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	trinity_n	union_n	3,745	5	9.6541	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27499	The still-borne nativitie, or, A copy of an incarnation sermon that should have been delivered at St. Margarets-Westminster, on Saturday, December the five and twenty, 1647, in the afternoone, by N.B., but prevented by the committee for plunder'd ministers, who sent and seized the preacher, carried him from the vestry of the said church, and committed him to the fleet, for his undertaking to preach without the license of Parliament ...	Bernard, Nicholas, d. 1661.	1648 (1648)	Wing B2018; ESTC R18366	26,917	36

Incarnation of Christ Jesus And therein consider First the Vnion of the two Natures God and Man in this mystery Secondly the Conception of Jesus Christ by the Holy Ghost The Nativity or Birth of Christ of the most blessed Virgin Mary In speaking to the Vnion I have foure things to go through withall first to shew the severall unions in Christ Secondly the signification of this word person Thirdlly the manner of the Union and Lastly the Reasons of the Union And of the first thus much There are in the person of Christ three unions and ale-immediate first the union of the Deity to the soul Secondly the union of the Deity to the body And Thirdly the Union of body soul together the two first werenot of nature nor of merit but wholly supernaturall And so not subject to separation by force of any natur al action or passion But the third being natural did leave a place for suffering and separation So that when Christ suffered death the Deity forsook neither soule nor body only the body was forsaken by the soule The plurality of which substances and Vnions notwithstanding Christ must be considered but as one that is in person Which word that you may understand aright know that it is derived a personando which is distinct sounding And is nothing else in Logick but what a Noune Substantive proper of the singular Number is in Grammer that is one particular compleate subsistence which Logicians call an Individuum but with this differenc That Person is a particular reasonable creature whereas a particular thing if it be unreasonable as a tree or horse c is not called a person but by the Schooles a Suppositum And in this sence Christ is said to be one Not in nature for so is no man in a strict sence for the soule and the body of men are of two different natures as well as fountaines or beginnings But in person wherein though there may be aliud et aliud one and another thing yet there cannot be alius and alius one and another person And so much for the meaning of the word person Now for the manner of this union we must know that things are united or made on many wayes As 1 Faedere by a covenant as Christ the faithfull And this may make one body but not one person 2. By transmutation as Snow and Water but this makes one substance as well as suppositum but so is not Christ 3. By aggregation as many materialls united make an house but this is violent and not voluntary as was Christ 4. By composition as body and soule make one man being united but this is natural and so is not the union of the Deity to the Humanity in Christ Lastly therefore by Assumption and this is singular proper to Christ alone For the cleare avoiding of old and dangerous heresies and errours which have risen about this Article of our Faith we conceive it not unnecessary to deale warily with those terms and words which we borrow from the Latines in expressing our mind in this matter such as are Vnion Assumption c. As in this nice and narrow sence To Assume and to Vnite do equally belong to the same Agents But to be Vnited and to be Assumed cannot be praedicated equally by the same Subjects Concerning the former it will appeare plainely by and by For the latter the difference is thus To be united may not unproperly be attributed to God and Man in thus speaking God was united to Man and man was united to God and with this not a Caviller will find fault But to say as on the one side truely Man was assumed to and by God so on the other God was assumed to or by Man were erroneous in it selfe and dangerous in the consequents For Relation we must allow to be in God if we acknowledge a Trinity of persons but suffering we dare not impute least with it we make him also changeable Now to be Vnited here is only a terme of Relation but to be Assumed is alway a terme of Passion To assume and to be assumed are words expressing doing and suffering and in the present matter divide unto us God and man God the Agent whose part therefore is to Assume Man the Patient or sufferer whose it is therefore to be Assumed To Assume as it is a compounded word so it doth signifie a double action the first is taking the second is application taking to The first is caled principium the second is called terminus assumptionis The first belongeth to all the three persons in the Trinity As the father did take and give the humane nature to his Son as he saith Lo a body hast thou given me So the Son did take not the nature of Angels saith the same Apostle but the seed of Abraham so likewise the Holy Ghost did whose it was to sanctifie the nature assumed and by whom also we believe it was conceived take our nature in the first act It was taken not to the father nor to the Holy-Ghost but to the second person which is Iesus Christ In the thing assumed it is worth our consideration 1. Negatively to observe that when God took our nature he separated it from sinne and personality he took not our sin for that was contrary to his nature He took not any person of man at all for that was contrary to his Vnity for so there should have been Two Persons in the second person of the Trinity As therefore our nature that was assumed received fulnesse of grace from that most holy nature which assumed it So it owes its personal existence to the second person in the Trinity having none of its owne to which it was united 2. Positively learn what we meane by our nature for Nature in Scripture is sometimes put for the corruption of our nature as Ephes. 