Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	abide_v	able_a	judgement_n	28	3	4.9371	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44418	A sermon preach'd before the King at Kensington, Sunday, Jan. 20. 1695 by Geo. Hooper ...	Hooper, George, 1640-1727.	1695 (1695)	Wing H2709; ESTC R228924	11,718	30

Will and our Reason a seeming Contradiction in Nature is too well attested by Practice and understood by each of us it needs no Demonstration is the Hypothesis of our Nature and to be confessed by all the Sons of Adam For it is the Case of all Mankind that St. Paul expresses that which I do I allow not but what I hate that do I. Upon the sight of which desperate profligate Condition He well cries out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin Who shall deliver me from this inconceivable mystery of Iniquity this fatal perplex'd Absurdity How shall I be reconcil'd to my self But who will reconcile me to my Maker For if my heart condemn me God is greater than my heart For as there was certainly an Intention and Design in the Parts of my Body and their Functions so in these Perceptions and Inclinations of my Mind and if we Act not according to this our Creator's first Intention what other he may have for us we may justly fear we transgressing by the arbitrary Pleasure of our own Will and obnoxious therefore to the Justice of His. Those Notions were imprinted in us by some superiour Cause and will not an Account be taken of them by the same hand So does the Sence of this Law prescrib'd suppose a Law-giver and the Conscience of our Trangressions infer a Judge But because infinite other Considerations would direct us to the Being of God I shall therefore only follow these as they lead us Prisoners to his Judgement seat and as the Apostle has made the Chain If our hearts condemn us God is greater than our hearts For if our hearts have condemned us the Sentence is not a groundless trifling Thought It is the voice of our Constitution and was suggested by our Maker It carries his Authority along with it and proceeds from an Oracle in the breast of each Man as sacred as that on the Breast-plate of Aaron If our hearts have condemn'd us this hath been only a Preparatory Hearing nor can it be pleaded in bar to another Tryal We may slight the Sentence think to Revoke or endeavour to Erase it but the Record will be remov'd and the Cause taken out of our hands brought finally before a Judge Omniscient most Holy and Omnipotent from whose sight we can't be Hid in whose Eye we can't be Innocent and to whose Power we must submit For God is greater than our hearts God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things adds the Apostle as if that Attribute alone were Great enough to confound the Sinners Presumption From Men we may conceal the Sentence and pass for Innocent the judgment not to be read on the Forehead and more gaiety it may be on the Face of the Self-condemn'd but the great God was not a stranger to the whole procedure he saw the fact committed knew the particular Circumstances of the Crime and Articles of the Law and was present at the whole Conviction the guilty Person is still in his Eye and his Justice knows how to find him He is therefore represented to laugh from above at the folly of those that would abscond from Him that think they are hid when Man does not see He sees the vain disingenuity of those that argue against their Sence and deny what they Know their solitary private thoughts are before him what they own to Themselves and forebode when they are Alone He sees too the Arts that have been us'd to stifle the Evidence and corrupt the Judge the Practices to Alter the natural direction and to defeat the Original Intention how much we have indeavour'd to change our Constitution and to new Make our selves because we would disown our Creator He was conscious to the Remonstrances we would not hear and to the good thoughts we were able to suppress he took notice when we would take none The sense of good and ill might be taken away but the nature of it was not that Immoveable boundary stood fast as the great Depth as the Everlasting Mountains Our Minds might be depriv'd of their natural light but God was greater than our hearts and his knowledge could not be impair'd as Man may shut his Eyes but that puts not out the Sun Knew our God knew Man of us but as much as we do our selves we should call for the Rocks to cover us and for the Mountains to shelter us But what we have observ'd is but a part of that which lies open to the All-seeing Eye in the light of his Countenance are our secret Sins such as our understanding never mark'd or our Memory has let go He is greater than our hearts the searcher of them He knows how negligently they have watched over our actions and how little they have improv'd their first notices our very Conscience though esteem'd by us too scrupulous will be accus'd of its defaults our Judge will be condemn'd and where then shall we appear Especially when we consider not only the knowledge but Secondly The Justice and Holiness of our Maker For though we may have complain'd of the Rigor of our Conscience as if the Judge in our Breast were inexorable and we had better appeal to a Stranger yet we must have been favour'd still and we have all the while been judges in our Cause if we are condemn'd it is with reluctancy and the Sentence can't but be indulgent But that we expect from God cannot but be just shall he accept our Person or the Judge of all the Earth fail to do right for our sakes As if when he saw a Thief then he consented with him and would be partaker with the Adulterers If our own Hearts have not been able to bear with our Iniquities have been offended and griev'd and complain'd under their intolerable burthen if our Eclips'd darkned reason could not but discern the Guilt and Dust and Ashes abhor the Impurity if sometimes we have been provok'd even to hate our selves how must we appear in the sight of Him to whom the Heavens are not pure nor the Angels without spot the blessed Holy Being the most Opposite to what is Irregular and Impatient of what is Unclean With what displeasure and Aversation must he have view'd us and what doom are we to expect No Pain certainly can be more contrary hereafter to Human Nature than our Wickedness has been to the Divine If it is irksome to the disposition of our Nature to be ill directed and painful to our make to be distorted and put out of its first Order how will the Author and Creator endure the perverse Change this defacing his Workmanship and opposing his Pleasure Will he not think we stand by his Laws and justify his Intention and how then in the last place shall we escape his Power or abide his Indignation Little have some been able to endure the Regrets of their own thoughts and what would they have given to have been deliver'd from themselves Under the

