Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	faith_n	heart_n	life_n	6,559	5	4.3541	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64962	The great change discoursed of in a funeral sermon, occasioned by the death of Mrs. Martha Thompson, late wife of Captain William Thompson in Wapping. Preached by Nathanael Vincent, M A. minister of the gospel.	Vincent, Nathanael, 1639?-1697.	1682 (1682)	Wing V408; ESTC R219229	19,844	35

is come indeed Believers are engaged in a Warfare and they must stand to their Arms and be upon Duty till the Captain of their Salvation call them off in order to their crowning They have need of Patience that they may act and fight and suffer unweariedly Hark to the Apostle Heb. 10. 36 37. For ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may receive the promise for yet a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry All our life long by patient continuance in well doing we must seek for glory and honour and immortality and then upon our dissolution we shall lay hold of that life which is eternal In the second place I am to lay down the Reasons why 't is the Saints practise to wait for their change 1. Because the coming of it is so certain in it self and so uncertain as to the time when 't will be All our cares cannot prevent our Change Death will surely come The Decree concerning it is much more unalterable than those of the Medes and Persians Dan. 6. 12. But the time of its approach is concealed To some it comes in the evening of their Age to some at mid-day to some in the very morning of their time All graves are not of a length Some old and that 's no wonder some Infants and some in their greatest vigor have been struck down by Death and shall rise no more till the last day All therefore at all times should be watchful 2. The spiritual advantage is vastly great which follows upon serious waiting for their change Waiting for Death will make men flee from sin When Satan speaks of sin's pleasure and gain if answer be made O but at death will sin be thought pleasant and gainful This will be enough to silence him Waiting for Death will make this World contemptible When Esau was at the point of Death he cries out What profit will this birth right do me Gen. 25. 32. So if we have Death in our eye we shall cry out What profit will the World then do us when we are just about to leave it Again Waiting for death will keep our Affections moderate neither grief nor joy will be excessive about earthly things Christ will be the more prized and Heaven more longed for 3. The misery is inconceivable which falls upon them who never thought of Death so as to be prepared for it It is terrible in it self but hell following after it has ten thousand times a more terrible second Death is sent unto the ungodly in wrath as an Excecutioner they dye as malefactors The righteous indeed are cut down as Corn that is fully ripe that it may be gathered into the barn Mat 13. 30 But Death hews down the wicked as a man fells fuel for the fire they are evil trees that cumber the earth Luk. 13. 7. Cut it down why cumbereth it the ground And immediately they become eternal feul for those flames that never can be quenched Vse 1. Of Reproof to those who can't endure to think of Death or if they do make an ill use of it Many quite banish the thoughts of dying they are resolved to live wickedly and don't care to consider that such a life will end nor to consider how 't will end The Rich Man had Death quite out of his thoughts and reckon'd upon living many years in which he should take his ease eat drink and be merry When Death was entring in at his door and his Soul just ready to be required God calls this man a fool and after he was out of the World he saw reason to call himself by that Name for ever Others also are sharply to be reproved who because they must dye are resolved to indulge the Flesh while they may What profane frantick Epicures were they who said Let us eat and drink to day for we shall die to morrow Vse 2. Of Exhortation to the imitation of Holy Job in tbe Text. Let me perswade you all All the days of your appointed time to be waiting for your Change Have many a solicitous thought whither it is that Death will send you Ask your Souls whither they are likely to go when they dislodge and leave this Earthly Tabernacle Dye you must 't is dreadful to dye in sin and few dye otherwise Prepare I beseech you for that which you cannot avoid 'T is in vain when death is within view to plead thus O Death I never thought of thy approach none of my main work alas is done I am utterly unfit to go to the Judgment-Seat If I dye now I dye miserable and shall be miserable for ever Death comes at Gods command and whether you are prepared or unprepared when God says Strike it cannot hold its hand Think of this and let Death find you ready come when it will Two things you are here to be advised to 1. Let there be a looking to Jesus to take out the Sting of Death Believe in him that he may give you Victory over this last Enemy Christ can deliver you from the Curse of the Law now the Law the Apostle tells you is the strength of Sin as Sin is the Sting of Death Apply and relie upon the Blood of Jesus to be Justified and to be Saved from Wrath. The Apostle desired to be sound in Christ and if Death find you in him it may kill you but it can't hurt you nay if you are in Christ and live to him Death will be gain and greater gain than while you live you can conceive 2. Look unto Jesus to be freed from that bondage which is caused by the fear of dying Heb. 2. 14 15. You cannot be compleatly happy while you live because you will remain incompleatly Holy Study the vanity of every thing that makes you fond of Living Clear up your interest in Jesus Christ and preserve Conscience clear and peaceable And let your Eye be after your Risen and Ascended Lord who was dead and is alive and lives for evermore that so you may long to go to him to be with him in those mansions he is gone to prepare O beg for Conquest over your Fears and that you may see heaven plainly by the Eye of Faith and heaven open and Christ ready to receive your Spirits assoon as you have put off your sleshly Tabernacle Life is then lead in peace when Death ceases to be dreaded and becomes desirable An Epitaph upon Mrs. Martha Thompson Her Name was Martha but she had the Heart Of Mary for She chose the Better part In patience meekness humbleness of Mind She did Excel the most of Womankind She waited for her Change which being Come She 's at her Blisful and Eternal Home Her Friends lament they 've lost her whereas She Has bid Farewel World Sin and Misery FINIS Books Published by Mr. Nathanael Vincent Sold by T. Parkhurst 1. The Spirit of Prayer with directions to attain the Gift 2. Worthy walking the Call of the Gospel 3. Heaven or Hell upon Earth in a Discourse concerning Conscience 4. The little Childs Catechism with several short Histories 5. Mr. Janeway's Funeral Sermon 6. Mrs. Bakers Funeral Sermon 7. The True Touch-stone which shews both Grace and Nature

