Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	heart_n	holy_a	let_v	7,137	5	4.4451	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56656	Divine arithmetick, or, The right art of numbring our dayes being a sermon preached June 17, 1659, at the funerals of Mr. Samuel Jacomb, B.D., minister of the Gospel at S. Mary Woolnoth in Lumbardstreet, London, and lately fellow of Queens Colledge in Cambridge / by Simon Patrick ...	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1659 (1659)	Wing P792; ESTC R11929	59,678	90

daies and living are truly to be measured by the work of a man And therefore much less can you say that he hath lived who hath eaten and drank and got one of the same kind c. For so doth a Beast and therefore all you can say is that the Beast in him lived but not the man And if we did reckon thus and consider how much time this toy and that trifle this business and that service this man and that woman have devoured besides what every day will have for necessary uses Se● ib. cap. 3. Videbimus nos pauciores habere annos quam numeramus we shall see that we have fewer years than we number We say perhaps sixty years is our age but we may set down ten yea though we have seriously minded our great work Let us therefore hereafter when we ask our selves how old we are reckon from that time that we are born again And let us distinguish between time and what is done in time for all creatures have time as well as we and unless our work differ us from them our age will not O be ashamed to be a child with a great beard Blush to reckon forty or fifty years when thou knowest not for what thou camest into the world Let not the Sun see thee again so void of the knowledg of Jesus Christ as if thy soul were but newly dropt into thy body Be not twenty or forty years in learning to be sober and for very shame let it not be said that in so many years thou knowest not how to pray and represent thy needs to God How many years dost thou expect to live if in so many thou canst not learn to mortifie one lust If in the space of fifty years thou canst not get the victory over a cup of drink how many must God give thee to overcome all the rest of thy sinnes If so long experience will not teach thee humility or contentedness who can hope that thou shouldest live long enough to put on Jesus Christ and be conformed to all his Image O live live I beseech you as fast as you can for it is certain that is little or nothing that we have lived Seventhly We must not account all dayes alike or we must not measure our time by the length but by the weight not by its greatness but by its worth Let us not measure our dayes as we do by the motion of the Sunne which we see but by the shining of the Sonne of Righteousness upon our souls not by the coelestiall bodies but by the coelestiall inspirations Think that a long time wherein there are many dayes of grace and mind that time and improve it above all the rest Alwayes think that time is of a different value as to the chief use of time and in some dayes we have more of opportunity though but the same time This makes a great difference in our days if we well understand it and should make us very watchfull to lay hold upon this flower of time when it presents it self unto us A day of grace a Lords day when God shall move upon our souls such an opportunity as this if God affect our hearts is worth all our days beside when we are left unto our selves As to the purposes of holiness and getting nearer to Heaven one moment when the Spirit of God is upon us and strongly possesses our mind with good things and breathes into us holy affections is worth many hours yea days and years when that is not with us or doth not so powerfully incite us Let us therefore imploy such time well and set our selves to our business earnestly entreating more of such time and that Gods Spirit will visit us more frequently with its company Then our work will go on fast and if it be possible at all to recall the time past it must be by doing that in a few moments which naturally could not have been done in a whole Life We must value time hereafter as Mariners do at Sea by the wind that blows upon us and then we must hoise up our Sailes We must look at some as Harvest daies and then we must gather and lay up in store by hard labour or as Market daies and then we must buy what we want and lay in provision for the following daies Yea the blackest day of affliction if we were well skilled might be numbred among the best times of our life For God chastneth us for our profit that we may be made parkers of his holiness Eighthly Reckon time to stand in order to eternity Consider it not in the absolute notion but in the relative Look on it as a River running into the Ocean and account that time it self must be accounted for So number thy dayes as to think that they must be numbered again by God Think that time passeth and yet that it remain upon thine account Think that as thou art now so to eternity thou shalt be Do not look upon thy life as a few dayes to be passed and there is an end but reckon so many dayes I have lived and the next moment is eternity for any thing I can tell Everlastingness hangs upon this moment and the state of the one depends on the state of the other as time is used by us so shall we find our selves used in the other life I doubt we seldom look on these two as having a reference to each other but men live as if when time was trifled away they might begin upon a new score in Eternity Men live as if all should be forgotten that is done here and they should have something else to think of when they go from hence Remember therefore that both God and thy self will call thee to another reckoning all the dayes which thou hast never told but went away without any observation shall be recalled back unto thy mind Then the mind shall tell deliberately and run thee thorow at every thought how many hours thou satest with the cup at thy mouth how many dayes thou didst spend in sport how long the time seemed when the Preacher over-run his hour and how many motions of Gods Spirit thou didst send back and bid come at some more convenient time Yea all thy false accounts shall then be accounted for and thou shalt never have done numbring thy errours but shall tell them all over again with a new torment that thou shouldst be so wilfully mistaken O that you would let your souls which are apt to number so many dayes in this world and are loath to make an end let them lanch into the depths of eternity and there spread their thoughts Seeing they have such a mind to be telling out so many years for us let them runne into that vast Ocean Bring forth all your numbers wherewith your minds are pregnant heap million upon million lay one hundred thousand of millions upon another and they are all but as an unite to eternity In this vast eternity you

