Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	gospel_n	law_n	life_n	7,267	5	5.2543	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96973	Five sermons, in five several styles; or Waies of preaching. The [brace] first in Bp Andrews his way; before the late King upon the first day of Lent. Second in Bp Hall's way; before the clergie at the author's own ordination in Christ-Church, Oxford. Third in Dr Maine's and Mr Cartwright's way; before the Universitie at St Maries, Oxford. Fourth in the Presbyterian way; before the citie at Saint Paul's London. Fifth in the Independent way; never preached. With an epistle rendring an account of the author's designe in printing these his sermons, as also of the sermons themselves. / By Ab. Wright, sometimes Fellow of St John Baptist Coll. in Oxford.	Wright, Abraham, 1611-1690.	1656 (1656)	Wing W3685; Thomason E1670_1; ESTC R208406	99,151	247

to say after him The flesh profiteth nothing If you onely know Christ as dying and rising without you it will profit you nothing unlesse you know him as dying and rising within you Any man is capable of remembring the storie of Christ and rehearsing it if hee have but common reason and can say as well as another that Christ died for him and can throw himself upon Christ and can hang upon Christ this is not faith this is not salvation for saith James Faith without works is dead and Rom. 8. 2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath `made me free from the law of sin and death he doth not say that such a proposition or text of the Gospel did set him free he doth not say that the hearing that Christ died for the sins of men doth set him free No there was the Spirit of life in Christ as well as the law or letter it is that entails life upon Christ and his seed There is an outward Covenant and there is an inward Spirit The outward Covenant is this I will be thy God and the God of thy seed and may not any man pretend to be in this Covenant of this seed do not thousands professe themselvs to be so Do not thousands in the world say Lord Lord Lord and presse to enter into heaven We cannot put a difference betwixt one or other except we know this truth for they say they are within the Covenant and of Christs seed and what hold they forth for this they hold forth the confession of Christ and say that he died for their sin and rose for their justification and this they believe and upon this they lay their souls for salvation May not the veriest hypocrite do so as well as the truest Saint but here 's that which puts the difference when the spirit of Christ brings this Covenant to the heart of a poor creature when the Spirit of Adoption the Spirit of son-ship revealing God as our Father revealing God in Union with us our righteousnesse our strength hee doth indeed seal us to the day of Redemption he sets apart Christs sheep and this distinguisheth them from the other So that if you lay salvation upon an historical Christ you 'l be deceived If you would have that in which you may confide you must have Christ revealed in you in the Spirit you must have the same Spirit of Faith that was in Christ and the same spirit of power that wrought in him you must have the same eternal spirit by which you must offer up your bodies offer up your flesh to God as a sacrifice yea your selves and your own righteousnesse this is true salvation this is salvation manifested unto life To make this yet more clear I shal shew you the difference between Christ in the flesh and Christ in the Saints between that work of God within us and that work of God in Christ the latter is the truth of the former Sanctifiethem through thy truth Joh. 17. 17. that is do thou act those things really in them which are done in a figure for them upon mee there is the truth I desire to clear this to you by some familiar experience You know that Jesus Christ is said to die for our sins and rise for our justification Here is now Christ in the flesh here is his ministration Why now hereupon salvation is preach'd to men and they are told that God is reconciled for he hath sent his Son there is nothing to be done God is reconciled his justice satitfied onely believ Here is the outward difpensation But now a poor soul notwithstanding all this lies under the guilt and weight of sin whereby he cannot believe or take comfort in these glad tidings Do you not see that there is need of another ministration Is there not need of the Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus as well as the proposition of the Gospel You come and shew a poor soul the proposition of the Gospel that whosoever believeth in Christ shall have eternal life Yet all this while the poor soul lies dead till not onely the letter but the spirit of the Gospel comes and appears to him till Christ appears not onely in his first Court that is his own flesh or the letter of the Gospel but the inmost place of all that is in this man's conscience For wee may allude to Heb. 9. 