Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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B01765
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Happiness at hand. Or A plain and practical discourse of the joy of just mens souls in the state of separation from the body. For the instruction of weak Christians, and for the comfort of the afflicated. / By J. B. Rector of Finchamsted in the county of Berks.
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Brandon, John, b. 1644 or 5.
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1687
(1687)
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Wing B4250; ESTC R170761
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60,226
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213
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acute Thalyaeus in Anat. Samosat quaest 2. And whereas some do much urge Luke 1.35 to prove that Christ was the Son of God by reason of his miraculous Conception because 't is immediately added Wherefore also that holy thing that shall be Born of Thee shall be called the Son of God. This I say will not serve their purpose And if from hence they could make such a knot as we could not untie yet that would not make the matter e're the clearer on their side And whether we can search the depth of that sacred Text or no yet we may soon be perswaded that this his miraculous conception was not the chief reason of his being or being called the Son of God. For if so he must have been the Son of the Holy Ghost because this work is peculiarly ascribed to him in the foregoing verse But Christ we are told is the Son of the Father John 2.3 and the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Son Gal. 4.6 2. If Christ was the Son of God on account of his miraculous conception then he began to be so when that began But 't is not so certainly For he was the Son of God long before and was so called Psal 2.7.12 and he had Glory with his Father before the World was Joh. 17.5 He was therefore the Eternal Son of the Father as our Church speaketh on account of an eternal and unspeakable Generation And being a Person of infinite Dignity his Love must needs be of infinite value so that the utmost conceivable kindness of all the Angels in Heaven if they were as many as the drops in the Sea and the Sands on the Shore would be utterly inconsiderable in comparison of His and exceed the Understandings of mortal Men almost as far as it doth their Deservings which by the next Section may farther appear SECT XIV Discovering the Greatness of Christ's Love in what he did and suffered for Sinners That the sense of the love of Christ will be the special matter of the joy of Just Mens Souls after Death will easily be granted and may in its place be farther proved At present I think it my Duty and full enough to my purpose to set forth the greatness of his Love in the great things that he did and suffered for Sinners sake And first I may fitly instance in his taking our nature into unity with his own Divine Person so as to become true and very Man like unto us Sin excepted If St. John so much admired that such as we should be called the Sons of God by Adoption Behold what manner of Love is this 1 John 3.1 How then may we wonder at that Love that moved the Son of God from Everlasting to become the Son of Man in Time What a height of kindness and condescension was that which moved the most High and Holy one to stoop so low for our sakes and Salvation Sure the utmost kindness that the best of Creatures can have towards us in comparison of this Love of Christ is but as a drop to the Sea or as a Mote in the Sun to the whole frame of Nature For let us but think with our selves what a wondrous thing it was that the Son of God should vouchsafe to take our Nature on him and be made in the likeness of sinfull Flesh Rom. 8.3 well may we say in this as the Psalmist doth Lord what is Man that thou art mindfull of him For the Nature of Man that is corrupt with sin and subject to the darkness of the Grave what is this I say to him who is the Light of the City of God and had Glory with the Father before the World was John 17.5 Thus therefore to assume our Nature might seem a matter infinitely below him but that his love thought nothing so And as he took Humane Nature to himself so in it he did those excellent things that expressed the greatness of his Love towards Men and the care he took of their eternal Salvation He came into the World to save Sinners 1 Tim. 1.15 He went about doing good preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom and working the most absolute uncontrollable miracles for Confirmation of his holy Doctrine leading them in the way to Heaven by his own blessed example bearing patiently the greatest Slanders and suffering the contradictions of Sinners against himself Heb. 12.3 Overcoming daily their evil with good and inviting them to himself to come unto him that they might have Life And the eminency of his Love and Goodness will be especially visible in the evils that he suffered and voluntarily exposed himself to for the sake of Sinners which being compared with the excellency and innocency of his Person will easily appear to exceed the most enlarged thoughts of Men and Angels As to this therefore I must say with the Apostle who is sufficient for these things And as it was said of old who hath declared his Generation So I may as justly who can declare his Humiliation and Passion and that Sacred Depth of Divine Love that was discovered therein That he whom the Heaven of Heavens could not contain and