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	father_n	receive_v	8,589	5	5.7408	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47301	The measures of Christian obedience, or, A discourse shewing what obedience is indispensably necessary to a regenerate state, and what defects are consistent with it, for the promotion of piety, and the peace of troubled consciences by John Kettlewell ...	Kettlewell, John, 1653-1695.	1681 (1681)	Wing K372; ESTC R18916	498,267	755

that in what proportion it increases in the same must this increase likewise Charity sayes S t Paul suffereth long and is kind charity is not easily provoked charity thinketh no evil charity beareth all things and endureth all things 1 Cor. 13.4 5 7. The more therefore that any man has of charity the more will he be sure to show of sufferance of pity of endurance of such slips and oversights as are consistent with an honest and otherwise obedient heart And now since those imperfect measures and degrees of Love which are found in the hearts of all good men are of force more than sufficient to make them pity and bear with these slips of honest ignorance and inconsideration that infinite height of Love which dwells in God Almighty must needs make him bear with them much rather For the most loving man upon earth hath not the thousandth part of his affection the more loving any men are indeed the more still they are like him but when they are arrived to the highest pitch of what humanity can bear it is not possible that they should in any measure equal him And since Gods Love is infinitely more his pity and forbearance towards such pitiable oversights which is a most natural and necessary effect of it cannot possibly be less than ours is No if no kind-hearted loving man would it must needs be the greatest injury to an infinitely loving God to suspect that ever he should be severe in punishing us for them If we ask Gods Pardon then for all our ignorant and inconsiderate slips and failings he is as ready to give as we are to desire it And this we are assured of because it is no more than we daily experience at the hands of every loving and good natured man For since God cannot be equalled and much less out-done by the very best of us in kindness what the weak Love of a man doth every day effect that certainly the infinite Love of God will effect more abundantly And as for this way of arguing it is no more than our Saviour himself uses in another case when he shows that God will give good gifts unto his children at their request because all earthly Parents do it unto theirs daily whenas yet their Love which makes them grant the good things asked so readily is infinitely exceeded by the Love of God Luk. 11.13 Thus from the consideration of Gods Nature it plainly appears that those slips and transgressions which are committed involuntarily and unavoidably because ignorantly and inconsiderately do not put us out of a state of Grace but consist with it Which will appear yet further if we consider Secondly The Nature and plain declarations of the Gospel As for the Nature of the Gospel S t Paul affirms plainly that it is of such a temper and genius as tends to ingenerate in the professors of it not a spirit of fear and slavery which they are possessed with who serve a rigorous and austere Lord but a spirit of chearfulness and free confidence such as they enjoy who serve a gracious and a loving Father For he tells the Jews at Rome that in embracing of Christs Gospel they had not received again the spirit of bondage unto the possessing of their hearts with fears and scruples but the spirit of adoption whereby they were emboldened with the chearfulness and confidence of sons to cry unto God Abba Father Rom. 8.15 But now if the condition of the Gospel it self were so severe as that according to the tenour of it these unavoidable slips of inconsideration and ignorance should set God and us at enmity no Christian man could ever look upon God as upon his tender Father with this spirit of filial freedom but must needs fear and dread him as his angry and avenging Lord. And the Gospel requiring more of us under the forfeiture of Gods favour than any man among us is able to perform it could not minister to ingenerate in us a spirit of chearfull confidence towards him but quite contrary to that to fill us with inextricable doubts and fears of him As for these slips of ignorance then which cannot be avoided we may be assured that according to the Gospel they never can be punish'd for the New Covenant must bear with them because it cannot ingender in us this spirit of adoption and filial confidence without such forbearance And then as for the Declarations of the Gospel in this matter they are very clear also For besides those places that are mentioned above which show clearly that no involuntary sins are damning and then certainly that our slips of ignorance are not seeing they have the greatest plea to involuntariness of any I say besides those this consistence of our unknown