Selected quad for the lemma: sin_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sin_n	offer_v	sacrifice_n	sanctify_v	5,030	5	9.6913	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12187	A miracle of miracles or Christ in our nature Wherein is contained the vvonderfull conception, birth, and life of Christ, who in the fulnesse of time became man to satisfie divine iustice, and to make reconciliation betweene God and man. Preached to the honourable society of Grayes Inne, by that godly and faithfull minister of Iesus Christ, Richard Sibbes. D.D.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1638 (1638)	STC 22499; ESTC S117264	26,445	58

signes from things to come as 37. Isaiah The next yeare thou shalt eate that which groweth of it selfe c. because where faith is it maketh things to come all one as if they were present And so wee should make this use of the Grand promises of Christ to comfort us against all petty matters and wants whatsoever And to reason with the holy Apostle God spared not his only begotten sonne but gave him to death He hath given Christ and will he not give all things needfull Hath he given the greater and will he stand with thee for the lesse This is a blessed kinde of reasoning And so to reason from other Grand things promised God shall raise my body out of the dust and the grave and cannot he raise my body out of sicknesse and my state out of trouble cannot hee raise the Church out of misery So saith Saint Paul 2 Cor. 1. God that raised Christ restored me againe that had received the sentence of death when we receive sentence of death in our persons looke to him that raised Christ from the dead and to the grand promises to come They before Christ comforted themselves in times of all distresse by the grand promise of Christ to come But now the Messias is come And which may much more strengthen our faith he hath suffered and given his body to death for us and therefore why doubt we of Gods good will in any petty matters whatsoever To come to the words more particularly Behold a Virgin shall conceive and beare a Sonne c. You have divers articles of our faith in these few words As Christs conception by the holy Ghost his being borne of the virgin Mary c. you have here the humane nature of Christ. A virgin shall conceive and bare a sonne And the divine nature of Christ his name shall bee called Emanuell which signifieth also his office God with us by nature and God with us by office to set God and us at one So you have diverse points of divinity couched in the words which I will onely open sutable to the occasion Behold This is the usuall Becon set up the usuall Harbinger to require our attendance in all matters concerning Christ. And it hath a threefold force here Behold as being a thing presented to the eye of faith He mounteth over all the interim betweene the promise and the accomplishment for faith knoweth no difference of times And then it is to raise attention behold it is a matter of great concernement And not onely attention but likewise admiration behold a strange and admirable thing For what stranger thing is there then that a virgin should conceive that a virgin should be a mother and that God should become man We had need of strong grace to apprehend these strange things And therefore God hath provided a grace suitable above reason and above nature and that is faith Reason mocketh at this The devill knoweth it and envyeth it The Angels know and wonder at it The soule it selfe without a grace sutable to the admirablenesse of the thing can never apprehend it And therefore well may it be said Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare and why a virgin When God is to be borne it is fit for a virgin to bee the mother Christ was not to come by the ordinary way of propagation he was to come from Adam but not by Adam for he was to be sanctified by the holy Ghost Because he was indeed to be a Saviour and a Sacrifice and hee must be without spot or sinne himselfe that was to offer himselfe for the sinnes of others Therefore the foundation and ground of his nature must bee pure and cleane and that is the foundation of all the purity of his life and conversation and therefore a virgin This was typified in Aarous rod which budded though it had no root No Iuice could come from a dry sticke yet by an Almighty power the rod did bud And so Moses bush It burnt and did not consume And that God that caused those things caused a virgin to be a mother He enters into the wombe of a virgin without any defilement at all considering the holy Ghost from the Father and the Son did purge and purifie and sanctifie that masse whereof the blessed body of our Saviour was made The virgin afforded the matter but the wise Framer was the holy Ghost She was passive the holy Ghost was the Agent Now when did the virgin conceive when upon the Angels comming to her and telling her That she was greatly beloved and that shee should conceive she assented be it so as the Lord hath spoken When shee assented to the word presently Christ was conceived her faith and her wombe conceived together When her heart did conceive the truth of the promise and yeelded assent thereunto her womb conceived at the same time also From hence learne something for our selves It had beene to little purpose though a virgin conceived Christ unlesse Christ had beene conceived likewise in her heart And there is no benefit by virtue of this conception to others but to such as conceive Christ in their hearts also To which end our hearts must bee in some measure made virgin hearts pure hearts hearts fit to receive Christ. We must assent to promises of pardon and of life everlasting bee it as the Lord saith A Christian is a Christian and Christ liveth in his heart at the time of the assenting to the promise So that if you aske when doth Christ first live in a Christians heart I answer then when the heart yeeldeth a firme assent to the gracious promises made in Christ for the pardoning of sinnes and acceptation to the favour of God and title and interest to life everlasting For faith is the birth of the heart Christ was conceived in the wombe of an humble and believing virgin So that heart that will conceive Christ aright must bee a humble and believing heart humble to deny himselfe in all things And believing to goe out of it selfe to the promises of God in Christ. When God by his spirit hath brought our hearts to be humble and believing to goe out of themselves and believe in him rest upon him and his promises then Christ is conceived in our hearts Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne Here is the birth of Christ as well as the conception Christ must not onely be conceived in the wombe but also brought forth because God must be manifested in the flesh As Saint Paul saith Great is the mystery of Godlinesse God manifested in the flesh If hee had onely beene conceived and not brought forth he had not beene manifested hee was to doe all things that befitted a Mediatour And therefore hee went along with us in all the passages of our lives Hee was conceived as we are remayned in the wombe so

