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	holy_a	see_v	7,891	5	3.8652	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62392	The faithful souldier's reward, or, A glimpse of the saints happiness discovered in two sermons, occasioned by the death of that truly vertuous and religious gentle woman, Mrs. Katherine Disney : the former preached at Kirkstead, the place of her last abode here upon the earth, on the 18th day of May, 1690, being the Lord's Day, and the latter at Swinderly, near Lincoln, where she was interr'd the Tuesday following / by William Scoffin.	Scoffin, William, 1655?-1732.	1692 (1692)	Wing S933; ESTC R11432	41,514	126

a Freedom from such Pains gives some Ease and Refreshment But supposing a Person should have ground to fear that he must endure some such racking Pains without the least Ease or Intermission for an hundred Years together the Thoughts of this would even double his Misery How then will the Thoughts of a miserable Eternity torment and tear the Hearts of the Damned This will make them roar out in the Bitterness of their Spirits O miserable miserable miserable Yea it will exceedingly heighten their Miseries to think that when thousands and ten thousand times ten thousands of Years are at an end their Torments and Miseries will not be ended But now on the contrary This is it which will increase and compleat the Happiness of the Saints in Heaven to be fully assured that it shall never have an end and without this they could never be happy As the fore-cited Poet has well expressed it Eternity Eternity Pag. 74. Oh were it not for thee The Saints in Bliss and Happiness Could never happy be If there were the least ground to fear that their Happiness would have an end the Thoughts of this would put a damp upon their Comforts and make them even miserable in the midst of their Enjoyments But so long as the Lord Jefus Christ lives so long shall their Happiness last and that shall be for ever and ever John 14.19 Because I live ye shall live also He tasted Death for them and swallowed it up in Victory and thereby obtained Eternal Redemption for them Heb. 9.12 The Felicity above is durable it is an abiding Happiness The Lord of Life will uphold the Saints in that blessed State for ever I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Rev. 1.18 And because I live Joh. 14.19 ye shall live also Comfortable Words indeed The Happiness of the Saints would be incompleat if it were not everlasting Yea the least fear of losing it would disturb their peaceful Fruition For as hope in Misery allays Sorrow so fear in Happiness lessens Joy The Apprehension of losing such an Happiness would cause Torment but the full assurance of its Perpetuity will fill them with unexpressible Joy That which will terrify the Damned in Hell will afford Joy and Comfort to the Saints in Bliss and that is the Thoughts of Eternity The Thoughts of this will transport the Saints and will fill them with Songs of Joy and Triumph O who would not strive and labour and pray for a blessed and happy Eternity And now I come to the Third Particular which is to shew you upon what account this Happiness is conferr'd on Believers And 1. Then it is not conferred upon them on the account of any Worthiness of theirs nor do they merit or deserve such an Happiness either in whole or in part No though we should serve God a thousand Years we could not metit to be one Day in Heaven The Happiness is too great to be merited by Man though the Works of the Saints were more perfect For Finite Things carry no proportion to an Infinite and Eternal Happiness And besides alas the Works of the best are so many ways imperfect that they may rather expect Punishment for them than any the least Reward Believers do fight the good Fight of Faith but they do not merit Heaven thereby nor is an Immortal Crown of Glory conferred upon them on that account It is true God will reward their Faithfulness but their Faithfulness doth not deserve that Reward The Heavenly Happiness most sure is such as is not nor can it be earned by the Saints But 2. It is partly the free Gift of God and partly the Purchase of Christ As to any thing therefore that we have done or can do it is altogether free 1. It is freely given us of God and by him was prepared for us 'T was his own Love and most Free Grace that inwardly moved him to do this for us Luke 12.32 Fear not little Flock for 't is your Father's good Pleasure to give you the Kingdom So 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of Man the Things which God hath prepared for them that love him Heb. 11.16 Mat. 20.23 And again Mat. 25.34 Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the Foundation of the World This was the Preparation of God's Decree He loved his People from the Foundation of the World so as that he decreed to give his only Son for them Eph. 1.3 11. 