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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	life_n	soul_n	5,160	5	5.5664	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30563	An account of the Blessed Trinity argued from the nature and perfection of the Supream Spirit, coincident with the Scripture doctrine, in all the articles of the Catholick Creeds; together with its 1 mystical 2 fœderal 3 practical uses in the Christian religion, by William Burrough rector of Chynes in Bucks.	Burrough, William, b. 1639 or 40.	1694 (1694)	Wing B6058B; ESTC R214160	72,062	76

which being for Contrivance and Counsel as it were the Master-piece of Divine Skill in Matter God statedly beholds this singular Work of his own Hands when arrived at due Maturity with such a favourable Aspiration as is no less or but a little less than that which he vouchsafeth to the Inhabitants of the Intellectual World And as we see much what the same measure of strength as suppots a weight will serve to raise it so same the favourable Aspiration that upholds an Intellectual Creature in Being is of force sufficient to raise it into Being Therefore such Aspiration will give Being to a Conscious Life as preserves the Mental Natures of the Invisible World 2. But then this Aspiration being included in the Divine favourable intuition on what his hand hath curiously wrought in these lower parts of the Earth Psa 139.15 though it hath a Conscious Life for its effect yet it is not a separate Conscious Life but a Conscious Life enlivening that accurate frame of Matter now a conscious Life vitally United to a Humane Body is a rational Soul 3. And because this Soul doth result from the Divine Aspiration on a being framed by the course of Natural Causes in the material System of this World therefore it is not Properly Created nor yet Miraculous but Natural 4. Yet this Soul cannot be said to be therefore educed out of the powers of Matter because the Divine Aspiration is not of that kind which concurs with Corporeal Motions but such as is afforded to the Intellectual Natures though upon the approbation of this singular piece of Divine Workmanship in this World of Bodies 5. He that said of the Humane Soul Creatur infundendo or infunditur Creando spoke something this way but whether expresly enough needs not be inquired since the Scripture assures us that the Lord who Created the whole frame of this Visible World besides that does form the Spirit of Man within him That the Spirit in Man being by the Inspiration of the All-mighty Zech. 12.1 Job 32.8.27.3 Gen. 2.7 is Intellectual and the breath in our Nostrils our Spirit and Life is the Spirit of God which he Breathed into Mans Nostrils by which he became a living Soul So that if Brutes have Souls and they be educed out of the Powers of Matter yet the Soul of Man according to a course settled by God in Nature being a Conscious Life is by a Divine Aspiration correspondent to those of the Superiour World By which it appears Mans Nature participates both of this and the other World in its Constitution 6. Therefore the Son of God who is God being one Person with Man hath thereby a new alliance both to the Material and Intellectual World and a new Cognation both with the Coelestial and Terrestial Inhabitants and because the Union of God and Man in Christ is Mystical Cap. 10.8 therefore the whole Kingdom of God is put into a Mystical state and frame upon this new Cognation with all things in Heaven and Earth 7. And if according to the Opinion of some of the most celebrated Philosophers in this Age the motion of every part of Matter does really so diffuse it self that the whole System of Matter is affected thereby and if withal the parts that make up the Intellectual World have a correspondent Communion amongst themselves then by this Union of God and Man there is as it were a new Leaven which may be sufficient in Gods due time to Leaven the Mass of the whole Creation And Christs Resurrection is a Specimen of its efficacy and a ground of our expectation But should this prove only to be their Conjecture and not the Natural way of efficiency yet we are however sufficiently assured that the effect shall be produced and that in Christ all things in Heaven and Earth shall be recollected into one Eph. 1.10 Col. 1.17 18 19 20. 2 Thes 2.1 Acts. 3.21 and that there shall be a restitution of all things whereby they shall be restored into one blessed frame 8. The Mystical constitution of the Divine Kingdom being therefore for the restoration of the Natural Kingdom in a renewed integrity it is a form of Government which in its Nature and design is manifestly subordinate to the Original Government of the Divine Kingdom in its Primitive institution 9. If then the Supream Governour be the same yet as King of this Mystical Kingdom he is less than the King of the Natural Kingdom not in himself or Naturally but in the state of a Governour or Politically the Antients call it Oeconomically But in plain terms the sense stands thus God that humbleth himself when he inspects the things that are done in Heaven and in Earth however he undertakes the Government and