Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	fear_n	lord_n	wisdom_n	5,389	5	6.9425	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62324	A sermon preached before the King at New-Market, April 2, 1676 by Samuel Scattergood ...	Scattergood, Samuel, 1646-1696.	1676 (1676)	Wing S843; ESTC R14320	12,816	31

actions of Gods Providence and for thirsting after that Wisdom which they can never attain to 'T is the subject of this whole chapter in which he sets forth most eloquently the impossibility of ever acquiring this Wisdom which God hath reserved to himself as his own peculiar prerogative For when he hath made a carefull enquiry after it throughout all the world ransak'd the Air the Earth the Sea nay even hell it self and yet not found it he concludes in the 23 Verse of this Chapter that God understands the way thereof and he knows the place thereof God understands it and he onely understands it and he will have none else to understand it or meddle with it He hath ordained another sort of Wisdom for Man to seek after which though it will not satisfie the fond curiosity of every inquisitive Brain that is still longing for the forbidden Fruit yet it will be sufficient to make every one that attains to it wise unto Salvation And this is the Wisdom which is here recommended to us in my Text with this emphaticall word Behold before it to command our attention and to make us rouse up our spirits and turn away our eyes from those Vanities and that false Wisdom which we are too ready to follow after and fix them upon the true And unto Man he said Behold the fear of the Lord that is Wisdom and to depart from evil is Understanding In the handling of which words I shall endeavour First to shew what is here meane by the Fear of the Lord. Secondly what it is to depart from evil And thirdly prove that to depart from evil in the Name and Fear of the Lord is the greatest wisdom that Man is capable of Of these in order And First of the fear of the Lord. There is a fear of the Lord which is not Wisdom nor Understanding nay it is Folly it is Madness it is Sin I mean such a fear as is peculiar only to wicked men a fear that represents God to them frowning armed with thunder and ready to take vengeance on their crimes a very unwelcome guest in their Breasts which shews them as it were Hell in epitome and gives them a taste here of those eternall torments which shall be their portion hereafter This is the evil spirit from the Lord which troubled Saul This is that fear which loosed the joints of Belshazzars loyns and smote his knees one against another when he beheld the hand-writing against him upon the wall that fear which made Cain a fugitive and a vagabond in the Earth and drove Ahitophel and Judas to desperation This is so far from being a blessing that it is a curse a vexation a tormenting Fury which wicked men labour all they can to chase out of their hearts but alas it is all in vain it haunts them still and will never depart from them till they depart from evil Indeed perhaps it may sometimes give them a little intermission but yet it returns again with the greater violence No place is secure from it where wicked men can come but it follows and pursues them every where embitters all their joyes and pleasures torments them day and night and affrights them even in their dreams This is one fear of the Lord but not that fear which is here meant in my Text for if this be all the wisdom man can attain to surely then of all creatures he is the most miserable But we may go a degree further still and yet come short of the true Fear of God For there are some men that so fear Him as that they will endeavour to abstain from gross and scandalous sins but not out of any true love they have for God or any hatred they bear to sin but meerly out of Self-interest that they may if possible escape that vengeance which they know will one day be executed upon the Ungodly I will not say that this fear is in all men a sin for it is in some a Virtue and if it be not the Wisdom here in the Text yet it is at least a good step toward the obtaining of it For as it is a true Maxim that no man can all of a sudden become a most notorious sinner so it is as true one the contrary that no man that hath been a sinner and such we are all by Nature can without such a miracle as was wrought at the Conversion of S. Paul in the twinkling of an eye become a Saint of the first Magnitude No we must be content to acquire this perfection by degrees we must creep before we can go be Babes in Christ before we can be strong Men. We must pass from strength to strength from grace to grace before we can appear before God in Sion For certainly God would never have set before us Life and Death never have propounded to us in his word Rewards and Punishments nor have told us of a cursed and a blessed Eternity if he did not allow us to fear the one and to desire the other Nay this fear of Gods wrath is so far from being unlawfull that it is absolutely necessary We must receive the Spirit of Bondage to fear before we can have that of Adoption to cry Abba Father We must be affrighted by the severity of the Law that we may be sensible how great need we have of a Saviour Our wounds must be cleansed with a Corrosive before we pour in Oyl and they must first smart with the Waters of Marah before they be refreshed with the Balm of Gilead We must fear God as an angry Judge before we can love him as a tender Father and we must tremble at his Terrours before we can adore his Mercy But although this fear be good in those Persons who are carefull to improve it and make it a step to further Graces yet it is sinfull and wicked in all those who rest content with this and never aim at any higher Perfection but think that they are good Christians if they abstain from some sins meerly out of hopes to escape damnation though they never had nor intend to have any zeal for the Glory of God nor any hatred for Sin nay though indeed they love it at their heart and could wish that there were no God to condemn them nor Hell to torment them that so they might have a license to commit wickedness even with greediness to drink iniquity like water and securely gratifie all their lusts and corruptions This is a second degree of the fear of God or indeed it is rather the fear of Hell or to speak most properly 't is the love of our selves I come now to shew you what the true fear of God is that fear which the Text tells us is Wisdom And this is such a fear of God as proceeds from love nay indeed it is nothing else but love not of our selves as the former fear but of God as the onely object that can deserve our affections as the greatest

