Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	angel_n	call_v	zion_n	29	3	8.9194	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75620	Theanthrōpos; or, God-man: being an exposition upon the first eighteen verses of the first chapter of the Gospel according to St John. Wherein, is most accurately and divinely handled, the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ; proving him to be God and man, coequall and coeternall with the Father: to the confutation of severall heresies both ancient and modern. By that eminently learned and reverend divine, John Arrowsmith, D.D. late Master of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge, and Professor of Divinity there.	Arrowsmith, John, 1602-1659.	1660 (1660)	Wing A3778; Thomason E1014_1; ESTC R10473	267,525	319

to be the Doctrine of the Divinity of Christ This is one word to Ministers to confute the gainsayers but it is not the main I will not therefore stand upon it in this Auditory As it is with the Angels that are ministring Spirits for the good of the Church so it should be with the Ministers that are called the good Angels of the Church The Angels are fometimes put upon conflicts with the Devil they have many combats with the wicked Spirits as may be gathered out of Daniel But this is but in order to their ministring for the good of the Elect. They conflict with evill Spirits that they may be serviceable for the good of the Church So should Ministers conflict with evill Angels but in reference to the good of the Church Speak comfortably to Jerusalem saith the Lord to the Angel Therefore I shall passe to another Use of Consolation The Word was God Beloved If this be not true say Hereticks what they Vse 2 can if this be not true That Christ was God our Preaching is in vain and your Faith in vain ye are yet in your sins Who can forgive sins but God Ye expect forgivnesse The promises cannot be made good if Christ be not God of sins by Christ What soul can get to Heaven if Christ be not God He hath promised eternall life to all that love him and believe in him How shall a man have this Promise made good if He be not God If a man that hath never a foot of land in England shall make his Will and bequeath to thee such and such Houses and Land in such a Town and County whereas he was never the owner of any such Houses or Land Certainly this Deed is null thou art never a whit the nearer enriching thy selfe with such a Legacy If Heaven be not in Christ's dispose how can we have it as his gift If Christ be not God we cannot have Heaven If Christ be not God we are all still in our sins For the Justice of God expects satisfaction to be made for the sins of men we cannot make satisfaction but our Surety must Christ is our Surety If Christ be not God our Satisfaction is null for an infinite Justice offended must have an infinite Price paid A man may satisfie the Justice of man but what man can satisfie the Justice of God Will God accept the first-born of thy body for the sin of thy soul No he will not Yet he will accept His First-born for the sins of the world for in him he is well pleased There lyeth a great deal of strength upon that place it is a speciall foundation of faith Act. 20. 28. Over which the holy Ghost Christ is God hath made you over seers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood The Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood This must needs relate to Christ And Christ is here called God and Christ's Blood is called the Blood of God Christ could never have gone through with the purchase of the Church if the Blood he shed had not been the Blood of God Whatsoever the Justice of God can exact that the Blood of God can discharge The blood of man would not have done it the blood of men or Angels would not have done it Man sinned and Man must satisfie Therefore the Human Nature must be assumed by a Surety for a man cannot do it If an Angel should have assumed Human Nature it would Humane nature assumed by none but God have polluted him Human Nature was so defiled by sin that it could not be assumed by any but God Now Christ being God the Divine Nature purified the Human Nature which he took and so it was a sufficient Sacrifice The person offered in sacrifice was God as well as Man This is a ground whereupon a Beleever may challenge Satan to say his worst and doe his worst Let him present God as terrible Let him present me as abhominable in the sight of God by reason of my sins Let him aggravate the heighth of God's displeasure and the heighth and depth and length and breadth of my sins I grant all And against all this I oppose this infinite Satisfaction of Christ Though the Justice of God cannot be bribed yet it may be satisfied Here is a proportionable Satisfaction here is God answering God The VVord was God This Word was He that laid down his life and shed his blood for us And now let Satan urge the Justice of God as much as he can The Justice of God maketh me sure of Salvation Salvation assured by Gods Justice Why Because his Justice obligeth him to accept of an adequate Satisfaction of his own appointing The Justice of God maketh me sure of mine own happinesse because if God be just that Satisfaction should be had when that Satisfaction is made Justice requireth