24. That Christ is not entred into the holy places made with hands which are the figures of the true but into heaven it self now to appear in the presence of God for us These words are spoke figuratively It is true he went visibly into heaven that is a place remote from their sight a cloud received him out of their sight The true heaven and that heaven where Christ doth appeare to the comfort and releife of a poor soul is the conscience of a poor sinner and that is called heaven because as heaven is the place of God so is the heart of man He is sayd ●o be the searcher of the heart God sits there and wounds and heales there that is God's true place It is not in the understanding of a man in the Notions there but it is in the heart of man there it is gone Christ in the spirit is in the heart of his people that is Christs place and there it is that Christ Jesus speakes a word for a poor soul there it is that Christ Jesus sits as King in our conscience Christ may offer himself long enough in the letter in the history of the Gospel but if he appeare not in the spirit and sit in our consciences to quiet them we shall never have any true understanding of the word Now for this reason I shall desire you to looke within your selves and I make no question but if you do wait upon God without prejudicate spirits he will clear this truth unto you And now while I come to some application of this truth I shall desire you in the feare of God not to mistake me Let us take heed of idolizing even the humanity of Jesus Christ himselfe of idolizing his doings and his sufferings We see God through these doings and sufferings of Jesus Christ as through a glasse but it is not blasphemie to say that a believer may come to see a love born unto him above and before the manifestation of it in the sufferings of Jesus Christ he may see it in God himself though by Christ Do not think you know so much as you need to know in knowing the flesh of Christ in knowing the man Christ Jesus for unlesse you know God in his appearance under that form you mistake Christ and make him an Idol I am nothing saith Christ and hee that sends is greater then he that is sent If God be greater then Christ then Christ himselfe is but a medium through which you come to be acquainted with God and in which you must not rest Take

troubles in the outward form as the experience of Saints can witnesse But the life above is the day of his rest wherein hee studies all things and sees them to be very good yea and ceaseth from his works as God did from his But did not God himself ordain Form and where did he abrogate it you will say I answer As there was a time to plant so there is a time to pluck up what was planted For Form was never created as a standing rule but as a temporarie help to serve a turn which when it is once accomplished the means cease as having usher'd in the end Neither is the abrogation of Form onely in the letter but in the discovery of an higher glory which darkens the first as the Sun darkens the starrs So that the discovery of Gospel-forms is the abrogation of Legal and the Gospel administration in external rites gives way to an higher glory And yet there are some hints in the letter of this glorious state as Isa 25. and Rev. 21. 2 Pet. 3. 13. Nevertheless we according to his promise look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness Though the glorie of the mysteries contained in it are to be experimented in us You 'l say Christ and his Apostles submitted to the outward Form 'T is true Christ in the flesh was made under the Law and submitted to Circumcision as well as Baptisme he under-went the state of death or sorrow and the state of flesh or form Heb. 5. 7. Who in the daies of his flesh when he had offered up praiers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death and was heard in that he feared Wherein he praied and at the last was raised up to the state of mirth or immediate discovery wherein he did rejoice So that Christ in the flesh is the figure of several administrations and every Christian is an embleme in one stage or another of his life Some live in a crucified some in a glorified Jesus some live in his life some in his death some live in Christ after the flesh others in Christ after the spirit And amongst these the highest pitch of a Christian is Christ risen or rather sitting at God's right hand for here is immediatenesse of favour and enjoiment But in the mean time Ordinances and Administrations take place after one sort or other till this state come For as the appearances of God are stronger or weaker so administrations are of several sorts the most eminent are Paradifical Legal and Evangelical Paradifical administrations then took place when the angelical nature being clothed upon with a humane appearance did contemplate its Maker in things below himself the clear stream of the whole creation and the heavenly spirit being likewise clothed upon was a proportionated subject to entertain that discovery This administration did not contein the most compleat enjoiment For here the vail was first set up and man of necessitie must have ceased to his being or form though he had never sinn'd that so he might bee raised up to an higher enjoiment This administration was but for a season for when flesh and self had defiled the stream the glory crept inward and was withdrawn from our view and in came a multitude of helps to usher in but a review of the same glory this was the original of legal sacrifices and administrations But as the fountain was clear'd by degrees and the imagerendred more perspicuous so Gospel administrations succeeded in the place of the Legal as differing onely from them in degrees of light These administrations are not distinguish'd by fleshly Epoches or Periods of time but are interchangeably managed within