Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A27619
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The parable of the ten virgins in its peculiar relation to the coming and glorious kingdom of our Lord Jesus Christ opened according to the analogy of the whole parable, and of Scripture in general, and practically applied for exercising all the churches to holy watchfulness ... : with an apology for the hope of the kingdom of Christ appearing within this appriaching year 1697 ... presented to the notice and examination of the arch-bishops and bishops now in Parliament assembled / by T. Beverley.
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Beverley, Thomas.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing B2165; ESTC R25250
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193,605
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220
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of Grace than to look up to Electing Grace Knowing Brethren your Election of God and giving diligence in every Grace to make our Calling and Election sure The Apostle hath given us a great Admonition for Adoring Supream Grace Rom. 11. 32 c. God hath concluded them all in unbelief that he might have mercy upon all That is upon all that he will have mercy upon He hath shut them up in such a way that they could not stir if his Grace did not open the way O the depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out For who hath known the Mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counseller Who could direct God what he should do in the eternal concernments of Souls Or Who hath first given to him and it shall be recompenced unto him again Can any say to God Thou hast done unjustly or unrighteously that thou hast not chosen me Why what hast thou done or any Creature done to oblige him If he hath I dare assure him it shall be recompenced to him to the uttermost But I assure him he that replies thus he is a Bold Man and Proud and Haughty is his Name And as Christ saith Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and hast revealed them to Babes For of him and through him and to him are all things to whom be Glory for ever And therefore I desire to be among the number of those that do not quarrel with God That dare not enter a contest and a contention with him concerning his Eternal Choice Let us humble our selves every one at his foot and say Of thee and through thee and to thee are all things and I desire to be to thy Glory Thus let us make our selves nothing before God nothing at all but make him all We never did any thing for him we could never lay an Obligation and therefore we have nothing to say but Free Grace Free Grace Free Love and Free foreknowledge of God 2. In the Second Place This Parable in this dreadful part teaches That we should all be beholding to Christ and to the Free Grace that is in him the Pardon of Sin the Righteousness of Christ his Bloud and his Redemption Here 's our all I say here is our all For as I opened to you the Great Point is Whether in Christ or not Whether Christ be in us and whether we are in him Whether we are found in him as the Apostle speaks Phil. 3. 7 c. Here 's the Point That every one may depend upon the Righteousness of God in Christ It is not the works that we have done but according to his own mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit And here the wise Virgins reached out themselves to be found in Christ and only in him but the Foolish Virgins fell short here 3. Thirdly We can do nothing but by the Spirit of Christ Our only hope is in the Spirit of the Lord our God And therefore the foolish Virgins were mistaken That they did all in their own strength and power They trusted in their own Beauty they trusted in their own Virginity and did not mind the Righteousness of Christ the Free Grace of God and the Spirit of Jesus Christ I come to the Fourth thing I proposed and that is To answer the Objections that may be made against this state of this Case I have given you And I desire to speak plainly yet in very short to you in this matter You may say then What can any one do What hope can there be Though I am in the True Religion and in the True Worship of God and though I am in an unblameable Conversation and yet I may be lost and undone because I have not Wisdom because I have not something that I am not able to apprehend or to be sensible of Now therfore I 'll satisfie you in this because you may think In all Religion there lies a discouragement upon us If things be thus Therefore I 'll Answer you in Two things very briefly First Let no man mistake for I am sure Let any thing be preached that can be preached yet there shall not so much as be one Moral Person fewer in the World I am sure that the measure of Restraining Grace of Preventing Grace of Morallizing Grace that God will give to the World nothing of Discourse or Opinion shall be able to straiten it or to lessen it I say I am sure of this There shall not be one Honest Man in the World less because Christ preached to that young Man that had kept all the Commandments from his youth Thou art yet under a great difficulty as to the Kingdom of Heaven A man might have taken the Advantage of that discourse of Christ with this young man and have made a Clamour and noise of it and said here 's one that despises and discourages a good young man for he saith How hardly shall such a young man that hath kept all the Commands from his youth enter into the Kingdom of Heaven but Christ knew very well that he should not hinder or lessen or straiten Moral Honesty or Goodness in the World by what he said for he knew all these things are in God and from God and there shall not one hair from the head of Morality as I may so speak Fall to the Ground because of any thing that can be said for There is a Common Grace of Morality and Honesty given out from God and Christ and whomsoever he thinks fit to Receive it They shall receive it and must receive it and they shall be under the power of it and live suitably to it And so for the Grace of God There shall no one be hindred of his Graee Let men have as many Conceptions as they can have of things and however Discouraging if his Truth be duely spoken and in the season Therefore dont think that the preaching of the Truth of Scripture can do any hurt for God is allwayes present breathing in the Word both with a Spirit of Morality and common Gifts of Righteousness and also with a Spirit of Grace and none shall be ever able to straighten his Spirit in any of the Effects of it And the Truths of God spoken according to his Word shall be subordinated to it In the Second Place I do always acknowledge and Declare with Greatest Freedom and Sincerity That this is the onely way of Preaching the Gospel To preach it so that Every one should be Sensible of True Holiness and True Grace And yet withal They must be Sensible of Free Grace the free Grace of God the free Choice of God Free Grace in the Righteousness of Christ of the Spirit Blowing where it listeth and where it pleaseth as our Lord tells us These things are not to be Divided nor Justled out one by another for they both stand
