Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	death_n	sin_n	wage_n	3,467	5	11.7433	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27499	The still-borne nativitie, or, A copy of an incarnation sermon that should have been delivered at St. Margarets-Westminster, on Saturday, December the five and twenty, 1647, in the afternoone, by N.B., but prevented by the committee for plunder'd ministers, who sent and seized the preacher, carried him from the vestry of the said church, and committed him to the fleet, for his undertaking to preach without the license of Parliament ...	Bernard, Nicholas, d. 1661.	1648 (1648)	Wing B2018; ESTC R18366	26,917	36

dust preserve each atom and by a most inscrutable providence keep every more of that dust to the glorious resurrection And this although not comparable in it selfe to the glory of the soule yet hath in it an unspeakeable weight of comfort And therefore O My soul though I desire thee not to be so unnatural to cast of the body Yet learne to know a truer freind then my flesh Let thy care be to gain and keep Christ thy study to please him thy labour to serve him thy joy to know him thy greife to offend him thy suffering for him rather yea more then ever it hath been for this body of mine who will stay longer by thee prove kinder to thee then e're that hath been or is like to be And O My flesh though I would not have thee unreasonable yet begin to be sensible of a truer Guide a constanter keeper and a blesseder governour then ever my owne soule hath or will be to thee Let thy feet stand in the Gates of Sion or be running towards the house of God Let thy hands be working the thing that is good Let thine eyes be lifted up to the place where Christs honor dwells And let this be thy Covenant with them and make thy tongue to tell of his praise and speake good of his name that will restore all these left to corruption by the soul to become vessels of glory in the resurection of the just And in the meane time keepeth them that that not a haire of thy head shal be lost And O thou very God of peace who when thou beginnest to take into favour lovest with an everlasting love for such is thy Covenant into protection never leavest nor forsakest such is thy unchangeable nature so take my soule into favour my flesh into tuition that both being sanctified throughout My soule may long for thee my flesh may cry out for the living God! My Soule love thee as it is beloved of thee and my body serve thee as it is and shall be preserved by thee for ever Secondly when I contemplate the unity of Christ's person therein consider how near Man is brought to God I am enforced to acknowledge all promised Vnions of God to man possible all commanded Vnions of man againe to God reasonable The promised Vnions of God to Man are 1. Pastorall He our shepheard we his Flock 2. Oeconomicall he our Master wee his servants 3. Consanguineal He our Father we his Sonnes and Daughters 4. Conjugall he our Husband we his Spouse here his hride in the resurrection his Wife for ever and the like In the first his call and our following declares us one way In the second his command and our obedience one Worke In the third his tender care our dutifull honour one Generation or Kindred In the Last his holy desire and our chast submission one love And all these unions made easie even to faith by the Vnity of Christ's person He that gave us his sonne how shall he not with him freely give us all things The commanded Vnions of man to God are 1. Of Judgement that wee as he doth approve the things that are more excellent 2 Of Will for election that we as he doth desire truth in the inward parts and this is to chuse the better part 3. Of Affection that we as he doth hate the evill and love the good being merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful 4. Of Conversation that we be holie as he is holie perfect as our Father which is in Heaven is perfect that we purifie our selves as he is pure And all this is but to be one spirit as the Apostle saith He that is joyned to the Eord is one Spirit And good reason For God requires no more of us then St Paul did of the Galatians and upon the same ground Be ye as I am for I am as ye are O yee Sonnes of Men be ye as Gods And the Children of the most high for the sonne God is God yet for your sakes became the sonne of Man And O my Soule since thou hast no reason to doubt have faith to pray Philosophie ●ath taught thee That every Essence is an Vnity not only in number as opposed to multitude but even in nature as an undivided being the desire of which last Vnity is the cause of sorrow in the sense of division Thy sinfull and therefore wofull experience hath taught thee to feele thy selfe involved in the curse of Simeon and Levi to be divided and scattered But this Mystery is that which teaches thee by the Gospell to expect Vnitie as a gift to desire it as a benefit On therefore my soule take with thee words and say O Lord I am by sinne either a solitary wild Wolfe or at best