Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	believe_v	faith_n	see_v	5,205	5	3.8267	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45141	The middle-way of perfection with indifferency between the orthodox and the Quaker by J.H.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.	1674 (1674)	Wing H3692; ESTC R7480	27,096	35

due place which indeed is nothing else but this grace it self even the goodness kindness favour or merciful condescention of God to poor Sinners in accepting us as Righteous upon other terms then those which the Law of our Nature requires and it were but most just we should have performed Which as he grants for Christs sake so does he by his Spirit work in those that are his chosen that all the glory of their Salvation may be due to him only Now the perfection of the Quaker does quite over-throw all this which the Apostle teaches and in short terms it were all one for them to say Sir we deny your Argument and your Reasoning We are of opinion that all men do not break the Law of God but that some are perfect in a Righteousness answering the Law and therefore we have no need of any such grace or Christs Redemption that is of any from Christ as without or other terms whereby we should be justified and saved The Righteousness of God or the Righteousness of Faith you speak of in opposition to Works is below that of ours which we build upon for our Salvation In the fifth place This opinion is not consonant with the Vniversality of Redemption There are no greater patrons of universal grace than the Quaker This is the excellency of his strength the Ruben of his notions But if Christs Redemption lye altogether where they place it in the bringing men off from Sin and Unrighteousness unto Holiness and Perfection even such as to live without sin in this world then cannot Redemption be universal for the most of men remain in their sins and are never converted and those that are reach not to such a pitch as this is and consequently instead of Christs having Redeemed all the World or whole Man-kind there are but very sew Redeemed and indeed none at all I must confess I do not think that the Quaker alone is in the dark about this matter Yet these men I count here are most of all out They look upon the work of Christs Redemption to be the work of Christ within so they speak and so they think altogether and then wilfully confound Sanctification and Redemption whereas Sanctification is a separation of persons from the world and must be of some only that is the Elect supposing Election but Redemption is of all man-kind according to the Catechisme and the Scripture all over That which Christ hath done for us without and in the flesh is for all He was put to death in the flesh his Death was for all He tasted Death for every man But what he does for us within what he does in the Spirit that is peculiar and not alike to all and the one must not be confounded with the other It is worth our asking therefore what Redemption and its immediate fruit to man-kind is and this hath been dispatcht in my paper about Redemption The introduction of a new Covenant and other terms for man to live by is the main The Quaker now does place Christs Redemption in bringing us up to these terms the performance whereof is indeed our Gospel-perfection but he is here so miserably out that he both mistakes the terms or this perfection as if it were no less then the fulfilling every jot of the Law it self also contradicts himself in the best tenent he has For how shall the grace of Christs Redemption be universal if it be placed in that which is not universal How shall Christs death be for all if the great and immediate effect of it be that which only belongs to the Elect On the other hand our Divines we call Orthodox do generally stumble upon this same stone in their denyal of Christs Redemption to be universal It is not sufficient to them for the holding Christs Redemption to be universal that he hath procured that all may be saved if they believe and repent which are our new terms unless he hath procured also that they believe and repent But it is the Elect only do believe and repent and therefore they hold the Redemption only of the Elect. These men how many of them soever they be have not yet learned to distinguish the conditien from the perfermance and that Christs Redemption does lye in procuring the condition not perfermance for the world They know and will say that there is another condition required of us by the Law of our Creation and if man may be justified without that then must there be grace in the grant of this And this grace they are then to understand more is that grace which is so magnified in the ofpel the grace that came by Jesus Christ as the Law by Moses the grace it self of our Redemption Let the Quaker then know it is not Christs bringing man up to the terms of God but his bringing down God to the terms of man that is to such as are sutable to his falne estate wherein the great work he hath done for us is to be fixed And let these Orthodox know the same likewise that it must be therefore his procuring salvation upon our Faith and Repentance and not Repentauce and Faith for our Salvation which is the direct and immediate effect of his Redemption But what Is not our Believing and Repentance then the fruit and purchase of Christs death Be not offended Sirs our Faith and Repentance are a fruit of his Spirit the work of our Sanctification and proceeds from Election See my reasons in p. 29. of my first paper In the sixth place It seems to me that the want of more light to discern between truth and truth is the occasion of persisting to these Friends in their errour and to us in our opposition It is true what we say that no men but sin and it is true what they say the Regenerate sin not The Scripture says both The Child of God sins not so as that sin hath dominion over him when he sins The prevailing interest of his Soul is for God above the flesh and the world and so long he is right in Gods sight right Righteous or Perfect according to the Law of Crace although there be a thousand things wherein he might do more good or less evil than he does and so is imperfect unrighteous and a manifold sinner according to the Law of work The truth is there is something here at the bottom which these men see and our common Protestants do not see which makes them think they see more than we and more than they do see It is this that there can be indeed no justification of any but according to some Law where we can plead that we are innocent or that we have kept that Law and that perfectly so that we are Righteous according to it This being seen they come on too fast that they sin not before they have learned to distinguish between Law and Law Righteousness and Righteousness Justification and Justification Sin and Sin They sin not they are

