Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A51226
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Of the vvisdom and goodness of Providence two sermons preached before the Queen, at White-Hall, on August 17, 24, MDCXC / by John Moore ...
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Moore, John, 1646-1714.
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1690
(1690)
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Wing M2551; ESTC R20154
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24,694
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71
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we have conquered should rally their Forces assault us afresh and sometimes prove too many for us and often so terrifie us as to make the Victory hazardous so that we are fain to cry out with the great Apostle O wretched creatures that we are who shall deliver us from this body of Death Who shall deliver us from the Tyranny of our impetuous Lusts which are always labouring to get the Rule over us and would lead us captive into the Gates of Death We have not strength enough in our selves nothing but the Grace of God and the cherishing Influences of his Holy Spirit will enable us to get the Mastery over our own Rebellious Appetites So difficult it is for the Spirit to conquer the Flesh and to drive Satan out of his strong-holds who will dispute every Pass and contend every point with us and never yield while we allow him the least encouragement O what fears must be injected into the hearts of faint and timorous Christians by their being constantly plyed with such implacable Adversaries To serve God indeed is their real desire and they love him with all their hearts but despair holding out under these furious and hourly attacks of the Powers of Hell They dread they shall fall away in this day of heavy tribulation and would give all they were worth to be secured from the danger and trouble of their Temptations Now in the next world these Sorrows and Fears and Dangers which are here so frightful and so constant will all be at an end And what an undisturbed Peace and equality of Temper will the Mind possess when it is got past the hazard of all kinds of Temptation when the Flesh shall be entirely subject to the Spirit and make no further opposition to its reasonable dictates and there shall be nothing which can raise the least commotion or disorder within it but it shall abide in an uninterrupted course of Innocence and behold all its Enemies lying slain before it as the Israelites did with Joy and Triumph look back upon the drowned Egyptians floting on the Red Sea And as we shall be freed from the Power of Sin so we shall get rid of all the Vexations Grievances and Miseries of this world many of which are the natural fruit and proper effects of our sins We shall be strangers to the drudgery and labours which are so necessary to get a Livelihood in this earthly state and to all the fears and cares which are needful to preserve our Gains and to convey thâ—m down safe and entire to our Children and Posterity Neither Poverty nor Contempt nor Disgrace will threaten us neither the Covetousness of men will lessen our Plenty nor their Perverseness disturb our Peace nor their Cruelty bring any Hardship upon us We shall meet with no Difficulties to perplex our Thoughts nor Dangers to exercise our Fears but abide in a state of perpetual Love and Friendship with all our fellow-creatures And as in the Regions of Heaven we shall get above the Power of Temptation the Malice of ill men and all the Calamities of the lower World so shall these infirm crazy and fading Bodies which stand in need of daily supplies to repair their decays and which minister fuel constantly to our Passions be changed into Incorruptible Heavenly and Immortal ones which will not solicite and make the Soul uneasie with their hunger nor clog and burden it with their weight nor discourage and grieve it with their gross and melancholly fumes nor spot and defile it with their Lust We shall know nothing more of Diseases nor Pains and Aches nor Hunger nor Thirst They hunger no more neither thirst any more for the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and shall lead them unto living Fountains of Waters Then we shall be clothed with Robes of Beautiful Light and the Righteous shall shine as the Stars of the Firmament for ever In that Holy Place our Desires will be gratified our Appetites will have full satisfaction our highest expectations will be answer'd and all our hopes turn'd into Fruition But notwithstanding every capacity of our nature will be filled with its proper pleasure yet they shall never be glutted but as the Favours of Heaven increase so will our Faculties be more and more enlarged to receive them And although there shall be no end of our Joys yet their perpetual abode will never cloy us who shall to all Eternity be improving into a greater Likeness of God and still attain thereby to a higher and more quick and sensible Relish of our Heavenly Delights Then we shall be admitted into the most desirable and pleasing Company We shall converse with Angels and be of the Society of all the Holy Men who have been so renown'd in their Generations and have set those admirable Examples of Godliness and Virtue There we shall sit down by our nearest and most dear Relations whose departure hence was so terrible and grievous to us by our best Friends Neighbours and Acquaintance and love and rejoice together and praise the Lord for the great good which by our mutual Piety we did one to another O then we shall behold the Glorious Face of our Ever-Blessed Redeemer who sacrificed his own Blood to rescue us from the Power and Guilt of our Sins and to bring us into this most illustrious Habitation And that which swallows all the Powers of our Imagination we shall come into the Presence of the great and mighty God and see him as he is and for ever be taken up in rapturous contemplations of the inconceivable brightness and splendor of his Infinite Majesty Now when we duly consider that these shall be the unexpressible Rewards of our slight and short Afflictions will it not appear most just and reasonable that we should submit to the Will of God in all things As nothing will tend more to God's Glory so nothing will agree more with our Interest or more produce true Comfort and Peace in our Minds than thankfully to receive all that God gives and patiently and meekly to bear the loss of all he takes away who will so infinitely recompence all our sufferings for his sake in the next life And since God has provided such Joys for our Souls in the other State O that he would quicken our Desires and help our Endeavours to prepare our selves for them Seeing he hath been pleased to chuse our Bodies for Temples for his Holy Spirit to dwell in O that he would free them from all Malice and Impurity and chase away every strange and filthy Lust from his chosen Habitation O that we might have so lively a sense of the Goodness of the Lord and of the Infinite Advantage we shall gain therefrom as not to give sleep to our eyes nor slumber to our eye-lids until from the bottom of our Hearts we had repented of every sin until we had worked up our Souls to an utter hatred of it and obstinately resolv'd to
