Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	flesh_n	grace_n	sin_n	7,550	5	4.8045	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27499	The still-borne nativitie, or, A copy of an incarnation sermon that should have been delivered at St. Margarets-Westminster, on Saturday, December the five and twenty, 1647, in the afternoone, by N.B., but prevented by the committee for plunder'd ministers, who sent and seized the preacher, carried him from the vestry of the said church, and committed him to the fleet, for his undertaking to preach without the license of Parliament ...	Bernard, Nicholas, d. 1661.	1648 (1648)	Wing B2018; ESTC R18366	26,917	36

Conscience Law of Nature Counsailes of Men Rules of Philosophie Ingenuity of Education yea and the very Law of God it selfe that is it's Letter are nothing else but Stars and Candlelight not to drive away the night But as it were so many arguments to prove that there is a night Things that serve rather to shew that there is a Heaven and an Earth then to inable us to enjoy either And therefore they that doe charitably acknowledg a possibility of salvation to the Heathen which never heard of the Gospel say that this salvation doth accrue unto them from God for Christ sake Man could let in sinne but it is Christ that must expel it Man could embrace wickednesse but God must send his Sonne to blesse us by turning us away from our iniquities Israell could destroy himselfe But it is God must helpe David needed no guide to goe astray like a lost sheepe But it is Davids Lord must seek and save him And lastly concerning the Lawes rigour it fully appeares by that which hath been spoken already that it must be an Immanuell that must exonerate the burthen satisfie the court of justice arrest judgment and take of the seargeant with a supersedeas for an Execution taken out and not served And all this is don by Christ as our Praes and Sponsor Surety and Advocate for the removing of evil from us And this is the first reason The other reason concerning man is the promoting of his good which is done so many wayes so plentifully that St. Bernard after his manner calls Christ incarnate Manna from Heaven the joy of the hungry A cluster of grapes sweete grapes from Gods vineyard the refreshment of the thirsty soule O yle of gladness The health of the sickly and a stone cut out of the mountaine without hands that the negligent may feare In a word For the general let that goe for al which Fulgentius with fifteene other Bishops more have subscribed concerning this parti●ar except the Worde which is God by uniting in a singular way mans nature unto himselfe had been borne of a virgin a true and perfect man there should never have been bestowed upon us that are borne fleshly an Arise of a spiritual birth c. But now what sweet enterchanges do there passe betweene the Lords Anointed and mankind He borrowes our Flesh and gives us his Spirit takes Earth returns Heaven Exchanges his Peace for our chastisement his sonship for our servitude his grace for our sinne his crown for our curse his life for our death his joyes for our sorrowes In sum of God he became Man That wee by communion with him of men might be made partakers of the divine nature And because mans felicity stands in enjoying God Thus familiarly hath the Sonne of God bartered Natures states and goods with man His first nativity from God the Second from Man making him whose First Birth is from Man to have a Second from God And secondly in seeing God whose brightnesse dazling al sinfull sight with the beauty of holinesse Therefore hath the Lord Iesus Christ like unto another meek Moses put on the vaile of the flesh that by it boldly we might enter and have accesse to the Holy of Holies to see as we are seene And thirdly if there be any inhaerent happinesse I understand the cause of it in man aswell as sorrow it is but like the axe among the Prophets a tool not fit for their coat borrowed and that from Christ For there are three several Gifts which are all of them comprehended in or subordinate to the Incarnation of Iesus Christ concurring to the happines of man in the Scripture called by the name of Grace And distinguished by the immediate extrinsecal Giver As first the grace of God which is the Father by which grace I conceive Christ himselfe is specified To which sence I am enduced by comparing that of Saint Paul Tit. 2. 11. to that of St. Iohn c. 3. v. 16. Secondly the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ Which grace must needes be the Spirit if we consider the promise Iohn 15. 