Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	apostle_n	holy_a	scripture_n	6,970	5	5.7262	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30289	Three questions resolved briefly and plainly, viz. What conceptions ought we to have of the blessed God? What are those truths, whereof the knowledge appeareth most indispensibly necessary unto our salvation; and (therefore) to be first and most learnt by us? What is the change wrought in a man by God's H. Word and spirit, before he can safely conclude himself pass'd from death to life? Being the summ of three sermons. By Daniel Burgess.	Burgess, Daniel, 1645-1713.	1688 (1688)	Wing B5718A; ESTC R213037	36,052	94

distance from begrudging him any good as we are at from begrudging it to our selves The first Command is a Summary of all Duty unto God the second is a like Summary of all Duty unto Man. 11. The Children of Men ever since the Fall are averse from all the W●●● God. Their Minds are unteachable Memories unfaithful Wills untractable Else what needed the New-Edition of the Ten Commands And why were they so delivered as we read Exod. 19.20 12. The Motives that God giveth and we ought to take and urge our hearts withal unto the Obedience of every of God's Laws are three The three contained in God's Preface unto the Ten Commandments Which are God's Soveraignty over us his Covenant with us his Redemption-grace and bounty unto us Wo unto our best Motions which these three do not move to Sacramental-Truths five 1. The Law of God for Sacraments is not Natural but Positive He required them not because their use is good antecedently No their Use is therefore only good because He requires them From whence it follows that tho' it be impossible not to Use the Sacraments but we must offend God because God has commanded them 't is very possible to use Sacraments and not please God. Because God has commanded them not for their own sakes but for certain Ends. Which Ends if we do not aim at and answer in our use of the Sacraments God has no pleasure and we no profit by our use of them 2. The End for which God hath ordain'd Sacraments is his Testifying his Mind and Will unto Us. And our Testifying back our Hearts toward Him. 'T is true God's Word is a Testimony of his Will a first a sweet and a sure Testimony But it has pleased Him to add a second sort of Testification of his Covenant-Will And by Visible Rites and Ceremonies of his own appointing to Testifie it farther As after their Word given Men use by Sign and Seal to testifie their Minds Likewise we at our first Conversion by our Hearts and Mouths testifie unto God our Wills henceforward for ever to be his But it pleaseth God to require our second and more publick solemn Testification thereof To wit in and by the use of those Rites and Ceremonies which he has prescribed Now if we aim not at both these Ends in the use of Sacraments and answer not these Ends we mock God and delude our selves in their use Other Ends of Sacraments there be I know but these are the chief and comprehensive of all 3. The Order of the two Sacraments of the Gospel New-Covenant is this Holy Baptism enters a Disciple of Christ makes him that was before Covenanted to become by Sign and Seal Covenanted with God. The Lord's Supper renews that Covenant betwixt God and a Baptized Disciple of Jesus Christ Both Baptism and the Lord's Supper do confirm the Covenant mutually upon God's part and upon ours and extensively as to all the Promises in the Covenant from God unto us and as to all the Demands in the Covenant from us unto God. 4. The Dignity and Vsefulness of the Holy Sacraments is surpassing In no Ordinances has God condescended so Low unto us as in these In none therefore has he so much honoured us as in these The Apostle reckons Sacraments as the prime of Church-Priviledges 1 Cor. 10. As for Vsefulness they are Towers of David builded for spiritual Armories (a) Of all the outward Means of Grace the most Mighty We cannot warrantably expect the Holy Spirit to make the Word a-near so helpful to us without the Sacraments as with them If ordinarily He should so do He would disparage them But to be sure He will never do that 5. The Way to improve the Holy Sacraments unto Holiness and Comfort is by a double Pleading of them By Pleading them with our own Souls upon God's behalf And this either when we would bring them out of a bad frame into a good or from a less holy unto a more holy frame for God. By then urging our hearts in such like words My Soul my Soul why against God or why so coldly for Him The Kingdom of Hell suffers violence Violent Sinners take it by Force And wilt not thou take the Kingdom of Heaven by it Sinners be Patient Creatures they forsake Father and Mother take up their Cross and follow Satan and thorough many tribulations enter the Kingdom of Hell. Blush and bleed thou to think that thy Patience should be short of theirs and that thou shouldst not without regret enter the Kingdom of Heaven that 's better thro' Tribulations that be lesser than theirs Think