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	way_n	5,888	5	5.0772	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A87711	Ophthalmos aplois or the single eye, entituled the vision of God wherein is infolded the mistery of divine presence, so to be in one place finitely in apperance, as yet in every place no lesse present, and whilst Hee is here, Hee is universally every where infinitely himselfe. Penned by that learned Dr. Cusanus, and published for the good of the saints. By Giles Randall.; De visione Dei. English.	Nicholas, of Cusa, Cardinal, 1401-1464.; Randall, Giles.	1646 (1646)	Wing K395; Thomason E1212_1; ESTC R208815	54,077	203

loved Thou therefore O my God art by the bond of love united unto al things because housprea dest abroad thy love upon every Creature of thine but every rationall spirit is not united unto thee because it bestowes not its love upon thy lovelinesse but upon some other thing whereunto unto it is united and knit Thou hast espoused every reasonable soule by thy loving love but not every spouse loveth thee her husband but for the most part some other whereunto she cleaveth but how could the soule of man thy spouse O my God attaine thy end except thou wert lovely that so by loving thee that art lovely shee might reach the bond and most happie union Who therefore can deny thee to be God three in one when hee sees that thou wert neither a noble naturall nor perfect God nor his spirit had free will nor himselfe could come to the fruition of thee and his owne happinesse except thou wert three and one For because thou art the understanding that understandeth the understanding intelligible and the Bond of both therefore the understanding created may attaine in thee its intelligible God union with thee and felicity So being thou art the love lovely the created loving will may in thee its lovely God attaine union and felicity for hee that receiveth thee God the reasonable receptible light may come to such a union of thee that he may be united to thee as a Sun to his Father I see O God by thy illumination that a reasonable nature cannot attaine to a union with thee but because thou artaminable and intelligible wherefore mans nature is not possible to be united to thee a loving God for so thou art not his object but hee may bee united to thee as his lovely God because that which is lovely is the object of that which loveth So in like manner that which may be understood is the object of the understanding and wee call that the truth which is the object Wherefore thou my God because thou art the intelligible truth the created understanding may be united unto thee and so I see that mans reasonable nature may be united only to thy divine and amiable nature and that man receiving thee the receptible God passeth into that Bond which may for the strictnesse thereof bee called by the name of filiation or sonne-ship for then the Bond of filiation we know no stricter And if this Bond of union be the greatest then which a greater cannot be this must needs come to passe because if thou the lovely God canst be more beloved by a man then is that Bond come to the most perfect filiation that that filiation may be perfection complicating all possible filiation by which all sonnes do attaine their last felicity and perfection In which highest sonne filiation is as Art in the Master or the light in the Sunne but in others as Art in the Schollars or light in the Starrs How Iesus is the union of God and Man CHAP. 19. I Give unspeakeable thanks to thee my God the life and light of my soule for now I see the faith which by the Revelation of the Appostles the Catholike Church holdeth namely how thou a loving God begettest of thy selfe a lovely God and that thou the lovely begotten God att the absolute Mediator for by thee is every thing that is or can be for thou the willing or loving God in thy selfe the lovely God complicatest all things for every thing that thou O God willest or conceivest is complicated in thee the lovely God for there cannot bee any thing except thou will it to be All things therefore in thy lovely conception have their cause or reason of being neither is there any other cause of all things but because it so pleaseth thee nothing pleaseth the lover as a lover but the lovely Thou therefore a lovely God art the Son of God a loving father for in thee is all the complaisance of the Father So all being creatable is complicated in thee the lovely God Thou therefore a loving God when as of thee is a lovely God as the Sonne of the Father in as much as thou art God the loving Father of God thy lovely Son art the Father of all things that are for thy conception is thy Sonne and all things in him and thy union and thy conception is the Act and operation arising in which is the act and explication of all things as therefore of thee the loving God is generated the lovely God which Generation is conception So from thee the loving God and thy lovely conception begotten by thee proceeds thy act and thy conception which is the knot knitting and the God uniting thee and thy conception as to love unites the loving and the lovely in love and this knot is called the spirit for the spirit is as motion proceeding from the mover and the moveable consequently motion is the explication of the conception of the mover All things therefore are to be exp●icated in thee