Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	flesh_n	sin_n	sinful_a	2,809	5	9.4946	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19485	The brazen serpent: or, the copie of a sermon preached at Pauls Crosse, Decemb. 31. 1620. By Iohn Andrevves, priest and preacher of the VVord of God at Saint Iames Clerkenwell in Middlesex	Andrewes, John, fl. 1615.	1621 (1621)	STC 591; ESTC S122344	23,076	64

from the Law-giuer Iesus Christ who decreed instituted and ordained that Those Elements of Bread and Wine receiued on these conditions should bee powerfull and effectuall to deriue vnto me such and such Graces So that as the Land groweth not in the Lease yet I doe actually possesse and inioy it with all appurtenances by the Lease as by a Meanes and Instrument ordained to estate me in it So the Body and Blood of Christ Iesus are not within the Consecrated Bread and Wine and yet by them as by a Means or Morall Instrument ordained and appointed by God to confer such Graces vpon me I doe take as True and reall possession of Christ and all his merits as any Tenant hath true and firme possession of his Lands I hope that I am rightly vnderstood and that the simplest doe fully perceiue how grossely the Church of England is belyed when they giue out that we make the Sacraments no more but naked and empty signes So much for the fact or History I come now to the Mysterie or to the figure of the fact in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Sicut together with which ye must be intreated to take the Sic also The Anti-type with the Type for they relate one to another and cannot well be considered apart What then was pointed at and figured by this Brazen Serpent For there is no question but God could haue restored health by a thousand other meanes besides this Wherefore some great Mysterie was fore-signified in that his Wisedome who knoweth all things best made choice of this of the Brazen Serpent rather then of any else For our Sauiour Christ all along this Chapter had to doe with Nicodemus who was a Pharisee a great Doctour in Israel Ioh. 3. 10. and consequently well seene in the Lawes of Moses and therefore hauing before told him of his Godhead verse 13. heere hee comes to shew what his Manhood was to suffer And to make him beleeue it the more firmely he produceth the Figure of the Brazen Serpent For Nicodemus could not but imagine that some great Mysterie was fore-shadowed by that fact of Moses For none so simple but could vnderstand that a Brazen Serpent hanging on a pole had not in it selfe any power at all to cure the poysonfull bitings of liuing Serpents and that God who could by a thousand other meanes haue cured them did vpon Speciall and singular consideration command that because he in it would shaddow forth some deepe Mysterie that was to come To the end therefore that our Sauiour Christ might the better perswade his doctrine by the lifting vp of this Serpent he sheweth Nicodemus before-hand of his Passion That when it should happen he might not be scandalilized And howsoeuer it chiefly aime at his Passion yet to speake the truth there is not in all the Old Testament any one Type or Figure that doth more liuely represent all the parts of the Mysterie of Christ his comming in the flesh then this of the Serpent For first of all it shewes vs his Incarnation For that Serpent of Brasse was but a serpent in shew and shape only it was not a serpent in deed it had no poison or venome in it as other Serpents had So our Sauiour Christ albeit to many he appeared to be a sinfull Man and was reckoned among the wicked Esay 53. 12. yet the truth is Hee did no sinne neither was any guile found in his mouth 1. Pet. 2. 22. Euer since our first Parents did suck poison from the Old Serpent the Diuell euery one that issued from their loynes haue retained much of the Serpentine nature that is of the venome and poison of sinne Hence Dauid speaking of vnregenerate men saith The poison of Aspes is vnder their lips And Iohn the Baptist speaking to the principall of the Iewes Math. 3. 7. termeth them a Generation of Vipers And Vipers you know are Serpents But Christ had no poison in him at all For though he assumed the true flesh and nature of man yet together with the nature he did not take the sinne of man He was true man but not truly sinfull Man God sent his Sonne saith Paul Rom. 8. 