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	law_n	sin_n	7,752	5	4.9628	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44675	A discourse relating to the much-lamented death and solemn funeral of our incomparable and most gracious Queen Mary, of most blessed memory by John Howe.	Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1695 (1695)	Wing H3023; ESTC R7264	27,333	50

to follow make with them a perpetual even and uninterrupted Course Likeness to God therefore in every other just respect certainly ensues upon such preceding knowledge of him For the kind and nature of that knowledge being as it ought to be powerful vigorous transforming of the whole Soul and the Will ductile and compliant agreeable impressions do most certainly take place As now beholding we are chang'd 2 Cor. 3. 18. Much more in that State where the injected divine beams are so strong and vivid and the receptive disposition so prompt free apt and facile Therefore to be made like God is to be made perfect according to the ultimate intendment of these words The vision or knowledge of God in the heavenly state being never intended for idle ineffectual speculation as this perfection is not otherwise to be understood than with reference to the ends we were made for that we may be immediately capable of and apt for everlasting adoration and fruition of the blessed God in a joint and most full consent and communion with the General Assembly the whole Community of all the blessed Spirits besides whose eternal work and delight this will be This likeness to God must yet be understood with exception to the Divine Peculiarities as hath been elsewhere shewn whither we now refer only to save the labour of transcribing In respect of which Peculiarities also there must be on our part a correspondency i. e. a likeness with allowance for necessary disagreement as between a Seal and the impression where what is convex in the one is hollow in the other and yet otherwise like i. e. correspondent to each other too So the case is between the blessed God's All-sufficient fulness and our receptive emptiness between his Supremacy and our Subjection In respect to other things common to him and us with the rest of those happy Spirits that inhabit the Regions of light and bliss Spirituality it self Life and Vigour Knowledge Wisdom Holiness Love Serenity Benignity Mercy Peace and Joy there is a nearer resemblance these things passing under the same name with him and with us but with the infinite inequality still of God and Creature Now if here we give our selves leave to pause a while and contemplate those innumerable multitudes of pure and happy Creatures perfected or ever perfect Spirits that inhabit and replenish those ample spacious Regions above the vast and to us or to any thought of ours immense and endless Tracts of Light and Glory Consider them every one composed and made up of lively Light and Love as we are told God is light 1 John 1. 5. and God is love chap. 4. vers 16. Consider them all as most intelligent and knowing Creatures even of the most profound and hidden Mysteries that here were wont to perplex and puzzle the most inquisitive mind ignorant of nothing or apt to comprehend any thing needful and pleasant to be known or lawful to be enquir'd into curious to know nothing useless or unlawful most perfectly wise Creatures prudent Sages endowed with a self-governing wisdom so as easily without a vexatious solicitude and anxiety but with a noble freedom to order and command all their Thoughts Appetitions Actions and Deportments towards God themselves and one another so as never to be guilty of mistake or error in any motion of mind or will Never to omit any thing in its season or do any thing out of season Consider them whether in solemn Assembly which may be stated and perpetual by successively appointed numbers for ought we know or diverting and retiring or faring to and fro as inclination with allowance or command may direct Yet all every where full of God continually receiving the vital satisfying glorious Communications of the every-where present self-manifesting Deity all full of reverence and most dutiful love to the Eternal Father of Spirits his Eternal Son and Spirit all form'd into perpetual lowliest and most grateful adoration with highest delight and pleasure all apprehensive of their depending state and that they owe their all to that Fulness which filleth all in all Every one in his own eyes a self-nothing having no separate divided Interest Sentiment Will or Inclination Every one continually self-consistent agreeing with himself ever free of all self-displeasure never finding any cause or shadow of a cause for any angry self-reflection upon any undue thought or wish in that their present perfect state though not unmindful what they were or might have been and ascribing their present state and stability to the Grace of God and dedicating their All to the praise and glory of that most Free and Unaccountable Grace all well assured and unsuspiciously conscious with unexpressible satisfaction of their acceptance with God and placing with the fullest sense and relish their very life in his favour All full of the most complacential benignity towards one another counting each one's felicity his own and every one's enjoyments being accordingly multiply'd so many thousand-fold as he apprehends every one as perfectly pleased and happy as himself Let but any one recount these things with himself as he easily may with far greater enlargement of thoughts many more such things as these and he needs not be at a loss for a notion of this perfect state of the Spirits of the Just. And for further confirmation as well as for a somewhat more distinct and explicite conception hereof let it be moreover considered What was the undertaking and design of our Redeemer to whom the next words directs our eye and to Jesus the Mediator of the new testament and to the blood of sprinkling c. He was to be the Restorer of these once lost Apostate Spirits and besides reconciling them to God by his blood that speaks better things than that of Abel was to impart his own Spirit to them and by the Tenour of that New Testament or Covenant whereof he was Mediator was not only to procure that their sins and iniquities should be remembred no more but that the Divine Laws should be put in their minds and written in their hearts Chap 8. 10 12. They are therefore by the blood of the everlasting covenant to be made perfect Chap. 13. 20 21. in every good work to do his will having all that wrought in them which is well-pleasing in his sight through Christ Jesus Now when shall he be said to have accomplish'd his design Not till every one be presented perfect Col. 1. 28. and faultless in the presence of the divine glory Jude 24. Do but consider what was a design worthy of so great an Undertaker the Son of God and of his being engaged so deeply of his being so earnestly intent upon it as to become first a Man then a Sacrifice to effect it Consider his Death and Resurrection wherein he will have all that belong to him have a Consortium a participation with him and conformity to him as is largely discoursed Phil. 3. and hence we are to make our estimate

