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	union_n	7,019	5	9.6724	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56582	The path of life and the way that leadeth down to the chambers of death, or, The steps to hell and the steps to heaven in which all men may see their ways, how far they have gone downwards to destruction, that they may make hast to recover themselves, least by taking the next step downwards to their everlasting misery they be not necessitated to take the 7, 8, and 9, and then there be no remedy ... : set forth in copper prints that by the outward and visible we may the easier see that which is inward and invisible.	Jenner, Thomas, fl. 1631-1656.	1656 (1656)	Wing P715; ESTC R217054	26,570	62

his house from all thieves and intruders he makes laws and wrights them in their hearts so that as the wife is the glasse of her husbands purposes will and affections answering him as the face doth the face in water so doth the Church answer Christs ruling her not withstanding her disquieting with old tirany of corruption in the world whatsoever influence power or authority any had either civill matrimoniall or of family can bear over their body or the soul over the naturall body that may be said of this Lord who is Father of all the families of his Church Husband of his Spouse Lord of his subjects the soul of his body to act direct defend provide for and be all in all to her till he bring her to glory as a principle union causeth communion so doth he communicate himself all his wisdome humblenesse holinesse experience to her imparts himself to her as her needs are in her streigts he is her redemption in her fears peace by justification in her complaint of corruption her sanctification to mortifie her renew her and so of the rest this is to make her an habitation to himself by the spirit not now and then to come stranger like or upon pleasure as to a banquet house for a day but to walk in the midst of her to chase away all distempers and to allow her to walk before him in and out as his own receiving honour from her as the brightnesse of his image and affording to her protection for his own glory It is true all hang bies and time-servers who have it at their tongues end they are Gods and they shall be saved how few soever they are but they cannot prove it by any ingrafting of union no plucking off from the old stock appears in them no planting into a new no life of grace no Christ to be theirs no bringing to God by his flesh and the union of it to God no promise to fasten upon by which there may come one spirit of God to be between them and God and to unite both as the spirit knit the soul and body in one so faith to handfast them to marry them to cut off their old seperation to forgive and reconcile them and to restore them by the union of favour acceptance and life to the union of Gods Image his qualities and holiness away you counterfeits this rule argues that you are none of the Lords because old union continues can a twig live in two stocks at once if it cleave to the one must it not renounce the other therefore tremble ye are still cut off as branches that withereth and are as yet none of Gods but in the gall of bitternesse Regeneration The infant that is born doth not mor● beray ye na●urall li●e by weaping breathing feading sleaping then the li●e of a beleuing sole once brought forth apea●s in ye operation and wor●kes of ye new creature fo● that by prou●●ing one the as drey bones breath enters into them and they liue 37 Ezekell 4 III. REGENERATION THe begetting of the soul to God which is none of his before the other be an instamping of the Image of God really in the soul Most men quite omit to oversee this Regeneration of faith and begetting the soul to God thinking there is no Regeneration save only renewing of the will and changing of the corrupt nature of old Adam from bad to good so hereby they grow to this absurd error namely to imagin that whencesoever any duty of mortification or holinesse is urged by and by and without any more adoe they are the parties spoken to and s● of themselves can mortifie their own lusts cease to swear lye or blaspheam Most eminent is that of Tit. 3. 5 6. According to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which h● shed on us abundantly through Christ our Saviour that being justified by his grace we might be made heirs of life who seeth not an evident Regeneration of the soul unto God to be wrought before renewing of Gods Image A like place is that of I●mes 1. 18. Of h●s own will he beg it us that w● might be a k●nde of his first fruits of the creation What is this first fruits the early work of faith creating the soul again to God and giving it the birth right of the first born beloved and accepted of God by the word and faith which is the instrume●t of the spirit by which Paul had begotten them to God The word presents to the soul her losse of God not in a few beams or rayes of his but his whole divine nature life and being life we know is the excellency of being things thar are without life are in a sort esteemed not to be and those creatures that have a kinde of life without motion and sence although they have a growing life yet are but half subsisting as trees and plants a Gnat in respect of her life is a more excellent creature then a Cedar the porest cripple is of more excellent nature then the goodliest Elephant a reasonable being and life exceeds a sensable life as much as a sensable exceeds a naturall or vegetable how much more then doth a divine and spirituall being exceed a reasonable if a mere supernaturall life of common in lightning and knowledg of Gods revealed will which is but a quality doth so much exceed reason as the spirit of an Angel exceeds that spiri● of a godly man how much more then doth a spirituall life and being of a beleiver exceed a supernaturall life of knowledge alone all which I speak to shew that Adam lost when he lost the spirituall being of his Creation the Image life and nature of him that created him after his own pattern This losse of our being and