Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	bring_v	salvation_n	ungodliness_n	2,454	5	11.7039	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68733	A fountain sealed: or, The duty of the sealed to the Spirit, and the worke of the Spirit in sealing Wherein many things are handled about the Holy Spirit, and grieving of it: as also of assurance and sealing what it is, the priviledges and degrees of it, with the signes to discerne, and meanes to preserve it. Being the substance of divers sermons preached at Grayes Inne. By that reverend divine, Richard Sibbes, D.D. and sometimes preacher to that honourable society.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.; Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.; Nye, Philip, 1596?-1672.; Marshall, William, fl. 1617-1650, engraver.	1637 (1637)	STC 22495; ESTC S117375	62,609	291

without a cause above nature None can know the meaning of our broken desires so as to helpe us in our infirmities but that Spirit that stirred up those desires Againe none knowes the grievances of our spirits but our owne spirits and the Spirit of God who knowes all the turnings and corners of the soule Who can mortifie those strong corruptions that would hinder us in the way to heaven but the Spirit cloathing our spirit with power from above who purifieth the cōscience but he that is above cōscience Who can raise our spirits above all temptations and troubles but that Spirit of power that is above all The strength and vigour of any creature is from the spirits and the strength of the spirits of all flesh is from this Spirit whose office is to put spirit into our spirit As GOD redeemed us with his bloud so GOD must apply this bloud that conscience may bee quieted He onely can subdue the rebellion of our spirits and soften our hearts and make them fit for sealing The Spirit onely can so repo●t the mercy of God to our soules as to perswade and worke our hearts to this assurance otherwise we would never yeeld For partly the greatnesse of the state is such that none but God can assure and partly the misgiving and unbeliefe of our heart is such that none but God can subdue it The thing being so great and our deservings so little being unworthy of the things of this life much more of that eternall happinesse this cannot be done without the high and glorious Spirit of God How earnest and desirous then is both the Father and the Sonne to save us that pleased to send such an Orator and Embassador as is equall with themselves to perswade us to assure us to fit us for salvation and how gracious is the Spirit that will vouchsafe to have such communion with such poore sinfull spirits as ours And should not this worke upon our hearts a care not to grieve the holy Spirit and so we come to the fourth conclusion The fourth conclusion is that the sealing of the spirit unto salvation should be a strong prevailing argument not to grieve the Spirit that is not to sinne for sinne onely grieves the Spirit The grace of God saith Paul to Titus that bringeth salvation Christ appeared and what is Christ but grace Christ appeared and the free favour of GOD in Christ whereby wee are assured of salvation which teacheth us what to doe to deny all ungodlinesse and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world Even the consideration of the benefits of Christ that are past such as came with Christs first comming but that is not all Verse 13. Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Iesus Christ The second comming of Christ enforceth likewise the same care of holinesse Our conversation is in heaven and not as theirs spoken of in the former Verse whose end is damnation whose belly is their GOD who minde earthly things no we minde heavenly things and these heavenly desires from whence sprung they but from the certaine expectation of our Saviour the Lord Iesus Christ who shall change our vile bodies c. that is shall redeeme us fully even our bodies as well as our soules It is an argument of force whether we be not yet sealed or be sealed if not sealed then grieve not him whose onely office it is to seale entertaine his motions give way to him that he may have scope and liberty of working Set no reasons against his reasons hearken to no counsell against his counsell stand not out his perswasions any longer but yeeld up your spirits to him lest he put a period to his patience he is long suffering but not alwayes suffering if he give us up to our own spirits we shall only be witty to worke out our owne damnation wee are not given up to our owne spirits but after many repulses of this holy Spirit and at length what now will not serve for an argument to perswade us shall bee used hereafter as an argument to torment us The Spirit will helpe our spirits to repeate and recall all the motions to our owne good that wee formerly put backe We should thinke when conscience speakes in us God speakes and when the Spirit moves us it is God that moves us and that all excuse will be cut off answere will be did not I tell you of this by conscience my deputy did not I move you to this good by mine owne Spirit Take heed