Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A55473
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A sovereign balson to cure the languishing diseases of this corrupt age By C. Pora a well-wisher to all persons.
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Pora, Charles.
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1678
(1678)
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Wing P2966A; ESTC R233075
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195,614
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671
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becomes not thereupon more or less sad idle remiss and negligent in Gods service Wherefore if we desire to be victorious and to gain a full Conquest over all our Ghostly Enemies and all Ghostly impediments defects infirmities whatsoever let us be willing to receive all sorts of Humiliations from Gods hand and from the hands of men Let us even rejoyce and be glad whensoever we find our selves vilified and undervalued by men and whensoever we are destituted of Consolations Let us rejoyce to submit our selves not only to our chief Prelates and Superiours but also to our Equals and Inferiours following therein the example of Christ our Lord who submitted himself to such and so low as to become obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Philip. 2. v. 8. Sect. 3. By overcoming our selves and sensual Appetites You have heard of old that the life of man is a continual warfare upon Earth as the holy Job testifies in his Book Chap. 7. v. 1. saying Militia est vita hominis super terram c. We cannot live in any place or in any condition or state whatsoever without continual opposition and repugnancy we must be always fighting and consequently always in trouble and danger never secure of our selves never at perfect rest never in perfect peace and a great reason hereof is that wheresoever we go we carry in our selves and in our own bosom our Enemy who never ceases to oppugn and hinder us especially in our spiritual proceedings This S. Paul clearly insinuates 2 Cor. 4. v. 16. where he speaks of a twofold man dwelling in every one of us to wit our selves and this our Enemy saying Licet is qui for is est noster homo corrumpitur tamen qui intus est renovatur de die in diem Although that our man which is without us doth corrupt and perish by little and little yet that which is within us is renewed day by day By which expression the man without us signifies our Body together with its naturâ— Affections Concupiscences and Lusts which die or ought to die and decay in us every day and the maâ— within us our Soul or interiour Spirit with its faculties and graces which should proportionably live be renewed and every day gather more and more strength in us These two Men or parts of Man are so fast chained and joyn'd together that the one cannot be without the other and yet are so opposite and contrary the one to the other that the life of the one is the death of the other Between these two Men all the Contradictions Contentions and Opposition incident to our life are tried for which cause the Apostle attributes to them several names by which they may be distinguished the one from the other for that end calling one of them the Spirit the other Flesh the one Body the other Soul one of them the Law of the Mind Spirit Soul c. the other the Law of Bodily Members One he calls the Old Man the other he calls the New and finally as here one the Exteriour or outward Man the other the Interiour or inward all which several names do serve very properly to represent to us the several and peculiar natures properties and inclinations of these two men and that we ought to obey and follow the inclinations of the one but to reject the motions and resist the inclinations of the other following herein the Counsel of the same Blessed Apostle which he gives Galat 5. v. 16. Dico aut em vobis Spiritu ambulate desideria carnis non perficietis I say unto you to all you that desire to be happy walk in the Spirit and the lusts of the Flesh you shall not fulfil Where we see that obedience to the Spirit and its motions is commanded but the motions that is the lusts of the Flesh we must not fulfil And again Rom. 8. 13. If you walk according to the Flesh you shall die but if by the Spirit you mortifie the deeds of the Flesh you shall live It is required of us that we mortifie and overcome the Flesh by the Spirit and for as much as the Flesh rebelleth so much and so often against the Spirit the Spirit must be encouraged by all the good means we can use against the Flesh and the sensual motions thereof So that the only way for a Christian to obtain tranquility and perfect peace is to be continually fighting with this Enemy We must seek our Peace in Wars our Life in Death that is in dying to sin that we may live to God and finally our greatest liberty in servitude for if we be the servants of God and of Righteousness we shall be free from the slavery of sin and wickedness which is the best liberty of all The great courage liberty and power of a vertuous Man sheweth it self best in overcoming himself and his passions To subdue and make subject the sensual appetites of the Flesh to the Spirit is the work of a great and heroick mind as on the contrary to follow and obey them overmuch speaks a great tepidity and weakness of heart In this kind of Combate 't is no disgrace to flie and run away but rather 't is the best art of fighting for by flying and running away we are sure to gain the victory neither does any thing more discourage vex trouble and mortifie our adversary than to know that we dare not encounter we dare not come up to him By flying from the World we avoid the snares of the World by flying from the Flesh we escape the temptations of the Flesh and by flying and running from our selves we make void and of no effect all private affections all private and proper interests that may be hurtful unto us and all the private designs of Self-love So that by flying we conquer the World the Flesh the Devil our wicked selves also and all We lead captive all evil inclinations whatsoever and so pacifie and quiet our exteriour or outward Man as that we make the interiour or inward Man to reign and rule in us in much peace gaining thereby a more glorious and illustrious triumph than if we had vanquished whole armies and subdued the mightiest Kingdoms of the whole World Josue by flying and running away from the City of Hay Jos 8. 15. obtain'd a great victory over his enemies and subdued that City which but a little before had put the whole Army of Israel to flight So if you will conquer and subdue to Reason all your unreasonable and disorderly appetites the only way is to flie from them not to attend to them nor hearken to any thing they suggest The same is to be said of your fighting and contending with the world and your selves to get the victory over them you must flie you must renounce the world and deny your selves the world and all its glory magnificencâ— or vain pomp riches honours pleasures c. Your selves and all your private concupiscences lusts designs Can you
