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	see_v	13,824	5	3.8383	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81856	Angels rejoicing for sinners repenting. / Delivered in a sermon by the Right Reverend Father in God, Brian Duppa, now Bishop of Salisbury.	Duppa, Brian, 1588-1662.	1648 (1648)	Wing D2658; Thomason E475_1; ESTC R204193	13,434	25

her and S. Austine gives the reason of it For their joy extends no further saith he then the works of God but Peccator non est inter opera Dei a Sinner is no work of God Look in the first Chapter of Genesis you shall not find him in the whole Catalogue of his Creatures as he is Man he is Gods work true but as he is sinfull man he is his own work see him in the pure Robe of originall Righteousnesse he is Gods work but look on him in the dressings of his owne vanity he is his owne worke or if not his owne I am sure the Devils no argument then of joy here no Ditty for such an Antheme For doe but consider with thy self ô sinner think of it seriously the Angels that were by when God stampt his Image on thee when he wash'd thee in Baptisme as clean as the untouch'd snow when he married thee to his son Christ Jesus made thee a temple of his holy Spirit how can they either know or joy in thee when that image is rased out that innocence polluted that contract violated that temple turn'd into a sink of filth into a den of Serpents How wil they look think you when God the Father turnes away his face God the Son cries out thou hast crucified him again thou hast pierced him with thy oaths spit on him with thy lust wounded him with thy malice when God the Holy Ghost shall leave thee either to a fluctuating unquiet or which is worse to a sear'd a stupified conscience which of those blessed Spirits can then take joy in thee shall not the ill Angels rather give thee their Plaudite Come say those damned Spirits let us see this Creature that was made to fill up our seats in Heaven this Creature that was the Angels joy and his Gods delight see where he is fallen how deep how dangerously fallen how still he lies in his foule sins without any motion left any sense of grace Ecce say they factus est tanquam unus è nobis behold he is become like one of us But Mentimini mali Daemones a devout Father answers them ye were liers all from the beginning so are ye now For though a Sinner be fallen though fallen into the depth of sinne he is not become like one of you For you fell nullo tentante without a Tempter damn'd are you therefore nullo reparante without a Saviour But this fall'n sinner you thus tread upon alterius militiâ cecidit alterius meritis resurget he fell by anothers malice and shall rise by anothers merit They were some of the black crue that helped to throw him downe the Son of God shall help him up again For though sinne hath been his poyson yet repentance may be his antidote though his sins have made the Devil sport yet his repentance may breed his Angels joy A sinner is no good prospect but at the sight of a repentant sinner Heaven opens all her windows the Text is warrant enough for such a Doctrine for there is joy in heaven over one sinner that repenteth Not for a sinner then but for a repentant sinner not for him that hardens himself in sinne but for the sensible melting bleeding sinner but he that would draw repentance to the life that would make such a resemblance of her as the Angels might delight in let him look that he fit her with two faces on the one side a mourning dejected countenance looking sadly back on the sinnes she hath committed on the other side a more cheerfull lively aspect looking forwards on new resolutions for there is beauty in both in the sad as in the cheerfull God too will look on both or not at all As for the sadder look though Andreas Vega a Spanish Writer doted so much upon it that he is censured by his owne friend Bellarmine for maintaining that the sorrow of the heart for sinne was of so high a value that he that conceived that sorrow as he ought needed no formall explicite purpose of amendment though I confesse this melancholy Frier went too farre yet let not any therefore deceive himself or incline so far to the other side as to think the way to Heaven is strew'd with Roses that he can leap out of the state of sinne into the favour of his God without so much as a single teare or sigh No as it cost thy Saviour more to redeem thy soule so it must cost thee more to apply that redemption to thee Saint Ambrose therefore calls Repentance Laboriosum Baptismum a laborious a painfull Baptisme a Baptisme in Marah in the waters of Bitterness For we must as wel Flere commissa as Flenda non committere as well deplore the ill we have done as not doe againe the ill we have deplored It is true indeed what Saint Bernard saith non si te excories potes satisfacere should we weep our selves blind kneele our selves cripples should we flea the skinne from this wretched body of ours all could not satisfie for sinne But our joy is that Christ hath already done it his bloud hath fully satisfied for the whole world yet withall there lies a Condition on every Sinner vel hic flere vel in futur● a condition that cannot be avoided either to mourne here or in the world to come either to indure now a sorrow that shall have end or to endure then a sorrow that shall have none But mistake me not I doe not counsell you to a sullen continued unintermitted melancholy but yet pardon me if I would have you throughly sensible of your sinnes when you have done them for without sorrow on the earth I am confident there is no joy in Heaven There is no Sinner that repenteth But Saint Austine makes the Question Which were more bound to God he that should be preserved ever innocent or he that were converted to be truly penitent and he resolves it thus Innocens majora poenitens magis debet extensively the innocent owes more intensively the Penitent Innocence a Jewell of higher price in the substance but Repentance of greater value in the workmanship so much of greater value that in the 7 verse of this Chapter it is proclaimed that there is more joy for one repentant Sinner then for ninety nine that needed no repentance but Saint Paul gives a reason for it when he saith that where sinne hath abounded there grace hath much more abounded So that I dare say that God looks neither on the heaven of heavens nor on the purest Seraphin with such content such joy as on a heart well wrought a heart either carved or cut or inlaid with sorrows where grief hath been as witty in punishing as pleasure was before in sinning a heart still under the Hammer and broken into a thousand pieces O how busie is thy Saviour at such a sight watching thy sighs and numbring thy teares gathering up the severall pieces of thy broken heart as if they were so many scattered Diamonds how gently

