Selected quad for the lemma: father_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A66485
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Reflexions upon a pamphlet intituled, An account of the growth of deism in England together with some considerations about the Christian religion.
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Willis, Richard, 1664-1734.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing W2816; ESTC R38311
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32,108
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81
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tells us that there is but one God and yet gives the Name and the Attributes of God to the Father to Jesus Christ the Son and the Holy Ghost How far each of these is distinct from the other it no where tells us only that each of them is God and yet there is but one God Here then we must stick That the Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost God and yet there are not three Gods but one God and must conclude with our selves that there is some way which God has not thought fit to reveal to us perhaps because we are not now capable of understanding it whereby these three are one Now in all this there is no Absurdity or Contradiction but the only Difficulty is whether this be sufficient But if God has revealed this and revealed no more that ought to be no Difficulty this is not sufficient to gratifie Mens Curiosity or to answer all those Questions that we would indeed be glad to hear resolved but without going farther here is sufficient in this to answer those Ends which we may suppose God had in Revealing it For 1. If the Father Son and Holy Ghost are God here is sufficient Foundation for Divine Worship to be paid to each of Them So that this Doctrine of the Trinity is not as our Author represents it a Doctrine of meer Speculation but is a Foundation of one of the greatest Religious Duties the Worship of God If Jesus Christ be represented to me in Scripture as God as God blessed for ever I ought then to Worship him tho' I don't know how far he is distinct from the Father or the Holy Ghost or how these three are but one God 2. We may from the Revelation of so much understand the chief Points of the Christian Religion The great Doctrine of the Gospel of the Redemption of the World by Jesus Christ cannot be understood without it but with it we can give such an Account as can be expected of a matter of so high a Nature Of the Dignity of Our Saviours Person That the Word was made Flesh Joh. 1.14 1 Tim. 3.16 that God was Manifested in the Flesh and thence of the great Love of God and of Our Saviour Jesus Christ to us who tho he were in the form of God Philip. 2.6 7. yet for our Jakes humbled himself even to the death of the Cross We have hence a Reason of the great Value and Merits of his Sufferings which must needs be very great in such a Person whom when he came into the world Heb. 1.6 all the Angels of God were to worship which cannot be accounted for without such an ineffable Union to the Divine Nature as makes the Person Jesus Christ to be truly God And to name no more This gives us an account of our being Baptized in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost of which without the Belief of each of them to be God it would be a hard matter to give a good Account but with this we may without knowing how far each is distinguish'd from the other But my Design was only to touch upon these things to shew that what God has revealed has not those Absurdities in it our Author suggests and is sufficient to answer all the wise Ends of the Revelation perhaps as much as if we had been told more and if Men will go further than this and then quarrel with one another it is not the Revelation of God but their own Notions which they quarrel about But to return now to the Matter of Deism I am afraid that it is but too true that these Controversies have been a Prejudice to the Christian Religion but then I believe the Guilt of this must light chiefly upon Our Author's Friends the Socinians who have made it their Business to expose and ridicule those Doctrines which will be found after all to be the Doctrines of the Holy Scriptures and to have been the Belief of Christians in all Ages which as it is in it self a very great Argument for the Truth of them so on the other side it must be a mighty Shock to Christianity to represent those things as Absurd and Contradictory which have been for so long the Common Faith of Christians and indeed it will be a hard matter to have any great Opinion of that Religion which has been in the World for above sixteen hundred Years and has hardly ever yet had any Professors but those who have grossly Misunderstood and Misrepresented it But it is not my Business to recriminate and I have designedly hitherto avoided it that I might not give any Occasion to Quarrels of which God knows the World is but too full already God in Mercy forgive all those who have any way done any thing to the Prejudice of so holy a Religion and grant that they may Repent and by their Zeal and Concern for it for the future may make some Amends for the Mischief they have done To conclude this Head This is not the first Time or Age in which the Doctrine of the Holy Trinity has been charged with Absurdities yet notwithstanding that it still continues to be the Faith of Christians and I believe is still like to be so notwithstanding all the Difficulties either the Disputes of its Friends or the Opposition of its Enemies can load it with a very good Evidence this that it is very well founded since so many Shocks have not been able to overthrow it And methinks there may be fetched some Evidence for the Truth of the Christian Religion it self from the Opposition which this and some other of its Doctrines have met with in the World None of its Enemies can prove any Absurdity or Contradiction in them but it must be confessed that they are such as are not in themselves very plausible and taking or very apt in their own Nature to win upon the World and therefore we see that the Apostle complains that Preaching up Christ and the Method of our Redemption by him was to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness If we add to this Consideration what a mighty Prejudice the World commonly has against receiving any thing upon the Credit of such mean Persons as the first Preachers of Christianity were it will be very hard to conceive how this Religion should ever have prevailed unless God had in some extraordinary manner concurred with it The Truth is it is not easie to imagine how these things should ever have come into any body's head unless God had Revealed them But besides if Men had had a mind to invent they would have thought of something more plausible and of all things in the World they would never have made it their Choice to preach up a Crucified Saviour Certainly nothing but a full Conviction of the Truth of it could ever have persuaded a few mean People of a Despised Nation to think of Converting the World to such a Doctrine