Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	faith_n	law_n	work_n	8,151	5	6.0996	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35344	A sermon preached to the honourable Society of Lincolns-Inne by R. Cudsworth ...	Cudworth, Ralph, 1617-1688.	1664 (1664)	Wing C7470; ESTC R38833	29,413	70

and Living Faith that worketh by Love which is the very Essence of the New Creature or Regenerate Nature 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be imputed or accounted for Righteousness under the Gospel-dispensation where God will not proceed according to Legal Rigour and Severity with his fallen Creatures but according to that Equity and ' 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Philosopher tells us is the Truest Justice But our onely design is to caution against that Antinomian Error which is too often insinuated under the Notion of Imputed Righteousness as if there were no necessity of Inherent Righteousness and a Real Victory over Sin in order to Salvation but that an Imputed or Imaginary one might serve the turn Which Error springing up very early amongst the Gnostick-Christians S. John gives a seasonable Antidote against it 1 John 3. 7. Little Children let no man deceive you he that doth Righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous and in Chap. 2. v. 4. He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a Liar and the Truth is not in him To which purpose is that also in his first Chap. v. 5. This is the Message which we have heard of him and declare to you That God is Light and in him is no Darkness at all If we say that we have Fellowship with him and walk in darkness we lye and doe not the Truth But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have Fellowship one with another and the Bloud of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin Wherefore the same Apostle in that Epistle tells us of overcoming the Wicked one Chap. 2. 14. and of overcoming the World by our Faith in Christ Chap. 5. 4. And in the Apocalyps he propoundeth from Christ himself divers remarkable Promises to him that overcometh That he shall eat of the Tree of life that is in the midst of the Paradise of God c. 2. v. 7. That he shall not be hurt of the Second Death v. II. That he shall have the hidden Manna and a white Stone with a new Name written in it which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it v. 17. That he will give him the morning Star v. 28. That he shall be clothed in white Raiment and his name shall not be blotted out of the Book of Life c. 3. v. 5. That he shall be a Pillar in the Temple of God v. 12. and That he shall sit with Christ in his Throne as he overcame and sate down with his Father in his Throne v. 21. The Condition of all which Promises being Overcoming we may well conclude from thence that there is a Real and not an Imaginary Victory onely to be obtained over the Power of Sin as well as the Guilt of it Nay it is true and very observable that those Places which are usually quoted as the Foundation of an Imputed Righteousness in some other sense then what we have before mentioned are indeed no otherwise to be understood then of a Real Inward Righteousness that is wrought or infused by the Spirit of Christ. As that principal one Philip. 3. v. 8. Yea doubtless and I count all things loss for the excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord that I may win him and be found in him not having mine own Righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the Righteousness which is of God by Faith Where Christ whom the Apostle desires to win and to be found in and the Righteousness which is through the Faith of Christ and the Righteousness which is of God through Faith are no External Imputed Righteousness but the Real Inward Righteousness of the New Creature wrought by the Spirit of Christ through Faith which is opposed here to our own Righteousness and the Righteousness which is of the Law that is the Righteousness of outward Works done by our own Natural power according to the Letter of the Law in our Unregenerate state for so the following words explain the meaning That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his Sufferings being made conformable unto his Death If by any means I might attain to the Resurrection of the dead And this same Inward and Real Righteousness is often elsewhere called Christ and the New man that is said to be In us and which we are exhorted to Put on not by Conceit or Imagination onely but by real Conformity to his Nature and Participation of his Spirit And whereas the Magnifiers of Free Grace in an Antinomian sense and the Decriers of Inherent Righteousness commonly conceive that the Free Grace of God consists in nothing but either in the Pardon of Sin and Exemption from Punishment or the Imputation of an External Holiness and accounting men Just freely without any Condition but onely the mere Believing of this that they are so accounted and that Faith is no otherwise considered in the Gospel then in order to the Believing of this Imputation and that our own Works when they are comparatively undervalued to Grace and Faith are to be taken for all Inherent Righteousness and Holiness even the New Creature it self That all these are Errors as it might be abundantly proved from sundry other places of Scripture so it may sufficiently appear from that one Ephes. 2. v. 4 c. God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ by Grace ye are saved and hath raised us up together That in the Ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his Grace and his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus For by Grace are ye saved through Faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Not of Works left any man should boast For we are his Workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good Works For when we are here said to be saved by Grace it is plain that the Apostle means by Saved inwardly Quickned and Sanctified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Grotius well here is Purgari à Vittis which inward Sanctification is here attributed to God's Free Grace and denied to our selves and to Works the meaning whereof is that it is not effected by our own Works whether of outward Morality or Legal Ceremonies done by our Natural power in the Unregenerate state but by the quickning and enlivening Spirit of Christ inwardly creating us a-new And lastly Faith is plainly made the Instrument of this inward Sanctification that is not wrought by our own Works but the Grace and Spirit of Christ. Whence we may well conclude That the true Object of the Christian Faith is not onely the Bloud of Christ shed upon the Cross for the Remission of Sin but also the renewing Spirit of Christ for the inward conquering and mortifying of it and the Quickning or Raising of us to an Heavenly Life And I dare be bold

