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	soul_n	time_n	7,731	5	3.9926	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90552	A sermon lately preached at court, before His Majesty, in ordinary attendance: by VVilliam Peterson, D.D. and Deane of Exeter. Chaplaine to His Majesty.	Peterson, William, d. 1661.	1642 (1642)	Wing P1730; Thomason E151_3; ESTC R14888	15,566	32

just O my soule thou art happy The heathen man could tell us that afflictions they are tributa vivendi the tributes of the living and therefore we ought to beare them man-like and resolvedly and not as those whining souldiers doe qui gementes sequuntur Imperatorem but rather imbrace them as those Virgins in Eusebius did their martyrdomes running thereunto tanquam ad nuptias as if they were to meet their Bridegroome For the godly are purged indeede but it is to be made the better Is gold the worse because it is refined or wheat because it is fanned the light would not be so acceptable were it not for that usuall intercourse of darknesse Too much honey doth turne to gall and too much joy even spirituall may make us wantons Thou mayest a while be tossed up and down in this troublesome world like Noahs Ark amongst the waters but yet the Lord will at length remember Noah and then all these waters shall be abated The Romans we know did never fight and triumph both in one place their battails were commonly fought in Africk or in Asia but their place of triumph it was in Rome so we must not looke to contend and receive a Crowne of victory both at once our time of suffering is here in this world our crowne of reward that comes hereafter for when our soules immortall shall be once separated from our mortall bodies and disposed of God then comes beauty for ashes oile of joy for mourning garments of gladnesse for this spirit of heavinesse so that the contemplation of this future happinesse must interpose it selfe betwixt us and our afflictions and certainly the troubles and afflictions of this present life are evermore mingled and allayed with many delights and comforts Here we are sorrowing as Saint Paul speakes but yet alwayes rejoycing 2 Cor. 6. For there is a Spirit of comfort within us alwayes helping our infirmities If we be buffeted or beaten for the Gospel of Christ then this Spirit tells us that it is an honour to suffer for the name of Jesus If poverty oppresse us then the Spirit teacheth us to be content with what we have What if Benjamin have a double portion some others worldly riches more then I perhaps it is all the portion these men can hope for to inherit What if I be made here on earth one of the lesse honourable members of Christs body the foot and not the hand or the eye it is sufficient for me that I am a fellow heire with the noblest members of the body and perhaps God will recompence this present want of mine hereafter with more abundant honour If the death of some deare friend the losse of thine office or estate or any such thing be thine affliction why the Spirit is able to teach and instruct thee that all things wee enjoy in this present life they are but lent us and therefore we must account of them all but as things borrowed from some friend or neighbour who may call for them back againe at their pleasure Neither must it trouble us what instruments are used for the fetching home of these earthly commodities whether fire or water theeves or sicknesse no more then if thy neighbour who hath lent thee a saw or a hatchet or any other houshold thing should appoint some foolish or dishonest servant to bring it home again and to re-mand it Let us learne then in all dutifull obedience to submit our selves to Gods good will and pleasure For though our troubles be great and many yet I have an assured confidence that God will never suffer his strength and spirit utterly to forsake us or give us altogether over to the rage and madnesse of those that hate us For this is Gods constant method of proceeding he doth either protect and keep the righteous out of all calamities or else if they fall upon him he conducteth him safe through them and permitteth them not to be miseries He either gives him honours and promotions and wealth or else more benefit by wanting of them then if he had them all at his owne will and pleasure he either filleth his house with plenty of all good things or else makes him a sallet of greene herbs more sweet then all the sacrifices of the ungodly Let us not then with the ungratefull Israelites murmur against God for any affliction sent unto us for God knows whereof thou art made he sees how thy nature stands inclined If thou shouldst alwayes heare the sweet tune of pleasure and delight as it were the melodie of Nebuchadnezzars instruments perhaps thou wouldst presently fall downe and worship this Babylonish Idol The Prophet David was even at the point of cleane forgetting himselfe and so straying from his right minde but that thy rod saith he hath been my supporter And the holy Apostle Saint Paul if he had not had the corrasive of sharp and bitter strokes his heart would have gone neer to have swolne with that great abundance of heavenly revelations for we are prone by nature to forget our selves and therefore we had need of some buffetings of Satan to make us reflect upon our owne weaknesse The children of Israel whilst they lived in prosperity at home would neither hearken nor obey but being in banishment and under captivity then whilst they sate by the waters of Babylon they could weep to remember thee O Sion For there is not any affliction how short soever but doth more truly informe a mans understanding in a day then all the grave speeches and subtilest disputations of the Philosophers in a yeare Then we begin to remember that there is a God and that we our selves are but men Then we admire no man and despise no man seeing by the condition of our owne frailty that no man is so secured of his riches his honours his life or his possessions but that he may be deprived of these or any of these the very next day or houre to come for it is not the heighth or eminencie of place or meanes that can exempt us from casualties or inconveniences Tall men we know are as subject unto fevers as men of lower stature and great Empires and Kingdomes we see by wofull experience are as easily disturbed as the State of pety Princes For those who are advanced to the highest pitch of honour I cannot better compare then to the first letter of a Patent or limb'd booke which we know hath great and large flourishes yet still it is but a letter So those kind of men they may have large flourishes high and swelling Titles great Honours and preferments yet still they are but men mortall men incident to every disgrace griefe and infirmity as well as others and thus we see afflictions are the onely soveraign meanes to bring us to a right sense and knowledge of our selves and therefore whatsoever our condition or estate be let us learne therewith to be content for this world is a kind of stage-play where there must be Actors