God the holy Ghost as they are conceived in thee God the sonne I see then because thou God dost so enlighten me how all things in thee God the sonne are God the Fathers as in the reason conception cause or samplar and have the sonne is the medium of all things as the reason or forme for by the mediation of reason and wisdome thou God the Father workest all things and the spirit or motion puts the conception of reason in effect as we finde by experience that the Arke in minde of the Artificer is put in effect by the mediation of the motive power which is in the hands Then I see O my God thy Son is the medium or mean of the union of all things that all things by the mediation of thy Son may rest in thee And I see blessed Iesus the son of man most Highly united to thy son and that the son of man could not be united to thee God the Father but by mediation of thy son the absolute Mediator Who is not most highly ravished that doth attentively consider these things Thou my God openest unto mee wretch such a secret that I see man cannot understand thee the Father but in thy son which is intelligible and the Mediator and that to understand thee is to be united unto thee Man may therefore be united unto thee by thy son which is the meane of the union and humane nature most highly united unto thee in what man soever in be cannot be more united to the meane then it is united for without the medium it cannot be united unto thee It is therefore most united to the meane yet it is not made the meane whereupon though it cannot be made the meane seeing it cannot be united unto thee without a meane yet it is so joyned to the absolute meane that betweene it and the sonne who is the absolute meane nothing can mediate for if any thing could mediate betweene mans nature and the absolute meane t●en

shouldest thou necessitate libearty seeing thou canst not be mine except I be mine owne And because thou hast put this in my liberty therefore dost thou not necessitate but expect that I should choose to be mine owne the fault therefore is in me not in thee O Lord which contractest not thy greatest goodnes but powrest it out most plentifully upon all that are capable And thou O Lord art my goodnesse and how shall I bee mine owne except thou O Lord shalt teach mee But this thou teachest me that sence should obey reason and reason beare rule If therefore sence obey reason I am mine owne yet hath reason nothing to direct her but thee O Lord which art the word and the reason of reasons Whereupon I now see that if I heare thy word which ceaseth not to speake within me and which shineth continually in reason I shall be mine own free and not the servant of Sin and thou wilt be mine and give me the sight of thy face and then I shall be safe blessed be thou O God in thy guifts which only art able to comfort my soule and to erect and quicken it up unto a hope of attaining and enjoying thee as thine owne gift and the infinite treasure of all desierable things How Gods seeing is his loving Causing Reading and Containing all things in himselfe CHAP. 8. REstlesse is my heart O God because thy love hath inflamed it with such a de●●re that it cannot rest but in thee alone I began to pray the Lords Prayer and thou inspiredst me to consi●er how then art our Father Thy loving is thy seeing thy Fatherhood is thy seeing which doth so fatherly embrace us all for we say Our Father for thou art the universall and singular Father And every one saying our Father implyes that thy Fatherly love comprehends thy Sonnes all and every one for a Father so loves all his Children that he loves every one because he is the Father of all as well as of every one and loves every one of his Sonnes so that every one thinks himselfe preferred before all the rest If therefore thou act a Father and Our Father surely the love of a Father to his Sonne preventeth the love of a Sonne to his Father as long as we are thy sons and looke upon thee as soones thou ceasest not to looke upon us as a Father therefore thou sha●t be our fatherly putveyor having a Fatherly care or us Thy seeing is thy providence If we thy sounes do abdicate thee Our Father we cease to be sonnes nor are we then free sons in our owne power but we goe into a farre Country separating our selves from thee and then we undergoe a grievous slavery under a Prince which is Enemy to thee O God But thou O Father though for the liberty given us as being the sonnes of thee which art liberty it selfe thou suffer us to goe away and spend our liberty and best substance after the corrupt desires of our fences Yet dost thou not forsake us utterly but art present continually solliciting us speaking in us and calling us back to returne to thee ready alwayes to look upon us with the former fatherly eye if we return and convert to thee O God of pitty look upon me who being prickt with compunction for the miserable slavery of the slippery filthinesse of Swine where I dyed for hunger do now returne that I may howsoever it pleaseth thee be fed in thy house feed me with thy sight O Lord and teach me how thy sight sees all that sees and every thing that may be seen every Act of seeing and every seeing power and every power that may be seene and every thing that ariseth from them forthy seeing is causing Teach me O Lord how at one glance thou deservest them all together and severally when I open the