Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	believe_v	son_n	write_v	7,330	5	6.5418	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75620	Theanthrōpos; or, God-man: being an exposition upon the first eighteen verses of the first chapter of the Gospel according to St John. Wherein, is most accurately and divinely handled, the divinity and humanity of Jesus Christ; proving him to be God and man, coequall and coeternall with the Father: to the confutation of severall heresies both ancient and modern. By that eminently learned and reverend divine, John Arrowsmith, D.D. late Master of Trinity-Colledge in Cambridge, and Professor of Divinity there.	Arrowsmith, John, 1602-1659.	1660 (1660)	Wing A3778; Thomason E1014_1; ESTC R10473	267,525	319

occasioned John as they say to write this Gospell wherein he asserteth the Godhead of Christ And so by the way occasionally yee see what use even Heriticks are made of to the Church of God We had lost this Gospell if Ebion and Cerinthus had not broached their heresies God suffereth desperate opinions to be vented for the purging of his owne Truth The Truth of God is compared to Silver The words of the Lord are pure yea as Silver tried in a furnace of Earth purified seven times Every corrupt opinion that cometh to be vented against any Truth of God that is a new furnace and the truth being cast into that furnace it cometh out the purer for it Purified seven times As it is with Passengers of quality and note were it not for some evill inveterate Currs in the street they might passe and never be observed the very barking of the Dogs maketh them to be noted So these evill inveterate Corrupt Hereticks by their barking have occasioned the taking notice of that truth of the Divinity of Christ Had not they barked John had not Written This was the occasion And this should incourage you to attention because the same Hereticks are with us now we have our owne Ebions and Cerinthusses to this day that deny the Divinity of Christ and say He had no being till he took it from the Virgin Mary Fourthly we come to the Scope of this Book which is to hold out the Divine nature of Christ as the object of our Faith to set forth Christ as the Sonne of God that we believe in Him so as to have Salvation by Him And This St. John telleth you to have been his aime Joh. 20. 31. These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Sonne of God and that believing you might have Life through Him He desires to set forth Christ to us as our Redeemer and therefore laboureth so much both in the beginning of his Gospell and throughout to hold forth the Godhead and Divine nature of Christ That so it might appear that he is a sufficient Redeemer If He had not been God He could not have gon through with the purchase As the Eagle trieth her young ones by holding them against the beams of the Sun and if they be able to look upon them with a stedfast eye she owneth such So John bringeth his Readers to the Sun of the Divinity of Christ and such as will not acknowledge that are bastard-Christians and not Saints Fifthly One thing yet remaineth by way of preface which is the difference between this and the other Gospells which lieth especially in two things First whereas the three former Evangelists insist especially upon things done by Christ after John was cast into Prison and so principally relate the acts of Christ in the last year of his Ministry St. John taketh in here the acts of his two former years what Christ did and what Christ said before John was cast into Prison which the other touch but sparingly upon Secondly whereas the other Evangelists insist mainly upon what Christ did Saint John relateth especially what Christ said They are much more large in recording his Miracles John in recording his Sermons and Prayers as Chap. 15. Some Miracles indeed he relateth to us but they are such as wake may either for his Discourse with the Disciples or for his disputation with his Adversaries So still he seemed more to take notice of what Christ said then what he did I now prepare you to be attentive for I begin to close with the first Chapter and with these first words of the Chapter which are of so great importance That as I told you before they had a most extraordinary force upon Junius his spirit and besides upon one Numenius a Heathen Philosopher That falling upon this Gospell cried out in a kind of indignation This Barbarian saith he for so the Greeks call the Jews hath concluded more in a few lines than our great Philosophers have in all their Books He was so taken with the mystery of these words For they are words which the most quick-sighted Christian can be hardly able to see through And throughout I shall indeavour to make it as plain as God shall inable me Onely ye must not take it amisse if some things shall be left obscure Augustine saith I will not defraud those that are able to understand for fear of being irksome to them that are not able Do but think your selves at a feast When many guests are invited to a feast They are of severall Constitutions and like severall dishes But now Shall a man that seeth such a dish before him to which he hath no stomack presently rise from the Table No he will perhaps think with himselfe Other men may like this dish So it should be taken here Suppose