Management of them does yet more humble himself when for the good of the Creation Psal 113.6 he governs the Universe in the Mystical constitution for the redintegrating of the Natural Kingdom into one blessed frame 10. Whereas then God in the first Subsistence of the Divine Nature that is God the Father is first in the Address as Lord of the Natural Kingdom so God even the same God in the second Subsistence of the Divine Nature that is God the Son is first in the Address as Lord of the Mystical Kingdom considered as Mystical and Subordinate because God manifest in the Flesh is the Pillar and Ground of Truth and the confessedly great Mystery of Godliness 11. Before the Mystery was made known therefore the stile Lord did more directly and more usually indigitate God the Father as we find in the old Testament but since the Mystery is to be acknowledged by all the Subjects of Gods Kingdom the Title of Lord doth more directly denote God the Son and is therefore in the new Testament most commonly attributed to Jesus Christ though they be both one Lord as well as one God 12. The Son therefore being Lord of the Divine Kingdom in its Mystical and Subordinate State in treating with his Subjects will have occasion to speak of himself as less than his Father in many of the affairs of the Mystical Kingdom and Government especially in and about the change of the Natural into the Mystical Frame though he be the same God Lord with the Father For God doth humble himself more in condescending to Govern the World in this State than in the first Natural Constitution of his Kingdom The Son therefore is less than the Father not only as Man but also as God Governing the Divine Kingdom in the Mystical State John 3.35 Mat. 11.27 Acts 2.32 Joh. 10.20 1 Cor. 11.3 John 6.38 1 Cor. 3.23 1 Cor. 15.27 Phil. 2.7 Zech. 3.8 Joh 17.5 Accordingly we read the Sons Power is given is received of the Father he receives command from the Father the head of Christ is God even the Father for he came not to do his own will but the will of him that sent him Christ is Gods who put all things

Being higher than our selves yea and higher than any Being that is Finite but God never conceives of any Being Existent or Possible so high as himself nor yet that his own Being might have been higher than it is either of these being not to be conceived even by that Mind that adequately and positively conceives Infinity it self for this is the condition of a Being that is absolutely the most high 2. In perfect agreement with this dictate of Nature the Scripture makes the Title of the most High to be the usual incommunicable Psal 83.18 Deut. 4.17 Esay 40.25 44.6 8. and most august Characteristick of Majesty truly Divine This is signified by God's calling himself the Holy One and asking to whom we would liken him or should he be equal I am the first I am the last and besides Me there is no God is there a God besides Me Yea there is no God I know not any The like reason does teach of all those perfections which are included in his being the most High for they are all absolute and infinite If then there be no such most high Being there is no God either of a material spiritual or any other nature 3. Let us then proceed to enquire of what nature the most High Being is now because matter how far soever it lies extended is such a substance as may exist and yet not act at all therefore such a Nature may exist and lie exposed to the Agency of another Being now a Nature that may be obnoxious to the Agency of another is certainly not the most high Being that is possible therefore God is not matter and if matter it self in its utmost extent be not God much less can any part or modification of such a bulky substance be the supream Being therefore the material World which is nothing else but such stuff in different modifications of its parts cannot be the most high Being 4. Because local motion is nothing else but a passage whereby the parts of matter being divided does shift their position amongst them selves therefore local motion is not force for as much as shifting of place or position is not force though force may be required to make the change of place we find when we carry a stone forward in our hand that the passage of the stone hath no more force than our hand puts into it and our hand puts no more force into that passage of the stone than we will or than our will puts into our hands and yet we feel a force present in all moved matter Now since the whole mass of m●tter is of such a nature that it may exist and yet not Act at all therefore this force is not the substance of matter nor Essential nor Natural nor an inseparable Property but is contingent to it yea even to those parts of matter which have ever been in motion if any such there be 5. This force is contingent to matter whether it moves the matter by mere chance or by counsel for though there be an Essential difference betwixt chance and counsel yet that an Agent by counsel did chuse to move the matter is manifestly contingent to the material Nature 6. And because some have weakly imagin'd that matter may have been Eternally I observe that this force