Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	nature_n	person_n	union_n	4,088	5	9.9328	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B02482	Christ alone exalted in the perfection and encouragements of the saints, notwithstanding sins and trials. Volume III. / Being laid open in severall sermons by the late spirituall and faithfull preacher of the Gospel, Tobias Crispe, D.D.	Crisp, Tobias, 1600-1643.; Cokayn, George, 1619-1691.; Pinnell, Henry.	1648 (1648)	Wing C6959; ESTC R233167	185,508	400

In this he is a Housholder with a witnesse he cannot eat his morsels alone he must impart that he hath The tender mother if she have but a bit the childe must have half with her and participate thereof And therefore in the 1. of Iohn he is full of grace and truth saith the Holy Ghost and of his fulnes we have received grace for grace What better Husband can you desire in the world then to have his whole purse at your command You are not at stint and allowance you may draw till you are weary there is no shutting up of the chest of his treasure he is a Fountain set open for you But to draw towards our purpose There are two offices the Holy Ghost is pleased to acquaint us withall proper unto Christ as an encouragement to win people unto him The first is generall in respect of creation and providence over the whole world the second is peculiar and speciall over the Church alone that is the office mentioned in the Text He is the head of the body the Church the beginning In the words you may observe with me a Proposition and an Eposition and Interpretation or an Allegoricall Proposition and the exposition of the Allegory The Allegoricall Proposition is He is the head of the body The interpretation of it is He is the beginning of the Church In the words note whose office this is that is here spoken of it is he that is the Head even the Image of the invisible God the deare Son of God Secondly note the office it self what that is It is Headship He is the Head of the Church He is the beginning Thirdly note among whom this office is executed and for whose use he doth execute this office that is the body interpreted to be the Church the severall members of Christ I will not set down any other Proposition but what the Apostle hath stated in the Text using his own words Christ is the head of the body the Church the beginning A head and so consequently a body admits of a threefold consideration Sometimes it is taken naturally and so proportionably it hath a body consisting of naturall members Sometimes a head is taken politically and so proportionably it hath a body politique But here it is taken spiritually for a spirituall head and a spirituall body Christ is the head and the Church you see is the body so that this is here a mysticall body And the Church is called a body not that it hath a compleatnesse without a head but in reference to the head it is called a part of the whole A body and a head is but a compleat body indeed Sometimes the body goes for a part and sometimes for the whole Here it is taken for a part only But that we are to insist upon is this First to take into consideration who this is that is the head Secondly what this office of Headship doth import unto us Thirdly how this Head is furnished to the office that is proper for a head to a body Fourthly and then as time will give leave we will have a word or two of application First who this Head is You will say we need not ask the question it is confest by all it is Christ It is true it is so but yet there is a mystery in it and peradventure the thoughts of many persons are something more confused in the apprehension of Christ as he is Head then haply they might be And it may be there might be a more cleer apprehension of Christ considered as he is Head then yet there is among us I will therefore as cleerly as possibly I may state unto you under what confideration Christ is to be considered being head of his Church or of his members Note for the making way to this that there are five very distinct things in Chrirst I say all five distinct one from another and all of them as you shall hear in the closure concurre together in Christ as head of the Church First in Christ the● is the one only divine nature and Godhead there is no God in the world but the God that Christ is This is worth your consideration for the mindes of men are apt frequenty to 〈…〉 so between God and Christ as if God were one and Christ distinctly another 〈…〉 God 's when as the truth is there is no other God 〈◊〉 the world but what Christ himself 〈◊〉 My Lord and my God said Thomas speaking to ●hrist And in the 2. chap. or this 〈◊〉 to the Colossians vers 9. the Apostle saith th●● in 〈◊〉 dwels the fulnes of the Godhead bodily In the begining was the Word and the 〈◊〉 was with God and the Word was God In 〈◊〉 1. chapter of Iohn and the 1. vers Christ is God there is but one God in all the world and therefore you must know that you are never to separate in your thoughts God from Christ Alwaies as you look upon Christ so look upon God or as you look upon God look upon God no otherwise then as he is in Christ as if there were another God besides what Christ is for there is no such thing Secondly besides the Godhead there is the eternall ineffable personality in Christ as he is God so he is the Son And in this though we cannot fathome the difference yet certainly there is a personall difference between the Fatherhood and the person of the Son There is but one God as I said before but the persons are three the Father is one the Son is another and the Holy Ghost is another There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one Now the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost are not all one personally but the Son is the Son and the Father is the Father But the Godhead of the Father and of the Son is one that is the true meaning there is a difference between the person of the Father and the person of the Son but this matter is not to be pryed into by humane wit For this of all the mysteries in Scripture is the pure object of meer faith there is no humane way to illustrate the difference between the eternall Fatherhood and the eternall Sonship Thirdly in Christ there is a distinct human nature that is as this man is not that man such a distinct individuall human nature Christ hath having a peculiar soul and body of his own that which was born of the Virgin Mary and suffered upon the crosse distinct I say from our individuall souls and bodies Fourthly in Christ there is to be considered an ineffable and incomprehensible hypostaticall Vnion of the divine nature of the second person in the Trinity and humane nature in one person There is difference between the being of God and man considered severally and the being of Christ as Mediator The Godhead of Christ is not the Mediator simply the Manhood of Christ is not