1 Pet. 1.18 19 20. Gal. 4.4 7 that by his precious Blood and meritorious Death he might purchase for them an Everlasting Inheritance And in the Fulness of Time as he had decreed he sent his Beloved Son into the World Joh. 3.16 and most freely bound himself by his Covenant and Promise to confer this Inheritance upon all true Believers 2. Christ by his precious Blood hath purchased this Eternal Inheritance for us 1 Pet. 1.19 Heb. 9.12 15. By his own Blood he entred once into the Holy Place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us And for this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of Death for the Redemption of the Transgressions that were under the First Testament they which are called might receive the Promise of Eternal Inheritance Christ having purchas'd it by his Death and God the Father having graciously promis'd it therefore all they that are effectually called shall have it conferred upon them Heb. 6.20 For Christ is ascended up into Heaven to take Possession of it in our Name I go saith he to prepare a Place for you Heb 10.14 Chap. 9.24 7.25 John 14.2 By his Death he purchased for us a Right and Title to Heaven and by his Intercession he prosecuteth and applieth that Right The merit of his Sacrifice pleads for Believers that the Blessedness of Heaven may be conferred upon them Now as Christ has purchased Heaven for the Saints and the Father will freely bestow it upon them so he freely gives them his Holy Spirit to fit and prepare them for the Enjoyment of it And without this all the rest would be of none effect For certainly 't would not avail us any thing to have Heaven prepared for us unless we be also prepared for Heaven An unrenewed unholy Soul would find little satisfaction in that Holy Place supposing such might be admitted into it But there is no unclean Thing shall enter there Rev. 21.27 The Divine Life is no way suitable to the Nature of an Unregenerate Person Alas such cannot love God here nor do him any acceptable Service but do loath that which he most loves and love that which he abhorreth They are altogether uncapable of that imperfect Communion with him which Regerate Persons do here partake of How then can they live in that perfect Love of him Delight in him and Communion with him 2

't is said unto the recompence of the Reward He knew that to be for ever with Christ to behold his Glory and to be glorify'd with him to sit on his Throne and to reign with him Rom. 8.18 would beyond comparison make amends for all that he could do or suffer for his sake Christ is now the Desire of the Saints and in Heaven he will be their everlasting Delight O how will the glorify'd Saints then rejoyce in the view of the surprizing Wonders of his Love From Everlasting he loved them and to Everlasting they 'l love him again There will no Love be lost betwixt Christ and his Members when once they get to Heaven for their Love to him there will be a correspondent Affection according to their utmost Capacity All those Affections that were scattered here below will there be concentred in him for ever And most sure he infinitely deserves their Love having ransomed them from the worst of Miseries and purchased an everlasting Inheritance for them and all this with the dearest Price of his own most Precious Blood O love the Lord all ye his Saints who hath loved you at so dear a rate and who will give you yet greater Discoveries of his Love when he takes you into his glorious Presence 4. The Faithful shall then enjoy the clearest Sense of God's Love unto them and shall also have their Souls enflam'd with the most ardent Love to him And O what Soul-ravishing Comforts will this afford unto them There is nothing which doth now more trouble the Saints than the great coldness of their Love to God and the want of a Sense of God's Love to them Psal 30.5 7. In his Favour is Life weeping may endure for a Night but Joy cometh in the Morning Lord by thy Favour thou hast made my Mountain to stand strong but thou didst hide thy Face and I was troubled If God hides his Face but never so little and with-holds but the Sense of his Love from the Saints how are their Souls overwhelmed with Trouble But a Sense of his Favour Psal 4.6 7 and the Light of his Countenance doth soon fill the Soul with enravishing Comforts and make all Troubles vanish and quite disappear What unspeakable Joys and Comforts then will the Souls of the Saints be filled with when they come to enjoy the most feeling Sense of God's dearest Love unto them 5. They shall then enjoy God fully and shall see him Face to Face and the Beatifical Vision will be unto them 1. A Transforming 2. A Soul-satisfying Vision Ps 17.15 1. It will be unto the Saints a Transforming Vision The sight which we have of the Lord in the Gospel transformeth us in some measure 2 Cor. 3.18 For we all with open Face beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord are changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory even as by the Spirit of the Lord. If by looking upon the Lord through the Light of the Spirit we are made like him in some measure then surely in Glory when we see him Face to Face we shall be more like him 1 John 3.2 