Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	care_n	dangerous_a	good_a	32	3	2.1572	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A81056	Samson a type of Christ in a sermon preached at Mr. Pomfret's meeting-house in Gravel-lane near Hounds-ditch, London: at the morning-lecture, on July 22. 1691. from Judg. xiv.5. Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Tunnath; and came to the vineyards of Timnath; and behold, a young lion roared against him. Wherein is shewed, I. In six particulars, how clearly Samson doth type forth Jesus Christ, ... II. With respect unto Samsons marriage, ... III. As Samson loved and married an uncircumcised woman, ... IV. As Samson did overcome the young lion which opposed him: so Jesus Christ doth overcome and destroy that roaring lion, the Devil, that opposeth him. Published at the request of the Congregation, for Publick Good. By D.C. an unworthy servant of Christ.	Crosley, David, 1670-1744.	1691 (1691)	Wing C7247A; ESTC R232725	34,097	40

that is but a counterfeit Conversion But alas we see too many Examples of this nature at this day in the World many set forth fair for Heaven in all outward appearance for a while and yet afterwards wither and dry away The Lord make all these Examples as so many awakening warning Caveats to us to be the more watchful for though all sleep till the Bridegroom's Voice be heard yet woe to them that sleep afterwards Oh the many Evils occasioned by a lukewarm Spirit Who is able to express them But in a word Luke warmness if it prevail setteth open a door forth at which all present Enjoyments of God take their Flight and in at which Satan Sin Death and Darkness come in And truly when once it comes to this the Face of Heaven looks black upon such a Soul Therefore I beg of you all that hear me this day have a care of a lukewarm Spirit CAVTION 2. Again Secondly If you find God delivering you from this dangerous Rock of Lukewarmness directing your Feet from this dreadful Path which directly leadeth down to the Pit so as that Satan can do no good of you here Then have a care on the other hand of splitting your selves upon the no less dangerous Rock of Hypocrisie and Self-conceitedness And to prevent this 1st SEE that you be found in the Faith especially in the great Article of Justification 1. Holding Justification by Faith 2. And that not Subjectively but Objectively not as a bare Act in us but as Beholding Receiving Imbracing and applying of Jesus Christ according to that clear and most precious Text Acts 13.39 And by him all that do believe are justified from all things c. And 2ly BE careful to live Holily and as careful to do it sincerely the Grace of God inforceth Holiness but hateth Hypocrisie and that you may do this 1st See that you expect not that Holiness should bring you to Christ but that you should derive Holiness from Christ being by Faith Primarily brought unto him 2ly That the performance of good Duties moveth not God to give his Grace to you but his Grace first given to you and wrought in you moveth you to perform good Duties if you do them aright 3ly THINK not that your love to God or to Goodness doth produce love to God towards you which was not in him before but contrariwise that God's Love to you manifested and revealed in you produceth and begetteth love in you both to God Goodness and Good Men nay to your very Enemies But Oh wherewith shall it be lamented that this Godly Love which always produceth Christian Unity is so much wanting at this day among professors But 4ly IN all your Holy Actings do not as it were Act for Life or that you may receive Life but on the other hand Act as from Life already received from Christ by Faith and revealed and wrought in your Hearts by the Spirit LASTLY Be not puffed up with or by any thing that you do have done or can do Oh forget it look over it take Christ's Advice let not the left Hand know what the right Hand doth and when you have done whatsoever is commanded you still account your selves unprofitable servants Luke 17.10 And be sure you hold fast the Foundation and Corner stone Christ Jesus and bring nothing as a Ground of your Faith into the presence and before the Face of God but Christ and him alone Oh observe the words of Luther upon his Dying Bed which are said to be his last words Says he Christ have I loved Christ have I feared Christ have I served Christ hav● I preached in Christ have I believed and unto Christ I commende my Soul Beloved here was a Blessed end here was a Comfortable and Glorious End The Lord bring us all to such an End for his Names sake And would you come to such an end then beware of Hypocrisie But I haste A word or two more of Caution to the Wicked and so I come to the Application AND in the first place if there be any Persons among us this day that are Ignorant of and Strangers to God and his workings upon the Souls of his People and that are mindless and regardless of God Christ the Gospel Heaven and their Souls Salvation living either in desperate Wickedness Moral Civility or Legal Holiness and yet without God