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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	father_n	son_n	trinity_n	3,742	5	9.9958	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93880	The teachings of Christ in the soule. Opened in a sermon before the Right Honble House of Peers, in Covent-garden-Church, upon the solemne day of their monthly fast, March 29. 1648. / By Peter Sterry, M.A. sometimes fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge: and now preacher of the Gospel in London. Published by order of that House.	Sterry, Peter, 1613-1672.	1648 (1648)	Wing S5486; Thomason E433_30; ESTC R204205	36,001	61

of colours It must have pleni-potency an all-sufficiency a Divinity of certainty and clearnesse in and of it self No other thing can ever make the soul fully sure without trembling or wavering A man must be of necessity double-minded and like a wave of the Sea as Saint James speaks Iames 1. till he come to the Corner stone the Bottom reason of truth because the whole Building of truth stands on this That only is a Demonstrating Principle an assuring a quieting truth which is so first of all that there lies no appeale from it to any it self being the Fountain which gives testimony to all truths but receives or needs a testimony from none 2. Immediate truths These are such as have an immediate Vnion with the Soul that there may be no dispute about their Evidence or diminution or danger of corruption by any second hand Saint Paul calls it a Demonstration of power when the first Light the first Truths communicate themselves nakedly to the naked soule of man both being uncloth'd of any intervening representations or reports Thus the Soul receives the Light of truth in the dignity of its strength in the excellenty of its might as Iacob speaks of his First-born The power of Truth is the first and highest Appearance which is proper perfect substantiall All inferiour appearances are Truth in its weakness and shadowy God made man and woman One that they might have a Holy Seed a Sead of God in the Hebrew Malac. 2. 15. The first Truth as the Man the Soule as the Woman must be espoused and married joyn'd without a Deputy or a Third they must be immediately entirely One that they may have a Seed of God a race of Truths cleer and Sure having the full brightnesse of a Demonstration shining in their faces If any thing come between your understanding or belief and the first Truths you doe not trust to their Testimony but to the report of some other thing concerning them The men of Samaria said to the Woman Now we believe not because of thy saying For we have heard Him our selves and know that this is indeed the Christ the Saviour of the world Iohn 4. 42. If thy Soul will have any one truth in the demonstration of power it must be able to say to the Principle of Truth the highest Truth Now I believe not because of any other testimony proof or evidence For I have heard and seen and handled thee in my self and so I know that thou art indeed in substance and power the anointing Truth the only Light and Anointing of all truths 2. Quest What is the Spirit Answ The Spirit is a name of essence or subsistence in God of the divine Nature or one of the three divine Persons I wil speak of it now as it signifies the essence or nature of God God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in Spirit and Truth Iohn 4. 24. The Spirit is God unveil'd and shining out in his true Appearance above all the shadows types and Images of him in the Creatures The Flesh profits not but the Spirit quickneth Ioh. 6. 63. Thus our Saviour opposeth the Created and Uncreated part of things in his owne Person under the names of Flests and Spirit Divines say that every Creature even the highest A●●el hath something of materiality darknesse grosnesse composition carnality and so it is Flesh compared with God who only is a Spirit as the Spirit is a name of unity simplicity purity The Spirit then is God in the simplicity of his own Person abstracted from all mixture or composition with the Creature 3. Quest What is the Demonstration of the Spirit God in his Spirituall appearance to the Soul is the first Truth For He is above All. He is the Immediate Truth For he alone is most intimate with all things Nothing can unite it selfe to the Soul so inwardly so immediately as God For all things are by Him This is the onely Demonstration of every of any Truth the Spirituall appearance of God in the Soul holding forth that Truth in his own Light When Saint Paul had spoken of the Demonstration of the Spirit he adds that your faith might be not in the Wisdome of men but in the power of God 1 Cor. 2. 5. The Demonstration of the Spirit is above nature reason and all Principles of Wisdome or Truth in any Creature It is the power of God as God bringing forth the discovery of himself and all Truths as particular discoveries in that Vniversall One like branches in the stock of a tree or beames in the body of the Sun In thy light shall we see light Psal 36. 9. In the manifestation of God within us shall we see the manifestation of each Truth You are Light in the Lord Ephes 5. 8. Every Person every appearance is Light hath a power of evidencing and manifesting it self so far only as it is in the Light of God 4. Quest How is the Demonstration of the Spirit appropriated to Jesus Christ Answ Saint Paul shall answer this question Acts 3. 3. Having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost he hath shed forth this which we now see The Spirituall manifestation of God is the onely distinguishing character the demonstration of every spirituall truth This appearance is the Promise the great and last promise of the Father the great and last expectation of all the Saints The Lord Jesus received this manifestation of God in the Person of the Holy Ghost immediately We all receive it or wait for it in the Person of Jesus Christ by His Mediation This Spirit or this Spirituall shining out of the divine Majesty is the onely Seale of truth Ephes 1. 13. Ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise in the former part of the Verse were these words after that ye received the word of truth They were sealed that is the truth of the Gospel was sealed in and to and on them by the Seale of the Spirit which is the Ingraving of the first Truth upon each truth or heart The Lord Jesus is the Angel that hath this Seale of the living God in his hand Revel 7. 2. For He himself is first sealed with it and all other Members of this Truth or Disciples of this Master are sealed by and in Him Him hath the Father sealed Joh. 6. 27. The Father is the Sealer primitively by power and authority The Son as he is the second Person in the Trinity is the Image which the Father sets on when he seals Heb. 1. 3. the expresse Image of his Person the Sealing Image The Holy Spirit is the Impression of this Image in and by the Father In this sense the Holy Ghost is said to be received as the Wax receives Impression of the Image in sealing So he is called the Sealing wherewith we are sealed in that fore-quoted place of the Ephesians The Person of the Lord Jesus as he is Mediatour God-man is the Sealer by place and

our selves our Saviour Shall not the wrath of the one and the sufferings of the other make us sore amazed and exceedingly heavy unto death even the death of all our fleshly delights It is witnessed of Christ 1 Pet. 3. 18. He was put to death according to the flesh and quickned in the spirit S. Paul teacheth us 1 Cor. 5. 5. that after the same example every Humiliation should be for the destruction of the flesh and the saving of the Spirit Who calls himselfe a Christian and yet can forbeare in these times to sigh forth such language as this Lord Jesus thou art our Master we will learne of thee to die with thee Make thou these Calamities which our eyes see our eares heare our hearts feele and feare on every side of us to be our Crosses set up by thy Crosse on thy right hand like that of the good Thiefe We have had power pompe pleasures after the flesh But now let all these languish on these Crosses till they bow downe the head and we give up the Ghost of all earthly strength and hope Thus we will dye and our death shall be sweet unto us as the Spring of a better and more blessed life My soule breathe thou forth thy griefes and feares into the bosome of thy JESUS after this manner My dearest Lord All these miseries round about me shall be thy Crosse to me Here will I lay me downe on this Crosse in thine armes who hast been crucified upon it before me This shall be my rest in the day of trouble For here will I lay me downe and dye for ever to the world that I may rise againe in thy bosome to a new hope to sweeter and surer Joyes But for what shall we mourne We reade in the Gospel of a people that said of Christ We will not have this man to rule over us For this the Lord Jesus determines to go up and slay them Have not we refused the Lord Jesus for a Master to rule and guide us Is it not for this that he hath made these slaughters upon us Let us try our selves concerning these foure Masters Out Humour Our Lusts Our Passions The Examples of men 1. Our Humour God complaines Esay 52. 3. My people have sold themselves for nought How often have we sold our selves our soules our Saviour for nought for a Humour Let us thinke and weepe that many a time the Lord Jesus hath dropt upon our soules the precious discourses of life peace and immortality like the dew from the wombe of the morning that is from the eternall Fountaines of light and truth Yet we have cast it off without consideration meerly because our Humour lay that way to be carelesse of these things O stiffe-neckt spirits Jesus Christ hath come to us eating and drinking that is filling himselfe with immortall strength and truths with divine sweetnesse and joyes that he might flow forth on us and feed us with the same bread and wine of Heaven O hard-hearted Spirits He who is the Beloved of God the Beauty of the Godhead comes to us neither eating nor drinking but weeping and dying testifying the greatnesse of his love by the greatnesse of his sufferings teaching us to hide our selves from griefes and death in his wounds and through them to passe into Paradise Yet we suffer all this to run waste making no entrance into our eares or hearts and that for a weak empty Humour for an inclination without reason because we are listlesse to such things and have no pleasure in them But now let us fall downe before Jesus Christ and say Lord thou art the Wisdome of the Father None Teacheth like thee Thy love and wisdome have overcome me Many Masters many Hamours have reign'd over me besides thee But I bring my stiffe neck to thee with a halter upon it till thou please to take it off and put on thy yoke which is light and easie I bring my hard heart to thee and lay it broken at thy feet till thou gatherest it into thy breast and make it whole there 2. Our lusts These are our second Masters Psal 12. 