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	son_n	soul_n	7,964	5	5.0256	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29274	A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall, January XXX, 1675/6 by Henry Bagshaw ...	Bagshaw, Henry, 1632-1709.	1676 (1676)	Wing B432; ESTC R22956	15,000	36

For how can such a testimony be produced when he presently dyes after repenting Whence suspicions must needs arise and his Death be surrounded with dark shadows because no space is left him to prove the sincerity of a good purpose And what an Agony must a departure of this kind be how gracious soever God be in accepting when the past sins we reflect on terrifie our minds and a future uprightness is denied us whereas the perfect Man has the credit and support of a good stock before-hand and improving it all along to his Death-bed he can quickly rely upon Divine Mercy as pardoning his frailties and expecting no longer proofs of obedience If then we value the Peace of Conscience as well as the other of Immortality holiness of Life must be antecedent for the better compassing of our end It remains I should show in the third place 3. The folly of Irreligion whereby a future peace is utterly excluded neither has it a present one for its reward Now the Folly of it is manifest since it neither discovers a life of reason which provides for good in the succession no nor a life of sense which provides for an immediate gratifying of our Wills The succession of good is cut off when our future happiness is obstructed and an immediate gratifying of us is denied while war continues in the Soul How then can there be wisdom in the pursuit of Impiety where there is neither hope to tempt nor enjoyment to satisfie The Object of a Man's choice must be either some present or future pleasure the past is not because not possible to be enjoyed therefore when no time can administer delight in a course of sin what motive is there in it to allure us As to the possibility of attaining to future peace in a vicious custome it is confessedly disowned by the profane who are convinced that their want of Title does sufficiently baffle their Plea all they can pretend to is the present and here lyes the mystery of sins deceit that it colours an evil with such paint as to hide it from him that laid it on Man carnally reasons for the corruptions of his life and forgets the falshood of their covering He passes by the madness of courting a moment and considers not the lastingness of its punishment What then is Conscience wholly dead that it should not wound the Evil-doer Has it quite lost its edge or activity in his Soul Why then does it so generally invade Mankind perplex their Spirits in fulfilling of their lusts rack them in all their sensual delights and grow upon their pains like a fresh Executioner For so is the force of it prov'd in the World and to break their peace in the commission of sin two Images haunt them of an equal terrour God and the Righteousness of his Throne All then a Sinner can expect at best is but a short suspence of his trouble and whether the suspence be not a greater act of hostility from his Judge he may well question There is no tempest so hurtful as the calm before it where the face of danger is smoothed up and death suddenly conveyed Judg. 4.1 Jael's bottle of milk was more destructive to Sisera than the hammer in her hand For by giving him that drink she laid him fast asleep to be slain But besides pangs of mind and a more dangerous Lethargy if they be wanting let the wicked Man show any colour for peace by being fill'd with what he enjoys Behold he is as much a stranger to an ease of fulness as he is to a rest of desire so that there is war in his very Feasts to which he seems most cheerfully prepared Nothing of the Creature can satisfie him and therefore every thing is his disturber he wanders for good and finds none he craves variety of Objects and is punished by doing so For he is thereby distracted in his choice and has all the labour of an uncertainty Go now and pursue the pleasures of sin Walk in the ways of thy heart and in the sight of thine eyes but withall tell me at the same time whether thou hast true cause of rejoycing when thou treadest a fools maze and art wretchedly lost in those turns and windings which thy own appetite has contrived Above all call to mind what substantial peace is neglected by thee I mean those vast and solid joyes in another World to which a loss in this is nothing comparable how thou barterest away thy Soul for a lust and pawnest eternity for a moment as if thy great strife were for nothing else but to compleat the Character of the unwise I need no more insist on this Subject and shall therefore beg leave more particularly to make Application To be speedily Religious is the highest Charity to our selves nay to add somewhat more our best homage to Princes For we thereby secure to them their Peace and establish their Throne we encompass them about with God's Blessings and bring Heavenly Forces to their Cause But National Sins raise Storms set up Hills of provocation to plant battery against that very Seat which God has fixt by his Power Nothing so traiterous as Vice nor so disloyal as Iniquity and we have all sadly experimented the efficacy of its treason wherein vile Instruments had never prevailed over such Authority of Power and Majesty of Goodness but that general guilt was their Arms. Who now that considers the advancement of holy living will not contribute what he can to his own nay his Princes Glory endeavour as a Christian to purchase a Crown and as a Christian to defend one In the mean while let no Instance of prosperous sinning tempt us to the practice of any corruption for all prosperity of that kind is but the guilding of a storm where God hides the Evil He intends that He might double Men's ruin by the surprise It was a true saying though Jezabel spoke it Had Zimri peace that slew his Master So Men may thoroughly execute the worst Crimes but that liberty allowed them is their plague and their want of peace as the consequent of their deeds is a sufficient motive to disswade them Neither should any be terrified with those crosses which are many times the portion of God's Children For how sharp soever they be yet they cannot null the force of His promise The promise secures them from overthrow though not from suffering It is like that Bow in the Clouds set by God for a token of peace Showers indeed do accompany it but no Deluge And O that we would consider the reward of inward peace which is safely lodg'd in a good conscience where the mind delightfully views its own acts and calms the passions in the survey where a victory over sin is followed with triumph and a pursuit of good with the rest of satisfaction where the accidents of life do not shake and Providence is a Sanctuary from trouble In a word where Heaven it self is set up in all the light beauty and order of its frame Therefore since no Plea is left for commission of sin but all encouragement given us to duty with what judgment should we behold and with what affection transcribe the perfect man that resembling him here we may finish that likeness in another World and find that uprightness which is the peace of our Souls will be the peace too of our Persons in a Blessed Eternity Now to God the Father Son and Holy Spirit be Praise and Honour for evermore FINIS ADVERTISEMENT THere is newly published two Recantation-Sermons Preached at the French Church in the Savoy by two Converted Romanists Mr. De la Motte late Preacher of the Order of the Carmelites and Mr. De Luzanzy Licentiat in Divinity wherein the Corrupt Doctrines of the Church of Rome are laid open and confuted Both printed in French and English and sold by Moses Pitt