Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ability_n	able_a	authority_n	20	3	5.3111	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39660	Englands duty under the present gospel liberty from Revel. III, vers. 20 : wherein is opened the admirable condescension and patience of Christ in waiting upon trifling and obstinate sinners, the wretched state of the unconverted, the nature of evangelical faith ..., the riches of free grace in the offers of Christ ..., the invaluable priviledges of union and communion granted to all who receive him ... / by John Flavell ...	Flavel, John, 1630?-1691.	1689 (1689)	Wing F1159A; ESTC R40912	301,553	568

Gospel which you enjoy leads you to the Fountain of pardon and peace I●a 53. 5. By his stripes we are healed The voice of the Gospel is peace peace to every one that believeth a rational peace founded upon the full satisfaction of Christ Ephes. 1. 7. In whom we have redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his Grace Here you see Justice and Mercy kissing each other God satisfied and the Sinner justified for Conscience demands as much to satisfie it as God demands to satisfie him if God be satisfied Conscience is satisfied O blessed are the people that hear this joyful sound Psal. 89. 15. And doubtless it is a joyful sound to every convinced humbled Soul Beautiful upon the Mountains are the Feet of them that bring good tydings that publish peace It is a Gospel worthy of all acceptation 1 Tim. 1. 15. it brings with it a fulness of blessings among the People O England O Dartmouth Provoke not thy God to extinguish this blessed light Great is our wantonness and ominous is our barrenness and ingratitude Yet a little while the light is with you walk whilst ye have the light lest darkness come upon you for he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth John 12. 35. Should God blow out this light whither will you go Who shall pour in Balm to your distressed bleeding Consciences ' II. Inference Hence in like manner it follows that the greatness heinousness of past sins is no bar to believing and accepting Christ upon Gospel terms Let no sinner be dismaid by the atrocity and heynousness of sins past from coming unto Jesus Christ for remission and peace I am awar what mischievous use Satan makes of former sins to discourage Souls from the work of Faith by heaping them together he raiseth up a Mountain betwixt Christ and the distressed Soul but behold this day Christ leaping over these Mountains and skiping over these Hills Could this objection be rouled out of the way sinners would go on in hope but certainly if God have given thee a broken Heart and a willing Mind the greatness of thy sin need not discourage thee from believing For 1. thou hast sufficient encouragement from the sufficiency of the causes of pardon whatever thy particular enormities have been there is a sufficiency in the impulsive cause the Free Grace and Mercy of God Exod. 34. 6 7. Micah 7. 18 19. Isa. 55. 7 8 9. It is well there is Mercy enough in God to heal and cover all and there is no less sufficiency in the meritorious cause of pardon the Blood of Jesus Christ which taketh away all sin 1 Iohn 1. 7. 1 Iohn 29. And it must needs be so because it is Divine Blood Acts 20. 28. Neither is there any defect in the applying cause the Spirit of God who hath already begun to work upon thy Heart and is able to break it and bow it and bring it home fully to Christ and to compleat the work of Faith upon thee with power thou complainest thou canst not mourn nor believe as thou wouldst but he wants no ability to supply all the defects of thy repentance and faith Well then if the mercy of God be sufficient to pardon the sin of a Creature if the Blood of Christ the Treasures and Revenues of a King be able to pay the debts of a Beggar if the Spirit of God who works by an Almighty Power be able to convince thee of righteousness as well as sin Iohn 16. 9. I say if all the three causes of forgiveness be sufficient every one in its kind the first to move the second to purchase and the third to apply what hinders but thy trembling Conscience should go to Christ and thy discouraged Soul move onward with hope in the way of believing whatever thy former enormities have been 2. If God raises glory to his Name out of the greatness of the sins he pardoneth then the greatness of sin can be no discouragement to believing but so God doth he raiseth the glory of his Name from the multitude and magnitude of the sins he pardoneth Ier. 33. 8 9. I will cleanse them from all their iniquity whereby they have sinned against me and I will pardon all their iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against me And it shall be to me a name of joy a praise and an honour before all the Nations of the Earth which shall hear all the good I do unto them And they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it As a cure performed upon a Man labouring under a desperate Disease it magnifies the Physitian and spreads his Name far and near The Devil envies God this glory and thy Soul this comfort and therefore scares thee off from Christ by the aggravations of thy sins David was willing to give God the glory of pardoning his great iniquities and with that very argument moves him for a pardon Psal. 25. 