Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	deed_n	flesh_n	mortify_v	5,880	5	10.8136	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69597	Jacob Behmen's theosophick philosophy unfolded in divers considerations and demonstrations, shewing the verity and utility of the several doctrines or propositions contained in the writings of that divinely instructed author : also, the principal treatises of the said author abridged, and answers given to the remainder of the 177 theosophick questions, propounded by the said Jacob Behmen, which were left unanswered by him at the time of his death : as a help towards the better understanding the Old and New Testament : also what man is with respect to time and eternity, being an open gate to the great mysteries / by Edward Taylor ; with a short account of the life of Jacob Behmen.; Selections. English. 1691	Böhme, Jakob, 1575-1624.; Taylor, Edward, fl. 1691.	1691 (1691)	Wing B3421; ESTC R21858	539,912	460

Man at dissolution of the outward Life at one instant and by the same dissolution is it effected and compleated A. What Omnipotence may do is not for vile dust to comprehend for it is written I know thou canst do all things and the Thief on the Cross was a Monument of unsearchable Grace yet by the words of that Thief there seems not only a preparedness but a good degree of Conviction of guilt penitence sence and anguish under it inlightening to know the Lord Jesus Faith to direct and fortifie his petition and a seeing the unseen Kingdom yet so late a Repentance tho' thus manifested is the one only singular president on Record Q. 10. But it may be enquired what the dissolution of the outward Life of its own Nature contributeth hereunto A. It must be acknowledged that it banisheth for ever the outward Objects of our misimployed Affections and yet it followeth not that it takes away the desire gust or lust after them for the breaking of the outward Life or Elementary and Siderial Man or the Obligations and Ligaments of our Souls and Spirits is but as taking away the Skreen and opening to us the two inward Worlds which is as the unraking of Fire and enraging the Souls native forms of the unregenerate which the Astral and Elementary Man had been before the separation a mitigation of the Anguishes of so far is Mans dissolution from contributing to a Foundation or Beginning of the Divine Birth As it may be conceived by noting that tho' a proper Soil and apt Season may shoot a Mustard-seed sown unto a tall large stature Yet the richest Soil concurring Elements liberal Season benign Astral Influences with the Solar Rays uniting transmute not Tares into Wheat Thistles into Fig-trees nor Thorns into Vines 11. But where the Soul like Flax only smoketh with the Holy Fire and the Souls Fire is irradiated with true tho' weak Divine Light rightly directing the Eye of the Mind Causing the Will and Affections to press forward mourning sowing in tears smiting on the Breast in Anguish heaviness and good earnestness the dissolution of such a sincere beginning Pilgrim may be but as plucking up a Thorn Hedge to make the way more accessable disburthening an over-laden Ship the better to secure the whole the alighting from a froward unbroken or tired Horse which will neither carry the Rider nor can be carried by him So unsuitable a Companion doth the Soul begun to be regenerate find his Body with the distrustful cares distracting fears worldly sorrow and hateful pollutions thereof And so adverse are the Maxims of the Sensual Man to those of the New that they are on terms of Hostility so that if we live after the Flesh we shall die but if by the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the Body we shall live The Body's Vileness is pointed at by that Statute in Moses that the Holy Anointing Oil was not to be poured on Man's Flesh tho' not only both the Altars the Table Laver all the Vessels and Candlesticks but also the very Tabernacle was to be anointed therewith 12. How much are we less provident than the Brutes who know and use their season the Stork the Ant c. and under flattering Hopes of doing all at last neglect all for ever but when Harvest is come begin to sow regardless of what is written To day if you will bear his voice harden not your hearts But besotted lost Man will promise himself that it is enough at death that the Priest can absolve me Others to say I believe Christ hath done all for me or because they acknowledge that all are sinners indulge themselves to be always sinners neglecting the great End of their Creation and of Divine Patience till the Creator is calling them for Accompt of His betrusted Talents as if they would then work out their Salvation when themselves are passive and unable to action and the night come when no man can work Obj. 3. 