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	reap_v	sow_v	14,782	5	11.5940	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29649	The way to the Sabbath of rest, or, The souls progress in the work of regeneration being a brief experimental discourse of the new-birth in which many of the serpents wiles are detected, the mysteries of the Cross unvailed, the death of the old man, the life of the new man, the angelical dispensation, with the entrance to the divine / clearly laid open and discovered by Mr. Thomas Bromley.	Bromley, Thomas, 1629-1691.	1692 (1692)	Wing B4888B; ESTC R35790	39,085	70

the Excellency of the Holy Scriptures and how much those who profess to believe the Christian Doctrines are bound to live a holy Life and so gave a short but powerful Exhortation to Holyness as the only way to Happiness And then said I have Peace of Conscience I have lived up to my Light and loved God above all things And at another time he said to two intimate Friends I have Peace of Conscience I have walk'd with God tho I have made no Noise in the World The same day he died which was on Easter-Monday April 13th 1691. he oft cryed Come Lord Jesus come quickly O when when And one time he said My Lord my Rock and my strong Habitation Which words came from him with great Power The last words that ever he spoke were Watch watch whereupon he fell into a sweet Slumber for an hour and in it departed thus truly falling asleep in him to whom for whom and in whom he had lived to whom be Glory and Praise for ever and ever This was the End Reader of that pretious Saint who from the Light and Grace of God confer'd upon him pen'd the following Treatise concerning which I shall not need to add any thing further seeing the following Advertisement of the Author gives a full Account of the Design and Usefulness thereof The Paraphrase in Verse upon the 13th of the First of Corinthians printed at the end of the Treatise being found amongst the Authors loose Papers was thought fit to be publish'd herewith because it expresseth much of his Spirit and Temper But I must conclude after that I have inform'd the Reader that the Author has left several other excellent Spiritual Discourses behind him which if this be well received are intended to be made Publick for the use of the Church in her present Wilderness Condition The great and glorious God who hath given this Seed to the Sower make it with all Fruitfulness to spring up in the Hearts of all that are of Good-will to the Regeneration in Christ Jesus Amen AN ADVERTISEMENT FROM THE AUTHOR To all that shall read this following Discourse I Have written this Experimental Discourse of the New-Birth not for the Wise and Rich who think they see and enjoy enough but for the Poor in Spirit who enquiring the way to Sion are sensible of their Defects and breath after a Supply Let none then come with Prejudice for that will give a false Tincture to the Eye of the Mind and prevent the sight of Truth by a prepossession that 't is Error If any have attained and enjoy as much or more than is here expressed let them bless God for his Goodness both to themselves and me If not let them not be ashamed to learn and practice more than they have already for Teach a wise Man and he will be yet wiser Prov. 9.9 And 't is no diminishing of Esteem to grow in true Knowledge or disparagement of Age to gain Wisdom from those that are Young because true Wisdom is the Gift of God who is no respecter of Persons bestowing his Gifts on whom he pleaseth But think not I have here chalked out a Way for every one to walk in for I have only wrote my own Experience And I know there may be great variety in Gods Works upon Souls so that none are to be confined to one exact Path though all are to be informed That we must turn and become as little Children and be wholly dead with Christ before we can be as the Angels in the Resurrection delighting our selves in the Light and Life of Eternity Therefore the Perfect Death should be aimed at by all for nothing less can fit us for Glory For how can any Imperfection enter there where is nothing but Perfection or any thing of Darkness dwell with him who is Light and in whom there is no Darkness at all 'T is true many from mastaking that Principle of Gods being the Root of all things have endeavoured to reconcile Light and Darkness Good and Evil Flesh and Spirit Christ and Belial and so to laugh Tall Mortification and Self-denial out of the Church But alas what have the Practices and Notions of such ended in but shame and confusion of Face for they have sowed to the Wind and reaped the Whirl-wind grasped at an Imaginary Heaven and Perfection but have fallen like Lucifer into Hell and palpable Darkness having like foolish Virgins spent their Oyl and received Poyson into their Lamps and so made themselves unfit to meet and entertain the Bridegroom Others there are who come forth in such Outward Strictness and Severity as they are ready to judge all that are not in their peculiar Mode and Form and so refuse Communion with some who have attained much further in the true Death and Resurrection and are more acquainted with the Renewal of Gods Image and the State of Restoration than themselves And there be many others who though not owning the first sort and much disgusting the last yet give themselves too much to Earthly Indulgements under the notion of Christian Liberty and so make no real Progress in the