Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A54347
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The mystery of the Gospel unvail'd wherein is plainly shewed and proved, that the man Christ Jesus has honoured all the perfections of God more than Adam and all his posterity could have done, had they continuted in their primitive state of innocency / first preached, and now published by Samuel Pack.
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Pack, Samuel.
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1691
(1691)
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Wing P151; ESTC R32208
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12,469
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26
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THE MYSTERY OF THE Gospel Unvail'd Wherein is plainly shewed and proved That the Man CHRIST JESUS has honoured all the Perfections of GOD more than Adam and all his Posterity could have done had they continued in their Primitive State of Innocency First Preached and now Published BY SAMVEL PACK LONDON Printed for the Author in the Year MDCXCI TO His much Honoured and Esteemed Good Friends Captain William Thompson Esq AND TO Mrs Katharina His Vertuous Consort Samuel Pack wisheth all Happiness in this World and Eternal Felicity in the World to come My Honoured Friends I Have been strongly induced by these following Reasons to present you with this unpolished Discourse First To shew my thankfulness unto God for engaging of your Hearts that have the great things of this World to look after the great and good things of the World to come for though not many mighty and not many noble are called yet it is a mercy that God hath made some great ones good ones for the encouragement of those that move in a lower Sphear A Second Reason that induced me to this boldness in prefixing your Names to this Work was to give some Demonstration of my thankfulness to your selves for your kindness towards me when I was with you under much bodily weakness and if a Heathen could say That we need charge a Man with no greater Crime than Ingratitude it would look with an evil aspect in a Christian especially a Minister to be guilty thereof For as Ingratitude towards God was the sin of the first Adam so Ingratitude towards Man is a fruit of the Old Adam A Third Reason why I present you with this Discourse is because of that favourable acceptance that it found when you had it in your Ears which encourages me to hope that it will find the same acceptance with you when you have it in your Eyes A Fourth Reason why I have prefixed your Names to this Work is because I would encourage others to imitate you in owning the ways of God as you did in the worst of times and in the greatest of Dangers when none could so depart from Iniquity as to follow the Lord fully but they made themselves a Prey to Diabolical Informers The Last Reason I shall give of this Attempt in presenting you with this Demonstration of my thankfulness to God and your selves is because I have no better thing to present you with for the truth is the Subject is glorious and that which is rarely treated on for had I seen this Work managed by abler Pens this Work had never come abroad to the World But now it is published it is the earnest desire of my Soul that the Lord will be pleased to make it serviceable to your selves and to all that will be pleased to give it the Reading Now the Blessing of the Great God Father Son and Spirit abide in and upon your Souls and Bodies with your Off-Spring which is and shall be the hearty Prayers of him who is Your Servant for Jesus sake SAMUEL PACK THE MYSTERY OF THE Gospel Unvail'd c. ROMANS IX V. Whose are the Fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen IN the second and third Verses of this Chapter we have the Apostle Paul giving great Demonstrations of the strength of his Affection to his Countrymen the Jews partly by his sorrow of Heart for them and partly by his willingness to be accursed from Christ for their sakes And in the next Verse he gives us a Reason of his love towards them which was those Spiritual priviledges with which God had been pleased to dignifie them above all other Nations and in the words that I have read he is climbing the highest Pinacle of their honour which was That according to the Flesh Christ came of them which was as great an honour as could be conferred upon a Nation which the Apostle doth illustrate by an aggregation or heaping up of words First assuring of us that Christ is over all that is over all Creatures which is his right because he was before all things and by him all things consist â—â—…l 1.17 and all things were made by him and without him was not any thing made that was made â—â—hn 1.3 and as Christ is God over all so he is a blessed God â—…im 6.15 and the Fountain of all belssedness which blessedness was essential to him as God over all And Christ is not only a blessed God over all but he is eternally a blessed God over all for so long as Christ remains God over all which will be to all eternity so long he will remain an eternally blessed God that he may be an eternal blessing to his Saints And Lastly the Apostle confirms all with an Amen which comes of that great Hebrew Verb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he nourished faithfully because that Christ the Amen the faithful and true Witness does nourish the Faith and Hope of his Saints by an exact performance of the Promises which are in him Yea and in him Amen Having thus opened the words I shall present you with the Doctrin that does naturally arise from them which is That Christ is over all God blessed for ever ct And for as much as I hope there are no Socinians here I shall not spend that little time and strength I have to prove the Point which is the very words of my Text but give you some Reasons why it was needful that Christ as our Redeemer should be God over all belssed for ever 1. Because that we had sinned againist God over all for as it was needful that Christ should be a Man that satisfaction might be made in the same nature that did offend so it was needful that he should be God over all that there might be an equality between the Offence and the Satisfaction that as God over all was sin'd against by Man so God over all might in Man's Nature make Satisfaction to the Justice of God over all 2. Because that in order to the Satisfaction of the Justice of God over all it was of absolute necessity that the Wrath of God over all should be bore in Man's Nature which could not be but by him who is God over all Now for as much as there is more Wrath due to us for the least sin than all the Rocks and Mountains in the World are able to bear it was utterly impossible that Christ could have bore up under all the Wrath of his Father which was due to all the Elect for all their sins had he not been upheld by the Power of God over all for though the God-head of Christ was as uncapable of suffering as the Manhood was to bear the sufferings that lay upon it yet it was the Godhead that did uphold and support the Manhood 3. It was needful that Christ should be God over all that the Godhead might make the sufferings of the humanity infinitely