extract the spirits of that one drop of Wine and say here they are Nor shall I conceive him an easier Artisan that can out of the Sea of his ordinary hourly discontents extract this drop of joy and shew it to me The truth is we know not what it is because we seek not for it where we should Copernicus that thought the Earth moved and the Heavens stood still was not yet so mad as either to look for Trees in Heaven or for Stars upon the ground yet we in our search for joy doe as mad things as this comes to for what would you imagine if you should see a man knock at a Grave-stone for a Companion or go down into a Charnel-house to make merry if you did not pronounce him directly frantick you would guesse surely that he had mistook the place and the like doe I of you saith Saint Austin Qui quaeritis gaudium in loco non suo who look for joy either in the honours or pleasures of this life or what ever else is not the proper sphere of it But suppose there were such a thing on earth as joy that the Philosophers stone the Northwest passage and that were found out together yet there remains another disquisition for where shal we have a lodging for it where a breast capable to entertain it in the heart of the sinfull man no God himself hath barr'd that dore against it for gaudere non est impiis as we find it denounced in the Prophesie of Esay there is no peace no joy to the wicked they cannot rejoice they may perchance drown their grief in wine or drive away their discontents with company they may reprieve their soules for a time from melancholy but the fits of a constant Ague or the flowings of the Tide come not more duly then it returnes againe Shifting of the place will not serve the turne unlesse we can shift our selves for post equitem s●det atra cura like the Rats that followed the German Bishop thy sad thoughts will after thee Draw the curtains of thy bed yet they wil lie with thee shut the dore of thy closet yet they wil come in unto thee For the truth is saith S. Bernard Intus est quem fugis Every ill man hath his enemy within him his owne heart calls to him as his did in the vision ego tibi horum sum causa I am the cause of all this trouble unto thee Thou hast made me ill I will not leave thee quiet No joy then to the wicked but shall we knock at more innocent dores to see if there it harbours were the Prophets in the Old Testament acquainted with it the Apostles in the New or shall we inquire of innocence it self the Saviour of us all But he will inquire of us again as he did in the 1. of the Lam. O all ye that passe by not was there ever joy but was there ever sorrow like my sorrow But you will say perhaps though he himselfe were the son of sorrow yet he bid his followers joy in the 5. of Mat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rejoice or as if that had been too little 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 be exceeding glad True but it was in their reproaches So Saint Paul had his joy but it was in his afflictions the Martyrs had their joy but it was in their bitter sufferings The few notes they heard of joy were but like the breakings of an Eccho a word or two they heard but not a sentence or like a Ring of Bels in a high wind they heard some imperfect sounds of it but they could not heare the Lesson Yet mistake me not I would not have you hang down your heads at this or because the Earth is not your Heaven therefore to make it your Hell For as gold keeps the name in the lease as well as in the wedge in the coine as in the bullion or as he that sees a beame or two shine through the crevice of a wall may say he sees the Sun-shine as well as he that walks abroad so neither are we so destitute of all comfort but we may say there is a leafe of joy the Tinfoile of it here there are some few glimpses that shine in upon us but for the ful the solid the jubilating joy looke for it no longer in this valley of teares There is joy but not here true joy but not yet You that sow in teares be certain you shall reap in joy But be as certain to tarry till the harvest you must stay no remedy till Heaven be your dwelling till the Angels be your Partners incorruption your change immortality your garment for the earth is not the place dull flesh is not the subject of it Find it we shall yet not in the presence of Men but of the Angels Thus having shewn you the negative where joy is not My next venture if it prove not a desperate one shall be to shew you where ●is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the presence of Angels He that comes out of a dark Room into the Sunshine shall be sure to find his eyes dazeled What then wil become of us whose eyes Aristotle could say were tanquam Noctuae ad solem how shall we look on this joy of Angels shall we think of the place they live in or the Company they enjoy or the Anthems which they sing when one Seraphin eccho's to another or when in a full Quire they sound together their everlasting Hallelujahs or if we can lift up our thoughts so high shall we think again how they see the divine face of God how they joy in that Mirror how they exult in that beatifick vision what fulnesse what torrents of pleasure in such a sight such a sight saith Saint Austin S. Aust de Spir. Lit. c. 55. that if the damned Spirits could but see a glimps of it that very glimps for that time would infuse such joy into them as to take away the sense of all their paine such a sight that the reflected rayes of it even in this life gives us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Saint John speaks of 1 Ioh. 1.7 that communion with God himself What then can we conceive of those glorious Creatures that see not God either by glimps or by reflexion but stand under the direct beams that have a full and eternall fight of him that see him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 face to face that heare him even with eare to mouth that are acquainted with the very whispers of the Trinity But whither am I caried sooner shall a Sparrow drink up the Sea or a Moale heave the whole Earth out of the Center then the heart of man swell to that bignesse as to be able to comprehend his joy Yet as Fathers use to acquaint their Heires with their estates before they meane they shall possesse them so be not angry ô my God that we have looked a far off into those joies which with thy Angels we