Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	believe_v	faith_n	heart_n	7,913	5	5.2011	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42350	The Christians labour and reward, or, A sermon, part of which was preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable the Lady Mary Vere, relict of Sir Horace Vere, Baron of Tilbury, on the 10th of January, 1671, at Castle Heviningham in Essex by William Gurnall ...	Gurnall, William, 1617-1679.	1672 (1672)	Wing G2258; ESTC R10932	62,221	185

ready and prepared for every good work by daily combating with his corruptions and resisting temptations he learns more easily to overcome his Enemy And if in worldly trades this be accounted a sufficient reward to an Apprentice for serving out his time to learn the mystery of his Calling Oh what a reward is it by the daily practice of Godliness to learn more fully the Mystery of it This I am sure holy David set down for great gains I have remembred thy name O Lord in the night and have kept thy Law this I had because I kept thy Precepts Psal 119.55 And again I understand more than the Ancients because I kept thy Precepts ver 100. He did not grudge his own pains nor envy others ease so long as he might get more Heavenly Wisdom by it Secondly The Christians conscionable labour interesseth him in the special Providence of God for him while he is at work for God God will take care of him and what can he want that hath God for his Provider what or whom need he fear that hath God for his Protector For though all the Saints have a right in Promises yet none have a pleasant aptitude to apply the comfort of any one Promise while they are idle and negligent no this is the portion of the laborious Christian that walks in the actual exercise of his Grace No good thing shall he want that walks uprightly When God engageth to Abraham his Almightiness it is to him as walking before him not as sitting in the chair of sloth Thirdly The Christians labour is rewarded here with inward peace of Conscience and serenity of Mind Great peace have they that keep thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psalm 119.166 Peace be on them that walk by this rule as on the Israel of God Gal. 6. These are they in whose bosoms this Bird of Paradise sings her sweet Notes and her sweetest in foulest weather when sickness comes and death approacheth Now he that hath the testimony of his Conscience for having been a faithful Labourer in the Lords work will be able to make a comfortable reflection upon his past life For mens expectations of what is coming to them at death depends upon what their past lives have been Life is the time of sowing and death of reaping as they have sown so only can they expect to reap Life is a time for working and death for receiving the reward sutable to the work Hence it is when death is approaching Conscience if not seared and past all feeling is then carried back to review what the man hath been doing for whom he hath been labouring and therefore must needs bring in heavy tidings to the sinner of his approaching misery then it rips up all the stitches of that false peace which the ungodly wretch had been bolstred up with and tells him that now the Righteous Judge is at hand to pay him the dismal wages due to him for all the wicked works he hath done which makes the thoughts of death a terror to him But the Sincere Christian who hath laboured faithfully in the Lords work he then hath a pleasant Prospect to behold when he looks back upon his conscionable walking and can thence make his humble appeal to God and desire him to remember how he hath walked before him in Truth and with a Perfect Heart Oh what joy is this to his poor heart that his Conscience bears him witness he hath endeavoured to walk before God with godly simplicity and not in guile and can cast himself upon the Mercy of God in Christ and breathe out his Soul with a joyful expectation of being received into the Kingdom of Glory This premised I address my self to speak of the Christians reward in the other world this being principally if not solely in the Text where it is set forth two ways First By its certainty For as much as ye know Secondly By its transcendency Your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In which words you may remember I told you there is more intended than exprest First of the first The certainty of the Saints reward intimated by this Phrase ye know that is ye know it for a certain indubitable truth ye make no doubt of this thus is the Saints future Happiness spoke of with the greatest assurance and certainty We know that if our earthly house of his Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens 1 Cor. 5.1 We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him The Saints know this so well that they dare venture the loss of all they are worth here for the reward they expect there Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that ye have in Heaven a more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 yea they have refused their temporal life when offered to the prejudice of their eternal Heb. 11.35 Not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection If any should ask how do they know so assuredly there is this reward I would ask such how they know the Sun to