the Saints according to their degrees of light as being partly bond and partly free partly in the flesh form and letter partly in the spirit and power Which state is a state of confusion and mixture not of puritie The death of Christ himself did not straitwaies determine the Legal administration for the Apostles and Believers did continue to observe them until such time as an higher discovery was made known within them and even then when an higher discovery was made known unto them when they were perfectly under a Gospel state yet had they but the first fruits of the spirit and were in the dark in many things Yea Saint Paul holds forth a state atteinable by the Saints which he himself came short of Phil. 4. which John saw by the spirit of prophesie Rev. 21. And if any shall deny this new state let us reason a little from concessions and grants and see what the enjoiment of a Christian may amount to It is granted by all and cannot be denied that the letter of the word holds forth more glory then is yet attain'd and that many prophesies are to be fulfilled relating to that glory of the Saints among which that in the Revelations is one as likewise that perfection is to be press'd after Heb. 6. which certainly is more then uprightnesse for the Apostle speaks to upright Saints Now what this glory these new heavens this state of perfection is the dispute and question of these daies which to me is resolved thus That there is a glorious state of the Saints to be discovered in the last daies consisting not in a fleshly paradise or material enjoiment but in the true vision of God in the spirit and high light of heavenly glory This state was the hope and joy of the Prophets Apostles and other Christians who foresaw the day thereof And well might it bee so considering the many mysteries contein'd therein which no other state can attein unto For here the Christian sees all things in the light of God Here is opened unchangeable glory and essential will perfect freedom restitution of all things heavenly rest There man ceaseth questions are resolved union clear'd and all expectations satisfied And thus have you seen the first particular wherein wee must deny our Religion it is in relation to Ordinances and Forms and administrations Secondly in the second place we must deny our religion in respect of the Scriptures so as to rest upon the letter and to prefer it above the teaching of the spirit in it Heare this all you that idolize Scripture so much as to prefer those writings before the God of the Apostles and Prophets it is very possible that a man may attain to the litteral knowledge of the Scriptures and may speak largely of the history thereof and draw conclusions and raise many uses for the present support of a troubled soul or for the restraining of lewd practises and direction of a civil conversation and yet they that speake and they that heare may be not only unacquainted with but enemies to that spirit of truth by which those Prophets and Apostles write For it is not the Apostles writings but the spirit that dwelleth in them that did inspire their hearts that gives life and peace to us all And

crown of thorns fo● thee hath taught thee of thorns and tribulations to make a crowne of glory Art thou rich he that is Lord of heaven and earth instructs thee from this text to attain ev●rlasting habitations So the poor and ri●ch the one by suffering the other by doing well may meet at the last day with rich Abraham and poor Lazarus in the Kingdom of heaven Thus have I don with a third consideration upon the point Now in the fourth place our fourth consideration shall be de modo touching the manner how farre we are to desire and in what respects to entertain this unrighteous mammon And doubtlesse we may entertain this unrighteous Mammon in my text not only as a servant but a friend but by no meanes as a Lord. There is vertue in the true use of it if there be a qualification in our desires And therefore Saint Augustine 10 ser de tempore 5 ser De Verbis Apost cap 10 de civit dei disputing of that impossible analogy between heaven and a rich man a camell and the eye of a needle would have a rich man understood there cupidum rerum temporalium de talibus superb●entem such an one as joines avarice to riches and pride to avarice not prohibiting a moderate and timely care of necessarie temporals but their inordinate appetite not their propriety and possession but the difficulty and eagernesse of the pursuit A wise man as he will not make riches the object of his pursuit so not of his refusall non amat divitias sed mavult He weighs them so evenly 'twixt desire and scorne that he doth neither undervalue nor indulge them he makes not his minde his chest but his house in the which he doth not lock but lodge them he loves them not properly but by way of comparison not as they are riches but as they are not poverty Yes too as they are riches they may not onely be temperately lov'd and desired but praied for praied for as our daily bread not absolutely as for our spiritual improvement but by way of restriction first humbly with submission to the will of God then conditionally so they prove advantagious either to our civill or morall good And the reasons of the point are first this For if riches are pursued either with an unlawful or unbridled desire they lead our reason captive blindfold our intellectuals and so dampe and dead