Booke to read I see confusedly the whole lease and if I will distinguish every letter and word I must of necessity turne my selfe particularly to every one in Order I cannot read but one letter after another and one line after another but thou O Lord lookest upon and readest all the paper together without any delay of time and if two of us read the same thing one a pace and the other slowly thou readest with both and seemest to read in time because thou readest with them that read and seest and readest all things together above time Thy seeing is thy reading thou from eternity hast seene and read together beyond al delay of time all the Bookes which have beene or may be written and at the same instant thou readest them successively with them that do so read them neither dost thou read one thing in eternity and another with them that read in time but being alwayes the same and after the same manner because thou art not changeable being fixed Eternity and eternity in that it forsakes not time seems to be moved with time a thong indeed motion and eternity is rest Lord thou seest and hast eyes thou art therefore an eye because with thee to have is to be and for this Cause in thy selfe thou seeft all things for if in me seeing were the Eye as it is in thee my God then could I see all things in my selfe because the eye is of the nature of Glasse and a glasse though never so little will figuratively represent a great Mountaine and all things that are in the surface thereof and so the species of all things are in a glasly eye yet because our sight doth not by meanes of the glasly eye see any thing but that particular whereunto it turnes it selfe because the power thereof cannot but be particularly determined by the object therefore it seeth not all things that are contained in the Glasse of the Eye but thy sight being an Eye or a living Glasse seeth a l things in it selfe nay being the Cause of all visible things therefore it containes and sees all things in the Cause and reason of all things that is in it selfe Thy eye O Lord proceedeth to all things without turning our Eye turneth it selfe to the object because our sight sees by a corner that hath quantity but the Corner of thy Eye O God hath no quantity but is infinite being a Circle nay an infinite Sphere for thy sight is an Eye of infinite Sphericity or roundnesse and perfection it seeth therefore all things round about and above and below O how wonderfull is thy sight which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God ●o all that search for 〈◊〉 How faire and amiable to all th●● love thee How terrible to all that have for saken thee O my God for thou by thy sight O Lord quick●est every spirit makest glad every one that is blessed and puttest to flight all sorrow looke therefore mercifully upon mee and my soule is safe How the sight of God is both universall and Particular and what is the way thereto CHAP. 9. DEare Lord I cannot but

were it not most highly or absolutely united unto thee O good Jesus I see in thee mans nature to be most highly joyned to God the Father by the highest union even a greater then by which it is joyned to God the sonne the absolute Mediator Therefore humane filiation because thou art the son of man is in thee Jesus most highly united to the divine filiation that thou art worthily and truly called the Son of God and man for in thee nothing mediates betweene the Son of man and the Son of God In the absolute filiation which is the Son of God is complicated all filiation whereunto thy humane filiation O Jesus is superamely united therefore thy humane filiation subsists in thy divine not only complicitly but as the attracted in the attracting and the united in the uniting and the substantiated in the substantiating Therefore in thee O Jesus there is no possible separation of the Son of man from the Son of God for separability is where the union might be greater but where the union cannot be greater nothing can mediate separation therefore can have no place where nothing can mediate betweene the things united and where the united subsists not in the uniting the union is not the highest for there is a greater union where the united subsists in the uniting then where the united subsists a part for separation is the greatest remotenesse from union So I see in thee my Iesus how humane fiiation by which thou art the son of man subsists in the divine filiation by which thou art the Sonne of God as in the greatest union the united with the uniting To thee O God be glory for ever How Jesus is understood the complying of the divine and humane nature CHAP 20. VEry clearely dost thou shew unto me O never failing light that that greatest union whereby mans nature in thee Iesus is united unto the divine nature is not by any means like to an infinite union for the union by which thou O God the Father art united unto God thy son is God the holy Ghost and therefore an infinite union for it reacheth unto absolute essentiall Identitie but it is not so where the humane nature is united to the divine for the humane nature cannot passe into an essentiall union which the divine as that which is finite canot be infinitly united to that which infinite for then it would passe into the Identitie of the infinite and so it would cease to be finite when the infinite were verified of it Wherefore this union by which the