Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	divine_a	holy_a	son_n	7,564	5	5.7178	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12187	A miracle of miracles or Christ in our nature Wherein is contained the vvonderfull conception, birth, and life of Christ, who in the fulnesse of time became man to satisfie divine iustice, and to make reconciliation betweene God and man. Preached to the honourable society of Grayes Inne, by that godly and faithfull minister of Iesus Christ, Richard Sibbes. D.D.	Sibbes, Richard, 1577-1635.	1638 (1638)	STC 22499; ESTC S117264	26,445	58

raised above Angells Let swearers beastly persons and profane hypocrites either alter their courses or else say they beleeve not these truths Shall a man beleeve God hath taken his nature into unity of his person and hath raised it above all Angells and can he turne beast yea devill incarnate in opposition of CHRIST and his cause What a shame is this can this bee where these things are beleeved A Christian should have high thoughts of himselfe what shall I defile the nature that God hath taken into unity of his person And as hee hath dignified and raised and advanced our nature so highly so likewise hee hath infused and put all the riches of grace into our nature For all grace is in CHRIST that a finite nature can bee capable of For CHRIST is neerest the fountaine Now the humane nature being so neere the fountaine of all good that is God it must needs bee as rich as nature can possibly be capable of And is not this for our good are not all his Riches for our use And therefore seeing our nature is dignified by Emanuell and inriched exceedingly by his graces next to infinite For our humane nature is not turned to God as some are conceited It is not deified and so made infinite yet as much as the creature can bee capable of there is in Christ-man and so shall wee defile that nature And from hence that our nature is ingrafted into the God-head it followeth that what was done in our nature was of wonderfull extention force and dignity because it was done when our nature was knit to the God head and therefore it maketh up all objections As. How could the death of one man satisfie for the deaths of many millions Secondly it was the death of Christ whose humane nature was ingrafted into the second person of the Trinity For because they were but one person whatsoever the humane nature did or suffered God did it If they had beene 2. Persons God had not dyed God had not suffered God had not redeemed his Church And therefore the Scripture runneth comfortably on this God hath redeemed the Church with his owne bloud hath GOD blood No but the nature that GOD tooke into unity of persons hath blood and so being one person with God God shed his blood It is God that purchased a Church with his blood it is God that dyed The Virgin Mary was Mother of GOD because shee is the Mother of that nature which was taken into unity with God Hereupon comes the dignity of whatsoever Christ did and suffered Though hee did it in our nature yet the God-head gave it its worth and not onely worth but God put some activity some vigour and force into all that Christ did It doth advance Christ Mediatour according to both natures And from hence ariseth Communication of properties as Divines call it which I will not now speake of It is sufficient to see that whatsoever was done by Christ was done by God hee being Emanuell and therefore had its worth and dignity to prevaile with God Hence commeth a forcible reason That God must satisfie Divine Justice because it was the action of a God-man His great sufferings were the sufferings of the second person in our nature And hereupon from satisfaction and merit comes reconciliation betweene Ged and us God being satisfied by Christ God and we are at tearmes of peace our peace is well founded if it bee founded in God the Father by God the Sonne taking our nature into unity of his person These things must have influence into our comforts and into our lives and conversations being the grand Articles of Faith And therefore wee ought to thinke often of them Wee must fetch principles of comfort and holines from hence as from the greatest arguments that can be therefore I desire to bee so punctuall in them God is Emanuell especially to make God and us one Christ is our Friend in taking our nature to make God and us friends againe But how doth friendshippe betweene God and us arise from hence that Christ is God in our nature I will give 2. or 3. Reasons of it First it is good reason that God should bee at peace with us because sinne the cause of division is taken away It is sinne the cause of division is taken away It is sinne that separateth betweene God and us and if sinne bee taken away God is mercy it selfe and mercy will have a current What stoppeth mercy but sinne Secondly take away sinne it runneth amaine Christ therefore became Emanuell God with us Because hee is the Lambe of God that taketh away the sinnes