Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	father_n	person_n	trinity_n	5,759	5	10.0629	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A14435	A very Christian, learned, and briefe discourse, concerning the true, ancient, and Catholicke faith, against all wicked vp-start heresies seruing very profitably for a preseruatiue against the profane nouelties of papists, Anabaptists, Arrians, Brownists, and all other sectaries. First composed by Vincentius Lirinensis in Latine, about twelue hundreth yeares ago. And now faithfully translated into English, and illustrated with certaine marginall notes. By Thomas Tuke.; Pro catholicae fidei antiquitate libellus. English	Vincent, of Lérins, Saint, d. ca. 450.; Tuke, Thomas, d. 1657. aut	1611 (1611)	STC 24753; ESTC S102090	49,335	192

more easily perswade men also vnto euill as the Apostle saith It wrought death vnto me by that which was good Either therefore as wee said before to the end that hee might deceiue he doth in some places of his writings glory that he doth beleeue on Christ one person of Christ or else surely hee saith that two persons now after the Virgins deliuerāce did so meete and knit in one Christ that yet he holds there were two Christs at the time of her conceptiō or deliuering a little afterwards And whereas intruth Christ was at the first borne an ordinary and meere man and not yet partaker of the vnity of the person of God the Word afterwards the person of the Word assuming him descended into him And although now being assumed he do remain in the glory of God yet it seemeth to him that for some space there was no difference betwixt him other mē CHAP. 18. THese things therefore Nestorius Apollinaris Photinus like madde dogs doe barke against the Catholicke faith Photinus by not confessing the Trinity Appollinaris in saying that the nature of the Word is conuertible not acknowledging two substances in Christ and by denying either the whole soule of Christ or at the least the minde reason in the soule and by affirming that the Word of God was in stead thereof Nestorius by auouching either that there are alwaies two Christs or that there were two some while But the Catholike Church iudging rightly both of God and of our Sauiour blasphemeth neither against the mystery of the Trinity nor against the Incarnation of Christ For it worshippeth both one Diuinity in a perfect Trinity and the equality of the Trinity in one and the same Maiesty and acknowledgeth one Iesus Christ not two and that same is both God and Man It beleeueth indeed that there is one person In him but two substances it beleeueth there are two substances but one person two substances because the Word of God is not changeable that it should be turned into flesh and one person least by professing two Sons it may seeme to worship a Quaternity or Foure not a Trinity or Three CHAP. 19. BVt it is worth our labour to lay open this point with diligence more distinctly and more plainly In God there is one substance but three persons In Christ there be two substances but one person In the Trinity there is distinction of persons but no diuersity of nature In our Sauiour there is diuersity of nature but no difference of person How is there in the Trinity distinctiō of persons but no difference of nature Namely because there is one person of the Father another of the Sonne and another of the holy Ghost but yet the nature of the Father and of the Sonne and of the holy Ghost is not diuers but one the same How is there in our Sauiour differēce of natures but not of person Surely because there is one substance of the Diuinity another of the Humanity but yet the God-head and Manhead are not two persons but one and the same Christ one the same Sonne of God and one and the same person of one and the same Christ and Sonne of God As in a man the Flesh is one nature and the Soule another but the soule and the flesh is one and the same man In Peter Paul the soule is one nature and the flesh another but yet the flesh and soule are not two Peters neither is the soule one Paul and the flesh another Paul but one and the same Peter and one and the same Paul subsisting of the double and diuers nature of the soule and of the body So then in one and the same Christ there are two substances but one is diuine the other is humane one of the Father God the other of the Mother the Virgin one coëternall and equall to the Father the other consubstantiall to the Mother yet one and the same Christ in both the substance There is not therefore one Christ God and another Man not one vncreated and another created not one that cannot suffer and another that can suffer not one equal to the Father another lesser then the Father another of the mother But one and the same Christ is God and Man the same is vncreated and created the same could not bee changed and could not suffer the same was changed and did suffer the same is equall to the Father inferiour the same was begotten of the Father before time the same is borne of his Mother in time perfect God and perfect Man in God is the soueraigne Diuinity in Man the whole Humanity I say the whole Humanity which comprehendeth both the Soule and the Flesh yea true flesh our flesh and the mothers flesh a soule also indued with vnderstanding furnished with iudgement reason There is therefore in Christ the Word a Soule and Flesh but all this is one Christ one Sonne of God and one Sauiour and Redeemer of vs. And one not by I wot not what corruptible confusion of the God-head and Man-head but by a certaine entire and singular vnity of person For that coniunction doth not conuert and change the one into the other which is an errour proper to the Arrians but hath so conioyned both the natures in one that the singularity or vnity of one the same persō abiding alwaies in Christ the property of either nature remaineth also for euer so that verily the body doth neuer at any time begin to be God nor cease at any time to bee a body which is also made manifest by an example of an humane case For neither for the present onely but for the future also euery man shall consist of body and soule yet neither shall the body euer bee changed into the soule or the soule into the body but euery man being to continue euer the difference of both the substances shall continue for euer in euery man euen so in Christ also the property of both the substances is to bee reteined of them both for euer but yet the vnity of the person being preserued safe CHAP. 20. BVt whereas wee doe often name this word Person and say that God in person was made man wee must greatly feare that we do not seeme to say this That God the word did onely by the resemblance of action take vpon him those things that appertaine to vs and that hee wrought whatsoeuer belonged to the cōuersation of a man as it were in shew and not as a true Man as is wont to be done on the stages where one man doth suddenly represent many persons of the which himselfe is none For as often as there is made a resemblance of another mans action the duties and deedes of others are so done as that yet these men that act them are not the very same men whom they do act or counterfeit For that we may for illustration

