Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	act_v	action_n	active_a	76	3	8.5187	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A74688	Vox Dei & hominis. God's call from heaven ecchoed [sic] by mans answer from earth. Or a survey of effectual calling. In the [brace] explication of its nature. Distribution of it into its parts. Illustration of it by its properties. Confirmation of it by reasons. Application of it by uses. Being the substance of several sermons delivered to the people of Heveningham, in Suffolk. / By J. Votier, minister of the gospel.; Vox Dei et hominis	Votier, J. (James), b. 1622.	1658 (1658)	Wing V709; Thomason E1756_1; ESTC R209691	204,151	359

and lie in the womb of effectual calling so that thou mayst hear the voice of the Lord saying to thee as Isaac to Esau concerning Jacob I have blessed thee and thou Gen 27. 33. shalt be blessed From this mount Nebo from this top of Pisgah mayst thou view all the good land round about without conversion no man or woman can be blessed for the promises which are the seeds of blessings are made to grace Knowing that ye are thereunto called that ye should inherit a blessing No inheritance 1 Pet. 3. 9. without this evidence If the forgivenesse of thy sins the favour of God to thy soul be not a blessing what is now the work of grace upon the heart is the stair the ascent to this throne of happinesse Thou canst not get up into the tree of life and shake soul-satisfying fruit into thy bosome without this ladder Thou canst not attain to saving weal without this sanctifying work Thou canst never get to the top of glory without the staff of grace viruled with the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ Thou canst not be a loved Son unlesse thou be a living Saint many fondly presume and think to commence and take the degree of glory per saltum neglecting grace but it is the path the way thereto such as meet not with God in their heart shall never meet with God in heaven Thou that hast grace hast that threed which will undoubtedly lead thee into the bowre of blisse This compasse will not fail thee but bring thee to the port where thou needest fear neither billow nor blast Thy patent is signed and past whereby heaps and numberlesse sums of felicity are freely given thee out of the Exchequer of grace This gale will bring thee to the Isle of peace upon Beatus vir qui per poenitentiam ad meliora conversus est this silver stream thou shalt with safety slide into the bosome of the quiet Key This is the way the road to all the Scripture calls beatitude The fee simple of true blessednesse is given to the godly pious truly penitent soul 6. The spring of action You are now in S. 9 such a condition that you can act and do something for God Now thou art indued with a spirit that is quick and active like the highest element that finds no rest but in travel nor contentment but in the painful labours of worthy actions To do for the Creator is as great dignity almost as the creature can attain to to be instrumental to his glory to be subservient to his praise is a great preferment To be agent for God to be factor for heaven is a choice flower in a Saints garden a chief diamond in his diademe Now thou hast a talent to trade for God with such a principle whereby thou canst act some suitable part in his service The Apostle beseecheth the Ephesians that they would walk Ephes 4. 1. worthy of the vocation wherewith they were called Those that have life can do the works of living men and women for their living God When we are sick then we think what we would do for God if we were well Thou that hast grace art spiritually well and hast ability from God to work the works of God The wicked can neither think speak nor do for God when thou canst do all these things through that grace that God hath bestowed upon thee It is true nobility and the only Summa apud Deum nobilitas est clarum esse virtutibus advancement of a man or a woman to be fruitful in good works and duties towards God Thou hast cause to account it thy glory and thy crown of rejoycing that thou hast an heart or hand to move towards or do ought for God Those that are in their sins are dead and can do nothing Thou that art a Saint art alive and canst do something Thou canst be a means to promote the glory to predicate the greatness of the Lord. To be able to pray read hear speak believe oppose sin stand up in the behalf of grace is more by far then to be endowed with talents and abilities for temporal and secular undertakings One action done for God from grace is of more worth then all the atchievements of the most eminent without grace When David and his people offered freely to the building of the Temple he was much affected and taken with it acknowledging that he and they were unworthy to be dignified with ability of doing thus for God 1 Chron. 29. 13 14. 