Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	heart_n	holy_a	know_v	8,259	5	3.9024	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46652	A sermon preached before the King and Queen, at White-Hall, in November 1692 by William Jane ...	Jane, William, 1645-1707.	1692 (1692)	Wing J458; ESTC R3438	13,891	32

Idols before the living God they might the more easily and of their own accord yield an explicit consent to his proposal totally renounce and detest all false worship and adhere to the true Religion with their utmost vigor and resolution And this effect it had upon them v. 15. God forbid say they that we should forsake the Lord to serve other Gods and v. 21. Nay but we will serve the Lord. Whereupon for the greater solemnity of the whole transaction Joshua sets up a stone as a memorial to them of the obligations they lay under and also a testimony against them if ever they fell off from such a deliberate resolution And surely whoever undertakes the business of religion will be sensible in a little time that it required and needed the most solemn and serious deliberation He will soon find it to be an enterprize that will engage his whole strength and all his powers for the atchievement of it that it is a work of difficulty as well as importance and accordingly represented in Scripture under the harsh names of Mortification and Crucifixion that it is a striveing to enter into the straight Gate and walking in the narrow way the subduing our most forcible inclinations the cutting off a right hand and the plucking out a right eye an utter detesting of the dearest closest and most affectionate lusts and the denying our selves some of the most pleasant gratifications of flesh and blood He will quickly experience the frailty fickleness and inconstancy of his will the subtilty of Satan the deceitfulness of sin and the treachery and falshood of his own heart the snares that are laid for him the dangers that surround him the enemies that lye in wait for him the temptations from within and from without that are by one means or other alwaies thrusting him upon his ruin And when he has but slightly considered this he will need no argument to convince him that all his most specious and glittering resolutions will quickly vanish and come to nothing unless they are founded in a deep sense of the importance of the duty of the motives and arguments to embrace it together with the labour he must undergoe the delays he must sustain and the discouragements he must meet with in the discharge of it The want hereof is the true and immediate Cause of most of those shameful Apostacys which have caused the enemies of God to blaspheme and made the way of truth to be evil spoken of when men beginning in the spirit have ended in the flesh and after they have known the way of righteousness turn'd from the Holy Commandment delivered unto them Many there are that are sometimes in a good mood in a fit of devotion when their hearts are warm'd with some affectionate discourse when they are surprized with some sad accident or disaster which disappoints them of the pleasure that they expected from iniquity or when God lays siege to them by Sickness or some other pinching affliction so that the provisions of lust have lost their relish with them for the present and the calamity has embitter'd the pleasantness of the temptation In this case it is very usual with men to be very liberal in their promises Covenants and resolutions But when the fit is over when Gods hand is taken off and the allurements of sin grow strong enough to present themselves again they unravel all their former vows the heart returns to its old byas and upon the approach of the next temptation their goodness vanishes like a morning Cloud and like the early Dew it passeth away When Nebuchadnezar laid Siege against Jerusalem Jer. 34. the Jews made a solemn Covenant with the Lord to set free their servants but no sooner had the King removed his siege but they retracted and repealed their vows and brought their servants back again into their former bondage And the reason hereof is plain For in such a Case the motive of their resolution is not adequate to the matter they resolve upon the foundation is too narrow for the superstructure and where the principle is particular and temporary it can never be a sufficient ground of a general and constant resolution A resolution that arises from the sense of a present evil or the fear of an approaching danger will ordinarily last no longer than the calamity that occasioned it And so as mens fears abate their virtuous resolutions fall off together with them since that short and transient principle which first gave them life is no longer able to support them For there can be no more strength in the conclusion than in the premises and as their motives change their resolutions must change too No wonder therefore if the temtations return as strong as ever and prevail as much against the resolution as ever the resolution prevailed against the sin And this is usually the fatal issue of all those other hasty light vain and unsettled purposes of men which arise from heat or passion or a sudden transport of zeal or any the like principle which is not commensurate to the whole compass and extent of their duty The principles are weak and wavering and so can beget no other than faint and floating resolutions The Jews Jo. 6.15 upon the sight of our Saviors miracles were of a sudden so highly transported with love to him that they resolv'd nothing should hinder them but they would e'en take him by force and make him a King And yet at another time when the Pharisees who knew well enough how to doe it had slily insinuated into their pliable and unresolv'd affections they cryed out against him as against a slave Crucify him Crucify him we have no King but Caesar This then is the difference between reason and passion in forming a good purpose and resolution The former does not prevent or anticipate but slowly follows and attends the mature Counsels of the mind it first brings the matter to a grave and calm deliberation and thence wisely and sedately proceeds to action and execution But the other is impatient of serious thinking as being a tedious and irksome task and so setting forward too speedily without Counsel usually comes off too cowardly without Courage This is that temper which old Jacob reproves in Reuben his first-born Gen. 49.4 Unstable as water which some render rash and hasty others light and inconstant and the one is ordinarily a consequent of the other and therefore he could not excell not only in the number of his tribe Deut. 33.6 but neither in valour courage or any excellent atchievement The same is taxt by Solomon Pro. 14.29 he that is hasty of Spirit exalteth folly i.e. he makes his folly manifest to the world by rashly adventuring upon that which when it comes to tryal he is not able to go through with They that are the most forward and bold in an undertaking are often found to fall off most shamefully in the encounter and the greatest boasters before a danger are commonly