the loss they have sustained and that her Mother may have extraordinary strength vouchsafed that she may not be over-whelmed and dye with extremity of grief and sorrow Such an one she was while she lived and to conclude Her God was with her when she was in the valley of the shadow of Death Melancholick vapours prevailing Satan took an advantage against to perplex her with hurries and doubts and fears But not many hours before she died the Clouds were scattered and Evidences for Heaven clear'd When I asked her concerning the frame of her Spirit Her answer was she had no Doubts at all these were her very words concerning her Eternal State Mark the perfect and behold the upright for the end of such is peace Well She who was so serious and attentive an hearer among us that used with such longings after Christ and hungrings after Righteousness to Communicate with us at the Lords Supper her Change is come and she is joyned to another Congregation She is gone to the Heavenly Jerusalem to the general Assembly and Church of the First-born to an innumerable company of Angels and the spirits of just men made perfect where her Eternal employment will be to be singing hallelujahs to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever Doctr. 3 The Third Doctrine follows To be waiting for their Change is the practise of the Saints and would be the wisdom of all Thus Job in the Text waited the thoughts of Death were so frequent and familiar that he seemed to dwell in the Grave while alive the Grave is my House he claims kindred with the Worms and Corruption I have said to Corruption thou art my Father to the Worm thou art my Mother and my Sister In the handling of this Doctrine I shall 1. Tell you what it is to wait for this Change 2. Why thus to wait is the Saints practise and if there be good reason for their practise 't will be evident without more ado that this would be the Wisdom of all Lastly conclude with the Application I begin with the First What it is to wait for this Change 1. Waiting implies a firm belief and perswasion that this Change will be 'T is easie in the general to believe that all must dye but particularly to apply this to ones self is very difficult this knowledge of ones own frailty comes from Heaven and a right Faith concerning Dying is really the gift and work of God Hark to David Psal 39 4. Lord make me to know my end and the measure of my days what it is that I may know how frail I am and being thus taught then he cries out My days are an hand-breadth and my age is as nothing before thee 2. An expectation of this change as that which is possible every day The Apostle protests that he died daily 1 Cor 15. 31. He not only advanced in the work of mortification and dying to sin and this world every day but he lookt upon Death as every day possible Stobeus Ser. 1. Relates of Musonius that he was of this opinion that A man cannot live a day well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless he lives it as his last How many accidents may befal us that may dispatch us and speed us into another world every day If death be every day possible 't is but rational to take notice daily of that possibility 3. Waiting for this change implies preparation for its coming And truly hic labor hoc opus est here lies the great difficulty Much must be done before a man can be fit to dye much must be done in him much must be done by him several other changes must go before that great change or else that great change will be a dismal one 1. The State must be changed Mans natural State is a State of wrath he must therefore come to the Son of God that he may be justified by his blood and pass out of this State of wrath into a State of grace This is excellently expressed by the Apostle Rom. 5. 1 2. Being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoyce in hope of the glory of God If the State be changed fear of death may be turned into a joyful hope of future glory 2. The heart must be changed the heart of man by him that is the heart-searcher has a very bad Character given it 'T is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked Jer. 17. 9. Out of the heart proceeds whatever does defile the man The heart therefore must be made a new one that its thoughts desires affections designs may become clean and holy and that this change may be wrought God must be sought and his promise pleaded Ezek. 36. 26. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you 3. The life must be changed and where there is a new heart indeed there will be a walking in newness of life Holiness of life is necessary in respect of Gods honour and the Gospels credit we must cast off the works of darkness and be zealous of good works for after death we shall be judged according to our works Now that the life may be thus changed we must beg that according to his promise God would put his spirit within us and cause us to walk in his statutes and to observe his judgments and do them 4. This saving change must be evidenced Grace must be increased that the actings of it being vigorous and strong its truth and being may not be doubted We must be diligent observers of our selves and in no wise contented to be at uncertainties about our eternal State A certain evidence of grace will be worth much more than a whole world when we come to lie upon a death-bed Give diligence to make all sure to make it out that you are effectually called then you may conclude your interest in Gods electing love and when you come to die an abundant entrance will be administred into the everlasting kingdom 4. Waiting for this change implies desiring it The Saints are not to expect it as an evil but to desire it as that which will put an end to evil The Apostle who was able to say To me to live is Christ adds and to die is gain And with good reason does he afterwards profess I desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better Phil. 1. 23. Christ died to unsting Death and to deliver from the fear of it The Saints need not look upon it as terrible but should groan earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with their house which is from heaven that mortality may be swallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5. 2 4. Death is theirs as well as Life Theirs to do them a kindness too much theirs to do them any injury 5. It implies Patience and establishment of heart Till this Change