of the World Before Adam had sinned there was sweet agreement and communion betweene Adam and God but sinne that devided betweene God and the creature now Christ haveing made satisfaction for all our sins there can be nothing but mercy Againe Christ is a fit person to knit God and us together because our nature is pure in Christ and therefore in Christ God loveth us After satisfaction God lookes on our nature in Christ and seeth it pure in him Christ is the glory of our nature Now if our nature bee pure in our head which is the glory of our nature God is reconciled to us and loveth us in him that is pure out of whom GOD can not love us As Christ is pure and our nature in him so he will make us pure at length Thirdly Christ being our head of influence conveyeth the same spirit that is in him to all his members and by little and little by that spirit purgeth his Church and maketh her fit for Communion with himselfe for he maketh us partakers of the Divine nature he tooke our fraile humane nature that wee might partake of his Divine nature this is of his Divine qualities to be holy pure humble and obedient as hee was And thus Christ being a head not onely of eminence to rule and governe but of influence to flow by his spirit into all his members is fit to bee a reconciler to bring God and us together partly because our nature is in him and partly because hee doth communicate the same spirit to us that is in himselfe and by little and little maketh us holy like himselfe I hasten to the maine use of all Then God the father and wee are in good tearmes for the second person is God in our nature for this end to make God and us friends There is a notable place of Scripture which I note for the expressions sake hee speaking there of a Days man There is no Dayes-man betweene us that might lay his hand on us both that is a middle person to lay his hand on the one and the other Now CHRIST is the middle person as the second person in Trinity And then hee is God and man and therefore hee is fit to bee Mediatour to lay his hand on both sides on man as

signes from things to come as 37. Isaiah The next yeare thou shalt eate that which groweth of it selfe c. because where faith is it maketh things to come all one as if they were present And so wee should make this use of the Grand promises of Christ to comfort us against all petty matters and wants whatsoever And to reason with the holy Apostle God spared not his only begotten sonne but gave him to death He hath given Christ and will he not give all things needfull Hath he given the greater and will he stand with thee for the lesse This is a blessed kinde of reasoning And so to reason from other Grand things promised God shall raise my body out of the dust and the grave and cannot he raise my body out of sicknesse and my state out of trouble cannot hee raise the Church out of misery So saith Saint Paul 2 Cor. 1. God that raised Christ restored me againe that had received the sentence of death when we receive sentence of death in our persons looke to him that raised Christ from the dead and to the grand promises to come They before Christ comforted themselves in times of all distresse by the grand promise of Christ to come But now the Messias is come And which may much more strengthen our faith he hath suffered and given his body to death for us and therefore why doubt we of Gods good will in any petty matters whatsoever To come to the words more particularly Behold a Virgin shall conceive and beare a Sonne c. You have divers articles of our faith in these few words As Christs conception by the holy Ghost his being borne of the virgin Mary c. you have here the humane nature of Christ. A virgin shall conceive and bare a sonne And the divine nature of Christ his name shall bee called Emanuell which signifieth also his office God with us by nature and God with us by office to set God and us at one So you have diverse points of divinity couched in the words which I will onely open sutable to the occasion Behold This is the usuall Becon set up the usuall Harbinger to require our attendance in all matters concerning Christ. And it hath a threefold force here Behold as being a thing presented to the eye of faith He mounteth over all the interim betweene the promise and the accomplishment for faith knoweth no difference of times And then it is to raise attention behold it is a matter of great concernement And not onely attention but likewise admiration behold a strange and admirable thing For what stranger thing is there then that a virgin should conceive that a virgin should be a mother and that God should become man We had need of strong grace to apprehend these strange things And therefore God hath provided a grace suitable above reason and above nature and that is faith Reason mocketh at this The devill knoweth it and envyeth it The Angels know and wonder at it The soule it selfe without a grace sutable to the admirablenesse of the thing can never apprehend