Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	body_n	glorious_a	vile_a	1,567	5	10.2595	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37649	A vindication, or, Further confirmation of some other Scriptures, produced to prove the divinity of Jesus Christ, distorted and miserably wrested and abused by Mr. John Knowles together with a probation or demonstration of the destructiveness and damnableness of the contrary doctrine maintained by the aforesaid Mr. Knowles : also the doctrine of Christs satisfaction and of reconciliation on Gods part to the creature, cleared up form Scripture, which of late hath been much impugned : and a discourse concerning the springing and spreading of error, and of the means of cure, and of the preservatives and against it / by Samuel Eaton, teacher of the church of Jesus Christ, commonly stiled the church at Duckenfield.	Eaton, Samuel, 1596?-1665.	1651 (1651)	Wing E126; ESTC R30965	214,536	435

extract them and present them as if there they might be found or something like them which will bear them nor doth he bring any other text to make it appear that such words are agreeable to the Analogie of faith But by this addition he makes Christ a meere creature a creature before he tooke flesh before the World was while he was with God And he makes the glory which he had to be a derived glory and given to Christ of meere grace and good pleasure Now this is most notoriously false as I have largely and amply proved in my former Treatise But this is the doctrine that fils his head and fils his heart and there is so much of this within him that he thinks every Scripture that he lookes upon contains it and therefore it is that he brings this Scripture speaking that which it speakes not But setting aside these additions for which he must give an account Be it that Christs prayer had this meaning I shall shew you what an inconsistency there is in these words to his opinion in two or three particulars 1. Supposing Christ before he tooke the Seed of Ahraham upon him to be a created soul made by and abiding with God be fore the rest of the creatures were made for this is his opinion how can Christ speake to God these words Who have emptied my selfe taking to me a naturall and mortall body If Christ were but a created soul could it be an act of his will and of his power to take to him a body did ever God leave any creature at liberty to do what he will to chuse or refuse at his pleasure that he should leave Christ this created soul as he makes him at liberty to take a body or not to take it and if not but that God commanded him to take it why doth he plead it with God for reward as if it had been done of courtesie Have any of the Angels when they have waited upon men a worke below them had liberty to plead with God after this manner And how could it be an act of his power to take to him a body he being but a created soul can a created soul build a body of nothing if by creation it be or build it out of a woman without the help of man if by generation it be as indeed it was and if not how comes Christ to plead it as some meritorious act I have emptied my selfe in taking to me a naturall mortall body If God prepared him a body why doth he say I emptied my selfe and tooke it So that here is absurdity enough in this if there were no more in reference to his opinion in these very words 2. If Christ were a created soul where was the Emptying to take a naturall and mortall body is there not an habitude and naturall propensenesse in the soul to be in the body is it not the soules perfection is not the soul imperfect without it is it any more then a part of the whole and with the body makes a perfect man and is this the condescention to be presented as an high piece of selfe denyall to be in a perfect state And doth the soul take the body any more then the body take the soul or doth not God take both and unite them here is neither Divinity nor Philosophy in this But it may be this emptying was in this that Christ a glorious soul tooke a naturall mortall body not a body glorified but vile by reason of a naturall corruptibility But 1. God prepared this body for him where was then this excellent piece of selfe denyall to take and accept of what God prepares though it were an abasing to him Saints tread in such steps of selfe denyall every day and it is but their duty 2. Men are and ought to be thankful to God for such naturall and mortall bodies and for every member thereof and Christ if but a created soul might well submit yea be thankfull that his soul was not as his body for it was of free-grace as he saith and I joyn with him in it if he were a created soul that he was so glorious a soul 3. Lazarus was called so far as concerned a naturall mortall body and further also to the like piece of self-denyall for his soul was in heaven and with God and made perfect with God and glorified with him and it must leave God and leave heaven and leave glory and come into a naturall mortall body again that must dye a second time yea into a sinfull tabernacle again and this must be done at the Command of Christ according to the will of God What self-denyall was this then if Christ's was so great when yet Christ was but only a glorified soul And Lazarus which was such yet might not Lazarus plead it This is another absurdity which follows from his own words upon his opinion Christ being