Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	son_n	trinity_n	11,727	5	10.3297	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A19605	The crib of ioy containing spirituall exercise, for Christmasse. S. Steuen. S. Iohn. Innocents. Circumcision. Epiphanie.; Crib of joy.		1611 (1611)	STC 6039.5; ESTC S120351	14,693	50

THE CRIB OF IOY Containing Spirituall Exercise for Christmasse S. Steuen S. Iohn Innocents Circumcision Epiphanie Iohn 7.37 In the last and great day of the Feast Iesus stood vp and cried saying If any thirst let him come to me and drinke LONDON Printed for Christopher Purset dwelling neare Staple Inne in Holborne at the signe of Marie Magdalens Head 1611. TO THE RIGHT REVEREND FATHER IN God Iohn by his Diuine prouidence Bishop of London RIght Reuerend it is the custom of all sorts of writers to seeke a patrō for their books dedicatiō wherfore I the publisher herof being a poore mēber of your last flocke and the Author to me vnknowne haue emboldened my selfe to choose your Lordship knowing none more fit to be the Guardian of this Orphane vnder whose protection I render both it and my self the rather because the earnest desire of all those who euer read this little Treatise intituled The Crib of Ioy hath moued me to the publishing hereof Therefore right Reuerend if either the Worke it selfe may receiue passage through your Lordships good fauour or my duty towards you herein may be accepted crauing pardon for my presumption I end continuing my prayers for your long life with eternall happinesse Your Lordships most humbly to be commanded Christopher Purset CHRISTMAS DAY The three circumstances of person time and place may draw the lineaments of this dayes ioy 1 WE may reioyce that our Sauiour and Reconciler to God was manifested this day to be a person and no inferior creature That the Iewish sacrifice of beasts and birds or other oblations were not in them selues propitiatorie but in eye to a worthier Mediatour It had bene a disgrace to our reasonable soule the image of God to haue bene valued at so base a price An indignitie to God himselfe to haue had his anger against sinners alayed and his iustice satisfied with the killing of a calfe a thing vndecent in our conceit preposterous in nature Heb. 10.4 vnpossible that the bloud of Buls and Goates should take away the sinnes of the soule 2 VVe may much more reioice that it was not the person of anie man or Angell or new made creature but of God himselfe manifested in the flesh If Noah Ezck. 14.14 Daniel and Iob should stand vp before God and make intercession for vs God telleth vs they should onely saue their owne soules and yet not that neither without further mediation Noahs wine must needs be don away with bloud Iobs sinne with sacrifice and Daniels imperfection with mercie If a holy Angell should set his puritie betweene God and vs he might iustifie himselfe but his white robes of innocencie were too short to couer our nakednesse If anie creature should offer himselfe to death for vs we might thanke him for his good will but he had neither authoritie to lay downe his life for another nor power to take it vp againe for himselfe Our Mediatour is God and Man one Christ God that he might pacifie and satisfie by his worth the person offended for he is as good as he Man that he might suffer for the offendor for he is flesh and bloud of the same nature with vs. One Christ that he might vnite God and Man inseparably who were disioyned before by sinne for the same person who as Man loueth man being also God is infinitely beloued of God the same Christ an intercessour for man in his manhood cannot be denied of his Father for his Godhead sake Therefore so long as his humanitie sticketh fast to his diuinitie tyed with that inseparable knot of the vnitie of person which the point of the speare could not dissolue herein is our reioycing Rom. 8.38.39 That neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate vs from the loue of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. 3 VVe may most of all reioyce that of the diuine persons the second was this day incarnate for in him the loue of God is doubled vpon vs God the Father loued vs before he gaue his Sonne had he not loued vs he had neuer bestowed so precious a gift vpon vs but hauing now giuen his Sonne thereby to make vs sonnes he must needes loue vs one degree more in that we are his sonnes God the Sonne loued vs before he became man but being incarnate we may challenge a degree of loue more in that we are his brethren He loued vs before he gaue himselfe much more now we are his owne for he hath dearely bought vs. That precious ointment streaming from Aarons head that blessed Spirit which the Sonne our Sauiour of his fulnesse distilleth vpon vs loued vs in that he ouershadowed the Virgin for vs loued vs in that he infused faith into vs renewed our hearts reformed our wils sanctified our persons but shall hee not now loue his handie worke much more whereupon he hath bestowed such cost If God loued vs when we were strangers runnagates rebels and so loued vs as he then intended to adopt vs what will a fatherly affection moue him vnto If the Sonne loued vs when we were yet his enemies and so loued vs as he forsooke himselfe for vs is it not intended he will loue his friends and brethren heires and fellow-heires of the same kingdome If the holy Ghost loued vs and so loued vs as he tooke in hand such vntoward prices such hard hearts such waiward and crooked affections shal we doubt that dwelling in vs as in holy temples he will not keepe vs in reparations Thus the triple loue of the blessed Trinitie is multiplied vpon vs they all loue vs because they loued vs they loued vs that they might loue vs more they loue vs more in that the second person being the naturall Sonne hath made vs adopted sonnes in whom God is our Father and from whom the holy Spirit is deriued Reioyce then that he was a person and no inferiour creature a diuine person and no creature and againe I say reioyce in that the second person in Trinitie the eternall Sonne of God as vpon this day was borne of a pure virgin 2. Circumstance THat which is good rare and bringeth ioy with it must needs be acceptable vnto vs but yet more welcome if it come in an acceptable time 1 In good time was Christ borne when the Scepter was departed from Iuda Gen. 49.10 and a law-giuer from his feete VVhen Israel was subiect to the Romanes and the true Israelites made seruants vnto them that were slaues vnto sinne then was that little Stone cut out without hands Dan. 2.45 which dashed the kingdomes in peeces and became a mightie mountaine Then was the little Child of Bethlem incarnate of the virgin without a father borne without a midwife swadled without a nurse preferred without the help of man to an euerlasting kingdome to rule ouer vs for our spiritual

