Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	grace_n	heart_n	holy_a	14,318	5	4.7839	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49700	Victory over death a sermon preached at Steeple-Ashton in the county of Wilts, upon the 17th day of April, 1676, at the funeral of Mr. Peter Adams, the late reverend, pious, and industrious minister of Gods word there, sometime fellow of University Colledge in Oxford / by Paul Latham ...	Lathom, Paul.	1676 (1676)	Wing L575; ESTC R7734	32,624	52

they disquiet themselves in vain and that every man living upon ground or in what capacity soever he stands is altogether vanity Psal 39.5 6. and to cry out with the wise man Vanity of vanities all is vanity Eccl. 1.2 And if the profit that is in all labour do encourage a man to take pains and to endeavour to shew himself wise under the Sun then sure these thoughts of the vanity of humane designs and attempts do take a man off from striving to do wisely and worthily in his generation Thirdly it duls the edge of the soul for good duties He that fancies himself to lye down under the burden of insuperable difficulties that apprehends God to be an austere Master Heaven to be unattainable and Hell unavoidable will have very little mind to stir up himself to lay hold upon God or to work out his own salvation Isa 64.7 Phil. 2.12 or to use that violence of holy endeavours that is required in taking the kingdom of heaven Mat. 11.12 For it is hope of success that quickens endeavours and despair of this doth disspirit a man and make him dull and unactive Secondly let us take notice of such a man when Death is at hand and begins to encounter him and here we find him in a very miserable estate that hath not attained victory over Death for First it dispossesseth him at once of all the fruits of his labours and ejects him from the enjoyment of all his worldly acquisitions Though whilst he lived he blessed his own soul he shall go to the generation of his fathers and shall no more see the light of comfort and therefore man that is in honour and underctandeth not is like the beasts that perish Psal 49.18 19 20. And is it not a dismal condition for a man that hath toiled and bestowed great industry that hath plotted and contrived to the disturbing of his head and interrupting of his sleep that hath pinched and denied himself the enjoyments of many worldly comforts to increase his heap by parsimony yea that hath too often stained his conscience and hazarded his soul to heap up that which might be called a plentiful estate in this world this man I say to hear on a sudden that dreadful and heart-breaking voice Thou fool this night shall thy soul be taken from thee and then whose shall all those things be for which thou hast laboured Luk. 12.20 Secondly It dasheth all those vain hopes of Heaven with which such a man had flattered himself As there are politick projecting hypocrites who know themselves to be no better than whited Sepulchres Matth. 23.37 so are there many foolish Virgins who bear about the lamp of an outward profession in their hands and want oil to make it burn Matth. 25.3 and yet are so simple as to expect at last to enter in with the Bridegroom as well as the best And how sad will it be to them when at death coming to the door and crying Lord Lord open unto us they shall be repulsed with Verily I say unto you I know you not What is the hope of the hypocrite though he have gained applause from the World when God taketh away his soul Will God then hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him Will he then delight himself in the Almighty will he always call upon God Job 27.8 9 10. Beside there are many who though they could not find in their hearts to day while it was called to day to hear God's voice Heb. 3.8 yet they verily intended to take a time more convenient for these things But now these mens hopes are over the Bridegroom is come on a sudden those that were ready are entred with him and the doors are shut Thirdly Death puts an end to his day of Grace Some men indeed have so long hardned their hearts against hearing the voice of God that he hath already given them up to their own hearts lusts Ps 81.12 they have so long resisted the Holy Ghost in its strivings Acts 7.51 that God hath resolved that his Spirit shall no more strive with them Gen. 6.3 But ordinarily mens day of grace is commensurate with the day of their lives and whilst men are alive there is no man so bad but he may become better But death puts an end to these expectations it shuts-men up in an unalterable condition and as the tree falls so it shall lye for ever whether toward the South or toward the North Eccles 11.3 Fourthly death commonly brings to a mans remembrance those sins which before he was unmindful of In the day of health and prosperity men are apt to put far from them the troublesome and ungrateful remembrance of their sins past Worldly business and company and divertisements worldly pleasures and delights suggest more sanguine thoughts to the mind But when death cometh God doth ordinarily to them that are of sound mind and memory shew that he hath set their iniquities before him and their secrets sins in the light of his countenance Psal 90.8 Yea after his long silence he doth then use to reprove men and set their sins in order before their eyes Psal 50.21 and causeth mens iniquities to compass them about as at their heels Psal 49.5 and lets them see and feel that it is an evil thing and a bitter that they have forsaken the living Lord and that his fear hath not been before their eyes Jer. 2.19 And judg how unwelcome this is to a man's mind that hath long lain asleep in security when it makes him cry out with Ahab to Elijah hast thou found me O my enemy 1 Kin. 21.20 Fifthly death puts the greatest affront imaginable upon the beautiful and majestick fabrick of the body This pile of dust and ashes that appeareth so stately through the Divine Architecture that is so fearfully and wonderfully made in its contexture Psal 139.14 that is rendred so glorious by the enstamping of God's Image upon it that is by God's ordination become so awful and formidable to inferior animals of far greater strength This painted piece of dirt that hath been so much doted upon and adored for its delicate feature and amiable intermixture of lillies and roses this well-formed statue which voluptuous persons have adored as a terrestrial Deity Phil. 3.19 to which they have constantly sacrificed whole hecatombs of all the dainties which the Earth the Air and the Sea could afford this flesh for which men have made provision to fulfill its lusts Rom. 13.14 This must then become equal to the beasts that perish a prey to the inferiour animals the very worms loathsom to the eye of its former admirers so that they that loved it best when informed with a Soul can afford it now no better complement than let me bury my dead out of my sight Gen. 23.4 This that was sometime fed and clothed by the contrivance and industry of so many heads and hands must go naked out of the world as it came naked in and lye solitary

