to a perpetual Residence in some Habitation The Father of Spirits hath resolved to preserve the Being and Life of your Souls for evermore no Period shall ever be put to their Existence and therefore when they leave their present Habitation they must enter into another There are but two Receptacles of departed Souls viz. an Heavenly Paradise and an Infernal Lake when your immortal Spirits are divorced from your Bodies they must either ascend to the former or descend to the latter And how can you bear to think of dwelling with consuming Fire and abiding with everlasting Burnings 2. Your Bodies shall enter into the same Habitation when re-assumed by your Souls into which your Souls enter when divested of your Bodies Where-ever your Souls go after Death there will your Bodies be disposed after the Resurrection If the noble Inhabitant dwells in Heaven the House that it dwelt in upon Earth when rebuilt shall be fixt in that glorious Region this Earthly Tabernacle shall become a Celestial Structure but if it be cast into Hell the raised Body must stand in that direful Prison as an everlasting Monument of Divine Wrath. By making Provision for your Souls you will also secure the Felicity of your Bodies their true Interest is inseparable 3. How terrible will the Agonies of Death be to us if we see our selves destitute of a Title to Eternal Life They who have disregarded their future State when the evil day of Death seem'd to be at a distance from them have had very aweful and terrible Thoughts about it when it hath made sensible Approaches to them With what Horror will your Souls be seised when Death sits upon your quivering Lips if you apprehend that they shall be speedily expelled your Bodies and eternally excluded the Heavenly Building 4. This Life is the only time for securing an Interest in this glorious Habitation As the Tree falls so it must eternally lie Death will fix us in an unalterable and unchangeable State Those Spirits that are now in Prison will find no place for Repentance tho they should seek it with Tears 5. The time of our Souls Residence in our Bodies is very uncertain Persons are very apt to defer this weighty and important Business some put it off to old Age others to a Sick-bed some think it will be time enough to seek after another Habitation when the Strength of their Earthly Tabernacles decays and they feel them shake and totter Our Lives will be but short at longest and how short they will be we know not Some are cut off in the Morning of their Days others in their full Strength we are not sure that Age will snow upon our Heads before they are laid in the Dust or that the Structure of our Bodies will by any loud Crack give us notice of its Downfal Some Bodies are demolished by a speedy and sudden Stroke their Souls are turn'd out of them without any
Aerial or Aetherial but the Imperial Heaven is here intended This is a place far superior to the Earth and therefore an Entrance into and Abode in it is sometimes mentioned as comprehensive of all that Felicity which is possest by those that inhabit it When the Soul of a Believer quits its Earthly Tabernacle it mounts up as on Eagle's Wings to the Heavenly Temple This is the Habitation of God's Holiness there the great Jehovah in a special manner dwells there are the brightest Discoveries of the Divine Splendor and the highest Adorations given to his most Excellent Majesty There the glorified Courtiers do not behold him through a Glass darkly but see him face to face In that Building dwells and reigns the Lord Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant When we shall be absent from the Body we shall be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 The Heaven must receive him until the times of restitution of all things There dwell an innumerable company of glorious Angels far more glorious than any of the Princes of this World and all the Spirits of Just Men that are made perfect This is not an Habitation of Violence and Oppression for no unclean thing can enter there The Inhabitants of this House are out of the reach of Satan and his malicious Off-spring they are not expos'd to the Hostile Attempts of the roaring Lion of Hell or his Whelps upon Earth They are liable to no troublesome Changes Heart-breaking Exercises perplexing Disappointments corroding Cares or sinful Infirmities This is a delectable and secure Habitation here is fulness of Joy here are Rivers of Pleasures which constantly refresh the glorified Soul In this House is Light without Darkness Day without Night Joy without Sorrow and Singing without Weeping The Soul that enters into this House hath the most intimate Fellowship with God the Master of it and a refreshing Communion with the blessed Angels and Saints who cohabit with it therein All things in this House are sutable to the Grandure and Magnificence of the Structure And