Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	holy_a	prayer_n	6,254	5	6.1558	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26903	Compassionate counsel to all young men especially I. London apprentices, II. students of divinity, physick, and law, III. the sons of magistrates and rich men / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing B1229; ESTC R170462	84,953	211

thing than meerly to take that name upon you and be of that party and to joyn with the right Church and to have the bare words and picture of believers And then consider whether God will be mocked with Shews and Ceremonies and dead Formalities and false Professions and whether the lifeless Carkass or Image of Christianity will be taken by God instead of the life and power of it and will ever save a Soul Yea whether a false counterfeit Christian bred up under Christian Instructions and Examples do not make your guilt far greater and your case more miserable than Americans or Indians that never heard what you have heard And when perhaps you have spoken against Hypocrites your selves whether there be any more notorious Hypocrites than such as you who say you are Christians and yet live to the Flesh in the odious sins which Christ abhorreth Think what a dreadful thing it is to profess a Religion which condemneth you and to say over that Creed which you believe not and those Petitions in the Lords Prayer which you desire not and those Commandments which you break and will condemn you To rebel against God while you say you believe in him To despise Christs Government while you say you trust him for Salvation To ask for his Grace when you would not have it to sanctifie you and save you from your sin To beg Mercy of God and to reject this Mercy and to have no Mercy on your selves O think what a doleful case it is to see distracted sinners such Hypocrites playing with such Contradictions so near Gods Bar and in his sight And to make no better use of Prayers and the name of Christians and the Profession of the Truth than to give the Devil more matter to accuse you and Conscience to torment you and a righteous God to say to you at last Out of thy own mouth will I judge thee thou wicked Rebel Didst thou not confess that Jesus was the Christ and that thou didst believe the Gospel and the Life to come and yet didst live in the wilful disobeying of Christ and the Gospel and base contempt of God and thy Salvation And when you have considered the sad case of Hypocrites that call themselves Christians to their own Condemnation when they are none such then think seriously what the Covenant was which was made for you in your Baptism and you have taken on you to own Think what it is devotedly to trust to God as your reconciled Father and devotedly to trust to Christ as your Saviour your great Teacher Governour and Mediator with the Father what it is devotedly to trust the Holy Spirit to illuminate sanctifie and quicken you in a holy Life and to strenthen and comfort you against and under all your Trials Consider what it is to take the Flesh the World and the Devil as they are against this holy Life and heavenly Hope for your Enemies and to list your selves under Christ in a vowed War to the death against them Think how you have perfidiously broken this Covenant on which all the Hope of your Salvation lieth And then if you dare not utterly renounce all that Hope presently and resolvedly renew this Covenant Lament your violation of it to God Do it not only in a passion but upon serious consideration make that choice and resolution which you dare stand to at a dying hour and on which you may believe that God for Christs sake will accept you and forgive you O think what a Mercy it is to have a Saviour who after all your heinous sins will bring you reconciled as Sons to God for the merits of his Sacrifice and Righteousness and by his powerful Intercession and will send from Heaven the Spirit of God into your hearts to renew those blind dead carnal minds to God's holy Image and will dwell in you and carry on your Sanctification to the end Thankfully and joyfully accept this Covenant and Grace and again give up your selves to God your Father Saviour and Sanctifier but be sure that you do it absolutely without deceitful exceptions and reserves and that you do it resolvedly and not only in a frightened mood and yet that you do it as in the strength of the Grace of Christ not trusting the stedfastness of your own deceitful mutable Hearts And when you can truly say that you unfeignedly consent and renew this Covenant in your hearts then go the next opportunity to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper and there penitently and faithfully renew it openly in the solemn way that Christ hath appointed you thankfully profess your Trust in Christ and receive a sealed Pardon of your sins and Title to everlasting Life and settle your Conversation in the Communion of Saints as you hope to live with such for ever V. Hence forward set your selves as the true Schollars of Christ to learn his Doctrine and as his true Subjects to know his Laws and as those that trust their Souls into his Hand to understand and firmly believe his Promises for this Life and that which is to come And as the blessed man Psal. 1 2 3. To delight in the Law of the Lord and meditate in it day and night As you were wont to steal some hours from God and your Masters to go to the house of Sin and Death so now get such hours as lawfully you can from your other Employments and diversions but especially on the Lords-days and get alone and beg mercy and Grace from God and set your selves to read the Bible and with it read some Catechisms and some sound and serious Treatises of Divinity which are most suitable to your state It is young men that have miscarried and being convinced are willing to turn to God that I am now directing And therefore supposing that you will ask me what Books I would commend to you I will answer you accordingly supposing still that you prefer the Bible 1. For the full resolving of your Hearts to a sound Repentance and a holy life read Ioseph Allenes Book of Conversion Richard Allens Vindication of Godliness and their Book of Covenanting with God and his Victory over the World Mr. Whateleys New birth and some of the old Sermons of Repentance such as Mr. Stocks Mr. Perkins Mr. Dikes Mr. Marburys Bunny's correction of Parsons Book for Resolution Iohn Rogers Doctrine of Faith William Fenners Books Sam. Smith on the first and the fifty first Psalms and his great Assize and on the Eunuchs Conversion Bifields Marrow Mr. How 's blessedness of the Righteous and of Delighting in God And if you would have any of mine read the Call to the Vnconverted or the Treatise of Conversion and the Directions for sound Conversion and Now or Never and a Saint or a Bruit or which of all these Gods Providence shall afford you II. If you would have help to try your hearts lest they be deceived read Alleins foresaid Book of the Covenant and Pinkes Tryal of sincere Love to

