Selected quad for the lemma: diversity_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
diversity_n	church_n	gift_n	spirit_n	1,436	5	5.9872	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49244	Grace: the truth and growth and different degrees thereof. The summe and substance of XV. sermons. Preached by that faithful and painful servant of Jesus Christ, Mr. Christopher Love, late minister of Lawrence Jury, London. They being his last sermons. To which is added a funerall sermon, being the very last sermon he ever preached.	Love, Christopher, 1618-1651.; Cross, Thomas, fl. 1632-1682, engraver.	1652 (1652)	Wing L3156; ESTC R214001	127,409	242

as in the giving of comfort God many times in wrath lets a man be filled with the ungrounded comfort of supposed grace Oh beloved it is farre better to want comfort then grace Many a man that hath no true grace yet hath seeming comfort but a child of God is often without comfort that he may examine and exercise his grace and so at last enjoy a wel-grounded joy and a wel-bottom'd consolation Grace is the best foundation of spirituall consolation XII Sermon At Lawrence Jury London April 20 1651. 2 TIM 2. 1. Be strong in the grace of God that is in Christ Jesus I Have already handled four cases of conscience concerning strength of grace viz 1. Whether strong temptations may be consistent with strength of grace 2. Whether strong corruptions may consist with the strength of grace 3. Whether a man may be strong in grace and and yet want those strong affections which he had at his first conversion 4. Whether a man may have strength of grace and yet want the comfort of his grace I shall proceed now to a fifth Case of Conscience viz. Whether a man may be said to have strength of grace who hath but weak gifts In the opening of which Case I shall thus proceed 1. I wil premise some propositions 2. I shall positively resolve the Case 3. And then give you some practicall in reference by way of Application I le begin with the first namely the Positions and they are these four following This first Position is this That though all believers they have the same Spirit yet God in his wisdom thinks it fit they shalnot have the same gifts There are saith the Apostle diversities of gifts but the same Spirit As it is with flowers there is not the same smell but different smels to different flowers and yet all their sents have the same influence from above and as it is with instruments of musick there are divers sounds in the Organ but the same breath doth cause the severall sounds So in the Church of God though there is the same influence of the Spirit of God yet not the same measure of gifts in each member of the Church The second Position is this that diversity of gifts is not to be ascribed to mans industry diligence or education but to the free pleasure and dispensation of God It is true much may be ascribed to study and industry and diligence in a way of gifts which was the ground of the Apostles exhortation Give attendance to reading to exhortation to doctrine c. and meditate on these things give thy self wholly to them that thy profiting may appeare to all The Apostle speaks there of profiting in ministeriall gifts which gifts diligence and study doe much advantage and promote yet though we were all equall in study and diligence there would be a diversity in our gifts lest men should vaunt of their industry in acquiring gifts and thereby exclude Gods bounty in bestowing them Psal 127. 1. Except the Lord build the house they labour in vain that build it saith Hildersa●● Suppose that two men were to read the same books and to study the same matter every day yet the one may be a dun●e and a man of low gifts and the other may have rare parts and excellent endowments this is to shew who we are beholding to that is God whose dispensation of gifts are many and variously bestowed Hence it is the Apostle telleth us That all these gifts worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will so that though one man differ from another in gifts yet it is God that maketh him to differ The third Position is this That a man may be excellent in one gift and yet defective in other gifts one man shall not have all this is very observable by instances you have in Scripture The first instance is between Paul and Barnabas if you look unto Paul his gift was the gift of utterance and freedom of speech insomuch that at Lyst●● Paul was taken for Mercury the God of Eloquence because he was the chiefe Speaker and though it is said of Paul that he was rude of speech that is not as if it were so indeed but in the opinion and conceit of the Corinthians who being seduced by false teachers hearkned to their disparagements of Paul Paul he was a most eloquent man and had much of the gift of utterance but now B●rnabas did excel Paul in another gift to comfort those who were troubled in conscience he was a son of Consolation to comfort troubled consciences So likewise in the case of Peter and the other Apostles Divines gather from Christs commission to Peter singling him out when he said Peter feed my Lambs Peter lovest thou me The Reason that some Expositors give why Peter was singled out was this because Peter had an excellent gift in preaching and in feeding the Lambs of Christ that is weak Believers Moreover it is said of James and John that they were called Sonnes of Thunder as having a more powerfull gift from God to terrifie and awake a sinners conscience then Peter and other Apostles had So that though some of the Apostles had most excellent gifts yet some of them excelled others in some one gift The fourth Position is That there are Cases wherein men may have great gifts but weak grace God is pleased sometimes to carry mens gifts very high when their graces have not a proportionable elevation and the reason is because gifts are for the good of others for the edification of the Church of God and not for the good of a mans self only They were wanting in no gift and had all knowledge and yet when he mentions their graces he saith I could not speak to you as spirituall but carnal They outstrip other Churches in gifts yet they came short of other Churches in grace Such was the Church of Laodicea she was rich in gifts and poor in grace Now there are foure Cases wherin men may have strong gifts and yet but little grace 1. When mens notions are clear and strong but mens experiences and affections but low and weak to have more expression● then impressions to be like the Moon that though from the waine it grows big and increases to the full yet it increases only in light and not in heat So men when they meerly increase in light of notions and speculations and not in heat of affection towards God and the practical part of Christianity and it is to be feared that much of the Religion of these times is of this stamp it is more in notion then motion more in talking then walking more in parts then grace 2. When thy gifts are not influential upon thy life Look as it is in that disease of the Rickets that children are liable to they may grow big in the head and yet decay in