3. in the similitude of sinfull flesh Similitudo non ad carnis veritatem sed ad peccati imaginem referenda est saith Cassianus collat 22. cap. 11. Where the word similitude hath relation not to Flesh for that was true but to this word sinfull for though to some he appeared a sinner in shew yet he neuer committed any sinne g In veritate quidem Corporis sed sine veritate peccati suscepit Dominus speciem peccatoris Ambros de Spiritu Sanct. li. 3. ca. 9. Non alienus ab Hominum genere sed alienus à crimine Leo. Hom. 11. de Pass Dom. And heerein the wisedome of the New Serpent went beyond the craft and subtiltie of the old Serpent the Diuell as h Leo de Pass Dom. ser 11. Christus vt humanum genus vinculis mortiferae praevaricationis absolúeret Et saeuienti diabolo Potentiam suae Majestatis occultauit Et infirmitatem nostrae humilitatis objecit Leo tels vs. For the Diuell because Christ was a Man in deed and truth albeit he were a very Holy-man thought that he was also guilty of Originall sin deriued from Adam because all else euen the best are so by naturall generation and also though sometimes he had seene the effects of his Deitie and Godhead and had confessed him to be God indeed Marke 1. 24. Yet at other times his vnderstanding was so dazeled that he did not stedfastly beleeue that in him all the fulnesse of the Godhead dwelt bodily Colos 2. 9. i Si. n. crudelis superbus inimicus consilium misericordiae Dei nosse potuisset Iudaeorum animos mansuetudine potiùs tēperare quàm iniustis Odijs studuisset accendere ne ominum Captiuorum amitteret seruitutem dum nihil-sibi-debentis persequitur libertatem Fefellit igitur eum Malignitas sua c. Id. Ibid. for had he known certainly that Christ had beene not only very Man without sinne but also very God in humane flesh no doubt but he would haue beene as wise as the Princes of this World And Saint Paul saith 1. Cor. 2. 6. That If the Princes of this World had knowne it they would neuer haue crucified the Lord of Glory Wherefore the Diuell not beleeuing firmely that Christ was very God and taking him to be but a man as others were subiect to sinne at least to Originall guilt he makes at him and vseth all meanes to put him to death And Christ comming to redeeme the World did imitate the Fishers k Damascenus lib 3. de Orthod Fide cap. 27. Gregor Nyssen orat Cat. cap. 23. Naturae nostrae integumento celatae fuit Diuinitas vt instar piscium cum escâ carnis simul attraheretur hamus Diuinitatis sic vitâ ad mortem introductâ Luce apparents in tenebris Luce vitâ deleretur

id quod eis contrarium intelligitur who when they angle for Fish do not cast the hooke into the water bare naked and vncouered For then they know the Fish will not bite Therefore they hide the hooke within a worme or some other baite and so the Fish biting at the worme is caught with the Hooke So Christ speaking of himselfe Psal 22. 6. saith Ego vermis non homo I am a worme and no man He comming to performe the great Worke of our Redemption did couer and hide his Godhead within the Worme of his humane nature The great Water-Serpent Leuiathan Iob. 40. 20. the Diuell thinking to swallow the worme of his Humanitie Captus est Hamo Diuinitatis was caught vpon the hooke of his Diuinitie This hook stuck in his iawes and bruised the Serpents head by thinking to destroy Christ he destroyed his owne kingdome and lost his owne power In the second place by this Serpent was figured the maner of Christ his Incarnation and Conception For this Serpent which Moses lift vp in the Wildernesse was not made of Wood or Stone or Iron which may be laboured and wrought into a forme with the Hammer Fyle or Chesil but it was made of Brasse which commonly must be molten in the fire before it can be cast into any Forme and the Fire purgeth and cleanseth it from all drosse Secondly if you goe about to carue an Image of a man in wood or stone or Iron first you fashion the Head then the Face then the Neck one part after another successiuely But if you would cast the same in Brasse you neede no more but see that the Mould be fitly prepared and then doe but powre the molten Brasse into the Mould and in a moment you haue a perfect Image So the Body of our Sauiour CHRIST was not begotten by the Ordinary way of procreation by mixture of Man and Woman for so many as are so conceiued are conceiued in Originall sinne but He was conceiued by the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Greeke Father Not by any carnall effusion of Seminal humor but by way of manufacture or handyworke by the Power and operation of the Holy Ghost Non de Substantiâ Spiritus Sancti sed Potentiâ nec generatione sed jussione saith Augustine Serm. 6. de Tempore Hee was conceiued and made not of the substance of the Holy Ghost for so the Holy Ghost being God should haue begotten him not man but God for the Holy Ghost is God and generans generat sibi simile Besides if the Holy Ghost should haue begotten Christ our of his own substance hee should haue begotten a meere Spirit and not a man for that which is borne of the Spirit is Spirit Iohn 3. 