Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	life_n	soul_n	34,804	5	5.7811	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92849	Christos kai kerdos. = Christ the life, and death the gain, of every true beleever: or, The life of a saint resolved into Christ, and His death into gain. Held forth clearly in a sermon preached at the late sad and solemn funeral of the right worshipful Rowland Wilson, Esq; a Member of the Parliament of England, and of the honorable Councel of State; and one of the aldermen and sheriffs of the city of London. By Obadiah Sedgvvick, B.D. and minister of the Gospel at Covent-Garden. Together with an epistle dedicatory: wherein is an exact account given upon some years more then ordinary experience of the superlative worth of this eminent servant of Christ, and of the Common-wealth. By George Cokayn, an unworthy teacher of the Gospel at Pancras Soper lane, London.	Sedgwick, Obadiah, 1600?-1658.; Cokayn, George, 1619-1691.	1650 (1650)	Wing S2368; Thomason E599_6; ESTC R206326	26,159	45

Do they Not Infinitely exceed them The people of Israel quit Egypt the House of Bondage and possess Canaan the Land of Promise Would you call this a Loss which exceeds All that was enjoyed in Egypt O Christian The least Good in Heaven if there be Any thing there which can be called The l●ast Good Far surmounts All the Good from which Death can part you here on Earth The Candle is out I But Now thou Hast the Sun I leave my Earthly Father I but I Now Go to my Heavenly Father I part with my Husband O but I Go to my Christ The Streams are cut off O but Now I am at the Fountain I shall Never meet with Creature-comforts more O but I shall Now enjoy Him who makes All Comforts and who is All Comforts God My God Christ My Christ for ever 2. The Christians Estate Receives a larger Addition by Death and therefore for him to dye is Gain There are three things added unto your Estate by Death which you longed to have but Never might Nor could enjoy in this Life 1. An Absolute Remedy 2. A Perfect Fruition 3. An Invariable Eternity First The Christian hath this Gain by Death That it proves an Absolute Remedy Death doth that for Him in One Moment which All the Ordinances of Christ could Never do which All the Graces of the Spirit could Never do which All the Joys of the Holy Ghost could Never do It doth instantly cure his Soul and Body It doth perfectly cure them and deliver them From All the Afflictions of Life from All the Troubles of Life from All Infirmities and Diseases in the Body from All Sinful Corruptions in the Soul from All the Temptations and Assaults of Satan All these are at their end when Life is at an end And truly to lose All these and All these for ever is deservedly to be Reckoned amongst Our Gains and Advantages I have Read of Alexander the Great that he did once ask a Philosopher How long a Man should de●ire to live who answered Until he thinks it better to dye then to live Is it Not Better to dye and to be rid of All Sin to dye and be rid of All Temptations to dye and be rid of All Miseries then to live and carry about us a Body of Sin which so often darkens our Light grieves our God and troubles our Consciences Secondly The Christian hath this Gain by Death Not onely that he hath the Better of the contrary Estates but also that by Death he p●sseth from an Imperfect Good Estate unto a Perfect Good Estate He Now comes to be of Full Age and to be a Full Possessor One says That This Bernard Life This Present Life is Not Vita sed Via ad Vitam It is Not Life but a Motion a Journey towards Life He speaks it of the Natural Life but we may raise it even to the Spiritual Life of a Christian His Spiritual Life comparatively considered is rather Via then Vita a step towards Life then Life Compare All which you are possessed of as Beleeving Christians in this Life with All that of which you shall be possessed in that other Life you may speak of them what Paul spake of the Two Ministrations Even that which was made Glorious had No Glory in this respect by reason of the Glory that excelleth 2 Cor. 3. 10. And therefore the same Apostle comparing the Present Condition of Grace with that Future Condition of Glory saith Now we see through a Glass darkly But Then Face to Face Now I Know in part But Then I shall Know even as also I Am Known 1 Cor. 13. 