of keeping out any light for light where it doth not come in and soften hardens none so hard hearted as those upon whom the light hath shined there is more to be hoped from a man that hath onely a naturall conscience then from him whose heart and spirit hath beene long beaten on there is more to be hoped from a heathen Pilate than a proud Pharisee Those that will not be sealed to their salvation it is just with God that they should be sealed up to their destruction the soule without the spirit is darkenesse and confusion full of selfe accusing and selfe tormenting thoughts if we let the Spirit come in it will scatter all and settle the soule in a sweet quiet For those that have been sealed by the Spirit and yet not so fully as to silence all doubts about their estate those should out of that beginning of comfort which they feele studie to be pliable to the Spirit for further increase The Spirit scaleth by degrees as our care of pleasing the Spirit increaseth so our comfort increaseth our light will increase as the morning light unto the perfect day Yeelding to the Spirit in one holy motion will cause him to leade us to another and so on forwards untill wee be more deepely acquainted with the whole counsell of God concerning our salvation otherwise if we give way to any contrary lust darkenesse will grow upon our Spirits unawares and we shall be left in an unsetled condition as those that travaile in the twilight that cannot perfectly finde out their way Wee shall be on and off not daring to yeeld wholly to our lusts because of a worke of grace begun nor yeeld wholly to the Spirit because we have let some unruly affection get too much strength in us and so our spirits are without comfort and our profession without glory We shall lye open to Sathan if he be let loose to winnow our faith for if our state come to be questioned wee have nothing to alledge but the truth of our graces and if we have not used the Spirit well we shall not have power to alledge them nor to looke upon any grace wrought in us but upon those lusts and sinnes whereby wee have grieved the Spirit they will bee set in order before us and so stare us in the face that wee cannot but fixe our thoughts upon them

And Sathan will not lose such an advantage but will tempt us to call the worke of grace in question which though it bee a true worke yet for want of light of the Spirit to discerne it wee cannot see it to our comfort Whereas if the Spirit would witnesse unto us the truth of our state and the sincerity of our graces we shall bee able to hold our owne and those temptations will vanish For those that the holy Spirit hath set a clearer and stronger stampe upon that doe not question their condition they of all others should not grieve the Spirit A Spirit of ingenuity will hinder them and stirre up a shame in them to requite so ill such a friend Nothing so ingenuous as grace what is commendable in nature is in greater perfection in grace How doth the conscience of unkindenesse to a friend that hath deserved well of us trouble our spirits that we know not with what face to looke upon him And will not unkindenesse to the Spirit make us ashamed to lift up our face to heaven Benefits are bonds and the greater favour the stronger obligation now what greater favour is there then for the Spirit to renew us according to the Image of God our glorious Saviour who carried the Image of Sathan before And by this to appropriate us unto GOD to be laid up in his treasure as carrying his stampe and by this to bee separated from the vile condition of the world although we carry in us the seeds of the same corruption that the worst doth differing nothing from them but in GODS free grace and the fruits of it For God to esteeme so of us that have no worthinesse of our owne but altogether persons not worthy to bee beloved as to make our unworthinesse a foile to set out the freenesse of his love in making us worthy whom he found not so For the Spirit by sealing of us to secure us in the midst of all spirituall dangers and to hide us as his secret ones that that evill one should not touch us to hurt us These as they are favours of an high nature the more eare they require to walke worthy of them We cannot but forget our selves before wee yeeld to any thing against that dignity the Spirit hath sealed us to Nature helped with ordinary education moveth every man to carry himselfe answerable to his condition a Magistrate as a Magistrate a Subject as a Subject a Childe as a Childe and we thinke it disgracefull to doe otherwise and shall that which is disgracefull to nature not be much more disgracefull to nature renewed and advanced by the Spirit And indeed as wee should not so wee cannot grieve the Spirit so farre forth as wee are renewed Our new nature will not suffer us to dissemble to be worldly to bee carnall as the world is wee cannot but study holinesse we cannot but be for GOD and his truth wee cannot but expresse what we are and whose we are It is impossible a man should care for heaven that doth not care for the beginnings of heaven hee cannot bee said to care for full redemption