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	soul_n	word_n	7,065	5	4.2672	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96266	The narrow path of divine truth described from living practice and experience of its three great steps, viz Purgation, illumination & union according to the testimony of the holy scriptures; as also of Thomas a Kempis, the German divinity, Thauler, and such like. Or the sayings of Matthew Weyer reduced into order in three books by J. Spee. Unto which are subjoyned his practical epistles, done above 120 years since in the Dutch, and after the author's death, printed in the German language at Frankfort 1579. And in Latin at Amsterdam 1658. and now in English.	Weyer, Matthias, 1521-1560.; Spee, J.	1683 (1683)	Wing W1525A; ESTC R231717	176,738	498

make themselves more assured or may expect or receive it from any creature whatsoever but feelingly livingly and internally being convinced in their own hearts do truly become sensible of the highest love in the deepest enmity of the greatest riches in the extreamest poverty of the profoundest joy in the most pressing streights and misery and in the fiercest combat the sweetest peace and in a word in the lowest despondencies and weakness yea desperation and inconstancy the highest faithfulness and constancy ought to be found in God Here Faith comes to be tryed whether it be of man or whether it be of God for if it be of man it refuseth to choose for it self true poverty of Spirit together with the abnegation of proper happiness which it elected for it self for it denieth to assume for its conservation and happiness any thing but what is before its own eyes and is promised in words grosly understood from the Scriptures and acquiesces in the doing of them only that the Soul may be saved but if some things seem to it to be impossible to be performed it layes all that upon the shoulders of Christ as without and beyond it self and so quiets its own conscience in the best manner it can be possibly performed When as if from the most inward secrets of its own Soul it would confess the truth it would indeed tell you of a conscience not soundly pacified but rather of one that gnaweth and tormenteth unless it strives of set purpose to hide the true state of the matter But if such a one be about to object and say This is the Devil that thus accuseth and blameth a man in his conscience from which notwithstanding any one may be freed by and thorough Christ Well then it this is the Devil that thus accuseth him without any Lie and yet by this accusation keepeth him still captive in his chaines for he hath not as yet forsaken him then Christ dwelling in him also hath not as yet set him thus at liberty from the Devil Hell and Sin that his freedom and reconciliation might be truly found to be in Christ himself Because for him for whom Christ dyed in him also he ought to rise again so as Death Sin the Devil and Hell may have no just right over him yea not so much as to touch him with the least finger because that he being plainly freed from all these by Christ dwelling in him he is become a member of his body against which can no accusation or condemnation be brought for even as the head is found blameless in innocency so also is the whole body with all its members Let every one narrowly prove himself before he boasteth himself to be a member of this body for Christ is not so vile in us as we may think him to be nor is the imitation of him so small a thing that it can be comprehended and known by our gross natural reason Because as he was supernaturally conceived and born so in like manner did he operate and speak yea whatever is manifested concerning Christ ought to be most exactly expressed in us in Spirit and Life and in divine truth therefore he that will glory that he understands and knows Christ and is a partaker of him it behooveth him in the same manner with Christ to be regenerated in Spirit so 〈◊〉 that it is no longer he but Christ who liveth in him And then indeed no Devil nor any accusation can touch him moreover he also will himself judge of all far otherwise then by the light judgmen● of a natural man seeing all the mysteryes of the Scripture are to all that i● of Nature left in him occult and hidden until the man be transplanted into th● likeness of Christ where not the leas● room is left for nature inasmuch as she is condemned already as being at enmity even with God himself Thus I have briefly and succinctly laid before thee those things which are ordinarily met with in them who conceive a zeal for God that thou mayest learn cautiously to proceed in thes● matters and that thou be not driven hither and thither by every wind of doctrine but that thou mayest finish thy combat with a serious and most arden zeal until the Lord shall guide thee a● last unto the regeneration which is do●● in spirit being frequently invoked b● prayers and sighs after many adversities and both inward and outward sorrows by which a man is wonderfully put forward towards that which he aims at The Lord grant to thee his grace in his own time that thou mayest at last become joyfully sensible in the secret of thy heart of those most excellent helps