Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	church_n	earth_n	militant_a	5,036	5	12.4963	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96272	Two sermons one against adultery, the other of the nature, art, and issue of the Christian warfare : with a discourse shewing the consistency of God's infinite goodness with His foreknowledge of the fall of man / by Nathanael Whaley ...	Whaley, Nathanael, 1637?-1709.; Whaley, Nathanael, 1637?-1709. A discourse shewing the consistency of God's infinite goodness with His foreknowledge of the fall of man.	1698 (1698)	Wing W1533A; ESTC R43579	50,933	141

enslave our imperial Faculties to sensual and Diabolical Lusts and so for ever make our selves miserable by it We are safe in the hottest Battles and Encounters of our Spiritual Adversaries so long as we are true and faithfull to the Rights and Interests of our rational Nature i.e. so long as we judge nothing but what is right and choose nothing but what is virtuous and good Neither can we complain that we have no power to correct the Levity of our Thoughts and Fancies or to order and regulate our outward Actions There is nothing so free as Thought or more evident than that the Mind of Man has power within it self to shift the Scene of its Contemplations and divert from one Imagination to another as often as it pleases A man may think of Hell when he is tempted and of the all-seeing Eye before he ventures upon unchast Embraces And so the Organs of Sense and Motion the immediate Causes of outward Actions are very much in our Power and by guarding these Inlets of Lust and Vanity we certainly avoid the strongest and most dangerous Temptations to Sin and Folly help to starve our inbred Coruptions and cut of all Communication with the Enemy that is so much concern'd to relieve and cherish them And these are all the Natural Faculties which are requisite to defend and secure us against Temptations 2. We may be sure of all the supernatural Aids and Assistances which are necessary to enable us to make a vigorous and effectual Resistance For since we are so much weakned by our Fall and by indulging our carnal and corrupt Affections have extremely spoil'd the natural Tone and Rectitude of our Faculties 't is apparent that we are never likely of our selves i.e. merely by our own Strength and Constancy to stand the mighty Shock of Temptations which at every turn of our Lives and Fortunes are ready to assault us and that the Grace of God is as necessary to animate and enforce our Endeavours as our Resistance is to baffle and overcome the Temptations we are assaulted with Now as in Reason we may hope that God will not refuse to assist us against the impious Power and Tyranny of Satan in Vindication of his undoubted Right and Title to our Service so to raise our Confidence in him he has expresly declared that his Grace is sufficient for us yea to make us more than Conquerors 2 Cor. 12 9. that he will give his holy Spirit to them that ask it Rom. 8.37 Luk. 11.13 1 Joh. 3.8 and hath sent his own Son from Heaven on purpose to destroy the Works of the Devil To this end the Captain of our Salvation sent forth his Heraulds into the World set up his Standard and displayed his Banners to the Nations appointing all that came to him or that should believe in his Name to be listed into one Army or Church Militant on Earth under the Conduct of such Generals and Officers as should receive a Commission from him Vnder the Broad Seal of Heaven As my Father hath sent me so send I you John 20.21 Then to animate his Followers he enter'd the Lists with the Prince of Darkness by dying vanquisht all-conquering Death and having spoiled Principalities and Powers Col. 2.15 he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them by his glorious Resurrection Now these are the highest Assurances we can have that God hath taken us into his holy Protection and that he will not suffer us to be tempted above our ability 1 Cor. 10.13 but will according to his Promise when we are beset with any Temptation make a way to escape that we may be able to bear it Which implies that his Providence watches over the Motions of our Enemies that they are dispos'd to tempt us above our Strength and that he hath set them their Bounds which they cannot pass viz. that Measure of Strength which he is alwaies ready to supply us with and then it must be our own fault if we don't make a happy End of this sharp and tedious War and follow our glorious Leader into endless Triumphs 'T is true that all the Promises of victorious Grace depend upon our earnest Prayers and Endeavours to acquit our selves like Good Souldiers of Jesus Christ But surely if we may have Grace for Asking and Victory for Fighting for it we cannot desire either upon easier Terms For now all we Want falls within the verge of our Power and if we lose the Victory we know who to thank for it The Spirit that is in us is greater saith St. John than he that is in the World 1 Joh. 4.4 And while we keep him on our side we may Justly Glory in this Happy Confederacy by virtue of which we can do all things that Omnipotency it self guided by Infinite Wisdom can do for us I come now to shew 3. By what means we may effectually resist the Assaults and Temptations of the Devil It was an Infinite Condescension in God to offer us an Alliance by the Me●iation of his Son when our Impotency was the meer effect of our Folly and Enmity to him And as in this respect we have all imaginable Reason to adore the Divine Goodness towards us so it is our apparent Interest and Policy to embrace the Terms and observe the Orders our great Patron and Ally hath prescribed to us And the rather because there is a Mighty Noise and Combustion in the World which Serves the Devil under the specious pretence of Resisting him There are those that inveigh heartily against him whose Ill Word he does not much value and with Armed Zeal and Orthodoxy lay about them at a wonderful rate as if they would drive all the Powers of Darkness before them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apud Herod Hist lib 1. p. 71 72. and carry their Conquests to the very Gates of Destruction Like that foolish People in Caria of whom the Historian reports that to drive away their strange Gods they Arm●d themselves and went up in Battel array to the Bordering Mountains beat and stabb'd the Air with their Doughty Weapons and to Crown so brave an Act of Defiance proclaimed the Banishment of those Intruding Deities Eph 6.12 Spiritual Wickednesses are not to be quell'd with Martial Force or with Giddy and Popular Tumults They laugh like the Leviathan in Job at the shaking of the Spear Job 41. ●9 and are never better pleased than to see Men Tilting with Luciferian Pride and Fierceness at one onothers ●ollies and Opinions quarrelling with every thing they Dislike in Others and mistaking the true seat of War which certainly is in every man's Breast and will find him work enough while there is a Devil to tempt him or but one Treacherous and Unmortified Lust within him And no less Absurd and Ridiculous is it to encounter the Devil with senseless and hideous Forms of Words Spells and other Magical Rites Or to Accost him with such Wooden Artillery as