11. Pardon mine iniquitie for it is great You see there are strange ways of arguing in Scripture which are not in use among Men this is one Lord pardon my sin for it is great he doth not say Lord pardon it for it is but a small offence no but pardon it because it is great and the greater it is the greater Glory wilt thou have in pardoning it And then there is another way of arguing for pardon in Scripture which is peculiar and that is to argue from former pardons unto new pardons when Men beg their pardon one of another they use to say I never wronged you before and therefore forgive me now but here it is quite otherwise Lord thou hast signed thousand of pardons heretofore therefore pardon me again such is that plea Numb 14. 19. Pardon I beseech thee the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of thy mercy and as thou hast forgiven them from Egypt even until now 3. As great sins as those that now stare in the Face of thy Conscience have been actually forgiven to Men upon their humiliation and closing with Christ. Poor sinners under trouble of Conscience are apt to think there is no sin like theirs God forbid I should diminish and extenuate sin but certain I am that Free Grace hath pardoned as great Sinners as thou art upon their repentance and faith What think you had you had a Hand in putting Christ to Death would not that sin have been as dreadful as any that now discourages you Yea certainly you would have thought that an unpardonable sin and yet behold that very sin was no bar to their pardon when once they were pricked at the Heart and made willing to come to Christ Acts 2. 36 37 38. 4. If it be the design and policy of Satan to object the greatness of your sins to prevent the pardoning of them then certainly 't is neither your duty nor interest

Adam which are as the Sand upon the Sea shore that not only so many persons but all that they have done must come into Judgment even the very thoughts of their Hearts which never came to the knowledge of Men their Consciences to be interrogated all other Witnesses fully heard and examined how great a day must this day of the Lord then be The Second Vse But the main Use of this Point will be for Exhortation that seeing all the offers of Christ are recorded and witnessed with respect to a day of account every one of you would therefore immediately embrace the present gracious tender of Christ in the Gospel as ever you expect to be acquitted and cleared in that great day take heed of denials nay of delays and demurs For if the word spoken by Angels were stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation Heb. 2. 2 3. The question is put but no answer made How shall we escape The wisdom of Men and Angels cannot tell how to enforce this Exhortation I shall present you with Ten weighty Considerations upon the matter which the Lord follow home by the blessing of his Spirit upon all your Hearts I. CONSIDERATION Consider how invaluable a mercy it is that you are yet within the reach of offered Grace The mercies that stand in offer before you this day were never set before the Angels that fell no Mediator was ever appointed for them Oh astonishing mercy that those Vessels of Gold should be cast into everlasting Fire and such Clay Vessels as we are thus put into a capacity of greater happiness than ever they fell from Nay the mercy that stands before you is not only denied to the Angels that fell but to the greatest part of your fellow Creatures of the same rank and dignity with you Psal. 147. 19 20. He sheweth his Word to Jacob his Statutes and his Iudgments unto Israel he hath not dealt so with any Nation and as for his Iudgments they have not known them praise ye the Lord. A mercy deservedly celebrated with a Joyful Allelujah What vast Tracts are there in the habitable World where the name of Christ is unknown T is your special mercy to be born in a Land of Bibles and Ministers where it is as difficult for you to avoid and shun the Light as it is for others to behold and enjoy it II. CONSIDERATION Consider the nature weight and worth of the mercies which are this day freely offered you Certainly they are mercies of the first Rank the most ponderous precious and necessary among all the mercies of God. Christ the first born of mercies and in him pardon peace and eternal Salvation are set before you it were astonishing to see a starving Man refusing offered bread or a condemned Man a gracious pardon Lord what compositions of sloath and stupidity are we that we should need so many intreaties to be happy III. CONSIDERATION Consider who it is that makes these gracious tenders of pardon peace and Salvation to you even that God whom you have so deeply wronged whose Laws you have violated whose mercies you have spurned and whose wrath you have justly incensed His patience groans under the burden of your daily provocations he loses nothing if you be damned and receives no benefit if you be saved yet the first motions of Mercy and Salvation to you freely arise out of his Grace and good pleasure God intreats you to be reconciled 2 Cor. 5. 