Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	bear_v	enter_v	kingdom_n	5,396	5	6.1932	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52802	A Christians walk and work on earth, until he attain to heaven which may serve as a practical guide, and a plain direction in his pilgrimage thither, through his personal and relative duties : marvelously useful to all persons, and families of all ranks and qualities, both in city and country / by Christopher Nesse ...	Ness, Christopher, 1621-1705.	1678 (1678)	Wing N443; ESTC R3369	121,975	273

is effectual to Seal up Salvation whensoever a man repents and believes Hence Baptism is done once for all 4. Baptism was first administred at that very place where the people of Israel passed over Jordan to wit at Beth-abara Joh. 1. 28. or Beth. bara Judg. 7. 24. Josh 3. 8. It signifies Trajectum or place of passage for Israel which was their entrance into Canaan so Baptism is into the Church Baptism was there first administred where it had been of old foreshadowed the Famous Acts both of Joshuah and Jesus which are plain Synonyma's took their happy beginning at one and the same place and like as Israel after they had passed over Jordan were circumcised Josh 5. 3. before they Received the Land of promise by lot of Inheritance Josh 14. 1. c. So after you have been Baptized and thereby enrolled among the Citizens of the New-Jerusalem the remnants of Sin and superfluity of naughtiness you must daily pare off by the practice of mortification Jam. 1. 21. before you can come to Inherit the Kingdom of Heaven You must have confession of Sin and confusion of Sin too for 1. 'T is that man only that is wakened out of his dream that can tell his dream So 't is only he that is wakened out of his Sins that can clearly confess his Sins in token of his true Repentance and 2. This confession of Sin must have confusion of Sin joined with it otherwise all your words of confession are but empty wind and all your very tears of contrition are but insignificant water not only the filthiness of the flesh must be put away but there must be the Answer of a good conscience too 1 Pet. 3. 21. 5. The place of your Baptism is your Beersheba which signifies the Well of an Oath for there you swear as David did Psal 1 19. 106. to keep all Gods Commandments Now God will not own those that are a generation of Vipers though Baptized who bring not forth fruits meet for Repentance that weigh just as much as Repentance doth in the ballance of the Sanctuary that may paralel it and prove it to be a right Repentance never to be repented of 2 Cor. 7. 10. the whole course of your life must be such as becomes Repentance and may evince evidence and justifie it Yea amounts to as much as Repentance comes to otherwise your Baptism is no mark of your being Gods Child but rather the brand of a fool that first maketh a Vow and then breaketh it Eccles 5. 3. If God hath dealt so severely with such as have been guilty of perjury and playing fast and loose with men as with Zedekiah and Shimei how will God revenge the quarrel of his Covenant Levit. 26. 25. 6. Such as add not holiness of life which is the Answer of a good Conscience unto their external profession are no better then so many Renegado's who though they have given their names to Christ in Baptism and profession do plainly renounce their Baptism forsake their colours and leaving Christ the Captain of Salvation Heb. 2. 10. in the open field they run away from him to the Enemy As unregenerate Israel is as black as Aethiopia to God Amos 9. 7. and their doom is already denounced by the Judg of the World If any draw back or with-draw his Soul shall have no pleasure in them Heb. 10. 38 39. they do it to their own perdition with that Son of perdition who was circumcised as well as Peter Whereas your Baptism should not only confirm you in the Faith of the forgiveness of Sin and in the Hope of Eternal life but it also Consecrates you to the sincere service of the Sacred Trinity all the daies of your life and here with as Luthers Virgin did you should repel the Tempter saying I am Consecrated to God by my Baptismal stipulation so may not cannot own thee Satan or thy Temptations 7. There be three sorts of Baptism fluminis flaminis Sanguinis of water of the Spirit and of blood which third is the Baptism of Martyrs that loved not their lives to the death but gave their best blood to Christ who gave His blest blood to them and so were Baptized as it were in their own blood The first to wit the Baptism of water is but the outward Baptism which therefore can never be effectual to Salvation without the second which is the Baptism of the Spirit and is the inward Baptism both those should go together Joh. 3. 