Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bless_a	jesus_n	lord_n	6,161	5	3.6174	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28821	A mirrour of Christianity and a miracle of charity, or, A true and exact narrative of the life and death of the most virtuous Lady Alice, Dutchess Duddeley published after the sermon in the Church of St. Giles in the Fields / by R.B., D.D., rector of the said church, on Sunday the 14th of March, MDCLXIX.	R. B. (Robert Boreman), d. 1675.	1669 (1669)	Wing B3758; ESTC R11208	27,802	56

unawares trading in sin or living in any kind of lewdness This waiting vigilancy is our sheild to keep off the fiery darts of Satan his evil suggestions and a Canopy to keep our Virtues pure from being sullied or spotted by any Vice It does that indeed which the Heathens thought their Goddess Pellonia did it drives and Chases all evil from us He that watches for Death conceives that it is ever at hand and not afar off and therefore he makes a daily provision for it He is of the same temper of the same frame of spirit as the Watchman was of Isaiah 21.8 my Lord says he there to the Prophet I stand continually upon my watch-tower in the day time and I am set in my ward whole nights In this Watchman's posture we should ever be There is specula meditationis a watch-tower of meditation which transports the soul from earth to Heaven and thus the good Christian is ever watching by meditating on the benefits that redound or come by Death to us it being only a releasing us from a nasty Prison no more is the body to the soul and an advancing us to a stately Palace of pure Delights a freeing us from our toilsome fetters of sin and sickness with other woful miseries and a possessing us of the Glorious liberties of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 This Meditation sweetens Death and makes it's approach less terrible Familiarity takes away fear and the Meditation of Death makes it familiar to us The daily constant Meditation of Death is likewise a great help or means to Cool the heat of Lusts to kill Pride and suppress Covetousness when we shall consider and believe that the day or hour of Death is approaching when a winding Sheet and a Napkin about our heads will be all the goods we shall carry hence with us a Grave all the land a Coffin the only house which we shall possess when worms shall be our sole companions a noisome stench instead of perfumes and instead of Robes and rich attire raggs of Rottenness He that seriously thinks on these things and digests in his soul or conscience the bitter Pills of these sad truths that man will not be proud lustful nor covetous Secondly there is specula Praeparationis a watch-tower of preparation and on this the good-man or devout Christian is ever standing his care is to do that hourly and daily which Carthusianus advises all to do and that is so to provide for the coming of Death ut nihil in mente resideat quod conscientiam mordeat cum quo mori timeat that no sin reside or remain in our brest which may wound and trouble the Conscience and with which we being guilty cannot die in peace and safety When sin is separated from thy Soul by a true and timely Repentance thou shalt not need to fear a dissolution or separation of thy soul from thy body by death Make thy peace with God in time if he be thy friend death wil be the same to thee not thy foe not thy enemy No unclean Person shall inherit the Kingdom of God Ephes 5.5 When therefore thy soul is cleansed thy conscience purged and purified that the guilt of no crying or raigning sin lies upon it then art thou fitted for Death then mayst thou with a cheerful confidence give a Christian-like invitation to it and say Come Death and wellcome Lord Jesus An holy temperate sober life an happy Death and comfort at the great day of Judgment these are close linked together they never part asunder Non potest malè moriqui vixit bene His death cannot be ill who lived well Aug. that feared God and perform'd his will by keeping his holy Commandments Therefore let your conversation be in Heaven whilst you live here upon earth and be diligent as S. Peter exhorts 2 Epist 3.14 that you may be found of Christ in peace without spot and blameless 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the hour of your death Then may you be assur'd that at the last day he will be your friend you shall find him in effect what his Name Jesus imports a loving Saviour and not a severe Judge even so come Lord Jesus and when thou comest make good thy saving Name unto us Thus we pray to this end we Preach and this is every ones desire to be saved from Hells everlasting torments But let me tell you that though he be a common universal potential Saviour in respect of the Jews and Gentiles and in respect of all sorts and conditions of men yet to them only he will be effectually a Jesus who acknowledg him to be their Lord which Title is therefore prefix'd or set before that Name in the Text we look for the Lord Jesus to teach us that if we stoop to his Scepter and submit to his word if we obey his Commands and live according to his precepts wearing the Livery of His Holiness in our lives making that