and victories which are attained to thorough the cross sufferings and pains EPIST. II. Concerning the most subtil craftiness of Humane Nature To the same Lady THe Lord multiply unto thee the benediction of internal grace and the right understanding of his will inasmuch as his will cannot be acknowledged by nature left to herself seeing she is plainly contrary thereunto although sometimes she may seem to be thoroughly united unto it for all men do with open mouths boast of the knowledge of God and no man will be wanting in that every body cries that he is arrived thereat and that he hath fully obtained it I speak o● those who study their own righteousness and give up themselves to God and trus● confidently before God that they ar● made free thorough Jesus Christ wher● notwithstanding such a man never ye● arrived in the least to truly know himself and hath never as yet observed the most crafty temptations and the seducements of his own nature because he esteemed that for good which on the quite contrary did draw him farthest away from God and his motions and comes quite opposit to all those things which God willeth and desireth Here thou must diligently have a care rightly to understand the nature and desires of that propriety which give me leave to call Tuity or Thiness which dwells in the flesh and yet bears before it a certain appearance of some spiritual quality For all men are lead captive by this enemy none excepted though he be the most devout yea though he may seem to live the life of an Angel and may bring to light wonderful secrets yet will he be no less then the rest catcht and bound in these most subtle fetters And although some begin to be aware of these snares yet for all that some other such like trap is laid more fine●y and secretly which the fall into ●ometimes which afterwards doth afresh ●●●rify them when as before they seem●● to themselves to have obtained illumination salvation Yea even God himself Now this a man cannot know unless 〈◊〉 be lead thorough them and tries all 〈◊〉 God for in such a man these mat●ers cannot be more plainly or deeply ●●planted so as to abide in that presence of God true indeed they may partly be ●omprehended by Nature but when Nature is withdrawn

advancement And then also that which is evil in us is felt and for its fake we can be affected with sorrow and can confess it in the sight of God Therefore prosperous things are not to be sought nor adversity to be avoided For adversity is always safe and does advance us in the Knowledge of our selves And it behooveth a man to be wary and to be in perpetual exercise and trial Sweetness is deceitful and Nature desireth it Bitterness is a Medicine and Nature hateth it and therefore we must do not that which we will but that which we hate CHAP. XXI TO abstain from inordinate and unprofitable words makes a man as if he were dumb and causeth him to be silent in many cases which else he would talk of A lascivious tongue extinguisheth zeal and renders a man inordinate and weak and unfit to overcome temptations In which way soever I am willing to go forwards according to life the gate is shut against me and then death is my refuge I must therefore shut the eye of life and rest quiet in death If I had before-hand known this affliction in which I now lie I had dyed for meer grief but now when I am in it God keeps me in it and I can bear it I never before had believed that the case would be thus as now I find it Judgment doth so drive me that I can have neither comfort nor hope nor faith either in God or in the creature Thus the Natural Man is suppressed by judgment and thus the rod hangeth over him and which way soever he looks death meets him but the mind is free I have no torture of Soul and such sufferings as Francis Spira endured I am ignorant of them Adam was created pure in spirit Soul and Body but by his fall he departed from God and tumbled down into his ownself he became estranged from God and was made his own propriety and a servant of the creatures And this same growth of self is nothing else but our desire endeavour or study of appropriating to our selves which afterwards is so subjected unto judgment that it can have no comfort or life either in God or in the creature Therefore it behooveth us to be reduced again into nothing in respect of all things about which we are made somewhat and then at length God will be all himself in the man himself and that instead of his own propriety and then a Man is restored without propriety And then a man findeth God with God and serveth God with God and that is pleasing to God For God hath no good pleasure but in his ownself Judgment is exercised upon this his propriety and then that loseth all hope of restitution and nothing is due unto it either as to God or as to the creature Thus it may be understood what the fall of Adam is viz. appropriation Therefore are also he is to expect judgment and that too must be acknowledged to be just CHAP. XXII WIthout affliction it is impossible to be promoted in God and to have inward peace for where one is to be promoted or advanced in God and to have inward peace there it behooveth the natural man to be purged from lusts and to have no more delight life or joy in the creature but to want all these and to be suppressed in death and to be fastened to the cross So the Apostle saith They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and 〈◊〉 thereof It behooveth me to give place to judgment and therefore I am without al● solicitude for things temporal whence they may be acquired For I have not 〈◊〉 much time left that my senses can meditate on such a thing It behooveth me to be stripped of the images of all things and therefore I remain without purpose and without councel nor do I know what in time to come I am to do or leave undone to be silent in or to speak but as things are at present so they glide away without my privitie and when all things are past and done I am no more sollicitous concerning them My business is to attend that that is present and incumbent upon me That I thus suffer it is not for my piety but for evil sin and propriety because I descend from Adam over all whom judgment and death is impending without hope of recovery For whatsoever Adam hath he hath it unjustly he is therefore to be dispoiled of all things that he may want all things and retain nothing neither comfort nor pleasure nor joy either as to God or as to the creature for nothing is due unto him nothing belongs unto him he also himself can never attain unto any truth but he is condemned and dyeth in Christ But whatsoever afterwards riseth again in Christ is clean and without appropriation That Christ hath condemned sin it self is not to be understood as if he had sin in himself or he is pure like the sun void of all impurity Whence it is that no unrighteousness can stand before him but as filthiness it is condemned by him just as in the Sun all impurity is detected and demonstrated to be impurity So that the sun cannot endure it but rather des●r●yeth it So Jesus Christ is the Sun of righteousness who by his own proper light virtue and pulchritude condemneth all injustice and unrighteousness and suffers no darkness to stand before him I lie like the trunck of a tree nor have I in me any activity but I suffer only all that that is done in me but I cannot act either by reason or by understanding My state is passive not active the active went before and I also once had it so as also it ought to be or else I had not come unto this Only it is not permitted to me that I may or can act or form in my self the image of any thing We must suffer even in the smallest matters for he that refuseth that cannot be promoted in God by the suggestions of the spirit the suggestions of Nature are to be denyed that satisfaction may be given to the Spirit no man ought to follow Nature that so the will of God may be done and not ours The affliction and misery of Nature is to be sustained for the sake of God and the peace of conscience It is better saith Solomon to be invited unto green herbs with Love then to a fatted calf with hatred Poverty of nature with peace of conscience is better then the delight of Nature with anguish of conscience Necessaries are due unto Nature that by their means a man may be converted unto God but not on the contrary When the conscience is satisfied many sorrows do invade nature But Peter commands that sorrows are to be born for conscience sake viz. Sorrows that are against Nature for conscience sake but not the contrary When it was Summer season to my Nature the heat thereof did stay me but now Winter is followed thereupon yet the Summer is

consideration of eternity according to his unspeakable mercy Moreover my brother as to my state or condition that abideth in perpetual agony of death with most sharp persecution performed within me after various manners yet to one only end for whose sake all must be done What the Lord may in time do with me is known only to himself and his eternal decree But which way soever I turn my self and whatsoever I consider or behold nothing but a vast abyss and a parching heat of all misery do continually represent themselves to my eyes The Lord in his commiseration lead most wretched me by his fatherly hand thorough things present and to come in this unknown uncertain desert and desolate condition yet I give thanks to his goodness that under this his powerful hand he revealeth to me his fatherly mind The Lord be my helper and my conducter in all things and keep me and teach me in his School and under his discipline His grace be over us all together with his unspeakable mercy Amen EPIST XXXIII How ignorant Nature well stumble in much disputing and will comdemn its neighbour also how the sense of all Scriptures ought to be apprehended in our own selves under the cross MOst beloved N. I pray the Lord that he will promote thee in his way in which thou mayest follow most diligently his will without much disputing by which the flesh rather then God's spirit hath to do we therefore must lay out our time with more advantage For when for the most part we think to speak from the spirit of God perchance nature lurketh under the fair show of the spirit so long as we are still cloathed about with flesh so that when we least believe it yet we then account of the flesh instead of the spirit Therefore we are to