and unconsidered slips will be evident from other places also And for this to seek no further S t James's Rule is full and plain To him that knoweth or which comes to the same thing if he will may know how to do good and doth it not to him it is sin Jam. 4.17 If then we have no other sins to answer for but only these of inconsideration and ignorance we are guilty of none wherefore we shall be condemned these unknown sins not being of that number And indeed S t James's Rule is verified by Scripture instances For holy David fell through inconsideration and unadvisedness in sundry things as particularly in an inconsiderate despairing of Gods mercy Psal. 31.22 and in an excessive sorrow for his Son Absolom 2 Sam. 18.33 and ch 19.4 But notwithstanding these and all other his unadvised slips he was all the while a man after Gods own heart a person upright and acceptably obedient still Zacharias and Elizabeth were surprized no question as well as other people are into several slips and inconsiderate follies For one we have mention'd even in that short account which the Scriptures have given us of them and that is this viz. that at the first hearing of the joyful message of the Angel he is incredulous and is punished with dumbness for his unbelief Luk. 1.18 20. But yet this and his other involuntary failings of like nature come not into the account of his sins and disobedience when God speaks of him for notwithstanding these their infirmities of both of them we are told that they were righteous and that before God walking in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless Luk. 1.6 As for this sort of slips and transgressions therefore viz. our sins of ignorance and inconsideration we see plainly that they never will be charged upon us to our condemnation They do not destroy a Saint or put us out of a state of Grace and Salvation but consist with it This must needs be true for they must be pardoned because they cannot be avoided Besides the love and pitifulness of Gods Nature infers and the very temper and genius of his Gospel supposes it the Apostle plainly and fully declares it and from Gods own mouth we are told

and the perfection as to this particular of the Law of Christ. The Law of Moses was unable to work a general reformation by reason of several defects two whereof I shall particularly mention which in the Religion of Christ are fully supplied and they are the great motive to all obedience eternal life and the great encouragement of all endeavour the promise of the Spirit Eternal life are words that are never heard of in all Moses's Law Indeed the good people under it had all some rude thoughts and confused expectations of it but the Law it self did no where clearly and expresly propose it Whereof this may serve for a probable proof because a whole Sect among them the Sadducees I mean did flatly deny it and this for an undeniable Argument because those very places of the Law which are brought to confirm it by those Jewish Doctors that are most for it are in all appearance so remote from it Nay even our Saviour himself when he goes to prove it against the Sadducees out of the Books of Moses can find no other Testimonies for it than such as are fetched about to speak it by art and brought to it by consequence Luke 20.37 38. So that well might S t Paul say in triumph over all other Religions in the World That life and immortality were brought to light by the Gospel 2 Tim. 1.10 And in the comparison of that Covenant which came by Moses with that other which came by Christ to affirm that the Covenant which came by Christ was the bringing in of a better hope Heb. 7.19 and a better Covenant for this reason because it was established upon better promises Heb. 8.6 And then as for the promise of the Spirit to enable men to do what was required of them of that Moses made no mention By this Law as S t Paul says was the knowledge of sin Rom. 3.20 It shewed men what they should do and denounced a Curse upon them if they failed to do it but it stopt there and went not on to promise any inward Grace and help that might enable them to be as good as it required them No the promise of that was reserved to another dispensation and to be the hope of a better Covenant it was not to come by Moses but by Christ nor to be an express Article of the Law but of the Gospel Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law saith the Apostle that now being under the Gospel we might receive the promise of the Spirit which comes not by the Law of Moses but through the Faith of Christ Gal. 3.13 14. The Law by its prohibition made several actions to be sinful it shewed us what was sin and it threatned the curse to it but that was all that it did towards the extirpation of it for as for any inward strength and ability to overcome it it offered none but left us there to our own selves And because sin was too strong for us and had got possession of our Bodies and executive Powers insomuch that we were quite enslaved to it and as it were