Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	beget_v	father_n	son_n	11,645	5	6.8465	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41434	The two great mysteries of Christian religion the ineffable Trinity, [the] vvonderful incarnation, explicated to the satisfaction of mans own naturall reason, and according to the grounds of philosophy / by G. G. G.	Goodman, Godfrey, 1583-1656.	1653 (1653)	Wing G1103; ESTC R4826	120,015	119

the state and condition of the creature But supposing the three Persons in one Deity why should the Word be made flesh the Father and the Spirit excluded Certainly if we were to make choice of the Person reason would inform us that to be the natural son of man is more agreeable to the natural Son of God then to the unbegotten Father or to the proceeding Spirit The manner of his double birth would testifie the same truth begotten in the understanding of God from all eternity conceived in the womb of a Virgin in the fulness of time The nature of that sin which was the first motive of this descent seems to fasten a necessity upon the second Person of the Trinity it was a sin against the wisdom of God the tasting of the Tree of Knowledge Eritis sicut Dii scientes bonum malum and therefore fit it was to shew the large treasures of Gods mercy and the strictness of Gods Justice that the same wisdom offended should satisfie for the offence Foelix culpa quae talem habuit Redemptorem where is the wrong where is the injury when the party offended shall satisfie and therefore we will with humility retort Gods own words upon himself who upon the fall of man could say Ecce Adam quasi unus ex nobis so now upon the fall of God that is upon the descent of God we will say Ecce Deus quasi unus ex nobis If man lose the image of God as concerning Holiness and Sanctity wherein he was first created nothing can restore this image but that which gave the first impression If man cannot conform himself unto God then for an upshot and agreement between both necessary it is that God should consorm himself unto man Man lost Gods image God takes up mans image and this was most competent to that Person in the holy Trinity who as the Apostle describes him to the Hebrews was Splendor gloriae figura substantiae Patris Observe I beseech you the creation of man being made of the earth God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life Breath if it were agreeable to Gods nature yet certainly proceeding from an intelligent Spirit it could not be bare breath but necessarily it must be accompanied with some word especially considering that in all other Creatures you shall finde the power of this word for God spake the word and they were created But here this word is concealed and therefore we may well suppose that there is some mystery concealed Behold then the first earnest of his Incarnation God intending a marriage between the Deity and the Humane Nature he takes the body of man as it were taking his wedding gloves breathes in them to extend them to warm them to sit them for himself at length puts them on Here now at length the word accompanies the breath the breath made us living souls the word shall make us quickning spirits breath gave us a natural life the word shall regenerate and give a new birth and thus by virtue of this breath by virtue of this word man hath a double root the first Adam and the second Adam taking sap from both he is Arbor arbor inversa he hath a root downward and a root upward he treads upon the earth and looks up towards heaven And thus God if ever intending the renewing of his Creatures sit it was that God should there begin where he did end Man was the last work of the Creation and therefore in man there must be the first beginning of renovation Incipiat ubi desitum est it is a rule in all works and here you shall finde it true by experience the last work is first perfected For the Word was made flesh But I would gladly demand of the Jews who do not acknowledge these mysteries either the Trinity or the Incarnation Why should God be so careful and curious in giving himself a Name a Name it is therefore ordained to make a difference in a multitude as many men of one kinde are distinguished by their names But the nature of God is one as the Sun is but one and therefore wants no name but the name of his own kinde Gods Name then as it imports no difference in his nature so it implies a distinction and difference of Persons in that one nature of the Deity This will better appear if you please to consider that great and ineffable Name of God the Name of four letters The first letter was Jod quod significat principium and doth undoubtedly betoken the Person of the Father The second was He quod vivere significat setting out the second Person as being life in himself though life by participation imparting life unto the Creatures for in him we live we move and have our being he is the Way the Truth and the Life The third letter was Vau quae vim apud Hebraeos habet Copulandi intimating the love of God proceeding from the Father and the Son whereby the Father and the Son are united The last letter it was the same with the second letter He twice repeated ut duas in filio fateamur naturas Dei Hominis And that you may conceive that this observation of the Name proceeds not from mans fancy and conjecture I pray give me leave to bring another Example to this purpose When God had tied himself unto Abraham as touching the promised seed in token hereof it pleased God to change the name of Abraham from Abram to Abraham by the addition of a letter so likewise of his wife from Sarai to Sarah by the substraction of a syllable and the addition of a letter Now you shall observe that this letter which was added to both their names it was indeed one and the same letter and it was a letter of Gods own Name the second letter of his Name that as the second Person was to be united to the nature of Abraham and Sarah so this letter given and received might serve as a pledge or an earnest to signifie that union Observe the phrase and style of Scripture Verbum Domini venit ad Isaiam venit ad Prophetas c. which form of speech to my understanding cannot be so well justified were it not that this word were a Person and that some certain manner of coming were proper and peculiar to this Person Why should God speak of himself after the manner and fashion of men I cannot disallow the opinion of our Divines that God speaking to mans understanding fit it was that he should descend to mans capacity but desiring that truth in Gods words might altogether appear I had rather apply them to an intended incarnation then to admit a bare figure in Gods words which happily to us might be some occasion of error Wherefore serve the groanings and cries of the Fathers Expectabo salutare tuum Domine Mitte quem missurus es Rorate Coeli desuper nubes pluan●… iustum

