Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	father_n	son_n	subsist_v	3,592	5	11.9300	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42901	A sermon of the nativity of our Lord preached before the Queen Dowager in her chappel at Somerset-house on Christmas Day, 1686 / by Thomas Godden.	Godden, Thomas, 1624-1688.	1686 (1686)	Wing G921; ESTC R28640	15,433	36

Mercy and Goodness which is the same in them All. Pater as the same St. Leo goes on ut propitiaretur Filius ut propitiaret Spiritus Sanctus ut igniret The Father by communicating together with his Essence his Propension to accept of a Propitiation for the sins of mankind The Son by mutually concurring to make the propitiation and the Holy Ghost by as readily undertaking to execute what was the Good Will and Pleasure of Both. From all which it appears that tho the Son the decree of the Incarnation supposed receiv'd a Command from his Father to lay down his Life for the Redemption of Man as considered subsisting in our Humane Nature and in that consideration Inferiour to him yet the Sourse and Origin of his undertaking to make a Propitiation for our sins was not any Precept of which as consider'd subsisting only in the Divinity he was not capable being equal to his Father but a communication only he receiv'd in his divine Procession from him of his good will and pleasure that he should unite himself personally to our humane nature to redeem us And as he most willingly and readily concurr'd with this gracious design but in a manner infinitely transcending what the understandings of the Highest Angels are able to comprehend So as soon as he was born into the world he inspir'd the Shepherds to do the like He only gave them a Sign or Intimation by which they might find him and presently without delay they resolv'd to go seek him out Loquebantur Pastores ad invicem The Shepherds said one to another Let us now go even to Bethlehem Thus Dear Christian Auditors was this Divine Lover of our souls pleased both to prove and make known to us the devotion of the Shepherds when he came into the world And now that he has finished his dispensation upon Earth and is return'd to Heaven has he left us no Sign of his Good Will and Pleasure to provoke our Love to sollicite our affections and show our devotion to him Yes Corpus aptavit nobis he has left us also a Body the same Body which his Father framed for him and he gave to the Shepherds but in a different manner to them and to us to them as wrapped in Swadling clothes and laid in a Manger Hoc vobis signum To us cloth'd with the forms of Bread and Wine and laid upon the Altar Hoc nobis Signum And what greater Sign could he give us of his Love than to give us that very Flesh to be our Food which he had given for the Life of the World Admirable is the Reflection which St. Chrisostom makes upon this passage Mothers says he oftentimes put forth their Children to be nurs'd and fed by others But not so I and he speaks in the Person of Christ I feed you with my own Flesh I set my self before you for food so to breed Generous Spirits in you and fill you with hopes of future Glory since you cannot think but that I who have given my self to you here will do it in a much more excellent manner hereafter That I took Flesh and Blood upon me was out of the desire I had to become your Brother and now behold I give the same Flesh and Blood to be taken by you by which I became so nearly related to you These are the words of that Great Father and Light of the Church St. Chrysostom by which he declares the Faith of the Church of his time which was between the Third and Fourth of the four first General Councils to be the same which the Catholic Church professes at this day And now dear Christans that this Divine Lover of our Souls has left us so great a Sign and Pledge of his good Will and Love shall we not make hast with the devout Shepherds to go to Bethlehem Bethlehem in English signifies The House of Bread And St. Gregory observes that our Lord would have the Place in which he was to be born to be called long before by this name to signifie to us That He who appeared there in our Flesh is the Living Bread which came down from Heaven to nourish the Souls of his Elect to everlasting Life And now as I said that he has given us so incomparable a Sign of his Good Will and Pleasure shall we not make hast with the Shepherds to Bethlehem Shall we let this Holy Time pass over or rather shall we Trifle it all away in Pastime and Merriment without ever approaching to this Holy Table Such was the Fervour of the First Christians that they were wont to communicate every day And necessary it was in those times of Cruel Persecution to arm themselves daily with the Bread of Life against the fear of Death But no sooner was Peace restored to the Church in the beginning of the fourth Age but Piety began to languish So much more hard is it for Virtue to bear up against a Prosperous than an Adverse Condition which gave St. Chrysostom before that Age was ended cause to inveigh so frequently as he does against such as were present at the Divine Mysteries without communicating But the Malady went on increasing and Christians grew so tepid in the performance of this Duty that the Council of Agde in the beginning of the sixth Age thought fit to declare that those who did not communicate at the Three Great Feasts of the year Christmas Easter and Whitsontide were not to be believ'd to be Catholics nor reputed for such And the Council of Tours in the beginning of the Eighth Age found it necessary to admonish them anew to communicate if not oftner yet three times at least in the year viz. at the three aforesaid Feasts And if the Church in these later times as still more remiss have thought good to lay no farther obligation upon all the Faithful of both Sexes than of receiving once a year and that at Easter yet the Addition of the words ad minus that it must be done then at least sufficiently shows the desire she has that they would do it oftner and that a Command were not at all necessary to compel where there is so great an Attractive of Bounty to invite Lex Justo non est posita This Law was not made for the Just for men of Good Will who are led by the Spirit of Love but for such servile and degenerous Spirits as are acted only by fear of Punishment And it is much to be feared that those who in this matter will do no more than just what the Letter of the Law obliges would not do that neither but for fear of the Censure annexed O the Prodigious sloth and negligence of such careless Christians whom so great Signs and Pledges of their dear Saviours Goodness cannot draw without the necessity of a Precept to drive them to him What will they pretend for their excuse That they cannot that is will not leave their Sins Few will be