that the person for whom it is made shall be received into favour I confesse that unlesse God had obliged himself by Promise there were no pressing his Justice thus far because Noxa sequitur caput There was mercy in the Promise of sending Christ out of mercy to undertake for us otherwise we cannot say that God was bound in Justice to accept of Satisfaction unlesse he had first in mercy been pleased to appoint the way of a Surety Justice indeed requireth Satisfaction but it requireth it of the person that sinneth Here commeth in Mercy that a Surety shall be accepted and what he doth is as if the person that offended should have done it himself Here is Mercy and Salvation surely bottomed upon both So much sweet comfort floweth from this consideration That Christ is God I come now to the second Verse Vers 2. The same was in the beginning with God What the Evangelist had affirmed in the former Verse The Word was with God he now confirmeth in this second Verse The same was in the beginning with God There is a Repetition but with some Illustration It may be thought that some or all of these three things may be aimed at First it may be thought to aime at shewing us that these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the beginning are to be referred to all the three Clauses and Propositions in the first Verse whereas they are there annexed but to one of them In the beginning was the Word saith he vers 1. Now the second Verse knitteth the same words to the second Proposition The same in the beginning was with God and the same was God So that ye must put both into that Proposition which concerneth the eternall Existency of Christ and to that which concerneth the Personall Coexistency The Word was with God and the divine Essentialnesse with God The same was God Though he were with God in the beginning may some say yet it is questioned whether he were God then This addition will prevent such mistakes to shew you the words In the beginning is

excellent speech which he writeth concerning this subject of seeing God in his hundred and twelfth Epistle where he had disputed largely about this thing he taketh himself off and saith Let us be wise ●o sobriety and not be too full of heat In the carrying on of this Argument let us dispute fairly lest while we seek in a way of contention and bitternesse how God may be seen we lose that peace without which God cannot be seen Follow peace and holiness without which it is impossible to see the Lord. I come now to the second thing the Intimacy of Christ The Intimacy of Christ with his Father with the Father which lyeth in these words The onely-begotten Son which lyeth in the bosome of the Father Christ is the onely begotten Son that is in the bosom of the Father that lyeth clearly in my Text. Of his being the onely begotten Son I shall need to say nothing now because I spake before to it upon the fourteenth Verse And the Word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us and we beheld his glory as of the onely begotten of the Father full of grace and truth This expression is to be opened here Which is in the bosome of the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is not which was to be before the Incarnation or which was to be in the bosome of the Father after the Ascension but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is in the bosome of the Father When these words were uttered and in every moment of time yea from eternity Christ is in the bosom of the Father The phrase I take it implyeth these three things The unity of Natures The dearnesse of Affections The communication of Secrets First It implyeth unity of Natures and so there is something 1. To be in the bosome of the Father implyeth unity of Natures more in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 more in unity of Natures then distinction of Persons In the bosome of the Father The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But for the unity of Natures they use 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Thus the bosome is the child's place Look to the Scripture-expressions Ye find Moses speaking of himself as a father carrying Israel as a child in his bosome Numb 11. 12. Have I conceived all this people have I begotten them that thou shouldest say unto me Carry them in thy bosom And so in Nathan's Parable 2 Sam. 12. 3. A poor man had nothing save onely a little ewe-lamb which he had brought and nourished up and it grew up together with him and with his children it did eat of his own meat and drank of his own cup and lay in his bosome and was unto him as a daughter A daughter in the bosome And so accordingly here The onely begotten Son that is in the bosome of the Father to shew the unity of Natures that is between the Father and the Son Christ being God co-equall with the Father Secondly As it implyeth unity of Natures so it implyeth 2. It implyeth dearnesse of Affection dearnesse of Affection Bosom as it is for children so for nearness of Relation The wife of thy bosome and The husband of thy bosome Deut. 28. 54. His eye shall be evill towards the wife of his bosome and verse 56. Her eye speaking of a wife shall be evill against the husband of her bosome Because of those dear affections which that nearnesse of Relation as that of Marriage calleth for between man and wife John the beloved of the Lord ye find him lying nearest Christ even in his bosome Joh. 13. 