Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	find_v	heart_n	soul_n	5,461	5	4.7760	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96532	The doctrine of the covenant of redemption Wherein is laid the foundation of all our hopes and happiness. Briefly opened and improved. By Samuel Willard, teacher of a church in Boston. [Three lines from Psalms]	Willard, Samuel, 1640-1707.; Mather, Increase, 1639-1723.	1693 (1693)	Wing W2274A; ESTC W38208	68,045	178

Sinner upon believing and that is a precious thing but he knows not how to reconcile this to what the Law saith that God is Holy and of purer eyes than to behold Iniquity that Sinners shall not stand in his sight such an one hath he notoriously been and how should he make those things to bear Now Repair to the Covenant of Redemption and take a through view of it and there you shall find that all this is sufficiently taken care about and every difficulty that you can think of is altogether removed The Covenant of Grace indeed speaks of favour and mercy to Sinners freely to be bestowed upon them by God through Christ but in the Covenant of Redemption you may see how all this is brought about and be satisfied ●● it for in this Covenant there is an O●fering provided a compleat Sacrifice la●● in here is the Blood of a Saviour to be shed his precious life to be laid down in exchange for the life of the Sinner in which there is infinitely more value than in the lives of all the World and therefore all the Law require● at the hands of the Sinner is here answered Here is Justice sitting in Triumph Holiness gloriously Exalted the Law fulfilled to the utmost of all that it can demand here God declares his hatred against Sin sufficiently and all that was demanded in the Covenant of Works is made good to the utmost farthing and now what should hinder the flowing down of the Grace of the New Covenant to the Salvation of Gods Elect since it appears that he can be both Just and the Justifier of them that believe 2 To remove all the doubts that may arise in you respecting the Covenant of Grace In this very Covenant Satan the adversary of Gods People seeks to find many slaws and thereupon to pester their minds and disturb their tranquility so as that many times they cannot with that quietness repose themselves upon it or suck that sweet and comfort out of it which is therein provided for them and the usual stratagem which he is wont to entangle them by is the consideration that though there are very great and Precious Promises held out to the Children of God in that Covenant enough to satisfy their most enlarged desires if they could appropriate them to themselves yet in the Gospel all these Promises come with conditions annexed to them and therefore they are no farther ours than the condition is to be found wrought in us and we can no more use Them for our Establishment than we are able to make out these conditions these conditions are of two sorts viz. either such as are required in order to our being made Partakers in these Promises or such as are requisite in order to our coming to the compleat fruition of the good laid up in them Respecting the former there is so much Counterfeit in the world and it is a thing so easy to be mistaken about and led into a vain presumption yet he troubles them with doubts whether they are indeed true Believers or have sincerely Repented and Turned to God Now for the clearing up of this they are to confer the Rules given in the Scriptures and wait for the Co-Witness of the Spirit But to the latter the trouble is a believer finds Satan filling him with fears whether he shall ever be able to perform them his faith is so weak and the Temptations which Assault him are so strong that he shall fail and his faith give in his Obedience is so poor and uneven that it will never find acceptance with God and this Perseverance is a Terrible thing how shall he ever be able to hold out against all the Furious Shocks which he is to encounter and be faithful to the Death and if he do not be must expect to lose the Crown It is an hard thing to maintain his Integrity in the midst of all the Allurements and affrightments that are in his way and if he fail or fall short he is lost after all Now if you find your selves to be at any time thus shaken your business is presently to repair to the Everlasting Covenant and there you shall find satisfaction and good security against these fears For 1 You shall here find all these conditions which are thus required of you in the Covenant of Grace to be firmly and faithfully undertaken for by the Lord Jesus Christ For we observed before that in the Covenant of Redemption one Condition that was laid upon and required of the Son of God was that he should bring many Sons to Glory and for that end he undertook to do all that for them and in them that was requisite for the accomplishment of it so that he stands obliged not only to answer the Law for them but the Gospel too The fulfilment of every condition that is necessary in order to their Participation in Life Eternal is incumbent on him to see to If there be any thing which is a necessary medium to Glory required of us he is engaged to see it done in us and for us else it would not be a Compleat work of Redemption If He should deliver us from the Law so far as to make it a possibility for us to be saved by Grace and yet leave us to Perish for want of the Evangelical Obed●ence without which there is no Salvation we were in a miserable state for we can no more do this of our selves than we could the other but it is far otherwise That would be an Arminian mock Redemption and it would be but to save us from one Hell to throw us into a Worse But as the Son of God was to answer the Law for us so was he to give us the Grace and Strength to answer the Gospel in all the Demands of it and therefore the security is in him whose Strength will Manifest and Magnify it self in our Weakness 2. Hence you shall here find all those Absolute Promises which are upon Scripture Record given for your comfort It is true an Unbeliever can make no challenge of them to himself or make a living of them they are not a Dish that is set before every one to feed upon but a believer may and ought to reckon them to be his own and to suck all the Marrow and Fatness out of them And when you have well pondered of these Promises you may strengthen your Faith by arguing after this manner viz. That although in the Covenant of Grace all these things are required of you and they must be found in you if ever you be saved yet in the Covenant of Redemption all this is undertaken for for this is the proper language of these Promises When God saith He will give you a New Heart and put his Spirit upon you and put his Fear into your Hearts and you shall never depart from him and the like these Promises belong to some there are they who are designed pointed at by them and