not though the whole world be his enemy while God is his Friend He is not to be won by its enticements nor daunted by its threatnings but he stands firm and unshaken upon this rock exalted above its frowns and smiles Conscience that is so terrible an enemy to him that fears not God is his most faithfull friend and it is as comfortable a friend as it is a dreadfull enemy It alwaies joyns with God it is his Vice-roy to pronounce that sentence on Earth which he passes in Heaven While this therefore tells him that God is his refuge and strength he may say with the Psalmist what follows I will not fear though the Earth be removed and though the Mountains be carried into the midst of the sea This will enable him to comport and demean himself like a Child of God in all conditions It will teach him with S. Paul in whatsoever state he is therewith to be content This will sweeten every bitter cup. This will lighten the burden of his affliction This will make all his bed in his sickness This will fill him with joy even at the hour of his death and enable him to deliver up his soul into the hand of God with comfort and full assurance of a blessed Resurrection And then in that great and terrible day of the Lord wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements shall melt with fervent heat when the whole World shall tremble and neither Heaven nor Earth be able to abide the dreadfull approach of that great Judge but both shall pass away and be consumed before him when the Wicked shall call in vain to the Mountains and Rocks to fall on them and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn Then shall Conscience shew it self to be a most faithfull friend embolden him to lift up his head with joy plead for him against all his Accusers and through the merits and mercy of Christ acquit him at that grand Tribunal Then shall this Wisdom as it hath freed him from the greatest evil from sin and hell so also confer upon him the greatest Good and invest him with eternall Holiness and Happiness Thirdly and lastly All other Wisdom without this is but meer Folly but this of it self alone without the help and concurrence of any thing else which the world calls Wisdom is sufficient to make us eternally happy For in what else shall we place Wisdom if not in the Fear of the Lord Shall we place it in pleasures Alas there are none to be found any where but at Gods right hand The pleasures of this world are but torments they seem perhaps to delight us a little for the present but soon after they sting us to the heart Shall we place it in Riches They are but fading and perishing enjoyments and must shortly leave us and if they should tarry with us never so long the wise man tells us that they profit not in the day of wrath Shall we place it in Honour there is nothing more uncertain then that for though it be never so splendid and glorious for a while yet it must ere long be laid in the dust Indeed Honour and Authority is so far from being an ordinary and indifferent thing that if we consider it aright it is perhaps the greatest temporal Blessing that God hath to bestow upon Man and Kings and Rulers have this happiness above the rest of Mankind that they have power to do more good in the world and to bring greater glory to God then inferiour persons and consequently may procure for themselves a more honourable Throne and a brighter Crown in Heaven All shall be there full of glory and every one perfectly satisfied and content with his own condition but yet there shall be a difference and while some shall but twinkle as the Stars others shall shine as the Sun The meanest Subject that hath been loyal to his King and obedient to his God shall at the last day be rewarded with an incorruptible Crown for we shall all be Kings and Priests unto God But I know not any thing in Scripture that doth not freely permit a godly and religious Prince to hope to be as highly advanced above his Subjects in Heaven as ever he was here one Earth if he manages his Sceptre with this Wisdom here in my Text which will be sure to establish his Throne and make his Crown to flourish Again shall we place Wisdom in Learning This also if it be sanctified by Grace is a very great Blessing but without that it is as great a Curse without Grace it will but enable a man to sin more powerfully insomuch that he that hath a learned head and an unsanctified heart may almost stand in competition with the Devil himself who should be the Master worker of iniquity and gain most Proselytes to the kingdom of Darkness The ignorantest Pesant may make a sorry shift to grope out his way to hell even blindfold but the learned Atheist sees so many roads to it that he will pick and chuse his way so discreetly as to be sure to provide for himself one of the hottest places S. Paul had continued a Persecutour to his dying day notwithstanding all that Learning that he got at the feet of Gamaliel had he not also learned Christ And therefore he professes this to be the onely true Wisdom for saith he I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord Phil. 3.8 But to rise yet one step higher then Learning can advance us Suppose God should endue us with the Spirit of Prophesie to foretell things to come or with a power to work Miracles and to cast out devils yet we should be never the nearer to Heaven for all this without the Wisdom here in my Text. For one of these faculties was bestowed on Balaam and yet for all his good wishes 't is probable that he died not the death of the Righteous and the other on Judas and yet himself was a Devil Alas what were we the better if we knew the hour of our death if we knew too that from that hour our everlasting punishment should bear its date What would it profit us though we knew the minute when the Archangel should begin to sound his Trump if we knew withall that that sound should summon us to hear the Sentence of our eternall condemnation Such Wisdom as this would be so far from making us happy that it would antedate our misery and torment us before the time All other things then so long as we want this one thing which is needfull will be but weak Advocates to plead our cause before Christs Tribunal And as all the Wisdom of the world will profit us nothing without this so this of it self alone is sufficient to make us happy He that hath never been either at Rome or Athens nay though he knows not so much as one letter of the Alphabet is wise enough if he hath but learned the Cross of Christ He that is never so poor hath wealth enough if he be but rich in Faith and though he appear to men as having nothing yet possesses all things The Brother of low degree that is never so mean and contemptible in the eyes of the world if he hath but this Wisdom in the Text is highly honourable in the sight of God But to what purpose should I spend any more words in illustrating the incomparable worth of this Wisdom which as it deserves all so it needs no commendation I will therefore detain you no longer but conclude all in the words of the Prophet Jeremiah cap. 9. v. 23 24. Thus saith the Lord Let not the Wise man glory in his wisdom neither let the Mighty man glory in his Might let not the Rich man glory in his Riches But let him that glories glory in this that he understands and knows me that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness judgement and righteousness in the Earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. FINIS