13. God saith of Israel I gave them up to their owne hearts lusts And then afterwards O that my people would have heard my voice Lusts lead us away from Jesus Christ and suffer us not to heare his voice Let us try our selves concerning this thing What in all the course of our life hath put us on the frequentest or chiefest actions of our life Have the Spirituall appearances of Jesus Christ within us conspiring with his Word before us been the Oracle with which we have consulted Or have our lusts prompted us and thrust us on Have our eyes been upon the Eye of Christ to guide us or on some Wedge of gold or the Babylonish garment of some power office or honour What is it in the great action of this Reformation that hath put us to travaile so far about by the way of the Wildernesse of a Warre to meet with so many fiery Serpents What is it which now hath cast us into this feare that we shall waste a weary life and drop our Carkasses in this Wildernesse before we see the Land of Rest Have we not loath'd Manna and lusted after Quails We have found no Savour or Relish in the discoveries of Beauty Sweetnesse Rest in the Spirit and Person of our blessed Saviour But have been longing for the Bravery Ease and pleasures of the Flesh Doe we thus requite Jesus Christ He hath spared no losse trouble or paine to make his way to us to make known Himself his Father and the Glory of Heaven to us Yet now every motion of Ambition Vanity Covetousnesse or foule Desire hath more power to perswade with us than the Life and Death of Jesus Christ than all his Words Teares and Blood Let our Saviour speak by his Providence as loud as Thunder let him speak by his Promises with the tongue of an Angell to our eares and affections let him speak by the power of his Spirit with the voice of God to our Spirits we cannot heare him But let a Lust whisper onely from out of the ground of our sensuall part we heare it with ease and speed Shall we not be ashamed and grieved for these things 3. Our passions You have an admonition from the Apostle Ephes 4. 27. Let not the Sun goe downe upon your wrath To that he addes ver 28. Neither give place to the Devill Passions are Devils come up into our spirits with the fire of hell burning hot upon them and flaming from them These are uncleane Spirits which for the most part haunt the high places of Power and the desolate places of Warre When Passions are loud God himselfe cannot be heard by the best men as we see in the example of Jonah What griefe is it to thinke that we should refuse the Prince of Peace for a Counsellour when we take our passions in his stead that Jesus Christ

office or deputation of the Father He is the Seale as he is God He hath the Sealing power for he hath the Spirit He is the Sealed one as he is Man in union with God Every person or appearance is sealed onely as it is in union with him In whom ye were sealed c. Ephes 1. The Glorified Humanity of our Saviour is as fine Gold his Divinity the Image the Holy Spirit the Impression the ingraving the union of this Image on the Gold and on every other piece or matter from that Gold by fixing it strongly and immediately on each Piece Thus are Truths coyned that they may be currant thus are they sealed that they may be sure thus doth Jesus Christ demonstrate his doctrines in the soule by shewing himself in them and the Father the first glory of the Godhead in himself 2 Cor. 4. 6. God hath shined into our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ Thus much for this Vse the way of discerning the teachings of Christ and distinguishing them from all other teachings in the Soule Use 5 Consolation I will conclude all briefly with four Consolations for the Disciples of Christ 1. Consolat Your Master teacheth the sweetest and surest things by afflictions Job 33. 16. Elthu speaks of God's opening or uncovering unveiling the ears of men and sealing their instruction He tels you that God doth this by dreams or visions when men slumber on their beds v. 15. He reckons up another may be chastenings and strong pain v. 19. Jesus Christ makes one darknesse to cure another the darknesse of affliction the darknesse of a fleshly mind Our heavenly Master teares that vaile which lies on our ears and hearts by the sharpnesse of our sufferings then he lets in upon us the sweet discoveries of God and his kingdome He seals these in the night of our trouble by the Sun-shine of the Godhead breaking from his own face and makes them sure by setting upon them the Image of the eternall day in his owne Person He makes the defacing of all worldly Images the darkning and putting out of all earthly Light his blessed advantage for the bringing into our Spirits this Image and Light 2. Consolat Your Master teacheth you a Conformity to himself by your Crosses nay not onely so but a Fellowship also with Him Rom. 6. 5. If we have been planted together that is with Jesus Christ into the likeness of his Death What comfortable cordialls are those teachings which instruct us so in a right and sweet understanding of all our sufferings that we enjoy them as a representation of our Saviour and a partnership with our Saviour in our selves 3. Consolat Your Master teacheth you to see your Conquest over the World by the Crosse Heb. 12. 27. This once more signifieth the removing those things which are shaken as of things that are made that those things which cannot be shaken may remaine Jesus Christ readeth such a Lecture as this upon the shaking or ruining of any of our earthly comforts Be of good cheer this fleshly appearance tempts you to folly betraies you to fears and miseries It lets the Heavenly appearance of things from discovering it self to you and it will let till it be taken out of the way But if this fleshly Image go away by being crucified then will the Comforter come the Spirituall manifestations of God which shall continue with you for ever 4. Consolat Your Master teacheth you to read a Heavenly glory in Earthly troubles Joh. 13. 32. If God be glorified in the Son of man that is by forming upon thee those Images in flesh of the utmost and last varieties of highest Glory which are Afflictions then shall he glorifie thee in himselfe and straight way he will glorifie thee that is then is God now finishing thy Pilgrimage thorow this Inferiour fleshly Image and even presently taking thee out of it into the Glory it self There thou shalt see that dark Image Affliction in that Light of its primitive Glory and in the meane time thou seest it as an Image of that Glory FINIS