Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	angel_n	dragon_n	fight_v	3,032	5	9.6120	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93732	Because that in the following discourse the reason is recited and answered, why my ministry is rejected and not received by this ignorant, but more especially corrupt world; therefore I thought it expedient and necessary to publish the same.	Stafford, Richard, 1663-1703.	1700 (1700)	Wing S5107G; ESTC R184555	29,991	44

very cause What a stir was there against Paul made by Demetrius and his fellow Crafts Men when he Preached against the Idolatry of the People of Athens and so he mentions that he was evil intreated at Philippi for the Like Reason The Inhabitants of both Places did imagine that they did Please Atone and Worship the Great God of the World by those their Idolatrous and Superstitious Rites and Customs But when the Apostle did from the Spirit of the most High God contradict them therein then the Heathen were in a rage by having heard that heretofore themselves followed a vain thing The Doctrine of the Apostle Paul as to this matter is exactly fitted and applyed against these their false Imaginations God that made the World and all things therein seeing that he is Lord of Heaven and Earth dwelleth not in Temples made with hands neither is Worshipped with Mens hands as though he needed any thing seeing that he giveth to all Life and Breath and all things Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God we ought not to think that the God-head is like unto Gold and Silver or Stone graven by art and Mans device Now Preaching and Publishing hath that Effect that some do believe receive and obey the things Spoken or Published others do kick against them as it is said in the same Chapter that they mocked at the following Doctrine of this same Apostle It is a work of an hard Nature to strive against the Lusts long received customs established Rites and Habits of Men For custom is a second Nature and when People have been long used to a thing you had almost as good tear or pluck away one of their Limbs as go about to remove or perswade People off from it Can a Leopard change his Spots or an Aethopian his Skin So may they do well who have been accustomed to do evil That is it is very hard and difficult Nevertheless if that same custom be evil or vain then as the same God did Create the outward Man so in the second or New Creation of him which is called the New Birth or Regeneration which signifies a being born again the Grace of God will perswade off from and get rid of that same evil or vain Custom Saith the same Apostle If after the manner of Men I have fought with Beasts at Ephesus Now Beasts will what lieth in them unless they be broken off from it unto their Lusts and to their Customs and so long as Men are of the same Mind they are after the manner of Beasts Like as a Carriers Horse will go on in its wonted way so The brutish among the People are for doing still though it be evil or false what they have been used and accustomed unto for such are led by Sence and Memory and not by Reason or Judgment Now Faith is an higher and more sublime Principle of Action which carries above all these And where the Man doth live by Faith and act by Faith then He puts away childish things 1 Cor. 13. 11. Then he puts away the inferiour Principles by which others and perhaps himself formerly did Act and Live And now he is acted by Faith only Whereby he becomes somewhat above and beyond a Man as Reason Advances above a Beast For Flesh and Blood doth not reveal these things unto him The just shall live by his Faith Hab. 2. 4. Which is a great and observable Scripture in that it is thrice quoted by the Apostle Paul and it is written for our Instruction and Admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come To lead and bring People over unto this Noble and Divine State of Living by Faith is the end of all our Writing Books and Preaching Sermons But the generality of Mankind hath been so long Settled upon the lees and sunk down into Earthliness Sense and the things of this Life that they are not so easily and soon raised up to this Spiritual frame of Mind which if obtained would influence all their Actions There is that in the Hearts of Natural Unregenerate People and also that remainder of Corruption and of the old Nature even in the Regenerate that these last do grow weary of and the others do strive against the Heavenly seed of true Doctrine There is a reluctancy in the former and an aukwardness in the latter And as it is written There was War in Heaven Michal with his Angels fought with the Dragon and his Angels So hence doth arise War in the Soul of Man Christ Jesus with the words he puts into the Heart doth fight with the Devil and his Suggestions and also with what Temptations arise from the Flesh and from the things of this World and accordingly as one prevails or the other so is the Man determined to Good or Evil Truth or Falshood Right or Wrong There is a way which seemeth right in a Man 's own eyes but the paths thereof lead unto Death And as God hath made our Nature with a strong bent and tendency to the thing that right is so even in our backslidings and goings aside we do not commonly any thing that is wrong but under a shew and outward appearance of right The time cometh that whosoever killeth you will t●ink that he doth God service John 16. 2. Said Jesus to his Disciples and that was committing a grievous Sin even Murther it self Yet however strange it may seem yet so it is that People are so infatuated and deluded as to think that they did serve and obey God whilst they were acting a thing contrary to his Laws This confirms what was afore observed That People think that they do keep the Commandments of God even whilst they break and transgress them and they fain would have it so as if they had not sinned An Example hereof may be seen in the History of the fall of Adam Now the Serpent was made more subtil then any beast of the field which the Lord God had made And he said unto the Woman yea hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of the Garden Gen. 3. 1. By which he would cunningly insinuate in the first place as if God had given no such Commandment which yet was so evident to their Hearts and Consciences That the Serpent himself could not well gain-say and deny it as appears by the Answer of the Woman in ver 2. 3. Whereupon the Serpent did reply in ver 4. 5. And frame another kind of Temptation unto which the Man and Woman do unhappily yeild But then it being added And the eyes of them both were opened and they knew that they were naked By their Eyes being opened may be at first supposed as if their Condition was not hereupon become worse but better for the present For so it seems where those who heretofore were blind or Blear-eyed do see Here again it may be perceived from the following Verse There was also in them a secret consciousness that they had offended God