Change of their Souls Some of which are cheated with false Notions of their being in Christ and others of them with sublime apprehensions of false Imaginary Deaths and ways of Self-denial which they much feed upon instead of that Death and Cross which should work their Spirits and Natures out of Flesh into the true spiritual Divine Image There are another sort who are too much offended at Forms and all usual ways of enjoying and speaking of God decrying them as Cheats and empty things though they be used never so spiritually and advantagiously to those that appear in them which is a great mistake flowing from Ignorance and the want of a clear sight which could not so confine the great and infinite Jehovah within the limits of No-forms and exclude him from appearing and working in and through Forms being it is at his own pleasure to shew himself how and in what he pleaseth But lastly a great part of those that profess Religion are such who rest too much upon the first work of Regeneration and two much eye their first Change afterward running in a Circle of Duties and Performances without making that Progress and Growth toward Perfection which the frequent Exhortations and Examples of the Holy Scriptures call and incite us to Now the work of Regeneration renewing both the Will and Vnderstanding will bring those who persevere in it to a clear sight of the forementioned Mistakes by which they will be able to discern betwixt Light and Darkness Chaff and Wheat and come to own the Good Seed in all and endeavour by walking according to the Royal Law of Love and Charity to cherish it Now this Law of Love is the Rule of Perfection being the Scope and end of a Christians Progress a true Conformity to which makes us like God who is Love and delights to impress his own eternal Character

Condition before they make a new advance towards Perfection usually much reflecting upon their former work of Conversion as the chief Basis of their Comforts And though sometimes they look forward and desire growth yet that desire of growth is so weak that it terminates in its self short of effectual accomplishment and though they sometimes begin yet their Endeavours are nipt in their first Blossoming and they themselves cast back into wonted Deadness and so they come to run in a Circle without getting ground of their Corruptions And I confess I was long detained in this State without any clear evident progress towards Eternity And though I grew much in Knowledge and mystical Notions of the Life Death Resurrection and Ascention of Christ and of our Conformity to his Example yet not in the Power of his Cross and Death working the same in my Nature But afterward I came to a clearer sight of the Narrow Way which leads to Life Eternal and of the necessity of our exact Conformity to Christs Sufferings and Death to bring us unto his Life and Resurrection And that every degree of Life must come through a degree of Death and the New-man spring up by the continual decay of the Old And though I saw This before yet not so distinctly and effectually as now Here likewise I was more powerfully convinced of the Straitness of the Pilgrims Path which leads through the Visible and Invisible Worlds into the third Heaven Every step being to be made through Death and Resignation and that the Soul could not attain perfect Bliss but through a Death to all things which it came to love through the Fall For as the Soul entred into Selfishness so it must come out of it casting away all that cloathing it is covered with through Lust And as it descended from Paradise into the Spirit of the World and the Kingdom of the Devil so it must re-ascend out of the Spirit of the World and the Kingdom of the Dragon through the Root of fallen Nature into the Bosom of Abraham Here I saw what a real Progress the Soul must make from the External into the Internal from thence into the Eternal And as it descended so it must ascend and as it fell by a gradual Change of the Will into Lust and Earthliness so it must Rise by a gradual renewing of the Soul from Lust into Divine Love Here I saw nothing without us could advantage but as it was apply'd to make a real change within For except we turn and become as Children we cannot enter into the Kingdom of God It must be by a Transmutation and Metamorphosis of the Soul from the Image of the Earthly into that of the Heavenly Nothing can ascend into Heaven but that which came from Heaven even the true Image of God the Earthly being predestinated to destruction For Earth it is and unto Earth it must return Now the motion of the Soul through the gate of Death towards Life Eternal is the motion of a Spirit which is to be looked upon as ascending or descending as it comes nearer or removes further from God the Center as Bodies ascend or descend in relation to their Center by their tending toward or from ward the Visible Heavens Vpward therefore to a Soul is Inward Outward is Downward The Center is the Highest the Circumference the lowest God is in the Center being most Inward Matter in the Circumference being most Outward yet God is in the Outward as his footstool but in the most Inward as his Throne filling both though in both not manifest alike In the Inmost he shews himself wholly in the Love in the Outmost in Love and Wrath Life and Death Generation and Corruption But in the Inward dark World altogether in Death Darkness and Wrath as in the Inmost all in Light