Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	fruit_n	good_a	work_n	6,080	5	5.9885	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27364	Abrahams interment, or, The good old-mans buriall in a good old age opened in a sermon at Bartholomews Exchange, July 24, 1655, at the funerall of the worshipfull John Lamotte, Esq., sometimes alderman of the city of London / by Fulk Bellers ... ; unto which is added a short narrative of his life and death.	Bellers, Fulk, b. 1605 or 6.; La Motte, John, 1570?-1655.	1656 (1656)	Wing B1826; ESTC R18215	32,052	49

in a word when the Soul of man is once bathed in that Fountain that is set open for the cure of Sin he comes out as Naaman out of Jordan when his flesh was restored as the flesh of a little Childe and hee became clean Man washed in this Fountain becomes a new Creature having a new nature i. e. a Divine Principle of good infused into him and this makes him good good at all times good in age especially 2 When men do good in old age as the Lord hath rejoyced over them to do them good so they make it their work even with joy to do all the good they may that makes them in age more holily fruitful than ever in youth I mean in all the fruits meet for repentance in all the fruits of the Spirit as in love joy peace long suffering gentleness goodness faith meekness temperance with all the expressions of them wherewith they abound in old age in this trees planted by Christ in his Church differ from trees planted by men in their Gardens the former are alwaies most fruitful in age as the Psalmist avers such as are planted in the House of the Lord i. e. such are implanted into Christ they shall flourish in the Courts of our God they shall still bring forth fruit in old age viz. The fruits of Piety Purity Mercy being desirous cordially to Consecrate as their time and strength so their estates to God saying as David of thine own Lord have I given thee A good old man looks upon himself only as a Steward of all outward injoyments and as a Steward he will be careful to dispose of all according to his Masters minde he puts down his Imprimis for the maintenance of the Worship of God and his Items for the poor the sick the lame the blinde and in a word he doth endeavour to do good to all men but especially to those that are of the houshold of faith he doth desire to be rich in good works ready he is to distribute willing to communicate laying up in store for himself a good foundation against the time to come that he may lay hold upon eternal life 1 Tim. 6.18 In a word he makes it his end to honour God with his substance and with the first fruits of his increase as knowing this to be the most thriving way 3 When a man grows up to be an old Disciple then old age is good when a man is grown old in the sincere profession of the Gospel as we read of Mnason dignified with this title because he had been a Disciple of long standing in the Church of God whether he were of the Seventy two first sent abroad by Christ or one that came in to Christ long before others an old Disciple he was and Spiritual seniority carries Spiritual dignity along with it and upon this account Paul gives preheminence to A●dronicus and Junia because they were in Christ before him an old Disciple as an old friend should be valued at a far higher rate than old gold 4 When a man is adorned with those Graces that are the ornaments of old age what though his face be withered or furrowed with wrinckles without yet the hid man of his heart is deckt with grace within especially with those reckoned up by Saint Paul as sobriety in Opinions in conversation in meat and drink which sometimes prove a snare to men in age as they did to Noah and Lot 2 Gravity consisting in a seemly modest yea venerable deportment in Gesture Speech Apparrel Countenance 3 Temperance which speaks the moderating of themselves in respect of their desires but above all with 4. Soundness in the 1. Faith not as Reeds blown up and down with every wind of Doctrin but built upon the Rock Jesus Christ they remain unmoveable yea when moved to renounce Christ or his Truth they reply with Policarpus This fourscore and six years have I served him and he never did me hurt and shall I now defie him c. 2 Soundness in Charity in love to God to Christ to his Church his Ministers his Members where he sees any thing of Jesus Christ. 