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	lust_n	sin_n	7,244	5	5.0237	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87175	Christ's first sermon, or, The absolute necessity, gospel duty, and Christian practice of repentance, opened and applied, by a godly, able, and faithful minister of Jesus Christ. ; Wherein is discovered, what repentance is, as also the great necessity thereof to salvation: with the great folly and desperate madness of all those that delay and put off repentance unto a sick bed, or old age. ; Together with the great benefit, joy, and comfort that shall be to the souls of all those that timely and truly repent.	Hart, John, D.D.	1663 (1663)	Wing H937; ESTC R177838	21,802	46

be saved without repentance or can you repent when you will but you will say you are young and therefore may be born with a while which is the Devils divinity for young men have no more liberty allowed them to sin or to put off repentance then old men have it s the Devils policy to infuse this into thy brains that he may ensnare thee It was the commendation of Timothy that from a Childe he had known the holy Scriptures 1 Tim. 1. Young Saints say some but not the word of God prove old Devils But I am sure it is a rare thing to sée and old sinner to become a young Saint When the devil and sin hath lorded it in your soul yea tyrannized both over soul body for thirty or forty years together do you think then that a little groaning or crying Lord have mercy upon me wil be able to dispossess him at the last he having gotten too strong a footing in your soul to be beaten out of his quarters so easily he that will not remember God when he is young and living it s greatly to be feared God will be unmindeful of him when he is old and dying Therefore once more I beseech you in the bowels of Christ speedily to set about the work of repentance lest when it is too late you repent weep and mourn that you repented not before Do not say of repentance as Felix spake to Paul Thou wilt repent when thou art better at leasure another time shall serve the turn it may be thou mayest not live to another time or if thou doest thy heart may then be as hard if not harder then now it is Would you not in the day of the Lord be in a worse condition then heathens or infidels are Then repent Would you not when you are dead be in a worse condition then toads or serpents then repent It may be said of every impenitent sinner as Christ said of Judas in the 26. of Matthew and the 24. ver It had been good for that man if he had never been born Heathens in the day of Judgement shall be in a better condition then impenitent Christians for they shall have the lesser condemnation because of their ignorance who it may be would have done better if they had known more It shall be more tollerable saith our Saviour for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement then for thou Capernaum Thou England that art exalted up to heaven in Gospel-mercies take heed and beware lest thou be not thrown down to hell in Gospel-vengeance I should now shew you the lets that hinder men from Repentance and so endeavour to remove them but I shall onely name them and so conclude with some few motivhs to stir you up to Repentance Now the lets that keep men off from Repentance are either from Sin and Satan or else from our selves and the World the Devil perswades men that repentance is a needless work and men need not trouble themselves with it for those that God hath ordained to live shall be saved let them live never so loosely and those that he hath appointed to wrath shall be damned let them repent never so much But to remove this let out of the way know this that all those that God hath ordained to salvation shall first or last more or less be brought to embrace the means In the 13. of the Acts and the 48. As many as were ordained to eternal life believed God hath joyned the end and the means together and cursed is he that dares to separate them Salvation without repentance is impossible without holiness no man shall see God Heb. 5.19 A second way by which the Devil keeps men off from Repentance is Gods mercy God is merciful saith the devil his mercy is over all his works he that made you will not damn you you need not to fear it True it is even to wicked men God is merciful but these are but mercies on the left hand common mercies it s a mercy to men that they live it s a mercy that we were not born monsters and its a mercy to have outward enjoyments but what are these to the peculiar mercies of God It was a good speech of a godly man saith he He that made thee without thee will not save thee without thee if thou art in a ditch and wilt do no more to come out but cry God help me thou mayest lie and perish O do not dare to go on in sin becaus God is merciful Shall we sin saith St. Paul that grace may abound no God forbid I dare not saith a gracious heart If ever you would partake of mercy you must depart from iniquity 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity I dare holdly say that if all the clouds of heaven should continually showre down mercy there would not so much as one drop fall upon any impenitent person Thirdly the devil labours to keep men off from repentance by bringing them to despair of mercy if he cannot work men into presumption by the consideration of Gods mercies he will do what he can to bring thent into desperation by telling them that mercy is out of date But let not this hinder thy repentance for as it cannot be too soon to repent so its never too late to repent better once then never I do not speak this that any should neglect to repent betimes but that none should ever despair of mercy and thereby be hindred from this duty of repentance A second let that hinders repentance is the world the lusts of the flesh and the pride of life the pleasures and preferments of the world these fight against the spirit and resist the work of repentance Voluptousness and Drunkenness unfits men for repentance therefore these must be abstained front 1 Pet. 2. 11. as things that war against the soul Mortifie therefore saith the Apostle your members which are upon earth fornication uncleanness c. Col. 3.5 These must be mortified And then a third let that keeps men from repentance is sin sin hath such a commanding power over the souls of unregenerated persons So that as it is Rom. 6.10 they give themselves over as servants to sin and to uncleanness O then for the Lords sake avoid all occasions of sin Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies that you should obey it in the lusts thereof neither yield you your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin but yield your selves unto God as instruments of righteousness Rom. 6.12 13. verses O that I could prevail with you and that the Lord would perswade your hearts of the dreadful doleful condition of all umpenitent Sinners Consider then I beseech you in the fear of the Lord these following considerations and first of all know this you that live in the love of sin you live in the hatred of God for the love of God and the love of sin cannot possibly