2. 3. but so Christ tooke not our nature unlesse it were by way of imputation For this is the Nature which by the Schooles is alwayes opposed to Grace Sometime in Scripture it is taken for some part of nature as for Reason only Rom 2 14 Or for sence only 2. Pet 2 12 Iude. 10. but so Christ took not our nature that is some part of our nature For that were to fal into the errour of the Appollinarians and Monothelites By Nature therefore we understand not one or some but all the partt of nature whether essentiall as soule and body or integrall as the soules faculties and the bodies Members united as also whatever flowes from the Principles of nature as Growth from Vegetation Eatting Drinking c from Sence Discourse and speech from reason not refusing the very infirmities of nature as in the Soule Sorrow Greife Anger Pity Vexation in the will the contradiction of the naturall and Physicall part though with subjection too to the moral and deliberative in the understanding Negative Ignorance And in the Body Hunger and Thirst Wearines and Weeping Sense of

Pain and mortality Ine breif by nature we meane whatsoever is generall to and in all men so that it be not Grace or sinne For nature is that which grace nor Sinne nor gives nor takes away but is only perfited and Sanctified not added by Grace corrupted and vitiated by sinne not extinguished Againe that is naturall in a man which may be wel or il used Grace only cannot be abused Sinne only cannot be wel employed Nature only may be the weapon of unrighteousnesse to sinne Or the instrument of righteousnes to obedience By which descriptions of nature it will be no hard mater for an ordinary understanding to find out what in man was united and assumed to the Deity of Christ in the work and mystery of the Incarnation And now when a man considers the severall immediate unions in Christ and finds the supernaturall Vnions of the Deitie inseparable even where soule and body parts He begins to be sensible of a naturall combate between Flesh and Spirit I meane soule and body Yet ending in an acknowledgement of the faithfullnes of God in Christ transcending all other freindship For look we after Damon and Pythias Nisus and Eurialus Theseus and Perithous Scipio and Laelius Ionathan and David Ruth and Naomi the only pair of Woman-freinds I never read or heard of And we shall find these come short of the love betweene every man's soule and body and yet these two are in men ready to fall out one with another to see their owne falsenesse discovered by the apposed faithfullnesse of God So that the Soul chargeth faithles dealing to the body first recounting it's care study pains griefe joy suffering for the body all which were the body away the soule might be freed from as having no back to be cloathed no belly to be filled no posterity to be provided for no cheekes to blush no nor any subjection to corporall strokes nor temptation to sinne and yet how doth this accursed earth forsake me saith the soul then when if I am evill and evill I am by conjunction with that too I must anticipate those wofull torments due for sinne while that lyes steeping in the grave Or if good which I am by conjunction with Christ then when I have most use and should have most joy of the body that unnaturaly sinkes from me Leaving me indeed to enjoy but alone the glorified Mansion of the Saints wherein is the glorious body of my Lord and my God a most blessed and beatificall object But wanting a bodily eye to apprehend that fullnes which dwels in him bodily I suffer a comparative imperfection which makes me cry out How long Lord just and true Where I ow and without al wearines would and could tender all worship c. But all bodily service I come short of having as before no eye bodily to see so here no knee to bend no hand to lift up no tongue to speak To the honour of him that sits upon the throne and the Lamb for ever On the other side the body though slower yet fals in heavier in the charg and like the Moon in the Hebrew Apologue against the Sun that would be divorc'd recriminates thus The Soul is false to me and unkind For its care study paines c. are for its owne Pride and arrogancy For when the soule is taken away a winding sheete is as good to me as Salomans Wardrobe a grave as pallace yea an Vrne as the Vniverse were it not for the soules Vanity nothing more thrifty then the belly nor more hardy then back the posterity nothing glory or sham too late stroks unfelt temptations unaccepted sinne unperfited I have been a true drudge to the soul an ungrudging slave I see now an il rewarded servant My two feet have been teady to run my two hands to work My 2 eyes to spy My two ears