Summary of this internal Perfection of the Spirits of just Men in their most perfect State I cannot give you a fuller and more comprehensive one than is express'd in those few Words We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Where are two things conjoined that together express the perfect State of these blessed Spirits Likeness to God and the Vision of him And these two are so connected as to admit of a twofold Reference each to other Either that this Likeness to God be considered as a Preparative for the Vision of him and so that the latter Words be considered as an Argument of the former viz. that because it is designed we shall live in the perpetual Vision of God it is therefore necessary we should be like him without which we can be no way capable of such a Sight or of beholding so bright a Glory Or else that the Vision of God be perpetually productive of this Likeness to him and so that the latter Words be understood not only to contain an Argument whence we may conclude this Likeness must be but also to express the immediate Cause by which it is As the Form of Expression will admit either of these References so I doubt not the Nature of the Thing will require that we take them in both There could be no such Vision of God as is here meant if there were not some previous Likeness to him in our former State And when in our final State we are first admitted to that beatifick glorious Vision by that means we may reasonably understand will ensue the Perfection of that Likeness Whereof also it is to be considered that Vision which spoken of the Mind is Knowledg must not only be taken for a Cause but a Part for the Image of God is at first renewed and with equal Reason must be supposed at last perfected in Knowledg This Image or Likeness of God therefore if we consider the natural Order of working upon an intelligent Subject must as to that Part of it which hath its Seat in the Mind or understanding Faculty be caused by the immediate Irradiation of the Divine Light and Glory upon that and be the Cause of the rest But both together are the inherent subjective Perfection of these blessed Spirits of the Just and comprehend all that belongs to this their moral Perfection the latter being it self also virtually comprehended in the former The Vision of God therefore or their perfect Knowledg of him with whom they must ever have most of all to do as the principal Object of their Fruition and Enjoyment must be the primary and the leading thing in this their Perfection For no doubt it is that Perfection which directly concerns their ultimate Satisfaction and Blessedness which is here intended with which their eternal Employment is most conjunct and complicated as we shall after see They enjoy and adore the same blessed Object at once and in doing the one do the other And besides the Knowledg of him there must be by his Beams and in his Light Ps. 36. 9. the perfect Knowledg of all that it is needful or requisite they should know without which since all their Enjoyments in the Heavenly State must be in their first Rise intellectual 't would be impossible they should ever perfectly enjoy any thing at all And that this Perfection of just Mens Spirits is intended to be summarily comprehended in the Perfection of their Knowledg is more than intimated by that Series of Discourse which we find 1 Cor. 13. 9 12. The Apostle comparing the Imperfection of our present with the Perfection of our future State sums up all in this that we know now but in part and that then we shall know as we are known But the Perfection of this Knowledg he seems more to state in the manner of knowing than in the extent and compass of the things known That in this latter Respect it may admit of Increase they cannot doubt who consider the sinite Capacity of a created Mind and the mighty Advantages we shall have for continual Improvement both from the clear Discovery of things in that bright and glorious Light and from the Receptiveness of our enlarged and most apprehensive Minds But that State can admit of no culpable Ignorance nor of any that shall more infer Infelicity than include Sin Therefore now to speak more distinctly We take this Perfection of the Spirits of the Just to be principally meant of their moral Perfection such as excludes all Sin and all Misery as Morality comprehends and connects together Sanctity the Goodness of the Means and Felicity the Goodness of the End the former most directly but most certainly inferring the latter If therefore we say this is their sinless Perfection we say all that the Case requires In that it is said to be the Perfection of Spirits it must indeed suppose all that natural Perfection which belongs to such a sort of Creatures as such in their own kind But inasmuch as the Specification is added of the Just 't is their moral Perfection or most perfectly holy Rectitude from which their Blessedness is inseparable that seems ultimately intended But now whereas this their ultimate Perfection hath been said to be virtually contained and summ'd up in Knowledg we are hereupon to consider how this may appear to be a compleat Summary of all such Perfection And nothing can more evidently appear if you join together The true Matter or Object right Manner or Nature of this Knowledg 1. The true and proper Object of it must be not omne scibile but whatsoever they can be obliged or concerned to know or that is requisite to their Duty and Felicity all that lies within their Compass as they are Creatures that in such a distinct Sphere or in their own proper Order are to correspond to the Ends of their Creation i. e. to glorify the Author of their Beings and be happy in him Infinite Knowledg belongs not to them is not competent to their Nature nor necessary either to their Employment or to their Blessedness in the heavenly State Whatsoever Knowledg is requisite to these Ends will be included in this their final Perfection It is by the way to be observ'd how this Matter is express'd made perfect which signifies our arriving to this Perfection out of an imperfect State We were created with an original Perfection sufficient to a State of Probation By our Apostacy we became sinfully imperfect All have sinned and come short of the Glory of God Rom. 3. 23. We have been put upon a new Trial by our Redeemer Their Perfection who have run out their Course is by the Grace of God and by his Methods restored and improv'd to its just Pitch They are now their Trial being over set in a consummate Rectitude towards the Ends of their Creation and herein are endowed with all the Knowledg they need viz. of such things as in reference to those Ends they