Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	nature_n	young_a	youth_n	50	3	7.5895	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14280	A divine discoverie of death directing all people to a triumphant resurrection, and euer-lasting saluation.	Vaughan, Edward, preacher at St. Mary Woolnoth.	1612 (1612)	STC 24596; ESTC S105922	75,056	213

not in some sort humour and applaud you Here I end this matter desiring God to enlarge your affections more more vnto the obedience of his word An answer to the 2. obiection concerning the generalitie of death Herein I will be briefe because indeed this sort of people are lesse worthy of further instruction who hold that this so goodly a frame of the world should not or cannot be destroyed Of whom Saint Peter speaketh thus 1. Pet. 3.3 There shall come in the last dayes mockers who will walke after their owne lusts and shall say Where is the promise of his coming for since the Fathers died all things continue alike vnto this day There needeth no other answer for them then that which S. Peter maketh them in the verses following let them looke to it vpon their perill This doctrine concerning the generalitie of death serueth to reproue three sorts of people The first are those who wholly or for the most part do set their loue and liking vpon the things of this world as if they were to tarrie in it for euer or as if they were to chuse they would not change this world no not for the kingdome of heauen ioying and reioycing as Amos the Prophet said Amos. 6.13 in a thing of nought like vnto the tribes of Ruben and Gad and halfe the tribe of Manasses Num. 32.1.2 who chose the towns and lands on this side Iordan because there were goodly habitations and fertile soyle rather then the townes and lands in Canaan which for the fertilitie therof was said to flow with milke and honey and for the innumerable pleasures thereof like vnto the kingdome of heauen Saint Paul blaming such and seeking to draw them vnto better choise exhorteth saying Seeke ye the things which are aboue Col. 3.1 where Christ sits at the right hand of God and set your affections on heauenly things and not on earthly The second sort who are to be reproued by the generall doctrine of death Are they who murmure much or rather do mourne too much for the deceasse of their neare friends as though God had not done well to take one and not another to take this and not that or as if death had surprised them before their time and for euer or else that death had casually lighted on thē more then others Saint Paule comforting himselfe and others concerning this complaint 2. Cor. 5.1 sayd We haue a building giuen of God that is an house whose builder and maker is God The children of God die but one Luk. 20.36 they taste not of that second death in hell as the reprobates do This once to die is but a short interiection betweene two eternities to wit election and glorification with a kingly and a kindly passage as it were by calling and iustification vnto eternall saluation Rom. 6.9 Christ died once but in that he liueth he liueth for euer So ye likewise saith the holy Apostle are dead to sinne Rom. 6.9 but aliue to God through Iesus Christ The third sort who are to be reproued by this generall doctrine of death Are those who not minding their mortalitie nor accompts which they must make do treasure vp sinne vpon sinne being driuen as it were with the swinge of their nature set on fire of hell defile their bodies and the whole course of nature resolued with themselues to vndergo any sinne so as it may bring them either pleasure or profite Alwayes saying in their hearts and many times with their tongues If we must die for sinne as Preachers say and that as well for one sinne as for a thousand why then let vs eate and drinke and be merrie while we may Salomon out of his owne experience and specially from the holy Spirit of inspiration faith of such one a after this maner Eccles 10.9 Reioyce ô thou yong man in thy youth let thine heart cheare thee walke in the wayes of thine owne heart and in the sight of thine eyes But what followeth God will bring thee to iudgement Although his Maiestie be inclined to mercie yet when he is moued to iustice it is ineuitable it is innarrable it is intollerable To that effect said Dauid as if it were in the proper person of almightie God vnto all such desperate and gracelesse wretches that do abuse his holy patience Psal 50.17 I will set thy sinnes in order to wit thy sins in the night thy sinnes in the day thy sins in thy youth and thy sins in thine age thy sins against me and thy sinnes against thy brethren I will so muster and so ranke them together so place them by rowes and in euerie ranke and row such and so many as shall seeme to be more odious shamefull and detestable euen vnto thine owne selfe And what shall follow I will teare thee in peeces that is thy torments shall be more terrible and farre more horrible to nature then as if thou wert racked tormented peece-meale These are they who although in deed sinne is too too generall yet they rifle and runne ragingly after it in a more particular manner not minding their mortalitie or at least not regarding the accompts that they must make do maligne enuie vtterly hate yea and seeke the whole ouerthrow of vs the Preachers of his holy word and others the deare children of God who runne not into the same excesse of riot and damnable behauiour but with zeale do frequent the ministerie of his word with reuerence do keepe his Sabbaths with all care do keepe themselues vnsported of the world Therefore they esteeme them not worth their societie nor worthie to liue vpon the earth Ioh. 15.19 We are not of the world therfore the world hatethvs saith S. Iohn The manifold plagues to the Egyptians the fierie Serpēts to the Israelites and the Emerods to the Philistims were not so troublesome and tedious as these heathenish Atheists prophane Iewes are to vs. We liue not as enemies in an hostile manner among them but modestly and mildly and benignly as Christian cōforters bringing peace offering reconciliation The words of our commission are of 3. emphaticall and publicke narrations The first is Benedicite blesse ye the second is Benefacite do ye good and the third is Orate pray ye Thus are we enioyned to behaue our selues amongst many other religious duties towards God and good mē yea towards our enemies Where in so euer we do faile through frailtie it is not indifferent nor iustice for them being our enemies to iudge what we should do but rather out of charity to iudge what we would do Neither is it for them to reuenge themselues vpon vs it is his holy Maicstie to whom we must answer vpon our accompt We are whatsoeuer they say bringers of peace and we are peaceable 2. King 10.17 Come see said Iehu to Iehonadab so it were to be wished that these men would zealously and religiously