first Sermon of His Matt. 5. the rule of all our Actions and transcribing that fair Copy the rule of all perfection by our holy practice we may then look for him as Jesus and expect from him Salvation I look for the Lord my soul doth wait for him and in his word is my trust So said the Prophet David Psal 130.5 which words may be applied to Christ's coming in Judgment He look'd for the Lord whom he served to be his Saviour and his trust was in his word that word of Promise that he will not condemn a penitent humble sinner And whilst we look for the Lord let that promise be the comfort and stay of our souls 1 Cor. 11.31 If we judg our selves we shall not be judged by a judgment of condemnation That which the Apostle exhorts us to is that Judicium paenitentiale as Tertullian calls it the Penitential Judgment or the Judgment of Repentance when a man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as S. Chrys exhorts us to do sets up in his Soul a Tribunal or Seat of Justice and makes his Conscience both Judg and Witness and examining himself daily wherein he hath offended God after this examination passes a sentence against himself as deserving for his sins eternal damnation then appeales from himself to God's mercy and Christ's merits humbly begging for Christ's sake a pardon of all his transgressions and seals or ratifies his pardon to his Conscience by his amendment The man that doth these things shall never fall from his hope of happiness Christ will not condemn him who thus condemns himself and his sins by putting them to death or by living no longer in them Judicium paenitentiale evacuat Paenale saith Tertullian The Penitential Judgment whereby we condemn our selves doth evacuate the penal we shall not be punished for our sins He that is thus dead whilst he lives shall live in his Death and may say upon his sickbed as that devout man Myconius said to Luther his friend that came to visit him thy sickness is not unto Death but unto life for Death shall only give a release to his soul from the Prison of his body to a full and perfect State of liberty and when Christ shall appear at the latter day he will raise his body out of the Dust and place it at his right hand to triumph and reign with him in endless joy and unspeakable happiness This honour shall be conferr'd on all God's faithful Saints and dutiful Servants whose conversation is now in Heaven from whence we look for the Lord Jesus And that our conversation may be such even Heavenly as it becometh those who wait for the coming of their Lord. Let us pray O God most holy who delightest in those Souls which resemble thee in purity let thy blessed Spirit take full possession of our Souls and Spirits and by the power of it drive out of them the foul Spirit of envy and malice of pride and uncleanness that being cleans'd from these Impurities they may be fill'd with thy Divine Graces and our lives shine with the heavenly rays of Charity and Chastity of Humility and Meekness of Sobriety and Temperance which are the badge the Cognisance of thy Elect and the Lives of thy Saints And Lord wean our hearts from the love of this World's vanities which can neither content our Souls nor continue with us and fix them upon thy self who art the Joy of the Holy Angels and our only Stay Hope and comfort in all our distresses that when we leave this sinful World and all forsake us when death shall arrest our Bodies our Souls may not be forsaken of thee but admitted into those Joys which shall never end because they stream from Thee who art Everlasting Those Graces and this Glory we most humbly beg through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

the Mother of five gracious Daughters Alice Douglasse Frances wife of Sir Gilbert Kniueton Knight Anne wife of Sir Robert Holburne Late of Lincolnes Inne all these Deceased And Katherine the onely surviving Picture in Piety and goodness of her Lady Mother and Widow of Sir Richard Leveson Knight of the Bath The Town of Stonely in which our Illustrious Dutchess was born has more reason to glory in that She breath'd her first breath in it than the seven Cities had in Homer the Prince of Poets who by all of them was challenged all laying a claim or Title to his birth in them But as her Ladiships being born in the foresaid Stoneley will not add any inward virtue though it may an outward luster to it so Her being descended from and related to an Ancient Noble Family is the slenderest part or piece of her Character and Glory That she was born of God by Spiritual Regeneration and so His Daughter by Adoption and a Sister of Christ by love and likeness of Him this is her Chiefest glory the highest degree of her commendation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So said S. Chrysostome in a Panegyrical Oration The principal thing to be look'd at and commended in recounting a Genealogy is the Virtue of a man or woman If we consider the whole Series or course of her life we shall have a just occasion to say that in her person and by her actions she gave a stop or check in a way of answer to that doubtful Question of Solomon Prov. 31.10 Who can find a Virtuous Woman who can without God's special