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
A67047	A word in season. Or Three great duties of Christians in the worst of times viz. abiding in Christ, thirsting after his institutions, and submission to his providences. The first opened, from 1 John 2.28. The second from Psal. 42.1,2. The third from Jer. 14.19. By a servant of Christs in the work of his Gospel. To which is added, by way of appendix, the advice of some ministers to their people for the reviving the power and practice of godliness in their families.	Servant of Christ in the work of his Gospel.	1668 (1668)	Wing W3548A; ESTC R204145	100,163	272

standing or falling soul How this and you will not easily be seduced in other points The Scripture tells you P. cts 4.12 There is no other name give under heaven by which men can be save● Neither is there salvation in any other It is the whole business of St. Paul almo●● throughout the Epistle to the Roman and that to the Galathians to pro●● his St. Paul desires to be found ●● Christ alone Phil. 3.9 10. not having his own righteousness which is of the Law but the righteousness of God the righteousness of faith Hence Christ is called The Lord our righteousness And he is said to have been made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him And to be made of God for us Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption 6. That every soul thus justified is effectually called He is not only as many are called called out of the Pagan world to believe and receive the Doctrine of the Gospel but by the Spirit of God powerfully joyning with the Word he is made to see and be sensible of his lost condition out of Christ and enabled by a true and lively faith to receive and lay hold upon and trust in Christs righteousness he is also regenerated that is made a new man by a thange wrought by Gods Spirit in his heart affections whole man And without this none is justified none can be saved Joh. ● 5 Except a man be born again of water and the Spirit he can never enter into the Kingdom of God Ro. 8.13 If you live after the flesh you shall die Ro. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit If a man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his And in many other Texts Let men talk what they please of Baptismal Regeneration who so lives to years of discretion and hath no more shall never see the face of God I know the most learned assertors of it conclude it of little value ponentibus obicem as they say that is if men after Baptism wilfully sin against God who lives and doth not So as that limitation makes their novel Doctrine but a security to baptized persons dying in infancy They have a fancy to merit the name of Blandi instead of Duripatres infantum as Augustine was called All that is to be feared of the imbibing in that new Doctrine is lest people should be lu●led asleep with that notion of being justified in Baptism and think that i● afterward they run to all excess of riot they need only to wash their feet by a● slighty repentance and never look after a true sight of sin or an actual believing in the Lord Jesus Christ 7. That Christs Righteousness is not imputed to any soul without the exercise of faith eying receiving resting upon Christ and Christ alone for salvation Nor can any true act of sanctification flow from any other principle So as one who never in the fight of his sin and lost condition fled to Christ and laid hold upon his righteousness be he under what other circumstances of birth breeding Church-membership moral righteousness formal and constant performance of religious duties is in a state of damnation and so dying perisheth for ever John 3.18 Joh. 3.18 He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God Ver. 36. He that believeth on the Son bath everlasting life he that believeth not shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God And again Without faith it is impossible to please God 8. That regeneration and faith and every other habit that is truly spiritual cometh from the special distinguishing grace of God and is wrought in the soul by his alone power and by him drawn out into exercise and we have no power of our selves so much as to think one good thought Except a man be born again of water and the Spirit Joh. 3.5 John 3.5 Born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of man but of God Phil. 1.29 Phil. 1.29 It is given you on the behalf of Christ to believe Faith is not of our selves it is the gift of God Ephes 2.8 Eph. 2.8 Every good and perfect gift cometh from above Jam. 1.17 James 1.17 Without me you can do nothing John 15. John 15. We have no sufficiency of our selves to think one good thought 2 Cor. 3.5 2 Cor. 3.5 Abide in this Christians Christ doth not say Without me you can do no great things nor without me you can do little but without me you can do just nothing 9. That whosoever is thus justified and regenerated sinneth often but yet in some sense sinneth not Not as others do not making a trade nor taking a pleasure in sinning not with plenary acts and consent of his will He cannot be an habitual constant Drunkard Unclean person Swearer Curser Lyar Blasphemer Prophaner of Sabbaths or the ho●y Name of God he cannot live in a known course of cheating and defrauding but though