6. But he was made saith Augustine Non de substantiâ Spiritus Sancti sed de Potentiâ Not of the substance of the Holy Ghost but of his Power by his handy-worke Nec Generatione sed Iussione Benedictione Not by way of Generation but by his energeticall Command and Benediction And the Holy Ghost sanctified and prepared the seed of the Blessed Virgin that it might be made an habitation fit for the Soule and Deitie of the Sonne of God Now the Holy Ghost in Scripture you know is often compared to fire for as Fire purgeth But the drosse from metals so the Holy Ghost doth cleanse purge and sanctifie that Matter in the Body of the Virgin whereof the Body of Christ was to be framed viz. the pure bloud or seed of the Virgin For that seede euen of the that blessed Virgin her selfe before it was sanctified by the Holy Spirit was tainted and infected with sinne But being once purged and sanctified by the Holy Ghost afterwards it neuer had nor euer shall haue any staine or taint but being filled with sanctitie beyond all measure it became a most holy Instrument of his Soule and Godhead Let none mistake my words I doe not say that the blessed Virgin her selfe was by the Holy Ghost purged from all sinne but that That part of her Virgin-Blood whereof the Body of Christ was composed was so sanctified and cleansed that in it there was no spot nor staine of Originall Corruption Secondly In ordinary Generation first the Liuer the Heart and the Braine are fashioned then other of the parts one after another for the Seminall humour first becomes an Embryo then a body inorganicall without forme or limmes one by degrees successiuely after another is framed and perfected For as the Schoole of Phisicians saith it is at least 40. daies before the body of a Child in the wombe be fully formed But the Body of our Sauiour CHRIST in the wombe of the Virgin by the obumbration and operation of the Holy Ghost was instantly in a moment made absolute and perfect in all parts and members As the Brasse molten in the fire is no sooner powred into the Mould but instantly it is a perfect figure and shape of a man or Serpent or Beast as the Mould is made for Besides the reasonable soule of Christ did not stay till the 40. day as in other it doth before it was created and infused into His body But at the same moment in and with the Body it was created and vnited to his Body by the Holy Ghost So that the Body of Christ at the very first instant of Conception was quoad perfectionem partium non graduum perfect and complete in all parts and indued at that instant with a reasonable soule Otherwise Hee had not from his first conception beene perfect God and perfect Man for perfect Man subsisteth of a reasonable soule and humane flesh And l Athanasius Creede then had he not been perfect Christ for Christ is perfect God and perfect Man subsisting of a Reasonable and Humane flesh Wherefore the Schoole saith truly Christus totam humanam naturam vniendo Peronae adsumpsit assumendo vniuit Christ by vniting the whole intire Humane nature to his Person assumed it and by assuming it he vnited it to his Person whole and intire This is no new Doctrine for the Fathers of the Primitiue Church haue constantly taught it I reckon Saint Bernard among none of those Ancients yet he hath it Hom. 2. vpon Missus est But old Saint Hierome he hath the same vpon those words in the Prophet Ier. cap. 3. Foemina circundabit virum a Woman shall compasse a Man Speaking of the Virgin inclosing Christ in her wombe And before Hierome Athanasius in his Booke of the Incarnation of the Word Carnis vnio cum verbi Diuinitate ex vtero originem traxit The vnion of the flesh with the Diuinity of the Word tooke its originall from the wombe And after both these Saint Augustine in his 18. Chapter de fide ad Petrum Firmissimè crede nullatenus dubites non Carnem Christi sine diuinitate conceptam in Virginis vtero priusque susciperetur à Verbo sed ipsum Verbum Deum suae carnis