humble penitent soul is the most tractable and teachable soul in the world and he above all other is willing to embrace the word of God Fifthly a true humble soul is ready and willing to put in practise all these duties which he hath formerly learned out of the word of God When Paul was once truly humbled he conferred not any longer with flesh and blood but laying aside all carnal reasonings goes on thorowly in his work of preaching the Gospel Gal. 1.16 Thus you maysee that where true repentance is there is also a true humiliation and sorrow for sin then every one learn to be humble and that betimes for as women the longer they are ere they bring forth children the harder is their labour even so they that put off repentance to old age must expect the sorer travel Lamentably are they mistaken who put off their repentance to their old age is it likely that the pains and weakness of old age will be any advantage or ease to thy repentance Rev. 16.19 it s said that at the pouring forth of the fourth viol when God smote the inhabitants of the earth with a scorching heat that they blasphemed the name of God and repented not It s a woful thing to put off repentance to a pained body or to a sick bed pain in its own nature fits rather to blaspheme and turn from God then to return to God and it s very common that sick persons either repent not at all or if they do at the best their repentance is but a sickly repentance sickness doth only abate and restrain the power of mens lusts it never destroyes the life of sin death it self cannot kill sin wicked mens sins live when they are dead the grave cannot consume them nor the fire of hell the sins of unbelievers remain not onely in their guilt but in their power to all eternity Is it so then that repentance is a turning from sin unto God then I observe that there can be no true repentance where sin is delighted in he that lives in the love practice of any sin knoweth not what repentance meaneth for repentance takes off the heart from the love of sin and works it to such a dislike of sin that it abhors the very occasion of sin if sin comes and tells a gracion penitent soul of the profits and pleasures of sin O saith a gracions heart the sweetness will prove bitterness in the latter end True repentance takes off the heart from all sin as well small as great not from some few sins but from all sin for he that turns not from all turns from none in truth and it is not enough to turn from all sin but we must turn from the commands of sin and satan unto the commands of God from worldliness to heavenly mindedness from pride to humility from hatred and envy to love the Tree that bears not good fruit will be hewen down and east into the fire as well as the trée that bears ill fruit I beséech ye therefore brethren in the bowels of mercy for the Lords sake I intreat every one of you that desire to be saved that you would turn away from all your iniquities and that spéedily lest your repentance be too late And to this end be earnest with God by prayer for the assistance of his spirit in the subduing of thy sins and cast thy selt wholly upon the Lord. Chery true Penitent is wholly the Lords the disire of his soul is to God and to the remembrance of his name with his soul he desires God in the night and with his Spirit within him he seeketh the Lord in the morning Isa 26.8 9. He is now a constant suiter at the throne of grace and with full purpose of heart he cleaves to God and loves the place where his honour dwells Psalm 26.8 All his desire is to know more of God and how he may love him more and serve him better the service and servants of God how joyful are they to his soul He takes all opportunities of doing good he keeps his heart with all diligence and the door of his lips that he offend not with his tongue Psalm 39.1 His heart is enslamed with the love of God that he endeavours with all his might to shew forth the praises of the Lord. By which it appears that a turning to God is not barely a turning from sin but a practising of good and a walking up rightly before the Lord in all well-pleasing all out dayes Is it so then that repentance is needful and absolutely necessary for all persons in what a sad condition then are the greatest part of men and women in the world who as yet are as far from true repentance as light is from darknes and yet poor souls they smooth themselves up with this conceit that God is merciful they hope to be saved as wel as the best they thank God all is well with them and yet notwithstanding they never repented of their sins true repentance is a Grace almost out of fashion in these self-conceited times wherin mens minds are so much running after novelties and outward formalities but the power of holiness and the doctrine ' of repentance and self-mortification these are not minded nay by many are accounted Legal and altogether needless There are three sorts of people that I shall have occasion to speak of in the use of this Point and the first are such as altogether abhor repentance the second are such as although they acknowledge repentance is needful and necessary for others yet think that they themselves have no need of it and the third sort are such as do confess that repentance is needful even for themselves as well as others but not yet its time enough here after there 's no such haste of it And I hope in the handling of these three sorts of persons I shall make it appear that reprntance is needful and necessary at all times for all sorts Having done this I shall remove some lets that hinder men from repentance and so give you some few Motives to stir you up to repentance and then to wind up all in a few words of Application I begin with the first of these those that abhor repentance and they are wilful sinners such as go on in sin and make it even their trade to sin wilful desperate and dissolute wretches that laugh at repentance who declara their sin as Sodom did and hide it not Isa 3.9 Who will not be brought to abandon their wicked wayes but go on still in swearing and cursing lying and blaspheming whoredome drunkenness and all uncleanness and that with greediness as the Apostle saith Who mock at faith repentance as those scoffers did in 2 Pet. 3.4 These are they as S. Peter saith 2 Pet. 2. That walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness and count it pleasure to riot in the day time whose eyes are full of adultery that cannot cease from