Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	life_n	quicken_v	5,163	5	10.2542	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28156	The believer's daily exercise, or, The Scripture precept of being in the fear of the Lord all the day long explained and urged in four sermons / by John Billingsley ...	Billingsley, John, 1657-1722.	1690 (1690)	Wing B2907; ESTC R6203	37,871	100

lay field to field he hath been loading himself with thick Clay he hath been very throng a getting that together that he knoweth not how soon he must leave behind him he cannot tell but before to morrow Ask another he will tell you he hath been at the Butterflies work painting his wings tricking and trimming and making himself fine and smooth and brisk and gay with a world of art and cost setting himself out to the view of beholders and to be thought handsom he was willing to wave all the real accomplishments of humanity and little thinks the poor spark how soon all his trimming must be laid aside and how courfly a fit of sickness and much more two or three days Lodging in the Grave will make him look Another or perhaps the same if you question him when he is in the right mood to give you an answer will tell you he has been Drinking Dancing Singing Feasting dallying all his days Ransacking all the avenues of pleasure and racking nature to make her confess some secret source of delight and trying untrodden Paths of Luxury that if it were possible some new mode of sensual gratification might be found on which the Preacher had not written Vanity of Vanities but know O fleshly wretch that for all these things God will bring thee into Judgment Eccl. xi 9. Another hath been climbing hard to reach the topmost Pinacle of Honour Cringing Bribing Flattering to get an opportunity to wrong others and ruine himself for man being in honour abideth not he is like the Beasts that perish Psal Lix 12. Now alas what poor employments are these for that time on which Eternity depends And yet how few even among Christians lay out their time to any better purposes Well Sirs all your time that is not laid out for God's glory the good of others and the Salvation of your Souls is lost time you had as good nay better all that time have been out of Being Oh what a World of time do the most give away to Death People complain of the shortness of Life and yet act as if they thought it too long What cause have most of us to sit down and sadly say What have I been doing hitherto Am I not even a dying before I have begun to live And Oh that men would sit down and think seriously of it there might be then some hope that they would at last in earnest begin to do that which they should have been doing all this while Infer VI. What need have we to implore the Grace and Spirit of Christ to encline and enable us to direct and assist us in this necessary work We have a great deal of work to do and it must be done and we cannot do it of our selves what more reasonable then than that we should speedily and carefully look out for help The great Gospel promise is the Promise of the Spirit we ought therefore to plead it in Christ's name with God the Father since he hath said he will give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke xi 13. If we have not the Spirit of Christ we are none of his Rom. viii 9. And without special relation to him and interest in him we cannot groundedly hope for assistance from him without whom yet we can do nothing Joh. xv 5. We are dark we therefore need the Spirit to enlighten us we are weak we need him to strengthen us we are wavering we need him to settle and fix us we are oft dejected and discouraged we then need him to comfort and confirm us Since then we so greatly need this blessing on all accounts how earnest and importunate should we be for it How observant of all the blessed Spirits accesses to and recesses from our Souls How careful to cherish his blessed motions How loath to grieve our guide If our Baptism in his name were not a nullity which many at least of our scoffers are not yet arrived at the impudence to assert our pretensions to his assistance cannot be justly charged to be Enthusiastical provided our claims be proportioned to the ends of our Baptismal Covenant relation to the Holy Ghost and our holiness of Life and Conversation manifest their reality As Enthusiasm though it seem to look another way leads to Infidelity so Infidelity too often and never more than of late masks it self under the veil of a vehement zeal against Enthusiasm But a good understanding of our Baptism and a practical experience of the main vital principles of Christianity therein contained would be an effectual cure of both When we know what it is to have the Spirit of Life living and working in our Souls as our Souls in our Bodies then and not till then shall we know what it is to be in the fear of the Lord all the day long Some forced motions in the externals of Religion we may have before but it is the Spirit that quickeneth Joh. vi 23. And where the Spirit of the Lord is there and there only is true Liberty 2 Cor. iii. 17. Even such as whereby we run the ways of God's Commandments with enlarged hearts Psal Cxix 32. Infer VII What care should Parents take to begin in a way of holy Education with their Children betimes that the best course in the World may not seem difficult and uneasie to them by disuse The wise man bids train up a Child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Prov. xxii 6. And undoubtedly one great reason why many frame so aukwardly in the matters of Religion is because they were so long suffered to be utterly unacquainted with them O what a difference do Ministers usually find as to the Success of their Preaching between catechised and uncatechised youth Oh how hard is it to get people in years that have been left in ignorance till then to learn to understand but the most plain and common principles of Religion through want of early instruction when we tell men of being in the fear of the Lord continually the most know nothing what we mean tell them of the necessity of Repentance Faith and Holiness in order to Eternal Life and they understand not what they hear speak to them of the blessed Trinity in whose name they were baptized of the necessity of the Spirits help and of regeneration and it is all one as if we spoke to them in Greek or Arabick their minds have never been used to such matters O you that desire it should be otherwise with yours take care of their early instruction tell them betimes of their duty in order to Salvation and Eternal happiness and acquaint them with the holy Scriptures teach them to pray set before them briefly and plainly the order of their daily duty to God their Neighbours and themselves help them to govern their appetites and passions by reason and the Word of God tell them what Christ hath suffered in their stead what benefits he hath

