Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A28599
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A short discourse of the true knowledge of Christ Jesus to which are added some passages in the reasonableness of Christianity &c. and its vindication : with some animadversions on Mr. Edward's reflections on the reasonableness of Christianity and on his book entituled Socinianism unmask'd / by S. Bold.
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Bold, S. (Samuel), 1649-1737.
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1697
(1697)
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Wing B3493; ESTC R24663
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19,917
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58
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cured any other way but by committing himself entirely to that Person his knowledge will have this effect on him that he will render himself up entirely to his guidance and management When we are throughly sensible that we are Sinners under the Curse of the Law and justly obnoxious to the most heavy displeasure and wrath of Almighty God and that there is no way for our obtaining Peace with Him Pardon and Salvation but by Jesus Christ then our knowing him to be the only the all-sufficient and a most compassionate and gracious Saviour of Sinners will dispose and influence us to resign up our selves without reservation to his Conduct and to rely and depend on Him to save us in his own way He came to seek and to save those who are lost who are truly sensible of their lost estate All your knowledge will not avail you to Salvation tho' you can Discourse ever so accurately on every point in your Bible till it have this effect on you to make you resign up your selves unfeignedly unto Christ as your Lord. But the Person who is brought to this is Christ's Disciple a true Believer and real Christian tho' as yet he does not know any other Doctrine Christ hath taught but only engages heartily to use his best endeavours to know and understand his Lord's Will and to assent unto and perform the same as he shall attain the knowledge of it and resolvedly applies himself to fulfil and execute that engagement with â—â—ll Industry and Fidelity This is that which constitutes and makes a Person a sincere Christian a real Disciple of Christ and a true Believer And his regular outward signifying and testifying of this gives him a Right to the external Denomination of a Christian c. The true notional knowledge of Christ Jesus is the same for the matter with the spiritual and practical knowledge of Him but this latter makes the Person perceive the usefulness and necessity of Christ Jesus to himself and begets in him suitable Affections to Christ He who thus knows Christ Jesus is sensible that He is the most necessary and useful Good to him and therefore cannot but love him resign up himself entirely to Him trust in Him and labour to understand and know his Will that he may explicitely believe what he hath taught and actually observe and perform what he hath appointed and commanded that thus he may approve his Fidelity and obtain the ends particularly or more especially intended by his Lord in the several instances he shall understand to be taught by Him relating either to Belief or Practice He knows that Christ Jesus is worthy of all his Service and therefore gives up himself unto Him implicitly and without exception to follow his Conduct both as to Faith and Obedience Thus when he finds or understands that Jesus Christ hath taught that He is God and that He commissioned his Apostles to teach so and that they did it very expresly he heartily assents to this Truth and believes that He is God because He hath taught it And his not being able to solve all difficulties that curious and contentious People may start about this matter or to say much or any thing concerning the Mode or way how He is God is no obstacle to his firm and stedfast Belief of it seeing he knows Christ hath declared it no more than his not being able to reconcile some matter of practice he understands Christ hath enjoyned him to his worldly Interest can excuse him from performing it Because his Resignation to Christ was absolute and entire in both respects and he did not Capitulate with Christ to believe nothing but what he should be able to dive to the bottom of and give a rational account of the mode and manner of or to obey him only in such Instances as he should know how to reconcile to his worldly Interest and Convenience What falls short of this practical knowledge of Christ Jesus is not in Scripture account the knowledge of Christ Jesus He that saith I know him and keepeth not his Commandments is a lyar and the truth is not in him 1 John 2.4 This is that knowledge of Christ Jesus the excellency whereof is such it obscures and stains the Glory of all things which can come in competition with it So that the true Christian accounts all things but loss as the Apostle expresseth himself for the excellency of it Which shall lead me to consider Thirdly In what the excellency of this knowledge of Christ Jesus doth consist Concerning which I shall mention these particulars 1st In the excellency of its object which is the revelation or discovery God hath made that Jesus Christ is the Person He hath sent and commissioned to be the Saviour of Sinners and in the proportion it hath to the special Intendment of that Revelation viz. that we may resign up our selves intirely to him and thereby be made his Disciples and be interested in Him as our Saviour or more briefly that we may believe in Him and be saved by him or be made true Christians and partake of the Benefits which belong to them It is not the bare knowing that there was such a Person as Jesus Christ in the World no nor that He was the Son of God and assumed our Nature c. but that He was sent appointed and commissioned by God to be the Saviour of Sinners This is the immediate the most proper and strict object of Christian knowledge and saving Faith Had the Son of God meerly of his own accord assumed our Nature performed the most perfect Obedience to the Law and suffered Death for our sakes how great soever the intrinsick value of his Condescention Performances and Sufferings would have been this would not have constituted or made Him the Saviour of Sinners Nor would our knowing and believing all this have availed us to Justification and Salvation That which makes what He did and suffered to be accepted for us and makes Him the Saviour of Sinners was his being appointed and commissioned to be their Saviour And it is our knowing Him to be the Person that God did send and commission for this purpose and knowing it so as to answer the design of this Revelation which doth make us Christians and interest us in Him as our Saviour For I have given them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and they have believed that thou didst send me John 17.8 2dly In that it is a special effect and fruit of the Holy Spirit of God I will give them an Heart to know me that I am the Lord and they shall be my People and I will be their God for they shall return unto me with their whole Heart Jer. 24.7 Wherefore I give you to understand that no Man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed and that no Man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12.3 Tho' the Lord Jesus doth not oblige himself not to give forth the special Influences of his Holy Spirit to
