Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	corruption_n	flesh_n	reap_v	5,289	5	10.9811	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31451	The certainty of salvation to them who dye in the Lord a sermon preached at the funeral of the Right Honourable, George Lord Delamer, at Boden, in the county-palatine of Chester, September the 9th, 1684 / by Zachary Cawdrey ...	Cawdrey, Zachary, 1616-1684.	1684 (1684)	Wing C1645; ESTC R36290	20,346	38

in well doing seek for honour and glory and immortality eternal life So again in that remarkable place Gal. 6. v. 7 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the middle Voice God doth not mock or delude the Expectancies of his Servants whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting And our Saviour told the Saint-Thief he should that day be with him in Paradise Luk. 23.43 But the Spirit not only witnesses this in the Records of Scripture but in the hearts and by the mouths of his dying Servants Attend at the Stakes of the Martyrs ready to ascend in their fiery Chariots and crying out Come Lord Jesus come quickly I desire to be dissolved and be with the Lord. Or hearken at the Death-beds of other Saints who with old Simeon cry with their last breath Luk. 2.29 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart according to thy word in peace Or as it is 2 Tim. 4.7 8. I have fought the fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day the day of his departure which Ver. 6. he saith was at hand All these give abundant testimony to this truth In short All the triumphal expressions of dying Saints whether Martyrs or others declaring their assured hope of Bliss amongst the Spirits of other just Men made perfect upon their Dissolution are but the Ecchoes of the Testimony of the Spirit in them sealing to them the Assurance of their immediate Entrance into Life everlasting But this Truth is yet further evidenced from the Arguments of the Text They rest from their labours and their works follow them The first Argument runs thus They that rest from their Labours are blessed but those who dye in the Lord rest from their Labours therefore they are blessed That resting from Labours and things burthensome to Body and Soul but especially those burthensome to the Soul makes Blessedness is the Sense of all wise Heathens as well as Christians Seneca writ a Book about Tranquillity of Mind Seneca de Tranquillitate Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Plutarch another of the same Subject to shew that Happiness consisted in undisturbedness of the Soul or Spirit and they both give directions how a wise Man might attain that state of a quiet Spirit in the midst of the confusions of his outward condition Their directions are some of them very good and rational but not of virtue enough to work the Cure they pretend to There is one Christian Direction surmounts them all namely this Trust God's Goodness in all things and submit to God's Wisdom and Faithfulness in all things to cause all to work together for good according to his Promise in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.28 But however hence it is evident these Heathen judged that a resting from Labours at least those of the Soul would make a blessed state And Epicurus thought that much of the Happiness of the Gods consisted in their Rest and quiet Recess from the bussles and confusions of the World below And indeed it must needs be the common sense of all Mankind that rest from labours makes a blessed state For who can think but that it is a blessed condition to be free from Pain Sickness Tortures Reproaches tormenting Passions and Compassions and the rest of those Labours which I shewed that even good Men are subject to in this Life And now then that the departed Saints do rest from these Labours is sufficiently proved in that the All-knowing Spirit of Truth here affirms it For the Spirit not only saith They are blessed but says also They are therefore blessed because they rest from their Labours But that they do rest from their Labours may also be made out by Discourse and Reasoning For first They that are departed in the Lord having laid by their Bodies are secured from all impressions that were made upon their Souls by the means of their Senses and Members of their Body they cannot be sick or pained or weary or hungry or feel Cold or Heat or be wrought upon by any Engine of Torture From all these sorts of Labours therefore the separate Souls of the Saints must needs rest Next as to Reproaches and Slanders they affect us not in the Body further than we hear and know them and if we do hear them yet the testimony of our Consciences disarms false Reproaches and Slanders of their Stings Nay even just Reproaches falling upon a good Man through some scandalous act of Sin doth not sharply afflict him when he doth repent for the shame for his sin will sit light where the sorrow for his sin sits heavy And further where a Sinner's Repentance is evident none will reproach him for his sin but Fools and Villains And if a good Man even in this Life is thus secure in a great measure against Reproach much more safe is he in the other World in his separated state for as all the flatteries of surviving Friends and Admirers arrive not at the knowledge of the Damned nor abate or alter their misery no more do all the Libels and Satyrs or other lying Invectives thrown after good Men departed ever reach to their knowledge much less can they impair their joys or disturb their blessed tranquillity Nay the very memory of good Men's sins of David's Adultery and Murder of St. Peter's Denial of his Master and the like which were repented of upon Earth are not recorded in Heaven God removes their transgressions from before his own face and other Saints if they knew them upon Earth cannot possibly upbraid them they all being possessed with the Contemplation of God's infinite Mercies in Christ Jesus who had pardoned and saved themselves and other penitent Sinners The next sort of a good Man's Labours are those which arise from Temptations to sin or to doubting of God's Mercy But first the Saints cannot possibly sin in Heaven not only because there will be nothing to tempt them to it but also because knowing God perfectly according to their capacity they must needs love him perfectly and consequently they cannot sin against him And they loving God perfectly cannot possibly doubt of his love to them seeing the highest effect of the Divine Love to us is this to give us to love him and delight in him Now then there remains nothing but tormenting Passions and Compassions which we before put into the Inventary of good Men upon Earth but none of these can follow them to Heaven For first Anger cannot enter into that Kingdom of Love because they who love him that begets must needs love them that are begotten of him 1 Joh. 5.1 When therefore two Saints meet in Heaven who on account of different Opinions or Practices consistent

