Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A67750
|
An experimental index of the heart in which (as in a looking-glass) both profane and civil men may see enough, to make them in love with religion, being a most happie and providential conference between two friends (after the ones heart was changed) the which may both provoke and incourage all sorts of sinners to read the same, that (in the least) love themselves : drawn up and published for the good of all / by R. Younge ... ; add this as a second part to those three fundamental principles of Christian religion, intituled, A short and sure way to grace and salvation.
|
Younge, Richard.
|
1658
(1658)
|
Wing Y154; ESTC R7768
|
18,705
|
18
|
secure then the worst of sinners they can strut it under an unsupportable Mass â—f oaths blasphemies thefts murthers adulteries drunkness and other the like sins yea can easily swallow these spiders with Mithridates and digest them too when one that is regenerate shrinkes under the burden of wandring thoughts and want of proficiency But why is it they are dead in sin Ephes. 2. 1. Revel. 3. 1. Now lay a mountain vpon a dead-man he feels not once the weight To a Christian that hath the life of grace the least sin lyes heavy upon the conscience but to him that is dead let his sins be as heavy as a mountain of lâ—â—d hee feels in them no weight at all Again they are insensible of their fin and danger because ignorant for for what the eye seeth not the hear trueth not Security makes wordlings merry and therefore are they secure because they are ignorant A dunce wee know seldome makes doubts yea a fool sayes Solomon boasteth and is confident Prov. 14. 16. neither do blind-men ever blush And the truth is were it not for pride and ignorance a world of men would be ashamed to have their faces seen abroad For take away from mens minds vain opinions flattering hopes false valuations imaginatious and the like you will leav the minds of most men and women but poor shâ—unken things full of melancholly indisposition and unpleasing to themselves Ignorance is a vail or curtain to hide away their sins whereupon they are never troubled in conscience nor macerated with cares about eternity but think that all will be welâ— The divâ—l and the flesh prophesy prosperity to sin yea life and salvation as the Pope promised the powder-traitors but death and damnation which Gods spirit threaâ—eâ—s will prove the crop they will reap For God is true the divell and all flesh are lyers When wee become regenerate and forsake sin then the divell strongly and strangely assaults us as he did Christ when he was newly baptized and Pharoh the Children of Israel when they would forsake Egypt and Herod the Children when Christ was come to deliver his people Whence commonly it coms to pass that those think best of themselves that have least cause yea the true Christian is as fearfull to entertain a good opinion of himself as the false is unwilling to he driven from it They that have store of grace mourn for the want of it and they that indeed want it chant their abundance None so apt to doubt their adoption as they that may be assured of it nor none more usually fear then they that have the greatest cause to hope Wee feel corruption not by corruption but by grace and therefore the more wee feel our inward corruptions the more grace we have Contraries the neerer they are to one another the sharper is the conflict betwixt them now of all enemies the spirit and the flesh are neerest one to another being both in the soul of a regenerate man and in all faculties of the soul and in every action that springeth from those faculties The more grace the more spirituall life and the more spirituall life the more antipathy to the contrary whence none are so sensible of corruption as those that have the most living souls Sect. XXXVI Now for remedy of the contrary there cannot be a better lesson for carnall men to learn then this All the promises of God are conditionall to take place if wee repent as all the threatnings of God are conditionall to take place if wee repent not But wicked men as they believ without repenting their faith being meer presumption so they repent without believing their repentance being indeed desperation and this observe wee are cast down in the disappointing of our hopes in the same measure as we were too much listed up in expectation of good from them Whence these perremptory presumers if ever they repent it is commonly as Francis Spira an Advocate of Padua did and never did any man plead so well for himself as he did against himself One star is much bigger then the Earth yet it seems many degrees less It is the nature of fear to make dangers greater helps lesse then they are Christ hath promised peace and rest unto their souls that labour and are heavy laden and to those that walk according to rule Matth. 11. 29. Gal. 6. 16. even peace celestiall in the state of grace and peace eternall in the state of glory Such therefore as never were distressed in conscience or live loosly never had true peace Peace is the Daughter of righteousnesse Rom. 5. 1. Being justifyed by faith we have peace with God But hee who makes a bridg of his own shaddow will be sure to fall into the water Those blocks that never in their life were moved with Gods threatnings never in any straight of conscience never groaned under the burthen of Gods anger they have not so much as entred into the porch of this house or lift a foot over the threshold of this School of repentance Oh! that wee could but so much fear the eternall pains as wee do the temporary and bee but so carefull to save our souls from torment as our bodies In the mean time the case of these men is so much the worse by how much there fear is the lesse It faring with the soul as with the body Those diseases which do take away all sence of pain are of all others most desperate As the dead palsey the falling sickness the sleepy lethargie c. And the patient is most dangerously sick when he hath no feeling thereof In like manner whilst they suppose themselves to be free from judgment they are already smitten with the heaviest of Gods judgments a heart that cannot repent Rom. 2. 5. In a lethargie it is needfull the patient should be cast into a burning Fever because the sences are benummed and this will waken them and dry up the besotting humors So in our dead securety before our conversion God is fain to let the Law Sin Conscience and Satan loose upon us and to kindle the very fire of Hell in our souls that so we might be rowsed out of our security but thousands of these blocks both live and depart with as great hopes as men go to a lottery even dreaming of Heaven untill they awakein Hell For they too often die without any remors of conscience like blocks or as an Oxe dyes in a ditch Yea thousands that live like Laban dye like Nabal which is but the same word inverted whilest others the dear Children of God dye in distresse of conscience For it is not every good mans hap to dye like Antonius Pius whose death was after the fassion and semblance of a kindly and pleasant sleep However Saint Austins rule will be sure to hold He cannot dye ill that hath lived well and for the most part He that lives conscionably dyes comfortably and departeth rich And so you see how it fares with the wickedest and