a strayed sheep from the sold of peace but by this I know thou canst I hope thou wilt make the Wolf lye downe with the Lamb or cause thine owne immaculate Lamb the Lamb of God to take away that sinne which makes me a Wolfe in thy sight Or if a strayed sheep seeke O seek according to thy promise that which was lost and bring againe that which was driven away bind up that which was broken strengthen that which was sick feed me upon a good Pasture and on the high Mountaines of Israel fold me O my God I am by nature a fugitive or a Captive a Rogue or a slave without Master or under a cruell Master where my work is sin my wages death I sow the wind and reap the Whirlewind but O thou great Commander of all hearts who rulest by love and so makest thy service to be perfect freedome I want a service do thou entertaine me I am weary of my Old Master do thou redeeme me I yeild to thy Yoke accept thy condition embrace thy Covenant and for reward build upon thy courtesie Thy Gospel shall be my Indenture thy Sacraments the Seales thy sonne the Vndertaker of my truth thy Holy Spirit and my owne Conscience the Inward thy holy Angels and the World the Eye-witnesses of my fidelity Thy secrets I will keep Thy commands I will religiously obey Thy talents improve Thy goods not wast No contract will I make prejudicial to thy service For this purpose I yeild my Eare to the awle and doore of thy house bore it for I will not go from thee for ever O Lord my God my poore soule is by sin become either an Orphant to my sorrow or a Bastard to my shame either fatherlesse without God or of a faulty Father Iohn 8. 48. The first is the object of pity but the last of reproach Thou hast promised to succour the first but hast commanded thy doores to be shut against the last Thou wilt be a Father to the Fatherlesse but a Bastard shall not enter into thy Congregation to the tenth Generation O my God my soules substance is true borne as in thy Creation only since sinne an Orphan of grace the Child of wrath by nature

Conscience Law of Nature Counsailes of Men Rules of Philosophie Ingenuity of Education yea and the very Law of God it selfe that is it's Letter are nothing else but Stars and Candlelight not to drive away the night But as it were so many arguments to prove that there is a night Things that serve rather to shew that there is a Heaven and an Earth then to inable us to enjoy either And therefore they that doe charitably acknowledg a possibility of salvation to the Heathen which never heard of the Gospel say that this salvation doth accrue unto them from God for Christ sake Man could let in sinne but it is Christ that must expel it Man could embrace wickednesse but God must send his Sonne to blesse us by turning us away from our iniquities Israell could destroy himselfe But it is God must helpe David needed no guide to goe astray like a lost sheepe But it is Davids Lord must seek and save him And lastly concerning the Lawes rigour it fully appeares by that which hath been spoken already that it must be an Immanuell that must exonerate the burthen satisfie the court of justice arrest judgment and take of the seargeant with a supersedeas for an Execution taken out and not served And all this is don by Christ as our Praes and Sponsor Surety and Advocate for the removing of evil from us And this is the first reason The other reason concerning man is the promoting of his good which is done so many wayes so plentifully that St. Bernard after his manner calls Christ incarnate Manna from Heaven the joy of the hungry A cluster of grapes sweete grapes from Gods vineyard the refreshment of the thirsty soule O yle of gladness The health of the sickly and a stone cut out of the mountaine without hands that the negligent may feare In a word For the general let that goe for al which Fulgentius with fifteene other Bishops more have subscribed concerning this parti●ar except the Worde which is God by uniting in a singular way mans nature unto himselfe had been borne of a virgin a true and perfect man there should never have been bestowed upon us that are borne fleshly an Arise of a spiritual birth c. But now what sweet enterchanges do there passe betweene the Lords Anointed and mankind He borrowes our Flesh and gives us his Spirit takes Earth returns Heaven Exchanges his Peace for our chastisement his sonship for our servitude his grace for our sinne his crown for our curse his life for our death his joyes for our sorrowes In sum of God he became Man That wee by communion with him of men might be made partakers of the divine nature And because mans felicity stands in enjoying God Thus familiarly hath the Sonne of God bartered Natures states and goods with man His first nativity from God the Second from Man making him whose First Birth is from Man to have a Second from God And secondly in seeing God whose brightnesse dazling al sinfull sight with the beauty of holinesse Therefore hath the Lord Iesus Christ like unto another meek Moses put on the vaile of the flesh that by it boldly we might enter and have accesse to the Holy of Holies to see as we are seene And thirdly if there be any inhaerent happinesse I understand the cause of it in man aswell as sorrow it is but like the axe among the Prophets a tool not fit for their coat borrowed and that from Christ For there are three several Gifts which are all of them comprehended in or subordinate to the Incarnation of Iesus Christ concurring to the happines of man in the Scripture called by the name of Grace And distinguished by the immediate extrinsecal Giver As first the grace of God which is the Father by which grace I conceive Christ himselfe is specified To which sence I am enduced by comparing that of Saint Paul Tit. 2. 