26. Which is somewhere also called the Grace of God and of our Lord Iesus Christ Lastly the Grace of the Spirit which is well known to be that frame of holynesse in the Saincts which being diversified is called the fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5 22 To the introducing of which last it was necessary that the two former should precede The Spirit as the proper fountaine of holinesse and comfort The incarnation as the Mediam and Motive of the Spirits mission to and acceptance with man But of this parhaps fully and more clearely hereafter when if ever we come to write of Christ's Egresse from the world Lastly if in Mans felicity we may any way attend to mans actions Or if there be any such thing beside the name of it as moral felicity Christ as incarnate must be the procurer of it which is done by him As an Object of our Faith A Ground of Hope A cause of Love and a Rule of Operation Two things are required in the object of faith without either of which Faith failes Affability the Party we beleeve must be apt to be spoken with Rom. 10. 15. And Veracitie The first is denyed to God though with imputation of fault herein to Mans sinne only according to that Let not God speake least we die The other to man God is not a Man that he should lie Let God be true and every man a Lyer God cannot be beleeved though true because man cannot abide before his voice Man cannot be trusted when he speaks for untruths Now in Christ these two are united The affability of Man Here is our accesse The truth of God Here the object of our faith Secondly the ground of hope as the most plentifull expression of Gods love ●t quid non speremus amati being so loved what may we not hope for He that gave us his Sonne how shal he not with him freely give us all things The cause of love thirdly he is in God to each of us personaly in us to God dutifully We love him because he loved us first Lastly the rule of Operation In a Rule that men work by Two things are necessary Rectitude and Visibilicie The first is in God without the second The second in man without the first That Christ therefore might be a most perfect rule for man to work by To the righteousnesse of God he assumed the visibilitie of Man c. Thirdly the reasons of the Incarnation that respect sinne is without the limitation of the power of God that it might be a remedy to sinne Tolle morbos tolle vulnera et nulla est medicinae causa If there had been no sinne there had been no need of a Saviour and therefore the glosse upon 1. Tim. 1. Christ came into the World to save sinners is not amisse Nulla causa veniendi fuit Christo Domino nisi peceatores salvos facere and

THE STJLL-BORNE NATIVITIE OR A Copy of an Incarnation Sermon that should have been delivered at St. Margarets-Westminster on Saturday December the five and twenty 1647. in the afternoone by N. B BUT Prevented by the Committee for Plunder'd Ministers who sent and seized the Preacher carried him from the Vestry of the said Church and Committed him to the Fleet for his undertaking to Preach without the License of Parliament NOW Published by the Authoritie of that Scripture which saith Preach the Word be instant in season out of season 2. Tim. 4. 2. Isaiah 37. 3. This is a day of trouble and of rebuke and of Blasphemy for the Children are come to the birth and there is not strength to bring forth LONDON Printed for their sakes who love our Lord Jesus and his Birth day Anno Dom. 1648. To the whole Congregation of Beleevers assembled at St. Margerets Church in Westminster on Saterday December the 25. 1647 in the afternoone Grace Mercy and Peace from God the Father and the Lord Iesus Christ Worthy Christians I Had at the appointed time of preaching the same judgment befell me which befell to Zacharias the Father of John Baptist Luke 1 20. When I thought to have spoken unto the people that waited for mee and marvelled that I tarried so long I was struck dumbe and not able to speak And could I conceive it had been done by an Angel I should as a cause of it suspect in my selfe the sin of unbeleife But as it is I am constrained to use Zacharias his way of expressing my meaning On the day of your meeting in the Temple I could only becken but remained speechles whence you all perceived I had seene a Vision in the Vestry and were not long in suspence what kind of one it was But whatsoever it was I was transported or carried away with it and am yet dumb by it But as the Angell though he strooke Zacharias speechlesse yet tooke not away his writing tables v. 63. So I conceive by the tenour of that order which commands a constraint both of my Tongu and Heeles I am not interdicted the liberty of Pen and Paper but I may lawfully use both without contempt And so by this meanes I shal saving my regard to authority now acquaint you with that message of God I should then viva voce have delivered in your hearing It is true I in this Sermon represent as in a Sciagraph all the Ioynts of the History of Christ but insist only on the blessed mistery of the Vnion of the two natures God and Man in one person without reaching unto his birth or so farre as his conecption by the wholy Ghost Nor indeede as it falls out is there any neede I should put forward to speake of his Nativity though that were properly opus diei the worke of the day For all the circumstances doe sufficiently proclame the Nativity and are now newly revived Was all tho World taxed Lukt 2. 