tears flowing from his eyes ver 35. to shew us that we may so now and ought to do it even for them that sleep in Jesus but not as they that have no hope this Sorrow I encourage and yet that it may not swell beyond its just banks this Hope I am about to establish concerning this our worthy Brother In speaking of whom though a passionate Friend and true Lover I shall speak nothing but the words of truth and soberness either known to be true by my own personal acquaintance with him or attested by them that will not be ashamed to own their own testimony And if we begin in digging to the rock whence he was hewen he was a Prophet the Son and Grand-son and Nephew of a Prophet a Priestly Family from which the former Generation sent two and this last Generation four to serve at Gods Altar a sign of worthy and truly Christian bloud running in their veins when they could value the Gospel of Christ and that Office that employs us in the dispensation of it though attended God knows with great troubles above those riches that might have flow'n into them in greater plenty and with more ease in other Employments a true token that they were not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ which they found to be the power of God unto Salvation to those that believe Rom. 1.16 A● c●●●ain conviction of that vulgar Error that boads ill success to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Clergy men when in two Generations the Posterity of such men was blessed Nor need others despair of the like happiness if they be not wanting to themselves in drawing down Gods blessing upon their Families An happy and graceful Ornament to the Church when Coals kindled in the Sanctuary it self produce burning and shining Lights John 5.35 and Bezaleel and Aholiab train up workmen that need not to be ashamed of their work 2 Tim. 2.15 Though Nature doth not alwayes send forth boughes answering the qualities of the root and of the Seed that was sown yet that Cultivation which in the productions of the Earth doth either advance the natural Fruit by melioration or alter the Tree by grafting more generous Off-springs upon the root doth also in Spiritual productions conduce much to make the Branches as well as the Root holy His promoting to the Schools of the Prophets was owing to the care of good Parents The happy proficiency he shewed in his studies there to God's blessing upon his own great industry in tilling that rich soil that fell to his lot Which when it had brought to perfection that plentiful crop that betimes began to groan for the hook invited hungry souls to desire to be fed therewith and brought him to be an early Shepherd in feeding Christ's sheep and lambs Which will lead me on to consider him First in his Preaching and so we find him feeding the flock of God amongst which he was taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind not as lording it over God's heritage but as being an example to the flock 1 Pet. 5.2.3 Preaching the word being instant in season out of season reproving rebuking exhorting with all long-suffering and doctrin 2 Tim. 4.2 And though I am far from being so bold or presumptuous as to censure my brethren who do not think it their duty bis venire ad mulctram yet give me leave to pay due honour to the labours of such who in so doing cannot be suspected to seek any thing else than the benefit of the souls committed to their care For his own part he did willingly spend and was spent for his Flock 2 Cor. 12.15 and burnt our his taper the sooner in humane probability by lighting it as we say at both ends Pertinaciously continuing in his Lord's work even then when himself did by his providence call him off as thinking that Imperatorem decet stentem mori concionatorem concionantem And endeavouring to emulate the industry of some worthy men before him whom death found employed in the ministerial work He had prepared what he was not able to communicate in the Pulpit such instructions as should have helped you in keeping this last Passover so soon after which he went to keep the Feast in Heaven Secondly let us consider him in his life and in this sense whether a Clergy-man Preach more or less in the Church he ought to preach every day to the people by being an example to the Flock 1 Pet. 5.3 and to the Believers a pattern in Word in Conversation in Charity in Faith in Purity Here let us consider him First as the Master of a Family and as the Apostle saith He that knoweth not how to rule his own house how shall he take care of the Church of God 1 Tim. 3.3 In this he was an example to the flock and to other shepherds also In his singular love and tenderness to his Wife manifested as all along so chiefly at last in his fervent prayers for her and her children and his earnest recommending of them to the love and care of surviving friends In his fatherly love and care for his children As to their bodies and the concerns of this life manifest in his denying himself in several respects that he might make a comfortable provision for them As to their souls both in their moral concerns shewed in the good education he afforded them to the qualifying of them in some respects beyond most of their neighbours And in their spiritual concerns manifest in the diligence he used in instructing them by word when they were with him by letters when they were removed from him to remember their Creator to make conscience of their ways and to take care of their souls in the first place and finally by the fervent prayers whereby he recommended them to God at last And I hope I may truly say it as to what hath appeared already and that they will still give me occasion to speak it by what shall appear for the future that his labours of this nature have not been in vain in the Lord. And that herein he hath not only afforded an example to others in doing his duty but also hath left them encouragement to expect that the doing of it shall not want good success in their Families Secondly let us look upon him in a little larger capacity as a neighbour and friend And here we cannot mention without great commendation the perfect concord and tender love that continued between him and his near relations though placed under the disadvantage of some circumstances that might have interrupted that union had not grace and well-tempered spirits continued the cement Beside this his loving and friendly carriage toward all men but especially those of the houshold of Faith did commend him both as a desirable member of Society and as a man adoring that Ministerial Function which employs us in preaching the Gospel of Peace and commending God unto the World