and Life Therefore our Progress is from the Outward through the Inward to the Inmost The Outward is the place of Good and Evil and as to its corrupt State the Kingdom of the Beast The Inward is two-fold either the Dark or Light world The Dark is the Kingdom of the Dragron the Center of Evil and Wrath The Light World is the Paradisical Sphere or that Garden of Eden which is situate also in its Mesopotamia or betwixt the two great Rivers of Wrath and Love The first of which is called in Revelation 19.20 The Lake of Fire burning with Brimstone the last in Rev. 22. A pure River of Water of Life clear as Chrystal which proceeds out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb. The Inmost is the eternal Sanctuary or the true eternal Tabernacle of God and that spiritual Land of Peace where Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the glorified departed Saints live and inhabit But none can ever reach This but through the perfect Death and as we die daily so we rise nearer and nearer it Death giving us a gradual passage towards this Eternal Kingdom of Life And is it so that Death must waft us ore The Sea of Nature to the Heavenly Shore Then bring thy Boat blest Death that thou and I May saile together towards Eternity A sweet Companion thou wilt be to me Till I imbosom'd am in Vnity CHAP. V. THe Soul having arrived so far as to see the necessity of a complete Death and of a perfect Conformity to the Cross of Christ and discovering much Selfishness which before it saw not as matter of this Death and Cross begins afresh the serious Practice of the Cross with great earnestness and resolution of Spirit to indulge i nothing that stands betwixt it and God Now it enters upon a strict Enquiry into its own Heart searching its own Jerusalem with the Candle of the Lord that so all Selfishness may be discovered and extirpated and now it finds that although before this Dispensation the chief Bent of the Will inclined habitually toward the Good yet it was not strong enough to bear down that Opposition of Flesh that hindred its constant Ascent toward Heaven and had therefore need of a new Alarm from thence to awaken it and raise it from that Bed of Drowsiness and arm it with Power and Resolution to cast out the Relicks of the Flesh and Corruption and defend its self against the Assaults of the Devil who having long possessed the unregenerate part of the Heart is loath to quit his hold least the Soul should get wholly out of his Kingdom and reach At this remove therefore the Spirits of Darkness exceedingly oppose and use all their art and strength to betray and weaken the Souls Endeavours Here then begins a new and great War in the Soul between the Seed of the Woman and the Serpent Michael and his Angels fight against the Dragon and his Angels Christ and Anti-Christ strongly oppose each other The Wrath and Love bring forth their mighty wonders being both stirred and awakened afresh in the Soul But the

the Harmony and agreement of Spirits and Natures as they were signatured in the first moment of Existency For Grace and the work of Regeneration do not destroy Our Natural signatures only rectifie them by that Heavenly Principle which reduceth all our Spirits into the highest perfection they are capable of by their primary Model and Frame Hence it appears that they are more Truly Brethren even according to Natural Nature who thus agree and correspond their Essences then they that are ordinarily called so who are many times very contrary signatur'd And the reason of this assertion is in that when our Natures come to their perfect rectitude and restauration by Union with God this secret propension and harmonious closing with those that are like-essenced remains whereas from meer natural Relation there nothing continues though in those who are related there may be this agreement too But meer Relation is not the cause of it but that secret Law of influence which God hath established to signature some one way some another some in much agreement and proportion others more differing tho' all representing something of that variety which is wrapt up in the Unity of the Eternal Nature I could not but give an hint of this because It may open some things concerning Relations which may lye dark to those who know not the deepest ground and Root of them But I shall proceed to the further opening of those Enjoyments which flow from Union with new Relations which come now to be very dear because the ground of their Relation is so pure and good being not of Man or the Will of Man but of God Here we shall experience the happy effects of our pure Union which produces that Divine Love that none can know but those that enjoy it But this will be strongest where there is most Harmony and Agreement in Spirits and Natures because the Eternal Tincture works upon and through every thing occording to its Nature and Capacity Hence we come to enjoy more from some than others and some from us receive more than others But that Brotherly-love and friendship which now come to be renewed in Spirit far transcend any enjoyments meerly Natural And whatsoever we parted with in dying to all Earthly affection and its Objects we regain in the Resurrection of our Spirits in this pure Love which is not Affection but something above it not consisting in sudden out-flowings and eruptions but in a constant sweet inclination and secret propension of the Spirit to those which are