Selected quad for the lemma: woman_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
woman_n	adam_n	deceive_v	transgression_n	2,011	5	10.9498	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36457	A sermon preached before the Queen at White-Hall, February the fifteenth, 1690/1 by Henry Dove ....	Dove, Henry, 1640-1695.	1691 (1691)	Wing D2052; ESTC R3520	12,590	34

turn our hearts from inclining to 'em and help us to see our Folly and our Danger For alas We are not able of our selves to help our selves not so much as to think a good Thought much less to resist an evil Inclination or a strong Temptation but our Sufficiency is of God It is God says the Psalmist here that girdeth me with Ver. 32. strength and maketh my way Perfect and through Christ who strengthens me says St. Paul I can do Phil. 4. 13. all things Without the Divine Grace and Assistance it is impossible we should be kept from any Sin and without Prayer there is no way imaginable of obtaining either That was the vain Presumption of the Pelagian Heretick who thought to do it in his own Strength and this is the too common but dangerous Mistake of some that would be thought more Orthodox Christians who think to have help without asking Hence those manifold Exhortations and Commands in SS to pray continually to pray without ceasing to watch and pray Watch ye Luk. 21. 36. therefore and pray always says our Saviour Continue in Prayer and watch in the same says St. Paul Col. 4. 2. Be ye sober and watch unto Prayer says St. Peter 1 Pet. 4. 7. And for our Encouragement to pray we have the greatest Assurance that it shall be granted Ask and it shall be given you says our Blessed Luk. 11. 9. Saviour which he strongly enforces from the kindness of Earthly Parents If ye then being evil Ver. 13. know how to give good things to your Children how much more shall your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him And If any Man lack Wisdom says St. James let him ask of God and it shall Jam. 1. 5. be given him What more positive promises in the Book of God But here if any one object as I believe some are apt to do if God be so liberal in granting His Grace and Spirit how comes it then to pass that so many run into Sin for want of it who yet perhaps are frequently asking it To this I Answer That such either ask it not in Faith that is relying on those Ways and using the Means which God in His Word directs 'em to or else they ask it not in Sincerity and so draw near with their Mouths while their Hearts are far from desiring what they ask as St. Augustine somewhere says of himself That when in his Youthful Heat he prayed against his beloved Sin he did it so coldly as though he was afraid lest God should hear him Or else they neglect to stir up the Grace of God that is already bestowed on them and cease to second it with their own Endeavours For 2. We must always remember that tho' the Grace of God prevents us that we may have a good Will and works in us when we have it that so we may find Success yet in Vain do we expect the Continuance of His Help without our diligent Endeavours While He assists our Weakness He does not intend to encourage our Laziness and therefore we are also to labour and Col. 1. 29. strive according to his working which worketh in us mightily as the Apostle expresses it 'T is the Might of His Power that worketh in us but we are to labour according to it or else we provoke Him to withdraw it from us And this I observe the rather because there are some in the World who think they have nothing to do but only to sit as it were with folded Arms under the Influences of Heaven and wait for their Work to be done to their hands by the Almighty Power of God and the sole Operation of His Grace and Spirit and though they would gladly be help'd yet never stir a foot to help themselves But surely a Christian one that is in Covenant with Christ by Baptism and a Member of his Body should know and consider better things and such as accompany his Salvation viz. That though God be always before hand with us in giving us His Spirit yet when it is once bestowed He expects our Compliance and humble Concurrence with it that we should manage His Grace with Carefulness and improve His Talents with Diligence most unfeignedly ascribing all the Glory to Himself who is the sole efficient Cause of all that is good in us Wherefore as we must always pray that God would keep us from such Sins so we must labour also to keep our selves since we have now no Excuse from Weakness no Pretence for Disability having the Promise of Divine Assistance and of further Supplies of Grace upon using the former well for to him that hath shall be given Mat. 13. 12. and He giveth more Grace Jam. 4. 6. In order to which I shall add 3. That we take care to avoid such things and decline such Occasions as are most likely to snare us and gain upon us lest one thing hook in another and we be caught in the Gin before we suspect the Danger The Neglect of this was the Cause of the First Sin to which we owe our Inclinations to all the rest for Adam was not deceiv'd says the Apostle but the Woman being deceiv'd 1 Tim. 2. 14. was in the Transgression The Man was not deceiv'd till he hearkened to the Woman nor was the Woman beguil'd till she listned to the Charmer when once she began to parly with the Tempter to come near the Tree and to contemplate and admire the Goodliness of the Fruit she was more than half overcome The Command the Threatning of God In the day thou eatest thou shalt dye the Death are soon overlooked and forgotten and we presently read That she took of the Fruit of the Tree and did eat and Gen. 3. 6. gave also unto her Husband with her and he did eat And certainly 't is a shrewd sign we do not much desire to keep our selves from the Sin when we court or seek out the occasion nay 't is an Argument rather that we long to fulfill the Lusts of the Flesh and of the Mind when we encourage the Temptation and make provision for ' em Tertullian tells us of a Christian Woman who going to see the Heathen Sacrifices and Shews was immediately seized on by the Evil Spirit to whom those Sacrifices were made and when the Holy Man in the Name and Power of Christ had cast him out and demanded the Reason Why he meddled with one that was a Christian he replied What did she make there He found her within his own Territories in the midst of his Votaries and Vassals and so he took her for his own The Application of the Story is briefly this When we willingly rush upon a Temptation or contentedly close with the occasion we give the Tempter the greatest advantage against us we do as it were proffer him our Service and if God be no kinder to us than we are to our selves to with-hold and