Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	body_n	person_n	unite_v	3,343	5	9.7470	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67386	An eighth letter concerning the Sacred Trinity occasioned by some letters to him on that subject / by John Wallis ...	Wallis, John, 1616-1703.	1692 (1692)	Wing W577; ESTC R28904	17,133	22

to be this Person and not another Nor can we have any certain notion of naked substances or otherwise conceive of them than as they are clothed with and variegated by accidents To this purpose also is the true sense and meaning of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which strictly Translated is in Latine Subsistentia Now Subsistentia doth not only import the Esse of the substance but the Modus Essendi And what is that doth modifie substance but qualities and accidents The Fundamental mistake therefore in this great point hath been in making the word substance so more than necessary in the definition of Persona and concluding from thence that there cannot be three Persons but there must be three several substances Whereas in truth there may be in the same one particular Man diversly qualified and circumstanticated diverse Personalities Thus in the Man Melchisedeck Melchisedeck King of Salem may be said to be one Person and Melchisedeck the Priest of the most high God another So in David in respect of his double qualification of a King and a Prophet Thus much for what I conceive to be the true Notion of Persona Now to consider this word Persona as it hath been applyed to the Godhead And here I must say again as I said before that this word Persona is used only in a borrowed sence and for want of another word that might more appositely and fully signifie what is intended by it God cannot properly be said to be a Person There are no accidents in him All his Attributes are Essential to him That Wisdom that is Finite in Man and Accidental to him is Infinite in God and Essential to him And so of all the other Attributes and Perfections of the Deity that are in an imperfect and low degree competent to Man In this borrowed sence therefore it is that this word Persona is applyed to the Deity and in respect of those three Eminent manifestations of the Deity there are said to be three Persons in it Not that the word Person and distinction of Personalities in respect of Men doth bear a full Analogy to the difference of Personalities in the Deity for in this as in all other Contemplations of God we must expect to fall short and not comprehend But that the consideration of the different Personalities amongst Men may help us in some imperfect measure to conceive of that Trinity that we adore in the Vnity of the Godhead Object But here I expect an Objection that if in respect of these three manifestations of the Deity there are said to be three Persons why are there not said to be more Persons in the Godhead than three even as many as there are Divine Attributes for so many are the manifestations of the Deity to us Answ. There is not so much reason to imagine more Personalities in the Godhead than these three as that there are these three and no more For although it be true that every Attribute doth import the Deity and can be Predicated of nothing else but the Deity yet every single Attribute doth not if I may so speak import the whole Deity His Infinite Wisdom doth not necessarily import or administer to us the Notion of his Infinite Power And so of the other Attributes But these three several manifestations of the Godhead that are called three Persons are such wherein the whole Deity as I may say doth exert it self and appear in all its Attributes and therefore I call them three more transcendent Eminences or Manifestations of the Deity Thus I do conceive this Trinity of Persons in the Godhead in some sort intelligible without any necessity of thinking that these three Persons must be three several substances and consequently three Gods And I must confess I cannot but think this great dispute a meer wrangling business and a contest more about words than things For at the same time that our Adversaries are so fearful of multiplying the Deity by dividing the substance we tell them that we believe in one God only and that these three Persons in the Godhead are but one God So that all the dispute is whether to say there are three Persons in the Deity doth necessarity imply that there are three Substances which we declare we do not mean nor intend by it And for my part if they will as fairly declare that they believe these three several manifestations of the Deity viz. of God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost as held forth to us in the Scriptures I would willingly compound with them for the word Person and comply with them in the use of any other word they shall find out that may better or as well express what we mean by it I come now to the other great Objection of our Adversaries touching the Hypostatical Vnion How the Divine and Humane Nature could be united in the same Person and this Person be at the same time both God and Man and this without multiplying or dividing the Deity or without confining the Omnipresent to the scanty Tenement of an Humane Body How this God-Man should be born of a Virgin by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost and Humane Nature Propagated without the Natural help of a Man These things seem so utterly impossible to these men of great reason that therefore they must not cannot be and the Scriptures themselves must rather be mistaken or false than that can be true which they think cannot BVT when they argue thus from Impossibility I wonder their Curiosity doth not question the Creation it self how it was possible for God to make all things of nothing And for the Hypostatical Vnion methinks before they question that so strictly they ought to give a better account than yet can be given of the Vnion of the Soul of Man with his Body And when they question the being born of a Virgin may they not as well question how the first Woman was made of the Rib of a Man one as well as the other being supposed to come to pass by the Divine Power BVT because I am apt with you to suspect how far the Scriptures are of authority amongst these reasoning men I will adventure to propose to them one consideration touching the Hypostatical Vnion to shew that it is not so inconceivable a thing to Humane Reason as they would have it Let them but consider the several degrees of Beings that God hath made in the World The Trees and Plants to which he hath given Vegetation The Brutes to which besides Vegetation he hath given Animal life Senses and Appetites to discern and endeavour after what is necessary to the preservation of their Beings Then to step further and consider Man to whom besides all these God hath given a Rational Mind and Soul And to step yet further let them consider those higher Beings the Angels what pure Intellectual Beings they are and what degrees of perfection God hath given them beyond what he hath