sold under it therefore the Law by making more things sinful through its prohibition and not strengthening us against sin through spiritual assistance instead of lessening the Empire of sin proved in the end to encrease it For our lusts not being restrained by it and more of them becoming sinful by being prohibited when the Law entred as S t Paul says the offence did more abound Rom. 5.20 and the Law became not the bane and overthrow of sin but by making its services more numerous it was rather as the same Apostle says the strength of it 1 Cor. 15.56 And forasmuch as the Law did only thus outwardly shew and reveal sin to our eyes but brought along with it nothing of inward Grace and assistance to help us against it therefore is it called a Letter without us opposite to the Grace of the Gospel which is an enlivening Spirit within And since it did nothing more but outwardly shew and threaten sin but did not inwardly assist and rescue us from it it served only to condemn us for what we did from the doing whereof it brought no inward Grace to hinder us and so proved the ministration of death and condemnation not of life and pardon All which is plainly affirmed of it in the third Chapter of the second Epistle to the Corinthians God says S t Paul hath made us Apostles ministers of the New Testament or Covenant not of the external Letter only as Moses and the Ministers of the Law were but of the internal Spirit also For the Letter or old Law shews sin and curses men upon the breach of that which they cannot keep and thereby kills them but the Spirit or new Law enables them to do what it commands and thereby giveth right to life which is the mercy that it promises That was the ministration of condemnation for it shewed men the curse which it did not enable them to shun this is the ministration of justification and righteousness which it both promises and enables them to attain to ver 6 7 8 9. 'T is very true indeed that several of the Jews themselves under the Law of Moses had really such assistances of Gods Spirit as enabled them to do as well as to know what was required of them For David in all his life and behaviour was a man after Gods own heart 1 Sam. 13.14 Zacharias and Elizabeth as to their walking in all the Commandments of the Lord were blameless Luke 1.6 And the Case was the same with a number of other honest and godly Jews But then this assistance which they enjoyed was no Article of their Law although God afforded it yet had their Law no where promised it nor was he bound to it by the Mosaical Covenant For in very truth all this inward Spirit which was vouchsafed to them was reached out not by virtue of the Covenant of the Law but of the Covenant of Grace For the Covenant of Grace was not first made with the World when Christ came into it but was established long before with Adam Gen. 3.15 and after that confirmed again with Abraham and all his Seed after him Gen. 12.3 Gal. 3.8 17. So that under it as well as under Moses all the Jews lived and by the gracious terms and assisting Spirit of it all the righteous people that have been since the beginning of the World were justified It being as S t Paul says by faith which is the righteousness of the second Covenant that the Elders who lived before the Law obtained a good report Heb. 11.2 and that the Jews who lived under it were delivered and justified from all things from which they could not be justified by any virtue of the Law of Moses Acts 13.39 And therefore that which the Apostle affirms of the defectiveness of the Mosaick Law viz. it s having no promise of the Spirit to

enable men to do what it commanded is true still For the Law did not promise it although several both before and under the Law enjoyed it but they who had the benefit of it received it not from the Covenant of the Law but from the Covenant of Grace and the Gospel which has been more or less on foot through all times ever since the World began And in this Covenant since Christ has given us the last Edition and perfection of it both these great defects of the Mosaick Law which rendered it so unable to work this intire reformation and obedience are fully supplied For in every Page of Christ's Gospel what is so legible as the promise of eternal life The joys of Heaven are as much insisted on by Christ as the delights of Canaan were by Moses And then as for the other promise viz. that of the Spirit it is now as plainly revealed as words can make it For we need not to guess at it by signs or to presume it from probabilities or to believe it upon Syllogism and consequence but Christ has spoke out so as to be understood by every capacity God will give the holy Spirit to them that ask him Luke 11.13 Now because the Law of Moses laboured under these two great defects which are happily supplied by the Gospel of Christ by reason whereof it was very unable to effect that reformation of the World which was necessary therefore doth the Apostle in several places speak very meanly of it as of a weak and ineffective