something be too hard for thee it may perhaps be clear to another Paul is a debtor to the wise and to the unwise therefore let none arise and goe away but let every man expect his portion Do you hope that whatsoever difficult passages there are in the Scriptures yet there will be some full of Light and Comfort To close then with the first verse In the beginning was the Word and the Word was Text. with God and the Word was God YE have here the Subject and the Predicate which are laid down in three Propositions The subject in every proposition is the same the Word And there are in these three propositions three things predicated of this Word First an eternall existency and that in the first Proposition The Word was in the beginning Secondly a Personall Co-exsistency of Christ with the Father The Word was with God namely as a distinct person from God That is the second Proposition Thirdly a divine Essence The Word was God a distinct Person indeed therefore said to be with God but of the same Nature therefore said to be God Mysteries have more need of Adoration than Locution The first thing we are to understand is a discourse of the Subject of these three Propositions The Word And for the clearing of that three Quaeries we shall resolve First what Person is here meant by the Word Quarie 1 I answer clearly The second Person in the Trinity Of Respon whom ye shall find him called not onely by St. John Christ is called the Word by Iohn but by St. Luke and Paul too Jesus Christ is called by St. John The Word 1 John 5. 7. There are three that beare record in Heaven The Father the WORD the Holy Ghost Here the Word cometh in in the second place between the Father and the Holy Ghost to denote the second Person Revel 19. 13. He was cloathed in a vesture dipt in Blood and His Name is called the Word of God Neither is John the onely man that calleth Him so though by the way St. John himselfe above all the Apostles got the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 John the

that publish the truth of the Gospel against the incroachments of Antichrist They are called two Witnesses two Olive-trees two Candlesticks But two Witnesses to import that Few witnesses to the truth in the daies of Antichrist those that bear witnesse to the light in the daies of Antichrist are but few if ye compare them with them that went the wrong way And yet two Witnesses that is a sufficient number in all ages to hold forth the truth because two witnesses would serve to give testimony under the Law In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall the truth of every thing be established Though but two yet two in the worst times And thus Two Olive-trees because God by them conveyeth the oyle of grace into the hearts of his people And two Candlesticks because they hold forth the light of the truth Now this may serve as a touch-stone to discern between The true Ministers of the Gospell true and false Churches and true and false Ministers They that are sent of God they bear witness to the light they set up Christ in their Ministry they are content themselves to stand in the croud and to lift up Christ upon their shoulders content not to be seen themselves so Christ be exalted They lift him up as the Serpent of old was lifted up upon the Pole in the Wilderness Men in this respect are like Trees that receive their influence from Heaven and raise up their tops towards heaven in a way of acknowledgment whence they had their grouth Men sent from God and having received all from Christ return all to Christ in their dispensations But now look into false Churches for instance that of The false ones of Rome Rome Popery is in effect nothing else but an under-hand close witnesse-bearing against Christ Antichrist opposeth Christ in all his Offices under shew of witnessing for him he doth indeed witnesse against him both as King and Priest and Prophet As King because the Pope maketh himself the Head of the Church which is proper onely to Christ One that sat 1 Rome against Christ as King in that Chair was not afraid to call himself Sponsum Ecclesiae the Husband of the Church As Priest In that Office to which belongeth Satisfaction 2. As Priest and Intercession see how they go against Christ who offered himself once for all their Priest must offer him up daily in the Mass and unbloody Sacrifice So in his Intercession they bear witness against him too because they joyne other witnesses with him as they acknowledge them Saints As Prophet In that Office they add Traditions to the 3. As Prophet Word and the Council of Trent saith they are to be received eâdem devotione with the same devotion that Scripture is to be received with This touch is but by the way to fill your hearts more and more with detestation against that way of Popery If it be a dangerous thing for a man to bear false witnesse against his Neighbour What is it then to bear false witness against his God Now the End why he was sent is That all men through The End why John was sent him might believe There is no more in the Originall but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That all might believe but men is put in into the Translation How should all men be saved by John's Ministry if it did not extend it self to all men His Ministry was confined to the Land of Judea he preached onely to the Jews Therefore Men not being in the Text certainly the universall tearm is to admit of some restraint I shall interpret it unto you in that of Matth. 