Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	life_n	live_v	sin_n	7,486	5	4.8306	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96272	Two sermons one against adultery, the other of the nature, art, and issue of the Christian warfare : with a discourse shewing the consistency of God's infinite goodness with His foreknowledge of the fall of man / by Nathanael Whaley ...	Whaley, Nathanael, 1637?-1709.; Whaley, Nathanael, 1637?-1709. A discourse shewing the consistency of God's infinite goodness with His foreknowledge of the fall of man.	1698 (1698)	Wing W1533A; ESTC R43579	50,933	141

fall into the Snare of the Devil than when they nobly withstand the greatest Temptations and maintain their Integrity without any visible support besides it 4. A Right Understanding of the Wiles and Stratagems of Satan 'T is no unusual thing with him since Life and Immortality are brought to Light by the Gospel 2 Cor. 2.11 to transform himself into an Angel of Li ht and play the Devil under the Prophet's Mantle to delude poor Ignorant Souls with Counterfeit Miracles and Prophecies Corrupt Glosses and Interpretations of Scripture and wondrous shews of Sanctity and Self-denial beyond the line of Mortality and the utmost stretch and possibility of Humane Frailty Too often he betrays Men of Rare and Lively Phancies into Novel and Fond Conceits to the apparent and mighty Prejudice of Truth and Piety and the ensnaring of some of the most Passionate Lovers of the Beauties of Holiness By varnishing Old exploded Errours with New Phrases and Fallacies he recommends them for New and Choice Discoveries of Gospel Truths And when he is most intent on disturbing the Peace and Harmony of the Church he commonly adds some Immunities and Favours of his Own to the Royal Charter of Christian Liberty for the Currency of which he Inspires his Ministers with Invincible Assurance and with Unfortunate Arts of Insinuation and Eloquence With these and other specious Devices does the Devil play upon the Ignorance of many that warmly profess the Gospel and under colour of Resisting him and his Doctrines engage them against the Life and Power of Godliness It concerns us therefore to be acquainted with his Methods and to Match his Policies by furnishing our selves with the Wisdom which is from above of which the Holy Scriptures are a most Rich and Invaluable Treasury By the Light of this Sacred Lamp we may both discover the Tremendous Depths of Satan and the certain way to Countermine and Defeat them Here we have a safe and ample Prospect of all the chief Battels that were fought for several thousand years between the Greatest Worthies and Champions of former Ages and this All-defying Enemy of theirs together with the Good and III Conduct and the various Successes and Occurrences on either side Here we read of the famous Tryal of Skill in the Land of Vz Job 1.11 12. Numb 26.65 of the Prodigious Slaughter of a False-hearted Army in the Wilderness without a visible Enemy of many Noble and Heroic Actions of Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles and other Excellent Men not without some deplorable Mixtures of sinfull Failings purposely written for our Admonition Interwoven with these Relations we every where meet with the Wiles and Stratagems the Windings and Fallacies of the old Serpent the diligent Observation of which added to the skill we have purchas'd by dear Experience or at easie Rates may be gain'd by the Follies and Misadventures of others will be so much Spiritual Armour and ward off many deadly and surprizing Strokes from our ever-waking and intriguing Enemy For what is easier when we see the Train than to avoid the Blow In vain saith Solomon is the Net spread in the sight of any Bird. Prov. 1.17 5. Vigilance and Sobriety are also necessary to defeat the Policies and Delusions of Satan If we have not a Presence of Mind to discern an approaching Danger if we sleep over our opportunities of resisting 1 Sam. 26.12 15. like King Saul and his careless General in useless Armour while their Bolsters were deckt and guarded with glittering Weapons 't is no wonder if our watchfull Adversary invade us when we least expect him deride our Sloth and Folly and steal away the Arms that should defend us from him The Devil is as subtle and circumspect as he is malicious and doubtless gets a great deal more by surprizing us than by all his fair Battles and formal Encounters with us He cares not much to assault us when he sees we are prepared for him and were it not to keep his hand in or that he hopes to tire us out with watching and observing his Motions with sending so often to Heaven and waiting so long as becomes us for Relief against him he would surely never trouble us with so many frivolous and forlorn Temptations as he frequently does It concerns us therefore as we are often warn'd to be very cautious of our wakefull Enemy to watch lest we enter into Temptation Matth. 