Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A71020
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A sermon preach'd before the Queen at White-hall, February the XIIth, 1691/2 by William Sherlock ...
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Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing S3352; ESTC R41211
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12,283
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34
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nothing so bad could be thought of but some Men had Scripture-Examples or Precepts or Prophesies or Parables to justifie it and therefore we must be aware of this as well as of all the other Arts and Stratagems of the Tempter In answer to this our Saviour proves that this Text could not mean that God would command his Angels to bear him up in their hands if he should fling himself from the Pinacle of the Temple because we are expresly forbid to make such Experiments of God's Protection as this It is written Thou shalt not tempe the Lord thy God To tempt is to try and to tempt God is to try what he will or can do for us beyond his Promise and beyond the ordinary Methods of his Providence especially when we either murmur against God for not answering our unreasonable demands or presume upon his favour to do that which he has forbid us to do or expect his Protection and Blessing when we put our selves out of the ordinary Protection of his Providence it were easie had I time to give instances of all these ways of tempting God the Temptation of our Saviour concerns the last I mentioned out of a vain-glorious humour and a presumption of God's peculiar favour to us voluntarily without any reasonable pretence much less necessity to thrust ourselves into apparent and unavoidable Dangers and expect God should save us by Miracles for this is what our Saviour was tempted to to fling himself down from the Pinacle of the Temple in a presumptuous confidence of God's care of him that he would command his Angels to bear him up in their hands This looks like Faith in God a plerephory of Hope and full assurance of his Love but indeed is Vanity Pride Insolence Presumption and a tempting of God It is such an Affront and Indignity as wise Men will not bear from their best Friends when they impose upon them not to do them a real kindness but to gratifie their vanity and humour in such Demands as a wise Man cannot honourably grant And yet there is a more dangerous and fatal Presumption then this when men have such a strong Imagination of their being the Sons the Chosen and Elect People of God that they think they cannot do any thing to forfeit God's Love they may make more bold with God's Laws then other Men for God sees no sin in his people nay indeed that it is no Sin to advance themselves and the Cause they have Espoused which they call the Glory of God by extraordinary means that is by transgressing all the known and ordinary Rules of Justice and Charity These are dangerous Temptations and we have seen the miserable Effects of them and therefore let no man think that he is so great a favorite of Heaven as to have God at his beck to save him by Miracles when he wilfully exposes himself to such Dangers as nothing but Miracles can Deliver him from much less to think that God will alter the nature of Good and Evil for his sake that he will dispense with his Laws Laws which are as Eternal and Unchangeable as his own Nature when ever such vain Enthusiasts pretend to serve themselves and his Glory by the breach of them It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God 3. These two Temptations were managed with great Art to deceive the third is open and bare-faced The Devil in express words tempts him to Idolatry with the Promise of all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them which he had drawn a beautiful Landskip of and shew'd him from a high Mountain All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Or as St. Luke relates it All this power will I give thee and the glory of them for it is delivered unto me and to whomsoever I will I give it Which in some sense was true at that time not that the Devil had the Supreme and Absolute disposal of Kingdoms for St. Paul assures us that all the Powers even of the Pagan World were of God and ordained by God But yet he was at that time the God of this World and had a more visible Kingdom than God himself The true Worshippers of God were at that time chiefly confined to Judea a very little spot of Earth but all the Power and Glory of the World was in the hands of Idolaters who Worshipped the Devil and wicked Spirits And the force of the Argument is as if he had said to our Saviour You call your self the Son of God and Worship him but will God do that for you which I can and will do if you Worship me You your self see that he has no Kingdom but Judea to bestow on you and that also is at present in the Hands of my Worshippers but what is that to all the Kingdoms of the World which are at my disposal and which you see your self are mine and under my Government But our Saviour without disputing the value of this World or what Power the Devil had in the disposal of it chides away the Tempter with Indignation be gone Satan For it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve But tho' Christ refused this proffer his pretended Vicar has taken it and revived the old Pagan Idolatry for the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them This is the prevailing Temptation to this day to corrupt Religion the Faith and Worship of God for some temporal Advantages too many Men think that the best Religion which will best serve a secular Interest And we have reason to think that too many do this and know what they do that their furious Zeal for a false Religion is not all Ignorance and Mistake but an undissembled Love of this World For can we think that the Devil never tempted any Man but Christ knowingly and willingly to renounce the true Religion and the true Worship of God for this World No doubt he does and very often prevails too and these knowing Idolaters who make a downright bargain to Worship the Devil for the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them are those who abuse the Ignorant and Credulous with a false and hypocritical Zeal But let us remember that we must Worship the Lord our God and him only must we serve Let us remember what our Saviour tells us What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or What shall a man give in exchange for his soul Let us remember that the end of Religion is to please God to Glorifie him to be like him and to enjoy him for ever and this will give us a secure Victory over the World and the Devil Which God of his infinite Mercy grant through our Lord Iesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be Honour Glory and Power now and for ever Amen FINIS 13 Rom. 1.
