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	show_v	son_n	5,912	5	5.7697	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46992	Comfortable words to afflicted consciences together with a short advice to ministers how to handle them : and also Mansio Christiana, or, The Christians mansion-house, being a sermon preached on the Lords-day, 7th Feb., Anno Dom. 1668 at the funeral of Mrs. Martha Walmisley, the wife of Mr. Charles Walmisley, minister of Chesham magna in the county of Bucks / by William Jole ...	Jole, William, d. ca. 1702.	1671 (1671)	Wing J887; ESTC R8442	40,808	152

home before you to see all things set in a readiness for your Entertainment So great a necessity is there for my leaving you now Christus non abit nos deserere sed ut lautisimum convivium nobis praeparct Christ doth not mean to leave us but He goes to make provision for us Christ seeing them troubled seemed to neglect himself that He might hearten them against the fear of his Crucifixion It is not unlikely but that the minds of the Disciples might be filled with such troublesome thoughts as these Alass in what hole shall we hide our heads from a melitious Devil ● persecuting World now that our Champion is taken from us Where can We be secure if He suffer Can We think to escape if He be put to Death What Crosses must we look for if Innocency it self be Crucified If they deal thus barbarously with our Lord what will they do or what will they not do rather against his Servants when He is gone What will become of us when the light of our eyes is departed yea the very breath of our Nostrils If the Shepheard be smitten what will become of the timorous Sheep Against all these carnal fears Christ opposeth a greater cause of Hope Against all this matter of trouble He seasonably opposeth a surer cause of Spiritual Joy Tranquility of mind Bear my absence patiently for it shall redound to your eternal advantage I go to prepare a place for you This Text will not admit of such a Methodical Division as other Texts of Scripture do The first words are Christs Consolatory Reason why the Disciples should not be troubled at his absence In my Fathers House are many Mansions The former words may be added to confirm that assertion If it were not so I would have told you and that you may be sure it is so I go to prepare ● place for you In these word is observable 1. An Act Go. 2. An Agent I go 3. An End To prepare a place Lastly The Person for whom For you Explication In my Fathers house Heaven is called Gods House Because there God dwelleth and there Saints and blessed Spirits shall dwell with God for ever Christ calls it His Fathers House for our greater consolation to shew us that He hath much power there who is the only begotten Son and Heir of all things He is the Dominus Fac totum Heaven is a place where I have Power to make you welcom For it is my Fathers House No Son and Heir can have so much priviledge at home to bid his friends freely welcom as I have to make you my friends welcom in my Fathers House are many Man●ions There are Mansions not Tabernacles to denote the unchangeableness of the condition of Saints in Heaven here on Earth you can have but moveable Tents but in Heaven you shall have a settled condition a Mansion-house even in our English phrase signifies that House where we live most of our time Great Men may have several Houses and yet but one of them is called their Mansion-house that is to say the place of their most constant abode where they dwell the most part of the year It is but a short time that we spend on Earth but we shall dwell for ever in Heavenly Mansions Christians are here spoken of as being Great Persons being made Honourable by Christ who though they may have Earthly Tabernacles yet have but one Mansion-house and that is Heaven Many Mansions There is not only room for Me but for all my Members also Though there may be so many thousands of glorious Inhabitants in Heaven already yet there is still room for every Saint too In Scripture God is represented to us as a great Housholder and the Saints are called Gods Houshold or Family Every wise man provides a House according to the largeness of his Family Aretius says that the word Mansions is a word of diminution where little is spoken of the greatest matter as if we would call the vast Ocean a great Pond We must not imagine that Heaven is divided as the Earth is into several Habitations but Heaven is fitly called a Mansion because there is a fulness of glory and happiness however Men live in their flitting-houses as I may call them where they stay but a night or two yet in their Mansion-houses they will far● plentifully every Saint in Heaven shall have a fulness of Glory and happiness 2. In Heaven there is a permanencie and therefore called a Mansion for the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the Latine word Mansiones and the English word Mansions do all imply the eternity of the Glory and happiness in Heaven 3. Heaven is called a Mansion-house in respect of the different degrees of Glory in Heaven In a Kings Court there are several Offices but all are contented for all are Courtiers In Heaven the House is the same and the happiness is the same but there are different degrees of Glory But the Saints in Heaven shall be as free from envy as the Stars in the Firmament are one Star differs from another in Glory yet they do not quarrel about their different degrees of Light and Lustre no more shall the Saints in Gods House If it were not so I would not have told you I would not delude you or feed you with vain hopes promising that which I cannot perform When you come to Heaven you shall find much more than what you are able now to understand of the happiness you shall inherit there I go to prepare a place for you The great end of Christs ascending into Heaven is to prepare a place for his Elect to make way for their coming thither take notice of our Saviours Consolations He doth not say Let not your hearts be troubled for ere long I will make you earthly Princes and make you ●read on the necks of your enemies Bu● he gives them comfort of another kind I am preparing Glory for you Let not your hearts be troubled When by my Death and Resurrection I have fitted all things for your entertainment I will come again and receive you unto my self It was the manner of Bride-grooms when they had made all things ready to come themselves and fetch home their Brides to their Fathers houses I go to prepare and I will come again and fetch you unto my self O the wonderful tenderness and infinite condescention of Divine Love Christ will do all himself He came once from Heaven already to make himse●f known unto us but his love engageth him to make one journey more to fetch us and take us up unto himself then he came to prepare us for Heaven He is now gone to prepare Heaven for us I go to prepare a place for you These may allude to Travailers as Musculus notes where many travail together in a company they choose out some one to ride before and provide Lodgings and a Supper for them Our Saviour attempereth his Speech to our understandings the

