Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	deed_n	flesh_n	mortify_v	5,880	5	10.8136	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93799	A holy life here, the only way to eternal life hereafter. Or, A discourse grounded on these words, The weapons of our warfare, &c. 2. Cor. 10. 4. Wherein among other things set down in a following index this truth is especially asserted; namely, that a holy life, or the habitual observing of the laws of Christ, is indispensably necessary to salvation. Whereunto is added an Appendix, laying open the common neglect of the said laws among Christians, and vindicating such necessity of observing them from those general exceptions that are wont to be made against it. By R.S. B.D.	Stanwix, Richard, 1608-1656.	1652 (1652)	Wing S5252; Thomason E1276_1; ESTC R210586	123,869	304

is to be reputed contrary to the forementioned and many other corruptions consisting in walking after the spirit Rom. 8.1.8.15 Col. 3.2 Phil. 3.20 1 Cor. 10.31 1 Tim. 6.18 and mortifying the deeds of the flesh and having our mindes and meditations in Heaven and doing all to the glory of God and being rich in good works in brief such as consists in a deliberate and exact doing the will of God in every thing and for that purpose a daily consulting with his word and making use of those helps of prayer meditation and Christian conferences commended to us therein as necessary for that end This way I say is that which such persons will be ready to asperse and calumniate at least in those who seem to be frequenters of it or to draw others thereunto in the like manner as the unconverted Heathen did heretofore the outward profession of Christian religion that is First as some new device invented by some melancholy or pragmaticall and over-busie or precise persons such as trouble themselves with more then becomes them and affect to be noted for singularity having not the modesty to be content with and conform themselves to that which is the common and ordinary practise of the most in this kind Secondly as a way if at all observed yet only in a manner by simple and obscure persons such as do not or cannot well understand the extent of their priviledges and Christian liberty in this kind and therefore it cannot but be very unfit for persons of such quality as they are to take them herein for their examples If either be to conforme to other it were fit that these latter that are so farre below them come up to them and not they descend to these Thirdly as a way most unpleasing and uncomfortable for men wholly to limit themselves to the law of God to speak or think or do nothing but what it requires or allowes to spend a great part of their time in prayers and meditations and Christian discourses out of the word for edifying themselves in godlinesse to lay out their means which should make them and their Heirs live in honour and esteem in the world upon strangers or such as they have no particular obligation to these are things wherein as a great part of Religion consists So they are ordinarily lookt upon by such persons as very harsh and unpleasant courses and such as are very unsuitable with those ends of enjoying worldly repute and profit and pleasures which they have proposed to themselves and therefore are so farre the more opposite to them Fourthly there are some of the lawes of Christ and which these persons sufficiently know to be such yet if we may judge as I know not but we may by their avowed deliberate practice in this kind are lookt upon by them as things below them that is as disgracefull and unworthy for them to observe namely those published touching the abstaining from al revenge and contesting with others instead where of is commended to us praying and blessing Matth. 9.44 and doing good to those that hate or hurt us and turning the other cheek to him that hath smitten us rather then by our opposition to adde fuel to his enmi●y and thereby encrease the contention who are there almost especially of these that are or would be accounted the Gallants of the time that do not take a quite contrary course that are not apt to steem these things rather as acts of base●esse and pusillanimity then of any ho●our though in so doing they charge ●he most gallant and honourable person ●hat ever was on earth with being guilty of such basenesse both in his doctrine and ●xample namely our blessed Saviour These are those strong holds whereby such persons come to be fortified in their sins making them resolutely go on al their dayes in a wilfull breach of some or more of the known lawes of Christ And to all these may bee added that which is indeed the main strength and supporter of all these reasonings in them and of that carelesnesse or remisnesse in observing the lawes of Christ which flowes from thence that is a secret inward perswasion derived to them from some common but unsound doctrine namely touching the unnecessarinesse of such precise and universall exact walking and conforming our selves to the word that men may be saved and come to Heaven ordinarily without it that to relie on the merits of Christ to apprehend and apply his righteousnesse to our selves which is that formality of justifying faith which some teach and which surely for the nature of the thing may be exhibited in the last sicknesse and that by those that for all the time before have constantly neglected the doing of the forementioned duties that this is sufficient for securing a man of salvation This is that common great Engine or Fortress whereby such persons and all others in a manner that are possest of it become impregnable in their holds their subduing being in a sort impossible and so they themselves in this respect in a more desperate condition then those of the ancient Gentiles the Apostles had to deal with so long as it remains un-demolisht in them And therefore in the first place for pulling down all the Strong holds before mentioned the attempt must bee made here against this which pretends to bee built upon and have for its ground the word it self and that must be by shewing that which the Scripture will easily enable us unto as every where in a manner affirming it Heb. 12.14 Namely that without holinesse which is exprest else where by keeping the Commandements of God 1 Cor. 7.19 and being new creatures Gal. 6.15 there is no seeing of God to bee expected that hearing of Christs words without doing of them makes a man like to a foolish builder and is a deceiving of himself Matt. 7.26 Jam. 1.22 Rom. 2.7 that life and immortality is onely assured by the Apostle to those that by patient continuance in well-doing wait for it 2 Pet. 1.9 That hee that wants the divine Graces of Godlinesse 2 Pet. 1.9 temperance charity and the rest reckoned up by S. Peter what ever knowledge he otherwise have is blinde Rev. 2.7.11 17.26 and cannot see afar off And lastly that the crown of life is promised not unto all that fight but onely to those that overcome that is their inward affections and all outward temptations which may be hinderances of doing Gods will Now then If these things can be reasonably thought to bee included in that reliance or faith which men are taught and are generally so willing to build their main hopes upon or if they bee indeed such things as can bee transacted by men in their last sicknesse if it can with any truth or reason be said that hee who during his life and health hath conformed himself more to the courses of the world then to the righteous and heavenly Lawes