will no less be contingent to matter whether it happened to it in time or from Eternity for the bare difference of a Finite and Infinite duration makes no difference in the natural reason of things If two parallel lines were drawn out infinitum this would not alter their parallism but the same distance they have where I stand they keep though they reached through an infinite space so the same contingency which is between matter and the force that moves matter now must have been between them from all Eternity if matter had been moved from Eternity Matter is therefore such an un-active nature in it self that it could never have commenced any Action in its self had not such force happened to it either in time or Eternity therefore all the motion of matter which is now in the World is the effect of that adventitious force whencesoever that force happened to it 7. Because all motion is the effect of the adventitious force therefore neither the parts of matter nor their motion is the cause of the motion of other parts which a removed by their pressure but that contingent force which moved the first parts does move the others afterwards as this appears by experience so it is the foundation of all the Laws of local motion which are delivered to us by modern Naturalists 8. Since therefore this force is the cause of all the motion and the system of matter is framed into its fashion by motion whatever is the cause of the frame of the World is the Author of this force this force therefore is active in causing the motion of matter but is it self the efficacy of the agency of that active Being which is the Framer of the World if such a one there be 9. Let us then here suppose and afterwards prove what we do Believe that it is God the Supream Being whose agency by its efficacy did frame the World then this agency does not only act upon the surface or outsides of Bodies because then the efficacy of this agency upon the interior parts of such Bodies depends upon the impenetrability extrusion and other modes of the exterior parts of such moved Bodies Now no agency whose efficacy depends upon the condition of other Beings can be the agency of the Supream Being whose agency is and acts without dependance The divine agency acts therefore not as an effort by external pulsion but acting imminently in its self doth move matter locally 10. The mutual resistance in the internal parts of a Body as in the case of a bent-bow or spring though the inward parts shou'd be all affected with it is yet nevertheless no Agency at all but is the stopage of the passage of some subtile moved matter caused by the Obstructive configuration of the Parts in a rigid or solid Body Therefore the divine efficacy that moves matter Acting imminently in it self and intimately in all the Pores of moved matter is the cause of all reaction and Elastick renitency from the internal pressure in Bodies but seeing it does cause this by imminent Agency in it self therefore it is a pure Energy Now a pure Energy acting imminently in it self which though it moveth matter yet doth not locally move it self Chap. 2.4 is a vital Energy and such Agency is the Agency of Life and if we mark it we have in our selves experience of such an Agency in the motions whereby we execute those Actions which we call properly humane Therefore the force of the Supream Being moving all moved matter is the Efficacy of a vital Agency and consequently there is Life in the Supream Being if he be the Maker of the World 11. Yet is not this the Agency of a

Nature tells us ch 6.14 and the Scripture affirms it Psal 51.12 Establish me with thy free Spirit which Spirit is the Fountain of all liberty Natural and Moral for where the Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty When the Scripture teaches that God swears by his own Life we are sure he therein doth no more than what he had a right to do and therefore he has his life in the disposal of his own will which he gages as he pleases and so all things stand in the infinite holiness of the most absolute free-will of God both by Natural and Supernatural Evidence 10. Lastly Nature teaches these three real distinct Subsistences are really Personal ch 7. and the Scripture owns it for Christ acknowledges the Holy Ghost hath Personal Rights but that he should not speak of himself but should take of that which was the Sons and shew it to the Disciples and presently thereupon informs us of the distinct Personal Rights of the Father and the Son all things that the Father hath are mine says the Son where we see though they all have right to the same things yet each hath his own distinct right here asserted according to that all thine are mine and mine are thine and therefore each of the three is a Person When St. Paul teaches that the Spirit does act dispose of and bestow things by the disposition of his own will this is what nothing but a Person can do nor can any other Person do so justly but the Owner or Lord of the things so disposed or bestowed I have thought for a Heathen Hierocles guess'd ingenuously that God did Create all the material substance of which the World was made or else