Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	adoption_n	cry_v	father_n	9,732	5	5.0154	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59693	Theses Sabbaticæ, or, The doctrine of the Sabbath wherein the Sabbaths I. Morality, II. Change, III. Beginning. IV. Sanctification, are clearly discussed, which were first handled more largely in sundry sermons in Cambridge in New-England in opening of the Fourth COmmandment : in unfolding whereof many scriptures are cleared, divers cases of conscience resolved, and the morall law as a rule of life to a believer, occasionally and distinctly handled / by Thomas Shepard ...	Shepard, Thomas, 1605-1649.	1650 (1650)	Wing S3145; ESTC R31814	262,948	313

law but the externall face of these things was scarce any thing else but Doing and Law by reason of which there is a vaile spread over the hearts of the lewes in reading the old Testament unto this day as is evident 2 Cor. 3.13 so that the inside or end of the morall law being Gospel and the out-side and meanes appointed to this end being law hence the Gospel was then lesse clearly and the law was more clearely revealed in those times to say that Iesus Christ and his benefits or eternall life were then dispensed under a Covenant of works or sub conditione perfectae obedientiae as some eminent Worthies affirm is such an errour which wise and able men might easily fall into by seeing how much law was revealed and urged in those times for though the law simply considered in it selfe contained the matter of the Covenant of works yet considered relatively in respect of the people of God and as they were under Abrahams Covenant of grace so it was given to them as a rule of perfect righteousnesse by both which they might the better see their owne weaknesse and unrighteousnesse ●nd flye to Christ and therefore the Apostle Gal. 3.17 cals the promise which was made to Abraham the Covenant and gives not this title to the Law but calls it the law which he saith could not disanull the Covenant confirmed in Christ and although it be propounded to them in way of Covenant Exod. 19.5 yet this is to be understood as some thinke of Evangelicall keeping Covenant not of legall or if of legall yet then it is not propounded simply as a Covenant of works to convey Christ to them but ex hypothesi or upon supposition that if they did think to be Gods people and have him to be their God by doing as Iunius observes the carnall Jewes did thinke and hope so to have him and as that young man thought Mat. 19.17 as Chamier observes that then they must keep all these Commandments perfectly and to bee accursed if they did not continue therein I dare not therefore say that Christ and eternall life were dispensed in a Covenant of works under which Covenant the Iewes were shut in old Testament times but rather this that the law was more strongly pressed as a yoke upon their shoulders and that this law which containes the Covenant of works was more plentifully revealed and insisted on and the Gospel more sparingly and darkly but now in Gospel times the day-starre is risen though in few mens hearts yet in the doctrine and cleare revelation of it therein and therefore the Gospel is called the mystery hidden from ages and generations past but now is made manifest to his Saints Col. 1. ●6 which cannot bee meant as if they had no knowledge of it for Abraham saw Christs day and there is a cloud of witnesses in the Old Testament who dyed in faith Heb. 11. but not such cleare knowledge of it as now they were therefore then under the Law as servants because so much working and doing was urged and chiefely revealed but indeed were sonnes and heires but wee now are not so under it but are as sonnes having the Lord Iesus and our fathers face in him clearely revealed and faith in him chiefely and most abundantly urged in his blessed Gospel and thus the Apostle tels us in this Text Gal. 4.1 with 4.5 that the heires of the Promise under the Old Testament were as servants but by Christ● comming we are now as sonnes look also as they are said to be under the Law not as if they had no Gospel revealed or no use of the Gospel but onely because the Gospel was more darkly revealed and the Law more plentifully urged so we are said not to be under the Law not as if there was no Law or no use of the Law belonging to us but because now the Gospel is more clearely revealed and the Law not externally so proposed and imposed as it was upon them 2. The Law was a Schoolmaster Tutor and Governour to lead them unto Christ to come for so the Apostle tels us in this place Gal. 3.23 that before faith came we were shut up under the Law unto the faith which should afterward be revealed Thus the Ceremoniall law pointed to Christ to come the morall law discovered mans sinne and misery and need of Christ who was to come nay all the promises were made with reference to Iesus Christ to come but now the fulnesse of time being come that the Sonne of God is come now we are no longer under the Law after this manner neither ceremoniall or morall law are of any use to us to lead us unto