but a created soul at the first with God 2. He makes Christ to ask of God the glory only which he had in heaven before the world was and indeed Christ asked no other but it Now this is not consistent with Christs being a created soul and a creature for it is manifest from the Scripture yea it is confest by himselfe in many places of his printed paper That Christ as a creature had greater glory by donation after his sufferings after his deep humiliation then ever he had as a creature before for that Heirship of all things and dominion and principality and height above all principality and that name above every name was the reward which God bestowed upon him in reference to the crosse which he bore and it was his highest glory as a creature therefore it is expressed in these words is made both Lord and Christ not restored to what he had but made and what a rewarding is that only to restore him to what he had at first Therefore seeing that Christ prayes here in John for the glory that he had with God before the world was and asked no more and seeing it is as evident that as a creature his greatest glory was not before his sufferings but after and was the reward of his sufferings it will necessarily follow that he prayes for divine glory to be restored and that as a creature he was not with God before the world was nor had glory as a creature 3. He saith and the Text saith that the glory that Christ asked of his Father was the glory before the world was but the glory which Christ had as a creature could not be the glory before the world was for he himselfe confesseth that that glory which he had as a creature consisted in heirship and dominion over the world but this heirship and dominion over the world was not nor could be before the world was it will therefore follow that either Christ was created without glory and had no glory till the world was created which is directly contradictory to the Text or if

be right and true though there were no Law to impose any such thing upon men and it conststs in faith and love and fear and hope and thankfulness and in praying unto God and hearing what God the Lord will say to them for of these such who have a right knowledge of God will soon be convinced Psal 9. 10. They that know thy Name will trust in thee And hereto also doth belong some natural external acts and postures of the body which do hold forth the reverence and homage of the minde as the bowing of the knees and prostrating of the body before God Instituted worship is certain mediums or means ordained by the will of God for the putting forth and exercising of natural worship viz. faith love hope fear c. which are inward acts of the minde and graces whereby we gratifie God and honour him and belong to Natural worship This Instituted worship consists in Ordinances and Services of God's own appointment in which the Natural worship of faith hope fear c. are acted and by which they are promoved Having shewed what Divine Worship is and the grounds and kindes of it it remains that I declare that all Divine Worship and not some alone as he asserts is peculiar to God and not to be given to any creature that is no more then a creature 1. That which is limited and restrained by Go to God alone in the first and second Commandment and inhibited and forbidden to be given to any other that must needs be peculiar to God alone But all divine worship both natural and instituted together with the postures that do attend them as applied to divine worship are limited and restrained by God to God onely and prohibited to be given to any other Therefore it must needs be proper and peculiar to God For what else is the sense of those two Commandments Thou shalt have no other Gods but me Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image c. but an injunction of the having and exercising such divine Graces and Affections upon and towards God above and a submitting to divine directions and instructions from God in reference to the means of worship and to him alone All that hath been written and preached by the most approved looks this way They say naturall worship is forbidden in the one and ordained worship in the other and he that gives the natural to any but the true God sets up and makes to himself another God beside him and he that sets up or submits to any formes of worship without the dictate or warrant of the true God commits Idolatry against the true God 2. That which Christ doth appropriate to God that must needs be peculiar to him But Christ doth appropriate divine worship to God alone Mat. 4. 10. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him onely shalt thou serve Therefore divine worship is peculiar to God and may not be given to any other That which the Devil required of Christ was prostration or bowing his body to the ground before him in a Religious way as for his heart and the faith of it and love or it and fear of it and affections of it in any kind or the intention of those affections he mentions them not requires them not nor could he know whether they were given to him or no nor in what degree and measure but the outward homage onely in the inclination of the body to the earth in a religious way and Christ yeelds not to it but repels him with the Scripture which he fetcheth from Deut. 6. 13. or from Chap. 10. 20. or from Chap. 26. 