Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	sin_n	soul_n	work_n	7,280	5	5.6981	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43575	A sermon preached at the funeral of the right honourable William Lord Pagett, Baron of Beaudefert, &c. By John Heynes, A.M. and preacher of the New Church, Westminster	Heynes, John.	1679 (1679)	Wing H17646A; ESTC R216791	19,530	47

that it is a corruptible perishing dying thing and hath that within it self which if there were no danger from without would not fail at last to destroy it ye that are of the strongest and most athletick constitution must at last yield to the necessity of Nature Heb. ix 27. for it is appointed for all men once to die this is the Decree and Ordinance of God a Law that shall never be either repealed or altered Eccl. xii 2. The time is coming when the Sun and Moon and Stars shall be darkned and the Clouds return after the Rain Verse 3. When the Keepers of the House shall tremble and the strong Men bow themselves and the Grinders cease because they are few Verse 6. and those that look out of the Window be darkned When the silver Cord shall be loosed and the golden Bowl broken when the Pitcher shall be broken at the Fountain and the Wheel be broken at the Cistern Vehse 7. then shall the Dust return to the Earth as it was and the Spirit to God that gave it Thus you see by what hath been said wherein the vileness of the body doth consist S. Paul comprises all in a little room 2 Cor. v. 1. when he calls it our Earthly House of this Tabernacle by which words he intimates unto us that it is a poor mean Cottage so strait and narrow that the Soul is as it were crowded and thrust up in it and cannot inlarge nor stretch forth it self to its just dimensions so dark that it can see nothing but through the chinks and holes thereof and that only that lyes in a strait line before it so weak and ruinous that it is ever and anon ready to drop down on our heads 〈◊〉 11. I come now to the second thing designed and that is to enquire how we come to have such vile bodies The followers of Pythagoras and Plato who held the prae existence of Souls tell us that they are adjudged and condemned to this condition for their ill demeanour in that higher state that the Soul growing impure in it self forthwith loses its vital congruity with the more thin and subtile vehicle of Aether or Air and requires one of a more gross consistency as being more suitable to the moral turpitude and impurity she hath contracted through her sinful Apostasie and turning aside from God But these are the conjectures of men in the dark let us see what account the Holy Scriptures will give us in this matter There we read that Man when he came first out of the hands of God was an excellent Creature and the Masterpiece of the whole visible Creation the Image of God was resplendent in him and the Divine Glory rested upon him his Soul was full of light and purity and his body that was framed out of the uncorrupted Earth was wrought into a delicacy and fineness correspondent to it so that it was as a Crystal Case through whose transparent sides might in a sort be seen the sparkling lustre of that Jewel that was inclosed therein the humors were equally mixt and every part most exactly fitted and proportioned there was no defect nor deformity in him This was the state of Man whilst innocent but alass he sinned and no sooner had he sinned but immediately he found the sad effects thereof within himself the light and joy which was ere while within him was now turned into darkness and sadness his hope and confidence into fear and a dread of the Divine displeasure He who before did familiarly converse with God now flies his presence and would if possible hide his guilty head from him Now it was that death according to the threatning got within him and planted there the principles of corruption now the body became as it 's here called a vile body a necessitous indigent body a passive suffering body a weak and frail body a perishing and corruptible body it was sin that was the true cause of all this misery and infelicity of ours it was sin that spoil'd the harmony that broke the peace that stirred up the humors that discomposed the spirits that clouded the glory and majesty of the body and reduced it to that mean and contracted size that now it is of Through sin it is that we became liable to so many changes to perils from above the malignant influences of the stars and the poysonous blasts of the air to perils from below the deadly productions of the earth which nourish for a while but lay the seeds of death within us to perils and dangers from every thing round about us and with which we do converse It was sin that cast us out of the Paradise of God that drave us from under the shade of the Tree of Life that shut us up in our prisons and seal'd us up in our vile bodies as in a grave had we never sinned we had never been thus restrained by our bodies thus oppressed and burthened with our bodies thus wearied and tired with our bodies had we continued in the condition wherein we were at first created they would have been no more a burthen to us than are feathers to the birds whereby they fly from place to place Thus having clear'd unto you the second particular how we came to have such vile bodies I proceed according to the method proposed to improve the point and that I shall do by way of Information by way of Reproof and by way of Exhortation I. By way of Information and it will inform us of two things 1. Of the great evil of sin in that it hath marr'd and spoil'd one of the most beautiful pieces of the Creation Perhaps we cannot or at least will not see the evil of sin in its own nature and as it is considered in it self O see it in its effects and consequents you may know how corrupt and impure the fountain is by the muddy and polluted streams that flow immediately from it you may know how bad the tree is by the bitter and unwholsome fruits it produceth There is no evil in the world no vanity in the creature no disorder within your selves that doth not owe its original to the sin of man all your deformities all your imperfections all your decays and weaknesses all your pains and griefs and maladies are the effects of sin O think of this whenever you are tired and wearied with a dull and heavy body whenever you are afflicted and troubled with a sickly distempered body and indeavour to work your hearts to a perfect abhorrency and detestation of that which hath been the Author and Occasion of so much mischief to you All men cannot see the disorders and confusions that sin hath wrought upon the Soul to this there is required the special illumination of the Spirit whose peculiar work it is to convince the world of sin but we may all see the fearful work it hath made upon our bodies O take heed of it fly from it as

