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
A60194	A learned commentary or exposition: upon the first chapter of the second Epistle of S. Paul to the Corinthians Being the substance of many sermons formerly preached at Grayes-Inne, London, by that reverend and judicious divine, Richard Sibbs, D.D. Sometimes Master of Catherine-Hall in Cambridge, and preacher to that honourable society. Published for the publick good and benefit of the Church of Christ. By Tho. Manton, B.D. and preacher of the Gospel at Stoake-Newington, near London.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.; Ashe, Simeon, d. 1662.; Manton, Thomas, 1620-1677.	1655 (1655)	Wing S3738; ESTC R215702	745,441	567

even as it is in the natural body so likewise in the mystical body there is a sympathy between the members Likewise they partake of the sufferings of others by way of proportion they suffered in their kind and proportion as he suffered though perhaps not in the same very individual kind There is a portion of suffering in the Church some suffer one way and others another but all partake of sufferings in some degree or other Then again they did partake of St Pauls sufferings in preparation and disposition of mind howsoever now they did not suffer as much as he yet saith he I know as farre as the spirit of God is in you you are prepared to suffer and what we are prepared to doc that we do Christ saith we sell all for the Gospel when upon serious examination of our hearts we find we can part with it when we set our selves to examination what cannot I part with for Christ can I part with my goods Can I part with my life if we can once come to resolution it is done as Abraham is said to sacrifiee his Son because he resolved to do it and David is said to build the Temple because he intended to do it God looks upon us in our resolutions and preparations what we resolve to do that is done So saith he you are partakers of my sufferings not onely by sympathy and in proportion of sufferings but you are prepared he speaks charitably and lovingly to suffer whatsoever I suffer if God call you to it And the ground of Christians partaking of the sufferings one of another it is the communion that is between Christians they are all Members of one body if the hand suffer the head suffers the head thinks it self wronged when the hand or the foot is wronged by reason of the sympathy between the Members as I said and so it is in the mysticall body of Christ. There are these three unions which depend one upon another The union of Christ with our nature which is inseparable it is an eternali union he never laies that blessed mass of our flesh aside which he took which is the ground of all our comfort for God is now at one with us because God hath taken our nature on him and satisfied the wrath of God his Father Next the union of Christ with our nature is the union of Christ mysticall Christ and his Members when they suffer Christ suffers their sufferings are the sufferings of Christ. The third is the union of one Member with another that what one Member suffers another doth suffer therefore the Corinthians were partakers of Christ because their sufferings were the sufferings of Christ and they were partakers of St. Pauls sufferings because his sufferings were their sufferings They were partakers of Christs sufferings because of the communion between the head and the Members and they were partakers of St Pauls sufferings because of the communion of one Member with another And surely there is not a heart that was ever touched with the Spirit of God but when he heares of any calamity of the Church whether it be in the Palatinate in France in the low Countries or in any Country in the world if he heare that the Church hath a blow it strikes to the heart of any man that hath the spirit of God in them by a sympatheticall suffering It is one good signe to know whether a man be of the mysticall body or no to take to heart the grievance of the Church As good Nehemiah did he would not take comfort in the pleasures of a Court in the King of Babylons Court when it went not well with his Country when the Church was in distress he took their grievance to heart So Moses the very joyes of Pharaoh's Court could not please him when he considered the abasement of his Country-men he joyned with them and it is called the rebuke of Christ. So it is with all the people of God there is a communication of suffeings As you are partakers of the sufferings so you shall be also of the consolation Wherein two things are observable First That a necessary precedent condition of comfort is sufferings And then the consequent of this that those that suffer as they should are sure of comfort These two things unfold the meaning of the spirit of God here Before there be comfort there must be suffering for God hath established this order even as in nature there must be a night before the day and a Winter before a Summer so in the Kingdom of Christ in his ruling of the Church there is this divine policie there must be suffering before comfort God will sooner break the league and the Covenant between day and night then this league of suffering and comfort the one must be before the other it was so in our head Christ he suffered and then entred into his glory so all his Members must be comfortable to him in suffering and then enter into their glory The reasons of this are diverse First of all this method and order is first suffering and then comfort because God finds us in a corrupt estate and something must be wrought out of us before we can be vessels to receive comfort therefore there must be a purgation one way or other either by repentance or if not by repentance by affliction to help repentance there must be suffering before comfort The soule is unfit for comfort Secondly This order commends and sweetens comfort to us for fire is sweet after cold and meate is sweet after hunger so comfort is sweet after suffering God fits us to comfort by this by purging out what is contrarie to comfort And he indeares comfort by this those that have felt the cross comfort is comfort indeed to them heaven is heaven indeed to him that hath had a hell in his conscience upon earth that hath been afflicted in conscience or outwardly persecuted it set a price and value upon comfort Partly likewise to sharpen our desire of comfort for suffering breeds sence and sence that stirs up desire and desire is eager now suffering it makes comforts pretious and sets us in a wondrous strong desire after them And by this meanes likewise God comes to his own end which is that our comforts may be eternall therefore we have that which is ill in the first place Woe to us if it should be said to us as to Dives in the Gospel Son son thou hadst thy good here and now thou must have thy ill God intends not to deale so with his Children but they tast the worst wine first and better afterward because he intends eternall happiness to them he observes this method first ill and then good the best at last If this be so then why should we be offended at Gods order why should we not take it not onely gently and meekly but joyfully the afflictions that God sends to prepare and fit