to hearken my tongue though but one yet as busie as any two twoes beside to speak yea al my senses and organical members have been but the Pedees Posts to bring home the farr fecht and deare bought Dainties of experience and knowledg to the Lady {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} this soule And yet see her faithfulnesse If I have done evill it was caeca obedientia and were she a Papist she by her own doctrin ought to suffer alone she goes but before for a few more stripes which her knowledge demerits I my ignorance notwithstanding shall be forced after to the encrease of her torment as well as mine if I have done well she anticipates my reward and Crowne and glory leaving me unwilling to part with her a loathing to my freinds a companion to the Wormes and brother to corruption not affording nec beneficium salis so much kindnes as salt or a searecloth will do me to keepe me from stinking and putrefaction And here is the regreet of the two dearest freinds nature ever knew Now observe how much kinder and constanter Christ is to both then either to other For beside that he is and does what ever each of these is or doth to one another and that not only per modum efficientiae as an Efficient working that good that is in them but also per modnm eminentiae by way of Excellency doing greater things for them both then they are able to apprehend at present Like a soule caring studying labouring greiving joying suffering for both Like the Body going working seeing hearing speaking for both Like a soule to the Body informing and conserning both Like a body to the Soule serving both And al this in an ineffable and glorious way for the advancing of both He doth further when the soule is taken out of the body as it were out of a sheath take it into his hands doe's of the rust forbisheth it and brightning it with his owne glory Clothes it with Majesty Nay more But I had need learue St. Pauls {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} unut terable words to expresse the happines of it there For the things which eye hath not seen to supply the want of sight nor eares heard to make up the losse of bodily teares c. are there ready to entertaine it On th' other side the Body whose estate seems to be most deplored when freinds avoid the sight of it the soule in whose service it is either worn out or wounded to death forsaking it hath notwithstanding the everlasting armes underneath it treasuring it up for one of his jewels in whose sight the death of the Saints is precious For no doubt God who telleth the wandrings bottle up the teares numbreth the haires and writes in a book all the part of his servants living Can doth though the grave cause all the joints to drop asunder the bowels to engender wormes and a stinch turnes the pleasant eye balls the sometime seat of delight into a rotten Gelly dry the braine consume the mucles rack the whole to peices and then grind it againe to

And so O Lord thy charge Be a father to it And like Iacob cause't to returne to its Fathers House in peace Indeed in quality it is base of the linage of the man of sin and here the Crown is fallen from our heads Wo unto us that we have sinned The disherited may be restored the fatherlesse adopted the Stranger naturalized but the bastard hath his BEND SINISTER or BORDER GOBANY an Indeleble character or brand of Infamy which though amongst men it be an evill that knowes no remedy yet with thee O Lord with whom all things are possible easie to be cured Thou hast a fountaine of bloud to regenerate to a new man the infamous soule of siufull mankind Do thou therefore who once tookest away the reproach of Pharez the base Sonne of Iudah by making him a Lineall Progenitour to thine annointed By waking thy sonne to be progenitor genitrixq to my soule in the wombe of Baptisme to repentance take away the sinne of my birth conception that the Spirit of adoption may enable me with confidence to say Abba Father And yet O my God if in al these relations pardon me my Father if in these too far allusions my pen may seem irreverent my heart desires to honour thee I measure thee by the line of a man I may suspect the Vnity and feare a division For if I am a sheepe smite but the Shepheard and the Sheep will be scattered For this is the prophesie If I be a servant the yeare of Iubile may grant me an injurious liberty For this is the Law of servants If a Son on my marriage day I may forsake thee For that is the rule of Espousals O then so it must be thou must betroth me to thy selfe in faithfulnesse for so shal I in the day enjoy thee in the night embrace thee thy left hand shall bee under mee and thy right arme shall encompasse me The yeare of Iubile for joy shall never go out for liberty never come in How then O Lord shall I allure thee how shall I woo thee for my sinfull soule is like Thamar either a sad neglected Widdow or which is worse a prostituted Strumpet Once this is certain the Maiden innocency thereof is lost by the first transgression which to restore is in the World of Women the mock of Art Yet in thy Church the miracle of Grace for it is as easie with thee to purifie a spirituall Harlot to virginitie as to preserve a fleshly mother in virginitie Thus having breifely described and largly applyed the Nature of this Union and the Natures united I passe to speake of the Reason of the Incarnation with the bare mention