Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	corruption_n	flesh_n	reap_v	5,289	5	10.9811	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26905	The crucifying of the world by the cross of Christ with a preface to the nobles, gentlemen, and all the rich, directing them how they may be richer / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1658 (1658)	Wing B1233; ESTC R17065	262,204	331

service of our Lord We studied his Will and Interest and accordingly employed all that we had in the world and them that must say We gave now and then an alms to the poor but for the substance of our estates we spent it carnally for the flesh to bear up our pomp and greatness in the world and then we left it to our children to do the like when we were dead There is as wide a difference between the end of these two waies as there is betwixt Heaven and Hell And surely the way is connexed to the end Think not either that you can serve God and Mammon or that you may live to the world and die to God When one was asked whether he had rather be Craesus or Socrates he answered that he had rather be Craesus while he lived and Socrates when he came to die But dream not you of such a choice Gal. 6. 7 8. Be not deceived God is not mocked Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap If you sow to the flesh of the flesh you shall reap corruption but if you sow to the Spirit of the Spirit you shall reap everlasting life And this much more let me add that if you intend your wealth for God you must not think of evil getting it For God will not accept a sacrifice that is got by falshood rapine or injustice Nay if you intended it indeed for God you would not dare to procure it by sin For God needeth not fraud perfidiousness or injustice to promote his service Pietas sua federa servat As Austin●aith ●aith Ream linguam non faci● nisi rea mens So I say here Your mind is first guilty of denying God whatever you pretend when you dare thus by your deeds deny him Yea let me add that so far should you be from yielding to any temptation to be covetous for God for your family or any good end that may be offered you that you should make an advantage of such temptations to watch the world and your deceitful hearts the more narrowly hereafter And if in all temptations to worldliness you could turn them to a gain and duty and over-shoot the tempter in his bow it were a point of singular zeal and Prudence When he would put any covetous motion into your mind or work it into your hands give then more liberally or do more good then you did before Let this be all that the deceitful flesh and world shall get by you Fallite fallentes Et in laqueos quos posuere cadant I know that flesh and blood will stand in your way with abundance of disswasives and make you believe that this so plain and great a duty is no duty In the verbal part of godliness it would allow God but little but in the more costly practical part much less Sometime it will tell you that men are so naught that they deserve not your charity But Christ deserveth it give it therefore to him Sometime it will tell you of mens unthankfulness but satis est dedisse you have done your duty God accepteth it Other mens thankfulness is not your Reward You are more unthankful your selves to God You are called to imitate him that causeth his Sun to shine and his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust and that daily bestoweth his mercies on the unthankful Sometime it will tell you of the uncertainty of reaching the end of your Charity That if you maintain Schollars to Learning they may prove ungodly if you leave any considerable gift to pious uses sacriledgious and rapacious hands may alienate it But you are sure of succeeding in your ultimate end which is the pleasing of God and your own salvation It is not lost to you if it be to others Cast your bread upon the waters if you cannot trust God you cannot obey him Do your part and leave his part to himself It s your part to Give and its Gods part to succeed it for the attainment of the end He that is worst is likest to fail And whether think you is better God or you and which should be more suspected He is unworthy the name of a servant of God that will run no hazard for him Venter your charity in a way of duty or pretend not to be charitable Will you not sow your Masters corn till you are certain of a plentious increase And do you think that he will take this for a good account This is the foolish excuse that Christ hath told you shall have a terrible sentence you will hide Gods talent for fear of losing it but wo to such unprofitable servants Sometime the flesh will tell you that you may want your selves or your posterity at least and that you were best gather till your stock arise to so much or so much and then God shall have some A fair bargain Iust like ungodly men by their Repentance and Conversion they will sin till they are old and then they will turn But few turn that delay with such resolutions If God have not right to all he hath right to none If he have right to all will you give him none but your leavings A swine will let another eat when his belly is full What if you are never richer will you never do good therefore with what you have And for the impoverishing of your self if you fear being a loser by God you may keep your Riches as long as you can and try how you can save your self and them A mans life consisteth not in the abundance that he possesseth Do not imagine that you need more then you do If Monasticks think it their perfection to be wilfully poor and Seneca thought it the Cynicks wisdom quod effecit nequid sibi eripi posset you may much more rejoyce in such an estate if God bring you to it by or for well-doing You live in dangerous times Wars and thieves may soon levell your estates Can there be greater wisdom then to send it all to heaven and lay it up with God and put it into the surest hands and put it to the only usury Aut ego fallor aut regnum est inter avaros circumscriptores latrones plagiarios unum esse cui noceri non possit Cannot a man live think you without wealth and honour Siquis de talium faelicitate dubitat potest idem dubitare de deorum immortalium statu an parum bearè degant quod illis non praedia nec horti sint c. Sen. As it is the honour of God the first mover omnia movere ipse non motus So it is the honour of the greatest Benefactors omnia dare nihil habentes He that hath it to Give hath it more transcendently then he that hath it but to Use. He that hath most hath most care and trouble and envy and danger and the greatest reckoning Neither Poverty nor Riches was the wise mans wish but Convenient food Optimus pecuniae modus est qui nec in paupertatem

