Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	according_a	act_n	act_v	509	4	7.6801	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30929	Natural theology, or, The knowledge of God from the works of creation accommodated and improved, to the service of Christianity / by Matthew Barker ...	Barker, Matthew, 1619-1698.	1674 (1674)	Wing B777; ESTC R20207	99,798	210

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an implanted Word and partly by what the large power of his intellectual Faculty might gather from the Works of Creation by both which he was led to God as his ultimate end Now the Light of Nature as it is now found in Man is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the dark and weak remainders of this Image still which the Apostle saith the Heathens had who had nothing of the verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the external Word either by Writing or any other way of Revelation The Text may seem a Paradox for it speaks of things Invisible that are seen If seen how are they Invisible And if Invisible how are they seen And therefore I must explain the Text. 1. And first I shall shew what are the Invisible Things of God spoken of in the Text. 2. How these Invisible Things are seen and understood from the Creation of the World and the things that are made 3. How upon the account thereof the Gentiles are said to be without excuse 1. For the First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 By the Invisible Things of God are meant his Being and the Properties and Attributes of his Being and which is exprest in the Arabic Version These are called the Things of God Proprietates ejus quae non sunt visae Arab. not as if in God there was Thing and Thing or any multiplicity diversity or variety in his Being as there is in the Beings of Men where the Mind is one Faculty and the Will another the Faculty is one thing and the Act another Wisdom is one thing and Power another Habit is one thing and Operation another the Whole is one thing and Parts another For the Nature of God is perfect Unity Identity Simplicity without any division or composition Mens soluta libera segregata ab omni Concretione As Cicero speaks of God Tusc q. lib. 1. p. 118. where Mind is the same with Will Act with Power Wisdom with Goodness c. but God speaking to Men speaketh of himself as we are able to understand And therefore we read of Attributes and Properties in his Being as if these were distinct things which yet are all one in Him and are his Essence and Being rather than the Attributes of it Now these are the Invisibles of God As God himself is said to be the King Eternal 1 Tim. 1. 17. 1 Tim. 6. 16. Immortal and Invisible and to dwell in Light Inaccessible Operationes Dei descendunt ad nos essentia tamen manet inaccessa whom no Eye hath seen or can see So are all the Attributes of his Being in themselves invisible Though his Goodness Power and Wisdom are visible in their Effects yet as they are in God they are invisible For God being a Spirit cannot be seen by a corporeal Faculty for all sensation is made by a suitableness of the Object to the Sense Nay the Soul it self though it is a Spirit while it dwells and acts in the Body cannot see God as he is because it acteth here according to the Law and capacity of its present state Which is to understand and see things by those Species and Images which are presented to it from the Phancy and conveyed to the Phancy from the Sense But how it may see God and understand in its separate state is not my present work to enquire for the Apostle speaketh in the Text of Man in his present state and so these things of God are invisible to him as to any immediate and intuitive sight of them For they are not absolutely invisible for the Soul when it is fortified and fitted may be capable of seeing them but it cannot in its present state Propter excessum intelligibilis supra intellectum Aquin. For the excess of the Object above the faculty as the light of the Sun is to the eyes of a Bat. 2. How are these Invisible Things of God said to be clearly seen from the Creation of the World The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greek word may be best rendred Despiciuntur Are seen here below which we render clearly seen will not well bear that interpretation neither can I find it so in any other Translation For the clear sight of God and of his Attributes is rather to be seen in Christ than in the Works of Creation who is called the brightness of his Fathers Glory Heb. 1. 3. Or it is rather reserved for the future than attained in this present state But yet these Invisible Things of God though more darkly may be seen from the Creation of the World and the Things that are made as the Apostle here asserts Now by the Creation of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is either here meant the beginning of its Being and so the beginning of Time and then the Apostle means that those Invisible Things of God have been discovered and seen a constitutione Mundi from the first beginning of the World in the things that are made Those Attributes of his that were Invisible did then manifest themselves in visible effects and not before And this sense the Syriac The beginning of the World is sometimes exprest by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eph. 1. 4. or by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mar. 13. 19. but not by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and some other Translations do seem to follow though disapproved by most of others As also by most of our Modern Expositors Doctor Hammond excepted Therefore by the Creation of the World I conceive is meant the Things created especially the first Mass and Chaos which alone was properly and strictly the effect of God's Creating Power Creatio est emanatio universalis entis ex nihilo Aquin. Now here is seen God's Eternal Power considering that he did Create not with labour and difficulty but by his Word not out of praeexistent Matter but out of Nothing Quest When the Apostle speaks of these Invisible Things as seen Doth he speak of the sight of the Body or of the Mind Answ He speaketh of both though chiefly of the latter For the Eye of the Body beholding this Visible World the Mind thence by the help of the Sense is enabled to infer and conclude that this must be the Effect of some Infinite Power and so the Mind doth see this Power For when the Mind by reasoning hath found out Effects in their Cause it hath an intellectual sight of what it hath discovered And that Seeing is here to be chiefly taken for the Sight of the Mind the next words more clearly shew being understood by the Things that are made which run thus in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 implies the Acts of the Mind as it doth raise it self up to the knowledg of things by its agitations and exercise And so it seeth the Invisible things of God in the Things that are made as it ascends from Finite to that which is