Instrument He affirms plainly and proves also That it neither could nor did make men throughly good and that therefore God was forced in the fulness of time to make known and in Christ's death to establish a better If there had been a Law given by Moses which could have given life then saith he verily righteousness should not have needed to be sought by another Covenant but have been by the Law But this we see it could not for the Scripture hath concluded all those who lived under it to be still under the dominion of sin that so since the Law of Moses could not do it the promise of eternal life of the Spirit and of other things which we have by the faith of Jesus Christ might be given to work and effect it to those that believe Gal. 3.21 22. Something indeed the Law did towards it for it armed their consciences against sin so that they could not take their full swing and transgress without all fear and remorse And this was some restraint and kept them from being so ill by far as otherwise they would have been although it was not able to make them so good as they should And to lay this hank upon sin and to check it in some measure till such time as the Gospel should be more clearly revealed to subdue it perfectly was that very end for which the Law was at first given and whereto so long as it was in force it served Wherefore saith he serveth the Law of Moses It was added to the rude draught of the Gospel-Covenant made with Abraham because of the transgressions of men which grew very high that it might in some degree restrain them till Jesus Christ the seed of Abraham should come to whom as to the head and in behalf of his Church the promise of such Grace as would restrain it fully was made And to fit it the more for imprinting an awe upon peoples Consciences whereby it might lay this restraint upon sin it was ordained at the first giving of it by terrible fire and thundrings made by the Angels which were so dreadful that the people desired of God that those formidable Angels might be no more employed in delivering it to them but that it might be put into the hands of another Mediator viz. Moses who was a man like unto themselves Gal. 3.19 But although this restraint upon Sin were something yet was it far from sufficient so that still it is true of the Law of Moses that notwithstanding it could begin yet it could finish and make nothing perfect but that it was the bringing in of a better hope than was warranted by the Law which should do that Heb. 7.19 And as for this imperfection and faultiness which the Apostle imputes to the first Covenant or Law of Moses in these and other places it is nothing more as he observes than God himself has charged upon it when he speaks of establishing a better instead of it For if the first Covenant by Moses had been faultless and void of imperfection then should no place have been sought for the introduction of the second which it is plain there was For finding fault with them for their breach of the first Covenant he saith in Jer. 31.31 the dayes come when I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel such as shall make me to be for ever unto them a God and enable them to be unto me an obedient People Heb. 8.7 8 9 10. Now this Inability of the Law of Moses to work a compleat conquest over sin and a thorow reformation which the Apostle affirms so clearly in these other places he sets out more largely and particularly in that seventh Chapter to the Romans For from the beginning of this Discourse which I have taken at the 14 th Verse of the 6 th Chapter to the end of it at the 5 th vers of the 8 th this weakness and inability of the Law is that still which is every where endeavour'd to be made out and which returns upon us as the conclusion and inference from every argument Sin must not have dominion over you saith he because you are not under the Law where is the place of its reigning but under the Grace of Christ at the 14. verse of the 6 th Chapter And in the 7 th it is taken notice of at every turn When you were in the flesh or under the Law which from its consisting so much of Carnal Ordinances and giving the flesh so much advantage is called flesh Galat. 3.3 the motions of sin which were encouraged by the weakness of the Law brought forth fruit unto death but now being delivered from the weak Law you serve in newness of spirit not as you did then in the oldness of the letter vers 5 6. Sin taking occasion or advantage over the weak Commandment wrought in me all manner of concupiscence vers 8. When the weak Commandment came sin revived and I died vers 9. Sin taking occasion or advantage by the Commandment slew me vers 11. by which prevailing over the Commandment it appears to be exceeding sinfull vers 13. And at the end of the discourse at the 8 th Chapter we are told again of the Law of Moses being weak through the conquering power of the flesh which made it necessary for God to send his own Son with a better Law which was strong enough to rescue us not of the dominion of