to saue vs from the curse of the law Circumcised to take vpon him the similitude of sinfull flesh for that was a sacrament of originall corruption Called Iesus that he might saue his people from their sinnes as the Angell expounded his name vnto Ioseph This Circumcision he first suffered for vs in the flesh and after performed the true effect thereof within vs by his Spirit to wit a Circumcision made without hands as the Apostle speakes by putting off the sinfull bodie of the flesh through the circumcision of Christ who by his spirituall knife first cutteth off the foreskinne of our hearts and makes them bleede in sorrow for our sinnes past for Circumcision is a bloudie thing as Zipporah said to Moses and he that will be a true Israelite his heart must bleed 2. The foreskin being remoued which hardned our hearts before there followeth a tendernesse of conscience which giueth a quicker sense of future transgression Next he purgeth the vine branches that they may bring forth more fruite circumcising all superfluous and vaine cogitations in vs lopping all luxurious affections lest ouergrowing they might ouerthrow vs like Absolons haire for want of cutting So are we also of circumcised lips and eares when our mouth shall speake no vanitie and our eares relish the word of wisedome Thus renewed in heart and affection in soule and bodie when old things are passed 2. Cor. 5.17 and all things are become new we may offer and present vnto God the poore widowes offering of two mites our soule and bodie to be a liuing sacrifice and an acceptable New-yeares gift vnto him since it is all that we haue thereby assuring our selues that our names are knowne and called and written in heauen for the Spirit hath circumcised vs. EPIPHANIE WE may well conclude with the manifestation of Christ vnto the Gentiles For without this all that hath bene said is nothing vnto vs who be as the Apostle telleth vs sinners of the Gētiles But now God perswades Iapheth to dwell in the tents of Shem that is Gen. 9.27 the Gentiles which came of Iapheth to ioyne themselues vnto the Church which is the posteritie of Shem for which thing father Noah prayed long since Iob 38.13 Now the morning takes hold of the corners of the earth as God said to Iob that the wicked might be shaken out of it for the Sun of righteousnesse shineth to the men of the East Zachar. 2.4 Now Ierusalem begins to be inhabited without wals as Zachary prophesied when the Church shall not be hemmed within the precinct of that nation Now the great mystery of godlinesse is reuealed when God manifested in the flesh is preached to the Gentiles For these VVisemen were the first fruits of the Gentiles whereupon followed a mightie haruest The haruest indeede is great Go and teach all nations This word of life in Dauids time was but a light and a lanterne Ps 119. v. 105. Nun. now it is a morning Starre appearing in the East and after a Sunne of righteousnesse which enlighteneth euery one that cometh into the world Ioh. 1.9 whose beames directly behold these corners and ends of the world vpon which the firmamentall Sunne looketh but asquint Now is the Gospell preached as Christ gaue in commandement vnto euery creature not vnto men onely but euen to those barbarous nations which scarce caried the face of men these silly creatures in times past vnacquainted with the lawes of ciuill humanitie This is the meane crop the first fruits were the wise men of the East with whom Christ dealeth in their owne art that he might haue the faster hold of them for he leadeth them by a starre because they were Astronomers and therefore able to discerne a miracle in that kind So he dealt with his owne Disciples by sea stilling the tempest and causing Peter to walke vpon the waters because they were watermen by those miraculous draughts of fish because they were fishermen hereby shewing himselfe to be that wise maister-fisher of soules which fitteth his baite to euery kind VVe see the goodnesse of God vnto the Gentiles in that Christ was manifested to those men shall we learne the dutie of the Gentiles towards God by the deuotion of these men vnto Christ They came to worship him in heart in bodie and in goods they opened their treasuries and where the treasure is there is the heart The heart commands the bodie as the Centurion his seruant saying to the foot Go and it goeth c. Neither did they come to worship Christ emptie handed Deut. 16.16.17 but brought with them such gifts as their countrey did affoord gold incense and myrrhe Aurumregi Thus Deo Myrrhamorituro Gold not so much to relieue the wants of his poore parents who were able to compasse no better a birth-chamber then a stable as to shew themselues tributaries to his Maiesty vnto whom was giuen the heathen for his inheritance Psal 2.8 and the ends of the world for his possessions Frankencense was brought not so much to sweeten the place as by incense to acknowledge the Deitie of the Son of God Myrrhe was also offered with no lesse mysterie then Mary her ointment at the day of his buriall for it is to preserue his dead bodie from corruption who being dead and buried yet saw no corruption 1 If then wee receiue Christ for our heauenly King and Soueraigne of our soules in obedience vnto his Euangelicall law it is as much as if we brought gold and much fine gold 2 If we offer vp prayers and thanksgiuing that is saith Dauid as incense Psal 141.2 and the vplifting of our hands as an euening sacrifice 3 If in deuotion wee relieue the Church and preserue the members of his mysticall bodie militant from corruption distresse and miserie this is as Myrrhe vnto his naturall bodie These be our Christian oblations 1 Obedience to his law the fruite of faith 2 Prayers and supplications grounded vpon hope 3 Deuotion and almes proceeding from charitie towards our brethren Noster enim taleis reddit agellus opes These be all which our earthly mould by the influence of heauen can yeeld which that it may yeeld looke we stedfastly with Elias vpon this little clowde 1. King 18.44 rising at the first no bigger then a mans hand or the breadth of a Crib from which wee desire and expect those manifold drops of the graces of his Spirit to fall vpon our hearts that we may returne vnto him together with his Father and Spirit all praise honour and thankes this time and for euer Amen FINIS