Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	flesh_n	law_n	sin_n	20,113	5	5.9622	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57960	Two discourses; viz. A discourse of truth. By the late Reverend Dr. Rust, Lord Bishop of Dromore in the Kingdom of Ireland. The way of happiness and salvation. By Joseph Glanvil, chaplain in ordinary to His Majesty	Rust, George, d. 1670.; Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680. Way of happiness and salvation rescued from vulgar errours.	1677 (1677)	Wing R2368; Wing Q836; ESTC R218562	58,324	199

is far more acceptable to God who delights not in the exercises of meer Nature Psal. 147. 10. but is well pleased with the expressions of Grace in those that fear him So that a sincere and lowly-minded Christian that talks of no immediate incomes or communications and perhaps durst not out of reverence trust to his own present conceptions in a work so solemn but useth the help of some pious form of words sutable to his defires and wants who is duly sensible of his sins and the necessity of overcoming them and is truly and earnestly desirous of the Divine aids in order to it such a one as this Prays by the Spirit and will be assisted by it while the other doth all by meer Nature and Imitation and shall not have those spiritual aids which he never heartily desires nor intends to use This I think I may truly and safely say But for the Controversie between Forms and Conceived Prayers which of them is absolutely best I determine nothing of it here And indeed I suppose that in their own nature they are alike indifferent and are more or less accepted as they partake more or less of the Spirit of Prayer viz. of Faith Humility and holy desire of the good things we pray for and a man may have these that prays by a Form and he may want them that takes the other way and thinks himself in a dispensation much above it So that my business is not to set up one of these ways of Devotion against the other but to shew that the heights and vehemencies of many warm people in their unpremeditated Prayers have nothing in them supernatural or Divine and consequently of themselves they are no marks of Godliness which I hope no one thinks I speak to discredit those pious ardours that are felt by really devout Souls when a vigorous sense of God and Divine things doth even sometimes transport them Far be it from me to design any thing so impious my aim is only to note that there are complexional heats raised many times by fancy and self-admiration that look like these in persons who really have little of God in them and we should take care that we are not deceived by them Thus far also those may go that shall not enter I add III. A man may endeavour somewhat and strive in some degree and yet his work may miscarry and himself with it 1. There is no doubt but that an evil man may be convinced of his sin and vileness and that even to anguish and torment The Gentiles saith the Apostle Rom. 2. 14. which have not the Law shew the works of the Law written in their Hearts their thoughts in the mean time accusing or excusing one another Conscience often stings and disquiets the vilest sinners and sometimes extorts from them lamentable confessions of their sins and earnest declamations against them They may weep bitterly at their remembrance and be under great heaviness and dejection upon their occasion They may speak vehemently against sin themselves and love to have others to handle it severely All this bad men may do upon the score of natural fear and self love and the apprehension of a fature judgment And now such convictions will naturally beget some endeavours A convinced understanding will have some influence upon the will and affections The mind in the unregenerate may lust against the Flesh as that doth against it So that 2. such a meer animal man may promise and purpose and endeavour in some pretty considerable measure but then he goes not on with full Resolution but wavers and stops and turns about again and lets the law of the members that of death and sin to prevail over him His endeavour is remiss and consequently ineffectual it makes no conquests and will not signifie He sins on though with some regret and his very unwillingness to sin while he commits it is so far from lessening that it aggravates his fault It argues that he sins against conscience and conviction and that sin is strong and reigns 'T is true indeed St. Paul Rom. 7. makes such a description seemingly of himself as one might think concluded him under this state he saith vers 8. That sin wrought in him all manner of concupiscence vers 9. That sin revived and he died vers 14. That he was carnal and again sold under sin vers 20. That sin dwelt in him and wrought that which he would not vers 23. That the Law of his Members led him into captivity to the law of Sin and vers 25. That he obeyed the law of sin If this be so and St. Paul a regenerate man was in this state it will follow that seeking and feeble endeavour that overcometh no difficulty may yet procure an entrance and he that is come hitherto viz. to endeavour is safe enough though he do not conquer