and designed by the Father to give out grace to his people for so Christ speaks of himself I came down from heaven not to do mine own wil but the wil of him that sent me Now it is the will of God that from Christ believers should receive both justifying and sanctifying grace Our sanctification is Gods Will and Christ came to fulfil that will of God for so speaks the Apostle Sacrifice and offering and burnt-offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not neither hast pleasure therein then said I Lo I come to do thy will Ob God by which Will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once for all So that the Will of God the Father and the Will of Jesus Christ are the same in the bestowing of grace Jesus Christ received a commission from God the Father to bestow grace upon his people and will you see how that Commission runs you shal finde it in the Prophet Isaiah The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek he hath sent me to binde up the breken hearted to proclaim liberty to the Captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound Christ had a Commission under his Fathers hand and Seale For him hath the father sealed Joseph received authority from Pharaoh and it was no dishonour to Pharaoh that Ieseph was commissionated to issue out all the stores of corne to the Egyptians in the time of that famine no more is it any dishonour to the Father that Jesus Christ doth bestow and convey grace upon believers But doth not this put the Spirit out of office who is called the holy Spirit and the Spirit of grace because he doth work grace and holinesse in the hearts of the People of God What Christ is said to work that the holy Spirit also doth because by the Spirit of God Christ worketh It is a good rule that the works of the blessed Trinity ad extra are undivided all those works which are external and relative to the creatures as to create preserve redeem sanctifie c. are in respect of the things wrought equally common to all the Persons of the blessed Trinity So that we may say whatsoever things that the Father doth those things doe the Son likewise and those things also doth the Holy Ghost the work of Sanctification is equally ascribed unto all the Persons God the Father sanctifies his people God the Son doth sanctifie his members for he is their sanctifications He loved the Church and gave himselfe for it that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water through the Word And yet the work of Sanctification is most frequently ascribed to the Holy Ghost Goodnesse Righteousness and Truth and indeed all grace being called the fruit of the Spirit and the Spirit is called the Spirit of grace and supplication and the Spirit of holinesse and sanctification So our Regeneration is ascribed unto God the Father Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Iesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again to a lively hope And so also we are the children of Christ by Regeneration for in this respect Christ is called the Father of Eternity Behold saith the Prophet in the name of Christ I and the children which thou hast given me and that there the Prophet speaks of Christ is cleare from the application of it to him in the Epistle to the Hebrews Behold I and the children which God hath given me Neither is the Holy Ghost excluded from this working of grace regeneration in us for Christ tels Nicodemus that except a man be born again except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God So it is said that God the Father blessed Abraham and yet the blessing of Abraham came upon the Gentiles through Christ that they might receive the promise of the Spirit By all which instances it doth appear that though there are divers●ties of gifts yet the same Spirit and though there are differences of administrations yet the same Lord Jesus Christ the Author of all grace through the holy Spirit 2. The reason and ground of this why Jesus Christ is the Author Purchaser and conveyer of grace to his People is 1. Because God the Father hath appointed Jesus Christ as Mediatour to transact the great work of sanctifying and saving his Elect 2. Because by this shall the reproach be rowled away from Christ who in his life time was reputed the greatest of all Male-factors and accordingly suffered death They were wont to say can any good come 〈◊〉 of Nazareth God hath therefore given him a name above all names that he should not only be anointed with oyl above his fellows by his receiving the Spirit without measure but that the oyl that was poured upon the head of our High-Priest should run down upon the skirts of his garments and that grace which was abundant in him should also be redundant to his Church and run down and diffuse it self to all his members 3. To manifest that Jesus Christ was the second Adam and came into the world to repaire the breaches which the sin of the first Adam had made For by the fall we did not only contract upon our selves the guilt of Adams sin to take off which we have need of the righteousnesse of Christ imputed but we have drawn upon our selves the filthinesse and pollution of sin to take away the power whereof only the grace holinesse and inherent righteousnesse of Christ imputed to us doth avail and as the first Adam was the Author and conveyer both of the guilt filthinesse and punishments of sin to his posterity so Jesus Christ the second Adam conveighs the life of grace into all his As the first Adam was the author to communicate natural life as he was made a living soule so the second Adam did communicate the spiritual life of grace as he was made a quickuing spirit From the first Adam by natural generation and propagation we receive corruption for corruption so from the second Adam we receive grace for grace 1. Vse of this Doctrine is for Confutation 1. Of the Socinians errour who say that all grace in Christ whether his active or passive righteousnesse was only to qualifie his person and to merit his own glorification without any reference unto us unlesse as an exemplar or patterne But this opinion is sufficiently confuted by this Doctrine by which hath been shown that as all our grace is from Christ so that abundance of grace that is in Christ is for us As the woman hath abundance of milk in her brest not for her self but for her childe and the Sun hath abundance of light not for it self but for the world So Jesus Christ is