that you sin not in the words before This is urged as an Argument to perswade them namely Wee have an Advocate with the Father We have considered already the force of this Argument to prevaile to this thing required and we have considered something concerning the nature of the Argument it self If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Here we considered what the Advocateship of Christ is namely to plead a sentence for his peoples discharge according to the rules of justice and equity Secondly whose cause it is that Christ doth advocate or plead Thirdly how Christ is qualified and gifted unto this office of Advocateship He is first Christ that is called of God and furnished by the Lord unto it Secondly he is Jesus Christ an effectuall and prevailing Advocate an Advocate that saves every client harmlesse whose cause hee doth plead Jesus is as much as a Saviour of his people from their sins We have considered thirdly further that Christ is qualified with righteousnesse and herein also the strength of the plea of Christ or the Argument of his plea He pleads discharge from sinne by vertue of his own righteousnesse Now because this discharge doth depend upon this righteousnesse of his We have proposed to your consideration what this righteousnesse is that hath such strength of plea as to obtain discharge from sin to the members of Christ after they have committed sin wee have proposed it first negatively secondly affirmatively The righteousnesse that obtains discharge from sin is no righteousnesse of our own nothing we do hath prevalency in the Court of Heaven with God for our discharg● It is not our tears our prayers or our fasting● that do prevaile with God but the righteousnesse of Christ only by the way a word o● two before I go on Let none think that th● denying efficacy unto our performances for th● procuring of our discharge from sinne doth wholy take away or derogate or eclypse these performances which are the things God himselfe calleth for at our hands I am not ignorant what an aspersion is rather by men collected then what can be justly raised out of what I have delivered as if there should be a slighting and a derogating from the performances that are the businesse of a Christians conversation as if denying efficacy to prevaile for discharge should be the overthrowing of these performances in Gods people You know what is said of fire It is a good servant but a bad master usefull in the harth dangerous i● the top of a house I say the like of all performances whatsoever keep them within their due bounds they are for excellent uses and for excellent purposes Let them break out of their bounds and they are dangerous Rivers are usefull but when they overflow their banks they drown all they are good creatures within the banks and water is usefull and necessary for many purposes but nothing more dangerous and destructive when it rieseth too high Exact performances once into the Throne of Christ give performances the peculiar priviledges of Christ and they deny Christ keep them in subordination to Christ they are usefull in their kinde Pr●yer and fasting and circumspect walking and holinesse of conversation so farre as they are kept within these bounds namely the glorifying of God the manifestation of thankfulnesse and our due obedience to divine Majesty doing good to others and as they are looked upon as the Ordinances of God in the performances of which the Lord will be graciously pleased to meet with his people and in them make good to them things that are freely given by him before in Christ so farre they are exceeding usefull As for instance God calls forth unto prayer he calls forth unto fasting what is the encouragement of men to performe these services not a prevalency that these services themselves have with God but because that he hath promised that when his people call he will answer So for the promise sake we are encouraged in the expectation that the Lord will be as good as his word when we meet with him where he calls us forth to meet with him so far we are encouraged These things will I doe saith the Lord yet for all this I will be inquired of by the house of Israel Observe it well and in it you shall see the usefulnesse in seeking God in any way that the Lord will be sought in First the Lord saith These things will I do the Lord hath bound himself he cannot alter it the word is gone out of his mouth the thing shall come to passe when it is once gone out of his mouth he will make that good for his own sake and I will be sought unto by the house of Israel I will doe it you shall seeke mee and when you seek me I will make it good So when we come to the Ordinances wee look to what God hath promised and upon what God hath ingaged himself to make good to us And when we are upon the Ordinances our eye is or ought to be upon the promises not upon our performances and the Ordinances as if these our qualifications and doing this or that were the procurers of that we desire but the procurer of that is that which moved the Lord to make a promise Secondly as our righteousnesse hath not plea in it to prevaile of it selfe for discharge of sin after commission so neither hath faith it self any prevalency for the discharge of sin I say the plea of saith it self hath no efficacy and strength in it to get discharge from sin Faith improperly is called the righteousnesse of God Look into the 10. of the Romans the Apostle expresseth himselft us The righteousnes of faith speaks on this wise c. Here by the righteousnes of faith there cannot be meant the righteousnesse of the act of believing but the righteousnesse of Christ believed on I came to this assertion that faith hath not such prevalency of plea to discharge from sin I say not a prevalency of plea as to obtain the discharge from sin Nay saith hath not this prevalency so much as to be an instrument to unite a soul unto Christ in its first union I shall desire beloved in this case yet once more to be marked and heeded both attentively and spiritually and ingenuously and candidly The assertion I delivered was this and the reason why I deliver it again I will tell you by and by There is I say not such a thing as an uniting and cementing nor knitting power in faith as that faith doth or should become the instrument to unite a soul in its first union unto Christ For before such believing a soul is united unto Christ and a soul must be united unto Christ before it doth or can believe I said this of elect persons still and so carried it along to the end of the discourse That an elect person is united unto Christ before he can believe on Christ Something I said before for the

