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	substance_n	12,161	5	9.0981	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55305	The divine will considered in its eternal decrees, and holy execution of them. By Edward Polhill of Burwash in Sussex Esquire	Polhill, Edward, 1622-1694?; Owen, John, 1616-1683.; Seaman, Lazarus, d. 1675.	1695 (1695)	Wing P2754; ESTC R212920	238,280	559

God Tit. 2. 13. not an under subordinate God but over all God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. not a God by office but a Jehovah Jer. 23. 6. a God by nature though not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to his Subsistence yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as to his Essence Gods name is in him Exod. 23. 21. One great Letter of that Name is Eternity and his going forth was from everlasting Mic. 5. 2. another is Immutability and he is yesterday to day and for ever the same Heb. 13. 8. another is Omniscience and he knoweth all things Joh. 21. 17. another is Omnipotence and he hath all the power in heaven and earth Matth. 28. 18. another is Immortality and he hath life in himself Joh. 5. 26. another is Immensity and he whilest on earth was in heaven Joh. 3. 13. and though long since ascended to heaven is still on earth Matth. 28. 20. All these golden Letters are graven on the Godhead and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the fulness of the Godhead dwells in him Col. 2. 9. all these shed forth a divine Glory and Majesty he is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of divine glory Heb. 1. 3. and what need we any more witnesses of his Deity His Name is wonderful Isai. 9. 6. far above all Creatures his Generation is unutterable being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the proper Son of the Father Rom. 8. 32. not as Creatures made ex nihilo but as a proper Son begotten out of his very Substance his standing is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the essential form of God the very divine nature Phil. 2. 6. and his special Ubi there is the Fathers bosom Joh. 1. 18. and from thence together with him he breathes forth the holy Ghost His Works are divine and all one with the Fathers Joh. 5. 19. He sat in counsel with him in framing his Eternal Decrees and since wrought with him in making first a World of Creatures and then a Church of Saints and still he works with him in the preservation and gubernation of both Lastly his two Testaments which face each other as the Cherubims upon the Ark by their sweet glances and respective aspects upon each other do disclose his Deity For in the Old Testament 't is said that Jehovah brought Israel out of Egypt Exod. 20. 2. in the New Testament 't is said that Christ did it Jude 4. and 5. Ver. in the Old Jehovah circumcises the heart Deut. 30. 6. in the New Christ doth it Col. 2. 11. in the Old Jehovah poured out the Spirit Joel 2. 28. in the New Christ Acts 2. 33. in the Old every knee bowes to Jehovah Isai. 45. 23. in the New to Christ Rom. 14. 11. in the Old miracles were done in Jehovah's Name 2 Kings 2. 21. in the New in Christ's Acts 9. 34. in the Old Jehovah is the first and the last Isai. 44. 6. in the New Christ is Alpha and Omega Revel 1. 11. in the Old there is Deus absconditus Isai. 45. 15. in the New Deus manifestatus in carne 1 Tim. 3. 16. All which do most pregnantly prove the Deity of Christ unto us Nevertheless proud Reason will be babling How can the Father beget the Son ex propriâ Substantiâ Can any part of the Divine Essence be discinded in such a Generation Or if not can the whole be given to the Son And if so how is it retained to the Father I answer The Father gave unto the Son the whole Essence non alienatione sed communicatione non generatione emanante sed immanente the Father so begets the Son as that he still possesses him Prov. 8. 22. the Son so goes forth from the Father as that he still abides in him his eternal egress Micah 5. 2. is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not by defluxion but immansion I am in the Father and the Father in me saith Christ Joh. 14. 10. Indeed if we speak accurately the Father begets the Son out of himself rather in Essentiâ divinâ than ex essentiâ divinâ Hence the entire Essence is in the Father and the entire Essence is in the Son too and what if it could not be thus in a finite Essence yet why may it not be so in an infinite What if Reason cannot fathom it must therefore Faith reject it I conclude then that Christ is very God and as God hath a right to redeem us his Creatures 2. Jus Idoneitatis as the Son of God he was most fit to be our Redeemer what can be more perfectly congruous than Reconciliation by God's beloved one Adoption by his Natural Son Reparation of his gracious Image by his substantial a shine of Favour by the brightness of his Glory beams of Light by his Wisdom Restitution of Life by the Prince of Life and Mediation between God and Man by the middle Person in the sacred Trinity There be three great goings forth of God into