Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	appear_v	world_n	zion_n	25	3	8.4272	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01666	Of the ende of this world, the seconde commyng of Christ a comfortable and necessary discourse, for these miserable and daungerous dayes.	Geveren, Sheltco à.; Rogers, Thomas, d. 1616.	1577 (1577)	STC 11803A.7; ESTC S115248	72,058	116

¶ Of the ende of this world and seconde commyng of Christ a comfortable and necessary Discourse for these miserable and daungerous dayes 1. Pet. 4. The ende of all things is at hand be ye therefore sober and watch vnto prayer Luke 21. Watch continually and pray that ye may be worthy to escape al these things that shal come and that ye may stand before the Sonne of man. ¶ Imprinted at London nigh vnto the three Cranes in the Vintree for Andrew Maunsell dwelling in Pauies Church-yard at the signe of the Paret Anno Domine 1577. To the most reuerend Fathers in Christ Edmond by the permission of almightie God Archbyshop of Canterburie c. and Iohn Byshop of London Thomas Rogers wisheth the true felicitie of this lyfe and eternall happines by the comming of Christ. IT was the saying of Cambyses reuerend and in Christ most honorable fathers that Cities would floorish wel in prosperitie if the inhabiters of them were watchful and still imagined their enemis to be at hād That which he said for the prosperous estate of a commō weale dyd our Sauiour saye for the happye successe of all Christians And both tende to shewe that whether wee respect the safetie of our bodyes here on this earth or the saluation of our soules in the kingdome of Christ wee may not be in our callings either idle carelesse or secure But yet such is our nature wee rather obey the woordes of Cambyses for temporall prosperitie than the warnyng of Christe for eternall happynesse W●ereby it comes to passe that we haue commonly fayre bodyes but deformed soules much goodes but litle goodnes and glorious wee seeme in the sight of men outwardly but odious inwardly in the eyes of god For it is harde to finde a man saith Aristotle which in prosperitie is not proude disdainful and arrogant of which sort are they whom strength whom riches whō clientes whō authoritie whō fauour of mē hath exalted And so inioying their harts desire they are of this mynd that no aduersitie cā hurt them And what is that but as Dauid said The vngodly hath saide in his hart tushe I shall neuer be caste downe there shall no harme happen vnto me But the fayrest Oke is soonest cut down the fattest Oxe is readyest for slaughter and the felicitie of fooles is their owne destruction For how sodainely doo they consume vanishe and come to fearefull ende yea euen as a dreame are they when one awaketh As our Sauiour thought the doctrine against securitie most profitable for his Disciples and all mankynde So hath his faythfull seruant the Author of this booke supposed the same moste necessarye to bee spoken of in these miserable dayes And this was the cause and ende wherefore this Treatise was first written namely that by reciting the signes and tokens of dangers imminent and of the worlds destruction he might draw the wicked from securitie and driue them to a care of godlynesse and vertue A godly zealous and learned woorke and gratefull no doubt to all good men Hippocrates forewarned the Grecians of a greeuous plague which was nigh at hande and for his good admonition he was honoured as Hercules and obeyed as a god The Athenians for telling them the perils which they were like to fall into erected to Berosus a goodly Image with a golden tongue The Grecians to Hippocrates and the Athenians to Berosus were neuer so bounde as all Christians to Schelton for this learned booke For herein the tokens of the ruine not of one Citie as of Athens nor of one Countrie as of Greece but of all the worlde are set downe And here may be seene the wayes to preuent the destruction not of body alone as were those of Hippocrates and Berosus but of body and soule from euerlastyng paine in the pyt of hell So that more cause haue Christians to be thankfull to this author than were the Athenians and Grecians to both them Notwithstanding he desireth not though his deserts be vnspeakeable to be honoured with the rites of Hercules suche idolatrie he abhorreth nor to be kept in memorie with a glorious Image such memoriall he misliketh he only craueth that Christiās would weigh what is said and looke to them selues he seeketh the saluation of all not his owne glory But howe soeuer he be esteemed of others I trust your Lordships wyll like of this woorke and so like it that ye wyll allowe it and so allowe it that yee wyll both against the euyll woordes of the enuious and the captious tongues of malicious persons willingly protect it It pleased the Author to chuse for Patrons at the first two noble Earles but mee thinkes none so meete for defence thereof being a Spirituall Discourse as Spirituall men and because it tendes to the cutting away of securitie who better Patrons than they whose office is to be vigilant whereof they haue their names And among Bishoppes who fitter than