Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	holy_a	john_n	17,081	5	6.2026	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41497	The pagans debt and dowry, or, A brief discussion of these questions how far and in what sence such persons of mankinde amongst whom the letter of the Gospel never came are not withstanding bound to believe on Jesus Christ (with some other particulars relating hereunto) : returned by way of answer to a discourse in writing lately sent without name (together with a letter subscribed only T.S.) unto Mr. John Goodwin, the author as yet unknown to him, yer (as appears by the said discourse) a person of worth and learning, and (as he supposeth) a minister of the Gospel / by the said John Goodvvin.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1651 (1651)	Wing G1186; ESTC R30309	41,506	67

had left men free from all and all manner of Command and Obligation to Repent under the former and onely charged them with this duty under the latter but onely sheweth or supposeth that that Obligation to repent which lay upon men under the former the times of ignorance was but weak faint obscure and with little authority upon the Consciences of men in comparison of that tye obligation or engagement hereunto which God by an express Command imposeth upon the World under the latter the times of the Gospel This to be the genuine and true import of the said Antithesis appears 1. By the frequent and familiar usage of the Scripture in like cases 2. By consideration of the state and condition of the Heathen throughout the World in the Point in question before the times of the Gospel First It is a thing of frequent Observation amongst Expositors and Divines that the Holy Ghost intending to mention and assert any considerable encrease or advance of some former Dispensation is wont to express it in simple positive and absolute terms and as if it were a new kinde of Dispensation and which had not formerly been known or heard of in the World i Thus the Promises made to Abraham Gen. 12. concerning the multiplication of his seed and their inheriting the Land of Canaan are afterwards as viz. Cap. 17. 2 4 5 c. again mentioned and expressed as if they had now been new or first made onely because they are expressed more largely fully and emphatically When Christ spake thus to his Disciples after his Resurrection These are the words which I spake unto you whilest I was yet WITH YOU Luk. 24. 44. in this latter clause whilest I was yet with you he insinuates his present being with them by way of Antithesis to his former being with them viz. before his Death not as if he were not now present with them as well as he had been formerly but because his being now with them was of a more transcendent and peculiar nature and consideration then his former presence had been in as much as he was now in the estate of the Resurrection whereas in his former being with them he was but in the ordinary condition of men When Moses and the Priests spake thus unto all Israel Take heed and harken O Israel that this day thou art become the People of the Lord thy God Deut. 27. 9. their meaning was not to imply that they never had been the People of the Lord until now i. e. a People whom God had owned and countenanced from Heaven taken into Covenant with himself c. but that God by the constant Tenor of his gracious Administrations towards them from time to time until that day had made them now more his People then ever had further declared himself to be their God and to accept and own them for a People peculiar to him then formerly and that upon this account it concerned them more neerly then ever to harken unto him and obey his voyce In like Notion our Saviour promiseth his Disciples that he will pray the Father and that he should give them another Comforter even the Spirit of Truth when as in the very same period or passage of speech he affirmeth that this Comforter or Spirit was already given them or which is the same dwelt now with or in them Joh. 14. 15 16. So that he mentioneth a larger Effusion or Donation of the same Spirit as if it were the primitive or first gift thereof In like manner when being now upon his Journey for the raising of Lazarus from the dead he saith to his Disciples I am glad for your sakes that I was not there to the intent that you MIGT BELEEVE Joh. 11. 15. he expresseth their beleeving to a further degree as if it were the first of their beleeving and that they had not beleeved before Whereas it is evident from Joh. 2. 11 22. and other places that they had beleeved on him before When the Apostle affirms this to be Gods end in chastising his People That they might be Partakers of his Holiness Hebr. 12. 10. he doth not suppose that they were in no degree partakers of his Holiness before their chastisement but he expresseth a fuller and richer participation hereof as if it were a simple absolute or original participation in this kinde So again when the Evangelist John saith that the Holy Ghost was not yet given because Jesus was not glorified Joh. 7. 39. his meaning is not that the Spirit had in no measure been formerly given for questionless all those who under the Law beleeved and so those who in the days of our Saviours converse on Earth before his Glorification beleeved unto Justification were led hereunto by the Spirit here spoken of but he expresseth that abundant and most remarkable Donation and pouring out of it upon the Apostles and others after upon and by vertue of Christs Ascention into Glory as if it had been the first and only giving of it And it is a good rule or observation which Testardus delivers hereupon Those things saith he are said not to be or not to be done before the times of the Gospel which do less or not appear or are less perceived or felt before this fulness of times k So that when the Apostle saith in the Scripture under debate that God now in the times of the Gospel commandeth all men every where to repent it doth not necessarily imply that God never till now commanded the same thing I mean Repentance unto them but that now he commanded it upon other terms with more expressness and particularity of Command upon more lively and pregnant grounds or motives with another edg of Authority under greater severity of punishment threatened in case of disobedience then he had commanded it formerly Many instances from the Scriptures have been presented unto you and many more I doubt not upon a little further search might be added unto them wherein such a construction as this must of necessity be admitted And that this is the true and genuine sence of the place in hand appears yet further by the latter consideration mentioned which respects the state or condition of all Mankind under the times of that ignorance of which the Apostle speaketh and before the days of the Gospel For that the World was then under a Command from God to Repent is evident from hence viz. because otherwise their impenitency and obdurate proceedings in such ways and practises which are contrary to the Law of God yea and the Law of Nature it self had been no sin in them nor obligatory unto punishment the Apostles assertion being express that it is the Law that worketh Wrath i. e. that subjecteth men unto punishment because where no Law is there is no transgression Rom. 4. 15. meaning as he expresseth himself upon the account in the Chapter following vers. 13. that sin is not imputed i. e. charged upon men or punished where there