distinction is good faith looks to the Word of the thing and hope looks to the thing in the Word faith looks to the Word promising hope looks to the performance of the thing promised Faith is the evidence of things not seen because it sets the things that are absent as if they were present hope is for the accomplishment of that If there were no promise to hope what needed hope and where were a foundation for faith Now God being willing to exercise faith and hope feeds them both and satisfies both that we may be heavenly wise in trusting and believing and not foolish as men in the world Therefore God hath given us promises and sealed them with an oath as we shall see afterward Now all promises coming from love what love can there be in God to us since the fall but it must be grounded on a better foundation then our selves If God love us it must be in one that is first beloved hereupon comes the ground of the Promises to be Jesus Christ God-man For all intercourse between God and us it must be in him that is able to satisfie God God will so in the Covenant of Grace entertain covenant and league with us as that he will have his Justice have full content he will be satisfied and therefore he that will be the foundation of intercourse between God and us he must be God-man perfectly able to satisfie Divine Justice he must be a friend of Gods and a friend to us hereupon the Promises must come from Gods love in Jesus Christ and he must first receive all good for us and we must have it at the second hand from him Hereupon it is said here that All the Promises of God in him are Yea and Amen It is a rule The first in any kind is the cause of all the rest Now Christ is the first beloved thing therefore in Coloss. 1. 3. he is called the Sonne of Gods love Christ being the only begotten Son of God he looks on him first before he looks on any thing else and whatsoever is lovel y he looks on it as it is in him in whom his love is first because he being his onely begotten Son he is the first object of all the respect that God hath therefore whatsoever is beloved it is as it hath a consistence in Christ. Therefore Christ he must first be loved and then we in him Consider him as the Son of God Consider him as man he is the first beloved being a holy man above all other men for the nature of man hath a subsistence in the second person in Christ therefore Christ as man is beloved before all others having a subsistence in his Godhead which is first beloved he is the prime and most excellent creature as man God looks first upon Christ as his onely begotten Son and upon Christ as man secondarily Upon the Church in the third place as united to Christ and all other creatures in reference to the Church and therefore there was never any thing in the world nor shall be that ever was or shall be loved but in the first-beloved Christ Jesus Again Christ is first because Christ is the Mediatour between God and man by office Consider what relation he hath between God and man and we may easily see that God first respects him and us for him For Christ being God and man and Mediatour therefore between God and man he is loved of both he is a friend to both to bring both together he is first regarded as Mediatour and then we for whose cause he is Mediatour Then again Consider Christ not as he is between God and us but as he is to us so he is first beloved To God he is his first begotten to God and us a Mediatour To us a head to us a husband to us a brother a head from whence there is all influence of life and motion a husband from whence we have all riches he is all in all to us in the relations he stands in to us therefore he is first in all things as the Apostle saith In all things he must have the preheminence and it is fit it should be so Especially since the fall leave the consideration of Christ and this may be a reason consider us since the fall as we are in the masse of corruption are we fit objects for Gods love are we not fuel for consuming fire is not he a consuming fire and we stubble for his wrath is not our nature defiled and tainted and can it otherwise be amiable then considered as knit to him that is first amiable that is Christ it cannot be So look to Christ as the Son of Gods love whether as God or as man look to his Office as Mediatour look on him as in relation to us as our husband and head look on us without him you may see that Gods love is first founded in Christ and then in us I mean in regard of execution in the passages of our salvation For at first it was a free love that gave Christ to us and us to Christ So God loved the world that he gave his Son that was the first that set all the world in execution but in the execution from predestination to glorification before all worlds he loved us in Christ to everlasting from the everlasting in election to everlasting in glory all is in Christ in regard of execution We subsist in him we are sanctified in him we are justified in him his righteousnesse is ours we are glorified in him we are loved in him God blesseth us with all spiritual blessings in him Ephes. 1. 5 6. God hath made us accepted in his beloved In him who is his beloved Son in whom he is well pleased not onely with whom but in whom in him and all his in him as mystical Christ head and members God now looks upon our nature as it is united to the person of his onely begotten Son and thereupon our nature is lovely in the eyes of God and enriched and honoured and advanced in Christ. Even as a base woman by marriage with a great person is advanced so our nature being mean of it self taking our nature when it was defiled with sin though that particular masse was sanctified by the Holy Ghost it was much advanced and ennobled by having a subsistence in the second person so God looks on us in Jesus Christ and loves us in him and bestowes all spiritual blessings in Christ. Therefore whatsoever we have Christ must have it first for us whatsoever is done to us must be done first to Christ. Christ is first predestinate as it is 1 Pet. 1. he is the predestinate Lamb of God he was ordained before all worlds to be a sacrifice for us and to be the head of his Church he was ordained before we were ordained Christ is first beloved and then we are beloved in his beloved He is well pleased in him and

