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
A85461	Saltmarsh returned from the dead, in Amico Philalethe. Or, The resurrection of James the apostle, out of the grave of carnall glosses, for the correction of the universall apostacy, which cruelly buryed him who yet liveth. Appearing in the comely ornaments of his fifth chapter, in an exercise, June 4. 1654. Having laid by his grave clothes, in a despised village remote from England, but wishing well, and heartily desiring the true prosperity thereof.	Gorton, Samuel, 1592 or 3-1677.	1655 (1655)	Wing G1307; Thomason E836_1; ESTC R207426	178,733	220

Likewise it hath the mystery of eternity in it for they are heavenly such as never fade away nor faile to bring in their testimony therefore it is that Israel must go three days journey into the wildernesse to worship the Lord that is there must be a totall and finall departure from Aegypt in regard of the ignorance or darknesse of it from their governments Hosts and Armies burdens tasks and cruelties Magicyan-like worships lying wonders and fauning flatteries in the erecting and setting up of the Tabernacle and worship of God at Mount horeb or Sinai This is also the reason why the Ark must go before them three days journey from Mount-Sinai to seek out a resting place namely to shew that there must be a totall and finall departure from the works of the Law in our entring into that rest that yet remaynes for the people of God Of like signification is Jonas being in the Whales belly and the Son of man in the heart of the earth Jonas is swallowed up of the Whales in carnall and backsliding Israel who observe lying vanities and decline the word of God but is cast up and made alive in the Ninivites beyond all reason expectation or thought of heart for the Publicans and Sinners enter before the strict Scribes and Pharisees into heaven Christ lyes three dayes and three nights in the grave as buryed eternally concerning any life of his spirit in Herod Pontius Pilate and that wicked Judas and the Jewes but he riseth the third day in his Disciples the Gentiles and all Nations never to dye any more but only those three dayes and three nights of eternity in the wicked of the world unto which his life in the Saints is proportionable Even so here is three years voyd of rayn or dew or any fruitfulnesse of the earth wherein both heaven and earth are in exercise and are comprehended So there is an eternall estate of the wicked that comprehends both God and man in that way of the Curse and unity of the Harlot wherein twayn are made one flesh for two saith he shall be one flesh in which estate there is no dew of heaven nor fruit yielded by the earth that is of those fruits of righteousnesse and vertues that are by Jesus Christ in those three years that is unto eternity There is also an eternall season of the Saints of God wherein no dew nor rayn from heaven or from that wisdome of the flesh falls on them to cause any fruits of the flesh or works of darknesse to be brought forth by them So that as in a yeare wee see a perfect revolution of things not only earthly but heavenly also at least in that great light and course of the Sun so that the number three signifies a totall and finall revolution of all things that concern God and man as two being joyned in way of flesh And all things also that concern God and man everlastingly in that way of being joyned unto the Lord and made one spirit with him Further we see that in a whole years space there is a like time of night as there is of day if we take the globe universally even so there is a like eternity of darknesse and the power thereof that there is of light in the Kingdome of Christ Moreover take the whole circumference of heaven and earth and there is a like time of Winter that there is of Sommer even so there is the same three-fold time of eternity in the kingdome of darknesse of blasting withering smiting with chilly coldnesse and all unfruitfulnesse as there is in the kingdome of life and light of the joy of harvest and pleasure of the tree of life which beares twelve manner of fruits as being furnished for every Tribe of Israel and every moneth of the yeare which tree is not afraid of drought nor knowes when the heate comes Concerning the sixe moneths added it is a rendring or consigning to each estate of eternity such a time for the Prophet in the history is illimited in his expression saying that it shall be neither raine nor dew for these yeares which may be applyed to time past present or to come for it is according to my word which is the word of the Lord the word of eternity so that we can give no other bounds to the time but such as hold correspondency with the word of eternity Our Apostle therefore brings it in by these expressions to declaring and distinguish his meaning namely the Prophets meaning This term of sixe moneths then is to be taken according to that distinction when he saith that sommer and winter cold and heate seed-time and harvest night and day shall not cease This sixe moneths properly sets forth unto us the time of seed-time and harvest which