Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	flesh_n	son_n	7,126	5	5.5139	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44678	A funeral sermon for Mrs. Esther Sampson the late wife of Henry Sampson, Dr. of Physick, who died Nov. 24. 1689 / by John Howe ...	Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1690 (1690)	Wing H3026; ESTC R19694	24,476	33

flesh that messenger of Satan that did buffet him 2. Besides compassion may appear by this kind of dispensation it self It may not only carry that with it but in it which may shew good will If long continued affliction may be supposed to proceed from compassion it doth much more consist with it It may proceed from compassion and bear the relation to it of an effect to the cause We find it expresly so said in Scripture and who can so truly speak Gods mind as himself He afflicts in very faithfulness and as many as the Lord loves he chastens and scourges every son whom he receives Prov. 3. 12. quoted Heb. 12. 5 6. Rev. 3. Affliction must be the effect of his real and most sincere good will and compassion tho' of long continuance if it be apt and intended to do you good in higher and in greater regards than those wherein you suffer or if the good your affliction does you or is fitly design'd to do you be of a nobler and more excellent kind than that whereof it deprives you it must be understood not only to be consistent with kindness and good will but to be produc'd of it For the same principle that intends the end must also intend the proper means that serve to effect it Now the kind of this good is thus to be estimated You read Psal. 103. 5. As a father pities his children so the Lord pities them that fear him As a father The relation he is in to them is that of a father to his children But we must understand under what notion he is so related and we are told Heb. 12. 9 10. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us and we gave them reverence Shall we not then much rather be in subjection to the father of our spirits and live For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure but he for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness We have here an account where the relation terminates and see both the object of his more special kindness and good will which accompany the relation and the end of it He is the father of their spirits whence therefore we may collect the object of that love which goes with the relation must be their spirits also the end of it is their spiritual advantage to make them partakers of his own holiness His holiness is a lofty word and carries the matter high Understanding it soberly as we may be sure it was meant it must signifie the holiness which he hath himself imprest and the impression whereof is the lively resemblance and image of his own And is not this a good of a nobler and more excellent kind than we can lose by a sickness better than the case of this vile flesh that was made out of dust and tends thither The object is their spirits for there the kindness that belongs to the relation must terminate where the relation terminates How much more shall we not be subject to the father of our spirits and live The father of our spirits is there contradistinguisht from the fathers of our flesh God is not the father of our flesh but the father of our spirits He is the Creator of our flesh too our flesh is his creature but not his off-spring There must be a similitude and likeness of nature between a father and a child which there is not necessarily between a maker and the thing made In respect of our spiritual part we are his off-spring and he is so a father to us both as the Souls of men in common bear his natural Image and if they be regenerate as they bear his holy Image too And the case may be so that the suffering of our flesh is necessary for the advantage of our spirits Our flesh may suffer so as that the spirit shall be the better for it and then pity it self compassion it self must not only permit but cause and produce such a course of dispensation as whereby that end shall be attained the making us partakers of his himself so the Apostle speaks of his own case Though our outward man perish yet our inward man is renewed day by day 2 Cor. 4. 15. Though our outward man perish We are compass'd about with Deaths that are continually beating down the Walls of this outward man they are beating upon it and are likely to infer it's perishing and if it perish let it perish I am not follicitous q. d. about that If it must come down let it come down in the midst of all these outward assaults our inward man is renewed day by day gathers a fresh and increasing strength and vigour whilst this outward man is tending to dissolution and dust And several ways such continued afflictions upon the outward man may make for the advantage of the inward man in the best kind 1. As they withdraw and take off the Mind and Heart from this World a debasing and defiling thing and which transforms the Soul that converses too much with it into a Dunghil fills it with ill favour But what doth all this World signifie to a sickly pained Person 2. As it engages them to be much in Prayer Nothing is more sutable than that an afflicted Life be a Life of much Prayer Is any man afflicted let him pray Jam. 5. 13. Much affliction hath a natural aptitude to incline men this way In their affliction they with seek me early Hos. 5. 15. It is dictate of nature even when Grace as yet hath no possession but which through Gods blessing may by this means help to introduce it For it urges the Soul Godward who is the God of all Grace obliges it to converse with him whereby somewhat better may be gained than is sought In their afflictions they will be submissive and lye at my feet saith God they will seek me early from whom otherwise I should never hear it may be all their Life long Oh! that you would understand the matter so when God afflicts in such kinds so as his hand touches your very bone and flesh this is the design of it to make you pray to bring you upon your knees to put you into a supplicating posture if he can upon any terms hear from you tho' you seek him but for bodily ease and refreshing it may be a means of the greatest advantage to you e're God have done with you when once he has brought you by this means to treat when he has got you into a more tractable disposition there is hope in the case If thus he open your ear to Discipline and be to you an interpreter one of a thousand to shew you his Righteousness he may seal instruction to you and save your Soul from going down to the Pit having found a ransom for you Job 33. 15. c. But for those that have a real Interest in God and Union with Christ that which occasions much Prayer is likely to be the

