Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A06685
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The soules pilgrimage to a celestial glorie: or, the perfect vvay to heaven and to God. Written by J.M. Master of Arts
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Monlas, John.; Maxwell, James, b. 1581, attributed name.
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1634
(1634)
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STC 17141; ESTC S102722
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91,677
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186
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him by degrees unto the very last point of perfection which is wisdome or the perfect knowledge of sacred mysteries as wee read in the Prophet Ieremy Chap. 11.2 The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisedome and understanding the spirit of counsell and might the spirit of knowledge and the feare of the Lord. The old proverbe saith truly That feare and diffidence is the mother of security for when we feare our enemie and are vigilant over his actions then we prevent his ambushes avoyd his power Let us remember that Sathan the deadly enemie of our soules watcheth still at the doore of our hearts as a roaring Lyon attending to devoure his prey so that if wee have not still the feare of God before our eyes to avoyd the nets and ginnes which he layes in the way for us we shall become his prey and food But if wee stand upon our guards and no way feare his assaults or threatnings then hee will infallibly fly from us both with hast and shame For God commonly bestoweth his graces and favours to those who feare to offend him and hee distributeth and imparteth his richest treasures to those that serve him with reverence feare and trembling Wee reade Acts 2. That when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place and suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty winde and it filled all the house where they were sitting and there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sate upon each of them and they were all filled with the holy Ghost First this great noyse this impetuous winde which shaked all the house at the comming of the holy Ghost serves to teach us that those who feare God and who tremble under the authority of his all powerfull hand are those whom he visiteth by his holy Ghost and whom hee replenisheth with his benefits and graces as he did here his Apostles We read in Saint Iohn Chap. 20.19 When the doores were shut where the Disciples were assembled for feare of the Iewes that Iesus came and stood in the middes of them and sayd Peace be unto you And what is this but a lesson to teach us that the children of God should keepe their hearts close and fast shut for feare of vices sinnes and offences whereunto the devill denoted by the Iewes doth every day by a thousand snares and artifices seeke to seduce and draw our soules to eternall death Those people I say when they were shut up for feare then God came and visited them and gave them his peace as he did to his Apostles Moses receiving the tables of the Law upon Mount Sinay Exod. 19.16 So many stormes so many claps of thunder and flashes of lightning fearefully fell upon the heads of the children of Israel that they were all astonished with horrour and trembling But they were presently exempt and freed from this feare when Moses brought them the contract of their alliance written with the proper hand of God so when wee exceedingly feare and reverence God then speedily he makes a firme friendship and alliance with our soules Whiles the children of Israel had the feare of God before their eyes they were fraughted and replenished with a thousand blessings preserved from a thousand misfortunes by a thousand miracles they were preserved from bondage and slavery by a thousand prodigies they past thorow the red Sea drew water out of Rockes and were fed in the wildernesse with Manna and Quayles from heaven But as soone as by their impious and treacherous Idolatry they had cast off the yoke of the sweet and gratious feare of God and shut their eyes against the judgements of the ever living God and instantly after they had adored the golden Calfe then God sent flying Serpents who slew them by thou sands which sheweth and teacheth us That those who walk uprightly in the pathes of Gods commandements and are marked with the seale of awfull feare are still filled with his blessings and benefits but the perverse and obstinate who cast away the snaffle they I say stumble at a thousand miseries and misfortunes and being forsaken and abandoned of GOD they are exposed and precipitated to eternall death and given in prey to that olde Serpent the devill The auncient Pagans have perfectly and truly depaynted feare when they said it was all environed with fire and flames as Love and so they understood of corporall and Mundane or worldly feare and likewise of divine feare concerning their false imaginary Gods Here we will doe as Noah did Wee will make use of sinners to build the Arke of our salvation or as Salomon did of the timber stones of King Hiram to build the temple of the Eternall 1. Reg. 5. That which Pagans have spoken without knowledge wee will speake with reason and knowledge That all sorts of feare is a fire in our soules which scorcheth and consumes us as long as it remaines there But let us here endevour particularly to consider the Analogies and resemblances that there is betweene fire and the feare of God which is the subject of our text Fire is a furious hastie and active Element and so likewise are the points of apprehension and feare Fire is the cleanest the purest the wholsomest of all Elements It cleanseth it purifieth it drives out all filthinesse and corruption as being neither able nor capable to suffer in it selfe any impurity for it either consumes or expells it And all this agrees well with the feare of God which is the most wholsomest Physick that we can take to purge our selues of sinne and to purifie our hearts of all vncleanenesse for there is no vice but it will purge and reject Fire is an Element which consumes and devoures all that is presented to it and the feare of God is a coale and flame which devoureth all our concupiscences To make straight a crooked peece of wood or timber wee use fire thereby to make it become more soft and flexible So to replace soules in the way of life when they are either crooked or gone astray in the by pathes of vice then the feare of God of all other remedies is the best and most soveraigne Fire by Antiperistase as it heates those who are cold so it refresheth and comforteth those who are hot The feare of God heates and enflames those soules to doe well who are most frozen in piety and contrariwise it cooleth those who are most enflamed with their burning sensualities and concupiscences To venemous Apostumes mortal Gangreens and desperate diseases wee for the last remedy apply Irons and fire to cure it To sinners inveterated in their wickednesse and as it were despairing of their salvation wee must apply the Iron and fire of the feare of God to make them apprehend and know his divine judgements if they remaine impenitent and vnrepentant Historians report that the Arabian Phoenix the onely bird of his race
