B00698:71
A fountain sealed: or, The duty of the sealed to the Spirit, and the…
A fountain sealed: or, The duty of the sealed to the Spirit, and the work of the Spirit in sealing. Wherein many things are handled about the Holy Spirit, and grieving of it: as also of assurance and sealing what it is, the privileges and degrees of it, with the signs to discern, and means to preserve it. : Being the substance of divers sermons preached at Gray's Inn. / By that Reverend Divine, Richard Sibbes D.D. and sometimes preacher to that honourable society.A fountain sealed: or, The duty of the sealed to the Spirit, and the worke of the Spirit in sealing. Wherein many things are handled about the Holy Spirit, and grieving of it: as also of assurance and sealing what it is, the priviledges and degrees of it, with the signes to discerne, and means to preserve it. : Being the substance of divers sermons preached at Grayes Inne. / By that Reverend Divine, Richard Sibbes D.D. and sometimes preacher to that honourable society.
London: printed by Thomas Harper for Lawrence Chapman, 1638
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Sometimes God leads his children to heaven through some to heaven through some foul way, by which he lets them see what need they have of washing by the blood and Spirit of Christ; which otherwise perhaps they would not so much value, when they grieve the Spirit, and the Spirit thereupon grieves them, and that ⟨p. 79⟩grief proves medicinal; the grief which sin breeds, consumes the sin that bred it. We are in covenant with so wise and powerful a God, that over-rules even sin it self, to serve his purpose in bringing his to heaven. They have that in them whereby they hate the sin they do, and love the goodness they do not: whereas others hate the good in some respects they do, and love the ill which they dare not commit. Howsoever they are drawn into sin, yet they will never break their conjugal bond betwixt Christ and their souls, so far as that sin should reign in them as a commanding Lord: ⟨p. 80⟩they will not forsake their oath of allegiance to serve willingly a contrary King. They may presume sometimes upon Christ, thinking they have a Balm ready to cure the wound again, (as some to show the virtue of their oils, do make wounds in themselves) the deceitfulness of sin seducing them: but God ever chastiseth this boldness, and taketh such a course with them, that it ends in taking the greater shame to themselves; and by so much, as they have been more presumptuous. The loss of comfort, and the sense of sorrow they feel, makes them say from experience: that there is nothing gotten by sin, and that it proves bitterness in the end.
Sometimes God leades his children to heaven through some to heaven through some foule way, by which hee lets them see what need they have of washing by the bloud and Spirit of Christ; which otherwise perhaps they would not so much value, when they grieve the Spirit, and the Spirit thereupon grieves them, and that ⟨p. 79⟩griefe proves medicinall; the griefe which sinne breeds, consumes the sinne that bred it. We are in covenant with so wise and powerfull a God, that over-rules even sinne it selfe, to serve his purpose in bringing his to heaven. They have that in them whereby they hate the sinne they doe, and love the goodnesse they doe not: whereas others hate the good in some respects they doe, and love the ill which they dare not commit. Howsoever they are drawn into sinne, yet they will never breake their conjugall bond betwist Christ and their soules, so farre as that sinne should raigne in them as a commanding Lord: