Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A53980
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A sermon preach'd at Whitehall before the Queen, March the sixteenth, 1691 by Edward Pelling ...
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Pelling, Edward, d. 1718.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing P1101; ESTC R6815
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11,035
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34
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be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is Some render the Words when it shall appear meaning when our future State shall come we shall be like God and indeed it seems to be the more natural Reading We shall be like God in all manner of Glory according to the Capacities of Finite Beings and saving the Difference that ever must be between God and Creatures We shall be like him in a Divine and Immortal Life this Frail Animal Life being quitted and changed into a Spiritual one and Corruption being swallowed up of Incorruption But the greatest Happiness will be that we shall be like him in the Divine Perfections and Excellencies of his Mind without any Error in the Understanding without any obliquity in the Will without any Disorder in the Affections there will be a perfect Rectitude in our Nature Resembling in all possible Degrees those Perfections which are in the ever Blessed God who is absolutely Righteous Holy and Good Now by what is thus Revealed to us concerning the State of the Saints in Light we may easily perceive what Dispositions of Soul are necessary to be in us to fit and prepare us for a Blessed Portion with them viz. The same Divine and Heavenly Dispositions which the Saints in Light have such Qualities and Habits of Mind we must have here such an Heavenly Conversation we must begin here such a Frame and Temper of Heart we must carry with us to the Grave because as our Inclinations and Affections are when we go out of this World so they will be for ever I observed before That some Vertues are peculiar to our present Circumstances to this Weak Mortal and Militant Condition Even those Vertues we must be careful to grow and proceed in now because they help every one of them in its kind and in some measure to prepare us for a better State But because the Life of the Saints in Light doth immediately consist in the exercise and vigorous Activity of such Dispositions as are proper to a Glorious and Perfect State therefore our great Study and Business in this World should be to enrich and adorn our Souls with those Dispositions chiefly and to make them habitual to us by the familiar and delightful Practice of them now that we may be in Heaven as in our proper Element that the Society of Saints and Angels may be to our Hearts Desires and that the Condition of the other World may be such as we would be in such as we may be in Love with such as we may enjoy with the highest Pleasure and Satisfaction Were we caught up with St. Paul into the Third Heaven or could we climb up ot the top of some solitary Mountain there to pull out of our Sides all those Briars and Thorns which Adam left us and throw our Griefs and Troubles away all at once and so take our flight into those Happy Regions above Good God! What an Orderly Quiet and Harmonious World should we find there What a Family of Love What a Consort of Devout Spirits What an Angelical Host with Ecstasies and Raptures beholding the Face of God What a Glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing but Holy and without Blemish every Soul there resembling the Holy one of Israel in Bliss and Sanctity 3. Therefore that we may be meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in Light we must above all things accustom our selves to the delightful Practice of those Heavenly Graces which are to be our Life in that day To fill our Hearts with an entire Love of God and Man to have fervent and perfect Charity among our selves to lay aside all Malice and Bitterness of Mind to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace to put on as the Elect of God Bowels of Mercy and Kindness to love the Habitation of God's House and the Place where his Honour dwelleth here below to Pray without ceasing and to be continually in the Temple Praising and Blessing God in a great Congregation To have God always in our Thoughts increasing daily in the Knowledge of him and being filled with it in all Wisdom and Spiritual Understanding To cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and for the Perfecting of Holiness in the Fear of God to be like him as much as 't is possible even in this World to be as he is and by beholding as in a Glass the Glory of the Lord to be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory from one Degree of it to another So much as we have of these Vertues and Perfections now so much we have of Heaven in our Possession already This we should mind therefore as the only thing we are to mind as long as we breathe because our Eternal Fortunes depend upon such a Disposition and Temper as I speak of now It doth not only Insure our Title to the Saints Inheritance but it likewise renders our Entrance into it very Easie and as it were Natural unto us And this is the highest Advantage we get by the sincere Practice and Love of Religion Though it is a security to us against all the Dangers of this Life and against all our Enemies round about us because it Intitles us to God's Particular Providence and Protection Though it always brings with it such Comfort and Peace of Mind as is a kind of Heaven to us in the greatest Distress and though it fortifies us against the Approach of Death which is so unwelcom to Nature and so terrible to Flesh and Blood yet our delighting in the Ways of Vertue and Piety brings us an Advantage beyond all these It prepares us for a Blessed Life to that Degree that after Death we shall be fit for no other State but the Society of Saints and the Enjoyment of God And herein lies the extream Folly of Lewd and Profligate Wretches that while others are laying up in store such excellent Securities against the Time to come that they may attain Eternal Life these are Treasuring up all the Wrath and Vengeance they can and prepare that Hell for themselves which God Originally prepared only for the Devil and his Angels Whither can we suppose Atheistical Spirits fit to go but to that dreadful Place where they will be forced to Believe as the Devils do with Trembling and Desperation Or whither can Men of Black Designs of Turbulent Spirits of Mischievous Dispositions and Malicious Minds Whither think ye can they be fit to go but to their Confederates in Iniquity those Spirits of Darkness which are a Plague and Torment to themselves as well as to the World Heaven can be no Place for such Devilish Natures Neither will God's Decree nor can the Nature of the Thing it self allow it It is impossible for the Saints of God and the Sons of Belial to be Joint-Heirs with Christ There would be another War in