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
A39665	Husbandry spiritualized, or, The heavenly use of earthly things consisting of many pleasant observations, pertinent applications, and serious reflections and each chapter concluded with a divine and suitable poem : directing husband-men to the most excellent improvements of their common imployments : whereunto is added ... several choice occasional meditations / by John Flavell.	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1674 (1674)	Wing F1166; ESTC R26136	198,385	305

soul who gave thee a season a day for eternal life which is more than he hath done for thousands yea bless the Lord for giving thee an heart to understand and improve that season I confess I have not improved it as I ought yet this I can through mercy say that how ever it fare in future times with my outward man though I have no treasures or stores laid up on earth or if I have they are but corruptible yet I have a blessed hope laid up in heaven Col. 1. 5. I have bags that wax not old Whilst worldlings rejoyce in their stores and heaps I will rejoyce in these eternal treasures The Poem OBserve in Summers sultry heat how in the hottest day The Husbandman doth toyl and sweat about his Corn and Hay If then he should not reap and mow and gather in his store How should he live when for the snow he can't move out of door The little Ants and painful Bees by natures instinct led These have their Summer granaries for Winter furnished But thou my soul whose Summers day is almost past and gone What soul-provision dost thou lay in stock to spend upon If nature teacheth to prepare for temporal life much rather Grace should provoke to greater care soul food in time to gather Dayes of affliction and distress are hasting on apace If now I live in carelessness how sad will be my case Unworthy of the name of man who for that soul of thine Wil t not do that which others can do for their very kine Think frugal Farmers when you see your mows of Corn and Hay What a conviction this will be to you another day Who ne're were up before the Sun nor break an hours rest For your poor souls as you have done so often for a beast Learn once to see the difference betwixt eternal things And these poor transient things of sence that fly with eagles wings CHAP. XVII When from Tare seeds you see choice Wheat to grow Then from your lusts may joy and comfort flow OBSERVATION GOd gives to every seed it s own body 1 Cor. 15. 38. At first he created every Tree and herb of the field having its seed in it self for the conservation of the species and they all inviolably observe the Law of their Creation All fruits naturally rise out of the seeds and roots proper to them Men do not gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles Such productions would be monstrous in nature and although the juice or sap of the earth be the common matter of all kind of fruits yet it is specificated according to the different sorts of Plants and seeds it nourishes Where Wheat is sown it 's turned into Wheat in an apple Tree it becomes an apple and so in every sort of Plants or seeds it 's concocted into fruit proper to the kind APPLICATION TRanslate this into spirituals and the proposition shadowed forth by it is fully expressed by the Apostle Gal. 6. 7. What a man sows that shall be reap they that sow to the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption and they that sow to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting And as sure as the harvest follows the seed-time so sure shall such fruits and effects result from the seeds of such actions He that soweth iniquity shall reap vanity Prov. 22. 8. And they that now go forth weeping and bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again rejoycing bringing their sheaves with them Psal. 126. 5. The sum of all is this That our present actions have the same respect and relation to future rewards and punishments as the seed we sow in our fields hath to the harvest we reap from it Every gracious action is the seed of joy and every sinful action the seed of anguish and sorrow to the soul that sowed it Two things are sensibly presented to us in this ●imilitude That as the seed sown is presently covered from our sight under the clods and for some time after we see no more of it and yet at last it appears again by which it's evident to us that it is not finally lost So our present actions though physically transient and perhaps forgotten yet are not lost but after a time shall appear again in order to a retribution If this were not so all good and holy actions would be to the loss of him that performed them All the self-denial spending duties and sharp sufferings of the people of God would turn to their damage though not in point of honesty yet in point of personal utility and then also what difference would there be betwixt the actions of a man and a beast with respect to future good or evil yea man would then be more feared and obeyed than God and souls be swayed in all their motions only by the influence of present things and where then would Religion be found in the world 'T is an excellent note of Drexellius Our works saith he do not pass away as soon as they are done but as seed sown shall after a time rise up to all eternity whatever we think speak or do once spoken thought or done is eternal and abides for ever What Zeuxes the famous Limner said of his work may be truly said of all our works Aeternitati pingo I paint for eternity O how careful should men be of what they speak and do whilst they are commanded so to speak and so to do as those that shall be judged by the perfect law of liberty Iam. 2. 12. What more transient than a vain word and yet for such words men shall give an account in the day of judgment Mat. 12. 36. That 's the first thing Actions like seed shall rise and appear again in order to a retribution The other thing held forth in this similitude is That according to the nature of our actions now will be the fruit and reward of them then Though the fruit or consequence of holy actions for the present may seem bitter and the fruit of sinful actions sweet and pleasant yet there is nothing more certain that that their future fruits shall be according to their present nature and quality 2 Cor. 5. 10. Then Dionisius shall retract that saying Ecce quam prospera navigatio a Deo datur sacrilegis Behold how God favours our sacriledge Sometimes indeed though but rarely God causes sinners to reap in this world the same that they have sown as hath been their sin such hath been their punishment It was openly confessed by Adonibezek Iudg. 1. 7. as I have done so hath God requited me Socrates in his Church History furnishes us with a pertinent passage to this purpose concerning Valens the Emperor who was an Arrian and a bitter persecutor of the Christians This man when eighty of the Orthodox Christians failed from Constantinople to Nicomedia to treat with him about the points of Arrianism and to settle the matter by