3. Soundnes in patience willing to do or suffer any thing for Christ counting all things but loss or dung that so he may win him Phil. 3. To conclude when a man is gray in years and gray in all sanctifying Graces that beautifie old age old age is good then to him and for him 5 When a man is every day more and more built up in all the old experiences of Gods Love and goodness towards him as David I have been young and now am old yet never saw I the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread What though others of his intellectuals do decay with age yet he is careful to keep his memory for to bee a Store-house a Treasury of all Gods Mercies as we see in old Abraham what a Recognition do we read of Gods old loving kindnesses Gen. 24.7 The Lord which took mee from my Fathers house and from the land of my Kindred and which spake unto mee and sware unto mee saying unto thy seed will I give this land So in old Jacob what a mercy-admiring man was hee the God that fed mee all my life long to this day the Angel that redeemed mee from all evill c. as the Remembrance of old sins is loathsome to a gracious old man so of old mercies exceeding gratefull c. 6 When a man in his old age makes it his business to finish that work that God bath given him to do A man came not into the World to eat drink sleep take his ease or heap up Riches but God sent every man into the World upon some speciall account or other whether as a Magistrate a Minister or a private Christian among other ends as private persons God sent us into the World that wee should work out our Salvation with fear and trembling to make our calling and election sure i. e. sure to our selves when a man makes it his work to work the works of him that sent him while it is called to day because hee knows the night comes in which no man can work or walk when a man can say with Christ not long before his death I have finished the works thou gavest mee to do or with aged Paul The time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for mee a Crown of Righteousnesse when a man with David hath served God in his Generation then death becomes welcome Seventhly and lastly Old age is then good when a man makes it in old age his only work to make provision for death his passage to happy eternity as knowing with Peter shortly he must put off this Tabernacle of his he saith as Isaack behold I am old

in the days of thy youth remember to acquaint thy self with him and to make peace that so good may come unto thee in time of age get grace in youth and become obedient unto thy Parents which probably may prepare a way for thy Burial in a good old age 2 If Youth be elapsed or run out in vanity yet 1 Now presently repent repent of sins of Youth and set upon the ways of Holiness Paul had been in his youth a Persecutor injurious a Blasphemer yet after repentance what a foundation did hee lay of a good old age labouring more abundantly than others he had been zealous to draw others to Hell so now he was as forward to win others to Heaven for Augustine how vain vilde vicious sinful was his youth wallowing himself in all Licentiousness as his confessions speak where how doth he bewail himself yet after repentance what an useful Instrument was he in the Church of Christ many admire and that deservedly Chrysostoms golden Rollings Cyprians Martyr-like spirit running through all his Works but we may behold these nay more than these in Augustine after his repentance 2 Rest not till thou be implanted into Jesus Christ our ingrafting into him intitles us to dye in peace and to live not only long here but even to eternity hereafter as freeing us from Condemnation and ensuring us of admission into Heaven The Science ingrafted into the tree liveth as long as the tree and we ingrafted in Christ as long as Christ and that will be to eternity if our implantation qualifie us for eternity it cannot but qualifie us for the longest date of life here below 3 Live piously being implanted Piety not only hath the promises of this life but of that that is to come impiety cuts asunder the thread of our lives but Piety prolongs our days as Solomon witnesseth My Son let thine heart keep my Commandements for length of days and long life and peace shall they adde to thee 4 Live temperately lest thou diggest thy Grave with thine own teeth sobriety being the best natural means for the prolongation of life as is obvious to experience 3 If thou art a verging or inclining towards old age and art implanted into Christ. 1 Shew thy self to be a tree of Gods planting in all those fruits of the Spirit mentioned by the Apostle as God hath made thee good by Grace so be thou abundant in all gracious actings in all Christian duties Fruit-bearing trees are seldom cut down till they become fruitless 2 Let thy life be a life of Prayer and wrastling with God among other things that God would not cast thee off in the time of age nor forsake thee when thy strength faileth yea let thy life be a perpetual meditation of death and all the days of thy appointed time do thou wait upon God until thy change shall come 3 Get old Simeons light or his clear sight of Christ by faith when thou hast once obtained this thou wilt then be panting with him and crying Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace old Abraham was then happy when he saw the future day of Christ by the Prospective-glass of faith through the interval of two thousand years distance