10. for I find no other that Christ can allude to and Expositors do direct to the two former but in none of them is it said Him onely shalt thou serve nor is it applyed to external adoration but our Saviour an infallible expositor doth extend it to religious postures and outward homage in a spiritual way and doth restrain it to God alone 3. That which the Apostle condemned in the Galatians while they were heathen that cannot be allowable in Christians But the doing of Religious service or giving religious or divine worship to them which by nature are not Gods is the thing that the Apostle condemns in the Galatians while they were Heathens Gal. 4. 8. Therefore it is not allowable in Christians The Heathens when they worshipped stocks and stones and works of the hands of the Workman they did it relativè not terminative that is they worshipped the highest being in these and did not terminate and end their worship in these but used these as helps in that worship which they directed to the most High God whom they knew not and carried their worship through these to him as from Acts 17. 23. compared with 25. 29. will appear They worshipped Idols of silver and gold and graven stone yet they knew that those Idols made by mens hands were not God but there was an unknown God whom they worshipped in such Images Yet this worship was accounted by the Apostle a doing service to them which by nature are not Gods and was condemned And this intermediate service which was not terminated in the thing served will not be allowed as belonging to any other but to him who is essentially God and by nature God 4. That which neither the Angels nor the most eminent Saints on earth durst accept though tendred to them because they were but creatures but directed it to God as proper onely to him that ought not to be given to any creature but is peculiar to God But divine Religious worship manifested in the outward prostration of the body was a thing that the Angels and the most eminent Saints durst not accept of because they were but creatures but directed it to God as proper to him alone Therefore divine Religious Worship ought not to be given to any meer creature but is peculiar to God There are many Scriptures which serve to confirm that which can in reason onely be questioned in this Argument viz. Whether all divine Religious worship though intermediate and in the lowest degree was rejected by Angels and Saints as undue to them and as proper to God for this purpose see Act. 10. 26. where may be found that Adoration with the body which did proceed from the estimation of the mind though Cornelius that tendred it knew Peter to whom he tendred it neither to be God nor Christ nor had he that esteem of him nor did he terminate that worship which he gave him upon him for he was better instructed but through him looked at God yet the thing was evil that he did and undue to Peter or to any meer man whatever and was therefore rejected by Peter upon that ground and account Stand up said he for I my self am also a man as if he should have said I am not God but a man a meer man and nothing more therefore it is not proper to adore me thus

is confined to his body and so the whole humane nature of Christ is confined to one place and is not neither can be present with one saint on earth much less with all saints on earth and without this presence there can be no knowledge for Gods infinite knowledge is by his infinite presence but this hath also been spoken of before And because none can know the state of saints but he that can know the heart of saints but no creature doth this but he that made the heart and gave to man knowledge as the Scripture speaks Psal 94. 8 9 10. and this is God alone But he goeth on and saith None but the man Christ Jesus can intercede it being absurd to conceive that God can intercede unless it might be conceived that God hath a superiour Now if the man Christ Jesus doth intercede for his Church he knows her state and why he may not know it by a communication of power from the Father notwithstanding he be not God and man in one person is a riddle for the unfolding whereof I would willingly plow with your heifer Repl. The act of Intercession doth belong to Jesus Christ as man and the reason is strong which he renders but the ability to intercede seeing it must be for all saints according to their particular conditions and necessities doth appertain to Christ as God and the validity of his intercession is bottomed there also And whereas he speaks of a communication of power from the Father to know the state of the Church if he mean by it any inherent power or vertue residing in Christ but given by the Father by which Christ is inabled by himself from time to time to know all the hidden things and deepest secrets and the most inward thoughts and ways and the most retired temptations and spiritual necessities of the Church it is impossible for the reasons before mentioned and because there is not a greater thing by which the excellency and glory of that infinite wisdom of God himself can be discovered and made known then this to penetrate the hearts and discern the motions of the spirits of men and because the Lord himself by the Prophet Amos reckons this viz. the declaring unto man his thought among the great and proper and peculiar works of God which the creature cannot effect whch require an infinite power which no creature can be the subject of in Amos 4. 