Selected quad for the lemma: mercy_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
mercy_n	holy_a	son_n	trinity_n	4,094	5	10.4029	5	true

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

blessing that we 〈◊〉 weary of it and fret against it The office of the Spirit is to set out Christ and the favour and mercy of God in Christ when we slight Christ in the Gospell the ordinance organ of working good in us the holy Ghost is slighted and grieved Bad is our condition by nature and what a deale of misery doe we adde to this bad condition Are we not all the children of wrath And have we not since we were borne added sinne unto sinne Do we not grow in sinne as we do in yeares Is not God just and hell terrible Now God out of infinite mercy having proviced a way to free us from the danger of sinne and not onely so but to advance us to life everlasting and that we should not be ignorant of that he hath done for us he hath set up an ordinance wherin the holy Ghost discovers his love When we sleight this and account it but an ordinary favour nay rather a burthen and thinke 〈…〉 divine my●●●● 〈…〉 may be 〈…〉 is too 〈…〉 what 〈…〉 needs all this adoe This grieves the Spirit whose office is to lay open the unsearchable riches of Christ the infinite and glorious mercy and goodnesse of God in Christ wherein God hath set himselfe in all his attributes to triumph and be glorified We grieve all the sacred Trinity God the Father is grieved to see his mercy slighted God the Sonne to see his bloud accounted common and God the holy Ghost whose office it is to discover these things This is the common sinne of the times and kingdome which threatneth judgement more than any thing else When the Gospell the blessed truth of salvation is published The axe is layd to the root of the tree the instrument of de●●ruction if men slight the mercies of God entertaine not Christ walke not worthy of the Gospell they shall feele the stroke of his sharpe anger The bloud-red horse followeth the white horse Revel 6. 4. The white horse is the publishing of the Gospell when God sets himselfe to glorifie himselfe in mercy in the greatest benefits and we account them nothing or but common favours God removes the Candlesticke the red horse of bloud and destruction followes And indeed what man will endure his greatest favours and kindnesses to be sleighted Now a degree in grieving the Spirit this way is when men will not be thorowly convinced of their owne sinfull condition and of the infinite love and mercy of God in Christ in the pardoning of them If God by his Spirit in the Ministery or in a particular reproofe come to men and discover their naturall condition and tell them they are worse than they take themselves to be they will oppose it and study revenge as Saint Paul saith Am I become your enemie because I tell you the truth this must needs grieve the Spirit Againe the holy Spirit is grieved when ye have a corrupt judgement of things not weighing them in the right ballance nor value them according to their worth When wee esteeme any knowledge rather than divine knowledge any truths but truths that concerne Christ when men look upon grace as contemptible and prefer other things above it make a tush at holinesse give us say they gifts and parts Alas what are all gifts and parts without a gracious heart Have not the divels greater parts than any man Are t●ey not called Daemones from the largenesse of their understanding If parts and gifts were best the divels were better than wee What an indignity is this to the holy Spirit to thinke it better to be accounted witty and politicke then to be holy and gracious Again those sins wherein there is plotting and contriving exceedingly grieve the Spirit because they are done in cold bloud David deeply wounded his conscience grieved the Spirit in plotting the death of Vriah which was the diminution of the credit of David that the Scripture saith he was good in all things except in the matter of Vriah why because therein he grieved the Spirit most in plotting and contriving the cruell murther of so good a man How can they thinke they have the Spirit of God that plot and undermine mens estates to have their wils in unjust courses or if they have the spirit can this be without grieving it for the Spirit will perpetually suggest the contrary Againe we grieve the holy Spirit when we commit such sinnes as we might avoid such sinnes as we have some helps against and least provocation unto It is a generall rule Quanto major facilitas c. The more the facility of not sinning the greater the sinne Therefore when we are tempted to sin consider what conscience saith I have been an hearer of the word what hath the Spirit of God revealed and discovered unto me He hath shewed that this is a sinne whom do I grieve by the commission of it The Spirit of God and wound my owne conscience and then consider will that that I sinne