5. Except you be born of the water and of the Spirit you cannot enter into Gods Kingdom Alas thousands of Souls are undone to all eternity by resting in the outward Baptism and not minding at all the inward Indeed Christ saith to us as the Prophet to Naaman in this Sacrament wash and be clean as in the other Sacrament he saith to us eat and live God saith when will it be that you wash and be clean you may Answer again Alas Lord it will never be unless thou give what thou commands and join the inward Baptism to my outward 8. That the feed of believers as well as believers themselves are the Subject of Baptism I shall give you only a brief Landskip of those Reasons which satisfie me in it omitting the common and voluminous Arguments that are usually alledged for it As first Favores sunt Ampliandi 'T is certainly more dangerous to narrow and straiten the Favours of God to Mankind then to overamplify them in cases that we may suppose to be dark and doubtful 't is most certain that the Law was a grievous and the Gospel is a gracious dispensation 2 Cor. 3. 6 7 8 9 10 11 12. Act. 15. 10. If the Moon light of the Law did lead into its Sacrament of initiation both Parents and their Children I cannot see Reason enough why the Sun light of the Gospel should exclude whom the Law received seeing 't is undoubtedly a more gracious as well as a more glorious dispensation and that which hath a more liberal Provision of comfort in it for all the Saints of God Otherwise a believing Jew might justly object against the Gospel especially having one Son before conversion Circumcised and another Son after conversion unbaptized saying if my seed be excluded by the Gospel from the initiating Seal which was admitted to it as well as my self under the Law then Moses was a better Mediator than the blessed Messias inasmuch as the Church-priviledges of the Law were larger and more comprehensive then those of the Gospel 9. The second Argument or Reason is the blessing of Abraham comes on the Gentiles by the Gospel Gal. 3. 8. 14. with Gen. 12. 3. The Gospel is the Promulgation of the same promise to Abraham to whom the Gospel is expresly said to be preached even in the old Test now the blessing of Abraham being to his seed as well as to himself Gen. 17. 7. Believing Gentiles must have the same priviledg otherwise the blessing of Abraham doth

you a worthless worm and wretch should hereby become not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 like Angels Matth. 22. 30. but even advanced above Angels for glorifyed Saints are Sons of the Kingdom when glorious Angels stand by as servants In a word all these love-tokens are such transcendent priviledges that they can never be enough thought on and admired no though you should think upon nothing else and that so long as your life shall last yea though you should live as long as the World shall last and therefore God hath appointed an Eternity in a better World where you shall have no other Employment but to ponder them and to praise God for them Singing Hallelujahs to him that sits upon the Throne for evermore 22. As you must thus Meditate on Gods works so secondly upon his word whether precepts or presidents or promises or Ordinances thereof all which have sweet Honey in them to the Divine Bee Your second Subject is concerning your self as David did when he Eat in his Pallace 2 Sam. 7. 14. Saying with an humble heart Lord what am I Not what am I not As Nebuchadnozzar did with an haughty Spirit as he sat in his palace Dan. 4. 29 30. Humble David who had neither an haughty heart nor a lofty Eye Psal 131. 1 2. hath exceeding high thoughts of God and exceeding low thoughts of himself he cannot name any thing bad enough to compare himself unto in his Lord what am I he saith not Lord what a great Monarch am I Or what a great Man am I But he saith I am a worm and no Man Psal 22. 6. I am a dead-dog or a Flea 1 Sam. 24. 14. Lord what am I O Imitate this Holy David as you sit in your House I am the least of Saints and greatest of Sinners Eph. 3. 8. 1 Tim. 1. 15. But take heed of Nebuchadnezzers self admiration who Trumpets out his own glory when none asked him the Question as if he had done all whereas Babylon was built above a thousand years before he was born and God that builds all Cities Psal 127. 1. had done nothing God is not in all his thoughts Psal 10. 4. he exalts self and excludes God 23. Your second step herein is progress which is more easy then the first As a Bird hath the greatest lift when she rises up from off the Earth but when once got upon the Wing then she mounts up aloft not only without much straining difficulty but with much sporting complacency then doth she sing out her Melodious note throughly so long as she listeth and liketh as likewise a Ship hath always the most difficulty to hale out of Harbour where many times she sticketh fast in the Mud but if once got under Sail and a fresh gale of wind sitting right for her O how she sports in the waters as the Bird doth in the Air and goes on gallantly towards her desired Haven yea even in a stormy and tempestuous Sea let her have but Sea-room enough and then she feares not to be driven by the storm either upon Rocks or Quick-Sands as 't is thus with Birds Ships so with Bells 't is hard to get them up when once raised then rung with ease and delight just so it is with your Soul in this Divine work all your difficulty is to get up from the low Earth upon the wing with the Bird of the Air and to get out of the muddy harbour with the Ship of the Sea under Sail if once set a float and forward bound under a fresh gale of the Spirit of grace O how merrily do you mount upwards with the Bird and how gallantly do you go end-ways towards the Cape of good hope with the Ship so that an entrance is administred unto you abundantly into the Heavenly Kingdom 2 Pet. 1. 