they whose authoritie is such as none may better and zeale so great as none wyll sooner seeke and promote the glorye of God Wherfore I trust both because it is diuine your Lordships wyll vouchsafe and because it was wel accepted by two worthy men but yet Temporal your honours wyll much more willyngly allowe the same being Spirituall And that you may doo so God for whose glory it was first made and is nowe translated put into your myndes Your Graces and Lordships most humble at commaundement Thomas Rogers ¶ To the vniuersall Church throughout the world the most holy and chast daughter of Sion and entirely beloued Spouse of Iesus Christ the Sonne of God King of all Kings Health and comfort in the holy spirit and the speed●e comming of her Bridegroome c. I Am not ignorāt sweete Sion daughter of the celestiall Ierusalem and entierly beloued spouse of Christ in howe great miseries thou hast been plunged now a long time for the lacke of thy kinde and louing husbād Which notwithstanding thou art black browne by reason of the extrem● heat of the Sunne light of God the father to which as yet thou canst not approche yet onely wythal his hart embraceth the as his friend for fairnes peereles and as his wife for beautie surpassing For thy blacknes by his holy spirit he hath turned into beautifulnes thy vnseemely spots of sinne by his precious blood are no whit seen by his holy spirit he hath wōderfully adorned thee wythin and endued thee wyth the holy Ghost the seale of beleefe so that now thou canst not doubt but that he is both faithfull and fauours thee with all his hart And yet it greatly greeues thee that thy glory which thou wishest for thy comfort which thou hopest for and thy King and bridegrome for whom thou so lokest and longest for is so long from thee And no maruel for it is the property of a faythfull louer not quietly to beare the absence but ardently to desire

offred it selfe vnto the King in his sleepe vnder which according to the interpretation of Daniell were fygured all the Empyres of the worlde And the same heauenly Prophet by the same spirit dyd foretell that God would rayse vp an euerlasting and perpetuall kingdome which all the Sainctes of God after iudgement shall possesse world without ende Nowe what let is there Why by lyke certayntie those things shall not be fulfilled which haue been spoken afore of the destruction of this world and eternall gouernment of christ Sith that kingdome is perpetuall and not to be ouerthrowen prepared for the Sainctes of God from euerlasting as fayth and Christian Religion do confirme And from the same spirit of truth are these things vttered Gods prouidence also is certaine His eternal pleasure not chaungeable and in his power which of nothing created the worlde nothing is wanting Where of those things none except either a mad man or possessed with some wicked spirit can raise any doubt Besides the eternall iustice of God the ryghteous iudge dooth greatly exact that euery man be rewarded according to his desertes of which must needes be gathered that the state of good men must be glorious of wicked most miserable Which commeth to passe cleane contrary in this wretched world where most commonly good and well disposed persons are with troubles tormented wyth bani●hment molested with losse of goods vnpuni●hed and with all miseries ouerwhelmed but the wicked are with delicious fare nourished with goods enriched with offices preferred and for aucthotitie honored As Dauid in these woordes dooth bitterly complayne My feete were almost gone and my treadings had welnigh slipt And why I was greeued at the wicked when I sawe them in such prosperitie For they are in no perill of death but are lustie and stronge They labour not lyke other men neyther are they plagued lyke other folke And therefore pryde compasseth them as dooth a chaine and they haue put on the garment of crueltie Their eyes are swollen with fatnesse and they doo what they lyst They marre others and speake marueilously yea they blasphēe the most hyghest And a little after Behold these vngodly prosper in the worlde and enriche themselues greatly and I sayde then haue I clensed my hart in vaine and washed my handes in innocencie All the day long haue I been punished chastened euery morning yea and I had almost sayd euen as they but loe then should I haue condemned the generation of thy children And therefore there must of necessitie be another lyfe after this in which according to the iuste iudgement of God euery man must receyue eternall and woorthy recompence for their woorkes be they good or bad eternall glory or eternall infamie Euen as Dauid also in the same Psalme to the comforting of himselfe and the Church telleth vs in these woordes Then thought I to vnderstand this but it was too harde for me vntyll I went into the sanctuarie of God then vnderstoode I the ende of these men Namely howe thou hast set them in slipperie places and wilt make them fal downe into desolation O how suddainely doo they consume vanish and come to a fearefull ende yea euen as a dreame are they when one awaketh Lorde when thou raisest the dead thou wilt dispise