which all others may be resolved the first is that fundamental one of Creation and upon Sins Entry which is but an Apostasie from Creation in comes the second viz. Redemption and out of this as out of a Fountain flows the third and that is Sanctification these hang in order one upon another Unless there had been a Creature and that Apostate there had been no place for Redemption and unless there had been a Redemption there had been no room for Sanctification for God would never have reimplanted his Image of Holiness in a Creature left under the eternal stroke of his Justice nor have plucked away the spot of Sin there where the guilt of Sin is left behind Now albeit it is a most sure Rule that Opera Trinitatis ad extrà sunt indivisa yet among Divines Creation is in a sort peculiarized to the Father as the first Redemption to the Son as the second and Sanctification to the Spirit as the third Person in the Glorious Trinity Thus in these three goings forth of God each person in the Trinity hath his special Shine and that in the very Order of his Subsistence wherefore it was very congruous that the Son of all the Persons in the Trinity should be out Redeemer 3. Jus Conjunctionis he that redeems a Captive must be Persona conjunct a with him and so was Christ with us in a threefold respect 1. Conjunctione naturali he was our Goel Isai. 59. 20. that is our next kinsman by his Incarnation and our Redeemer by his Passion he assumed our Nature into himself that he might redeem us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the great God a sucking Child regens Sydera yet sugens Ubera he that ruled the Stars sucked the Breasts The word was made flesh Joh. 1. 14. and a strange making it was all other Creations are as it were extra Deum but here was a Creation in the very person of God The glorious Trinity in the very instant of drawing the Humane Nature exnihilo interweaved

Surety and the promised Life made good to us Sinners But you 'l object further If the Law be thus interpreted in an equitable way viz. to be done by a Surety then it is not so much as a Rule of life to us for that issues out of the first interpretation viz. the doing of it in our own persons I answer that still the Law is a Rule of life to us and the reason is because God doth not wave the rigorous and take the equitable interpretation totally and absolutely but in order to Redemption and so far only as Redemption requires it Now what doth that require It requires that the Obedience of a Surety should be admitted for the impletion of the Law and therefore thus far the rigorous interpretation is waved and the equitable takes place But it requires not that the redeemed ones should be exempted from the Law as a Rule and therefore the equitable interpretation doth not go thus far and so far as that goes not the rigorous one takes place because pro tanto it is consistent with Redemption Hence it comes to pass that Christ as our Surety fulfilled the Law for us and yet still the Law is a Rule of life to us Christ is the end of the Law to the believer and yet the Believer is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under the Law to Christ 1 Cor. 9. 21. Thus this Price is redemptive from Evil and procurative of Good but the Crown of all is yet behind 3. It is a Price sufficient for both the former There is a double Sufficiency Sufficientia nuda and Sufficientia ordinata the first consists in the intrinsecal value of the thing the thing in value transcending or at least equalizing the thing to be redeemed the second consists in the Will of the Payer and Receiver the one intentionally paying and the other intentionally accepting that thing as a Price of Redemption the first is that radical Sufficiency whereby the thing may possibly become a Price the second is that formal Sufficiency whereby the thing doth actually become a Price Let the thing be in it self of never so vast a value the former without the latter doth not constitute it a Price Now the glorious price of our Redemption hath both these Sufficiencies in it 1. It hath Sufficientiam nudam the Active and Passive Obedience of Christ have intrinsecal value enough to equalize nay infinitely superexcede all our Debts and over and besides to purchase three Worlds for us and the reason is because his Deity poured out a kind of Infinity into his Doings and Sufferings The Righteousness which he fulfilled was the righteousness of God Rom. 1. 17. the Blood which he shed was the blood of God Rom. 20. 28. the Life which he laid down was the life of God 1 Joh. 3. 16. And what nakedness cannot the Righteousness of God cover What debts cannot the Blood of God pay for And what Worlds cannot the Life of God purchase Remember O poor trembling Soul remember he that was pierced for thee was Jehovah he that was smitten for thee was the man God's fellow and he that obeyed for thee was in the form of God O what manner of Actions and Passions were those wherein the Law-giver stood under his own Law and the Creator suffered in his own World How was his Obedience elevated into Infinity and transfigured into glory by his Godhead What a Mass of sweet-smelling Merits must that be into which the Deity it self transfused Riches and Odours This may be one reason why Christ is stiled the heir of all things Heb. 1. 