11. as it were with Colours flying Drums beating Trumpets Sounding yea with top and top Gallant entring into your Masters joy Matth. 25. 21 32. 24. For furthering your Progress take these short directions 1. Direct when you have turn'd what you should not think on out of doors as Sarah did Hagar and taken in what is necessary expedient and profitable for you to Meditate upon then in Gods strength Psal 71. 16. you must view your Subject round about and observe all it's circumstances as well as it's substance thus the Psalmist counsels you that you may think the better upon the loving-kindness of God in the midst of the Temple to walk round about Sion and tell the Towers of it and mark well her bulwarks yea consider her Palaces c. Psal 48. 9 12 13. Until you fully and distinctly know all 2. Direct Then you must dwell upon it with your doubled and redoubled thoughts and fix your Meditation pondering it in your mind until it have a kindly influence upon your affections until it become a Rooted and Engrafted consideration Mountains are barren because the Rain of Heaven run's off from them but valleys are fruitful because it resteth there the Wolf greedily swallows his meat hair and all so all goes from him into excrements he presently voids all so makes all void and never fatteneth 3. Direct Retain therefore your Subject and duty till you find something of God in it dropping down upon your heart till you find Elijahs God in Elijahs mantle working wonders for you 2 King 2. 14. Let neither go without advantage 4. Direct When you have found God in your Subject and duty retain him some while as Abraham did the Lord Christ Gen. 18. 3 4 5. saying pass not away I pray thee from thy Servant but rest with me for a while c. O then are you an happy Son or Daughter of Abraham when you can thus engage the Lords stay with you in this Divine duty 5. Direct Forget not to retain your own slippery heart 't wil linger as Lot in Sodom If the Lord of Angels help you not Gen. 19 16. be oft crying O quicken this loitering heart Psal 119. 37. and O unite this treacherous heart Psal 86. 11. 25. Your third step is Egress when you have through grace brought your Divine duty to some profitable Issue then 1. take down your Soul by degrees and not all on the sudden 't is a dead Bird that falls down like a stone without hovering upon the wing as the living ones do as nature cannot endure any sudden alteration so nor grace Deus Natura non faciunt saltum God and Nature make no leaps 2. Direct When down review your whole perambulation wherein you have been enlarged be thankful and wherein you have been straitned be humbled 3. Direct Take heed of the cold Air of Tentation when warm'd by this work The sweating labourer sometimes sits down over hastily catches cold and dies of a Consumption be walking gently in musing still that this befal not you Of Prayer CHAP. IV. 1. PRayer follows Meditation as twins follow each other in their birth they both lay in the same

not come upon them neither can they rationally be said to have the priviledg of sitting down with Abraham in the Kingdom of God to wit in the Church as Christ said they should Mat. 8. 11. The third ground is Salvation and the way to it is common to both Jew and Gentile Act. 15. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by the grace of Christ we shall be saved even as they Hence 't is cal'd the common Salvation Jude Ver. 3. It follows then that the Jews were bound to understand the Mistery of their Legal Ordinances and to exercise Faith in them as well as we Gentiles Yet though Children then could not understand the Mistery of their Circumcision were they not debarred from it on this account so nor ours ought now from Baptism of whom it may be said as Christ to Peter Job 13. 7. what I do thou knowest not now but thou shalt know hereafter why thou hast been washed 10. The fourth Reason is Foederati sunt Signandi if Children have an interest in the Covenant which is the greater then much more in the Seal of the Covenant which is the lesser If the seed of believers be holy 1 Cor. 7. 14. And the Kingdom pertains to them Mark 10. 14. Why not the Seal of the Kingdom The fifth Argument can any man forbid Water that these should be Baptized which receive the holy Ghost as well as we Act. 10. 47. a zeal in forbidding to Seal adoption to such may be displeasing to Christ Mar. 10. 