1. when the Messiah was borne Alas for the day of the Lord It is so now Was their no roome for Christ in the Inne Luke 27 There is none for him now in the Churches Were there Wisemen that sought to worship him and a Herod that under pretence of worship sought to destroy him Mat. 2. 1 It was so now there were that came to Church to worship Christ and there were that came to apprehend his Ministers Was there a voice heard in Ramah lamentation and weeping and great mourning Mat 2 18. There is another Rachel whose child is not if the newes of Cornehill be true Doe these things cause a necessity of Christ his going into Aegipt the sonnes of Israel's quondam bondage Mat 2 18. There will I fear but O the good God prevent that necessity be such another violence to drive us to such another flight Lastly was that Herod not longliv'd Mat. 2 19 I prophesie no eternity to the men of his carriage Psalme 55 23. But beloved I must once more crave your patience for I must leave you and waite upon the Committee Whome as Gentlemen I respect as in Authority I Honovr as my Enemies I love blesse and pray for Mat. 5 44 and that I may performe all the duties I owe upon that score I shal labour to doe good to I must tel them that I have read a story of Tiberious the Emperour That he upon the relation which Pilate made unto him of our Saviour had an intention and to that purpose signified his meaning to have Jesus of Nazarath reputed and received among the Roman Gods But the Senate of Rome withstood it because that Honour had been given him by such as never asked their consents But after this I provoke any Historian to shew me where that great Councel did ever any act either Honestly Wisely or like true Romans but were made the properties instruments either of the Caesars lusts or Souldiers villanies And now I wish these men seriously to advise how much short this insolence is of the former When men may not Honor Ministers may not preach Christ without their Licence under paine of imprisonment without Baile or maine prise I speake not this out of Stomack for what I suffer but as hartily as I would beg pardon for my sinns doe I wish them a better exit hoping yet they may acquire a better and more glorious conclusion then these distempers can promise or the Roman Councell had And now I return to give you an account of that which otherwise migh seem strange Which is that way of application you shal meet with all revers'd upon my selfe I confesse it is not usuall nor indeed proper for one that speakes to others But first as it is the Minister of Christs part to appeare in innocence a Dove Math 10 16 So as the Doves feed their young ones with that which themselves have taken down ought Preachers to digest in their owne brests and be fore-tasters of that spirituall food they divide to others and this I had laboured to do Secondly these meditations being now to be read not heard I thought good so to dispose them that each Reader might as I have done suc● in the juice and influence of them and by reading as it were engage himselfe upon the practicall part of them Vnto both which no way so Organicall as prayer And I doe humbly pray that every Reader may be also a Beleever and have a heart open as well as an eye For I conceive with humble reverence that the Gospell if it go no further then the eye or eare is mortiferous and deadly a killing letter But if it be transmitted to the more noble and vitall parts it is Soveraigne Food and Physick Meat and Medicine Christ in the Flesh may vouchsafe to accept the Stable and the Manger but comming in the Spirit he must have a Temple to entertaine him And by so providing we shall supply what was wanting not at Bethlem onely but at Westminster also If any