whole Law to man for a Covenant and if one part onely be transgressed the condition of that covenant is broken as well as if all were transgressed For otherwise he that hath layen with a woman is not therefore to be accused for mnrder nor he that hath sworn an oath is therefore guilty of theft We must understand the like in reference to the Law of faith or covenant of grace and its observation Let a mans sins be what they will so long as the condition be performed he may according to this Law be judged no transgressour In the one a man hath committed no theft no adultery nor idolatry and yet in the sense of the Apostle he is guilty of all In the other he hath bin an idolater an adulterer a thief such were some of you but you are justified and he is guilty of none The reason in both I say is the condition still in the one is broken but performed in the other As we distinguish of the Law Quâ faedus Quâ regula so may we of the performance Sub genere officii Sub genere conditionis Though we fail in our Duty we fulfill the Condition as have said already To this purpose it is not to be forgotten what is said of David that his heart was perfect that he kept Gods Commandements and that he sinned not but in the matter of Uriah And how I pray was that Do not we read of Davids Passion his Lying his Numbring the people his dealing with Mephibosheth was there no sin indeed that David did commit besides this what makes him then complain so much that he was born in Iniquity and that his sins were more than the hairs upon his head I answer there are sins consistent with sincerity and inconsistent with it Sins inconsistent with sincerity are breaches both of the Law of Works and Covenant of Grace and that sub ratione conditionis Sins consistent with it are transgressions indeed of the Law but sub hac ratione no breach of this Covenant Davids sins of the first sort were very many and his acknowledgments pious and true Davids sins of the latter sort was but only in that matter and otherwise it is said that he sinned not To be clear as I goe even for that matter As I have distinguished between the breach of our duty and the condition or of the preceptiue part of the law of grace and the conditional So must I distinguish this breach of the condition into that which may be pro tempore making the punishment so far due as that God may cut off the Sinner and damne him or else final also making it peremptorily and remedilesly due which will be ever executed by him There is a sin unto death and a sin not unto death says the Apostle A sin against the Holy Ghost Whatsoever instance there may be in which such a sin hath been committed as in the obstinacy of the Jews against Christ that rather than they would believe they would impute his Miracles to the Devil the general nature of this sin does lye in this that it is such as is inconsistent with and exclusive of the performance of the terms which are required unto pardon and life The Spirit and New Testament are one and this is to sin N. B. against the New Testament De peccato ad mortem quoniam non expressum est possunt diversa sentiri Ego autem dico id esse peccatum fidem quae per dilectionem operatur deserere usque ad mertem Concerning the sin unto death because it is not expressed divers things may be thought of it but I say that sin is this to desert or never come up to that faith which worketh by love unto death Augustine De Cor. gra c. 12. It must be demanded then what shall we think of David in the matter wherein he is accounted to have sinned I say that David according to our Brittish Divines in the Synod of Dort in that present state could not have been saved if he had died but God having Elected David provided Repentance for him that he could not dye in that estate There is a sin therefore which is inconsistent with sincerity of heart or the terms of grace at present or such a sin or sins which are exclusive of it This I said in other words but now The latter only are sins unto death The breach of the Covenant of grace sub ratione conditionis is that sin and when final that alone which is unpardonable I reassume that whatsoever sins consequently they be which any man commits if they be not such as are incompatible with Sincerity Repentance and Faith they are fins against the Law and our pardon is purchased but they are no breach sub hac ratione I must intend still of the Law of Grace no sin unto death or no sin as can hinder the person from being judged as righteous by that Law or Covenant and to be accepted accordingly unto everlasting Salvation And now Sirs Behold here a kind of Heaven opened to you I mean to you who are the Children of God and fear his Name where all your sins and iniquities are removed and where every one of you are righteous and perfect and sin not For this is the benefit and fruit of Christs Death and Redemption that he hath delivered you from that Law which you break and would condemn you for every breach and he hath brought you under a new Law the Law of Grace which requires nothing of you but what sub rat one Conditionis you do keep for he gives his holy Spirit herein to enable you to the performance So that it is not only your sins are done away that is not imputed or forgiven The Iniquities of Judah it is faid shall be sought for and not found but this Covenant hath nothing to lay to your charge And you that were sometimes alienated hath he now reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight if ye continue in the Faith grounded and setled and be not moved away from the hope of the Cospel And thus we are come to our period We grant a perfection which Divines call Evangelical to the Quaker that is an integrity of heart and life which the Gospel requires of every man that shall be saved If these Friends will have more who have not understood perhaps before how much indeed this is and what truly they impugne then they must come to that our Divines call Legal righteousness or perfection which is to live so as never to break any of Gods precepts both ratione officii conditiouis and if they will maintain this either that they have it or have attain'd it in themselves or that it is necessary to others unto salvation I shall tenderly offer them these ensuing Arguments Reasons or Consideratious for reclaiming them from so desperate an opinion In the first place Be it