divine nature gave up it self though only in the second Person God was in Christ as much as to say whole God the divine nature assumed a humane nature and so makes up a Christ And thus God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself You shall see in the Apostles expression elsewhere that the beginning of life in a member of Christ flows from Christ Your life is hid with Christ in God It is such another phrase as the two former It is hid with Christ in God that is it is hid in that God who by being man is become Christ For that is all the difference between God and Christ all the difference I say is between God simply and absolutely considered in himself and God considered as ineffably united to the humane nature God I say thus united becomes Christ and so in such a union is reconciling the world unto himself and takes the Church who is his body The Apostle tells us further Now I live but he presently checks himself yet not I but Christ lives in me Christ is the soul of the body and as the body without a soul is dead so a person without Christ is dead I will not dispute that needlesse dispute of the Philosophers whether the soul be seated in the head principally or in the heart but this I am sure of the life and soul of the Church is in the head of the Church I am the way the truth and the life he is the life of the soul of man as the body without the soul is dead even so if there could be such a thing as the body of the Church without Christ that body were but a dead thing It hath all animal vertue from him alone It hath all life in all respects from him Take life in the first fruits in its sence or motion all spirituall sence all spirituall motion all spirituall actions and activenesse for action receives being and beginning only from Christ Hee is given for a covenant to open the blind eyes All eyes are blind till Christ opens them there is no seeing till the body receive sight and seeing from the head The head causeth us also to sinell as wel as to see the sweet savour of the ointment of Christ that makes the Virgins love him Because of the sweet savour of thy oyntments therefore do the Virgins love thee Now this savour the smell thereof being as the smel of a field that the Lord hath blessed to smel this is the sole work of Christ himselfe So also the spiritual taste to tast how good God is to relish the fatnesse and marrow and sweetnesse of the spirituall wine well refined upon the lees is all by the power of Christ and hath its being from Christ So all our feeling to feel comfort joy unspeakable and glorious all is from Christ Christ opens our eyes he boars the eares he causeth us to smell You will say all this is the worke of the Spirit why doe you say it is the work of Christ Mark what John saith in the 16. chapter the words are these He that is the spirit shal glorifie me For he shall receive of mine and he shall shew it unto you The Spirit himselfe as he dealeth with the members of Christ is the agent of Christ proceeding from Christ communicating that that is Christs to those members So that the Spirit is as it were the conduit-pipe through whom the fulnesse of the fountaine conveyes it selfe and runs forth to every member The Spirit is as the veins and nerves in the naturall body The blood you know hath its fountain from the liver but the veins carry it into every part of the body And as the naturall eye cannot see except the nerves feed it with visive spirits so neither can any eye behold the secrets of the Lord the hidden things of Christ such as he thanks his Father hee reveales unto babes while he hides them from the wise of the world except the Lord Christ do feed the members with his own Spirit It is not the eye that doth discerne and see of it selfe but the spirits that do come from the head cause sight by the eye For there may be an eye and no sight where a want of these spirits are Looke over all the Book of God and you shall finde that there is no action that comes from the Spirit but Christ is the head and spring of it You shall finde the strength and hearts of people faile when hee withdrawes himselfe It is hee that is the strength of them for ever Feare not saith the Text be not dismayed I will uphold thee I will strengthen thee There must needs be miscarriage for want of power except Christ come with his strength and power to uphold Therefore when Paul exhorts those to whom he writes to worke the workes of the Lord hee gives them this counsel Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might and again saith hee Put on the whole armour of God Now it is a vain thing to think of taking up of arms except there be strength to manage them Saul thought David to be a puny when he was to sight with Goliah and had no regard to him although hee might have good armour on hee was too little a man What Saul thought of David is true of all the whole armour of God it is to no purpose except men be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might And therefore when Paul was in a strait hee begged and begged again to have strength given though hee had not an answer to his mind yet God told him My grace is sufficient for thee My strength is made perfect in weaknesse All persons are weak but as they have strength in Christ Yea there is no strength but what is his and is sent by him Let me tell you this and I beseech you consider they that have Christ for their head they have an infinite advantage above the closest hypocrite in the world although he goe never so farre All he doth is but from a weake principle Christ is not the principle of that hee doth but hee that hath Christ for his head hee hath a spring of fulnesse The Holy Ghost tells us He is full of Grace and Truth and in him dwells the fulnesse of the God-head bodily and It pleased the Father that in him all fulnesse should dwell So that you may plainely see that the preaching of Christ as head and setting up of all the glory of Christ is not the preaching of licentious liberty to men Hee that can win a person to be a true member of this head that is Christ hee brings that person into a fat soile hee transplants him from a barren soile from a rocky soil into a rich soile whereby he come to abound in all manner of fruitfulnesse And certainly beloved fruitfulnesse will be more abundant as the soule can apprehend it selfe by true faith to be a part of this head