think my Soul Thou art Baptiz'd the God of Heaven for thy Encouragement and Engagement has sign'd and seal'd his Covenant with thee Thou hast been at his Holy Table He has again and again sign'd and seal'd it Canst thou thou a sign'd seal'd Covenanter Distrust or Disobey Thou a frequently repeated Covenanter and an early one too O for shame stir up thy self and on with the Armour of God and follow the Captain of thy Salvation and fight not flourish against Flesh World and Devil according to thy Sacramental Engagement Shew that it is unto thee a Covenant of Salt not of Snow An Adamantine bond not a Rope of Sand c. Again we must also humbly Plead them with our heavenly Father upon our own behalf Under Oppression by any evil or Deprivation of any good we may and ought to plead them in Prayer before Him. 'T is often that Ministers do press Christians to plead the Promises I would that we all as often press'd them to plead the same as sign'd and seal'd God hath not a Promise but what is sign'd and seal'd in Baptism and in the Holy Supper And we plead them but imperfectly and at halves when we plead them not as sign'd and seal'd Go distressed Christian fill thy mouth with the arguments of the Covenant of Grace and plead thy Cause at the Throne of Grace to this purpose O thou that canst not Lye thou hast sworn unto me that in thy Gospel-way I shall have Grace Glory and have no good thing with-held from me Thou signedst and sealedst Promise hereof to me in my Baptism and so hast thou done again and again at thy Table I in thy Gospel-way have waited do wait and will to my last breath thro' thy grace wait O Lord canst thou chuse but perform what thou hast so so Promised so Sworn so Engag'd under Sign and Seal c This is the way to Mortifie Corruptions Repel Temptations Quicken Graces Revive Hopes Attain Joys unspeakable and full of Glory O that our best Pulpits were less silent and our best Pues less Ignorant of the practick use of Holy Sacraments Q 3. What is that Change wrought in a Man by God's Holy Word and Spirit before he can safely conclude himself to be passed from Death to Life BY one man sin entred into the World and Death by sin Rom. 5.12 Satan

no doubt but he Actuates us for Him. So the Apostle Rom. 8. But that falls under consideration elsewhere To conclude this particular Let the Enquiring Christian thus argue Christ is mine before Life is mine Christ and his Spirit are always given together If his Holy Spirit be put into me Satan is deposed The Holy Spirit and the Unclean cannot reign together By the Temper of my Heart and Ways toward Christ especially it 's not hard to know whether he be expelled or still hold the Throne in my Soul. These I will diligently watch And examine whose Superscription they bear whether the H. Advocate 's or the Enemy's Enemies lead to Death Advocates to Life By my Guide I will judge of my Way and End. And Him I will account to be my Guide whom I do ordinarily and allowedly and most desirously follow whether it be the Holy Ghost or the contrary Spirit If I find that it 's but now and then when terrors force it that I disgust Satan's suggestions or relish the Holy Spirit 's that deliberately and freely I use to embrace Satan's and reject His that set aside the next World's accounts I should desire rather that Satan led me in a Sensual Life than the Holy Ghost in an Evangelical I will tell my Soul and all that is within me plainly as John 5.42 I know you that ye have not the Love of God in you On the contrary if I find all and discern that tho' I have been a Cage to the uncleanest Bird yet I am by grace turn'd into a Temple of the Holy Ghost that the very self-same Spirit that dwelt in Christ dwells in me that as little as yet I know He 's daily a Teaching me as Forgetful as I am He brings daily the things of my peace unto my Remembrance as Dull as I am He daily by one thought or other Quickens me unto my duty so that I dare not omit it as sad and sour as I am He denies me not all Comfort but every day sweetens some Word of God or other unto me as often as I am out of Frame for Communion with God and that is too often He lets me not alone till I am in again and am Restored If thus I find I will conclude there cannot but be Life where there is such a Spirit And there cannot but be the best Spirit where there be but such Operations Hereby we know that He abideth in us by the Spirit that He hath given us 1 John 3.24 C. 2. Of COVENANT God ever delighted to deal with Man in the way of Covenant He bound the first Man He made and all his Posterity in one One unexceptionable for the Promises unto us and for the Demands from us These latter were Just and Good the former Rich and Honourable But as we have heard Man Fell. Unless I shall rather say he Leapt into Sin. For wilfully he brake this Covenant of Works as we call it Yea and by the Fall so brake himself that he was never able since to do ought pleasing unto God. I mean before the Renewing grace of God give ability But this grace God never did or will dispence