26.41 1 Pet. 5.8 Luck 21.34 and to be sober that we may be vigilant to take heed lest our Hearts be over-charg'd with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life and so the evil day and the evil Spirit come upon us unawares For alas what Resistance are we like to make while we stagger with Wine While our our Spirits are dissolved in Luxury and Pleasure our Hands bound with Multiplicity of Business and our Hearts disquieted and broken with the vexatious Pursuits and Distractions of this present evil World 6. Lastly Industry and Faithfulness in our Callings are great Securities against the Baits and Temptations of the Devil The wise and good Providence of God hath so happily ordered our Affairs in this World that there is really more satisfaction and pleasantness in an active and virtuous course than was ever found in all the envied State of the most splendidly idle and unprofitable Life And methinks this Argument alone should be enough to convince an observing Atheist that Infinite Wisdom sits at the Stern of the World since he cannot but perceive that the least honourable and most toilsome Employments which are most necessary to the welfare of Mankind are delicious Sport and Recreation to the patient Labourer in comparison of the Fatigue of having nothing to do and the tiresome Vanity of wasting time for want of skil or business to employ it And hence it is that Men that are diligent and faithfull in their Callings do generally meet with fewer Temptations and find more Strength and Spirit to resist them than those that are foften'd with Ease and Idleness and have so much time upon their hands that they are willing to afford it at the cheapest rate and take even the Wages of Sin rather than work out their own Salvation Phil. 2.12 A Man that lives upon his honest Labour and Industry has something else to do than to sport and drink away his time or to fool it away in dressing gaming and other lurching and prodigal Expences and therefore when the Devil comes to tempt him to these and the like sharping and extravagant Courses he easily detects his Fallacies and resists his Charms He finds his Diligence brings him Riches and Honours and that his faithfull Dealing keeps his Mind always serene and chearfull he feels himself satisfied in his virtuous and conscientious way and knows that Vice and the Devil are Cheats but that God and Goodness will plentifully reward all them that diligently seek them It remains in the third and last place to shew III. What

Restraint upon the Mind while it views the Danger that lies before it and since the greatest Danger lies in provoking infinite Justice arm'd with infinite Power the Fear of God who is invested with both and has threatned the Sinner with everlasting Destruction must while he is under the lively Impressions of it deaden all the force of Temptations and infallibly restrain him from closing with them And for this reason it is that God who is infinitely tender of our immortal Souls Rom 1.18 hath revealed his Wrath from Heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men and kindly threatned Destruction on purpose to preserve us from it it being greatly to be feared that the Promise of Heaven and everlasting Life would very hardly have made the best Men good if they had not been also quickned with the Fears of everlasting Perdition For 't is certain that in this guilty and degenerate State we are generally much more afraid of being miserable than ambitious to be truly happy Of which I think there needs no plainer Demonstration than this viz. that the Generality of Men even when they are grown weary of this World would be well contented to stay here in a tolerable condition to Eternity or when they die to vanish into nothing only to be eased of the danger of being everlastingly miserable Nay I doubt not but some good men of the lower Size in Religion that have but a moderate share of the Sorrows and Calamities of this Life would be were it left to their choice almost willing to resign their weak Hopes of Heaven for such infallible Securities against the dreadfull and eternal Torments of Hell And since the fear of endless Misery has taken so deep a root in humane Nature were our Minds duely Impregnated and kept awake with the Fear of God who is both able to save and destroy it is morally impossible but that it must prevail over all Temptations to incurr his Displeasure and effectually curb our wildest and most unruly Inclinations to any Lust or Vanity And hence is that excellent saying of the Wife-man Prov. 28.14 Psal 36.1 Happy is the Man that feareth elways i.e. that hath the Fear of God continually before his Eyes as a faithfull Watch or Sentinel to discover all Approaches of Danger and call in the Powers of Reason and Religion to his Defence against them No Motive indeed tho' never so powerfull in it self has any force upon us any longer than we apprehend our Concernment in it for which Reason an actual Apprehension of the evil of the Crime to which we are tempted is absolutely necessary to restrain us from it by awakening the Fear of God in our Minds And therefore when any Temptation is presented to us if we look only on the glossie side of it and think of nothing but the delicious Pleasure or Profit the Sin is varnisht or gilded with and are not aware the mean while that God has revealed his Wrath against it 't is evident that what ever we are at other times we are not now afraid of offending him and then his Fear can have no present effect upon us and so it is all one in the Issue as if we never had any true Reverence for him And this was it that made the great Difference between Joseph and David in the matter we have been treating of David had an habitual Fear of God and surely in as high a Degree as Joseph had But then there was this Disparity in his Case the Fear of God was not before his Eyes when he bath'd them in the naked Beauty of unguarded Bathsheba he did not like Joseph awaken himself into a vigorous Consideration of the great Wickedness