21. 26. which is something parallel where the debate was concerning the Baptism of John Whether from heaven or of men If we shall say From heaven he will say to us say they Why did ye not then believe him But if we shall say Of men we fear the people for all hold John as a Prophet What All the world No there were millions and millions of millions that never heard of John But All that were acquainted with his Ministry they all held him as a Prophet That all through him might believe that is All his hearers All believe and through him not in him as the Object of their faith but through him as the Instrument of their faith That all The meaning is That all his hearers through him might believe in Christ Through him but In the other You have it clearly expressed Act. 19. 4. John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance saying to the people That they should believe on him which should come after him that is on Jesus Christ Here is through whom and on whom through John the Baptist and on Jesus Christ John Baptist's Office was to make a way for Christ As the custom is amongst great Princes when they are to go to any place they send before them their Harbingers to prepare the way to tell the people who it is that cometh to them and what is expected at their hands Gen. 45. Joseph when he was advanced and went in the streets a man went before him crying bow the knee And so Hester 6. There was a man went before Mordecay and proclaimed before him What shall be done to the man whom the King delighteth to honour So it was done to Christ by John And so shall it be done to him whom God delighteth to honour To the Mediator whom God delighteth to seal He came thus preaching Christ that all hearers might believe through him in their Stations which affords us this observation That the end of good Ministers witnesse-bearing to the light is that all the hearers through them might believe in Christ That was the end of the Prophets-Ministry in the place afore cited Acts 10. 43. To him give all the Prophets witnesse that through his Name whosoever believeth in Him should receive remission of sins That was the end of the Apostles both Preaching and Writing Joh. 20. ult These things are Written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that ye might have life through his Name That is the end of our Ministry to this day Me-thinks Our work is something like that of Abraham's Rebecca by Abrahams servant wooed for Isaac servant when he was sent to get a Wife for his Master's son He goeth on his errand and telleth them of the family he came to and where he found Rebecca that his Master was a great potent Prince that he had an onely son Isaac whom he made heir of all his Estate and that he was sent on purpose to perswade Rebecca to come over and be espoused to this son Such is our work we are sent to woo souls for Souls by the Ministers of Christ wooed to Christ Christ We tell you What God is and how glorious in himself and all his attributes and that he hath an only Son the Son of his Love the Lord Jesus

the Father because there is distinction of Persons and yet a personall Co-existency The word was with God So ye have the meaning of that Proposition Let us now make Use of it First Take notice here of the distinction of Persons in Vse 1 the Godhead a distinction without their Divinity Here is the Son the word with God and the Son with the Father not divided from him And yet one Person with another and so distinct one from another With him not without distinction and in him without division As in the night-time if a man set up three Candles in a room all these concurr to the lightning of the room yet there is but one light So but one Essence in the Divinity Yet here are three Candles that give that Light but no man can say that this light is peculiar to the First Candle and this to the Second for all shine together and yet the light of the second Candle is with the first but the light is all one But O the depth It is no wading here farther than a man hath footing out of Scripture for fear of being past our standing and be drowned The Word of God is with God and one Person with another but the manner How as Basil said when he met with some knots of difficulty in this Mystery I believe saith he I do not busie my self in searching over far what we cannot make out in plain reason we must make out in believing where we have the Scripture for our bottom onely take notice of such a thing Certainly there is a distinction of Persons in the Trinity Here is One with Another The word was with God Secondly Learn from hence to worship God according Vse 2 to a distinction of Persons Learn we to worship and look at Christ as a Person distinct from the Father and the holy Ghost or else we worship not Christ but our own fancies If we conceive him not as he is as he is distinct This is the great difference between the Christian and the Turkish Religion I might say the Jewish too for the Turks and Jews agree in that they hold one God but deny a distinction of Persons in the Godhead We Christians according to Scripture acknowledge that too There