it And therefore well may it be said Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare and why a virgin When God is to be borne it is fit for a virgin to bee the mother Christ was not to come by the ordinary way of propagation he was to come from Adam but not by Adam for he was to be sanctified by the holy Ghost Because he was indeed to be a Saviour and a Sacrifice and hee must be without spot or sinne himselfe that was to offer himselfe for the sinnes of others Therefore the foundation and ground of his nature must bee pure and cleane and that is the foundation of all the purity of his life and conversation and therefore a virgin This was typified in Aarous rod which budded though it had no root No Iuice could come from a dry sticke yet by an Almighty power the rod did bud And so Moses bush It burnt and did not consume And that God that caused those things caused a virgin to be a mother He enters into the wombe of a virgin without any defilement at all considering the holy Ghost from the Father and the Son did purge and purifie and sanctifie that masse whereof the blessed body of our Saviour was made The virgin afforded the matter but the wise Framer was the holy Ghost She was passive the holy Ghost was the Agent Now when did the virgin conceive when upon the Angels comming to her and telling her That she was greatly beloved and that shee should conceive she assented be it so as the Lord hath spoken When shee assented to the word presently Christ was conceived her faith and her wombe conceived together When her heart did conceive the truth of the promise and yeelded assent thereunto her womb conceived at the same time also From hence learne something for our selves It had beene to little purpose though a virgin conceived Christ unlesse Christ had beene conceived likewise in her heart And there is no benefit by virtue of this conception to others but to such as conceive Christ in their hearts also To which end our hearts must bee in some measure made virgin hearts pure hearts hearts fit to receive Christ. We must assent to promises of pardon and of life everlasting bee it as the Lord saith A Christian is a Christian and Christ liveth in his heart at the time of the assenting to the promise So that if you aske when doth Christ first live in a Christians heart I answer then when the heart yeeldeth a firme assent to the gracious promises made in Christ for the pardoning of sinnes and acceptation to the favour of God and title and interest to life everlasting For faith is the birth of the heart Christ was conceived in the wombe of an humble and believing virgin So that heart that will conceive Christ aright must bee a humble and believing heart humble to deny himselfe in all things And believing to goe out of it selfe to the promises of God in Christ. When God by his spirit hath brought our hearts to be humble and believing to goe out of themselves and believe in him rest upon him and his promises then Christ is conceived in our hearts Behold a virgin shall conceive and beare a sonne Here is the birth of Christ as well as the conception Christ must not onely be conceived in the wombe but also brought forth because God must be manifested in the flesh As Saint Paul saith Great is the mystery of Godlinesse God manifested in the flesh If hee had onely beene conceived and not brought forth he had not beene manifested hee was to doe all things that befitted a Mediatour And therefore hee went along with us in all the passages of our lives Hee was conceived as we are remayned in the wombe so

many moneths borne as we are borne brought into the light as we are Away therefore with idle monkish devices and fond conceipts that affirme the contrary He was like to us in all things sinne excepted conceived brought forth hung upon the brest as we an infant as we hungry and thirsty and suffered as we And as he was in all things like to us so in every thing that was in him there was something extraordinary as hee was a man like to us so hee was an extraordinary man Hee was conceived but of a virgin which is extraordinary hee was borne as we are but there his starre appeared and the wise men came to adore and worship him He was poore as wee are but there were beames of his Godhead appeared when hee was poore he could command a fish to furnish him hee dyed as we dye but he made the earth to quake the vaile of the temple to rend when hee tryumphed on the crosse All which declared hee was more then an ordinary person And so wee must all conceive Christ and beare Christ in our words and actions it must appeare that Christ liveth in us It must appeare outwardly to man what we are inwardly to God Our whole outward life must bee nothing but a discovery of Christ living in us I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me saith Saint Paul which should appeare by word conversation and action Our lives should bee nothing but an acting of Christ living in our soules This is not a meere analogicall