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spirit_n dead_a life_n quicken_v 5,491 5 10.4511 5 false
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A96627 The vvay to life and death. Laid down in a sermon, 1629. before the Lord Major of London then being. / By N. Waker M.A. late minister of Jesus Christ at Lawndon in Buckinghamshire. Now published for the reasonableness of the advice therein given, touching the five controverted points, viz. predestination, general redemption, freewill, conversion, and perseverance of the siants. Directing a safe way for the practice of private Christians, as confessed by the disputants on both sides. Waker, Nathaniel.; Waker, John. 1655 (1655) Wing W281; Thomason E1639_1; ESTC R209056 41,542 102

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〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unfruitful works Of Elements none so fruitful as water stinking puddles bring forth most troops of vermine Some grounds yield two crops every year some trees bear fruit twice this all the year some creatures breed every moneth this every moment and these brats are even conceived and born at once How many kinds are there of sins and how many millions of each kind Gal. 5.21 There is some of the progeny it is progenies viperarum all those irregular thoughts affections words and actions that passe from a man come from hence Now this body hath its activenesse from the parents the father is the devil a compasser the soul the mother in perpetual motion and agitation Now his own will enticeth him to these deeds and he that is wilfully bent upon a thing who can stay him The Devil continually spurs him on and he must needs go whom the Devil drives he is further provoked by the world by the men of the world their perswasion as Solomon their threats as Nebuchadnezzar their promises as Balaam their example as Jeroboam by the things of the world there is at least a seeming lustre in the object that doth allure Bathsheba's beauty the rich wedge of gold and the Babylonish garment When the Vessel sailes with the tide and the sailes blown with such a gale it must needs go apace There are deeds of the body which are natural to eat drink sleep voluntary to walk c. but these are motus opera carnis peccatricis these are they that must be mortified that is the second thing in the duty Mortifie The body of death must be slain that we may live What it is to mortifie Thus if we will become wise we must first be fooles if rich and have a Kingdome poor in spirit if free put our necks under Christs yoke if save our life first lose it if have a true being old men must be born again if have the life of grace here and glory hereafter first kill our sinful selves To mortifie is a Metaphor taken from Chirurgeons that use to mortifie that part they mean to cut off so we must mortifie sin that it may not live or if it live such a life as is left in the limbs when the head is struck off or as in those that have an Epilepsie Rom. 4.19 or as in old Abrahams body which was as good as dead unfit for generation The efficacy and power of these lusts must be slain that they produce not new Monsters and so bring forth fruit unto death that is as Cajetan tells us insur gentes compescendo ne insurgant domando so mortifie them that they make no rebellion or if they do make insurrection beat them down that they domineer not So much for the second thing the act I come now to the causes The efficient cause principal the Spirit The principal is the Spirit By the Spirit here to omit other acceptations we understand either the grace of the Spirit or the Spirit of grace If the former then so far forth as it is enlivened and actuated by the latter The Spirit dwells in all creatures by a general influence in Christ by hypostatical union in some men by creating in them extraordinary gifts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the elect by effectual operation And if the essence of the Spirit be in us it is in us not as an essential part that were to deify man nor united personally unto us for then should the third person be incarnate as well as the second but dwelling in Christ as the head in an unspeakable manner diffused unto us Thus the devil dwells in the children of disobedience not by communicating his essence to them for then they should be incarnate devills but taking possession of them as his vassals blinding their minds hardening their hearts infusing malice into their wills leading them captive till at the last he bring them to the pit of destruction But hath man the command of the Spirit But the Spirit and Gods Ordinances are not separated unlesse for our fault But is the Spirit our instrument No but we the Spirits for God infuseth into us this supernatural principle whereby we are inabled to work and then quickeneth it up by moral perswasion But how doth the Spirit mortifie It 's that light that doth detect those deeds of the body it 's contrary to them and stirs up hatred against them it 's the Spirit of grace which makes us pray against them it 's our remembrance that brings to our mind the Scripture that declares the odiousnesse and danger of them it 's the mighty power of God that crusheth these brats in pieces it 's that which doth co-operate with the Word and prayer and tears and affliction and fasting whereby the flesh is beaten down That the Spirit worketh we evidently feel but how we cannot certainly define for if the operation of the wind the framing of the body in the womb be so strange much more that of the Spirit The lesse-principal cause We. The lesse-principal We. The Spirit quickens us being dead and being quickened we must act by the Spirit In the receiving the first grace man is a meer passive habet se ut materia in the second partly active partly passive active we must mortify passive for it must be by the Spirit and as St. Aug. Gratia non credit non resipiscit non sperat non obtemperat Deo sed homo per gratiam Grace believes not repents not hopes not obeys not God but man by grace So we say Spiritus non mortificat sed homo per Spiritum The Spirit mortifies not but man by the Spirit that we might not be proud or self confident not we but the Spirit that we might not be slothful or negligent we must do it by the Spirit that we might avoid all straines of Popery and Pelagianism it is the Spirit which quickens us at the first and doth continually send us fresh supplies against the flesh that we might not be taken with the idle fancies or doting dreames and crotchets of the Familists we must mortifie by the Spirit As we cannot mortifie without the Spirit so the Spirit will not without us Ye shall live Having now done with the duty What life here meant we come to the reward and what is better then life God is pleased to be stiled a living God This is that which every eye looks at every heart breaths after in which the vastest desire is satisfied beyond which the mind knowes nothing nor the will desires any thing that might make it happy By life here we do not understand the uncreated life of God but the created life of man which is twofold corporal the union of the soul with the body spiritual the union of God with the soul Indeed there is a natural life of the soul like that of Angels in which sense damned spirits may be said to live this was the eternity the
