Selected quad for the lemma: enemy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
enemy_n	sleep_v	sow_v	tare_n	1,022	5	12.2153	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95515	Vnum necessarium. Or, The doctrine and practice of repentance. Describing the necessities and measures of a strict, a holy, and a Christian life. And rescued from popular errors. / By Jer. Taylor D.D.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.; Lombart, Pierre, 1612-1682, engraver.	1655 (1655)	Wing T415; Thomason E1554_1; ESTC R203751	477,444	750

shape in which they can take any pleasure But men are infinitely abus'd and by themselves most of all For Repentance is not like the Summer fruits fit to be taken a little and in their own time it is like bread the provisions and support of our life the entertainment of every day but it is the bread of affliction to some and the bread of carefulness to all and he that preaches this with the greatest zeal and the greatest severity it may be he takes the liberty of an enemy but he gives the counsel and the assistance of a friend My Lord I have been so long acquainted with the secrets of your Spirit and Religion that I know I need not make an apology for dedicating this severe Book to you You know according to the prudence which God hath given you that he that flatters you is your enemy and you need not be flattered for he that desires passionately to be a good man and a religious to be the servant of God and be sav'd will not be fond of any vanity and nothing else can need to be flattered but I have presented to your Lordship this Discourse not onely to be a testimony to the world how great a love and how great an honour I have for you but even by ascribing you into this relation to endear you the rather every day more and more to the severest Doctrines and Practises of Holiness I was invited to make something of this by an Honourable Person who is now with God and who desir'd his needs should be serv'd by my Ministery But when I had entred upon it I found it necessary to do it in order to more purposes and in prosecution of the method of my other Studies All which as they are designed to Gods glory and the Ministery of Souls so if by them I can signifie my obligations to your Lordship which by your great Nobleness do still increase I shall not esteem them wholly ineffective even of some of those purposes whither they are intended for truly my Lord in whatsoever I am or can do I desire to appear My Noblest Lord Your Honours most obliged and most affectionate Servant Jer Taylor THE PREFACE To the Right Reverend and Religious FATHERS Brian Lord Bishop of Sarum AND John Lord Bishop of Rochester And to the most Reverend and Religious Clergy of England my dear Brethren Men Brethren and Fathers THE wiser part of Mankinde hath seen so much trifling in the conduct of disputations so much partiality such earnest desires of reputation such resolution to prevail by all means so great mixture of interest in the contention so much mistaking of the main question so frequent excursions into differing matter so many personal quarrels and pety animosities so many wranglings about those things that shall never be helped that is the errors and infirmities of men and after all this which also must needs be consequent to it so little fruit and effect of questions no man being the wiser or changed from error to truth but from error to error most frequently and there are in the very vindication of truth so many incompetent uncertain and untrue things offered that if by chance some truth be gotten we are not very great gainers because when the whole account is cast up we shall finde or else they that are disinterest will observe that there is more error then truth in the whole purchase and still no man is satisfied and every side keeps its own unless where folly or interest makes some few persons to change and still more weakness and more impertinencies crowd into the whole affair upon every reply and more yet upon the rejoynder and when men have wrangled tediously and vainly they are but where they were save onely that they may remember they suffered infirmity and it may be the transport of passions and uncharitable expressions and all this for an unrewarding interest for that which is sometimes uncertain in it self unrevealed unuseful and unsatisfying that in the event of things and after being wearied for little or nothing men have now in a very great proportion left it quite off as unsatisfying waters and have been desirous of more material nourishment and of such notices of things and just assistances as may promote their eternal interest And indeed it was great reason and high time that they should do so for when they were imployed in in rowing up and down uncertain seas to finde something that was not necessary it was certain they would less attend to that which was more worthy their inquiry and the enemy of mankinde knew that to be a time of his advantage and accordingly sowed tares while we so slept and we felt a real mischief while we contended for an imaginary and phantastick good For things were come to that pass that it was the character of a good man to be zealous for a Sect and all of every party respectively if they were earnest and impatient of contradiction were sure to be sav'd by their own Preachers and holiness of life was not so severely demanded but that men believe their Countrey Articles and Heaven gates at no hand might be permitted to stand open to any one else Thence came hatred variance emulation and strifes and the Wars of Christendome which have been kindled by Disputers and the evil lives which were occasion'd and encouraged by those proceedings are the best confutation of the world of all such disputations But now when we come to search into that part of Theology which is most necessary in which the life of Christianity and the interest of Souls the peace of Christendome and the union of Mindes the sweetness of Society and the support of Government the usefulness and comfort of our lives the advancement of Vertue and the just measures of Honour we finde many things disordered the Tables of the Commandements broken in pieces and some parts are lost and some disorder'd and into the very practise of Christians there are crept so many material errors that although God made nothing plainer yet now nothing is more difficult and involv'd uncertain and discompos'd then many of the great lines and propositions in Moral Theology Nothing is more neglected more necessary or more mistaken For although very many run into holy Orders without just abilities and think their Province is well discharged if they can preach upon Sundays and men observing the ordinary preaching to be little better then ordinary talk have been made bold to venture into the Holy Sept and invade the secrets of the Temple as thinking they can talk at the same rate which they observe to be the manner of vulgar Sermons yet they who know to give a just value to the best things know that the sacred Office of a Priest a Minister of Religion does not onely require great holiness that they may acceptably offer the Christian Sacrifices and Oblations of Prayer and Eucharist for the people and become their fairest examples but also

