Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	worship_n	worship_v	worshipper_n	4,806	4	12.4611	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55301	Armatura Dei, or, A preparation for suffering in an evil day shewing how Christians are to bear sufferings, and what graces are requisite thereunto : suited for all good Christians in this present time / by Edward Polhil ..., Esq.	Polhill, Edward, 1622-1694?	1682 (1682)	Wing P2750; ESTC R3431	68,313	156

cent 4. cap. 12. Valeat vita valeant meae facultates Farewel life farewel Estate Take heed that thy poor soul do not hang about Houses and Lands when thou art called forth to suffer for Christ and the pure Religion Further if thou wilt not part with thy worldly honour for Christ thou wilt never fuffer for him An ambitious man will do any thing for advancement he will bow to an Idol that himself may be honoured he lives upon a blast a little popular air and is too vain and light to suffer for Religion cast away therefore the love of Mundane Glory that thou maiest bear the reproach of Christ humble thy self before God that thou maiest be able to suffer for his Truth Count it an honour to suffer shame for Christ be willing to be reproached for him who can give thee the Spirit of glory 3. Mortify the Hypocrisy that is in thy bosom This sin is the art of seeming goodness or vice in a Vizor It is by this that men personate more grace than they have and enlarge their forms of Godliness beyond the power and make a profession much greater than is ever filled up It is from the remnants of this in good men that they sometimes take false steps and Squint at By-ends and start aside from God like a deceitful Bow It is from hence that the Saints now and then faint in their Faith cool in their Love and halt and make stops in their Obedience Watch therefore O Christian against this close evil consider the vileness of it think with thy self how greivous a thing it is to be false to that God who makes all other things true to thee the Sun to give thee true light and the creatures true nourishment the blood to run right in thy veines and the breath in thy nostrils loath and abhorr this abominable thing cry to heaven for more truth in thy inward parts labour to have the very power of Religion that thou maiest fill up thy profession mourn over thy Falls and withering Graces check thy starting heart and charg it to maintain a firm and close adherence to God set thy self all manner of waies to root out and extirpate the remnants of hypocrisy out of thy heart that when thou comest to suffer for Religion thy Heart may not decieve thee Truth in the Heart is necessary in hearing praying repenting believing obeying but above all it is so in suffering for Christ hypocrisy can personate all other graces but usually it stumbles and discovers itself in a day of trial therefore mortify the secret guil that is in thy heart that thou maiest stand fast under the cross 4. Mortify the vain superstition that is in the heart It is natural to us to desire the same thing as the children of Israel did to have Gods to go before us to have visible images or pictures of the deity a pompous and stately worship a gaudy Religion made up of humane additions and inventions and such a way of serving God as is accommodated to sense and framed after the commandments of men every one is ready to think in his false heart what Ticonius said with his lips Aug. Contr. Ep. Parmen Lib. 2. cap. 13. Quod volumus Sanctum est that which we will is holy That which in the worship of God is fine and decent in our eyes is so in Gods too But consider with thy self he that places his Religion in such things as these may chance to fall in Love with that fine Whore which is decked with gold and pretious stones Revel 17.4 He that will have a Religion sutable to Sense will hardly stand to that Religion which hath a Cross annexed to it If the Command of man be the reason of thy Worship thou wilt turn to every Point as that Command doth vary If thou canst nod in Superstition thou hadst need watch lest thou fall into flat Idolatry Remember God is a Spirit the true Worshippers worship in Spirit and truth and the true Worshippers will prove the true sufferers Stand to the pure Worship thou maiest not fall into a corrupt one Worship God in Spirit that thou maiest never fall down to an Idol CHAP. VI. The third Direction for Suffering is the Knowledg of God An ignorant man is not capable of suffering neither will every knowledge serve the turn The Knowledge that prepares for Suffering must be a well-rooted a right estimating a tasting or savouring a practical or operative Knowledge THe third Direction for suffering is this if we would be in a fit posture for suffering we must labour after the knowledge of God and the things of God An ignotant man who is a man in shape but a beast in heart is not a person capable of pious Suffering He knows not the Principles of Religion and for what should he suffer He hath no Principles of Grace in him and how should he suffer He is in darkness and to him Truth or Error one God or more pure Worship or Idolatry are all one he is alienated from the life of God Eph. 4.18 and therefore it is not imaginable that he should dye for God or his Truth For him to suffer for an unknown God or Christ is to suffer for he knows not what As the Samaritans worshipped they knew not what so the ignorant man if he suffer suffers for he knows not what The Athenians had an Altar to the unknown God Acts. 17.23 and possibly they offered up other Creatures to him But for a man to offer up himself as a Sacrifice to an unknown God and to part with all this World when he knows nothing of a better is a very strang unaccountable thing Let us therefore cry after Wisdom and lift up our voice for Understanding Let us seek her as silver and search for her as for hid Treasures as the Wiseman exhorts Prov. 2.3 4. Let our Prayers ascend up to Heaven to bring her down from thence and our Endeavors dig in the Mines of Scripture to fetch her up from thence that so Vnderstanding may keep us as it is Verse 11. Knowledge is a preservative to him that hath it the People that know their God shall be strong Dan. 11.32 The young men who have the word of God abiding in them are strong 1 Joh. 2.14 Vnderstanding is a well-spring of life to him that hath it Prov. 16.22 It streams out in living Graces and strengthens the Inner-man and prepares it for a day of trial only it is to be remembred that every knowledge will not do this but it must be a well-rooted a right estimating a tasting or savouring a practical or operative Knowledge that doth it 1. It must be a well-rooted Knowledge that will prepare us for suffering Job tels his Friends That the root of the matter or as the original will bear the root of the wood was in him Job 19.28 He was sorely afflicted by God and men yet he held fast his integrity because he was not