11. to that of St. Iohn c. 3. v. 16. Secondly the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ Which grace must needes be the Spirit if we consider the promise Iohn 15. 26. Which is somewhere also called the Grace of God and of our Lord Iesus Christ Lastly the Grace of the Spirit which is well known to be that frame of holynesse in the Saincts which being diversified is called the fruit of the Spirit Gal. 5 22 To the introducing of which last it was necessary that the two former should precede The Spirit as the proper fountaine of holinesse and comfort The incarnation as the Mediam and Motive of the Spirits mission to and acceptance with man But of this parhaps fully and more clearely hereafter when if ever we come to write of Christ's Egresse from the world Lastly if in Mans felicity we may any way attend to mans actions Or if there be any such thing beside the name of it as moral felicity Christ as incarnate must be the procurer of it which is done by him As an Object of our Faith A Ground of Hope A cause of Love and a Rule of Operation Two things are required in the object of faith without either of which Faith failes Affability the Party we beleeve must be apt to be spoken with Rom. 10. 15. And Veracitie The first is denyed to God though with imputation of fault herein to Mans sinne only according to that Let not God speake least we die The other to man God is not a Man that he should lie Let God be true and every man a Lyer God cannot be beleeved though true because man cannot abide before his voice Man cannot be trusted when he speaks for untruths Now in Christ these two are united The affability of Man Here is our accesse The truth of God Here the object of our faith Secondly the ground of hope as the most plentifull expression of Gods love ●t quid non speremus amati being so loved what may we not hope for He that gave us his Sonne how shal he not with him freely give us all things The cause of love thirdly he is in God to each of us personaly in us to God dutifully We love him because he loved us first Lastly the rule of Operation In a Rule that men work by Two things are necessary Rectitude and Visibilicie The first is in God without the second The second in man without the first That Christ therefore might be a most perfect rule for man to work by To the righteousnesse of God he assumed the visibilitie of Man c. Thirdly the reasons of the Incarnation that respect sinne is without the limitation of the power of God that it might be a remedy to sinne Tolle morbos tolle vulnera et nulla est medicinae causa If there had been no sinne there had been no need of a Saviour and therefore the glosse upon 1. Tim. 1. Christ came into the World to save sinners is not amisse Nulla causa veniendi fuit Christo Domino nisi peceatores salvos facere and

is answerable to that Luk. 19. The Sonne of man came not but to seeke and to save that which was lost Man by sinne became like the Ax flowne of from the Helve and sunke in the water that this Ax may be restored it must be made emergent for this the Prophet cast a bough into the water Christ is that Bough which by the Incarnation is cast into the water and by it man that before sank now swimms Sinne in man was like death in the pot that the pottage might be healed meale was cast in Christ is that Meale 2. Kings 4. 39. wherefore St. Augustine upon my text Caro ●e obcaecaverat caro te sanat quoniam sic venit Christus ut de carne carnis vitia extingueret Flesh blinded thee O Man Flesh healeth thee For therefore Christ came that by his Flesh he might extinguish the sinne of the flesh Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sinnes of the World Which sinne of the World reading it in the singular number Bede interprets original sinne Because that alone of all other is the sinne of the whole world And indeed taken extensively is without comparison the greatest sinne that ever was no one actuall beside being to be charg'd upon all men But in respect of their intension of sinne it is the least becauss least voluntary now it is a rule quodcuuque malum est maxime voluntarium est maxime peccatum But I conceive the word sinne is rather Genericall then Specificall containing as well actual as original For proofe where of I oppose St. Peters Comment Act. 3. 