humane nature is united unto the divine nature is nothing else but an attraction of the humane nature to the Divine in the highest degree so that the humane nature whilst such cannot be attracted any higher It is therefore the greatest union of his humane nature as humane to the divine because there can be no greater but it is simply the greatest not infinite as the divine union I see therefore by the benignity of thy grace in thee Iesus the son of man the son of God and in the son of God I see the Father for in thee the sunne of man I see the Son of God because thou art so the son of man that thou art also the son of God and in the finite attracted nature I see the infinite attracting nature I see in the absolute Son the absolute father for the Son as Son cannot bee seene unlesse the father be seene I see in thee Iesus a divine filiation or sonneship which is the truth of all filiation and likewise a most high human filiation which is the neerest image of absolute filiation As therefore the Image betweene which and the Patterne or samplar there cannot mediate a perfect image dost most neerely subsist in the truth of that whose Image it is so do I see thy humane nature subsisting in the divine nature Therefore I see all things in thy humane nature which I see in thy divine But I see them after an humane manner in thy humane nature which are the divine truth it selfe in the divine nature Those things which I see in thee after a humane manner O Jesus are the similitude of the divine nature but a similitude is without a meane joyned to the Patterne or samplar so that a more like can neither be nor be imagined in the humane or reasonable nature I see are sonable humane spirit most strictly united to the divine spirit which is absolute reason and so the humane understanding to the divine understanding and all things in thy understanding O Jesus for thou O Iesus as God understandest all things as God and this understanding is to bee all things Thou understandest all things as man and this understanding is to be the similitude of all things for a thing is not understood by a man but in a similitude a stone is not in the understanding of a man as its proper cause or reason but as in its species or similitude In thee therefore O Iesus the humane understanding is united to the divine as the most perfect image to the truth of the Pattern As if then I should consider the Ideall forme of an Arke in the minde of the Artificer and the species of an Arke made most perfectly and according to the Idea by the Master himselfe how then the Ideall forme is the truth of the species and united unto it as the truth unto the image in one Master So in thee O Iesus the Mr. of Masters I see the absolute Idea of all things and the similitudinarie species of the same most highly united I see thee O good Iesus within the Wall of Paradice because thy understanding is both the Truth and the Image and thou art both God and a Creature infinity and finite And it is not possible thou shouldest be seene on this side the Wall for thou art the coup●ing of the divine creating nature with the humane created nature And I see this difference betweene thy humane understanding and any other mans that no one man knoweth all things which may be knowne by man because no mans understanding is so joyned to the samplar of all things as the similitude to the truth but that it might be more neerely joyned and set more in act and therefore the understandeth not so many things but that he might understand more by his accesse unto the samplar of things from whence every thing that is an act hath actually But thy understanding doth actually understand all things that are intelligible by man because in thee humane nature is most perfect and most joyned to its samplar or Pattern for which union thy humane understanding exceeds every created undarstanding in the perfection of understanding Therefore all reasonable spirits are far beneath thee of all whom thou O Iesu art the Master and the light and thou art the perfection and fulnesse of all things and by thee as by the Mediator they came unto the absolute truth for thou art both the way

unto the truth and the truth it selfe then art both the way unto the life of the understanding and the life it selfe Thou art the odour of the food of gladnesse and also the taste that maketh glad Be thou therefore O sweet Iesu blessed for ever more That without Jesus therei is no possible felicity CHAP 21. IEsu the end of all in whom as in the last of their perfection all Creatures rest thou art utterly unknowne to all the wise men of this world because of thee we affirme contradictories to be most true thou being both the Creator and the Creature the attracting and the attracted the finite and also the infinite they say it is folly to beleeve this possible They flye thy name therefore and receive not that light wherewith thou hast enlightned us but thinking themselves wise they continue fooles and ignorant and blinde for ever But if they would beleeve that thou Christ God and man and would receive and entertain the words of the Gospell as the words of so great a Master then would they clearly see that all things in comparison of that light that there is hid in the simplicity of thy words are most thick and palpable darknes and ignorance Therefore only the little ones that beleeve do obataine