take it throughout the earth with respect to all grayn and it consists so long time Besides the number sixe hath in it the mystery of meanes of increase for increase multiplication and fruitfulnesse is not brought in in the creation but with the blessing which is the meanes of it So that six moneths in this place is the time and means of multiplication and increase which is here frustrate and hindered by the drought unto barrennesse and famine In the mystery of Christ the Saints of God sow unto the spirit but the seed of immortality is lost in the wicked they reap nothing unto eternall life Also the wicked they sow unto the flesh but their seed is lost in the Saints and comes to nought for they reap nothing of corruption So that in these three years of eternity there is a frustration of seed-time and harvest an absolute fruitlesnesse barrennesse and famine throughout the earth the one unto blessing in bringing forth nothing unto the flesh the other unto a curse in bringing forth nothing unto the spirit Yet men beare men in hand and vainly perswade themselves they can convert men and turn them by their preaching and make them other things then they are whereas the Gospel only declares and discovers men to appear to be that which they are no alteration of a work done once and for ever They may as well say they can make the righteous and just one a sinner as to say the wicked may become holy otherwise then as they are once and for ever for Gods work in man-kind is an eternall act not knowable but as himselfe considered one with it 6. It follows which is the renewing of his prayer and the effect thereof And he prayed againe and the heavens gave raine and the earth brought forth her fruit We are not here to take prayer as one being of a later production then the former for they are but one continued and eternall act as the doctrine of the Gospel is which is herein commended unto us for the things of God are comprehended and involved one in another and it is the skill of a Scribe taught unto the Kingdome of God to bring them out of the treasury

as things of old from eternity and new as in present use fitting and beseeming the present oration and opportunity This phrase therefore is like that where the Apostle saith My little children of whom I travell in birth againe till Christ be formed in you not as though they had now defaced Christ who before was formed in them but he declares hereby the effect of his doctrine from which some were turned aside unto the rudiments of the Law as unto another Gospel which he saith is not another but the same Gospel perverted by false Teachers telling them that some are entangled with the yoke of bondage thereby for he that is bound to any particular of the carnall commandement as to be circumcised or any outward form of bodily action He is bound to keepe the whole law and shews that such have abolished Christ and are faln from grace such effect he shews his Doctrine had of some as a savour of death unto death but there were others unto whom hee there speaks on whom his doctrine had a more noble effect as being a savour of life Therefore he saith My little children of whom I travell in birth againe or I have brought you forth not in a second act but in another manner and way namely to the forming of Christ in you or framing you into the similitude of the Son of God once and for ever Even so it is here He prayed againe that is the spirit of intercession hath a secondary or other manner of effect then that which is before specified not another prayer but another manner of wonder accomplished by the same prayer for now the heavens gave raine and the earth brings forth her fruit We are to know then that as the Gospel opens the treasuries of the Kingdome of God unto an abundant freedome liberty and plenty of the going forth and exercise of the spirit of grace in the Saints even as water poured upon the thirsty and floods upon the dry ground through that office of intercession peculiar unto our Eliah without any hinderance or engagement of any bond of the flesh when through the spirit of prayer that cloud of witnesse or rayn of liberality ariseth as a hand or administration thereof even as the word of the Lord is sayd to come by the hand of Haggie and by the hand of Malachie and by the hand of all the Prophets which so covereth the heavens as no parching sun of the beams of mans wisdome and device taketh place no more then they doe in those over-shadowings of the Virgin by that holy spirit of God in the production of Christ Even so doth Prayer set at liberty the works of the flesh in the men of the world by opening the sluces and flood-gates thereof unto condemnation and destruction for the waters of the great deep mystery or bottomlesse pit are opened for the destruction of the world as well as the flood-gates of heaven for the safety of Noah and his houshold in bearing up the Ark fifteen cubits above the great mountayns of the States of this earth or of the world And this prayer doth not simply accidentally but ministerially and effectually in the same sence That the Gospell is a