as the Chaff before the fierce Anger of the Lord come upon you before the day of the Lords Anger come upon you Zeph. 2.1.2 Approaching Judgments alarum us to self examination Sit down O Christian and consider what the state of thy Heart is what of Corruption is there and what of Grace how much is there for the World and how much for God what concupiscential Strings are there that tie thee to the present world and what Anchors cast in Heaven are there to bear thee up in a Storm what Chaff or Vanity is there that will go away with every Wind and what massy Grace that will abide the trial Never is it more necessary to descend into our selves than in a time of Suffering Search out the Corruption and Deceitfulness in thy Heart If thou wilt believe him that knows the Heart better than it knows it self The Heart is deceitful above all things Jer. 17.9 full of windings and turnings deceitful beyond its own power of reflection which when acted knows the deceit in part but cannot dive into the bottom of it Commune with thine own Heart O Christian ask it seriously Is there not much Corruption within are there not reliques of Unbelief Earthiness Sensualness Pride Hypocricy Apostacy found in thee Consider what these are these fight under the same Colours and aim at the same end with the persecuting World these would root grace out of thy Heart as wicked men would root Good out of the World As it was with Israel there went up with them out of Egypt a mixed multitude which was ready to return again thither so it is with good men there are corrupt mixtures in them which would turn back to Egypt again Be not deceived thy whole entire self is not for suffering the unregenerate part will hang back and say to thee as Satan in Peter did to our Saviour Master Spare thy self When dangers approach the Flesh will cry out Oh Spare thy Estate Spare thy Relations Spare thy Life why shouldest thou destroy thy self Take notice therefore that there is a Traitor in thine own bosom which unless thou watch will like the Idolaters deceived Heart turn thee aside from God Again ask thy Heart Doth it not Steal out of holy duties When thou art a hearing the holy Word will not thy Heart go out to worldly objects When thou art joyning with others in Prayer do not thy thoughts rove up and down about Carnal things If thy Heart be a little elevated towards Heaven doth it not immediately fall down again If it be a little inflamed towards God doth it not instantly cool again Think with thy self that Heart that steals away from Duties in which there is nothing grevious to the Body will be ready to steal away from Sufferings which grate upon the Flesh and Sense Thou hadst need to get thy Heart fixed on God in Duties that when thou comest to Suffering thou myest not start away from him Further yet ask thy heart Hath it not been false in Vows and Promises of better obedience and those made at Sacraments or upon Sick-beds Is not thy Goodness as a morning Cloud and thy life a vain circle of commissions of Sin and Confessions And canst thou trust such an Heart as this Assure thy self that an Heart which is false in Promises will not be true in Sufferings that goodness that passes away like the early Dew at other times will utterly vanish when a scorching Persecution comes Learn therefore to be true in Promises that thou mayst be true in Suffering get such a real Goodness as may abide the trial in an Evil day Moreover ask thy self one question more Cannot thy Heart colour over evil things Is it not apt to extenuate sin and say It is but a little one to make nothing of idle Words or petty Oaths And what may not such an Heart do to avoid Sufferings May it not put a fair gloss upon Popery it self and say the Papists have the substance of Religion and why should we scruple humane Rights and Ceremonies They have the sacred Scriptures and why should we stumble at superfluous Traditions Their Images are not the terminative object of Worship but the motive only and why may we not use Humane Inventions to move us to Devotion Transubstantion it self is but a kind of nicety they say the body of Christ is in the Eucharist after the maner of Spirits we say Bellar. de Euch. Lib. 1 ca. 2. Lib 3. cap. 4. that it is there Spiritually And how little doth the difference seem to be Praying to Saints and Angels is but a vanity a void thing Humane merit is an harmless thing if it be grafted upon Christ and the Promise The Pope himself is a Bishop and what need we think him Antichrist The false heart can paint the Whore in every part and make her look as if she were not Mystery Babilon the Mother of Harlots Abominations of the Earth Labour then to know more and more of the deceitfulness of thy heart that it may not cheat thee in times of Persecution He that trusts in his heart is a Fool nay a secret Idolater let us carry an holy jealousy over our hearts The Carnal heart will presume but knows not its own weakness it will promise much but perform little or nothing Peter was in a very high strain though all men be offended yet will not I Matth. 26.33 And again though I should die with thee yet will I not deny thee Verse 35. But alas he was herein as Forus observes but a Figure of those that lean upon their own Free-will Ecce columna firmissima ad unius aurae impulsum tota contremuit ubi est illa promittentis audacia dese plurimum presumentis Aust in Joh. Tract 11 3. he knew too little of himself presumed too much upon his own power and fell miserably in the denial of his Lord This great Pillar fel before the breath of a poor Damsel his Confidence and Presumption proved but a meer Vanity Do not O Christian think thy self better than this great Apostle study thine own heart and see the Corruption there that thou maiest not fall by presumption but stand in the Power of his Grace who is able to confirm thee to the end 2. Search thy heart and see what uprightness is there thou hast a name a notion of Religion a form of Godliness but hast thou the thing the truth of grace the power of Religion in thy heart It is grace true grace that must establish the heart Hebr. 13.9 It is Gold tried in the fire Revel 3.18 that is pure grace that must endure the fiery trial Consider thy self O Christian Is there any true integrity in thee Where are the Marks and Caracters of it appearing in thee Put Interrogatories to thine own heart Dost thou indeed set the Lord alwaies before thee Dost thou do every thing as in his Presence and under his Eye This is very comfortable he that