truth but it floweth naturally whosoever are to have the benefit of his birth and conception Christ sendeth into their heart the same spirit that sanctified the masse whereof hee was made and so frameth a disposition suitable to himselfe he sets his owne stampe upon the heart as the vnion of his humane nature to the divine was the cause of all other graces of his humane nature so the spirit of God uniting us to Christ is the cause of all grace in us If we have not the spirit of Christ wee are none of his And shalt call his name Emanuel Many things might bee observed concerning the ordinary reading of the words Some read shee shall call his name Emanuel because hee had no father Others his name shall be called Emanuel but they be doubtfull therefore I leave them But Iesus was his name Therefore how is it said he shall be called Emanuel The meaning is he shall be Emanuel and shall bee accounted and believed to bee so he shall be God with us indeed and shall shew himselfe to be so For in the Hebrew phrase the meaning of a thing imports the being of the thing The like phrase is in Isaiah 9.6 To us a childe is borne to us a sonne is given and his name shall be called wonderfull Counsellour the Everlasting father the Prince of peace That is hee shall bee believed to bee so and shall shew himselfe to bee so and shall bee so indeed The like you have because it is an answer to the cavill of the Iewes which object he was not called Emanuell Iudah shall bee saved Israel shall dwell safely and this is his name whereby he shall be called The Lord our Righteousnesse For indeed he is Iehovah our righteousnesse and we have no righteousnesse to stand before God with but his divers other places of Scripture there be of the same nature but these two are pregnant and therefore I name them for all the rest Besides the conception and birth of Christ you have here likewise the divine nature of Christ and the offices of Christ for Emanuell is a name both of nature and office It is a name of his nature God and man and of his office which is to reconcile God and man we could not be with God but God must first be Man with us We were once with God in Adam before hee fell but there being a breach made we cannot be recovered againe till God be with us he must take our natures that he may reconcile our persons Now Christ is Emanuell first in regard of nature God with us or God in our nature The pure nature of God and the base nature of man that were strangers ever since the fall are knit together in Christ. What can be in a greater degree of strangenesse except the devils then mens unholinesse and Gods pure nature Yet the nature of man and of God being so severed before are met together in one Christ. So that in this one word Emanuell there is heaven and earth God and man infinite and finite therefore we may well prefix Behold A true Saviour of the world must bee God with man Whether wee consider the greatnesse of the good we are to have by a Saviour or the greatnesse of the evil we are to be freed from by a Saviour both which doe inforce that he must be Emanuell God with us First the greatnesse of the good which we are to have for he is to bee God and man together to satisfie the wrath of God to undergoe a punishment due to sinne as our surety hee must give us title to heaven and bring us thither and who can doe this but God Besides Secondly hee must know our hearts our wants our griefes our infirmities hee must bee every where to relieve us And who can doe this but God So Thirdly in regard of evil which we are to be freed from He is to defend us in the middest of the enemies and who is above the devill and sinne and the wrath of God and all the oppositions that stand betweene us and heaven but God So in regard of the good in regard of the evill and in regard of the preservation to an Eternall good estate and freedome from eternall evill he must be Emanuell God with us These grand principles are enough to satisfie in this point And Secondly as he must be God so there was a necessity of his being Man Man had sinned and man must suffer for sin and without bloud there was no remission and then that he might be a mercifull and pittifull Saviour he must take that nature on him that he meaneth to save there must be a sutablenesse and sympathy Sutablenesse that the head and the members The sanctified and the Sanctifier may bee both of one nature And a Sumpathy that he might be touched with humane infirmities Thirdly this God and man must bee one person For if there were two persons God one distinct person and man another then there were two Christs and so the actions of the one could not bee attributed to the other As man dyed and shed his bloud it could not have beene said that God dyed But because there was but one person God is truely said to dye though hee dyed in mans nature for hee tooke mans nature into unity with his person and whatsoever either nature did the whole person is said to doe and therefore Christ is