12. Look how Great the Disproportion is between a dark and a clear Seeing and between our Knowing of God and Gods Knowing of Us the one being very Imperfect and the other being very Absolute So Great is the Disproportion of the present Condition of Spiritual Life on Earth to that Glorified Life in Heaven 'T is true you have the same God on Earth which you shall have in Heaven and you have the same Christ on Earth which you shall have in Heaven But yet your Conjunction with Him and your Fruition of Him in Heaven is wonderfully more perfect and exquisite then it is or can be here on Earth His Manifestations of Himself to your Souls and your Apprehensions of those Manifestations are most compleatly Enlarged You shall then Know and Love and Enjoy your God even as much as Glorified Souls can Know and can Love and can Enjoy a God And God himself discovers as much of Himself unto your Souls as will make them perfectly Blessed and Fully Happy in the clear Vision and Fruition of Himself Now this Addition perfect Addition to Our Estate occasioned by Death doth plainly prove That to dye is Gain You shall Never Reign till you dye You shall Never Know as you are Known you shall Never Apprehend as you are Apprehended you shall Never be at Home you shall Never come to a Perfect Holiness to a Perfect Sight to a Perfect Full Fruition Never be Perfectly Filled up Until you Dye Thirdly The Christian hath yet one more Exaltation of His Estate by Death and that is an Invariable Eternity Whatsoever the Christian ●inds in Himself in this Life for the Habituals of Grace It is Imperfect and whatsoever he findes for the Comfortables of Grace It is very Various Sometimes it is More and sometimes it is Less Sometimes it is High and sometimes it is Low and Sometimes it is None at all Sometimes Heaven is opened and Sometimes the Vision is drawn up and Heaven is shut One while he sees the Face of God and Rejoyceth Another while God Hides his Face and then he is Troubled But by Death he comes to a Fixed and Invariable Eternity He shall Ever be with the Lord And as the Angels so shall He always behold the Face of his Father O Christians It is always Day in Heaven There the Sun still shines in Strength and Beauty and Never Sets and Never Declines Thy Joy shall be an Everlasting Joy Never Interrupted Never Eclipsed Never Diminished Full at once and Full for ever Eternal Happiness Happy Eternity Perfect Fruition and Eternal Fruition Perfect Pleasure and Eternal Pleasure As long as God is God so long will your Compleat Happiness be and abide in your God for ever and ever and ever And Now having cast up All Accounts Tell me whether you may not say with Paul To me to Dye is Gain I have read a Fancy of one Trophonius that when he had Built and Dedicated that goodly Temple at Delphos asked of Apollo for his recompence That Thing which was Best for Man The Oracle willed him to Go home and within Three days he should have it and within that Time he dyed O Christian The Best thing on Earth is to live so as to Get into Christ But the Best thing of All is to dye and to be with Christ I have done with both

panting and looking after Christ if at length he findes him I found him whom my Soul loveth Cant. 3. this makes a Full Amends for All his Tears and Prayings and Waitings So doth this of the Magnifying of Christ If Christ be set up in his Throne the Christian then Repents not O No This is Reward enough for All that ever he hath done or suffered for Christ And thus you have the First Part demonstrated unto you That Real Christians do propound and set up Jesus Christ as the Scope and End of their Life Their Life is bound up in His Life Nothing lives unless Christ lives And this is the very sum of their All to be Servants with their All to Christ I now proceed unto the Second Part Namely 2. Why Real Christians do live and should live unto Christ There are Five Reasons for that and I beseech you to weigh them well 1. You are Christs Not onely by Gift Thou gavest them me Joh. 17. 6. Nor onely by Relation I will marry thee to my Self Hosea 2. 19. But also by Purchase Therefore you should live unto your Christ If you were Christs onely by way of Donation you should live unto Him What is Given to Him that is to be used for Him If you were Christs onely by way of Relation you should live unto Him The Inferior part of the Relation is for the use and service of the Superior part of the Relation 1 Cor. 11. 9. But besides these you are Christs by way of Redemption and Purchase You Are Not your own For you Are Bought with a Price therefore Glorifie God in your Body and in your Spirit which are Gods 1 Cor. 6. 