13. But we are told and that by some who detest the Roman Purgatory that something may be done to compleat the perfection of separate Souls after their separation from the Mortal Body who produce several Texts out of the Old Testament and out of the New also out of the Apocryphal antiquity to point at it or rather expresly to confirm it as out of the Old Deut. 26. 14. Isa. 61. 1. Zech. 9. 11 12. out of the New Matth. 12. 32. 2 Tim. 1. 18. 1 Pet. 3. 19. 1 Pet. 4. 6. out of the Antient Writings call'd Apocrypha 2 Esdras 7. 37. Ecclesiasticus 7. 33. 2. Maccab. 44. 45. Let us therefore post-pone the first step to the New Birth till our bodily Letts be removed when without the obstructions of the Rebel Passions ending with cutting of the Temporal Thread we be adapted thereunto A. The Objection supposeth not that one who at separation of the Soul from the Outward Body after rejecting the Gospel being in fixt Enmity against God and the Kingdom of Resignation is remediable nor suggesteth that he who soweth himself a Tare Thorn or Thistle shall rise a Wheat Corn Vine or Fig-tree how therefore may it seem incumbent on me to oppose my self to the dint of the Texts produced 14. But rather as the Lord Christ in answer to the Question of the Disciples Wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the Father keepeth in his own Power but prophesieth and chargeth on them on that occasion their immediate concern and business How much less is it for men to know what the operations of Father Son and Holy Ghost will be in perfecting separate Souls when out of the Circle of Time and Seasons For so strong a Fort hath Satan built in mens resolute Self-wills so impierceable are their Rocky Hearts that like Leviathan they laugh at the shaking of the Spear and as the Servants of Atheistical Benhadad diligently catch every word seeming to favour their flattery of Impunity that they may treasure up wrath by impenitence more and more against the day of wrath 15. To these am I sent with happy Tydings that howsoever the Abyss of Mercy hath winked at the faults of the days of Ignorance yet now commandeth he all men every where to repent also with heavy Tydings that if in this their day they neglect so great Salvation how shall they escape Which Question none in Heaven Earth or Hell answereth Again if they that sinned against Moses Law died without Mercy and it might seem the bottom of Misery to die a merciless Death of how much sorer punishment shall they be thought worthy who have trampled under foot the Son of God and blasphemously counted the Blood of the Covenant an unholy thing and done despite to the Spirit of Grace of how much sorer punishment is that Question but which either is unanswerable or which Eternity can only unfold 16. A murthered Body is the sorrow and pity

as saith our Lord My Father worketh hitherto and I work 2. Hath not Man brought himself in a most wretched degree o● the Curse by the Fall of Toil and Labour and Confusion of Language it is on the Work and Word what hath and is man more A great aggravation of this Misery is either when we sit down under Bondage in Soul and Body feeding among Swine having a Beast's Heart as Nebuchadnezar and groan not after working in God and for God which would gradually deliver from the Curse Also when we mistake our present working-time and flatter our selves with undue and imaginary rest whereas we are here in the Seed time in a Journey in the six days of Work 2. But thou my Soul spare no pains spur thy lazy Asso●iate my Body subject it to the Cross to free you both from the Cross endure patiently die daily and having done all stand empty thy self lose thy self pour out thy self Let not thy Will be bought but pay it to the Owner give and resign it gladly and irrevocably As to thy Name be content it should wither as if blasted with the East Wind be willing to be nameless the Memory of it to be as written on the Sand and while here to be a Fool a Child an off-scouring any thing or nothing yet must not thy work stop let it proceed chearfully till thy Body like the Matter of a Taper be consumed if then thou art found so doing no sooner shall this Candle expire but the Sun will rise who shall never set and the Sabbath enter at the end of the Week On the 36th Question and Answer Of the difference of the Mortal Creatures their Chaos kind and how distinguish'd 1. Had we the Intellect of an Angel the distinct Properties would be as an Index by their Idea to the voluminous Book of the great Mystery and the Idea of the Creatures as it were pourtray the Potent Will and Properties of the Abyss Or had we Adam's bright Eye we might read their Names in the Language of Nature and in them the Names