7. A sign of affection To be delivered from the Law of sin is a demonstration of the S. 10 love of God To be made willing to good is a manifestation of God's good will The souls love to God is but an effect of God's love to the soul We love him because he first Prior Deus dilexit nos ●●●us tantum gratis tantillos tales loved us 1 John 4. 19. Now those that are effectually called do love God for the Apostle joyns them together Those that love God and that are the called according to his purpose Rom. 8. 28. If the Lord's heart had not been towards thee he would never have drawn thy heart towards himself Where the Lord hath been pleased to hang out this sign of grace and a change thou mayst assure thy self there is store of love in his bosome toward thee The work of spiritual life in thee is the fruit of God's working love to thee Had not the Lord loved thee he would never have done thus for thee what cause of comfort then is there to thee who hast the love of God transcribed upon thy heart gracious dispositions flow from God's gracious affections and those to whom the Lord giveth saving and sanctifying grace are his Benjamins his darlings Those that can make out that they are in a living condition may conclude God's loving inclination If the Lord have changed thy nature and renewed thy heart thou mayst look upon it as a love-token with this posey or inscription I love thee freely In these clear waters of grace thou mayst see the smiling serene face of heaven In this book thou mayst read whole Chapters of God's good will And is it not a comforting cordial to know that one is in God's books in his favour Be glad and rejoyce for the Lord loveth thee one dram of God's special love is such a pearl that the whole world is not able to weigh against The Angel in his salutation to Mary Luke 1. 28 30. saith Haile thou that art highly favoured the Lord is with thee So may it be said to thee If Christ and grace be conceived and formed in thy soul it is a sign thou hast found favour with the Lord. 8. A singular condition There is no estate S. 11 like to an estate of grace There are degrees of honour in the world but this above them all and the divine Heraldry will give it the first place The Apostle

which is not till the next 2. Secondly in nature As the shooting of a Gun with a Bullet and the killing of any one thereby may be together in time at the same instant yet the shooting is before the slaughter in nature as the cause thereof These things I lay down as preparatives now briefly to the purpose The habits of faith and repentance are planted and set in the heart at one instant there is no difference of time there 2. Repentance from the tenour of the Law Am. med de vocat Thes 31 32 33 34. Buc. lae 30. goeth before justifying faith in time and I think in nature too 3. Gospel repentance followeth justifying faith in the act and dependeth upon it 4. Repentance viz. Gospel is usually first seen because one cannot well perswade himself that he is reconciled to God in Christ till he perceive he hath parted with his sins nor conclude he is pardoned till he saith he is purified nor that Christ and they be united till their souls sins be divided nor that they have put on Christ till they have put off their sins 4. Ob. In the next place the question shall 4. Ob. be whether conversion or effectual calling be S. 4 by the Preaching of the Law or Gospel Sol. Master Burges shall answer this query Sol. Vindiciae legis Lect. 20. and unty this knot I shall give you the short notes of what he delivereth more largely 1. The Law could not work to regeneration were it not for the promises of the Gospel the question is not whether conversion be vi legis by the power of the law but whether it may be cum lege with the preaching of the Law 2. Howsoever the Law may be blest to conversion yet the matter of it cannot be the ground of our justification and adoption 3. The Word of God as it is read or preached worketh no further than objectively to the conversion of a man if considered in it self 4. Whatsoever good effects or benefits are conveyed to the soul by the preaching of the Law or the Gospel it s efficiently from Gods Spirit Thus far this worthy man It is unsafe to exclude the Law though we Am. de voc cap. 26. Thes 12. v. conclude the Gospel is the chief Between the hammer of the Law and the cushion of the Gospel is a flinty heart most like to be broken by the hand of the Spirit we may suppose the Lord speaking in this case as in Zech. Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit saith the Lord 4. Zech. 6. v. The Spirit is the supreme chief Though they be different in their constitution yet they agree in one as to the work of conversion They are all good though in several respects We may well say precious Law more precious Gospel most precious Spirit if the spirit did not move them neither the upper nor nether milstone would turn as neither must be taken for pledge for they cannot work alone so joyntly and together they cannot act without the spirits assistance the Law sheweth the sore the Gospel the salve the one teacheth of sin the other of a Lex data est it gratia quaereretur Saviour the one sheweth the harming curse the other the healing crosse the one mans misery the other Gods mercy but it is the spirit that setteth home these things and openeth the eyes to see them anointing them with spiritual eye-salve the Law may be a preparative hut the Gospel is the power of God to salvation Rom. 1. 