walk before the Lord with fear without any bold disputings and we must beware as much as in us lyes to walk innocently before God and before men lest we fall into our own condemnation whilst we are condemning others if not in words yet in heart Moreover most dear N. that writing which I received pleaseth me well although I have not read it thorough so accurately by reason of the weakness of my head For though I cannot truly reach the sense of any writings unless I can apprehend the virtue of them in my own self under the cross whence the true fruit is manifested seeing I tread no further then unto the state in which I then consist by suffering I always follow the steps of Chirst where the latter always discover the defect and imperfection of the former Yet let every man mind his own calling and observe it diligently so all in time will clearly appear and come forth into the light Salute P. N. our friend heartily God will look upon him to his advantage and will make his dayly sighings fruitful thorough his eternal mercy which we are all to expect none excepted The Lord endow thee with wisdom and prudence that thou mayest act aright in all things and that thou mayest walk before him with trembling There are books enough for us to look into if we will but perpetually observe our own consciences that we may most accurately follow their dictates Moreover thorough the providence of God we have the Old and New Testament for our only external rule but the holy spirit above all these for our alone master or Teacher Blessed is he who is deprived of his own proper wisdom and is instructed and instigated by the spirit of the Lord alone The Lord be with thee and with us Amen EPIST. XXXIV Concerning a certain danger that hung over that place by reason of persecution unto which he was about to go DEarest Brother may the Omnipotent Lord preserve my mortified body according to his mercy in his divine will I have purposed to go to that place and to expect the will of God concerning me beseeching him from the most inward and deepest bottom of my soul that he will set me before the enemy and that the remnant of my life which is very small may not tend to the destruction but to the salvation of any one this I beg from his eternal goodness and mercy withal hoping that this danger will prove destruction to me only and will go no further The Lord make known his will to me in this one desire of mine according to his commiseration If the Lord shall suffer me in this tabernacle tolerably to pass through so as still to subsist as I have occasion I shall signify it to thee But my brother which way soever I turn my self or look back all things renounce me and of the present there remains no place more for me And therefore I convert my self to that which the forsaking of all creatures sheweth unto me The Omnipotent God take care to secure me under his own protection EPIST. XXXV An answer sent to his brother concerning a woman that dyed also concerning his own condition together with a devout exhortation MOst beloved brother a real grief hath possessed me for the departure of that woman out of this temporary world I trust in the Lord that all will be done for a good end and from him I expect peace and tranquillity with commiserating grace which we all hunt after and heartily seek for our Souls together with an expectation of an eternity to come I find in my heart that I am now obliged to her children and I love them with a true tendency of mind according to my poor slender ability May the Lord for his mercy-sake turn all for the better Moreover as to what concerns my condition the same kind of bonds do always hold me bound according to the will of God in a disease and an infirmity So long as it shall please the Lord May he direct my ways and bow them down under his fear in the obedience of his most holy will and may he bestow freely his grace on us all that we may continue our lives in righteousness with devotion and a diligent observation of all our works and counsels least in all our actions there be somewhat found that is contrary to the will of God May the Lord give his grace to us all that we may go forwards in his way and bear such fruits as may be pleasing to him In the eight following Epistles is somewhat described of that great misery into which the Lord cast him a little before his death I. MY brother my body hath an increase of some strength just as a man groweth but very slowly so as it can scarcely be observed though yet it proceedeth on Yet is the purpose of God unknown to me although like a pestiferous cloud a many difficulties and sorrows are set before my eyes out of which I can spy no deliverance but by death that so I may wholly penetrate even un●● God which will come to pass if the times shall prove prosperous yea and further also of all means

