Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	rule_n	scripture_n	tradition_n	12,255	5	9.8749	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35345	The true intellectual system of the universe. The first part wherein all the reason and philosophy of atheism is confuted and its impossibility demonstrated / by R. Cudworth.	Cudworth, Ralph, 1617-1688.	1678 (1678)	Wing C7471; ESTC R27278	1,090,859	981

which also was the Demiurgus the Maker both of other Souls and of the whole World As Plato had before expresly affirmed him to be the Inspirer of all Life and Creator of Souls or the Lord and Giver of Life And likewise declared that amongst all those things which are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Congenerous and Cognate with our Humane Souls there is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing any where to be found at all like unto it So that Plato though he were also a Star-worshipper and Idolater upon other grounds yet in all probability would he not at all have approved of Plotinus his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 our Souls being of the same Species with that Third Hypostasis of the Divine Triad but rather have said in the Language of the Psalmist It is he that hath made us and not we our selves we are his People and the Sheep of his Pasture Notwithstanding all which a Christian Platonist or Platonick Christian would in all probability Apologize for Plato himself and the ancient and most Genuine Platonists and Pythagoreans after this manner First That since they had no Scriptures Councils nor Creeds to direct their steps in the Darkness of this Mystery and to confine their Language to a Regular Uniformity but Theologized all Freely and Boldly and without any Scrupulosity every one according to his own private apprehensions it is no wonder at all if they did not only speak many times unadvisedly and inconsistently with their own Principles but also plainly wander out of the Right Path. And that it ought much rather to be wondred at that living so long before Christianity as some of them did they should in so Abstruse a Point and Dark a Mystery make so near an approach to the Christian Truth afterwards revealed than that they should any where fumble or fall short of the Accuracy thereof They not only extending the True and Real Deity to Three Hypostases but also calling the Second of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason or Word too as well as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mind or Intellect and likewise the Son of the First Hypostasis the Fa●her and affirming him to be the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Artificer and Cause of the whole World and Lastly describing him as the Scripture doth to be the Image the Figure or Character and the Splendour or Brightness of the First This I say our Christian Platonist supposes to be much more wonderful that this so Great and Abstruse a Mystery of Three Eternal Hypostases in the Deity should thus by Pagan Philosophers so long before Christianity have been asserted as the Principle and Original of the whole World it being more indeed than was acknowledged by the Nicene Fathers themselves they then not so much as determining that the Holy Ghost was an Hypostasis much less that he was God But Particularly as to their Gradual Subordination of the Second Hypostasis to the First and of the Third to the First and Second our Platonick Christian doubtless would therefore plead them the more excusable because the Generality of Christian Doctors for the First Three Hundred years after the Apostles times plainly asserted the same as Justin Martyr Athenagoras Tatianus Irenaeus the Author of the Recognitions Tertullian Clemens Alexandrinus Origen Gregorius Thaumaturgus Dionysius of Alexandria Lactantius and many others All whose Testimonies because it would be too tedious to set down here we shall content our selves only with one of the last mentioned Et Pater Filius Deus est Sed Ille quasi exuberans Fons Hic tanquam defluens ex eo Rivus Ille tanquam Sol Hic tanquam Radius à Sole porrectus Both the Father and the Son is God But he as it were an Exuberant Fountain this as a Stream derived from him He like to the Sun This like to a Ray extended from the Sun And though it be true that Athanasius writing against the Arians does appeal to the Tradition of the Ancient Church and amongst others cites Origen's Testimony too yet was this only for the Eternity and Divinity of the Son of God but not at all for such an Absolute Co-equality of him with the Father as would exclude all Dependence Subordination and Inferiority those Ancients so Unanimously agreeing therein that they are by Petavius therefore taxed for Platonism and having by that means corrupted the Purity of the Christian Faith in this Article of the Trinity Which how it can be reconciled with those other Opinions of Ecclesiastick Tradition being a Rule of Faith and the Impossibility of the Visible Churches Erring in any Fundamental Point cannot easily be understood However this General Tradition or Consent of the Christian Church for Three Hundred years together after the Apostles Times though it cannot Justifie the Platonists in any thing discrepant from the Scripture yet may it in some measure doubtless plead their excuse who had no Scripture Revelation at all to guide them herein and so at least make their Error more Tolerable or Pardonable Moreover the Platonick Christian would further Apologize for these Pagan Platonists after this manner That their Intention in thus Subordinating the Hypostases of their Trinity was plainly no other than to exclude thereby a Plurality of Co-ordinate and Independent Gods which they supposed an absolute Co-equality of them would infer And that they made only so much Subordination of them as was both necessary to this purpose and unavoidable the Juncture of them being in their Opinion so close that there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nothing Intermedious or that could possibly be Thrust in between them But now again on the otherhand whereas the only ground of the Co-Equality of the Persons in the Holy Trinity is because it cannot well be conceived how they should otherwise all be God since the Essence of the Godhead being Absolute Perfection can admit of no degrees these Platonists do on the contrary contend that notwithstanding that Dependence and Subordination which they commonly suppose in these Hypostases there is none of them for all that to be accounted Creatures but that the General Essence of the Godhead or the Vncreated Nature truly and properly belongeth to them all according to that of Porphyrius before cited 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Essence of the Godhead proceedeth to Three Hypostases Now these Platonists conceive that the Essence of the Godhead as common to all the Three Hypostases of their Trinity consisteth besides Perfect Intellectuality in these Following things First In Being Eternal which as we have already showed was Plato's Distinctive Character betwixt God and the Creature That whatsoever was Eternal is therefore Vncreated and whatsoever was not Eternal is a Creature He by Eternity meaning the having not only no Beginning but also a Permanent Duration Again In having not a Contingent but Necessary Existence and therefore being Absolutely Vndestroyable which perhaps is included also in the Former Lastly In being not Particular but

