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	life_n	sow_v	6,723	5	10.5328	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62597	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Mr Thomas Gouge, the 4th of Novemb. 1681 at S. Anne's Blackfriars with a brief account of his life / by John Tillotson ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.	1682 (1682)	Wing T1234; ESTC R17437	26,169	94

men thoroughly convinced of this plain and certain Truth that there is a vast difference between Time and Eternity between a few years and everlasting Ages would we but represent to our selves what thoughts and apprehensions dying persons have of this world how vain and empty a thing it appears to them how like a pageant and a shadow it looks as it passeth away from them methinks none of these things could be a sufficient temptation to any man to forget God and his Soul but notwithstanding all the delights and pleasures of sense we should be strangely intent upon the concernments of another world and almost wholly taken up with the thoughts of that vast Eternity which we are ready to launch into For what is there in this world this waste and howling wilderness this rude and barbarous Country which we are but to pass through which should detain our affections here and take up our thoughts from our everlasting habitation from that better and that heavenly Country where we hope to live and be happy for ever If we settle our affections upon the enjoyments of this present Life so as to be extremely pleas'd and transported with them and to say in our hearts It is good for us to be here if we be excessively griev'd or discontented for the want or loss of them and if we look upon our present state in this world any otherwise than as a preparation and passage to a better life it is a sign that our faith and hope of the happiness of another life is but very weak and faint and that we do not heartily and in good earnest believe what we pretend to do concerning these things For did we stedfastly believe and were thoroughly persuaded of what our Religion so plainly declares to us concerning the unspeakable and endless happiness of good men in another world our affections would sit more loose to this world and our hopes would raise our hearts as much above these present and sensible things as the heavens are high above the earth we should value nothing here below but as it serves for our present support and passage or may be made a means to secure and increase our future felicity 2. The consideration of another Life should quicken our preparation for that blessed state which remains for us in the other world This Life is a state of probation and tryal This world is God's school where immortal spirits clothed with flesh are trained and bred up for eternity And then certainly it is not an indifferent thing and a matter of slight concernment to us how we live and demean our selves in this world whether we indulge our selves in ungodliness and worldly lusts or live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world No it is a matter of infinite moment as much as our souls and all eternity are worth Let us not deceive our selves for as we sowe so shall we reap If we sowe to the flesh we shall of the flesh reap corruption but if we sowe to the spirit we shall of the spirit reap everlasting life Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart The righteous hath hopes in his death Mark the perfect man and behold the upright for the end of that man is peace But the ungodly are not so whoever hath lived a wicked and vicious life feels strange throws and pangs in his conscience when he comes to be cast upon a sick bed The wicked is like the troubled sea saith the Prophet when it cannot rest full of trouble and confusion especially in a dying hour It is death to such a man to look back upon his life and a hell to him to think of eternity When his guilty and trembling Soul is ready to leave his Body and just stepping into the other world what horrour and amazement do then seise upon him what a rage doth such a man feel in his breast when he seriously considers that he hath been so great a fool as for the false and imperfect pleasure of a few days to make himself miserable for ever 3. Let the consideration of that unspeakable Reward which God hath promised to good men at the Resurrection encourage us to obedience and a holy life We serve a great Prince who is able to promote us to honour a most gracious master who will not let the least service we doe for him pass unrewarded This is the Inference which the Apostle makes from his large discourse of the Doctrine of the Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 58. Wherefore my beloved brethren be ye stedfast and unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Nothing will make death more welcome to us than a constant course of service and obedience to God Sleep saith Solomon is sweet to the labouring man so after a great diligence and industry in working out our own salvation and as it is said of David serving our generation according to the will of God how pleasant will it be to fall asleep And as an usefull and well-spent life will make our death to be sweet so our resurrection to be glorious Whatever acts of piety we doe to God or of charity to men whatever we lay out upon the poor and afflicted and necessitous will all be considered by God in the day of recompences and most plentifully rewarded to us And surely no consideration ought to be more prevalent to perswade us to alms deeds and charity to the poor than that of a resurrection to another life Besides the promises of this life which are made to works of charity and there is not any grace or vertue whatsoever which hath so many and so great promises of temporal blessings made to it in Scripture as this grace of charity I say besides the promises of this Life the great promise of eternal Life is in Scripture in a more especial manner entail'd upon it Luke 12. 33. Give alms saith our Saviour provide your selves baggs which wax not old a treasure in the heavens that faileth not and c. 16. v. 9. make to your selves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that when ye shall fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations And 1 Tim. 6. 17 18 19. Charge them that are rich in this world that they be not high minded c. that they doe good that they be rich in good works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying up in store for themselves a good foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold on eternal life the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our Translation renders foundation according to the common use of it seems in this place to have a more peculiar notion and to signifie the security that is given by a pledge or by an instrument or obligation of contract for the performance of Covenants For besides that the phrase of laying up in store or treasuring up