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	sow_v	5,273	5	10.3024	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47013	Maran atha: or Dominus veniet Commentaries upon the articles of the Creed never heretofore printed. Viz. Of Christs session at the right hand of God and exaltation thereby. His being made Lord and Christ: of his coming to judge the quick and the dead. The resurredction of the body; and Life everlasting both in joy and torments. With divers sermons proper attendants upon the precedent tracts, and befitting these present times. By that holy man and profound divine, Thomas Jackson, D.D. President of Corpus Christi Coll. in Oxford.	Jackson, Thomas, 1579-1640.; Oley, Barnabas, 1602-1686.	1657 (1657)	Wing J92; ESTC R216044	660,378	504

motion in all the Interim between the day of their dissolution and the last day By the Resurrection they shall not only recover life sense and motion but the life which they get shall be indowed with Immortalitie the bodies shall be clothed with Glory This change of our mortal bodies into immortal is much greater then the most plentifull increase which any seed doth yield One seed or grain may in some soils bring forth thirty in others sixtie in others a hundred but immortality added to the life of the body is an increase in respect of this mortal life which now we lead inexpressible by any number The life of Methuselah is not comparable to it albeit the years which he lived on earth were multiplied by the dayes contained in them and both multiplied again by all the minutes and scruples conteined in the dayes and years which he lived And yet after this increase of life our bodies shall be the same they were for nature and essence but not the same for qualities or capacities whether of joyes or pains In these respects they shall differ far more then any corn growing doth from the seed from which it springs And this difference of qualities between the bodies which die and shall be raised again was all that our Apostle sought or intended to illustrate or set forth by that similitude which he useth Thou sowest not the corn which shall be that is not the same corn for quantitie for qualitie for vigour of life nor shall mens bodies be raised again to such a life only as they formerly had or to such a corruptible estate as that wherein death did apprehend them but to a life truly immortal 8. The second question proposed by the Corinthian Naturalist was with what bodies shall the dead come forth or appear And the direct Answer to this Question is included in the former similitude so much insisted on before as that it needs not to be repeated here the Effect of it is This That they shall come forth with bodies much more excellent then those with which they descended into the grave And of this general Answer included in the similitude of the Corn or Seed sown all the Exemplifications following unto verse 45. are native Branches 39. All flesh is not the same flesh but there is one kind of flesh of men another flesh of beasts another of fishes and another of birds 40. There are also celestial bodies and bodies terrestrial but the glory of the celestial is one and the glory of the terrestrial is another 41. There is one glory of the Sun another of the Moon and another glory of the Stars for one Star differeth from another in glory 42. So also is the resurrection of the dead it is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption 43. It is sown in dishonor it is raised in glory it is sown in weakness it is raised in power 44. It is sown a natural body it is raised a spiritual body There is a natural body and there is a spiritual body c. Thus much of the Positive Force of our Apostles Argument drawn from the similitude of the Corn which by the Law of Nature must die before it be quickned and receive increase 9. But of this similitude it is no native branch or part whether the corn which dies being sown do rise again the next year for vital substance or life the same which it was whilst it was contained in the blade or ear the year before certainly it is not the same for Corpulencie for matter or quantitie But whether the seeds of life or spirit of corn do not remain the same by continuation though in divers bodies or matter our Apostle disputes not nor do I dispute This is a curiositie which cannot be determined in the Pulpit without appeal unto the Schools The vital spirit or essence of the Corn may be so far the same in the corn which is sown and which is reaped that if we should for disputation sake suppose or imagine what some have dogmatically affirmed to wit That the corn sown were endowed with sense or feeling were capable of pleasure or pain the pleasure which it formerly enjoyed might be renewed increased or multiplied with increase or multiplication of its bodily substance so might the pain which it had felt before it was sown be renewed and increased after it were quickned again if any sort of corn were appointed as some men are to torture and punishment Now albeit we must believe that mens bodies after the Resurrection shall be the very same for substance which they were before death yet are we not bound to believe that they shall be any further the same then that every man which died in his sins may in his bodie feel an infinite increase of those miseries which he had deserved and in some sort felt whilst he lived on earth Or that every man at the last day may reap an infinite increase of those joyes and comforts of which in this life he had some tasts or pledges whilst he sowed unto the spirit For as the Apostle elsewhere speaks he that soweth unto the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption a full crop of all the miseries incident to mortalitie but miseries more then mortal miseries everlasting and never dying And he that in this life soweth unto the spirit shall at the Resurrection of the spirit reap life but a life immortal without end without annoyance or interruption of joy Again they extend the former similitude too far which from it would gather that as there is a natural force or previal disposition in the corn sown by which as by a secondary cause or instrumental mean it is quickned and increased So there be natural seeds of life in the putrified reliques of mens bodies or remnants of the matter dissolved out of which life immortal shall so spring as the blade doth out of the seed which is sown only by the sustentative or operative power of God by which all things are supported or enabled to produce their natural effects For although it be true that the works which we ascribe to nature are wrought by God or by continuation of the same power by which they were first created and set a working yet the Resurrection of mens bodies shall not be wrought by the mere continuation of This Power There must be more then a conservation of their matter more then an usual co-operation with the Elements out of which they are raised there must be even a new creation of their bodies yet not a Creation of them out of nothing but out of the scattered fragments of their matter such a creation as the works of the fifth and sixth day were when God commanded the sea or water to bring forth fishes in their kind and the earth to bring forth trees or plants in their kinde These were not effects of nature or of that power only by which the Sea and earth were from