conclude let all doubting Christians reflect seriously upon this truth and suck marrow and fatness out of it to strengthen and establish them against all their fears your life your spiritual life hath for many years hanged in suspence before you and you have often said with David I shall one day fall by the hand of Saul Desponding trembling soul lift up thine eyes and look upon the fields the corn lives still and grows up though birds have watcht to devour it snows have covered it beasts have cropt it weeds have almost choakt it yet it 's preserved And hath not God more care of that precious seed of his own spirit in thee than any Husbandman hath of his corn hath he not said That having begun the good work in thee he will perfect it to the day of Christ Phil. 2. 6. Hath he not said I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish Iohn 12. 28. Hast thou not many times said and thought of it as thou dost now and and yet it lives O what matter of unspeakable joy and comfort is this to upright souls Well then be not discharged for thou dost not run as one uncertain nor fight as one that beats the air 1 Cor. 9. 26. but the foundation of God stands sure having this seal the Lord knows who are his 2 Tim. 2. 19. Though thy grace be weak thy God is strong though the stream seem sometimes to fail yet it 's fed by an ever-flowing fountain The Poem 'T Is justly wondered that an ear of corn Should come at last in safety to the Barn It runs through many hazards threatning harms Betwixt the sowers hands and reapers arms The earth no sooner takes it from the sack But you may see behind the sowers back A troop of thieves which would at once destroy That seed in which lyes hid the seed of joy This dangerous period past it soon doth fall Into a second no less critical It shooteth forth the tender blade and then The noxious weeds engender it again These clasp about it till they kindly choak The corn as flattering Ivy doth the oak Are weeds destroyed and all that danger past Lo now another comes the worst at last For when i' th ear it blow begins to kern As mildew smites it which you can't discern Nor any way prevent till all be lost The corn destroy'd with all your hopes and cost Thus saving grace that precious seed of joy Which hell and nature plot how to destroy Escapes ten thousand danger 's first and last O who can say now all the danger 's past 'T is like a crazy bark tost in a storm Or like a taper which is strangely born Without a lanthorn in a blustring night Or like to glimmering sparks whose dying light Is still preserv'd The roaring waves swell high Like moving mountains in the darkned sky On their proud back the little bark is even Mounted unto the battlements of heaven From thence dismounted to the deeps doth slide Receiving water upon every side Yet he whose voice the proudest waves obey Brings it at last into the quiet key The blustring winds strive with a fatal puff To bring the tapor to a stinking snuff Their churlish blasts extinguish it and then Our gentle breath recovers it agen The fainting sparks beneath the ashes lye Where choakt and smother'd they begin to dye But these collected we do gently blow Till from faint sparks to lively flames they grow Even thus is grace preserv'd thus kept alive By constant wonders Grace doth live and thrive CHAP. XIV Our Husbandmen for Harvest wait and stay O let not any Saint do less than they OBSERVATION THe expectation of a good Harvest at last makes the Husbandman with untired patience to digest all his labours He that plows plow in hope 1 Cor. 6. 19. and they are not so irrational to think they shall presently be partakers of their hope nor so foolish to anticipate the Harvest by cutting down their corn before it be fully ripened but are content to plow sow and weed it and when it 's fully ripe then they go forth into their fields and reap it down with joy APPLICATION CAn a little Corn cause men to digest so many difficult labours and make them wait with invincible patience till the reaping time come much more should the expectation of eternal glory steel and fortifie my spirit against all intercurrent hardships and difficulties It least of all becomes a Christian to be of a hasty and impatient spirit Light is sown for the righteous and joy for the upright in heart Psal. 92. 11. Behold the Husbandman waiteth c. Iam. 5. 7. Be patient therefore my Brethren for the coming of the Lord draws neer There are three great Arguments to perswade Christians to a long-suffering and patient frame under sufferings 1 The example of Christ Isa. 53. 7. to think how quietly he suffered all injuries and difficulties with invincible patience is sufficient to shame the best of Christians who are of such short Spirits I have read of one Elezarius a noble man that when his wife wondered at his exceeding great patience in bearinig njuries he thus answered her You know sometimes my heart is ready to rise with indignation against such as wrong me but I presently begin to think of the wrongs that Christ suffer'd and say thus to my self although thy servant should pluck thy beard and smite thee on thy face this were nothing to what thy Lord suffer'd he suffered more and greater things and assure your self wife I never leave off thinking on the injuries done to my Saviour till such time as my mind be still and quiet To this purpose it was well noted by Bernard speaking of Christ's humiliation was Christ the Lord of glory thus humbled and emptied of his fulness of glory and shall such a worm as I swell 2 The desert of sin Lam. 3. 39. Why doth the living man complain It was a good saying of blessed Greenham When sin lyes heavy affliction lyes light And it is a famous instance which Dr. Taylor gives us of the Duke of Condey I have read saith he when the Duke of Condia had voluntarily entred into the incommodities of a religious poverty and retirement he was one day spied and pitied by a Lord of Italy who out of tenderness wisht him to be more careful and nutritive of his person the good Duke answered Sir be not troubled and think not that I am ill provided of conveniences for I send an Harbinger before me that makes ready my lodgings and takes care that I be royally entertained The Lord asked him who was his Harbinger he answered the knowledge of my self and the consideration of what I deserve for my sins wh●ch is eternal torments and when with this knowledge I arrive at my lodging how unprovided soever I find it methinks it is ever better than I deserve and as the sense of sin which