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
A67085	The key of saving knovvledge, opening out of the holy Scriptures, the right way, and straight passage to eternall life, or, A dialogue wherein the chiefe principles of the Christian religion are unfolded for the enabling of Christian people, to understand the Word of God ... composed by Geo. Walker ...	Walker, George, 1581?-1651.	1641 (1641)	Wing W360; ESTC R39413	43,048	124

beene shall be or can be and his Will is the rule of all things and is limitted to no rule or law but is it selfe the rule and law of all things Quest If God be infinite in Essence and Will and all Attributes and wholy present in all places by his whole Essence and all his Attributes How comes it to passe that he sheweth his glory above the Heavens more than in the World which is below and in one place hee do●h shew more power and justice and in another place and to other persons hee sheweth more goodnesse gra●e and mercy Answ. There is great difference betweene God as he is in himselfe and as he is seene felt and apprehended by his creatures in his Word and Workes Though he is Omnipotent and can do all things yet he doth not worke all things in all to the full according to his infinite power but only so much as he pleaseth when where and in whom he will as in his Wisdome he thinkes fit for every one Neither can wee see and conceive Gods Essence and properties in themselves but in the effects and works of them which are limitted by his Will and Wisdome And though hee worketh by degrees and by measure Yet his Essence and essentiall properties are without measure and degree and his Word is fitted to our capacy Quest What other properties do you conceive to be in God Answ. There is no shadow of excellency Vertue Goodnesse or Grace in any creature but it is in God Essentially and Substancially one and the same thing with his very Essence and Substance He is Essentially Good Wise Iust Mercifull Gracious and Loving and even Goodnesse Wisdome Iustice and Mercy it selfe And as the Apostle saith that God is Love so we may truely and most properly say of him that he is Goodnesse Wisdom Iustice and Mercy and yet hee is in himselfe a most pure and simple Essence free from all mixture composition and division Quest Wherein doth this purity and simplicity of God consist Answ. It consists First in this that though God filleth Heaven Earth and is in and withall creatures Yet his substance is not mingled with any of them Secondly that hee is not compounded of things different neither of act and power as other Spiriturall substances are nor of matter and forme Substance and Accidents such as quantity quality and the like as bodily creatures are Thirdly that he cannot bee divided into severall parts as mens bodies are He is not of the same kind and nature with any other thing whatsoever But is a most pure simple Spirit or Spirituall substance in comparison of whom the most pure Spirits and Angels are but grosse substances and impure In a word his Substance and properties are all one and the same thing and wheresoever he is present there his whole Essence and all and every one of his essentiall properties are actually present even in all places at once Quest If God be only one most pure and simple Why do the Scriptures speak of three persons the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghost and doe call every one of them IEHOVAH and God Though there is but one God and one Iehovah even one most pure and simple Nature and Essence Yet in this one pure simple undivided Essence there are three distinct persons the Father Son and Holy Ghost all which three are but one Iehovah and one God and every one of them is called Iehovah and God because they are all of one and the same simple and Divine Essence Quest How are they then three persons distinguished one from another Answ. They are distinguished not by their Essence and Nature which in all three is one singular and undivided but by their personall subsistence and properties Quest Which are they Answ. First the Father subsists of himself and is not begotten of any but begets the Son The Son is begotten of the Father from all eternity and receives his personall subsistence from the person of the Father alone The Father and the Son together breath out the Spirit and the Spirit hath his subsistence by proceeding from them from all eternity Secondly in order the Father is the first the Son the second and the Holy Ghost the third though in time and dignity none of them is before or after other but all are coeternall consubstantiall and coequall of the same dignity glory and Majesty Quest How can he who is Jehovah and God eternall proceed and receive his personall subsistence from another Seeing Jehovah the true God is of himselfe and can receive nothing from any Answ. It is true that the persons considered according to their nature and substance which is common to all three and is one and the same in them all cannot beget nor be begotten nor proceed one from another For if God absolutely considered could beget as he is an absolut essence or be begotten or proceed then there might be more Gods than one But a person or personall subsistence in that one simple essence of God may beget another person but not another God and may be begotten and proceed not from the simple essence of God but from another person in that one Essence Wherefore the Son is begotten not as he is one and the same Essence with the Father but as hee is another person in that Essence and so the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son as he is another person in the same Essence And so Iehovah the true God doth proceed from none nor receiveth any thing from any but a person which subsists in the Essence of God and is Iehovah the true God receiveth subsistence from another person in the same Essence Quest I see you do rightly conceive of God the Creator both in the unity of his Essence and in the Trinity of persons Now tell me which of the three persons created the world Answ. Though the Father is called the Creator of whom are all things Yet he alone did not create the world nor any thing in it but the Son and the Spirit also did work with the Father and had an equall hand in the Creation of every thing For in all the outward works of God that is the joynt operation of all the three persons Quest How doth it appeare that the creation is the work of all the three persons Answ. By plaine testimonies of holy Scripture for in the description of the Creation we have expresse mention of the Word that is the Sonne and of the Spirit Gen. 1. 1 2 3. and David Psal. 33. 6. saith by the Word of the Lord were the Heavens made and all the Host of them by the breath of his mouth that is b● the son the Spirit For the Sonne is called the eternall Word one God with the Father by whom all things were made and without whom nothing was made that was made John 1 1 2 3. And the Apostle Colos. 1. 16. saith that by Christ the Son all

