Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	assembly_n	jerusalem_n	zion_n	291	3	8.7499	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50428	Sanctification by faith vindicated in a discourse on the seventh chapter of the epistle of St. Paul to the Romans : compared with the sixth and eighth chapters of the same epistle / written by Zachary Mayne ... to which is prefixt a preface by Mr. Rob. Burscough.	Mayne, Zachary, 1631-1694.; Burscough, Robert, 1651-1709.	1693 (1693)	Wing M1487; ESTC R11086	85,470	62

I have kept the faith henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness c. What he fight a good fight that could not lift up an hand Whenever he would do good evil was present with him The good that he would do he did not and the evil he would not do that he did A stout Soldier He fight a good fight that was taken prisoner and carried captive to the Law of Sin He finish his course that could not move a step nor stand upon his Legs How to perform that which is good I find not Is this he that did preach warn and teach every Man in all Wisdom and labour so hard at his Work striving according to the working that worketh in me mightily 1 Col. last And so Ephes 3.7 Whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace given unto me according to the effectual working of his power or his powerful working the same with that in the Colossians and so in Ephes 1.19 That you may know what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places Sixthly This seventh to the Romans Reas VI if it should be allowed in the sence mentioned seems to take off all worthy Aspirings after degrees in Grace and all religious joyful Gratulations and Thanksgivings to God for Grace already received If we must be still Captives to and sold under Sin to what purpose is it to endeavour after any high Attainments in any much less in all the Graces of the Spirit to be adding one Grace unto another and one degree of Grace unto another They that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts How shall we hope to be able to say with good Hezekiah upon a Death-bed Remember now O Lord I beseech thee how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart and have done that which is good in thy sight Isa 38.2 3. And Lastly The taking the seventh to the Romans that is to say Reas VII the latter part of it from the fourteenth Verse to the end to be spoken by St. Paul as concerning himself after conversion casts a disparagement upon the whole Gospel dispirits and enervates the Power and Efficacy of it which yet is stiled the Ministration of the Spirit We all know the Gospel to be the last of the Revelations of God to the World even by the Son himself and his Apostles endued with the Holy Ghost in a visible and admirable manner The Gospel is called the Kingdom of Heaven because in it Heaven is brought down upon Earth as well as we directed by it to get to Heaven We are come in the Gospel to mount Sion and to the city of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of angels to the general assembly and church of the first-born which are written in heaven and to God the judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant and to the blood of sprinkling which speaketh better things than the blood of Abel Heb. 12.22 23 24. The Church of God in the Gospel is compared to an Heir at Age come to the Possession of his Estate The Church before to an Heir in his Non-age Gal. 4. Now in the Days of the Gospel it is promised that the feeble shall be as David and the house of David shall be as God as the Angel of the Lord before them Zach. 12.6 What shall St. Paul then the chiefest of the Apostles be as a Babe as Carnal sold under Sin shall St. Paul pray for his Colossians that they might be strengthened with all might according to the glorious power of God Col. 1.11 and for his Ephesians that God would grant according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with mighty by his spirit in the inner man and have no strength himself Ephes 3.16 and not be able to find how to perform that which is good He can do all manner of evil which he would not but the good which he would fain do he cannot do and the reason is because the Spiritual Apostle is grown Carnal sold under Sin and led away into Captivity to the Law of Sin and Death Methinks 't is impossible that ever these words should be spoken of St. Paul as of himself for there was never as I conceive a more vigorous active successful Person or engaged in higher Work and Service Therefore I shall here break off my Epistle to the Reader and after having given him a short Analysis of the foregoing part of the Epistle with that of the sixth seventh and eighth Chapter shall betake my self to the Work which I have undertaken that is to shew by Paraphrasing the sixth seventh and eighth Chapters of the Epistle to the Romans That this cannot be the meaning of the seventh Chapter which is by many thought to be so the sixth and eighth rightly expounded will cast a great light upon the seventh inclosed betwixt them according to that Maxim Opposita Juxta se posita magis elucescunt The sixth and eighth Chapters seem to me like two Guardians or Watchers set to defend us from the dangerous misunderstanding of the seventh or to give thee another Comparison which hath fallen upon my fancy they seem to be like two hot Baths and the seventh like a cold Well fed from another Spring and the Source it self of it is in the same Chapter fully accounted for The ANALYSIS I Find then after the Apostle hath made a most stately Address consisting of fifteen Verses to that learned and faithful Church he spends the other seventeen Verses of the first Chapter in convincing the Gentiles of their sinfulness The whole second Chapter in convincing the Jews of theirs In the third he shews That the Jews though they had many Priviledges above the Gentiles yet were indeed no better than they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cap. 3.9 Verse 20. He sheweth That neither of them can be justified by the Law and that they both must be justified by Faith Ver. 30. In the fourth Chapter he proves Justification by Faith by Abraham's Example and David's Description of the Blessedness of a Man any Man In the fifth Chapter he institutes a Comparison betwixt the hurt done to Mankind by the first Adam and the benefit to Mankind by the second Adam and heighthens the benefit unspeakably beyond the loss That as sin hath reigned unto death so grace reigns by righteousness unto eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord And so concludes the Discourse of Justification by Faith In the sixth Chapter the Apostle comes to a new Subject which takes up that and the seventh and a good part of the eighth Chapter viz. that of Sanctification and shews that that is as