of defiling Vriah's Bed He never argued thus to himself How can I harbour so impure a Thought and stain my Royal Purple with so foul and Action a Sin of a far deeper Dye Shall I thus offend Thus requite the good and mighty God who chang'd my homely Crook into a glorious Scepter and advanced me the youngest of Jesse's House over all the Sons of rejected Saul to the highest step of Imperial Honour next to himself in Power and Dignity and from those few sheep I kept in the Wilderness has made me Ruler over his beloved Israel Shall I thus provoke the Lord to Anger Am I stronger than he Had David thus awaken'd himself into an holy Awe of God and his Goodness he had surely beat off the Temptation that so easily foil'd him been innocent of both his presumptuous Sins and perfectly clear in the whole matter of Vriah And now having given you the true Character of Adultery and the Instructions left you by the young and pious Example in the Text I shall close all with a brief Application to two sorts of Persons 1. To such as are burden'd with the guilt of this heinous Crime who are to be admonisht that a Sin of so vast Malignity requires a very solemn piercing and unfeigned Repentance and that the conscious Eye and Impartial Justice of God are not to be deceived by any Forms or Flashes of a transient and impenitent Sorrow Consider then yours is a crying Sin To Heaven it cries for Vengeance and to you it calls aloud for the deepest Humiliation in Dust and Ashes the greatest Contrition of Mind and Spirit the utmost Satisfaction in your power to the injured Parties the freest and most abasing Confessions to Almighty God the sincerest Vows and Resolutions of a new and unspotted Life the strictest Covenant with your Eyes the strongest Guard upon all the Avenues of Lust and Wantonness and the nicest Care to avoid the very least Pollutions of the Flesh or Spirit together with a most passionate endeavour to rescue the poor Captives that are tied and bound with the Chain of your Sins and were by you betrayed into the Snare of the Devil What Rivers of Tears can wash away so deep a Stain What Piercings of Heart and Soul What Self-Condemnation and Abhorrence What lively Applications to the Merits of your Redeemer ought to accompany your fervent and constant Prayers for the Forgiveness of so great a Wickedness A Wickedness so great that the greatest Purity of Life is little enough to take off the Blemish of one single Act of it Psal 51.12 and restore the Joys of that blessed Hope of being meet at last for the glorious Inheritance of the Saints in Light And then into what a wretched Condition hath that man brought himself that has a long course of Fornications and Adulteries to answer for and is still to begin the whole Christian Race He had need I am sure to live the reverse of his Life apace I mean to spend the remainder in continual Acts of Mortification Devotion and Preparation for his dying hour in unravelling as far as he is able all the evil he has done and doing all the good which the Mercy and Patience of God his short time and unhappy Circumstances may

have left him opportunity for 'T is certain that God has pardon'd some very great and infamous Sinners but then they were great Penitents too And surely there is nothing more becoming such as have been very bad themselves than to attempt some generous and eminent thing towards the Reformation of a degenerate and adulterous Age something that may heal the Honour of Virtue that may help to appease the Anger of Heaven and to banish the Vices which they their Families and Country have dearly smarted for that the World may be once the better for them before they leave it and their good Actions may help to bury the Memory and I fection of their bad 2. Such as have not defiled themselves with carnal Lusts and particularly those that are young and tender of the Honour they owe their Bodies or are curious in their Washes and Dresses and love to appear orient and gay without the least Spot of Soil or Impurity ought to be extremely cautious of all Approaches to this notoriously shamefull and odious Vice 1 Cor. 6.18 Other Sins comparatively as the Apostle speaks are without the Body but he that committeth Fornication sinneth against his own Body i.e. he deflowers the Purity of his excellent Nature he commits a Rape upon himself and so defiles his holy Profession 1 Thess 4.4 which is to preserve his Body as a sacred Vessel in Sanctification and Honour and to keep himself unspotted from the World And then what foolish and fulsome Hypocrisie were it to pretend to the minutest Decencies and profess the highest Degrees of Nuptial Sanctity and after all contract the indelible Stain and perfidiously embrace such a Dunghill Lust Take heed therefore of every impure and guilty Thought of all unchast Desires and Complacences lascivious Glances and Dalliances of all Immodesty in Word or Gesture with all other Incentives to gratifie the Flesh with its Affections and Lusts These besides their proper Guilt and Defilement are the common Anteludes by which the sly Tempter seeks to play you into the dreadfull Crime and then by shunning the Occasions of them you keep out of the road at least of vulgar Danger in the pure Aethereal way whither the unclean Spirit never or rarely presumes to come But suppose you were surprized by a rude and violent Temptation as Joseph or sad Lucretia was Lusts fiery Darts will not enter into a chast and undefiled Breast where there is nothing