Philosophers knew of So Aristotle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. de an c. 5. this being concreated with the soul cannot be taken away but by annihilating of it The soul considered spiritually may be dead while it thus lives if it be separated from God in regard of holinesse and happinesse We will briefly see what this includes Ye shall live that is ye shall not dye and how happy would the damned spirits think themselves if they might not dye though they might not live that indeed they might not be at all rather then so miserable Ye shall live That is a happy life here Natural a natural life full of joy and comfort Godlinesse which includes mortification hath the promise of this life our cloathes shall warm us our food nonrish us Though men out of Covenant have a right to these if they come by them lawfully yet a sanctified use they have not but by vertue of the Covenant as our cloaths receive heat from us and then warm us You shall live when you die and death shall be as the port after all the tossings and tumults of this life the Physician that cures all diseases the point that puts a period to all our labours it 's the reward of piety at the least an entrance into that reward and the birth-day of eternity the end of our sorrow the way to our Countrey the beginning of glory a general antidote for all aggrievances God is their God while they live in the grave and hath engaged his Word to restore them at the last day Joh. 11. He that believeth in me shall live though he dye and he that liveth and believeth in me shall never dye Vitam non eripit sed intermittit But the spiritual life of a Christian is that which is most excellent Spiritual of grace and that flowes from the union of God with the soul distinguished into degrees the first from conversion to the time of death when God by his Spirit breathes on the dead lump of sin and clay and makes it a glorious creature after his own Image Joh. 5.24 This is called the life of God Eph. 4.18 because it comes from God as the fountain insomuch that he doth live in them and if God be at all the life and soul of the world as the Platonists say it is meant of Christians principally The entrance into this life is through the gate of regeneration this parallells that vitam plantae and that first degree of natural life in the womb Ye shall live That is the life of grace Secondly Ye shall live Of glory the life of glory in the first degree from the death of the body to the resurrection of it When the body sleepeth in the grave sweetned by Christs burial the soul shall be carried by the ministery of Angels into Abrahams bosome Luk. 16.22 Though there be not in this estate a plenary consummation of happinesse 1 Tim. 4.8 Apcc. 6.9 yet the Spirit returnes to God Eccles 12.7 to Christ Phil. 1.23 it rests from labour is in comfort so it was said of Lazarus Luk. 16.25 to Paradise so to the thief Matth. 24.32 Luk. 23.43 Without doubt with great solemnity and joy do the holy Saints and Angels receive the soul into heaven into this degree we enter by the gate of death and it parallels the life of an animal and the second degree of natural life in men from the birth till they come to the use of reason In the second degree you shall live the life of glory in regard of the consummation of it from the day of the resurrection to all eternity enjoying the full vision and fruition of God where you shall see God sitting on his throne in inaccessible light and Jesus Christ sitting on his right hand with an innumerable company of Saints and Angels attending on him all shining as the Sun in the Firmament where all sorrow ceaseth for ever and a confluence of all desirable happinesse It may be some will enquire what our conversation shall be there for your meat and drinke there is Angels food a tree of life for your apparel long white robes of righteousnesse for your musicke a quire of Angels riches and glory are in this place the house is made of gold and the pavements of precious stones As for honour every man shall be a king and reigne in blisse and for delight at his right hand there are pleasures for evermore for knowledge we shall see face to face and for liberty the body shall be made spiritual Siquidem ubi volet spiritus ibi erit corpus In a word they shall enjoy God in whom is eminently contained all persection and glory If a little earthly glory amaze as it did Herod what will that above do If there be such glory in Gods footstoole what is there in his throne Si tanta nobis tribuis in carcere quid dabis in patria Si tanta tribuis inimicis quid amicis If O Lord thou givest us so much in the land of our pilgrimage what wilt thou give us in our own countrey if so much to thine enemies what wilt thou give to thy friends The Hebrews report how truely I know not that when Joseph had gathered much corne in Aegypt he threw the chaffe into the river Nilus that so floating to the neighbour-Cities and Nations they might know what abundance was laid up not for themselves alone but for their neighbours also so God to make us know what glory is in heaven hath thrown some huskes to us here that so tasting the sweetnesse of these things we might asspire to his bounty above And surely if the outward pavement of the base Court doth so glitter with stars what is there within Though we cannot measure the content of the soule by the outside of the house no more then you can measure the comforts of a Christian by the gay outside of a Church If I should undertake a full relation of this my muddy expressions would cloud it from you more then declare it therefore I leave it to your apprehension as a thing beyond expression yea beyond conceit while we dwell in these houses of clay If Moses his face did shine with conversing with God if the Disciples were so ravished in the transfiguratiou if S. Paul that saw not all saw more then he could utter and if the soules of Gods people are filled with unspeakable joy and satisfied as with marrow and fatnesse that see and enjoy God but in part here obscurely there is somthing transcendent in the perfect vision and fruition of God These little baites serve to stay our stomacks till we come to that glorious repast Aug. l. 4. de civil D●● Aug. Quod Deus praepara vit diligentibus fide non accipitur spe non attingitur charitate non comprehenditur acquiri potest aestimari non potest Faith cannot comprehend hope cannot reach charity cannot fathome what God hath prepared for those that love