and glory that doth not care for the spirit of grace fulnesse of grace is the best thing in glory other things as peace and joy and the like they are but the shinings forth of this fulnesse of grace in glory Againe when the Spirit assureth us of Gods love in the greatest fruits of it as it doth when it assureth this redemption That love kindles love againe and love constraines us by a sweet necessitie to yeeld cheerefull and willing obedience in all things there is nothing more active and fuller of invention than love and there is nothing that love studies more than how to please there is nothing that it feares more than to discontent It is a neate affection and will indure nothing offensive either to it selfe or the spirit of such as we love and this love the Spirit teaches the heart and love teaches us not onely our duty but to doe it in a loving and acceptable manner It carries out the whole streame of the soule with it and rules all whilest it rules and will not suffer the soule to divert to by-things much lesse to contrary Againe these graces that are conversant about that condition which the Spirit assureth us of as faith and hope are purging and purifying graces working a suteablenesse in the soule to the things beleeved and hoped for and the excellency of the things beleeved and hoped for have such a working upon the soule that it will not suffer the soule to defile it selfe Our hopes on high will leade us to wayes on high therefore whilest these graces are exercised about these objects the soule cannot but be in a pleasing frame It hath beene an old cavill that certainty of salvation breeds security and loosenesse of life And what is there that an ill disposed soule cannot sucke poyson out of A man may as truely say the Sea burnes or the Fire cooles there is nothing quickens a soule more to cheerefull obedience than assurance of Gods love and that our labour should not be in vaine in the Lord this is the Scriptures Logicke and Retoricke to inforce and perswade a holy life from knowledge of our present estate in grace I beseech you by the mercies of God saith Saint Paul what mercies such as he had spoken of before Iustification Sanctification Assurance that all shall worke together for good that nothing shall bee able to separate us from the love of God in Christ all duties tend to assurance or spring from assurance Gods intendment is to bring us to heaven by a way of love and cheerefulnesse as all his wayes towards us in our salvation are in love And this is the scope of the covenant of grace and for this end he sends the Spirit of adoption into our hearts that we may have a childe-like liberty with God in all our addresses to him When he offers himselfe to us as a father it is fit we should offer our selves to him as children nature teaches a child the more he desires his fathers love the more hee feares to displease him And hee is judged to be gracelesse that will therefore venture to offend his father because he knowes he neither can or will disinherit him Certaine it is the more surely we know God h●th begotten us to so glorious an inherit●nce the more it will worke upon our bowels to take all to heart that may any way touch him this wrought upon David when the Prophet told him God hath done this this for thee and would have done more if that had beene too little it melted him presently into an humble confession Those that have felt the power of the Spirit of adoption on their hearts will both by a divine instinct as also by strength of reason be carried to all those courses wherein they shall approve themselves to their father Instinct of

griefe to open shame then God opens Conscience to tell them not onely that they are too blame for their grosse sinnes but for the root of them Atheisme prophanenesse loosenesse which are sinnes against the first Table This is an aggravation of sinnes against knowledge when our knowledge hath beene holpen and strengthened by education by example of others running into our eyes which is a more familiar ●eaching than that of Rule ●nd strengthened also by observation and experience ●f our selves and the for●er strength we have had ● against the sinne we now commit and sweetnesse we have found in the resisting of it None are worse than ●hose that have been good and are naught and might be good and will be naught When there is more deliberation and fore-knowledge of the dangerous issue and this also joyned with the warning of others As Reuben said unto the rest of his brethren Spake I not vnto you c So may Gods Spirit and conscience say to men Did not I acquaint you with the danger of sin You are now in misery and terrours of conscience but did you not sleight former admonitions and helps and meanes Conscience is an inferior light of the Spirit to do things against conscience is to do them against the Spirit God spake to me and I heeded him not how doth God speake When conscience speakes and saith this is good this is bad then God speakes conscience hath somewhat divine in it it is a petty god it speakes from God especially when the Spirit joynes with conscience then God speakes indeed