for countervaile this Doe I not buy my sin too deare Sinnes are dearly bought with the grieving of the Spirit of God therefore wisely thinke before hand what sinne will cost Men grieve the Spirit by cavilling against the truth The heathen mā could say It is an ill custome to be cavilling against Religion whether in good earnest or in jest yet wee have a sect a generation of men that are of all religions of no religion men of a contradictory spirit that alwayes take the opposite part that cavill at the truth to shew their parts this is too ordinary among the wits of the world This grieves the holy Spirit also when men take the office of the Spirit from him that is when we will doe things in our owne strength and by our owne light as if we were gods to our selves Man naturally aff●cts a kinde of divinity it was the fault of Adam and ●ill God drive him out of himselfe by his Spirit and by afflictions he sets much by his owne parts and wit and thereupon neglects prayer and dependance on God as if the Spirit had nothing to doe with his regiment When men set upon actions in the strength of naturall parts perhaps they may goe on in their course as civill men but never as Christians to have comfort of their actions because they will be guides and gods to themselves If a man belong to God God will crosse him in such wayes wherein he refuseth to honour God and to give him his due place he shall miscarry when perhaps other men shall have successe though it be to harden them to destruction This is a subtle way by which Sathan abuseth men The life of a Christian is dependant on an higher principle than himselfe to rule and guide him Another way whereby we commonly grieve the Spirit of God is when the minde is troubled with a multitude of busines when the soule is like a mill where one cannot heare

grieving so holy a Spirit These truths are presupposed First that the holy Ghost is not in us personally as the second Person is in Christ man for then the holy Ghost and we should make one person nor is the holy Ghost in us essentially only for so he is in all creatures nor yet is in us onely by stirring up holy motions but he is in us mystically and as Temples dedicated to himselfe Christs humane nature is the first temple wherein the Spirit dwels and then we become temples by union with him The difference betwixt his being in Christ us is that the Spirit dwels in Christ in a fuller measure by reason that as a head he is to conveigh spirit into all his members Secondly the Spirit is in Christ intirely without any thing to oppose the Spirit alwayes findes something in us that is not his owne but readie to crosse him Thirdly the Spirit is in us derivatively from Christ as a fountaine we receive grace at second hand answerable to grace in him The holy Ghost was in Adam before his fall immediately but now hee is in Christ first and then for Christ in us as members of that bodie whereof Christ is the head it is well for us that he dwels first in Christ and then in us for from this it is that his communion with us is inseparable as it is from Christ himselfe with whom the Spirit makes us one The holy Spirit dwels in those that are Christs after another manner then in others in whom he is in in some sort by common gifts but in his owne he is in them as holy and as making them holy as the soule is in the whole body in regard of divers operations but in the head onely as it understandeth and from thence ruleth the whole bodie so the holy Ghost is in his in regard of more noble operations and his person is together with his working though not personally and though the whole man be the temple of the holy Ghost yet the soule especially and in the soule the very Spirit of our minds as most suteable to him being a Spirit Whence the Apostle wishes the grace of Christ to be with our Spirits the best of spirits delight most in the best of us which is our spirits in the Temple the further they went all was more holy till they came to the holy of holiest So in a Christian the most inward part the spirit is as it were the holie of holies where incense is offered to God continually What a mercy is this that he that hath the heaven of heavens to dwell in will make a dungeon to be a temple a prison to be a paradise yea an hell to bee an heaven Next to the love of Christ in taking our nature and dwelling in it we may wonder at the love of the holy Ghost that will take up his residence in such defiled soules The second thing presupposed is that the holy Spirit being in us after hee hath prepared us for an house for himselfe to dwell in and to take up his rest and delight in he doth also become unto us a Counsellour in all our doubts a Comforter in all distresses a Solicitor to all dutie a guide in the whole course of our life untill we dwell with him for ever in heaven unto which his dwelling here in us doth tend he goeth before us as Christ did in