Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	act_n	ghost_n	holy_a	3,043	5	5.4653	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91366	The way step by step to sound and saving conversion, with a clear discovery of the two states, viz: nature, & grace: and how to know in which state one is, and the way to come out of the one into the other. Or, The ready and right path-way for the first Adams posterity to get out of their fallen estate accompanied with sin and misery, into the relation and family of the last Adam, which estate is attended with grace and glory, &c. With many weighty questions answered, and cases of conscience resolved, for the clearing and confirming the truths asserted. / By Robert Purnell.	Purnell, Robert, d. 1666.	1659 (1659)	Wing P4241; Thomason E1800_1; ESTC R209703	66,581	144

Answ The best way to mortifie our flesh with the Affections and Lusts is to meditate on the mercies of God which is one of the most powerfull Arguments to perswade and prevail with a Soul to leave sin Psal 26. 3 4. For thy loving kindnesse is before mine eyes and I have walked in thy truth 1 John 3. 3. he that hath this hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure I have read of five men that were studying what was the best way to mortifie sin The first said to meditate of death the second said to meditate of judgement to come the third said to meditate on the joys of Heaven the fourth said to meditate on the torments of Hell which is the wages of sin the fifth said to meditate on the blood and sufferings of Iesus Christ And certainly the last is the strongest motive of all to mortifie sin surely it is the appearance of Gods grace to us which works a hope of glory in us and this hope of glory doth purifie 1 Ioh. 3. 3. both in kind and degree 2 Cor. 7. 1. Let us cleanse our selves from all filthinesse both of flesh and spirit Rom. 8. 13. And so by the Spirit we come to mortifie the deeds of the flesh he that hath the strongest Faith hath the holyest life Sanctification ariseth from Justification let us then make war against our Lusts in the strength of Christ still seeking unto him for assisting grace for as we have said before in this Treatise strength to perform any duty to exercise any grace to subdue any Lust to resist any temptation to bear any affliction is derived only from Christ Quest What is or who is the object of Faith A. God the Father Son holy Ghost is the object of saving Faith no man was ever saved without this for no man ever called upon God but by the help of the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 3. As no man can say that Jesus is the Christ so neither can any man say that God is God but by the holy Ghost neither did God ever hear any man that prayed unto him for salvation but for his Sons sake we are in order not in time to believe first in Christ by Christ in God 1 pet 1. 21. Who by him do believe in God We are commanded to believe in Christ 1 Joh 3. 23. and this is his commandement that we should believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ for Christ as Redeemer is the mediate not the ultimate object of Faith for we believe by Christ in God as before As Christ is the object of divine worship Asts 7. 59. And of saving hope Collo 1. 27. And of our greatest love 1 Cor. 16. 22. And of our absolute service Rom. 14. 9. 18. So he is the object of our divine Faith together with the Father and the Holy Ghost so John 14. 1. compared with Acts 20 21. as God in Trinity is the object of Faith so the Scripture seems to be the ground of Faith First the Lord presents us with a command to believe 1 Ioh. 3. 23. and a promise of Salvation to them that believe Mar. 16. 16. and it is the duty of all that do hear the Gospel to believe Mar. 1. 15. Iohn 3. 18. Iohn 15. 22. 16. 7. In the begetting or breeding of Faith in the heart is manifested both the inability of Man and the ability of God here appears the evil of the Spirit of corrupt nature and the good of the Spirit of Grace Sarah her conceiving of Isaac whose birth was a figure of Regeneration was a great work a miracle so Mary her conception of Christ by the power command and blessing of the holy Ghost was also a great work a miracle but for Christ to be formed in the Soul by believing is as great if not a greater work see Ephes 1. 19 20. Quest What incouragement and grounds are there to provoke or perswade us to believe Answ There are many I will instance only in a few which may be reduced to these two heads viz. 1. The benefits in doing it 2. The hurt or danger in neglecting it 1. The benefits that doe attend those that doe believe and they are these 1. By believing we honour God our Creator Christ our Redeemer and the holy Ghost our Sanctifier Iohn 3. 33 compared with Rom. 3. 34. 2. By believing we come to be established Isay 7. 9. 3. By believing we shall be kept in perfect peace Isay 26. 34. compared with Rom. 5. 1. 4. Whosoever believeth in him shall not be ashamed Rom 9. 33. 5. Our naked believing in God and cleaving to him in his free promises will carry down all our distempers at once and fill our Souls with joy and peace in believing 6. This is the way to have God take pleasure in us Psalm 147. 11. the Lord taketh pleasure in those that hope in his mercy Psalm 33. 18. the eyes of the Lord is upon them that fear him upon them that hope in his mercy 7. Our believing doth instate the Soul in the possession of Heaven whiles the body remains on ●arth Iohn 3. 