Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	flesh_n	law_n	sin_n	20,113	5	5.9622	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20176	Grace, mercy, and peace conteining 1 Gods reconciliation to man, 2 Mans reconciliation to God. By Henry Denne an unworthy servant of the Church, ...	Denne, Henry, 1606 or 7-1660?	1645 (1645)	STC 6610; ESTC R175933	37,602	120

love of Benevolence but a so with a love of Complacence and liking For this ia the voyc of the Father from heaven This my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Matth. 3.17 Here is a revelation of the love of liking I am well pleased The Father is well pleased in his Son With whom Surely with those unto whom hee had given his Sonne that is all his elect Againe this answer if it were beyond all exceptions yet it is very impertinent to the obiection For the Text doth not onely say that God loveth them not with such or such a love but in plaine terms it saith that the Lord hateth them that work iniquity Now what shall we say that God loves a person with infinit a love beyond expression or conceit and yet at the same time hateth the same person with that perfect hatred wherewith hee hateth all the workers of iniquitie Let us take heed that we draw not a vaile before the face of God and delude our selves and others with such frothy and impertinent distinctions But I have by this time bred a kinde of wonder in you what I shall speak seeing that which other men have said thus far liketh me not I answer therefore that this clause God hateth all the workers of iniquity and God loveth the ungodly are both in Scripture and therefore both true yet in a different sense The first The Lord hateth all the workers of iniquity is the voyce of the Law the other the Lord loves sinners is the voyce of the Gospel Now the Law and the Gospel speak divers things the one being the manifestation of Gods iustice tells us what we are by nature the other being the manifestation of Gods mercie tells us what wee are by grace in Iesus Christ The Law saith that every sinner shal be accursed The Gospel saith Iesus Christ came into the world to save sinners The Law saith God will by no meanes cleare the guilty Exod. 34.7 The Gospel saith God justifieth the ungodly The Law declareth wrath without forgivenesse The Gospel Mercy grace and peace in Iesus Christ Thus farre is the obiection answered but yet all difficulty and scruple is not removed For the Law you will say is an eternall veritie whatsoever it saith is true I confesse it so and one iot or tittle thereof cannot faile But I say with the Apostle that whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them only who are under the Law and to none other I say again that the righteousnesse of the Law is fulfilled by Christ for us all yea in all that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.4 So that although the elect of God are sinners in the iudgement of the Law Sense Reason yea and oftentimes Conscience yet having their sinnes translated unto the Sonne of God in whom they were elected they have the righteousnesse of the Law fulfilled in the Mediatour and so become to be accounted righteous in his sight that as God on the one side delivered the innocent to death as though hee had been a sinner being made countable for our sinnes So on the other side God loveth justifieth cleareth the guilty and sinners as if they had been holy righteous and blamelesse The summe is this that as Christ was no sinner indeed and yet a sinner by imputation so they that are Chrisis are no sinners by imputation and yet sinners indeed Thus much for the first Obiection The second followes Objection 2. If God be reconciled unto us before all condtions c. How is it that our Saviour saith Matth. 6.15 If you forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive you your trespasses Vnto which may be ioined that which we have Matth. 18.35 So likewise shall my heavenly doe also unto you if yee from your heart forgive not every on his brother their trespasses In which place we see first that unlesse we forgive God will not forgive us Nay more that God will reverse the act of his mercy if after hee hath forgiven us 10000. talents wee shall not forgive 100. pence wee shall bee delivered to the tormentors until we pay the whole due For answer to this Obiection we must lay down two grounds the first That God rever reverseth the acts of his mercy communicated to his Elect. For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance Rom. 112.9 God is not a man that he should lie neither the sonne of man that he should repent 1 Sam. 23.19 The second ground that Gods forgiveness of us is a fore-runner of our forgivenes of our brethren And we cannot truly forgive our brethren untill wee doe apprehend Gods forgivenesse of us Shouldest not thou have had compassion on thy fellow-servant even as I had pitie on thee Matth. 18.33 And upon this ground the Apostle presseth the Ephesians unto kindnesse and tendernesse of heart forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Eph. 4.3 But then if this be so what meane the foresaid places which strengthen the objection I answer That forgivenesse is there to bee taken for the manifestation of forgivenesse Except ye forgive men neither will your heavenly Father so fully declare and manifest himselfe unto your consciences and so this place pertaineth properly to our reconciliation with God not unto Gods reconciliation with us That this is not a subtile evasion but the truth appeares first by a place of Scripture secondly by the judgement of Interpreters upon a like place The place of Scripture is found Luke 7.47 Her sinnes which are many are forgiven her for shee loved much What have wee here that this womans great love was the cause of remission or that it went before her obtaining of remission as Bellarmine contendeth Verily no but it is plaine that her remission obtained was the cause of her love Simon saith our Saviour A certaine creditor forgave two debtors frankly whereof the one ought five hundred pence the other fifty which of the twain wil love him most Simon answereth well He to whom he forgave most Our Saviour maketh the application Seest thou this woman Thou lovest me a little Thou hast bidden me to dinner But when I came into thy house thou gavest me no mater for my feet but shee hath washed my feet with her teares and wiped them with the haires of her head My head with oyle thou diddest not anoint but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment Thou seest that I have forgiven thee a few sinnes and thou lovest mee a little but this woman hath much forgiven her Therefore she loved much whereby we understand two things first that her love was not the cause of forgivenes but forgivenesse a cause of her love Secondly That forgivenesse in this place includeth the manifestation of forgivenesse many sinnes are forgiven her the sense is this it appeareth unto this woman that I have pardoned a multitude of sinnes for her This is the Scripture The judgement of

