Selected quad for the lemma: son_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
son_n	ghost_n	person_n	trinity_n	14,824	5	9.9681	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42901	A sermon of the nativity of our Lord preached before the Queen Dowager in her chappel at Somerset-house on Christmas Day, 1686 / by Thomas Godden.	Godden, Thomas, 1624-1688.	1686 (1686)	Wing G921; ESTC R28640	15,433	36

improves that which is but a Sign into a Command because the Will performs it exactly This is the Happy State of Men of Good Will Let them but have a Sign an Intimation of what they are to do Their Hearts are ready and they presently set themselves to put it in execution What moved the Wisemen of the East to undertake so long and dangerous a journey to find out and adore the New-born King of the Jews All the Account they give of it is vidimus stellam ejus that they had seen his Star that is his Sign in the East They had heard if not read what Balaam had prophesied of old that a star should arise out of Jacob. They expected the rising of this Star and no sooner did it appear but as the Church represents their devotion in one of her Antiphons they said one to another Hoc signum Magni Regis est This is the Sign of the Great King who is to be born Eamus inquiramus eum let us go and enquire him out offeramus ei munera Aurum Thus Myrrham and offer to him Gifts Gold Frankincense and Myrrh And what can be more Parallel to the devotion of the Shepherds in my Text No sooner had the Angel given them a Sign by which they might find out the same New-born Saviour of the World but presently they said one to another Transeamus usque ad Bethlehem Let us now go even to Bethlehem Those wisest of Kings saw but the Sign and went without delay vidimus venimus These faithfullest of Shepherds heard but hoc vobis signum this shall be a Sign to you and went with hast venerunt festinantes O the Incomparable Devotion both of Kings and Shepherds How happy should we be would we follow their Example and not neglect or which is yet worse reject so often as we do the Holy Inspirations which God is pleased from time to time to give us for the amendment of our lives and setling our selves after a more serious manner to his service to comply with the modes of the world and our own Ease and Humour O how different is this Comportment from that of these Kings and Shepherds A Sign is to them a Precept and an Intimation in lieu of a Command And by whom may we think were they inspired with this devotion but by the Divine Infant himself whom they went to seek of whom Albertus Magnus saith Voluntas Complacentia Patris Summum Praeceptum fuit that the Good Will and Pleasure of his Father in order to man's Redemption was to him as the greatest and strictest of Commands God when he vouchsafes to speak to us of himself is pleased to speak to us after our own manner and in our own language And we can speak no otherwise of him Whatever we affirm says the Great St. Dennis of God is by reason of the narrowness both of our thoughts and words incompetent and unsuitable to what he is in Himself as always carrying some tincture of Imperfection in it Whilst therefore I endeavour as I may to express what my own low Thoughts have been able to conceive of this Gracious Concurrence of the Son with the Good Pleasure of his Father in relation to the great design of his Incarnation and perhaps in words not reaching my own Conceptions your Pious and Charitable attention will I hope help to supply the defect of the one and make allowance for the other The Eternal Father whose Goodness is equal to his Knowledge fore-seeing from all Eternity the Fall of Man out of the Bowels of his Mercy design'd forthwith to repair it and that by the Incarnation of his Son This amongst many other means which were present to his Infinite Wisdom he was pleased to make choice of as most conducing to his own Honour and the redress and advantage of man But how was this Great Design to be brought about By laying a Command on his Son to take our Nature upon him No For as St. Thomas observes a Command supposes Inferiority in the Person to be commanded and Catholic Faith tells us that in the most Holy Trinity there is no Inferiority or Subjection No one of the Persons Higher or Lower Greater or Less than another but as they are All Co eternal in Duration so are They Co-equal in Dignity and Authority There could be no place for a Command where there was no Inequality Nor even for Counsel as supposing an Advantage of Wisdom in the Giver in respect of the Person to whom it is given What then remain'd but if I may be permitted to speak according to our imperfect and incompetent manner of conceiving in this Life an Intimation of the Fathers Good Pleasure to his Son presenting him in the Comprehensive Knowledge which he communicated to him of all things both Future and Possible together with his Essence a Prospect as I may call it of a Humane Body so to be framed as might serve for a decent Tabernacle for the Divinity to dwell in and a fit and proper Instrument for Him who was the Word to accomplish the Redemption of man by uniting himself to it How readily he concurred with his Consent to this Gracious Intention of his Father thus communicated to him is seen by the Blessed in Heaven in the Unity of one and the same Will in Both but can be discern'd only by us in this state of Obscurity in it's Effect as in a Glass which reflects rhe Beams that are darted upon it And such is the account which the Royal Prophet gives of its Execution in his 39th Psalm where he represents the Son at his coming into the World addressing himself to his Father in these words Sacrificium Oblationem noluisti I see O my Eternal Father that Sacrifices and Oblations are rejected by thee as insufficient to make satisfaction for the sins of men and to appease thy wrath so justly enkindled against them But withall I see Corpus aptasti mihi that thou hast framed a Body fit for me and me alone as the means thou hast made choice of for this great work And what follows then but Ecce venio Behold I come Nor was a like concurrence of the Holy Ghost wanting to the compleating this Great Design as may be gather'd from those words of the Angel to the Blessed Virgin on the day that it was to be put in execution when he told her that the Holy Ghost should come upon her and the Power of the Most High should over-shadow her and therefore the Holy Thing which should be born of her should be called the Son of God Thus as the Great St. Leo excellently observes Divisit sibi opus nostrae reparationis misericordia Trinitatis the Three Persons of the most Sacred Trinity in that co-eternal and mutual design they had of repairing lost man divided as I may say the work of his Redemption amongst them not by way of Command but out of that pure