We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is The Apostle gives this as a Reason why the Saints in Glory shall be like the Lord because they shall see him as he is To see the Lord as he is will be a transforming Sight For look as in a Glass held up against the Sun hath the Image and Brightness of the Sun reflected upon it So the more clearly we behold the Lord of Glory the more of his Image shall we bear upon us And O what a blessed thing will it be for us poor Creatures to be made like unto the Lord Now this Likeness and Conformity makes way for Love and Love makes way for Delight and Delight makes way for Fruition For the more we love God the more shall we delight in him and the more we delight in God the more will God delight in us and will give us the actual Fruition of himself for our highest Felicity and Blessedness 2. Therefore the Beatifical Vision will be unto the Saints as a transforming so also a Soul-satisfying Vision For herein the Soul will fully enjoy God And then will God be unto every Saint an over-flowing Fountain of all Felicity Here a Believer's Joy and Comfort admits of increase and decrease but there the Soul will be so filled with Joy that it can receive no more Psal 16.11 In thy Presence is fulness of Joy and at thy right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore The Fruition of God's immediate Presence is not like the Joys of the World which can neither fill nor satisfy a Man But in our seeing and enjoying him we shall have full content and compleat Felicity The fulness of Joy is suspended till then that we may desire and long for that Day and it will be a joyful Day indeed unto every Believing Soul Ye now have Sorrow saith Christ but your Heart shall rejoyce and your Joy no Man taketh from you John 16.21 Believers while under deep Troubles here do rejoyce in hopes of the Glory of God Rom. 5.2 Yea their Hearts are sometimes so filled with Joy as that they can scarcely contain themselves 1 Pet. 1.8 Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoice with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Now if the hopes of this blessed and glorious Estate breedeth such Joy what will Fruition do If a Glimpse or Taste be so sweet what will the full Enjoyment be Psal 17.15 I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy Likeness This is that which will yield the fullest Satisfaction to the Soul to see God and to be like him and to enjoy him to all Eternity Oh the greatness the exceeding greatness of the Saints Blessedness in Heaven There is no Tongue can express it 1 Cor 2.9 no Heart can conceive it And in this Blessedness they shall abide for ever Mat. 25.46 These shall go away into everlasting Punishment but the Righteous into Life Eternal As the Punishment of the Wicked so the Happiness of the Saints will endure for ever and ever And the Thoughts of this will greatly increase the Saints Joy and the Damneds Misery The Day of Doom pag. 76. Eternity Eternity Thou mak'st hard Hearts to bleed The Thoughts of thee in Misery Will make Men wail indeed For the Damned thus to think with themselves What must I never have Ease again Must I never obtain the least Freedom from these racking Soul-tormenting Pains No never never O most grievous and insupportable Miseries An Eternal Tooth-ach an Eternal Head-ach an Eternal pain of the Stone or Gout or an Eternal Burning-Feaver would be very sad and grievous But what alas are all these to the Eternal Torments of Hell When any of us are under some racking Pains of Body then the Hopes of

Enemies can do us here Mat. 10.28 is only to kill the Body and this they cannot do neither without the permission of God and when God permits them to injure our Bodies Rom. 8.28 he thereby designs us good to our Souls So that our Enemies are very unskilful whatsoever Evil they design unto us for when they impair the outward Man they thereby better the inward Man 2 Cor. 4.16 And if they root us out of the Earth they do but send us the sooner to Heaven Yea Mat. 5.10 11 12. and the greater our Sufferings are here in the World the greater will be our Happiness hereafter 'T was a Saying of one of the Antient Fathers when vilified by his Enemies He that willingly takes from my good Name unwillingly adds to my Reward Surely then the Hopes of Heaven should chear our Hearts under all our Trials 3. It administers Comfort to Believers even against Death it self These Earthly Tabernacles must be dissolved 2 Cor. 5.1 but what then We have a Building of God an House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens We shall but leave a poor tottering Cottage to live in a Princely Palace and forsake an unquiet and troublesome World for a place of everlasting Repose Isa 57.2 Rev. 14.13.1 Thess 4.13 14 15. Death to Believers is but a sweet Sleep and the Grave but a Chamber of Rest where the Body doth quietly repose it self till the general Resurrection And then it shall certainly awake from its Sleep and be raised again a most Glorious Body Phil. 3.21 And while the Body doth thus