19 20. Mark the Apostle in this place He saith to Christians You Are Not Your Own Why whose are They then They are Christs And How come they to be Christs He tells them how Ye Are Bought with a Price And what of that Therefore Glorifie God c. If the Land be my Purchase should Not the Fruit of that Land be my Benefit Christians they are Christs Purchase He purchased them by his own Blood Act. 20. 28. And therefore All the Rent of their Lives must be payd in unto his Glory Ah Christians It cost Jesus Christ very dear to Redeem your Life from Death The Redemption of your Souls was the costliest Purchase that ever was made Ye were Redeemed with the precious Blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1. 19. This was the Price It did cost Christ His Life to Save your Life and should he Not have That Life which he purchased by His Life yea and by His Death Quicquid es debes Creanti Quicquid potes debes Redimenti said Bernard Whatsoever thou Art Thou owest to Him who made thee and whatsoever thou Hast Thou owest to Him who Redeemed thee 2. Jesus Christ is the Lord of Life The Prince of Life Act. 3. 15. The Lord of the Living and of the Dead Rom. 14. 9. He is the Lord of Life For Efficiency Our Life comes from Him who is our Life and For Authority The Keyes of Life are in his Hands If Any of you be the Lord or Master of a Servant as that Servant may expect Protection Sustenance and Reward from you so do you expect and challenge Obedience and Service from him His Work is yours His Trading is yours His Gaining is yours All the Stock which he employs is your Stock and it is employed for your Advantage The Lord is the End of the Servants Life And so must Jesus Christ who is the Lord of Life and the Lord of your Lives be the End of your Lives For He is Your Lord 2 Pet. 1. 2. And you are Christs Servants 1 Cor. 7. 22. Your whole stock of Life is from his Grace and therefore it is to be layd out for his Glory 3. All the Spiritual Principles of Life which are conferred upon you do encline and enable you to live unto Christ to set up Christ to act for him and to exalt him And they are given for this end that you should be the Servants of his Glory and in their proper sphere do move for this very end to shew forth the Praises of him who hath called you I will instance in a Few of them First Unto you is Given Precious Faith And what is the Natural Labor of Faith but to Set the Crown on the Head of Christ To Glorifie Jesus Christ Faith makes you to Forsake All for Christ and to Bestow All on Christ who Bestows His All on you Secondly Unto you is Given a Superlative Love of Christ Saw ye Him whom my Soul loveth said the Church Cantic 3. 3. Thou Knowest that I love thee said Peter Ioh. 21. 17. O Lord Jesus said Bernard I love thee more then All my Goods Plusquam mea plusquamme●s plusquam me and I love thee more then All my Friends yea I love thee more then All my Self Now you know that Love seeks not her own 1 Cor. 13. 5. All the powers and services of Love are His whom we entirely love His we Are and For Him we Are whom we do love Thirdly Unto you is Given Humble Self-denial And what are Humility and Self-denial but the Footstool of Jesus Christ But your selves in a dark Cloud that Christ above may shine in Glory You in Nothing and Christ in All You in Service and Christ in Praise None but Christ for your Confidence and None but Christ for your End Lastly Unto you is Given Burning Zeal And what is that Zeal but a Flame for his Cause and Glory Whether we be besides our selves it is to God 2 Cor. 5. 13. All the Activities and Enlargements of Zeal are put forth in Services for Jesus Christ 4. Of All People you who are Real Christians have the most forcible and cogent Obligations to resolve your Lives unto Jesus Christ For whatsoever may emphatically engage Any to Respects and Services that takes Abundant hold on you to express these unto Christ O Christians What is not Christ to you What hath not Christ done for you What hath not Christ suffered for you What will not Christ do for you and what is that weight of Glory which you shall have from your Christ after that you have done a little more weak Services for your Christ Christ is Life to you and Love to you and Mercy to you and Peace to you and Righteousness to you and Sanctification to you and Redemption to you and Help to you and Hope to you He is your Friend He is your Saviour He is your Glory He is your Christ to the utmost For All For ever and For ever All that ever he did and All that He is Now doing and All which ever he will do All this hath a special and peculiar Respectiveness and Serviceableness to your Good to your everlasting Good Why then Eye for Eye and Love for Love and Service for Service and Life for Life again Thou hast Redeemed us to God by

