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A88701 The attributes of God unfolded, and applied. Wherein are handled the 1 Life 2 Perfection 3 Holiness 4 Benignitie 5 Mercy 6 Truth 7 Wisdome 8 Power 9 Justice of God. 10 Love 11 Hatred 12 Anger 13 Independencie 14 Simplicitie 15 Eternitie 16 Infiniteness 17 Immutability 18 Immensity of God. / Delivered in sundry sermons, at Tavistocke in Devon: By Thomas Larkham, preacher of the word of God, and pastour of the congregation there. Divided into three parts. Larkham, Thomas, 1602-1669. 1656 (1656) Wing L441; Thomason E867_1; Thomason E867_2; Thomason E867_3; ESTC R207649 158,169 180

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a perfection of holines in life and conversation a perfection of manners in act and habite as the Schoolmen call it So we account righteous livers to be Saints And because there are none perfectly holy in this life we cannot gain say the Popish Schoolmen in that sence that aver and teach none to be properly holy in his life I say if they mean by properly holy perfectly holy For to make a man holy there must be in him a perfection of habite and conversation agreeable to the eternall law of God And as nothing is weight till it counterpose the weight that is set against it so no mans life is compleatly that is perfectly holy untill it be exactly answerable to the holy law of God which cannot be said of any man in this life until he come unto a perfect man unto the measure of the fulnes of Christ Ephes 4.13 It is true Christ was full weight according to the weight-stones of Gods eternal law he was full measure according to that met-yard but so was never any man else holy or righteous perfectly I meane and exactly This by the way let me tell you is one cause why when an emenient person dies in Popish countries whom they judge fit to be canonized for a Saint they let a hundred years passe after his death before they do it allowing a considerable time for the purgatory-purgations of his soule before he passe for a Saint But yet though properly when by it we mean compleatly none be holy in this life Yet are there holy one on earth to whom the holy eternal morall law of God is a rule And there are some who though they cannot keepe all Gods Commandements Yet they have respect unto them all Such a one was David Ps 119.6 And ver 111. he saith Thy testimony have I taken as an heritage for ever for they are the rejoycing of my heart and ver 112 I have inclined my heart to performe thy statute alway even unto the end But to proceede in shewing you what holines is according to this second use of the word I have said it is a conformity to the eternal law of God and so it is For as the conception of the divine mind is the measure of natural perfections and of that being that is in all things So the eternal law is the mesure and rule of morall perfection and of the holines of a reasonable nature in all good workes He is holy therefore whose affection and manners do exactly agree to the eternall law of God But here falls in a question by the way that calls for an answer To wit whether all acts of obedience required now were required ever and such as have beene required heretofore are still required To which I answer shortly That Obedience to Gods mind is still required Moralia sunt aeternae veritatis and for all moralls they are still the same But God hath been pleased to make positive lawes some ceremonical some judiciall which are now out of date He trained up the Jewes under them indeed but upon the dissolution of their common wealth their judicial lawes ceased to be of use And upon the comming of Christ to be a sacrifice for the sins of mankinde the ceremonies as shadows of good things to come did fly away And so also we now in Gospel times have our proper Gospel laws which the Jewes had not But yet the moral law is still one and the same and of it not one jot or title shall ever be altered or made void Well then let us come to some issue A man of an upright life and conversation is a holy man Ye see what holines is in man let us a little take a view of Angels those holy celestial flames And we shall find that they are holy in both the formentioned respects For they make Gods glory the end of their actions being given up to him and to his honour and there is no blemish in their obedience None in their nature none in their lives It is true their holines is but finite because created and therefore perishable holines in it selfe for they might fall if they were not supported those Angels that fell at first were holy Yea it is by the grace and decree of God that these elect Angels do and shall continue holy as it also is that the Saints-separate from the world unto God do not return to the world againe Yea this is true of the holines and hapynes of Angels and saints in heaven One thing more touching the holy Ghost who in this sense is called holy not as he is the holy God but as he is the giver and worker of holines and makes men conformable to the law of God And therefore he is called God the holy Ghost or holy spirit al the three persons Fatner Son Spirit are holy essentially but the third person is called the holy Ghost or holy Spirit because he it is that worketh