2. though he be the Purchaser of all yet he is Heir of all because he received his divine Nature from his Father and that divine Nature stamped an infinite value upon the Purchase-money which bought all May I shadow it out by an imperfect Similitude A Son receives vast sums from his Father and with them purchases an estate in Lands to himself that Son is the Purchaser of those Lands in respect of his own payment of the Money and yet in a sence he is Heir to them in respect of his receipt of the Money from his Father So the Eternal Son of God is the Purchaser of all for he paid down his own Blood and Righteousness as the Price and yet he is Heir of all for that Price had its value from the divine Nature and that divine Nature was received from his Father in the Eternal Generation There is no doubt then as long as Christ is God but that his Obedience hath value enough in it self 2. It hath Sufficientiam ordinatam and this appears 1. By the Will of Christ who paid down the Price 2. By the Will of God who received it both their Wills concentre in the work of Redemption and the counsel of peace is between them both Zach. 6. 13. 1. It appears by the Will of Christ when he paid down his Obedience what was his meaning Surely not a tittle of his Obedience was irrationally done nor a drop of his Blood irrationally shed what then was his meaning in it Was it not to dissolve the Chains of Sin open the Prison of Wrath and spoil and triumph over the bloody Jaylor Satan Was it not to procure the standing of the Body of Nature the shedding down of the Spirit of Grace and the opening a door to Heaven and eternal Life These were the things on which the divine and humane Will of Christ were both set his divine Will was set upon them for before the foundations of the World even in his joyous Eternity with his Father his delights were with the sons of men Prov. 8. 31. and when the World was up he appeared to Abraham in a humane shape and to Moses to usher in a temporal Redemption the first as a praeludium to his Incarnation and the latter as a praeludium to our Redemption and both as a demonstration that the work of Salvation was in his Heart And afterwards in the days of his flesh his humane Will never parted from his divine but in a rape of Love always run upon Redemption this he sought for in a long circuit of Obedience and sought with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till it was finished this he sought for in his bloody Agony and when his humane Will as Nature shrunk back from the Cup of Wrath yet the same Will as Reason kissed and drunk it off to the bottom in order to Redemption this he ardently pursued after through Cross-tortures and Soul-travels and rather than fail of it he would for a time be forsaken even of God himself and when he cried out I thirst his greatest thirst of all was after this and could never be quenched till he came to a consummatum est Thus stood the mind of Christ in the business 2. It appears by the Will of God and that in two things 1. God decreed this Price to be paid for the ends aforesaid 2. God accepted it being paid for the

119. 129. or with the convicted man God is in it of a truth 1 Cor. 14. 25. or with the Apostle The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men 1 Cor. 1. 25. The Scriptures asserting this Instrumentality what if this Philosophical Objection could not be answered must therefore the holy Oracle be rejected What if Reason cannot comprehend it must therefore Faith renounce it How much better is that old Gloss Taceat Mulier in Ecclesia Let Reason be silent in the Church But for some satisfaction I shall offer four things to your consideration 1. Consider who is the principal Agent who but the Almighty and if he will appear in the word as the Expression is Acts 26. 16. what may not be done by it The Apostle was but an earthen vessel yet a Minister of the quickning Spirit because God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made him sufficient to be such a one 2 Cor. 3. 