of whom they borrow their Brightness and Glory should be laid in a Manger and live in Meanness and Obscurity That He who is Rich from all Eternity should in time become poor for our Sakes That He who was the God of Israel the Author and Maintainer of the Water of Life Rev. 22.1 should Himself be subject to Weariness and Thirst and be fain to refresh himself with so weak a Cordial as the Water of Jacob's Well John 4. That He whom the Highest Angels worshipped should be abused by the basest Men be reviled and scorn'd buffeted and spitted on and at last be Crucified between two Malefactours as if he had been the worst of the Three That He who was purer than all the created Inhabitants of the high and holy Place should suffer himself to be tempted to Sin and bear Day by Day the vilest Assaults of the unclean Spirit Math. 4. That He who upholdeth all things by the word of his power Heb. 1. should be weak and faint and in the midst of sorrows give up the Ghost That He who was the Heir of all things and the Son of the Blessed should be deprived of all Comforts and cry out upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and in a word fall under Condemnation and be made a Curse Gal. 3.13 Wonder Christian Reader wonder evermore at that Superlative Love which moved him to do and suffer such marvellous things for such as we Methinks our Hearts should be mightily affected with it and our whole Souls be swallowed up as it were in this blessed and boundless Ocean And because we can know but little of it whilst we live let us be content to dye that our Souls may know it better For certainly the perfect Knowledge and Enjoyment of this transcendent Love of Christ must needs be no less than
this I cannot conceive to be such a heinous Sin or such a dangerous Case For example If through Melancholy or Satan's Suggestions he be brought to think that he is under the guilt of the unpardonable Sin then he cannot chuse but despair of being pardoned And though I believe it is a great truth that no true Christian shall ever be guilty of the unpardonable Sin having an interest in Christ and there being no condemnation to them that are in Christ even such as walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8.1 2. and for other reasons that need not now be named Yet I doubt not but such a one may fear he is under it and verily think so I remember Mr. Fox tells us it was the case of Mr. John Glover a Person of exemplary Piety So that Despair in such persons and on such grounds may be reckoned amongst those Frailties and Infirmities which our God doth pardon of course to his adopted Children in Christ He is what he is stiled their Heavenly Father Mat. 6. and we can easily understand that the Child is incomparably safer by his Father's Hold of him than by any Hold that he can take of his Father He is their God for ever Ps 48.14 and no Darkness or Discomfort no Terrour of Life or shadow of Death shall ever deprive them of their Interest in him or disanull his purpose of Grace which was towards them in Christ Jesus before the World began Ob. 6. But after all this you may perhaps when your turn comes be as much afraid to Dye as others are Answ Very like so I can say nothing to the contrary nor can I tell in the least how it will be with me in point of comfort at my last Hour I well know that of my self I am as nothing and all my Sufficiency is of God. I shall therefore fear the last Enemy either much or little or not at all according as that King Eternal shall be pleased to grant or to withhold the Influences and Assistances of his Holy Spirit If he should leave me to my self to the Power of Temptation to the Doubts and Sins of my own Heart I know my Spirit would fail on a suddain and I should look like those that have been seven Days dead But good Reader how weak soever I or others may be yet our God is Strong and Faithfull and True and the Empyrean Heaven may sooner fall and perish than the least part of his promised Goodness fail Go on therefore O Christian in the good Way with a good Courage and Resolution Live upon Christ and live unto him and serve that blessed Lord with Joyfulness of Heart Fear not the Reproach of Men nor be afraid of their Revilings Endeavour to bring Glory to the Name of Christ by walking more and more as becomes his Gospel and then never value a thousand hard Censures and disgracefull Names or any other cruel Arts that Hell can invent to discourage Religion by For e're long through the tender Mercies of our God thou shalt be above the reach of all thy Enemies when thou removest from the best of thy Friends on Earth thou shalt dwell with those that Love thee better When thy Soul shall leave this malignant World it shall see the Love of the Lord Jesus that free that full that glorious Love which is better than Life and stronger than Death which makes the Host of Heaven glad and fills the Seraphins with Sacred Joy. A POSTSCRIPT Attempting the Resolution of a weighty Question with an Appendix to the 13th Section concerning Christ's Filiation in a Letter to a Learned Authour SIR I am satisfied in your Opinion of the Necessity or at least the Expediency of Answering those Opposers who enquire how 't is likely the Soul can Act when 't is without its Body to act in since it apparently dependeth on the Body in its Operations and its actings are evidently hindered when the Body is indisposed by Sleep or Sickness c. Which I hope may in part be solved by the ensuing Considerations 1. That the Soul 's depending on the Body in some of its Actings doth only prove that it hath need of the Body in it's