Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	dead_a	life_n	live_v	7,322	5	6.0283	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79525	The danger of being almost a Christian. Shewing, [brace] 1. How far men may go without grace. 2. Why some men go so far. 3. Why they go no farther. 4. The dangerous estate of such persons. / By John Chishull, minister of the Gospel.	Chishull, John.	1657 (1657)	Wing C3903; Thomason E1694_1; ESTC R209426	76,944	179

observing many of the commands of God and appeared very zealous in the prosecution of them but by that time we abate Jehu for his own interest and for the settlement of the kingdom in his own hand we shal find little left standing upon the account of obedience to the command yea when the Lord reckons up what Jehu had done by one of the Prophets with these deductions he cals not what he had done obedience or zeal for the Lord but murder Hos 1.4 such interpretations may those actions have which in themselves are good and carry a great appearance with them of obeying and honouring God when they are weighed with the dreggs or drosse of those false principles and ends which are with those that perform the same Con. 2 If you be not Christians in good earnest all that you do wil but aggravate your sins your complyance with God in some things wil not excuse but aggravate your breach with him in other things this wil bring your sins under other aggravating circumstances which other mens sins do not fal under your sins wil be judged hypocrisies in that they were under a profession and sins against knowledge in that they were under convictions and contempt of Christ and his ways in as much as Christ came so near to you in the word and yet you put him by Consid 3. you have the least or wil have the least to say for your selves of any people Of all men halters in Religion wil have the least excuse We find when the Prophet Elijah dealt with the children of Israel in this case they were all silent before him one man strikes a whole congregation dumb when he charges this sin upon them they who use to have their excuses and pleas at hand in all other cases have none in this 1 King 18.21 The people answered not a word Of all men in the world these wil be left without excuse and of all sins halting and lukewarmness wil appeare in their nakedness 4. You are the greatest dishonour to God of any people you dishonour the Father the Son and the Spirit for men look upon you as men serving and owning God and they judge of God and his worship by you First you dishonour the Father men have low thoughts of his maiesty and holiness when they see those who go under the notion of professors and owners of the ways of God to be slight and cold in his worship when they see the spirits of men that worship God cold in it and stinted and shut up in such and such a compasse of profession setting bounds to themselves this and that they wil do and no more Oh how can men think that the God whom you have to do withall is a holy God Oh the mean and base thoughts men do harbour of God from the beholding the luke-warme conversations of such half christians Secondly dishonour Christ and the gospel under which you live oh my friends is it not a reproach to Christ that it should be said This life which you live in is that life which Christ came to purchase for which he layd downe his life did Christ come to give life yea and abundance of life Iohn 10.10 and is this that life Is that life which many of us live who would be accounted partakers of the life of Christ like that life which Christ came to give the Evan gelist says we receive grace for grace from him but where is it when it is exercised Ah my freinds Christ is reproached in this when we cal and account that the life of Christ which is but an abomination to him Nay this is a reproach to the gospeltimes in which was promised a greater measure of grace to be poured forth and that God would give a more choice and excellent spirit to his people Zachary 12.10 But do not the low and lukewarm tempers of many pretended Christians bring mean thoughts upon the gospel and the times of it while they live much below the professors of religion in the times of the law 3. It is a reproach to the spirit of God whose office it is to sanctifie and renew the heart of his people what honour does the Scripture put upon this it cals it The beauty of holiness Psalm 110 3. as if there were no beauty but this Now what a vilifying of the spirit of God is it to set up a dead cold heartlesse profession without life and vigour instead of the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God as if we should say Loe this is all that the spirit works in the hearts of Gods people Doubtless it is from hence that men and women have such meane and low thoughts of sanctification because they see so little in the lives of those that profess it and many do believe that it is nothing but a pretence and a shadow and a notion taken up amongst men and if they do but go to Church sometimes and say their prayers and beleeve as the Church beleeves they are as much sanctified as any for they see no more in others then in themselves but that some can talk more then they Thus I say the Father the Son and the Spirit they are all vilified and all by reason of those who cal themselves christians but are not and if there be a woe to that man by whom offences come then much more woe to those men by whom all these offences come Cons 5. You are the greatest blots to religion in the world All the Apostasies of Professors which have hardened many mens hearts against Religion have risen from the midst of you There was never an Apostate in the world but he was first a luke-warm professor Look to all the gross and damnable errors which have broken forth and the horrible Apostasies which have been from the profession of the truth and they sprung up amongst those who have been halters with God Some that have seemingly and in part received the truth but have not received it in the love of it These are the people which God hath given up to strong delusions and are swept away vvith abominable errors and these have fallen away in time of temptation because they were not rooted and grounded in the truth but there was never any one did Apastatize and fal away wholly and fully from the truth that was altogether a Christian If you would not be Apostates from the truth pray that your hearts may be sound in the statutes of the Lord Ps 119.80 Consid 6. You are men upon whom the Devil hath the greatest advantage of any men in the world he chooses you out as instruments to carry on all his great works and to further his grand designes in the world by your help it is that he manages all the affairs of his kingdom it is a dreadful thing to think that you should be the chief pillars of Satans throne he choses not out the prophane because they are too gross they wil be easily

