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	trinity_n	2,621	5	10.4968	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80200	Refreshing streams flowing from the fulnesse of Jesus Christ. In severall sermons, / by William Colvill sometime preacher at Edenburgh.	Colvill, William, d. 1675.	1654 (1654)	Wing C5431; Thomason E815_2; Thomason E815_3; ESTC R207356	165,987	210

therefore in it there is no certain knowledge 2. There is a knowledge of a thing from the natural and immediate cause of it This is an assent firm and evident and is called Science 3. There is a Moral certitude when a man knoweth the certainty of his estate for the present but is uncertain whether it will continue as a man from sense may know a present heat in his body but is uncertain whether the same will endure some learned Divines in the Roman Church grant this moral certitude of salvation 4. There is a Certitude of Divine Faith whereby we assent to supernatural truths not from any evidence intrinsecal in the thing known but from evidence of Divine authority revealing the same in the Word The certitude of knowledge in a man renewed concerning his perseverance is not opinion for that is uncertain and lyable to error It is not Science because this is from natural reason But the knowledge of perseverance is taught by Scripture and divine revelation Neither is it moral certitude only for the present but it is a certitude of divine Faith grounded on divine Authority in holy Scriptures Obj. Obj. But how can a man know with certainty of Faith that he himself believeth because it is not particularly revealed in Scripture that such a man by name believeth● Therefore the proposition of his believing in special not being founded on divine authority the conclusion concerning his perseverance and certainty of salvation cannot be certain by a divine Faith Answ I answer 1. A conclusion may be de fide Answ 1 and should be assented to by a divine Faith if it be deduced from one proposition set down in holy Scripture and another made evident by the light of nature or sense As for example this conclusion the Father and the Son in the holy Trinity are two distinct persons is and should be assented to with a divine Faith and yet is deduced from one proposition known by the light of nature To wit that which begets is distinct from that which is begotten and from another proposition known by the light of the Word To wit but the Father begets and the Son is begotten in like manner this couclusion Jesus born of the Virgin Mary is the Messiah is to be assented to with divine Faith and yet our Lord inferreth the same from one proposition known by the light of Scripture To wit Isaiah 35. he that doth the works of the Messiah is he true Messiah But I do these works saith our Lord Math. 11.3 Now this assumption was known by sense and by seeing him do those works So I say this conclusion I shall persevere in grace unto eternal life is assented unto by divine Faith and is deduced from one proposition known by the light of Scripture To wit He that believeth shall not perish but persevere unto eternal life Ioh. 3.16 And from another known by the light of spiritual sense in the renewed man To wit But I believe 2. This spiritual sease of a Believer is not a fantasie or imagination but is soundly founded on the qualifications and marks of true saving Faith as they are holden forth in holy Scripture as 1. That true faith from sense of Gods love doth humble the heart and afflict the spirit with sorrow for sin Zach. 12.10 They shall look upon him whom they pierced and they shall mourn This look is by believing and it brings home with it a sense of love which woundeth the heart with sorrow for sin 2. True Faith purgeth and purifieth the heart Act. 15.9 Christ received by Faith to dwell in our hearts doth by the sweet smell of his oyntments and graces purge out of our hearts the sent and delight of sinful and vile lusts 3. This true saving Faith is not dead and idle but holy and operative It worketh by love Gal. 5.6 as the fire worketh by heat on the objects see before it so Faith by love to God bringeth forth works of holyness toward God and of righteousness toward our neighbour 4. Lastly it is a prevailing and overcoming Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 This is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith and Faith resisting and overcoming temptations is a sound Faith Though a renewed man and sound Believer may be overcome by temptation at a time in his affections Yet his will is not wholly subdued and overcome for the ill he doth he willeth it not Rom. 7.19 To Iesus Christ the Author and Finisher of our Faith with the Father and holy Ghost be all praise Amen Victory over DEATH through CHRIST 1 COR. 15.56 57. The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the Law But thanks be to God who giveth us the Victory through Jesus Christ AS our perseverance in the state of grace A peaceable death flows from the fulness of Christ is a fruit of the Merit of Christ so a peaceable death in the savour of God and in the hope of glory is a refreshing stream flowing from the fulness of Jesus Christ The comfortable tast of the fruits of the Cross of Christ doth sweeten the bitterness of death as that tree did sweeten the waters of Marah Exod. 15.25 In the words two points offer themselves to our consideration 1. A twofold misery from which we are delivered In the words two points to wit the sting of death and the strength of sin 2. The procurer of our deliverance Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ As for the one part of our misery In what sense the Law is the strength of sin the curse and rigor of the Law and how we are delivered from it we spoke already in a Sermon on Act. 13.39 Only I would speak one word or to clear how the Law which forbiddeth sin and threatneth punishment to the sinner is said to be the strength of sin It is not to be understood so as if the Law did strengthen a man to or in sinning for it prohibites sin and reveals wrath from heaven against all unrighteousness and disobedience but the Law is called the strength of sin because a man unrenewed before the time the Lord by grace rectifies his will and affections doth from his own inbred corruption take occasion at hearing of the Law to enlarge his vast desires toward all the sins forbidden therein It is not so much the forbidding of sin as sin forbidden and heard of that provoketh the sinful appecite Rom. 7.7 8. Is the Law sin God forbid Nay I had not known sin but by the Law but sin taking occasion by the commandment wrought in me all manner of concup scence for without the Law sin was dead Our inordinate concupiscence when it is once awaked by hearing of sins forbidden like a sleeping Dog awaked becomes more fierce to commit sin like those whose appetite is depraved by that disease called Malacia or Pica they long most after meats forbidden for this reason Aquinas renders

