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
A64642	Eighteen sermons preached in Oxford 1640 of conversion, unto God. Of redemption, & justification, by Christ. By the Right Reverend James Usher, late Arch-bishop of Armagh in Ireland. Published by Jos: Crabb. Will: Ball. Tho: Lye. ministers of the Gospel, who writ them from his mouth, and compared their copies together. With a preface concerning the life of the pious author, by the Reverend Stanly Gower, sometime chaplain to the said bishop.	Ussher, James, 1581-1656.; Gower, Stanley.; Crabb, Joseph, b. 1618 or 19.	1660 (1660)	Wing U173; ESTC R217597	234,164	424

our Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be justified by faith Before the time then thou hast faith which is the day salvation comes to thine house thou art kept under the Law Thou art not assured of salvation nor canst thou expect till then that God should shew thee mercy We may have a conceit that though we are never transplanted nor cut off from our own stock yet God will shew us mercy But we shall beguile our selves to hell therein for we are kept under the Law till faith comes that so we may know our selves We are kept c. Kept It 's a Metaphor drawn from Military affairs when men are kept by a Garrison and kept in order Now the Law is Gods Garrison which keeps men in good awe and order The Law doth this not to terrifie you too much or to break your minds with despair but to fit you for the faith It 's a shutting up till that faith which should afterward be revealed He 's a miserable Preacher which ends with preaching of the Law the Law is for another end it 's to fit us for faith It 's our Schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. We thunder not the Law to make men run away from God but to bring them home unto him The Schoolmaster by the smart of his rod makes the child weary of his bondage and desire earnestly to be past his non-age and this is his end not that he delights to hear him cry Thus are we beaten by the law not that God delights or loves to hear us sigh or sob but that we may grow weary of our misery and cruel bondage may desire to be justified by faith The Law then is so a Schoolmaster as that by making us smart it might bring us home We see then the course method of the Scripture it hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ may be made to them that believe Now because men like not this kinde of Doctrine to begin with Preaching of the Law and therefore think there may be a shorter and nearer way to preach Christ first I will therefore make known unto you this method of the Scripture and I will justifie it unto you There must be this Preparative else the Gospel will come unseasonably If before we are sowred by the leaven of the Law Christ be preached he will be but unsavoury unpleasant to us 2. Does God at the first Preaching of the Gospel begin with Adam by Preaching Christ before he saw his sin and wickednesse No he said not to him presently assoon as he had sinned Well Adam thou hast sinned and broken my covenant yet there is another covenant thou shalt be saved by one that comes out of thy loynes But God first summons him to appear he brings him out of his shelters and hiding places tells him of his sin and saith Hast thou eaten of the tree which I forbad thee to eat of But the man shifts it off and the woman also to the serpent The Serpent beguiled me and I did eat Yet all this will not excuse him Gods judgments are declared his sin is made apparent he sees it Then being thus humbled comes in the promise of the Gospel The seed of the woman shall break the serpents head Be ye open then ye everlasting doors and the King of glory shall come in 2. John the Baptist who was the Harbinger to prepare the way for Christ Preaching to the Scribes and Pharisees warned them O generation of vipers He came to throw down every high hill and to beat down every mountain calls them serpents This was his office to lay the Axe at the root of the Tree 3. And Christ himself coming into the world and Preaching to Nicodemus begins Vnlesse a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdome of God John 3. A man in his natural condition can never enter into Heaven for he is wholly carnal That that is born of the flesh is flesh and that that is born of the Spirit is Spirit It 's carnal and must be born again A little patching will not serve the turn Thou must be new born new moulded a little mending is not sufficient A man must be a new creature and new made So that this is the substance of this doctrine of Christ that if thou be no better then moral vertue or civil education can make thee if thou hast any thing lesse then Regeneration believe me thou canst never see heaven There 's no hope of heaven till then till thou art born again till then our Saviour excludes all false fancies that way 5. The Apostles began to gather the first Church after Christs resurrection Act. 2.23 They doe not begin to preach Christ first his vertue and efficacie but first they tell them of their great sin in crucifying the Lord of life viz. Whom with wicked hands you have taken and crucified But what was the end of their doing thus It 's set down v 37. They were pricked to the heart and then they cried out Men and brethren what shall we do to be saved See this was the end of all the humbling of them that by declaring what they had done they might be pricked at the heart so that now they see if it be no better with them then for the present it 's like to go ill with them This makes them cry out What shall we doe Then saith Peter repent and be Baptized and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost After he had told them their own and had brought them to their search which is their first work then comes the promise of Christ. Observe the Apostles method in the Epistle to the Romans which book is a perfect Catechism of the Church which containes these three parts of Divinity Humiliation Just●fication and Sanctification See how the Apostle orders his method From the first Cap to part of the third he treats all of the Law and convinces both Jew and Gentile and all of sinne Then 3 Cap. 19. mark his Conclusion that every mouth may be stopped When he had stopped every mouth cast down every strong hold which listed it self up against God when he had laid all at Gods feet and left them bleeding as it were under the knife of God then comes he to Christ Rom. 3.21 The righteousnesse of God without the Law is manifested He had done his first businesse in humbling them in shewing them their sins by the Law and assoon as that was done when every mouth was stopped then comes he to the promise by faith in Jesus Christ to all them that believe You see then the method of the Scripture is first to conclude all under sin and so to fit men for the promise of Jesus Christ. Know therefore that the law is the high-way to the Gospel the path that leads to it that way which must be trodden in we are still out of our way till