whereof I shal conclude The Reasons of the Incarnation may be reduced to these heads such as concerne God Others that concerne us Lastly some that concerne the enemies of God and Man Sin and Sathan Of the reasons that concerne God these two are anciently given by the Fathers First That God whose counsel and purpose hath ever been the illustration and manifestation of his own glory might more eminently evidently and transcendently set forth before Men and Angels The super-excellency of his Goodnesse Wisdome Iustice Power Which no where so clearely shine as in the great worke of the incarnation As may appeare by a Particular consideration of the even now named artributes As first his goodnes is no where so manifest as in him in whome dwels the fullnes of the god-head Bodily The Best of Creatures before had but the footesteps And at the best but an image of God in them But here God himselfe not appears but dwells not his back parts onely but his fullnes in man Nor is that goodnesse here locked but treasured that of his fullnes we might all receive and grace for grace c. Or if we take it not only for holinesse but for loving-kindnesse also Where can we find a paralell to the goodnesse of the Incarnation Wherein that God who even humbles himselfe when he daines to behold things done not in Earth only but in Heaven also is pleased to communicate himselfe his love yea and his very nature too not to a creature only but an earthly creature nor so only but to a sinfull nature to an enemy the Son of his love to the Children of wrath so that as the Angel speaking of Christ his goodnes in the first sence calls him {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That Holy so may we in the latter cal him {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} That Kind That loving That mercifull thing who hath so highly honoured and not despised the weaknesse of his owne workmanship Secondly his Wisdome is no where more apparent then in Him in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdome and knowledge And indeed the very Incarnation it selfe did reveale the wisdome of God in the contrivance of mans salvation so gloriously that if not only confounded the Divells and befooled the subtill Serpent as wee shall see anon but even posed the good Angells themselves Of whom St. Peter testifies that they did {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} stoope to peere into the mysterie For as the learned give the reason They could not conceive how man could ever be redeemed For the lawes rigour was so inexorable that Man could not be quit but by sufferings of infinite value and worth Now they knew that indeed Man could suffer But the sufferings of men and Angells could not merit or countervaile the Lawes rigour within any limits of time Againe they knew that if God interposed he could add value But he could not his very essence forbidding it suffer So that here God charged his Angells with folly who knowing Gods promise of redemption to Israel in the old Testament yet were nonplus't and to seek in the means Till God in the fullnesse of time made knowne the mystery by the Incarnation of Jesus Christ uniting God and Man together in one person for the accomplishing of his promise and covenant Thirdly his Iustice and that both in respect of the Law whose every iota and title stood firmer then Heaven for the Heavens gave way to the descending of Christ or earth which yeilded and trembled at his resurrection But the Law stood strong not suffering him to passe till all the percepts were obeyed the prophesies fullfilled and trespasses satisfied for Not condoning much lesse conniving at sin though but imputed and that to the Son of God And then wherein I pray doth the senerity of Gods Justice appeare more or equally Zaleucus his one eye And that Heathens selfe destroying besides their cruelty come infinitly short of this most strict yet aequable Justice And secondly in respect of the Subject yeilding and exacting satisfaction in the same nature that had sinned and then rendring the purchased inheritance to the nature that had merited by obeying And lastly in respect of Death it selfe who raigning over all by sinne lost not its dominion till Christ spoyled him

Being Christmas day Text. Iohn 1. 14. And the Word was made Flesh and dwelt amongst us THe Prophet Ezechiell before Christ and St. Iohn the Divine after Christ had both one and the same Vision Ezech 1. 10. Rev. 4. 8. of foure beasts or living Creatures That had the faces of a man of a Lion of an Oxe and of an Eagle Which faces Saint Gregory the great applies to Christ As that of a man for his Birth and Bowells of Compassion That of an Oxe for the Sacrifice of his Death and Plough of Doctrine That of a Lion for his open eyed sleepe that is his life in death and strength in Resurrection Rouzing himselfe from the grave as a Lion from his denne Lastly that of an Eagle for his ascention into Heaven leading Captivity captive Others apply this vision to the foure Evangelists affixing first the Face of a Man to St. Mathew because he begins his Gospel with the Generation and Nativity of Christ Secondly the Face of a Lion to St. Marke for he begins his Gospel with that prophesie of Iohn Baptist The voice of one crying or roaring in the Wildernesse Thirdly the face of an Oxe to Saint Luke Because he begins his Gospel with Zacharias Preisthood