holines and frameth your Spirits suteable to the holy law of God Now if holines be such a conformitie in men to Gods law what glory is there in Gods holy conformitie to his own mind and law as you will heare when we come to it And in the mean time judge whether there be not sufficient ground of calling upon men to exalt the Lord our God and to worship at his holy hill in the rememberance of his holines because he is a holy God because he never required any thing of any man that was not holy just and good it is meet such a one should be exalted and set high worshiped and honoured Therefore Worship for he is holy both wayes in both acceptations of the word he is dedicated to his owne glory and so he is holy and he is perfectly just and holy righteous in all his wayes and holy in all his works Ps 145.17 Therefore exalt the Lord our God therefore worship him Ye see the emphasis of the reason and why the consideration of the attribute of holines is rather then of another attribute made the ground of this inculcated exhortation of exalting and worshiping God Now as in other Attributes formerly handled so in this I shall speak of these three propositions out of this Scripture 1. That holinesse is an attribute of God 2. that it is a Communicable attribute 3. That Holines in God is Infinite and incomprehensible For the first that holines is an attribute of God Let those things be remembred that have been spoken of the twofold acceptation of the word holy and we shall find that both are eminently true of God He is all for himselfe he will not give his honour to another Herod shall be smitten by an Angel and eaten of wormes for not giving God his glory Act. 12.23 Selfe love as you have formerly heard affirmed of men renders them ugly but it is a glorious attribute of God And then also the conformity that is in God between his mind and will that I
may so expresse it evinceth this to be true that the Lord our God is holy And thus we may say the will of God the actings of God are conformable to the eternall law of God but yet the holines of God is of a far higher consideration then the holines of men or angles For the will of God and his actings are not to be thought to be conformable in an accidentary manner to an eternal law but essentially and from within himself not by diverse or various vertues but by his essence as it commeth under the consideration of a will he is holy even as the same one infinite essence comming under the consideration of a mind is said to be most wise yea wisdome it selfe so that is as it were the ordering of Gods actions according to his understanding which is called the holines of God There was never a wise action or word in the world but it came out of Gods head nor never a good right or holy action but came out at his heart Again whereas the eternal law doth spring from the divine essence which as it is the first originall of all entitative perfections so also of all morall perfection and of all the rectitude of the affection and conversation It then appeareth that as holines in men and Angles doth stand in conjunction with God in affection so God most conjoyned to himself both by nature and by the affection of love must needs be exactly holy according to the saying in the schools Amor Dei est sanctitate The love of God is holines because in men it ariseth from the knowledge of his excellency which draws their souls to God Now therfore no creature can be holy as God is because no man doth know God as he knows himself You know the saying ignoti nulla cupido of a thing unknown there is no desire The reason we love God no more is because we know him no better All our want of love to God flows from our ignorance of him he is holy among men that loves God most and he will love more then others that hath a greater knowledge of God then others God knows himselfe and loves himself and this is his holines Yea he so adhears to himselfe that he will cast downe all things rather then suffer his honour to be abased Lastly in the application of the acceptation of the word holines to God you must know that holines standeth in puritie of soule free from all contagion and spot of sin therefore God is holy in himself without regard to an eternal law to be measured by There is the holines of obeying a law and the holines of being a law There is a created holines and an uncreated holines There is a regulating holines and a regulated holines Holines in man is a compleate conformitie to the will of God but in God there is a compleate essentiall will and an essentiall freedom from the least spot of sinne In Christ as man was an exact conformitie and submission to his father wil even contray to his creaturely will But in God there is much more for he essentially is holy and therefore cannot be measured by a law By this time you perceive I trust what holines is which is an attribute of God yet for further Discovery of God unto you I will speake of the diverse wayes that God is said to be holy distinctly properly and perentically so as none but him can be so said to be holy as he is Lessius God is said to be holy five manner of waies according to the doctrine of the schooles First Radically because the devine nature is the first root and originall