13. For lo he that formeth the mountains and createth the wind and declareth unto man his thought c. and then he concludes the Lord the God of hoast is his Name And because both God himself and the Prophets and holy men of God have attributed it to God alone as hath bin proved before and you may discern from Dan. 2. 11. that it is imprinted upon the very spirits and minds of the Heathen to acknowledge a peculiarity in this thing to appertain to God And because its possible a like for the Father to communicate to the creature a power of being every where as of knowing all things in all places yea the most insearchable things of all persons without any personal presence where such persons and things are And indeed it may as rationally and as truly be asserted that God may communicate his own nature and essence and all his attributes to the creature as communicate this attribute of omniscience or invest man with a power of knowing of the state of all saints which is all one for what is it that God cannot give a power to know if he can give power to know the inclinations hidden motions secret workings and abstruse actings of the soul and spirit and if God can make the creature to know as much as himself knows by communication then he can make the creature a God by communication And if we look into the way by which God himself comes to know these things we shall be able to discern that this knowledge cannot be communicated because all things and persons are of God and from God and they live move and have their being in him therefore it is impossible but that he should be acquainted with all their actings motions and ways but this is communicable which is the cause of this knowledge of God God cannot make persons or things to have their subsistings and motions in the creature and therefore he cannot communicate such a power and make it reside in the creature by which they may have such a knowledge The effect is no more communicable then the cause is communicable But if he meaneth by a communication of power from the Father to know the state of the Church nothing else but Gods revealing to Christ in heaven from time to time the state and condition of the Church and of all saints as he did to Daniel Nebuchadnezars Dream which was gone from him this will be granted as possible in reference to the creature but this is not properly a communication of power to the creature from the Father but the manifestation of Gods Wisdom and Power by the creature and the creature is not the subject of it in which this wisdom resides but God himself But this is not sutable to Christ to say that what knowledge Christ hath in heaven of the affairs of the Church and state of the saints is by Gods revelation for this would make Christ a Priest of like imperfection which was in the high Priests for they were capable of revelation also as well as Christ if God had pleased to have manifested himself unto them in the discovery of the Churches wants but it behoved Christ to be more excellent to be a Priest not in weakness but in strength and to be able to save to the utmost and consequently to have the ability of interceding in himself For to be able to save by anothers strength is such an ability as Paul speaks of when he saith I am able to do all things through Christ strengthning of me such ability is inability it is to be unable rather then able in and of himself as a child that is moved by the strength of the arms of the Mother or as a sick man that is upheld in his walking which makes nothing to the glory of Christ at all but is a dishonor to him and hence it is that it was needful that Christ should be God and man in one person that he might be the subject of this power and that he might by himself save us Besides it is unscriptural to say that the Father reveals the state of the Church to Christ and that Christ knows it not till then Yea it is repugnant to the Scripture for it is said Christ is he that searcheth the heart c. he knows because he searcheth and not because it is revealed to him But he passeth from this ninth Argument under pretence to visit my tenth and yet saith never a word to it but refers me to his answer to Matth. 28. 20. I am with you

therefore cannot intercede for it He reduceth this into the form of an Argument to little purpose but to fill up paper after this manner That Doctrine which utterly overthrows the Intercession of Christ brings in as it were another Gospel But the Doctrine that makes Christ a meer creature utterly overthrows the Intercession of Christ Therefore He grants the Major proposition but denies the minor and complains for want of proof in these words What Must we again take your word for a proof I wish a better for there is no goodness in that we have been too long troubled with the word I say insteed of proof c. Repl. This answer is much altered it hath fallen under correction since it was first ptesented to me in the manuscript there was profane scurrility in it wherein he shewed the tincture of his spirit but I complained to one of his dear friends who was too highly conceited of him who gave him an Item of it and so the words came to be changed though there be harshness enough without any just cause for it His expressions did run thus We have already been troubled enough with the Prophet I say Wherein he first breaks his rest upon me 2. He doth it in a profane way