Power and Vigor of our own three Principles but falling so far below both as that many of the Bruits themselves may instruct us in several things How weak are our Enquiries how perplext our Aphorisms and Process The ancient Magi direct us to know the seven Properties by the seven regal Stars and Governors which are the Spirits of the seven Metals and impress the Vertues of the seven precious Stones while many of Modern Pretenders to Wisdom having lost the Spirit Life and Essence of Nature fill their Heads only with the Names Mood Figure and Grasp at Shadows of things 2. Behold how various are the Species how curious the Symmetry how agil the Composure even of many Insects how wonderful the Transmigration and Product of the Silk-worm the Confection of the Bee with her Feminine Monarchy how crafty the Nets of the Spiders how providently laborious the Ant wherewith our Lord upbraids our slothfulness and we gratifie our Pride with the Silk and our Palate with the Honey instead of searching out and adoring of the most High in these his little Creatures yet are these little ones great compar'd with those to the bare Eye invisible and only visible in good Glasses which sits spinning in Sage leaves and yet how many Atoms may that Creature be divided into Consider we their Sympathy and Society not only of Flocks and Herds but of Birds of Prey as Rooks Stares Storks also their Antipathy as the Thresher and Sword-fish against the Whale 3. But now how highly necessary is it that from this open Door all should impartially search themselves to see whether their Spirits are imaged according to the Evil Creatures and if they find the Powers of the dark World predominant that they learn to die to them else they die in them shall rise in them and live everlastingly in them and of what infinite concern endless Misery is all reasonable Creatures may judge Whereas if by the Spirit of Life we mortifie the Deeds that is the lusts of the Body of Sin we shall by the same Spirit be raised now in the first Resurrection which excludes the second Death and begets the Divine Life springing up through Death by self-emptying where no Creature nor all of them hath any room but the Lord and those only to Contemplate his Grace and Infinity in On the 37th Question and Answer To what end and wherefore were the mortal Creatures made 1. When the gracious Creator placed Man here it was in a Farm well stockt but that which meets my Meditation on the present Subject in the last Paragraph of the Answer which is the Eternity of them in their Idea how fading and transitory soever they are The glorious Work of the Creation is not a bare Pageantry it must cease as to its present Forms but not vanish into a non-entity for it shall bud forth for the sake of it's Tincture by the strife of the Properties to the Glory of the God of Glory and as Instances or Trophies of the Victory the weak Members of the Almighty Lord Jesus Christ have obtain'd by their Lord's strength fortifying them to tr●ad his steps and follow him in the Regeneration 2. By the reverting of those Figures shall the blessed see how meekly the patient Lambs and other good Creatures pour'd out their lives how quick and punctually the Fowls contributed as did the Quails and Raven how readi●y the Inhabitants of the Water yield themselves as those to the Apostles Nets how liberally the Olive and other Fruit Trees pour'd forth their fatness and the Elements their several Stores And to the cursed Rejecters of God shall all Creatures be plain material Demonstrations of their Abuses by Man's Excess and Cruelty the toil of the laborious Oxe the sweat of the macerated Horse the life of a multitude of other Creatures profusely lavished away to pamper base sordid Lusts run as with one cry not as the Lambs against a devouring Wolf or the Turtle against the Vulture but that as those Devils in Humane shape should ransack the Indies and four Elements to humour their insatiable Lusts. 3. What Arguments my Soul may be drawn hence for Sobriety Moderation Humility Thankfulness Improvement of the Strength given us liberal breaking to the Poor and Mercy to the Dumb Creatures of doing all not only as before the Omniscient Eye who will be a swift Witness before the good Angels Devils our own Consciences but the whole Creation also who as they the Creatures partake of the Properties and Tincture are branches of the whole Astral and Elementary Creation shall in their Aethers be more than a meer History viz. an express material Representation and Wi●ness for or against thee in the other Country though the Fool and Atheist will not know it On the 38th Question and Answer Of that whence Man's Body was taken 1. If they to whom the Word of God came are called God's what was