Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	afraid_a	sinner_n	zion_n	29	3	8.4329	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50426	St. Paul's travailing pangs, with his legal-Galatians, or, A treatise of justification wherein these two dissertions are chiefly evinced viz. 1. That justification is not by the law, but by faith, 2. That yet men are generally prone to seek justification by the law : together with several characters assigned of a legal and evangical spirit : to which is added (by way of appendix) the manner of transferring justification from the law to faith / by Zach. Mayne ...	Mayne, Zachary, 1631-1694.	1662 (1662)	Wing M1485; ESTC R4815	251,017	422

Brtvis differentia inter legem Evangelium est ●mor am●● Aquina August Which things if they were not in consistent the question would need no decision Again take the Exposition last given that perfect love to God casteth out all fear of men it fills us with courage and resolution so that we are afraid of no sufferings whatsoever Yet is it possible that a man should from the extraordinary inflammedness of his love to God be full of boldness and courage in the day of Judgement that is the day of hottest trials and persecutions fear nothing because it is for God whom he loves dearly and that for this very reason that he loved him first upon terms of gratitude and yet that this man should have his Spirit contracted and oppressed at the same time with a tormenting fear of the God for whom he suffers I have argued before that his love to God would not suffer such a tormenting fear of God I argue now that the expansion and enlargedness of heart and soul in his courage and boldness for God is inconsistent with that contraction of spirit which a slavish fear of God at the same time must needs cause A man that hath his spirit broken by the tormenting fear of God can have no courage before men at all Every man that meeteth me will kill me saith Cain when a slavish terror of God had seized upon him The sinners in Sion are afraid fearfulness hath surprized the Hypocrites Isa 33.14 Why what is the matter it follows Who among us shall dwell with devouring fire Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings When men have a sense of the Wrath of God towards them which is the cause of this slavish fear it sills them with fearfulness and terror in all things else they begin to be afraid of their own shadow Therefore this boldness in the day of man's judgement here spoken of must suppose first some boldness in the presence of God and so the sense of the text runs clear There is no fear in Love where a man loves God heartily and especially out of a love of Gratitude because God loved him first that soul hath boldness and courage in all his sufferings The Righteous is bold as a Lyon Prov. 28.1 But the wicked fleeth when none pursueth If God be for us saith the good man who can be against us Who shall separate us saith the Apostle from the love of Christ Shall tribulation or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword c. In all these things and can there be greater in the day of man's Judgement we are more then Conquerors through him that loved us Rom. 8.35 36. Here is a couragious fearless Love but whence is it spirited but from the sense of the Love of God No soul pressed with a slavish fear of God could have uttered these triumphant expressions * And I think that according to this second Exposition of this place in Iohn's Epistle is that Scripture to be interpreted 2 Tim. 1.7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear timidity or cowardice but of power of love and of a sound mind which is thus paraphrased by a Commentator Surely that God that gave us this Commission and Gifts for the Ministry hath not given thee or me so poor a cowardly spirit as that we should be afraid of the dangers and threats of men against the preaching of the Gospel but couragious hearts to encounter any difficulty a love of God which will actuate this Valour and cast out all fear of danger and withall a tranquility of mind and a full contentedness in whatsoever estate 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Spirit of sobriety then it follows fully and clearly in countenance of this Exposition ver 8. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the ●estimony of our Lord nor of me his prisoner but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the Gospel according to the power of God Now whereas I have used these two Scriptures in the Epistle to Tim. and that of Iohn in another sense above then what I conceive is the most genuine yet still in a sense consistent with that which is genuine the reason was not for want of Scriptures to prove what I intended but for that these Scriptures are used by others in the first sence and might well be used so allusively and for that I had no such way to restare them to their true interpretation as first by allowing them the accommodation of that other sense and then shewing that this latter is the more proper But here I must make a twofold distinction of fear viz. in the kinds and in the degrees of it The first distinction of fear 1. In the kinds there is a lawful and acceptable yea necessary fear of God and there is an unlawful or at least unacceptable fear of God The first is that awe we are to have of the Divine Majesty as we are creatures and with which we are commanded to work out our own salvation even with fear and trembling Phil. 2.22 This signifies no mor but the creature keeping its due distance knowing its place and condition of a creature having a due sence of the weighty concernment and importance of that salvation which we are to work out considering the danger we escape and the prize we press forward unto these considerations make us greatly in earnest 't is no trifling business we are about and therefore we do it and are to do it with fear and trembling and greatest circumspection So the Apostle Paul saith he was conversant amongst the Corinthians in fear and great trembling 1 Cor. 2.3 which say Commentators may signifie not onely his fear from persecution but those which did arise from the consideration of the greatness of his Work of saving souls This fear now is lawful and commendable and so far from being contrary to love as it may very well proceed from love love to our selves when we are working out our salvation and love to others when we are helping onward their salvation But then there is a slavish fear of God in the spirits of men which doth not further but extreamly hinder the working out of their salvation This fear we find in the sloathful servant that never set upon improving his Masters Talent but laid it up in a Napkin and when his Master called him to an account for his Talent he tells his Master plainly what was the reason he never so much as endeavoured to improve it For IFEARED thee saith he because thou art an austere man thou takest up that thou laidest not down and reapest that thou didst not sow Lu. 19.21 22. Thus every Legallist hath at the bottom of his heart if not in his mouth as this man in the parable hath strange prejudices and mis-representations of God which beget slavish tormenting fear within him at the thoughts of God and therefore may well be called as it is most appositely

