Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
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A61115
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The spirituall vvarfare a sermon preched in the parish church of St. Michael Crookedland in London : on the 30 of March being a fast day / by Mr. John Spencer sometime groom to a nobleman.
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Spencer, John, Groom.
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1642
(1642)
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Wing S4955; ESTC R19817
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15,816
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16
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Jesus Christ you will live upon him Is it all the glory of Jesus Christ you live upon Is it his power wisdom and goodnesse you live upon try your selves I have no righteousnesse saith the poor soul but Christ hath righteousnesse I have no power to make war with my lusts but Christ hath power Thirdly they that refuse to do the works of Jesus Christ make excuses these for present are not the souldiers of Jesus Christ Abraham had never done such things for the Lord as he did if he had done so Gen. 22. God bid him arise and go into the land of Moriah and take with him his son Isaac to offer him there for a burnt-offering He might have made excuses This is my onely son the son of the promises I am old and my wife past childe-bearing but presently he goeth to sacrifice his son So Christ when he was to go from his Disciples he tels them Mat. 16. 21. He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the Elders and chief Priests and be killed and be raised again the third day Vers. 23. Master saith Peter save thy self Get thee behinde me Satan saith Christ Thus must you do happily a husband a wife a childe a friend may come and perswade thee to save thy honour to save thy estate thy wealth thy life you must say to them Get thee behind mee Satan So Paul when hee was to go up to Jerusalem they tould him he must be bound there Oh saith Paul why do you weep and break my heart I am not only ready to be bound but to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Happily you may have your wife weep and desire you not to go in such a course for it will be the way to begger you you must say I am ready to lose my estate my liberty yea my life for Jesus Christ That is the first particular Secondly they are not the souldiers of Jesus Christ that take up weapons of rebellion and fight against him You must either be the servants of Christ or not be the servants of Christ the souldiers of Christ or not the souldiers of Christ Now such as take up weapons and fight against God and his people cannot be souldiers of Jesus Christ Why you say you do not fight against Gods people and his ordinances Why what dost thou fight against then O take heed you deceive not your own souls What is the reason thou canst lay such a drunkard such a whore-master in thy bosome and so slightest the people of God In this one day now Christ begins to appear you see what oppositions there are in the world people cannot endure the wayes of holinesse but if no beauty shined out in the ordinance they would like well of it Consider that such as these are no souldiers of Jesus Christ that fight against his ordinance his people what-ever they pretend The next Use is an use of Excitation though there was more things in the other use which for want of time I have omitted there is two branches in it we shal speak a word or two to those that are Gods souldiers and then again to them that have not as yet entred into this spiritual warfare First for them that are Christs souldiers let me entreat you to prepare for a battel for a skirmish which you wil surely meet withall Beloved there is a day of death a comming this wil certainly come a day of affliction a comming this will certainly come you cannot if you have the spirit of discerning but see and perceive there is a cloud gathered together as big as a mans hand how quickly it may cover the heavens none knoweth The Lord hath told you in the last dayes there shall be terrible times Michael that great Prince shall stand up and there shall be such times as never was before Beloved do you not already perceive the very drops of bloud begin to fall Do you not daily heare of the cruell malice of the enemies of God When you think the storme is blowne over and never a cloud left in the heavens every man may sit under his own Vine and his own Fig-tree and none to make him afraid presently you perceive what hellish plots and designes are intended to draw a curtain before the light and take it away again Therefore Beloved let me entreat you to consider of these few things Know this you must fight or lose your lives there is a necessity of it you are to encounter with God with your selves with the world with your enemies and with the Devil himselfe if you overcome not all these you lose your lives This very consideration will put life and strength into the greatest coward if he seeth there is no way to escape then he will gather up his spirits about him Beloved I beseech you to consider it Do you not perceive how we are hemmed round about with enemies spirituall and temporall have you not enemies in your own hearts you do not know what they may do if opportunity be put into their hands the husband may betray the wife the father may betray the son the servant that eateth his meat at his masters table may destroy him The Lord tels us that a mans enemies should bee those of his own house Do you not perceive how you are set about with enemies there is a proud heart to be humbled a stubborne will to be subdued disordered affections to be rectified all these seek to let out the life of your soules Let this move you to take into your selves the righteousnesse of Christ the spirit of prayer the shield of faith a holy and godly life to encounter with the desperat enemies of God Secondly consider this who will accompany you in this glorious fight if you were to go to encounter with God alone with your owne hearts with the world with the enemies of God with the devil alone truly then little hope But consider who leads you forth you have God you have Christ you have the Spirit you have the promises you have the Angels you have the prayers of all the Saints on your sides O then beloved let this encourage you to goe to God for all you want or stand in need of this may put life in you What saith David Psal. 118. 11 12. Mine enemies compassed me round about like Bees but in the name of God will I destroy them Consider when thou art going forth to make warre against temporall against spirituall enemies thou goest forth with a glorious company in the name in the wisdome of thy God thou goest forth with the help of all Angels Think yee not saith Christ that I could speak to my Father and he could send me more than twelve Legions of Angels So may a poor man say it is not because their wanteth power in heaven if God will hecan deliver me thus you must consider who accompanieth you in this glorious fight Thirdly to provoke you further consider whose battel