they have done to throw blocks in the way and to provoke God to reject them yet it shall not prevent the breaking out of his grace in the Accomplishment thereof because all that Gods Elect do or can do to hinder their own Salvation and bring wrath upon themselves is taken care about and full satisfaction is made for it in that Covenant by our Surety and hereupon do these Conclusions follow 1. That those Promises are not of Universal Application They do not engage God to all men universally they are not made to Sinners as Sinners i. e. ●one can challenge the application of them to themselves on that account or for this reason because they are Sinners But they are confined to the Election of God or to those who are comprehended in the Covenant of Redemption and they only do obtain them Rom. 11. 7. The Election hath obtained It is not for every one that reads these Promises to confide and lot upon it that they are made unto him and to take them to be the ground of his Faith and to conclude that by vertue of them he shall be Saved God only knows whom they belong to before such time as there is a particular application made of them by his Spirit Rom. 9. 6. 2. That no man can challenge these Promises as his own till he be brought under the Covenant of Grace and the Conditions of it are wrought in him These Promises do not discover any other way of Salvation unto men than that which is Revealed in the Gospel which is by Faith in Christ and Repentance unto Life and therefore though these promises are not annexed to the Gospel Condition or depend upon it yet they do engage for it viz. to give a New Heart to bestow Faith and Repentance upon them c. and upon this account they discover themselves to belong to this or that man in particular in the application which the Spirit of God doth make of these conditions to him When therefore the Condition is wrought in the Soul then the man may and ought to apply them and take to himself the comfort of them and acknowledge the Love of God to him and his Faithfulness to his own purposes and promises which he made to Christ in the Eeerlasting Covenant but till then we have no assurance Our Election is only made sure by securing our Calling 2 Pet. 1. 10. 3. This notwithstanding these promises are useful to be looked upon by the Awakened though at present Unconverted Sinner to Engage him to wait upon and hope in God for the performance of the work in him and that notwithstanding his own sinful unworthiness and weakness since they declare to him that Gods Grace is absolutely independent on any qualifications in the Creature and cannot be obstructed by the absence of them and may thereupon direct him whither to go for Grace to believe and for Sanctification and whence he must derive it if ever he partake in it They say that God is the Author of all and therefore all the Objections and Discouragements which they are ready to gather from the conditions in that Covenant of Grace and their own inability to perform them are here recovered by shewing them who is the Author of this Grace and because he hath absolutely said that he will do it for some it gives us hope that if we wait upon him for it he will do it for us 4 Yea these promises signify to all where the Gospel comes that there is no hindrance on Gods part why he may not come and pardon and heal the sinner nor any impediment on our part by reason of Impenitency unbelief or great transgressions but that he may look over break through and for all them come to us and afford us this Salvation for his own Great Names Sake and by vertue of the Covenant which he hath made with his own Son and that notwithstanding all our unworthiness and indisposedness to entertain it In a word these Promises signify that the business of Redemption is secured and that God hath already taken up is satisfied in the Suretiship of His Son and accounts himself under an inviolable bond to perform the Good promised for all those who were appointed to be the Heirs of this great Salvation and how much of encouragement is there in this for poor guilty sinners that have no other hope before them INFERENCE III. Here we see upon how strong a foundation a believers hopes for Glory are laid We have observed that there is a neer connection between the Covenant of Redemption and that of Grace and here is one principal inference which is to bedrawn from the connection that he who by Faith in Christ is brought into the Covenant of Grace may derive the strength of hope and holy confidence to himself from the Ancient Covenant of Redemption because his being in this undeniably supposeth him to have been included in that and then no wonder if his faith be often shaken and his hopes unsetled if he do not keep his eye continually upon this But a right speculation here will wonderfully nourish and strengthen him Hope is a believers Anchor with which he keeps himself from running adrift in hours of Temptation it is that which he Lives upon till he comes to Heaven Rom. 8. 24. How much then may he strengthen this by such a contemplation for from this Covenant there flow down to him these Glorious discoveries 1 Here he sees that satisfaction is made to the Justice of God for his sins and that his happiness is bought and paid for He may here discern not only a sufficient price but a Covenant price laid down such as was indented for by God himself and therein all his demands answered and therefore it is accepted by him to that the law hath nothing as a Covenant to implead him for whereby all the charges of satan and his own misgiving heart that are made against him are fully confuted and it no ways dasheth his Hope to reflect and consider what he hath been in himself though it humbleth and abaseth him considering what he now is in Christ Jesus Rom 8. 1. Here he knows where he hath a right and title to the Glorious inheritance and how it was procured for him that it is already bought and paid for in his name and for that reason it shall assuredly be bestowed upon him in due time 2 Here he sees all the hard conditions of life which are propounded in the Law to be fully satisfied and performed The Law saith do this and Live ie do it perfectly and constantly without any failure or defect though this were fair and easy to man in integrity when he had the Image of God upon him yet now he finds it hard yea an impossibility in himself to comport with all the more he endeavours the more apprehensive he is of his short coming and this makes a legal life to be an horrible slavery But he here is