transfigured in the Mount whereby is intimated that they had Christ in figures and types So then if I shall make it appear that either the three Persons or any one of the Persons are named or appeared in Scripture we may thence very well gather that they had some knowledge of the mystery First let us view the Creation Verbo Domini Coeli formati sunt And God said Let there be light Said that is spake the word To whom should God speak when as yet there was nothing but himself So then a Word is begotten in his understanding which reflects upon the understanding and proves a distinct Person and the Word was God then follows And the Spirit of the Lord moved on the waters This Spirit could be no creature for now began the Creation the Spirit of the Lord. Surely there is nothing in God but God God can admit of no mixture or composition he is actus purus simplicissimus nothing but pure form therefore this Spirit must be God the holy Ghost Do we not here see how all the three Persons did concur as in one nature so in the same outward act of Creation From the creation of the World where it is said Dii creavit let us come to the creation of Man for whom the world was created and therefore being a work of so great moment God seems to deliberate and to enter into consultation Certainly when we enter into counsel it argues a diversity of persons or at least it must imply a greater caution that neither in words or acts there might be any mistake the rather because it is the first time that ever God spake of himself wherein frail man is usually more cautionate and wary then in any other discourse and therefore this may much more be supposed in the most wise God let us then hear God with the greatest reverence Faciamus hominem ad imaginem nostram Let us make man according to our own image the plural number which argues Persons is here twice implied both in the act faciamus let us make and in the type or sampler ad imaginem nostram according to our own image If here you shall tell me that it is an Hebrew phrase and an ordinary and usual form of speech I confess it and acknowledge it but therein I do more magnifie the providence of God who did so ordain the speech and language of men as that it should be fit to express such a mystery yet withall consider that it is otherwise with God then with men for God is Truth it is self and therefore I believe that there is not a metaphor or figure spoken of God wherein there is not a stamp of truth involved And whereas it is now frequent that great Princes do speak of themselves in the Plural number I conceive that it is therefore more justifiable because they are Politick Bodies and in a sort Corporations and so represent others and that it might imply that whatsoever they do it was with the grave advice of their Councel and therefore for the greater honor and majesty they use the Plural number Come we then after the fal of Adam to that which the Fathers call Semen Evangelii the beginning of our Redemption Semen mulieris conteret serpentis caput is it possible that when as Adam being the immediate workmanship of God and therefore of the greatest perfection created in Paradise in a state of innocency sanctified with Original grace that he should not be able to resist the temptation and yet the seed of the woman of the weaker sex should be able to bruise the head of the serpent that is utterly to destroy the Kingdom of Sin and Satan surely it must needs argue that the Son of the woman could be no less then the Son of God seeing such a Conquest farre exceeds the power of all Angels and Creatures After the sin consider the punishment and therein Gods Mercy and Compassion how he clothes the nakedness of Adam with the skins of beasts Some Divines do ask what became of the carkases of those beasts and they conceive it very credible that God did offer them up in sacrifice to himself to shew Adam the manner of sacrificing and withall to prefigure that God alone should offer up the only great sufficient propitiatory sacrifice that is that he should offer up himself to himself which must needs argue severall Persons in the Deity Hence followed as an earnest or type thereof the sacrifice of Abel and because his sacrifice was acceptable he himself was more acceptable then his sacrifice therefore he must be offered up in sacrifice to prefigure him whose blood speaks better things then the blood of Abel Hitherto Gods promises for the coming down of his Son were only tyed to mankinde but after the confusion of tongues when men were dispersed then it pleased God to make choice of his nation to promise Abraham That in his seed all generations should be blessed in token memory hereof God instituted Circumcision as it were for the honor of his issue and for the assurance of his faith that Christ should succeed and as a pledge thereof Abraham being to administer an oath to his servant takes his hand and layes it upon his loynes and then makes him swear Now in a corporall oath we ever lay our hands upon the most holy thing suppose the Bible or the Altar and therefore the servant layes his hands upon the loynes Gen. 23. 2. seeing that Christ was then in the loynes of Abraham Another memorable thing in Abraham that he saw three Angels and he worshipped one Gen. 18. 3. Which may a little set forth three Persons and one God In Isaacs sacrifice it is more manifestly implyed for God would never require that of man which he did not intend to perform unto man and therefore God requiring of Abraham to sacrifice his Son what was then only proposed God would hereafter really perform on his part in sacrificing his only Son for Abraham and his Sons Isaac gives the blessing to Jacob of whom that I may say nothing of his life the blessing which he gives unto his Sons upon his death-bed was very memorable Gen. 49. Giving his blessing to Judah from whom Christ was to descend he there prophesieth of the time of his coming and expresseth much joy and comfort therein but after speaking of Dan that he was a serpent certainly he had some relation to that cursed serpent which seduced our first Parents for Judas Iscariot who betrayed Christ was of the tribe of Dan and it is not unlike but the great Antichrist shall be of the same tribe which Jacob foreseeing suddenly breaks out into these words Expectabo salutare tuum Domine Lord I will expect thy salvation though some of my posterity shall betray thee yet lay not the sin to my charge hold me as innocent and therefore in the assured hope of Gods mercy he takes order that