10. daily dying as to this world in all our inordinate passions and affectations of humane praise honour favour and contrariwise chusing and desiring rather to be undervalued by all to the intent that for the present the power of Self-love may be broken and abated in us and that afterward for this undervaluing and dispising our selves we may be honoured and exalted by our Lord Jesus Christ according to his promise Luc. 18. 14. Qui se humiliat exaltibitur Who so humbleth himself shall be exalted He that undervalues himself easily undervalues all other things and if you will possess all the only way is to forsake all But alas How far short are we of Perfection in this kind How few are there amongst us that forsake either the world or themselves as they ought Few there are that go by this narrow way Many are called many are exhorted and incited to it but few elected or chosen to walk and finish their lives in it Few there are that love to be vilified or desire to be humbled for Christ and yet it is that we must submit unto we must come to that perfection or miss and fall short of our reward eternal happiness If we would desire this Perfection from our heart we should obtain it seeing our Saviour hath promised us that whatsoever we shall ask in his name that shall be for his honour and our good it shall be granted Joan. 14. v. 13 14. And therefore if God do not send us afflictions and adversities requisite to this purpose viz. to humble us and mortifie our corrupt passions it is by reason he sees us unfit for them We are not strong enough nor so well mortified in mind and spirit as to bear them God on his part is always ready to do us good and to treat us so as may be best for us both as to this life and that to come and consequently to send tribulations crosses and afflictions to those that are truly mortified and so resign'd to his Divine Will as that he sees they will receive good and not harm by them that they will be humbled by them and patient under them and consequently encrease their own merits upon that account if not unto temporal yet at least which is far better unto eternal reward Observe from hence that all the things which men desire or can wish for if they tend not to the true abnegation to the true submission and humiliation of our selves for the love of God they are tainted with corrupt nature Interest and Self-love and though men sometimes are apt to think that they have clearly avoided and freed themselves from this paspassion yet it is only in appearance and they have driven it from them as it were on the one side but it returns slily and secretly upon them some other way and sticks fast on their Souls which appears by this that men seldome or never wish for or desire any great adversity any sharp afflictions tribulations or crosses nor desire much that any thing should go contrary to their mind and yet only these and such like things can shew how they are humbled how mortified and free of Self-love The reason hereof is no other but that vertue is imperfect in us We are yet faint-hearted and ready to fail in small matters Men are not as yet come to a true undervaluing of themselves they love themselves esteem themselves and still seek themselves too much almost in every thing Self-love is a subtile and deceitful vice it deceives others it deceives our selves using much dissimulation with every one Happy is the man that is free of it that is dead to himself that is to say who is dead in all his sensual passions and appetites and in all inordinate affections towards visible objects and dead in his own Self-love desiring to be vilified and undervalued of all according to the example of Jesus Christ who in his own person gave us a marvellous instance of most perfect mortification when being upon the Cross he cryed out in these words Matth. 27. v. 46. Deus meus Deus meus ut quid dereliquisti me My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Why am I thus left destitute to the will of my enemies without any aid or comfort from you God our Saviour and Redeemer hanging thus on the Cross was for certain deprived of all spiritual and sensible consolation yet did he suffer most willingly and not in the least lose his courage Ah he did it for our example it was to let us know that when God deprives us at any time of our wonted Consolations whether Spiritual or Temporal and brings adversity and affliction upon us it is that we should suffer them patiently and willingly for his loves sake and that we should with a perfect resignation submit our selves to his Divine Will Perfection does not consist so much in the gifts of a sensible Love and sensible Consolations but in that which may be more real and essential though less sensible to wit in a well-ordered and well-grounded affection of resolution of mind for God and for the performonce of his Holy Will and Commandments in all things The servant of Christ should not seek nor place Perfection in any sensible things whatsoever whether Corporal or Spiritual not in any sensible Devotion in time of Prayer nor in the frequency of Internal Consolations but in perfect Conformity to the Will and Commandments of God in perfect mortification of all sinful lusts and appetites and in perfect abnegation of our selves as to every thing that is offensive to him and contrary to our duty Perfection consists in being throughly clear of all affection to sin and constantly inclin'd and well disposed to whatsoever is good Happy is he who is so humble as to acknowledge himself a great sinner and with the Publican to confess that he is not worthy to lift up his eyes to Heaven for the great multitude of his sins Happy is he who is so well disposed and mortified as to be ready to endure all pains yea even those of Hell it self if it could be for the love of God though being himself in the state of Grace Happy is he who is as well prepared and as well pleased in being deprived of all sensible graces devotions love as to have or receive such gifts from God Happy is he who is so well inflamed with the Essential love of God as to desire at all times of his life to be freed from corporal love to any Creature Happy is he who desireth to imitate or be like unto Jesus Christ upon the Cross abandoned of all good spiritual and corporal rejected and vilified by men forsaken by God and left destitute to all want pain and misery But alas How few are there of this perfect disposition where is the man that is thus mortified in his passions humbled in his mind resigned in his will Where is the man to be found who being depriv'd of his wonted Consolations