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	union_n	3,953	5	9.3015	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64013	Two letters concerning the Holy Trinity reconciling together in some measure the semi-Arian and the Trinitarian systems, concerning Christ's divinity, and inquiring, whether the term persons, speaking of God, shou'd be impos'd in acts of church-communion : to be offered to the consideration of the learned, in order to their giving their opinion and reasons concerning the things herein mentioned.		1680 (1680)	Wing T3456; ESTC R38384	16,482	18

Secondly there is then truly no such great Difference between the Trinitarians and the Vnitarians but that the Terms of Church-Communion may and should thus be made so general as to comprehend them For the Vnitarians will unanimously acknowledge that there is in God a Divine Mind endued with Wisdom and Power that the Wisdom whereby the World was contrived and redeemed is communicated to our Saviour from the beginning as intimately as it is possible to be communicated tho' he receives larger influences of it especially since his Ascension and Exaltation Dr. Sherlock in his last Book intituled The Proofe of our Saviour's Divinity explain'd c. P. 211 owns this to be the whole meaning of what is call'd the Hypostatick Vnion or Incarnation of the Divinity with Christ's Human Nature that by this Divine Wisdom God dwells in Christ and is most intimately united with him that Christ is to be honoured as thus dignified that the Godhead which dwells in Christ is to be ador'd with supream Worship and that God has given to Christ the Disposition of the Divine Power and Inspiration at his Desire without measure or in the largest measure possible and necessary Grotius on John 3 34. Now as was said it seems this Divine Mind Wisdom and Power is all that the Trinitarians can mean by their term three Persons The Scripture as was observed has not that term three Persons in God And it is certainly sufficient to keep to the Scripture terms especially for a Means of Church Union On the other hand the Trinitarians generally own that one Divine Person and especially the Father comprehends the Godhead as the Divine Mind cannot but be considered as being joined with and inseparable from the whole Divine Nature as a Man's Head acting is the Man himself acting that therefore when God or the Father is worshipped the whole Godhead actually is thereby necessarily worshipped that the Man Christ is not so God as if the Manhood were changed into God or ceased to be a Creature that the Man Christ being still a Creature tho one as much dignified as possible is to be honoured in the manner that the Vnitarians hold as a Creature as highly dignified as possible and that Christ being to be honoured to the Glory of the Father all the Honour to be paid him is to tend ultimately to God even as the Vnitarians assert It seems that if these Considerations were sufficiently weighed even the Agreement between the Trinitarians and Vnitarians would appear to be so great as to justifie the Terms of Church-Communion pleaded for here as in the Apologia pro Irenico Magno But I appeal to God to testify it I desire above all things to be certainly informed and directed in the Truth and therefore if the Arguments and Reasonings either here or in that Book are in any measure defective and erroneous I do most heartily wish that it may be shewn in the Spirit of Christianity And if it may be shewn the Subject doth well deserve that pains and it is to be hoped some Men may be found to be employed in that Work But if the Notion of the Generality of Scripture in this most intricate and abstruse Subject be the true Standard of Vnion then as was said Publick Prayers shou'd be directed to the Father or God in general terms and we should have no other Creed but that of the Apostles The Vnitarian even the Socinian System seems sufficiently Orthodox and most Safe as I have represented it and there seems to be nothing decisively express in Scripture against it but many things seem very much to conduce to confirm Vnitarianism Moderation therefore seems here to be absolutely necessary And that 's all that is desired For then Christians would not judge one another any more nor set stumbling-blocks in one another's way And it seems this Moderation cannot here be reasonably denied For I cannot but repeat it the least that can be said is first on the one hand that this is a most difficult Matter and the human Decisions and uncertain and most probably unscriptural Determinations in Publick Injunctions may be most unjust dangerous and pernicious and secondly on the other that the Vnitarians honour the Man Jesus Christ and worship the Godhead dwelling in the Man Jesus Christ even as much as the Trinitarians can desire and no otherwise But by the Human Terms and Magisterial Determinations which both assert three Divine Persons and make the Equality of the Son and Spirit with the Father to be an indispensibly Necessary Point of Faith sincere and pious Souls for whom Christ died may be driven out of the Communion of the Church or destroy'd by Doubts and Fears and Scruples The Protestant Principles which imply that there is no living Magisterial Judge of Controversies and that all are to prove all things and judge for themselves seem to require a greater Moderation and Generality in Terms of Church Communion with respect to so very abstruse and intricate Matters I find that a mighty stress is laid on this consideration that in the second and third Centuries and almost ever since the greatest Number of Christians seem to have been of a like Sentiment with the present Trinitarians But it seems this Argument should not be thought absolutely infallible for these reasons which the Vnitarians alledge and which seem very considerable I. Men being apt to take wrong Measures and often too presumptuous might soon deviate from the truth as appear'd by experience when the Generation next