Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	according_a	father_n	son_n	2,247	5	5.3360	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48519	A sermon preached before the Queen at Whitehall, on Wednesday, March 22, 1692 being the fourth Wednesday in Lent / by J. Lambe ...	Lambe, John, 1648 or 9-1708.	1693 (1693)	Wing L225; ESTC R17586	10,291	29

appears That some of his Attributes are so Absolute a Property so Essential to the Deity that they cannot be Imparted They Exist intirely and solely in Himself That more than One should be ONE or First or Self-existent the Cause of all things Infinite or Immense is a Contradiction These and some others admit of no Degrees and are therefore Incommunicable But however there is something of God in the very Nature of Man Essential to us and Inseparable from us which no other Part of the Visible World can boast of For we move from our selves in some degree as God does we act for the sake of such Ends as we our selves propose We Reason Judge Reflect and are truly styled a Conscious Being We penetrate the Dimensions of our Little World and our Soul is present every where within her Bounds And thus the humane Nature Resembles the Divine Exemplumque Dei quisquis est in Imagine parva But this Assimilation is necessary it is Inseparable from our Nature and therefore cannot be the Subject-matter of a Law Wherefore then by a Participation of the Nature of God when it is urged upon us as a Duty or proposed as a worthy End we understand a faint Resemblance an imperfect Imitation of those Divine Perfections which are Absolute only in God but yet are Competent in a Good Degree to all his Reasonable Creatures Competent I say not Necessary or Essential to us for then there would have been no Room for Choice or Vertue And thus if we had not been wanting to our selves we might have preserved and by the Grace of God we may yet recover a fair Proportion of the Purity of His Mind and the Holiness of his Will of his Wisdom and Providence of His Mercy and Justice of His Truth and Goodness with which our Nature was ennobled and from which we so unhappily fell And this is the Participation of the Nature of God which is made our Duty in the Text It is the Imitation of those most Excellent Rules by which he Governs the Freedom of his Choice and Exercises His vast unbounded Power It is a good degree of that Universal Righteousness which directs the Dispensations of His Providence and knits them all together into the most Excellent Order and Agreement And thus 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Participation of the Disposition of God an Imitation of His Way and manner of acting It is to govern our selves in our narrow Sphere of Action and in all Relations according to His Example and Command It is to subdue our Will to His our Inclinations and Imperfect Reasonings to His most perfect Methods of proceeding For it is not only to do what He Commands but to Preferr it to Love and Chuse our Duty to be united to it and in our Proportion and Capacity to be what the Law Requires To act by the same Principle to move by the same Spirit to entertain the same Opinions of what is Good and Evil and in every thing to Conform our selves to his most perfect Reason This is to partake of the Nature of God And according to this Account it is expressed in Scripture by His Image and His Likeness Gen. 1.26 and this Image of God upon our Souls is explained by Knowledge Col. 3.10 By Holiness of Life Ephes 4.24 By the Mind and Disposition of God Phil. 2.5 And finally To abide in the Father and in the Son is to abide in the Practice of that which they had heard and had been taught from the Beginning 1 John 2.24 And as for those places of Scripture which denote a more Mysterious Union between the Souls of pious Men and God they are not understood as Declarations of our Duty simply but rather as the Rewards of a great Affection and a zealous Vertue or of those Divine Delights and Pleasures which will fill the Minds of those who thus unite themselves to God That is the Second 3. I proceed to the Third and Last Particular and shall endeavour to make it Manifest That thus to partake of the Nature of God according to our Capacity is the Vltimate End and the Chief Design of the Christian Institution Whereby are given unto u exceeding great and precious Promises that or for this End that by these by the mighty force of so great Rewards we may be Partakers of the Divine Nature The Religion then it self is a Body of Principles and Rules of Life for the Restoration of our Nature to a Participation of the Nature of God And the Promises annexed are made subservient to this as to their Last Design That by these we may be Partakers of the Nature of God It was the Loss of our first Integrity by unreasonable Will and vicious Appetites It was our falling short of the Glory and defacing the Image of God upon our Souls which was the Occasion of our Saviour's Manifestation in the World That He the Seed of the Woman might break the Serpent's head Gen. 3.15 That by Him our Loss might be repaired our Bruises healed and our Decayes recovered There can be therefore no Dispute but His design is to destroy those Wicked and Ungodly Habits in which our Misery Consists and to restore us to the Government of our Reason and the Image of God again which was our Original Felicity The Gospel of our Saviour is Salvation Health and Redemption to Mankind but we are not capable of Salvation any other way but by the Reformation of our Manners and the Raising of our Nature out of that Degenerate Condition it is in to a Conformity with the Life of God For we cannot be happy but in the way of our Nature And therefore if our Saviour had redeemed us from the Guilt and Punishment of our Sins and not from our Iniquity which cannot be supposed yet even this would have been no great Advantage It could not properly be called the bringing of Salvation to us Because we should have been the same Imperfect Wretched Beings still that we were before Thus Reason will perswade That to save a Man is to restore him to the Perfection of His Nature But why should we Consider the Probability of the thing in reason when the Religion it self declares its own design so plainly That it is Impossible we should mistake it 1. For the Prophets of old many Ages before it was revealed have represented it as a Law of Righteousness that should be seated in the inward parts and purifie its Proselytes from all their filth Jer. 31.33 Dan. 9.24 2. And no sooner had our Saviour Himself begun to instruct the People in His Religion but He lays down this as His First His Fundamental Principle Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God St. John 3.3 and Verse 7. Marvel not that I say unto you your Nature must be changed ye must be born again 3. And if we look into the Religion it self what are all or at least the greater Number of the Duties