Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A27616
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The loss of the soul the irreparable loss, opened and demonstrated ... in a sermon, on Matt. XVI, 26 / by T. Beverley.
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Beverley, Thomas.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing B2161; ESTC R20343
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27,012
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36
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more than he knows what to give in exchange for his life if once lost And why should he of all persons think a Soul miserable for ever an impossible thing tho not certain or so much as improbable that thinks so many things have been and are that no one as he thinks can tell how they come to be Sure that man that will believe nothing but upon sense transgresses the very Law of his own Sense that sees many things come to pass he look'd not for and will not believe because he does not yet see and against his own Prudentials upon Sense for he takes heed and guards against things possible that he has never seen yet by the eye of Sense why not then against this so dreadful prossibility Application 2 If it be so desperate a case to lose a soul for a whole world how great madness is the loss of a Soul for a little of the World Men that live in Allyes and Dungeons and eat in darkness all their days and yâ—t lose their Souls Oh how earnest should all the poor be to receive the Gospel preached to them as the most fit Subjects of it in that gracious Expression of Christ to them The poor are evangelized and to lay hold on Eternal Life to make a Vertue of that Necessity they are under On the other side they that live in gaiety and splendor and value it so much and have such abhorring thoughts of a contrary condition how earnest should they be to live so for ever in a Divine Sense being receiv'd into the Inheritance of the Saints in Light and not to fall into the miseries of a lost soul as so horrible a descent from their present state Application 3 Let me beseech you to take the things that have been conveyed to you in these Words out of Words and as things to weigh them well for Things are greater than words and canot be deceived or turn'd off any more than Mountains or Walls or Gates of Iron and Brass in our way Let any one but for an hour think of these Words he will find them rise up to him as Things and meet him with inward assurances and so let him often do and especially with humblest supplication to the Father of Spirits the Creator of Souls through Christ the Lover and Redeemer of Souls by the Spirit the blessed Inhabitant of all holy and wise Spirits to impress upon him this great Oracle concerning the value of Souls and Spirits and he shall find by the Evidence and witness within himself of the value of his own Soul There is such a sense of these things possible to us that he that hath lost Houses Lands Wife Children for Christ's sake may receive a hundred fold in this life even now and in the very midst of Persecution which is the greatest evidence of their Reality in the comforts and assurances of preserving all unto Life Eternal For Christ adds In the world to come life eternal Mark 10. 29 30. Application 4 Seeing things are so dark in the present smoak black Vapour thick Steam of this World and the Lusts thereof and are so hardly considered and weighed duly in the noises and dust the rolling wheels of this World raise Oh how earnestly desirous should we be of that day dawning that day of the Kingdom of Christ but dawning from on high that shall make all these things so clear as to put the World into another state and posture as towards God and all holiness and the more earnest should we be seeing the day may by the sure word of prophesy shining in this dark place be seen to be near approaching and how great relation this great Saying of Christ hath to that Kingdom appears in that Christ goes on immediately to his coming in the Glory of his Kingdom of which he gave a Type in the Transfiguration Chap. 17. following FINIS ADVERTISEMENT THere is an Exposition upon the whole Book of the Revelation Explaining the Sacred Text Word by Word and opening and arguing the Divine Senses of that great Prophesy Sold by Richard Wellington at the Lute in St. Pauls Church-yard and are to be had at Mr. Marshals at the Bible in Newgate-street and of Mr. Salisbury at the Rising-Sun in Corn-hill Books Sold by VVilliam Marshall at the Bible in Newgate-Street Books Written by the late Dr. John Owen In Folio 1. HIs Exposition on the whole Epistle to the Hebrews with Exercitations concerning the Messiah Wherein the Promises concerning him to be a Spiritual Redeemer of Mankind are explained and vindicated His Coming and Accomplishment of his Work according to the Promises is proved and confirmed The Person or who he is declared The whole Oeconomy of the Mosaical Law Rites Worship and Sacrifices is explained And in all the Doctine of the Person Office and Work of the Messiah is opened The Nature and demerit of the first Sin is unfolded The Opinions and Traditions of the Antient and Modern Jews are examined Their Objections against the Lord Christ and the Gospel are answered The time of the Coming of the Messiah is stated And the great foundational Truth of the Gospel vindicated In four Volumes Folio 2. A Discourse concerning the Holy Spirit Wherein an Account it given of his Name Nature Personality Dispensation Operations and Effects His whole Work in the Old and New Creation is Explained The Doctrine concerning it vindicated from Oppositions and Reproaches The Nature also and Necessity of Gospel Holiness the Difference between Grace and Morality or a Spiritual Life unto God in Evangelical Obedience and a Course of Moral Virtues are stated and declared Fol. 3. The Doctrine of the Saints Perseverance explained and confirmed Or the certain Permanency of their 1. Acceptation with God and 2. Sanctification from God manifested and proved From 1. The Eternal Principles 2. The Effectual Causes And 3. The External Means thereof c. Fol.
