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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A84130	Pneumatologia: or, A treatise of the Holy Ghost. In which, the God-head of the third person of the Trinitie is strongly asserted by Scripture-arguments. And defended against the sophisticall subtleties of John Bidle. / By Mr. Nicolas Estwick, B.D. somtime fellow of Christ-Colledg in Cambridg, and now pastor of Warkton in the countie of Northampton.	Estwick, Nicolas.; Cranford, James, d. 1657.	1648 (1648)	Wing E3361; Thomason E446_14; ESTC R201957	88,825	111

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 OR A TREATISE OF THE HOLY GHOST IN WHICH The God-head of the third Person of the Trinitie is strongly asserted by Scripture-Arguments And defended against the Sophisticall subtleties of JOHN BIDLE BY Mr. Nicolas Estwick B. D. somtime Fellow of Christ-Colledg in Cambridg and now Pastor of Warkton in the Countie of Northampton LONDON Printed by William Du-gard for Ralph Smith and are to bee sold at the Sign of the Bible in Corn-hill neer the Royal-Exchange 1648. THE PREFACE THe sublime Argument touching the unitie of the God-head and the Trinitie of the Persons is of that high concernment that it obligeth Christians to lay themselvs out to the uttermost in the search of the means in the which it hath pleased the Lord to reveal himself that wee might have right apprehensions of him partly because it is very dangerous and attended with sad consequences to have erroneous conceptions in this to-bee-adored subject and partly because no subordinate truths can bee more profitably learned whether wee respect the information of our judgments the reformation of our lives or our sound consolation in every condition In this licentious age wherein Heresies with more boldness the more is the pitie are not onely privately vented but printed and exposed to publick view then in former ages whereby many unwary and ungrounded Readers are infected with leprosie in their heads and their judgments are corrupted as other wicked phancies for want of humilitie knowledg in Scripture Arts and Tongues and due respect to the word of God and the testimonie of ancient and modern Divines have been broached so hath the fundamentall Article touching the Deitie of the holy Ghost been questioned yea plainly contradicted Many months passed before I had a sight of Mr. Bidle's abhorred lines nor did I so much as desire to read them but when I heard by the relation of a very learned man and of much observation touching these times that those twelve Reasons did a great deal of hurt I then used the means to get a sight of the Book and I saw it was Sophistically penned and plausibly contrived to do much mischief and when I could not hear that any of the learned which have far better abilities more leasure and encouraging accommodations then I have would spend their precious time in convincing this Adversarie of God I resolved by the grace of the Spirit of God to vindicate what lie's in mee his honor in shewing partly the weakness partly the blasphemie of his twelve Reasons to shew him if it may bee the danger of his Heresie and to clear the alledged Scriptures from his Sophistrie and to hold forth that little light which the blessed Spirit hath freely imparted to mee to the bettering of the understanding of the simple Readers There have been many erroneous opinions no fewer then six in my knowledg and 't is not unlike but there are many more touching the blessed Spirit the holy Ghost it is not fit nor safe for mee to set down a Catalogue of them lest unawares which is far from my intention som vain and unsound Christians in these unsettled daies should take an occasion to err from the beaten way of truth and others which have tender consciences should bee offended with the stinch of these rotten Heresies when they are presented to them yet necessary it is that I should set down my Adversaries tenet that the Reader may know it and that I may more punctually address myself to answer him and this hee hold's That the holy Ghost is a creature a finite person the prime and chief of all the good Angels as the Divel by an unhappy excellencie is called the chief of all the evill Spirits An ancient Heresie this is in the Church of Christ condemned both by the single testimonie of many famous Doctors and by a generall Synod at Constantinople which hath been alwaies honored and was held by the Summons of Theodosius the first more then twelve hundred and threescore years ago O blessed God! bee not angry with mee I beseech thee who am but sinfull dust and ashes for adventuring to speak of thy glorious Majestie Pardon I humbly pray for my Saviors sake all my sinfull apprehensions of thine unconceivable Greatness accept graciously my sincere intentions to promote thy glorie and guide mee O my God! that I may alwaies as a weak and sinfull creature ought to do both think and speak and write of thy glorious Majestie with holy fear and lowly reverence and instruct mee O thou blessed Spirit of Truth that I may readily untie the Sophistical knots of carnal and humane reason which in pretence are grounded on the truth of thy Word and yet there is no truth in them nor any divine word for them And enable mee to maintain thy Greatness against a wretched man which dare's stand up and both boldly and publickly argue against thine ever to bee adored Deitie The Deitie of the holy Ghost proved by Scripture and Argument True Arguments grounded on the Word of God whereby the Deitie of the holy Ghost is fully proved and such passages of Scriptures which are excepted against by the Adversarie are examined and clearly refuted Argum. 1 Maj. HEe that hath the names of God absolutely attributed to him is God Min. The Holy Ghost hath the names of God absolutely attributed to him Concl. Ergò the holy Ghost is God The Major is clear for albeit the name of God bee given to Angels Psal 8. 6. Heb. 2. 7. and to Magistrates they are Gods to whom the Word of God came Psal 82. 7. that is to whom by divine vocation the office of Magistracie is committed yet either this is not spoken in the singular number I said yee are Gods whereas the true God without contradiction is but one or when it is spoken singularly it is not without limitation Moses I have made thee a God to Pharaoh Exod. 7. 1. Every man may readily conceive that a made God is is not a true God or with such an affixed limitation that a simple man can hardly mistake I have said yee are Gods yet they are but mortal Gods for as is threatned there They must die like mortal men but the true God is immortal So that in all the Scriptures wee shall not finde the names of God asscribed to any creatures without addition limitation or correction of speech nor is this denied by the Adversarie The Minor is proved first more obscurely Gen. 1. 1. God creäted A word not of the singular or dual but plural number and that is also with a word of the singular number God creäted because God is but one in nature but in regard of the manner of beeing there are three Persons And in verse 26. of the same Chapter God saith Let Vs make man after Our image that is in the image of the holy Trinitie these and many like to these are alledged out of the old Testament and justified to bee pertinent to prove this

