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A30349 An exposition of the Thirty-nine articles of the Church of England written by Gilbert Bishop of Sarum. Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715. 1700 (1700) Wing B5792; ESTC R19849 520,434 424

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much from the Blessed Virgin on the one hand as she had been over-exalted on the other So they said that Christ had only gone through her But this Impiety sunk so soon that it is needless to say any thing more to refute it The Third Branch of the Article is That these two Natures were joined in one Person never to be divided What a Person is that results from a close Conjunction of Two Natures we can only judge of it by considering Man in whom there is a Material and a Spiritual Nature joined together They are Two Natures as different as any we can apprehend among all created Beings yet these make but One Man The Matter of which the Body is composed does not subsist by it self is not under all those Laws of Motion to which it would be subject if it were mere inanimated Matter but by the Indwelling and Actuation of the Soul it has another Spring within it and has another Course of Operations According to this then to subsist by another is when a Being is acting according to its Natural Properties but yet in a constant dependance upon another Being so our Bodies subsist by the Subsistence of our Souls This may help us to apprehend how that as the Body is still a Body and operates as a Body though it subsists by the Indwelling and Actuation of the Soul so in the Person of Jesus Christ the Human Nature was entire and still acted according to its own Character yet there was such an Union and Inhabitation of the Eternal Word in it that there did arise out of that a Communication of Names and Characters as we find in the Scriptures A man is called Tall Fair and Healthy from the state of his Body and Learned Wise and Good from the qualities of his Mind So Christ is called holy harmless and undefiled is said to have died risen and ascended up into Heaven with relation to his Human Nature He is also said to be in the form of God to have created all things Phil. 2.6 Col. 1.16 to be the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person with relation to his Divine Nature The Ideas that we have of what is Material and what is Spiritual Heb. 1.3 lead us to distinguish in a Man those descriptions that belong to his Body from those that belong to his Mind so the different apprehensions that we have of what is created and uncreated must be our Thread to guide us into the Resolution of those various Expressions that occur in the Scriptures concerning Christ. The design of the Definition that was made by the Church concerning Christ's having one Person was chiefly to distinguish the nature of the Indwelling of the Godhead in him from all Prophetical Inspirations The Mosaical degree of Prophecy was in many respects superior to that of all the subsequent Prophets Yet the difference is stated between Christ and Moses in terms that import things quite of another nature the one being mentioned as a Servant the other as the Son that built the House It is not said that God appeared to Christ or that he spoke to him but God was ever with him and in him Joh. 1.14 and while the Word was made flesh yet still his glory was as the glory of the only begotten Son of God The Glory that Isaiah saw was called his Glory and on the other hand God is said to have purchased his Church with his own Blood If Nestorius in opposing this meant only as some think it appears by many Citations out of him that the Blessed Virgin was not to be called simply the Mother of God but the Mother of him that was God and if that of making Two Persons in Christ was only fasten'd on him as a Consequence we are not at all concerned in the Matter of Fact whether Nestorius was misunderstood and hardly used or not but the Doctrine here asserted is plain in the Scriptures That though the Human Nature in Christ acted still according to its proper Character and had a peculiar Will yet there was such a constant Presence Indwelling and Actuation on it from the Eternal Word as did constitute both Human and Divine Nature one Person As these are thus so entirely united so they are never to be separated Christ is now exalted to the highest degrees of Glory and Honour and the Characters of Blessing Honour and Glory are represented in St. Iohn's Visions as offered to the Lamb for ever and ever It is true St. Paul speaks as if Christ's Mediatory Office and Kingdom were to cease after the Day of Judgment Rev. 5.13 and that then he was to deliver up all to the Father But though when the full number of the Elect shall be gathered the full End of his Death will be attained and when these Saints shall be glorified with him and by him his Office as Mediator will naturally come to an end yet his own Personal Glory shall never cease And if every Saint shall inherit an everlasting Kingdom much more shall he who has merited all that to them and has conferred it on them be for ever possessed of his Glory The Fourth Branch of the Article is concerning the Truth of Christ's Crucifixion his Death and Burial The Matter of Fact concerning the Death of Christ is denied by no Christian the Iews do all acknowledge it the first Enemies to Christianity did all believe this and reproached his Followers with it This was that which all Christians gloried in and avowed so that no question was made of his Death except by a small number called Docetae who were not esteemed Christians till Mahomet denied it in his Alcoran who pretends that he was withdrawn and that a Iew was crucified in his stead But this corruption of the History of the Gospel came too late afterwards to have any shadow of credit due to it nor was there any sort of Proof offered to support it So this Doctrine concerning the Death of Christ is to be received as an unquestionable Truth There is no part of the Gospel writ with so copious a Particularity as the History of his Sufferings and Death as there was indeed no part of the Gospel so important as this is The Fifth Branch of the Article is That he was a true Sacrifice to reconcile the Father to us and that not only for Original but for Actual Sins The Notion of an Expiatory Sacrifice which was then when the New Testament was writ well understood all the World over both by Iew and Gentile was this That the Sin of one Person was transferred on a Man or a Beast who was upon that devoted and offered up to God and suffered in the room of the offending Person and by this Oblation the Punishment of the Sin being laid on the Sacrifice an Expiation was made for Sin and the Sinner was believed to be reconciled to God This as appears through the whole Book of Leviticus was