23. And there was leaning on Jesus his bosom one of his disciples whom Jesus loved The posture of leaning upon Christ's bosome was an argument that Christ loved him In this sense Jesus is the Son of the Father's bosome because the Son of the Father's love He shall translate us into the kingdom of the Son of his love This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased saith the Voice from heaven Matth. 3. 17. Thirdly Being in the bosome implyeth communication 3. It implyeth communication of Secrets of Secrets the bosome is a place for them It is a speech of Tully to a friend that had betrusted him with a secret Crede mihi c. Believe me saith he what thou hast committed to me it is in my bosome still I am not ungirt to let it slip out But Scripture addeth this hint too where it speaketh of the bosome as the place of Secrets Prov. 17. 23. A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosome to pervert the waies of judgment speaking of a bribe Prov. 21. 14. A gift in secret pacifieth anger and a reward in the bosome expiateth wrath Here is secret and bosome all one as gift and reward are one So Christ lyeth in the Father's bosome this intimateth his being conscious to all the Father's secrets So have ye an opening of this phrase Much is to be learned from it 1. Give the same Worship to Christ as to the Father First Seeing Christ's being in the bosome of the Father implyeth unity of natures this should teach us to give the same worship to Christ as we give to the Father because there is the same nature in both It is that that Christ expecteth and calleth for Joh. 5. 23. The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him Jesus Christ requireth the same honour which we give to God the Father it is fit he should have it and it is fit this honour should be pleaded for now in this age wherein many plead against the Divinity of Christ We should give him the same honour that we give to the Father Heb. 1. 6. When he bringeth him in as the first-born of the world he saith Let all the Angels in heaven worship him If they then how ought all the world to worship him We should give him the honour of Invocation praying to him as Stephen did when they stoned him he called upon God and said Lord Jesus receive my spirit As with Worship and Invocation so with Faith It is said that Abraham gave glory to God by believing in him We should give honour to Christ by exercising the act of believing in him this he called for Let not your hearts be troubled ye Joh. 14. 1. Christ the proper object of Faith believe in God believe also in me He is the proper object of faith as he justifieth Circumferentia fidei est Verbum Dei sed Centrum est Deus The whole Word of God is the circumference of faith every thing learned in it is to be believed But the center of faith as the Word justifieth that is the Word God that is Jesus Christ blessed for evermore Secondly His being in the bosome

and getteth not the fruit Would ye have Christ ye must go to God for him the reality of all is founded in him What are the things men doat upon but either honours or riches or pleasures the worlds Trinity as some call those three We shall find them all in Christ Prov. 3. 16 17. where Wisdom speaks thus that Wisdom is Christ In her right hand are riches and honour Her waies are waies of pleasantnesse Here is all three riches honour and pleasure and all found in Wisdom which is the Lord Jesus Christ Vers 15. John bare witness of him He cryed saying This was he of whom I spake He that cometh after me is preferred before me for he was before me 16. And of his fulness have all we received and grace for grace For this fifteenth verse which I am now to close with there are in it these particulars First The Witnesse-bearer that is John the Baptist John bare witnesse of him Secondly The manner of his Witnessing He cryed saying Thirdly The time when he witnessed which lyeth couched in these words This was he of whom I spake I shall open that by and by Fourthly The matter of his testimony here He that commeth after me is preferred before me for he was before me I shall begin with the first The Witnesse-bearer was John the Baptist of whom we read vers 7. that he came The office of John the Baptist for a witnesse to bear witnesse of the Light and here we find him doing what he came for He came for a witnesse and here he bears witnesse This is the Observation That a good man will not be wanting to the duty of his Observ place This was his Office and ye find him taken up in the discharge of it and so should every one be For we must walk Circumspectly not as fools but as wise not to forget the errand we are sent about Every blessed man is like that Tree Psal 1. that bringeth forth his fruit in his season which is proper to his Calling and in such a time as is most proper for that fruit Rom. 12. 7 8. Ye have an Apostolicall Injunction Let him that hath a Ministry wait upon his ministry or he that exhorts upon his exhortation He that giveth let him do it with simplicity he that ruleth with diligence he that sheweth mercy with Cheerfulnesse Men lose nothing by being imployed in that service that Nothing lost by diligence in God's service God cals them to and men get nothing by being busie in other men's matters One may be over-busie and yet in God's account but an idle person if he doth not his proper work 1 Tim. 5. 