be when they see it shine if they say by seeing of it they may know that the Saint sees an Heaven as certainly by an eye of Faith as they can do the Sun by an eye of Sense Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen The very light of nature whereby the Heathens knew a God did let with it into their minds some knowledge of another world and of a double state therein of happiness to the good and misery to the wicked being not able otherwise to reconcile the unevenness of Providence in this world with the righteous nature of God but alas what was this lesser light which God left in man to rule him in the night of Heathenish darkness to the certainty of the Saints knowledge which comes in by the light of Faith first the Christians Faith is grounded on the testimony of God himself in his word Humane Faith is indeed the weakest and most uncertain kind of knowledge because mans testimony on which it relys is so fallible but Divine Faith the most certain because the testimony of God on which its weight bears is infallible One who cannot deceive because he is truth it self nor be deceived because he is wisdom it self So that though Faith be not Reason yet to believe what God saith is true there is the highest reason 2 ly As the testimony on which the Saints Faith relies is the infallible Word of God so his very Faith which relies on this Word of God is no other than the work of God the same Spirit who is the Author of that is the efficient of this for the Christian believes not from the power of his own will but the power of God mightily working his heart up to this supernatural act Hence we are said to be saved through Faith and that not of our selves it

these two comprehensive duties Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ and are these to be got or exercised when got without labour When the poor Christian hath done his utmost to keep the Law how far short doth he fall of that exact Rule Now these deficiencies and obliquities call for repentance and is it easie for him to comply with this duty is it easie to rifle his conscience and search his own heart so impartially as if he forgot it was his own house he was searching and his own shame he was to discover yet this is a necessary antecedent to the act of repentance how can he correct the Errata's or faults of a book that never read nor examined it and to do it surely will cost some pains I confess this review the Christian is to make is more easily done when he doth it daily and examines his life if I may so say sheet by sheet as it is printed off in every particular days conversation but even this is a labour too heavy for a slothful heart to endure is it easie when the poor creature hath found out his many sins and failings upon this review to get his heart into a melting frame and sorrowful sense of his ingratitude and disingenuity to God in them so as to throw up those sweet morsels with more bitterness of spirit than they were swallowed down with pleasure In a word Is it easie for the poor Christian to get these Inmates out of doors which he hath so unadvisedly let in to clear his affections of that poyson with which these his sins have infected them Is it easie to recover the strength of his resolutions which his sins must needs have much loosned and weakned The second great duty of the Gospel is Faith and this is as hard as the other for indeed the difficulty of believing makes that of repenting so hard Is it easie to assent to the truth of these Mysteries of the Gospel which are contrary to the apprehensions of corrupt reason and beyond the comprehension of the Christians most elevated understanding Is it easie for one of a wounded spirit sunk and dejected as low as Hell under the heavy sense of his guilt to lift up an eye of faith to the promise and to conceive a hope that such a Wretch as he hath been may ever find grace and favour in the eyes of a just and holy God Verily it is a wonder little less than that of the Prophets in making Iron to swim it is easie for a stupid sinner indeed to dream of a pardon while Conscience is asleep but when this is once throughly awake only he that can still the waves and winds in a storm at Sea can pacifie this can give either power to believe or peace in believing Is it easie to repent and bring forth the meet fruits of it good works and not to make them the Idol of our trust not to relye on the first to procure our pardon here nor on the other to purchase our reward hereafafter but to rejoyce only in Christ Jesus as the sole entire object of our trust for both Secondly The curious Sculpture with which every Duty in Religion must be engraved to render it acceptable to God a miscarriage in any of which is like an hair on the writers pen enough to mar and blot his fairest copy for bonum ex integris First every duty in Religion to render it acceptable to God must spring from a supernatural principle It is not labour in the Lord except the labourer himself be in the Lord. Actio sequitur vitam a carnal man can do no other than a carnal action though the matter of it be spiritual A dead state can have no other but dead works a corrupt Tree cannot bring forth good fruit Mat. 7.12 Secondly the Christians work must be performed with an holy fervor Thou hast commanded us to keep thy precepts