cleansed no such kinde of creatures if ever you think to get the victory for if you appaar in Gods sight and presence with a polluted guilty conscience these sins will undo you Therefore in the first place if even you think to encounter with your enemies and do service for God get a holy life The second weapon must be all your glorious experiences you must say Lord I have been in six troubles yea in seven yet thou hast delivered me I have known when I have sate alone had all my bones broken the arrows of wrath drinking up my spirit I have known when I have lyen upon my sick bed been at the point of death incompassed round about with enemies yet then God did preserve and defend me why thou art the same God still You must goe further you must bring in all the glorious experiments you have had of Gods designes for his Church Tell the Lord you knew when the Church was helplesse and hopelesse and friendlesse when Moses would not go down to deliver the people nor Hester go in to the King nay further you must tell him you knew the Church in a most lamentable condition the enemies pursued them and was even at their heeles the red Sea before them Mountains on the sides of them yet then the Lord saved his people You must tell the Lord what he hath done for England at such a time how neare we were to destruction what dangers compassed us round about and how by a mighty hand and out-stretched arme he rescued us Let this be the second weapon you take up to fight against your enemies Thirdly the third weapon is Faith this weapon where ever God hath put it in any hand hath done glorious things for the Church of God If thou canst but get this weapon into thy hand and heart it will cause thee to live comfortably in the worst times thou canst meet withal and make thee say with the Prophet Heb. 3. Though the fig-tree should not blossome nor no fruit be left in the vine though the labour of the Olive should faile and the fields not yeeld their increase yet will I rejoyce in the Lord and joy in the God of my salvation Faith will cause thy soule to rejoyce in the worst dayes Faith will inable thee to see Gods love the same in every condition Faith will comfort thee in all thy straites make thee see God the Son when thou art sick as when thou art well when thou art rich as when thou art poor when thou art in the dungeon as when thou art at liberty Faith will cause thee to lay hold on that which God hath promised as if it were already performed Abraham desired to see my day he saw it and was glad Babylon is fallen is fallen Hee that commeth to me must beleeve if he have not this weapon he will doe nothing at all Daniel he understood by reading books that the end of the Captivity now was at hand which he verily beleeved therefore in his ch. 9. ver. 19. he saith O Lord hear O Lord forgive O Lord hearken and do defer not for thy own name sake O my God See what out-cries he useth to God for the making good of his promises Even so must you lift up your voices as Trumpets and say Lord hear Lord hearken Lord defer not pluck down thy enemies destroy Antichrist and set up thy Son Thus did Jacob the Lord bid him go out of his country and afterward bid him return to his country and kindred again and he would deal well with him Gen. 31. 9. His brother Esau cometh against him with foure hundred men there was litle hope of life He then begins to encounter with God and tels him Lord thou hast blessed me and I hope thou wilt deliver me from the hand of Esau and so he overcame the Angell which wrestled with him and would not let him depart without a blessing The next weapon that you must take up must bee the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ Put on this caote of mayle and the swords point of your enemies cannot enter get this upon you and you need not to fear though ten thousands encompasse you round about David having this coat of male the righteousnesse of Christ upon him boldy encountred with all his enemies and got the day In the last place you must have the spirit of prayer this beloved hath done wonderfull things with God to overcome him with the enemies to overcome them with the Devils to overcome them this is that which caused the prison dores to flye open all the chains which Peter was bound withall to be unloosed Act. 12. This spirit of prayer wil draw your hearts into the bosome of Jesus Christ this spirit of prayer will unlocke the dore of heaven and let you in this spirit of prayer will cause the God of heaven to hearken what you say and give you audience this spirit of prayer will do wonderfull things what saith the Lord I have heard the cryes of my people and am come down to deliver them This spirit of prayer will cause thy stony heart to break in peices thy ignorant heart to be inlightened free and deliver thee from all troubles within or without these are the weapons you must use The next thing is to shew you how you must fight a man may have abundance of strength be well weaponed yet if hee have not skill may lose his life therefore I will tell you how to fight if you look to overcome first you must fight with them not as they are your enemies and strike at you but as they are Gods enemies and strike at God men are too ready to appeare in their owne cause they will be revenged of such and such men but how few will stand up in Gods cause you must make war against them as they fight against God his glory his ordinances his worship his Saints This consideration you must have when you make war with your enemies that they are Gods enemies and fight against God As thus The soul beginneth to see the glory of Christ in his ordinances to be eclipsed all the Saints of God their lives and liberties lye at the stake if I rise not up and encounter all will be gone if I should hold my peace the very stones in the streete would cry out against me that is the first Secondly thou art to fight with full resolution never to give over whilst one of thy enemies is left alive Beloved many men seem to be somebody at first they gird their weapons about them couragiously they are very busie in the work of God for an hour or a day or two beseech the Lord to enlighten their blinde eyes to break their hard hearts to purge their impure souls but alas presently they leave off they have gotten something therefore looke no further Know a little leake will drown a whole ship a little fire burn a whole house a little sinne destroy the soul one