this most gratious and quickening Revelation for there is hid in thy most sacred Gospell which is the heavenly food all desireable sweetnesse which cannot be tasted but by him that beleeveth and eateth And if any man beleeve and receive it hee shall finde it most true by experience that thou camest downe from Heaven and art the only Master of truth O good Iesu thou art the tree of lif in the Paradice of delights for no man can be fed with desirable life but from thy fruit Thou O Iesu art the forbidden food to all the sons of Adam which being expulsed out of Paradice doth seek their living in the earth in which they labour It behoveth every one therefore to put off the old man of presumption and put on the new man of humility which is according to thy selfe if he hope ever to tast of the food of life within the Paradice of delights There is a nature of the new and old Adam but it is in the old Adam animall and in the new Adam spirituall because in thee Iesus it is united to God which is a spirit Every man therefore must as by humane nature common to him and thee so in one spirit be united to thee O Iesus that so in his nature which is common to thee O Iesus hee may come to God the father which is in Paradice To see God the Father therefore and Iesus Christ his Son is to be in Paradice and Glory Ioy everlasting because hee that is without Paradice cannot have such a vision seeing neither God the Father nor thou O Iesus art to be found without Paradice every man therefore hath attained felicity which is united to thee O Iesus as a member to the head no man can come to the Father except hee be drawne by the Father Thy Father therefore O Iesus drew thy humanity by his Son and by thee O Iesus the Father deaweth all men As therefore thy manhood O Iesus is united to the son of God the Father as to a meane by which the Father drew it so every mans humanity is united unto thee O Ies●s as to the only meane by which the Father drawes all men Thou art therefore Iesu without whom it is impossible that any man should attaine felicity Thou art O Iesu the Revelation of the Father for the Father is invisible to all men and only visible to his Son and next thee to him who shall by thee and thy Revelation bee found worthy to see him Thou art therefore hee that unitest every blessed man and every blessed man subsisteth in thee as the united with the uniting Not one of the wise men of this world is capable of happinesse not knowing thee No happie man can see the Father but with thee O Iesus within Paradice Of the happie contradictories are verified as of thee O Iesus seeing he is united unto thee in a reasonable naturall and one spirit for every happy spirit subsists in thine as the quickned in thee quickning Every happy spirit sees the invisible God in thee O Iesus is united unto the unapproachable and immortall God and so in thee the infinite is united to the Infinite and the incomprehensible is comprehended by eternall fruition which is the most pleasant felicity that can never bee wasted nor spent have mercy upon me O Iesus have mercy upon me and grant that I may revealedly see thee and then my soule is safe How Iesus seeeth and worketh CHAP. 22. Never can the eye of the minde be satisfied with the sight of thee O Iesus because thou art the compl●ment and fulnes of all mentall beauty And in this Picture I guesse at the wonderfull and stupendious sight O more then bless●d Iesus for thou Iesus whilst thou didst walke in this sensible world didst use fleshly eyes like unto us for with them no otherwise than we do thou didest see one thing and one thing for there was in thine eyes a certaine spirit which was the forme of the Organ as the sensible soule in the body of a living wight In that spirit there was a noble discretive or discerning power by which O Lord thou didst clearely and distinctly see this thing coloured thus and that other thing otherwise And more highly yet by the figures of the face and eyes of the men thou sawest thou wast a true Iudge of the Passions of the soule anger gladnesse sorrow and yet more subtilly by a few signes didst thou comprehend that which lay hid in the minde of man for there is nothing conceived in the minde which is not in some sort signified in the face and principally in the eyes being the Messengers of the heart for in all these Iudicia or signes thou didst much more truely reach the inwards of the soule than any created spirit for from some one though very ●mal signe thou didst see the whole conception of a man as understanding men do by a few words see through a long preconceived speech which is to be explicated at length and as well learned men if they cast their eyes never so little upon a booke are able to recite the whole intent of the writer as though they had read it through In this kinde of seeing thou O Iesus didst far excell all the perfection swiftnesse and sharpnes of all men past present and to come and yet this vision was but humane which was not done without a Carnall eye neverthelesse it was stupendious and admirable for if there be men found that by long and subtill discussion are able to dicipher any Carracter and to read the minde of the writer in Characters and signes then newly invented and never seene before thou O Iesus didst certainly see all things under