and no wonder that he rejoyced men go to Hell with their eyes shut but to Heaven with their eyes open 4 Wait then for old Pauls Crown if in sincerity thou art able to say The time of my departure is at hand I have fought a good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith thou maist then conclude henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give unto me at that day and to all that love his appearing if constantly thou perseverest and goest on in the ways of faith and love and holiness thou maist expect the accomplishment of this Promise unto thee to go to thy Fathers in peace and to be buried in a good old age if the Lord see it meet for thee A Short Narrative of the Life and Death OF JOHN LAMOTTE Esq JOhn Lamotte Esq sometimes Alderman of the City of London was born at Colchester in Essex May 1. 1577. his Father was Francis Lamotte Son of Baldwin Lamotte of Ypres in Flanders who in the time of the great Persecution in the Low Countries under Duke D' Alva was driven out of his Native Country and came together with his Wife Mary to shelter themselves and to enjoy the free profession of the true Religion for which they had abandoned all their Temporal very considerable goods and enjoyments under the protection of that famous Nursing-mother of Gods afflicted Children in those bloudy times Queen Elizabeth here in England in the fourth year of her Reign taking up their residence at Colchester where he lived many years in very good esteem and was very forward and industrious for the setting up and promoting of the great Manufacture there for the Publick good and God blessed him in the same and in a hopeful Issue untill he dyed in a good age at London Now as both these Parents had made Piety their greatest interest and the Freedome of Religion their best Purchase so they were ever exceeding sollicitous and diligent to season their Children and this their Son especially from the very Cradle with the fear and nurture of the Lord and that with such blessed success on him that having Piety instilled into him by their means and publick Ordinances through Gods Grace he never departed from it to his dying day but proved most exemplary therein through all the course and relations of his life so that even in his younger years he never was given to nor delighted with those vain and sinful Sports and Pastimes to which youth is ordinarily so prone to and so hard to be weaned from His Recreation was commonly to turn from one honest or pious employment unto another as from that of his Calling being brought up timely to Trade and Merchandize and in which he was always very careful and industrious to the reading of the Bible and other good Books Meditation and learning of Languages acquainting himself with several of the best Histories especially such as treated of the Persecutions and Deliverances of the Church of God and the Propagation of the Gospel all which he made in a manner his own such delight he took both in the perusal and rehearsal of the same on all occasions and yet omitting no publick opportunities whereby he might nourish communion with God at any time He would often bless God that according to his earnest prayers when he came first up to London hee had kept him from bad company and from all allurements and engaging occasions of haunting Taverns and the like places whereby so many hopeful young men come to be undone Being grown up to some greater maturity of years and Grace and acquaintance with God and beginning to Trade

and know not the day of my death only I desire to provide for it and is alwaies a pondering of it it was upon this account that Joseph of Arimathea built his own Monument and Barzillai when moved by David to turn Courtier and to go with him to Jerusalem hee humbly begs a dismission that hee may turn back to his own City and die there and be buried by the grave of his father and of his mother and that because that day hee was fourscore years old he minded more to provide for death than to injoy momentary Courtly delights so old Simeon waited for Christ the consolation of Israel and old Anna departed not from the Temple but served God with fasting and prayer day and night and all to fit themselves the more for their dissolution 3 Q. How it may be made out for a man to be buried in a good old age is a special favour and mercy of God S. To be buried at any time savours of some mercy as Jer. 22.19 it savours of Judgement to be buried with the burial of an Asse or to lye uninterred because of sin But to be buried in a good old age we cannot but look upon it as a choyse mercy because very few live to bee old look upon an Apple-tree in the Spring you may almost see it covered with Blossoms yet how many fall before they come to knit and if knit how many fall yet before they come to be ripe many are worm-eaten and they drop many are beaten down by violent Tempests scarce one of ten