Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	brazen_a	look_v	serpent_n	839	5	9.9901	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30303	Expository notes with practical observations on the Four Holy Evangelists, viz., St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Luke, St. John wherein the sacred text is at large recited ... and the instructive example of the holy Jesus to our imitation recommended ; designed for the instruction of private families ... / by William Burkitt.	Burkitt, William, 1650-1703.	1700 (1700)	Wing B5736; ESTC R29600	900,471	338

and Nature and yet blind as a Mole in the things of God 2. That Ignorance in the Fundamentals of Religion especially is very culpable and shameful in any that enjoy the means of Knowledge but especially in those that undertake to teach and instruct others Art thou a Teacher thou a Master of Israel and knowest not these things Next our Saviour upbraids him for his Infidelity v. 12. If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not This Infidelity received its Aggravation from the Facility and Perspicuity of our Saviour's Doctrine I have told you earthly Things that is I have set forth Spiritual Things by Earthly Similitudes not in a Stile suitable to the Sublimity of their own Nature Let the Ministers of Christ learn from their Master's Example in all their Discoures to accommodate themselves and descend as low as may be to the Capacities of their People I have told you earthly things 2. That even Spiritual Things when they are shadowed forth by earthly Similitudes and brought down in the plainest manner to the Capacities of our People yet are they very slow to understand them and very backward to believe them I have told you of earthly things and ye believe them not 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven even the son of man which is in heaven Here our Saviour declares to Nicodemus that none ever ascended up into Heaven to fetch down from thence the Knowledge of Divine Mysteries And to reveal the Way of Life and Salvation to Mankind by a Mediator but only Christ himself who tho' he took upon him the human Nature and was then Man upon Earth yet was he at the same time in his Divine Nature actually in heaven as God This Text evidently proves two distinct Natures in Christ namely a Divine Nature as he was God and an Humane Nature as Man In his Humane Nature he was then upon Earth when he spake these Words in his Divine Nature he was at that Instant in Heaven Here observe That the Son of God hath taken the Humane Nature into so close and intimate an Union with his God-head that what is proper to either Nature is ascribed unto the Person of our Saviour The same Person who was on Earth as the Son of Man was then in Heaven as God and yet but one Person still Lord what Love hast thou shewen to our Humane Nature that under that Name thou ascribest to thy self what is proper to thy God-head The Son of Man which is in Heaven 14 ¶ And as Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life Christ having instructed Nicodemus in the Doctrine of Regeneration in the former Verses here he instructs him in the Death of the Messiah and in the Necessity of Faith in his Death The Son of Man must be lifted up that is upon his Cross and dye that whosoever believeth in him should not perish Observe here 1. An Old Testament Type which our Saviour refers to and that is the Brazen Serpent in the Wilderness the History of which is recorded Numb 21.7 8. Observe 2. The Antitype or the Substance of what that Type did shadow forth the Brazen Serpent's lifting up upon the Pole prefiguring Christ's Exaltation or lifting up upon his Cross So must the Son of Man be lifted up Learn hence That the Lord Jesus Christ is of the same Use and Office to a Sin-stung Soul which the Brazen Serpent was of old to a Serpent-stung Israelite Here observe First Wherein the Brazen Serpent and Christ do agree And Secondly Wherein they differ They agree thus In the Occasion of their Institution they were both appointed for Cure and Healing Were they Serpent-stung We are Sin-stung Devil-bitten Was the Sting of the fiery Serpents inflaming Was it spreading Was it killing So is sin which is the Venom and Poison of the old Serpent They agree in this that they both must be lifted up before Cure could be obtained the Brazen Serpent upon the Pole Christ upon his Cross They both must be lookt unto before Cure could be obtained The looking up of the Israelite was as necessary unto Healing as the lifting up of the Serpent Faith is as necessary to Salvation as the Death of Christ The one rendered God reconcilable unto Sinners the other renders him actually reconciled Again did the Brazen Serpent heal All that lookt upon it and lookt up unto it though all had not Eyes alike some with a weak others with a stronger Eye In like manner doth Christ justifie and save All that with a sincere Faith though weak do rely upon him for Salvation Whoever believeth in him shall not perish Further the Brazen Serpent was effectual for Israel's Cure after many Stingings if after they were healed they were stung afresh and did look up to it they were healed by it Thus the Merit of Christ's Death is not only effectual for our Cure and Healing at our first Conversion but after involuntary Relapses and Backslidings if by Faith we have recourse to the Blood of Christ we shall find it efficacious for our farther Benefit and future Healing In a Word as the Brazen Serpent had the Likeness of a Serpent the Form the Figure the Name the Colour of a Serpent but nothing of the Venom and Poison of the Serpent in it Thus Christ did take upon him our Natures but sin the Venom and Poison of our Natures he had nothing to do with though Christ loved Souls with an invincible and insuperable Love yet he would not sin to save a Soul This was the Similitude and Resemblance between Christ and the Brazen Serpent The Disparity or Dissimilitude follows The Brazen Serpent had no Power in its self or of its self to heal and cure but Christ has a Power inherent in himself for the Cure and Healing of all that do believe in him Again the Brazen Serpent cured only one particular Nation and People Jews only Christ is for the healing of all Nations and his Salvation is to the ends of the Earth Farther the Brazen Serpent cured only one particular Disease namely the Stingings of the fiery Serpents had a Person been sick of the Plague or Leprosie he might have died for all the Brazen Serpent But Christ pardons all the Iniquities and heals all the Diseases of his People Psal 103.3 Yet again though the Brazen Serpent healed all that lookt up unto it yet it gave an Eye to none to look up unto it Whereas Christ doth not only heal those that look up to him but bestows the Eye of Faith upon them to enable them to look unto him that they may be saved In a Word the Brazen Serpent did not always retain its healing Virtue but in time lost it and was it self destroyed 2 Kings 18.4 But now the healing Vertue and Efficacy of Christ's Blood is Eternal All Believers have and shall experience the healing Power of our Redeemer's Death to the end of the World Lastly The Israelites that were cured by looking up to the brazen Serpent dyed