preach the Gospel to the poor to heal the broken hearted to preach deliverance to to the Captives to preach recovering of sight to the blind to preach liberty to them that are bruised For Explication The Spirit of the Lord is upon me Christians receive a measure of the Graces and gifts of the Spirit but Christ received the Spirit without measure Iohn 3. ver 34. Several Saints are more eminent in several Gifts and Graces Moses had the spirit of Meekness and Miracles All the Judges of Israel had the gift of Government and Fortitude Solomon had the Spirit of Wisdom the Prophe●s had the Spirits of Prophecy the Apostles had the gift of Tongues and Interpretation of Gospel Mysteries But in Jesus Christ the fulness of all Graces and Guifts do meet as in their proper Center A christian may be said to be rich in Grace and Gifts but Christ only is full He hath all fulness Because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel Here Christ shews the world his lawful Commission Be ashamed all ye that climb up into the Ministry by any other way then of lawful Ordination Christ shews his Orders from Heaven and mark it our Saviour doth not say because the Spirit of the Lord is upon me therefore he hath sent me but because he hath sent me therefore the Spirit is upon me God bestows a measure of Gifts upon every one whom he sends into the Ministry but he doth not send every one into the Ministry upon whom he bestows a measure of Gifts Gifts without Ordination is no lawful Commission To preach the Gospel to the poor This tells for what end Christ received the Gifts of the Spirit to make him an able Preacher of the Gospel To preach the Gospel Moses was sent to preach the Law but Christ is sent to preach the Gospel Moses the servant of God handed the Law to Israel after the Flesh Christ the only begotten Son of God handed the Gospel unto the spiritual seed We have lost nothing but time by coming last into Gods Church they were before us Gentiles in time but we are before them in priviledges To preach the Gospel to the poor That is to say to the poor in Spirit such as see and acknowledge their want of Righteousness those that are sensible that they have provoked God but they have nothing whereby to appease his wra●h and need Christ to stand their friend to make peace between God and them To heal the broken hearted That is such whose consciences are terrifyed and tormented with the guilt of Sin according to the Greek word it is those whose hearts are cut asunder meaning with the sense of sin and sorrow for fin God hath sent me to purify and pacify such accusing consciences To preach deliverance to the Captives He meaneth not those whom men have enslaved to their power but those that see themselves in spiritual slavery to sin and Satan And recovering of sight to the blind Christ is the light of the world He is the day Star from on high that visiteth us who are walking in da●kness The world without Christ was a dark Dungeon The Heathens were like the Sodomites when the Angel had struck them with blindness It is said that they wearied themselves to find the dore Gen. 19. ver 11. Christ is called in Scripture the dore of Salvation the blind-folded Heathens wearied themselves in vain to find this dore To set at liberty them that are bruised Those may be said to be bruised that are struggling with sin but cannot overcome sin but get many falls by which their Souls are sorely bruised and their consciences full of pain and torment so that by all these expressions we are taught what the Gospel offereth to us Namely Christ offereth us his hand to pull us out of the lowest pit of sin and out of the dark Dungeon of Ignorance to give liberty and spiritual freedom to us that are oppressed with all kinds of miseries that we that are poor may be enriched with his Grace that we that are blind may be enlightned by the light of his Gospel that we who by nature are Satans bo●d slaves may be made free and set at liberty by him And as the Father sent Christ on this errand so Christ sends his Ministers on the same errand You see therefore what kind of People you have to deal with such as are spiritually poor broken hearted blind Captives and bruised The Doctrine I shall name is this That Christ hath an especial eye to those that are afflicted in Conscience And the Reasons may be such as these 1. The reason in the Text because it is his Office to take care of such God hath sent him for that end and purpose 2 Reason is the helplesness of such poor sinners they can do nothing but weep and complain sigh and mourn and disquiet themselves more at the apprehension of their misery but do not know what to do to ease their consciences therefore the merciful nature of Christ makes him have a tender eye towards such 3 Reason Because such are prepared for Christ to deal with such are prepared to welcom the Gospel Christ preacht to the Scribes and Pharisees but they thought themselves to be whole and needed not a Physitian and therefore despised his help but when he preached to the Publicans and Sinners they followed him He preached to that Mary noted as a sinner and she followed him weeping Luke 7. ver 37. All the Publicans and Sinners drew nigh to hear Luk. 15. ver 1. Whereupon the Pharises murmured which gave an occasion to those Parables in that chapter of the lost Sheep the lost Groat and the lost Son Christ is sent to save those that see their lost condition without him and such only will bid welcom to the Gospel 4 Reason why Christ hath such an eye to afflicted consciences is Because Satan is so buisy with them he seeks to drive them to final despair of mercy and to suggest thoughts of Self-murther Therefore as the Devil hath an evil eye towards them to destroy them Christ hath an eye of pitie and compassion towards them to deliver them and to preach Salvation to them if Satan desire to winnow Peter Christ will take the greater care of him if Satan ●empt Peter to denie his Master Christ will look back upon him to reclaim him again Now this is a pattern for Christ's Ministers to imitate have an especial eye to the sin sick Souls the broken hearted In the close of the former Sermon I hinted that some Advice was needful unto Ministers how to deal with afflicted consciences I reserved it unto this place where I might present them with such a blessed pattern to follow Afflicted consciences during the time of temptation they are like blind men therefore deal with them as such lay no stumbling blocks before them make your Doctrine plain and obvious be you instead of eyes unto them perform the office of a good guide