to the Lust of any other He that is false to his God and Saviour after his Baptismal Vows is unlike to be true to his Country or his King if he have but the bait of a strong temptation And he that will sell his Soul his God and Heaven for a Whore or for to please his Appetite it 's like will not stick to betray Church or State or his dearest Friend for provision to satisfie these Lusts. Can you expect that he should love any man better than himself A wicked fleshly worldly man is a soil for Satan to sow the seeds in of any sort of actual sin and is fuel dryed or tinder for the sparks of Hell to kindle in Will he suffer much for God or his Country who will sell Heaven for nothing An evil Tree bringeth forth evil Fruit. If he hath the heart of an Achan a Gehazi an Achitophel no wonder if he hath their Actions and their Reward If he be a Thief and bear the Bag no wonder if Iudas sell his Master § 12. And these wretches if they live are like to be a Plague to their own posterity Woe to the Woman that hath such an Husband And how are the Children like to be bred that have such a Father Doth not God threaten punishment to the third and fourth Generation of them that hate him and to visit the iniquity of the Fathers on the Children Were not the Children of the old World drowned and those of Sodom and Gomorrah burned and Achans stoned Dathans Abirams swallowed up and Gehazi's struck with Leprosie c. for their Fathers sins And the Amalekites Children all destroyed and the posterity of the Infidel Jews forsaken the Curse coming on them and on their Children And as their Children are like to speed the worse for such Parents sins so are such Parents like to be requited by their Children As you shamed and grieved the hearts of your Parents so may your Children do by you And by that time it 's like if Grace convert you not though you have no hatred to your own sins worldly Interest may make you dislike your Childrens Their Lust and Appetite doth not tempt and deceive you as your own did Perhaps when they shame your Family debauch themselves with drink and Whores and consume the Estates which you sold your Souls for you may perceive that sin is an evil and destructive thing especially when they proceed to despise and abuse your persons also and to desire your Death and be a weary of you sooner or later you shall know better what sin is CHAP. VI. The joyful State and Blessing of good Children to themselves and others § 1. FRom what is said Chap. 2. and 5. it 's easie to gather how joyful a case to themselves and what a Blessing to Parents and others it is when Children betime are sober wise and godly and obedient The difference doth most appear at age and when they come to bring forth to themselves and others the fruits of their dispositions And the end and life to come will shew the greatest difference But yet even here and that betime the difference is very great § 2. I. As to themselves How blessed a state is it to be quickly delivered from the danger of damnation and Gods displeasure that they need not lie down and rise in fear lest they be in Hell whenever Death removeth them from the Body Can one too soon be out of so dreadful a state Can one that is in a house on fire or falln into the Sea make too much haste to be delivered If a man deep in debt be restless till it be paid and glad when it is discharged If a man in danger of sickness or a condemning Sentence of the Judge be glad when the fear of Death is over How glad should you be to be safe from the great danger of Damnation And till you are sanctified by Grace you are far from safety § 3. And if a mans Sickness Pain or Distraction be a Calamity the cure of which brings ease and joy How much more ease and joy may it bring to be cured from all the grievous Maladies of reigning sin Sanctification will cure your minds of spiritual blindness and madness that is of damnable Ignorance Unbelief and Error It will cure your affections of idolatrous distracting carnal Love of the itch of fleshly Desires or Lusts of the feaver of revengeful passions and malignant hatred to goodness and good men and of self vexing envy and malice against others of the greedy worm of Covetousness and the drunken desire of ambitious and imperious minds It will cure your Wills of their fleshly servitude and biass and of that mortal Backwardness to God and holy things and that sluggish dulness and lothness to choose and do what you are convinced must be done It will make good things easie and pleasant to you so that you will no more think you have need to beg mirth from the Devil or steal it from sin as if God Grace and Glory had none for you But it will be so easie to you to love and find pleasure in the Bible and good Books in good Company and good Discourse in spiritual Meditations and thoughts in holy Sermons Prayers and Church Communion and Sacraments even in Christ in God and the fore-thoughts of Heaven that you will be sorry and ashamed to think that ever you forsook such joys for fleshly pleasure and defiled your Souls with filthy and forbidden things And is not the itch of Lust better cured than scratch'd Is not the feaverish and dropsie thirst after Drink and Wealth and Honour better cured than pleased to the sinners death And is not a lazy backwardness to Duty better cured by spiritual health than pleased with idleness and sleep § 4. And certainly you cannot too soon attain the delights of Faith and Hope and Love of holy Knowledge and Communion with God and Saints You cannot too soon have the great blessing of Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost and live night and day in peace of Conscience in assurance that all your sins are pardoned and that you are the adopted Sons of God and Heirs of Heaven sealed by his Spirit accepted in your Prayers welcome to God through Christ and when you die shall be with him Can you make too great haste from the folly and filth of sin and the danger of Hell into so safe and good a state as this § 5. And it will be a great comfort to you thus to find at age and use of reason that your baptismal Blessings ceased not with your Infancy by your own rejection but that you are now by your own consent in the Bond of God's Covenant and have a right to all the blessings of it which the Sacrament of Christs Body and Blood will confirm as you had your Entrance by your Parents consent and accepted Dedication For the Covenant of Grace is our certain Charter for Grace