integrity and unweariedness in the service of Christ or lastly those quite contrary characters whereby especially in that Epistle to the Romans he describes a truly regenerate person will I think be enforced to grant that which good expositors Origines Chrysosto Theodor. Oecumenius Ambrosius Erasmus Bucerus Musculus both antient and modern declare to be their opinion herein namely that the Apostle in that Chapter doth as is not unusuall with him elsewhere viz. Rom. 3.7 1 Cor. 6.12.10.23.27.30 131.2 Gal. 20.18 personate another in himself that is speaks of a person that is supposed to be yet under the Law and to whom the grace of Christ shining forth in the promises of the Gospell is not known nor hath had any influence upon him shewing by instancing in himself the miserable condition of such a person and consequently must grant that those notes or affections which he there ascribes to the said person cannot belong to the Apostle as he was then being a regenerate person nor to any other that truly are so And this thing and so that perfection we here intend as necessary to salvation will better appear by observing the direct contrary notes to those set down in that Chapter as belonging to the person there described whereby a person truly regenerate is by the same Apostle elsewhere set forth to us Such are these that this person is one that hath crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Gal. 5.24 whereas the former is one in whom sin works all manner of concupiscence Rom. 7.8 This person is one in whom the body of sin that is sin it self is destroyed so that he is dead to sin and sin doth no longer live or reign in him Rom. 6.2.6.11.12.14 but the former is one in whom sin so lives that it kils him subjects him to death Rom. 7.9.10.11 Lastly this person is one that is no longer in the flesh Rom. 7.5 that is freed from sin Rom. 6.18.22 that walks not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1.4 that by the Spirit mortifies the deeds of the flesh Rom. 8.13 and that is free from the Law of sin and also of death Rom. 8.2 but the former is one that is carnall sold under sin Rom. 7.14 that does not that good that he would but the evill that he would not v. 19. that is in captivity to the Law of sin v. 23. that is deteined by the body of death that is by death it self from which as one in misery he desires to be freed v. 24. All which being either formall or vertuall contradiction cannot agree to the same person at the same time and consequently imply that the temper of that person described in that chapter and made up of those qualities and conditions there assigned is not possibly reconcilable to that other constitution of a regenerate person marked by those properties elsewhere extant which wee have expressed no those doe truly manifest the state of this person to bee such as wee conceive to be necessary to bring any to the kingdome of heaven and that is a state of freedome from all habits and courses of sin 1. Joh. 4.3.9 c. 5.18 and an answerable habituall walking in the commandement of God and this St. John further confirms when he ascribes this great privilege and perfection to such a person saying that hee is such a one that sins not nor can sin 2. Though I think this perfection as I have expressed it to bee both a possible and necessary condition in this case yet I am not so far a Chatherist as to think that he cannot be a Christian that is not every way perfect or that commits the least offence against the precepts of Christ neither do I conceive either the former notes of a regenerate person or that which hath been last alleged out of St. John to imply that the said person is so righteous as never in the least thing to sin or offend but onely that he hath not as I have before expressed the habit of any sin and that he does not live in a course of sin but ordinarily and for the greatest part abstains from and avoids the committing of it and this I conceive may sufficiently appear by these following considerations 1. That mens actions are esteemed and so men themselves denominated from the greater part of them thus wee call him a sober person and temperate in the use of meat and drink who ordinarily or for the most part avoids all excesse in in this kind though sometimes it may happen that contrary to his constant wont and purpose he transgresse a just measure therein and thus also wee call him a liberall man who usually proportionably to his ability and as prudence shall direct gives of his own though sometimes it may fall out that in some thing he may not be liberall but may omit there to give where it is fit and there is truly need of it and so answeably he is to be esteemed and so is called in scripture a righteous person who doth righteousness as St. John saith that is who ordinarily practiseth and is really addicted to works of righteousness prescribed in the word though sometimes through common frailtie or inadvertency hee may do something that is not truly righteous or agreeable to the said rule 2. Because the word sin in the new testament is ordinarily wont and used to signifie not any one single act of sinning but either some grievous offence namely such as may argue the person guilty thereof to be involved in others not light crimes and which cannot consist with the fear of God in the same person or more and iterated acts of sinning as may appear from these places Luke 15.18 Ioh. 9.2.3 Rom. 6.15.2 Cor. 12.21.13.2 Heb. 3.17 3. Because those places of scripture which are used to set forth the state of unregenerate and regenerate persons are such as denote an habit or custome thus the former are said to walk and live after the flesh Rom. 8.1.13 and to live in sin Rom. 6.2 and to commit sin 1. Jo. 3.8 and the latter to walk and live after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 and to live godlily 2. Tim. 3.12 and to live according to God 1. Pet. 4. v. 6. as the word live notes our manner or course of living so the word walk answerably notes the accustomed actions of our life for as a way is often trod in so that which wee often and usually do is called our way and accordingly the Apostle exhorts us that wee should not suffer sin to reign in us nor yield our members to it as weapons of unrighteousness Rom. 6.12.13 by which forms of speech he requires that wee should bee exempted from the reign and dominion of sin but not simply from every act of it It is true according to the sense of Moses his law the single act of any one sin subjects a man to the curse but according to the law of liberty that is the Gospel of Christ not every