Well to all such I would say Oh have a care have a care how you dally away your precious time Consider your Souls lie at stake and if you miss of Christ you are undone for ever remember the Rich Man Luke 16. who never lift up his Eyes till he was in Hell Oh examine before hand what you will do upon your Dying Beds when you must take your Leave of Friends and Relations go off the Stage of this World and pass into endless Eternity Beloved pray mind me there is as it were two great Porters if I may so speak which stand beside the Gates of Death viz. Christ and the Devil Christ as it were on the right hand and the Devil on the left and when the Soul of a Righteous Man passes the Gates of Death Christ whose everlasting Arms are still spread under all his with open Heart and Hand is there ready to receive him and will not suffer Satan as much as once to come nigh him but will say No Satan the time of this Souls warfare is accomplished thou hast had thy time to try and sift him and hast caused him to feel many a bitter hour of Trouble but I who long since bought him have saved him from thy Hands and will now receive him to Glory where thou shalt never trouble him more for precious to the Lord are the Death of all his Saints and Blessed are the Dead which die in the Lord from henceforth for they rest from their Labours Trouble and Toil. But on the other hand when a Wicked Unbeliever dyes and comes to pass the Gates of Death presently he falls into the Jaws of the Dog of Hell i. e. the Devil and is caught in the Arms of Satan and so hurried down into Eternal Flames and if he cry Lord save me No saith Christ for in thy Life time thou contemnedst my Grace and Gospel and cast off my Counsel and Reproof thou set light by my Death and Merits and would have none of my Salvation I will therefore now Laugh at thy Calamities and mock when thy Fear cometh Depart thou from me O thou Worker of Iniquity O consider this all you that forget God and while it is called to day and while the Door of the Bride-grooms Chamber standeth open hear fear and lay it to heart return to the Lord accept of Grace and embrace those things that belong to your Peace before they be hid from your eyes For the Devil designs nothing more than to draw you on with one Temptation or another in Blindness and Forgetfulness of God till Death hath closed up your Eyes and then

in an everlasting Oneness But at the former of these to wit his coming in the Flesh the Matter in hand doth seem more directly to point for in the latter to wit Man 's Calling and Conversion as indeed all a Christians Life-time after really made a Christian the Devil doth not so directly strive against Christ as I said before as poor Christians for he despairs of ever doing good of him who hath already led him captive and appointed him his Bounds saying Hitherto shalt thou go and no further But Oh saith he let me have a turn with Christian Man I once overcame Man when sinless in Paradise and perhaps I may do so again though he be made sinless in Christ Luke 22.31 32. But alas poor Satan is mistaken for Christians have now Christ to defend them and to fight their Battels for them which Adam in Paradise had not and therefore as Christians not so easily drawn to sin that is to sin with delight as he did And again provided they do sin still they have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the Propitiation for their sins But however many a poor Christian is many times hard put to it by the Devil for it is not in vain that Peter exhorteth to be sober and watchful because the Devil went about as a roaring Lion seeking whom he might devour 1 Pet. 5.8 For Peter knew by woful experience how hard a thing it was to resist and withstand him And indeed this is one main Reason why the righteous are said to be scarcely saved 1 Pet. 4.18 And see but at your leisure what dreadful War he made against the Church in Revelat. 12. And what Joy the Saints made in Heaven ver 10. when he was cast from thence But why do I thus numerate Scriptures I will appeal to all your Experiences that know any thing of God And Beloved let me ask you Do you not find this Devil this Dog of Hell do you not find him I say tempting tossing and turning you over and over to and again Do you not find him lurking in every corner you come in and laying Snares in every thing you meddle with Do you not find him rising up and lying down with you going to Bed and Board with you in Light and Darkness Day and Night still with you And for sure he designs you no Good it is your dear and precious Souls he still aims at The Lord deliver us all from his hands But perhaps you will say Alas we know by most woful experience that all these things are true and that we are daily thus troubled with the Devil upon all Accounts but oh how shall we do to withstand and overcome him I Answer If you would stand against and be saved from the Devil then flee from and renounce your selves as well as him for if Self be kept alive in your Bosomes the Devil will not be far from thence Both sinful and righteous Self must be put off if once Jesus Christ be rightly put on And pray Sirs further have an eye to the Son of God our great Samson who is come down in and by the Gospel into our Philistine Land to marry us notwithstanding the uncircumcision of our Hearts and Natures to himself who though thou canst put no Power Goodness Merits nor Deserts as a Weapon into his Hand will yet notwithstanding by his own Almighty Power tear Satan in pieces like a Kid in his own time as Paul told the Romans Chap. 16.20 The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly Believe in the Lord your God so shall you be established 2 Chron. 