Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	ghost_n	holy_a	trinity_n	3,214	5	9.7060	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96093	The beatitudes: or A discourse upon part of Christs famous Sermon on the Mount. Wherunto is added Christs various fulnesse. The preciousnesse of the soul. The souls malady and cure. The beauty of grace. The spiritual watch. The heavenly race. The sacred anchor. The trees of righteousnesse. The perfume of love. The good practitioner. By Thomas Watson, minister of the word at Stephens Walbrook in the city of London.	Watson, Thomas, d. 1686.	1660 (1660)	Wing W1107; Thomason E1031_1; ESTC R15025	429,795	677

the nature of the Sun is light so Gods nature is love The three persons in the Trinity are all love 1. God the Father is love Joh. 3.16 God so loved the world that God should part with Christ out of his bosome the Son of his love and lay this jewel as it were to pawn for our salvation oh unparalleld love never was such love showed to the Angels 2. God the Son is love how did Christ love his Spouse when he died for her his sides drop'd blood his heart drop'd love such a vein of love was opened in him that our sins could not stench love was the wing on which Christ did fly into the Virgins womb Christ incarnate hre was love covered over with flesh and Christ on the Cross here was a book of love laid open before us to read in Per vulnera viscera 3. God the Holy Ghost is love his appearing in the likeness of a Dove show'd his nature the Dove saith Pliny is an amicable creature it is without gall what are all the motions of the Spirit but tenders of love what is the Zeal of the Spirit but the print of love why doth this blessed Spirit as a suitor come a woing to sinners but that they may know he is in love thus all the persons in the Trinity are love and the more we shine in the grace of Love the more we resemble the God of Love 6. Argument enforcing love is from the sweet Relations we stand in one to another we are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fellow-Citizens Ephes 2.19 we all expect one heaven we shall shortly live together and shall we not love together we are souldiers of the same band 2 Tim. 2.3 ours must be the fight of faith not the fight of contention our strife must be who shall love most we are branches of the same Vine and shall we not be united we are stones of the same building and shall we not be cemented with love nay we are brethren Acts 7.26 Sirs ye are brethren why do ye wrong one to another Use 1. I might here take up a lamentation and steep my Use 1 words in tears to consider the decay I had almost said the funerals of this grace among Christians Terras Astraea reliquit the fire of brotherly love is almost ready to go out instead of the fire of love the wildfire of passion I have read of one Vitalis who hazarded his life to succour his distressed friend but sure such Vitales are dead in this age fratrum quoque gratia rara est The Text saith See that ye love one another but our times have made a bad Comment upon this Text how do Christians reproach censure maligne one another the Text saith love fervently but they hate fervently instead of the bond of love behold the apple of strife we live in the frigid zone the love of many waxeth cold Many live as if they had been born upon the Mountains of Bether the Mountains of division and as if they had been baptiz'd in the waters of Meribah the waters of strife Do the wicked unite nay do the Divels unite there was in one man a Legion which is according to Varro seven thousand six hundred twenty two shall there be more harmony among Divels than among Christians For these divisions of the godly there are great thoughts of heart Oh Christians turn your hot words into salt tears how do the enemies of Religion insult to see not only Christs Coat but his Body rent for these things let our eyes run down Consider the ill consequence where love is wanting the absence of this grace brings forth divisions and they are dangerous For 1. Divisions bring an opprobrium and scandal upon Religion they make the wayes of God evil spoken of as if Religion were the fomenter of envy and sedition Julian in his Invectives against the Christians said that they lived together as Tigers rending and tearing one another and shall we by our animosities and contentions make good Julians words this will make others affraid to embrace the Christian Faith There is a story in Epiphanius of Miletius and Peter Bishop of Alexandria both Confessors of the Orthodox Religion both condemned to suffer who being together in prison upon a small difference sell into so great a Schisme that they drew a partition between each other in the prison and would not hold communion in the same worship of Christ for which notwithstanding they both suffered which division grew scandalous and did more hurt than their persecution did good 2. Divisions advance Satans Kingdom The Divel hath no hope but in our discords * Nibil spei nisi per discordias Cornel. Tac. St. Chrysostom observes of the City of Corinth when many zealous converts were brought in Satan knew no better way to damme up the current of Religion than by throwing in a bone of contention and dividing them into parties one was for Paul and another for Apollo but few for Christ Use 2. Be Exhorted to cordial and fervent love See that Use 2 ye love one another Exhort Oh that this sweet spice might send forth its fragrant smell among Christians Oh that the Branch 1 Lord would rain down some of these silver showers of love upon the hearts of Christians which are for the most part like the Mountains of Gilboa which have none of this heavenly dew upon them They say of the stones of the Temple they were so closely cemented as if there had been but one stone in the Temple it were to be wished that the hearts of Christians were so sweetly cemented in love as if there were but one heart Let me commend this grace of amity and love to Christians under a double notion 1. As you are members of a body politick The whole nation is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Political body now it should be with the body Politique as it is with the natural body all the members of the body have a sweet sympathy they all work for the good of the whole that there be no Schisme in the body 1 Cor. 12.25 So it should be in the body politique 2. You are membra Ecclesiae members of the Church of God you bear Christs Name you wear his Livery therefore you must be sodred together in affection It is a sad Omen and presage when the joynts of the same body shall be loosed and the knees shall smite one against another If yet men will live at variance nourishing a Viper in their bosoms I shall offer two things to their serious consideration 1. An uncharitable person is an unregenerate person Titus 3.3 We were sometimes disobedient serving divers lusts living 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in malice and envy as if he had said Before grace came we were fill'd and ready to burst with this poyson of malice the Apostle describing a natural condition calls it the gall of bitterness Acts 8. He that lives in bitter strife is in the gall bitterness A

