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	lord_n	soul_n	6,252	5	5.0695	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59397	A sermon design'd for the funeral of Ed. Wiseman Esq late of East-Lockinge in the county of Berks. Who was buried at Stevinton near Abingdon November the ninth, 1694. By Will. Sevill, Master of Arts, and Fellow of C.C.C. Oxford. Published at the request of many gentlemen of Berks.	Sevill, William, b. 1667 or 8.	1694 (1694)	Wing S2818A; ESTC R221098	13,819	37

God and thereby their Hopes and Desires swallowed up in the fruition of immutable Bliss And being assured of this we need not trouble our selves with those vain Disputes of some Ages before us concerning the separate State of Departed Souls nor with the Idle Notions of those various Limbus's whereinto some have fancied them to have been received but having these Revelations it is matter of infinite Importance to us all to use our utmost Endeavours after Purity and Holiness and a stedfast and lively Faith in Christ our Saviour that thereby we may be found among those that Dye in the Lord who by the Voice from Heaven are declared Blessed from henceforth or from the Moment of their Departure So * See 〈…〉 several good Expositors understand those words and our Church confirms the Interpretation when She acknowledgeth to Almighty God that with him do live the Spirits of them that depart hence in the Lord and with him the Souls of the Faithful after they are delivered from the burthen of the Flesh are in Joy and Felicity For which Discovery of these Spiritual Joys should I now offer to speak the due Praises of our Christian Religion I know not when I should end the Panegyrick or finish the Task as being those that eminently display its Excellency above all other Institutions whatever The Gentiles by the Light of Nature could never reach them The Jews of Old never had them in their written Law unless in Types See 〈…〉 and the Turks at present expect the quite contrary in their Sensual Paradise And indeed God intended these express Revelations of the Life to come together with some Descriptions of the true Nature of its Bliss for the Business and the Glory of the Gospel by which and which alone Life Eternal in a Blessed Immortality is brought to light Yea brought to Light for this very purpose that all such as endeavour to Dye in the Lord might in their Labours be encouraged with the Hopes of the Enjoyment of so great a recompence of Reward For tho' the intrinsick Beauty of Holiness be very great and excellent yet thro' the Degeneracy of Mankind that proving not a sufficient Allurement to the Exercise thereof God in the Scriptures hath annexed his Promises to the Commands he hath given and confirm'd those Promises by his Oath that by two immutable things a● the Author to the Hebrews speaks in which it is impossible for God to lye Ch. 6. ver 18. we might have a strong Consolation to lay hold upon the hope that is set before us And in like manne● here for our Consolation He not only declares those Persons Blessed that dye in Him but Emphatically confirms it by his Yea i● his own Name and by himself and by greater it could not be done Which brings me to speak a word or tw● to the Declaration and Confirmation of 〈◊〉 both together that thereby I may satisf● you of the full Assurance we have that suc● a Blessedness as I have in some measure represented to you shall be the Portion of those that Dye in the Lord. Blessed then are the ' Dead that dye in the Lord Yea saith the Spirit Touching the former part whereof viz. the Declaration The Voice that St. John heard from Heaven spake it unto him Saying Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord which words he affirms he heard in a clear and articulate Sound and therefore could not mistake it for any other than what it really was as One we know to have been that came before to our Blessed Saviour Joh. 12.29 which some that stood by thought was thunder and others the speech of an Angel And lest this Voice should be capable of any misconstruction as to its Author and thereby the Authority of Him who utter'd it be any way question'd It confirms to the World the Truth of what had been said with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Yea or of a Truth saith the Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Spirit eminently above All in himself an Author essentially Infallible as being THE SPIRIT whose Knowledge extendeth to the true Nature of all things and therefore not capable of being deceived Himself about the Matter and whose Justice and Holiness is not inferiour unto but equally Infinite with His Knowledg and his Wisdom and therefore not capable of affirming what he knows to be false and thereby of deceiving any other As being THE SPIRIT who by His Omnipotent Power call'd the whole World into its Being out of Nothing and therefore of Ability to dispose of those Mansions he himself has made And lastly as being THE SPIRIT whose Goodness is equal to nay if his Divine Attributes would admit degrees I should say greater than Omnipotence it self since the first Characters of his Glorious Name are The Lord God Exod. 34.6 7. merciful and gracious keeping Mercy for Thousands and therefore as he delights to manifest himself by nothing so much as Acts of Beneficence so will he more especially make himself known by fulfilling his Declarations and Promises in receiving those that Dye in him into a Rest from their Labours and an everlasting Reward of their good Works And now if in Matters of far less Evidence a meer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So saith the Philosopher was thought a sufficient ground for Heathen's Satisfaction certainly in Matters of so great moment and such agreeableness to our Natures a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So saith the Spirit ought to be a sufficient foundation for a Christian 's Faith Wherefore instead of suspending our Belief or doubting of God's Veracity let us call to Mind the great Advantages We receive by those Declarations Confirmations and Promises HE hath given unto us to strengthen our Hopes to comfort us in Affliction and to encourage us in the Performance of good Works and then so much matter of Praise and Admiration will offer it self unto us that we shall think we can never sufficiently bless and adore his Goodness towards us for should he have left us to our selves without such Revelations tho' we have natural Desires after Immortality and Blessedness implanted us yet our narrow-limited Knowledge could never have discovered unto us the Certainty of Heavenly Joys to be possessed by the Righteous who are said to Dye in the Lord. Under our heaviest Pressures or amidst our greatest Troubles we might and should often have said indeed Blessed are the dead for they rest from their labours But even in our highest Speculations or our most exalted Raptures we could never have known or said that Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord for their works follow them that is according to the Context follow them in the presence of GOD the Lamb and the Holy Angels and so instead of a clear Assurance of a real Heaven in Spiritual Joys we might have been still led on as the Old Heathen World was with the blind hopes of a feign'd Elysium in Shades and Groves And therefore