but in a New Covenant All He Recovereth He takes into New-Covenant relation with Himself Souls mindless of any Covenant with God mind no Religion Ezek. 16.8 none at least that God will accept Those that hang upon the Old Covenant of Works and have all their Religion run in that Channel Doing all they do with design and hope to be forgiven for the sake and merit of it the Gospel declares their mistake to be mortal They that are of the Works of the Law are under the Curse That is they that expect Life and Salvation for their own Works of the Law are every creature of them under God's Curse Gal. 3.10 They who being sensible what 't is to be out of Covenant and what to be under the Covenant of Works do enter the New Gospel-Covenant the Marriage-Covenant unto Christ they are the Souls the only ones that bring forth fruit unto God. And have Life of either Peace with Him or Holiness unto Him Rom. 7.4 Surely God never signed their Pass for Heaven who never made his Covenants the matter of many of their Thoughts A serious heart cannot but ask In what relation more than that of a Creature do I stand in unto God As a Creature I can deserve no reward whatever I do And why should I expect any If I may be a Covenanter and was so without my knowledge in my first Parents does it not now concern me to get inform'd what the Terms of that Covenant were For Covenants bind mutually and if I know not that which I am bound in I must unavoidably be false unto it If it be such as is Good for me I cannot improve it and if unto me it become by any means destructive I am not capable of preventing it If the Soveraign Lord make and offer to take me into a better Covenant how concerned am I above all things in this World to learn out the terms thereof c. But suppose the greatest study of these Covenants and the best Acquaintance with them the best that is possible to be without profound Thankfulness for the Covenant of Grace and hearty Consent thereunto what avails it Much every way indeed to mens Condemnation Knowledge of that Covenant without Consent is the most frightful symptom that I know of a Reprobate A Soul in earnest careful to know its state should in this wise debate with it self Were I under no Covenant it would be reasonable to expect Hell for my least sin For it deserves it and the Divine Justice is unquestionable It would be unreasonable if I could yield Sinless Obedience to be presumptuous of other reward than is in the yielding of it For in that is more than a Creature merits And I can make no Plea if God make no free Promise There are but two Covenants of Works and of Grace These are vastly different And so are the states of men under the one and under the other Of my state I am peremptorily resolv'd to make Judgment as I am under this or that My Hopes shall die if I appear under that of Works my Fears shall die if I appear under this of Grace For if I am under the Covenant of Works I am bound unto Duties whose Performance is by me Impossible It requires Obedience perfect and perpetual I and that upon pain of Death Gal. 3.10 11. Consequently if I am under this Covenant I am under its Curse too which is Intolerable Gen. 2.17 Dying thou shalt Die. 'T is Death indefinite that is Universal evil Temporal Spiritual Eternal Privative Negative Positive c. Besides if I am under this Works-Covenant I can have no Days-man or Mediator between God and me I must to Prison if I pay not my self the utmost Farthing This Covenant admits not Christ or any other Advocate with the offended

Father 'T is another Covenant that Christ is Mediator of Heb. 8.6 If I am under this Covenant the least sin tho' I shed a Sea of bloody tears for it is as unpardonable as the very sin against the Holy Ghost Yea and my Service should I keep all the whole Law save in one point would be utterly contemned And all this justly too Because if under this Covenant I abide 't is of my Ignorance my Pride and Enmity unto God and Christ that I do abide so Rom. 10.3 I am Taught better in the Gospel the Righteousness of God is Revealed I am offered better the Gospel invites me from under the Law to Grace From the Covenant that works wrath to that which is all Salvation And my being under the deadly Covenant is by my own very Desire Gal. 4.21 The Fruits must shew it if I am under it And they are plainly these Bondage and Fear in ones spirit a Fear keeping out the Love of God and the very desire to Love Him. Outsideness in Religious Duties Care abundance about the outside of the Platter none or next to none about the purity of the inner man and the Intentions of the heart Vndependency on Jesus Christ in things pertaining unto God. For both Assistance by his Spirit and Acceptance thro' his Blood a fatal Undependency Servility souring and embittering all Duty Rendring Religion a task and burthen and all God's homage as arrant Brick and Bondage Do these grapes of Sodom cover my Tree The Axe of vengeance is then near my root If on the other hand I am not under the Law but Grace If with me God hath made the