harsh kind of doctrine to wise men and it is very distastfull to all men for it is a melancholy kind of teaching and of no such necessity Ye might rather in steed thereof stirre vp men to be merrie and to endure their miseries patiently Preachers do nothing more then fright and astonish men in the name of God let vs be merrie whiles we may sorrow comes fast inough The other sort reasoning and expostulating with flesh and bloud cannot determine vpon the generality of death They see not they say how it may be nor how it can stand to be true because then it is questionable say they who shall haue the dominion ouer other creatures in the world which are innumerable and most admirable 2 Pet. 3.1 1.3.4 Saint Peter saith these beleeue not that the world shall be destroyed with fire An answer to the first concerning the generalitie of death Interrogatiuely do you know this to be true by any sentence or example of holy Scripture No no you do not For if you did so know it the hearing of the same againe and againe would rather haue bene comfortable thē tedious vnto you That knowledge which is not grounded vpon the Scriptures of truth is nought worth meerly vnperfect True it is that men may know and be induced to beleeue that they which are a dying will die and that they which are in eminent dangers and perils present shall die But truly to beleeue and certainly to know that all men shall die or who or how many shall die flesh and bloud cannot reueale vnto men For the sense of hearing and seeing by the which men are brought to know and to beleeue reacheth no further then vnto things present because light which is the obiect of seeing and the aire which is the obiect of hearing vpon diuers occasions are sometimes giuen and sometimes taken away Therefore to see and to know certainly as an article of beleefe that all men shall die which is my generall doctrine no man can apprehend nor yet comprehend but by the knowledge of the holy Scriptures and by the holy influence of Gods diuine spirit because in verie truth the same reacheth vnto the apprehension of things in time to come and vnto that which is cleane out of sight and out of hearing Saint Paul speaketh directly of two sorts of seeing 2. Cor. 4.18 the one proper to the spirituall eyes or eyes of the vnderstanding in these words We looke not on the things which are seene but on the things which are not seene As if he had said We who are the children of God do not esteeme of that which we may apprehend with our natural eyes in cōparison but we esteeme and allow specially of that which we may comprehend and apprehend by faith And in that verie place he verifies the same calling the one in a sort an obiect temporall the other an obiect eternall The same Apostle saith to the like purpose We walke not by sight but by faith 2. Cor. 5.7 to wit We iudge not so highly nor so truly of that which the light or the aire doth manifest vnto our senses as of those things which the word of faith doth manifest vnto our soules The effects and fruites of the one and the other shewes the difference As the vertue attractiue was not in Noahs Arke Gen. 7.7.9.10 that drew famous and most worthy creatures and of all sorts into it nor the vertue attractiue was not in Elias cloke that drew Elisha frō his plowing 1. King 19.19 but both in the effectuall vse of Gods word Euen so the vertue of hearing seeing and beleeuing the general doctrine of death and life proceedeth not from any matter in nature nor from worldly reason nor yet from the wisest humane narration but from the holy Spirit of the liuing God who worketh in vs by faith which is grounded vpon the written word of God As for example briefly 2. King 6.18.19 Elisha his man as he was a naturall man saw onely an armie of the Aramites who were come to take his maister but when the eyes of his vnderstanding were opened vpon the prayers of his maister he saw a farre greater army of Angels that were come to protect them This made S. Paule to pray Ephes 1. That the eies of the Ephesians vnderstanding might be opened which was in effect that God would be pleased to inflame to kindle their hearts and their affectiōs with the splendor of his word and Spirit As the same host of the Aramites was led with blindnesse 1. King 6.18.19 vnto their mortall enemie the king of Israel at Samaria the eyes of their vnderstanding being shut vp and as the Sodomites did strike at Lots doore with blindnesse Gen. 19.10.11 when their naturall eyes were open or as Saule and his company 1. Sam. 26.12 being in the iustice of God striken into a dead sleepe euen so all such as haue not their sight and their knowledge for spirituall things out of Scripture they weare out themselues with wearisomnesse and in the end do bring thēselues as through ignorance into that ineuitable gulfe of perdition Labour you therefore ye seruants of the Lord labour ye the Scriptures and know you for certaine that ye know nothing as ye ought to know vnlesse ye know it by the Scriptures and beleeue it by the same Spirit that wrote the Scriptures As the light of the body is the eye Luk. 11.34 so the light of the inner man is the word of God and consider I pray you consider in due time I aduise you If I be to be blamed for this long discourse concerning the generalitie of death why then did the holy Ghost so largely discourse thereof Why did his holy Maiestie so often particulate one and the same matter so variably and in so many places of Scripture How can this be answered If you say fewer places would haue suffised thē you do directly blaspheme which God forbid Then you charge the holy Ghost with superfluities and tediousnesse where as through Gods mercies with such and so many iterations he doth importune you to remember your mortalitie and to make prouision for the same accordingly If you say this doctrine was not so needfull because you knew it long since out of your owne words you proue this doctrine of all others to be most needfull and my selfe of you most carefull And whereas you know alreadle as you say that you shall die neuerthelesse it is questionable whether you be readie prepared to die euerie houre for the testimonie of a good conscience as his Maiestie hath commanded yea or no. And it is questionable whether you be willing and desirous to die You wil say peraduenture you are of that mind you trust euer to be so that there is nothing vainly spoken in Gods word and you will count them vaine and friuolous that shall speake any thing out of this word that doth