Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	mystical_a	person_n	union_n	3,769	5	10.8414	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12187	A miracle of miracles or Christ in our nature Wherein is contained the vvonderfull conception, birth, and life of Christ, who in the fulnesse of time became man to satisfie divine iustice, and to make reconciliation betweene God and man. Preached to the honourable society of Grayes Inne, by that godly and faithfull minister of Iesus Christ, Richard Sibbes. D.D.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1638 (1638)	STC 22499; ESTC S117264	26,445	58

maine thing I desire you to observe is matter of comfort from this Emanuell That now hee having taken our nature upon him that he might take our persons into unity of his mysticall body wee might have comfort in all conditions For hee tooke our nature upon him beside his other ends that hee might take our persons to make up mysticall Christ hee married our nature to marry our persons And therefore if hee did it for this end that wee might bee neere him as our nature is neere him shall not wee make it a ground of comfort that our persons shall bee neere Christ as well as our natures As CHRIST hath two natures in one person so many persons make up one mysticall CHRIST so that our persons are wonderfully neere to Christ. The wife is not neerer the husband the members are not neerer the head the building is not neerer the foundation then Christ and his Church are And therefore comfort our selues in this Christ is Emanuell God with us in our nature And will hee suffer his Church to want that hee hath taken so neere to himselfe can the members want influence when the head hath it can the wife be poore when the husband is rich whatsoever Christ did to his owne body to his humane nature taken into the unity of his person that hee will doe in some proportion to his mysticall body I will shew you some particulars Hee sanctified his naturall body by the Holy Ghost and hee will sanctifie us by the same spirit For there is the same spirit in head and members He loveth his naturall body and so as never to lay it aside to eternity And loveth his mysticall body now in some sort more for hee gave his naturall body to death for his mysticall body And therefore as hee will never lay aside his naturall body hee will never lay aside his Church nor any member of his Church for with the same love that hee loved his naturall body hee loveth now his mysticall members As hee rose to glory in his naturall body and ascended to Heaven so hee will raise his mysticall body that it shall ascend as hee ascended I beseech you therefore consider what a ground of comfort this is God tooke our nature on him besides the grand end of satisfaction that hee might make us like himselfe in glory that hee might draw us neere to himselfe And therefore now Christ being in Heaven having commission and authority over all things put into his hand hee having a Name above all names in Heaven and earth that at the Name of Iesus every knee should bow that is every subjection should bee given will he suffer any member of his body to suffer more then hee thinkes fit No seeing hee is in Heaven and glory for his Churches good For all that he hath done and suffered is for the Church and the Churches use To conclude all Let us consider what wee are let not a Christian bee base minded let him not bee dastardly in any cause that is good or Gods Let him be on Gods side Who is on his side a Christian is an impregnable person hee is a person that can never bee conquered Emanuell became man to make the Church and every Christian to be one with him Christs nature is out of danger of all that is hurtfull The Sun shall not shine the wind shall not blow to the Churches hurt For the Churches head ruleth over all things and hath all things in subjection Angells in heaven men on earth Devills in hell all bow to Christ and shall any thing befall them that he loveth unlesse for their greater good Therefore though they may kill a Christian and imprison him yet hurt him they can not If God bee on our side who can bee against us but God is on our side and on what grounds God-man hath procured him to be our friend hee hath satisfied God and therfore if we beleeve we be one with Christ and so one with God Wee have many against us the Devils are against us the world is against us to take away the favour of God to hinder accesse to him in prayer to stoppe the Churches communion with God and hinder the sweet issue of all things that befall us as farre as they can but their malice is greater then their power If God should let them loose and give the chaine into their owne hand though they seeme to hurt yet hurt they cannot in the issue And shall not we make use of these things in times of distresse wherefore serve they but to comfort us in all conflicts with Satan and in all doubtings that arise from our sinfull hearts Answer all with this If God be with us who can bee against us If any bee against us name them if not be satisfied And therefore come life come death Christ is our surety he layeth up our dust keepeth our ashes in the grave and will Christ loose any member Feare not Iacob to goe into Egypt For I will bring thee backe againe So feare not to goe into the grave The spirit of God will watch over our dust and bring us to heaven Therefore feare nothing God will be with us in life and death yea for ever and we shall be for ever with the Lord as the Apostle saith in the Thessalonians And that issue of all that Emanuell hath done Christ was one in our nature that hee might bring God and us into favour that wee may be for ever with him in heaven that we may be for ever with the Lord which is the accomplishment of all the promises FINIS Imprimatur Tho. Wykes Octob. 