he falls seven times a day yet it is by sins of infirmity and if he be overcome by temptations to greater sins as Noah Abraham Job Peter David c. yet he lyes ●ot in them but with Peter weeps bitterly 10. That although a child of God may ●n many things be ignorant of his duty and wherein he knows it may sometimes ●ant strength to perform it and he who ●oth most is not perfect yet no true child of God will live in the wilful and instant omission of any known duty ●or in the wilful ignorance of any part ●f his duty but striveth to grow in ●race and knowledge and for what he knoweth To will is present with him though he hath no strength to perform and as to his inward man he will delight in the Law of God and though he ●e not perfect yet he striveth after peraction Phil. 3.12 Phil. 3.12 He followeth after that he may apprehend that for which he is also apprehended of Jesus Christ counteth not himself to have app●● hended But doth this one thing forgting those things which are behind reacheth forth to those things that are fore and presseth toward the mark for● price of the high calling of God Christ 11. That in order to this he who ●● would see the face of God must make Word of God his rule Isa 8.20 Mat. 15.9 Joh. 4.23 Deut. 12.32 both of faith 〈◊〉 life Believing no Divine Truth but upon credit of the revelation of it in the S●●ptures indeed otherwise it can be●● Divine faith taking his Rule for W●●ip from the Scriptures Col. 2.23 Psal 119.109 both for 〈◊〉 Acts and for the manner and direct●● all the actions of his life

in his g●●tal calling in his particular relation cording to the general and particular Rules of the Holy Word of God ●● turning aside from them 12. That as we shall all dye there shall be a resurrection from the di●● and a day of Judgement When Christ shall judge the quick and the dead i● cording to his Gospel When the fe●ful the unbelieving Rev. 11.8 the abominable m●● dere's whoremongers sorcerers idolaters and all lyars all those that trouble the ●rvants of God that know not God that they not his Gospel all thieves 2 Thes 1.7 8. covetous persons drunkards revilers 1 Cor. 6.9 10. extortioners c. shall be adjudged to the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone to have their portion in fire and brimstone in everlasting burnings with the Devil and his Angels On the contrary Those who by believing and obeying the truth and by patient continuance in well doing Rom. 2. Evidence That they are such whom God from Eternity hath chosen to life on the behalf of whom Christ made an Eternal Covenant with his Father for whom he died To whom he hath given his Spirit in a way of a special and distinguishing grace shall have a joyful resurrection and hear that blessed sentence pronounced to them Matth. 25. Come you blessed of the Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you These are some of those Gospel Propofitions which you have been taught Abide in them Search the Scriptures see if they agree not with them if they do take heed how you change your persuasions as to them for any new systeme of Doctrines leadi● you to salvation This faith will le●● you unto holiness and strictness of life will not give you that liberty to th● flesh which other doth It will ma●● you live in the daily view of the truth Straight is the way and nanr● is the gate that leadeth to eternal li●● and few there be that find it Which will remain true when all the wor●● shall be found liars I pass to the ●●●ond branch of the Exhortation Abide in your faith in Christ 2. Br. I shall not her take faith in so strict and abstract a notion as it is sometimes take in Scripture but as it comprehendeth 1. Adherence to and reliance upon the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone for salvation 2. Hoping in him 3. Patien waiting for him The two latter are the daughters of faith strictly taken but they have so much of their Mother that in Scripture they are often taken for it and called by here name 1. Abide in your stedfast adherence to and reliance upon the Lord Josus Christ and him alone for salvation There are some that despise salvation some that neglect it some that vainly seek it some have no hope some have no true foundation for their hope Some never think of another life so neither hope for it nor despair of it but live like Beasts in the world crying Let his eat and drink for to morrow we shall ●lye and so call out their souls to no ●ct of faith or adherence to any ●hing at all in order to it I hope I peak to such as believe they have souls and that their souls are not given them meerly pro sale to keep their ●odies from putrefaction but that they are immortal beings capable of and ordained to an Eternal existence which must be either in eternal life ●r in eternal misery and who live in the waking conviction of this and so are concerned to think what they should trust to for eternal salvation Some are thus far awakened but like Browning men lay hold on every twig and bulrush never considering whether ●t will bear their weight or no. One man thinks if he be baptized he shall be saved Another if he keeps his Church and payes every man his own he shall be saved Another if he give his goods to the poor builds Church● Hospitals This is all to say we have our life