to quarrel with that of our Lord I am in the Father and the Father in me objecting How is it possible that both the Former should be in the Latter and the Latter in the Former Or how can the Father being Greater be received in the Son who is Lesser And yet what wonder is it if the Son should be in the Father since it is written of us men also That in him we Live and Move and have our Being In way of reply whereunto Athanasius first observes that the Ground of this Arian Cavillation was the Grossness of their Apprehensions and that they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Conceive of Incorporeal things after a Corporeal manner And then does he add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Father and Son are not as they suppose Transvasated and Poured out one into another as into an Empty Vessel as if the Son filled up the Concavity of the Father and again the Father that of the Son and neither of them were full or perfect in themselves For all this is proper to Bodies wherefore though the Father be in some sence Greater than the Son yet notwithstanding may he be in him after an Incorporeal manner And he replieth to their Last Cavil thus That the Son is not so in the Father as we our selves are said to Live and Move and Be in God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. For he himself from the Fountain of the Father is that Life in whom all things are quickned and consist neither does he who is the Life live in another Life which were to suppose him not to be the Life it self Nor saith he must it be conceived that the Father is no otherwise in the Son than he is in holy men Corroborating of them for the Son himself is the Power and Wisdom of God and all Creat●d Beings are sanctified by a Participation of him in the Spirit Wherefore this Perichoresis or Mutual In-being of the Father and the Son is to be understood after a Peculiar manner so as that they are Really thereby One and what the Son and Holy Ghost doth the Father doth in them accordig to that of Athanasius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Godhead of the Son is the Godhead of the Father and so the Father exercises a Providence over all things in the Son Lastly the same Athanasius in sundry places still further supposes those Three Divine Hypostases to make up one Entire Divinity aft●r the same manner as the Fountain and the Stream make up one Entire River or the Root and the Stock and the Branches one Entire Tree And in this sence also is the whole Trinity said by him to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One Divinity and One Nature and One Essence and One God And accordingly the word Homousios seems here to be taken by Athanasius in a further sence besides that before mentioned not only for things Agreeing in one Common and General Essence as Three Individual men are Coessential with one another but also for such as concurrently together make up One Entire Thing and are therefore Joyntly Essential thereunto For when he affirmeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That the Tree is Congenerous or Homogenial with the Root and the Branches Coessential with the Vine his meaning is that the Root Stock and Branches are not only of One Kind but also all together make up the Entire Essence of One Plant or Tree In like manner those Three Hypostases the Father Son and Holy Ghost are not only Congenerous and Coessential as having all the Essence of the Godhead alike in them but also as Concurrently Making up one Entire Divinity Accordingly whereunto Athanasius further concludes th●t these Three Divine Hypostases have not a Consent of Will only but Essentially one and the Self Same Will and that they do also joyntly produce ad extra 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One and the Self-same Energy Operation or Action nothing being Peculiar to the Son as such but only the Oeconomy of the Incarnation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Trinity is like it self and by Nature Indivisible and there is One Energy or Action of it for the Father By the Word In the Holy Ghost doth all things And thus is the Vnity of the Holy Trinity conserved and One God preached in the Church Namely such as is Above all and By or Through all and In all Above all as the Father the Principle and Fountain Through all by the Word and In all by the Holy Spirit And elsewhere he writeth often to the same purpose Thus have we given a true and full account how according to Athanasius the Three Divine Hypostases though not Monoousious but Homoousious only are Really but One God or Divinity In all which doctrine of his there is nothing but what a True and Genuine Platonist would readily su●scribe to From whence it may be concluded that the right Platonick Trinity differs not so much from the Doctrine of the Ancient Church as some late Writers have supposed Hitherto hath the Platonick Christian endeavoured partly to Rectifie and Reform the True and Genuine Platonick Trinity and partly to Reconcile it with the Doctrine of the Ancient Church Nevertheless to prevent all mistakes we shall here declare that wheresoever this most Genuine Platonick Trinity may be found to differ not only from the Scripture it self which yet notwithstanding is the sole Rule of Faith but also from the Form of the Nicene and Constantinopolitane Councils and further from the Doctrine of Athanasius too in his Genuine writings whether it be in their Inequality or in any thing else is there utterly disclaimed and rejected by us For as for that Creed commonly called Athanasian which was written a long time after by some other hand since at first it derived all its authority either from the Name of Athanasius to whom it was Entituled or else because it was supposed to be an Epitome and Abridgement of his Doctrine this as we conceive is therefore to be interpreted according to the Tenour of that Doctrine contained in the Genuine Writings of Athanasius Of whom we can think no otherwise than as a person highly Instrumental and Serviceable to Divine Providence for the preserving of the Christian Church from lapsing by Arianism into a kind of Paganick and Idolatrous Christianity in Religiously Worshipping of those which themselves concluded to be Creatures and by means of whom especially the Doctrine of the Trinity which before fluctuated in some loose Uncertainty came to be more punctually Stated and Settled Now the Reason why we introduced the Platonick Christian here thus Apologizing was First because we conceived it not to be the Interest of Christianity that the ancient Platonick Trinity should be made more discrepant from the Christian than indeed it is And Secondly because as we have already proved the Ancient and Genuine Platonick