Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	acceptable_a	act_n	act_v	24	3	8.1024	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67398	The necessity of regeneration in two sermons to the University of Oxford / by John Wallis ...	Wallis, John, 1616-1703.	1682 (1682)	Wing W595; ESTC R12565	29,011	54

be the Truths of God notwithstanding the Follies of men Those Admonitions of Quench not the Spirit 1 Thes. 4.19 Grieve not the Spirit Eph. 4.30 Walk in the Spirit and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the Flesh Gal. 5.16 were intended for serious Advice And why should we Grieve that Spirit which is to be our Comforter Joh. 14.26 and 15.26 by whom we are sealed to the day of Redemption Eph. 1.13 and 4.30 And David prays in good earnest Psal. 51.10 Create in me a clean Heart O God and renew a right Spirit within me v. 11. Take not thy holy Spirit from me v. 12. Vphold me with thy free Spirit Nor did God mock us when he promised to pour his Spirit upon all flesh Joel 2.28 Nor Christ when he says His Father will give his holy Spirit to them that ask Luke 11.13 And the Threatnings of God are very severe against those that do despite to the Spirit of Grace Heb. 10.29 and who Blaspheme or speak against the holy Spirit Mat. 12.31 32. Nor will the Follies of some who may pretend to what they have not Excuse the Malice of others who make a Mock of Holy things But to return This Change of Nature must I say be wrought by the Spirit of God Not but that we must be Active also in a diligent use of the Means of Grace whereby God's Spirit doth ordinarily work Grace in us as Praying Hearing and Reading the Word of God keeping his Sabbaths and other of his Ordinances For God hath appointed them for that very end that the Spirit of God may by them work Grace in us But we are so to use them as yet to look beyond them and wait for a work of God by his Spirit upon our hearts in concurrence with them to make them effectual to us I have Planted saith Paul 1 Cor. 3.6 and Apollo Watered but God gave the Increase Ver. 7. So then neither is he that Planteth any thing neither he that Watereth that is nothing in comparison But God that giveth the Increase Hence it is that under the same Means of Grace and the same Arguments used to perswade us one is taken and another left Mat. 24.40 41. as Christ speaks in a like case one converted and another remains obdurate And to the same person there be some Mollia tempora fandi those Arguments at one time prevail which at another time do not And when they do it is not without a special concurrence of God with them and not meerly from other Circumstantials or a power of our own without it And our Church saith the same in her Tenth Article in the words The Condition of Man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn or prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to Faith and Calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God by Christ Preventing us that we may have a good will and Working with us when we have that good will If any shall yet inquire as Nicodemus here How can these things be Joh. 3.10 How is it that God or his Spirit can thus work upon our hearts Man being a free Agent or How this is consistent with the Freedome of Man's will or the like I do not know that we are obliged to trouble our selves with those nice Inquiries Sure it is that when we act we act Freely not against our wills Certum est nos velle cum volumus sed Deus facit ut velimus is a known saying in the case When we will 't is voluntary but 't is God makes us thus to will And St. Paul long before It is God which worketh in us both to Will and to Do of his good pleasure Phil. 2.13 As to the Manner of it If we say God works we know not how it doth not therefore follow that he doth not work If we do not know How the bones grow in the womb of her that is with child Eccles. 11.5 which yet we know do grow we may as likely be ignorant How God works in the New-birth We have in Job 38. a great many hard Questions concerning Natural things which God himself puts to Job to check his curiosity in higher matters which would trouble any of us to answer as to the particular manner and yet in general that the things be so we cannot deny St. Paul Rom. 9.19 to such captious Questions Why doth he yet complain for who hath resisted his will makes this grave Reply v. 20. Nay but O Man who art thou that disputest against God 'T is hard for us to set bounds to the Almighty to say what he doth or what he may doe Modesty becomes us herein Vain man saith Zophar in Job Job 11.12 would needs be wise though man be born like a wild Asses Colt Nor is it for us to give Law to the Almighty or say unto him What doest thou And here if ever that counsel of Solomon is seasonble Eccl. 5.2 Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thy heart be hasty to utter any thing before God for God is in heaven and thou upon earth therefore let thy words be few And our Saviour here to Nicodemus from our Ignorance in Earthly things pleads for a modest Submission in things of a higher nature Joh. 3.8 The Wind bloweth where it listeth thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the Spirit Ver. 12. And if in Earthly things we are at a loss how much more in Heavenly And Solomon to the same purpose in the place before cited Eccl. 11.5 As thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit nor how the bones grow in the womb of her that is with child Even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all 'T is commonly either from a vain Curiosity or proud Arrogance that makes men over Confident in such things I find the Church of God in the first Ages of the World did for a long time for ought we see rest satisfied with that first general promise That the Seed of the Woman should break the Serpents head Gen. 3.25 That God would by some born of a Woman find a way they knew not how to deliver us from that wretched condition which by the Serpents malice and subtilty was brought upon us Without being over inquisitive When or How or By whom it should be brought about Till God saw fit in his own time upon the coming of our Saviour to declare it more plainly and fully And in like manner when God promises to circumcise our heart Deut. 6.30 to give us a new heart and put a new spirit within us Ezek. 36.26 to take away the heart of stone and give us a heart of flesh Ezek. 11.19 to put his Law in our inward parts and write it in our hearts Jer. 31.33 to put his fear