13. And withall they learn to be Idle wandring about from house to house and not onely idle but Tatlers also and busie-bodies speaking things which they ought not Busie bodies and yet idle Why why because busie in matters that concern them not The next is the manner of John's witnesse bearing He 2. The manner of his witnesse-bearing bare witnesse and cried The Baptist cried in his witnessing of Christ There is something remarkable in that whereas the Scripture contents it selfe in other Cases to say He opened his mouth and spake here John Crieth What is the mystery of this He is said to cry for some one or all perhaps of these three Reasons First In reference to a fore-going Prophecy Isaiah 1. In reference to fore-going prophecies had fore-told as much which is applied in Matth. 3. 3. speaking of John the Baptist This is he that was spoken of by the Prophet Isaiah Behold the voice of one crying in the wildernesse Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths straight He fore-told he should have the voice of a Crier therefore this voice is applied to him Or Secondly In reference to the time when he first began 2. To the time of his witnessing to witnesse of Christ and that was as Philogus telleth us in the year of Jubilee under the Law every fiftieth year the Jewes were to keep a Jubilee wherein they were to ordain liberty to their servants and restore men to their possessions that had been mortgaged Levit. 25. 9 10. Then shalt thou cause the Trumpet of the Jubilee to sound in the tenth day of the seventh month in the day of attonement shall ye make the Trumpet sound through all your Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof It shall be a Jubilee unto you and ye shall return every man to his possession and ye shall return every man unto his family John that came to be the Minister of the Gospell he began in a year of Jubilee because he was to proclaime a liberty that came by Christ who was now to be exhibited and to shew himselfe because he came by the Ministry of the Gospell to restore men to those possessions they had lost in Adam even to an Eternall Inheritance reserved in Heaven for them The year of Jubilee was to be proclaimed by a Trumpet Therefore John comes crying The Interpretation receiveth a strong confirmation of that Isaiah 58. 1. Cry aloud spare not lift up thy voice like a Trumpet and shew my people their transgressions and the house of Israel their sins Here John's voice cometh as a Jubilee-Trumpet to proclaim liberty to them that were Captive therefore he is said to Cry Thirdly Crying may referre to the temper of his spirit 3. To the fervency and alacrity in his witnesse-bearing Exod. 14. 15. in his witnesse-bearing to Christ you may note his fervency or alacrity or both Crying noteth fervency Why Criest thou to me saith God to Moses at the Red Sea when Moses was most fervent in spirit yet we read of nothing he said saith Augustine The people cried and God heard them not Moses held his peace and yet was heard because there was a louder cry within Of Christ himselfe it is said In the daies of his flesh He offered up Prayers with strong cries and tears The spirit crieth Abba Father It is a term of earnestnesse and so of alacrity too Hos 12. ult Cry out and shout thou inhabitant of Sion for great is the Holy one of Israel in the midst of thee John went about this work with a great deal of earnestnesse and delight He that leapt in his Mother's Womb when the newes came Luk. 1. 41. of the Conception of Christ now he leapeth with much more joy when he himselfe came to be the proclaimer of Christ He himselfe hath the honour to be the Day-Star that shall usher-in the Sun of Righteousnesse to be more then a Prophet He pointed at him with the finger and said This is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World Let us all learn from hence to cry up Christ in our severall places and according to our severall capacities John did so when he witnessed of him to cry up Christ with all the alacrity and fervency that may be You know how

even as the Angels It is said of them that they behold the face of God Matth. 18. 20. Christ saith there I say to you that in heaven their Angels do alwaies behold the face of my Father which is in heaven So when men come to be like Angels in a state of glory they shall also see the face of God But no man hath seen God at any time during this life God in his Essence For this we have more than one place of Scripture the same words in the Text are repeated in 1 Joh. 4. 12. No man hath seen God at any time And Paul hath a place to the same purpose 1 Tim. 6. 