Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	angel_n	call_v	zion_n	29	3	8.9194	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B02482	Christ alone exalted in the perfection and encouragements of the saints, notwithstanding sins and trials. Volume III. / Being laid open in severall sermons by the late spirituall and faithfull preacher of the Gospel, Tobias Crispe, D.D.	Crisp, Tobias, 1600-1643.; Cokayn, George, 1619-1691.; Pinnell, Henry.	1648 (1648)	Wing C6959; ESTC R233167	185,508	400

simply and abstractively there is an Advocate but he speaks relatively we have an Advocate that is our Advocate c. Thirdly this Advocate is set forth not only in his relation to men as he is their advocate but he is declared also and set forth as he hath relation unto God Hee doth not say simply we have an Advocate but I say the Apostle doth declare the excellency of this office of advocateship in respect of this circumstance With the Father we have an Advocate and that with the Father we have an Advocate he is ours and not only so but he is an Advocate of ours which the Father which notes unto us that the plea of Christ for indemnity from sin is not in any inferiour Court where if there bee a sentence of acquittance procured there may be a charge from an higher Court But the Advocateship of Christ is managed for our good in the highest Court of all with the highest Judge that when hee gets a sentence it is definitive and determinative and there is no other Court that can take upon it the determination of the case or call in question the triall of that which hath been determined there Lastly the provision in respect of the office assigned is excellently illustrated by the circumstance of time when the office is on foot or when the officer doth manage it The Text doth not say we had an Advocate or we shall have one hereafter but he speaks in the Present Tense We have an Advocate that now is to agitate it It is but a cold comfort for a man to say being now a begger he had abundance of wealth neither doth it give him fulnesse of comfort to say that he shall have abundance of wealth hereafter but herein lyes his comfort and happinesse that he can say in truth I am rich I have abundance of all things It is but cold comfort for a man to say I had a friend in Court once but he is dead now If he had been alive now it had been better with me then it is I should have sped well I had then carried the cause on my side hee would have done so and so for me I but here lies a mans comfort that he hath a friend at Court that will doe him a good office at his need The Apostle saith here we have an Advocate As therefore I said of the present being of sin committed so I say of the present being of our Advocate It must not be understood to be a transient but a permanent sentence it was in force in the Apostles time it is as full in force in our time and we may as well and truly say Wee have an Advocate and in after ages the Church of God shall say to the end of the world in their times as truly as we now and the Apostle in his time said We have an Advocate with the Father Secondly consider here the person managing this office of Advocateship who is described unto us by three admirable and notable titles that are proper and full for the comfort and incouragement of those whose Advocate he is He is Jesus Christ the righteous saith the Text this is our Advocate First he is Jesus and that is a word that imports a Saviour as the Angel expounded it Luke 1. And they shall call his name Jesus for hee shall save his people from their sins An admirable encouragement to lift up the heads of dejected and drooping spirits when the Advocate comes to plead this Advocate is their Saviour that is his plea is of such force and prevalency that he saves his client Object But some may say many times in suits of Law men have skilfull Lawyers to plead for them which are able to save them who are not admitted to plead for them because they are not called to the Bar. Answ Yea but this Jesus is Christ too this Advocate doth not rush into this office of his own head without warrant but is called to it For as you shall heare afterwards the word Christ imports anointing to the office Many a good Lawyer indeed may not be admitted to come to the bar of Common pleas although he can plead the cause of his client the best of all he must be authorized and called unto the bar or else he may not speak But the Advocate provided for the indemnity against sin is Christ he is called to it Thirdly it is Jesus Christ the righteus and that imports the strength of the plea hee hath by which he becomes a propitiation for sin it is his righteousnesse that prevails in heaven to get the sentence to go on the side of his client Lastly you may observe here the issue what will become of this Advocateship what effect it will have at the last Many men who have causes in suit are restlesse to know how their cause will goe when they come to triall fain they would know on which side the verdict will be given and it is a great refreshing to persons to know before-hand that the cause will goe on their side Now the Apostle doth here intimate unto us what will become of the cause before it is tried He is such an Advocate with the Father saith hee that hee is become the propitiation for all the sins of Gods people and what that is we shall shew hereafter Beloved this is a large field of excellent variety of sweetnesse and fatnesse we must take the particulars into consideration that wee may discusse them the more orderly and I hope it will be no difficulty to gather some of the flowers in this garden and the Spirit of the Lord assisting there may be sucking yea sucking so that persons may be satisfied that they may suck and bee satisfied at the brests of consolation That wee may the better lay our mouthes to this breast and draw more easily the milke thereof let us briefly consider these particulars First concerning the office here spoken of we are first to consider what it is to be an Advocate and how Christ doth manage this office being in heaven I say first what it is to be an Advocate with the Father and how Christ doth manage it Secondly whose cause it is that Christ doth undertake to be an Advocate for Thirdly how Christ is gifted and qualified for the comfortable managing of this office of Advocateship Fourthly what it is to have Christ to be the propitiation for the sinnes of his people this I conceive contains the sum of the whole drift of the Apostle in these words To begin with the first what the office of Advocateship is and what it is for Christ to be an Advocate and how hee doth now manage it in heaven for his elect First this office to bee an Advocate as it is appropriated unto Christ I doe not finde that it is once more mentioned in all the Scripture besides this place Of an Intercessor and Redeemer and the atonement we reade frequently in Scripture that Christ is