16. when the soul by the Law set only the spirit which is the master builder is driven to fear it is the more likely by the Gospel to be drawn to faith and when it seeth it is lost in it self it is thereby provoked to long for Christ the Law treateth of transgression condemneth our courses revealeth wrath thundreth threatnings but the Gospel propoundeth promises breatheth benedictions holdeth out happiness sheweth salvation whereby the spirit draws the heart to Christ CHAP. XIII XII A few plain and familiar reasons are to be given in IN the next place according to the propounded method I am to lay down some demonstrations of the doctrine and they are these ensuing which are as four pillars to support the point and a quaternion of mediums for the life-guard of the position formerly laid down and hitherto treated of 1. Conjunction of the means and end 2. Union to Christ 3. Distinction present and future 4. Application of the means Conjunction of the means and end the S. 1 Lord calls in to himself those whom he laid Rea. 1 out for himself for as he predestinated them to the end viz. happiness so also to the means In rebus quas Deus vult ordo quidam concipitur prius vult finem quam media Ames Med. cap. 7. Thes 40. 51. Ordinatio primum finis deinde mediorum Pol. Synt. lib. 4. c. 6. Non causa regnandi sed via ad regnum viz. holiness the means and the end lying in the same womb of predestination there is a concatenation of them in Gods counsel a twisting of them together in Gods thoughts and when he decrees the one he determines the other In the book of his eternal thoughts with the pen of his certain decree the Lord first sets down the matter of his intention then the means of the execution In the certain register of his thoughts in reference to his peculiar people he first enters his will and then enrols his work Their inheritance shall be glory and the way to it shall be grace for though holiness be not the cause yet it is the cause-way to Heaven who so looks into the way of erfectual calling shall find it a beaten road to Heaven and may perceive in it the prints of the feet of Abraham Isaac Jacob David Samuel and the rest of the spiritual travellers in their journey to the Holy-land thē Lord intends to bring his people into Canaan and with all hath laid out the way and means he intends to bring them into the Heavenly City by the narrow gate of converting grace If it be a part of the wisedom of the children of this generation to think of the means together with the end shall we dare to think that the Father of Light the All-wise God hath not his counsels richly damasked with sapience prudence intelligence beyond the rule of the actions the reach of the conceptions of man I think we may safely say that the Lord hath not determined for ought that we can find in his word that any should commence and take the degree of a glorified Saint in Heaven without undergoing the task and services that belong to Christs school on earth The Apostle telleth the Ephesians that God had before ordained the path of holiness for them to walk in 2 Ephes 10. v. God hath but one way to Heaven wherein all must walk that would come thither supporting themselves

yet that doth not make thee gracious Many if they can but get into the community of the Church of God think all is well though they have no society with the God of the Church you may be an impure member of a pure Church I would not have any mistake and think that I go about to throw dirt in the faces of any Congregations One that is Oxthodox and pious may be a member and yet never mended Church-fellowship membership and priviledges are sweet but they are not grace they are choice favours but they are not saving faith the Church door may be open to us and in the mean time our hearts be shut to God I would have none think priviledges are sufficient without purity Judas was one of Christ's Church and company Those that were of the Church of Laodicea were yet checked and Rev. 3. 17. chidden for their want of grace It hath been a proverbial speech New England for ordinances Old England for graces If you lived in a Church of the strictest order and highest attainments yet it will not passe for the gold of grace The Church is God's Seminary and University and so are particular Churches but all that have their Decor ecclesiae principaliter consistit in interioribus Aquin. names matriculated there are not real Schollers you may be true members of a Church and yet no true members of Christ you may have external ordinances and no internal order in your heart Salvation and grace is personal not congregational 1. A confident presumption of ones good S. 11 estate and condition is not grace The proud Pharisee had high thoughts of himself but his Luke 18. 