their image And besides especially it agreeth to the diuine iustice after all good woorkes or bad committed in this body that all bodies knit with their soules doo rise and receiue that which they haue deserued Which thing Esay most plainly dooth signify in this maner All fleshe shall come to worship before my face sayth the Lord And they shall come foorth and see the dead bodyes of men which haue done wickedly against me there worme shall not dye and their fire shall not be extinguished c. And Iob in plaine wordes dooth witnes that those bodies which we now haue we shall receiue again For thus he saith I know that my redeemer lyueth and that I shall rise in the last day from the earth shall be clad again with my skin and in my flesh I shal see God whom I my selfe shal beholde and mine eyes shal see and none other Then as Esay writeth shal death be vtterly deuoured and the Lord God shal washe away al teares from euery face and will take the reproch of his people from the earth because the Lorde hath spokē it Neither as Iohn saith in his reuelation shal their be death any more nor weeping nor cry neither anye more griefe because the former things are past Moreouer the Lord God is not onely iust but also truth it selfe And therefore all those things which by the Prophets and Apostles through the instinct of the holy Ghost he hath reuealed touching the end of the world the Resurrection of the flesh the last iudgement of Christ and the eternall lyfe of the godlye and the eternall death of the wicked which is to come shall so certainely come as nothing ought to be more certaine vnto vs notwithstanding that mans reason and the doctrine of the Philosophers cannot sufficiently conceaue the same For if he be truth how can he lie Or sith all which hath been spoken afore of Christes comming in the flesh of his death and resurrection of alteration of Empires be sufficiently fulfilled How can we otherwise thinke but that these things which of the ruine of the world and of Christes eternall kingdome reuealed vnto vs of our most mightie and blessed God must lykewyse come to passe Especially syth all which hath been spoken was to no other end spoken but to proue this and the summe of Christian religion consistes in these things Which demonstration going before and true testimonies of holy Scripture in my iudgement maye suffice both to the strengthening of our faith and cutting of all doubting of that noble coming of Christ our Lorde to iudgement of the ende of this sinfull world of the glorious exhortation of his Church and of the vtrer damnation of the reprobate Wherefore now I will endeuour by testimonies of diuine Oracles probable reasons and coniectures to shewe that the world cannot passe the time of sixe thousande yeares Of the second comming of Christ a comfortable Discourse That the world shall not endure aboue sixe thousande yeares SAint Austine and manie moe of antiquitie together with moste learned men of our tyme and my masters excellentlie seene in all things Philip Melancton and Regner Predin a man of ripe lerning and iudgement Moderator of Groningane haue been of this opinion that that Prophecie of Elias concerning the worlds continuance sixe thousande yeres is without all doubt true and to be credited Notwithstanding that Prophecie is not to be read in the holy scripture but in the books of the Rabines as in the firste Chapter and firste booke Abodazara also in the fourth part of the Thalmudician work in the Sanhedrin book and last Chapter of the same and other places where

before nyne thousande yeares past there was another manner of Athens and farre better citizens Herodotus saith that the Aegyptians haue made mention of tenne thousand yeares and aboue of the worldes continuance and yet they haue obserued that the places of the rising and going downe of the Sunne haue been twise chaunged so that where nowe it falleth there it hath risen twise and hath twise there gone downe where it riseth now But more woonderful and execrable is it that among the people of God should be Saduceis and among Christians should be such men which of set purpose against the manifest woord of God dare boldly say and perswade them selues that the world neither had beginnyng nor shall haue end that there shal be no resurrection of the flesh no lyfe after this lyfe no rewardes for wel dooing no punishment for sinne and that the worlde as it is nowe so hath it been and shall continue for euer which kynd of men are plaine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men which neither beleeue there is any God or diuine prouidence at al. And I feare me the most part of mankind such as are called in the holy Scripture worldly mynded and carnal although they seeme neuer so spiritual catholike and would be counted Gospellers by the like fictions and dayly suggestions of the Diuel although not so wilfully flatter them selues and gladly woulde be brought into that opinion that so in a desperate securitie they maye spende their dayes and augment their impietie Against which apparant dotage and wicked cogitations of naughtie men through want of true knowledge by the