diligently Psalm 119.4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 valde vehementer The word is emphatical importing an exerting the utmost force of our Souls Zeal is the religious part of our affections the first-born and strength of a mans spirit and therefore God sets it apart for himself as his peculiar portion fervent in spirit serving the Lord without this he accounts himself slighted not served and accordingly deals with such cold servitours giving them as cold welcom as they do him service cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord negligently If we would repent we must be zealous and repent Rev. 2. v. 2. if hear the word we must be swift to hear if pray it must be an effectual fervent prayer or else it is but thuribulum sine prunis a censure without fire If we would give an alms we must draw out our soul as well as our purse to the hungry Now those imployments are counted most laborious to which most strength and force must be put and those which intend the powers of the soul more than such as strain the limbs of the body the Scholars labour in his study is more spending than the Plow-mans in the field What then is the Christians labour which exerts the zeal and heat of his spirit O how hard is it to kindle or kindled to keep this heavenly fire alive on a hearth so damp and cold as our heart is Thirdly the Christians work must be done from a right motive to a right end First a right motive from obedience to the will of God and that such as springs from the love of God he doth not Gods work that doth not obey him and he doth not obey him that doth not love him that only being true obedience which is hearty obedience Ye have obeyed him from the heart and that only hearty obedience which is loving for love hath the regency of the heart and it goes only whither love carrieth it O how hard is this where there is so much of the slave even in those that are children where Hagar so oft overtops Sarah's servile fear our filial affection Secondly it must be to a right end it is in vain to wind up the watch if it be not set to the right figure or to draw the Arrow though to the head if the Archers eye direct it not to the right mark Zeal winds up and draws forth the powers of the soul it makes the Christian act vigorously and forcibly but if sincerity which is the singleness of the souls eye be not present to direct it ultimately to the glory of God the labour is in vain the faster a man goes when out of his way the worse for the faster he goes the further he hath to come back he that is slothful in the Lords work doth displease him but he that makes a great bustle in Religion and by this his activity calls others eyes to behold his zeal yet secretly intends his own not Gods praise provokes him more because more hypocritical in what he doth hypocrisie

ready she was to be dejected from an over deep sence of her unworthiness will find reason to believe that this Man of God gave this Testimony of her to her as a Cordial to revive her Humble Spirit and therefore brings it in with And this to your comfort I add But I am too troublesom I fear to your Honour my hearty Prayers are that as you have begun so you may go on in living your Mothers Holy Life and that then yon may in a good Old Age dye her happy death with much Peace and Honour And that so long as you shall have a Posterity live on Earth your good Mother may never be Dead but may from Generation to Generation have those descending from her that will keep her Name and Pretious Example alive by a due Veneration of the one and Pious imitation of the other Madam I am your Honours most Humble Servant W. GVRNALL Evenham March 13. 1671. ERRATA PAge 51. Line 25. read Bewrayed pag. 87 l. 2O r. on p. 97. l. 22. r. sloughs p. 110 l. 11. r. Sin 1 Cor. 15.58 For as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. WHAT Luther said of Justification by Faith that may we concerning the Resurrection of the dead Articulus est Ecclesiae stantis aut cadentis it is an Article with which the Church standeth or falleth Yet so foul an errour had taken the head of some Members in the Church of Corinth as to deny this grand Truth which S t Paul calls in another place one of the principles of the Doctrine of Christ how say some among you there is no Resurrection of the dead v. 12. And is it not strange that such who professed to believe the Resurrection of Christ should deny their own but much more that any in the Church of Corinth especially in those early days should have such a darkness found upon their minds who stood so near the rising Sun and that while S t Paul himself was yet alive who had planted this Church by this we see though Truth is errours elder yet errour is not much Truths younger Though the Gospel-Church was purest in the Primitive times yet it soon began to corrupt in its Members Not unapt therefore was his saying who compared in this respect the gathering of Churches to the gathering of Apples which when first gathered may appear all fair and sound but then within a while some amongst them begin to speak and others to discover their rottinness No doubt this Church of Corinth and so others gathered by the rest of the Apostles appeared in their Members very sound in the faith and fair in their lives at their first