willing to own this but such as have lost all fear of God's Justice and care of their own Souls Will they say they have no time But has God then given us 365 days in a year and shall not we afford to give him one at least in the hundred Or finally will they pretend that they do not find themselves worthy to come oftner than once a year to this Divine Table This indeed carries some show of Religion in it but such as St. Cyril doubts not to call damnosam Religionem Amischievous sort of Religion which the Devil makes use of to perswade remiss and slothful Christians to deprive themselves of the Food of Life But alas as the same H. Father saith if they find themselves not worthy now when will they make themselves so will it be easier to do it after Ten or Twelve months than after One or Two or Three Or will it require less pains to make themselves worthy after their sins by long continuance and repeated Acts have taken deep root in their hearts than whilst they are yet Green and Tender Caveamus ne loco laquei damnosam Religionem Diabolus nobis praetendat Let us beware that our Enemy do not ensnare us to our ruine under a feigned pretence of Religion or rather let none be deluded with such irreligious pretenses as these to make him abstain from frequenting this Holy Table And that we may do it worthily let us go with these devout Shepherds to Bethlehem and there see the Word which is made Flesh for our sakes first to adore him as our God and Saviour and then to adorn our souls with those virtues of which he has given us so pretious an Example which is the subject of my Second Part. The Second Part. Videamus hoc verbum quod factum est Let us see this Word which is made 'T is so natural to man who draws all his knowledge from the impressions of his Senses to desire to see what he is to worship that not being able to see the true God with his eyes he fell to worshiping the Creature rather than the Creator changing as St. Paul says the Glory of the Incorruptible God into an Image made like to corruptible man and to Birds and four-footed Beasts and Creeping Things Thus did they become vain as the same Apostle says in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkned resolving to worship what they saw because they could not see whom they were to worship Four thousand years had this error over-spread the World excepting only the little corner of Judea when God commiserating the sad condition of man and knowing as St. Peter Chrysologus says visendi se desiderio cruciari lassarique mortales with what anxiety men desired to see him and that nothing could content them but a visible deity unde se visibilem faceret hoc elegit out of his Infinite Goodness was pleased to take upon him the nature of Man that he might be seen by them This remedy alone was left to cure the blindness of humane nature because this Object alone was able to draw the Eyes of Men from all other visible things and fix them upon it self And of this our Saviour himself was pleas'd to give us a Figure in the miraculous cure he wrought upon the Blind man Joh. 9. by anointing his Eyes with a mixture made of his sacred Spittle and the dust of the Earth in which was represented the union of the divine wisdom with humane nature caecatis luminibus as St. Anselm elegantly expresses it collyrium suae Incarnationis apponens applying the Eye-salve of his Incarnation to the Eyes of Men that those who could not behold him in the splendors of his divinity might see him appearing in the form of man O the Riches of the Goodness and Mercy of God in condescending thus graciously to the weakness of our nature and making himself visible to satisfie the desire we had of seeing with our Eyes the God whom we are to worship This the devout Shepherds did as you heard before when they found him in his Crib and this must we do as often as we present our selves before him at his Altar But was this all Was this the only End why he was pleas'd to appear to us in this visible manner No St. Austin tells us of a farther design he had in it when he says Sapientia Dei hominem ad exemplum unde viveremus suscepit that the wisdom of God that is God the Word the second Person of the Trinity took the nature of man upon him to give us an example how to live well by living like him 'T is the particular Priviledge of this Divine Word made Flesh for our fakes that whereas other words are properly speaking the Objects not of the Eyes but of the Ears this Word not only speaks to our Ears by his Doctrine but much more to our Eyes by his Example And hence it is that that great devote of our Saviours Nativity St. Thomas de Villa Nova calls the Manger in which he first appeared Magna Cathedra the Great Divinity-Chair or Pulpit which his Eternal Father had prepared for him as soon as he should make himself visible in our nature to teach us the Doctrine of Salvation Draw near then O Christian Souls and hear or rather see says this Holy Saint the Lessons which the Word made Flesh preaches to your Eyes from the Pulpit of his Crib Discite Paupertatem Learn of me says he to be truly Poor that is you who are Poor not to repine at your condition and you who are rich not to set your hearts upon the riches of this World but to abridge your selves in superfluities to communicate to those who are in want because I who am the Lord of the Universe and can dispose of all that is in it at my pleasure have no other Mantles to shroud my tender Body but such as a Poor Carpenters Spouse could provide me with and no other Cradle to repose my head in but a Manger Discite Humilitatem Learn of me to be truly Humble each esteeming other better than themselves because I who am the most High have humbled my self so low as to become the Companion of Beasts Discite Mansuetudinem Learn of me to be truly Meek forgiving from your hearts those that offend you since I who am the Person offended do here water my hard Couch with my Tears to make an attonement for the sins you have committed against me Discite Patientiam Learn of me to be Patient in all your sufferings because I who am Omnipotent lye here exposed in an open Stable to the contempt of the World and the rigour of the Elements Discite Obedientiam Learn of me to be Obedient to your Superiors because I who am the King of Kings and Lord of Lords have submitted my self as a little Infant to the disposal and conduct of a young and unexperienced Virgin Discite