savour of death unto death Not only by gleaning of all the fruits of righteousnesse out of the wisdome of the Serpent or men of the world which centred in the Saints are the proper cause of the transcendencies of their estate above all humane excellencies so doth it also gleane all the vicious desires of the flesh out of that state and condition of Christ centring them in that state of unbeliefe whereby man descends infinitely beneath a state of simple humane or properties of a meer creature and by fashioning and corrupting the holy things of God becomes satanicall and diabolicall and such as seek to finde an excellent or commendable betwixt these twayn it cannot be better described or diciphered for the solidity of it then by that partition that divides Purgatory and Hell in those of that mercinary conceipt The abundance of spirit therefore in the Saints and that plenty of the spirit of the Prince of the power of the ayre which now works in the children of disobedience hold proportion in way of Antithesis otherwise an infinite and an eternall wrath could not take place in the wicked as an infinite and eternall glory doth in the Saints For he made but one speaking of that state of Christ with an elegant allusion unto the high Priest and wherefore but one seeing he had abundance of spirit namely that there might be a holy seed that whatsoever the fruits are that are by one Lord Jesus Christ of the same nature and dignity are all the fruits of happinesse produced and brought forth by that one mystical and spirituall body and so in a diameter respect are all the fruits of sin in the wicked This plenty in this two-fold respect is signified by warning given to Ahab to betake himselfe to his Chariot for I heare a noyse of much raine which Ahab flyes from as a terrible thing as it contayns the spirit of Eliah betaking himselfe to Chariot and horse in the furnitures of this world and Eliah flyes from it as it hath the spirit of Ahab and Jezebel as that which brings destruction upon them only hee betakes himselfe to the strength of Gods spirit to take the gates of Iesreel The plenty of Eliah's spirit is seen and taught in that duration and plenty in the cruse of oyle and barrell of meale raising up the womans sonne from death to life and annoynting Hazael and Jehu for the ruine of Ahabs house Elisha to be a Prophet in his stead and in the destruction of all those false Prophets of Baal And the plenty of the rayn of that spirit of wickednesse appears in Ahab and Jezebel their cruelty towards the Prophet of God their miserable and horrible overthrow and in their desire and endeavour to nourish and maintayn such plenty of a false spirit of prophesie upon the face of the earth and in this plenty of rain seed-time and harvest are continued for the world sow unto the flesh and the flesh they reap and inherit corruption and the Saints sow unto the spirit and inherit everlasting life And from this power of prayer he assumes the power and vertue of doctrine in which he concludes the Epistle to shew that where the power and vertue of the one resides there is the power and vertue of the other The prayer of Faith is never without the spirit of Prophesie and prophesie according to the spirit is never without the life and power of prayer and where one of these is wanting they are both absent from that party in the true exercise of them for a formall prayer is never accompanyed with the life and power of sound doctrine but as they have composed a prayer by mans invention gathering up expressions sutable in the understanding of a man so do they compose a

mistery of iniquity also which properly makes and gives being unto the God of this world which is no lesse then Satan himselfe who attempts through his arrogating insatiable spirit to tender unto Christ all the kingdoms of the Earth and the glory of them the one of these is a wonder but a lying one because it brings not forth what it promiseth as the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharises is a righteousnesse but not that which enters into the kingdome and the other is a wonder and a true miracle because it brings to passe the things it promiseth even as the righteousnesse of Christ enters into the kingdom and sitteth in safety and honour at the right hand of God And they that preach not the Gospel as accompanied with these signes in the ministry of it according to the variety of the work proposed the speaking and creating word of his signes is not sent unto that people for their release and deliverance out of the house of bondage and yet it is true that tongues are for a sign not to them that beleive but to them that beleive not that is an unbeleiver ever expects that a signe should speak in the same form which formerly it hath done or else he takes it not for a wonder wrought by God but then there should need no interpretatiin the Church at all without which tongues are not of use unto edefying The worlds expectation of signes to accompany the preaching of the Gospel for the confirmation of it in the same forme as formerly is the expectation of Infidels such as