Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	call_v	grace_n	heart_n	5,478	5	4.7458	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27499	The still-borne nativitie, or, A copy of an incarnation sermon that should have been delivered at St. Margarets-Westminster, on Saturday, December the five and twenty, 1647, in the afternoone, by N.B., but prevented by the committee for plunder'd ministers, who sent and seized the preacher, carried him from the vestry of the said church, and committed him to the fleet, for his undertaking to preach without the license of Parliament ...	Bernard, Nicholas, d. 1661.	1648 (1648)	Wing B2018; ESTC R18366	26,917	36

Conscience Law of Nature Counsailes of Men Rules of Philosophie Ingenuity of Education yea and the very Law of God it selfe that is it's Letter are nothing else but Stars and Candlelight not to drive away the night But as it were so many arguments to prove that there is a night Things that serve rather to shew that there is a Heaven and an Earth then to inable us to enjoy either And therefore they that doe charitably acknowledg a possibility of salvation to the Heathen which never heard of the Gospel say that this salvation doth accrue unto them from God for Christ sake Man could let in sinne but it is Christ that must expel it Man could embrace wickednesse but God must send his Sonne to blesse us by turning us away from our iniquities Israell could destroy himselfe But it is God must helpe David needed no guide to goe astray like a lost sheepe But it is Davids Lord must seek and save him And lastly concerning the Lawes rigour it fully appeares by that which hath been spoken already that it must be an Immanuell that must exonerate the burthen satisfie the court of justice arrest judgment and take of the seargeant with a supersedeas for an Execution taken out and not served And all this is don by Christ as our Praes and Sponsor Surety and Advocate for the removing of evil from us And this is the first reason The other reason concerning man is the promoting of his good which is done so many wayes so plentifully that St. Bernard after his manner calls Christ incarnate Manna from Heaven the joy of the hungry A cluster of grapes sweete grapes from Gods vineyard the refreshment of the thirsty soule O yle of gladness The health of the sickly and a stone cut out of the mountaine without hands that the negligent may feare In a word For the general let that goe for al which Fulgentius with fifteene other Bishops more have subscribed concerning this parti●ar except the Worde which is God by uniting in a singular way mans nature unto himselfe had been borne of a virgin a true and perfect man there should never have been bestowed upon us that are borne fleshly an Arise of a spiritual birth c. But now what sweet enterchanges do there passe betweene the Lords Anointed and mankind He borrowes our Flesh and gives us his Spirit takes Earth returns Heaven Exchanges his Peace for our chastisement his sonship for our servitude his grace for our sinne his crown for our curse his life for our death his joyes for our sorrowes In sum of God he became Man That wee by communion with him of men might be made partakers of the divine nature And because mans felicity stands in enjoying God Thus familiarly hath the Sonne of God bartered Natures states and goods with man His first nativity from God the Second from Man making him whose First Birth is from Man to have a Second from God And secondly in seeing God whose brightnesse dazling al sinfull sight with the beauty of holinesse Therefore hath the Lord Iesus Christ like unto another meek Moses put on the vaile of the flesh that by it boldly we might enter and have accesse to the Holy of Holies to see as we are seene And thirdly if there be any inhaerent happinesse I understand the cause of it in man aswell as sorrow it is but like the axe among the Prophets a tool not fit for their coat borrowed and that from Christ For there are three several Gifts which are all of them comprehended in or subordinate to the Incarnation of Iesus Christ concurring to the happines of man in the Scripture called by the name of Grace And distinguished by the immediate extrinsecal Giver As first the grace of God which is the Father by which grace I conceive Christ himselfe is specified To which sence I am enduced by comparing that of Saint Paul Tit. 2. 11. to that of St. Iohn c. 3. v. 16. Secondly the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ Which grace must needes be the Spirit if we consider the promise Iohn 15. 26. Which is somewhere also called the Grace of God and of our Lord Iesus Christ Lastly the Grace of the Spirit which is well known to be that frame of holynesse in the Saincts which being diversified is called the fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5 22 To the introducing of which last it was necessary that the two former should precede The Spirit as the proper fountaine of holinesse and comfort The incarnation as the Mediam and Motive of the Spirits mission to and acceptance with man But of this parhaps fully and more clearely hereafter when if ever we come to write of Christ's Egresse from the world Lastly if in Mans felicity we may any way attend to mans actions Or if there be any such thing beside the name of it as moral felicity Christ as incarnate must be the procurer of it which is done by him As an Object of our Faith A Ground of Hope A cause of Love and a Rule of Operation Two things are required in the object of faith without either of which Faith failes Affability the Party we beleeve must be apt to be spoken with Rom. 10. 15. And Veracitie The first is denyed to God though with imputation of fault herein to Mans sinne only according to that Let not God speake least we die The other to man God is not a Man that he should lie Let God be true and every man a Lyer God cannot be beleeved though true because man cannot abide before his voice Man cannot be trusted when he speaks for untruths Now in Christ these two are united The affability of Man Here is our accesse The truth of God Here the object of our faith Secondly the ground of hope as the most plentifull expression of Gods love ●t quid non speremus amati being so loved what may we not hope for He that gave us his Sonne how shal he not with him freely give us all things The cause of love thirdly he is in God to each of us personaly in us to God dutifully We love him because he loved us first Lastly the rule of Operation In a Rule that men work by Two things are necessary Rectitude and Visibilicie The first is in God without the second The second in man without the first That Christ therefore might be a most perfect rule for man to work by To the righteousnesse of God he assumed the visibilitie of Man c. Thirdly the reasons of the Incarnation that respect sinne is without the limitation of the power of God that it might be a remedy to sinne Tolle morbos tolle vulnera et nulla est medicinae causa If there had been no sinne there had been no need of a Saviour and therefore the glosse upon 1. Tim. 1. Christ came into the World to save sinners is not amisse Nulla causa veniendi fuit Christo Domino nisi peceatores salvos facere and