5. The Sea is his and he made it and his hands formed the dry Land And then addeth vers 7 8. To day if ye will hear his Voice harden not your hearts Which words the Apostle quotes in Heb. 3. as referring to Christ Moses verily was faithful in all his House as a Servant c. But Christ as a Son over his House c. Wherefore as the Holy Ghost saith To day if you will hear his Voice harden not your hearts That is the Voice of Christ vers 5 6 7. to whom the Psalmist had ascribed the Creation of the World And in Heb. 1. 10. the laying the Foundation of the Earth and the making of the Heavens is expresly attributed to Jesus Christ But I must not divert to that Controversie only to shew how the Creation of the World hath respect to Christ as its Creator not excluding the Father and the Holy Ghost for in all Works ad extrà they work as we say indivisim yet according to the order of their subsisting is the order of their working so all things are of the Father through the Son by the Spirit And the Creation of all things seems most properly to appertain to the second Person For he being the First and Immediate Off-spring of his Father it belongs to him to propagate and communicate of his Being in the things that are made which are therefore called the Off-spring of God As the Apostle quotes the Heathen Poet saying Acts 17. We are also his Off-spring And saith it also himself in the next words Forasmuch as we are the Off-spring of God And not onely Men but all created Beings may be stiled his Off-spring as they are the Finite Emanations of his Infinite Being Magne parens mundi As the Poet speaks of God And the Heathens therefore did stile God the great Father of the World Col. 1. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Jesus Christ is called by the Apostle the first-Born of every Creature or of all Creation So called as some conceive with respect to his Eternal Generation and the Creation that in time sprung from him He was brought forth by an Eternal Generation and then by him was the Generation of all the things of Time God communicated his Being Eternally and Infinitely to his Son and then by him communicates of his Being Finitely and in time to the Creatures His communication of himself to his Son is by an immanent Act wherein God did not go out of himself and so by him gave Being to the Creation in those Transient Acts wherein God doth work ad extra and goes out of himself Now what may Christians observe from hence 1. In general That the Creator of the World is also the Redeemer of it He that made all things is also the Restorer of all things The collapsed ruined World is put into his hand to raise and renew it that first made it As we read Heb. 1. 2. He is appointed Heir of all things by whom God made the Worlds He had an original Title to be Heir as Creator but hath a new Title given him as Redeemer and this he executes in the Government of the World 2. More particularly We may observe that it is the Infinite Creator of the World who hath cloathed himself with the flesh of Man and made it to subsist personally in himself Here we may behold this great Mystery Finiteness and In●inity Mortal and Immortality Divinity and Humanity the Creator and the Creature united in one Person As the Evangelist first speaks of Christ as the Creator of all things John 1. 3. and then as assuming our flesh vers 14. The Word that made all things afterwards spake and dwelt personally in humane flesh And Man's Nature being a System of the whole Creation he did in a manner cloath himself with it in his assuming our flesh As one of the Ancients to this purpose speaks Incarnatio est elevatio totius Universi in Divinam Personam Incarnation is the lifting up the whole Universe into Divine Person Which taken in a qualified sense is true And in assuming our flesh How many wonders do here meet together To see the Divine Nature stooping so low is one wonder to see the Humane Nature raised so high is another to see Man's sinful Nature assumed without sin is a third to see the Angelical Nature past by that stood nearest to God and Man's Nature assumed that stood farther off is a fourth to see the Creator assuming the Properties of a Creature which is to be finite passive dependent c. and the Creature assumed into the Properties of the Creator which is to be Infinite Almighty Omnipotent is a fifth c. So that God is hereby Humanified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas and Man as it were Deified as one speaks 3. We may further observe and that with great delight how it is the Creator of all things that is become the Head of the Church Which the Apostle suggests in Col. 1. 16. and vers 18. compared By him were all things created whether Visible or Invisible c. and he is the Head of the Body of the Church an Head not only by way of Government to rule over it but by way of Spiritual Union to influence it and dwell in it as the Head in the Body To see the Infinite Creator humble himself to look down upon his Creatures is taken notice of by the Psalmist as a great condescent Psal 113. 5 6. But to take any of them into a nearness into an oneness with himself is yet far greater He first came into a natural Union with us in assuming our Nature and into a legal Union with us by becoming our Surety and then comes into a mystical Union by making us Members of his Body through the Spirit And this Mystical Union is also set forth by a Marriage Union Ephes 5. 32. And is not this wonderful to see the Creator to match himself with a Creature and that not of the highest Order but with Man and not with him neither when at his best but when degenerated and corrupted Should we see a great King take a poor Maid from the Dunghil and match himself to her it could scarce be a shadow of this For our Maker to become our Husband as it is said Isa 54. 5. our Reasons cannot comprehend it Ambition it self can hardly aspire to such a thing And now what an honour is this to the Church to have such an Head and Husband and what security also to be under the Headship and Protection of the Creator of the World He that created all things can create Salvation for it when there is no visible matter or means out of which to bring it And he that gave Being to the first Creation can and will raise up and perfect his New Creation in his Church which he will effect by this Union it hath with himself as the Head thereof And the assurance hereof the Saints have