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	promise_n	5,503	5	7.2516	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92746	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Lady Newland. At Alhallows Barkin, London By John Scott, D.D.	Scott, John, 1639-1695.	1690 (1690)	Wing S2075; ESTC R229814	11,228	21

A SERMON PREACHED AT THE FUNERAL OF THE Lady Newland AT Alhallows Barkin London By JOHN SCOTT D. D. LONDON Printed in the Year 1690. A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF THE Lady Newland HEB. xiii 14. For here we have no abiding City but we seek one to come IN these words the Author encourages Christians couragiously to bear up under reproaches in Conformity to their Lord and Master who in a disgraceful manner was Crucified without the City as if they thought his Blood would have desecrated it or feared lest his last Breath might have scattered a Contagion through it Let us therefore saith he in the 13 th Verse go forth unto him without the Camp bearing his reproach i.e. Let us be contented with him to be thrown forth as the dung and off-scouring of the streets from the Society of Men and not be concerned that for his sake we are made the abjects of the Earth For here we have no abiding City and so 't is not long that we shall endure this but we seek one to come whither when we are once arrived we shall be above all reproach and malice for ever In which words you have I. The Christian's present State Here we have no abiding City II. The Christian's present practice in order to his future state but we seek one to come I. I begin with the first Here we have no abiding City The present and future state of Christians is here compared to a City in allusion I suppose to those who though they were not born at Rome but lived it may be a great way off from it had yet Jus Civitatis Romanae the Priviledges of Citizens of Rome even as we Christians though we are born in this World and do spend our lives in it do yet belong to another Corporation and are Denizens of that City which is above and therefore saith he this present state is not our home in this City we are but Foreigners and do only sojourn in it for a time till we go home to the new Jerusalem which is the place of our abode and the City we are already free of And indeed that Here we have no abiding City is a truth so sensible that one would think we need not be put in mind of it for which way soever we turn our Eyes we see a dark and deadly shade overspreading the World and behold Men vanishing every day like the smoke quitting the Stage round about us and disappearing almost as soon as they have shewed themselves To day we converse with our Friends and among our other Festivities we tickle our selves with the Joys of our future Conversation To Morrow their Passing-Bell tells us a sad story that they are gone to converse with Worms where these Eyes of ours shall never see them more and indeed if we consider our present state we are but a kind of fictitious Beings that rather seem to be than are and do so little deserve to be taken for realities that we only serve to cheat one another into an opinion that we truly exist when presently by vanishing away we baffle that Opinion and shew our selves to be but hovering shadows that in a moment are and are not Indeed all Created things have more of not being than of being in them For it is only a limited portion of being which they have but there is an infinitude of being which they have not So that being infinitely nearer to nothingness than to fullness of being they rather deserve to be called nothing than real beings And if the best of our being be so near to nothing what is our outward Man which is but the umbrage and shadow of our being Alas If we consider the Frame and composition of it it is nothing but a continual Flux and defluence of parts insomuch that each Climacterick of our Age changes our whole Fabrick and we are at no one time all our selves but seven years hence shall be another thing This Body will be all vanished and gone and of the parts it now consists there will be none remaining So that while we are we are hastening away and within a little time shall vanish into Worms-Meat And hence it is that the Scripture compares our present life to such fleeting and evanid things to an Image a Dream a Post a Shadow by all which it 's design is to make us sensible of this truth that Here we have no abiding City And indeed so volatile and fugitive is our present Existence that if it were not for another World it were scarce worth the while for a Man to be And could we but have understood before we came into being what an uncomfortable Stage this World is I am apt to think we should rather have chosen to remain for ever in the Womb of nothing than venture into the Theatre of beings only to take a turn or two and weep and grone and die For what an impertinent thing would it be for a Man to come out of nothing into being only to open his Eyes and look about him and vanish into nothing again And yet this is all that most of those do that are born into the World and as for those that act a longer part there is alas so much of Tragedy in it that the Pain doth even counter-balance the Pleasure of it That therefore which makes Life truly desirable is this That though we have here no continuing City yet we look for one to come which is the second part of the Text viz. II. The Christian's present Practice in order to his future State but we seek one to come which implies these four things 1. Our belief of the reality of this abiding State 2. Our hope and expectation of enjoying it 3. Our proposing it to our selves as the great end and aim of all our actions 4. Our diligent pursuit of it by such a course of actions as is most suitable to it and does tend most directly towards it Of each of these briefly 1. Our seeking this abiding City implies our sincere belief of the reality and existence of it For what wise Man will hunt after a Dream and a shadow which he believes hath no Being or Existence Who was ever so mad as to make a Voyage for Gold or Spices to Vtopia For that which I believe is not is to me as if it were not and hath no more influence upon us than the most palpable Dream and Fiction So that how real soever Heaven be in it self it is impossible it should move us to seek after it unless we believe its Existence 'T is our Faith must influence our Minds and Spirit all our powers of action otherwise all the Joys of another World will never be able to move or affect us Unless our Faith ascends the Pisgah of God's Promises and from thence takes a view of the Holy Land and of those Joys and Delights it flows and abounds with we shall loiter for ever in this Wilderness and never