the sure Place nothing of Good can be expected But if you would hang even the least Vessel the Vessel of least Quantity any where hang it upon Christ Hang it upon the Nail in the sure Place And if any of you have any Troubled Thoughts or Contest of Mind about these Things I beseech you That you would go up to this Nail that is fastned in a sure Place For that Vessel that we hang any where else it shall certainly be cut down and the Nail we hang it upon will certainly be cut down or removed for the Lord hath spoken it All our Lamps that shine in their own Light they will go out in that Day at the Appearance of Christ like Sparks that we compass our selves with of our own kindling All that do so shall lie down in Sorrow The Last Objection is But how shall we know that we are in Christ Can we discern it any otherwise than by the Marks and Signs of Grace that we find in our Selves If therefore we find not Faith if we find not Repentance and all the Fruits of Holiness How can we think or dare we think that we are in Christ Now therefore To this I would give you this Twofold Answer First It is certain That the Supream Witness to any of our Souls it must be from the Spirit of Christ it must be from the Spirit of Adoption crying Abba Father He is called the Spirit of the Son I beseech you seriously consider it Gal. 4. 6. Because ye are Sons God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your Hearts crying Abba Father Why does he call it the Spirit of the Son But to shew that it is the Witness coming from Christ If therefore it comes from him The Great Witness of the Spirit is That we are in Christ It doth not come to us in our own Righteousness For then Why should it be called The Spirit of the Son No not in our own Sanctification does it come to us But it is The Spirit of the Son And It 's a sure Testimony of its Glorifying Christ in taking the Things that are Christ's and Giving to us even in its Testimony You may say This may Deceive us And we don't know Whether it is the Spirit or not Observe what the Apostle saith in 1 John 5. speaking of the Witness of the Spirit latter part of the 6th Verse And the Witness of the Spirit is Truth Why does he say The Witness of the Spirit is Truth but to meet with the Things that are in our Hearts that we are ready to say There are other Good Witnesses we dare not Believe the Spirit alone But we have other Good Witnesses and we must bring them in And if they say so too then we may Believe the Spirit or else not Now the Apostle saith The Witness of the Spirit is Truth To let us know there is a separate single Witness of the Spirit of God that is true I know no Reason at all That we should be afraid to Affirm this For If the Spirit of God dwells as Generally the Best and most Judicious Discoursers of these Things allow if the Spirit of God dwell in us Why should it be strange that the Spirit of God should whisper its Witness in this way And the Apostle speaks of this very Witness when he saith The Witness of the Spirit is True But then In the Second Place I do acknowledge this freely and abundantly That the Spirit of God doth make use of this or that particular Grace or Holiness in general in a Saint of Christ As he pleases sometimes he Witnesseth only by himself sometimes by such and such Graces And why Not because the Graces themselves are alone able to bear up the Witness That I plainly deny But then The Spirit Witnesseth not only of Grace of Faith of Repenâ—ance and Holiness c. but as they are in Christ Faith and Love in Christ Jesus And as they are made up of his Righteousness and flow from his Death Resurrection and Intercession And here is that that I said to you Christ takes any Grace of his Servants and shews it at the Day of Judgment Not as it is out of himself but as it is in himself and in his own Righteousness and by his Spirit He now shews to any of his Servants any of their Graces but not as out of Christ but as in Christ surrounded made up fill'd up with his Righteousness As I remember the Expression in the Book of Exodus where the Jewels that were in the Vrim and Thummim in the Breast-plate of the High-Priest Their setting is called Filling up They were filled up in the Gold the Receptacles and Lodgings of them were filled up Exod. 28. So I say In every Grace there 's the filling up of the Righteousness of Christ Take all the Graces of Paul and of Peter or any of the Servants of Christ And if they had not been Set in the Righteousness of Christ if there were not a Filling up by the Righteousness of Christ they would all come to nought And therefore they are filled up with his Righteousness And so I do acknowledge That it may be That the Spirit of God may give his Servants a Witness and a Testimony from their own Graces And so in 1 John 4. 17. Herein saith he is our Love made perfect That we may have Boldness in the Day of Judgment Because as he is so are we in this World There is no Fear in Love but perfect Love casteth out Fear He that feareth is not made perfect in Love Here the Apostle speaks of a Tormenting a Disturbing and Perplexing Fear The Power of Love to Christ drives it out Because as he was so are we in this World That is The more Christ is pleased to Sanctifie his People taking it still for a Sanctification in himself as he is made to us Wisdom in our Calling Righteousness in our Justification Holiness in our Sanctification and Eternal Glory stiled Redemption all in him and from him I shall therefore wind up This in these two Brief Applications The First is You see here as Solomon speaks in another Case When all is spoken that can be spoken We know saith he it is but Man It is nothing but Man That is speaking of the Weakness of Man All that can be said saith he you have nothing but Weak Frail Man And on the other side speaking of Christ There 's nothing to be said but this He is All All in All we are nothing Here 's the Sum of the Matter We are Nothing all that is in us is Nothing All that God or his Spirit hath wrought in us it is nothing if you could take it out of Christ it will be a Lamp put out in obscure Darkness Carry this constantly upon your Thoughts He that hath the Son hath Life And he that hath not the Son of God hath not Life We rest upon nothing when we rest upon our selves Let us