11. thoughts and the truth did not jump One may strongly perswade themselves that all is well and yet stifly persist in all that is ill and for the most part the worst have the best thoughts we may have heaven in our wish and hell in our will Most men will proclaim Prov. 20. 6. every one his own goodnesse But a faithful man who shall find saith Solomon There may be great conceptions of good and yet no conversion to good Nay one may be so high in such thoughts that they may have a kind of rejoycing in the apprehension of election adoption c. and yet no grace Many Heb. 6. 4. mount up to heaven almost upon the wings of their presumptuous apprehensions and yet will fall as low as hell for want of a powerful alteration According to our faith and not Nulla praesumptio perniciosior quam de propria justitia superbire Jude 11. according to our thoughts so is it with us there may be high hopes where there is but an hollow heart you may ride upon the wings of the wind in your own thoughts and yet may run in the way of Balaam and perish in the gain-saying of Core 9. To go according to conscience is not S. 12 grace nor effectual calling Many think that all is well if they can but say and think that it is their conscience Paul was led by his conscience when he lashed out against the truth Acts 26. 9. I thought I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth and yet then he was without grace conscience may be blind and know what follows if the blind lead the blind The Scripture saith not they that are led by their own spirits but they that are led by the spirit of Rom. 8. 14. God are the sons of God You may follow the teaching of conscience and yet have no truth of conversion This is a great starting hole in this age and a great cover-fault Blasphemy and persecution were the ways that Paul's 1 Tim. 1. 13. conscience walked him in a wicked conscience cannot do well If your conscience be a rebel it will not salve the matter to say you Quid acquiri putatur ubi bona conscientia perditur followed your captain's command One may steer their course by this card and yet be no good Pilot there may be a natural conscience and yet no conversion of your nature This is too weak a ground-fill to set the fabrick of grace on conscience without the culture of heaven will bring forth nothing but weeds you may have confident perswasions of the rectitude of your ways and yet continue in the contumacious perversenesse of your will 10. To hold an opinion or to adhere to this S. 13 or that party is not grace Therefore Paul chides his Corinthians for their faction that some would list themselves under Paul's colours in opposition to Apollo and others under Apollo's colours in opposition to Cephas c. 1 Cor. 1. 12. Some made it the great part of their religion so to cry up works as to cry down faith against whom Paul disputeth in the Epistle to the Romans others so to lift up saving faith as to let down sanctifying works against whom James disputeth in his Epistle Creeds do not make Christians one may be of the perswasion of this and the other party and yet not be partakers of true piety one may take up a new opinion and yet not have a new heart The Spider may fasten upon rich hangings and yet be full of poyson still Yet this is the fairest copy that many can produce to make out a title to the work of grace because they are in the same vessel upon the same stream with such and such a party But I must tell thee that though thou be a retainer to the camp of true Christian souldiers and holdest with the soundest side yet that is not grace godliness consists in powerful workings not in parts taking 11. The doing of all outward things that S. 14 a true child of God may do is not grace for even so far sometimes one may go that hath not grace There may be hearing praying reading conferring alms-giving fasting c. and yet no grace one that is in an estate of nature may yet be so well mounted upon the back of more common principles that they may be able to keep pace with the godly a great way and may be so suited alike outwardly that you shall hardly know the one from the other but the King's Vita hypocritae est quaedam visio phantasmatis quae hoc ostendit in imagine quod non habet in veritate daughter hath a glory within as well as gay clothing without When Christ told his Disciples that one of them should betray him there was none of them suspected Judas but said Lord Is it I You may be partners in the same shop of Christianity with one that truly fears God and act together and yet you may be but a flash a flourish you may live a Saint and die a sinner you may have the same external complexion but not the same internal constitution you may say your part word for word as well as another and yet be no true proficient you may have the same form and