gross enough to catch or feed the Flame Prov. 4.23 Keep therefore thy Heart with all Diligence and if thine Eye chance to be struck with strange erratick Beauty call in the mighty powers of Faith and Reason arm your self with a Reverence of God's all-seeing eye Ps 139.3 which pierceth into all your Paths and is ever about your Bed call to mind your infinite Obligations to him and look on every Instigation of lustfull Appetite as a dangerous Approach to the flaming borders of Hell and Ruin where the Worm of Conscience dieth not and the Fire of Divine Wrath is not quenched Say now to thy self How can I do so false so foul an Action that have plighted my Faith and espoused my self by most solemn and religious Vows as a chast Virgin unto Christ as a Lover of the purest and holiest Jesus How can I hope to appear before him amongst those bright and spotless Souls Matth. 25.33 that have escaped the Pollutions that are in the World through Lust May he not justly set me with the Goats on his left hand in the great discriminating Day if here I should live like them in turpid and lawless Pleasures Should I stoop to this lewd Desire Whither oh whither shall I cause my shame to go How shall I behold the Face of God or Angels Is this to purifie my self as they are pure Shall I then for a moments Pleasure forfeit an immortal Crown and incur the eternal Anger of him whom at last I must obey when he bids me depart into everlasting Fire Shall I shew less reason in my Conduct be more brutish than any Man and run directly upon the Rock by whose fatal side I have lately seen the Ruins of so many tall and gallant Vessels so many brave and goodly Persons fearless and undaunted Men with desperate Numbers of the smaller Craft miserably lost and cast away for ever And for those few Adventurers that have hardly escapt with Life and Limb how have I seen them stalking about the Streets like Ghosts with Death and strange Remorse in their Faces Only more chang'd from what they were than Death usually alters a man from his living Form I will say but one thing more you have Life and Death before you consider the various Issues of a wise and foolish Choice declared by the everlasting Gospel which forbids you no innocent Pleasure Rom 8.13 If you live after the Flesh you shall die but if through the Spirit you mortifie the Deeds of the Body you shall live in ravishing and endless Joys in eternal Acts of unspotted and Seraphick Love in the Arms of him that loved you to the Death in the Beatific Vision and Fruition of God and the dearest Embraces of Virgin Spirits made perfect in Heaven To which God of his infinite Mercy guide us through the Snares and Fallacies of this evil World for the Merits of his Blessed Son Jesus Christ our Lord. A SERMON ON THE Christian Warfare S. James IV. 7. Resist the Devil and he will flee from you 'T Is a peculiar Thought of a late conceited Philosopher who loved to quarrel with the best sense of Mankind that War is founded in Nature or a Right as he calls it in every man according to his power to seize on every Mans Possessions till he gives it away by Compact The plain and naked Meaning of which Assertion is That Power and Right are but one and the same thing in Nature That all the difference between them arises from positive Laws and Covenants That till such Laws and Covenants were made no man was bound to his good Behaviour to his Neighbour that to oppress ravish and murther were once fair and innocent Actions the harmless Effects of Power pursuant to that original Right which fond Nature gave the stronger to all the Delights and Possessions of the weaker But not to follow the Chace of this wild and impious Hypothesis we need go no farther than the Text to discover the great Incendiary of War and Contention and the first Cause and Author of all Disorder and Confusion in the World that is the Devil the common and inveterate Enemy of God and every Creature that bears his Image Him therefore S. James exhorts us to resist and least we should be daunted at the Fame of his mighty Conquests and the vast Destructions he hath every where wrought in the Earth to support us under this Discouragement the Divine Herald assures us that the Issue of our Conflicts with him will be safe and honourable

the Romish Exorcists use and ascribe a Divine Efficacy to I mean their Reliques Incense Consecrated Salt Holy Water Breathings and Crossings and what they call the Chrism of Salvation The true Weapons and Methods of our Spiritual Conflicts are extremely different from these and all Modern Inventions of Superstitious and Fanciful Men and indeed deserve a much larger Discourse than the remaining Minutes will allow which will therefore oblige me to speak the more briefly of them The first is 1. A true and lively Faith in all the great Articles of the Christian Doctrin Faith is the Principle of all Spiritual Life and Operations and therefore the Power of all other Graces is virtually contained in it the Consequence of which is that the Christians Power to resist the Temptations of the Devil is exactly equal to the Measure and Energy of his Faith 1 Tim. 6.12 And hence S. Paul expresly calls the Christian Life the Good Fight of Faith and gives the Preeminence to this Grace above all the Weapons of our Spiritual Warfare Ephes 6.16 Above all take the shield of Faith wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the Wicked 1 Joh. 5.4 And This saith St. John is the victory that overcometh the World even