Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A66682
|
The great evil of procrastination, or, The sinfulness and danger of defering repentance in several discourses / by Anthony Walker ...
|
Walker, Anthony, d. 1692.
|
1682
(1682)
|
Wing W304; ESTC R39412
|
176,678
|
430
|
denying and abstaining from all known sin and applying himself to perform all known Duties with a Conscience void of offence both towards God and towards men To be heartily Religious Just and Sober Crucifying the Flesh with its affections and lusts Walking before God with respect to all his Commandments in a word to be Christs true and faithful servant For the Scripture is express and plain that God will do good to them that are good and upright in their hearts Psal cxxv 4. That he will give eternal life to them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory and Immortality Rom. ii 7. and Christ himself hath told us that Not every one that saith unto me Lord Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but he that doth the will of my Father which is in Heaven Matth. vii 21. and St. Paul If ye live after the flesh ye shall dye but if ye by the Spirit mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. viii 13. And again Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For 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 eve lasting Gal. vi 7 8. And the terms upon which St. Peter assures you of entrance into the Everlasting Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ are that ye abound in Faith Vertue Knowledg Temperance Patience Godliness Brotherly kindness Charity 2 Pet. i. And David in Psalm xv gives the description of a Citizen of Sion who shall dwell in Gods Holy Hill by the same measures And in Gods name saith Psalm l. 23. To him that ordereth his Conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God And lastly 't is Christs promise Where I am there shall also my servants be John xii 26. And indeed it is the Scope and import of the whole Scripture both Old Testament and New to shew that wicked and bad men shall go to Hell and only Righteous and good men shall go to Heaven Psalm iv 3. Know that God hath set apart him that is Godly for himself But Psalm ix 17. The wicked shall be turned into Hell Ezech. xviii 20. The Righteousness of the Righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him John v. 29. They that have done good shall come forth to the Resurrection of life and they that have done evil to the Resurrection of damnation For we must all appear at the Judgment Seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to what he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. v. 10. And I beseech you neither to censure nor misinterpret this method of proceeding by beginning to declare in such general terms wherein Readiness for Christ consists But consider the wisdom of God leads me in it for tho the Scriptures do treat of these things some times more accurately and distinctly yet for the most part they speak of them in these general expressions And that for Wise and Holy Reasons For the Scriptures were written not only for the Wise and Learned but for the unwise and Ignorant for Babes in Christ and beginners as well as for grown men and Proficients For the Lamb to waid in as well as for the Elephant to swim in Now for the sake of the first sort who are not able to discern critical differences of things nor to comprehend the more mysterious and intricate expressions nor to understand Artificial and Figurative words in which some times the Truths of the Gospel are wrapt up and veiled It seems very agreeable to the goodness of God to condescend to the weakness and capacities of those to whom he speaks And to propound the way of Life and Death to Heaven and Hell in such general and easie terms as all may understand And such as are suited to affect a Natural Conscience and to be an initial and leading way to the receiving what the Gospel speaks more distincly and accurately to those who are awakened to be inquisitive and rendered capable of what is more high and difficult by the use of general words and easie to be understood Such as these are with which I have begun To be ready for Christ is to be a good man for none but such shall go to Heaven Secondly To be ready for Christ is to be a good Christian And what that implies we shall best understand by our Baptismal Covenant in which we enter upon the profession of Christianity Now as in that God promiseth to accept us as Members of his Son to own us for his Children and make us Inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven so we on our parts engage and promise three things first to renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil Secondly to believe all the Articles of the Christian Religion viz. with an Applicatory Faith Thirdly to keep Gods Holy Will and Commandments and walk in the same all the days of our life and he that keeps this Covenant is a good Christian and as a Child of God shall inherit his Kingdom and is ready to go to it when ever Christ comes Now these three answer the three great Graces which are the condition of the New Covenant Repentance Faith and new Obedience And tho the last is included in and be reduceable to the first because no man truely repents of past disobedience who resolves not and who endeavours not to yield unreserved obedience for the future and therefore the two former are oft put alone for the full and whole condition of the Gospel Covenant The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand repent and believe the Gospel Yet I hope we may inoffensively reckon them all three distinctly especially considering that tho they all have a general respect to the whole Holy Trinity yet they may not improperly be said to have a peculiar reference to the distinct Persons to whose name we are expresly Consecrated in our Baptism The Father Son and Holy Ghost Repentance towards God that is the Father Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ So St. Paul expresly speaks Acts xx 21. New Obedience towards the Holy Ghost who is the immediate Author of Sanctification and to walk in newness of life is to walk in the spirit Gal. v. 25. And to be led by the spirit Rom. viii 14. If therefore thou wouldest be a good Christian and as such ready for Christ First With Holy shame and Godly sorrow turn from sin and creatures in which thou hast too long sought satisfaction to God as thy all-sufficient portion and happiness Secondly Come to him by Christ the great and only Mediator who hath made our peace with him and wrought that reconciliation by which alone thou art capable of injoying him Thirdly yield up thy self to the conduct of the Holy Ghost as thy Sanctifier to inable thee both to believe and to bring forth the Fruits
