Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	holy_a	john_n	17,081	5	6.2026	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A10027	A sermon of spirituall life and death Preached before the king, at White-Hal, Nouember, 1616 by the late faithfull minister of Iesus Christ, Iohn Preston, Dr. In Diuinity, chapplaine in ordinar[y] to his maiesty, Mr. of Emmanuel Colledge in Cambridge, and sometimes preacher at Lincolnes Inne.	Preston, John, 1587-1628.	1630 (1630)	STC 20278; ESTC S114308	21,702	38

and the outward it changes the whole frame of the soule For my beloued this is not a light alteration but as the old stampe must bee obliterated before the new can be imprinted as the old building must bee pulled downe before you can set vp the new so this old nature of ours must in a great measure be broken in peeces before a man can be made a liuing man which is done by the infusion of the supernaturall qualities of grace and holinesse I say supernaturall for euen as the earth may bring forth grasse and common wilde flowers of it selfe but it must be plowed and sowen before any wheat or choice plants can grow there euen so my brethren these corrupt natures we haue may bring out things that are morally good many morall vertues but before they can bring forth fruites of true righteousnesse they must be plowed and sowne plowed that is a man must be broken in heart with an apprehension of his sinne and of Gods eternall wrath hee must see himselfe but a dead man hee must be pricked and wounded in heart with the feare of it as those Acts 2. 37. after the Sermon of Peter it is said They were pricked in their hearts and cryed out Men and brethren what shall we do to be saued This is that plowing and breaking the heart But this is not enough it must also be sowne that is there must be an implanting of spirituall graces which change and renew vs according to that which you shall finde Rom. 12. 2. Fashion your selues no more after this world but be ye changed or metamorphosed by the renuing of your minde And this is the first way by which you may discerne whether you be dead or aliue Secondly when there is no action when there is no motion in a man you say hee is dead when a man acts nothing when hee stirres not himselfe wee reckon him a dead man and this is the case of euery naturall man he is not able to moue hand or foot in the way of true godlinesse And if you say Yea but they are able to pray to heare the word of God to receiue the Sacrament they are able to doe many excellent duties of iustice and righteousnesse amongst men I answer it is very true but yet the Scripture speakes of certaine dead workes as Heb. 9. 14. The blood of Christ is there said to purge our conscience from dead workes that is all these before mentioned they may be done and they are good workes in themselues hauing all the lineaments of good workes as you know a dead body hath of a liuing but yet indeed they are but dead workes that is they may haue a golden out-side and be very beautifull in the sight of the world and also in the sight of men but yet as Christ speakes be abhominable in the sight of God For so a naturall man may pay a certaine debt of duty and obedience to God but he payes it in counterfeit coyne that hath the stampe the similitude and colour of true coyne yet it consists if you looke to the inwards but of base mettall As I remember a story that Remigius tels who was a Iudge in Lorreigne vnder whose iudgement many hundred of witches were condemned vpon their owne confession who said that the deuill did bring them many boxes of currant coyne to the apearance of the witches but when they came to vse them they proued nothing but withered leaues I say after the same manner Sathan cozens naturall men in things of greater moment hee suffers them to thinke well of the good workes and duties that they doe to make them thinke they are currant coyne but when they come to make vse of this treasure at the day of death they finde them to bee but withered leaues such as God will not accept of in the time of extremitie at the day of iudgement The Apostle in the 1 Tim. 3. 5. speakes of certaine men Who had a forme of godlinesse but denied the power thereof that is that haue a formall customarie performance of good workes and good duties with which the conscience is satisfied and not able to iudge because it is ignorant And therefore Sathan doth with men in this case as wee are wont to do with children take from them true Gold and when they fall a crying stoppe their mouthes with Counters So I say Sathan labours to keepe men from the liuely and thorow performance of good workes and holy duties and then satisfies their consciences with that which hath but a forme of godlinesse without the power of it But you will say How shall a man discerne this whether these good workes which are good in themselues be good in such a manner as they are wrought by him To this I answer you may know it by these two things First it is certaine that except they be vital actions that is except they proceed from an inward principle of life within they are not good actions they are such as the Lord regards not Now you know there are motions as the motions of clockes and watches that proceed not from life but from Art so it is in this matter of religion many good actions may be done many good motions in the waies of godlinesse which yet may not proceede from the life of grace but from outward respects to men from feare of hell from feare of iudgement or in sickenesse from the apprehension of death and calamity In such cases we may be stirred vp to do them and then euen as the wheeles that are set a going by the spring when it is downe you know they cease their motion So commonly it is in these good fits in these good moodes of godlinesse when that which set them on worke is remoued There is an end of them And therefore if you would know whether the workes you do bee right or no such as God will accept at the last day consider if they proceede from an inward principle from a principle of life within 2. You shall know them by their coldnesse For coldnesse you know is a symptome of death Now these good workes when they are done by a naturall man there is no life in them there is no warmth in them no viuacitie nor quicknesse in them where as you know it is said Iames 5. 16. Prayer if it be feruent preuailes much Rom. 12. 16. Be ye burning in spirit seruing the Lord that is all those duties that haue not heat in them that haue not fire in them why the Lord regards them not the reason is this because if there be no heat there there is none of his Spirit there and then you know our prayers are but the voyce of our owne spirits the workes we doe are but dead workes because they are but the fruits and effects of dead flesh if there be none of the Holy Ghost there Now if there be no heat there I say there is none of the Spirit there for the Spirit is as fire and therefore ye know what Iohn Baptist