Christ to come for Christ is already come and hence it is that Beleevers now are said to be rather under the Gospel than under the Law and Beleevers under the Old Testament to be rather under the Law than under the Gospel because although these had the efficacy of Christs Redemption yet they were not yet actually redeemed because the Redeemer was not yet come into the flesh and in this respect they were under the rigour of the law and hence it was fit that they should bee handled as servants and the law and curse thereof principally revealed but now Christ being come and having actually redeemed us having been not onely virtually but actually made righteousnesse and a curse for us now therefore is the time that we should see Christ Iesus with open face and hear principally concerning faith and the fathers love in him now Christ is revealed chiefely being come the end of the Law then the Law was revealed chiefely Christ being not yet come as the meanes to this end looke therefore as the promise before Christ of which the Apostle speaks Gal. 3.17 18 19 21 22. was fulfilled in Christ being come as Divines speak rather than abolished and yet abolished as it was a promise of grace to come so the morall law is rather fulfilled than abolished in Christ being come and yet as it did lead unto Christ to come it is abolished to us now under the Gospel 3. The law being principally revealed and yet so revealed as to lead unto Christ Jesus to come hence ariseth a third thing of the law from which we are now delivered viz. they were therefore under more terrour and feare of the Law than we are on Gods part revealing the Gospel more clearely in these times and therefore saith the Apostle Gal. 4.4 5 6. that when the fulnesse of time came God sent his Sonne to redeeme us from under the Law that wee might receive the adoption of Sonnes and thereby the Spirit of Sonnes crying Abba Father could not they who were Sonnes under the Law call God Father yes verily doubtlesse thou art our Father say they Isaiah 63.17 but they having lesse light they had more feare and lesse of the Spirit of Adoption I say still ex parte Dei revelantis than we have in these dayes We are not

Gospel makes an offer of Christ and salvation and remission of sins to all sinners where it comes yea to all sinners as sinners and as miserable yea though they have sinned long by unbeleef as is evident Hos. 14.1 Rev. 3.17 Ier. 3 2● Isa. 55.1 all are invited to come unto these waters freely without money or price these things no man doubts of that knows the Gospel but the question is not whether Remission of sins and reconciliation in the Gospel belong to sinners but whether they belong to sinners immediately as sinners not whether they are merited by Christs death and offered out of his rich grace immediately to sinners but whether they are actually and immediately their own so as they may challenge them thus as their own from this as from a full and sufficient evidence viz. because they are sinners and because they see themselves sinners for we grant that Jesus Christ came into the world actually to save sinners yet mediatly by faith and then they may see salvation that he justifieth also the ungodly but how immediatly no but mediatly by faith Rom. 3.5 and that where sin abounds grace abounds to whom ●o all sinners no but mediatly to all those only who by ●aith receive this grace Rom. 5.17 so that the Gospel reveals no actuall love and reconciliation immediatly to a sinner as a sinner but mediatly to a sinner as a beleeving and broken-hearted sinner and the Scripture is so cleare in this point that whoever doubts of it must caecutire cum sole and we may say to them as Paul to the Galathians O foolish men who hath bewitched you that you should not see this truth For though Christ came to ●ave sinners yet he p●ofesseth that he came not to call the righteous but the sick sinners Mat. 9.13 though God justifieth the ungodly yet 't is such an ungodly man as beleeveth in him whose faith is imputed unto righteousnesse Rom 3.5 though grace abounds where sin abounds yet 't is not to all sinners for then all should be saved but to such as receive abundance of grace by faith Rom. 5.17 although God holds forth Christ to be a propitiation for sinners yet it 's expresly said to be mediatly through faith in his bloud Rom. 3.24.25 although the Scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise might be given yet it is not said to be immediatly given to sinners as sinners but mediatly to all that beleeve and in one word though it be true that Christ died for sinners and enemies that they might have remission of sins then procured and merited for them yet we never actually have nor receive ●his remission and consequently cannot see it as our own untill we doe beleeve for unto this truth saith Peter do all the Prophets witnesse that whosoever beleeveth in him shall receive remission of sins Act. 10.43 and hence it is that as all the Prophets preached the actual favour of God only to sinners as beleevers so the Apostles never preached it in New Testament times