from that very instant wherein God condescended to make a new Covenant with fallen Man in the promised Seed the Seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 For that phrase From the beginning of the World points directly to the time of making that new Covenant in Paradise and on that account Christ is called A Lamb slain from the foundation of the World Rev. 13.8 That new Covenant is in that Verse called The book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World it containing the conditions of life and Happiness setled in the Mediation of the Lamb the Lord Jesus and confirmed in his Blood from the beginning of the World So then when God made that new Covenant promising in Christ Acceptance of Men's sincere though imperfect Obedience then I say he appointed and prepared for them not a Return into an earthly Paradise but an entrance into an everlasting Kingdom into an Eternal Life even for all those who by patient continuance in well doing seek for honour and glory and Immortality Rom. 2.7 We may observe further that the New Covenant was ratified and established by God's Mercy in the promised Seed Gen. 3.15 in his sentencing the Serpent and before he passed Sentence on Adam and Eve And therefore in the sentencing of them we hear of nothing of either spiritual or eternal Punishments pronounced against them but there is denounced only such temporal miseries and a temporal death as do indeed declare God's Anger against Sin but withall may by the Grace of God in the New Covenant redound to our spiritual and eternal Good On which account St. Paul 1 Tim. 2.15 saith that The child-bearing woman notwithstanding her pains in child-bearing shall be saved 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 through that promised birth of the Saviour of the world if she continue in faith For the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relates not to every Woman 's Child-bearing but to the famous Birth of the promised Seed as I with submission to the Godly Learned do judge So then when Christians through Grace perform the Obedience of the new Covenant in Repentance Faith Self-denial Heavenly-mindedness Charity and the rest of Christian Duties God accepts of them in Christ Jesus and will reward them therefore their Works following departed Saints to be rewarded they who die in the Lord are blessed And yet the Argument concluded not strongly unless that Reward be and make up compleat Blessedness But that it doth so is evident from Rom. 2.7 God will give to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for honour and glory and immortality eternal life And Gal. 6.8 it is affirmed that They who sow to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Now this Life everlasting which is the portion of the Saints that it may be a compleat and perfect Happiness must be at least thus qualified In it the Saints must not want any thing that they stand in need of or desire any thing but what they have nor ever come to distaste or loath any thing they do enjoy nor fear the loss of what they are possest of nor envy the portion of any other who partake that state with them nor yet despise any that are their Associates in that blessed Inheritance I say the meanest Saint cannot envy the highest Angel nor can the highest Angel despise the meanest Saint For Reason it self will evince that it cannot be a perfect Life and Happiness where there is want of something we do need or longing for something we have not or a loathing of what we once savoured or a fear of losing of what we enjoy or a scorning or an envying of those who are our Companions in the same state But those Evils of Want Longing Loathing Fear Envy and Scorn being removed it cannot be but the Reward of the Saints must amount to Fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore Oh the infinite Mercies of God in Christ Jesus who accepts of the sincere though imperfect Services of holy and humble persons and thus highly rewards them But if we yet further enquire what Object it is that being thus enjoyed sets us above Want Longing Loathing Fear Scorn and Envy I answer It is God himself communicating his own glorious Perfections to the Knowledge and Contemplation of the Saints and Angels in that excellent Light of Glory wherein they see him face to face 1 Cor. 13.12 and see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.3 By which Knowledge so clear and so glorious the Saints and Angels are wrapt up into the most intense and fervent love of him and delight in him that it is possible for Creatures of their degrees to receive And seeing the Essential Happiness of God himself appears to be his Comprehensive Knowledge of his own Glorious Essence and Perfection and the Essential Love of and Eternal Complacency in himself for there is not a more excellent Being than himself for him to contemplate nor a more lovely Being than himself for him to delight himself in Hence I say our coming to that blessed Enjoyment of him is called Matth. 25.21 the Entring into the Joy of our Lord we coming to enjoy God whom himself enjoys and to enjoy him by Contemplation and Love which is the way of God's own Essential Enjoyment of himself as far as we can apprehend Thus God is the Portion of his People and the Inheritance of his Saints The Works therefore of those who dye in the Lord following them to receive so high a Reward through God's Mercy in the New Covenant confirmed in the Blood of his blessed Son it must needs be that they are eternally blessed And that this honourable and pious Person whose Funeral Rites have called this great Assembly together is now arrived at that Reward and Crown of Evangelical Righteousness is I suppose the persuasion of all persons present who knew him and who believe that there is a Reward for the Righteous But considering that when a great and good Man dyes something of the Panegyrick is required to make up the Justa and compleat his Funeral-Rites David himself made a Funeral-Oration at the Interment of Abner 2 Sam. 3.33 I shall say something of that kind as well as I am able but still being careful of this that I may not by Commendation of the Dead give any just Offence to the Living nor by false Praises of the Deceased lay a Snare for the Feet of Survivors as is too oft done I will therefore say nothing but what I knew or have unquestionable Testimony for it Concerning the Family of which this Noble Lord was lately the Head you all know it hath sent forth its Boughs unto the Seas and its Branches to the Rivers Psal 80.11 most Families of Quality in this County and many also in other Shires having mingled their Blood by Marriage with that of Dunham Himself joyned in Affinity with two great and ancient Families of the Nobility first that of Lincoln then that of Stamford who justly esteemed a