26. 1638. The scope of the Text. Wicked men admire their owne devices Those that brag out of danger are most cowardly in danger Infinite mercy in God and stubbornnesse in man conflicting Meaning of the Text. Reason He that will doe the greater he will doe the lesser Object How this can confirme their faith for present Answ. Make use of the Grand promises to comfort us in petty crosses Divers Articles of faith Nothing more strange then a virgin to be a mother and God a man Christ conceived not by ordinary Propagation The Masse wherof Christ was made was sanctified by the holy Ghost Christ conceived upon Maries assent to the message by the holy Ghost Observ. Quest. Answ. Christ is conceived in our hearts when we rest upon him onely 1 Tim. 3. Christs conception birth and life like ours In every thing in Christ something extraordinary Christ conceived borne lived and dyed eswe To shew sorth Christ in all our actions Vnion with Christ the cause of all grace Ier. 2.3 Emanuel a name of nature and office Christ Emanuell in regard of our nature Without the blood of Christ noe remission Meaner workes acted by the manhood greater by the Godhead Ephes 5. God our father Christ Emanuell to make God and us friends By satisfaction By the Spirit fitting us for communion with God Gods love and mercy to man to be wondred at Man above Angels by Christs incarnation What we cannot believe by vnderstanding let us labour to understand by believing Our nature in heaven * Church No counsell against God shall stand Christ with us in poverty and bond Christ God in us and for us How to know Emanuel to bee ours Christs cause to be maintained Christ with us in his Word and Sacraments Communion with Christ is sweet Doctrine Grace refused is turned into wrath What God saith man cannot disanull Men of God of ould had recourse to the promises of the Messiah How to reason with our selves in a sanctified manner All promises founded in Christ. Is. 9 6. Christs conception and incarnation marvellous and rare Christ is with us here by faith Man out of weaknes wonders at poore things Isaacks birth a type of Christs Why Christ must be without sin No blemish or defect of purity in the conception of Christ. Faith to be grounded on Christ God man Christ our surety Christ without sinne His humane nature had alwaies subsistence in the divine In manner of propagation Christ became man for our sakes Christ by divers signes shewed himselfe before exhibited in the flesh First things considerable 2 Consideration 3 Considerations to defile our natures that God hath dignified 4 Consideration 5 Consideration Obiection answered Question Answer What is done to by Christ is done by God Reason Quest. 1. Reason 2. Reason 3. Reason Job 9 3.2 Use. Use. Improved Vse of improving our priviledges by Emanuell Use. In the behalfe of the Church Isa. 8.8 Gods Church shal 〈◊〉 the end of the world At Christ comeing the Iews Church wasted 1 Evidence of comfort in Christ. Question Answer Revel 22.20 2 Evidence of comfort 〈◊〉 of comfort As the humane 〈…〉 Psal. 2 9 10 Conclus to consider what w●e are The Devill and the world our enemies

a Saviour according to both natures as God and as Man for he was to suffer and hee was to overcome and satisfie in suffering he was not onely to heare our prayers but to answer them Both natures had an ingredience into all the worke of mediation God dyed and God suffered and supported the manhood that it might uphold the burden of the wrath of God that it might not sinke under it And so in all his actions there was concurrence of divinity and humanity The meaner workes being done by the Manhood the greater workes by the Godhead so making one Emanuel God with us For God must bring us to heaven by a way sutable to his holinesse and therefore by way of satisfaction and that cannot be but by God equall with himselfe And that is the reason why the Apostle joynes together without Christ without God That is they that know not Christ God-man to reconcile God and man have nothing to doe with God For the pure nature of God what hath it to doe with the unpure nature of man without Emanuel without him that is God man to make satisfaction But now that Christ hath taken our nature it is become pure in him and beloved of God in him And God in him is become lovely because hee is in our nature yea in Christ God is become a father I goe to my father and your father his nature is sweet to us in Christ our nature is sweet to him in Christ God loveth not our nature but first in him in whom it is pure And then he loveth our nature in us because by the spirit of Christ hee will make our natures like to Christs and therefore wee may conceive of God as Emanuell God well pleased with us and we well pleased with him Out of Christ wee are angry with God and hee angry with us Wee could wish there were no God and choose rather to submit to the devill to bee led by his spirit to all prophanenesse and licentiousnesse Wee have a rising against God and his Image and what ever comes from God the proud unmortified heart of man swelleth against it But when the heart once believeth that Christ Emanuell God with us hath satisfied Gods justice now God is taken by the believing heart to bee a father reconciled in Iesus Christ. And we are taught to bee his sonnes And our nature is more and more purified and cleansed and made like