Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A36457
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A sermon preached before the Queen at White-Hall, February the fifteenth, 1690/1 by Henry Dove ....
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Dove, Henry, 1640-1695.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing D2052; ESTC R3520
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12,590
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34
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turn our hearts from inclining to 'em and help us to see our Folly and our Danger For alas We are not able of our selves to help our selves not so much as to think a good Thought much less to resist an evil Inclination or a strong Temptation but our Sufficiency is of God It is God says the Psalmist here that girdeth me with Ver. 32. strength and maketh my way Perfect and through Christ who strengthens me says St. Paul I can do Phil. 4. 13. all things Without the Divine Grace and Assistance it is impossible we should be kept from any Sin and without Prayer there is no way imaginable of obtaining either That was the vain Presumption of the Pelagian Heretick who thought to do it in his own Strength and this is the too common but dangerous Mistake of some that would be thought more Orthodox Christians who think to have help without asking Hence those manifold Exhortations and Commands in SS to pray continually to pray without ceasing to watch and pray Watch ye Luk. 21. 36. therefore and pray always says our Saviour Continue in Prayer and watch in the same says St. Paul Col. 4. 2. Be ye sober and watch unto Prayer says St. Peter 1 Pet. 4. 7. And for our Encouragement to pray we have the greatest Assurance that it shall be granted Ask and it shall be given you says our Blessed Luk. 11. 9. Saviour which he strongly enforces from the kindness of Earthly Parents If ye then being evil Ver. 13. know how to give good things to your Children how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him And If any Man lack Wisdom says St. James let him ask of God and it shall Jam. 1. 5. be given him What more positive promises in the Book of God But here if any one object as I believe some are apt to do if God be so liberal in granting His Grace and Spirit how comes it then to pass that so many run into Sin for want of it who yet perhaps are frequently asking it To this I Answer That such either ask it not in Faith that is relying on those Ways and using the Means which God in His Word directs 'em to or else they ask it not in Sincerity and so draw near with their Mouths while their Hearts are far from desiring what they ask as St. Augustine somewhere says of himself That when in his Youthful Heat he prayed against his beloved Sin he did it so coldly as though he was afraid lest God should hear him Or else they neglect to stir up the Grace of God that is already bestowed on them and cease to second it with their own Endeavours For 2. We must always remember that tho' the Grace of God prevents us that we may have a good Will and works in us when we have it that so we may find Success yet in Vain do we expect the Continuance of His Help without our diligent Endeavours While He assists our Weakness He does not intend to encourage our Laziness and therefore we are also to labour and Col. 1. 29. strive according to his working which worketh in us mightily as the Apostle expresses it 'T is the Might of His Power that worketh in us but we are to labour according to it or else we provoke Him to withdraw it from us And this I observe the rather because there are some in the World who think they have nothing to do but only to sit as it were with folded Arms under the Influences of Heaven and wait for their Work to be done to their hands by the Almighty Power of God and the sole Operation of His Grace and Spirit and though they would gladly be help'd yet never stir a foot to help themselves But surely a Christian one that is in Covenant with Christ by Baptism and a Member of his Body should know and consider better things and such as accompany his Salvation viz. That though God be always before hand with us in giving us His Spirit yet when it is once bestowed He expects our Compliance and humble Concurrence with it that we should manage His Grace with Carefulness and improve His Talents with Diligence most unfeignedly ascribing all the Glory to Himself who is the sole efficient Cause of all that is good in us Wherefore as we must always pray that God would keep us from such Sins so we must labour also to keep our selves since we have now no Excuse from Weakness no Pretence for Disability having the Promise of Divine Assistance and of further Supplies of Grace upon using the former well for to him that hath shall be given Mat. 13. 12. and He giveth more Grace Jam. 4. 6. In order to which I shall add 3. That we take care to avoid such things and decline such Occasions as are most likely to snare us and gain upon us lest one thing hook in another and we be caught in the Gin before we suspect the Danger The Neglect of this was the Cause of the First Sin to which we owe our Inclinations to all the rest for Adam was not deceiv'd says the Apostle but the Woman being deceiv'd 1 Tim. 2. 14. was in the Transgression The Man was not deceiv'd till he hearkened to the Woman nor was the Woman beguil'd till she listned to the Charmer when once she began to parly with the Tempter to come near the Tree and to contemplate and admire the Goodliness of the Fruit she was more than half overcome The Command the Threatning of God In the day thou eatest thou shalt dye the Death are soon overlooked and forgotten and we presently read That she took of the Fruit of the Tree and did eat and Gen. 3. 6. gave also unto her Husband with her and he did eat And certainly 't is a shrewd sign we do not much desire to keep our selves from the Sin when we court or seek out the occasion nay 't is an Argument rather that we long to fulfill the Lusts of the Flesh and of the Mind when we encourage the Temptation and make provision for ' em Tertullian tells us of a Christian Woman who going to see the Heathen Sacrifices and Shews was immediately seized on by the Evil Spirit to whom those Sacrifices were made and when the Holy Man in the Name and Power of Christ had cast him out and demanded the Reason Why he meddled with one that was a Christian he replied What did she make there He found her within his own Territories in the midst of his Votaries and Vassals and so he took her for his own The Application of the Story is briefly this When we willingly rush upon a Temptation or contentedly close with the occasion we give the Tempter the greatest advantage against us we do as it were proffer him our Service and if God be no kinder to us than we are to our selves to with-hold and