embraceing of the Gospel yet some we see did thus soon discover corruption in both Now to recover the tainted and especially to preserve the sound from this dangerous infection the Apostle sets himself to defend this Article of our Faith well knowing that this was a blow made at the root of Christianity which must needs fall to the ground if this cannot be maintained and he doth it with such invincible arguments that if any Heretick shall now deny it the reason cannot be deficiency in the proof here given but rather a criminous conscience in himself which makes him on his own defence deny a Resurrection for fear of the Judgment which attends it Now the Apostle having done this and withal shewn the glorious array in which the Saints shall arise out of their beds of dust he then v. 55. sings his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or triumphant song over Death and out-braves this King of Terrours to his face that is wont to keep the hearts of poor Mortals in the miserable bondage of a slavish fear O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory As if he had said Death do now thy worst we fear thee not thou mayest indeed get us into thy hands but thou canst not long keep us in thy power fall we shall into the Grave but we fall to rise again and when we arise out of our Graves then shalt thou Death fall into thy Grave never to arise again Then v. 57. he sings with an holy ravishment of joy the praises of God and Christ our Redeemer by whose atchievement this glorious victory over death is won The sting of Death is Sin and the strength of Sin is the Law but thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ This indeed is our David who cut off the head of this Goliah with his own sword killed Death by falling dead upon it he unstung this Serpent by receiving its sting into his own blesed body He overcame this great Conquerour by submitting himself for a time to be conquered by it when Christ lost his life then his whole Army of Saints won the day Death now to them is no death that which was their punishment as Sinners is now their priviledge as Saints That which stood amongst the threatnings of the Law and was the most formidable of them all hath now changed its place and is got amongst the promises of the Gospel All things are yours or Life or Death 1 Cor. 3.21 So pretious an oyl doth our Apostle extract from this slain Scorpion so sweet an honey comb doth he find in this dead Lyons breast and gives it into the hand of the Saints to go eating of it to their unspeakable joy and comfort but is this victory over Death only matter of joy and comfort unto Believers Oh no Blessed art thou O Land when thy Princes eat for strength and not for drunkenness and blessed art thou O Emanuels Land when thy Saints feed on the priviledges and promises of the Gospel not to make them drunk with Pride nor to lay them asleepin Sloth but to rèfresh them to run the Race set before them and the Joy of the Lord becomes their strength the Apostle therefore goes on to improve and close up his discourse on this subject with an Exhortation to Duty Therefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast always abounding in the work of the Lord that is be stedfast in the faith of the Gospel and especially in the belief of this particular Article of our Christian faith the Resurrection of the dead and then live up unto this belief walk and work as for God while you live as believing you shall when dead rise again Now my Text hath the nature of a powerful Argument to inforce this Exhortation upon them for as much as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In which words these two things are observable First the Nature and Quality of the service or work of God it is a Labour the Apostle changeth the the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Work which he had used in the Exhortation immediately preceding into this of Labour and that not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies any ordinary labour but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉

any visible hopes of her recovery but as soon as she came again to her self she said I know my Redeemer liveth and being conveighed to her chamber there again I know whom I have trusted An Hypocrites hope is compared to the giving up the Ghost Job 11.20 And in this particular not unlike As a dying man his breath grows shorter and shorter till at the last it is quite puffed out so commonly the Hypocrites hope lesseneth as death grows nearer and commonly expires before the man himself doth Sixthly Her Humility This we may call her upper Garment with which she strived to cover her other Excellencies though their Beauty was rendered the more conspicuous and amiable by casting this veil over it Grace indeed is like an Oyntment which the closer it is held in a mans hand the more strongly it sends forth his sweet scent Oh how meanly did she think of her self she saw not how her own Face shined while others beheld and admired Ever complaining she was useless and unprofitable and did no good Never spake she of her Perfections but frequently other Imperfections and unworthiness yea she would often say I abhor my self indeed I do How easie of access for the meanest to come into her presence how affable courteous and