fountaine of all sanctitie and puritie For from the essence of God in our manner of conceiving things both the eternall law and all love in God of himself and all purity called by some the chastity of God doth flow and come Schaerpius For although there be not in God a priority of nature in any regard yet we must conceive in him a prioritie of order To clear up this by familiar instances or similitudes though the beames of the sun be assoone in in nature as the sun yet we must account the sunne to be the radicall cause of those beames So also assoone as there is fire there is light and heate yet is the fire in order to be conceived before either of them And so now you may see my meaning when I say holines is radically in God I meane the essence of God is the radicall cause roote and fountain of that holines which is in God As God the sonne hath alwaies been the sonne of God and begotten from everlasting and is called the wisdome and word of God So upon the same account the holy Ghost is the love and holines of the Godhead and divine essence and so proceedeth from the father and the sonne this helpeth us to discerne some what of the great mystery of the Trinitie And so although not the same truth yet a truth like unto this would I hold forth in this Doctrine of radicall sanctitie Secondly God is objectively holy because he is the object of all holines For not only it is true of the holines of angels men but even of the holines of God that it is placed in the love of and conjunction with God God is the supream of all things and most simple and pure and the cheifest purity is in cleaving to him and purity is holines or the chastity of God therefore God is holy objectively as the measure of all holines and the fit object of selfe love For as in men impurity commeth by touching things below as when our faces are soule or our garments dirty And in our soules there is defilement by cleaving inordinatly to the world and worldly things so purity springs by acquaintance with things above when our affections do ascend to high and more noble things and do stick to them And so God leaveth to himself and is the object and measure of his own holines Thirdly God is holy exemplarily in manner of a rule or coppy The conformitie of the soule and life of man to the eternal law is true holines such conformity is in God to himself and law though not because it is his law which is the rule of holines Fourthly formally God is holy he cleaves to himselfe who is most pure and is therefore formally holy God is the love of himselfe this is his holines and because he loveth himselfe infinitely as he is lovely infinitly therefore he is infinitely holy Yea God in the love of all his creatures is holy Psalme 145 17. He is holy in all his workes 1. He loves them for his own sake Sanctum esse est amare Deum et gloriam ipsius in omnibus procurare To be holy is to love God and to seeke his glory in all things And so he is holy in all his workes And Secondly he is holy in all his works because
must know that as God only hath immortality essentially and immutably so likwise all kindes of goodness are only in God firme and sure Saints might fall Angels might fall the Saints in heaven might fall and dy also againe were it not that God holds them to their estates he hath brought them unto and will even as the Psalmist saith Psalme 91.4 He shall cover thee with his feathers and under his wings shalt thou trust his truth shall be thy shield and buckler But for more cleare and full answer to the place in Ezekiel You must know that the Holy Ghost meanes not truly gratious neither is it the scope to prove falling from grace but to cleare the Lords justice and my scope is to shew the deadly hatred God beares to sinne And either by righteous in that place we are to understand a moral legal righteous man or else it is a caution to prevent a righteous mans falling if we will understand it of Gospel righteousnes Or lastly as I intimated in the beginning of my Answer to his Question it may be true of a righteous man considered in himselfe not in relation to God or Christ that he may turne from his righteousnes as Angels and Adam did We have a rule conditional suppositions are of things impossible aswell as of possibles therefore make what ye will of the text yee can never necessarily conclude either with Bellarmine that a man may Exuare cor novum put away a new heart that faith may be lost Lib. 3. de Inst c. 14. Quid clareus quomodo quaeso avertitur justus à justicia si fide sola justificatur fides semel concepta extergui non potest or with Arminians that it is so evident that every one may see it that a just man may totally and finally fall away Hominem justum posse totaliter de ficere Ames in antisynod de presen Sanct. c. 2. Christ tells his disciples that he would send the comforter that he might abide with them forever that he might dwell with them and be in them John 14.16.17 But I must end this businesse which is but by the by God must needs hate sin seeing one sin in the evening of a mans age persisted in unto death will make God forget all former services done to him this is the third evidence Fourthly Gods willing the abased incarnation and dolorous death and passion of his sonne