Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	scripture_n	word_n	5,665	5	4.3306	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45400	Charis kai eirēnē, or, A pacifick discourse of Gods grace and decrees in a letter of full accordance / written to the reverend and most learned Dr. Robert Sanderson by Henry Hammond ... ; to which are annexed the extracts of three letters concerning Gods prescience reconciled with liberty and contingency ; together with two sermons preached before these evil times, the one to the clergy, the other to the citizens of London.	Hammond, Henry, 1605-1660.	1660 (1660)	Wing H519; ESTC R35983	108,515	176

you say there are many other passages of Scripture on which 't is founded I shall mention but two 1. that of the Apostle who cals preaching the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the administration of the Spirit which the Father expresses by verbum vehiculum Spiritus the word is the chariot in which the Spirit descends to us 2. that description of resisting the holy spirit which S. Stephen gives us Act. vii 51. by their being like the Jews which persecuted the Prophets which spake unto them which concludes the holy spirit to be given with the preaching of the Gospel else how could the rejecting and persecuting the one be the resisting of the other So likewise though you mention but one reason yet that is as constringent as many nothing but sufficiency of supernaturall Grace being competent to render him that is acknowledged naturally impotent unexcusable And therefore deeming that abundantly confirmed to advance it above a disputable probleme I proceed to the next Proposition the third which you rank under the style of Conjectures It is this § 52. That because the sufficiency of this General Grace notwithstanding through the strength of naturall corruption it might happen to prove uneffectuall to all persons God vouchsafed out of the supereffluence of his goodness yet ex mero beneplacito without any thing on their part to deserve it to confer upon such persons as it pleased him to fix upon without inquiring into under what qualifications preparations or dispositions considered a more speciall measure of Grace which should effectually work in them faith and perseverance unto salvation This you say you take to be the election especially spoken of in the Scriptures and if so then the Decree of Reprobation must be nothing els but the dereliction or preterition of the rest as to that special favour of conferring upon them this higher degree of effectuall Grace Against this you say you know enough may be objected and much more then you esteem your self able to answer yet to your apprehension somewhat less then may be objected against either of the extreme opinions § 53. Of this Proposition as being the first by you produced to which your caution seems to be due some things may in passing be fitly noted First that for the stating of that community which is here set down as the object of Election and reprobation and exprest by a generall style all persons this Caution is necessarily to be taken in that the proposition is not to be interpreted in the utmost latitude that the style all persons is capable of but as analogy with your former doctrine strictly requires for the generality of men preach'd to and so neither belongs to heathens nor to the Infants or Idiots or uninstructed among Christians but to those that having the Gospel revealed to them and sufficient grace to enable them to receive it are yet left in the hand of their own counsell whether they will actually receive it or no. § 54. Now of these which is the second thing to be observed in your proposition it is manifest that if as you suppose both in the former and in this Proposition they have grace truly sufficient afforded them then they want nothing necessary to a faln weak sinful creature to conversion perseverance and salvation and if so then by the strength of this Grace without addition of any more they may effectually convert persevere and be saved and then though what may be may also not be and so it be also possible that of all that are thus preach'd to and made partakers of this Grace no one shall make use of it to these effects yet this is but barely possible and not rendred so much as probable either upon any grounds of Scripture or Reason In the Scripture there is no word revealed to that sense or that I ever heard of produced or applyed to it but on the contrary in the Parable of the Talents which seems to respect this matter particularly they that received the Talents to negotiate with did all of them except one make profit of them and bring in that account to their Master which received a reward which is utterly unreconcileable with the hypothesis of Gods foreseeing that the talent of sufficient Grace would be made use of by none that received no more then so As for that one that made not use of it all that is intimated concerning him is that if his share comparatively was mean yet by the Lord he is charged as guilty for not putting it into the bank that at his coming he might receive his own with usury which certainly evinces that that lazy servant is there considered as one that might have managed his stock as well as the rest and that that stock was improvable no less then the other according to their severall proportions and so herein there is no difference taken notice of in favour to your Conjecture And in Reason it hath no sound of probability that of so great a number of Christians sufficiently furnished by God no one should make use of it to their souls health 't is evident in the Apostles preaching at Jerusalem and elswhere that at the first proposal of the truth of Christ to them and the Doctrine of Repentance whole multitudes received the Faith and came in and no doubt many of them proved true and constant Christians and it is not amiss to observe of the heads of Doctrine which the Apostles agreed to publish in all their peregrinations that they are of such force and were on that account pitcht on by them as might reasonably and probably with the supposed concurrence of Gods Grace beget repentance and new life in all to whom they were preach'd over the whole world and then what the Apostles deemed a rationall and probable means to that end there is no reason or probability to think should never in any produce this effect according to that of Athanasius that the Faith confest by the Fathers of Nice according to holy Writ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sufficient for the averting of all impiety and the establishment of all piety in Christ To which may be applyed that of S. Augustine of the Creed Quae pauca verba fidelibus nota sunt ut credendo subjugentur Deo ut subjugati recte vivant recte vivendo cor mundent corde mundo quod credant intelligant These few words are known to believers that by believing they may be subjugated to God that by being subjugated they way live well that by living well they may cleanse their hearts that by cleansing their hearts they may understand what they believe And herein the all-wise providence and infinite mercy of God seems to be engaged who in the Parable of his dealing with his Vineyard Isa v. not onely expostulates What could I have done more to my vineyard which I have not done but also affirmeth that he looked it should bring forth grapes and