〈◊〉 or Word which since hath been made flesh as all unbelievers and disobedient men since hee was made flesh Now to fortifie this inference he addeth ver 12. Vivus est sermo Dei The Word or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to whom wee are to render an accompt is quick and power full more piercing then any two edged sword So farre from winking at the ignorance of these times that all things are naked and open unto his eyes His countenance as saint John saith was as the Sun shineth in his strength Rev. 1. 16. and his eyes as a flame of fire vers 14. unto his eyes thus opened when the Judgment shall be set the bookes as Daniel saith were opened Dan. 7. 10. And this prophecie is unfolded by St. John Rev. 20. 12. And I saw the dead small and great stand before God and the books were opened and another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were Judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works 17. This is the next part of the Process and by the Books which are opened the best Interpreters Ancient and Modern understand the Books of Conscience which until that day shall not be unfolded or become fully legible no not unto them which keep these Books though every man have one of them or at least an exact Copie or Exemplification of them For it may be that the Authentick Copie or Register of every mans Conscience is treasured up in this Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and their Copies shall become legible by his appearance Many actual sins many secret thoughts or evil words have been daily practised or entertained by us w ch leave no print or impression in our Phantasies of their passage The memorie of many gross sins which for the present make deep impression daily wears out or decayes to our apprehensions their print or Character in some being defac'd or obliterated by new ones more gross as if a man should write in Capital Letters upon a paper already written in a smaller Character and more obscure In others the Records of Conscience though in themselves legible so they would look into them are wrapt up in multiplicitie of business But when the Judge shall appear in his Glorie the Book shall be fully opened the Character or impression of every sinful thought or action shall then become legible not a syllable of what we have spoken to our selves shall be lost and every letter and every syllable which hath not been washt away or purified by the Blood of the Lamb shall be as a stigma or brand to the Soul and Conscience wherein it is found and shall fret as an incurable Gangren or Canker Every seed of corruption whether propagated from our first parents or sown by our selves which seemed to lie dead without all motion unlesse they be truly mortified by the spirit shall at the appearance of the Sun of Righteousness begin to quicken and grow ripe in a moment And albeit these seeds be as many in number as the sand though our whole flesh or bodily man be more full of them then any fishes ventricle is full of Spawn yet the least of them shall grow for its malignant quality into a Serpent and sting the soul and body wherein it bred like an Adder These are the best fruits which they that daily sow unto the flesh shall then reap of the flesh even corruption sorrow and torments incorruptible and unsufferable yet perpetually to be suffered by them But of the quality and perpetuity of these pains hereafter by Gods assistance when we come to the Award or Sentence 18. Now to conclude Albeit this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Eternal Word of God before whose Judgment Seat we must appear and to whom we are to render our final accompt were made flesh to the end and purpose that the very words of God immediately uttered by himself which formerly so uttered did sound nothing but death and destruction to flesh and blood might become the very food of life being thus distilled and uttered by an Organ of flesh yet such they are only unto such as receive him and are purified in soul and conscience by them To such as received him saith S. John he gave this priviledge to become the Sons of God John 1. 12. But every man saith the same S. John 1 Epist cap. 3. ver 3. that hath this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure As for the disobedient and such as wallow in filthiness the presence or voice of God though he appear or speak unto us in our nature shall not be less dreadful to them then it was before the word was made flesh but rather his appearance in our nature shall add terror and dread to his voice and presence And therefore it is remarkably added by S. John Rev. 6. 16. that the disobedient shall say unto the Mountains and Rocks Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For though the wisdome of the flesh did alwayes include an Enmitie unto the puritie of the Divine Nature yet this Enmitie or Antipathie is most directly against the innocencie and integritie of the Lamb It is under the same Kind with the Enmitie of the womans seede and the Serpents nor shall the malignitie of it fully appear or come unto a perfect Crisis until the Lamb appear in Judgment He is now a Lamb mild and gentle and easy to be intreated by all such as seek to become like him in innocencie and puritie of life but shall in that day manifest himself to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah to execute vengeance upon all such as have abused his patience and long suffering by continuance in beastlines or enmitie to Lamb-like innocency and purity He shall then appear an inflexible Judge but yet continues a mercifull and loving High-priest to make intercession for us Seeing then saith St. Paul Heb. 4. 14. c. and it is his Conclusion of his former description of him as our Omnipotent Alseeing Judge that we have a great High-priest that is passed into the heavens Jesus the Son of God this is a Title more mild and comfortable then the former of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Word of God Let us hold fast our profession For we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need This Time of need is the day of judgment or time of death But whereby shall we make just proof and trial whether we hold our profession fast or no By no other means then by the preserving the integritie and puritie of our Conscience For we do not truly acknowledge or believe him to