that Affectation of Sublimity had denied that there was any Reward and from thence sprung the Sect of the Sadducees so these men perhaps at first mistaking the meaning of the New Testament went wrong only in their Notions and still meant to press the necessity of true Holiness though in another set of Phrases and upon other Motives yet from thence many wild and ungovern'd Notions arose then and were not long ago revived among us All which flowed from their not understanding the Importance of the Word Law in the New Testament in which it stands most commonly for the complex of the whole Iewish Religion in opposition to the Christian as the Word Law when it stands for a Book is meant of the Five Books of Moses The maintaining the whole frame of that Dispensation in opposition to that Liberty which the Apostles granted to the Gentiles as to the Ritual parts of it was the Controversy then in debate between the Apostles and the Judaizing Christians The stating that matter aright is a Key that will open all those difficulties which with it will appear easy and without it insuperable In opposition to these who thought then that the Old Testament having brought the World on to the knowledge of the Messias was now of no more use this Article was framed The Second Part of the Article relates to a more Intricate Matter and that is whether in the Old Testament there were any promises made other than Transitory or Temporal ones and whether they might look for Eternal Salvation in that Dispensation and upon what account Whether Christ was the Mediator in that Dispensation or if they were saved by Virtue of their Obedience to the Laws that were then given them Those who deny that Christ was truly God think that in order to the raising him to those great Characters in which he is proposed in the New Testament it is necessary to assert that he gave the first assurances of Eternal Happiness and of a free and full pardon of all Sins in his Gospel And that in the Old Testament neither the one nor the other were certainly and distinctly understood It is true That if we take the words of the Covenant that Moses made between God and the People of Israel strictly and as they stand they Import only Temporal Blessings That was a Covenant with a Body of Men and with their Posterity as they were a People engaged to the Obedience of that Law Now a National Covenant could only be establish'd in Temporal promises of Publick and Visible Blessings and of a long continuance of them upon their Obedience and in Threatnings of as signal Judgments upon the Violation of them But under those general promises of what was to happen to them Collectively as they made up one Nation every single person among them might and the good men among them did gather the hopes of a future State It is clear that Moses did all along suppose the Being of God the Creation of the World and the promise of the Messias as things fully known and carried down by Tradition to his days So it seems he did also suppose the knowledge of a future State which was then generally believed by the Gentiles as well as the Iews though they had only dark and confused Notions about it But when God was establishing a Covenant with the Iewish Nation a main part of which was his giving them the Land of Canaan for an Inheritance it was not necessary that Eternal Rewards or Punishments should be then proposed to them But from the Tenor of the promises made to their Forefathers and from the General Principles of Natural Religion not yet quite extinguished among them they might gather this That under those Carnal promises Blessings of a higher nature were to be understood And so we see that David had the hope of arriving at the presence of God and at his right hand where he believed there was a fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore And he puts himself in this opposition to the wicked Ps. 16.11 Ps. 17.14 15. That whereas their portion was in this life and they left their substance to their Children he says That as for him he should behold God's Face in righteousness and should be satisfied when he awaked with his likeness which seems plainly to relate to a state after this Life and to the Resurrection He carries this opposition further in another Psalm where after he had said That men in honour did not continue but were like the beasts that perished Ps. 49.14 15. That none of them could purchase immortality for his brother that he should still live for ever and not see Corruption They all died and left their wealth to others and like sheep they were laid in the grave where death should feed on them In opposition to which he says That the upright should have dominion over them in the morning Which is clearly a Poetical Expression for another day that comes after the night of Death As for himself in particular he says That God shall redeem my Soul that is his Life or his Body for in those senses the word Soul is used in the Old Testament from the power of the grave That is from continuing in that state of death for he shall receive me This does very clearly set forth David's belief both of future Happiness and of the Resurrection of his Body To which might be added some other passages in the Psalms Ecclesiastes Ps. 84.11.87.6.90.17.96.17 Eccl. 11.9.12.14 Isa. 25.8.26.19 Dan. 12.2 Isaiah and Daniel In all which it appears That the holy men in that Dispensation did understand That under those promises in the Books of Moses that seemed literally to belong to the Land of Canaan and other Temporal Blessings there was a Spiritual meaning hid which it seems was conveyed down by that Succession of Prophets that was among them as the mystical sense of them It is to this that our Saviour seems to appeal when the Sadducees came to puzzle him with that question of the seven Brethren who had all married one Wife He first tells them They erred not knowing the Scriptures which plainly Imports That the Doctrine which they denied was contained in the Scriptures Matt. 22. ●● and then he goes to prove it not from those more express passages that are in the Prophets and Holy Writers which as some think the Sadducees rejected but from the Law which being the Source of their Religion it might seem a just prejudice against any Doctrine especially if it was of great Consequence that it was not contained in the Law Therefore he cites these words that are so often repeated and that were so much considered by the Iews as containing in them the Foundation of God's love to them that God said upon many occasions particularly at his first appearance to Moses I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob Which words imported not only that