of you should be so ignorant as not to understand what I would be at in all this I must tel you that though I cannot assent to the mind of them that would have the observation of this feast superstition yet you that give place to the Devill Eph 4. 27. are more injurious to Christ then any Sinne sinne that is it must be taken downe it was sinne and the Devill that snatch'd this bread of life out of your mouths that sent me to Prison Revel. 2. 10. Can you knowing what Christ is think to honour Christ in commemoration of the Nativity and at that season so shufle the cards that sinne shall be Trump in every dealing Remember Iohn Baptist must be born before Christ You must Repent if the Kingdome of God be at hand It is certaine that that Spirit which confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God 1. Iohn 4. 2. and so on the contrary the Non confessor therof is the {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That Spirit of Antichrist vers. 3. I remember St. Augustin with a great deale of pains proves every Heretick to be a denyer of the comming of Iesus Christ in the flesh whatsoever his Heresie be But me thinks Origen with much more ease and plainesse shewes that the best way to confesse Iesus Christ to be come in the flesh is by not committing of sinne unto which purpose he layes that text 1. Iohn 3. 8. 9. to the forementioned 4. c. 2. v. where in 4 Chapter to Be of God is the Predicate to this Confession as the Subject And in the 3. Chapter to be borne of God is the Subject and not committing sinne is the Praedicate So that not to commit sinne is the remote and but once remoov'd definition of the confession of Christs Nativiny or comming in the flesh So that the commemoration or confession by way of Observation of the Day to the end is not Antichristian they were mistaken that advised the Parliament so But the Drunkenesse and Gluttony the Luxury Ryot c These are Antichristian so far Antichristian that where these are Men even when they would confesse do deny Christ Iesus to be come in the Flesh And of these since the secular magistrate distinguisheth not it behoveth us Ministers to be carefull For though I know not what State arguments there may be to prove the Holly Ivy superstitions yet when these things shall be set up sooted and smoked with the sins of Intemperance and Excesse I shall think them fitter Trophees of a Chimney-sweepers Birth day then a Saviours When we shall eat and drinke and rise up to play I must think these are Ceremonies fitter for the Golden-calfe which Aaron made in Horeb then the lamb of God that taketh away the sinnes of the world And verily let me be angry in it I judge it a cause of greater feare and danger then a Prison or a Goale lined with a good conscience This therefore was my first intention to perswade you all by renouncing sinne to celebrate the feast of Christs Nativity for then we best testifie the beleef of his comming when we most fear to offend him or his father And in this way I would be glad to keepe Christmas with any one Being very desirous that all you which would have heard me that Day had been both almost and altogether such as I am Except the Fleet Which I must confesse I take very pati●ntly blessing God that it overtook me not in any evill deed but in wel-doing or at least the intention of it Neither shall the errour of the Committee in sending me to it And O that it were the greatest they are guilty of make me forget the Ioy of Christs Incarnation or the Good will towards men the Angels sung They are Men so was my Redeemer for whose sake and through whose Grace I can suffer greater wrongs then these and yet never hate the Men Indeed there is somewhat in it that is not Man but Devill To make men Dumbe as to matters of Duty and Faith that is the Act of the Uncleane Spirit Math. 12 22 It is that hath in a sence made me lame so that I cannot walk But if it hath made me Dumb and Lame it hath made them Deafe and Blinde And truly Without a Miracle I feare neither of us are like to recover And because my infirmity is but an appendant to theirs I shall hartily pray for them that they may receive their sight even in this their day that they might see the things that belong to their the Churches and the Kingdomes Peace That Christ would say Epphata Be opened That they that have eares to heare may hear What Christ himselfe hath said himself to them to me to the Parliament and all Mat 22 21. Give unto Caesar the things that are Caesars unto God the things that are Gods And then I doubt not for I suffer but by simpathie but I shal be able with him Acts 38 to walke and to praise God Vnto which time whether it be the pleasure of God to prolong my dayes I know not for it hath some analogie to that time whereof our Saviour speakes when he saith many Kings Righteous men have desired to see and have not yet seene but this I resolve on While I live not to cease day and night praying for the hastening of it For the time we live in now I am confident is part of that mentioned Mat. 24 21 Except these days should be shortened no flesh can be saved and the Promise which closeth the same verse it revives me doubly in relation to the general with hope to my owne particular with care to give all dilligence to make my caling and Election