otherwise and hence Peter Act. 2.38 doth not tell the sorrowfull Jews that they were sinners and that God loved them and that Christ had died for them and that their sins were pardoned because they were sinners but he first exhorts them to repent that so they might receive remission of sins nor doth Paul tell any man that salvation belonged to him because he is a sinner but if thou beleeve with all thy heart thou shalt be saved Rom. 10.5 6 7. if the love of God be revealed to a sinner as a sinner this must be either 1. by the witnesse of the Law but this is impossible for if the curse of God be herein revealed only to a sinner as a sinner then the love of God cannot but the Law curseth every sinner Gal 3.10 Or 2. by the Light and witnesse of the Gospel but this cannot be for it reveals life and salvation only to a beleever and confirms the sentence of the Law against such a sinner as beleeves not Ioh. 3.17 36. he that beleeves not is condemned already not only for unbeleef as some say for this doth but aggravate condemnation but also for sin by which man is first condemned before he beleeves if the Apostle may be beleeved Rom. 3.19 and if a man be not condemned for sin before he beleeve then he is not a sinner before he beleeve for look as Christ hath taken away any mans condemnation in his death just so hath he taken away his sin 3. Or else by the witnesse and testimony of Gods spirit but this is flat contrary to what the Apostle speaks Gal. 3.26 with 4 6. ye are all the sons of God by faith in Christ Iesus and because ye are sons not sinners he hath sent the spirit of his son crying Abba Father Gal. 4.4 5 6 and verily if the love of God belong to sinners as sinners then all sinners shall certainly be saved for a quatenus ad omne val●● consequentia so that by this principle as sinne hath abounded actually to condemn all so grace hath abounded actually to save all which is most pernicious nor do I know what should make men embrace this principle unlesse that they either secretly think that the strait gate and narrow way to life is now so wide and broad that all men shall in Gospel times enter in thereat which is prodigious or else they must imagine some Arminian universall Redemption and reconciliation and so put all men in a salvable and reconciled estate such as it is before faith and then the evidence and ground of their assurance must be built on this false and crazy foundation viz. Iesus Christ had died to reconcile and so hath reconciled all sinners But I am a sinner And therefore I am reconciled If this be the bottome of this Gospel-Ministry and preaching free grace as doubtlesse 't is in some then I would say these things only 1. That this doctrine under a colour of free-grace doth as much vilifie and take off the price of free grace in Christs death as any I know for what can vilifie this grace of Christ more then for Christ so to shed his bloud as that Peter and Abraham in heaven shall have no more cause to thank Iesus Christ for his love therein then Iudas and Cain in hell it being equally shed for one as much as for the other 2. That this is a false bottom for faith to rest upon and gather evidence from for 1. if Christ hath died for a●l he will then certainly save all for so Paul reasons Rom. 8.32 and 6.10 he hath given his Sonne to death for us how shall ●e not but with him give us all other things and therefore he will give faith and give repentance and give perseverance and give eternall life also which is most false 2. If he did not pray for all then he hath not died for all Ioh. 17.9 which Scripture never yet received scarce

and shadowes and figures when once the substance is come to wit when they come in this life to the highest attainment which is the bosome of the Father which bosome is the true Sabbath of a Christian man Now I confesse that the bosome of God in Christ is our rest and our All in All in heaven and our sweet consolation and rest on earth and that we are not to rest in any meanes Ordinances Graces Duties but to look beyond them all and to be carried by them above them all to him that is better than all to God in Christ Jesus but to make this bosome of God a kinde of canker-worme to fret and eat out the heart and being not only of all Sabbaths and Ordinances of worship but also of all duties and graces of Gods Spirit nay of Christ Jesus himself as he is manifested in the flesh and is an externall Mediator whom some lately have also cast into same box with the rest Being sent onely as they think to reveale but not to procure the Fathers love of delight and therefore is little else than a meere forme and so to cease when the Father comes in the room of all formes and so is All in All This I dare say is such a high affront to the precious bloud of Christ and his glorious Name and blessed Spirit of grace that he who hath his Furnace in Zion and his fire in Ierusalem will not beare it long without making their judgements and plagues at least spirituall exemplary and wonderfull and leading them forth in such crooked wayes with the workers of iniquity when peace