that he loves Christ with he loves us in his beloved He hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in him he hath made us sons in him that is the naturall Son and as his love is unchangeable to his Son so it is to us in Christ. If a Princes love to any man be founded and grounded upon the love he bears to his son if he loves his son he loves such a man because his son loves him surely he may have great comfort that it it will hold because his affection is naturall and unalterable he will alway love his son therefore he will love him whom his son loves alway Now Christ is the Son of God he loves us in his Son he hath given us rich promises in his Son He hath given him the first promise and all other promises of forgivenesse of sins and life everlasting in and through him As long as he loves Chrst he will love us and as sure as he loves Christ he will love us Nothing in the world can separate his love from his own Son and nothing in the world can separate Gods love from us because it is in his Son Christ loves his mysticall bodie as well as his natural bodie and God loves the mysticall bodie of Christ as he loves his naturall bodie he hath advanced that to glorie at his right hand and will he leave his mysticall bodie the Church will he not advance that Doth he not love whole Christ Yes God loves whole Christ. Our nature that he hath taken to him it is the chief thing the most lovely thing in heaven or earth next to God And he loves all that are in him his mysticall body For indeed he gave us to Christ he hath sealed and anointed him he is anointed by God the Father for us Upon what an unchangeable eternall ground is the love of God built and the faith of a Christian How can the gates of hell prevail against the Faith of a Christian when it carries him to the promises and from the promises to the love of God and from thence to Christ upon whom the love of God is founded Before the faith of a Christian can be shaken the promises must be of no effect they must be yea and nay and not yea and if the promises be shaken the Love of God must be uncertain and Christ uncertain heaven and earth must be overturned to overturne the faith of a Christian. There is nothing in the world that is so firme as a believing Christian that casts himself on the promises that are alway yea and to make them yea they are founded on Christ the Son of Gods love Well these promises comming from such love may be ranked into diverse ranks I will touch some of them to shew how we are to carrie our selves to make comfortable use of this that All the premises are yea and amen in Christ. There are some universall promises for the good of all mankind as that God would never destroy the world again Or promises that concern more particularly his Church And those are promises either of outward things or of spirituall and eternall things of Grace and glory Now for the manner of promising they admit of this distinction All the promises that God hath made to us either they are absolute without any condition so was Christ. God promised Christ let the world be as it will Christ did and would have come And so the promise of his glorious comming he will come let men be as they will there will be a resurrection Some promises be conditional in the manner of propounding but yet absolute in the real performance of them As for example the promises of Grace and Glory to Gods children the promise of forgivnesse of sins God will forgive their sins if they believe if they repent they are propounded conditionally but in the performance they are absolute because God performes the Covenant himself he performes our part and his own too For since Christ though he propounded the promises of the Gospel with conditions yet he performes the condition he stirs us up to attend upon the meanes and by his Spirit in the Word he works faith and repentance which is the condition faith and repentance is his gift He writes his law in our hearts and teacheth us how to love So though they be conditionally propounded for God deales with men as men by way of commerce he propounds it by way of Covenant and condition yet in the Covenant of Grace which is truly a gracious Covenant he not onely gives the good things but he performs the condition by the Spirit working our hearts to believe and to repent Again there are promises not only propounded conditionally of Grace and comfort but of outward things All outward things are promised conditionally as thus God hath promised protection from contagious sicknesses from war and troubles Generall promises there are of protection every where Psal 91. God will be a hiding place and he will deliver his Children there are privative promises and then positive promises that he will do this and that good for them but these are conditional so far forth as in his wise providence he sees it may serve spirituall good things Grace and the inward man for God takes liberty in our outward estate and in our bodies to afflict them or to do them good as may serve the main For do what we will these bodies will turn to dust and vanity and we must leave the world behind us but God looks to the main state in Christ to the new Creature Therefore as far as outward blessings may incourage us and as far as deliverances may help the maine so far he will grant them or else he denies them he takes libertie in outward things Therefore that sort of promises they are conditionall with exception of necessary affliction For we cannot have the blessings of this life positive or privative we cannot be delivered alwaies and have blessings but our corrupt nature is such that except we have some what to season them we shall surfet of them we cannot digest them and therefore they are all with the exception of the crosse As Christ saith he that doth any thing for him he shall have an hundred-fold here but with affliction and persecution he shall be sure of that whatsoever else he hath let him look for that All the crosses we have in the world are to season the good things of this life Many other distinctions and differences we might have to lay open the kinds of promises in Scripture but this shall suffice to give you a taste Now all these are made in Christ and performed in Christ so far forth as is for our good Are all the promises of what kind soever spirituall or outward temporall and eternall are they all made to us in Jesus Christ and are they certain Yea and Amen in him Then make this use of it let us renew