and sound Who to make way for his one heresie inueighed against the blasphemies of all heresies But this was that which Moses saith The Lord your God proueth you whether yee loue him or no. And that we may passe by Nestorius in whom there was alwaies more wonderment then profite and more fame then experience whom the fauour of men rather then of God had for a while aduanced in the opinion of the common people let vs rather speake of those who hauing profited well and being full of industry became no small temptation to Catholike men As in Hungarie in the memory of our Ancesters Photinus is said to haue tempted the Church of Sirmion Where whēas with the great liking of al mē hee was called vnto the priesthood and had executed his office for a time like a Catholike suddenly like that euil Prophet or Dreamer which Moses speaketh of hee began to perswade the people of God committed to his trust to follow after strange gods that is to say strange errours which before they knew not But this is vsuall and that dangerous because hee was furnished with no meane helpes to so great a wickednesse For hee had a good wit and hee was an excellent Scholler and very eloquent or powerfull in speech able in both languages to dispute and write eloquently and substantially as appeareth by the monuments of his bookes which hee hath written partly in Greeke and partly in Latine But it was well that the Sheepe of Christ committed to him being very watchfull and wary for the Catholicke Faith had quicke regard to the words of Moses who did forewarne them and that although they did admire the eloquence of their Prophet and Pastor yet notwithstanding they were not ignorant of the temptation For whō before they followed as the Bel-weather of the Flocke euen him they fled frō afterwards as from a Wolfe Neither do wee come to know the perill of this Ecclesiasticall temptation by the example of Photinus but of Apollinaris also and are therby also admonished to the more diligent keeping of the faith which is to be kept For he made his hearers to haue much a doe and brought them into great straites For whereas the authority of the Church drew them one way the custome or conuersation acquaintance of their Maister drew them backe another way and so wagging and wauering betwixt both they see not which way they should rather chuse But it may be he was a man that might easily bee contemned Yea verily he was so worthy a man and so qualified as that he might in the most things be too soone beleeued For who surpast him in acutenes of wit practise and in Schollership How many heresies hee hath ouerthrown in many volumes how many errours contrary to the faith hee hath confuted that most excellent and very huge worke consisting of no lesse then thirty bookes doth witnesse wherein he hath with a great masse of argumēts confounded the furious cauils of Porphiry It is too long to reckō vp all his workes for the which he might intruth be matched with the chiefest builders of the Church had he not through that wicked lust of hereticall curiosity found out what nouelty I wot not by the which he might both defile all his labours as with the mixture of a certaine leprosie and should haue his doctrine said to be not so much an edification as an Ecclesiasticall tentation Heere perhaps some may require at my hands that I would shew them the heresies of these men of whom we spake before to wit Nestorius Apollinaris and Photinus But this is nothing to the matter which now wee are in hand with For our purpose is not to set downe the errours of all but to shew the examples of a few whereby that may euidently and plainely be cleered which Moses speaketh Namely that if at any time any Ecclesiasticall Teacher and hee a Prophet by reason of interpreting the mysteries of the Prophets shal attempt to bring in some new point of doctrine into the Church of God the Diuine prouidence doth suffer it to be done that We might be proued CHAP. 17. IT will not therefore bee amise by way of digression briefly to shew the opinions of the fore-named heretiques that is Photinus Apollinaris Nestorius This is then the doctrine of Photinus that God is single and alone and to bee confessed after a Iudaicall manner he saith that there are not full three persons neither doth he thinke that there is any person of the Word or Son of God or any of the Holy Ghost he doth also say that Christ is a meere man only to whom he ascribeth a beginning from Mary and this he teacheth by all meanes for a doctrine That we ought to worship onely the person of God the Father and onely Christ the Man These things therefore held Photinus Apollinaris also doth as it were glory that hee doth consent vnto the vnity truly of the Trinity and that with perfect soundnes of faith but he doth by open profession blaspheme against the Incarnation of the Lord. For hee saith that the soule of a man was either not at all in the flesh of our Sauiour or else surely that there was such a one as wanted vnderstanding and reason Yea and he said that the very flesh of our Lord was not of the flesh of the holy Virgin Mary but that it came downe from heauen into the Virgin and alwaies staggering and doubting he said sometimes that it was coëternall with the God the Word sometimes that it was made of the Diuinity of the Word For he would not that two substances should bee in Christ one Diuine and another Humane one of a father the other of a mother but he immagined that the nature of the Word was diuided as though a part thereof remained in God and the other had bene turned into the flesh that whereas the truth saith that of two substances there is one Christ he being opposite to the truth might affirme that of one Diuinity of Christ there are two substances These then are the errours of Apollinaris Now Nestorius being sicke of a contrary disease to Apollinaris whiles he makes fare as if hee did distinguish two substances in Christ all on the sudden hee brings in two persons and with incredible wickednes will haue two Sons of God two Christs One of them God the other Man one that is begotten of a Father the other generated of a Mother and therefore hee doth affirme that holy Mary is not to bee called the Mother of God but the Mother of Christ to wit because of her came not Christ who is God but he which was man If so be that any man thinke that hee saith in his letters that Christ is one and that hee speaks of one person of Christ let him not easily giue credit to him For either hee hath deuised this shift through his skil to deceiue that by good things he might the