yea twenty yea sometimes not one of forty comes to its full maturity so it is in regard of man abundance of Children like blossoms seem to cover the ground but how few of them live to Youth fewer to Manhood fewest of all to old age but how infinitely farre fewer do live to a good old age it must needs therefore be a chief Mercy Is it not a Mercy when we have done our work then to be called home to receive our Wages Then to be gathered when here we are fully ripe then to come to the Grave in a full age like a shock of Corn comes in his season To conclude is it not a mercy then to be called to make your account when we have been long a preparing and making ready for it the accounting day to a just Steward is a glad day indeed when he can do it with joy and not with grief this fills the Soul with panting Come Lord Jesus come quickly because he hath now made his peace with God and hee can now lift up his head because his full redemption draws nigh being insured that the day is now drawing on apace when he shall hear Christ thus speaking unto him Come thou blessed of my Father inherit a Kingdom provided for thee from the beginning of the world But for the improvement of all take these three words Vse 1. To you concerned in this great this common loss wherein the Daughter hath lost a tender Father the Grand-children an indulgent Grand-father the Servants a good Master the Parish a worthy Parishioner the Congregation to which he belonged a vigilant Elder yea the City a great Ornament I know the loss is great to all related to him yet to alleviate your grief weigh with me 1 Gods great mercy to you in sparing him so long a Father a Friend a Master a Parishioner an Elder that he might be eyes to the blinde strength to the weak a cloather of the naked one that stood often in the gap to divert Wrath from you 2 Gods mercy to him in gathering him to his Fathers in peace admitting him to burial in a good old age 3 Ponder though we may mourn yet we must not murmure or mourn as them without hope for him that sleeps in Christ Lazarus our friend sleeps our deceased friend is only gone to sleep he will awake again in the Resurrection could he now speak unto you he would doubtless say Weep not for me but weep for your selves 2 To you not only that are concerned in this loss but to all of you that knew him take notice of that light part of his Cloud which he held forth long before you there were many signal things in him worth your imitation 1 His constant attendance upon the Word which I observed to be in him these ten last Winters when so many went back in the late defection from Ordinances among us he spake in effect as Peter when the Disciples were questioned Will yee also go away Lord to whom shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life When others ●hrough sloathfulness would not rise how diligent was he in coming to the Morning Exercise especially on the Lords Day even in the sharpest Winter season when health would permit him 2 His real friendliness to all the Embassadours of Jesus Christ yea to all where he saw any thing of Christ he was both open handed and open hearted to all the needy Members of Christ and would more gladly do good than receive thanks for the good he had done 3 His sympathising with the Church of God in all her sorrows especially heretofore in the Palatinate and at present in Piedemont as Lots Captivity setled on the spirit of Abram so did the miseries of the people of God on his heart he seemed to be of Esays and Jeremies temper O the Rowlings Yernings compassionate Meltings for them that were Massacred and his bounty to them that did survive often saying of our Popish Adversaries in the Massacre of Piedemont we have only a pattern of that Stuff which our enemies would cut out for us all 4 His exemplary Piety he taking up the resolution of old Joshua I and my house will serve the Lord his known Meekness and Humility though God had cast in a great Estate upon him yet he was not lifted up a meek and quiet spirit in the sight of God is of great price I omit his walking in a way of private communion with God which was best felt in himself yet he gave many discoveries of it to all that came near him that were acquainted with the workings of the Spirit To all of you now that count upon or desire to come to the Grave in a good old age Q. It may be some of you may be inquiring what must I do that I may share in this branch of this Promise Sol. I shall only give a brief answer unto this and so dismiss you 1 If thou be young lay the foundation of a good old age in Youth Train up a Childe in the way he should go and he will not forget it when he is old A young Timothy will prove an old Mnason a young Disciple will become an old Disciple but can any man look for good fruit from that tree in Autumn wherein hee could not behold either Blossoms or Leaves in the Spring Remember therefore thy Creator