abusing that Evangelical Prophet Isaiah which abbreviated is written Isay whose person and name deserve reverence because the honour of becoming the Pen-man of the holy Ghost was put upon him Nor was there occasion given him to sport thus with the Prophets name for I know not that any such words can be found in my writing as I say no nor yet the sense of them for I have not nakedly delivered any thing but there hath been either Scripture or Argument to inforce it and in this very instance viz. If Christ be a meer creature then the intercession of Christ is overthrown there is a reason to inforce it which was thus Because a meer man being in heaven could not know the state of the Churches in all places upon earth and therefore could not intercede according to the condition and necessity of the Churches And though this reason was not confirmed with another which it seems he expected it should have bin yet it was not because there was no good reason to be rendred but because I was in great straits of time when I thought of and wrote out that paper of Scripture and Arguments and had not liberty to enlarge upon any thing having not three hours to consider of the thing and because I intended them to fall under the consideration of more candid persons and because I thought what I presented might easily be maintained from Scripture if there should be any contest Nor hath he invalidated the proof I brought for the strengthning of this Argument notwithstanding his complaint of want of proof Let it be considered what he saith What saith he have you learned to measure the knowledge of him who hath received the spirit without measure Cannot he as man know in heaven what things are done on earth Who told you so Repl. These are strange expressions to proceed from one that denyes the Deity of the Spirit equally as he doth the Deity of Christ and who makes both the Son and the holy Ghost finite creatures and who makes the Son the first and principall of all the creatures and the Lord of all the rest yea God in some sence to them all and so the spirit himself is servant unto Christ and Christ is his Lord and in a kind his God The conradictions in this expostulation of his What have you learned to measure the knowledge of him who hath received the spirit without measure in reference to the forementioned Tenents of his are not a few His expressions seem to me to carry such a sense 1. That Christs knowledge is so great that it is unmeasurable and consequently infinite and yet he himself but a creature and consequently finite which is a contradiction 2. That this knowledge of Christ came to be unmeasurable because the spirit was given to him without measure and yet the spirit himself is finite and consequently measurable according to him And if the spirit were infinite and his wisdom infinite as indeed he is though he denye it yet if Christ be a meer creature and wholely finite as he holds the maxime is infallible that quicquid recipitur recipitur ad modum recipientis What ever thing is received is received according to the Capacity of that which doth receive it and consequently when Christ who receives the Spirit is finite he is not capable to receive any proportion of the spirit but what is finite and be may measured though the spirit were infinite And so there is a double contradiction 3. That this excellent knowledge of Christ which he saith cannot be measured was received by his receiving of the spirit and yet Christ is greater and more excellent then this spirit and the Creator of him and Lord and God unto him which is an other contradiction Obj. But he may plead for himself and lay that his words are wrested and that he demands of me whether I have learned to measure the knowledge of him c Sol. Though I am not able to measure the knowledge of Christ who received the Spirit positively so as to declare exactly what measure he received and no more yet I am able to measure the knowledge of Christ which he had by the donation of the Spirit negatively I can say it was not unmeasurable it was not infinite But he bottoms this interrogation upon a Scripture viz. John 3. 34. where he saith that God giveth not his Spirit by measure to him And he interprets it to be without measure and by consequence infinitely But he is mistaken for there is a comparison betwixt Christ and John the Baptist and other Ministers of the Church for they received the Spirit and are limitted and stinted and receive not all that they are capable of and must have but the Spirit is divided to them as it pleaseth God to one man is given Wisdom and to an other Knowledge c. 1 Cor. 12. 11. and Eph. 4. 7. and Rom. 12. 3. but to Christ is given the Spirit not by measure that is not according to this measure for Christ hath all these and he hath the Spirit in perfection and not imperfectly as men here have and he hath the whole as he is capable of as man but yet the whole is not infinite nor unmeasurable of which I have largely before spoken and therefore shall not inlarge here It may be further said by way of negation that all the knowledge that Christ hath received as man by the donation of the Spirit doth not inable him as man and being in heaven to know the state of all Saints in all places on earth unless it be by revelation from God immediately and a new every moment The reason is because as Christs body is confined to heaven so his soul