the pure nature of Christ and so by little and little the termes betweene God and us are more sweet till we get to heaven where our nature shal be absolutely perfect and purged by the holy spirit So that he is Emanuell God with us to make God and us friends which is two waies First by satisfaction taking away the wrath of God And then secondly by the spirit for God sendeth his Spirit into our harts to fit us for frindship cōmunion with him when we have something of God in us From hence many things may bee spoken partly for instruction and comfort I will name a few First of all it is to be wondred at and wee cannot wonder enough though we were Angels and had natures larger then they are at the marvellous mercies and love of God that would stoope so low as that God in the second person should take our nature and become one with us It is marvellous love that he would be one with us by such a meanes as his owne sonne to make peace betweene him and us It is a marvellous condescending and stooping in the sonne to take our nature when there bee better creatures above us that hee would let passe all above us and take our nature that is dust into unity of his person that earth flesh and bloud should bee taken into one person with the Godhead it is wonderfull and marvellous He tooke not the nature of Angels so that wee bee above Angels by the incarnation of Christ. Because hee tooke not the Angels nature they are not the spouse of Christ but every believing Christian is the spouse of Christ he is marryed to Christ he is the head wee the members he is the husband wee the spouse and therefore wee may stand in admiration of the Love of God in taking our natures on him It requires hearts wounded by the spirit of God to thinke of and admire these things answerable to their natures The Angels when Christ was borne could not containe but breake out Glory to God on high on earth peace good will towards men because there was then peace peace betweene God and us and by consequence with all the creatures which doe but take part with God and revenge his quarrell These things be matters of admiration and we shall spend eternity in admiration thereof in another world though here our narrow hearts can hardly conceive it But what wee cannot believe by understanding as things above nature let us labour to understand them by believing desire God wee may believe them and then we shall understand them to our comfort Emanuel God with us If God bee with us in our nature then hee is with us in his love And if God be with us who shall be against us For this Emanuel hath taken our nature for ever hee hath taken it into heaven with him God and wee shall bee for ever in good termes because God in our nature is for ever in heaven as an Intercessour appearing for us There is no feare of a breach now for our brother is in heaven our Husband is in heaven to preserve an everlasting union and amitie betweene God and us Now wee may insult in an holy maner over all oppositions whatsoever For if God be with us in our nature and by consequence in favour who shall bee against us and therefore with the Apostle let us triumph Rom. 8. Let us make use of this Emanuel in all troubles whatsoever whether of the Church or of our owne persons In troubles of the Church the Church hath enemies hell and the world and Satans factors but wee have one Emanuel God with us and therefore wee need not feare you know whose ensigne it is whose Motto Deus nobiscum is better than Sancta Maria Sancta Maria will downe when Deus nobiscum shall stand I beseech you therefore let us comfort our selves in regard of the Church as the Prophet in the next chapt vers 7. comforts the Church in distresse He shall passe through Iudah he shall over-flow and go over he shall reach even to the necke and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the bredth of thy land O Emanuel It may seeme a kinde of complaint The enemy stretcheth out their wings over thy land O Emanuel which may teach us in the person of the Church to goe to Emanuel Remember the enemies of thy Church spread their wings over thy land and people O Emanuel thou seest the malice of the enemy

the malice of Antichrist and his supporters He is the true Michael that stands for his Church And then in the tenth verse Take counsell together and it shall come to nought speake the word and it shall not stand for God is with us And as the Church before Christ came in the flesh much more may we now hee is come in the flesh insult over all Let all the enemies consult together this king and that power there is a counsell in heaven will disturbe and dash all their counsells Emanuel in heaven laugheth them to scorne And as Luther sayd shall wee weepe and cry when God laugheth He seeth a company of idolatrous wretches that conspire together to root out all Protestants from the earth if it lay in their power They that are inspired with Jesuiticall spirits the incendiaries of the world have devoured all Israel and Christendome in their hopes but the Church which is Emanuels land and freehold sees it and laughs them to scorne God can dash all their treacherous counsels And so in all personal trouble whatsoever Emanuel God with us is fitted to be a mercifull Saviour he was poore that he might be with the poor he took not on him an impassable nature but he tooke our poverty our miserable nature Hee is poore with the poore afflicted with the afflicted persecuted with the persecuted he is deserted with them that be deserted My God My God why hast thou forsaken me He suffers with them that suffer he hath gone