All the Interests of Christ O that you who are the Embassadors of Christ would live more to Christ Do you desire to Know Nothing but Jesus Christ and Him Crucified Reveal the Glorious Excellencies of Christ make Know the unspeakable Love of Christ direct men strive with men perswade men to Know Christ to come into Christ to serve Christ What have you more to do then to be doing for Christ O that All of us would live more to Christ That All our Oyl might be emptied into the Golden Candlestick That Parents and Children Masters and Servants All might be doing more for Christ Every Morning let us consider What may I do this day for Christ Every Evening let us Review What have I done this day for Christ And as he thought that day lost wherein he had done No Good thing So let us repute that part of Life as dead and lost wherein we have done Nothing to the Honor and Advantage of Christ O Christian Thou livest not until thou livest to Christ O Christian Thou canst not dye but thou must dye for ever if thou hast not lived unto Christ It was a Good Speech of one Vis in pace mori sis Servus Dei Wouldst thou dye in Peace then be the Servant of God So say I Wouldst thou dye and Go to Christ then live so as to be a Servant of Christ Every Man when he dyes Goes unto his Master whom he hath served and to whom he hath lived A Wi●ked Man when he dyes he goes to his Master whom he hath served He goes to the Devil and to the Place of Torment A Godly Man when he dyes he goes to His Master He goes to His Christ and enters into the Joy of his Master If you would dye with Pauls Confidence you must first live with Pauls Conscience I have fought A Good Fight I have finished my Course I have Kept the Faith Here is Pauls Conscience Henceforth there is layd up for me A Crown of Righteousness c. Here is Pauls Confidence 2 Tim. 4. 7 8. O Blessed Christ Be Thou my Master make me thy Servant Let me grieve that I have done so little for thee let me pray that I may do more for thee When Death comes my work is at an end I can then Never Speak more Nor do more for Thee who hast done so much for me O that I could live many days in one day and many lives in one life The time is short the Reward is infinite let my remaining life be No longer mine but thine At least let this be found in me That I would serve none but thy Self and that though others may exceed me in Acting for thy Glory yet None may exceed me in Sincerity of Endevor to be Altogether Thine And thus have I said Something of the Best Life and of the Best Death To live is Christ To dye is Gain I will borrow a little more of your Patience to Speak a few words to the Present Occasion concerning our Brother departed who whiles he lived could say To me to live is Christ and being Now dead hath found the other truth of the Text To me to dye is Gain His manner of Life from his youth most or many of you here present do Know And therefore I shall say the less of him of whom you Knew so well and so much There were three things three choyce Jewels which were very Remarkable in him besides All the rest The First was Humility the Beauty of Graces The Second was Integrity the Soul of Graces The Third was Faith the Crown of Graces 1. He was an Humble Christian under All those Eminent Places of Service unto which He was called For one who lived so short a space of Time He lived not above Thirty Six years in all He was Advanced to as many and as the Times Now are to as Great Places of Employment as Any of His Rank I think in the Land To be a Parliament-man To be of the Councel of State To be a Justice in the Country To be an Alderman and Sheriff of This Great City c. Under All which weight of Advancements He deported himself with a discreet and lowly spirit Not lifted up Not at all losing himself Nor Altered by Any of these Alterations These things were under Him Not above Him and truly he looked on them as Burthens and Cares and Greater Duties Not as Dignities and Poor Glories It is Not an easie matter to bear a low condition with a contented minde No● yet an High condition with a lowly Heart It shews a strength of Grace to be Patient in Troubles and to be Humble in Dignities 2. He was a Sincere Christian Active and Sincere His Integrity was Answerable unto his Humility In all His Places wasting his Life for the Publique Good Doing much Good but Scraping up Nothing to his Private Good The Publique did not serve Him but He did serve the Publique He was the Servant Not the Executor of the Land He might truly say as once Samuel did Behold here I am witness Against me Whose Ox have I Taken or whose Ass have I taken or whom have I defrauded whom have I oppressed or of whose hand have I received Any Bribe to blinde mine eyes therewith 1 Sam. 12. 