spirit of that man whom thou perfectest Is it not thy good spirit which is wholly in Act the vertue and power of all vertues and the perfection of all perfect things because it is hee that worketh all things For as the power of the Sunne descending into the vegitable spirit moves it that it may be perfected and so by the meanes of a good Tree there is made good fruit but a most acceptable and naturall decoction of a heavenly heate So thy spirit O God comes into the intellectual spirit of Good men and by the heat of divine love concocts the virtuall power that it may be perfected and made most acceptable fruit unto it We finde by experience that thy simple spirit infinite in virtue is many wayes received for it is otherwise received in one where it maks a prophetick spirit otherwise in another where it makes a cunning and skilfull interpretor and otherwise in another where it teacheth knowledge and otherwise in other men For there are divers gifts thereof and they are the perfections of the intellectuall spirit as the same heat of the sume in divers Trees perfecteth divers fruits I see O Lord that thy spirit is not wanting to any spirit because it is the spirit of spirits and the motion of motions and it filleth all the world but it disposeth all things which have not the intellectual spirit by that in tellectuall nature which moves the Heaven and by the motion thereof all things that are under it only the disposition and dispensation in the intellectuall nature it hath reserved unto it selfe a Love For it hath espoused to it selfe this nature in which it hath chosen to rest as in a Mantion house and in the Haven of truth for no where els can this truth be received in it selfe but in the intellectuall nature Thou O Lord which workest all things for thy selfe hast created this whole world for the intellectuall nature As a Painter which tempreth divers Colours that at length hee may paint himselfe to the end hee may have his owne Image that his Art may therein rest and take delight that so being himselfe one and unmultipliable at the least hee may be multiplyed after the best manner possible in the neerest similitude And Hee makes many figures because the similitude of his infinit virtue power cannot bee after a more perfect manner explicated but in many things and all intellectuall spirits are to every spirit opportune For if they were not innumerable thou being an infinite God couldst not be known after the best manner for every intellectuall spirit seeth some thing in the my God which if it were not revealed unto others they should not approach unto thee their God after the best manner possible Therefore the spirit being full of love reveale their secrets one to another and by this meanes the knowledge of the beloved is increased and the desire unto it and the sweernesse of joy is inflamed Neither yet O Lord God hast thou made the accomplishment of thy work without Jesus thy Sonne whom thou anoyntedst above his fellowes who is therefore Christ In whose understanding rests the perfection of every creatable nature for it is the last and perfectest unmultipliable likenesse of God and there can bee no one such supreame one For all other intellctuall spirits are by the mediation of that spirit similitudes and by how much more perfect so much more like unto it And they all rest in that spirit as in the last of perfection of the Image of God of which Image they have attained some similitude and degree of perfection I have therefore by thy guift O God all this visible world and all the scripture and all administring spirits to helpe me profit in the knowledge of thee all things excite mee to be turned to thee All Scriptures labour for nothing but to shew thee all intellectuall spirits have no other exercise but to seeke thee and reveale what they have found of thee Above all things thou hast given me Jesus for a Master the way of life and the truth that so there might bee nothing at all wanting unto mee Thou comfortest me by thy holy spirit by it thou inspirest the choise of life holy desires Thou asurest mee by a foretaste of the sweetnesse of that glorious life to love thee the infinite good Thou ravishest mee that I am above my selfe and do before hand see that place of glory to which thou invitest mee Thou shewest mee many delicate and savorie dishes that draw mee by their most excellent odour thou sufferest mee to see the treasure of riches life joy beauty Thou discoverest the fountaine from whence flowes every desireable thing as wel in nature as in art Thou keepest nothing secret thou hidest not the vaine of love nor peace nor rest Thou offerst all things to me most miserable man whom thou hast created of nothing Why do I therefore stay why doe I not runne after my Christ in the odour of this oyntments Why do I not enter into the joy of my Master What holdeth me if ignorance of thee O Lord and the vaine delights of this sencible world have withholden me it shall now hold me no longer for I will O Lord because thou givest mee power to will leave the things of this world because the world will leave mee I make hast to the end I have almost finished my course I will prevent the world in bidding it farewell because I labour towards the Crowne draw mee O Lord for no man can come to thee except he bee drawne by thee that being drawne by thee I may be freed from this world and joyne to thee the absolute God in the eternity of a glorious life Amen