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	word_n	14,376	5	4.0513	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63296	A true account of the behaviour and confession of the nine criminals that were executed at Tyburn on Friday the 31st of May 1689 whose names are as follows, viz. Charles Hughes, Jacob Turner, William Bird, Charles Lee, Edward Sibley, William Miller, Richard Bullen, Thomas Watkins, James Felton.	Smith, Samuel, 1620-1698.	1689 (1689)	Wing T2343A; ESTC R25668	5,351	2

A True AC●●●●NT of the Behaviour and Confession Of the Nine Criminals that were Executed at TYBURN On Friday the 31st of May 1689. whose Names are as follow viz. Charles Hughes Jacob Turner William Bird Charles Lee Edward Sibley William Miller Richard Bullen Thomas Watkins James Felton ON the Lord's Day the Ordinary read Prayers and preacht twice to the condemned Prisoners In the Forenoon the Text was the 8th Verse of the 5th Chapter of St. Matthew's Gospel Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. There is no Principle more sixt in a reasonable Creature than a restless desire after Happiness Yet Men mistake in nothing more than in a fond persuit of such false measures and means as reach not true substantial Blessedness Therefore to undeceive miserable Pretenders to Happiness while they wander in a painful Labyrinth of unsuccessful means to attain it our Saviour in these eight Beatitudes directs to such proper and genuin dispositions as will certainly tend to and instate the Soul in real Felicity Heart-purity is a Frame not only blessed at present but leads to future Happiness in the perfect knowledge of God in Heaven joined with an exact Assimilation to him and a delightful enjoyment of him to all Eternity The parts of the Text were explicated and Evangelical Heart-purity stated as the Spring of all sincere Obedience Real Heart-purity is an universal Conformity of all the Souls Faculties and Affections to all the Precepts of Divine Revelation thô cross to carnal Reason or slie Self-Interest It forms clear and honourable Conceptions of God suitable to his Divine Excellencies so as to be transformed into their Divine Effects Heart-purity strikes at the Root of all Self-seeking which confines the Noble Soul to particular low sordid Times It will enter into us as the Refiner's Fire It will become every way absolute It will not suffer any Corrival with God either in point of commanding our Obedience or courting of our Love. It strikes at all speculative retired spiritual Filthiness in the Heart But a mixture of Carnality where Hypocrisie predominates renders all the parts of spiritual Religion uneasie yea casts them off as grievous Contrarywise the power of Godliness will make a Man live up to the heighth and dignity of his renewed Nature and not to act degenerately below his holy state as not being enslaved to any Lust or Passion An Heart purified by Divine Truth may assure it self that it is translated into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God. It may view the Plot of its Salvation transacted already in the impression of a Godlike Nature Here were mentioned some Arguments to demonstrate that the pure in heart are blessed also the misery of all prophane persons in being devoid of the Beauty of Holiness After many Motives urged to use some Rules or Directions how to attack and promote Holiness the Ordinary spake thus to the condemned Criminals O who would not study to promote Heart purity in the present love and practice of it that they may be welcomed to the Festivities of heavenly Glory Why then do we grasp after sordid Vanities and not take hold of Blessedness by all holy Violence Examine therefore Is there a Change in your Hearts Thoughts Words Actions and Affections Is there a mighty work of Renewing Grace on your Spirits Try your Title to heavenly Felicity by your universal constant sincere and chearful Obedience to the Commands of Christ O why are we dead to the love and practice of true Piety as if Heaven were a phantastick Dream Why are we as hot and eager on Sinning as if Hell had no Fire or it was all vanisht into Smoke O who would not ambitiously aspire to get a Sight of God who is the matchless Mirror of Divine Truth and the infinite Beauty of all Perfection If we hope for such a Sight why doth it not warm us with the greatest love of Holiness and put us as it were unto a Transport of most active Zeal in a course of Piety But why should I use farther Arguments to allure Men to embrace their own Happiness Holiness is the matter of our freest Choice The Lord sets Life and Death this day before you Do not obstinately hate Knowledge nor reject the Fear of the Lord by whose Smiles or Frowns men live or dye eternally The very Hell of Hell is to be given up to the cursed consummation of wickedness but the very quintessence of heavenly Happiness is to be made perfect in Holiness as a lively lovely Representation of the Deity Only the pure in heart shall see and enjoy God in whose presence is Fulness of Joy and at whose Right Hand are Rivers of the Divinest Pleasures to all Eternity without any stint or society On Monday the Ordinary visited the Condemned and inquired what Divine Impressions the Author of all Grace had made on their Hearts by the foregoing Counsels and Prayers They reply'd That they were much awakened from their security in a sinful course that the sight and sense of their Iniquities did much afflict and trouble their minds To which I reply'd That clear and strong Convictions in Conscience may vanish in a fruitless sense of Sin unless they proceed to a thorow work of Conversion To this One more knowing than the rest assented and desired me that I would expound in the Afternoon the 10th and 11th Verses of the 7th Chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Corinthians After all the Seven Signs as inseparable Concomitants of true Repentance had been treated of the Condemned said That they now understood the Nature of Repentance more clearly and fully than before yet they acknowledged that they could not work such a change in their own hearts I told them That the New Creation was a more wonderful Effect of Gods Power than the forthing of the visible structure of Heaven and Earth I declared in what Respects On Tuesday the Ordinary having prayed with the Condemned askt them One by One of the Employment they were bred up into and how they fell into a vicious course of Life First Charles Hughes Condemned for Murdering his Wife who was punisht for the Fond Love of his Comeliness tho they knew that he had been formerly Condemned as having been a Prisoner herself Hughes told me that he had very Religious Education I replied the greater is your Sin as being against clearer Light and for degenerating from the Counsels and Examples of pious Ancestors I told him That their Virtues could not save him unless he now repent that he walkt not in their steps The Pharisees boasted that they had Abraham to their Father but the Baptist consuted that proud presumption by assuring them That every Tree which did not bring forth good Fruit should be hew'n down and cast into the Fire He said that he was not brought up to any Employment which exposed him to many evil Temptations He could not deny but that he had been refractory in running from the strict