helpe thee I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousnesse they are the three supporters that do issue out of this main principle for they are all but branches flowing from this priviledge of Gods being your God These I say are sufficient to keep the most tottering spirit in the world immovable like Mount Sion never to be removed I shall take the Principle the main support into task at this present and therein consider what excellency of support there is in it Fear not I am with thee be not dismayed I am thy God In the handling of this that you may the better see what stability there is for a tottering spirit in this support let us consider First what it is for God to be thy God Secondly what a person hath in this who hath God for his God Thirdly by way of answering objections shew how it is so well with those that are the Lords if this be true that God himself is their God Fourthly how God doth become their God and upon what terms Fifthly how God will be found of them to be so as he is become There are excellent usefulnesses if the truth be well fifted and dived into I will begin with the first what it is for God to be thy God There is much in it nay I will say more there is more in it then is in any one thing delivered in Scripture I will go yet further there is all in it that doth concerne the present and future wel-being and happinesse of a Believer I say all is in this one thing I am thy God While you have all things else but this you have but the rayes of the Sun while you have this you have the Sun it self in his brightnesse and glory and lustre But to cleer this thing a little what it is for God to be thy God or my God you must not understand that the Holy Ghost speaks here in the full collection of all nor that he is to be understood as speaking in the plurall number because he takes in the whole world but he is to be understood of all the members of Christ as one body and also the passage is to be understood distributively of every such particular person and so he is thy God and my God and their God I am their God is all one with I am thy God In the Scriptures you shall finde a most vast difference betweene God simply and abstractively considered and God relatively considered and that we must note beforehand that you may know wherein the strength and comfort of this passage lyeth For God to say Fear not I am thy God is ten thousand times more comfortable and hath more in it then simply for God to have said Feare not I am God I say there is farre more stability and support in this expression of God considered as our God then as he is considered simply and abstractively without relation to us for so it imports only to us the incomprehensible perfect and compleat being of God as he is in himself But God considered in relation here as he is thy God imports to us not only what God is in respect of his absolute perfection and compleatnesse but what he is to those persons whose he is so that the phrase doth import not only what God simply is but also that whatever he is in and from himself the same he is to those persons whose hee is It is worth the observation that the Scriptures plainly hold out that when ever the Lord is spoken of in reference to wicked persons God is never mentioned in way of relation of propriety unto them but only as he is spoken of in reference to his owne people You shall not finde in all the Scripture God said to be the God of any person that is a wicked man But lest there be a mistake you must know that this relation of God to people may be considered either as common or as speciall and peculiar It is true take a Church as it is mixed so sometimes the Lord is spoken of in relation to them as for example in the 20. Chapter of Exodus I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt and out of the house of bondage Here is God spoken of in relation I am the Lord thy God and this seems to be spoken collectively to the whole body of the Church one with another but alwayes observe this rule Where the Lord is mentioned in relation to a mixed people that is a Church consisting of mixed persons all the priviledges from such a relation of God in reference to such persons are but common priviledges So in that very Text I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt Observe he calls himself indeed their God take them conjunctively one with another But wherein their greatest priviledge was which they had in having him their God he expresseth thus I am the Lord thy God that brought thee out of the Land of Egypt which was but a common priviledge and therefore though God be said to be the God of people being mixed yet he is not so their God as he is the God of his own people the living members of Christ those that are mixed they receive some common propriety or common things in that propriety but they partake not of the whole propriety Usually in Scripture the phrase I am thy God is spoken only to the Lords servants his chosen that he will not cast off and so it is to be under●o●d in this Text as it is in the words immediatly before the text For you shall see that God speak● peculiarly of his own elect people and faith of them and to them Feare not be not 〈◊〉 I am thy God c. You shall finde beloved that the Lord doth frequently expresse himselfe when he doth comfort and stay up his people in this relation as being the best motive that can be to uphold their spirits In Isa 50.10 Who is among you that feareth the Lord that walke in dar●nesse and seeth no light let him rest in the name of the Lord and stay himselfe upon his God Here is the very basis the great pillar to bear up even in a state of darknesse God is his God let him stay himself upon him because of this relation He is his God Beloved a man that doth trust to another mans estate he trusts to a broken staff as we say and may be deceived except that estate be made his owne a childe of light can never be able to walke in darknesse except hee have assurance that God is his God by whom he stands God is my rock and my salvation saith the Ps●lmi● Psal 62.2 Who is a recke save our God Psal 18 31. So Thomas not being present when Christ did make it appear to the rest that he it was that suffered and rose againe because he would not beleeve Christ was risen he received this checke