sure 2 Pet 1 10. The Elect that is they that adde to their Faith Vertue and to Vertue Knowledg and to Knowledg Temperance and to Temperance Patience and to Patience Godlinesse to Godlinesse brotherly Kindnesse and to brotherly Kindnesse Charity have an interest in better times For their sakes these dayes shall be shortened VVherefore God stir up your hearts to endeavour be of that Number to increase it Neither is this spoken by way of Pharisaicall imposition to ease my self but what ever others intend it is my resolution and the good Lord Keepe it for ever in the purpose of my heart to begin this only saving health in stead of all others Psalme 116 18. For beleeve it I am very sensible wee live in the worst of times and that I am one Christ Jesus came into the World to save that is to say the Cheife of Sinners And From the Fleet Ianuary 8. 1647. Your Debtor in this service N. BERNARD THE STILL BORNE NATJVJTY OR A Sermon of the glorious Mystery of the Incarnation of our Lord and blessed Saviour Jesus Christ Both God and Man To have been delivered at St. Margaret's Church in Westminster on Saturday December the five and twenty 1647

Being Christmas day Text. Iohn 1. 14. And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt amongst us THe Prophet Ezechiell before Christ and St. Iohn the Divine after Christ had both one and the same Vision Ezech 1. 10. Rev. 4. 8. of foure beasts or living Creatures That had the faces of a man of a Lion of an Oxe and of an Eagle Which faces Saint Gregory the great applies to Christ As that of a man for his Birth and Bowells of Compassion That of an Oxe for the Sacrifice of his Death and Plough of Doctrine That of a Lion for his open eyed sleepe that is his life in death and strength in Resurrection Rouzing himselfe from the grave as a Lion from his denne Lastly that of an Eagle for his ascention into Heaven leading Captivity captive Others apply this vision to the foure Evangelists affixing first the Face of a Man to St. Mathew because he begins his Gospel with the Generation and Nativity of Christ Secondly the Face of a Lion to St. Marke for he begins his Gospel with that prophesie of Iohn Baptist The voice of one crying or roaring in the Wildernesse Thirdly the face of an Oxe to Saint Luke Because he begins his Gospel with Zacharias Preisthood and Sacrifice Lastly the face to our present Evangelist Saint Iohn of an Eagle For he in the beginning of his Gospel acts perfectly both the parts of an Eagle which we read of Iob 39 27 and 30. First like an Eagle mounting up on high to speake of the Divinity of Christ to such an hight that the sublimest of the Heathen Philosephers stand at a Gaze admiring the mounty And this he doth from the first to the sixt verse Secondly like an Eagle immediatly stooping to the Carcase Mat. 24 28 For where the body is thither will the Eagles be gathered together Luke 17 37. And this is done in the words of this verse And the word was made flesh c. Which words taken altogether most excellently in a very few syllables expresses all the notable and most worthy-to-be-considered parts of Christ's whole History So that we want understanding the text wants nothing to be accounted a compleat Gospel Aquinas distinguisheth Christs life on earth into these foure divisions first his ingresse or coming into the World And this wee have in the former part of my text and the word was made flesh Secondly into his progresse or going on in the World Thirdly into his congresse or dealing with the World Fourthly into his Egresse or going out of the World And these three last parts may be understood in the latter part of my text and dwelt amongst us if the originall word which is no more but he Tented or Tabernacled among us be duly knowne But to go on His Ingresse or coming into the world is by some record to be threefold First in Carne in the Flesh Secondly in Spirity in the Spirit Thirdly in judicio in the last judgment The first is a coming Ad homines Iohn 1 11. Vnto men The Second is a coming In homines Rev. 3 20 Into men The Third is a comming Contrae-homines Iude 14 against men His Progresse in the World likewise appeares to be threefold First Locomotive in respect of place of abode And then the Gest's of his Progresse are 1 Bethlem 2 Egypt 3 Nazereth 4 Ierusalem Secondly Naturall by way of augmentation growing 1 For mind in wisdome 2 For body in Statute 3 For successe in favour both with God and man Luke 2 52. Thirdly official by way of undertaking 1 In circumcicion the fullfilling of the Law 2 In Baptisme the Preaching of the Gospell His congresse or dealing with the World is fourefould First with Men in his Conversation Secondly with Satan in his Temptation Thirdly with mens Sinnes in his Preaching Fourthly with