3. 3. He was a Beleeving Christian prizing and exalting Christ Above All and Rejoycing in Christ as in His onely Best of All Nay often exposing his very life Jeoparding it in th●●igh places of the Field Not counting it too dear for Christ and His Cause But as one spake well Seldom is Excellency in Any Kinde long-liv'd When we see Men Abundantly layd out for Christ and Acting for Him It is an Ordinary Symptome That they have Not much time left to do for Christ When a Person is High in Grace He is Nigh to Glory the Nearer the Center the Swifter Motion And thus it befel him His days were Fulfilled even in the midst of his days Weakness and Sickness suddenly seize on him and at length translate him to be with His Christ which is best of All. And all these Death-summons and Death-strokes he did Bear with that Heavenly Patience and sweet composedness of Spirit that as the Jews ●eign of Moses's Soul That it was Suck'd out of his mouth with Kisses So His Soul did Kindly take leave of His Body that without a Metaphor or Hyperbole His Death was but a Sleep and Rest And Here by the way suffer me as a Friend to speak for him who cannot Now speak for himself In Taking off that Falshood Bold and Notorious Falshood Raised on him by That Generation of Lyars even whiles he was yet living and able to confute it himself As Luther did the lying Scandals of the Papists concerning his strange hideous Death and Burial Some had Raised on him at the beginning of his weakness That he was Fallen mad and they Assign the Particular Occasion of it Then both which Nothing could be more Falsly said The very Truth is That he was of a composed Minde to the very last Gasp and so composedly Himself that within a Few hours before his Death he perfected his own Will with his own Hand But This is an old malicious Trick of the Devil to oppose Good Men living and to reproach Good Men dying and dead Jesus Christ could Not Escape it in his Life Nor yet when layd in his Grave No more could the Apostles of Christ Nor the Primitive Christians Nor those Eminent Servants of Christ against Popery Hus Wicliff Luther Calvin Oecolampadius Beza Junius c. Nor yet many Glorious Instruments in our own days The Servant is Not Above his Master If Christ himself were Accounted Mad it must Not seem harsh Nor strange that Any of his Servants be Reputed so And besides this it is also a Comfort to Good Men when None speak evil of them but evil men Nor can these speak evil of them without a lye as Jerom hath it And truly it is a Sure Sign that there is something of Great Worth in that Man whose Name wicked men do strive so much to asperse and wound The Dogs bark most when the Traveller Gallops But let these poor spirited men have leave to please themselves who have no other weapon but a lye and a Reproach left to Revenge themselves This is the Truth Our departed Brother lived in Faith and dyed in Peace If in Any thing he might truly be said Not to be Himself it was onely in this That He was Not his Own but Christs And so I have done with him and with you save that I have a Word to them who stood in Near Relation unto him I confess your loss is Great but let this comfort you that so His Gain is also exceeding Great You have more cause to Rejoyce that you had such a Husband and such a Son then you have to Grieve that God hath Taken him from you He is but Gone before you must shortly Follow In the mean time make up All your Comforts in God Though these Outward Comforts dye yet the God of All Comforts lives for ever The Sun still shines though the Glass-windows be broken And let us All here at this time Go away the Better We must Every one ere long dye and come to Judgment and Give an Account of our Life Live so that you may live for ever and dye so that you may dye but once You Are Servants and I trust Christs Servants Be doing the Work of Christ and be Faithful in That Work of Christ Blessed is that Servant whom His Master when He cometh shall Finde So Doing and So Liveing FINIS