16. Who onely hath immortality dwelling in light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see There are but three waies that can be imagined by which man in a state of mortality can see God in his Essence either it must be by his Bodily eyes or by the eye of Reason or by the eye of Faith But a man cannot see God by any of these therefore no man can see God in that sense First No man can see God by his Bodily eye for the very 1. The eyes of our bodies cannot behold the Essence of God light wherein he dwelleth is inaccessible to the eye of sense we cannot so much as see our own souls or the Angels that are inferiour spirits How then shall we be able with our bodily eyes to see the Father of spirits the Lord of glory The Israelites could not so much as endure the shining of Moses his face How then can the eye of the body be imagined capable of that infinite glorious light that is in the essence of God And yet there is a place that speaks as if a man in the state of mortality by his bodily eyes had seen God Gen. 32. 30. Jacob called the name of the place Penuel for I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved Here is a man in the state of mortality that saw God face to face For this ye must know that Jacob did indeed see God but God in a representation not God in his essence He saw the Second Person in the Trinity in the shape of a man that wrestled with him This was all the sight of God that he had The Second Person in the Trinity before he took the nature of man took the shape of man such a shape had Christ taken here in which he wrestled with Jacob and this is that God which Jacob saw face to face not God in his essence but God in a representation And that very thing of God appearing in the Old Testament in a representation to the eyes of the body sheweth that he never appeared to them in his essence because his representations are many and his essence is one He appeared in a Bush to Moses and to Eliah in a still Voice to Jacob as a Wrestler to Joshua as a Captain of the Lord's hoast These were all representations that God was pleased to make of himself and thus men saw him But his essence all this while was invisible neither could it be diversified as his representations were being but one That is memorable which Isaiah saith Isa 6. 5. Mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of hosts The Jews took this advantage against him and said he was a false Prophet Why He said he had seen the King the Lord of hoasts whereas God saith to Moses Thou canst not see my face and live Therefore they put him to death No man can see God in his essence and live But Isaiah saw him and he said true but it was in a representation Secondly No man can see God in his essence no not by the eye of Reason Reason hath but three waies by which it 2. The eye of our Reason cannot behold him in his Essence Reason knoweth God three waies 1. By way of Causality comes to the knowledge of God and those are known to Schollars by these names Via causalitatis via Remotionis and via Eminentiae First By way of Causality and so reason comes to gather of God by all the creatures which it seeth lovely and looks at all these as effects of God as the cause of all and so comes to the knowledge of God as the first cause Thus Reason collects of God But how far is this from seeing the essence of God Reason discovers a God but not what God is in his Beeing onely that He is For no effect can shew the nature of its cause fully but either such as manifesteth the whole force of the cause or else such as is of the same kind with the cause as burning that sheweth the nature of the fire because the fire being a naturall agent burns to the utmost of its power Therefore burning sheweth what nature the fire is of as carrying the nature of the force in it As a child sheweth the nature of the father because of the same nature with the father But the creatures cannot shew God because they are of effects different from him These are parts of the way but how little proportion is readd of him The thunder of his power who can understand Neither are the creatures of the same rank and kind with God as the child is with the father they are all of them finite God is infinite So that all that Reason can do this way is to gather that there is a God but not what he is Secondly There is the way of Remotion by looking over 2. By way of Remotion all the creatures and by setting aside whatsoever savours of imperfection in them and ascribing the remainder to God Thus we say that God is Immortall Impassible Impeccable because we say that to die to suffer and to sin are the imperfections of the creature God cannot sin God cannot die God cannot lie God cannot suffer But this still comes short of seeing God in his essence for by this we see what God is not not what he is by this way of Remotion 3. The third way which is a way of Eminency Reason 3. By way of Eminency goeth over the creatures once again and looks whatsoever is good in them and savours of perfection in them and ascribes that to God as the Author of those perfections So when it seeth in Man wisdom and strength and goodnesse Reason can ascribe to God as the cause of them a more eminent goodness and wisdom and strength And this is the nearest and the farthest Reason can go And yet in all these it cometh short of the essence of God because in this way it findeth out what he is rather in regard of his qualities speaking after the manner of men then what he is in his essence Thus we cannot see God in his essence no not by the eye of Reason There is onely one more that is the eye of Faith which ● The eye of Faith cannot apprehend God in his