are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are one And some kind of necessity appeareth in a way of reason which we may take notice of for the strengthning of our faith in this great Mystery that there should be a distinction of Persons God The benefit of the distinction of Persons the Father was the Person offended Reconciliation was to be made None but God hath enough in him to satisfie God Therefore it was requisite there should be a Person to satisfie the Person offended That the second Person the Lord Jesus undertakes and goeth through with it But how shall this be made known Poor man is as far off as ever he was if he be left here he hath no power in his own nature to reach this Therefore there is a Third Person the holy Ghost who discovereth this and applieth it So that the Salvation of Man is by the concurrence of the whole Trinity But I must here again take off my self with O the depth as Bernard did Hoc magnum est Mysterium This is a great Mystery a Mystery rather to be adored than searched into Well saith he Quomodo esset Pluralitas in Unitate unitas in Pluralitate How there should be a Plurality in Unity and how a Unity in Plurality three Persons and yet but one Essence Scrutari temeritas est It is rashnesse to search too far into it Credere pietas it is piety to believe it Cognos●ere vita aeterna It is life eternall to know it We can never have a full comprehension of it till we come to enjoy it Thirdly This may serve to Answer that Question which some make What was God a doing before he made the Vse 3 world Object It might suffice to Answer them as Augustine did in Answ the same case with a short Answer He was a making Hell for such as put these Questions But there is a fairer Answer in the Text which telleth you That the Word that was in the beginning before the Creatures were made that Word was with God God was delighting himself in his Word God and his Word were a contriving the Redemption of Mankind and had thoughts of peace towards the Elect from all Eternity That place Prov. 8. speaketh something to it When he appointed the foundations of the world vers 30 31. then I was by him as one brought up with him or as a Nourisher in Intention or decreeing of the Creatures that were to be made or out of the Church that was to be gathered out of the world I was daily his delight rejoycing God delighting in his Son before the world was alwaies before him This God was a doing before the world was made he was delighting in his Son this Text saith so clearly So saith Peter 1 Pet. 2. 19 20. The pretious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world but was manifested in these last times for you Before the foundations of the world what was God a doing Plotting as I may speak with reverence the work of mans Redemption projecting my Redemption and thine Before we were he had thoughts of peace and mercy towards us Therefore we may trust him as long as we live When we think little of him he thinks much of us The fourth Use we may make of this is this It should Vse 4 teach us and I pray God we may all learn infinitely to prize the love of Christ I say to prize and adore the love of Christ Who though he were from all Eternity the Word with God yet was pleased in the fulnesse of time to become Emmanuel God with us What an act of respect and love was it in Moses to his Country-men the Jews Moses his exceeding love to his Country-men the Jewes poor Hebrews in sore bondage and he in Pharaoh's Court brought up in all the learning of the Egyptians adopted by the King's daughter full of honour some say Lord Treasurer of Egypt and they build their conjecture upon that because it is said He forsook the treasures of Egypt It was a great thing for him to leave the Court and sort himself with poor Labourers at Brick-kilns yet that he did Here is an act of great condescention in Moses of much respect to his Country and love to the poor Hebrews But what is this of Moses to that of Christ who was with God in the Court of Heaven taken up with the mutuall delights which the blessed Trinity had in each other To leave this all this for a time and to come to be Man with us To leave his Mansion which was Heaven and to pitch his

understood here because no man partaketh of that till he be gone out of the world and here is light spoken of given to them which come into the world But the other four sorts of light that remain they are all taken in the light of Reason the light of Conscience the light of the Word and the light of Grace These are the severall Lights that come from Christ But I must shew you That these are not divided amongst mankind nor communicated in a like measure to all that so I may answer the first Quaery It is true That all do partake of the light of Reason and Resp the light of Conscience but yet there is a difference and That all partake of the light of reason and Conscience though not alike inequality even in that light because Reason and Conscience are more vigorous in some then in others What shall we say of Infants and of Ideots we must say Even these have some light from Christ but not like to other men Infants have the gift of Reason though not the use of reason that gift they have from Christ Ideots have the use of reason in some lower degrees I and of Conscience too in some lower acts though