comes to cross their profit and gain who yet are troubled to lose him and go away like the young man Mat. 19.22 with tears in their eyes they will do much rather then live without hopes of Heaven til it come to the cutting off the right hand or foot or plucking out of the right eye this is like the way in which Barnabas and Paul parted Christ and they go together in many things but when they come here they must needs part VI. Some are so far perswaded to be Christians that they are ashamed to be reckoned amongst the opposers of Religion They abhor the seat of the scorner and wil not willingly hear godliness derided they are convinc'd of the happinesse of those that fear God and are convinc'd who they are they would willingly be accounted favourers of such and wish they were in their conditions yet notwithstanding all these things something holds them from coming up fully to their steps either they are possest with a sluggish spirit and wil not set themselves forth in the duties of a Christian or else they are secretly glued to the world and wil not run the hazards of Christians One plays the sluggard under his convictions and cries out thus I would fain have knowledg but I cannot allow the time to search the scriptures nor to read good Books nor to frequent the company and conferences of the people of God another says I approve of Prayer it is a duty but I have not parts nor praying gifts these are but idle excuses of hearts that will not come up to God fully for were your hearts set to know God you would find time enough out of your idle and unnecessary businesses to seek after knowledg nay you would cut it out of your time that you spend in eating drinking and sleeping have you not borrowed sometime from these to satisfie your lusts and for you who pretend an excuse for the omitting and neglecting of duties in your Families and in private which you are convinc'd ought to be done and you think to salve it with this that you have no parts alas this is a fiction in some and a vain excuse in all that plead it For 1. Have you not abilities to express your present apprehensions and conceptions to all men you meet with all and converse with are you not able to speak appositely and readily in buying and selling you that can express what you conceive of all matters that come before you may conclude that neglect of prayer does not arise from a defect of expression 2. If God should take you and shake you over hell and you had but eminent and deep impressions of your danger herein you would surely then pray and cry you would finde words if you did feel your wants or apprehend your danger it is nothing that you want but impression 3. Do you not see men abundantly beneath you in parts add natural abilities that yet are able to come to God with boldness speak out their own and others wants freely to God 4. Know it is not parts but grace that fits a man for duty I never knew any that were wrought upon truly how ever weak in parts but was able to Pray without a Book and I do believe that the spirit of Prayer ●s an essential part● of the work of grace Zach. 12.10 Rom. 8.15 And that a man may as well live without breath as he can be a Christian without the spirit of prayer V. Be thy parts never so low weak yet use them for God he will augment them Mat. 25.29 To him that hath shall be given Grace wil bring with it such gifts as are of absolute necessity to maintain a communion with God and such is the spirit of Prayer never any man did conscientiously use weak and tender parts for God but like the bread which Christ brake for the multitude they did increase upon his hands in breaking Besides these which are hindered by a slothful sluggish spirit others come not up fully to the life of Christians from a secret tie which is betwixt them and the world they are loth to hazard their peace or credit amongst men Many men notwithstanding they are convinc'd of the ways of God and how they ought to walk yet are so studious of a peaceable quiet being in the world and so covetous of every ones good word that they had rather venture the loss of Heaven then the displeasing of any man they wil be for godliness in their opinion and they wil own the people of God until it comes to this that they must appear they must shew themselves and this wil displease such a friend and such a neighbour and they shal suffer by being counted a man of this or that partie this makes them draw in as the Pharises did who believed but yet would not professe Christ they would shew any under-hand kindnesse to him but they would not be openly seen to be his followers especially where their peace or credit would be impaired John 12.42 Neverthelesse among the chief Rulers also many beleeved on him but because of the Pharisees they did not confesse h●m lest they should be put out of the synagogue Thus you see many men go far not onely in respect of conviction but also of complyance with the truth and ways of God and they seem to most men to be altogether Christians and to the best of men to be almost such and yet they are as far from being that which they would be accounted and what others desire they would be as Agrippa here was from being a Christian who was never such Thus I have finished the first head and have shewen you what kind of perswasions these are which are found in such as are termed almost Christians The next thing which was proposed to be opened is the spring and rise of these perswasions in which I am to consider First the extent of these Secondly the defects of them and here I am to shew you whence it is that carnal men are so far perswaded that they seem to be almost Christians and then bow it comes to pass that being brought so far they do not prove altogether Christians CHAP. V. Whence these perswasions do arise WHen we consider the thick darkness that is in the understanding naturally and that gross opposition and enmity that is in the wil against God and his ways we may justly wonder how it comes to pass that any truth gets into the former and that it should find any kinde of complyance or favourable entertainment in the latter yet consulting with experience we may see that the truth doth get into the understanding by way of conviction and into the wil by way of perswasion and works to a very great height both ways in those who yet do not graciously submit unto it and obey it from the heart and if we lay our reason to our experience we may p●rceive that this ariseth 1. From the relicks of the light