live godly in Christ Jesus should suffer affliction so also all good men may to their unspeakable joy observe That their Religion does mightily thrive when the wicked most endeavour to suppress it and that nothing more refines the Lives of Christians and makes them come up to the Purity in the Gospel required than Persecution Of that part of Providence which extracts Good out of Evil the Ancient Father discourses well It is saith he the greatest Argument of Divine Providence that it not only altogether destroys the hurtful quality of the Evil which proceeds from the Apostacy of Human Will but also does not suffer it to abide useless and unprofitable for it is the business of the Divine Wisdom Virtue and Power not only to do good for that is the Nature of God to say it once for all as much as it is of Fire to burn and of Light to shine but especially to order and direct that the Devices of the Wicked should serve to good and useful Purposes As therefore it is in the nature of Unbelievers and of the Prophane to hate the People of God and to deal cruelly by them so it is God's Will to suffer it that thereby his own may be improved in that Piety and Virtue which will prepare them for his Presence and incline him to take them out of all their Troubles the sooner unto himself And tho it be a great crime in naughty men to persecute the Servants of God yet they have the less reason to complain of it or to be very uneasie when afflicted because their sufferings do tend so much to their Perfection Nay on the contrary they ought to esteem it as a mark and token of God's Kindness that he is pleased to better and advance their Nature even by Adversity And it is no less than a demonstration of Infinite Wisdom that the Plots which are laid to ruin the Saints should make them more perfect and that to the astonishment of all men the Spight and Cruelty of Persecutors should make Religion take deeper root to grow the faster and in the shorter time to spread it self over the face of the Earth If indeed we regard the Malice and Rage of men certainly enough has been attempted to banish the Gospel and Name of Jesus Christ out of the World had not God appeared on its side and maintained his own Cause and People And while God is with us and does support the Interest of the Religion wherein we are engaged we may remain confident that Captivity Imprisonment Bonds and Scourges how much soever at present they may terrifie and grieve us yet they shall never overthrow the Christian Church or reduce to a state of Desparation the sincere Believers but God's special Grace will help and carry them through troubles of every kind and degree and make all conclude in their Salvation Let us then not hope either that the Wicked should alter the Perverseness of their Natures or that for our sakes God should change the Wise Methods of his Providence Let us not think we shall have kinder usage from the World than Christ and his Apostles had and than the Army of Martyrs and Confessors and all the Primitive Christians did meet with But as we are baptized into the Name of Christ so never let us be asham'd openly to profess it or afraid to bear the Cross of our dear Master If the world hate you ye know that it hated me before it hated you And let us steddily look unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy which was set before him endured the cross despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the Throne of God for consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds Heb. 12.23 4. We must acknowledg the Goodness of God whether in Sickness Pain or Trouble when we place our Meditations on the inestimable Rewards of the next Life which he has provided to recompence the Sufferings of Holy Men in this Our deep ignorance of the Joys of the other Life will make all things said of them to be with great disadvantage The Philosophers and Men of refined Reason were generally possest with the Belief of a Future State of which yet their Discourses are obscure and full of uncertainty and when they handle this Argument they are often inconsistent with themselves Neither need this be a wonder since it is not to be imagined that by Natural Light we should be able to make any large discovery of the Pleasures of Heaven For they do so vastly differ from Worldly Enjoyments and so infinitely surpass all the Pleasures of Sense that our present Experience will not at all enable us to frame a Conception of them So that the best Information we are to expect in this matter must be from the Holy Scripture neither doth that it self descend into a particular description of the nature of Heavenly Joys The Spirit thought it sufficient for the support of our Faith to give a general account of the uncounceivable Happiness of the Future Life and to let us have full assurance that it should be the Portion of all those who shall to the end persevere in a sincere obedience to the Laws of the Gospel And notwithstanding the best Progress we can make in our enquiry after the Delights of the Glorious World above will be chiefly by Negatives for eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him yet the consideration of them will be mighty comfortable and enough to make us bear up under all the Pressures and Troubles which shall attend the Cross of Christ In Heaven we shall be free from all Sins and from every Temptation to do evil which now proceeds from so huge a number of causes and occasions We shall be placed above the reach of the Malice and Power of the Devil whose perpetual work it is to lay Plots to corrupt our Innocence to take and ensnare our Souls by his cunning Devices We shall be removed from the sight and company of bad men who by their ill example and restless importunity are ever inticing us to sin We now converse among the dangerous Enemies of our Souls who have a constant eye upon us so that if we do but forbear to watch never so little they will surprize us if we do not walk circumspectly we presently shall be made to fall if we do not pray continually the wicked will prove too strong for us and deceive us with the gaudy appearance of their tempting baits O what a perpetual struggle have we with our Lusts and how much pains does it cost to overcome them when they violently press upon us What a Vexation and Grief is it to our Minds that we find it so hard to subdue the Motions to almost every sin Nay that those Lusts which