26 to that of Bede which may serve as a final confirmation of this reason Unles I may take leave to them the necessity of Christs incarnation to the removing of sinne to bring in the expression of a Learned divine affirming that If the whole Heaven were turned into one Sunne And the whole World into Paradise I adde If all the righteous men that ever were beside were composed into one Abel And all the Angells of Heaven into one Seraphin To make an universal holocaust they would be insufficient to expiate any one of these many sinnes whereof wee stand guilty before God Christ alone is an al suffieient sacrifice for the sinnes of the whole world Ioh. 2. 2. But of this sufficient hath been spoken in the fore going reasons which concerne us Fourthly the reasons that concerne Sathan are his utter confusion and overthrow And that by man whose nature was by him first infected and for ever infested As It was the pride of Satans malignity against God that for his sinne had cast him out of Heaven to wound Gods Honour in the fall of the best of his earthly creatures mankind whome he therefore assaulted and overthrew So it is the praise of Gods infinite justice that although he might have immediatly vindicated his owne honour and avenged Adams fall as wel of himselfe upon Sathan in cursing him as he did the poore Snake his instrument Yet he would not daigne to cope with him but in Man and therefore he sent his Sonne in the forme not of man only but an enthralled man A servant to destroy him that had the power of death that is the divel Secondly that as Sathan by working upon the frailty of humane flesh deceived the first Adam so the Hooke of the deity it is St. Hieromes phrase being Baited with the Humaine Nature The Flesh of the second Adam invited the Great Devourer to bite And so the great taker was taken The great Devourer was deceived as we shall see more in the treatise of Christs temptations Thirdly and wherewith I will conclude the argument concerning the Divell this may a posteriore and by the effect be added as a reason of the Incarnation that Sathan in his promises though most false and lying might not out bid the goodnesse of God in his most true and reall performances The greatest Promise that even the Tempter promised to mankind though that in his temptation of Christ to worship him was a very large lying one was that to Eve Gen. 3. 5. Ye shall be as Gods knowing good and evil Now he was so far from performing it that he effected the contrary like a lyar as he was from the beginning which Almighty Gods Irony verse 25 will prove though at first sight it seeme to make good the Serpents words This I say was the ●argest promise that ever the Divell made with intention as he ●doth a● the rest to deceive This yet was somewhat lesse then the Incarnation did perform For if we take mankind as comprehended in the Humanity of Jesus Christ it was more then as God for it was true to say Hic homo Deus est this man is God! Knowing good in himselfe as God evil in his burthen as Man The evil of sinne by imputation The evil of punishment by a most bitter passion Or otherside if wee consider mankind as it is in {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} The Company of true Beleevers they are at least sicut Dij As Gods And if I over value not St. Peters words 2 Pet. I. v. 3 somewhat more As being partakers of the divine nature And for their knowledge it is by the Incarnation improved to the highest pitch of the Divels promise knowing more communicated goodnesse the only object in its kind of created knowledge then ever before Heaven or Earth could represent to Men or Ang●ells in the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth John 1. 12 And evill was never so objected to view of Men or Angels as it was by the exinanition of a Deity The humbling of the supreme Majesty of Heaven to become a man to suffer the confluence of Gods judgments and curses for the expiation of Mans sinnes And this use I must for ever make of it when I am tempted to sinne by enticing promises I will perswade my selfe to hope farre more performed for me by Christ then is now For ever was or will be promised by the grand worke master to sinners the Prince of darkenes And now when I seriously weigh these reasons and thinke to apply them I can nor hear nor see other object but me thinks within me an Heavenly host a multitude of Angels singing that excellent Anthem Glory Never such glory to God on high Glory to his goodnesse and mercy Glory to his Wisdome and Contrivance Glory to his Iustice and Severity Glory to his Greatnes Power And if two infinites may beare a comparison I know whether be more {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the highest {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Glory or God For here is glory in highest to God Aswell as glory to God in the highest This for the first sort of reasons which concerne God But when I consider the other also I am againe Nonplus't and know not which will be the