from the face of a Serpent the more you sin the more vile you will be the more you sin the more gross the more earthy the more sottish and stupid you will be Nay your very Souls themselves though in their nature and substance Spiritual and Immortal beings shall at last be intangled in the same condition with your bodies and when at the coming of Christ holy men Rom. viii 13. who have by the Spirit mortified the deeds of the body Gal. v. 24. and crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts thereof Esaiae xl 31. shall mount up as upon the wings of Eagles you shall be forced downwards by the weight of your own carnal and corrupt affections and remain below as the dregs and sediment of the Earth to be burnt though not consumed in those last flames as the filth and ordure of Jerusalem in the Valley of the Sons of Hinnom 2. This informs us of the rare harmony and agreement of the Divine Attributes manifestly declared in Gods dealing with fallen man Behold the justice of God in the punishment of man upon his transgression with such a body as this is Behold the wisdom and goodness of God in that he makes the punishment inflicted on him the means of his recovery it was for our sins that our bodies were made thus vile and yet through this vileness of our bodies are our Souls by the powerful grace of God raised and exalted to a state of glory for hereby it is that we are tried and exercised hereby it is that we are made patient and subject to the Divine Will and Pleasure hereby it is that we are humbled and made vile in our own eyes and our humiliation is the way and means of our exaltation Man fell by pride but he is raised by humility he fell by affecting to be like unto God but he is raised by knowing himself to be a poor vile wretched sinful man who is wholly helpless in himself and can do nothing to any purpose in order to his own happiness without the special Grace of God inabling him thereunto II. This Doctrine may be applyed by way of Reproof and it reproves three sorts of Men. First Such as pride and glory in the body Secondly Such as bestow all their thoughts and care on the body Thirdly Such as are unwilling to die and leave the body First Such as pride and glory in the body Why should dust and ashes be so proud Man that is a Worm and the Son of Man that is a Worm Is it because of his strength Yet a little while and his haughty looks shall be abased and his threatning countenance that strikes a terror into the hearts of his fellow creatures be covered with a ghastly paleness his pomp shall be brought down to the grave and his glory laid in the dust Isa xiv 16. They that see him shall narrowly look upon him and consider him saying Is this the man that made the Earth to tremble that did shake Kingdoms cap. xciii 17.18 His remembrance as it is in the Book of Job shall perish from the Earth and he shall have no name in the Street He shall be driven away from Light into Darkness and chased out of the World Again is it his beauty that he pleases himself in Yet a little while and his comliness shall be turned into deformity and that face that men now stare and gaze at not only with admiration but with a kind of adoration also shall become so loathsome that they who were formerly so exceedingly taken with it shall not endure to look at it We may all say to corruption Job xvii 14. thou art our Father and to the worm thou art our Mother and Sister Where 's then the cause of our glorying Secondly This reproves those who bestow all their thoughts and care on the body whose work and business it is to adorn and beautifie it to indulge and pamper it to please and gratifie it in its most unreasonable appetites and desires Perhaps it will be a difficult matter to convince you of the sin and folly of this now whilst your bones are full of marrow and your blood circulates freely in your veins whilst you are well at ease and have nothing to molest and trouble you but tell me what will your thoughts be when you shall stand upon the sides of the grave and are ready to go down into the pit when the foundation begins to sink under you when the pillars of the house tremble when your feet stumble upon the dark mountains when death lays his palsie hands on you but I would not have you tarry so long for a conviction walk forth into the Church-yard enter into the Charnel-house and there view the bodies of thy deceased friends post peractum Sepulchri mysterium Pudeat corpus tantae soe●itati reservatum sic amare sic ornare sic colere sic nutrire De Lingend after they are turned into corruption and rottenness and then return to thy self and say As they are so must I shortly be and shall I for such a vile body neglect my God my Soul my Happiness Oh what folly can be greater or more below the reason of a man than this is Thirdly This Doctrine reproves such as are unwilling to die and leave the body This branch of the reproof concerns the Christian only I mean such a one who hath the Spirit of Christ in him and hath hopes towards God through the Mediator Mori timeat sed qui aquâ Spiritu non renatus gehenn●e ignibus mancipatur Cypr. as for other men who either know not what shall become of them or else being condemned by their own Consciences antedate their torments by their just fears I cannot blame them to be unwilling yea very unwilling to die though the body be a prison yet it is better than the place of Execution though it be a dungeon a place of darkness and horror yet it is much better than the Rack and the Wheel and therefore no wonder if they be desirous to tarry here and cannot endure to think of going forth but for the Christian who hath assurance of the Pardon of his sin and knows that when he goes hence he shall be received into the Paradise of God and be admitted to the participation of those joys that infinitely transcend the highest entertainments of sense is one of the most unaccountable things immaginable What wouldest thou have thought of Joseph if after so long an imprisonment he had been unwilling to come into the presence of Pharaoh or to be advanced in the Kings Court or of Daniel if he had chosen rather to have sate still among the Lions than to be delivered thence and restored to his former dignity or of Jonah if he had preferred the belly of a Whale where the depth closed him round about and the weeds were wrapt about his head before the enjoyment of light and liberty with other