Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
nature_n person_n son_n unity_n 4,772 5 9.3919 5 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A41383 A discourse of Christianity laying open the abuses thereof in the anti-Christian lives and worship of many of its professors, especially the Romanists : and shewing the way to a holy life in the character of a true Christian / written originally in French by the famous Monsieur de Gombaud ; and now done into English by P Lorrain. Gombauld, Jean Ogier de, d. 1666.; Lorrain, P. (Paul), d. 1719. 1693 (1693) Wing G1023; ESTC R14522 47,226 176

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

were better able to believe and hope for it than comprehend it Seeing the vast distance there is between Heaven and Earth they could not think of any means to fill up their great Abyss and were not informed there were any Steps by which they might ascend to Heaven save only by Jacob's Ladder Yet Reason does for all that give its assent to things that happen beyond Reason it self and helps us apprehend that at last which at first it could not so much as in the least make us imagine Since therefore it teaches us that a Mean ought equally to partake of both Extremes and doth unite them howsoever disagreeing they may be that a Mediator ought to be capable of the Sentiments and Affections of both Parties he intends to reconcile and set a just Estimate upon the Right or Wrong of either of them Who doubts but that he that for this end is sent to us from Heaven is fully possess'd of all the Qualities requisite for him as such that he partakes of the Humane and Divine Nature in a Word that he is Man and God both together Moreover who doubts but that he is a Man conceiv'd otherwise than other Men lest his Natural Corruption and Sin should make him incapable of an intimate essential Union with the Divine Justice and Purity For if he were not Man we could have no share in him neither could his satisfaction be imputed to us If he were not God he could not communicate his Immortal Virtues Glory and Felicity to us If he were Man only he could not overcome Death nor raise himself from the Grave but sink under the Burthen and be soon reduc'd to nothing And if he were God only he could not have Died nor received from himself that Payment to which we are bound by the Law Therefore he must suffer and yet be altogether incapable of Dying he must die and yet withal be Immortal too He must descend into Hell and come up thence again He must be above all the Infernal Powers and shew that to him truly belong all the ways that lead to as well as the Issues from Death He that will deliver others from the Curse must undergo and overcome it and to the end there might be some proportion between the Offence and the Punishment there must be a Person of an infinite Worth and Excellency to make a temporal and finite torment of infinite Merit For certainly it is more with God that his Son dies for the Sins of the World then to see all Mankind perish together Now tho' there be no Law that allows the Innocent to suffer for the Guilty neither is there any that forbids it provided he offer himself willingly and be not absolutely destroy'd by the Punishment but have power as to lay down his Life so to take it up again XVII O the Wonders of the Eternal Power and Wisdom who in the Beginning was pleased to take out of Man a Woman that caused us all to Die that afterwards out of the Woman he might take a Man that will make us all alive again Thus Humane and Divine Nature in the fulness of time are by a stupendious Mystery united together and without any the least alteration in the properties of either the Son of God has joyn'd himself in Unity of Person with the Son of Man I say the Son and not the Father for we cannot have him for an Intercessor who is to be interceded with He that does send cannot be sent and because the Father does nothing by himself but all things by his Son it is reasonable that he should exert the Second Creation who was the Author of the First And who could speak better on our behalf than he who is the Word it self Who could reprint the Divine Image better in us than he that formed it there at first or intitle us better to the right of Children than he that possesses it in the highest degree But it is not enough that he should make satisfaction and that this satisfaction should be imputed to us but he must also confer that Grace upon and apply it to us and this is the Office of the Spirit which equally proceeds from the Son and the Father He it is that enlightens and purifies us that enables us to understand love and believe these Mysteries that impregnates us as he did the Blessed Virgin and makes us conceive our Saviour He is that Band of Love which unites us to the Divinity that real Unction wherewith we are all anointed and thereby made Kings Prophets and Priests In short it is he that gives himself for a Pledge and Security of the Promises of the Life to come of the Resurrection and Glory XVIII This great Mediator therefore is come such as he was foretold not like some great Conqueror a Cyrus or an Alexander but in the form of a Man full of sorrows and acquainted with griefs like one Consecrated by suffering to be a Propitiatory Victim for Mankind whose Merit is sufficient for all but appliable only to them that believe in him He is come not to shed another's Blood but his own and combate Rebellion with Obedience Strength with Weakness Pride with Humility This is that which makes him appear greater and more Divine This is that which overcomes and ravishes us into admiration and obliges us to fall down and worship him This is the sole Object of Religion which is not only the Art of saving Man but of making a God of him without any the least prejudice to the Divine Unity or the Holy Trinity For what name can be given to the Son of Man who makes but one and the same Person with the Son of God And of what Extract must we esteem them to be whom he has vouchsafed so far to honour as to call them his Brethren Now this RELIGION has been established not by any Bribings Companies or Combinations not by the Favour of Princes or the Votes of People not by the Subtilty of Philosophers or the Perswasion of Orators In a word not by a Multitude of Men as the Mahometan nor a great Number of Gods as the Pagan but only by the plain Proposal of a simple and naked Truth Which Truth has notwithstanding all manner of Opposition and Gain-saying made it self to be heard throughout the World and at its appearance has seen all Errors confounded all Sects dissipated and vanishing all False Oracles struck Dumb and all Idols and their Worshippers fall down before it CHAP. V. XIX AFter all that this RELIGION lays before us of the only Way for Man to be sav'd what can all the Religions in the World besides teach us And what can Mahomet pretend to perswade us if the Name of a Christian be so odious to him and he so little agree with Christ who does so perfectly agree with all the Prophets Is it not a wonderful thing that so many Men should be inspired in so different Places and at so different times