in our hands You have been otherwise taught viz. To do all that you can in obedience to the commandments God and when you have done all to s●● you are unprofitable servants to say the is not my Righteousness Isa 64.6 to say after the Church We are as an unclean thing and all our righteousness as a filthy rag● to cry out None but Christ None b●● Christ Hold there Christians live in daily view of eternity in a daily exercise of faith adherence to and relian●● upon the Lord Jesus Christ as he h● whom alone you can be brought to blessed Eternity Let the Papist if h● will trust to his own merits Trust you to the merits of Christ alone Their Learned Cardinal when he came to dye could cry out It is the safest do so Video melior a proboque Deteriora sequor Let them if they will trust to the superlative merits of other Saints it may be they were no Saints if they were they must be better supplied ●an the Wise Virgins if they have oil mough for themselves and you too if they had there is no way of conveyance to you ordained by God but very man hath use enough of his own righteousness and at the great say it will be found that those have ●een mistaken who have dreamed that ●ny but Christ have had any to spare or ●ny that could be imputed to another ●● trust in Jesus Christ and in him ●one 2. Abide in your lively hope In ●our hope of a glorious resurrection In ●ur hope of a day when God shall judge be world by our Lord Jesus Christ In our hope of eternal life This very age will tell you that if such as fear God and strictly walk in his wayes Following the severer paths of Worship and ●oliness had hope in this life only they were indeed of all men most miserable These are the worlds reproach these almost are the only transgressors accounted Drinking Swearing Blaspheming Cursing Uncleanness these are but venial tolerable sins Close walking with God fearing to offend him ● matters of Worship praying meeting together to fast and pray these are the Capital Offences for which Prisons o● are prepared But Christians the● will be a Resurrection of the body the● will be a day of Judgement There will a revelation of eternal life The body of Gods people may be abused waste in Prisons and consumed there but they shall live again Men now judge the world it stands them in hand consider whether they make righteo● Laws and decree righteous judgement ●● on them For there is another day Judgement appointed when all Law and Acts of Judgement upon them wi● be examined again by the Divine Law and by the Standard of Heaven tryed The issue will be then tryed whether Drunkards Swearers Cursers Vnclean Persons such as wallow in all manner ● filthiness or such as live according to the strict rule of Gods Word and defire no more than that they may quietly live so according to the just dictates

and apprehensions of their own consciences be the troublers of Israel be the persons more or less approved and accepted of God I say the issue will be tryed again upon appeal at the tribunal of Christ Live therefore in this hope and let not the deferrings of your hope make your heart sick He that shall come will come and shall not tarry The blessed Apostles sixteen hundred years since saw him preparing his Chariot and making ready and in the view of it endured cruel mocking courgings imprisonments fiery tryals the loss of all and counted all but dung that they might in that day be found in him Your salvation is nearer now ●ea it is nearer than when you first believed Maintain this blessed lively glorious hope Maintain it and it will maintain you It is a grace will not be your debtor Without it your heart will break under it it cannot break But remember Hope which is seen is no hope You may for ought I know endure many a cold night in derisions reproaches c. in Prisons in other Lands Whiles you keep that faith and good conscience which your Master hath given you in charge before the dayes of your servitude be expired yea the long night of death may come and your flesh may rest in hope some years But still maintain your hope Rachel will come at last eternity is coming A joyful resurrection a day of Judgement is coming you have done your work and are doing of it serving God with faithfulness others must d● theirs too in filling up the measure of their iniquity persecuting him in his members whose person they cannot reach unless by their profane Oathes God will judge both you and them according to your works The men ● this world it may be pierce your heart as with a sword when they say When is your Christ become Where is the Promise of his coming It is not more than sixteen hundred years and all things remain as they were But you shall see him Christians you shall see and they shall see that Christ riding in triumph with all his Angels and ten thousands of his Saints whom you have desired to serve faithfully with your spirits whose Kingdom you have desired to advance and they shall see him whose Name they have profaned whose Gospel they have obstructed whose Kingdom they have opposed whose Ministers whose Members and Servants they have abused imprisoned I say they shall see him Revel 6.15 16. and endeavour to hide themselves in Dens and Rocks of Mountains and say to the Mountains and to the Rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb for the great day of his wrath is come and who shall be able to abide it Abide in this hope 3. Abide in your patient waitings for God Adherence to Christ secureth the soul it setteth it on the Rock that is higher than it and secureth it as to Eternity It puts the soul into a certain state of Salvation and keeps it so Hope keeps it alive and full of vigour and chearfulness and strength in that state so as it fainteth not under all the delayes of Providence Patience stayeth the soul and maketh it to stand still and wait for Gods time so that neither in its heart nor in its actions it makeeth hast but having chosen its ground and found it to be such as will bear a soul and such as a soul ought to stand upon it standeth still without weariness or murmuring or discontent and notwithstanding all the Artifices of the World Flesh and Devil all the vollies of shot that are made against it all the discouragements that it hath yet it standeth and waiteth still and will not stir from the ground which it hath chosen but sayes This way this course I have chosen in expectation of an happy issue I yet see it not but yet here I will stand here I will abide here will dye if I perish I perish The blessed Apostle tells the Hebrews Heb. 10.36 He. 10.36 You have need of patience th● after you have done the will of God m● inherit the promise There is a pass●● patience which lyes in a quiet submitsion to and a glorifying of God under the frowns of his Providence Christians in suffering times have need ● this Lu. 21.19 In your patience saith our Saviour possess your souls There is ●active patience which is the souls quiet waiting for the promise while it goes on doing his will It is opposed to a souls making haste Of the Believer it is said He that believeth maketh not haste Christians I know many of you have had patience Abide in your patience those that can wait on the Lord without limiting the Holy One to the uncertainties of years and moneths in the end shall not be ashamed You cannot abide in Christ if you cannot abide in patience God will be waited for Les patience therefore have its perfect work Say not to your Lord Wilt thou at this or that time restore the Kingdom to Israel It is not for you to know times or seasons It is an ill principle that hath hitherto kept thee in the wayes of God if this be all because by such a time thou expectedst sensible encouragements What hast thou to do but to perform thy duty and to wait for the mercy if thou hast hitherto thus or thus walked because God required it of thee and it was thy duty The will of God is the same still and consequently thy engagement the same still But I proceed to the third thing by which I opened this branch of Exhortation 3. Abide in thy Obedience Faith and patience and hope are all parts of obedience but I understand here by it an ordering of thy conversation still in exactest conformity to the will of God Duties of Obedience fall under a double head as our conversation more immediately respecteth God or man 1. Therefore Whatsoever acts or ways of Worship thou hast formerly performed and walked in in conscience to the command of God those abide in Men alter God changeth not What was the rule of his Worship is so still if thy foot formerly swerved from it thou hast reason to reduce it if not take heed how thou forsakest it The Lyons Den did not scare Daniel from praying to the God of Heaven as he was accustomed Acts of Worship are immediate homages to God they are the souls approaches unto him A Christian stands concerned to be very curious and diligent as to them I know nothing which formally distinguisheth true and false Worship but the immediate command of God for the one and the want of it for the other Think it not a light matter how you worship God If you any way fail as to the immediate or mediate object It is Idolatry of all sins the highest than which nothing so soon divorceth a soul from Christ and therefore in Scripture it is compared to

suffer him the far to prosper Hath God since that ti●● blest you in your estate in your children in your trade c Or hath he blas●● you If the latter Have you not 〈◊〉 cured this unto your selves in that ye 〈◊〉 forsaken the Lord your God when he led you by the way But it may be you cannot yet see divine vengeance thus pursuing you there is a time when poenalis nutritur impunitas God fatteth up some with the Maist of the world to the great day of slaughter though ordinarily these be such as never made any profession Judas that had been a Disciple quickly disgorged his thirty pleces you know That which I would have you principally enquire is how it hath been with your inward man as to your spiritual concerns St. John in his Epistle to his Host Gaius wisheth above all things that he might prosper and be in health even as his soul prospereth If there should be a Doeg that hath got anything by his treachery to Christ and the interest of his Gospel I would ●eg of him to consider whether his ●oul also prospereth and be in health as his outward man is You have pretended formerly to know what belongs to an inward serenity of mind to peace of conscience c. Have you at any time since your change found leisure to speak ●o your own souls and say Is it peace If you have not you