do place him both according to Scriptures and the Primitive Christians and by name Justin Martyr in his Apologie in the third rank after God and Christ giving him a preheminence above all the rest of the heavenly host ANSWER I do willingly grant that since there is a Trinitie of Persons there must of necessitie bee acknowledged an order amongst them But how Not in regard of time as though the holy Ghost should bee in time after the Father and the Son of God for they are co-eternal nor 2ly in order of nature as if the holy Ghost should bee in nature after God the Father and God the Son for in this sense that is said to bee after another which depend's upon the nature of another which hath no place in this subject because the three Persons have but one undivided nature Neither in the third place is the holy Ghost to speak properly after the Father in dignitie for there is but one Deitie and there is equal glorie equal majestie of the three Persons The order then is in regard of original and principle as it is called the Father as Father is the principle of the Son and the Father and the Son are the principle of the holy Ghost In this regard it is that wee commonly say the Father is the first Person of the Trinitie as being of none The Son is the second Person of the Trinitie from his Father The holy Ghost is the third Person being from eternitie both from the Father and the Son This concession is not answerable to your opinion for if you would speak out of the Son as you do of the holy Ghost you hold as appear's by many of your Arguments both God's Son and the holy Ghost to bee creatures after God in time in nature and in dignitie Whereas you say this in your sense is according to Scriptures the texts which you have alledged I have discussed and made it clear both by my positive Arguments in proof of the point and by my answers to your Scriptures that your tenet is directly against Scriptures But say you this is agreeable to the Fathers this say I is very falsly and impudently spoken I am now upon the defensive part and will not set down a catalogue of their testimonies in their several ages as I might do and those that are not learned may clearly see how falsly you do boast of the Fathers by the Apostolical as it is called the Nicene Constantinopolitane and Athanasian Creeds Advers But yet say you Justin Martyr placeth the holy Ghost in the third rank Answ The blessed Martyr which wrote his Apologies about the year of our Lord 162. placeth the holy Ghost in his second Apologie in the third order not in your sense but in that meaning which is unanimously acknowledged by Orthodoxal Divines and this I prove by Justin Martyr himself who positively assert's in his first Apologie that the Son of God placed by him the second in order was alone properly the Son of God that hee was with his Father before the world was made Now as the Son of God the second in order was truly God so may wee argue by proportion that the holy Ghost who is the third in order is likewise God And this you might have learned by the words which do immediatly follow in Justin for when hee had said Wee have the Prophetical Spirit in the third place hee immediatly subjoin's these words Wee teach that hee is rightly to bee worshipped which honor agree's well to God not to a creature And in the same Apologie afterwards hee would prove the Trinitie of the Persons out of Plato And this of the third Person that it is written by Moses of him that hee moved in the begining of the creation upon the waters And in the same Apologie hee relate's the custom of the Church in his daies both touching Baptism that the person is washed with water not in the names but in the Name of the Father Son and holy Ghost And likewise touching the Eucharist as hee call's it when the Minister had taken bread and wine hee giv's the praise and glorie of all things to the Father Son and holy Ghost And after the receiving the Sacrament and giving relief to the poor the assembly is dismissed and saith hee in all things which wee use wee praise God the Father of all by his Son Jesus Christ through the holy Ghost And in his exposition of the Faith touching the holy Trinitie there is one saith hee truly the God of all and hee is known and understood in the Father Son and holy Ghost and saith they are of one essence and one divinitie and much more to this effect But this is enough Go now and boast of the Fathers in general and of Justin Martyr in particular and blush for shame if there bee any modestie left in you for your intolerable wrong offered to the holy Fathers and for fathering on them that abominable Heresie which they did detest A Post-script to the Readers THis Paper may fall into the hands both of the unknowing and skilfull Readers and is liable to various censures I do fore-see that those which are little versed in these points will complain that I affect obscurities and that they cannot understand my writing I desire them to consider that I do treat about the highest mysteries of Faith and that it is neither fit nor safe for mee to change the terms which are in common use amongst the learned the danger hereof is apparent by this memorable example Gregor Nazianz in an Oration of the praises of great Athanasius shew's the rents betwixt the Eastern and Western Churches occasioned by the use of these terms Hypostasis and Persona the Eastern Churches used the word Hypostasis and utterly disliked the name Person On the other side the Western Churches adhered to the name Person and could not endure the name Hypostasis The Eastern Churches judged the Western Churches to bee Sabellians i e. that they held but one Person called by three names And the Western Churches judged the Eastern to bee Tritheites and Arians maintaining three substances Athanasius apprehended the mistake and that both sides were sound in the faith though they differed in terms and so reconciled them I do intreat these Readers if they meet with difficulties that they would not presently cast the Book out of their hands but to take pains to know the meaning pray read perpend the text the context and parallel places of Scriptures meditate and where your endeavors fail you have recourse to the learned which will if it bee needfull for you to know resolve your doubts and somwhat clear your judgments and to encourage you I dare promise that you shall not repent of your labors but better understand som texts of Scriptures and humane Authors which handle this subject then formerly you have don I do fore-see also that the judicious Reader will accuse mee for frequent repetitions which are little better