that a frequent Premeditation of it is a part of the greatest Wisdom and the best means to conquer the Suggestions of Nature and to stir us up to the performance of Good Works whilst it is call'd to day So for the same ends and more especially to comfort the Souls of the Righteous A like Voice to that was heard in these latter times from Heaven to bid St. John in the words now handled not to cry but to write Cry not to the Inhabitants of the Earth at present but write Record it to all Ages of the World and what is thus to be written or recorded by virtue of this Charge from on high Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord from henceforth Yea saith the Spirit for they rest from their Labours and their Works follow them Blessed are the Dead that dye in the Lord. By which Persons so pronounced Blessed I know that * Qui Christi causâ mortis pericula adeunt Saith Grotius upon the Place and Translates 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Qui propter Dominum vel Domini causâ moriuntur As also Beza Junius and Others some Interpreters have understood here in a proper Sence only Those that have Sacrificed their Lives to seal the Truth of their Religion with their Blood or Those that have laid them down for Christ's Name-sake or their Faith in him and that by reason of some preceding part of this Chapter which speaks of a Vision wherein a Third Angel was seen and heard to say with a loud Voice Ver. 9 10. If any Man Worship the Beast and his Image the same shall drink of the Wine of the Wrath of God and afterwards Here is the Patience of the Saints Ver. 12. Intimating as they would have it that the sole intent of the Spirit in these words was to chear up the Hearts of the Primitive Professors of Christianity so as to make them to bid Defiance to those Persecutions which the Rage of the prejudiced World and the Madness of the Idolatrous Heathen were then bringing in upon them and in order to that to tell them that the Persons so Dying in the Lord were those that are now pronounced Blessed Yea Blessed for ever Blessed if GOD be true are such but that these are not the only Persons here meant is evident from the Character given of them in the words immediately before my Text Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the Faith of Jesus which no sooner was proclaim'd by the Angel but the Voice is directed to St. John Saying write Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord that is according to the Connexion those that dye in the LORD as having kept the Commandments of GOD and the Faith of JESUS so that as long as the sence of these words may properly be extended farther than Martyrs * Sicut in Christo esse dicuntur que ei verâ fide constanter adhaerent in Christo vivere qui vivunt ad voluntatem Christi ita in Domino mori dicuntur qui in vera fide invocatione Domini per fidem Christo insiti ut vera membra corporis ejus moriuntur Par. Cluv. Gat. to all true Disciples of our Blessed Saviour who by whatever Death they fall have sincerely endeavour'd to keep the Commandments of GOD upon their Failure been truly penitent and by a lively Faith in the Merits and Satisfaction of our Saviour's Sufferings commended themselves to His Mercy They may pertinently and profitably be discoursed upon at this Solemnity whilst we are paying our last Office to this our late Dearly-beloved and much-esteemed BROTHER Whose sincere and hearty Repentance Whose constant Piety and fervent Devotion and Whose chearful Resignation of Himself to GOD's Disposal of all which I was a daily Witness gives me confidence to say In every part He fulfilled the Character Be pleas'd then in them to consider these Particulars First A Declaration of the Blessedness or State of Happiness of All those that dye in the Lord. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord. Secondly A full Assurance or Confirmation of it Yea saith the Spirit And lastly A Twofold Reason containing in it the Nature of that their Blessedness or State of Happiness That they may or rather † So we find 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated in our Liturgy for they rest from their labours and their works follow them But that my Discourse upon these Heads may be the more Clear and Regular I shall invert their Order and begin with the last viz. The Twofold Reason containing in it the Nature of their Blessedness And when we have seen in some measure what their State of Happiness is I shall speak something very briefly to the two first viz. The Declaration and Confirmation of it both together that thereby we may be satisfy'd of the full Assurance we have that such shall be their Portion that dye in the Lord. And that what shall be deliver'd may have such an Impression upon us as to move us earnestly to endeavour to be found at the last of their number I shall add something as an Application suitable to the present Occasion and so conclude I begin then with the Nature of that Blessedness that is said to be the Portion of those that dye in the Lord contain'd in this that They rest from their labours and their works follow them Which evidently manifests this unto us that the Nature of their Happiness consists First Negatively in a Cessation or Freedom from all or their not being tormented with any worldly labours and troubles and Secondly Positively in the Enjoyment of inconceivably great Rewards consequent upon their good Works And first Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord inasmuch as they happily enjoy a Cessation or freedom from all their worldly labors and troubles They rest from their labours And indeed so many are the laborious miseries of this vain world that by reason of them the Thracians of old wept at the Birth of those Children who were ready to be brought under their Burden and celebrated the Funerals of those who by Death were freed from them with Musical Entertainments and we Christians according to the Rules of our Church do now-a-days with hearty Thanksgivings to our GOD for that it hath pleased Him to deliver them from the miseries of this sinful world which is not a less Rational than a Religious Custom For how sadly has Sin defaced our Souls and made our Understandings become so short-sighted that we cannot penetrate into the true Nature of many things nay nor scarce get a thorow Apprehension of some few necessary ones without much study Eccles 12.12 which as the Wiseman speaks is a weariness of the Flesh The corruptible Body presseth down the Soul Wisd 9.15 16. and with labour do we find out the things that are before us How wretchedly by the same Original sin are our Wills corrupted that when we seem to our selves most