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	word_n	22,511	5	4.8766	4	true

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

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

nature pas into another nature as when the Image is united to its truth for it cannot then be said to bee altered but rather to goe backe from its alterity because it is united unto its proper truth which is inalterability it selfe Nor canst thou O sweet Jesu be said to be a middle nature betweene divine and humane when as betweene them there cannot be any middle nature partaking of both for the divine nature is not partakeable being wholly absolutely most simple Nor couldst thou then O blessed Iesus be either God or man But I see thee O Lord Iesus one supposition above all understanding because thou art one Christ after the same manner that I see thy one human soule in which as in the soule of any man I see there was a corruptible sensible nature which did subsist in an incorruptible intellectuall nature Nor yet was that soule compounded of corruptible and in corruptible neither did the sensible soule coinside with the intellectuall but I see an intellectuall soule to be united to the body by a sensible power quickning the body And if the intellectuall soule should cease to Quicken and Enlighten the Body though it were not separated from the body yet would that man be dead because his life would cease notwithstanding the body were not separated from life being the understanding is the life thereof As when a man intellectually labours and seeks by the meanes of his sight to discerne one that is comming and yet being carried away with other considerations his attention ceaseth about that inquirie though his eyes be still fastened upon it his eye is not separated from the Soule though it bee separated from the discretive or discerning attention of the Soule But if that rapture should not only cease from the discretive quickning but also from the sensitive quickening that eye were dead because it were not quickened Yet for all that it were not separated from the intellective forme which is the form giving being As a dry hand is united to the forme which unites the whole body There are sound men as Saint Augustine relates which can retract or draw back the vivifying spirit and so they appeare dead and feele nothing supposing it to be so In this close the intellectuall nature would remaine united to the body which body would not be under any other forme than it was before nay it would have the same forme and remaine the same body neither would the quickening force cease to be but would remaine in union with the intellectuall nature although actually it did not extend it selfe into the body I see that man truly dead because hee wants the vivifying life for death is the want of the quickner and yet that body would not be dead separated from the life which is the Soule thereof After the same manner most mercifull Iesus I do behold absolute life which is God inseparably united to the humane understanding and by it into the body for that union is such a one that a greater cannot be and a separable union is much inferior to such a union as cannot be greater Therefore it was never true nor ever shall be that thy divine nature was separated from thy humane consequently neither from the soule nor the body which are those things without which humane nature cannot be although it bee most true that thy Soule ceased to quicken thy body and that thou didst truly suffer death and yet wast never separated from the truth of life If that Priest whom Saint Augustine mentions had whatsoever power it were to take vivification out of his body by drawing it up unto the soule as if a candle that enlighteneth a Chamber were alive and should draw up those beames by which it enlightens the Chamber into the Center of its light and its drawing up were nothing but a ceasing to inflame what marvell is it if thou Iesus being the most free and living light hast power to lay downe and to take up thy quickinnig soule and when thou wouldest take it up thou sufferedest death and when thou wouldst resume it by thine owne thou didst rise againe Now an intellectuall nature is called a humane soule when it quickens or animates a body And the soule is said to be taken away when … ane understanding ceaseth to quicken for when the understanding ceaseth from the Office of quickening and in this respect separateth it selfe from the body it is not therefore simply separated These things thou inspirest o Iesus that thou mightest shew thy selfe to most unworthy mee as far as I am capable and that I may in thee contemplate that mortall humane nature hath put on immortality that all men of the same humane nature may in thee attaine resurrection and divine life What then can bee sweeter what more pleasant then to know this that in thee O Iesu we finde all things that are in our nature which only canst do all things and givest most liberally and up bradest no man O inexpresible mercy and pity thou God which art goodnesse it selfe couldst 〈◊〉 satisfie thy infinite clemency and bounty except thou gavest us thy selfe Neither could this be don more conveniently for us that are the receivers then that thou shouldest assume our nature because we could not approach unto thine so thou camest to us and art named Iesus the Saviour blessed for evermore How Iesus is the word of life CHAP. 24. THy gift thy best and greatest guift inables me to contemplat thee my Jesus preaching the words of life and bountefully sowing the Divine seeds in the hearts of the hearers And I see them go away which receved not the things of the spirit But I see thy Disciples abiding it which began to tast the sweetnesse of that Doctrine which quickneth the soule for all whom that first and chiefest of all the Appostls Peter confest that thou Iesus hadst the word of life and wondered that they which seeke life would go from thee Paul heard from thee Iesus in a rapture the words of life and then neither sword nor famine of body separate him from thee No man could ever forake thee that had tasted the words of life who can separate a Beare from Hony after hee hath once tasted the sweetnesse of it How great is the sweetnesse of truth how most delectable a life doth it give above all bodily sweetnesse for it is absolute sweetnesse from whence floweth all that by any tast is desired What is stronger than love by which every lovely thing hath to bee loved If the knot or Bond of contracted love be sometimes so great that the feare of death cannot breake it what a knot is there of that love rasted from whence is all love I wonder not that all cruelty of paines was accounted nothing by other of thy Souldiers of Jesus to whom thou gavest thy selfe the life to be tasted aforehand O Jesus my love thou hast sowed the seed of life in the field of beleevers and watered it with the

