Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	body_n	sin_n	soul_n	13,963	5	5.3517	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30696	The necessity and reward of a willing mind a sermon preach'd at Exon before an assembly of ministers of the counties of Devon and Somerset, April 16, 1693 / by John Bush.	Bush, John, fl. 1693.	1693 (1693)	Wing B6231; ESTC R35793	23,643	37

the Apostle makes so necessary to well doing that all may know whether they have this willing mind 2. Shew its Necessity in the general to all Men. 3. That Ministers above others should have it 4. Draw some practical Inferences from the Proposition in relation to us all as Christians but especially as Ministers 1. This willing mind seems to consist of two things 1. A fixing of the Will that it may stick to its duty 2. The chearfulness of the mind in its performance First The Will must be fixed without this nothing is done willingly The great Controversie of late hath been who doth determine the Will God by the Irresistible Operation of his Grace or Man by making those Operations to be effectual In which Controversie whilst some have given to Man more power than in truth is in him others have gone into another extreme those that go in the former extreme though otherwise very Learned Men do so rarely mention the Supernatural Operations of the Holy Spirit which are as necessary to deliver the Soul from the bonds of Sin as to Release the Body from the power of the Grave at the last day that as one saith of the Socinians 't is hard to call them Hereticks for they scarce deserve to be called Christians so of these Men 't is hard to say that they Preach another Gospel for they seldom Preach any Gospel and yet some have erred on the other hand as if God's Grace had so superseded Man's duty that there were nothing for us to do but to look when God will do it that we may sit still and do nothing The truth lieth between these two extremes which will the sooner appear if you consider that they only are willing whom God doth make willing and yet every Man that is truly willing his heart doth stir him up to his own duty and his own spirit doth make him willing 1. They only are willing whom God doth make willing for 't is his work to subdue the will a work that needs and becomes a God to do the work is the greatest manifestation of a Divine Power Psal 110.3 Thy people shall be a willing people in the day of thy power in the beauties of holiness from the womb of the morning thou hast the dew of thy youth The words seem to relate to those early and numerous Conversions which are recorded in the Acts of the Apostles where you find thousands at one Sermon converted to Christianity which times are therefore called the womb of the morning and the dew of Christ's youth because as he that goeth forth in the morning is then strongest for his Labour and the Young Man hath most agility of body to run the Race So the Grace of God in the first publishing of it should go forth with that power as is in the young for his Race as is in a strong Man for his Labour Hence it is that they that think they have made themselves willing do but deceive themselves when by the Grace of God they were not made so for the Will of Man is conquered by none but God Men may attempt it to bend it to God's Will as you would bend a crooked Stick it will return to its own crookedness And therefore Moses that knew what a great work 't is to fix the heart to its duty tells the People that though they had seen more of God's Power than ever any Nation before them or perhaps more than ever any Nation shall see whilst the World continueth if God would do this they would see more of a Divine Power than as yet they had seen Deut. 29.2 3 4. Ye have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the Land of Egypt unto Pharaoh and his Servants and to all his Land the great temptations which thine eyes have seen yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive the greatness of the work and the successlesness of outward means shews it to be God's work and therefore to argue against this from some difficulties that occur in stating the Controversies as to the manner of the operation of the Holy Spirit upon our Wills that because Man hath a self-determining Principle and is Master of his own actions which can't be denied yet to argue from hence that this can't agree with the Irresistible Operations of God's Grace is to pretend a tenderness to Human Nature that we may not wrong that and in the mean time wrong God as if we were to be more tender of Man's Honour than of God's Honour Why should it not suffice us what so many have said in this matter that the turning of the Will is done by Moral Perswasion as Man is a Rational Creature made for Moral Government but the Efficacy of God's Grace lieth in the immediate Operations of God's Spirit upon Man's Will which is subdued in a way of power as Man is a wicked Creature and yet so subdued that no Man is forced against his Will but made willing and yet that which makes him so is not the cooperation of his own Will with God's Spirit but the Conquest of the Spirit over the Will which being effectual Man shall not be able to Resist it and if he could he would not he is so drawn by Love as well as subdued by Power Now to scorn all this which in effect so many have done by saying How can this be and Man act as a self-determining Creature Master of his own Actions is to pretend that we can refine upon every thing that is done in the World when in the mean time if we descend into the manner of things we can give account of nothing for though we do all know that we can will and chuse and refuse and think and love and hate yet enquire how this is done how the Soul that is a Spirit doth operate upon the Body to move and stir it and how one thought doth beget another and who can give an account of all this Why then should we pretend to know how far the Spirit of God can operate upon our Souls to incline us to good and not destroy that determining Principle which is in all Men and therefore it will more become us to believe that which the Scripture is so positive in though we can't give an account how ' t is And as I hinted before there is not only need of God's Grace to determine the Will to its duty but to keep it there For we are apt to go off from our own Resolutions and Purposes and to lose the present Impression of God's Grace the willing mind will of it self become unwilling and therefore God having tryed us in Adam doth not trust us in the Second Covenant to our selves and we have need to consider this that we may not depend upon the first determination of our own Wills we are mutable fickle and unconstant Creatures our hearts are deceitful not only in this that they are not really willing when they