20. The blessed Lord Jesus whose blood thy sins have shed now freely offers that blood for thy Reconciliation Justification and Salvation if thou wilt but sincerely accept him ere it be too late IV. CONSIDERATION Reflect seriously upon your own vileness to whom such gracious offers of Peace and Mercy are made Thy sins have set thee at as great a distance from the hopes and expectations of pardon as any sinner in the World. Consider Man what thou hast been what thou hast done and what vast heaps of guilt thou hast contracted by a life of sin and yet that unto thee Pardon and Peace should be offered in Christ after such a life of Rebellion how astonishing is the mercy The Lord is contented to pass by all thy former Rebellions thy deep died Transgressions and to sign an Act of Oblivion for all that is past if now at last thy Heart relent for Sin and thy Will bow in obedience to the gr●at commands and call of the Gospel Isa. 55. 2. 1. 18. V. CONSIDERATION Consider how many offers of mercy you have already refused and that every refusal is recorded against you How long you have tried and even tired the patience of God already and that this may be the last overture of Grace that ever God will make to your Souls Certainly there is an offer that will be the last offer a striving of the Spirit which will be his last striving and after that no more offers without you no more motions or strivings within you for evermore The Treaty is then ended and your last neglect or rejection of Christ recorded against the day of your account and what if this should prove to be that last tender of Grace which must conclude the Treaty betwixt Christ and you what undone wretches must you then be with whom so gracious a Treaty breaks off upon such dreadful terms VI. CONSIDERATION Consider well the reasonable mild and gracious nature of the Gospel terms on which Life and Pardon are offered to you The Gospel requires nothing of you but Repentance and Faith Acts 20. 21. Can you think it hard when a Prince pardons a Rebel to require him to fall upon his Knees and stretch forth a willing and thankful Hand to receive his Pardon Your Repentance and Faith are much of the same nature Here is no legal satisfaction required at your Hands no reparation of the injured Law by your doings or sufferings but an hearty sorrow for sins committed sincere purposes and endeavours after new obedience and a hearty thankful acceptation of Christ your Saviour and for your encouragement herein his Spirit stands ready to furnish you with Powers and Abilities Prov. 1. 23. Turn ye at my reproof behold I will pour out my Spirit unto you I will make known my Words unto you and Isa. 26. 20. Lord thou hast wrought all our Works in us VII CONSIDERATION Again consider how your way to Christ by Repentance and Faith is beaten before you by thousands of sinners for your encouragement You are not the first that ever adventured your Souls in this path multitudes are gone before you and that under as much guilt fear and discouragement as you that come after can pretend unto and not a man among them repulsed or discouraged here they have found rest and peace to their weary Souls Heb. 4. 3. Acts 13. 39. Here the greatest of sinners have been set forth for an ensample to you

amidst such Hosts of potent and enraged Enemies If Christ were not among them they had certainly been swallowed up long ago 'T is he that holds the Stars in his right hand Rev. 2. 1. His walks among the seven golden Candlesticks is their best security The burning bush Exod. 3. 3. is a rare emblem to open this Mystery the bush burned with fire but was not consumed The bush was a resemblance of the Church of God in Egypt the flames upon it was their terrible Persecution the wonder that no ashes appeared as the effects of those terrible flames the reason thereof was God was in the bush Jesus Christ was in the midst of his people By vertue of this Presence we are here this day in the enjoyment of Gospel Liberties no Society of Men in the World have such security as the Church hath upon this account The mightiest Monarchies have been over-turned no Policies nor humane Power could preserve them but the Church and Ordinances are still preserved and shall ever be by vertue of that gracious Promise Ier. 30. 11. For I am with thee saith the Lord to save thee though I make a full end of all Nations whither I have scattered thee yet will I not make a full end of thee The Babilonian Persian Grecian Monarchies have destroyed and ruined one another Sic Medus ademit Assyrio Syroque tulit moderamina Perses c. but still the Church of Christ lifts up its Head and beholds their ruins Secondly This Presence of Christ in and with his Ordinances is undeniably evinced from their Supernatural effects upon the Souls of Men 2 Cor. 10. 4. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds 'T is the Spirit of Christ that gives them their success and efficacy The Sword of the Gospel hath its point and edge but it is impossible the Heart of a stupid hardned sinner should ever be prickt or wounded by it if the Spirit of Christ did not manage it When sinners fall down convinced under the authority of the Word they feel and readily acknowledge that God is in it of a truth I Cor. 14. 25. Ruffinus reports that at the Council of Nice a godly man of no great learning was the instrument of converting a learned Philosopher whom the Bishops with all their Arguments could not perswade of which the Philosopher himself gave this remarkable account Whilst you reasoned with me said he against words I opposed words and what was spoken I overthrew by the art of speaking but when in stead of words power came out of the mouth of the speaker words could no longer withstand truth nor Man resist the power of God. And this indeed is the true and just account of all those marvellous and gracious changes made upon the Souls of Men by the Preaching of the Gospel Can the vanishing breath of a dying Man think you inspire Spiritual and Eternal Life into the Souls of other Men Can he search the Conscience break the Heart and bow the Will at this rate No no this is the Power and Operation of Christ and of that Presence we must say saith a Reverend Author as Martha did to her Saviour concerning the Death of her Brother Lazarus John 11. 21. Lord if thou hadst been here my Brother had not dyed So say I if that Presence and Power of Christ were felt by all which hath been certainly experienced and felt by many they had not remained in the state of Spiritual Death as they do But though there be thousands under Ordinances that never felt this Power of Christ upon them yet blessed be God there are also multitudes of Witnesses and Evidences of this Truth that there is a Real Spiritual Energetical Presence of Christ in his own appointments which was the first thing to be evinced Secondly The second thing requiring Explication is the Uses and Ends which makes such a Presence of Christ necessary And they are 1. To Preserve and Support his Ministers and Churches amidst such Hosts of potent and enraged Enemies This Presence of Christ is as a wall of Fire round about them It was the Divine Presence with Ieremiah that was as a Life-Guard to him against the rage of the Princes and Nobles of Israel Jer. 15. 20 21. I will make thee unto this People a fenced brazen Wall and they shall fight against thee but they shall not prevail against thee for I am with thee to save thee and to deliver thee saith the Lord And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible It was easier for the Roman Army to scale the Walls and batter down the Towers of Ierusalem than for all the Enemies in Ierusalem to destroy this Prophet of God thus immur'd by the Divine Presence Athanasius and Luther had the Power of the Empire ingaged against them yet the Presence of Christ was their security The Witnesses could not be slain till they had finished their Testimony Rev. 11. 7. To this Presence alone the faithful Witnesses of Christ owe their marvellous preservation at this day had not Christ said Lo I am with you you had not said at this day behold our Ministers are still with us Secondly The Presence of Christ is necessary to assist and enable his Ministers in their Work for it is a Work quite above their own strength it is well we are Workers-together with God else we should soon faint under our Labours When Moses objected I am not eloquent the Lord told him I will be with thy Mouth Exod. 4. 10. When God guides the Tongue how powerful and persuasive must the Language be When the Apostles illiterate men were sent out to convert the World Christ promised to give them a Mouth and Wisdom Luke 21. 15. a Mouth to speak and Wisdom to guide that Mouth and then their words were demonstrations all their adversaries could not resist that Spirit and Power by which they spake Empires and Kingdoms full of Enemies received the Gospel but the reason of this wonderful success is given us in Mark 16. 20. They went out and Preached every where the Lord working with them 'T is sweet and prosperous working in fellowship with Christ The Spirit of Christ gives a manifold assistance to his Ministers in their Work 't is he that guides and directs their minds in the choice of those Subjects wherein they labour with such success to their Hearers He dictates the Matter influences their Affections guides their Lips follows home their Doctrine with success and this is a special Use and End of Christs Presence with his Ministers and Ordinances Thirdly The Spiritual Presence of Christ is necessary for the preparation and opening of the peoples Hearts to receive and embrace the Gospel to Salvation not an Heart will open to receive Christ till the Spirit of Christ unlock them Paul and Timothy were extraordinarily called to Preach