Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A37048
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The assurance of the faithfull, or, The glorious estate of the saints in heaven described and the certainty of their future happiness manifested by reason and Scripture / by M.D.
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D'Assigny, Marius, 1643-1717.
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1670
(1670)
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Wing D282; ESTC R24872
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26,857
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44
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the discovery of our natural weakness and necessities we shall no longer weary our selves in the pursuance of things unable to satisfie us with content Upon God we shall depend in his favour we shall be satisfied and by his happiness we shall be happy not as we are at present for the happiness of the world is increased as much by our wants as by our enjoyments but then as the constitution of our beings and our estates shall be altered we shall no longer know pleasure and felicity by their contraries in God we shall meet with the true and genuine taste of all Excellencies without the least mixture of evill Unto this glorious dependency upon God which St. Paul styles Rom. 8.21 A freedom from the bondage of corruption and the liberty of the Saints God labours at present to bring and train us up by weaning our affections from the world and by inspiring nobler desires that are not to be concerned for the possessions of this life 1. Cor. 7.30 It is the drift of St. Pauls Exhortation who wills us To be indifferent in the use of the creatures and not to abuse our selves or them by any fond Embraces or impatient wishes for that which is to subsist but for a moment It is the concern of us all that aspire to this independency not to fix our hearts nor our happiness upon the world but to be always ready to part with that which is but an impediment to our perfection and felicity for that reason God exercises us with wants and afflictions and prepares us for a Crown as Philip of Macedo did Alexander his son by actions and employments suitable to the Majesty that we are one day to represent and to the Excellency of that estate unto which we shall be promoted 3. This glorious dependency upon God that shall free us from all dependency upon the creature shall proceed from an inward and perfect communion and unspeakable union with this supream Being we shall be united unto him by our affections Gods love shall be no more clouded with judgments and trials it shall shine upon us without interruption our love in requital shall return him continual expressions of thankfulness our desires shall rest in his sufficiency all the motions of our soul shall tend to his Glory We shall also be united unto God as the members are united unto the Head by an inward and continual infusion of his divine Spirit in our souls and by an humble submission to the motions of divine Wisdom that shall govern us or as the subjects are one with their Prince so God shall be one with us 1 Cor. 15.2 he shall reassume the supream Authority which he exerciseth at present by a Mediator and shall appear as our soveraign Lord whose glory will be our interest we shall also be united unto God by such a manner as is not to be expressed Joh. 17.24 Admirald de vita aeterna Such will be this union as shall promote us to an inward sight of God to a perfect resemblance with him and to an eternal familiarity with God the Father such will be this union that we shall enjoy with the Incomprehensible Being the same felicity Rev. 21.9 and be swallowed up in the immensity of his glory Rev. 21.11 This union is signified unto us by a marriage because Christ considered there not only as a Mediator but as God shall enter into a stricter alliance with men and shall become one with them in an unspeakable manner Therefore St. Paul styles it a great mystery Ephes 5.32 At present we are united unto God by the Holy Ghost that is called the Spirit of Christ by the reception of his benefits in the Sacraments and by Prayer that causeth a continual entercourse and correspondency to be entertained between God and our souls But then these imperfect unions shall cease and give place to a more perfect and glorious Ephes 3.19 to a limited participation of all the divine Attributes that are communicable to such a union as shall raise us above all natural capacities our divine Estate unto which God designs us By the present we may judge of the future 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide colos 1. 19. de Christo What means our gracious God to bestow that cost to employ those glorious Agents in our present satisfaction if he intended not to bring us to a condition suitable to these hopeful beginnings What means the Father to sacrifice his onely begotten Son to expose him to all the affronts that nature is able to receive What means he to send the Holy Spirit to enrich us with his most precious and divine Graces Is it onely to restore our natures to their Primitive Integrity that needed not the concurrency of such a Saviour nor the expressions of so great a Love or is it onely to fit us for an entrance into the Angelical Hierarchies I hey would not have been so inquisitive into that estate which they would have then understood and the Sacred Trinity had never been employed in such a manner in mans Redemption nor had never honoured him with those unspeakable testimonies of divine love if God had not intended him for an estate near unto himself The holy Angels had never been ministring Spirits unto us unless we had been the adopted sons of God and unless there had been something in us that is to be worthy of their services and labours which God designs for his eternal enjoyment Wherefore is it also that our nature is advanced to an Hypostatical union with the divine Word is it onely to enable Christ for the office of a Mediator or is it not also to declare unto what honour God would promote the rest of mankind were they as he is free from error and vice Wherefore do we labour to bring our lives and affections to a conformity with Christ but that we that are his brethren might enjoy in some measure that advantage which he possesseth before us and be united unto God if not in the same unseparable manner yet in such as may have some relation with that witness Christs Words in his Prayer to God at the eve of his Passion John 7.21 22 23. I pray for them that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one Unity is the perfection as well as foundation of number all things have a natural tendency to it in the world Therefore the Church of Christ of several Nations being called to a participation of the rules of his goodness 1 Cor. 15.28 they must first as the Rivers that run into the Ocean unite with God the ocean of all good before they can come to the enjoyment of those endless joyes