This objection presseth not only against this head but against my whole Discourse and the Text it self Therefore to answer it I say That the St. Paul here is not to be understood of himself He describes the state of a convinced but unregenerate man though he speaks in the first person a Figure that was ordinary with this Apostle and frequent enough in common speech Thus we say I am thus and thus and did so and so when we are describing a state or actions in which perhaps we in person are not concerned In this sense the best Expositors understand these expressions and those excellent Divines of our own Bishop Taylor and Dr. Hammond and others have noted to us That this description is directly contrary to all the Characters of a regenerate man given elsewhere by this and the other Apostles As he is said to be dead to sin Rom. 6. 11. Free from sin and the servant of Righteousness Rom. 6. 18. That he walks not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. That the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made him free from the Law of sin and death Rom. 8. 2. That he overcometh the world Joh. 5. 4. He sinneth not 1 Joh. 3. 6. He hath crucified the flesh with its affections and lusts Gal. 5. 24. Which Characters of a truly regenerate person if they be compared with those above-cited out of Rom. 7. it will appear that they are as contrary as 't is possible to speak and by this 't is evident that they describe the two contrary states For can the regenerate be full of all manner of concupiscence and at the same time be crucified to the Flesh and its affections and lusts one in whom sin revives while he dies and yet one that is dead to sin carnal and yet not walking after the flesh but after the Spirit sold under sin and yet free from sin Having sin dwelling in him and a captive to sin and obeying the Law of sin and yet free from the law of sin and death how can these things consist To tell us 'T is so and

dependance and relations of things to be contingent and arbitrarious were a piece of folly and incogitancy for how can the Order of those things speak a wise and understanding Being which have no relation or respect unto one another but their whole agreement suitableness and proportion is a meer casual Issue of absolute and independent Will If any thing may be the cause of any effect and a proportionate mean to any end who can infer infinite Wisdom from the dependence of things and their relations unto one another for we are to know that there is a God and the Will of that God before we can know the mutual Harmony or Disproportion of things and yet if we do not know these principal respects that things have among themselves it is impossible we should ever come to the knowledge of a God for these are the only arguments that any Logick in the World can make use of to prove any conclusion But suppose we should come to know that there is a God which as I have demonstrated denying the necessary and immutable truth of common Notions and the indispensible and eternal relations of things is altogether impossible However let it be supposed yet how shall we know that these common Notions and principles of natural instinct which are the foundation of all Discourse and Argumentation are certain and infallible Truths and that our Senses which with these former Principles we suppose this Divine Nature to have given us to converse with this outward world were not on purpose bestowed upon us to befool delude and cheat us if we be not first assured of the Veracity of God and how can we be assured of that if we know not that Veracity is a perfection and how shall we know it is so unless there be an intrinsecal relation betwixt Veracity and perfection for if it be an arbitrarious respect depending upon the Will of God there is no way possible left whereby we should come to know that it is in God at all And therefore we have fully as much reason to believe that all our common Notions and Principles of natural instinct whereupon we ground all our reasonings and discourse are meer Chymera's to delude and abuse our faculties and all those Idea's Phantasms and Apprehensions of our external senses we imagine are occasioned in us by the presence of outward objects are meer Spectrums and Gulleries wherewith poor mortals are befooled and cheated as that they are given us by the first Goodness Truth to lead us into the Knowledge of himself and Nature This is a clear and evident consequence and cannot be denyed by any that doth not complain of darkness in the brightest and most Meridian Light And here you have the foundations laid of the highest Scepticism for who can say he knows any thing when he hath no bassion which he can raise any true conclusions Thus you see the noble faculties of man his Mind and Understanding will be to no end and purpose but for a Rack and Torture for what greater unhappiness or torment can there be imagined than to have Faculties whose Accomplishment and Perfection consists in a due conformation unto their objects and yet to have no objects unto which they may be conformed To have a Soul unmeasurably breathing after the embraces of Truth and