effectuall work of Grace be not some natural quality of the man for if so then the efficacy of grace will be imputed to these natural or moral preparations which is grosly prejudicial to the grace of God and to the owing of all our good to his supernatural operations the answer is obvious and unquestionable that this I shall call it Evangelical temper is far from being natural to any corrupt child of Adam where ever 't is met with 't is a special plant of Gods planting a work of his preparing softning preventing Grace and as much imputable to the operation of his holy Spirit as any effect of his subsequent or cooperating Grace is which I challenge to be the meaning of those words of Christ Joh. vi 37. All that my Father giveth me shall come to me where such as these are first fitted by God and then by him are said to be given to Christ works of his finger his spirit and then by the authour of them presented to Christ as the persons rightly disposed for his discipleship and his kingdome in mens hearts and this work of Gods in fitting them is there called his drawing of them to Christ v. 44. and as there it is said that none but such can come to Christ so vers 37. all such shall come to him which is an evidence that the coming wherein the effectualness of the grace consists is imputable to this temper wrought in them by God And if still it be demanded why this is not wrought in all Christians hearts I answer finally that the onely reason the Scripture teaches us is because some resist that spirit that is graciously given by God and purposely designed to work it in them § 64. And if it still be suggested that some are naturally more proud and refractary and voluptuously disposed then others an effect of their temper owing oft to their immediate parents who may transfuse their depravations and corruptions immediately to their children as well as Adam hath done to us all mediately and so a greater degree of grace will be necessary to the humbling and mollifying them and a lower which might be sufficient for meeker tempers will be unsufficient for them and so still these are as infallibly excluded and barred out as if it were by a fatal decree passing them by in Massa this will be also satisfied by resolving that God in his wise disposals and abundant mercies proportioned according to mens wants gives a greater degree of preventing Grace to such as he sees to be naturally in greatest need of it or els applies it so advantageously by congruous timing as he knows is sufficient even to them to remove these naturall obstacles but all this to them as to others resistibly still and so as though it succeed sometimes yet is frequently resisted § 65. By this means he that is proud and obstinate and continues and holds out such against all the softning preparations of heaven sufficient to have wrought a kindlier temper in him being so ill qualified for the holy spirit of discipline is not converted but hardened by the same or equall means of the word and grace by which the humble is converted and then replenished with higher degrees And when the Scripture is so favourable to this notion saying expresly that God chooses one and not the other gives more grace to one and from the other takes away that which he hath resists the proud when they refuse discipline speaks to them onely in parables because seeing they see not i. e. resist and frustrate Gods preventing graces and infinite the like why may not this rather be the Scripture-election then that other which seems not to have any at least not so visible grounds in it § 66. Should this be but a Conjecture too it is not the less fit for this place where our discourse hath been of such and the onely seasonable inquiry is either 1. which is of probables the most or of improbables the least such and that I suppose is competently shew'd already or 2. which may be most safe and least noxious in case it should fail of exact truth § 67. On which occasion I shall add but this that the onely consequence naturally arising from this Scheme is that we make our elections after the pattern of God choose humility and probity and avert pride and hypocrisie that before all things in the world every man think himself highly concerned 1. not to resist or frustrate Gods preventing Graces but chearfully to receive cooperate and improve them to pray and labour and attend and watch all opportunities of Grace and Providence to work humility and probity in his heart impatience of sin and hungring and thirsting after righteousness as the onely soyle wherein the Gospel will ever thrive to begin his discipleship with repentance from dead works and not with assurance of his election and salvation to set out early and resolutely without procrastinating or looking back Luk. ix 62. and 2. if he hath overslipt such opportunities to bewail and retrive them betimes lest he be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin and 3. whatsoever good he shal ever advance to by the strength of Gods sanctifying and assisting grace to remember with the utmost gratitude how nothing hath been imputable to himself in the whole work but from the beginning to the end all due to supernatural Grace the foundation particularly that which if it be the most imperfect is yet the most necessary part of the building and the sure laying of which tends extremely to the stability of the whole laid in Gods preventions cultivating our nature and fitting us with capacities of his higher donatives And what can less prejudice nay more tend to the glory of his grace then this § 68. Whereas the other Scheme as it takes special care to attribute all the work of conversion to Grace and withall not so to limit that communicative spring as to leave any destitute of a sufficient portion of it in which respect I have nothing really to object against it if it could but approve it self by Gods word to be the Truth so when it bears not any such impress of Divine Character upon it it may not be amiss to consider Whether he that is perswaded that the sufficient Grace is such as may and as some set it God sees will never do any man good without the addition of his superesfluence which he affords to few and that if that come it will infallibly do the work if it come not he is so past by as to be reprobated by God may not have some temptations to despair on one side and not do his utmost to cooperate with that sufficient Grace which is allowed him and so with the fool in Ecclesiastes fold his hands together till he comes to eat his own flesh or els to presume on the other side and expect securely till the coming of the congruous good time of Gods choice which