so left men at liberty to take to themselves what part of duty they pleased and let the rest alone But surely a truely religious resolution is founded upon a general and universal reason which takes in all our concerns and equally extends it self to all sins and duties whatsoever And this is one sure way to discover the strength and soundness of mens resolutions in religion This was the Case of Jehu notwithstanding all his flourishing pretences for a thorow reformation He made great shew for a while of Zeal for God and his worship and Jonadab must needs go along with him to see it Come see my Zeal for the Lord of hosts he destroyed Baal and his worship out of Israel very couragiously But he presently discovered the selfish principle that he was acted by For he gave way to the Calves no less abominable in the sight of God and cleav'd to the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat who made Israel to sin The like was the Case of Herod Mark 6.20 He stood in some awe of John knowing him to be a just man and Holy and because he would be esteemed religious and would seem to respect him he heard him often and upon his motion did many good things and it is like enough that he reformed many things amiss which John found fault with either in his Court or in himself So fair a testimony does the Evangelist give him of many specious performances in matters of religion But no sooner was he touch't in that tender point in his Herodias in his darling his reigning sin but the mask of a sudden falls off and he presently discovers the base and corrupt ends of his former zeal and reformation There are many partial principles and ends in men which will oblige them to abstain from some sins and be very careful in some duties as shame of the world the fear of temporal punishment and the hope of temporal advantage the power of custom the influence of education their particular temper and constitution the affectation of popularity and natural ingenuity the terrors of an affrighted conscience and even the antipathy of sins and inconsistency that is often found between one sin and another But if in the mean time there be no Care nor conscience of other sins where there appeareth no influence from these and the like considerations the principle is still defective we are as much under the universal reign and dominion of sin as ever and are far removed from such a resolution as will prove a solid permanent foundation of vertue and religion For it is founded barely in particular reasons and so has no more strength than is derived from them But a true resolution is uniform absolute and universal free from all by and sinister respects all concealed and hypocritical reservations It enables a man to abstain from sin out of an entire hatred of An as such and to yield obedience to the law of God out of a sincere esteem of the authority of the Legislator And therefore he cannot be perswaded to pick and chuse what particular duties to observe such as may be most for his own advantage For he looks upon the whole law of God as one and the same rule impartial constant and unvariable and that it was given us by God to direct our actions and not to be bow'd and accommodated to the lusts and interests of men Satan is well aware of this and so is not much concern'd to see men observant of many duties so long as he holds possession by one single sin This is enough at any time to maintain his authority and secure his interest in the Soul He knows well enough that the cherishing of one lust will corrupt and vitiate all other laudable performances that one Achan could bring a Curse upon the whole Congregation that one sin is enough to ruine us or if it were not yet while he holds that one fast he will quickly make way for a whole Legion to enter in And thus I have shown what things are required for the forming a religious resolution It remains that I add a word or two of what great use and moment it is in the business of religion And 1st a resolution thus framed will have a powerful influence over the whole Soul to keep it fixt and intent upon its duty to engage all the faculties thereof to proceed immediately to act according to their respective offices and apply and put forth their forces with vigor and constancy for the attainment of that end which it has fixt and determin'd to its self As we see in other resolutions when a man resolvedly intends his profit pleasure advancement or whatever state in this life how doth it set the whole man at work 't will employ all his thoughts his cares his endeavors 't is the business of his parts his study his whole life to pursue it he sticks at nothing that may promote or further his design he spares no pains neglects no means that may tend to compass it all the powers of Soul and Body yield a chearful obedience to this commanding resolution The like effect we should perceive in the business of religion if men were but as earnest resolute and intent upon it as upon their worldly advantages and satisfactions For were our wills fixt to it did our affections concenter in it how eager should we be in the pursuit how lively and vigorous in our actions and performances for then it would be nothing more but following the natural tendences of our own Souls to act suitably to our tempers and inclinations our duty would become our choice and our delight and 't would be force and violence to be drawn from it So that if once we are arriv'd thus far that virtue is become the matter of our firm purposes and resolutions when the heart is set upon it it will sweeten all our Cares make all our labours easy and natural breath life and Spirit into our works and actions For it has won the principle that commands them all as the spring of a watch imparts a motion to all the wheels of it And therefore Deut. 26.17 we find this to be the great argument which Moses presses upon the men of Israel Thou hast voucht the Lord this day to be thy God and to walk in his waves and to keep his statutes his Commandments and his Judgments and to hearken to his voice He thought this a mighty enforcement of the obligation they lay under that they had then resolved upon it they had plighted their fidelity and engaged their truth to God so that the very shame of being false to such an avowed solemn resolution should oblige them even in point of honour to make it good For this is evident that resolution with its own strength would be able to effect that for want whereof the greatest part of mankind prove so often successess in their undertakings We see by experience the force of it in other