36. 8. For our incouragement to believe consider Christ outbids all Merchants for thy Soul he out-bids the World Sin and Sathan they do not present pardon remission redemption salvation but Christ doth present these and many more such like choyse things 2. Let us consider the evil of Unbelief and the misery that doth attend it it is a dishonouring of God a denying of Christ it as much as in it lyeth makes void the great Counsel of God and purposes of his mercy viz. 1. We do what lyes in us make void Gods end in sending Christ his end was that we might believe and live for ever in blessednesse 2. We as much as in us lyes make void the death of Christ all his sufferings and bloodshed to be to no purpose 3. We make void what lyes in us the great counsel of God and all the thoughts of his wisedom in contriving such a way to advance his glory in the salvation of man 4. By continuing in a state of Unbelief we rob Christ of the reward and fruit of all his sufferings and death 5. We wrong God by our Unbelief we obscure his glory we limit his power we contemn his wisedom we give a lye to his truth we abuse his love we slight and reject all the Precious thoughts of his mercy and grace we proclaim the Devil a Conquerour and lift him up above Christ himself Iu●as did sin more by Unbelief and despairing than by his betraying of Christ as might be gathered from Scripture 6. We hasten damnation to our selves Iohn 3. 18 36 Were we in Adams created innocency then we need not to look after a Saviour but we are all fallen but we are broken but we are sold under sin but we are transgressors from the wombe but we are by nature the children of disobedience and wrath What shall I say more

Unbelief is the greatest sin in the world because it is a sin against the greatest love Iohn 3. 16. compared with Rom. 5. 8. it is a sin against the only remedy the sentence of the Law may be repealed by the Gospel but the sin against Gospel remedy there is no repeal of it is a sin that makes void and vain all the covenant of grace turning all the sweetnesse thereof into bitternesse and all the truth of it into a lye 1 John 5. 10. Therefore God is more severe against Unbelief than any sinne because Unbelief is most severeto God God hath no greater Enemi●s in the world than Unbelievers 7. Let us consider that a man without Faith is like a naked man in a storm or like an una●med man in a Battel like a ship unanchored and unballanced in a storm he is like a Sea without Banks a world without a Sun or a ship without a Pilot he is under the command of all his passions and enemies c. Qu. In what way are we to conceive of God when we pray to him Answ We are not to conceive of him under any shape or resemblance Deut. 4. 12 15. we are not to think that the Godhead can be resembled to any thing Acts 17. 27 29. compared together for unless we should equal God to any thing how can he be likened to it Isay 40. 18. 25. Who can by searching find out the Almighty to perfection Iob 11. 7 8 12. We are to conceive of him as one not to be fully conceived by us and so pray to him with such apprehensions of him yet we are to believe that he is and that he is a rewa●der of those that seek him Heb. 11. 6. namely that he to whom we pray is such a God which seeth and knoweth all the secrets of our hearts and all our thoughts that he is present with us where-ever we are comprehendeth us though we cannot comprehend him he is most holy most wise most mighty who is ready to do for us above what we are able to ask or think Ephe. 3 18 19 20. This is to conceive of him in the glorious and precious dimensions of his love so shall we comprehend with all Saints the heighth and breadth length and depth and know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge in this sence may we see him that is invisible Heb. 11. 27. For the true God is invisible as appears by these Scriptures Coll. 1. 15. 1 Tim. 1. 17. Tim. 6 16. The divine essence is not visible to bodily eyes in this life the essence simply considered cannot be seen by the Soul in this Life Exod. 33. 20. In the life to come though it be seen apprehensively so far as the spirits of just men made perfect are capable yet not comprehensively and fully Job 1. 1. 7 8 9 10. Q. How or in what order are we to direct our prayers to the Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity namely to Father Son and Holy Ghost A. In our Prayers we ought not to fix our ey● or minds so upon one in the Trinity as not thereby to be led to the other the Father being in the Son and the Son in the Father and the holy Ghost in them both Iohn 14. 10. we cannot look at one but we must eye the other they that look on Christ as their Mediator must see and eye the Father as giving of him so to be yea and at the holy Ghost as one with the Father sent and consented to his designment to that office as the Lord Christ himself sayeth Isay 48. 16. and now the Lord God and his spirit hath sent me c. we cannot look aright to the Father but we must look to him through the Son neither can we look upon the Son but by the Spirit It is true that in order we are first to direct our Prayers to God the Father yet not as first or chief in honour above the other two for even the Son who albeit as man and as Mediator he be inferiour to the Father Iohn 14. 28. yet as God as the Son of God he is equal with him Iohn 5. 