Mercy and Goodness which is the same in them All. Pater as the same St. Leo goes on ut propitiaretur Filius ut propitiaret Spiritus Sanctus ut igniret The Father by communicating together with his Essence his Propension to accept of a Propitiation for the sins of mankind The Son by mutually concurring to make the propitiation and the Holy Ghost by as readily undertaking to execute what was the Good Will and Pleasure of Both. From all which it appears that tho the Son the decree of the Incarnation supposed receiv'd a Command from his Father to lay down his Life for the Redemption of Man as considered subsisting in our Humane Nature and in that consideration Inferiour to him yet the Sourse and Origin of his undertaking to make a Propitiation for our sins was not any Precept of which as consider'd subsisting only in the Divinity he was not capable being equal to his Father but a communication only he receiv'd in his divine Procession from him of his good will and pleasure that he should unite himself personally to our humane nature to redeem us And as he most willingly and readily concurr'd with this gracious design but in a manner infinitely transcending what the understandings of the Highest Angels are able to comprehend So as soon as he was born into the world he inspir'd the Shepherds to do the like He only gave them a Sign or Intimation by which they might find him and presently without delay they resolv'd to go seek him out Loquebantur Pastores ad invicem The Shepherds said one to another Let us now go even to Bethlehem Thus Dear Christian Auditors was this Divine Lover of our souls pleased both to prove and make known to us the devotion of the Shepherds when he came into the world And now that he has finished his dispensation upon Earth and is return'd to Heaven has he left us no Sign of his Good Will and Pleasure to provoke our Love to sollicite our affections and show our devotion to him Yes Corpus aptavit nobis he has left us also a Body the same Body which his Father framed for him and he gave to the Shepherds but in a different manner to them and to us to them as wrapped in Swadling clothes and laid in a Manger Hoc vobis signum To us cloth'd with the forms of Bread and Wine and laid upon the Altar Hoc nobis Signum And what greater Sign could he give us of his Love than to give us that very Flesh to be our Food which he had given for the Life of the World Admirable is the Reflection which St. Chrisostom makes upon this passage Mothers says he oftentimes put forth their Children to be nurs'd and fed by others But not so I and he speaks in the Person of Christ I feed you with my own Flesh I set my self before you for food so to breed Generous Spirits in you and fill you with hopes of future Glory since you cannot think but that I who have given my self to you here will do it in a much more excellent manner hereafter That I took Flesh and Blood upon me was out of the desire I had to become your Brother and now behold I give the same Flesh and Blood to be taken by you by which I became so nearly related to you These are the words of that Great Father and Light of the Church St. Chrysostom by which he declares the Faith of the Church of his time which was between the Third and Fourth of the four first General Councils to be the same which the Catholic Church professes at this day And now dear Christans that this Divine Lover of our Souls has left us so great a Sign and Pledge of his good Will and Love shall we not make hast with the devout Shepherds to go to Bethlehem Bethlehem in English signifies The House of Bread And St. Gregory observes that our Lord would have the Place in which he was to be born to be called long before by this name to signifie to us That He who appeared there in our Flesh is the Living Bread which came down from Heaven to nourish the Souls of his Elect to everlasting Life And now as I said that he has given us so incomparable a Sign of his Good Will and Pleasure shall we not make hast with the Shepherds to Bethlehem Shall we let this Holy Time pass over or rather shall we Trifle it all away in Pastime and Merriment without ever approaching to this Holy Table Such was the Fervour of the First Christians that they were wont to communicate every day And necessary it was in those times of Cruel Persecution to arm themselves daily with the Bread of Life against the fear of Death But no sooner was Peace restored to the Church in the beginning of the fourth Age but Piety began to languish So much more hard is it for Virtue to bear up against a Prosperous than an Adverse Condition which gave St. Chrysostom before that Age was ended cause to inveigh so frequently as he does against such as were present at the Divine Mysteries without communicating But the Malady went on increasing and Christians grew so tepid in the performance of this Duty that the Council of Agde in the beginning of the sixth Age thought fit to declare that those who did not communicate at the Three Great Feasts of the year Christmas Easter and Whitsontide were not to be believ'd to be Catholics nor reputed for such And the Council of Tours in the beginning of the Eighth Age found it necessary to admonish them anew to communicate if not oftner yet three times at least in the year viz. at the three aforesaid Feasts And if the Church in these later times as still more remiss have thought good to lay no farther obligation upon all the Faithful of both Sexes than of receiving once a year and that at Easter yet the Addition of the words ad minus that it must be done then at least sufficiently shows the desire she has that they would do it oftner and that a Command were not at all necessary to compel where there is so great an Attractive of Bounty to invite Lex Justo non est posita This Law was not made for the Just for men of Good Will who are led by the Spirit of Love but for such servile and degenerous Spirits as are acted only by fear of Punishment And it is much to be feared that those who in this matter will do no more than just what the Letter of the Law obliges would not do that neither but for fear of the Censure annexed O the Prodigious sloth and negligence of such careless Christians whom so great Signs and Pledges of their dear Saviours Goodness cannot draw without the necessity of a Precept to drive them to him What will they pretend for their excuse That they cannot that is will not leave their Sins Few will be