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
A85440	A state of glory for spirits of just men upon dissolution, demonstrated. A sermon preached in Pauls Church Aug. 30. 1657. before the Rt. Honourable the Lord Mayor and aldermen of the City of London. / By Tho: Goodvvin, D.D. president of Magd. Coll. Oxon.	Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.	1657 (1657)	Wing G1257; Thomason E928_2; ESTC R202319	40,336	72

separate souls Glory and Happiness 1. From the Condition of the Soul as the immediate subject of Grace wrought in it 2. From Gods Ordination of the Work wrought To raise the soul up to life whilst Sin should bring Dissolution upon the body 3. From the Scope of the Worker God himself who as an Efficient will accomplish the end when his work for that end is finish'd And all these as comprehended in what the very first view and front of the words of my Text hold out God hath wrought us for the self same thing §. But lo a greater matter is here It is not simply said God hath wrought us for this but HE that hath wrought us for this thing is GOD Thereby calling upon us to consider How great an Hand or Efficient is here Even God who hath discovered in a transcendent manner his Glory in the Ordaining and Contriving of this Work unto this great End Take it Not therefore as a bare Demonstration given from Gods working US to this end such as is common to other Agents as hath been said But further a Celebration of the Greatness and Glory of God in his having contrived this with so high an Hand like unto the great God And is as if he had said There is a design in this worthy of God HE hath shewn himself in this to be the great God indeed He that wrought us for this is God When Gods ordinary Works are spoken of it sufficeth himself to say God did Thus or This But when Gods Works of Wonder then often you finde such an illustrious note of Reflection upon and pointing at Him to have done as God And it is ordinary among men when you would commend the known worth of the Artist to say He that wrought this is such a Man so to commend the Workmanship And thus both when the holy Ghost speaks of this Glory it self which is the End for which here His style is Whose Maker and Builder is God Heb. 11. 10. And in like equipage here of preparation to that End he saith He that hath wrought us for this thing is God In this very Chapter 2 Cor. 5. to go no further when the great Work of Salvation in the whole of it is spoken of he prefaceth thus to it All things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself c. that is in this transaction he hath appeared like that God of whom all things else are and so more eminently in this than in all or at least any other work What there is said of Salvation in the whole is here of that particular Salvation of a separate Soul You have the like Emphasis put Heb. 2. 10. of bringing many sons to glory it became him says the Text Now put all together and the result is The SECOND POINT That to have provided a Glory for separate Souls of just men wrought upon in this life is a dispensation becoming the great God yea and that there is an artifice and contrivement therein worthy of God and like unto himself such as he hath shewed in other his works of Wonder There are two Branches of this Doctrine which I set otherwise out thus 1. That it is a thing becoming the great God thus to deal with such a separate Soul having been wrought upon 2. That God hath designed and brings forth therein a glorious artifice and contrivement such as argueth him a God Wise in Counsel and Wonderful in Working I. First BRANCH of this second Doctrine That it becomes God The account of this becomingness is best made forth by comparing and bringing together into an enterview both the inward and outward condition of such a Soul and then the relations which God bears to it such as should thereupon move him through his good pleasure thus to deal with it You know I at first undertook chiefly Reasons of Congruity or Becomingness and such always consist of two parts and when the one answereth and suiteth to the other then the Harmony of such a Reason is made up Let US therefore consider 1. What is on the Souls 2. What on Gods part §. I. On the Souls part Therein two things First the species the kinde and intrinsecal rank of being which this creature we call the Soul thus wrought upon stands in afore God 2. The outward condition or case this Soul is left in upon its parting with the body unless God takes it up into glory First for its rank or kinde of being Therein two things 1. This Soul was by its first creation a Spirit and that in the substance or native kinde thereof and in that respect considered apart for its union with the body is in a more special manner allied unto God than all other creatures but Angels are You have the Pedegree of man both in respect of Body and Soul set out Acts 17. the extract of our bodies in ver. 26. He hath made of one blood all nations of men So then on that side as we say in respect of our bodies there is a Consanguinity of all men being made of one blood between one another But then in respect of our Souls we are Gods off-spring ver. 28. and so on that side there is an alliance not of Consanguinity unto God upon the account of having been created immediately by him and IN the very substance of our souls made like him and in his Image and yet we are not begotten of his Essence or Substance which is onely proper to His Great Son And in a correspondency unto this God is styled Heb. 12. 9. The Father of our Spirits in distinction from the fathers of our flesh or bodies see the words which alliance or fatherhood take it as in common with all mens spirits lieth in this That he not onely created our Souls immediately out of nothing but in his own Image as to the substance of them which image or likeness other creatures did not bear which yet were made out of nothing as the Chaos was both which appear by putting two places together Zech. 12. 1. He frameth their Spirits speaking of the Souls of men and that altogether saith the Psalmist Psal. 33. 15. so Ainsworth and others reade it that is both each of those Spirits and also wholly and totally every whit of the substance of them Creatio est productio totius entis for creation differs from generation in this that it is a raising up or producing the whole of a being out of meer nothing that is to say altogether whereas generation presupposeth pre-existent matter as in the generation of our bodies which are not wholly and every whit of God immediately but he parents afford the stuff the matter and the formative vertue besides by which our bodies are framed So then in respect of our first creation our souls apart considered are thus allied to God which our bodies are not being Spirits in the very being of them that altogether do owe that their being to him But there is