meritorious for the Satisfaction of the Justice of an infinite God over all for though I am not of the mind of Osiander and his Followers that we are justified by the imputation of the essential Righteouss of Christ as God yet it was the essential Righteousness of the Godhead of Christ that did make the Active and Passive Obedience of his Manhood infinitely meritorious as being in personal Union therewith for which cause the Blood of Christ's Humanity is called God's Blood Acts. 20.28 4. It was needful that our Redeemer should be God over all that he might be a suitable good to our Souls which are the very Breath of God over all and whose vast desires are such that none but God over all can satisfie them The World is empty of what it promises and enticing with what it has and therefore a wicked Man's desires after it are enlarged as Hell but can find no real satisfaction therein because they are below the excellent nature of his Soul but when God's Jehosaphats have a great confluence of outward Enjoyments God comes in the Creatures and so cures them of their emptiness and he come with them and cures them of their enticing property and between both he makes them Blessings to us and they yield unto us sweet satisfaction As the Spirit of the Living God enables us to make a sanctified use of them to the Glory of God from whom we do receive them and besides as the Soul of Man is a Spiritual Substance 't is only Christ who is a Spiritual Good that can be a suitable Good unto it and as the Soul of Man is an immortal Being so Christ is a suitablâ— Good unto it 5. It was needful that our Redeemer should be God over all that he might exalt our nature which was debased by sinning against God over all for however our first Parents were honourable Creatures as they came out of God's Hand having his Image stamped on them yet Man in precious honour lodged not a Night 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psalm 49.12 but fell the same Day upon which he was created and by his Fall he made himself but little better thanthe Devils who was made but little lower than the Angels For in our first Creation there was such serenity in our Understanding that we knew the greatest Dimensions of our Maker's Will so far as was needful for our acknowledgment of his Sovereignty in our universal Obedience to his revealed Will and there was such a degree of Sanctity in Man's Will that it was ready to command that good to be done which the Understanding did dictate to be good and the Affections were ready to embrace that good which the Will commanded and the sensitive Soul which takes up its Residence in the Organical parts of the Body through which it issues forth by several Acts and receives in from several Objects were so sanctified as to make a Spiritual use of whatever was presented unto them But alas Man cannot be known by any Description that might have been given of him in his State of Innocency for now his Understanding is clouded with gross Egyptian Darkness and his Will is filled with Stubbornness and a Contumacious Spirit against the Lord and his Affections are irregularly set upon wrong Objects so that Man cannot be known in his lapsed State by any Description that might have been given of him before his Fall for which cause the Lord was please to say concerning Man that Man is as one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from him that is one from the Devil through whose Temptation Man fell for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ever denotes the third Person singular and is so used four times in one Verse Zech. 10.4 whereas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denotes the first Person plural Now forasmuch as the Master-piece of God's Tetrestrial Workmanship had by Sin debased it self below the perishing Beast it was of absolute necessity that his Redeemer should be God over all to exalt his degraded Nature 6. It was needful that Man's Redeemer should be God over all that he might procure for us a new Covenant-right in God over all for by our Fall we lost not only our right in the Creature but that wherein our greatest loss did principally consist was that we lost our right and propriety in God now God being a Blessing of infinite worth it was neeful that a Person of infinite worth should by the merits of his Blood procure it for us 7. It was needful that our Reedeemer should be God over all because he had such Enemies to conquer for us that none but God over all could conquer for we had the Wrath of God the Curse of the Law and all the powers ofDarkness against us all which could never have been conquered but by God over all And had not these Enemies of our Souls been conquered by our Persons which could not have been expected but by a Redeemer in our nature we had been miserable for ever but to the eternal praise of God's Grace he was pleased to lay help upon one that was mighty who led Captivity Captive by conquering all his and our Enemies in our Nature Thus having shewed why it was needful that our Redeemer should be God over all I shall proceed to the Application 1. It may inform us of that Personal Union that is between the Father â—â—…l 2.2 Son and Holy Ghost â—â—…h â— 7 for the Father is God over all and the Son is God over all and the Holy Ghost is God over all and yet there are not three Gods over all but one God over all each Person in the Godhead having the whole essence of the Godhead in himself 2. If Christ be God over all then see from hence the infinite love of God the Father in giving to us such a Redeemer who is God over all If Jacob could say he was unworthy of the least of God's Mercies how are we obliged to him for Christ who is the greatest Mercy that he could have bestowed on us On which account we may say concerning the Love of the God of Knowledge as Job said concerning the knowledge of the God of Love That it is as high as Heaven what can we do 't is deeper than Hell What can we know the measures thereof are longer than the Earth and broader than the Sea 3. See the infinite love of Christ to sinners for if Christ had not been God over all his Death would have signified nothing for our comfort and being God over all John 3.16 Gal. 2.20 there could be no compelling of Christ to assume our nature but as God the Father did freely give his Son for sinners so God the Son did as freely give himself up unto Death for us 4. If Christ be God over all this may inform us of the Humility of Christ that he was pleased to take our Nature into a Personal Union with his Godhead after we had greatly degraded it by sin Oh what