20.20 I might now come to shew you some of the principal Ways Means and Methods which Satan takes and makes use of in order to the disturbing molesting and if it were possible hindering of this happy Union betwixt Christ and Christians but Time not permitting I must pass that and so come to the Fourth Thing premised from the general Proposition viz. To give you some Cautions in order to a timely prevention of the Dangers occasioned by the aforesaid Lets and they are these that follow And first To the Righteous CAVTION 1. And to such I say First Have a care That after God in some measure hath come in upon your hearts and that you have had as you suppose some Tastes of this heavenly Union and are brought not only to see your selves to be in Death and Darkness by Nature but also through Mercy to be brought into the Land of the Living by Grace and have seen the Day dawn the Shadows flee away and the Day-Star of Grace arise in your hearts so as that you have been made to say The Winter is past the Rain is over and gone the Flowers appear on the Earth the time of the singing of Birds is come and the voice of the Turtle is heard in my Soul saying Arise my Love my Dove my fair One and come away I say have a care that after all this the Devil meet you not and rob you of your first Love God is oftentimes pleased to permit Satan to try his Children Rev. 2.10 The Devil shall cast some of you into prison that ye may be tried And be sure the Devil will run at long Rope he will strain his Commission to the utmost to do you a Mischief and tender Grapes are soon spoiled And I know the Devil will often assault you that are in this condition with these or the like Temptations Oh Soul will he be saying now thy Troubles are over and thy Dangers past thy Darkness is fled away and Light from Heaven is broken in upon thee thou needest therefore to take no further care it is not possible that thou shouldest err or miscarry thou maist now sit still and take thine ease for the time of thy prosperity is come thou shalt sit as a Widow full of sorrow no longer therefore take Courage and surely well thou maist for what is it that God requires in his Word that thou hast not done thou hast mourned prayed repented believed and reformed and is not this enough God is none such a hard Master Lift up thine Eyes therefore behold the World is before thee Is there never an Object in it well pleasing to thee What needest thou be so precise Dost thou not read of a Gospel-Liberty Thou maist safely endeavour after and delight in the lawful things of this World and yet take no harm witness many great and approved Professors that do the same BUT Beloved have a care of these and the like Temptations for as they are of and from the Devil so they tend to your Souls ruin and destruction It was the great Fault of the Galatians that they began in the Spirit and ended in the Flesh and it will be no less fault in you And truly Saints are not distressed and troubled for a while that so afterwards they may live again to the World and to themselves

withall even because he finds himself no more forward in loving and praising of Jesus Christ for all his Gifts Favours and Mercies Yea and truly I hope there is some among us this day whose Minds and Spirits have been greatly burthened many a time because they could deny themselves no more and esteem of Christ no better in Matters of this nature And pray note it It is a good sign of a Christian in whomsoever these Thoughts do reside for Self-Love Pride and Spiritual Ambition is of all things most contrary to God and destructive to Godliness BUT Thirdly and Lastly If Satan be thus overcome in you and upon your account then are you in some degree united and married to Jesus Christ OBJECT But may be you will say But how shall I know whether I be so Married to Jesus Christ or no ANSW To which I answer If you be Married to Jesus Christ then it will appear in these following things FIRT You will have a higher Esteem of Jesus Christ than of any thing else whatsoever Yea he will be to you the chiefest among ten thousand even altogether lovely so that you will be brought to think one day in his Courts better spent than a thousand elsewhere SECONDLY You will think every hour a lost hour that is not spent in the fellowship of his Love and enjoyment of his Presence yea and often will you be bewailing your selves that you have spent so much time without the same crying out unto God after this manner and saying