my body lest after I have preached the Gospel to others I myself should be a cast-away But the Apostle Paul had other principles in conjunction with it The love of Christ constraineth us saith he 2 Cor. 5.14 I shewed before that fear of Hell acting for the reward or from a principle of natural conscience these are not Legal principles in themselves and in their own nature so that he that acts by them should be far judged to be Legal but onely they are such as may want the company of other principles not to make themselves pass for Evangelical but to make the person that acts by them enough Evangelical they are a lower sort of good principles which let them have as great influence as they will can do no hurt onely there must be somewhat more ask shewed above and indeed here is the proper place to shew the necessity of some further principle and I accordingly promised in that particular to shew it in this Now I suppose this is is the great reason why there is need of a further principle besides those three for that a man may act by all those three principles and yet be under a Spirit of Bondage Now there must be some principle to free the soul from this bondage or else the soul can never serve God acceptably This Principle must be Love Perfect love casteth out fear first all slavish fear of God then the fear of men he that feareth is not made perfect in love Look to what degree the love of God is in the soul to such degree is the slavish fear of God and the cowardly fear of men abated But yet take two cautions in examining thy self by this Character as to predominant Legality 1. Be not too rash in concluding thou hast no love to God 2. If thou thinkest thou hast reason to conclude that hitherto thou hast no other principle of action towards God but those three which do not necessarily exclude a spirit of Bondage yet be not discouraged as to the future thou mayest have a further principle thou art in the fairest way towards it that any other is A spirit of Bondage is far better than a prophane spirit Many Divines hold and I think rightly that the Lord in the work of Conversion doth usually lead men through a spirit of bondage into a spirit of adoption though thou shouldst be at present as to thy state under the Law yet the Law is a School-Master unto Christ And Mr. Smith in that so often quoted Discourse of Superstition tells us after having quoted that very place in Isa 33. The sinners in Zion are afraid who shall dwell with the devouring fire as an argument of men under the power of Superstition though I should not dislike saith he these dreadful and astonishing thoughts of future torment which I doubt GOOD MEN may have cause to press home upon their own spirits whilst they find INGENUITY less active Thou seest there may be good use of such principles even in good men therefore they are not bad in thee But I come to the discovery of partial Legaity or the mixtures of Legality which may be found in the service and spirits of good men from this Character And this is indeed the Character by which the Legality of good men is usually discovered There are many Saints as I have intimated already several times who though they walk very exactly are not conscious to themselves of living in any known sin nay it is known by all that know them intimately that they are very strict in their lives yet these are still in doubts and fears touching their condition they are sorely affraid that the Lord is angry and displeased with them though they have no reason from the Scriptures or from the judgment of other Christians and Ministers nor from any revelation within them but onely through Satans temptations Now these men cannot gather their fears from any other occasion or reason then from their unreasonable conceptions their over-timorous and dreadful apprehensions of God They have some secret fears and doubts of his goodness that he will never be pleased though they make their way never so perfect before him though they humble themselves though they acknowledge their vileness in never so great debasements and abhorrencies of themselves The truth is they are secretly afraid and it must be so or else their jealousies must be without so much as the least shew of reason that they shall never please God unless they keep the Law to a tittle and what is Legality if this be not that is they think so at some times and this occasions their fears and doubts not that they think so always for if they should think so alwayes they were perfect Legallists Or else if they do not think so high as this that they must keep the whole law yet they think at least that they must do some very great thing which is beyond their strength And so accordingly for instance they think they must do so many duties in a day let what business come that can come and they must do it so well be they in never so ill a temper or frame of heart not as if our ill temper excuseth the ill performance of an action where that distemper is brought upon us by ourselves and that they perhaps must do as much when they are sick as when they are well that though they be weak in grace or weak in parts that yet they must do as much as those that are strong in both All this now together with the fears and troubles that attend these thoughts I call Legality and it proceeds from a false and over-timorous apprehension of the Deity And they are not enough sensible that the condition of man is altered from perfect to imperfect nor that the terms betwixt the great God and his creature Man are altered from Legal to Evangelical And I say once for all he that thinks God requires any thing of the Creature above its strength nay beyond what the creature can through the grace of God well and comfortably perform is a Legallist and under the spirit of bondage so far That is certainly a general Gospel-maxime though made use of upon a particular occasion of contribution to the necessity of the Saints which we have 2 Cor. 8.12 If there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to that a man hath and not according to that he hath not And nothing is plainer in the Scripture then this That the Lord will proceed in his taking account of us according to the proportion of Talents that he put into our hands As many as have sinned without Law shal also perish without Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shal be judged by the Law Rom. 2.12 The Lord wil not expect more then four talents from him to whom he gave but two nor more then two from him to whom he gave but one Matth. 25. ver 14 15 20 21 22.