was true Man Joh. 1.14 Mat. 1.16 Luke 1.31 which may satisfie us that He was in a Condition and Fitness for that part of His Work which did consist in His Suffering in our stead and on our behalf and that He hath a most tender and compassionate concern for us whose Nature He did assume Heb. 2.14 Heb. 4.15 2dly Those Propositions which acquaint us with the occasion of His undertaking this Office and being commissioned to it As that by the Fall of our first Parents sin entred into the World That we are all fallen short of the Glory of God And that we are by Nature the Children of Wrath Rom. 3.23 Rom. 5.12 Eph. 2.3 which may convince us more throughly of our great need of such a Saviour make us have more low and humble thoughts of our selves and inspire us with most admiring and elevated gratitude and thankfulness to and for Him 3dly Those Propositions which instruct us that the sending of this Saviour did proceed and spring purely from the Free Grace Mercy and Love of God God so loved the World that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life c. John 3.16 17. 1 John 4.9 Eph. 2.4 to the 9th This is proper to engage our Admiration and Love Here is room for our exerting them in their fullest strength and force 4thly Those Propositions which teach us in what ways and by what steps He did and doth execute and will finally accomplish the Work and Office He Vndertook As 1. By Revealing the Father and making His Will known to the World John 1.18 Heb. 1.1 2. John 15.15 Whereby we are furnished with the most useful pertinent necessary and profitable Instructions do know where we are to employ our Searches and Enquiries to the best purpose And what we may without fluctuation doubt or wavering and with the greatest confidence entertain and depend upon for their Truth 2dly By fulfilling all Righteousness and leading the most Innocent unblemish'd exact and holy Life Mat. 3.15 1 Pet. 2.21 Acts 10.38 Thus He has set us an Example in His own Life Hath visibly commended and discovered the amiableness of what He Commands and Enjoyns And hath shewn us in the most convincing and obliging way how we ought to demean and behave our selves And hereby we perceive that He was admirably fitted for another part of what pertained to Him in His Estate of Humiliation viz. making Himself a Sacrifice for our sins Heb. 7.26 c. 3dly By suffering very many hardships innumerable reproaches and indignities enduring the Wrath of God and actually dying in open view as a Malefactor on the Cross offering up himself a Sacrifice to satisfie Divine Justice for the sins of the World and giving his Soul a Ransom for Sinners Acts 2.23 and 36. Heb. 9.26 1 Pet. 3.18 1 Tim. 2.6 which discovers the most execrable nature of Sin how extreamly loathsom and hateful it is to God and therefore should be so to us This manifests the Condescention and Love of Christ to us in the most affecting manner that can be imagined And is the most potent Argument to kindle and excite the truest Love in our Souls to Him and calls for our exerting Love to Him in its most powerful actings 2 Cor. 5.14.15 4thly By rising again from the dead the third day 1 Cor. 15.4 Rom. 1.4 Rom. 4.25 Hereby the Prophecies which were before concerning Him and His own Predictions were most exactly verified and fulfilled This gives a most certain undeniable demonstration that His Sacrificing of Himself and his Death were accepted of God and are prevalent for all the purposes for which they were intended T' is strengthens our Faith and Hope in 〈◊〉 And assures us of the certainty of our Resurrection at the end of the World 1 Pet. 1.21 Rom. 8.11 5thly By Ascending up into Heaven in the sight of His Disciples after He had given full proof of the truth of His Resurrection and commissioned them to Preach His Gospel to all the World That there He may in His exalted Estate perform what further pertains unto Him as the Saviour of Sinners Mark 16.19 This assures us of the efficacy and prevalence of His Intercession and the solid ground we have to depend upon Him for whatsoever He hath warranted us to ask in His Name and expect from Him Heb. 7.14 15. John 14.1 2 3. 6thly By sending and giving forth the Holy Spirit for the purposes and ends for which He hath promised Him viz. for the making of His Word and Ordinances effectual for the Conversion of Sinners and the Edification and Comfort of true Believers John 14.16 17 and 26. And here by the way we may take notice that He hath taught how we are to conceive of the Holy Spirit certifying that He is God Acts 5.3 4. 2 Cor. 3.16 17. Now when a true Christian understands that Christ Jesus hath given this account of the Holy Spirit He is as much obliged to believe it as He is to believe that Jesus is the Christ and when he understands that Christ hath taught that the Father Himself and the Holy Ghost are God that He saith such things of them and requires such Homage and Worship to be paid unto them as are peculiar unto God and certifies that these Three are One Matth. 28.19 1 John 5.7 He is obliged to assent unto and believe this Truth as well as any thing else that Christ hath taught It is as hard for me to reconcile a Persons denying or not believing this when he knows that Christ Jesus hath taught it with his being a sincere Christian or having unreservedly resigned himself up to Jesus Christ as any Man can pretend it is to him to tell how these three can be God and yet there be but one God I believe that the Father Son and Holy Spirit are God because I find that Christ Jesus hath taught so And if any Man can pretend he hath ground to believe this Article to be false or to with-hold his assent when he knows that Jesus Christ hath taught it he cannot with colour pretend he has just reason to believe that Jesus is the Messias nor to believe any one point upon his Authority For if we question the Truth of any thing we know He taught we have the like reason to question the Truth of every thing He taught He that is upon such Terms can hardly deserve to be accounted a true Christian He must be extraordinarily soft and favourable to himself if he can persuade himself that is one If I were not fully persuaded that Christ Jesus understood the Divine Nature and knew how to speak of it better than any meer Man I should not take him to be my Lord and Saviour It may be some will say they do believe what Christ Jesus hath taught but they cannot believe the Doctrine of the Trinity as it is taught in certain Creeds which are but of Humane Composure