Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A47178
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A sermon preach'd at the parish-church of St. Helen's, London, May the 19th, 1700 by George Keith.
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Keith, George, 1639?-1716.
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1700
(1700)
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Wing K211; ESTC R18917
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16,538
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34
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Doctrine Outwardly Is not the Inward Teaching of the Spirit or Light within sufficient without any other thing So some do Argue To this I Answer It is one thing what God could or can do it 's far another thing what he is pleased to do He could Teach us all without the written Word as well as he Taught the Apostles before the Word was committed to Writing but he hath not seen meet so to do he hath a regard to our Weakness A School-master that is able can Teach his Schollars without Books but they cannot so well Learn without Books therefore he Teacheth them with and by Books to condescend to their weak Capacity When God Almighty spake from Heaven by an Audible Voice to the People of Israel they were so affraid that they prayed that God would not Speak to them viz. immediately they were not able to bear it but that God would speak to Moses and by Moses to them which was granted Many who pretend to the same Inspirations in Prophecy that the Apostles had should God Inspire them as he did them in that Extraordinary and Miraculous way and manner as he did the Prophets of old they should find they could not be able to bear it Such Miraculous Extraordinary Inspirations that God gave to the Prophets would be like new Wine in their old Bottles that would burst and break them asunder What God hath joyned together we ought not to put asunder he hath so ordered it most Wisely and Graciously that the Spirit of God as the principal Agent should Teach us and work all Saving Knowledge and Faith in us by the Written Word Preached or Read as his Instrument Thirdly The Death of Christ and his Love in Dying for us is made known to us by the Holy Spirit his Inspiring and Imprinting into our Hearts a sense of his Love He sheds abroad his Love into our Hearts by the Holy Spirit that he has given us according to Rom. 5.5 Christ in his Prayer to his Father St. John 17.26 Prayed in behalf of all that should Believe in him to the end of the World even for us as well as for them who were then with him That the Love wherewith thou hast Loved me may be in them and I in them It ought greatly to affect our Hearts to consider and think that he had us in his Heart and Thoughts at that very time when he prayed this Prayer to his Father and he still hath us in his thoughts who ever Lives to make Intercession for us that the Love wherewith the Father hath Loved us may be in us and he in us Not that the Love wherewith the Father Loved the Son could be strictly and properly speaking contained in us or comprehended by us for that being an infinite Love how could or can it be contained in us who are poor finite Creatures or comprehended by us How can a Finite thing contain that which is Infinite But the Holy Spirit which is called in Scripture The Spirit of Love worketh some Inward sense and impression of the Love of God and Christ in the Soul whereby the Soul that has this Inward sense and impression may know it Fourthly The Love of Christ is made known to us and hath its Influence upon us by his Infusing and Inspiring into our Hearts and Souls If we be true Believers a vigorous and active Principle of Love and Charity that becomes in us a Principle of a Holy and Vertuous Life mightily inclining us to Love both God and Christ and also to Love our Neighbours and all Men even our very Enemies after the example of our Saviours Love And we being acted by that Principle of Love we are thereby enabled with great freedom and readiness with great joy and chearfulness to perform our respective Duties both to God and Man This Principle of Charity Infused or Inspir'd into the Soul is all one with that which is called The Grace of God in the Soul the Grace of Sanctification that includes all the Vertues in it and tho' the Operations be various and manifold yet they all proceed from one Root Seed and Principle This Principle of God's Grace some do not distinguish it from the Holy Ghost but hold it to be one and the same therewith but this is a great Error and dangerous The Holy Ghost is one and the same God with the Father and with the Son the Grace of God and the God of Grace are distinct as the Effect and the Efficient the Gift and the Giver Grace is weaker or stronger greater or lesser hath its several measures therefore it cannot be God himself which is an Infinite Being and hath neither Parts nor Passions to whom nothing can be added and from whom nothing can be diminished This Principle of Love that is in Believers inclining them to Love God and Christ it is so to speak the reflection shadow or image of the Love of God and of Christ towards us As when we look into a Looking-Glass the Glass reflects the image or shadow of the Face back again upon the Beholder the which image hath a likeness to the Original but is as far short of it as a shadow is to the Body or Substance whose shadow it is Or like the Echo which is nothing but the reflection of the Voice or Word of the Speaker Therefore it is that St. John said We Love him because he hath Loved us our Love to him being the reflection of his Love to us and as it were the Daughter and his Love to us as the Mother But to the end that his Love may work this powerful constraint upon us it must not only be known by us but after it is known we must by the help of the Holy Spirit which is given to us frequently Meditate upon it and upon the Death of Christ which his Love constrained him to undergo for us that by frequent Meditation thereof we may have it fixed in our Hearts and become as a burning Fire in us according to that in Psal 39.4 My Heart was hot within me while I was Musing i. e. Meditating the Fire Burned This is also clear from the words in the Text The Love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge God Almighty is pleased to work upon our Hearts by his Gospel Outwardly and by his Spirit Inwardly as we are Reasonable Creatures enabling us to form a sound and firm Judgment of things both of Causes and Effects and to view and consider the excellent Order and Harmony of them that the Wisdom of God hath appointed Had God only infused a Spiritual and Supernatural Principle of Grace into our Hearts mightily inclining us to Love and Obey him without affording us certain Arguments and Reasons Convincing and Perswading our Reasonable Understandings why we should so do on that supposition our Love and Obedience had not been such a rational and free Love and Obedience suiting our rational Nature and Faculties as now it is he having given us