by the Apostle● a spirit of bondage of a servant of a slave a spirit of bondage to ●ear And for this I shall have recourse to Mr. Smith of Cambridge in his Discourse of Superstition who hath indeed a rich vein of his own and excellent quotations out of other Authors and hath in that Discourse many things applicable to my present purpose In it he makes Superstition according to the etymology of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to consist in an over-timerous dreadful apprehension of the Deity for w th he quotes Helf ychius whotakes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all one expounds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be one that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that a superstitious person is one that is very prompt to worship the gods but withall is very fearful of them and Mr. Smith tels us that Superstition is indeed nothing else but a false opinion of the Deity that renders him dreadful terrible as being rigorous imperious that which represents him as austere and apt to be angry And he further tells us that Plutarch hath thus defined it in his Book 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A strong and passionate opinion and such a supposition as is productive of a fear debasing and terrifying a man with the representation of the Gods as grievous and hurtful to mankind Besides he tells us That wicked men whom he makes the superstitious are apt to account the Divine Supremacy as but a piece of Tyranny that by its soveraign will makes too great encroachments upon their rights and properties and therefore are slavishly afraid of him I shall recite but two quotations more out of him which I am not a little affected with the one is out of Plutarch the other out of Maximus Tyrius Plutarch's is this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that if we understood God aright it would beget a freedom and liberty of soul within us an hope from vertuous actions and not gender to a spirit of Bondage which is the Apostles own phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The other of Maximus Tyrius is as remarkable in his dissert 4. concerning the difference betwixt a friend and a flatterer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the sense whereof is this The pious man is Gods friend this is onely I think said of Abraham the great Believer the supersliticus is a flatterer of God and indeed most happy and blest is the condition of the pious man Gods friend but right miserable and sad is the state of the superstitious The pious man emboldned by a good Conscience and encouraged by the sense of his integrity comes to God without fear and dread but the superstitious being sunk and deprest through the sense of his own wickedness comes not without much fear being void of all hope and considence and dreading the gods as so many tyrants It is no small pleasure to me to read heathens thus rightly apprehending and expressing this twofold way of approaching to God which altering but the number of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 looks so like that which is Divine and Apostolical Now for all this which here I have transcribed out of Mr. Smith touching superstition I reckon it may be well applyed to the Legallist and I shall not need to add any more in describing their slavish fear of God The second distinction which I promised was of the degrees of fear The second distinction of fear and this distinction is likewise very necessary for that such is the weakness of the Saints themselves that many of them may have a great degree even of slavish fear of God and may be far gone under a Spirit of Bondage The Saints of the Old-Testament by reason of the darkness of their dispensation were in a great measure generally under this fear and 't is an observation of some how solid I leave to others to judge that therefore the Saints of the Old-Testament are so commonly known by that Name Such as feared the Lord because their dispensation was so legal and dark and attended with a Spirit of Bondage but however that observation be censured I am sure the Apostle makes an assertion somewhat like it In Gal. 4.1 2. That the heir as long as he is a Child differeth nothing from a servant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though he be Lord of all even so we when we were children were in bondage 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The sense is this peremptorily The true spiritual Seed and heirs according to the Promise had much of a spirit of bondage and fear in the dayes of the Old-Testament and so still it is very possible and often found that many true Saints heirs of God as then they differed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing that is nothing to speak of so now they differ but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 very little such is their weakness from servants by reason of the great mixtures of bondage and fear which they have in their spirits in the service of God but yet now though I have allowed this great mixture of a Spirit of bondage in the Saints even to a great degree yet I affirm that now and in all ages past the Saints and wicked Legallists are to be discerned and distinguished the one from the other by the degrees of this fear as truly as before I distinguisht them in the kinds of fear for as much as the Saints of God have or may have of a slavish fear in the service of God yet they have all enough of that spirit of adoption and holy boldness so as to over-ballance it and to enable them to cry Abba that is ●ather which a meer Legallist hath not but is overborn by his fears and acts towards God onely under the anguish and incitation of a spirit of Bondage Yea though the gospel bring so much more of the Spirit of Adoption and Son-ship with it than the Old-Testament did that in comparison with it the Old-Testament be called a killing-letter and a Ministration of death yet I shall make this further assertion That all the true Saints of God even under the Old-Testament had so much of a Spirit of Adoption as did over-ballance their slavish fear and spirit of bondage in the service of God and the reason is this for that God hath in all ages accepted of men only as they treated with him upon Gospel-terms and principles A spirit of a slave was alwayes unacceptable unto God The two Covenants as I have shewn at large were in Moses his time and Abraham's time and the one gendered to bondage that was that from Mount Sinai the other unto liberty and that is from Mount Zion the new Jerusalem which is the Mother of us all that are shall be or ever were the true sons and heirs of it therefore they had always in a SUFFICIUNT DEGREE a spirit of liberty of