18. Phill. 2. 6. and the Son is to be honored as equal with the same honor as the father Iohn 5 23. Albeit as was said the holy Ghost be not excluded but included so are we to pray unto God through Christ by the help of the holy Ghost Iohn 16. 23. we are to ask the Father in the name of the Son by the help and assistance of the holy Ghost Rom. 8. 26. Again we are baptized in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost and therefore we are to pray unto and worship Father Son and holy Ghost we are to believe in the Father Son and holy Ghost and therefore we are to pray to the Father Son and holy Ghost so that in all external worship of God one in the Trinity being named the other are understood and are not to be excluded Q. How can there be three and yet but one God Answ God is one in essence one Jehovah one God and no more and therefore God calleth himself I am Exod. 3. 14. all besides himself are but created results of God bits of dependances upon him all Nations are before him as a drop of a Bucket as the small dust of the Ballance as a very little thing as nothing as lesse than nothing as vanity Isay 40. 15 17. This one God in essence saith Mr. Thomas Cobbert in his Treatise of Prayer pag. 542 to which I assent viz. is in personal properties three subsistences really distinct yet we are not so to let our thoughts feed themselves in musing upon the blessed persons as distinct in personal properties but with an apprehension of thē as one in essence one Jehovah one God and no more the property of begetting is applyed to God the Father and not to the Son or the holy Ghost he to whom the Scripture giveth the property of the only begotten Son of God he is Jehovah God the Son and no other and so he to whom the Scripture applyeth the property of proceeding he and only he is God the holy Ghost the Scripture applying to none other that property of proceeding or being as it were breathed forth from the Father therfore is called his Spirit Nū 8. 11. from the Son therfore is called the Sons Spirit Gal. 49. yet the holy Scriptures never mention but one Jehovah even when it mentions him in personal distinction three yet essentially but one 1 John 5. 7. There be three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word and the holy Ghost and these three are one the Dvine essence subsisting in three relative properties Father Son and holy Ghost The personal property of the Father is to beget Ps 2. 7. The personal property of the Son is to be begotten John 1. 14 18. The personal property of the holy Ghost is to proceed from the Father and the Son John 14. 26. 15. 26. What shall Isay more As God for the helping of us to understand his essence is pleased to take unto himself certain names and attributes by the help of which we may the better understand his essence so also is he pleased to take unto himself certain names appellations to help us to the better understanding of his subsistance c. yet there is but only one living true God who is infinite in being perfection a most pure Spirit invisibly without body parts or passions immutable eternal incomprehensible working all things according to the counsel of his own will he is the alone Fountain of all beings of whom through whom and to whom are all things in his sight all things are made manifest his knowledge is infinite infallible and independent he is most holy in all his Counsels in all his Works in all his Commands c. But if any demand farther How can there be three and yet but one God I answer great is the mystery the Son in the Father and the Father in the Son and the Spirit of truth which is by the Father and the Son John 14. 11. John 15. 26. 14. 26. So that in this mystery a Christian is to believe what reason cannot comprehend the Father sent forth his Son the Son sent forth the holy Ghost yet Father Son and holy Ghost was never separated one from another Take a candle burning and there is substance light and heat and yet not three candles but one candle Look upon the good man of a House and you shall find that he is a Husband to his Wife a Father to his Children a Master to his Servants and yet not three men but one man so in the unity of the God head there be three of one substance power and eternity God the Father God the Son and God the holy Ghost the Father is of none neither begotten nor proceeding the Son is eternally begotten of the Father the holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son c. FINIS

we behold the downfall of all natural preparations and meritorious dispositions Quere 2. How Vocation conversion repentance regeneration agree or differ For answer to this let me give the Reader Master Baxsters judgement to which I fully assent and consent All these particular expressions saith he are used in Scripture to expresse one and the same work upon the soul onely they have some small difference Viz. The word Vocation is taken for Gods act of Calling and is two-fold First Common when men are brought to an outward profession Secondly Specially when people are savingly converted to Christ this last calling is the same with conversion only this difference Calling hath usually in Scripture a principal respect to the first act on the soul even the act of faith it self or at least the habit of faith is effected in the heart and therewith the seed of all graces in the soul this is that Vocation or special effectual Calling next Consider that Repentance is the same thing as special effectual Calling only this difference the word Vocation doth principally expresse the state to which we are called but the word Repentance doth principally respect our our turning to God from whom we fell and the word Vocation doth as much or more respect our coming to Christ the true and only way to the Father the word Regeneration is more comprehensive than Conversion Repentance and Vocation because there is so great a change that a man is as it were another man 2 Cor. 5. 