that sinne might be abolished is the highest discovery of his hatred towards it If nothing but the blood of his owne son be able to remove sin it shall be laid down rather then God will endure it so hateful is sin and so loathsome in the eyes of God And therefore Soules do but consider this ye that make light of sin see and consider a little what sinne is in the account of God in whose ballance all things must be wayed Yea look upon the readines of Christ to make his soule an offering for sin to lay down his pretious life that this ugly thing sin so hateful to Gods holines might be slain as well as satisfied for and that Gods soul might be eased and comforted justice being satisfied which the holy severitie of God did call for I have beene very long upon the formalitie of Gods holines which as you may remember is the fourth way or manner God is said to be holy in A Fifth and indeed the last way or manner is that God is said to be holy Eminently and causally as the fountain and begining of all sanctitie in creatures As he is the root of all holines the object the example viz. of and unto his own holines and formally holy also as hath largly been demonstrated So likewise to the creator of all creatures holines He is the Efficient Formall Exemplary and final cause He hath first infused all holines into Angels and men which they have he converteth men to himselfe he doth away the spots of their sinnes he plants in them the light of grace and good inclinations All holines comes from him and what have we that we have not received from him who only it is that makes men to differ So that God is causally holy the efficient cause of all holines in the sons of men He it is that rooteth out sin and cleanseth them from filthines and planteth in them holines by his holy spirit And thus our God is holy as he doth effect holines Secondly he gives the very species of holines Holines as I have told you is placed in loving God and his waies Christ and his people Now it is God that forms Christ in us and gives a spirit of conformitie to him in holines He is the formal cause of holines in creatures not informing but in a higher way without imperfection we are transformed by the renewing of our mind Rom. 12.2 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the new creature the change of the soule as the worke is variously termed is wholy from God And so their people come to be willing in the day of Gods power in the beauties of holines Ps 110.3 Then when they have a holy frame of spirit they being to value ordinances and run too and fro for the increase of their knowledge Daniel 12.4 they cleave unto God and one to another praying in the Holy Ghost Jude ver 20. and submiting themselves one to another in the feare of God Ephes 5.21 Even as the father loveth the sonne and the sonne loveth the father and God loveth himselfe because of the holines in their divine essence so it is with the Saints that are made to be holy and are renewed Thirdly God is exemplarily the cause of holines in creatures he hath laid a coppy before us according to which we should square our lives He is principum exemplare Not only the mind and will of God revealed in the scripture but also the histories of Gods dealings in point of holines who would have us walk as he hath and be holy as he is holy And yet this is not all we have a plaine familiar coppy a demonstration before our eys I mean the behaviour and conversation of Christ in the daies of his flesh he hath left us an example that ye should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2.21 Such as walk according to these coppies and this rule peace be on them and mercy and upon the Holy Israel of God Gal. 6.16 Fourthly All the holines of the creature is directed unto God and his glory as unto its end Therefore the creature is sanctified and made holy that it may be for God the utmost end and honour him and praise and glorifie him And take this for a truth no action is any further holy then Gods glory is the end of it The Pharises almes fastnings and prayers were materially good but because their owne praise and not Gods glory was that which they aimed at this was that spoild all And therefore Christians well is that we have a Christ for seeing
the frowardnes of the wicked Whose waies are crooked and they froward in their pathes And surely such are an abomination to the Lord Prov. 3.32 And the Holy Ghost Prov. 4.24 Wills us to put a way a froward mouth and perverse lips The sonnes of Belial are like thornes they cannot be taken with hands he that shall touch them must be fenced with iron and the staffe of a speare Such expressions there be 2 Sam. 23.6 7. A man must get pikes and prongs and freathing gloves to meddle with some men But God is of a sweet and good nature He is gratious and merciful slow to anger and of great goodnes And such thornes and briers and furses he will set them on fire They shall be utterly burnt with fire as yee have it in the forenamed 2 Sam. 23.7 We have a good rule Prov. 3.29 Devise not evill against thy neighbour seeing he dwelleth securely by the Wicked mischeivous men are at best but like bushes to the sheep that come to them for shelter They will be sure to pluck their fleece if they do