better Covenant what then the blessing of Abraham is come upon me Gal. 3.14 Reconciliation Justification Adoption are my own I am interested in all the Blessings of this best Covenant as well as bound unto all the Duties God is then my Reconciled God and Engaged by Promise to exert for my good all his Perfections I will be unto them a God Heb. 8.10 Joyntly All and distinctly Every of the three Divine Persons have thus Engaged So proves the form of Baptism into the name of All and Each of them as also the Communion which God's New-Covenant Servants do hold with All and Each Person Pardoning Grace and Purifying are expresly made over to me Heb. 12.8 10. So is the Crown of Glory 2 Tim. 4.8 So is Food and Rayment 1 Tim. 4.8 So are Blessings for my Children Gen. 17.7 I and I have this hyperbolically kind and sweetest Word of God to live on sc Luke 15.31 ALL THAT I HAVE IS THINE A word which if I once prove my interest in let them be poor and sad that can I cannot But still I remember they are Fruits that make known Roots And the fruits of Souls that have so much for the better changed Covenants are these They Remember their slavery It runs in their minds how the Covenant of Works since the Fall made them Vassals How they were Adam's Children as soon as their Souls Bodies were united in the womb And no sooner Adam's Children but under Adam's Covenant Nor sooner under his Covenant but under his Curse too They consider much their Translation out of it Their Eye and their Heart is upon the Father that said to Son and Spirit Come let us redeem Man Upon the Son that said Lo I come to do thy Will Upon the Glorious Spirit that said unto their most unwilling Souls once Kiss this Son Bid them yea and Made them willing Upon the sweet Change also that followed that willingness and actual Marriage-Union to Christ God no more looking on a poor Soul as the first but as the second Adam's Child No more Condemning however Chastising No more Abhorring his Services notwithstanding millions of unallowed and lamented Imperfections c. They joy in the Lord and rejoyce in the God of their Salvation Or Labour so to do and Lament that they cannot If no other they sing blessed Gataker's Song I Thirst for Thirstiness I weep for Tears Well-pleas'd I am to be Displeased thus The only thing I Fear is want of Fears Suspecting I am not suspitious I cannot chuse but Live because I Die And when I am not Dead how glad am I Yet when I am thus glad for sense of Pain And careful am lest Careless I should be Then do I grieve for being glad again And fear lest Carelesness take Care from me Amidst these restless thoughts this rest I find For those that Rest not here ther 's Rest behind Their highest ambition is to Rejoyce in Christ Jesus To Glory in Him. They Love God's Law and Trust his Son. They Love his Law and have respect to every Command and strive after Perfection and abound in all Duty But they Trust not in any works of their own Doing all they cry for Christ's Spirit for Strength Having done all they cry for Christ's Blood for making it Acceptable They still know themselves Servants unprofitable Is it thus with thee O my Soul then Return to thy rest for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee If thou wear any Phylactery let this be the Scripture All the paths of the Lord are Mercy and Truth to such as keep his COVENANT Psal 25. C. 3. Of QUALITIES Look as where the Spirit is Changed the Covenant must needs be Changed so where the Covenant is Chang'd the Qualities of a Man must also be Changed These are mysterious things And by many names men go about to explain them But they are most if not only made known by their Effects Conceive we of them as the Springs Seeds and Roots of our Thoughts Words and Works And the things by which we are therefore denominated Holy or Sinful They be the Treasure that 's in a Soul. A Treasure for abundance and for belovedness Every man hath abundance of Moral Qualities and all are dear unto him precious in his Eyes And as this Treasure is good or evil our Saviour denominates the man good of evil Matth. 12.35 In our first Creation the concreated Qualities were surely good and entirely so God endued all our Natural Powers with all good and towardly Qualifications Qualities and Dispositions for prompt and constant Duty were inlaid in our Mind Will yea and Sensitive part Our several Powers and Faculties do depend much on each other for action The Practick upon the Affective Powers and they on the Intellectual ones or our Understanding Powers But all were made Vpright that is with springs of goodness in them apt to move as they ought towards each other within and toward Objects without Eccles 7.29 But the first Sin brake those Springs expelled those good Qualities introduced contrary ones In a Subject capable of two contraries as of Light and Darkness there will be one Man is capable of holy Qualities and sinful The Sin that drave out the first therefore could not but bring in the latter And set springs of evil in us apt to make motions