the Law or the Promises of the Gospel What though they call themselves Churchmen and Sons of the Church What if they be of separate Assemblies if they walk not after the Spirit but after the Flesh they are the Devil's Slaves and Firebrands of Hell There is no peace saith my God to the wicked Isai 48.22 Without holiness no man shall see the Lord Holiness is the true end of all Religion we must attain unto Holiness or we can never please God in any Religion that we profess Cease to do evil learn to do well put away the evil of your doings Come now and let us reason together saith the Lord though your sins be as scarlet they shall be as white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool Esai 1.16 17 18. There is no communion with God no Fellowship or Converse with or Approach unto God for all these I take to be understood by Reasoning together without washing and cleansing ourselves Before this in the 11 12 13 14 15 Verses God renounceth all Acceptance of any thing they did in Religion To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me c. saith the Lord. Men may use some kind of honest Endeavours after Holiness and fail of attaining what they seek after Thus the Apostle witnesses of the Jews Rom. 9.31 But Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath not attained to the law of righteousness Verse 32. Wherefore because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law Now for these the Aposile had a great deal of Pitty and Commiseration as you may see Rom. 9.1 2 3. I say the truth in Christ I lye not my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren my kinsmen according to the flesh who are Israelites c. And so Rom. 10.1 2 3. Brethren my hearts desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God but not according to the knowledge For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God Now I have made these two last Quotations to prove That Men may in some sort and way have a great Zeal and Endeavour to please God and to be the Favorites of Heaven and yet lose their labour What shall become then of those that take no pains in Religion at all and indeed do not truly endeavour to become universally Holy but please themselves with some poor low ends in their Profession short of this only worthy design I shall conclude this Application with those words of the Apostle in Rom. 6.21 22. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed What real Profit or what real Comfort had ye in those sinful Pleasures and wicked Courses wherein once in the State of Unregeneracy ye indulged yourselves Wicked Men of the World take a great deal of pains to get Profits and Pleasures and Honours and what doth it afford them What comfort have they of it at the very time upon a sober Review and Consideration The Answer is None at all and besides now ye are ashamed of what ye then did then it was no matter of Comfort and now 't is a matter of Shame But what follows Ver. 22. But now being made free from sin Who is free from sin Answer Every Saint of God is free from Sin in the Apostle's sence not in the sence of a quarrelsome Scholastick and become servants to God you have your fruit unto holiness That is a present rich Fruit indeed that by turning to God and exercising ourselves unto Righteousness we attain unto an Holy Frame and Temper and Readiness to every good Work And the end everlasting Life The Law teacheth Holiness and the Gospel effects it and though some may lose their labour that are at some pains in Religion for want of diligent Enquiry after the right way as the Jews did and all that seek to be justified and sanctified by the Law will do yet they that are at no pains at all in Religion are sure to tumble into Hell Strive to enter in at the strait gate sa it our Saviour for many I say unto you shall seek to enter in but shall not be able Luke 13.21 If seeking will not do but we must also strive to enter what will become of those that do not so much as seek And now I would end this Subject Use VII Of Consolation which is grown under my hand to double the largeness that I intended it with a Use of Consolation to all the true Saints of God Are there any as I hope there are many that have been duly convinced of Sin how great an Evil it is how it hath dishonoured God and defiled and debased their Nature and Noble Soul which is God's Off-spring and endangered their sinking under the Divine Displeasure to Eternity and especially of the great Sin of not believing in Christ but rather seeking to be justified by the Works of the Law have they at last found themselves killed by the Law with a Thousand Deaths and been driven to flee from the Wrath that is certainly to come unto the Hope that is set before them in the Gospel Have they been couvinced of Righteousness because Christ is gone to the Father and we are to see him no more till his second coming and from hence conclude that he hath brought about Everlasting Righteousness by his Death for else how could he upon whom his Father laid the Iniquities of us all and did while he was punishing him upon the Cross as it were forsake him be admitted again into his Father's presence as an Advocate for us Have they been convinced of Judgment as knowing that because Christ hath died and is again gone to the Father that therefore the Prince of this World the Devil is judged and condemned and shall be cast out of his Tyranny over Men all Men that betake themselves to Christ the Captain of their Salvation who by Death destroyed him that had the power of Death that is the Devil that he might deliver them who through fear of death are all their life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2.14 15. And so have they betaken themselves to Christ as their Head and Husband and only Saviour that he may be made of God unto them Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption Why unto you is the Word of this Salvation sent You are the blessed of the Lord and ye shall be blessed and the Gates of Hell shall never prevail against you You are called to resist the Devil to fight against Principalities and Powers and the Rulers of the Darkness of this World and against Spiritual Wickedness in high places