Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	everlasting_a	reap_v	sow_v	6,865	5	10.5221	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30678	A soveraign antidote against the fear of death: or, A cordial for a dying Christian Being ten select meditations, wherein a Christians objections are answered, and his doubts and fears removed, and many convincing motives and arguments are laid down to perswade him to a willing submission to Gods will, whether he be sent for by a natural or a violent death. By Edward Bury formerly minister of Great Bolas in Shropshire.	Bury, Edward, 1616-1700.	1681 (1681)	Wing B6211; ESTC R218706	177,227	388

in riches sometimes in one thing sometimes in another as may most suit with thy inclinations sometimes the world smiles upon thee and so seeks to ensnare thee by her Syren song Sometimes she frowns upon thee to make thee despond and sometimes threatens thee to drive thee from thy duty and thy own heart is the most treacherous enemy ready to open and to let them in Now in this desperate danger who is it can live delightfully who is it can delight in such a Neighbourhood when the most righteous is a thorn and the most upright is as a thorny hedge Can any wise man delight to live among such mortal enemies whom nothing will satisfy but the souls ruine canst contentedly suffer atheistical thoughts darted into thy soul concerning God under-valuing thoughts of Christ of Scripture of divine Providence c. If thou give them no entertainment they must needs be thy trouble but the danger is if the Devil find thee unarmed and so thou close with his temptations Is it not much better for thee to be where the Devil the world and the flesh cannot reach thee and shall never more molest thee now this is in Heaven for he is cast out thence and his place is no more found thou maist bid them defiance for they cannot reach thee now when death comes thy victory is won the battel is over and the Crown is thine and the enemy will quit the field Now thy life is tormenting by reason of sin and the consequent of sin and 't is no small mercy to be delivered from the danger which while thou art on this side Heaven thou canst not be and then there shall be no corruption within and so no danger of temptation without the Devil himself as well as sin is there cast out and his place is found no more there here he is alwaies casting floods out of his mouth to drown the woman and though he cannot drown the Church he may affright her Christ that Man-child was not free from his temptations though he was well able to resist them but he layes many a stumbling-block in thy way and many times thou hast stumbled at them and much ado thou hast had to keep on in that path which is called holy that narrow path that leadeth unto life many times thou treadest beside it sometimes on the right hand and sometimes on the left and 't is well if at last thou thred the narrow and strait gate which thou art not like to do if thou deny Christ to save thy life thou canst not open thy eyes but the Devil presents some object or other to divert thy mind he fits his baits according to mens dispositions he baits his hooks to take the wanton with a beautiful harlot he hath a Bathshebah for David a wedge of Gold for Achan a Companion for the Drunkard one vanity or other draws away the heart from God as the Indians are inticed with Feathers and Shells and other Gewgaws to part with their more rich Merchandize Job 31.1 Well may Job make a covenant with his eyes not to look upon a maid for by looking many times comes lusting and if thou open thy ears thou let'st in some sin or sorrow to the heart for either thou wilt hear something that may excite some lust or other pride passion covetousness uncleanness c. or thou wilt hear swearing ribald talking lying slandering or such like which may provoke thee to indignation or sorrow and thy other senses also are Floodgates to let in sin or sorrow yea 't is much adoe to use lawful things lawfully thy table thy meat and thy drink the cloaths thou wearest the house thou livest in the means thou enjoyest all become snares and every sense becomes a caterer for the flesh latet anguis in herbas danger lies in all these and poyson is mixt with all our dainties and hadst thou more the danger would be more for the Devil will use his utmost endeavour to make it all to be Fuel for pride or lust or some other filthy vice he can bait his hooks and that to purpose with any thing lawful or unlawful licitis perimus omnes for if he can perswade us either to use unlawful things or lawful things in an unlawful way he hath his desire and we are taken in his snares but when thou comest to Heaven thou art freed from all these Temptations Well may he bark at thee as a Dog barks at the Moon but cannot reach thee or pull thee out of thy Orb he may shake his Chain but he can neither hurt thee nor fright thee And thus thou seest Death cannot hurt but will much advantage thee it will free thee from thy sin and from thy sorrow and put thee out of the reach of all thine Enemies for neither the Devil nor his Instruments can then do thee hurt thou art set out of the reach of wicked men as Lazarus was out of the reach of Dives What sayest thou wilt yield to go when God calls thee and welcome the Messenger that is sent for thee O my God let me not make a foolish choyce let me not undo my self I am too apt to indulge the Flesh and too apt to venture the Soul upon the Pikes of danger I am too apt to live by Sense and not by Faith my reason tells me I should go when thou callest my Faith tells me I shall lose nothing by it Lord the Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak I live among many Enemies and those perswade me to favour my self but I know those that are Friends to my sin are Enemies to my Soul Lord I have devoted my life and all that mine is and pass'd away mine Interest in it for Christ Lord take what thine is and dispose of me and mine as thou seest fit only Lord give me in suitable Qualifications for what I have to do or Suffer and then command what thou wilt prepare me for Heaven and then send for me when and by whom thou pleasest MEDITAT IX Of Hell Torments the Reward of denying Christ OH my Soul art thou yet at a stand and knowest not yet whether 't is best to lose Christ or to lose thy Life to go to Heaven or to stay upon the earth to forsake the Creator or the Creature stand still a little and let us better consider it whether is it better lose the Soul or the Body the Jewel or the Box the Wine or the Cask but lose the body thou wilt not but only lay it to sleep a little the sooner but consider also what will be the reward of the one and of the other of dying for Christ and of denying him and as thou likest thewages make choice of the work If thou put thy hand to the Plow and look back assure thy self God will take no pleasure in thee if thou beginnest in the Spirit and endest in the Flesh of the Flesh thou wilt reap corruption but if thou sow to the Spirit