all the faculties of the inward man that in way of conscience and religion we are benummed meerly Naball himselfe not so stony and chu●●ish not halfe so supine and stupid as we And therefore your earthly sensualists have this woful brand set upon them by the Spirit of God they are men of this world they have their portion in this life onely Psal 17. Secondly we are not to set our hearts upon Riches because riches have nothing substantial in them that may allure us but our custom of admiring them And to cut out our desires by presidents of custome is at once follie and madnesse 't is miserable to follow error by example That this man huggs his Mammon is no autoritie for my avarice I must chalk out my proceedingsby the line of God's command square them by the rule of divine truth and that tells mee riches are but snares vanities shadows nothing 1 Tim. 6. Mat. 13. Wilt thou set thine eies upon that which is not faith the Wiseman For certainly riches make themselves wings they flie away as an Eagle towards heaven Prov. 18. Mark all their pompe i● without certainty or station things not onely fleeting but voluble they steal not from us but flie away Their ebb i● as sudden as their flow doubtful and therefore Psal 62. presupposeth the one with a si affluxerint if they flow about thee as if their increase were meerly casual but if they do what then Set not your heart upon them saith the same Psal Thus having shewen you how you may lawfully desire riches I shall now in the fi●e place declare how you may as lawfully use them And to this purpose every Christian ought to imitate the high pattern of his Creator whose best riches is his bountie Hee that hath all gives all reservs nothing in our Creation he gave us our selvs in our Redemption he gave us himself and in giving himself for us gave us our selves again that were lost Onely good use then commends earthly possessions and he alone knows the true use of this unrighteous Mammon that receives it meerly to disburse it For what commendation is it to be the keeper of the best earth That which is the common Coffer of all the rich Mines the earth we do but tread upon and account vile because it hides those treasures whereas the skilful metallist that refines these pretious veins for publick use is rewarded and honored If therefore your wealth and your will be not both good if your hands be full and your hearts emptie you deserve rather pitie then commendation and may be said to have riches indeed but not goods nor blessings your burthens being greater then your estates and your selves richer in sorrows then in metalls and this was the rich gluttons case in the Gospel who was damned non quia abstulerat aliena sed quod non donarat sua not for taking any thing from poor Lazarus but because he relieved not his wants 'T is reported of Warram Archbishop of Canterburie being on his death-bed sent his Steward to see what store of coyn was in his treasurie and when answer was brought that there was either very little or none at all the good man cried in mirum sic oportuit that it was very fitting it should be so for when said he could I die better then when I am thus even with the world Last of all our last consideration shall be this that though we must as I said give of our goods to the poor yet we must not give any of our ill gotten goods to the poor though we may make to our selves fri●nds of the mammon of unrighteousnesse yet we may not make to our selves friends by riches unlawfully gotten God is not pleased with such sacrifice You know Zacheus his division Luke 19. Halfe my goods I give to the poore and if c. Restituit aliena dedit sua saith Ambrose he restored other mens but gave his own That 's given to the poore is given to me saith Christ shall we then make our Saviour a receiver of stollen good 's God forbid Yet one case there is where ill gotten goods must be bestowed on pious uses of necessity and that is when we know not the right owners nor where to find them to make restitution in this case Saint Augustine must be followed Acquisisti male impende jambene thou hast gotten them ill bestow them well However what is so bestowed is not almes neither and therefore it is that generally cheaters and robbers cannot be truly and properly

therefore when the Prophets Isa Jerem. and Ezekiel spake what they saw from God they spake Thus saith the Lord out of experience of what they saw and felt and they were call'd true Prophets But when others rose up that spake their words writings and then applied them to another age and generation of men saying Thus saith the Lord as the other did they were called false Prophets because they had seen nothing themselves of God but walked by the legs and saw by the eyes of the true Prophets For God doth not threaten death to every city of every age of the world as to Sodom and Gomrorha nei●her captivity to every people as he did to Israel under Nebuchadnezar in Babilon Neither doth he promise victory or deliverance to every army or people from enemies as he did to Irsael in Jehosophats time Now if any man speake and assures others of victory when God purposes distruction or speakes destruction when God purposes a victory these men speake at randome and though they speake the very words of the Scriptures yet they speake not the mind of him that gives life or destroyes and so having seen nothing from him they are to be reckoned