without cutting or forcing Mary Magdalens repentance was voluntary she stood weeping Luke 7. She came to Christ with ointment in her hand with love in her heart with teares in her eyes God is for a freewil-offering he loves not to be put to distrain 2. Gospel-mourning is spiritual that is when we mourn for sinne more than suffering Pharaoh saith Take away the plague he never thought of the plague of his heart A sinner mourns because judgement follows at the heeles of sinne but David cries out my sinne is ever before me Psal 51. God had threatned that the sword should ride in circuit in his family but David doth not say the sword is ever before me but my sinne is ever before me The offence against God troubled him he grieved more for the treason than the bloody axe thus the Penitent Prodigal Luke 15.21 I have sinned against heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and before thee he doth not say I am almost starved among the husks but I have offended my father In particular our mourning for sinne if it be spiritual must be under this threefold notion 1. We must mourn for sinne as it is an act of hostility and enmity Sinne doth not only make us unlike God but contrary to God Levit. 26.40 and that they have walked contrary unto me Sinne doth affront and resist the Holy Ghost Acts 7.51 Sinne is contrary to Gods nature God is holy sinne is an impure thing sin is contrary to his will if God be of one minde sinne is of another sinne doth all it can to spight God The Hebrew word for sinne 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies rebellion a sinner doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 now when we mourn for sinne as it is a walking Antipodes to heaven this is a Gospel-mourning nature will not bear contraries 2. We must mourn for sin as it is a piece of the highest ingratitude it is a kicking against the breasts of mercy God sends his Sonne to redeeme us his Spirit to comfort us we sinne against the blood of Christ the grace of the Spirit and shall we not mourn We complaine of the unkindnesse of others and shall we not lay to heart our own unkindnesse against God Caesar took it unkindly that his son Brutus should stab him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou my son may not the Lord say to us these wounds I have received in the house of my friends * Zach. 13.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Theocr. Israel took their jewels and ear-rings and made a golden Calfe of them the sinner takes the jewels of Gods mercies and makes use of them to sin ingratitude dies a sin in grain hence they are called crimson sinnes Isa 1.18 sinnes against Gospel-love are worse in some sence than the sinnes of the Divels for they never had an offer of Grace tendred to them Diabolus peccavit in innocentia constitutus ego vero restitutus ille perstitit in malitia Deo reprobante ego vero Deo revocante ille obduratur ad punientem ego vero ad blandientem sic uterque contra Deum ille contra non requirentem se ego vero contra morientem pro me ecce cujus imaginem horrebam in multis aspicio me horribiliorem Anselm de Casu Diab Now when we mourn for sin as it hath its accent of ingratitude upon it this is an Evangelical mourning 3. We must mourn for sinne as it is a Privation it keeps good things from us it hinders our communion with God Mary wept for Christs absence John 20.13 they have taken away my Lord. So our sinnes have taken away our Lord they have deprived us of his sweet presence Will not he grieve who hath lost a rich jewel When we mourn for sinne under this notion as it makes the Sun of righteousnesse withdraw from our Horizon when we mourn not so much that peace is gone and trading is gone but God is gone Cant. 5.6 My beloved had withdrawn himself this is an holy mourning the mourning for the losse of Gods favour is the best way to regaine his favour If thou hast lost a friend all thy weeping will not fetch him again but if thou hast lost Gods presence thy mourning will bring thy God again 3. Gospel-mourning cogit ad Deum it sends the soul to God When the Prodigal sonne repented he went to his father Luke 15.18 I will arise and go unto my father Jacob wept and prayed Hos 12.3 The people of Israel wept and offered sacrifice Judg. 2.5 Gospel-mourning puts a man upon duty the reason is because in true sorrow there is a mixture of hope and hope puts the soul upon the use or means That mourning which like the flaming sword keeps the soul from approaching to God and beats it off from duty is a sinful mourning 't is a sorrow hatch'd in hell such was Sauls grief which drove him to the Witch of Endor 1 Sam. 28.7 Evangelical Mourning is a spur to prayer the childe who weeps for offending his father goes into his presence and will not leave till his father be reconciled to him Absalom could not be quiet till he had seen the Kings face 2 Sam. 14.32 33. 4. Gospel-Mourning is for sin in particular Dolosus versatur in generalibus It is with a true penitent as it is with a wounded man he comes to the Chyrurgion and shews him all his wounds here I was cut with the Sword here I was shot with a Bullet So a true penitent bewails all his particular sins Judg. 10.10 We have served Baalim they mourned for their Idolatry And David layes his finger upon the sore and points to that very sin that troubled him Psal 51.4 I have done this evil he means his blood-guiltiness a wicked man will say he is a sinner but a child of God saith I have done this evil Peter wept for that particular sin of denying Christ Clemens Alexandrinus saith he never heard a Cock crow but he fell a weeping there must be a particular Repentance before we have a general pardon 5. Gospel-tears must drop from the eye of faith Mark 9.24 The father of the childe cryed out with tears Lord I believe our disease must make us mourn but when we look up to our Physitian who hath made a playster of his own blood we must not mourn without hope believing tears are precious when the clouds of sorrow have overcast the soul some Sun-shine of faith must break forth the soul will be swallowed up of sorrow it will be drowned in tears if faith be not the bladder to keep it up from sinking though our tears drop to the earth our faith must reach heaven after the greatest rain faith must appear as the Rainbow in the cloud the tears of faith are botled as precious wine Psal 56.8 6. Gospel-Mourning is joyned with self-loathing the sinner doth admire himself the penitent doth loath himself Ezek. 20.42 Ye shall loath your selves in your own sight for all your