space Now we read Heb. 12. 12. the Apostle to hold forth this very relation of Gods being a father of spirits with this promise thereunto annexed That they should live which relation of Father c. although it be there explicitely spoken in respect of their first Creation which is common unto the Saints with others yet being uttered of and unto men in the state of Grace as those were supposed whom he there exhorteth and that to move them to be subject unto him as such with promise that they should live it evidently respecteth not meerely the relation of Father in respect of what was past the act of creating them but it looketh to the future That they depended upon him as children do upon Fathers for their future livelihood so these for to live in him and with him as a father to their Spirits by Grace For I take hold of that word and live this life is well interpreted by ver. 14. They shall see God that is be glorified and so I conclude all thus that if he would have them be subject unto God in holinesse as upon that relation as unto the father of spirits with this promise That they should live then surely one speciall aim of the promise is answerable and hath this eye That God as a Father of their spirits will therefore take care of their spirits singly and so when separate that they shall live And that accordingly he will give demonstration of this special relation born to their spirits when the occasion shall be considered apart in bestowing this life on them and truly when its more proper for him to shew himself a Father then when their souls after their subjection to him in holinesse here accomplished and when that as naked spirits they come to stand in need and stand afore him in his presence being now turned out of house and home and quite cashired out of this world and come stript and naked of all but holinesse unto their Father for it is said They return to God that gave them who proves to be their Father by Grace And doubt not of it but he will certainly then own them and give them a Fathers blessing and not reject them as if they were but Bastards and no children as that Chapter to the Hebrews speaks but as spirits who as sons that have served him and been subject to him Add to this Fourthly God his being our God which is more home to the demonstration of this point then all the former The Text sayes He that wrought us for this is God I adde he is your God And this alone if we will take the Scriptures verdict will carry it and loe as he is styled The Father of spirits in common and yet withall a father of their spirits out of special love So in like manner he is styled both The God of the spirits of all flesh that is of man Job 12. 20. thus in common and also to his Elect I am your God by grace And these two relations God and Father are commensurate and exactly parallel whether they be applied unto all men in common or to the Elect in special he is termed The God of the Spirits and likewise The Father of the Spirits of all men So in common answerably he is Your God and Your Father by special grace to his Elect both which in this latter respect you finde yoked hand in hand Joh. 20. 17. Look how farre he is a God of the one so farre a Father also extendeth in the other And look how farre that he is our God so farre reacheth also that he is Our Father If therefore the God of our Spirits to provide for them because he is our God then answerably the Father of our Spirits in the like peculiarness because our Father And so the proof of this fourth Particular will adde further strength and confirmation to that we presented in the former Now that his being our God which is the substance of the Covenant of Grace doth engage him to provide glory for separate Souls That one instance of Abraham The Father of the faithful and we all his sons personated in him is a sufficient evidence God did profess himself The God of Abraham Isaac and Jacob and unto Abraham Gen. 15. 1. personally I am thy abundant reward which respected the life to come and his Friend 2 Chron. 20. 7. Now the Scriptures of the New Testament do improve this relation of Gods unto us unto two inferences drawn from Abrahams instance whereof the one is the point afore us The first is Christs inference from thence That therefore Abrahams soul lives and Abraham both soul and body shall rise again for God is not the God of the dead but of the living Matth. 22. 31. Thus Christ 2. Paul's collection from the same Promise is that God had provided in the mean time for Abrahams soul afore the Resurrection a City and an House therein for him Thus Heb. 11. 16. But now they desire a better country that is an heavenly wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City To give light to this Paul had represented the story and case of Abraham and the rest of the Patriarchs in the verses afore to have been this That God had indeed promised the Land of Canaan to him and them ver. 8 9. whereupon ver. 13. it is said That these all died in faith not having received the promises being strangers in the land yea not having a foot of land in the Land of Promise as Stephen speaks Acts 7. 5 6 7. And also Paul in the 9th verse of this Heb. 11. Now then when they died what was it their faith expected in stead thereof The 10th verse tells us He looked for a City whose maker and builder is God From which compared observe That when he died his faith was thus pitch'd to look for this City in stead of that Land of Canaan promised This was the expectation of their faith on their part Well but how doth it appear that this flow'd from Gods having professed himself to be the God of Abraham c. his reward and his friend You have this clear in the 16th verse where you have the whole summ'd up as the Conclusion of the story and as the proof and ground hereof but now they desire a better Country that is an heavenly there is their faith and expectation when they should come to die Then it follows Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City which is spoken in full answer to that their expectation at their deaths to shew that God in professing himself to be their God he had thereby engaged himself according to his own intent in that promise to make this provision for them at their deaths The words are express Wherefore God is not ashamed what should this mean in this Coherence but that his declaring himself to be their