among the false Pr●phets they run before they are sent A man may know the Scripture and yet be an arch enemie to the God of the Scripture as the Jewes were They knew the writings of Moses who writ of Jesus Christ and yet they persecuted and killed Jesus Christ because they knew him not For if they had known him to have been of the power of God they would not have kill'd him And so many nowadayes do know Scripture yet may do persecute the spirit of the Scripture through ignorance and unbeliefe Truely friends it is not the knowledge of the Scripture onely but the knowledge of the God of the Scripture as God is pleased to make known himselfe by his mighty working in you that gives life and peace to you If you know and speake Scripture and can see nothing of God you are like Parrats that speake the words of another as you have been taught by humane education But if the same annointing or power of God dwel in you as did appeare in the Prophets and Apostles that writ then you can see into that mistery of the Scripture and so can speake the mind of the Scriptures though you should never see heare nor read the Scripture from men If your peace and comfort in God should onely remain with you while you are either hearing or reading Scriptures or while you have any society of such as can speake and discourse thereof and then find again that your peace and comfort is gone when you are deprived by any occasion of that society of Saints truely let me tell you that though you prize and know the Scripture yet there is a great strangeness betweene you and the God of the Scripture Many enjoy outward reading and hearing and Saints Communion and they are in peace and they live in heaven as they conceive and it is a sweet life but it is not the life For if the wisedom of God hedge up all these enjoyments with thornes and leave these poor souls alone as it was Christs case all forsooke him and fled why then here is your triall For when God hath denyed you the opportunities of hearing reading praying and Saints fellowship doth not your heart now looke for those helps and mourn in their absence If it be so with you as I know it is with you then where is your knowledge experience and peace in and with God It shewes plainly that at such a time we suck'd refreshment from the creatures brests but not from God We are now come to the ●ast particular in respect of which we must deny our religion and that is in respect of the Author of it our blessed Saviour And herein we must first deny all false Christs secondly all false opinions of the true Christ thirdly we must deny but in a Christian qualified sence even the true Christ himselfe First then we must deny all false Christs you will find false Christs coming with signes and wonders Matt 24. 24. For there shall arise false Christs and false Prophets and shall shew great signes and wonders insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive the very elect You shall have Christs to do what you desire Christs to shew you signes and wonders as you gape after but they shall be false Christs and this shall be your judgement God in judgement hath false Christs for false Seekers false Inquirers This is the plague of the flesh it shall have what it doth desire one that will open Scriptures do mighty miracles shew great gifts and yet all this is but a false Christ and the very elect so far as is possible shall be deceived therewith Therefore let it be our speciall care to deny these false Christs most especially in these antichristian times wherein we live in which you shall have Christs come upon you more then you would have If you go into the desert there is Christ if into the city there 's Christ some shall say lo here others lo there you shall have false Christs every where a false spirit a false resurrection a false glory a false god continually offering themselves unto you lo here lo there Such excellent glorious high ravishing wonderfull discoveries of spirituall things that they shall say plainly to you I am Christ Such things so far excelling all that ever you have known so heavenly so glorious as thereby you shall be able to say with open face here is Christ You shal have a light above men and Angels and ye● all this shall b● but a delusion I suppose you are not acquainted with this as yet but you shall have ●uch glorious discoveries in such illustrious brightnesse majesty and authority that shall absolutely say in you I am the Christ I am the Lord I am the Son of the living God In Fzekiel 28. 2. There 's a type of the false appearance of God in the world Because thine heart is listed up and thou haist said I am a God I sit in the seat of God in the midd'st of the seas yet thou art a man and not God though thou set thine heart as the heart of God You shall be so enlarged in understanding that you shall thinke your selves wiser then Daniel that you shall see through all the mysterie of Daniel through all the darke prophesies of Daniel as a clear thing yet there will be a false Christ an antichrist under all this go not after saith our Saviour Luke 17. 23. And they shall say to you see here or see there go not after them nor follow them Such appearances will present themselves unto you and invite you to the discovery and clear understanding of the darke places of Scripture but saith God follow them not They are such as if it were possible they should deceive the very elect