be inlarged and in some measure made capable of the fruition of an infinite God As the eye of the body until it be somewaies strengthned cannot look stedfastly on a bright and beautiful colour at a neer distance so the finite understanding of man cannot behold that infinite beauty and Majestie of God unless it be supported by the hand of God Zacheus being of a low stature went up to the Sycomore-tree and from it got a sight of Christ though at that time there was no midds of a glass betwixt his eyes and Christ yet he had a midds mean under his feet the Sycomore-tree elevating supporting him for the beholding of Christ So in that blessed vision in heaven there will be no midds intervening betwixt our understandings and God for representing God to us yet there will be a mean and midds for corroborating the understanding to perceive and the heart to enjoy and delight in that vision 3. That vision will be perfect 1 Cor. 13.12 3. Perfect then shall we know as we are known But our God knoweth us perfectly to him all his works are known All our members are written in his book Psal 139.16 he knoweth all his works more perfectly and distinctly then any man knoweth what he himself writes down daily in his Diary here we know saith the Apostle as in a riddle Our knowledge of many mysteries is but general and confused as men hearing a riddle do understand the Gramatical sense of the words but little or nothing of the Mystical or moral sense So there be many Divine Mysteries whereof we have but a general and confused knowledge in comparison of that we shall have in heaven As of the blessed Trinity distinct in persons and yet one in Essence the unspeakable manner of the generation of the Son the unspeakable manner of the procession of the holy Ghost from the Father and the Son the unspeakable manner of the Union of the Divine and humane nature and their subsisting in one person as also other mysteries we know but in part we believe the matter because it is revealed But of the manner and great depths of those mysteries we are ignorant with a pious ignorance when God sets bounds we must not touch the Mount These depths of knowledge are reserved for us until the day we shall be promoted to that highest Class with Angels and glorified Saints and shall be made capable of God himself who will be all in all to us and in us there will he teach us immediately by himself as we see in vulgar Schools the Master himself and not the under Doctors do teach these of the highest Class here we know by the ministry of our senses Our common sense is the ordinary passage through which light and the species or samples of things are carried into the understanding from the outward senses But this light is very like light transmitted into a dark Dungeon through narrow bores but in heaven the soul and understanding will be filled with light from within because filled with God who is light As if a man were within the body of the Sun he would be full of light Then the soul will be united immediately to God It will be said unto the faithful servant enter into thy Masters joy light and joy will not so much enter into us as we shall enter into it by being unseparable and immediately joyned with God Then shall we know him as we are known of him Now we have but weak and shallow apprehensions of him by our trembling hand of an infirm Faith but then shall we get our arms full of God the understanding and will shall be filled with the knowledge love of God and in comparison of the weak and little gripe we have here in our wayfaring we shall be comprehendors in our Country above Though to speak simply and absolutely none can comprehend God who is infinite and incomprehensible to any creature 4. 4. Eternal This vision is permanent and eternal that glimpse of represented Majestie and Glory which Moses saw Exod. 33. was but transient and that which Peter saw in the Mount did soon disappear and a cloud followed after though the children of God get some comfortable sense of Gods favour at any time in this life yet it abideth not Our Condition here is subject to a vicissitude and change At one time we have some sense of his favour and great joy Psal 4.7 Thou hast put gladness in my heart more then in the time that their corn and wine increased at another time God hideth his face and then there is great sorrow of heart Psal 28.1 If thou be silent unto me I become like them that go down to the Pit But in heaven our sight of God will be permanent God wholly God alone and God for ever will be in our eye and heart Revel 22.5 There shall be no night there and they need no candle neither light of the Sun for the Lord giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever Not only will our happiness stand in the vision and knowledge of God in our understandings Our wills shall be filled with love and delight in God but also our wills shall be filled with love and delight in God Then will our love toward God be pure without mixture perfect without defect and permanent without change or fear of change 1. Our love will be pure without mixture 1. Pure here our affections are drained forth like rivulets and run toward our lustful delights and comforts in the creatures but in heaven our affections will be all gathered together as waters in the fountain and be poured forth on God 2. Our love of God in heaven will be perfect 2. Perfect Our love here for the most part doth rise from some sign or effect of Gods love towards us in it there is much reflecting on our selves But in heaven we will love God for himself wholly here our love is weak in the degree and measure but in heaven we will love God perfectly with all our soul heart and strength as forces scattered here and there are strong when they are united into one body so our affections strugling here on divers objects will be then united together and in their full strength set on God 3. Our love will be permanent even in the full strength of it 3. Permanent here our love though sometimes it be bended set on God yet in an instant it sluggs and remits of the bent but in heaven our love to God will be ever intended and kept in the full height here fear like an heavy weight draweth down our hearts and weakens our love but in heaven perfect love will cast out fear 1 Cor. 13 then will we be delivered from all fear either of the change of our sense of the love of God to us or of our love toward God we will be confirmed in the assurance of his love toward us