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
infinite Humility did Christ manifest when he took upon him our Nature that he whom the Heaven of Heavens could not contain to be circumscribed in the Womb of a Virgin that he who dwells in inaccessable Light should be contented to be nine Months in utter Darkness Oh the condescending Grace of God over all that he who was from everlasting should be born in time That he who roles up the Heavens as a Scrole should himself be wrapped up in Swadling-bands that he who feeds all Creatures by his Providence should suck the Breast of a Woman for his maintenance that he who bares up the whole Fabrick of Heaven and Earth by his Power should be carried in the Arms of a Woman that he who is attened upon by Angels should be carried up and down by the Devils Luke 4.5 9. that he who is the Fountain of Joy should be contented to be a Man of Sorrows Isai 53.3 that he who is to be the Judge of Quick and Dead should be adjudged and condemned by a Man of his own making Oh the infinite Condescension of Christ that he who chastens the Heathen should be scourged by Mortals that he who is the Blessed God should hang upon a cursed Tree and that he who is the Fountain of Life should undergo the stroke of Death that he who hangs the Earth upon nothing should himself be hanged between Heaven and Earth And therefore the Apostle presents us with the Example of Christ as a Copy to write after Phil. 2.6 7. and a President to imitate 5. If Christ be God over all this amy inform us of our infinite Obligations to God the Holy Ghost for forming the Humanity of Christ of the Virgins substance so pure and holy that God over all did not disdain to take it into a Personal Union with himself and also for convincing us of sn whereby he emptyed the Soul of sinful worldly and righteous Self and thereby made room in our Hearts for the Reception of the Blessed efforts of the Death Resurrection Assension and Intercession of Jesus Christ 6. If Christ be God over all this may inform us that all the Perfections of God which have been affronted by Man's sin have gained by Man's Nature in the Person of Christ because of that Retribution that God over all has in our Nature made to God Perfections for which cause God is said to have received double for all our sins not by our Persons but by our Nature in the Peson of him who is God over all Isai 40.2 1. For the Sovereignty of God which has been prodigiously rejected by sinful Men whose Nature and Practice is ready to utter this wicked Language of Pharaoh Who is the Lord that I should obey him VVe will not have this man to reign over us This gloriour Perfection of God Exod. 5.2 Luke 19.14 has gained more by our Nature in the Person of Christ than it has lost by us for Christ who is God over all has owned and acknowledged the Sovereignty of God by praying to him and by obeying of him even unto Death so that when the Law is ready to cry to Justice for Vengeance against a Believer because of his sin says Justice 't is true Law what thou saiest concerning the sinfulness of those Believeing Repenting and Returning Sinners but yet I am so far from complying with thee to Damn them that I am resolved to stand by them and to justifie them Isai 40.2 for I have received double at their hands for their rejection of my Sovereignty for their nature in Personal Union with God over all has by all its Obedience unto Death honoured my Sovereignty more than Adam and all his Posterity could have done had they continued in their Innocency for then my Sovereignty had been honoured only by Creatures but now it is honoured by God over all in Man's Nature 2. As the Sovereignty of God has been more honoured by Christ than it could have been by Adam and all his Posterity had they continued in their Innocency so likewise the Holiness or God wherein consisted God's Image which Man defaced by his Fall has got more ground in our Nature as it is in Personal Union with God over all than it lost by the Fall of Adam for if Adam and all his Posterity had continued in their Holy State there would not have been so much Holiness in all their Persons as is in our Nature in the Person of Christ into whose Lips Grace was pouered Psal 45.3 and who received not the Spirit by measure John 3.24 So that when the Law is crying to Justice for Vengeance against True Believers for the loss of their Holiness says Justice I cannot Damn this Believer though their Persons have lost their Holiness because their Nature in Personal Union with God over all has more Holiness in it than ever they lost And beside says Justice as there is the Perfection of Holiness in their Political Head and representative God over all so I have likewise by the Almighty and irresistable power of my Spirit implanted my Image of Holiness in them as they are by Faith United to God the Fountain of Holiness from whom they do derive such Streams of Holiness which carry them with an Holy Holiness against the Wind and Tide of their corrupt Affections and Satans Temptations and the Worlds Allurements and the Frowns and Flatteries of wicked Relations in which respect the Holiness of true Believers is of a higher Nature than the Holiness of the Angels forasmuch as they in their Acts of Holiness meet with none of that Opposition as the Saints do while they are here in this World and though all this will not justifie them because of Adam's sin imputed to them and that sin which is implanted in them yet forasmuch as God over all has in their Nature not only purchased Justifying Grace for them but also Sanctifying Grace in them I am resolved to glorifie them notwithstanding all that thou O Law dost alledge against them for though they were deeply in my Debt I have received double at the Hands of their Surety and it would be an Act of Injustice in me to exact one Debt of two Persons 3. If Christ be God over all this may inform us that the Mercy of God has been no loser but a gainer by our Nature in the Person of God over all for the Mercy of God is more display'd in redeeming of us by the Death of Christ than it would have been by God's keeping of Adam and all his Posterity in their Primitive State of Happiness Oh who can take the Dimensions of that boundless Grace and Mercy of God that was display'd in sending of his only Son out of his Bosom to undergo his Wrath for sinners For though the Godhead of Christ was uncapable of suffering yet he was in Personal Union with the Manhood that did suffer the intolerable weight of God's Wrath for sinners and no sooner does the Law cry