in our hearts that we shall not depart from him Jer. 32.40 We may well rest satisfied that he who hath said it can doe it without cavilling or nice inquiring How can these things be And the like when God threatens to harden Pharaoh's heart Exod. 4.21 and 7.3 or to make the heart of the people fat that hearing they may hear but not understand Isai. 6.9 10. and seeing they may see but not perceive Mat. 13.14 15. To wit by leaving them to their natural hardness and blindness without correcting it by his Spirit Now that which hereby we prove is this Not that God forces us to will against our wills for that in sensu composito as to the Elicite Act is impossible as implying a contradiction in the terms for as to what we will we are so far willing But that by the Spirit we are born again that is that God by his Spirit works in us a new Nativity a new Nature that is a new Habit of Grace whereby we are inclined to Love and Delight in Good as by the habitual Corruption of our Nature we are inclined to Evil. And this is the concurrent doctrine of the Schools Who I think do generally allow that our Souls are capable of Infused Habits as well as acquired And if by derivation from our first parents we be capable of habitual Corruption I see not why we should doubt but that we are alike capable of habitual Grace And of this for ought I know as early as of that For like as there may be habitual Corruption before we be in a capacity for want of the use of Reason to commit Actual Sin So may God as early put into our hearts the Seeds of Grace which may afterwards when occasion shall serve bring forth the Fruits of good living He may I say when he please not that he alwaies so doth We reade of Isaiah that he was called from the womb Isai. 49.1 and of Jeremiah Jer. 1.5 Before thou camest out of the womb I Sanctified thee and of John the Baptist that he should be filled with the holy Ghost even from his mothers womb Luk. 1.15 And our Church presumes of Infants that they be at least some of them Regenerate when Baptized And therefore For as much as all men are conceived and born in Sin and that our Saviour Jesus Christ says None can enter into the Kingdome of God except he be Regenerate and Born anew of Water and of the holy Ghost doth direct us to call upon God the Father through our Lord Jesus Christ that of his bounteous mercy he will grant to this Child that thing which by Nature he cannot have And doth pray accordingly that God will Wash him and Sanctifie him with the holy Ghost And that he may receive remission of Sins by Spiritual Regeneration Nor is the Holy Ghost less able to work effectually afterwards Else why are we taught to pray to God to grant us true repentance and his holy Spirit that the things may please him which we doe at present and that the rest of our life hereafter may be pure and holy That all our doings may be ordered by his Government to doe alwaies that which is righteous in his sight And for the King's Majesty That God will replenish him with the grace of his Spirit that he may alwaies incline to God's will and walk in his waies and to endue him plenteously with heavenly Gifts And for the Royal Family That God will endue them with his holy Spirit and enrich them with his heavenly Grace And for the Clergy That God will send upon our Bishops and Curates and all Congregations committed to their charge the healthfull Spirit of his Grace And for our selves That being Regenerate and made his Children by Adoption and Grace we may be daily renewed by his holy Spirit That as by his special Grace Preventing us he puts into our minds good Desires so by his continual Help we may bring the same to good Effect That by his holy Inspiration we may Think those things that be good and by his mercifull Guiding we may Perform the same That God who did teach the hearts of his faithfull people by sending them the light of his holy Spirit will grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgment in all things That because by the weakness of our mortal nature we can doe no good thing without him he will grant us the help of his Grace that in keeping his commandments we may please him both in Will and Deed. That God who is the Author and Giver of all good things will graft in our heart the Love of his Name That he will Grant us the Spirit to Think and Doe alwaies such things as be rightfull that we who cannot doe any thing without him may by him be enabled to live according to his will That because the frailty of Man without him cannot but fall he will keep us ever by his help That his Grace may alwaies Prevent and Follow us and make us continually to be given to all good works That Almighty God will cleanse the Thoughts of our Hearts by the inspiration of his holy Spirit that we may perfectly love him and worthily magnify his holy Name With much more in the Prayers of our Church to the same purpose All which implies that there is a power in God to work in our Souls by his Spirit such a gracious frame and temper of Heart inclining it to Good as before it was to Evil as without it would not have been And truly if we do allow that the Wisdome of man by moral Arguments and rational Discourse may without doing violence to his Will perswade another to Think otherwise than before he did and to Doe what otherwise he would not have done which yet when he doth he doth Freely Nay more if a Glass of Wine though taken moderately and without excess may give a man that Life Vigour and Alacrity as to make him almost another man to Speak Think and Doe what else he would not or at least not in such a Manner and to such a Degree Surely we may allow the Wisdome of God and the Efficacy of his Spirit without intrenching upon our Freedome to doe as much or more than so And either without or in concurrence with such moral Swasions to put that Warmth into our hearts as to act beyond what without it we should have done Nor is there any reason to fear that such Inclination to Good from the Spirit of God should prejudice the Freedome of our Will any more if so much as the Inclination to Evil from our own Corruption or the Temptations of Sathan Especially since that the Blessed Angels and the Glorified Saints in Heaven where Sorrow and Sin shall be no more shall as Freely Love God and Praise him as we on Earth can do Notwithstanding that they shall be