judgment of their hearts they have appear'd indeed as condemn'd Men and their own evil Spirit has sufficiently tormented them so sensible were they of what they had deserv'd that none but their God could afflict them more but his terrors were Greater still and they felt not yet his Almighty Arm. Some indeed scape better here they have the Address to Over-rule the Sentence of their hearts or divert the Execution find other entertainment for their thoughts and by new guilt deliver themselves from the past call in Company for their help against themselves to rescue or to intercede will not be at leisure to hear nor suffer the Soul to speak drown the Voice of Nature with a noise of Musick and its fears in Wine But these are but methods to practise upon themselves Arts that can succeed only on our own weak Minds God is Greater that Judge is not in our power nor to be diverted by such Amusements The Sentence therefore aggravated by these unprofitable criminal Delays will at last be pronounc'd and as certainly executed whisper'd before but then spoke out by the glorious God that maketh the Thunder by the God that speaks to the Dead and they hearken to the old Criminals of Ages past and they rise up and appear Then our Maker must be own'd when He has twice form'd us must be confess'd at least by Torture Then the Difference of Good and Ill will be sensibly felt the wide difference plainly discern'd wide as the great Gulph betwixt Heaven and Hell Let us therefore now begin to consider and timely enter upon the necessary Review let us examine our selves for the Reflections we have neglected and for those we have been able to prevent let us recover the Notices we have stifled and restore the Judicature to GOD within us Let us judge our selves that we be not judged and prevent the Condemnation to come Let our Apprehensions of GOD be as Great as His Majesty and let us think of reconciling our selves to a Power we must obey For if our hearts condemn us and we persist to offend where is our Hope Or who is it that shall give the Pardon Will GOD be less Holy than our selves and our Sins less disagreeable to Him Or will His Judgment want of the Righteousness of ours And is Iniquity like to find favour there To practise what we cannot but condemn is the highest disingenuity but to expect that what we can't but condemn should not be condemned by GOD is a Blasphemous Presumption And if in the Course of a vicious Life our hearts condemn us not a Supposition St. John would not make we have then more yet to dread lest we should have been already condemn'd by the Almighty and given up to this reprobate Mind lest our Consciences sear'd so as with a hot Iron should have been branded by a Judicial Sentence from above Our Case is desperate indeed abandon'd by our selves and given over by our Maker We hear no more of the Inferiour Judge deputed to fit in our hearts to enquire and to determine but we shall not so escape he is assaulted and slain by our Treason a Treason added to our other Crimes committed against the Sovereign the proper Conusance of the Great and Terrible Day But if when our hearts have condemned us we repent and amend are griev'd for what we cannot recall and resolv'd hereafter to obey the Directions of our Reason Our future good Deeds cannot indeed blot out the committed Ill nor our Hearts pardon us and reverse the Sentence it has justly pass'd but to our Comfort God is greater He can pardon our Faults and will do away our fences by Him we are restor'd as at the beginning and it is the part then of Satan not of our Hearts to accuse us Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect is the Challenge then of St. Paul It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth And then when a New Life shall have proceeded from this Beginning a Life clear of Vnjustice Intemperance Profaneness Actions always unnatural to Man but at last his surest Aversion and most dreaded Horrour when Temperance in our selves Charity to Men Services and Duty to our GOD shall have traced out a fair and happy way to Heaven a course upon the Reflection the most delightful and agreeable sight to a Humane Mind when at the Even of our Days we shall come to review our Actions and see with a satisfaction like to that of our Creatour That all is Good with Him we shall enter into a Sabbath too and on our Death-beds be in a State of Rest and unspeakable Joy greater than Voluptuousness Honour and Riches ever afforded the ungodly Offender the same Instinct that prompted us before to our Duty assuring us now of a Reward and adding to the pleasing View of the past time the glorious Prospect of an infinitely happy Eternity to come With those then who have so liv'd like the Creatures of GOD and according to the Truth of their Humane Nature He will likewise deal according to the infinite Goodness and Kindness of his own acknowledging them for His whom He finds after his Image and advancing them to a greater Likeness and nearer Approach Well done thou Good thou Faithful and Obedient Creature enter thou into the Joy of thy Maker Thither may He please to bring us all by the Merits of His Son and the Assistance of His Spirit and to Them in their Trinity c. FINIS