A SERMON Lately Preached AT COVRT Before His MAJESTY In Ordinary Attendance BY VVILLIAM PETERSON D. D. And DEANE of EXETER Chaplaine to His Majesty LONDON Printed for Nath Butter 1642. A SERMON Preached before His MAJESTIE JAMES Chap. 5. ver 13. Is any amongst you afflicted let him pray Is any merry let him sing Psalmes HEre have we a double Question propounded with a double Answer a Direction both for prosperity and adversity for the mourning weede and the wedding Garment Pray and Sing First Is any one afflicted let him pray here is a restorative against sadnesse Secondly Is any merry because of Peace within his walls or plenteousnesse within his Palaces or because his corne and his oyle is increased let him sing here is a preservative to continue these Blessings The first Proposition it is of affliction a theame most suitable with these sad and discontented times and therefore I meane to make it the onely subject of my ensuing discourse We finde the Proposition to be indefinite no person appointed no time defined no place enjoyned but it concernes all men at all times and in all places whosoever howsoever whensoever and wheresoever afflicted he must pray First whosoever the poore as well as the rich and the rich as well as the poore for whilst we are in this world we are all subject to sundrie imperfections griefes of body defects of minde our bodies being the Anvils of paine and diseases and our mindes the hives of unnumbred cares yea what dangers at any time are imminent and what evils at this present hang over our heads God himselfe doth know and not we We see by daily experience that those calamities may be neerest at hand readiest to breake in suddainly upon us which we in regard of time and circumstance may imagine to be farthest off for our whole life it is nothing else but a mixture of good and evill and joy and sorrow in this life are so woven one within the other that saith Plato to looke for one without the other were to aime at things impossible for as impossible is it in this life to have an estate without all trouble as to have a faire day without some clouds So that this present life of ours it is nothing else but the beginning and end of a Tragedie a pursuit of many miseries inchained one within another One cries out My belly my belly with the Prophet another My sonne my sonne with David another My father my father with Elisha Every childe of God hath some complaint or other to make his cheekes wet and his heart heavie Esay had serram Christ himselfe had crucem John Baptist securim and Stephen lapidem haec est conditio veritatis The Sodomites make Lot their Tabret and the wicked make songs on David Christ he doth not broach his best wine first for his Disciples but tells them plainly that they must first drinke of those bitter waters of Marah before they can drinke of that ever-living well of which whosoever drinkes shall never thirst more For as gold that most valued and restorative metall passeth seven times the flame before his purification be accomplished so it is the will of that unconfined Spirit that all those that he highly prizeth should seventy seven times enter the hot furnace of affliction that so they may be purified and made cleane from the filth of sinne And thus we see how our pilgrimage here on earth is like Israels journey through the wildernesse sometimes fiery serpents sometimes want of water sometime enemies doe oppresse us It is like the passage through the red Sea we have the waters on the right hand and the waters on the left hand and therefore we had neede to stand upon our guard to watch and pray lest we fall into temptation Let us not then neglect this happie means of our deliverance both from present and approaching evills but let us with all fervencie and humility poure out our Prayers and Supplications unto God to desire him to divert those heavie judgements which at this present seeme to threaten our danger in great proportion and that he would be pleased to put a period to all those untimely differences and discordances now amongst us that so this little Island of ours which stands divided from all the world may by this happie conjunction live in peace and unity within it selfe And thus for the generality of the person All of us are subject to divers inconveniencies and therefore all must pray Now follows the second circumstance Howsoever afflicted we must pray howsoever either for manner or for measure First for manner howsoever afflicted either in soule or body either with sicknesse or poverty either for want of any good thing or the repulse of any bad thing here is thy remedy pray either for affliction happened or that will happen Is there any good that thou desirest Call to God Is there any evill thou detestest Pray against it whether it be malum poenae or malum culpae Doth any evill of sinne trouble thee Call to God Doth any evill of punishment vexe thee either corporall or spirituall He can helpe thee either in turning it away before it come or removing it already come or else in lessening or extenuating it Cum duplicantur lateres tum venit Moses when the Israelites burdens were greatest then came Moses to help them and when the righteous mans case is most dangerous then stands God most readie to support him And thus for the manner of our afflictions Howsoever afflicted we must pray Secondly for the measure of our affliction Howsoever likewise afflicted we must pray We must not complaine that our affliction is greater then wee can sustaine for every one shall have a burden according as he can beare Venison for sick Isaac Gen. 27. Milke for young babes 1 Cor. 3. Herbs for the weake Rom. 14. And strong meate for men of age the bruised reede God will not breake and the smoaking flax he will not quench The righteous must expect a greater tryall then another because God hath given him a greater measure of faith then other For as a workeman when he espies a strong piece of timber he makes use of it and puts it to be the underpropper of the house or palace he hath to build but as for other pieces that are crackt and able to support no weight he paints them over and placeth them onely for ornament and shew So the Founder of this faire fabrique when he findes a soule able to undergoe and undertake things of weight he layes as heavie a burden upon it as it is able to stand under but as for softer spirits he lets them lye idle as not being able to support any thing for him nor yet of strength sufficient to doe him any acceptable service Admit I could say that I knew nothing at all in my conscience whereby I should deserve any affliction calumnie or disgrace to fall upon me shall I therefore presently murmur and