the pillar of the cloud and fire before the Israelites into Canaan being a defence by day and a direction by night When we sinne what doe we else but grieve this guide The third ground is that we the best of us are prone to grieve this holy Spirit what use were there else of this caveat● we carrie too good a proofe of this in our owne hearts we have that which is enmitie to the spirit within us sinne and an adversarie to the spirit us Sathan These joyning together and having intelligence and holding correspondencie one with another stirre us up to that which grieves this good Spirit The fourth thing presupposed is that we may and ought by Christian care and circumspection so to walke in an even and pleasing course that we shall not grievously offend the spirit or grieve our owne spirits We may avoid many lashes and blowes and many an heavy day which we may thanke our selves for and God delighteth in the prosperity of his children and would have us walk in the comforts of the holy Ghost and is grieved when we grieve him that then hee must grieve us to prevent worse griefe The due and proper act of a Christian in this life is to please Christ and to bee comfortable in himselfe and so to be fitted for all services These things premised it is easie to conceive the equitie of the Apostles disswasive from grieving the holy spirit For the better unfolding of which we wil unfold these foure points First what it is to grieve the Spirit Secondly is wherein we specially grieve the Spirit Thirdly how we may know when wee have grieved the Spirit Fourthly what course we should take to prevent this griefe For the first The holy Ghost cannot properly be grieved in his own person because griefe implyes a defect of happinesse in suffering that we wish removed It implyes a defect in foresight to prevent that which may grieve It implyes passion which is soon raised up and soone laid downe GOD is not subject to change it implyes some want of power to remove that which we feele to be a grievance and therefore it is not beseeming the Majestie of the Spirit thus to bee grieved Wee must there●ore conceive of it as befit●ing the Majestie of God ●emoving in our thoughts ●ll imperfections First then we are sayd to grieve God when we doe that which is apt of it selfe to grieve as we are said to destroy our weake brother when wee do that which he taking offence at is apt to misleade him and so to destroy him Secondly we grieve the Spirit when wee doe that whereupon the Spirit doth that which grieved persons doe that is retireth and sheweth dislike and returns griefe againe Thirdly though the passion of griefe be not in the holy Ghost yet there is in his holy nature a pure displicence and hatred of sinne with such a degree of abhomination as though it tend not to the destruction of the offender yet to sharpe correction so that griefe is eminently in the hatred of God in such a manner as becomes him Fourthly wee may conceive of the Spirit as hee is in himselfe in heaven and as hee dwels and workes in us as wee may conceive of God the Father as hidden in himselfe and as revealed in his Son and in his word and as we may conceive of Christ as the secōd persō as incarnate so likewise of the holy Ghost as in himselfe and as in us God in the person of his Sonne

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

nature strengthened with grounds will move strongly To conclude this discourse let Christians therefore he carefull to preserve and ch●●ish the worke of assurance and sealing in them 2 What God doth for us he doth by grace in us he wil preserve us that we shall not fall from him by putting the grace of feare into us Ier. Hee will keepe us but by what meanes The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall guard our hearts God maketh our Calling and Election sure in us by stirring our hearts up to be diligently exercised in adding one grace unto another and in growing in every grace as 2 Pet. 1. Therefore wee must attend upon all spirituall meanes of growth and quickening so shall you have a further entrance into the kingdome of Iesus Christ that is you shall have more evident knowledge of your entrance into the kingdome of grace here and likewise into the kingdome of glory hereafter Those that doe not so shall have no comfort either from the time past for they shall forget they were purged from their sinnes or from thoughts of the time to come for they shall not be able to see things farre off 2 If assurance be in a lesser degree yet yeeld not to temptations and carnall reasonings if our evidences be not so faire yet wee will not part with our inheritance Coynes as old groates that have little of the stampe left yet are currant We lose our comfort many times because wee yeeld so easily because we have not such a strong and cleare seale of salvation as we would to be born down that we have none at all is a great weakenesse