the holy one of God and so was God and man in one person Quest How could hee bee borne a pure holy man without sinne of a woman a daughter of Evah and of the same nature with the rest of man-kind who are all corrupted in Adam Answ. God Almighty who alone is able to bring a cleane thing out of an uncleane did by his power over-shadow the Virgin his mother and the holy Ghost came upon her and framed out of her seed and substance an holy seed and so hee was conceived and borne without sinne perfectly holy both in soule and body and filled with the holy Ghost Quest How could he being so perfectly holy be subject to infirmities and to death and other punishments due to sin Answ Though he knew no sin yet he was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5. 21. and being most holy and righteous in himselfe he tooke all our sins upon him and bare all our sorrows and infirmities that he might thereby satisfie Gods infinit justice pay our ransome and redeeme and reconcile us unto God Isa. 53. 4 6. Quest How and by what meanes hath Christ redeemed us from wrath and wrought our salvation Answ. By executing and performing the office of a Mediator between God and men Quest How is he a Mediator Answ. As he is God the Son equall with the Father so he is a person of infinite value and worthy to be accepted and able to make a full satisfaction for all sin to Gods Iustice and to pay a ransome of infinit value And as hee is man of the same nature and substance with all man-kind and the first fruits of the whole lumpe so hee is fit to make satisfaction in the same nature which sinned and is our brother and friend and one who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and is compassionate towards us and deales faithfully for us As he is God so he is too high to be a Mediator for man and as he is man so hee is too low to mediate and plead to God for us sinners But as he is God and man in one person so he is most fit to come as a Mediatour betweene God and men Quest Wherein doth Christs Mediation consist Answ. In the faithful execution of a threefold office The first of a Prophet The second of a Priest The third of a King Quest How did he execute the office of a Prophet Answ. By Prophecying Preaching and Revealing the Will of God from the beginning both in his own person and also by his Prophets Apostles and Ministers of the Word and Gospell In the old world he went forth in the Spirit and soake to the godly Fathers Enoch Methushelah Noah and others and by them preached to the wicked especially while the Arke was a preparing as the Apostle testifieth 1 Pet. 3. 19. He in the forme of man and sometimes of an Angell spake to Abraham Isaac and Jacob Gen. 18. 26. 32 24. Hee was the Angell of the Covenant which appeared to Moses in the bush and said I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob Exod. 3. Hee spake also at sundry times and in divers manners as apparitions dreames and visions to the Fathers in times past and by his Spirit inspiring and moving the Prophets Heb. 1. 1. And in the dayes of his flesh he preached the Gospell with his own mouth And as after his Ascension he sent down the Holy Ghost upon his Apostles and gave them the gifts of Tongues and of Knowledge to Prophecy and Preach the Gospell to all Nations Act. 2. So he is with them in their true successors the Ministers of the Gospell to the end of the world Mat. 28. 20. And by his Spirit gives them knowledge and utterance to teach and expound the Scriptures and to bring men to the saving knowledge of the truth And in a word he is the great Prophet whom God promised to raise up to his people like unto Moses whom all ought to heare and obey in all things Deut. 18. 15. And no other Prophets or Preachers are to be heard but those which Preach in his Name truly according to his Word conteined in the holy Scriptures Quest Wherein doth the office of his Priesthood consist Answ. In making attonement betweene God and men both by offering up himselfe and all sufficient Sacrifice for all our sins in his obedience unto death and in suffering all punishments due to sin and by bringing in eternall righteousnes which is his perfect fulfilling of the Law in the obedience of his whole life Dan. 9. 24. Rom. 8. 3 4. 1 Cor. 5. 21. For in these two consists the whole work of mans redemption and the full ransome and sacrifice of attonement which is needfull to reconcile men unto God Quest How can the sufferings of one man satisfie for all men and the righteousnesse of one be able to justifie all that are to bee justified Answ. The man Christ as hee fulfilled the Law and suffered in our nature so his righteousnesse and satisfaction is humane and is proper only to mankind for as man sinned so man satisfied But as this man Christ is also God in the same person So his righteousnes and satisfaction is Divine of infinite value and worth even the righteousnesse and suffering of God and that is more than if all men had suffered eternall death and fulfilled in their own persons every jot and title of the Law and all the righteousnesse thereof Quest If Christs infinite Godhead doth adde so much to his obedience performed in our Nature and makes his sufferings of infinite worth and value What need was there of shedding his bloud unto death and of suffering all the stormes of Gods wrath was not as some say one drop of his bloud sufficient to redeeme the world Answ. Though Christ is a person of infinite value because he is God yet as he could not be a compleat and perfect Mediator if hee had taken into his person the body only of a man and not a complete Manhood consisting both of soule and body So suffering in part and obeying the Law in part could not bee made a complete satisfaction for justice requires a full suffering of all kinds of punishment due to man for sin even of death it selfe and a perfect fulfilling of the whole Law otherwise there is no righteousnesse If one drop of Christs bloud shed for sin had beene a sufficient price of redemption than it had been injustice in God to exact more and undiscreet and vaine prodigality in Christ to poure out all his bloud and his soule to death when one drop was enough Quest Is this all that Christ doth as a Priest Answ. This is all that Christ did in paying mans ransome and price of attonement but to make men partakers of it and of the benefit thereof he doth make intercession to God for them as appeares Rom. 8. 34. and Heb. 7. 25. Quest How doth