our Faith And a noble Victory it is beyond any the World it self ever saw since it reaches even Him who is call'd the God of this World For the World is the Great Magazine of Temptations out of which the Devil has all along furnisht himself with the choicest Materials for his Wicked War Besides to Overcome the World is to Subdue and Mortifie our Inordinate Affections to it and when they are Dead the Glories and Vanities of this World will affect us no more than the Flowers that are strewed upon our Graves or the sad Pomp and Solemnities that attend us thither We shall then have no Lusts to gratify being Dead to this World and living upon the Faith and expectation of a Better and then it will be no longer in the Tempter's Power to Gull us with his Gilded Toys and next-to-nothings with his Fairie Money and Phantastick Braveries with his Crackling and Blazing Honours or the Guilty and Griping Pleasures with which he liberally Rewards his Fools and Properties Heb. 11.1 The Evidence of things not seen which is the Life and Essence of our Faith will give us such a Prospect of Celestial Glory and Happiness as will raise our Spirits to the Noblest Heights and darken all the Splendor and Gayety of this Tempting Life It will also inspire us with Invincible Fortitude in the sharpest Fight of Afflictions Heb. 10.32 Heb. 12.2 while we look unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our Faith and learn of him for the Joy that is set before us to endure the Crosses and despise the Shame and Reproaches of this Angry and Virulent World So that by Overcoming the World i.e. Mortifying our Affections to it by a lively Faith in God and our Redeemer we spoil the Tempter's Designs drive the Enemy out of his Head Quarters nail up his Murdering Cannon and render all his Great Engines of War utterly useless and unserviceable against us 2. Frequent Application to God by Devout and Fervent Prayers to preserve us from the Danger and assist us in the hour of Temptation To this Relief we are directed by our Saviour who taught his Disciples to Pray that they might not be led Luk. 11.4.22.40 and that they might not enter into Temptation The meaning of which could not be that we should beg the Favour of God to be wholly exempted from all Spiritual Trials or desire a clear and absolute Discharge from the Christian War For that were to Pray against some of the best Means for Implanting Exercising and Improving Grace and against all Occasions of Victory and Triumph and to prescribe a new Method and Dispensation to God for the Training us up to Eternal Life and Glory contrary to that which his other Children have been alwaies accustom'd to Our Saviour's meaning therefore must be that whereas in our present Circumstances we are surrounded with innumerable and sore Temptations we should pray to our Heavenly Father to Relieve us and not suffer us to be Over power d or to enter too far into the Danger of being worsted by them And this is so much our Interest that were there no shadow of Duty or Piety in it one would think a Sensible Man should not need any other Incentive to it For is it not an Inestimable Privilege that my Safety lies in one that commands all the Powers of Nature and the Angels of Light and Darkness and has promised that nothing shall tempt me above my Power As it is impossible any thing should if I will make his Power mine which by humble and fervent Prayer I am sure to do and since my Prayer can reach him every moment shall I wave his Defence vainly rely on my own Strenth at which my Enemy laughs and venture alone into the Battel amidst all the mighty Darts and Fire of Hell and thereby lose an Immortal Soul and with it a Victory so easie to be gain'd over which there hangs an Eternal Crown Such Presumption as this is the highest Provocation to Almighty God to forsake us in our greatest Extremities while we carry it as if we would Steal a Victory without him or tamely give place to the Devil rather than be obliged to Him for it 3. Good Principles of Life and Practice are an admirable Fence and Preservative against Temptations These like the Ballast in the Ship will keep the Soul Tight and Steddy while the Man is Floating on the Waves driven by the Angry Winds and toss'd by the Changes and Accidents of the Fickle and Tempestuous World Thus we see in all the Whirlings and Revolutions of State as well as those of a private Fortune 't is the Man of Principles still 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Aristotle calls him the solid square Man who has a basis of Integrity on every side that bravely Out-rides the Storm and smiles at the Dangers which loudly Threaten him And for those becalming Temptations which lie in Pleasure and Sensuality a Man that has settled his course of Life the contrary way that steers by Wise and Vertuous Principles is in very little danger of coming within the reach of their Allurements and charms Having found the Pleasantness of Religion and tasted the Delights of the World to come he is prepared against the Temptations of this He knows better things than to act against his Best Judgment Experience and Interest than to forego his Innocence to Ruffle his peacefull Mind and forfeit the Love and Favour of God only to enjoy the short Pleasures of Sense which the Meanest Soul in the World could never find any competent Satisfaction in And hence it is Remarkable that Good Men are no less the Wonders of the World when through Surprize or Inadvertency they