power and probably more knowledge there was more too of a peevish spite and envy that the interest of our Lord was by so proper means growing in the World A sad and not a new thing that Religion should have most opposition whence it should have most of countenance and advantage to dilate and spread it self Do any of the Rulers believe on him But the people whom they despised and pronounc'd accursed for that reason were more apt and forward to receive the Gospel Joh. 7. 48 49. The more there is of light unaccompany'd with a pious Inclination the higher the more intense and fervent the finer and more subtle is the venome and malice against Christ and real Christianity But our Lord was not diverted from his kind and compassionate design by any such obstructions as these His love triumphs over them and he makes that discovery of this compassion which could not but carry the clearest conviction with it as his reproof carry'd the brightest justice Why what saith he Do not any of you loose an Ox or an Ass from the Stall on the Sabbath day and shall not I loose a daughter of Abraham 'T is like she was a Daughter of Abraham not only as being a Jewess but as being a believer as being according to Scripture language of Abrahams Seed in the Spiritual sense as well as the natural and he was the more peculiarly compassionate upon that account and yet more because her ail proceeded from the malignant influence of the Devil Shall not I loose such a one whom Satan hath bound that great enemy of mankind Why should not I shew my self so much the more a Friend by how much the more he appears an Enemy and give the earliest relief the matter can admit 'T is very true indeed his compassion was never to incline him to do unfit and unseasonable things or things that were no way subservient to his principal end But such a subserviency being supposed his relief must be with the earliest to day before morrow though it were the Sabbath day And so now you have the ground of discourse plainly in view before you That the Devil cannot be more maliciously intent to afflict those that relate to God even when it is in his power with bodily distempers than our Lord Jesus is compassionately willing to relieve them without distinction of time when it shall be consistent with and subservient to his higher and greater purposes In speaking to this I shall 1. Touch briefly upon what is here exprest in the Text the hand that Satan may have in the Afflictions yea and in the bodily distempers of men and even of them that belong to God among them 2. What hand our Lord Jesus has in their relief or releasement 3. How far we may understand or may reasonably expect his compassion to influence him in such cases 4. I shall shew that however the release be wrought it is done very mercifully towards them that belong peculiarly to God And so make use of all 1. Somewhat briefly as to that first query What hand it is supposable the Devil may have in the afflictions of men and more particularly of them that belong to God as this woman being a Daughter of Abraham was to be considered as one within the compass of Gods Covenant and not improbably as one that in the strictest sense was in Covenant with God 1. It is plain in the Text the Devil had a direct hand in her distemper called a Spirit of infirmity There were more evident and more frequent instances of this kind in that time the Devil then setting himself more openly to contend against the incarnate Son of God upon his more open appearance to rescue and recover an Apostate World from under his Dominion and Tyranny But as to more ordinary cases we may further consider 2. That the Devil is a constant enemy to mankind apt and inclin'd as far as God permits him to do men all the mischief he can 3. That as he first introduc't sin into the World so he hath by consequence all the calamities that afflict it There had been no Death Sickness or Distemper upon the bodies of men but from hence Consider the Devil therefore as the Prince and Leader of the Apostasie who first drew man into transgression and thereby render'd him liable to the Justice of his Maker turn'd his Paradise into a desart and a region of immortal undecaying life into a Valley of sickly Languishings and death it self So may he said to have had a remoter hand in binding not only this Daughter of Abraham but every child of Adam in all the Afflictions Maladies and Distempers which befall them here and finally in the bonds of Death too whereof he is said to have had the power Tho the Children of the second Adam with whom for this purpose he was partaker of Flesh and Blood and became with them a Son of Abraham and of his Seed are by being so bound releas'd and made free both from Death and the bondage of fearing it to which they were otherwise Subject all their days as we shall further see anon 4. Tho God do not ordinarily allow him more power yet we may well suppose him to have more malice against these Children of Abraham who thereby pass into the account of his own Children also being more intent upon vexing and afflicting whom he apprehends or suspects he shall never be able finally to destroy and always apt to use all the power shall be allowed him to this mischievous purpose We find that the afflictions of the people of God in other kinds and even in this kind are expresly often attributed to the Devil In other kinds Satan shall cast some of you into prison Revel 2. 10. And divers think that thorn in the flesh which the Apostle suffered 2 Cor. 12. was some acute bodily pain and he says expresly it was a messenger of Satan sent to buffet him He 't is said smote Job with the tormenting boils that afflicted him so grievously and so long and brought the other calamities upon him that you read of in his Story 5. And again it is further to be considered that whereas in all Diseases the Morbisick Matter whether immediate in Mens Bodies or remoter in the incompassing Air differs not from other matter otherwise than only in the various disposition figuration and motion of parts and particles whereof it is made up inasmuch as the Devil is called the Prince of the power of the Air we know nothing to the contrary but that he may frequently so modifie that as that it shall have most pernicious influences upon the Bodies of Men and upon those especially so far as God permits that he has any greater malice against 6. And again supposing this it is not a stranger thing that God should permit him to afflict the Bodies of them that belong to him than to disturb their minds Sure their Bodies are not more Sacred If