mens Sicknesses and infirmities in his miracles His Egresse ongoing out of the World containes besides those memorable passages about his Passion Resurrection and Ascention al those Testamentary provisions by him made against his departure for succeeding generations Whether Commissions for his Ministers Legacies for his freinds or Seales which wee call Sacraments for Prooving and confirming of his will These are the heades of the History of the Gospel And now Beloved were it suteable to the consideration of the season or of my stay here I could without any great Travell fixing one foot of the Compass in the center of this text with the other fetch in all these points though never so vast a latitude within a just circumference of without any excentricity But I had rather make another and more profitable use of them whereunto the review and consideration doth directly lead me And That is to admire the Infinite goodnesse of God in all this to wretched mankind Who being in this Earth a stranger and a stragler without either freind or acquaintance in the midst of enemies dangers and mischeifes many snares no sure footing Sic erat instabilis tellus innabilis unda Sin procuring Satan bringing great woe wrath to the inhabitants of earth and of the Sea Such is the mercy of God toward so great his blessing upon Man at whose hands yet mankind had merited no such kindnesse but rather curses that whether he be to be borne or to grow or to go in or to deale or to encounter with or to dye out of the world He hath given his own son to be Duxque comesque viae et vitae a guid and companion to him of life and way And what ever other men doe thinke of it when I consider That to be Borne to Grow to Live and to Dye be things common to mee and my redeemer I cannot chuse but cry out O Lord my God since in these states thou hast so far as only nature goes fashioned us alike let these lineaments and parts in me which sinne hath drawne and overcast with the black coale of guilt be fil'd up with the colours of my Saviour That through the beauties of his holinesse as he glorified thee on earth so in my life and death I may shew forth his praises and vertues who hath called me out of darknes into his marvelous light And so without hopes of further commerce with them as to discourse in this place I dismisse the latter part of my text with it the 3. last generall branches of the Gospel History of the life of Christ betaking my selfe to the former part both of the Division and of the text which speakes of Christs Ingresse into the World And the word was made Flesh And therein of his comming in the Flesh only How Christ is called the word If we should shew it would engage us upon a discourse of that other Mistery of the Trinity unto a length prejudiciall to our present businesse or if we should shew how Flesh is put for our whole nature why It would run us at this time out of breath I proceede therefore to the substance of the words The

Pain and mortality Ine breif by nature we meane whatsoever is generall to and in all men so that it be not Grace or sinne For nature is that which grace nor Sinne nor gives nor takes away but is only perfited and Sanctified not added by Grace corrupted and vitiated by sinne not extinguished Againe that is naturall in a man which may be wel or il used Grace only cannot be abused Sinne only cannot be wel employed Nature only may be the weapon of unrighteousnesse to sinne Or the instrument of righteousnes to obedience By which descriptions of nature it will be no hard mater for an ordinary understanding to find out what in man was united and assumed to the Deity of Christ in the work and mystery of the Incarnation And now when a man considers the severall immediate unions in Christ and finds the supernaturall Vnions of the Deitie inseparable even where soule and body parts He begins to be sensible of a naturall combate between Flesh and Spirit I meane soule and body Yet ending in an acknowledgement of the faithfullnes of God in Christ transcending all other freindship For look we after Damon and Pythias Nisus and Eurialus Theseus and Perithous Scipio and Laelius Ionathan and David Ruth and Naomi the only pair of Woman-freinds I never read or heard of And we shall find these come short of the love betweene every man's soule and body and yet these two are in men ready to fall out one with another to see their owne falsenesse discovered by the apposed faithfullnesse of God So that the Soul chargeth faithles dealing to the body first recounting it's care study pains griefe joy suffering for the body all which were the body away the soule might be freed from as having no back to be cloathed no belly to be filled no posterity to be provided for no cheekes to blush no nor