11. He that is in Christ is a new creature And yet the word Regeneration fignifieth the same thing as Conversion Repentance and Vocation only observing a small difference as before mentioned Quere 3. The way step by step which the Lord in his ordinary dispensation in these Gospel-dayes doth lead a soul as it were by the band out of a state of nature into a state of grace 1. The first step to Conversion is Illumination 2. The second step to accomplish or at least to carry on this work is effectual Vocation which hath many branches 3. The third step to get out of a state of nature into a state of grace out of a state of death into a state of life is to trust or believe in the Lord which hath many branches 4. The fourth step for the compleating and carrying on this work there is usually dropped into the soul and heart the spirit of grace and supplication by which the party goes unto God with confessions and petitions 5. The fifth step to effect and compleat this great work the Lord doth cause the soul secretly to give it selfe up and surrender all the interest that it had in it self to God that made it and Christ that bought it 1. The first step to Conversion is illumination as doth fully appear by these Scriptures Acts. 26. 18. I send thee saith Christ to Paul to open their eyes and to turn them from darknes to light and from the power of Sathan unto God So Psal 119. 130. The entrance of thy word giveth light it giveth understanding unto the simple lob 33. 30. to bring back his soul from the pit to be enlightned with the light of the living Men are not born with this saving light in their hearts as they are born with tongues in their mouthes for the best knowing men under heaven untill born again and converted are in darkness Ephes 5. 8. For ye were sometimes darkness but now are ye light in the Lord being born again 1 Cor. 2. 14. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned 2 Cor. 4. 6. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ This illumination is acompanied with 1 A renewing of the mind Rom. 12. 2. Eph. 4. 23. 2 A conviction of sin and guilt he doth acknowledge himself a lawfull captive 3 There are the seeds or roots of all saving grace infused into the soul at once if the soul be enlightned with a special saving light but the soul doth not presently sensibly exercise thē all the first part of saving grace is illumination the opening of the eyes causeth the opening of the heart 2. The second step to accomplish or at least to carry on this work of conversion is Vocation this effectual vocation is the first or second act of Election saith Master Norton Calling is the first act of Divine mercy in recovering miserable man Doctor Twiss saith effectuall calling is the first mercy c. But let the Reader consider that if these four words Vocation Conversion Repentance Regeneration agree in one and are used in Scripture to expresse the same work upon the soul having but a small difference as hath been proved before then now in speaking to this word Vocation let the Reader take notice that though Conversion Repentance Regeneration be not exprest yet they all are included and contained and if so then Vocation seems to be a second work upon the soul rather than the first Jer. 31. 19. Surely after that I was turned I repented and after that I was instructed I was ashamed yea even confounded because I did bear the reproach of my youth the way that the Lord doth take for the recovering of a backslider and the conversion of a sinner doth in many thing if not in all go hand in hand together he calls upon the one and so he doth upon the other he enlightens the one to see from whence he is fallen and so he doth the other he gives repentance to the one and so he doth to the other c. There are principally these three things to be considered in this Vocation 1. The principal cause of Vocation is Gods free mercy 2 Tim. 1. 9. Titus 3. 3 4 5. 2. The instrumental cause is the preaching of the Gospel 2 Thes 2. 14. 3. The end of Vocation is Gods glory and the salvation of his elected ones Ephes 2. 1. And you hath he quickened when you were dead in sinnes and trespasses Col. 2. 13. And you that were dead in your sinnes hath he quickned Eph. 1. 12. that we should be to the praise of his glory There be certain steps at first in a souls coming to Christ or preparatory accesses like that we read Psalm 6. 2 4. Have mercy upon me O Lord for I am weak O Lord heal me for my bones are vexed Return O Lord deliver my soul O save me for thy mercies sake Matt. 9. 20. Bebold a woman diseased though she came not presently to look God fully in the face though she dare not come to touch Christ and lay hold on him yet she was sensible of her own misery and want of mercy she knew there was vertue to come from him and she came as near that as she durst she had a desire to speak but she went