ignorance thou hast no feeling yet if thou consent thou art justified it s the consent makes the match If thou consent to the Father and take Christ the Son know it or know it not thou hast him though thou knowest not whether thy sins are forgiven yet as long as thou keepest thy hold all the Devils temptations shall never drive thee from him thou art justified and in a safe case though ignorance and other things in thee cause thee not to feel it if thou layest hold on him for his sake thou art apprehended Object Now then this is an easie matter you will say Sol. Not so easie a matter as you guess it to be It were easie indeed were there nothing but saying the word to make man and wife there are terms and conditions to be agreed upon God casts not his Son away he looks there shall be conditions on thy side he must be thy King and Head if thou wilt have him to be thy husband But what shall I get by him then saith the wife Get there is no end of thy getting All is thine Paul Apollos Cephas Life c. Thou art Christs and Christ is Gods Every man will take Christ thus for the better but there 's somewhat else in the match If thou wilt have him thou must take him for better for worse for richer for poorer Indeed there are precious things provided for you It s your Fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom you shall be Heirs with Christ but for the present while you are in the Church Militant you must take up your Cross you must not look for great things in this world In this world you must have tribulation you must deny your selves and your own Wills What would you have Christ the wife and you the husband No If you think so you mistake the match Christ must be the Husband and the Head and as the wife promises to obey her husband to stick to her husband in sickness and in health and to forsake all others so Christ asketh wilt thou have me if thou wilt thou must take me on these terms thou must take my Cross with me thou must deny thine own Will yea it may be thine own life also Let a Christian consider all these things these are the words and these are the benefits and then compare them together then if he can say I will have Christ how●ver for I shall be a saver by him I 'le take him with●ll faults I know I shall make a good bargain therefore I will have him on any terms come what will when a man can have his will so perpendicularly bent on Christ that he will have him though he leave his skin behind him there 's a true acceptation of him We must not here distinguish with the Schools about Velleities a general wishing and woulding and true desires after Christ Wishers and Woulders never thrive but there must be a resolution to follow Christ through thick and thin never to part with him a direct Will is here required And therefore Christ bids us consider before hand what it will cost us If any man come to me and hate not Father and mother wife and children and his own life also he cannot be my Disciple Do not think that our Saviour here would discourage men from love Doth the God of love teach us hatred The phrase in the Hebrew is loving less as it is said Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated that is loved less If a man hath two wives one beloved and the other hated and they have born Children both the beloved and the hated By hated is not meant that the man hated one wife but less loved her then the other so if any man come to me and hate not father and mother and that is if he love not all less then me and that it is so we may see it expounded by our Saviour Mat. 10.37 He that loveth father or mother more then me is not worthy of me There Christ expounds it He that will follow Christ in calm weather and not in a storm is not worthy of him Luke 14.28 Which of you intending to build a Tower sitte●● not down first and counteth the cost whether he have sufficient to finish it What is that to the purpose See verse 33. So likewise w●osoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath cannot be my Disciple It s a small matter to begin to be a Christian unless you consider what it will cost you Do you t●●●k it a small matter to be the Kings son think not on so great a business without consideration what it will cost you It will be the denying of your own wills You must be content to follow naked Christ nakedly follow him in his persecution and tribulation in his death and suffering if thou wilt be conformable to him in glory When this case comes it makes many draw back as the rich man in the Gospel when he must forsake all he drew back When troubles arise many are offended so when it comes to a point of parting they go back Now we come to speak one word of the sealing in the Text. After that ye believed ye were sealed with the holy Spirit of Promise This sealing which is a point of feeling is a distinct thing of it self from faith no part of faith If I have faith I am sure of life though I never have the other these are two seals VVe put to our seals to the counter-part that is drawn betwixt God and us The first seal is our faith I have nothing but Gods VVord and indeed I have no feeling yet I venture my salvation and trust God upon his bare VVord I will pawn all upon it He that believeth saith John hath set to his seal that God is true If men doubt and trust God no further then they see him it is not faith But when God gives me a good word though I am in as much distress as ever yet I trust though it be contrary to all sense or outward seeming yet I put to my seal and trust him still Then comes Gods counter-part God being thus honoured that I believe his Word though contrary to all sense and feeling even his bare Word then God sets to his seal and now the Word comes to particularizing Before it was in general now it comes and singles out a man Say thou unto my soul that I am thy salvation Psalm 35.3 that is as I did apply the generality of Gods Word unto mine own case to bear me up against sense and feeling then comes the Spirit of God and not only delivers generalities but saith unto my soul I am thy salvation This is called in Scripture a manifestation when God manifests himself unto us as in Isa. 60.16 Thou shalt suck the milk of the Gentiles and shalt suck the brest of Kings and thou shalt know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer c. that