any subjection to corporall strokes nor temptation to sinne and yet how doth this accursed earth forsake me saith the soul then when if I am evill and evill I am by conjunction with that too I must anticipate those wofull torments due for sinne while that lyes steeping in the grave Or if good which I am by conjunction with Christ then when I have most use and should have most joy of the body that unnaturaly sinkes from me Leaving me indeed to enjoy but alone the glorified Mansion of the Saints wherein is the glorious body of my Lord and my God a most blessed and beatificall object But wanting a bodily eye to apprehend that fullnes which dwels in him bodily I suffer a comparative imperfection which makes me cry out How long Lord just and true Where I ow and without al wearines would and could tender all worship c. But all bodily service I come short of having as before no eye bodily to see so here no knee to bend no hand to lift up no tongue to speak To the honour of him that sits upon the throne and the Lamb for ever On the other side the body though slower yet fals in heavier in the charg and like the Moon in the Hebrew Apologue against the Sun that would be divorc'd recriminates thus The Soul is false to me and unkind For its care study paines c. are for its owne Pride and arrogancy For when the soule is taken away a winding sheete is as good to me as Salomans Wardrobe a grave as pallace yea an Vrne as the Vniverse were it not for the soules Vanity nothing more thrifty then the belly nor more hardy then back the posterity nothing glory or sham too late stroks unfelt temptations unaccepted sinne unperfited I have been a true drudge to the soul an ungrudging slave I see now an il rewarded servant My two feet have been teady to run my two hands to work My 2 eyes to spy My two ears to hearken my tongue though but one yet as busie as any two twoes beside to speak yea al my senses and organical members have been but the Pedees Posts to bring home the farr fecht and deare bought Dainties of experience and knowledg to the Lady {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} this soule And yet see her faithfulnesse If I have done evill it was caeca obedientia and were she a Papist she by her own doctrin ought to suffer alone she goes but before for a few more stripes which her knowledge demerits I my ignorance notwithstanding shall be forced after to the encrease of her torment as well as mine if I have done well she anticipates my reward and Crowne and glory leaving me unwilling to part with her a loathing to my freinds a companion to the Wormes and brother to corruption not affording nec beneficium salis so much kindnes as salt or a searecloth will do me to keepe me from stinking and putrefaction And here is the regreet of the two dearest freinds nature ever knew Now observe how much kinder and constanter Christ is to both then either to other For beside that he is and does what ever each of these is or doth to one another and that not only per modum efficientiae as an Efficient working that good that is in them but also per modnm eminentiae by way of Excellency doing greater things for them both then they are able to apprehend at present Like a soule caring studying labouring greiving joying suffering for both Like the Body going working seeing hearing speaking for both Like a soule to the Body informing and conserning both Like a body to the Soule serving both And al this in an ineffable and glorious way for the advancing of both He doth further when the soule is taken out of the body as it were out of a sheath take it into his hands doe's of the rust forbisheth it and brightning it with his owne glory Clothes it with Majesty Nay more But I had need learue St. Pauls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} unut terable words to expresse the happines of it there For the things which eye hath not seen to supply the want of sight nor eares heard to make up the losse of bodily teares c. are there ready to entertaine it On th' other side the Body whose estate seems to be most deplored when freinds avoid the sight of it the soule in whose service it is either worn out or wounded to death forsaking it hath notwithstanding the everlasting armes underneath it treasuring it up for one of his jewels in whose sight the death of the Saints is precious For no doubt God who telleth the wandrings bottle up the teares numbreth the haires and writes in a book all the part of his servants living Can doth though the grave cause all the joints to drop asunder the bowels to engender wormes and a stinch turnes the pleasant eye balls the sometime seat of delight into a rotten Gelly dry the braine consume the mucles rack the whole to peices and then grind it againe to