shall be upon Israel Are these abstracted notions of a Deity into the vision and contemplation of whose amazing glory without seeing him as he is in Christ a Christian they say must be plunged lost and swallowed up and up to which hee must ascend even to the unaproachable light the true and onely Sabbath Are these I say the new and glorious light breaking out in these dayes which this age must wait for which are nothing else upon narrow search than Monkish imaginations the goodly cob-webs of the brain-imagery of those idolatrous and superstitious hypocrites the Anchorites Monks and Fryers who to make the blinde and simple world admire and gaze upon them gave it out hereby like Simon Magus that they were some great ones even the very power and familiars of God Surely in these times of distraction warre and bloud if ever the Lord called for sackcloth humiliation repentance faith graces holinesse precious esteem of Gods Ordinances and of that Gospel which hath been the power of God to the salvation of thousands now is the time and must Gods people reject these things as their A. B. C and must the new light of these times be the dreames and visions and slaverings of doting and deluded old Monks Shall the simplicity of Gospel-ministery bee rejected as a common thing and shall Harphius his Theologia Mystica Augustinus Elutherius Iacob Behmen Cusanus Raimundus Sebund Theologia Germanica and such like Monk-admirers be set up as the new lights and beacons on the mountaine of these elevated times Surely if so God hath his time and wayes of putting a better relish to his precious Gospel and the crosse of Christ which was wont in Pauls time to be plainly preached without such popish paintings and wherein Gods people knew how to reconcile their swe●● rest in the bosome of the Father and their Sabbath day Thesis 81. If sinne which is the transgression of the law bee the greatest evill then holines which is our conformity to the law is our greatest good If sin be mans greatest misery then holinesse is mans greatest happinesse It is therefore no bondage for a Christian to be bound to the observance of the law as his rule because it onely binds him fast to his greatest happinesse and thereby directs and keeps him safe from falling into the greatest misery and woe and if the great designe of Christ in comming into the world was not so much as to save man from affliction and sorrow which are lesser evils but chiefely from sinne which is the greatest evill then the chiefe end of his comming was not as some imagine to lift his people up into the love and abstracted speculation of the Father above the law of God but into his owne bosome onely where only wee have fellowship with the Father above the Law of sinne Thesis 82. The bloud of Christ was never shed to destroy all sense of sin and sight of sinne in Beleevers and consequently all attendance to any rule of the law by which means chiefely sinne comes to be seen but he dyed rather to make them sensible of sinne for if he dyed to save men from sin as is evident 1 Iohn 3.5 Tit. 3.14 then hee dyed to make his people sensible of sinne because hereby his peoples hearts are chiefely weaned and sever'd from it and saved out of it as by hardnesse and unsensiblenesse of heart under it they chiefely cleave to it and it to them and therefore we know that godly sorrow workes repentance never to be repented of 2 Cor. 7.10 And that Pharaoh's hardnesse of heart strengthened him in his sin against God unto the last gasp and hence it is also that the deepest and greatest spirit of mourning for sin is poured out upon Beleevers after God hath poured out upon them the spirit of grace as is evident Zach. 12.10 11. because the bloud of Christ which was shed for the killing of their sinne now makes them sensible of their sinne because it 's now sprinkled and applyed to them which it was not before for they now see all their sins aggravated being now not onely sinnes against the law of God but against the bloud and love of the Son of God It is therefore a most accursed doctrine of some Libertines who imagining that through the bloudshed and righteousnes of Christ in their free justification God sees no sinne in his justified people that therefore themselves are to see no sinne because now they are justified and washed with Christs bloud and therefore lest they should be found out to bee grosse liars they mince the matte● they confesse that they may see sinne by the eye of sense and reason but faith being crosse to reason they are therefore to see the quite contrary and so to see no sinne in themselves by the eye of faith from whence it followes that Christ shed his bloud to destroy all sight and sense of sin to the eye of faith though not to the eye of reason and thus as by the eye of faith they should see no sin so it will follow that by the same bloud they are bound to see no law no not so much as their rule which as a rule is index sui obliqui and in revealing mans duty declares his sinne I know that in beholding our free justification by the bloud of Christ we are to exclude all law