true life of God the Lord by his Law presents life to that son●e in which he purposes to quicken up his second life of grace by the Lord Jesus that quickning Spirit 1 Cor. 15. By this loss man is stript and deprived of the glory of God that is that excellent beauty and honour which that life of God did reflect upon him so that Iacob said of Re●ben Thy dignity is gone I say not that sin hath bereft man of his being but that divinenesse of being sustained hi● reasonable nature in a most firm manner of subsisting so that there is a desolation of this Image and nothing left save the bare ruines of a frame without beauty or amiablenes He is become a meer emptinesse a Chaos and dunghill of confusion the very relicks of himself even as the sad and dismall earth being bereft of the Sun and influences of Heaven differs from the sweet season of May or the summer wherein she is clad with all her beauty It is a sad sight to see a Carkas●e voyd of life and breath of man but to see such a Carkasse as wants life to creep and breath and stink in the

hath comfort for thee and thy mourners yea for them afar off as well as nere if thou seek not thy own ends abhorring to think themselves well because the Law hath them under bondage till the Gospel have comforted them II. VNION Vnion The sole can no more reciue ought from God tell it be maried vnto Christ and be on with him by faith than bodey soule can imparte or reciue to or fro tell on hence issueth all ve●tew vigor and power into vs that is meate for our support either earthley or Sprituall tell our Vniō be pefected in glorey 4. Ru●h 11.12 Union is the first priviledge of the condition of a man called issuing from hence being indeed the complement of faith for fai●h determines calling and begins union whereby the beleiving soul is so brought home and knit to God in Christ that it loses her former corrupt estate of cutting off from God and puts on a new of being one with the Lord and he with it that so that soul may be fraight with true titles and intrest to all good things which either the Lord can convey or the soul receive and that in a farre better kinde and measure then ever Adam was Union with God is necessary to all that would partake of his grace for as it was in the Creation till the Lord had breathd the spirit of life and himselfe in him Adam could have no communion with God so it is in the second creation no benefit no fruit thereof can come to the soule till this second creation and union be but this as by a channel the rest follow reconciliation with amity adoption with worship and liberty c. hence it is that our Saviour presseth this He that abides not in me is as a branch cut from the vine which withers contrarily he that abides in me draweth life from me and nourishment he liveth in me as the living arme receiveth vertue of motion and strength to be useful to the body from the head The union of Grace is not like that of creation neither in the measure nor in the instrument of it not in the measure for in the creation there was a total and imediat union in that kinde and it was a perfect one having Gods image in it without let or impeachment but this union of Grace is an imperfect union for measure in this life because the reliques of corruption and the old Adam as drosse mix themselves with the soul suffers not God and it to knit fully but as it is with the science put into the clift of a stock if there be any drosse in the clift between the stock and the science it cannot be close and grow perfectly so here the Lord and the soul cannot be so nere in this life because there is fo much scurf within us that God and we cannot close God being contrary or disagreeing with Baal and this appears further in this that the estate that answers Paradice is not of Grace but that to come in glory when corruption and sin and death shall be swallowed up in corruption full righteousnesse and life not that there is not even here a true and reall union but not a full and intire one The instruments of unions are unlike for that of creation needed no other tie or bond save the immediate presence of God in his image which had then no sin nor let to divide it but the union that is now is incumbred with lets and enimies must needs be maintained by a band of greater perfection then any is in us the nearer infused grace of light and holinesse joyned Adam and God and that free will in his nature upheld that Image of God in her exercise and action but it is otherwise now in this decay of nature there must be wrought in the soule another instrument to knit us to God and hold his grace in continuall exercise Fai●h must needs be the knitter of this union because it resists that perfectly which cuts us off from God I mean guilt and curse I say it selfe is imperfect yet it resists perfectly because it is given by God to this purpose to receive a perfect discharge in Christ from all that sin which cuts us off and from that excommunication and seperation from God which came there by faith then is that which eff●cts this union in this life absolutely that holinesse which is infused here into us is imperfect and therefore cannot fully knit us to a perfect God faith onely can hold Christ to the soul who is this life of union and so keep us close and knit to God even when our image of God in holiness is weak by this means so soon as faith hath abolished that which formerly cut off union it sets the soul in state of union as before and so breeds in it the true life of grace through pardon and forgivenesse and coming to God Faith rests not in this her uniting quality true it is she holds this her work through the whole life of believers to cover the defects of Gods image and to help true and full union on foot supplying all wants but she still strives to settle the b●ginning of holinesse also in the soul and an union thereby also it applies it weakly and in part yet it truely applies it and even here infuseth by the Spirit a most true being of Gods image and makes the soul partaker of the divine nature thereby even that partisipation which in glory shall be one and the same for kinde though fuller for measure The Spirit effects this union by the word of Promise and the Seal according as Christ was given by God to bring all unto him and to present them unto him spotlesse and unblameable so doth the word convey this Promise of Christ to the soul as by Christ it comes to passe that those who are cut off were afar off aliens from the community of Israel and the life of God were made near and one Ephes. 