thou wilt of the Spirit reap Life Everlasting though thou hast Preached the Word to others thou thy self mayest be a Cast-away Thou maist be like to the Builders of Noah's Ark and make a Ship to save others and thy self be in the Flood or like unto the Sign at the Ale-house door that tells the Passenger where he may have shelter and yet thy self remain in the storm if thou turn thy back upon Christ notwithstanding all the Profession thou hast made he will turn his back upon thee If thou deny him before men and deny him thou dost if thou wilt not lose thy life when his cause requires it he will deny thee if thou be ashamed of him he will be ashamed of thee and he will never admit such to the Wedding if thou knock he will not open but bid thee an eternal farewell with a Verily I say unto you I know you not View a little the place appointed for Backsliders and see how thou likest of it Jude 6. The Angels that kept not their first Station but left their Habitation are reserved under blackness of darkness for ever and dost believe God will have more Mercy upon thee than upon them if thou commit the like sin 't is a folly for those that remain all the day idle and will not go into the Vineyard and yet expect wages at night but 't is egregious folly for thee that hast born the burden and heat of the day and when the shadows of the evening are stretched out and the Sun is almost set to depart in a pet and leave thy Master and lose thy wages God hath plainly told thee Ezek. 33.12 that if a Righteous man shall leave his Righteousness and do that which is evil all his Righteousness shall not be remembred in his sin he shall dye If now thou revolt all thy pains for Heaven is lost and wilt thou wilfully lose forty years work and wages he that runs a race though he run never so well if he stop before he come to the end or turn back will lose the Race as sure as if he had never set out he that acts his part never so well upon the Stage and fail in the last act will miss of his applause If thou deny Christ thy life thou wilt lose it but if thou be willing to sacrifice thy life for his sake it may be he will never require it yet shalt not thou lose thy reward but if thou deny it thou wilt lose it and thy self with it if God be not glorified by thee he will be glorified upon thee in thy destruction if thou lose thy Soul to save thy life thou makest a bad bargain The loss of a Joint or Limb may haply bring tears from thy eyes Mat. 16 2● but what is this to the Soul and this will necessarily follow upon denying of Christ The essence and being of the Soul will not be lost this will be thy misery it shall not be annihilated or come to nothing this would be good news to a wicked man and the Atheist would willingly court himself into the belief that the Soul of man is breathed out as the Soul of a beast but this will not be nay happy would it be for them if the Soul were divisible as the body and the infernal Spirits should rend it into a thousand peices till it were rent to nothing this then were the worst it could suffer but there is a living death and a dying life if the Soul of man did expire with his breath as the soul of a beast and the whole compositum the whole man were reduced into the horrid estate of nothing to feel neither weal nor wo as the Atheist and Epicure perswades himself it were not so much but it must run parallel with the longest line of eternity and shall neither dye nor sleep with the body for this Lamp of Gods own lighting this fire of his kindling will not out the matter of it cannot be consumed hell fire will soon awaken those Atheists and light them to see their own folly and mistake yet the flame thereof cannot consume the Soul for it will prove fuel to feed those infernal and eternal flames the fire whereof never goeth out neither will the powers and faculties thereof be lost the fire will not consume them but they will be heightned and made capable of these eternal miseries and hellish torments the understanding which now is dark and by them purposely blinded shall then be inlightened they shall then better know the worth of the things they have slighted the vanity of the things they have chosen the Happiness they have lost and Misery that they are like to suffer The memory then will be enlarged and tell them of the means of Grace they have had and slighted the motions of the Spirit they have rejected the sins they have committed the duties they have omitted the covenants they have made the resolutions they have had of better obedience and by how weak temptations they have been overcome the threatnings they have had if they went on in a sinful way all which are now made good on them their conscience then will fly in their face and will not be quiet then will their evil deeds stare them in the face and say we are thy works and we will follow thee then they will call to mind at how low a rate Heaven and happiness God and glory were sold by them then their sins will cry out we are thine Jer. 17.1 and they will be ingraven upon the conscience with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond which cannot be blotted out Now thou canst lull conscience asleep or check it that it may hold its peace but then it will not be bribed but will be like a waking Lion rending the very caul of the heart and prove a never dying worm which shall feed upon thee for ever All the faculties of thy soul will then bear a part in this tragedy these will then tell thee thy God thy Saviour thy Redeemer thy Heaven thy happiness thy All is gone everlastingly gone past all hopes of recovery and all thy hopes are dasht and nothing left but endless easless and remediless torments This is the news that will continually ring in thine ears Oh what a sad what a sorrowful parting will there then be between the Soul and Body expecting a sad meeting O cursed body may the soul say for thy sake and at thy request I have denyed my God and now will he deny me I was so indulgent to thee I have undone my self to spare thee I have wounded my self to save thee a little longer I have procured eternal torments to us both to save a temporal life we are like to dye eternally Oh my soul if by denying to dye for Christ thy natural life be prolonged yet thy spiritual death will be hastned and after a few dayes this natural life which now thou purchasest at so dear