have been very careless of Eternity If you have what hath it answered Have you gone to bed with as much satisfaction in your spirit after a day spent at a play or aprofane meeting as you did heretofore after a day spent in a religious meeting or at a fast Have you had no more melancholick thoughts no more sad reflections no more terrours than before Hath not the evil spirit sometimes so troubled you that you have been forced to send for a Minstrel to play it off Have not the images of those righteous servants of God whom you have been reviling whom you have been accusers of and instruments to hale into prisons ruine and as much as in you lay to make an end of sometimes appeared to you in your dreams and disquieted you in your sleep Have you not heard though not a voice from heaven God will not so much honour you who have so much spit in his face yet a voice from your own conscience Soul soul why persecutest thou Christ What evil hast thou formerly seen in that way wherein thy self did walk worthy of this death or these barbarous bonds Do you see what servants what home-born slaves you have made your selves How the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken your head O return into the right wayes of the Lord return to your first Husband speak sincerely Was it not then every way better with you than now 6. Consider seriously with yourselves if a day of trouble should come as certainly thou art not the only person exempted from the incurnt ances and accidents to which mortality is exposed and subjected would any of those things or persons help you to which you are turned and whom you have gratified in your departing from the right ways of God The Professor not abiding in Christ usually makes choice 1. Of New Principles 2. New Practices in his conversation 3. New Friends and a New Society 1. New Principles he must have a seared conscience that upon strict Principles can build a loose practice and retain the truths of God in unrighteousness Therefore the Backslider hath ordinarily an Almanack faith calculated for the Meridian of his present practice For example it was the old faith of Professors that all men and Women are by nature children of wrath Ephes 2.3 That they remain in this state of wrath till by the hearing of the word the holy Spirit working with it faith be wrought in them and they be brought to Receive the Lord Jesus Christ and to believe in him John 3.18.36 Till they be regenerated and born again by the Spirit of God John 3.3 5. that is till old things be passed away and all things become n●w with them for he that is in Christ is a new creature That true faith where ever it is purifieth the heart worketh by love to God to his people in a strict universal obedience to all the commandments of God As to which they must have a presence to will though they may in many things want stength to perform That who so thus believeth and is thus regenerated is justified by the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ alone and being justified sinneth not wilfully and presumptuously or doth not lye and abide in sin but though he sometimes falleth by sin yet he by and by purifieth himself and riseth again by repentance And it is the business of his life in all things to make the word of God a light to his feet and a lanthorn to his paths Thou hast possibly collected another system of practical principles That every one who is baptized is justified and regenerated That to believe is nothing else but to be perswaded of the truth of the Scriptures That indeed a man may fall away from his justified estate in Baptism by actual sins but a slighty acknowledgement of his sins in a formal confession or when he comes to dye will make up all again And if a man lives in Obedience to what he calls the Church making the dictates of men the rule of his practice without any particular enquiry whether they be according to the Scriptures or no he shall not need fear salvation I confess this sheweth an easie way to Heaven if it were as sure But suppose a day of trouble now to thy soul suppose now thy conscience awakened either whiles thou art in thy full career in thy prosperity or when thou comest to dye and some such Texts as these fall into thy thoughts at that day John 3.18 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and be that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed on the Name of the only begotten Son of God Rom. 8.1 There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ wh● walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit v. 5. They that are after the flesh 〈◊〉 mind the things of the flesh they that 〈◊〉 after the Spirit do mind the things of the Spirit ver 6. To be carnally minded i● death ver 8. They that are in the flesh cannot please God ver 13. If you live after the flesh you shall dye Neither ●●cumcision availeth any thing ●●uncircumcision but a new creature Suppose these or other such like Scriptures should stick fast to thy thoughts in an evil day what should relieve thee Will it relieve thee when tho● comest to dye to remember tho● wer 't baptized in thy infancy Will no● thy thoughts reflect There are thousands that were baptized will be damoned Simon Magus was baptized ye●● the gall of bitterness and in the bands of