O Lord how many a day and hour have I spent in wickedness and vanity without either seeing or enjoying thee O my God! which now occasions abundance of trouble to my Soul even when I consider it THIRDLY You will think your selves Losers by all things you receive in which you receive not Christ Jesus Then it will not satisfie you to have Lands and Livings Gold and Silver Wife and Children unless you have Christ too Neither will it satisfie you to enjoy Gospel-Priviledges and Gracious Opportunities unless you enjoy and possess Jesus Christ in all and every of those things for no Wife that sincerely loveth her Husband doth ever account her self happy in the enjoyment of any thing wherein she doth not enjoy her Husband even so in like manner God's dear Children are not content with any thing that they do possess or enjoy wherein they do not possess and enjoy Jesus Christ And Oh Sirs let me freely speak it these Persons are not content with Gifts no not with heavenly Gifts without the Giver Do they come to hear Sermons still they are searching for God's Power and Presence in and under the same or else they are not contented Do they Pray Read or Receive the Sacraments Well still it is the same all things without God are nothing in their esteem FOURTHLY If you be thus Married to Jesus Christ then are you soon aware of any thing that doth interpose betwixt Christ and your Souls yea if a Cloud do but come over the Face of the Sun of Righteousness so as to darken the Glorious Light thereof in your Souls then are you quickly sensible of it And if that this Cloud remain upon the Face of the Son of God Christ Jesus so as that Spiritual Darkness do long continue in and upon your Souls O how often are you then enquiring and saying Oh why doth he hide his Face from me and why is his Chariot-wheels so long in coming FIFTHLY If you be thus Married and United to Jesus Christ our Spiritual Samson you are very Earnest in the promoting of Christs Glory O when you hear Persons giving Glory to fleshly Wisdom Humane Learning Natural Abilities Moval Civility or any thing of the like Nature which seemeth to lessen or derogate from the Glory of Christ Jesus O how near doth this come home to your Heart for better a great deal a true Christian endure to hear themselves laid low and trampled in the Dust yea and accounted as bad nay worse than nothing than to hear Jesus Christ abased and set below his place O this cuts them to the very Heart SIXTHLY If thou be Married to Jesus Christ then it is thy Hearts desire to walk in all his Ways and in all things to conform to his Will and Pleasure A Tender and Loving Wife taketh more pleasure in doing and observing her Husbands Will and Pleasure than her own So in like manner Christs Church and People do most heartily desire to do Christs Will yea and account it as their meat and drink to do the same SEVENTHLY and lastly If thou be married to Jesus Christ then art thou oftentimes in Great Trouble that thou canst keep no more faithful and true to him than thou dost yea and how often art thou taking occasion from the observation of thy own weakness and proneness to backslide from God to detest and abhorre thy self to lay thy hand upon thy mouth to admire Gods unspeakable Love and to cry out with the Church in the Lamentations Ch. 3.22 It is of the Lords mercies that we are not consumed because his compassions fail not And hence it cometh to pass that the continual Cry of thy Soul is Not unto me not unto me but unto Samson even Christ my Lord and Husband be all the praise and glory for ever and ever MANY more things I might propose to your Consideration to be Examined by you but time being spent I omit them and shall only add two words more and so draw to a Conclusion And the first word is by way of Terror to the Wicked who neither are Married nor desirous to be Married to Jesus Christ And the Second is by way of Comfort to all such as apprehending themselves to live in the Land of the Philistines afar off from God do long breath groan pray and most earnestly desire to be brought nearer to and wholly joyned with Jesus Christ as their Lord and Husband I begin with the first viz. such as neither are Married nor desirous to be married to Jesus Christ And to all such I say that it had been better for them that they had never been born than that they should live and dye without Jesus Christ better had it been that their bodily Eyes had never seen the Sun in the Firmament than that their Souls Eyes should not see the Son of God in the Gospel Better had it been that such had never had a being in this World than that they should have an Eternal being without Christ in another World O Dear Friends I would be plain with you and pray mind what I say As the Tree falls so it lyes no Conversion in the Grave True the Grave may be as a Bed to rest in but it will not it cannot be as a Shop to Trade in Therefore let Old and Young Rich and Poor that hear me this day be advised to turn to Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour And Sirs if you do but come by a true and sincere