Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	distinct_a	person_n	property_n	2,539	5	9.4838	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93724	The wels of salvation opened or, a treatise discovering the nature, preciousnesse, usefulness of Gospel-promises, and rules for the right application of them. By William Spurstowe, D.D. pastor of Hackney near London. Imprimatur, Edm. Calamy.	Spurstowe, William, 1605?-1666.	1655 (1655)	Wing S5100; Thomason E1463_3; ESTC R203641	126,003	320

worth do vie with each other everlasting life is as sweet as long heaven is as glorious in its beauty as vast in its dimensions the crown of righteousnesse that is laid up is as rich as weighty There is no one promise of the Gospel but is of that extent for its latitude and of that value for its preciousnesse that he deserves to be eternally poore who having that for his subsistence looks upon any man who hath an interest in none greater or richer then himself though the gravel of the river were turned into pearles and every showre of raine from the clouds into a showre of silver and gold for to supply his wants The fourth particular is The high and noble end of the donation of the promises That by them we might be partakers of the divine nature c. Painters when they picture Angels do not intend similitude but beauty Nor doth the Apostle in this expression aime at any essential change and conversion of our substance into the nature of God and Christ but only at the elevation and dignifying of our nature by Christ Our neer union with him doth restore us to an higher similitude and likenesse of God then ever we attained in our primitive perfection but it doth not introduce any reall transmutation either of our bodies or souls into the divine nature For if that stupendious union of the two natures in one person the Lord Christ doth not effect an essential change in either but that both natures do conserve and retaine their distinct properties without mixture or confusion much lesse can the Union between Christ and beleevers which is not a personal Union but an Union of persons made by the Spirit and by faith cause any such alteration as that our nature losing its own subsistence should wholly passe into the divine and be swallowed up in the Abysse of it as a drop when it falls into the wide Ocean Pithily doth Cyprian expresse this truth when he affirmes Nostra ipsius conjunctio nec miscet personas nec unit substantias sed affectus consociat confoedérat voluntates Our and Christs conjunction doth neither mingle persons nor unite substances but doth conjoyne our affections and bring into a league of amity our wills Suitable to that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 6. 17. They that are joyned to the Lord are made one spirit CHAP. II. In which is declared what a promise is IT is not designed by me as the subject of my present task to undertake a distinct and full prosecution of all these foure particulars in the text every one of which like gold in the beating would easily diffuse and spread themselves into a large compasse but occasionally to glance at them as they conduce to the illustration of that head and branch which I shall single and cull out from the rest as the present subject upon which I shall pitch and fix my thoughts and that is the matchlesse worth and goodnesse of the promises of the Gospel A truth it is of much weight and sweetnesse to every beleever but yet as it lies contracted in a proposition discovers not so much of it as when drawn forth into a full explication like to colours that are lesse beautiful and pleasing while they lie on the palate of the painter then when placed and spread on the picture by the pencil of the artificer I shall therefore in the unfolding of it endeavour these five things First to shew what a promise is Secondly in what respects they are great and precious Thirdly give rules about the due application of them Fourthly resolve some usefull Queries and cases concerning them Fifthly close and shut up all with some practicall inferences and genuine applications such as flow from the doctrine of the promises The honey which drops from the combe is of all the best and sweetest First what a promise is It is a declaration of Gods will wherein he signifies what particular good things he will freely bestow and the evils that he will remove This description like the box of spiknard in the Gospel may be more usefull when it is broken then whole I shall therefore take it into pieces and give an account of it in the several parcels First a promise is a declaration of Gods will it being a kinde of middle thing between his purpose and performance his intendment of good and the execution of it upon those whom he loveth And as wicked Jezabel 1 King 19. 2. could not satisfie her hatred of Elijah the Prophet in intending evil unto him and effecting it upon him in time as she could but withal she lets fall an heavy threatning against him strengthened with a bitter imprecation upon her self as an obliging tie to put in execution the designed evil So let the gods do to me and more also if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by to morrow about this time So much lesse can the love of God satisfie it self in a gracious decree and purpose of good towards his elect shut up in his own breast and the actual performance of it in the fulnesse of time unlesse withal he discover it unto them before-hand both as a ground of present comfort in the knowledge thereof and of hope and expectation in the certain enjoyment of the good things promised hereafter God also confirming the word of his truth by an oath not for any necessity or weaknesse in its selfe but out of superabundant love unto the heires of promise That by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie they might have a strong consolation Heb. 6. 18. Secondly it is a declaration concerning good And thereby a promise is differenced from the threatnings of God which in divers respects have a neere affinity with his promises For they as things of a middle nature do intervene between the decree of his wrath and the execution of it they are let fall in the Word as so many discoveries of Gods anger against sinne and set as powerful stops to check and bound the lusts of sinners who are apt to dash themselves against the rock of divine displeasure they are sealed with the same oath of God with which the promises are ratified that so they might be as full of dread to sinners in the expectation of the fulfilling of them as the promises are of comfort to Beleevers Thirdly it is concerning good things freely bestowed And thereby it is distinguished from the commands which are also significations of Gods will concerning good but it is of the good of duty enjoyned to be done not of the good of mercy to be received The precepts of God and the promises of God they alwayes go together in the Word as the veines and the arteries do in the body wherever there goes a veine that carries blood there also accompanies it an artery that carries spirits so wherever there is a precept in the Word that enjoynes duty there also is an