throgh al the passages of our lives In the beginning of it he was conceived and borne and he hath gone along with us and is able to pitty and succour us in our poverty in prison in bonds in disgrace in our conflict with God in our terrour of conscience in all our temptations and assaults by Sathan he was tempted himselfe by Sathan for this purpose that Emanuel might in all these be mercifull Let us not lose the comforts of this sweet Name in which you have couched so many comforts In the houre of death when wee are to dye thinke of Emanuel When Iacob was to goe into Egypt sayth God Feare not Iacob goe I will goe with thee and bring thee back againe and he did bring him back to be buried in Canaan So feare not to dye feare not to goe to the grave Emanuel hath been there he will goe into the grave hee will bring us out of the dust againe for Emanuel is God with us who is God over death over sinne over the wrath of God God over all blest for evermore and hath triumphed over all so that what shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Iesus He is not onely God with us in our nature but he is God for us in heaven at this time he is God in us by his spirit hee is God amongst us in our meetings Where two or three be gathered together in my name I will be in the midst of them He is God for us to defend us he is for us in earth for us in heaven and wheresoever we be specially in good causes And therefore enlarge our comforts as much as we can And shall not wee then labour to bee with him as much as we can All spirits that have any comfort by this Emanuel they are touched on by his Spirit to have desires to bee nearer and nearer to him How shall I know hee is my Emanuel not onely God with us but God with me If by the same Spirit of his that sanctified his humane nature I have desires to bee nearer and nearer to him to be liker and liker him If I am on his side if I be neare him in my affections desires and understanding if I side not against the Church nor joyne in opposition against the Gospell If I finde inwardly a desire to bee more and more with him and like to him if outwardly in the place where I live I side with him and take part with his cause it is a signe I have interest in him And therefore let us labour to bee more and more with Christ and with God in love and affections in faith in our whole inward man because he is with us Wee must know this Emanuel doth trust us with his cause to speak a good word for him now and then to speak a word for his Church he takes it ill if we neglect him Curse ye Meroz because hee came not out to helpe the Lord. God trusteth us to see if wee will bee on his side and calles to us as Iehu did Who is on my side who Now if wee have not a word for the Church not so much as a prayer for the Church how can wee say God with us when we are not used to speake to God by way of prayer nor to man but by way of opposition and contestation By this therefore examine the truth of our interest in Christ. Those that intend to receive the communion must thinke Now I am to be neare unto Christ and to feast with him Christ is with us in his Word in the Sacrament there is a neare relation betweene the bread and the wine and body and bloud of Christ. Now the true childe of God is glad of this most speciall presence of Christ. All true receivers come with joy to the Sacrament Oh I shall have communion with Emanuel who left heaven tooke my nature into a most neare hypostaticall union the nearest union of all and shal not I desire the nearest union with him againe that can be possible Oh I am glad of the occasion that I can heare his word pray to him receive the Sacrament Thus let us come with joy that we may have communion with this Emanuel who hath such sweet communion with our nature That our hearts may bee as the virgins wombe was to conceive Christ I beseech you inlarge these things in your meditations And because wee know not how long wee may live here some of us be sicke and weake and all of us may fall into danger wee know not how soone let it be our comfort that God is Emanuell hee left heaven and tooke our nature to bring us thither where himselfe is When times of dissolution come consider I am now going to him to heaven that came downe from thence to bring me to that eternall mansion of rest and glory And shall not I desire an everlasting communion with him God became man that hee might make man like God pertaking of his divine nature in grace here and glory hereafter Shall not I goe to him that suffered so much for me Therefore saith Saint Paul I desire to be dissolved and to bee with Christ which is the effect of Christs prayer Father saith he my will is that where I am they may be also And in this God heareth Christ that all that beleive in him shall bee where Christ is as he came from heaven to be where wee are Lay

