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	sin_n	soul_n	7,400	5	5.2096	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42767	A sermon preached before the right honourable the House of Lords in the Abbey Church at Westminster, upon the 27th of August, 1645 being the day appointed for solemne and publique humiliation : whereunto is added a brotherly examination of some passages of Mr. Colemans late printed sermon upon Job 11.20, in which he hath endeavoured to strike at the root of all church-government / by George Gillespie, minister at Edenburgh.	Gillespie, George, 1613-1648.	1646 (1646)	Wing G759; ESTC R30413	43,318	49

till they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom Mark addeth with power Neither was that all He did not so come at that time as to put forth all his power or to do his whole work He hath at divers times come and manifested himself to his Churches And this present time is a time of the revelation of the Son of God and a day of his coming We look also for a more glorious coming of Jesus Christ before the end be For the Redeemer shall come unt● Sion and turn a way ungodlinesse from Jacob And he shall destroy Antichrist with the brightnesse of his coming 2 Thes. 2.8 In which place the Apostle hath respect to Isai. 11.4 where it is said of Christ The rod of Jesse with the breath of his lips shall be slay the wicked There withall you have the Churches tranquility the filling of the earth with the knowledge of the Lord and the restoring of the dispersed Jews as you may read in that Chapter Some have observed which ought not passe without observation that the Chaldee Paraphrase had there added the word Romilus He shall slay the wicked Romilus Wherupon they challenge Arias Montainus for leaving out that word to wipe off the reproach from the Pope However the Scriptures teach us that the Lord Jesus will be revealed mightily and will make bare his holy Arm as well in the confusion of Antichrist as in the conversion of the Jews before the last judgement and the end of all things By this time you may understand what is meant in the Text by the day of Christs coming or coming in as the Septuagints read meaning his coming or entering into his Temple mentioned in the first Verse By which Temple Jerome upon the place rightly understandeth the Church or spirituall Temple When this Temple is built Christ cometh into it to fill the house with the cloud of his glory and to walk in the midst of the seven Golden Candlesticks The same thing is meant by his appearing When he appeareth saith our Translation When he shall be revealed saith the Chaldee Others read When he shall be seen or in seeing of him The originall word I find used to expresse more remarkable divine and glorious sights as Gen. 16.13 Have I also here looked after him that seeth me Gen. 22.14 In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen From this word had the Prophets the name of Seers 1 S●m 9.9 And from the same word came the name of Visions 2 Chron. 26.5 Zechariah who had understanding in the visions of God Now but what of all this might some think It Christ come it s well He is the desire of all Nations O but when Christ thus cometh into his Kingdom among men with power and is seen appearing with some beams of his glory Who may abide and who shall stand saith the Text How shall sinners stand before the Holy One How shall dust and ashes have any fellowship with the God of glory How shall our weak eyes behold the Sun of Righteousnesse coming forth like a Bridegroom out of his Chamber Did not Ezekiel fall upon his face at the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord Did not Isaiah cry out Wo is me for I am undone for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts But why is it so hard a thing to abide the day of Christs coming or to stand before him when he appeareth in his Temple If you ask of him as Joshua did Art thou for us or for our adversaries He will answer you Nay but as a Captain of the Hoste of the Lord am I now come If you ask of him as the Elders of Bethlehem asked of Samuel while they were trembling at his coming Comest thou peaceably He will answer you as Samuel did Peaceably What is there here then to trouble us Doth he not come to save and not to destroy Yes to save the Spirit but to destroy the flesh He will have the heart blood of sin that the soul may live for ever This is set forth by a double metaphor One taken from the Refiners fire which purifieth metals from the drosse The other from the Fullers sope others read the Fullers grasse or the Fullers herb Some have thought it so hard to determine that they have kept into the Translation the very Hebrew word Borith Jerome tels us that the Fullers herb which grew in the marish places of Palestina had the same vertue for washing and making white which nitre hath Yet I suppose the Fullers sope hath more of that vertue in it then the herb could have However it is certain that Borith cometh from a word which signifieth to make clean according to that Mark 9.3 His raiment became shining exceeding white as snow So as no Fuller on earth can white them But to whom will Christ thus reveal himself And who are they whom he will resine from their drosse and wash from their filthinesse That we may know from the two following verses He is not a Resiners fire to those that are reprobate silver and can never be refined Neither is he as Fullers sope to those whose spot is not the spot of his children Nay Christ doth not thus lose his labour But he refineth and maketh clean the sons of Levi also Judah and Jerusalem This I doubt not to aver doth principally belong to the Jews for to them pertain the promises saith the Apostle and the naturall branches shall be grafted into their own Olive-tree But it belongeth also to us Gentiles who are cut out of the wilde Olive-tree and are grafted into the good Olive-tree God hath perswaded Japhet to dwell in the Tents of Sem. And so we are now the Judah and Jerusalem and our Ministers the sons of Levi. Gods own Church and people even the best of them have need of this Refiners fire and of this Fullers sope And so much for the scope sence and coherence of the Text The generall Doctrine which offereth it self to us from the words is this The way of Christ and fellowship with him is very difficult and displeasing to our sinfull nature And is not so easie a matter as most men imagine First of all this doth clearly arise out of the Text As when the people said to Joshua God forbid that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods Joshua answered Ye cannot serve the Lord for he is an holy God he is a jealous God Just so doth the Prophet here answer the Jews when they were very much desiring and longing for the Messiah promising to themselves comfort and peace and prosperity and the restoring of all things according to their hearts desire if Christ were once come Nay saith the Prophet not so Who may abide the day of his coming and who shall stand when he appeareth Secondly Other Scriptures do abundantly confirm it The