blessing obtained by Prayer unto Him and without God's Divine appointment and Ordination This sure was the wisemans meaning But to return to my purpose from this short digression The precious balme of Grace that was powred by God's blessed Spirit into the Soul of our Renowned Dutchess at her Baptism or in her Infancy being strengthned with the addition of a godly Education brake forth in such a sweet perfume even from her Childhood to Her riper years that she was look'd upon as an Earthly Saint an Angel clothed in Flesh a lawful Image of Her Maker and Redeemer a model of Heaven made up in Clay the living Temple of the Holy Ghost This was evidenced by these ensuing Graces First By Her Extraordinary Piety or Religion Her behaviour towards God was rare and admirable for being instructed in and perswaded of the truth of that Religion which we profess as distinct from that false one of the Church of Rome and being firmly grounded in those Fundamentals and saving Truths which our Religion teaches us viz. That God alone is to be prayed unto and worshipped not Saints nor Angels That by Christ only we can be saved by his merits and Gods mercy not by our own works she accordingly upon these grounds served God night and day as that good old Prophetess Anna did Luke 2.37 with fastings and prayers especially during the time of her Virgin-widowhood she was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 5.5 a widow indeed such as was that famous Paula and Marcella by S. Hierome in his Epistles so highly magnified She well knew that though second marriage is no sin yet as one says Iteratò nubere est signum Incontinentiae c. She therefore to preserve in her fame the honour and in her soul and body the joy and sweet content of Continency refused to marry declaring thereby that though many great persons wanted her or rather as the fashion of the world is her money yet she had no need of any to be joyn'd with her in a conjugal society An enlargement of her Estate she never designed nor desir'd by the addition of a Joynture but moving in the Sphear of her own fortune and contenting her self with the portion God had given her she clave close to God and was joyn'd to Him by Faith and Affiance and so she was espoused to God and the Lord of Heaven married to her being her Husband as he professes himself to have been to Israel Jer. 31.32 in regard of his Love Care and Providence to her Religious Person who spent as much time or more in reading of God's word and other godly books the extracts of it as others do in their Glasses by which they correct the defaults in their dresses and blemishes in their faces not regarding in the mean while the blots and spots the defilements and stains of sin that disfigure the native beauty of their Souls which are usually left naked and for want of prayer to God divested of Grace but clothed with the black mantle of Lascivious and Unclean thoughts Our pious Dutchess took into her prime care her righteous soul the spouse of God by Prayer and Meditation with which a soul is winged she sent it up in a flight to Heaven every morning and thus conversing with God in the mount of Devotion it return'd again into her bosome as Moses did from the Mount with it's face shining and lightsome with joy and inward Consolation The more familiar conference we have with God in prayer the more do we partake of him He that passes by the fire may have some gleams of heat but he that stands by it will have his Colour changed It is not possible a man should have any long conference with God in Prayer and Meditation but that his heart shine with inward illumination and being enflamed with the love of God partake of some Divine Inspiration And thus she acquainting her self daily and conversing with God in her Closet or Private and more publike family devotions which she never omitted was wonderfully beautified and strengthned in her soul by Grace which had taken up it's lodging in her and displayed it self outwardly in five special Saint-like Qualities which made her conversation amiable pleasant and Venerable to all her Equals and Inferiors The first was a winning and obliging way or disposition that sweetly scatters favours by this being a desire of doing good to all even to our very enemies we attract friendships and make friends even of those that hate us Thus did that good Dutchess The second is Affability this was eminently in her joyn'd with a becoming Grace and sweet behaviour and hath in it a power to charm Souls that are in any the least way or degree inclined to Honesty and Civility She was Courteous to all even the meanest person who might find her ear open to any just Request or Modest Petition When she bestowed any favour or gave an Alms She gave it cheerfully without grudging or any the least repining so the loaf which she gave was not Panis Lapidosus as Seneca speaks but pure and fine Manchet without any mixture of Gravel An Alms given with hard Language reproach or an harsh exprobration is gravel-bread and at once loses both it's thanks and commendation The third Prudence a gracious Quality of the Soul which is ever joyn'd with Wisdom as it 's inseparable Companion as appears by