quietly rest in the Grave the Soul is in actual Joy and Felicity It doth not sleep in the Grave with the Body 2 Cor. 5.8 Phil. 1.23 as some do foolishly imagine but is present with the Lord and in a State of Activity Death is to the Soul of every Believer an immediate Passage into Glory Believers may therefore look Death in the Face with a great deal of Joy and Comfort 1 Cor. 15.55 56 57. for its Sting is taken away by Christ and it is unto them a Translation Their Life is not taken away but changed 't is changed from a miserable and corruptible Life to that which is Blessed and Eternal There 's a Glorious State provided for Believers in the World to come and Death is the ready Passage into it Wherefore comfort one another with these Words 1 Thess 4.18 saith the Apostle With what Words Why that Jesus Christ shall come in the Clouds Ver. 16 17. and take Believers unto himself and so shall we for ever be with the Lord. Lastly The Doctrine affords matter of Comfort to the Dear Relations of our Deceased Friend who hath fought a good Fight and hath finished her Course and is now gone to receive the Crown which the Lord hath prepared for her She was one that was assaulted with many Temptations but through the Captain of her Salvation she did conquer and overcome Jam. 1.12 Rev. 2.10 and is now enjoying as we have ground to hope the Reward of a Faithful Souldier of Christ even an immortal Crown of Life and Glory yea the highest Felicity she is capable of receiving till her Body and Soul be again reunited and then will her Happiness be full and compleat Ever since I knew her I look'd upon her to be one that desired to make Religion her Business or the chief concern of her Life She had very low and mean Thoughts of her self and was greatly afraid of being mistaken and of thinking her Condition to be better than it was She has oft in my hearing lamented and bewail'd her Distractions of Mind in Duty and would tell me she found it a very difficult thing to keep her Heart close unto God And where is there a Christian indeed that doth not experience this It was her practice every Day to read a considerable Portion of the Holy Scriptures and to meditate and pray in secret besides her constant joyning in Family-Duties She would say that she found those two Soul-enriching Duties of Meditation and Self-examination very hard and difficult to perform them aright She had a very hearty Love I believe to all God's Faithful People 1 Joh. 3.14 not only those that were of the same Judgment with her but also to those that differed from her in some Circumstantials of Religion She was far from that factious and narrow Spirit which too many have discovered in these our Days that has no hearty Love for any but those that are of their own Perswasion No wheresoever she saw any thing of the Image of God Psal 15.4 Psal 16.2 3. in Rich or Poor or any Person that differed from her in Judgment such Persons were always welcome to her and she ever expressed an high esteem of them Psal 119.63 She delighted most in the Society of those who truly feared the Lord. She would speak her Mind freely and with very great Zeal in vindicating God's Faithful Servants when she heard any of them spoken against or reflected on by others Her Humility was very conspicuous and apparent to all that conversed much with her And you of her Neighbours who knew her well can give your Attestation to what I say How free was she always in her Converse with you And how familiar would she be with the poorest of you The Poor was as welcome to her as the Rich and more especially such as feared the Lord. She would visit the poorest of her Neighbours with delight when she could have any hopes of doing them good or of administring any Relief to them She went very modestly in her Apparel ever since I knew her chusing rather to go below her Quality than in the least to exceed She could not endure those ridiculous Fashions which are now so much followed by many those foolish and fantastical Dresses which abundance do please themselves with And for my part I verily believe that a great many Persons amongst us do please but a very few with their Dress besides the Devil and themselves And I wish the Lord may not bring upon these what he brought upon the haughty Daughters of Zion Isa 3.16 26. Jer. 15.9 chap. 14.1 18. and 52.1 27. Many there are which seem not to approve of these foolish fantastical Fashions and yet forsooth they must follow the same lest they make themselves ridiculous But our honoured Friend the deceased Gentlewoman was not of their Mind for she rather chose to be accounted ridiculous by proud and foolish Sinners than to make her self so indeed in the Sight of the All-seeing God She spent little time in dressing her self and as little she spent in Idleness She would constantly be employed in one honest Business or other as knowing it sinful either in Poor or in Rich to trifle and idle away precious Time She had indeed her Infirmities and Weaknesses which none are free from while here in the World but