shall fail me The Lord prepare us all that we may be made fit for his work in those things which he himself seeth and judgeth II. My brother the condition of my body is tolerable as it always was but I remain unshaken in my heart and the trust or confidence of my life is so small by reason of want of strength in my limbs that I can only walk up and down the house with trembling under the hand of my God True indeed I remain like others as to outward appearance but at heart and over my orignal and root of life there impends a judgment and by my unconsidered steps thorough the terrours of death it threatneth an end and my departure out of this time such is the constitution of my whole life way and conversation May the merciful Father open the bowels of his paternal inclination to me a most wretched creature that he may keep me safe from the evil one and preserve us all by his eternal grace Be mindful of forsaken and for lorn me as my compassionate brother if perhaps the Lord may be willing to exhibit his mercy to us III. My brother mine accustomed infirmity still remaineth as long as the Lord will The Lord be my promoter in his commiserating grace and may he preserve me and continue to hold me in his discipline under a suffering obedience of his holy will The cause why I have wrote no mere is the weakness of my hand According to the Lord my writing is not necessary to thee seeing that he himself will operate by his own grace in thy heart thorough the influence of his Spirit from whom all words and all writings may be separated by reason of his immense and glorious clatitude The Lord keep and promote you all in his ways under his fear and likewise us thorough all the time of our earthly combat And so I heartily salute you IV. My brother as to what belongs to my condition it still conflicts with its usual and difficult disease so long as it shall so please God He according to the order of his Justice put me down into this death of corruption and with his own hand plucketh me up again that I may wait for eternity which springeth up from out of the seed of this corruptible mortality May the Lord freely bestow on us all his mercy as with a long-suffering constancy we hope from the Lord it will be that with a heart prepared and submitted we may receive all from his hand and may be lead thorough even unto the end Herewith I recommend thee to the Lord who will lead us all with all our strength and essence unto the true death in Christ that he out of this 〈◊〉 may build up an eternal life whi●● 〈◊〉 never more be subjected unto any 〈◊〉 V My brother my condition is the 〈◊〉 that it was when you departed b●● 〈◊〉 consideration thereof doth shake al● 〈◊〉 powers into a trembling and a ter●●●● because of that evident death by the 〈◊〉 of the Lord which as it were an ob●●●re cloud of death I have always before my eyes even from that very time wh●● thou wert with me the reason b●● 〈◊〉 its beginning and of its end is wh●● hid from me the truth it self will b●●●● it self forth in its own meaning and o●der As to my outward body which respecteth my disease I am not at all chan●●● but anguishes have taken full possession on all my faculties Be thou recommended to the mercy of God VI. My brother The Lord help us poor w●●●ches in this dangerous condition of this natural and mutable life whom it behooveth to be kept with believing under all uncertainties in the fear of God according to the faith whereby we believe that all the certainty and firmness of our purposes are to be wholly destroyed corrupted and annihilated that another 〈◊〉 fruit may spring up to eternal life 〈◊〉 ●●ising out of the foregoing corruptible seed The Lord grant to us his salvation and grace that we may adore or worship 〈◊〉 in Spirit and in Truth even as he himself desireth VII The Lord in his mercy help us all and free us from our errours in his own time For I poor wretch do suffer the justice of the Lord and do bear his judgment upon me as long as this carnal spirit in this my dying nature still breatheth May the eternal and merciful God appear to me by his grace yea and to us all and lead us into his own will VIII My brother The Lord is my deliverer in my necessity and will confirm me in his grace even unto the end My brother I am willing thou shouldest know that my body cannot possibly endure any longer this immense misery without dying God assist me in my sufferings to the last and receive me into his eternal rest My Weakness is great all things are known to the Lord. Thy brother in the highest streights the most wretched in the Lord. M. W. To his Sister the ninth day before his death DEarest Sister whilst I am writing this I am so ordered that I can write no more My dearest sister be mindful of thy younger brother and of his wife and small children that they may be the most advanced and helped as the time may need My most beloved Sister I am in the highest content in the Lord my God and by his grace do bid the farewel with this my dying hand being according to the will God bound in so short a chain as he proposed to himself The Lord our God grant peace to our beloved brothers and sisters And now I turn me to my present call viz. to that eternal peace thorough the death of my flesh which now hasteneth it self to its end And now my most beloved Sister behold my dying salutation and my last farewel to thee from the bottom of my heart wherewith saluteth thee as departing out of this life thy brother M. W. 16 April 1560. He died in the Lord 25 April in the year of our Lord 1560. and of his own age the 39. THE END