in Wealth and Power Whence came all those Superstitions which have corrupted both the Faith and Worship of Christianity and done more mischief to the Church and Religion than all the looseness of a Secular Life but from Desarts and the Cells of Monks and Hermites Which proves that the Devil has his Temptations for the Wilderness as well as for the Court for the most Religious Devotees and Melancholly Enthusiasts as well as for the Men of this World and those the most dangerous Temptations too which as experience tells us open a back-door for Pride and Ambition and Secular Power and a general corruption of Manners to enter into the Church and into the Lives of Christians And therefore we must guard our selves against the Tempter as well in our greatest solitudes and retirements from the World as in a croud of business We must have a care of the temptations of Devotion and Mortification of Fastings and Penances of a sullen discontent at this World as well as of the temptations of a busie Life and of an easie and prosperous Fortune 4thly I observe That Christ was led by the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil that is It was God's appointment not his own voluntary choice And this Teaches us manfully to resist Temptations when the Providence of God and the unavoidable circumstances of our Condition bring us into Temptations but not presumptuously to thrust our selves into them There is always danger in Temptations especially when we rashly venture upon them Let not him that putteth on his Armour boast as he that putteth it off is true in our Spiritual Warfare We have seen great Men conquered even St. Peter himself and therefore Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall and not unnecessarily venture too near a Precipice where he may be in danger of falling Our Saviour has taught us to pray that God would not lead us into Temptation as I observed before much less then ought we to lead our selves into Temptation We may easily presume too far upon the Strength of our Faith our Courage our Resolution as St. Peter did who had he been more diffident of himself had kept out of the High-Priest's Hall and escaped the Temptation which he could not resist We daily see that Men who presume upon the Strength of their Constitution and use their Bodies ill destroy their Health and shorten their Lives while Men who feel their own weak and crazy Temper live on with Care to a good Old Age and thus it is with respect to the Mind as well as to the Body Presumption will destroy those whom Fear and Caution will secure and therefore let us not be high-minded but fear There are a great many ways whereby Men expose themselves to Temptation and tempt even the Tempter some of which are very obvious As to keep Ill Company whose Conversation is a daily Temptation Sloth and Idleness which betrays Men to any Wickedness which offers itself For it is an uneasie thing to have nothing to do and that itself is a Temptation and the Devil never wants Business to employ such Men in and I know nothing worse than this but when Men choose such Business as is nothing else but Idleness and Vanity or can only minister to their own or to other Mens Lusts. But there are other ways whereby Men thrust themselves into Temptations without considering what they do I might name many but shall content myself with some few at present which are least observed and which prove Snares to good Men as for instance To impose upon our selves constant Tasks of Religion that we will Read and Pray so much and so often every Day and observe voluntary Fasts and abstain from such innocent Diversions c. which Men commonly resolve in some great Heats and Fits of Devotion which they fancy will continue in the same fervour but never do and then these Tasks grow very uneasie as every thing of Religion does when it grows a Task and then they degenerate into dulness and formality and then Men either leave them off and with that are tempted to leave off Religion itself or they are so very cold that they fancy themselves spiritually dead and fall into Melancholly into Desentions into Despair itself It is a dangerous thing for Men by rash and arbitrary Vows to tye themselves up from doing that which otherwise they might very innocently do and which they will be strongly tempted to do when they have vowed not to do it The Guides of Souls know that this is no imaginary Case but what they so often meet with and see such ill effects of that it is very fit to warn Men of the snare Were there no other reason against the Monkish Vows of Celibacy Poverty and Obedience I should think this sufficient that considered only as perpetual Vows they are a dangerous State of Temptation and for my own part I would never advise any Man to make a perpetual Vow to do or not to do any thing which it is not perpetually his Duty to do or not to do Thus to marry with Persons of a disagreeable Age or a disagreeable Humour or a contrary Religion is to put our selves into a state of Temptation but such particular Instances would be endless and therefore I forbear If God lead us into Temptation he will give us sufficient strength to resist if we improve his Grace if we lead our selves into Temptation and God leave us to the power and subtilty of the Tempter the sin and the folly is our own 5thly I observe by what means our Saviour conquered the Devil's Temptations and that was by the Authority and by the Word of God It is written Man shall not live by bread alone It is written Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God It is written Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve These are such Answers as would admit of no Reply for the Authority of God can never be answered And thus we must conquer also if ever we will conquer by a firm Faith in God and Belief of his Word Faith is our Shield and the Word of God is the Sword of the Spirit and we have no other fure Defence against all Temptations This ruined our first Parents in Paradise when their Reason and Natural Powers were in their greatest Vigour Perfection and Integrity that instead of insisting on God's Authority they ventured to reason the Case with the Tempter Set aside the Authority of God and the Devil will quickly out-wit and out-reason us he is skilled in all the Arts of Deceit and Methods of Perswasions and without God's Authority our Courage our Resolution our Honour out Reason itself even all the Rants and triumphant Speculations of Philosophy will fail us in the Day of Trial to Tempt is either to deceive or to perswade and there is no other secure defence against either but the Authority and the Word of God The