and Sacrifice Lastly the face to our present Evangelist Saint Iohn of an Eagle For he in the beginning of his Gospel acts perfectly both the parts of an Eagle which we read of Iob 39 27 and 30. First like an Eagle mounting up on high to speake of the Divinity of Christ to such an hight that the sublimest of the Heathen Philosephers stand at a Gaze admiring the mounty And this he doth from the first to the sixt verse Secondly like an Eagle immediatly stooping to the Carcase Mat. 24 28 For where the body is thither will the Eagles be gathered together Luke 17 37. And this is done in the words of this verse And the word was made flesh c. Which words taken altogether most excellently in a very few syllables expresses all the notable and most worthy-to-be-considered parts of Christ's whole History So that we want understanding the text wants nothing to be accounted a compleat Gospel Aquinas distinguisheth Christs life on earth into these foure divisions first his ingresse or coming into the World And this wee have in the former part of my text and the word was made flesh Secondly into his progresse or going on in the World Thirdly into his congresse or dealing with the World Fourthly into his Egresse or going out of the World And these three last parts may be understood in the latter part of my text and dwelt amongst us if the originall word which is no more but he Tented or Tabernacled among us be duly knowne But to go on His Ingresse or coming into the world is by some record to be threefold First in Carne in the Flesh Secondly in Spirity in the Spirit Thirdly in judicio in the last judgment The first is a coming Ad homines Iohn 1 11. Vnto men The Second is a coming In homines Rev. 3 20 Into men The Third is a comming Contrae-homines Iude 14 against men His Progresse in the World likewise appeares to be threefold First Locomotive in respect of place of abode And then the Gest's of his Progresse are 1 Bethlem 2 Egypt 3 Nazereth 4 Ierusalem Secondly Naturall by way of augmentation growing 1 For mind in wisdome 2 For body in Statute 3 For successe in favour both with God and man Luke 2 52. Thirdly official by way of undertaking 1 In circumcicion the fullfilling of the Law 2 In Baptisme the Preaching of the Gospell His congresse or dealing with the World is fourefould First with Men in his Conversation Secondly with Satan in his Temptation Thirdly with mens Sinnes in his Preaching Fourthly with mens Sicknesses and infirmities in his miracles His Egresse ongoing out of the World containes besides those memorable passages about his Passion Resurrection and Ascention al those Testamentary provisions by him made against his departure for succeeding generations Whether Commissions for his Ministers Legacies for his freinds or Seales which wee call Sacraments for Prooving and confirming of his will These are the heades of the History of the Gospel And now Beloved were it suteable to the consideration of the season or of my stay here I could without any great Travell fixing one foot of the Compass in the center of this text with the other fetch in all these points though never so vast a latitude within a just circumference of without any excentricity But I had rather make another and more profitable use of them whereunto the review and consideration doth directly lead me And That is to admire the Infinite goodnesse of God in all this to wretched mankind Who being in this Earth a stranger and a stragler without either freind or acquaintance in the midst of enemies dangers and mischeifes many snares no sure footing Sic erat instabilis tellus innabilis unda Sin procuring Satan bringing great woe wrath to the inhabitants of earth and of the Sea Such is the mercy of God toward so great his blessing upon Man at whose hands yet mankind had merited no such kindnesse but rather curses that whether he be to be borne or to grow or to go in or to deale or to encounter with or to dye out of the world He hath given his own son to be Duxque comesque viae et vitae a guid and companion to him of life and way And what ever other men doe thinke of it when I consider That to be Borne to Grow to Live and to Dye be things common to mee and my redeemer I cannot chuse but cry out O Lord my God since in these states thou hast so far as only nature goes fashioned us alike let these lineaments and parts in me which sinne hath drawne and overcast with the black coale of guilt be fil'd up with the colours of my Saviour That through the beauties of his holinesse as he glorified thee on earth so in my life and death I may shew forth his praises and vertues who hath called me out of darknes into his marvelous light And so without hopes of further commerce with them as to discourse in this place I dismisse the latter part of my text with it the 3. last generall branches of the Gospel History of the life of Christ betaking my selfe to the former part both of the Division and of the text which speakes of Christs Ingresse into the World And the word was made Flesh And therein of his comming in the Flesh only How Christ is called the word If we should shew it would engage us upon a discourse of that other Mistery of the Trinity unto a length prejudiciall to our present businesse or if we should shew how Flesh is put for our whole nature why It would run us at this time out of breath I proceede therefore to the substance of the words The