present State wherein it was appointed to act in it and by it 2. That the Soul doth act in some ways very much when the Body least contributes to its Operation Even in Sleep it self the Soul is not wholly unactive for it then acteth by Thoughts and Dreams And as some tell us they seldom wake but out of some Degree of Dreaming So 't is impossible for any to prove that they did not dream or exercise a thinking power in their deepest Sleeps for that may be though they do not remember it Some Mens Fancies and Consciences have acted most strangely when their Bodies have lain as dead many Hours together declaring when they came to their Senses what a sad case they had been in and thought themselves to have been in Hell. 3. That its Dependance on the Body in some of its Operations doth not prove its Dependance on it in All or in those that are most natural to it as Understanding and Willing Hoping or Fearing Joying or Sorrowing 4. That God who hath told us in his word that it is Immortal and cannot be Killed Math. 10.28 doth know how to preserve its operating power without the help of a Weak and Dying Body If its Life and Being doth not depend upon its union with the Body why should we conceive its Operation and Apprehension to depend on it 5. Though the Soul in its Separation be without its Terrestrial Body yet it may not therefore be concluded to have No Body to Act in for it may have an Aërial Body which was so far from being counted absurd by the Ancients that they did suppose the Angels themselves to be in some sense embodied Creatures And perhaps it may be hard to prove that the Holy Apostle doth not mean some such thing when he saith we desire to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.2 and verse 4. not that we would be uncloathed but cloathed upon 6. When the same Apostle had in his Rapture to the third Heaven such Divine Discoveries as he could not utter he assures us that he could not tell us in what State he had them Whether in the Body or out of the Body I cannot tell 2 Cor. 12.2 3. Which it seems was very remarkable since it is mentioned twice in those verses Now how can it be imagined that the Apostle should make it his business to declare that he knew not whether he had those Revelations in the Body or out of it if the Soul without its Terrestrial Body were an Unactive and Insensible thing Sir I have also considered farther about the great Point we were discoursing of whether Christ be the Son of God on the Account of his miraculous Conception and for the Negative I would humbly offer these Reasons 1. Because the Affirmative seems to enervate the Arguments that Orthodox Divines use to prove him the Son of God by Real and Eternal Generation or at least to take away the necessity of arguing about it For they will say what need any Man seek such a ground of his Sonship if he may fitly be called the Son of God upon a far different Account 2. Because Christ is not therefore called the Son of God in any Scripture unless it be in Luke 1.35 And I think it hath not yet been proved that he is so called in that place on that Account for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the only Nerve that the proof of the contrary-minded is fastened on which methinks should afford no cogent Argument For the Particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may be consequential as well as causal And 't is hard to find any thing in that Text or context that will prove it to be causal And possibly the Conjunctive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may make against it 3. Relationes se mutuò ponunt If therefore Christ be the Son of God upon several grounds he must have several Filiations in Respect of God and so should be more than one Son of God unless a Man suppose his miraculous Conception to be the only Reason why he is called the Son of God which as it will never be granted by the Orthodox so I think it is not asserted by any at all 4. It seems needless for Christ to have any other Filiation in Respect of God than what is grounded on Eternal Generation As to himself 't is plain he hath no need And there seems to be as little need of it as to us Because his Eternal Sonship is every way sufficient to enoble the Humane Nature and to put a glorious Value upon what he did and suffered for us I have not consulted Authours upon this Occasion So that this is but the Result of my own Thoughts which may have need of Rectification and the whole Sir is humbly submitted to your favourable yet impartial Censure by Your Obliged Servant J. B. FINIS Books Printed for Luke Meredith at the King's Head at the West End of St. Paul's Church-Yard A Dialogue between a Pastor and Parishioner touching the Lord's Supper Wherein the most material Doubts and Scruples about Receiving that Holy Sacrament are removed and the Way thereto discovered to be both Plain and Pleasant Very usefull for private Christians in these Scrupulous Times With some short Prayers fitted for that Occasion and a Morning and Evening Prayer for the Vse of Private Families By Michael Altham Vicar of Latton in Essex The Second Edition Rest for the Heavy-Laden Promised by our only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to all Sincere Believers Practically discoursed upon By Clement Elis Rector of Kirkby in Nortinghamshire Author of the Gentile Sinner Some Queries to Protestants Answered And an Explanation of the Roman Catholick's Belief in Four Great Points considered 1. Concerning their Church 2. Their Worship 3. Justification 4. Civil Government ERRATA Page 56 Line 20 for greatest reade grossest