abundance of time given unto them through their grofs improvidence and mispense are utterly undone and whine like beggars as if they had had none whereas carefull and diligent persons so improve a little that thanks be to God they are rich in good works and say it is enough let God call for them when he pleaseth Tenthly Let us reckon death to be the best accountant and so number our daies now as we shall do when we come to dye Then a day will appear a pretious thing then will a covetous man offer all that he hath got in his whole life for one day then will a voluptuous man be ready to purchase a day with any pains though it were all rainy and he were forced to spend it in tears But it is a sad reckoning when a man must reckon twice and one of them must be when he hath no time to mend his errors and mistakes It will go very ill with us if we make one account in our life and another at our death If we should see then that there are as many faults as there are daies and that so many lines as there are in our life so many blots we must make how fearfully shall we be amazed in what perplexity of spirit shall we see our selves so foul and black in the midst of such grosse and damnable errors Let us therefore see and consider now what account dying men make of their time and take their reckoning as most certainly true Though men now be lavish of their time and play away their houres though they give all or most to the world and little or nothing to God yet come to a dying man and he will tell you that daies were good for something else then for a man to eat and drink and trade in he will tell you of feeding and nourishing the Diviner part or providing for a soul of dressing it for the Bride-groome by constant acts of godliness besides all those of temperance and sobriety of justice and mercy He will tell you of a Book more worth your reading and studying then all that ever you turned over And as for a day of grace at what rate would he purchase such a pretious season He will tell you he is ashamed that he ever sate at his dore talking vainly among his neighbours on the Lords day He will tell you that he cannot sleep now for the aking of his heart that he should sleep at a Sermon He praies that he might but live and Pray with his Family Evening and Morn Yea let him be a good man that hath made a good use of his time yet he will tell you that such an houre he might have spent better in such a company he might have done more good at such a time he might have been more solicitous and industrious about Heavenly things and he will Pray as a good Bishop did Lord pardon my sins of omission ●p Vsher And therefore let us now judg as sensible and good men do when they are taught by death that cannot flatter That is a sterne Master but very just and faithfull he speaks with a dreadfull voice but things that are infinitely true and serious He cuts their very heart whose accounts they leave him to write but he will truly state them Let us then learn of those that he teaches and not stay till we be taught when perhaps we shall be past Learning Let us imagine that the roome is darkned that the Physician stands by our bed side that we hear our friends sigh and groan that we feel the approaches of death and then conceive that our Books of account are brought to us and we have our pen in our hand What now shall we write Let us eat and drink and be merry Let us take our ease for we have goods laid up for many years will you reckon thus our time is long enough let us take care for nothing but to please our selves why not thus now I pray you when perhaps two or three daies agon this was your language Oh! but now eternity eternity appears and therefore set down so many houres for prayer to God if we live write down so much pains to understand the Word of God and we make account that so much time must be spent in meditating of the will of God Make a golden letter at the Lords Day for that must be more pretious time c. Whosoever thou art that readest this do the same now that thou maist do perhaps three daies hence Do that which now thou canst which ere long thou wilt wish to do and canst not This may be more then an imagination before the morning and be sure one day it will be a reality unless thou shalt be struck dead without any warning and have no leave for one deliberate thought and therefore now reckon after the same sort set down the same things in thy resolution yea ingrave them and cut them upon thy heart that so thy death beds account may agree with that in thy life Be sick now in thy thoughts that thou maist find thy self well then And seeing then we shall think that we have lived so much as we have done good and as we have designed the glory of God let us now think that we do not live unless these be in our hearts and lives Eleventhly If we would number aright let us every day cast up our accounts Let us so number our daies as at the foot of every day to write the total Summe Let us say thus long have we lived perhaps we may live no longer nor turn over another leaf let us see therefore how our accounts stand Say as Pythagoras taught his Scholars 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. What sinne have I committed What good have I done What good have I neglected What stand all these actions for Are they figures or cyphers Have I lived or only been Doth my work go on or am I running in arrears Do I live as if I were going to die Is eternity in my thoughts and the great account that I must give If we could call our selves to such a reckoning then we might correct any fault we find betime before it be grown to such a number that it will be beyond our thoughts and give up our account more fair and in order when God calls for them and might hope they would be accepted by him And for the doing of this it is necessary that we account every day as if it were our last Which is a maxim in this divine art of numbering that flows from the first Proposition Seeing our time that is to come is in Gods hand therefore we must live this day as though we had no more dayes to live And a Heathen could say That it is impossible for a man to live the present day well Musonius apud Stob. Serm 1. Epist 52. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That doth not propose to himself to live it as his last And so Seneca