no salvation possible to lapsed man by any other Covenant Which being set in opposition to the first Covenant of perfect unsinning obedience and therefore called a second and Evangelical Covenant on condition onely of sincere obedience of doing what by Gods gift purchased by Christ men are enabled to do it follows still that whatsoever acceptation or mercy they who never heard of Christ can be imagined to have afforded them by God must be conformable to the tenure of the Evangelicall Covenant and so to the praise of the Glory of that Grace whereby whosoever is accepted by God is accepted in the beloved § 45. The second Consideration is the analogy which in one respect is observable between those to whom the Gospel is not revealed and all children and Idiots within the pale of the Church for although believing in Christ were supposed equally by the law of Scripture to be exacted of all and so of both those sorts nay by the intervention of the vow of Baptism to be more expresly the obligation of those that are baptized then those that are not yet there is no reason producible to free the Christian children and idiots from the blame of not believing which will not with equall force be producible for those heathens to whom the Gospel was never revealed it being as impossible to see without the presence of the object as without the faculty of sight without the Sun as without eyes without the revelation of Christ as without the intellective faculty which if it be not part of the importance of that decree of heaven Go and preach and then he that believeth not shall be damned yet it is fully accordant to it and shews that that Text was not designed to give suffrage to the damnation of all but Christians which is all that your Corollary or my observations have aspired unto to which it is yet farther necessarily consequent that these Scripture Decrees which you speak of and whosoever speaks of any other must be resolved to speak from some other dictate then that of Scripture comprize not all men no nor all baptized Christians under them being terminated onely in those to whom the Gospel is revealed and those certainly are not all that are brought into the world or even to Baptismal new birth § 46. The third consideration is that seeing the Scripture assures us that they which have received more of them more shall be required and that he that knoweth and doeth not shall be beaten with many stripes this must needs advertise us that whatever priviledges Christians may have beyond heathens this is not one that a smaller degree of obedience and performances shall be accepted of them then of heathens would be but the contrary that to whom less is given less will be required according to that of S. Augustine Ex eo quod non accepit nullus reus est No man is guilty from that which he hath not received § 47. The fourth Consideration is that God rewards those that have made use of the single talent that lowest proportion of Grace which he is pleased to give and the method of his rewarding is by giving them more grace which as it is in some degree applicable to heathens who have certainly the talent of naturall knowledge and are strictly responsible for it so if they use not that but retain the truth in unrighteousness Rom. 1. 18. that makes their condition but the same with ours who are finally lost also and at the present have our talent taken away from us if we make not the due use of it § 48. This 't is visible hath befaln those Nations who once had the Gospel preacht to them and after the knowledge of the truth return'd to their heathen sins and so had their candlestick taken from them to which and not to Gods primary denying them Evangelical Grace their present Barbarity is to be imputed And the onely conclusion which we can hence duely make is the acknowledgement of Gods just judgements on them and reasonable fear lest he deal in like manner with us if we transcribe their copy imitate them in their demerits Should God most justly thus punish this nation at this time could it either now or in future ages be reasonable hence to argue against the Doctrine of Vniversal Grace in case there were a concurrence of all other evidences for the truth of the Doctrine Certainly it could not In like manner then it cannot be reasonable to argue thus from the like fate and effects on other Nations § 49. To which I may add that Christ being we know in Gods decree and promise the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world if this argument be now of force against the heathens it must equally hold against all that understood no more of the Predictions of Christ then the Pagans do now of the History § 50. And then it must should it have force follow not onely that the Sacrifice of Christ was intended to be of avail to none but the Jews to whom onely the Oracles of God were committed which yet you acknowledge was intended to all but also that as far as we have wayes of judging a very small part of those Jews received the salvifick Grace of Christ if it were confined and annext to the revelation and belief of him For if we may judge of other ages by that wherein Christ appeared the Prophecies of the Crucified Messias were very little understood by that people All this makes it more prudent and rationall and pious to search our own wayes then to pass sentence on other men which is the onely thing I have aimed at in these four Considerations § 51. Your second Proposition which you tender as a Conjecture I cannot but own under an higher style of an evident truth of Scripture It is this That there is to the outward tender of Grace in the ministry of the Gospel annexed an inward offer also of the same to the heart by the spirit of God going along with his word which some of the Schoolmen call auxilium Gratiae generale sufficient in it self to convert the soul of the hearer if he do not resist the Holy Ghost and reject the Grace offerr'd which as it is grounded upon these words Behold I stand at the door and knock and upon very many other passages of Scripture beside so it standeth with reason that the offer if it were accepted should be sufficient ex parte sui to do the work which if not accepted is sufficient to leave the person not accepting the same unexcusable This I say I am obliged to assent to in the terms and upon the double ground both of Scripture and reason whereon you induce it If there were but one text of Scripture so convincingly inferring it that sure would advance it above a barely probable Conjecture But I think the whole tenure of the new Testament inforceth the same and though you name but one