Goodness and after a search and enquiry after one and the other and to find at last they are but aiery empty and uncertain Notions depending upon the arbitratious determinations of boundless and independent Will which determinations she sees it beyond her reach ever to come to any knowledge of Here you have likewise the true Foundations of that we call Rantism for if there be no distinction 'twixt Truth and Falshood Good and Evil in the nature of the things themselves and we never can be assured what is the mind and pleasure of the supream and absolute Will because Veracity is not intrinsecally and ex natura rei a Perfection but only an Arbitrarious if any Attribute in the Deity then it infallibly follows that it is all one what I do or how I live and I have as much reason to believe that I am as pleasing unto God when I give up my self unto all Filthiness Uncleanness and Sin when I swell with Pride Envy Hatred and Malice c. as when I endeavour with all my Might and Strength to purge and purifie my Soul from all pollution and defilement both of Flesh and Spirit and when I pursue the mortification of all my carnal Lusts and Inclinations And I have fully as much ground and assurance that the one is the ready Way to Happiness as the other And this is another branch of this second Absurdity from the deniall of the intrinsecal and eternal respects and relations of things that a man would not have any assurance of future Happiness for though it be true indeed or at least we fancy to our selves that God hath sent Jesus Christ into the world by him hath made very large and ample promises that whosoever believes in him and conforms his life unto his Precepts shall be made heir of the same Inheritance and Glory which Christ is now possessed of and invested with in the Kingdom of his Father yet what ground have we to believe that God does not intend onely to play with and abuse our Faculties and in conclusion to damn all those that believe and live as is above expressed and to take them only into the Injoyments of Heaven and Happiness who have been the great Opposers of the Truth and Gospel and Life and Nature of Jesus Christ in the world for if there be no eternal and indispensible Relation of Things then there 's no intrinsecal Evil in Deceiving and Falsifying in the damning the Good or saving obstinate and contumacious Sinners whilst such notwithstanding any promises or threatnings to the contrary and if the things be in themselves indifferent it is an unadvised Confidence to pronounce determinately on either side Yea further suppose we should be assured that God is Verax and that the Scripture doth declare what is his Mind and Pleasure yet if there be not an intrinsecal opposition betwixt the Being and not being of a thing at the same time and in the same respect then God can make a thing that hath been done undone and that whatever hath been done or spoken either by himself or Christ or his Prophets or Apostles should never be done or spoken by him on them though He hath come into the world yet that He should not be come though he hath made these promises yet that they should not be made though God hath given us Faculties that are capable of the enjoyment of himself yet that he should not have given them us and yet we should have no Being nor think a thought while we fancy and speak of all these contradictions In fine it were impossible we should know any thing if the opposition of contradictory terms depend

other publique vertues may I think be comprehended under these Where there is no Justice every man preys upon another and no mans property is safe Where Charity is wanting Jealousies hatreds envying back-bitings and cruelties abound which render the world deplorably unhappy Where there is not Loyalty and conscionable submission to Governours the publick is upon every occasion of commotion involv'd in infinite miseries and disasters So that all the precepts of our Religion are in their own nature proper instruments to make us happy and they had been methods of Felicity to be chosen by all reasonable creatures though they had never been required by so great and so sacred an Authority These things I have said because I could not choose but take this occasion to recommend the excellency and reasonableness of our Religion And I have done it but only in brief hints because it ariseth but upon a Corollary from my main subject and from this I infer further III. That Christanity is the height and perfection of morality They both tend to the real bettering and accomplishment of humane nature But the rules and measures of moral Philosophy were weak and imperfect till Christ Jesus came He confirmed and enforced all those precepts of vertue that were written upon our hearts and cleared them from many corruptions that were grown upon them through ignorance and vice the glosses of the Jews and false conceits of the Gentiles and he inforced them anew by his Authority and the knowledge he gave of divine aids and greater rewards and punishments than were understood before yea he enlarged them in some instances such as loving enemies and forgiving injuries Thus Christ Jesus taught morality viz. the way of living like men And the 5. Chapture of Mathew is an excellent Lecture of this kind So that to disparage morality is to disgrace Christianity it self and to vilifie one of the ends of Christs coming into the world For all Religion and all duties respect either God our neighbour or our selves the duties that relate to these two last are acknowledg'd moral vertues The Apostle St. James counted these Moralities of visiting the Widow and Fatherless to be the pure Religion and undefiled Jam. 1. 