6. If he make the Word sufficient to regenerate who can gainsay it 2. Consider what the Instrument is 't is the Word of God the two grand Truths therein are the Law and Gospel and what are these in their eternal Idea The Law is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or eternal Off-shining from the divine Will as Righteous and the Gospel is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or eternal Off-shining from the divine Will as gracious and what are they in their external Revelation The Scripture is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 breathed out from the very mind and heart of God and therefore cannot be less than a lively Picture or Image of the divine Will Wherefore that such a Word as is the Image of the divine Will should instrumentally produce the new Creature which is the Image of the divine Nature seems to me rather congruous than impossible 3. Consider what the Principles of Grace are they are not Substances but Accidents depending upon their Subject in esse operari and may more properly be said to be increated than created now if there could be no Instrument in the Creation of Substances yet why may not there be one in the Increation of Accidents 4. Consider what a kind of Creation the production of gracious Principles is Is it every way pure Creation How then is it Generation how Resurrection Pure Creation can be neither of these You 'l say 't is Generation and Resurrection but metaphorically only very well if it be but so the Metaphor must be founded on some true likeness or analogy between these and the production of gracious Principles which is altogether unimaginable in a pure Creation It remains therefore that the production of gracious Principles is stiled all these in Scripture partly to import the excellency of the work such as cannot be fully expressed by any single one of these partly to hint out the nature of the work such as hath in it somewhat analogous to every one of these Wherefore I take it to be thus 't is a Creation because a real production of gracious Principles by Almighty Power 't is a Generation because of the immortal Seed of the Word and 't is a Resurrection because a man spiritually dead is raised up to divine life Now if there could be no Instrument in a pure Creation yet may there be one in the production of gracious Principles because that is not purely Creation though there be a creating power put forth therein 2. Object The other Objection is against the Method proposed in the two Instants viz. That first in Nature the Word is put into the Heart and then the Principles of Grace are produced which is contrary to that the natural man receives not the things of God 1 Cor. 2. 14. and contrary to that the word did not profit them not being mixed with faith Heb. 4. 2. and also contrary to the scope of that Parable where the Seed of the Word only fructifies in a good and honest heart Luk. 8. 15. for according to the Method of the two Instants the Natural man doth receive the things of God the Word doth profit before it is mixed with Faith and the Seed doth fructifie in a Heart not good or honest In answer whereunto I conceive that the Method proposed in the two Instants doth not contradict any of these Scriptures As for the first place The natural man receives not the things of God I answer that the Things or Truths of God may be received in the Heart two ways either passively by way of Impression from the holy Spirit or actually by way of actual discerning them in the Understanding and embracing them in the Will the former is a reception of them according to the obediential Capacity of the Heart the latter a reception of them according to the spiritual Faculty thereof the former doth at least in Nature go before the Principles of Grace in order to their Production the latter doth follow after the Principles of Grace as the fruit thereof The former is that which is done in the first Instant abovementioned the latter is that which is spoken of by the Apostle in the Text abovenamed for there he saith that the natural man receiveth not the things of God neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned where evidently he speaks of such a receiving as is an actual knowing and spiritual discerning of the things of God Wherefore according to the Apostle this active receiving doth presuppose the Principles of Grace already in Being but the other passive receiving of which the Apostle there speaks not doth only presuppose an obediential Capacity in the Soul There is a double obediential Capacity in the Soul to receive the Truths of God as by way of Impression the ultimate and radical Capacity is the Rationality of the Soul and the next and immediate Capacity is that Softness of Heart which is wrought in the preparatory work of Conversion The Soul as rational is capable to receive an impression of Truths from God and as softned it is yet further disposed thereunto This is that obediential Capacity which is required in the Method of the two Instants and which the Apostle in that place doth not so much as touch upon As for the second place the word did not profit them not being mixed with faith I answer that the Word may be considered under a double Notion either as it is operative of Faith or as it is promissive of Rest to Believers Take it as operative of Faith and so it profits not being mixed with Faith otherwise faith could not come by hearing as the Apostle asserts Rom. 10. 17. but take it as promissive of Rest to Believers and so it doth not profit not being mixed with Faith that is Faith which is the Condition of the Promise not being performed the eternal Rest which is the thing promised cannot belong to them and this is clearly the Apostle's meaning for having spoken of a promise of rest Heb. 4. Ver.