4. 16. The effect of this union inhabiting and indwelling of the spirit in that soul which is become one with himselfe that so it may injoy communio● and f●llowship with him in that Intercourse of all graces protection upholding and rule as seem best to himselfe so that now God in Christ by the spirit is that to the so●l which before her lusts were all in all Lord and K●ng light and defence Heaven and happinesse as we see that the owner dwells in his house the King in his Kingdome and the soul in the body both for the welfare of the posessed and the honour of the posessor the same house of the soul the same seat which was before is still but new rule and law much adoe there is between Christ and old usurping inmates lust world selfelove pride and revenge yet the soule gives that presidency to her Lord and resignes up keys posessions to him she is under his authority she swayes here by this kingdome set up in her defends

union which Adam lost and yet never had in this perfection for the minde to be filled with the fulnesse height and depth of Gods understanding as the vessell cast into the Sea is filled with the water of it and can hold no more and beholding in this mirrour of his the naked truth of all mysteries and secret ways and administrations of God now dark and hidden election provid●nce afflictions of the Church patience over the enemies thereof and the like there shall be a perfect age of knowledge here we see through a grate weakly but there perfectly so the soul shall enjoy the image of Gods holinesse and be transformed into it perfect love obedience righteousn●sse and in both these shall have perfect joy and cont●n●ment as being satisfied with this image Let us lay up Treasures therefore before hand for our selves and look to it that the Gospel have been the means to reveal this immortallity and light unto us that it hath made us partakers by hope of that inheritance of the Saints in light and a part with all that are sanctified by faith in Christ be we sure that this hope hath caused all that fond and vaine bables of this world to stink as vile to us in comparison hereof as serving for nothing but to be consumed to dros●e when this glory shall be rev●aled then their use shall be b●se now we must use th●m bu● let us use them and not enjoy them use them as Citizens of Heaven where they shall bare no mastery as Ioane Prest said ere she were burnt Oh that the Lord would give us one spark of this grace the want of which makes us more like such as are for the dunghil than Heaven should the heir of a Crown play at putpin or span-counter with every base boy how should then the hope and honour of a Prince shine in him What manner of persons should we be in spirituall respects also if we look for such promises how should we purge our selves in body and spirit from all uncleanness● finishing our sanctification in Gods fear if no Tode or venomous thing will live upon the Irish shore shall we think any unclean thing can live there Oh what manner of persons ought we to be the whilst purging our selves as he is pure FINIS THE Ages of Sin or Sinnes Birth groweth With the Stepps and Degrees of Sin from thought to finall Impenitencie Suggestion Originall Concupis●ence Doth make Our Nature like a foule great-Bellyed Snake For wer not Sathan apt to tempt to Sin Yett Lustfull-Thoughts would breed brood Within But happie Hee that takes These Little-Ones To Dash their Braines Soone 'gainst repentant-St●nes Rumination When lust hath thus Conceiu'd It brings forth Sin And Ruminating-thoughts Its Shape begin Like as the Beares oft-licking of her whelps That foule deformed Creatures Shape much helps The danger 's great our Sinfull thoughts to Cherish ●to● thire growth or thy poore Soule will perish DELECTATION If Sinfull Thoughts once nestle in mans heart● The Sluce is ope Delight then playes its part Then like the old-Ape hugging in his armes● His Apish-young-One Sin the Soule be charmes And when our Apish impious-Thoughts delight us Oh then● alas most mortally They bite us CONSENT For where Sin workes Content Consent will follow And This the Soule● into Sins Gulfe doth swollow For as two rav●ning Wolves for t is theire kinde To suck Lambs-blood doe hunt with Equall-minde Even so the Soule Sin Consent in One Till Soule Body be quite overthrowne Act Sin and the Soul●●●us ●●●●ng stricken Hands The Sinner now for Action ready stands And Tyger-like swollowes-up at One-bitt What euer impious Prey his H●●●● doth fitt Committing Sin with eager 〈◊〉 Selling his Soule to worke 〈…〉 Iteration From eager-Acting Sin comes Iteration Or frequent Custome of Sins perpetration Which like great Flesh-Flies liting on rai●-Flesh Though oft beat-off if not kild come afresh Hence Be'lzebub is term'd Prince of fflesh-fflies 'Cause Sin still Acts vntill by Grace It Dies GLORIATION● Custome in Sin takes Sense of Sin away This makes All-Sin seeme but a Sport a play Yea like a rampant-Lyon proud and Stout ●nsulting o're his Prey staulking about The Saucy-Sinner boasts braggs of Sinne● As One oh woe that doth a Citty winne Obduration When Sinne brings Sinners to this fearefull pass What followes but a hard Heart Brow of brass● A Heart I say more hard then Tortess-back Which nether Sworde nor Axe can hew or hack Iudgements nor Mercies Treats nor threats can cause To leave-off Sin To Love or feare Gods Lawe● FINALL IMPENITENCY And now alas what is Sins last Extent A hard-Heart makes a Heart Impenitent For can a Leopard change his Spotted Skin No● Nor a Heart accustom'd thus ● his Sin Then Conscience head long casts Impenitence With horrid ffrights of Hellish Recompence