and his office to reconcile God and us in one As he is God in our nature hee tooke our nature into communion of person so his office is to bring God and man together his two natures is to fit him for his office God and man were at much distant tearmes as could be unlesse betwene the Devill and God And therefore God man in one person must performe the great office of bringing such as were in such opposite tearmes together Of his conception by the Virgin Mary wee spake sufficiently onely wee will adde this for farther explication A further type of this was in the birth of Isaack Isaack you know was borne of a dead wombe Christ was conceived of a Virgin and in a manner farre more improbable then the other Isaack was the Sonne of the promise Christ was the promised seed both in some sort miraculously borne For indeed it was a true wonder that Isaack should be borne of a dead wombe And here that a Virgin should conceive Sara had nothing to supply moisture and juyce to the fruit And so here was nothing of a man to further Christs conception I will shew why there must be this kind of conception of Christ which will helpe our faith exceedingly First Christ must be without all sinne of necessity for else when hee tooke our nature stubble and fire had joyned together God is a consuming fire and therefore the nature must be purified and sanctified by the holy Ghost in the wombe of the Virgin And then againe in the conception there must be a foundation of all obedience active and passive and of all that was afterwards excellent in Christ. If there had beene any blemish in the foundation which was his conception if he had not beene pure there had beene defect in all that issued from him his active obedience and passive obedience for every thing savours of the principle from whence it commeth And therefore it was Gods great worke in this strange conception that sinne might be stop't in the roote and beginning nature might be sanctified in the foundation of it And so that he might persue sin from the beginnning to the end both in his life by living without sinne and also in his death by making satisfaction for sinne And therefore ground our faith on this That our salvation is laid on one that is mighty God man and on one that is pure and holy And therefore in his obedience active holy and in his obedience passive holy Againe he came to be a surety for us and therefore hee must pay our whole debt hee must pay the debt of obedience he must pay the debt of punishment Now obedience must come from a pure nature and his death must extend to the satisfying of an infinite Iustice. And therefore he must be conceived of the holy Ghost in the wombe of a pure Virgin And wee must know that in this conception of Christ there were 2. or 3. things wherin there was a maine difference betweene Christ and us Christ was in his humane nature altogether without sin we are sinfull in our nature Again Christs humane nature had alwaies subsistence in the divine and it was never out of the divine nature As soone as his body and soule were united it was the body and soule of God now our natures are not so And then in manner of propagation his was extraordinary altogether Adam was of the earth neither of man nor woman Eve of man without a woman All other of Adam and Eve Christ of a Virgin and without a man But setting aside his subsistence in the second person and extraordinary meanes of propagation Christ and we are all one hee had a true humane body and soule and all things like our selves sin and the former differences excepted Why Christ must be man we have already heard He became man to be sutable to us in our nature and to sympathize in all our troubles And shall call his name Emanuell He shall call his name Emanuel saith the new Testament That is he shall be Emanuell indeed and shall be knowne to bee and published to be so Whatsoever hath a name is apparent Christ was before hee tooke our flesh but he was not called Emanuell It did not openly appeare that he was God in our nature hee was not conceived in the wombe of a Virgin They before Christ knew that hee should come but when he was conceived and borne hee was then called Emanuell There were divers presences of Christ before hee came He was in the bush as a signe of his presence he was in the Arke as a signe of his presence he was in the Prophets and Kings as a type of his presence He tooke upon him the shape of man as a representation of his presence when he talked with Abraham and the Patriarkes but all this was not God with us in our nature he tooke it on him for a time and laid it aside againe But when hee was Emanuell and was called and declared so to be he tooke on him our nature never to lay it aside againe He was borne in our nature brought forth in our nature lived in our nature dyed in our nature was crucified in our nature became a Curse for us in our nature buried in our nature rose in our nature is in heaven in our nature and for ever will abide there in our nature All their faith before hee came in the flesh was in confidence that he should take our flesh in the fullnes of time Now came the time when hee was called Emanuell and then the word became flesh and tooke our nature on him From hence that God tooke our nature upon him in the second person come divers things considerable For first it appeares that he hath dignified and raised our nature above Angells because he hath taken the seed of Abraham and not of the Angells a wonderfull advancement of our nature for God to bee with us to marry such a poore nature as ours is for the great God of heaven and earth to take dust into the unity of his person If this may not have a behould before it I know not what may To joyne alltogether For the great God of heaven and earth before whom the Angells cover their faces the mountaines tremble and the earth quakes to take our flesh and dust into unity of his person and for such ends to save sinfull man and from such misery eternall misery from such great enemies And then to advance him to such great happinesse as we are advanced to take Christ Emanuell in the whole passage of his mediation and there is ground of admiration indeed But consider it specially in the raising and advancing of our natures to bee one with God Shall God bee God with us in our nature in heaven and shall wee defile our natures that GOD hath so dignified Shall we livelike beasts whom God hath