employment of our whole time And here I shall lay down the Reasons and Motives that are proper to enforce this Practice upon us and perswade us to it 3. I shall conclude with some Inferences and Practical Remarks upon the whole 1. To open to you this being in the Fear of the Lord all the day long And this I shall do by laying before you the several parts of your daily duty that so you may be directed in the orderly performance of it Many neglect the great business of Christianity because they do not well understand what it is or if they know something of it in general yet their notions are but confused and they know not how to place and order their duties For your help in this I shall lay before you the following Scheme of good employments for every day which whosoever Prudently Sincerely Cheerfully and Constantly observes does in some good measure come up to this Divine Rule of being in the fear of the Lord all the day long 1. If you will be in the fear of the Lord all the day long you must see that the fear of the Lord be in you Look well that a principle of Grace and Regeneration be wrought in your Soul A dead man cannot work or walk you must make the tree good or the fruit will be naught A graceless Soul cannot do a gracious action much less is it to be expected that he should engage and persist in a course of holiness How many in a pang of Conviction and under present fears of Death and Hell resolve that they will lead new lives they will be drunk no more they will leave their loose Companions they will Pray and Read and Hear and do no body knows what But their goodness is but like a morning Cloud and early Dew that soon passeth away they dream of leading new lives without getting new hearts Whereas if you will to purpose reform your lives you must begin with your hearts Get a deep sense of sin see your need of Christ cry to God for Pardon and Grace be restless till you feel your Souls possest with the Spirit of a holy Life Light and Love till you be made partakers of a Divine Nature new creatures in whom all old things are passed away and all things are become new A new heart is virtually a new life inasmuch as it will certainly produce it whereas a seeming new Life while the old unsanctified heart with its unmortified Lusis remains is but a dead Image a painted carkass a thing that as it does not live so it cannot last 2. Begin every day with God When I awake saith the holy Psalmist I am still with thee Psal 139. 18. Labour that your first thoughts may be of God and Christ and Heaven Use your Souls upon their first release from the Fetters of sleep to work towards God in thankful acknowledgments and deep admirations of his goodness with very humbling reflections on your own frailty and vileness Say Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him or the Son of Man that thou visitest him Psal viii 4. Lift up a Prayer for protection from sin and danger throughout the new day God is pleased to give you Think how many have passed the night in Pain and Misery and how many Souls may be this night gone into Eternity while you have slept sweetly and safely and bless God for his mercy to you and labour to make a wise and holy improvement of it Good thoughts at our first waking season our hearts for all day 3. Waste no time in needless sleep or waking sloth How many that are horribly afraid to die yet make no matter of giving away a vast proportion and that of the very best the flower of their time to deaths Image and Brother Sleep O think how many are suing out obtaining their pardon and making sure their Salvation while you lie Sleeping and Snoring and have not you Souls as well as they Have not you as much need of Christ and Grace and Heaven as they Remember excessive Sleep is neither good for Body nor Soul All cannot do with the like measure of Sleep but there are very few but might do with a great deal less than they do And of those that are not guilty of indulging the Body in this respect how many more are there that abridge themselves for the World than that do it for God and their Souls And is the World a better Master think you than God and Christ And is Gold a better purchase than Grace And then when you are awake slugg not as many do turning upon their beds like a door upon its hinges much less contrive not mischief upon your Beds let not contemplative wickedness find that time to steal into your hearts But shake off sloath and as soon as true necessity will give leave be stirring Remember morning hours are the cream of time more precious than the filings of Gold or dust of Pearl therefore throw them not away 4. Be not long in dressing and lose not even that time but think of some apparel for the Soul Be not like the gaudy Butter-flies and gay Peacocks of our days that spend their best hours between the Comb and the Glass and so their Bodies be but fine care not how filthy their Souls are Remember Cloaths came in to cover that nakedness of which sin had made us ashamed and therefore they should be a constant memorial to us of the fall of our first Parents and ours in them and to be proud of them or to make a great deal of stir and do about them is very foolish and absurd as well as wicked Count that fashion of apparel the best that being sufficient for Warmth and Decency truly so called requires least time in putting on To spend an hour every morning in Tricking and Trimming the Body and to think half an hour for Reading and Prayer too much is to me no very good sign than he or she whose ordinary practice is such is a real hearty Christian. And you whose apparel is really Grave and Decent the time that is spent in putting it on let it not be wholly taken up in that but let your minds be employed in suitable Meditations Think of putting o● the Lord Jesus Christ he is the only cloathing for your Souls that the shame of your nakedness may not appear You would be ashamed to go naked into the Company of your Neighbours O be ashamed of sin which is the Souls nakedness While you are dressing think what Temptations you are like to meet with in the day and labour to fence against them forelay the employments of the day meditate on some Scripture promise or the like 5. Go not out of your Chamber or Lodging Room without urgent necessity till you have offered up your morning Sacrifice of Prayer and Praise unto God He that is to travel among Thieves had need go armed Origen Complains that that day he