And so O Lord thy charge Be a father to it And like Iacob cause't to returne to its Fathers House in peace Indeed in quality it is base of the linage of the man of sin and here the Crown is fallen from our heads Wo unto us that we have sinned The disherited may be restored the fatherlesse adopted the Stranger naturalized but the bastard hath his BEND SINISTER or BORDER GOBANY an Indeleble character or brand of Infamy which though amongst men it be an evill that knowes no remedy yet with thee O Lord with whom all things are possible easie to be cured Thou hast a fountaine of bloud to regenerate to a new man the infamous soule of siufull mankind Do thou therefore who once tookest away the reproach of Pharez the base Sonne of Iudah by making him a Lineall Progenitour to thine annointed By waking thy sonne to be progenitor genitrixq to my soule in the wombe of Baptisme to repentance take away the sinne of my birth conception that the Spirit of adoption may enable me with confidence to say Abba Father And yet O my God if in al these relations pardon me my Father if in these too far allusions my pen may seem irreverent my heart desires to honour thee I measure thee by the line of a man I may suspect the Vnity and feare a division For if I am a sheepe smite but the Shepheard and the Sheep will be scattered For this is the prophesie If I be a servant the yeare of Iubile may grant me an injurious liberty For this is the Law of servants If a Son on my marriage day I may forsake thee For that is the rule of Espousals O then so it must be thou must betroth me to thy selfe in faithfulnesse for so shal I in the day enjoy thee in the night embrace thee thy left hand shall bee under mee and thy right arme shall encompasse me The yeare of Iubile for joy shall never go out for liberty never come in How then O Lord shall I allure thee how shall I woo thee for my sinfull soule is like Thamar either a sad neglected Widdow or which is worse a prostituted Strumpet Once this is certain the Maiden innocency thereof is lost by the first transgression which to restore is in the World of Women the mock of Art Yet in thy Church the miracle of Grace for it is as easie with thee to purifie a spirituall Harlot to virginitie as to preserve a fleshly mother in virginitie Thus having breifely described and largly applyed the Nature of this Union and the Natures united I passe to speake of the Reason of the Incarnation with the bare mention whereof I shal conclude The Reasons of the Incarnation may be reduced to these heads such as concerne God Others that concerne us Lastly some that concerne the enemies of God and Man Sin and Sathan Of the reasons that concerne God these two are anciently given by the Fathers First That God whose counsel and purpose hath ever been the illustration and manifestation of his own glory might more eminently evidently and transcendently set forth before Men and Angels The super-excellency of his Goodnesse Wisdome Iustice Power Which no where so clearely shine as in the great worke of the incarnation As may appeare by a Particular consideration of the even now named artributes As first his goodnes is no where so manifest as in him in whome dwels the fullnes of the god-head Bodily The Best of Creatures before had but the footesteps And at the best but an image of God in them But here God himselfe not appears but dwells not his back parts onely but his fullnes in man Nor is that goodnesse here locked but treasured that of his fullnes we might all receive and grace for grace c. Or if we take it not only for holinesse but for loving-kindnesse also Where can we find a paralell to the goodnesse of the Incarnation Wherein that God who even humbles himselfe when he daines to behold things done not in Earth only but in Heaven also is pleased to communicate himselfe his love yea and his very nature too not to a creature only but an earthly creature nor so only but to a sinfull nature to an enemy the Son of his love to the Children of wrath so that as the Angel speaking of Christ his goodnes in the first sence calls him {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That Holy so may we in the latter cal him {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That Kind That loving That mercifull thing who hath so highly honoured and not despised the weaknesse of his owne workmanship Secondly his Wisdome is no where more apparent then in Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge And indeed the very Incarnation it selfe did reveale the wisdome of God in the contrivance of mans salvation so gloriously that if not only confounded the Divells and befooled the subtill Serpent as wee shall see anon but even posed the good Angells themselves Of whom St. Peter testifies that they did {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} stoope to peere into the mysterie For as the learned give the reason They could not conceive how man could ever be redeemed For the lawes rigour was so inexorable that Man could not be quit but by sufferings of infinite value and worth Now they knew that indeed Man could suffer But the sufferings of men and Angells could not merit or countervaile the Lawes rigour within any limits of time Againe they knew that if God interposed he could add value But he could not his very essence forbidding it suffer So that here God charged his Angells with folly who knowing Gods promise of redemption to Israel in the old Testament yet were nonplus't and to seek in the means Till God in the fullnesse of time made knowne the mystery by the Incarnation of Jesus Christ uniting God and Man together in one person for the accomplishing of his promise and covenant Thirdly his Iustice and that both in respect of the Law whose every iota and title stood firmer then Heaven for the Heavens gave way to the descending of Christ or earth which yeilded and trembled at his resurrection But the Law stood strong not suffering him to passe till all the percepts were obeyed the prophesies fullfilled and trespasses satisfied for Not condoning much lesse conniving at sin though but imputed and that to the Son of God And then wherein I pray doth the senerity of Gods Justice appeare more or equally Zaleucus his one eye And that Heathens selfe destroying besides their cruelty come infinitly short of this most strict yet aequable Justice And secondly in respect of the Subject yeilding and exacting satisfaction in the same nature that had sinned and then rendring the purchased inheritance to the nature that had merited by obeying And lastly in respect of Death it selfe who raigning over all by sinne lost not its dominion till Christ spoyled him