Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A53980
|
A sermon preach'd at Whitehall before the Queen, March the sixteenth, 1691 by Edward Pelling ...
|
Pelling, Edward, d. 1718.
|
1692
(1692)
|
Wing P1101; ESTC R6815
|
11,035
|
34
|
be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Some render the Words when it shall appear meaning when our future State shall come we shall be like God and indeed it seems to be the more natural Reading We shall be like God in all manner of Glory according to the Capacities of Finite Beings and saving the Difference that ever must be between God and Creatures We shall be like him in a Divine and Immortal Life this Frail Animal Life being quitted and changed into a Spiritual one and Corruption being swallowed up of Incorruption But the greatest Happiness will be that we shall be like him in the Divine Perfections and Excellencies of his Mind without any Error in the Understanding without any obliquity in the Will without any Disorder in the Affections there will be a perfect Rectitude in our Nature Resembling in all possible Degrees those Perfections which are in the ever Blessed God who is absolutely Righteous Holy and Good Now by what is thus Revealed to us concerning the State of the Saints in Light we may easily perceive what Dispositions of Soul are necessary to be in us to fit and prepare us for a Blessed Portion with them viz. The same Divine and Heavenly Dispositions which the Saints in Light have such Qualities and Habits of Mind we must have here such an Heavenly Conversation we must begin here such a Frame and Temper of Heart we must carry with us to the Grave because as our Inclinations and Affections are when we go out of this World so they will be for ever I observed before That some Vertues are peculiar to our present Circumstances to this Weak Mortal and Militant Condition Even those Vertues we must be careful to grow and proceed in now because they help every one of them in its kind and in some measure to prepare us for a better State But because the Life of the Saints in Light doth immediately consist in the exercise and vigorous Activity of such Dispositions as are proper to a Glorious and Perfect State therefore our great Study and Business in this World should be to enrich and adorn our Souls with those Dispositions chiefly and to make them habitual to us by the familiar and delightful Practice of them now that we may be in Heaven as in our proper Element that the Society of Saints and Angels may be to our Hearts Desires and that the Condition of the other World may be such as we would be in such as we may be in Love with such as we may enjoy with the highest Pleasure and Satisfaction Were we caught up with St. Paul into the Third Heaven or could we climb up ot the top of some solitary Mountain there to pull out of our Sides all those Briars and Thorns which Adam left us and throw our Griefs and Troubles away all at once and so take our flight into those Happy Regions above Good God! What an Orderly Quiet and Harmonious World should we find there What a Family of Love What a Consort of Devout Spirits What an Angelical Host with Ecstasies and Raptures beholding the Face of God What a Glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing but Holy and without Blemish every Soul there resembling the Holy one of Israel in Bliss and Sanctity 3. Therefore that we may be meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in Light we must above all things accustom our selves to the delightful Practice of those Heavenly Graces which are to be our Life in that day To fill our Hearts with an entire Love of God and Man to have fervent and perfect Charity among our selves to lay aside all Malice and Bitterness of Mind to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace to put on as the Elect of God Bowels of Mercy and Kindness to love the Habitation of God's House and the Place where his Honour dwelleth here below to Pray without ceasing and to be continually in the Temple Praising and Blessing God in a great Congregation To have God always in our Thoughts increasing daily in the Knowledge of him and being filled with it in all Wisdom and Spiritual Understanding To cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and for the Perfecting of Holiness in the Fear of God to be like him as much as 't is possible even in this World to be as he is and by beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord to be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory from one Degree of it to another So much as we have of these Vertues and Perfections now so much we have of Heaven in our Possession already This we should mind therefore as the only thing we are to mind as long as we breathe because our Eternal Fortunes depend upon such a Disposition and Temper as I speak of now It doth not only Insure our Title to the Saints Inheritance but it likewise renders our Entrance into it very Easie and as it were Natural unto us And this is the highest Advantage we get by the sincere Practice and Love of Religion Though it is a security to us against all the Dangers of this Life and against all our Enemies round about us because it Intitles us to God's Particular Providence and Protection Though it always brings with it such Comfort and Peace of Mind as is a kind of Heaven to us in the greatest Distress and though it fortifies us against the Approach of Death which is so unwelcom to Nature and so terrible to Flesh and Blood yet our delighting in the Ways of Vertue and Piety brings us an Advantage beyond all these It prepares us for a Blessed Life to that Degree that after Death we shall be fit for no other State but the Society of Saints and the Enjoyment of God And herein lies the extream Folly of Lewd and Profligate Wretches that while others are laying up in store such excellent Securities against the Time to come that they may attain Eternal Life these are Treasuring up all the Wrath and Vengeance they can and prepare that Hell for themselves which God Originally prepared only for the Devil and his Angels Whither can we suppose Atheistical Spirits fit to go but to that dreadful Place where they will be forced to Believe as the Devils do with Trembling and Desperation Or whither can Men of Black Designs of Turbulent Spirits of Mischievous Dispositions and Malicious Minds Whither think ye can they be fit to go but to their Confederates in Iniquity those Spirits of Darkness which are a Plague and Torment to themselves as well as to the World Heaven can be no Place for such Devilish Natures Neither will God's Decree nor can the Nature of the Thing it self allow it It is impossible for the Saints of God and the Sons of Belial to be Joint-Heirs with Christ There would be another War in