he could not justly have framed the World because he would have medled with what was none of his own 11. Thus Nature by the reason of things and Scripture by the reason of speech do both teach the same Trinity in all Points the one by natural the other by instituted significancy Gods Works and Gods Word conspiring to assure us there is one God and three Persons For the Coincidence of the Rational and Scriptural account in all particulars I take to be the proper evidence of this truth because had the account been given upon an Hypothesis the coincidence of it with the Scripture had been only a proof of the good contrivance of its Maker but being all deduced from the very first Principles of Sense and Reason the Coincidence proves the truth of the thing it self and demonstrates there is no contrivance in it for where Nature leads there if no room left for invention but things must be taken as they are found in themselves The Arians begged a Days or a Minutes time for the making of their second and third God in this was a blunder in the device it self for a God cannot be made in less time than a Triangular Circle But I am not exposing their pretence in point of ingenuity but observing that when they say there are such made Gods without the evidence of Nature or Scripture this is Hypothesis and Fiction and therefore it will then be time enough to write serious Confutations of such imaginary Beings when it is become fashionable gravely to prove at large that Romances are not Histories 12. To the Divine Revelation of this Doctrine I might subjoyn the Authority of the Catholick Church whose Faith is delivered in our common Creeds and evince that these are perfectly conform to the Doctrine of the preceding Discourse but these being so well known I shall seem in the judgment of the intelligent Reader to write the same things over again out of meer formality Yet because the Adversaries do boast of their late attempts against the Athanasian Creed with such an insolence of glorying it is not amiss to remark particularly that there is no expression in all that Creed about the matter of the Trinity but what hath been above distinctly accounted for from Reason and Scripture what there concerns Christs Incarnation I shall consider afterwards I might also observe that the common Institusion of the Christian Schools giving an account of the Second Person from the Divine Wisdom and of the third from the Divine Love or Benevolence cannot be understood to differ from the main reason of what has here been taught So that besides the Divine Evidence Natural and Supernatural we have all that can be accounted Ecclesiastical Authority to confirm us in this Belief And as the Creeds and their Expositors so the form of Baptism in the Name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost which is the very Text that all the Creeds themselves were purely designed to expound and is of Divine Appointment and irrefragable Authority does as a foederal Rite give further confirmation of the Truth of this Doctrine But being to give an account of the Mystery of the Trinity what concerns the nature of the Trinity in that Stipulation shall be there considered with its Covenant-use in the Christian State CHAP. IX The Adversaries Interpretations of the Scriptures IN the mean time having before shewed how the Unitarians have dealt with the Evidence of Reason I must here observe how they use that of Authority For having resolved all the General Councils and the Christian Doctors and Schools into the number of Adversaries they disclaim all Ecclesiastical Authority and assume to themselves the right of being their own Judges which Office so assumed in consequence they are to execute without a deference to the Judgment of the main body of Christians and if they be haughty with defiance to it Their demur to the Authority of the Christian Church being somewhat extraneous to the Merits of this Cause I need not examine Though Protestants indeed allow it not to be a proper jurisdiction yet all sober Christians must confess that it hath an argumentative force next to that which is Divine But since these Men had rather want so great a confirmation of their Faith then not to please themselves even to themselves be it the Rights of God and of his Church cannot be vacated by such Judges as Create their own Office 2. Though these men do not formally disown the Divine Authority of the Bible yet they treat all the Scripture proofs of the Trinity with great contempt and that they might seen to do so with less absurdity they take no notice of the great accession which that sacred Evidence acquires by the concurrence of so many circumstances in such a great number of Testimonies and variety of Expressions which adds a mighty force to what they would have if they were only to be considered asunder as we experience in all sorts of Evidence which is given us of the Existence of things And yet even against the single Texts they have nothing to alledge but some Evasions which are manifestly so far fetched that if charity did not bid us hope better they would tempt us to suspect instead of a serious Paraphrase