14. that they may receive the Holy Ghost as well as we First there is no impediment on Christs part for he bids them come Secondly nor on their part for he faith of such is the Kingdom of God nor Thirdly on the part of Baptism for it is a passive Ordinance as Circumcision was That some Children did receive the holy Ghost appears from Jer. 1. 5. Jeremy was Sanctifyed in the Womb and Luke 1. 15. John Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost even from his Mothers womb 11. The sixth Argument Baptize all Nations Mat. 28. 19. Includes Children as go mark my Sheep doth include that the Shephard must mark his Masters Lambs as well as Sheep As that in Gen. 12. 3. Gal. 3. 8. Includes young as well as old The seventh Argument Children may have the seed of Faith as well as of Reason before they can act or exercise it and as in the womb they can neither take nor chew meat but are nourished by the Navel there so Baptism may be a round goblet that wants not liquor Cant. 7. 2. to nourish Children and new-born Babes in the womb of the Church it may have in it Christs blood to justify and his Spirit to Sanctify and cleanse them from Sin The eighth Argument we may not damn all the seed of believers and that in Mark 16. 16. makes as much against their Salvation as against their Baptism how can they be of the Kingdom of God as above and be saved but by the grace of the Covenant as the want of understanding did not hinder Children from the first Adams Sin so neither did it hinder them from the second Adams grace and if they have both grace and glory why may they not have that which Scals both Briefly the ninth Argument David had Faith for his Child 2 Sam. 12. 23 24. that it dyed happily for what comfort could it be to David that he should go to the grave unto it he did believe it did belong to the Election of grace otherwise he could not have been so comforted at its death The tenth Argument Christ loved his Church washing it with Water Eph. 5. 26. Hence it must be said that either Children are not of the Church whereof they were ever Members in the old Testament and never repealed in the New or that they may be washed with Baptismal Water 12. Consider also with these Arguments those material things As first it was the Red Dragon Pharaoh that would have hindred Israels little ones from the Sacrifice of the Church in the Wilderness Exod. 10. 8 9 10. 2ly God speaks in great displeasure against those Men. from their Children have ye taken away my glory for ever Micah 2. 9. 3ly God was angry with Moses for neglecting to Circumcise his Child Exod. 4. 24 25. 4ly Parents do Covenant for themselves and their Heirs in Leases and Deeds and their Children have livery and seisin of Copy-holds according to the Custom of the manor though they know it not 5ly If unbelief broke off Children as well as Parents from the old stock Rom. 11. 20. Then Faith may engraft in both again 6ly As we find no express precept for it so nor any express prohibition against it nor that any Baptized person kept their Children from it the silence of the Scripture in it which we are to admire and adore makes it more probable Christ gave no Rules who to be Baptized seeing the common use among them had been to Baptize Men Women and Children as 1 Cor. 10. 2. Hence the Jews do not Question the action of Baptizing or the Subjects of it in John Baptist but only his Authority Joh. 1. 25. It being so commonly known to them under the Law 13. Such believing Parents whose opinion is that God doth say to them as Jacob said to Joseph Gen. 48. 9. bring your Children hither neer to me that I may bless them in this Ordinance bring them into my House and Family Dedicating their Children Solemnly to the Lord as Elkanah did Samuel 1 Sam. 1. 14. as being born to God he hath a propriety in them Ezek. 16. 20 21. and looking upon their Children as Heirs of the same promise with themselves when born to them as Isaac and Jacob were Heirs with Abraham of the same promise Heb. 11. 9. O how should you endeavour the Conversion of your Children often dropping Divine dew upon them Deut. 7. 6. That the Lord may bring upon you that which he hath spoken of you in his Covenant Gen. 18. 19. O how should you press upon them to take hold of the Covenant Esa 56. 4 6. Even in their own persons for the just must live by their own personal Faith here and they must be saved also by it hereafter Hab. 2. 4. O how should you pray for your Children as duly and truly affected with the extent of the Covenant both to you and to yours Saying Lord thou hast graciously given me a Child Gen. 33. 5. I have given him Sin but I cannot give him grace and Christ O that my Ishmael may live before thee Gen. 17. 18. and let my Reuben live and not die Deut. 33. 6. he is born to me by generation let him be born to thee by Regeneration let him live no more in Sin though Sin continue to live in him let him be the work of thy hands in the midst of my House and then my face shall not Wax pale but I shall Sanctify the Holy one of