Sanctity and to true Christianity it self They confess they should be all contemners of the world but God forbid say they that none but such should be saved But I tell you God hath forbidden already by his Laws and God will forbid hereafter by his sentence and execution that any other but such should be saved Do you think in good sadness that any man can be saved that is not truly dead to the world and doth not despise it in comparison of God and the great things of Everlasting Life Let me satisfie you of the contrary here once for all and I pray you see that your flesh provoke you not to mutter forth such unreasonable self-delusions any more 1 Ioh. 2. 15. Love not the world neither the things that are in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him what can be spoken more plainly or to a worldly minded man more terribly 1 Ioh. 5. 4. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith Jam. 4. 4. Know ye not that the Friendship of the world is enmity with God Whoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God Will not all this serve to convince you of this truth Rom. 8. 5 6 7 13. For they that are after the flesh do minde the things of the flesh but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit For to be carnally minded is death but to be spirituall ●●nded is life and peace Because the carnal minde is enmity against God for it is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye through the Spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Joh. 3. 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Gal. 5. 16 17. 6. 8. Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh and these are contrary the one to the other He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap life everlasting Col. 3. 1 2 3. If ye be risen with Christ seek those things which are above where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God Set your affection on things above and not on things on the earth For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth Matth. 6. 19 20 21 24. Lay not up for your selves treasures upon earth where moth and rust doth corrupt and where thieves break through and steal but lay up for your selves treasures in heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal for where your treasure is there will your heart be also No man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the ore and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other Ye cannot serve God and Mammon Matth. 10. 38 39. He that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me He that findeth his life shall lose it and he that loseth his life for my sake shall finde it Mat. 16. 24. If any man will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me Luk. 14. 26 27. If any man come to me and hate not his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple And whosoever doth not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple Verse 33. Whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my disciple Heb. 11. 13 14 15. and to the end But I will cite no more Here is enough to convince you or condemn you If any thing at all be plain in Scripture this is plain that every true Christian is dead to the world and looks on the world as a crucified thing and that God and the life of glory which he hath promised have the Ruling and chiefest interest in their souls Believe it Sirs this is not a work of supererrogation nor such as only tendeth to the perfecting of a Christian but such as is of the essence of Christianity and without which there is not the least hope of salvation SECT XIV Use 2. BY all that hath been said you may perceive what it is to be a Christian indeed and that true Christianity doth set men at a further distance from the world then carnal self-deceiving Professors do imagine You see that God and the world are enemies not God and the world as his Creature but as his Competitor for your hearts and as the seducer of your understandings and the opposer of his interest and the fuel and food of a fleshly minde and that which would pretend to a Being or Goodness separated from God or to be desirable for it self having laid by the relation of a means to God To be a Friend to the world in any of these respects is to be an enemy to God And God will not save his enemies while enemies An enmity to God is an enmity to our salvation for our salvation is in him alone If then you have but awakened consciences if the true love of your selves be stirring in you and if you have but the free use of common reason I dare say you do by this time perceive that it closely concerneth you presently to look about you and to try whether you are crucified to the world or not Seeing my present business is for the securing of your Everlasting Peace and the healing of your souls of that which would deprive you of it let me intreate you all in the fear of God to give me your assistance and to go along with me in the work for what can a Preacher do for you if you will do nothing for your selves How can we convert or heal or save you without you I do foresee your appearance before the Lord a jealous God that will not endure that any Creature should be sweeter and more amiable to you then himself I do foresee the condemnation that all such must undergo and the remediless certain misery that they are 〈◊〉 know there is no way that the wit of man or Angels can devise to prevent the damnation of such a soul but by Crucifying the flesh and world by the Cross of Christ and dethroning these Idols and submitting sincerely to God their Happiness This cannot be done while you are strangers to your selves and will not look into your own hearts and see what abominable work is there that you may