follow Christ to be fed with carnal things bread that perisheth in the use like them that after they had been fed miraculously with the loaves and the fishes they persue and follow him to have a signe that he is a man of God and conclude that Moses was a man of God that could give bread from heaven but this not coming in like for me but from the Earth though in that wonderfull multiplication and increase is as nothing unto them But the signs wonders and mighty works accompanying the grace of the Gospel never appear twice in the same forme so that a man may as well expect the water that now bubleth up in a living and swift running fountaine to tarry and abide for him till his return to it againe as to fit down by a wonder wrought by God till it appear in the very same forme againe it coming out of that inexhaustible fountaine and swift running current of that infinite variety of his wisdome and power Moses miraculously fasted forty dayes and forty nights and is in the mount with God and hath in that fast the law the perfect pattern of all truth and holiness presented and shewed unto him and againe Christ fasted forty dayes and forty nights but was in the wildernesse among wilde beasts and therein had the temptations of Satan the proper platforme of the power of darknesse represented unto him which differs much from the pattern of salvation and kingdome of light Eliah also fasted forty dayes and forty nights but was miraculously fed before in the strength of which food he went into a cave by the mount of God and there had apparitions voices manifested unto him wherein God made himselfe manifest and also such wherein God appeared not at all one forty dayes fast not but in variety of wonder one death of Christ but a diverse signe in it he is slaine at Jerusalem and our Lord is also crucified in Sodome and in Aegypt true in both with respect to flesh and spirit And so much for the word Behold implying a wonder wherein observe the deceitfull sleights and cunning devices of the Magissians the Jannes and Jambres of our dayes who have erected for the confirmation of Princes great signes of honour and Godlike prosperity Kings Chappels and pulpits of State State-prayers and state-like officers in the Church for forming of them that they may carry their virtue by whomsoever uttered state-religion and state-like pompe in the exercise of it as though the Kings of the earth should be thereby declared to be not onely the off-spring of the almighty but the deputed Gods In what doth the successe and issue of these Doctors indeavors end in differing from those Magissians in Aegypt in the confirmation and incouragement of their King first born and his alies 2. The second point is who the Labourers are or the Labourer for the word may be read either singular or plurally as it usuall in Scripture to use words of active and passive signification as also such as may be read either in the masculine or feminine gender without wrong to the Text so also such as will beare either the singular or plurall number and so it is in this place To take the word therefore in the singular acceptation it is Christ collectively considered in that one intire and mysticall body of his comprehending all the Saints in all ages of the world Againe take it plurally Labourers and it is Christ distinctly distributed and given out in all the parts and members of that body for he is that Labourer or Husband-man that sowes good seed in his field though the evill one sow tares in the time of his sleep or when and where he is dead to all things of the spirit which is in that evill one only upon whom they grow He sowes with his owne hand as he is that one fountaine and giver out of the seed in all ages yesterday and to day and for ever the same And his seeds-men sow also as he is a participator and the receiver thereof for he receiveth the spirit though not by measure for it is immence 3. The third point is what the labour is in reaping down the fields By reaping here is not meant cutting downe but in gathering also as the word-imports Christs reaping therefore is the cutting downe of all those riches and ripened fruits of the flesh those superfluous branches from the true Vine that they be not found in the field or upon that hand of Emanuel which else-where is said to be the crueifying of the flesh in the affections and lusts and the slaying of the enmity in himselfe which are the proper in gatherings of the worke and that whereof their harvest and Vintage doth consist whereby their regions become white unto the harvest that is it sets them in a capacity to be cut downe by an eternall destruction and in these the labourer is defrauded who hath spent his strength in them in vaine or unto emptinesse and laboured for nought as he complains by his Prophet or in the Prophet Isaiah In them he hath lost his time as a labourer hath who is deprived of his hire for his time and age is not extant in them the time of grace is expended the day of salvation is not found in them his generation is ceased in them and is no more even as a labourer hath lost his time so spent as no