then there is light upon light Vpon divers respects some sin may grieve more or lesse than another As the ●oly Ghost is a Spirit so ●pirituall sinnes grieve most ●s pride envy imprinting ●pon the soule as it were a ●haracter of the contrary ill ●●irit Carnell sinnes whereby the soule is drowned in ●elight of the body may ●●ore grieve the spirit in a●other respect as defiling ●●is Temple and as taking away so much of the soule ●ove and delight carry the soule with them and the more deeply such sinnes enter into the creature besides the defilement the lesse strength it hath to spirituall duties grace is sca●ed in the powers of nature now carnall sinnes disable nature● and so sets us in a greate● distance from grace as taking away the heart Hos 4. Hereupon the Apostle sets being filled with wine contrary to being filled with the Spirit And hence it is the Apostle forbids in the former words uncleane communication the holy Spirit is a Spirit of truth hates hypocrites being painted sepulchers but as a spirit● of purity hates foule ●ivers and foule-mouth'd speakers as open sepulchers They cannot therefore but much grieve the spirit that feed corrupt lusts and studie to give contentment and pay tribute to the flesh to which they owe no ●ervice and are no debters ●nd by sowing to the flesh from which we can reape nothing but corruption When our thoughts are exercised to content the out●ard man to contrive for ●●e things of the world one●● this is to pay tribute of ●●e strength and vigor of our affections to the utter enemy of Gods Spirit and our owne soules when our thoughts runne deeply into ●arthly things we become ●ne with them Who will thinke himselfe well entertained into an house when there shall be entertainement given to his greatest enemy with him ●nd shall see more regard had and better countenance shewed to his enemy than to him when the motions of corrupt nature are mor● regarded then the motions of the Spirit The wisedome of the Spirit which is from above is first pure and maketh us so and rayseth the soule upward to things above Christians indeed have their failings but if a true Christian examine himselfe his heart will say that every day he intends the glory of God and the good of the state he lives in he hath a larger heart than a base worldling that keeps within the sphere of himselfe spending all his thoughts there and consults onely with flesh and bloud with profit and pleasure to heare what they say Such basenesse cannot but grieve the Spirit as cōtrary to our hopes and heavenly calling which are glorious It is a dangerous grieving of the Spirit when instead of drawing our selves to the spirit we will labour to ●raw the spirit to us and ●●udy the Scriptures to countenance us in some corrupt course and labour to make God of our mind that wee may go on with the greater libertie When men get to themselves teachers after their owne lusts as many do especially if they be in place Ahab shall not want his 400 false Prophets When men cut the rule and standard to fit themselves and not fit themselves to it You have some that are resolved what to do and yet will bee asking counsell and if they have an answer to their minds then they rest if not then their answer is This is your judgment but others are of a contrary opinion and thus they labour to make the Spirit of God in his Ministers to serve their turne so did the Iewes in Ieremies time Some will father those sinfull affections that arise from the flesh and are strengthened by Sathan upon the holy Spirit counting wrath that is kindled from hell to be fire of holy zeale comming from heaven Thus the enemies of Religion thinke they doe God service in their massacres such are those that wickedly oppose the wayes of God and yet are ready to say Glory be to the Lord such men study holinesse in the shew that they may overthrow it in the power and will countenance an ill course by Religion Such also are faulty who lay the blame of an uncomfortable life upon Religion when men are therefore uncomfortable because they are not religious enough The wayes of wisedome are the wayes of pleasure In these times being the second spring of the Gospell we must take heed of sinnes against the Gospell Benefits the greater they are being neglected or abused bring the greater judgement The office of the holy Spirit is by the Ministery to lay open the riches of Christ and the glory of Gods grace in him by neglecting so great salvation and by thinking this favour of God to be a common favour we sinne against both Father Sonne and holy Ghost and in that they desire most to be glorified Such therefore as say to the clouds Drop not and to the winds blow not and to the Prophets prophesie not that study to keepe out the light and sin against it as discovering them and awakening them and hindering them from taking that solace in carnall courses of the world as pe●ing the eyes of others to know them further than they would be known and so to lose that respect they would have in the hearts of men This cannot but grieve ●he Spirit of God and move ●im to take away that truth ●hat we are so far from ●hinking a