find saith he what will be taken in Exchange for a lost undone Soul For who can make his Bed in the Torments of a Wounded Spirit scorching worse than Flames Who can dwell with the Devouring Fire the Consuming Anger of the Living God or with the Everlasting Burnings of an Enraged Conscience To make out this in full Discourse and Argument I propose Three Heads 1. To shew That if a Man could dye with the whole World in his Hand he would be a Lost Man on this Account That the World could be no provision for him or the least suitable in that True and Everlasting Self his Soul as in the state of Separated Spirits or Himself in the state of the Resurrection and so he must be Lost on that Account 2. That this Lost State cannot be slumbered away in silence but he must and shall come to those vehement searches after some Exchange for a Lost Soul and Self and there being none to be found those searches must needs turn into Rage and Fury upon their so dreadful disappointment 3. I shall therefore enquire into the way of losing a Soul according to our Lords present scope and drift of Discourse because if we closely attend we shall find it out of the Road of our Common Thoughts And unto all these I will subjoyn the most pressing Applications that so naturally flow from those Heads fully open'd and enlarg'd upon I begin with the First The True Real Solid Sense and Reason of Things that none of us can deny That a Soul must needs be lost that hath no Provision but the World though it were the whole World that is If such a Thing could indeed be And though I must humbly acknowledg I am no way sufficient for these Things or the mighty considerations pertaining to this Subject yet they themselves are so great that if they be extracted out of all Discourse and be but felt in and by themselves they must needs prevail in our Thoughts the Holy Spirit thereunto working in us mightily 1. There is no Comparison between a Man's Soul a Man's Self in the Heighth and Depth the Breadth and Length of his True Being his True Self and the World though it were the whole World A Being Apprehensive of God capable of enjoying Him capable of Eternal Things of Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Spirit For what Compare can there be between a Being prepared with Sentiments and Capacities for these Things and the narrow and pent up notions and dimensions of our selves as Creatures that eat such Meat and drink such Drinks that wear such Cloaths and dwell in such Houses or Appartments have such an Equipage and Retinue So widely different is the proportion between the World and an Immortal Spirit an Immortal self For the World is suited only to those low Notions and Apprehensions of a Man's Self and it can extend no further So that the Spirit and True Self of a Man even now in this State in this Body finds a want in the greatest abundance of these Things and cries out upon them all Vanity and vexation of Spirit and though it be buddled up and muffled and kept quiet by all Arts imaginable yet it complains and inwardly mourns to it self because it hath not the true satisfaction and enjoyment the Fibres as I may so speak of the Spiritual Stomach and Appetite are so often twitched with the hunger of something more Excellent and Divine I mean Those deep and inward Sentiments We are made for higher enjoyments than of this World often stir and move do what we can to the contrary And if it be thus now much more will this be in that future state when a Soul will be fully explicated unfolded let our into its utmost Capacities Then will all the World plainly appear to be no other than the fitting the Coat of an Infant to a Giant Oh! how much too wide and too large is that true Self for all these too extensive to be so provided for To tell an Immortal Spirit or a Man risen from the Dead of Meat and Drink and sumptuous Cloathing of Houses Estates and Money you speak I may say Infinitely below the Dignity and Majesty of such a Being It will say to the World All these thy things perish with thee That thou couldst think I could be provided for by them or that Eternal Things could be purchased with them Oh that therefore now we could say to our selves Can I think of God of Christ of his Spirit of Eternal Happiness or Misery Have I Thoughts that can embrace such Things as these Am I great enough for such Thoughts Can I think of enjoying God and Living in the purest entercourses of Reason and Holiest Understanding Can there be an enterview between my Spirit and the Father of Spirits God in Christ and do you talk to me of such poor and low things as are first most proper to Beasts and Creatures of Sense only the food of Brutes the meat of Worms and to me only in that low state and part wherein I am allied to them I know how very hard it is for us in this low Carnal state to take in the Reason of this as it were vain to entertain Beasts with the Discourses of Mathematicks of Reason or of Virtue And hereby the Children of Men may know themselves to be but Beasts as Solomon speaks a higher kind of Beasts And it were well for them if their Spirits who have thus conversed in Body might be suffered to go downward as Beasts so indeed such Men would have them do when they come to dye But this cannot be as God said to the Israelites They would fain have been as the Heathen Families but He would Bring them under the Bond of the Covenant of Israelites of those He called his People so such would fain be as the Beasts But this shall not be God will bring them under the Law of Spiritual and Everlasting Beings and of the Family of never dying Spirits Let us but a little Appeal to our own Minds and put them a while into their own Action into their own proper Exercise and we shall find in their Enquiries after God after Righteousness after the enjoyment of him in the Blood and Redemption of Jesus Christ and the operations of his Spirit That they are made for these Things And how poor then will all the things in this World appear to be when we come to the height of this Action and Activity And though we take so much pleasure and delight in these now yet seeing we can rise up to higher things and frame notions of them it is certain we are made for those higher things and they must be our state for ever For it is certain this is a great Rule and Maxime By the most excellent part in every Thing is its proper and lasting Good to be known and judged of It is therefore our Degeneracy and Depravedness or to speak the most Favourably and Charitably