the glorious throne of his beloved Sonne and the tabernacle which the holy Ghost hath chosen for his habitation where is then that heart of stone that soule so base and obstinately resolved to bee lost that knowing the happy and most honourable arrivall of the great King of Kings of the three divine persons of the ineffable and incomprehensible Trinity and trine-unity doth not sweepe and cleanse the house of his heart and doth not purifie it from all dirt and filthinesse who I say will not adorne it with the richest treasures and with the rich ornaments that holinesse justice and innocencie abundantly affords purposely to receive with honour and reverence so magnificent a King who promiseth us to come unto us when hee saith in the 14. Chap. of Saint Iohn If a man love me he will keepe my words and my Father will love him and we will come in unto him and make our abode with him Our good Master Jesus Christ the Saviour of our soules teacheth us in the 22. Chap. of Sai t Mathew how much and how dearely purenesse is acceptaâ—le before him saying That the Kingdome of heaven is like a certaine King which made a marriage for his sonne and having invited many the banquetting roome was filled and the King himselfe being come in to see the guests hee there sawe a man which had not a wedding garment and said unto him Friend how camest thou in hither not having a wedding garment And hee was speechlesse Then said the King to the servants bind him hand and foote and cast him into utter darknesse where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth for many are called but fewe are chosen Can we desire a more lively representation or an example more formall to shew us that God delighteth in the sincerity and purenesse of our soules and contrariwise that he abhorreth and detesteth the filthinesse of sinne the inke and coales of iniquiry which blacks and defiles our consciences for it is impossible ever to tast of the dainty and delicious Viands served at the Lambs wedding at the sumptuous and magnificent feast of the onely Sonne of the great King of Kings before we have left off our working dayes cloathes the infected and stinking coate or our naturall corruption to put on the white roabe of holinesse purity and amendment of life and to use the very words of Scripture Colos 3. Wee must cast off the old man with his deedes and put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him And Ephes 4. concerning the former conversation Cast off the old man which is corrupted according to the deceitfull lusts of his heart and be renewed in the spirit of your minde and put on the new man which like unto God is created in righteousnesse and true holinesse And in Rom. 6.6 Our old man is crucified with Christ that the body of sinne might be destroyed that henceforth wee should serue sinne no more but walke before him in renovation and newnesse of life The clearest waters are alwayes the best and therefore commonly see that the excellentest springs are derived from the rockes and fetch'd from the highest hills because that the water distilling through many narrow passages and strait places the farther it goes the more it is purified the most subtill and clearest springs seeke the highest places as approaching nearer to the nature of the ayre whose nature and propriety is still to ascend And contrariwise you may observe and marke that the thick and heavie waters are alwayes filthy and stinking and are conserved in pitts and deepe sinkes as participating of the nature of the earth and therefore are fit for nothing but to breed serpents and Frogges whereof some kill us by their mortall venome and the other trouble us with their unsufferable croaking These cleare and pure waters doe lively prefigure and set forth unto us the faithfull servant of the Lord who hath purified and as it were distilled himselfe at the fire of the love of God thereby to leave off what was earthly ponderous and troublesome in him as hatred ambition sensuality and vaine glory purposely to soare aloft and to elevate himselfe to the holy mountaine of Syon towards heaven which is the center whither the circumference of his desires designes and thoughts tendeth These black and muddy waters may expresse and set forth hell unto us where there is nothing but horrible darknesse and fearefull obscurity where that old serpent is iustly banished for his deserts and where the damned gastly and frightfull soules doe nothing else but vexe themselves and curse But to apply it to the subject of our text these stinking and corrupted waters may very fitly be compared to the wicked and to the men of this world who have Woolfes or Lyons hearts under the shape and forme of men who wallowe like Hogges in the mire and dirt of carnall security who runne not after pietie and vertue but remaine fast chained and bound to sensualitie and vice casting all their affections on the earth whereof their body is made and composed never ayming nor levelling their thoughts at heaven whence their soule had their originall True serpents in malice hatred and envie that with mortall venome infect the Lillies and Roses of the best consciences Frogges in prating and slandering that never open their mouthes but to utter unsufferable blasphemies oathes lyes and detractions Take yet this farther conceit upon the purity of the heart to wit that as the eyes ore-vayled with clowds or with cataracts and webbs cannot clearely discerne the objects or colours which are exposed before them because their faculty is prevented and hindered by the interposition of these obstacles which are placed betweene the object and the sight whereas contrariwise good sound and well disposed eyes as are these of Eagles who though soaring in the highest clowds doe neverthelesse see very plainely in the thickest bushes in the remotest furrowes of the farre distant fields and which is most admirable is that her sight is so strong and powerfull that contrary to the nature and practise of other living creatures she can steddily behold and contemplate the Sunne without winking at all yea when shee is nearest him and standing on the highest branch of a tree planted on the top of the loftiest mountaine Now to appropriate this to our matter wee say That hee whose heart is incombred with the things of this world whose soule is ore-vayled with ambition with the clowds of vanity and vaine glory whose conscience is obscured and darkned with hatred envie and malice can never contemplate God nor see his face which is all the consolation all the joy and in a word the true center of our happinesse the fulnesse of all our felicity and the greatest delights which the faithfull can wish or desire But those that shall be carefull and diligent to keepe their soules pure and cleane from the filthinesse of sinne those like Eagles indeede alwaves soaring