one with it in the pure Life And this good-willingness is so great that from it the Soul could give its Life or if there were any thing dearer than Life for its Brother and choose Sufferings to free others from them In this state there will be a sympathizing in Joy and Sorrow and where the Union is eminently great there may be some knowledge of each others Conditions at a distance which comes from their being essenced in each others Spirits and Tinctures which is the cause of this invisible Sympathy And they that are in this near Union feel a mutual in-dwelling in the pure Tincture and Life of each other and so the further we come out of the animal Nature the more universal we are and nearer both to Heaven and to one another in the Internal and the sitter Instrumentally to convey the pure streams of the Heavenly Life to each other which no external distance can hinder For the Divine Tincture being such a spiritual Virtue as Christ imprinted into the Heart of the Disciples with whom he talked after his Resurrection making their hearts to burn within them is able to pierce through all distance and reach those that are far absent because it is not Corporeal nor Subject to the Laws of place or time Now this is known to some by Experience who in absence enjoy such influences of Spirit and secret Insinuations of Spiritual Virtue from one another that they cannot but value this Spiritual Communion above all Enjoyments in the World which compared to it seem but like the basest Metal to the purest Gold Then quit that wretched state Immortal Soul Where poyson'd Ghosts in flesh together roul And take thy flight into that Mount of Love Where New-born Spirits in bright Bodies move And sport themselves in that Eternal Joy Which totally excludes Lusts base alloy Lust's left below for those that flesh desire Love dwells on High Love fills the Heavenly Quire CHAP. XI THE Love which in this Spiritual Union before described we come to enjoy is unexpressibly refreshing proving to be sweeter than the Hony or the Hony Comb and continually raiseth the Soul to the true Fountain of it who being the true cause of all pure Union both preserves and increaseth it But the Soul now having a View and Experience of the Beauty and Sweetness of the Spirits of other Christians and of the Excellency of that Love which may be enjoyed through them may if it be not prevented by much self-denyal and Watchfulness suffer very much Selfishness to spring up in a new Dress for here may arise Spiritual Covetousness or a desire of engrossing Spirits to ones self Here Spiritual Pride may also discover it self in desiring much esteem of such Envy likewise may start up against those we fear may draw them from us or enjoy more Love from them than our selves and so all other Selfish Affections may here croud in in a refined dress And as these Spiritual Evils may flow from the sight of the Excellency and suitableness of the Spirits of other Christians so also they may break in upon us from large and Eminent Gifts of the Spirit 2 Cor. 12.7 For we seeing the Amiableness and Worth of these may come immoderately to desire them may fear to have them Eclipsed may reflect too much upon our selves in the enjoying of them may look too much after Eminency in the use of them and in a word may take too much Complacency in the pleasant fruition of them even to an hindrance of our looking up to the Fountain as all in all If then the Soul be here entangled as it is hard totally to escape it must fly to the Cross and lay the Ax to the Root of the Tree of Self that so it may be hewn down and cast into the Fire And it must pray for the Sword of Power to circumcise and cut off this refined Selfishness as it did the grosser part And to take away this Propriety and Self-ownment of all Spirits Gifts and Graces Here we must come to offer up the very Good it self as Abraham did Isaac to God the Fountain and Bestower Here we must dye to the Coveting of any Spirit Grace Vision Revelation Rapture or sensible Comfort Here we must come to be nothing in all these to enjoy them as though we enjoyed them not and not to reflect upon our selves on any account to rejoyce to see others

flourish in the Riches of those and to have far more Light Wisdom Comfort and Honour than our selves to be willing when we are rich in Gifts and esteem of the Saints to part with them if God so please and to hang so loose from all things below God as that nothing may the least hinder our Conformity to the Death of Christ or our rising again in the pure Life of Love and Innocency And truly when we have known the Glory of those Spiritual Objects and have been rich in possessing them we may find it exceeding difficult wholly to give up and to own no Propriety of Will in them becoming nothing in the greatest Union of Spirits fruition of Gifts and Spiritual Honour keeping a sweet innocent Spirit free from Selfishness in all these Now the Reason of the difficulty in being wholly freed from Self here is the Excellency of the Objects and the sweetness of their Enjoyments For their Nature and Effects being very suitable to the Soul they have the stronger Influence upon it to close with them in too much delight and adherency Whence it may be more difficult totally to give them up than it was to leave outward gross things which could not be so pleasing to the nature of the Soul And though some who think they have passed far in the New-Birth