not tear their flesh These have not that Philanthropy which is in God They are not like him which is in God they are not like him The Second Use teacheth us that if the Lord be such a sweet God and so willing and so ready to do good to every body that come unto him and are capable of his goodnes then for us to be sweete in our speeches and words and good and usefull in our carriage serving our generations and shewing our selves ready and willing to do good to all must needes be pleasing to God Psalme 149.4 For the Lord taketh pleasure in his people he will beautifie the meeke with salvation We must needs please God in being sweete spirited and usefull to every body for we are then like unto God and it is a token that we feare God As we read Nehemiah 5.8.9 When Nehemiah had rebuked the Nobles and the ●ulers for exacting usury when he and others had beene enforced to redeeme their bretheren after their abilities saith he it is not good that ye do ought ye not to walke in the feare of our God c. Ye see to do good is to walk in the feare of God And it is a great commendation given to Hananiah by Nehemiah cap. 7.2 That he was a good man or faithfull and feared God above many And this is a sure rule that such as be not good folkes have not the feare of God before their eies We should be good to every body Gal. 6.10 As we have therefore opportunitie let us do good unto all men especially unto them who are of the houshold of faith And therefore let such take comfort as be good people and usefull in their generation it shall not be forgotten of God For Math. 25.23 His Lord he that had improved his talents his Lord said unto him well done good and faithfull servant c. and from the 34. verse of that chapter onwards Then shall the king say unto them on his right hand come ye blessed of my father inherite the kingdome prepared for you from the foundation of the world What what 's the reason such must go to heaven Because saith the King to wit Christ I was an hungred and ye gave me meat c. and so such as do give to drinke to one of those little ones that do believe in Christ a cup of cold water only in the name of a Disciple are assured not to lose their reward Math. 10.42 But on the contrary side such as are not good and charitable much more such as are pernicious and mischievous must take what is alotted for them Math. 25.41 Then shall he say to them on the left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devill and his Angells Though men either cannot or will not order them and deal with them yet God will For such as are wicked and love violence his soule hateth Psalm 11.5 Vse 3 And therefore if God be good and if to be good be to be like unto God and if they that be not good be not like God then we may hereof make this third Use to excite and stir up all such as would please God and do thinke that he is worth the imitating to endeavour to become good people and to be full of good workes And to that end that ye may so be and do as I have said I shall advise you First to make it your study how ye may be most profitable as it is said of Christ Math. 4.23 That he went about all Galilee teaching in their Synagogues and preaching the Gospel of the kingdome and healing all manner of sicknes and all manner of disease among the people And never any came to Christ that had neede of any thing but Jesus Christ did help them and was willing to do every body good So farre as they were capable T is true indeed Math. 13.58 He did not many mighty workes in his owne country but it was Because of their unbeliefe So farre I say as creatures were capable and willing he went about doing all good both to soule and body So I presse this upon you I would have you study which way ye may be doing most good So when God shall take you away by death it may be said to your praise and honour ther 's a good man gone there 's one that a great many will finde the want of for he was a good man he did a great deale of good Beloved in the Lord not they that have most but they that having it do most good are the best men in the Parish and Town Such as improve their authority and wealth and wit to the good of all these are good men these are like unto God Good magistrates good Ministers good Townsmen good neighbours are like unto God and will have honour in spight of malice But on the other side let men quarrel and complaine never so much that they are neglected Honos fugientem sequitur sequentem fugit and swagger what they will do yet they shall never have the portion that belongs to good men The more they hunt after respect the further off shall they be from it let men keepe up their credite with God and leave God to keep up their credit with men And therefore if ye would be accounted the best men in the places where ye dwell labour to excell in doing good I may say to some which are discontented for want of that honour which they expect for this ye know is the great quarrell of this place as God once did to Caine Gen. 4 7. If thou do well shalt thou not be accepted And if thou doest not well sinne lieth at the doore O be stirred up to do good to be like unto God to do worthily in Ephrata and to be famous in Bethlehem Ruth 4.11 That is where your estates be and your lands ly O