testimoney of thy blood and shewed by bodily death that truth is the life of the reasonable spirit the seed grew in the good ground and brought forth good fruit thou shewest me O Lord how my soule is the breath of life in regard of my body into which it breatheth and infloweth life And it is not in regard of thee O God but as it were a power or possibility of life And because thou canst not but grant the things that are asked if they be asked with a most attentive faith thou inflowest or inspirest me that there is in a Child a soule which hath a vegetative power and force in act for the Childe groweth It hath likewise a sencitive power in act for the Childe feeleth it hath likewise an imaginative power but not yet act it hath likewise a discursive power whose act is yet more distant And it hath an intellectuall virtue but in a power yet more remote further off so we finde by experience that one and the same soule is first in act inregard of the inferior powers and afterwards in regard of the superior that first he is an animall man before a spirituall man So likewise we know by proofe that there is a certaine numerall virtue in the Bowells of the earth which may also be called a spirit and that it is first in power or possibility to be made a minera of stone and another to bee made a minera of Salt and another of Mettall and that there are divers such spirits according to the diversity of Sones Salts and Mettalls but yet that there is one spirit of the Minera of Gold which by the influence of the Sun or of the Heaven is continually more and more purified and at length fixed into such Gold as is not by any Element to be corrupted or distroyed and that in it there shines exceeding much of the incorruptible light of heaven for it is very like the corporall light of the Sun And the like wee finde also of the vegitable and sensitive spirit for the sensitive spirit in a man doth much conforme it selfe unto the moving and influentiall virtue of Heaven and doth successively take increase under the influence of Heaven untill it be put in perfect act And it is brought out of the power or possibility of the body and therefore the perfection of it ceaseth as soone as the perfection of the body faileth Then is there an intellectuall spirit which in the act of its perfection depends not of the body but is united unto it by meanes of the sensitive virtue This spirit because it dependeth not of the body is not subject to the influence of the heaven by bodies neither depends it of the sensitive spirit and so not of the moving power of Heaven but as the movers of the heavenly Orbs are subject to the first mover so likewise this mover which is the understanding but because it is united to the bodie by the meane of the sensitive power therefore it is not perfected without the sences for all that comes unto it from the sensible world comes unto it by meanes of the sences And therefore there can bee nothing in the understanding which hath not first bin in the sence And by how much the sense is purer and perfecter and the imagination clearer and the discourse bitter by so much the understanding in its intellectuall operations is lesse hindered and more perspicatious Now the understanding is fed by the word of life under whose ifluence it is placed as the movers of the Orbs but differently as also the spirits that are subject to the influences of Heaven are differently perfected And it is not perfected but accedentally by the sensible spirit as the Image doth not perfect although it excite to enquire the truth of the samplar or patterne as the Image of the Crucified doth not inflow devotion but stirsup the memory that devotion may be inflowed and because the intellectuall spirit is not necessitated by the influence of Heaven but is wholy free therefore except it do by faith subject it selfe unto the influence of the word of God it is not perfected as a Schollar that is free and in his owne power unlesse he subject himselfe unto the word of his Master by beleeveing hee is not perfected for hee must trust and heare his Master And the understanding is perfected by the word of God and growes and is made every day more capable and apt and more like to the word And this perfection which thus comes from the word from whence it had its being is not a corruptible perfection but a perfection deiforme or formed by God as the perfection of Gold is not corruptible but of the forme of heaven And every understanding must by faith subject it selfe to the word of God and most attentively harken to that internall teaching of the highest Mr. and by hearing what the Lord saith in it It shall bee perfected Wherefore thou O Jesus the only Master hath preached that faith is necessary for every one that comes to the fountaine of life and hast shewne that according to the degree of faith the influence of the divine power is present O Saviour Christ two things only hast thou taught Faith and Love By faith the understanding comes to the word and by love it is united to it By how much more it comes unto it by so much more it is increased in power and by how much more it loveth by so much more it is fixed to the light thereof and the word of God is within it the understanding and it needs not seeke for it without it selfe for hee shall finde it within and by faith hee shall approach unto it And that hee may come neerer hee shall obtaine by prayers for the word will increase faith by the Communication of its light I give thee thanks O Jesus because by thy light I am come thus farre for in thy light I see the light of my life how thou the word inflowest life to all that beleeve and perfectest all that love thee What other Doctrine was ever so short and effectuall as thine O good Jesus thou perswadest nothing but to beleeve and thou commandest nothing but to love What is more easie then to beleeve God what more sweet than to love him How sweet is thy Yok and how light is thy burthen O ray Mr. thou promisest to them that keepe this Doctrine whatsoever can be desired for thou requirest nothing that is hard to him that beleeves nothing denied to him that loves Such are the promises thou makest to thy Disciples and they are most true because thou art truth which canst promise nothing but true things nay thou promisest nothing but thy selfe who art the perfection of every thing that may be perfected To thee bee praise to thee be Glory to thee be thanksgiving through all ages Amen How Iesus is the consumation CHAP. 25. YEt what may that be O Lord that thou sendest into the