Diligence to know and to make sure Both. How many Scriptures speak the same Sense nay 't is the Scope of all the Scripture with Gal. 6.7 8 9. Whatsoever a Man Soweth that shall he also Reap for 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 And let us not be weary in Well-doing for in due Season we shall Reap if we faint not Therefore neither scare thy self from thy Duty nor flatter thy self in thy Negligence by any Decrees of God which are hidden from thee and thou art a Stranger to But quicken and comfort thy self with this Truth which is written as with a Sun-beam from Heaven That no Decree of God shall ever shut him out of Heaven who with sincere Faithfulness and humble Diligence attends God's Work according to his Written Word Neither shall any Decree of God admit him into Heaven who securely and slothfully neglects it And if after thou hast got over that Stumbling-Block of Fear'd Impossibility yet thou stickest and art frighted at the Difficulty Consider 't is no greater than the Wise and Holy God thinks fit to make it and that for Righteous and Holy Reasons and He knows how to proportion every Man's Work to his Abilities And as He will not suffer any of His to be Tempted above their Strength so neither will he task them above their Sufficiency they shall receive from Him And thou may'st Counter-ballance the Hardness of thy Work by weighing its Necessity its Excellency the Assistance He is ready to afford thee the Acceptance He hath promised thee and the Superlative Greatness of the Reward prepared for thee So that thou may'st say I reckon that the Sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be Revealed in us Rom. 8.18 For our light Afflictions and yet the Patient Bearing them is the hardest peice of our work which are but for a moment work for us a far more Exceeding and Eternal Weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 as Joseph said His Glory in Egypt made him Forget all his Toyl and his Father's House So I may invert the Words Thy Father's House will make thee in one Hour forget all the Toyl of the Brick-Hills and Bondage of the Egypt of this VVorld Though to the Corrupt Sense of Flesh and Blood Wicked Men seem to have the Advantage of Good Men in respect of their Work yet Good Men have the Advantage of them infinitely in respect of their Master The Saints may have Hard Work but they have no Hard Master but One who will help them to do their Work and yet Reward them as if themselves had done it But Sinners have an Hard Master with their Easy Work and one hours Payment of their Wages for the Works of the Flesh will be more Afflictive than the Labour of an whole Life would have been in the Mortifying of them The Third Hinderance of thy Diligence to be a avoyded is a low a mean a base Opinion of the Work as if it deserved it not The Proverb saith That Jupiter is not at leisure to attend little things and the high-soaring Eagle stoops not to catch Flyes Nor will a Wise Man fish with a Golden Hook to take Fish of low Value But a better Authority asks us Wherefore do ye spend Mony for that which is not Bread and your Labour for that which satisfyeth not Isa 55.2 And What Profit hath he who hath laboured for the Wind Eccles 5.16 and Reproacheth them who weary themselves for very Vanity Hab. 2.13 and warns us Not to labour for the Meat that perisheth Joh. 6. And 't is truly a Reproach to a Man to bestow much Pains on that which will not answer it And if the Devil or thy own Heart can mis-perswade thee concerning God's Work and turn the same Weapon against thy Diligence in it which God hath formed against thy Labouring in theirs 't will have the like Effect to make the Miserable which God design'd by the Right Application of it to make the Happy Study therefore the Excellency of this Work which directly tends to rescue thee out of the Basest slavery to Sin and Satan to repair thy Decayed Nature to restore and recover the Image of God and make thee Partaker of the Divine Nature to fill thy Soul with Peace and the Angels of Heaven with Joy to deliver thee from the Hurt and Fear of Death and from Eternal Vengeance and to fit thee for and bring thee to Eternal Glory in God's Kingdom And were there nothing else to be said of it or for it that Work must needs be Excellent which renders them more Excellent than their Neighbours and denominates them the Excellent of the Earth and such as the World is not Worthy of who are Employ'd in it And that Work cannot be Mean or Base which the High and Glorious God injoynes loves to behold us at will reward with Incorruptible Crowns of Glory and differs only in Degree but not in Kind from the Work in which all Great and Noble Souls shall spend or rather enjoy in Eternity with increasing Joy and Satisfaction The Hinderances of your Diligence which I call Real or in Practice and which I warn you to beware of are these Three First Ignorance or Unskilfulness how to set about it or to manage your Work aright There is no Work or Business can be done well without some Skill and Experience not the Meanest or Easiest The Plough-man and the Thresher Isaiah takes notice of Chap. 28.26 His God doth instruct him to Discretion and doth Teach him 'T is an easy thing to Read yet deliver the Book to him that hath not learnt his Letters and bid him Read He saith I am not Learned Isa 29.12 he cannot do it A Man that is Master of his Trade and skilful at it will dispatch more in an Hour without Noise or Bustle than another Man who bungles at it with much Toyl and Sweating in an whole Day A Man that is Instructed to the Kingdom of God brings forth readily out of his Treasury Things New and Old Matth. 13.52 He that knowes his Way goes on cheerfully and rids Ground apace and loses no time by stopping to Inquire or Recover what he had lost by turning into By-paths As Knowiedge is a leading Grace and influenceth all our Work and the Prudence of a Man will direct his Way So Ignorance is the Root of Errour and the most Universally Destructive He cannot do God's Work with any Comfort and Assurance who knows it not but is sometimes right and sometimes wrong alwayes Anxious and uneasy to himself Putting Darkness for Light and Light for Darkness calling Good Evil and Evil Good The Blind swallows many a Fly commits many a Sin he knows not to be Sins and if he doth good 't is but by Chance he loseth the Advantage of it because he knew it not to be so and