past and gone though God may lengthen them to many more years but if he do we must remember that they will flie away as swiftly as the rest have done and therfore we must lay hold upon them and fly away with them that they may not go away without us Let us not be left behind by our time but let us be going on as fast we can along with it til we and it end comfortably both together That we may not still call for life when that cals for death but we may be fit to die when our time of life is done But how shall we learn all these good lessons will you say Who shall teach us to number aright Death you say is a good accountant but who will lead us unto these deep thoughts The fourth Observation which I shall briefly open and commend to your Meditations will give you some Answer to this Enquiry Observ 4. We may best learn this right numbring of our dayes by a praying heart and a pious mind The prayer herein the Text is directed to God that he would teach them and for their part they promise to bring an heart of wisdom Prov. 28.9 that is a godly and religious mind The prayer of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord saith the Wiseman If a man will not hear Gods Law it is no wonder that God will not hear his prayer When we come in a complement and for fashion sake having no great mind that God should do that for us that we ask it cannot be expected that God should regard us If we have no heart to number our daies according to the account that I have laid before you though we say Lord teach us to number our dayes yet he cannot but turn away his ear from us Prov. 15.8 29. But on the contrary That God who is farre from the wicked heareth the prayer of the righteous and delighteth in it If our heart apply it self to wisdom if we come with a serious resolution and a sincere deliberate desire to be what we say God will answer our requests and fullfill our petitions If we bring but a heart of wisdom we should presently by the help of God reckon right and make the best use of our life By an heart of wisdom here in the Text is meant a wise heart as an heart of stone or flesh signifies an hard or soft heart And it is made up of these things First We must bring a serious heart for a spirit that is vain and trifling that acts like one in jest cannot be wise We must all labour to take off that lightness and giddiness that agitates our spirits and to bring our souls to some composure and settlement by a reverence unto God yea and unto our selves We must resolve to be in good earnest about our salvation and to preferre this art of numbring our daies aright before all the fancies of riches and pleasures and such like things that are apt to tosse and whirl our minds we know not whither Secondly We must bring considering hearts For he will never number and cast accounts well whose mind is not fixed and whose thoughts cannot put things together We many times think but we do not consider Let us therefore raise observations unto our selves and let us weigh them and give them their due value Let us consider which is more and which is lesse in all things let us balance things in our thoughts and well mind what equality and what disproportion there is between them Say is not a soul like to live longer than a body Had I not more need tell its dayes and take care of it then labour thus about a dying thing What compare is there between Time and Eternity How soon have I done telling the dayes of my life And how am Host and even drowned in that vast Ocean But I need not teach a serious man to consider And I need not tell you that an heart that minds nothing that layes nothing as we say to heart must needs be ignorant and bruitish in its knowledg And therefore this is a piece of wisdom acceptable to God to labour in good sadnesse to take things into our thoughts till our hearts be touched by them We are gone a great way to learn any thing of God and particularly this great business how to live when we are once made inquisitive and thoughtfull in a serious sober manner Thirdly A wise heart is such an one as designs something to it self and intends to improve the knowledge it gets to some purpose The heart of a fool looks no further than the beginning of a thing and thinks not of what shall follow and therefore we must bring such a serious disposition as is determined to deduce some good out of every thing that is propounded to our consideration Many truths lie by men but they cannot be said properly to know and skill them because they are contented with the bare notion of them They know the number of their dayes the shortnesse of their lives and the rest that I have said but they make no use of it at all it is as meer a speculation as that twenty and fourty make sixty or the like And therefore we must not only number and tell how short they are and whither they are running and what use they are for but we must conclude in some resolution and set down something that results from the whole account for the good of our souls All these things are but means to something else reading praying considering and examination are but the beginnings of Religion not the end they are the way only and therefore we must not rest in them but let our souls go further till we are carried to something else by them As when we account but one day to our life when we tell so many evil days if we live long c. We must ask our souls What then will you do Cast in your minds and speak what course do you mean to take And by such like Questions bring your work to some good issue And Fourthly A truly wise heart is that which designs holiness to be like to God and eternally to enjoy him For the fear of the Lord that is wisdome and to depart from evil is that understanding Job 28. ult And this therefore is it we must intend to this issue we must bring our souls and if we do consider and contrive this heartily then we may be encouraged to pray to God that we may know how to take the right measure of our dayes We may say to him Lord teach me what my life is for else I am afraid I shall not live Lord affect me with the shortness of my time for else I am in danger to want thy self And thee it is that I seek thou knowest it is the desire of my soul to be godly I am resolved it shall be my work and imploiment in the world that I may be friends with