instinct of Satan and corruption of the mynde of man it standes vs vppon to arme our selues with the woorde of God and confirme our consciences by the testimonies of Christ of the Prophets and Apostles The holy scripture in many places dooth plainly tell vs that one day the sonne of God Christ shall come to iudge the quicke and the dead all fleshe shall rise and the world shall be consum●d wyth fire as the aboue recited testimonies beare witnes To proue the resurrection of the fleshe very many proofes may be alledged both out of the olde and newe testament But amongst al the disputation of Paul may suffice vs where by many arguments he confirmes the resurrection of the flesh and copiously and sufficiently dooth also prooue that we must all stand before the tribunall seate of Christ to receiue eternall rewardes for our deedes be they good or bad And Christ saith Maruell not at this for the day wil come in which al which are in the graues shall heare the voyce of the sonne of God and those which haue doone well shall come fort● to the resurrection of lyfe but those which haue doone euill to the resurrection of iudgement To this purpose may be recyted other infinite places of holy scripture and also the creede of Thapostles Nicene and Athanasian But I pray you what auailed religion faith hope and that great pacience of Christians in all their troubles and cruell persecutions if this doctrine of the consummation of the world and of the comming of the Lorde with that which belongeth thereunto which of all others maye most absurdly be thought were but a vaine imagination of the Prophetes of Christ and the Apostles and of all the Martyrs in the Churche when as no cause can be supposed which myght driue them to the loosing of their fame theyr goods their life So that truth is so plaine apparant that a godly well disposed mynde makes that a sure argument of the worldes decay For these godly mē of al others in the world most miserable suffred those greeuous and direfull thinges not for the hope of vayne glory or desire of riches but for the loue of Christ through the secrete motions of the holy Ghost perswading themselues that in Christ was hid the treasure of true riches and eternal glory Wherfore it behoueth vs vndoubtingly to think their doctrine to be true and celestiall and not to proceede from their owne brayne but to be deliuered vnto them by Christ and his holy spirit and the rather bycause Christ of himselfe dooth saye that he is the truth and the life and that he telleth vs from the bosome of his father and the father sayth in the presence of three Apostles from heauen This is my beloued sonne in whom I am pleased heare him which voyce of God was also heard in Iordan when Iohn was baptising him This coeternall sonne of God woord of the euerlasting father creator of all things our redeemer Christ of sette purpose taught his Apostles certayne tokens of the worlds destruction and his comming to iudgement And also in his last Sermons before he yeelded himselfe in our behalfe to the crosse he playnly dooth as it were depainte and sette the same before theyr eyes and counsailes them and among them especially those which were to lyue in all tymes to be watchfull sober prepared and ready least in his terrible visitation whose differring bringes too much securitie to the reprobate and condemned persons vppon the suddaine they be entrapped and as it were taken in the snare All which Mathew Marke and Luke do abundantly set foorth So that the truth teaching the same nothing ought to be more credible and certain to a Christiā man then that the world his ful time beyng expyred the prouidence of God the eternall father so disposing the same shall passe away and that Christ our Lorde shall come in the the cloudes of heauen to the last and vniuersall iudgement The holy Prophets likewise haue by diuine inspiration foretolde many things of the comming of Christ in the flesh of hys doctrine death and resurrection also of the chaunge of Empyres and of the ruine of many townes all which are fullye come to passe so that nowe they may seeme not by euent to haue foretolde but to haue drawne a true and certaine historie of these thyngs Howe lyuely Esaie dooth expresse the natiuitie person doctrine myracles death and resurrection of Christ it is well knowen vnto all though but meanely read in the Scriptures Likewise Daniell in many places seemeth now to haue prophecied but orderly to haue written things already done of the continuall alterations of Empyres and of the comming of Christ that well he may be called the great Historiographer Now what shall we saye Syth in these and all other things their prophesies haue taken effect and sith they by one and the same spirite haue signifyed of the second commyng of Christ in which he shall declare himselfe to be an eternall kyng of all kings and principalities that these ought not to be finished Yes vndoubtedly so that he shall put all kingdomes of this world vnder hys feete and shall hewe them lyke a stone which is cut from the mountaine He appeared vnto King Nabuchodonozor without handes to bruse that great Image which