lowly to the poorest many times when her very Servants had done a business well she had set them about she would say I thank you to them The Law of kindness was in her Tongue to whomsoever she spake I have but a word or two to speak of her gracious behaviour in her last Sickness and I shall say no more of this Honourable Person her Pains was strong but her Patience stronger never was she heard to mutter or utter any repining word but justified God in all his proceedings with her Yea more she was much in admiring and blessing God for his Mercies in her acutest Pains and greatest Agonies How doth this Blessed Soul now Carol forth the Praises of God in Heaven who could sing them so sweetly while these sharp Thorns were at her Breast that could keep her Heart in tune for this high note in her greatest bodily pains and dolours She was not without assaults from Satan it were strange indeed if he should not have considered this Pretious Servant of Christ and not offered her some disturbance at this time whom he had found so great and old an enemy to him and his Kingdom of darkness but he came only to be beaten back with shame and to add more Trophies to all her former Victories over him The last words which I find were observed to be spoken by her before a sleeping Lethargy seised on her poor spent body which in two days carried her off the stage of this life were How shall I do to be thankful how shall I do to praise my God Thus she ended her life here in the exercise of that Duty which was to be her constant endless work in that life she was now entring into I have done speaking of this Elect Lady and have now only some reflections to make from what I have said on her upon our selves First Let us all be stirred up to give God the praise of those his Graces which he so abundantly poured into this Elect Vessel her light hath shined very radiently before most of your eyes her good Works you have seen and many of you been refreshed by them now glorifie your Father which is in Heaven think it not enough to go home and say she was a good Lady a pretious Christian indeed but as your eye passeth through the Air and stayeth not till it terminateth on the Sun so let your thoughts not stay in the admiring other Perfections but pass from her and fix upon God the Donor and Father of all these good and perfect gifts Say not only she was a good Lady but oh how good and gracious is God to fill such a poor Earthen vessel with so much of his Heavenly Treasure Again Let us bless God who hath so happily finished her course and delivered her from the snares and miseries of this evil world The Souls of the deceased Saints are above our Praying for them being at rest in a glorified state they are beneath our praying to them being still but Creatures in Heaven though glorified but they may and ought to be the subjects of our Thanksgiving unto God This is a duty therefore the greater because it is for the greatest of Mercies that which crowns the whole series of Gods gracious past Providences to them If you think your selves engaged to bless God for your Friends whom God hath brought safe home to you after a long and dangerous journey or recovered out of a perillious Sickness how much more then should we be thankful to see any of our Godly Friends carried safe to the end of this great journey and landed at their Heavenly Fathers House not recovered from a Sickness which is but an adjournment to death but to have shot deaths gulf and to be set everlastingly above it Secondly Let the radient Excellencies that were in her humble us for her Deficiencies A coorse piece of Cloth never appears to coorse as when laid by a fine nor a Dwarff so low as when set by one that is tall How may her knowledge in the Scriptures shame the ignorance of many of us Her awful fear of God the little reverence we have of the Divine Majesty Her zeal for God our coldness Her reverence in the Worship of God the rudeness of many who behave themselves therein as if God Almighty and they were fellows Her charitable Spirit and large Heart whereby she concerned her self in the wants and miseries of others the narrow and selfish Spirits of many who like the Hedghog wrap themselves up in their own soft wool and turn out bristles to all others Or who say with that fat Monk stroking his own filled Paunch If it be well here all is well though others be shithering with cold pining with hunger How may her Humility which hid so great Excellencies in her from her own observance put them to the blush that are puffed up with their poor pittance of gifts or graces much more those who are swelled with a fancy of having that which none can see they have In a word How may her Patience under great Afflictions reproach the murmurings of many when they feel but a little smart from a gentle Correction as if they would turn again upon God and snatch the Rod out of his hand I might say I fear too many that seem here to mourn for the loss of this good Lady as Christ to the Jews Weep not for her but wee for your selves that you are so unlike to what she was Thirdly Let the high measures of Grace this Pretious Servant of God attained to encourage all weak Christians to press forward after further degrees of Grace Sit not still for shame at the bottom of this Hill when you see how