worst of men Wherefore if you are truly sensible of your wretchedness it is a good sign that you are in some forwardness to be recovered and really to become so good as formerly you but dream'd or imagined your self to bee And indeed the very first step to grace is to feel the want of grace and the next way to receive mercy is to see your self miserable Therefore our constant and most diligent search should be to find out the naughtiness of our own hearts and to get strenght from God against our prevailing corruptions Sect. XXXVII Loose Libertine But is there any hope for one so wicked as I who have turned the grace of God into wantonesse applying Christs passion as a warrant for my licenciousness not as a remedy and taking his death as a licence to sin his â—ross as a Letters pattent to do mischief As if a man should head his dâ—um of rebellion with his pardon For I have most spiâ—efuâ—ly and maliciously taken up arms against my Maker and fought against my Redeemer all my daies Convert Do but unfainedly repent you of your sins and forsake your former evill wayes and lay held upon Christ by a trueâ— and lively â—aith my soul for yours God iâ— very â—eady to forgive them bee they neveâ— so many and innumerable for multitude never so haâ—nous for qualitie magâ—itude Yea I can shew you your pardon from the great King of Heaven for al that is past the which you may read at large Isai. 55 7. Ezek. 18. 21. to 29. and 33. 11. Jo l. 2. 12 13 14. Yea read 1 Cor. 6. 10 11. together with the story of Manâ—sses Mary Mâ—gdelen the Thief and the prodigall Son you shal see presidents thereof Yea the very murtherers of the Son of God upon their serious and unfained repentance and stedfast believing in him received pardon and salvation And indeed dispaiâ— is a sin which never knâ—w Jesus True every sin deserves damnation but no sin shall condemn but the â—â—ing and contiâ—uing in it True Repentance is ever blest with forgiveness And know this that Gods mercy is greater then thy sin what ever it bee you cannot be so infiâ—ite in sinning as he is infinite in pardoning if you repent yea sins upon repentance are so remitted as if they had never been committed I will put away thy transgressions as a cloud and thy sins as a mâ—â—t Isay. 44. 22. And what by corruption hath been done by repentance is undone As the former examples witness Come and let us reason togâ—ther saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow Isai 1. 18. Yea whiter then snow For the Prophet David laying open his blood guilâ—inâ—ss and his Originall impurity useth these words Puâ—geme with Hysop and I shall be clean wash me and I shall be whiter then snow Psal. 51. 7. And in reason did Christ come to call sinners to repentance and shall he not shew mercy to the penitent O who would not cast his burthen upon him that desires to give ease As I live saith the Lord I would not the death of a sinner Ezek. 18. 32. and 33. 11. Onely apply not this sâ—lve before the ulcer be searcbed to the bottom Lay not hold upon mercy untill you be throughly humbled The onely way to become good is first to believe that you are evill and by accusing our selvs wee prevent Satan By judging our selvs wee prevent God Are wee as sick of sorrow as wee are of sin then may wee hopefully go to the Physitian of our souls who came into the world onely to cure the sick and to give light to them onely who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death God does not power the oyl of grace but into a broken and contrite heart Wouldest thou get out of the miserable estate of nature into the blessed estate if grace and of Satan's bondslave become the childe of God and a member of Christ Wouldest thou truly kâ—ow thine own heart and he very sensible how evil and wicked it is that so thou maist have a more humble conceit of thy self lay to heart these three particulars 1. The corruption of our nature by reason of Original Sin 2 Our manifold breach of God's righteous Law by actual sin 3. The guilt and punishment due to us for them both This being done thou wilt see and find thy necessity of a Redeemer And it is thirst onely that makes us relish our drink hunger our meat The full stomach of a Pharisee surcharged with the superfluities of his own merits will loath the hony-comb of Christ's righteousness This was it which made the young Prodigâ—l to relish even servants fare though before wanton when full fed at home No more rellish feels the Pharisaicall heart in Christs blood then in a chip But O how acceptable is the fountain of living waters to the chased hart panting braying The blood of Christ to the wearie and tyred soul to the thirsty conscience scorched with the sence of Gods wrath hee that presents him with it how welcome is hee even as a speciall choise man one of a thousand And the deeper the sence of misery is the sweeter the sence of mercy is Sect. XXXVIII Then if you would be satisfied for time to come whether your Repentance and conversion be true and sound these particulars will infallibly informe you If you shall persevere when this trouble for sin is over in doing that which now you purpose it is an infallible sign your repentance is found otherwise not If thou dost call to minde the Vow which thou madest in baptisme and dost thy indeavour to perform that which then thou didst promise If thou dost square thy life according to the rule of Gods word and not after the rudements of the world If thou art willing to forsake all sin without reserving one for otherwise that one sin may prove the bane of all thy graces even as Gidion had Seventy sons and but one Bastard and yet that bastard destroyed all the rest that were Legitimate Judg. 9. 5. Sin is like the Ivie in the wall cut off bow branch body stump yet some strings or other will sprout out again Till the root be pluck't up or the wall be pulled down and ruined it will never utterly die Regeneration or new birth is a creation of new qualities in the soul as being by nature onely evil disposed God's children are known by this mark they walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Rom. 8. 1. If Christ have called you to his service your life will appear more spirituall and excellent then others As for your fails 't is a sign that sin hath not gained your consent but committed a rape upon your soul when you crie out to God If the ravished Virgin under the Law cried out she was pronounced guiltlesse A sheep may fall into the mire but a swine delights to wallow in the mire Great difference between a