never experienced this and may therefore look upon it as a thing not much to be regarded yet let all such know that the Reason may be in that they never yet passed clear out of the Spirit of the World nor overcame their Animal Nature by a Compleat Circumcision and Renunciation and so were not capable to receive any extraordinary Enjoyments of Visions Revelations In-speakings Prophesies Unions of Spirits and being not come into the Inward Wilderness where the Soul is fitted for such things and where these Spiritual Temptations arise to try it Whereas being in the outward Sensitive Spirit and detained in Flesh and Blood as Israel in Egypt the inward spiritual Faculties of Sensation lie lock'd up and can have no knowledge of those Spiritual Operations and Enjoyments But they that are come so far in the Work of the New-birth as to be acquainted with and to live to these things must of necessity dye to them and come to be Nothing in them giving up all to God and forsaking the Propriety of their own Wills Now this is a parting with our own Lives and the giving up the Ghost of refined selfishness which strikes at the Root of Sin and Evil and brings us to the Death of the Cross in Conformity to the Example of our Saviour's Progress who was Crucified betwixt two Thieves One of which was lost tho' the other went with him into Paradise which we in the Mystery likewise fulfil for our Wills are Crucified betwixt the outward Animal Man and the Inward Old Man or sinful Nature The first of which in the Resurrection shall be received after Purification into Paradise but the last must be destroyed and swallowed up into the fire of Wrath. The Soul which on the Cross thus freely dyes Becomes to God a pleasing Sacrifice Through that Eternal Spirit and that Blood Which by meer Reason are not understood Nor by those Rabbies who Divines would be Though they know not the true Divinity CHAP. XII AFter this death upon the Mystical Cross the Soul in Conformity to Christs progress passeth through a state Analogous to that of Christs descent into Hell being that Principle which stands as a smoaking Furnace before the Entrance of Paradise into which none can pass but those that are dead with Christ and washed from the Pollutions of flesh and Spirit by the Blood of the Lamb For whosoever retain the spots of Guilt will be kept back by Gods Wrath which in this principle burns like fire Isa 30.33 This also is spread at least potentially as to its Root through the whole World yet invisible to the outward Eye In this the Dragon and all Evil Angels and Spirits are for Jud. Epist ver 6. The Lord reserves the fallen Angels in everlasting Chains under Darkness or as 2 Pet. 2.4 hath cast them into Hell and delivered them into Chains of Darkness to be reserved unto Judgment Now though the fallen Angels are every where tempting the Saints yet they are always in the Chains of this invisible Darkness which could not be if this were not every where in this World Whence Ephes 6.12 it is called the Darkness of this World of which the chief Devils are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wordly Rulers And although evil Spirits receive some Refreshment by mixing with the Souls of Men which are cloathed with the Animal sensitive Nature and live in the Spirit of the World yet they are still in Chains under this Darkness as in their proper Center And although it is said Luke 8.31 That the Devils whose name was Legion besought Christ after they were cast out of the Man that he would not command them to go out into the Deep as though the Deep or bottomless Pit had been at a distance from them Yet the meaning is that they might not wholly go out of the Spirit of the World and out of Union with it deeper into the Center of Darkness and Wrath for in Union either with Men or Beasts who live in the Spirit of the World they receive some mitigation of their Torment which they have not when they are naked and uncloathed in the Abyss Therefore their going into the Abyss from union with the Spirits of Men or Beasts is not as we depart from one Room into another which are disjoyned by outward distance but a sinking deeper from the Circumference toward the Center from the outward to the inward which we call the Dark World and Hell which according to the sight and experience of some deep mystical Men is made up of Spiritual Sulphur Mercury and Salt not united and harmonized in sweet proportion for then they would be Paradise but as in discord and disproportion working in contrary Motions through the absence of that pure Balsamical Oil which flowing from the heart of God makes Paradise so delightful Now as all things in this visible World are compounded of these three Material principles Sulphur Mercury and Salt so are the Invisible Worlds in their spiritual nature from whence the Visible World proceeded and in which it is erected for Heb. 7.3 The things which are seen were made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not of things that do appear but consequently out of things invisible as the Vulgar Latin hath it ut ex invisibilibus visibilia fierent and to the same sense is the Syriack Versions But to proceed the dark World Rev. 9.2 is called the Abyss or Bottomless Pit and whosoever go down into this Sea see Gods Wonders in the Deep Psal 107.24 for there is the great Leviathan the crooked Serpent the Dragon Isa 27.1 Out of whose mouth Job 41.19 20 21. go burning Lamps