that are labouring and heavy loaden a metaphor taken from Beasts drawing a ful Cart which both labour in drawing and are weary in bearing But my Text speaketh to those that are like undantoned Heifers and like Bullocks unaccustomed to the yoke The same Christ is a sweet and meek Christ to some but a sowre and severe Christ to others 2. Christs yoke is easie in comparison of the yoke of the law which neither we nor our Fathers were able to bear 3. As wisdom is easie to him that understandeth so is Christs yoke easie his burthen light to those that are well acquainted with it and have good experience of it Prov. 4.12 When thou g●est thy steps shall not be straitned and when thou runnest thou shalt not stumble This is spoken of the way of Wisdom but he saith When thou goest not when thou beginnest or when thou enterest If thou art but once upon thy progresse going and running thou shalt finde the way still the easier and still the sweeter 4. Mark Christs own words It s a yoke though an easie one and a burthen though a light-one A yoke to the flesh but easie to the Spirit A burthen to the old man but light to the new man He poureth in Wine and Oyl into our wounds Oyl to cherish them and Wine to cleanse them He can both plant us as Trees of righteousnesse and at the same time lay the Ax to the root of the old Tree He will have mercy upon the sinner but no mercy upon the sin He will save the soul but yet so as by fire And thus much in generall of the difficulty and hardship of the way of Christ the great point held forth in this Text which I have the rather insisted upon as a necessary foundation for those particulars which I am to speak of Were this principle but rightly apprehended it were easie to perswade you when we come to particulars Some Papists have alledged this Text for their purgatory Here is indeed a Purgatory and a fire of purgatory and such a purgatory that we must needs go thorow it before we can come to Heaven But this purgatory is in this world not in the world to come The flesh must go through it and not the soul separated And it must purge us from mortall not from veniall sins And by a spirituall not a materiall fire I will now come to the particulars Christ is to us as a Refiners fire and as Fullers Sope three wayes In respect of 1. Reformation 2. Tribulation 3. Mortification Which make not three different sences but three harmonious parts of one and the same sence I begin with Reformation concerning which I draw this Doctrine from the Text The right Reformation of the Church which is according to the minde of Iesus Christ is not without much molestation and displeasure to mens corrupt nature It is a very purgatory upon earth It s like the fire to drossy silver And like Fullers Sope to slovenly persons who would rather keep the spots in their garments then take pains to wash them out Look but upon one peece of the accomplishment of this prophecy and by it judge of the rest When Christ cometh to Jerusalem meek and sitting upon an Asse as the Prophet said all the City is troubled at his coming Matth. 21.5 10. When he had but cast out the Buyers and Sellers out of the Temple the Priests and Scribes begin to plot his death Luke 19.45 47. Nay where Christ and the Gospel cometh there is a shaking of Heaven and Earth Hag. 2.6 The lesse wonder if I call Reformation like a Refiners fire The drosse of a Church is not purged away without this violence of fire This is the manner of Reformation held forth in Scripture and that in reference 1. To Magistrates and States men 2. To Ministers 3. To a people reformed 4. To a people not reformed In reference to Magistrates and States-men Reformation is a fire that purgeth away the drosse Isa. 1.25 ●6 And I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away the drosse and take away all thy tin Here 's the Refiners fire And the Chaldee paraphrase addeth the Fullers Borith Then followeth And I will restore thy Judges as at the first and thy Counsellors as at the beginning Afterward thou shalt be called the City of righteousnesse the faithfull City Interpreters note upon that place that no effectuall Reformation can be looked for till Rulers and Magistrates be reformed and that therefore the Lord promiseth to purge away the drosse and tin of corrupt Rulers and Judges and to give his people such Judges and Rulers as they had of old Moses Joshua the Judges David Solomon and the like In reference to Ministers the Doctrine is most clear The next words after my Text tell you that this refining fire is specially intended for purifying the sons of Levi. The same thing we have move largely though more obscurely in 1 Cor. 3.12 to ver. 15. I do not say that the Apostles there meaneth onely of times of Reformation But this I say that it holdeth true and most manifestly too of times of Reformation and that this is not to be excluded but to be taken in as a principall part of the Holy Ghosts intendment in that Scripture He is speaking of the Ministers of the Gospel and their Ministery supposing alwayes that they build upon Christ and hold to that true foundation Upon this foundation Some build gold silv er precious stones that is such Preaching of the Word such administration of the Sacraments such a Church-Discipline and such a life as is according to the Word and favoureth of Christ Others build wood hay stubble whereby is meant whatsoever in their Ministery is improfitable unedifying vain curious unbeseeming the Gospel for the Ministers of Christ must be purified not onely from Heresie Idolatry Prophanenesse and the like but even from that which is frothy and unedifying which favoureth not of Gods Spirit but of mans Now saith the Apostle Every mans work shall be made manifest for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire and the fire shall try every mans work of what sort it is The Church shall not alwayes be deluded and abused with vanities that cannot profit A time of Light and Reformation discovereth the unprofitablenesse of those things wherewith men did formerly please and satisfie themselves There is a fire which will prove every mans work even an accurate trial and strict examination thereof according to the rule of Christ A narrow enquiry into and exact discovery of every mans work for so do our Divines understand the fire there spoken of whether this fiery triall be made by the searching and discovering light of the Word in a time of Reformation or by Afflictions or in a mans own Conscience at the hour of death If by some or all of these trials a Ministers work be found to be what