restrain us by his Grace and rescue us by his mighty Power he leads us away Captive at his will and pleasure Let us then avoid the Occasion shun the Place the Company the Counsel and Converse of Evil-doers and abstain as the Apostle advises 1. Thess 5. 22. even from all appearance of Evil. Fourthly Let no man think either the Evil and Malignity of Sin or God's Hatred to it to be less than it is For he that is not truly sensible of the Evil of all Sin will scarce be afraid of any and he that does not believe that God really hates it will never be solicitous lest he offend him by it And indeed these are commonly the Grounds of Mens indulging themselves in Sin they frame specious and plausible Arguments to excuse themselves and with fallacious Reasonings endeavour to lessen their Guilt while they sometime colour a downright wilful Sin with the specious Name of an Infirmity and then with Lot think their Zoar may be spar'd because it is but a little one Is it not Gen. 19. 20. a little one And my Soul shall live Or else they are willing to compound with the Almighty and ready to say with Naaman Only in this thing 2 Kin. 5. 18. the Lord pardon thy Servant If God would dispence with 'em in this or that beloved Lust He shall command 'em in all other things or else they presume upon God's Mercy without sufficient Warrant from his Word and tho' they will confess themselves to be Sinners as indeed there is no man liveth and sinneth not yet they are apt to think that God's Mercy being over all his Works it will overlook theirs too and tho' they know that he hates Sin yet they fondly imagine he will be reconciled to them though they venture to continue in it 'T is true indeed God will be reconciled to any Sinner provided that he repent but 't is every jot as true that except he repent he shall infallibly perish Nay I doubt not to add That whoso refuses to forsake his beloved Sin now in hopes he shall do it hereafter is in all probability nearer perishing than he is repenting Lest any man therefore should thus perversly argue himself into his own Ruin let him seriously and sadly consider that every Sin of it self is of a condemning nature and that God perfectly hates every evil way And let no one presume to say My Sin is inconsiderable and therefore I need not leave it It is a far-better Consequence My Sin is inconsiderable and therefore I need not keep it For even the Smallness of the Sin may in some cases enhaunce the Guilt because the Temptation is less the Motive of little or no value and the Resistance easie And surely it argues a strange fondness and love of Sin and a very light esteem of God and our own Souls when one poor contemptible Lust shall be able to exclude or over-poise him in our Hearts Settle therefore in your Souls a true Estimate of the Baseness of all Sin and as deep a sence of God's Hatred to it not that it may drive you to despond but lead you to a quick and speedy Repentance and so to hope for a Share in his Mercy through our Lord Jesus Christ 5. Be tender and cautious of violating your Consciences even in the smallest matter for he that has once debauch'd his Conscience even in lesser Sins 't is much to be fear'd he will not stick at greater for one Sin willingly admitted brings on another and Sin added to Sin oft ends in Presumption Hardness of Heart and Contempt of God's Word and Commandment Now Conscience of our Duty towards God with an habitual and holy fear of offending him is the best Preservative in the World against all sorts of Temptations and that Regret of Mind which is natural to Men upon the Commission of Evil and is supernaturally improved by the Grace of Christ and the Influence of his Spirit if Men do not wilfully stifle and suppress it is Armour of Proof against the most furious Assaults of Sin or Satan Remember the Example of holy Joseph who put by a strong Temptation in all its charming Addresses with this single Question How can I do Gen. 39. 9. this great Wickedness and sin against God Confront the boldest or the sliest Tempter with the same Question if he cannot satisfie thy Conscience how thou may'st close with him and yet not sin against God he will quickly cease his Request Or if he be so impudent as to trouble thee still yet while this Thought is warm in thy Heart so long as the Fear and Love of God are uppermost in thy Thoughts thou may'st easily resist even the Devil himself and all his accursed Agents But he that breaks the Force of his Conscience and has learnt to silence its Whispers and Checks in the Commission of lighter and lesser Evils it is not to be doubted but he will e're long be deaf to all its louder Reproofs So great reason have we to be tender of our Consciences so great is our Security while we keep 'em undefiled through an awful Fear of God a continual sence of the Divine Presence and Inspection and an humble regard to that great Day of Accounts when we must all appear before 2 Cor. 5. 10. the Judgment-Seat of Christ To these may be added some more particular and special Helps for the same purpose which I can only mention I. That we set apart some Portion of our Time to examine our selves and to state the Accounts of our Souls that we sequester our selves a while from the Business and Bustle of the World and enter into our Closets even into the inner Closets of our own Hearts that so we may search out the Sin which does so easily beset us and resolve against those Temptations especially which have formerly foil'd or overcome us II. That we be diligent in reading and hearing the Word of GOD and take more especial notice of those Places and Passages in Holy SS whether Precepts Examples Comminations or Judgments which more immediately concern our own Case For the Book of God is a Glass that flatters no man III. That we exercise our selves at convenient Seasons with some piece of godly and prudent Discipline such as Abstinence and Fasting which are so often recommended in the SS that so by denying our selves sometimes in things that are Lawful we may learn by degrees to tame our unruly Appetites and Wills whenever they are tempted or inclin'd to Unlawful Objects IV. That we thankfully make use of the Means which Christ himself hath appointed in the Sacrament of his Death as a proper Remedy against our peculiar Sins For this is not only the Spiritual Food of our Souls but Physick also to cure their Distempers and to prevent Relapses If it be duely received with unfeigned Contrition and Penitence going before with serious Vows a lively Faith and universal Charity accompanying it it cannot fail to convey to us the Power of Christ's Death the Vertue and Efficacy of his precious Blood it will heal the Wounds that have been made in our Spirits and keep 'em from fretting afterwards and Cleanse us at last through the Supply of the Spirit of Christ which is never wanting to his own Institutions from the Spot and the Pollution from 1 Joh. 1. 7. Heb. 9. 14. 1 Pet. 1 19. Rev. 1. 5. the Power and Dominion from the Guilt and from the Punishment of all Sin Which God of his infinite Mercy grant to us all for Jesus Christ his sake To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God be ascribed of us and his whole Church all Honour and Glory now and evermore FINIS