saith of our Sauiour He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire that is He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost which is as fire And therefore you shall find that holy men haue beene vsually described by the similitude of fire as Chrysostome saith that Peter was like a man made all of fire walking among stubble And one that desired to know what kind of man Basil was it is said there was presented vnto him in a dreame a pillar of fire with this motto Talis est Basilius such a one was Basil and old Latimer when he was asked the reason why there was so much preaching and so little practizing gaue this answer Deest ignis fire is wanting The same we may say in this case there may be a performance of many good duties of prayer of hearing of receiuing the Sacraments of worshipping God but consider whether there bee fire consider whether they bee not done without that liuelinesse that feruencie that the Spirit of God requires either done without heat or but halfe baked as Hosea's cake was and if so they be but dead workes whereas true praying in secret betweene God and vs why it is such as warmes and quickens the heart it is such as brings the heart into a good frame of grace and sets it right before God and right hearing is such as kindles a fire in vs that in great measure burnes vp the drosse of sinfull lusts and corrupt affections And so we haue dispatched the second meanes by which we may know whether we be aliue to righteousnesse or dead in sinnes to consider whether we haue any motion and of what kind those motions and actions are Againe you shall know it by considering what you contend for most for life is sweet and euerie creature would maintaine this life and would part with any thing rather then that For a man that hath this life of grace in him he will suffer any thing he will lose his life his credite his goods his libertie and all rather then he will wound his conscience and violate his peace and communion with God because that is as sweet and as deere to him as life whereas another man contends as much for his life his credite his profite his pleasure and sinne and will rather suffer the losse of a good conscience rather suffer any vneuennesse in his wayes towards God and men any sinne rather then he will be preiudiced in these things because in this is his life being dead to Christ and aliue to sinne Againe such as the food is such is the life If it be the life of sinne that a man liues which the Scripture cals death why then the secret thoughts and inward affections feed on carnal delights either past present or to come that is either he solaceth himselfe with the contemplation of what he hath had or he feeds on that which is present or he cheares vp himselfe with the thought and proiect of those carnall delights that are future whereas a man that lines the life of grace the contrarie is most acceptable to him For euerie life drawes to it selfe that which is most suitable and most agreeable with it that is the food wherewith it is maintained and that wherein it delights for pleasure is but applicatio conuenientis conuenienti but the application of that which is conuenient and agreeable to vs. And if you say now they may occupie themselues in hearing reading and praying and such like holy exercises I answer they may and it is well these things are verie commendable and not to be omitted but yet there is some thing must be added for that is not enough except we be nourished by these duties and grow by them as you know it is said 1. Pet. 2. 2. Desire the sincere milke of the Word that you may grow thereby as your common saying is Shew me not the meat but the man For Christ the great Shepheard of the Sheepe is affected in this case as Shepheards are wont to be that say not to their Sheepe Shew me the hay I haue giuen you but shew me Lac lanam the wooll and the milke that is Shew me the fruits and effects of all thy hearing reading and praying for a man may be conuersant in all these duties and yet for want of life and for want of a digestiue facultie within that is not turning them to blood and spirits he may not be nourished he may not grow and be strengthened by them but be as a man in an Atrophy that eates verie much yet is as leane and as meager as if he had eat nothing Of such the Scripture saith that they haue a name to liue but yet are dead that they are alwayes learning but neuer come to the knowledge of the truth that is to the sauing knowledge of it Last of all the last propertie of life either of sinne or of grace is as the propertie of euerie life not onely to draw to it selfe things suitable but to expell and oppugne whatsoeuer is contrarie and hurtfull so he that is a liuing man in Christ though he hath the reliques the weiftes and remainders of sinne still in him yet he is sicke of them he fights against them and resists them continually as health resists sicknesse or as a liuing fountaine resists mud that fals into it it workes it out and doth not rest till it be cleane againe when another man workes out those good things those good thoughts and motions that are iniected and kindled in him for some good moods and fits they may haue I say they reiect them and are sicke and wearie of them and the meanes that should encrease them and they are not well till they haue gotten themselues into another element but for the sinnes that are sutable to them either by disposition or by education or by custome those they suffer to lye vnexpelled vnresisted as mud in ponds or dead waters And this my Brethren is a great signe of death for I will bee bold to say this that if we lie in any knowne sinne that is if there be a continuall tract of any sinne that we know to be sinne that is drawne as a thred through our whole conuersation be it Fornication or Adulterie or Swearing or Drunkennesse or Malice or Enuie or any other I say it is n verie dangerous yea deadly if it haue any dominion if we lye in it For you know a preuailing disease will kill and one disease will doe it as well as a hundred as a Swine that passeth through a thousand durtie puddles and wallowes but in one it is enough to make her vncleane and filthy all ouer as well as if she had done it