the lusts of the flesh To doe one is not to doe the other whoever fulfils the lusts of the flesh and is rul'd by that law he is not ruled by the grace of Christ he is not regenerate by the Spirit But the other sense is the best reddition of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if he had said Walk in the Spirit and then the event will be that the flesh shall not prevail over you or give you laws you shall not then fulfil the lusts thereof And this is best agreeable to the purpose of the Apostle For having exhorted the Galatians that they should not make their Christian liberty a pretence to the flesh Ver. 23. as the best remedy against their enemy the flesh he prescribes this walking in the Spirit which is a certain deletery and prevalency over the flesh And the reason follows for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh so that ye cannot doe the things that ye would that is though ye be inclined to and desirous of satisfying your carnal desires yet being under the empire and conduct of the Spirit ye cannot doe those desires the Spirit over-rules you and you must you will contradict your carnal appetites For else this could not be as the Apostle designs it a reason of his exhortation For if he had meant that in this contention of flesh and Spirit we could not doe the good things that we would then the reason had contradicted the proposition For suppose it thus Walk in the Spirit and fulfil not the lusts of the flesh For the flesh and the Spirit lust against each other so that ye cannot doe the good ye would This I say is not sense for the latter part contradicts the former For this thing that the flesh hinders us from doing the things of the Spirit is so far from being a reason why we should walk in the Spirit that it perfectly discourages that design and it is to little purpose to walk in the Spirit if this will not secure us against the domineering and tyranny of the flesh But the contrary is most clear and consequent If ye walk in the Spirit ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh for though the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and would fain prevail yet it cannot for the Spirit also lusteth against the flesh and is stronger so that ye may not or that ye doe not or that ye cannot for any of these readings as it may properly render the words of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so are not against the design of the Apostle do what ye otherwise would fain do and therefore if ye will walk in the Spirit ye are secured against the flesh The result is this 1. An impious profane person sins without any contention that is with a clear ready and a prepared will he dies and disputes not 2. An animal man or a meer moral man that is one under the law one instructed and convinced by the letter but not sanctified by the Spirit he sins willingly because he considers and chooses it but he also sins unwillingly that is his inclinations to vice and his first choices are abated and the pleasures allayed and his peace disturbed and his sleeps broken but for all that he sins on when the next violent temptation comes The contention in him is between Reason and Passion the law of the minde and the law of the members between conscience and sin that weak this prevailing 3. But the Regenerate hath the same contention within him and the temptation is sometimes strong within him yet he overcomes it and seldome fails in any material and considerable instances Because the Spirit is the prevailing ingredient in the new Creature in the constitution of the regenerate and will prevail For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world 1 Joh. 9.4 5. and this is the victory that overcometh the world even your faith that is by the faith of Jesus Christ by him you shall have victory and redemption and again Resist the devil and he will flee from you Jam. 4.7 1 Joh. 4. for he that is within you is stronger then he that is in the world and Put on the whole armour of God Eph. 6.11 13. that ye may stand against the snares of the devil that ye may resist in the evil day and having done all to stand for Mark 9.23 All things are possible to him that believes and Through Christ that strengthens me I can doe all things Phil. 4.13 and therefore in all these things we are more then conquerours for Eph. 3.20 Rom. 8.13 〈◊〉 37. God is able to doe above all that we can ask or think he can keep us from all sin and present us unblameable in the sight of his glory So that to deny the power of the Spirit in breaking the tyranny and subduing the lusts of the flesh besides that it contradicts all these and divers other Scriptures it denies the Omnipotency of God Jude 24. and of the Spirit of his grace making sin to be stronger then it and if grace abound to make sin superabound but to deny the willingness of the Spirit to redeem us from the captivity of sin is to lessen the reputation of his goodness and to destroy the possibility and consequently the necessity of living holily But how happens it then that even the regenerate sins often and the flesh prevails upon the ruine or the declensions of the Spirit I answer It is not because that holy principle which is in the regenerate cannot or will not secure him but because the man is either prepossess'd with the temptation and overcome before he begins to oppose the arms of the Spirit that is because he is surpris'd or incogitant or it may be careless the good man is asleep and then the enemy takes his advantage and sows tares for if he were awake and considering and would make use of the strengths of the Spirit he would not be overcome by sin For there are powers enough that is arguments and endearments helps and sufficient motives to enable us to resist the strongest temptation in the world and this one alone of resurrection to eternal life which is revealed to us by Jesus Christ and ministred in the Gospel is an argument greater then all the promises and inticements of sin if we will attend to its efficacy and consequence But if we throw away our arms and begin a fight in the Spirit and end it in the flesh the ill success of the day is to be imputed to us not to the Spirit of God to whom if we had attended we should certainly have prevailed * The reliques and remains of sin are in the regenerate but that is a sign that sin is overcome and the kingdome of it broken and that is a demonstration that when ever sin does prevail in any single instances it is not for want of power but of using that power for