17. And the prophet Micah intimates that those moral vertues of Justice and mercy were some of the main things that God required of us Micah 6. 8. Our Saviour saith that the whole Law is summ'd up in these two to love God with all our souls and our neighbour as our selves Math. 22. 13 which latter contains the duties of morality And that which the grace of God in the Gospel teacheth according to St. Paul is to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Tit. 2. 11 There is no godliness without morality All the fruits of the Spirit reckon'd up Gal. 5. 22. are moral vertues And when we are commanded to grow in grace 2 Pet 3. 18. vertue is partly understood For one branch of what is call'd Grace in us is moral vertue produced by divine aids Christian principles and incouragements though 't is true the word is extended to those duties that relate immediately to God also By which we see how ignorantly and dangerously those people talk that disparage morality as a dull lame thing of no account or reckoning Upon this the Religion of the second Table is by too many neglected and the whole mystery of the new Godliness is lay'd in frequent hearing and devout seraphick talk luscious phancies new lights incomes manifestations sealings in-dwellings and such like Thus Antinomianism and all kinds of Phanaticism have made their way by the disparagement of morality and men have learnt to believe themselves the chosen pretious people while their hearts have been full of malice and bitterness and their hands of violence while they despised dominions and spake evil of dignities rebel'd against the Government destroyed publique peace and endeavoured to bring all into misery and confusions 'T is this diabolical project of dividing morality from Religion that hath given rise and occasion to all these villanies And while the Practisers of such things have assumed the name of the only Godly Godlyness it self hath been brought into disgrace by them and Atheism incouraged to shew it self in open defiance to Religion Yea through the indiscretions and inconsiderateness of some preachers the phantastry and vain babble of others and the general disposition of the people to admire what makes a great shew and pretends to more than ordinary spirituality things are in many places come to that pass that those who teach Christian vertue Religion in plainness and simplicity without sensless phrases and fanyastick affectations shall be reckon'd for dry moralists and such as understand nothing of the life and power of Godliness Yea those people have been so long used to gibberish and canting that they cannot understand plain sense and vertue is become such a stranger to their ears that when they hear it spoken of in a pulpit they count the preacher a broacher of new divinity and one that would teach the way to heaven by Philosophy And he escapes well if they do not say That he is an Atheist or that he would reconcile us to Gentilism and Heathen Worship The danger and vanity of which ignorant humour the contempt of morality is apparent in the whole scope of my Discourse and therefore I add no more concerning it here but proceed to another Inference which is IV. That Grace and the new nature make their way by degrees on the Soul for the difficulties will not be removed nor the corrupt nature fubdued all at once Habits that grow by repeated acts time and continuance will not be expelled in a moment No man can become greatly evil or good on a sudden The Path of the just shines more and more to to a perfect day Prov. 4. 18 We do not jump from darkness into full light We are not fully sanctified and converted in an instant The day begins in an insensible dawn and the Kingdom of heaven is like a grain of Mustard seed Mat. 13. 31. It doth not start up presently to the stature of a tree The Divine birth begins like the Natural in an imperfect embryo There are some seeds of Knowledge and Goodness that God hath sown in our natures these are excited by the Divine Grace and Spirit to convictions which proceed to purposes these to resolutions and thence we pass to abstinence from all gross sins and the performance of outward Duties and so at last by degrces to vigorous attempts for the destruction of evil habits and inclinations When Grace is arrived to this eminent growth 't is very visible as the Plant is when 't is above the ground But the beginnings of Conversion are not ordinarily perceived So that to catechize men about the punctual time and circumstances of their Conversion is an idle device and a great temptation to vanity and lying Who can tell the exact moment when the