yet I will endevout to speak what I am able And I shall commend unto you a twofold Peace the first Descending The second ascending The first is the tidings of the love and reconciliation of the everliving God unto the sonnes of men The second declares the reconciliation of the sonnes of men to the everliving and everloving God To speak plain first I will shew how God comes to be reconciled unto men Beare with the term reconciled although improperly spoken of him that was never an euemy Secondly I will shew you how we come to be reconciled unto God For the first How doth God come to be reconciled to men I conceive now the drooping conscience that sits in darknesse under the cloudy apprelhension of an angry Iudge under the fearfull expectation of a terrible account to be given unto the consuming fire wil be very attentive to heare that which his heart so thirsteth after How God may be reconciled Oh what shal I doe saith the soule to obtain the favour of God What shall I doe to turn away his wrathfull displeasure from me wherewith shall I come before him or how shall I appease him Attend therefore and I shall declare that which thou wilt hardly believe when it is told unto thee for Lord who hath believed out report and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed Isa 53.1 And yet that which I shall declare if thou canst believe it will fill thy mouth with laughter and thy longue with singing Psal 126.2 Take this proposition God is freely and fully reconciled to the elect and loveth them in Iesus Christ without any previous dispositions without any qualifications without any performances of conditions on their parts unlesse to be polluted and finful be a previous condition or qualification This is a bold proposition will the pharisee say this is too good newes to be true will the distressed soul say But I say the Lord break your stony harts give you an heart of flesh that you may submit to his righteousnes And I make no question but the glorious grace of the father of our Lord Jesus Christ shal abundantly be manifested The method I intend is 1 To prove the truth of this proposition 2 To answer six obiections 3 To make application 1 For the proof When Eve and Adam in whose loins we all sinned had eaten the forbidden fruit and were now become guilty of condemnation They hear the voice of God walking in the garden which voice was this thou haste at en and thou shalt dy they hide thmselves from the presence of God amongst the trees of the garden when man had sinn'd was in a despairing condition having not so much wit as to think of a saviour much lesse the boldnes to ask one at the hands of an offended God Now in this case behold the exceed-Love of God towards man in giving and manifesting the promised seed aswell to the terrour of Satan as to the consolation of mankind And I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed and it shall bruise his head and thou shalt bruise his heel Gen. 3.15 See if I may compare the Creator with the creature how the Lords bowells doe yern upon man And he cannot refraine himself but that least man should have been swallowed up with sorrow the blessing of the promised seed shall be first declared before the Lord pronounce the least curse against man Father Abraham receiveth the promise in the uncircumcision of his flesh And unto Adam is the promise revealed in the uncircumcision of his heart but lest you should think that some qualification in Adam did forerun the manifestation of the promise I will referre you unto that place of Scripture which I am resolved shall never slip out of my remembrance and I hope the like of you 2 Tim. 1.9 VVho hath saved us and called us with an holy calling not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Iesus before the world began What 〈◊〉 there that is not comprehended in this word grace here you see that grace was given before the world began Now what conditions or qualifictions were there in us before the world began We may safely therefore say that the grace of our God was before all conditions c unto this we will adde in the next place one text that like a diamond casteth his lustre in the dark and ministreth a great measure of the spirit Eph. 2.4.5 God who is rich in mercie for his great love wherewith the loved us even when we were dead in trespasses and sinnes hath quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved What if I shall now prove so bold as to make such a stop at sinnes as shall shew that that part of the sentence is referred to that which went before so that we may say in plain terms that God loved us with his great Love even when we were dead in trespasses and sins If I shall read it thus the text will bear it either in the originall or in other translations But if any froward person shall say that I doe iniurie in reading it thus and that this clause dead in trespasses sins ought rather to be referred to quickened which followes after then to the verb loved which goeth before Let this man know that the sence will be one and the same for when God quickened us then he loved us with his great love His love being the cause of quickening the effect of his Love But thou sayst we were quickened when we were dead in trespasses and sins Therefore we conclude we were loved with his graet love when we were dead in trespasses and sins For further confirmation I must intreat you to consider what is written by the Apostle Rom. 9.11.12.13 verses For the children being not yet born neither having done good or evill that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of works but of him that calleth It was said unto her the elder shall serve the yonger as it is written Iacob have I loved but Esau have I hated Now you see Gods love set upon Iacob where were Iacobs qualifications he had neither done good nor evill Therefore it is plain that God loved him before any qualification But some may confesse that the Lord loved him indeed before he had done good or evil And yet may perchance ask a question upon a supposition saying suppose that after Iacob was born he should have led a wicked and perverse life suppose that for some yeares he should have been a notorious and prophane person would or could the Lord have continued his love to such a person as this I answer boldly yea for Gods love and mercy are mercies of eternity the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that feare him Psal 103 17 not only to everlasting as eternall in respect of time