when the Saints Bodies shall come forth from their Houses of Silence and Darkness and be reunited to their Souls they shall be received together with them into the Heavenly Jerusalem and shall share with them in the Felicity of that blessed Seat 3. It is described from its Duration Eternal This I conceive is predicated of this Heavenly Habitation in opposition to the Frailty of our Earthly Tabernacles which must be dissolved and then all our Temporal Comforts and Delights will vanish we shall no longer enjoy them The Celestial City hath immoveable Foundations it is subject to no Decay or Dissolution its Duration will run parallel with the Ages of Eternity And the Glory of that Place will last as long as the Place it self it is called a never-fading Crown an Incorruptible Inheritance and an Everlasting Kingdom The Divine Being in the Vision and Fruition of whom the Happiness of glorified Saints principally consists is to everlasting Moreover their Abode in this House will be as lasting as the Building they shall never be dispossest of or expell'd from it Tho the first Adam was driven out of an Earthly Paradise yet the spiritual Seed and Off-spring of the second Adam shall never be expell'd the Heavenly One And when their Bodies shall rise from their Beds of Dust they will live to die no more Death will have no Power to demolish these curious Fabricks for it shall be swallowed up in Victory 1 Cor. 15.54 This Mortal shall then put on Immortality Tho a little time wastes and consumes our Bodies in their present State yet there shall be no Diminution of their Excellency and Beauty in an endless Eternity when we become the Children of the Resurrection These Buildings will be always kept in their Vigor and Glory by the immediate Power of the supream Architect I proceed Fourthly To the comfortable Knowledg and Assurance which the Apostle and other Christians had concerning their present Right to and future Fruition of this Blessedness We know Herein we may consider the Subject We and the Predicate know 1. The Subject We. The Apostle here speaks only of those that were real Christians who had sincerely closed with and were united to the blessed Jesus they only have a Right and Title to and therefore they only have ground to expect and hope for this glorious Habitation They who come not under such a Character have reason to fear that when their Earthly Tabernacles shall be dissolved their Souls will enter into a different Habitation An House indeed contrived by infinite Wisdom and framed by Almighty Power and an eternal House but not in Heaven but in Hell an House where there is Blackness of Darkness inconceiveable Grief and intolerable Torment an House prepared for the Devil and his Angels wherein the Wicked must cohabit with and be tormented by those Apostate Spirits who left their Primitive Habitation for evermore An House wherein they shall be Exiles from God's comfortable Presence and every thing that is either really good or esteemed so by them But I conceive the Apostle speaks not here of all Saints for tho they may know and have ground to hope that when their Souls are dislodged from their Bodies they shall enter into this blissful Habitation yet all Believers have not attained to this Knowledg and Assurance thereof Clouds and Darkness do overspread some gracious Souls and they are filled with many Doubts and Fears concerning their spiritual and eternal State But he speaks concerning himself and some other Christians who had attained to and were in the Exercise of this Knowledg This leads me to the second thing viz. 2. The Predicate know This Knowledg here spoken of is a certain Knowledg a firm and full Perswasion that when their Bodies should be dissolved their Souls should be received into Heaven There are several things included in this Knowledg viz. a firm Belief of a future State of Blessedness provided for the Saints and into which they shall enter after Death This might be known from the Holy Scriptures wherein we have a sufficient Confirmation of this sacred Truth Moreover a firm Perswasion that they were interested in Christ and made meet for the Inheritance of the Saints in Light This they might know by comparing themselves with those Marks and Characters of the Heirs of Salvation which were laid down in sacred Writ by the lively exercise of their Faith upon Christ and by the Testimony of the holy Spirit bearing witness with their Spirits that they were the Children of God Lastly an Assurance of their Preservation in a State of Grace to a State of Glory This they might fairly collect from the Word of God wherein there is a full account of the Everlastingness of the Covenant of Grace the Immutability of Divine Love the Efficacy of Christ's Death together with the Constancy and Prevalence of his Intercession and the perpetual Residence of the holy Spirit the Earnest of