neither Reason nor Conscience be so vigorous in them as in other men To go on The light of the Word that is not equally dispenced to all as appeareth Psal 147. two last verses He shewed his word to Jacob his statutes and judgments Inequality in dispensing the light of the word to Israell he hath not dealt so with any Nation as for his judgments the Heathens have not known them Israell had the word when the Heathens had none He that causeth it to rain upon one City and not upon another sendeth the word to one City and Nation and not unto another He causeth the Word plentifully in some places to dwell as in this * London City at this day but in other places there is a famine of the word So as the light of the word is not equally dispenced now amongst them that do injoy the light of the word The light of grace is dispenced but not in a way of equality Many injoy the light of the word that never injoyed the light of grace both before and since the So of the light of grace Incarnation Before the Incarnation The Hebrews in the wildernesse had the light of the word yea and confirmed to them by many miracles and yet the light of grace withheld from them Therefore it is said Deut. 29. 3 4. The great temptations which thine eyes have seen the signes and those great miracles yet the Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day Here were means but no grace to improve them They had not an heart to perceive nor eyes to see nor ears to hear And since the Incarnation ye have Christ testifying Matth. 3. 11. He answered and said unto them namely to his Disciples It is given to you to know the Mysteries of the Kingdome of Heaven but to them it is not given given to some not given to others So have you the resolution of the first Quaery The second Quaery is Whether sufficient light be given Quary 2 to every one yea or no Here we are to distinguish both of Sufficient and of Light Sufficient is Considerable two wayes First in reference to Inexcusable Secondly in reference to Salvation Light is two-fold Convincing Light Converting Light Now the Resolution of the Quaery will lye in these two Respons Propositions First That Christ doth dispence convincing light sufficient to leave every one without excuse Secondly Christ doth not dispence converting light to every one sufficient to bring him to salvation First Christ doth dispence Convincing light to every one 1. All have light convincing sufficient to leave them without excuse sufficient to leave him without excuse So much the Apostle saith Among the heathen which had no other light but that of nature no other knowledge of God but that which flowed from the works of Creation and Providence Rom. 1. 20. The Invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even the eternall power and Godhead So that they are without excuse If the very Gentiles had enough to leave them without excuse then much more such as live under the dispensation of the Gospell because there goeth a Clearer light with the word then doth accompany the works of darknesse As the Sun-beams discover a great deal more then the Moon shine because it is a stronger light so the light of the Gospell and Word being stronger then the light of nature are more convincing then the other so as every one be he Jew or Gentile be he Heathen without the Word or a Professor of Christianity under the word hath light enough to convince him and to clear God in his proceedings against him I say not onely to convince him but to clear the Justice of God because there is no man that walketh up to the utmost of his Life No man may go to God saying I have done all I was able to do and therefore I challenge a reward at thy hands This to be sure He hath enough to convince him and to leave him without excuse Secondly Christ doth not dispence to every one Converting 2. All have not converting light sufficient to bring them to salvation light sufficient to bring him to Salvation There is no light sufficient to bring to salvation but that which Christ calleth the light of Life John 8. 12. I am the Light of the World he that followeth me shall not walk in darknesse but shall have the light of Life Every man by nature is not onely blind but dead dead in sins and trespasses and therefore must not onely have life but such a life as may quicken him The light of life Indeed if light alone will serve the turn any kind of Illumination then acceptation of the will and illumination of the understanding and morall perswasion might prevaile to bring a man to God Hîc opus est medela suadela non sufficit Here is need of quickning therefore light will not serve the turn It must be a quickning light that sufficeth to Conversion This Christ doth not dispence to every one for if He did every one would come home to Christ No man can have possession of Christ that is not over-powered to believe Sufficient grace and over-powering grace is all one Till a man be over-powered he can never close with Christ for salvation Now because this over-powering grace is not bestowed upon every one therefore it is clear that sufficient grace the Life of light is not dispenced to every one that cometh into the World Without Christ no salvation without faith no closing with Christ All have faith saith the Apostle That is all might have faith if they would say some