man on God as God And CHRIST is a friend to both to GOD as GOD to man as man and therefore hee is fit to bee an Vmpire to be a Dayes-man to bee a Mediatour And hee hath done it to purpose making that good in Heaven that hee did on earth And therefore labour to make a gracious use of all this I know nothing in the VVorld more usefull no point of Divinity more pregnant no greater spring of sanctifying duty then that God and man were one to make GOD and us one He marry'd our nature that hee might marrie our persons And if it bee so that God and man are brought to tearmes of reconciliation on such a foundation as God-man then ought not wee to improve this comfort have wee such a foundation of comfort and shall not wee make use of it Shall we have wisdome in the things of this World and not make use of the grand comforts that concerne our soules But how shall wee improve it In all our necessities and wantes goe to God how through Christ God-man who is in Heaven making intercession and appearing for us by virtue of his satisfaction made on earth and therefore wee may goe bouldly to the Throne of grace to God being reconciled by God God hath God at his right hand appearing for us and shall wee bee affraid to goe to the Throne of grace When wee want strength comforts or any thing goe to God in the mediation of Emanuell and then God can deny nothing to us that we aske with the spirit of Faith in the name of Christ. I beseech you therefore let this bee the maine use continually to improve the gratious priviledges wee have by Emanuell Our nature is now acceptable to God in Christ because hee hath purified it in himselfe and Gods nature is lovely to us because hee hath taken our nature If God loved his owne Sonne hee will love our nature as joyned to his Sonne and Gods Nature is lovely to us He tooke our flesh upon him and made himselfe Bone of our Bone And shall not wee like and affect that which was so gratiously procured by Emanuell Consider of it and let it bee ground of reverent and bould prayer in all our wants to goe to God in Emanuell Let us make use of it likewise in behalfe of the Church The Church is Emanuells Land as yee have it in the next Chapter Verse 8. The stretching out of his wings shall bee the breath of thy land O Emanuell The Church of the Iewes was Emanuells land but then it was impaled within the pale of the Iewes but now the Gentiles are taken in The Church is scattered and spread abroad over the whole earth And there fore goe to God in behalfe of the Church Thou tookest our nature into unity of thy person that thou mightest bee a gracious and a mercifull head And therefore looke in mercy on thine owne mysticall body the Church They before Christ came in the flesh who had the spirit of Faith knew the Church of the Iewes could not bee extinct because Emanuell was to come of it And wee may know the Church shall never bee destroyed till the second comming of CHRIST because those things are not yet performed that God hath promised and must bee performed And therefore wee may goe as bouldly to Christ and spread the cause of the Church before him now as they spread the cause of the Iewes before him then looke upon thy Land looke upon thy Church O Emanuell That there must bee a Church wee must beleeve and wee can not beleeve a Non ens We must have ground for our faith and therefore never feare that heresy shall overspread the face of the Church Emanuells land shall bee preserved by some way or other though perhaps not by the way wee expect God must have a Church to the end of the world the Gospell must get ground Antichrist must fall God hath said it and man can not unsay it And therefore in all estates of the Church spread its cause before Emanuell When Emanuell came once the Church of the Iewes wasted Therefore if you will have good arguments against the Iewes this is a good one to convince them that Christ is come in the flesh The Church of the Iewes was to continue till Emanuell but the Church of the Iewes hath ceased to continue and is now no Church there is now no family of David and therefore Emanuell is come And for a further use let us haue thoughts of the second coming of Emanuell as they had thoughts of the the first Christ was called the consolation of Israell at his first coming and in the new Testament it is every where expressed a signe of a gracious man to looke for the appearing of Iesus Christ and to love it Now let us comfort our selves that this Emanuell will appeare in our flesh ere long let us wait for the consolation of Israell Emanuell came downe to us to take our nature upon him and to satisfie Gods wrath that hee might take us to heaven with himselfe and that we might bee for ever with him in glory And therefore let us if wee would make a true use of Emanuell desire to bee with him Christ delighted before hee came in the flesh to bee with the sonnes of men and hee is with us now by his spirit and so will be with his Church to the end of the world and shall not wee bee with him as much as wee may Indeed he loved our nature so much that hee descended from the height of Majestie to take our misery and businesse upon him and shall not wee desire to bee with him in glory There bee divers evidences whether wee have any ground of comfort in this Emanuell or no. This shall be one Wee may know wee have benefit by the first comming of Emanuell if wee have a serious desire of the second comming if wee have desire to bee with him If as he came to us in love Wee have desires to bee with him in his Ordinances as much as may be and in humble resignation at the houre of death how shall wee be with him here bee with him in thoughts in meditation in faith and Prayer meet with him wheresoever hee is hee is in the congregation where two or three are gathered together in his name he is amongst them be with them in all things where he vouchsafeth his gracious presence It is the nature of love to desire perfect union and therefore the Christian soule touched with the spirit of God will desire to bee dissolved and to be with Christ as best of all Come Lord Iesus come quickly and therefore in the houre of death is willing to resigne himselfe ro God that hee may goe to Emanuell and inioy his presence that left the presence of his Father to take our nature and to bee with us on earth But the