exercise therefore the little faith thou hast in striving against such objections and it will be a meanes to preserve the seale of the Spirit 3 Because this sealing is graduall we should pray as Paul Ephes 1. for a spirit of revelation that wee may be more sealed the Ephesians were sealed for whom Paul prayes and so the Colossians yet that GOD would reveale to their spirits more their excellent condition There are riches of assurance the Apostle would have them to labour not onely for assurance but for the riches of it that will bring rich comfort and joy and peace Times of temptations and tryall may come and such as if wee have not strong assurance we may be sorely troubled and call all into question This may be the sad condition of Gods own children and from this that in times of peace they contented themselves with a lesser degree of this assurance and sealing 4 Lastly bee watchfull over your owne hearts and wayes that according to what you have now learned you grieve not the spirit for by it you are sealed intimating that if in any thing wee withstand and grieve the spirit we shall in so doing prejudice our selves and suffer in the comfort and evidence of our sealing FINIS Scope of the words Holy Ghost called Spirit why Holy Spirirt Holinesse not onely an attribute in God but the excellency of all h●s attributes He is holy in mercy in iustice in goodnesse c. Two desires in man by nature Foure things presupposed The spirit in us Differēce of the Spirits being in Christ and in us How the Spirit was in Adam in innocency How in carnall men The holy Ghost dwels not in us as in ordinary houses but as Temples The holy spirit makes all holy where ever he comes The spirit a Counsellor and Comforter We are prone to grieve the Spirit We should be carefull of grieving it Foure points observed What it is to grieve the Spirit Spirit grieved how Spirit considered as in himselfe as in us How the Spirit worketh in us Ob. We intend not in sin to grieve the Spirit An. We doe it in the cause Wherein we grieve the Spirit We grieve the Spiri● by unkindnesse Ier. Aggravation of sinnes of Professors Sins against knowledg are such either 1 Directly 2 Indirectly Why voluntary sins grieve the Spirit so much Exod. 20. Sinnes against the second Table in what respect they grieve most Gods method in dealing with sinners Some sins grieve more than other Eph. 5. 18. Gal. 6. Jer. 42. The Spirit is grieved by sinnes against the Gospell Slighting ordinances The sinne of these times By false judgment of things When wee plot and contrive sinne the Spirit is grieved And sinne having helpes to 〈◊〉 ●he 〈◊〉 By caveling against the truth Neglect of prayer and dependance Overmuch worldly businesse Omission of duties The Spirit grieved in others is grieved by Neglects Contempt Censures By superiours By inferiours By ill example the Spirit is grieved How it may be knowne when the Spirtt is grieved Issues of grieving the Spirit Leaving us to our selves Grieving our spirits Quest How far a childe of God may grieve the Spirit Answ Gods children commit not the sin against the holy Ghost Sinne against the holy Ghost what Miscariage concerning the sin against the holy Ghost Concerning others Concerning themselves Feare frees from three things How to prevent grieving the Spirit Give up our selves to the guidance of the Spirit Gal. 2. To obey him perfectly Quest Answ How to know the motions of the Spirit They raise higher Are constant They change the heart Are seasonable Evidence themselves Orderly Dependant on God To concurre with the spirits motions Cherish holy motions Give the Spirit scope in his ordinances Isay 7. If the Spirit 〈…〉 Take heed of lesser sinnes Looke to the first rise of sins Renew repentance Avoyd corrupt communication Object Answ Motives not to grieve the Spirit The sealing of Christ Act. 20. 28 Rom. 1. 4. Christians are sealed Similie For confirmation Distinction 1 Tim. 2. Simile Similie Similie Appropriation Can. 6. Psal 4. Psal 73. Estimation Ier. 2. 3. Secresie Revel 3. Security Degrees of sealing Faith Sanctification Quest Answ What goeth before this witnesse of the Spirit Gal. 6. Revel 2. What accompanieth c. What followeth after this witnessing of the Spirit Rom. 8. 16 33 c. Pro. 31. 6. Redemption double Full redemption not yet A day of Redemption The day of Redemption ought to be thought on Day of vengeance to wicked The first conclusion Rom. 9. Ioh. 1. The second conclusion Col. 1. Rom. 8. Rom. 8. 11 Psal Why we pray for forgivenesse of sinnes 1 Pet. 1. 3 4 5. Why God assureth us of our salvation For his glory For our comfort The third conclusion The fou●th conclusion T●t 2. 11. 12. Phil. 3. ●● It is an argument to them that are 1 Not sealed 2 Those that are sealed either in a 1 Lesser degree Those that are sealed in a higher degree 1 Ioh. 3. Rom. 12. 2 Sam. ●1 1. Meanes Phil. 3. 2 Pet. 1. 2 Meanes 3 Meanes Col. 2. 2. 4 Meanes