them to be without us being nothing but the Vital Energies of our own Spirits In a word God would have Man to be a Living Temple for himself to dwell in and his Faculties Instruments to be used and employed by him which need not be thought impossible if that be true that Philosophy tells us that there is Cognatio quaedam a certain near Kindred and Alliance between the Soul and God Lastly we must observe though this inward Victory over Sin be no otherwise to be effected then by the Spirit of Christ through Faith and by a Divine Operation in us so that in a certain sense we may be said to be Passive thereunto yet notwithstanding we must not dream any such thing as if our Active Cooperation and Concurrence were not also necessarily required thereunto For as there is a Spirit of God in Nature which produceth Vegetables and Minerals which humane Art and Industry could never be able to effect namely that Spiritus intus alens which the Poet speaks of which yet notwithstanding doth not work Absolutely Unconditionately and Omnipotently but requireth certain Preparations Conditions and Dispositions in the Matter which it works upon For unless the Husbandman plow the Ground and sow the Seed the Spirit of God in Nature will not give any increase In like manner the Scripture tells us that the Divine Spirit of Grace doth not work Absolutely Unconditionately and Irresistibly in the Souls of men but requireth certain Preparations Conditions and Cooperations in us forasmuch as it may both be quenched and stirred up or excited in us And indeed unless we plow up the Fallow-ground of our hearts and sow to our selves in Righteousness as the Prophet speaks by our earnest endeavours we cannot expect that the Divine Spirit of Grace will showr down that Heavenly increase upon us Wherefore if we would attain to a Victory over Sin by the Spirit of Christ we must endeavour to fight a good Fight and run a good Race and to enter in at the streight gate that so overcoming we may receive the Crown of Life And thus much shall suffice to have spoken at this time concerning the First Particular The Victory over Sin I Shall now proceed to speak something briefly to the Two other Victories that remain which are attainable also by Christ over the Law and Death And the Law may be considered two manner of waies First as an outward Covenant of Works that pronounceth Death and Condemnation to all that do not yield absolute and entire Obedience to whatever is therein commanded and which imposed also with the same Severity a multitude of outward Ceremonial Observations which had no intrinsecal Goodness at all in them but kept men in a state of Bondage and Servility Now the Law in this sense as it is an outward Letter and Covenant of Works is already conquered externally for us by Christ's Death upon the Cross Galat. 3. 13. Christ hath redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree That the Blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ that we might receive the Promise of the Spirit through Faith And he hath thereby freed us also from our Obligation to those Commandments that were not Good having broken down the Middle-wall of Partition that was betwixt Jew and Gentile abolishing in his Flesh the Enmity even the Law of Commandments Ephes. 2. 14 15. And blotting out the hand-writing of Ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and taking it out of the way nailing it to his Cross Coloss. 2. 14. Secondly The Law is sometimes also considered in Scripture as an inward state of Minde wrought by the Law and Truth of God whether written outwardly in the Letter of the Scripture or inwardly in the Conscience prevailing onely so farre as to beget a Conviction of mens Duty and of the Wrath of God against Sin but not inabling them with inward strength and power to doe what is commanded willingly out of a Love of it It is such a State when men are onely Passive to God's Law and unwillingly subject to it as an Enemy for fear of Wrath and Vengeance And this must needs be a state of miserable Bondage and Servility Distraction and Perplexity of minde when men are at once strongly convinced of the Wrath of God against Sin and yet under the power of their Lusts haling and dragging of them to the commission of it It is that state as I conceive which S. Paul describes Rom. 7. after this manner The Law is Spiritual but I am Carnal sold under Sin for that which I doe I allow not for what I would that doe I not but what I hate that doe I. And again I see another Law in my Members warring against my Minde and bringing me into Captivity under the Law of Sin O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of death Now from the Law in this sense that is from the Bondage and Servility of the Legal state we are not delivered nor made Conquerors by what Christ did outwardly upon the Cross as some imagine as if he had there purchas'd for us an Indulgence to sin without controll but by the inward working of his Holy Spirit freeing us from the Power and Bondage of Sin and unbewitching us from the Love of it Wherefore there is a double Freedome from this Legal state to be taken notice of a True a False Freedome which I cannot better explain then by using the Apostle's own Similitude in the beginning of the 7. Chap. Know ye not Brethren that the Law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth or rather as long as It that is the Law liveth For the Woman which hath an Husband is bound by the Law to her Husband so long as he liveth but if her Husband be dead she is loosed from the Law of the Husband So then if while her Husband liveth she be married to another man she shall be called an adulteress but if her Husband be dead she is free from that Law so that she is no adulteress though she be married to another man Where the Law is compared to an Husband and one that is under the Law or in a Legal state to a Woman that hath an Husband And as there are two waies by which a Woman may be freed from her Husband The one if she break loose from him whilst he yet liveth contrary to the Laws of Wedlock and marry to another man which is an undue and unlawful Freedome for then she is justly styled an Adulteress Another if she stay till her Husband be dead and then being free from the Law of her Husband does lawfully marry to another man In like manner there are two waies by which men may be freed from the Law as it is an inward state of Bondage and Servility The first is when