think our selves concerned to seek any other Country or Habitation But Faith saith the Apostle is the substance of things hop'd for and the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11. 1. i. e. 'T is that which realizes Heaven to us and possesses our Minds with its Being and Existence and when this is once done one would think it should be impossible to withold us from the quest and pursuit of it especially if to our Faith we add the next thing which this seeking implies and that is 2. A lively hope and expectation of enjoying it For no Man will seek after that which he never hopes to find or enjoy A Man may possibly be so extravagant as to desire to fly up to the Stars that so he may the better survey their refulgent Bodies and search into their Form and Substance but no Man was ever so mad to attempt it because he knows it is impossible And so if a Man did only believe there were a Heaven of joys above but had no hope of coming thither he might possibly desire against hope and wish that he could fly up thither but he could never be so vain as to indeavour his despair would cramp the sinews of his action and freeze up all the motions of his Soul and all the Joys of Eternity would no more be able to affect or move him than the promise of a mighty Empire in the World in the Moon Wherefore to put us upon seeking after Heaven it is necessary that our Minds should be animated and enlivened with a vigorous hope and expectation of it That our Hearts should be inspired with a strong perswasion not only that there is a Heaven of Endless Joys on t'other side the Grave but that it is possible for us to arrive to it and that if by a patient continuance in well-doing we faithfully contend and aspire after it we shall be sure not to fall short of it which perswasion is sufficient to animate the most dull and restful Soul and make it all Life and Spirit and Wing in the pursuit of Heaven and Immortality 3. Our seeking this abiding City doth also imply our proposing it to our selves as the great end and aim of all our actions For that which a Man seeks after he makes the great end of his search and prosecution and no Man can be said to seek in earnest after Heaven who doth not set it up as the great mark of his Actions and the ultimate point and centre of all his motions For thus in Rom. 6. 22. Everlasting Life is expresly said to be the end of having our Fruit unto Holiness and as such we are bid to direct our Actions to it to believe in Christ unto Everlasting Life 1 Tim. 1. 16. and to do good that we may lay hold on Eternal Life 1 Tim. 6. 18 19. and consequently Heaven is described to be the Christian 's Canaan to which we are to direct all our steps while we are travelling through this World Heb. 11. 14 15. and the whole Life of a Christian is exprest by seeking it Mat. 6. 33. So that our seeking this abiding City that is to come implies our walking on through the whole course of this Life with Heaven in our Eyes and constantly directing all our steps and actions thither not that it is necessary we should actually aim at Heaven in every action we perform for that is impossible our thoughts being very often otherwise imployed by the necessary occasions of this Life and always unable to attend many things at once It is sufficient therefore that we habitually intend and aim at Heaven and propose it as the ordinary and fixed end of our Actions that we make it the standing Goal of our Race and in our ordinary course level our thoughts and words and actions thither But I see I must hasten Again 4. And lastly Our seeking this abiding City doth also imply our diligent pursuit of it by such a course of actions as are most suitable to it and do tend most directly towards it For seeking is a regular action and implies the prosecuting an end by due and proper means so that our seeking Heaven denotes our vigorous prosecution of it by a course of Heavenly actions Wherefore since Heaven as I have often shew'd you is nothing else but the Perfection of all Vertue and Piety seeking Heaven must necessarily imply our pursuing and endeavouring after it in a constant series of Pious and Vertuous Courses in which Courses we are gradually growing up to Heaven and rising to that Blessed State in which Piety and Vertue will be our Everlasting Pleasure and Entertainment And hence we are said by patient Continuance in well-doing to seek for Honour and Glory Immortality and Eternal Life Every degree of Vertue and Piety we arrive to being a step to Glory and a Stair to the Chambers of Blessedness Wherefore our quest of Heaven is very truly described by the Apostle to consist in all diligence to add to our faith vertue and to our vertue knowledge and to our knowledge temperance and to our temperance patience and to our patience godliness and to our godliness brotherly kindness and to our brotherly-kindness charity for so saith he an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 1. 5 6 7 11. And now give me leave to conclude this Argument with three or four Inferences 1. From hence I infer how much we are obliged to be contented and satisfied under all the present Afflictions of this Life For since our abiding City is to come it can be but a little while ere all these storms will be blown over and conclude in an Everlasting Calm and when that Blessed time comes Lord How trifling and inconsiderable will all our present griefs appear And with what Contempt shall we reflect upon our present meanness of Spirit that could not bear with a few inconveniencies on the Road to the Blessed City of our abode Wherefore if our Voyage be not so pleasant as we would have it let us remember 't is not long we have but a short days Sail to Eternity and when once we are landed on that Blessed Shore with what ravishing Content and Satisfaction shall we look back on the rough and boisterous Seas we have past and for ever bless the Storms and Winds that drove us to that happy Port. Let us therefore comfort our selves with these things and when at any time our Spirits are sinking under any Worldly trouble conclude with our selves that while we have a Heaven to hope for we can never be miserable When therefore we are bemoaning our selves under present griefs and afflictions let us lift up our dejected Eyes to yonder blessed Regions of Reward and think of those Joys and Pleasures those Crowns and Everlasting Triumphs which do there await us and consider how necessary these bitter trials are to prepare us for and waft us to them And