a Carnal Mind is so far from relishing those Divine Pleasures which are at God's right hand that it is at Enmity against them and against God himself This I take to be one great Reason why God hath given us so many Laws of Vertue that thereby he may make us Vessels fit for Glory fit for that Happiness which of his infinite Goodness he hath provided for all his poor Creatures which are capable of receiving it and which he desires to Communicate to us all not willing that any should perish Though the Practice of Vertue be Reasonable and Excellent in it self and though it brings with it such Peace and Comfort and Satisfaction here as is preferrable to all the Glories under the Sun yet the usefulness of it another Day and in another Place is the main Thing considerable God who dwells himself in Heaven knows what we are to do and how we are to live there and which are the best means to prepare and fit us for an Heavenly State Though the Reasons of every Particular Vertue may not at present be so obvious to our view yet God sees them He knows whither every Vertue ultimately tendeth and how it serves to Subdue to Regulate to Purifie our Minds to Raise our Affections to Refine our Natures and to Cultivate our Souls so that every Particular Grace and Vertue now may spring up into a Life of perfect Glory and Happiness hereafter From which Premises these Four things must follow 1. First That we may not in any wise build our Hopes of Eternal Happiness upon any Decree of God without due Preparations of our own For God's Decrees suppose us to be rightly prepared And as it is God's Purpose that without Holiness no Man shall see him so the very Nature of the Thing requires all possible Sanctifications of Heart and Body to fit us for the Beatifical Vision 2. Nor may we depend upon Faith without other Acts of Obedience to the Divine Laws because that Faith must needs be Imperfect and Ineffectual which doth not serve to Purifie us as God is pure 3. Nor may we lay any stress upon Repentance it self without such Fruits as are meet for it For where there is not such a Renovation of Heart as is Productive of Reformation of Life there is no Repentance unto Salvation let the Grief and Remorse of Mind be never so great 4. Much less may we trust to any outward Severities and Mortifications of the Flesh without the Sanctification of Heart and Spirit Though this Solemn Paschal Fast be of very Ancient Institution and was observed in the Primitive Times to great Purposes of Religion and is of great use still where People are careful to answer the Ends of it yet no Bodily Exercises profit any thing in comparison of Substantial Holiness Fasting is a Relative Duty intended for the mortifying of our sinful Lusts and Affections It is not alone and of it self any Preparative to Happiness nor are those outward Penances to be valued at all which the Folly and Superstition of later Ages have grafted upon it In short Considering how the Holy Scripture inculcates the necessity of a new Heart a new Spirit a new Creature and the like the only Business we have to do in this our day is to form in our Souls such Divine and Noble Dispositions as may make us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of God's Saints and render a Life in Heaven perfectly agreeable to our own Hearts desire 2. What those Dispositions are which are necessary to Fit and Prepare us for an Heavenly State is the next thing to be Considered And for the right understanding thereof it is requisite to enquire a little into the Life of the Blessed above because that is the proper Idea and Pattern according to which we are to form those Dispositions I speak of Not that we can pretend to have Perfect Conceptions of the other World It is a thing we know but little of because God hath not been pleased particularly to Reveal the Condition and State of it and therefore we must not presume to pry too narrowly into that Holy of Holies or think to discover now all those things which are yet within the Veil Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard neither have entred into the Heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. Yet so much God hath Revealed to us by his Spirit that we have reason to believe these Five following things 1. That the Life of the Blessed Saints is a Life of perfect Love and Peace Though we cannot now distinctly conceive how Spirits Converse with one another and Communicate their Thoughts and Affections to one another because the Notions we have here come from Idea's presented to our Senses and our Senses are not fine enough for Spiritual Representations yet it is certain that entire Harmony is a great Part of the Heavenly State God himself the Center of Happiness is Love And as he Displays and Communicates his Love over the whole Intellectual World so the Affections of that infinite Host of Blessed Spirits to him are Reciprocal because it is in him that they are happy And because they are all like him and all love him and all derive their Felicities from him their mutual Love to each other must needs be inviolable and universal so that Angels and Saints make up but one Society all united together in the same Mind in the same Joys and in the same common Love of God Hence the Apostle tells us that Charity never faileth 1 Cor. 13. 8. and so he sets it above Faith and Hope not only because it is of greater Use and singularly Communicative and Beneficial in this World but chiefly because it hath this peculiar Prerogative that it is of endless Duration in the next Whether there be Prophecies they shall fail whether there be Tongues they shall cease whether there be Knowledge it shall vanish away but Charity shall never fail it will be the everlasting Exercise of the Saints in Light their proper and peculiar Employment Those Wars and Fightings which are among us now proceed from our Lusts That Envying and Strife which rageth in this World is Earthly Sensual Devilish those Hatreds and Animosities and Divisions which attend our present Warfare are Effects and Arguments of Carnality When that which is Imperfect shall be done away a Perfect State of Love and Unity and Concord will be at once the Portion and the Happiness of the Triumphant 2. The Life of the Saints in Light is a Life of Devotion By Devotion I mean the offering up of the Soul to God from a lively sense of the glorious Excellencies of his Nature and of his boundless Goodness to his Creatures Whether the Saints departed do offer up any Prayers unto God is a thing uncertain Though some Protestants are inclined to think as a probable Matter that out of a Principle of Charity they pray in general for