after Joshua departed from the Law of Moses Judg. 2 10 11. All at once ten of the twelve Tribes of Israel irrecoverably revolted from the Institution of God 1 Kings 12 28 And at the same time as at other divers times all or the greatest part of their Brethren did evil likewise in the sight of the Lord 1 Kings 14 22. So fickle then and weak are Men that no stress is to be laid on their Practice but our recourse must be to the Law which is the Testimony Isa 8 20. Therefore the Unitarian Arguments and especially those taken from Scripture are still at this day to carry it if they be solid for there is no Prescription against the Truth II. A thousand years in the sight of God are as one Day 2 Petr. 3 8. And all Nations before him are as nothing Isa 40 17. Yet a remnant shall be sav'd Rom. 9 27. The little Flock need not fear Luk. 12 32. Tho reduced as low as in Elias his Days 1 Kings 19 10. The Gates of Hell the Strength of Death and the Grave or the Destruction of the Faithful shall not finally so prevail as wholly and for ever to extirpate the Necessary Truth off of the face of the Earth Matth. 16 18. Therefore a time may yet com when the Earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the Sea Isa 11 9. III. It appears that from the beginning there were great Numbers of

reasons usually alledged for that part of the Arian Sentiment it is credible was the first Creature and which was God insomuch as this Spirit not only was the First-born and Heir of all the Creation and was designed the Chief of all Creatures but also was so filled with the Divine Wisdom and assisted with the Divine Power that the Godhead was from the beginning as intimately united with this Holy Soul as possible which it was not with any other in which Sense among others as upon the account of his being the Creature the most like to God as also by reason of his singular partaking of the Divine Soveraignty and Authority this Word or Word bearer may be called God's only Son And as I take it there can be meant no more by the Hypostatick Union Now seeing the Arians hold that Christ was Instrumental in Creating or Ordering of the World and the Socinians say he is Deus factus insomuch that as both Parties own he can act in all things as God govern the World raise the Dead judge all Men and do whatsoever the Father can do they must necessarily be understood to suppose such a Communication as I have specified of the Divine Nature to the Spirit of Christ whereby the Fullness of the Godhead so dwells in and conducts and assists him and acts by him that what God doth is reckoned to be done by Christ being done by the Divine Vertue both dwelling in him and disposed of by him according to his Desire What Christ doth in the discharge of his Office may be imputed to God assisting him and dwelling in him In like manner what is most properly the Work of God may be ascribed to Christ procuring it to be done by his Application to the Godhead dwelling in him Considering then as exactly as I can what can be meant by the Hypostatical Union of the Divine with Christ's Human Nature tho' the term Hypostatick Union be not scriptural nor strictly proper it seems not impossible in a sufficient measure to come to a right understanding in that Matter seeing all Parties acknowledge and the Scripture teaches the Fulness of the Godhead dwells in the Man Christ Jesus so that he is assisted and conducted thereby as the Human Body is by the Human Soul and by that means Christ is in God and God in Christ who sees Christ sees God all that is God's is Christ's and he can do all that God doth and God is in him to receive our Homages thro his Mediation and when in that manner Christ is worshipped God who is thus intimately united to him is worshipped Christ incontestably being to be adored or reverenced according to his most high Station and Dignity to the Glory of the Father being enabled to be a fit Object of our Service or of our Submission as well as Veneration by the Divine Wisdom and Power inhabiting in him and by the Supream Authority and Honour which it has pleas'd God to communicate to him and invest him with appointing him to represent God and making him most intimately partaker of the Divine Nature so that in adoring Christ there is no Idolatry as in the Invocation of Saints who have received from God neither that Dignity nor Power that Christ has God having put his Name most eminently in him Yet the Nature of the Thing as well as the Practice of Scripture shews it is necessary we then should direct our Prayers and Worship ultimately to God in Christ when properly Religious Prayers and Divine Worship Thus Christ is the Man Jesus anointed with the Spirit or Inspiration and Power of God assisted and conducted by the Divine Wisdom and intimately united to the God-head and therefore in that sence he is truly said to be God which as far as I can understand as I said is all that can be meant by the Hypostatick Union and so at the bottom there need be no Difference about that Point but all Parties in this manner may agree about it tho' properly the Title Son or the Name Jesus Christ denotes the Man in whom the Godhead dwells and with whom the Godhead is as much united as possible as is observed by Grotius in his Annotations on Matth. 1 16 and Col. 1 16 tho the Man properly be not the Godhead it self no more than the Body is the Soul and tho this Man be properly God or a God in an inferiour sense in as much as as he represents God so he is the Soveraign of the Universe under God John 10 35 so that properly the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the only true God 1 Cor. 8 6. John 17 3. Ephes 4 6 and it is He who by his Divine Wisdom is said to dwell in our Saviour John 14 10. which In-dwelling therefore of the Godhead in the Man Jesus Christ I take to be what may be meant by the term the Hypostatick Union But after all the consideration I am capable of I cannot find that the term that there are three Persons in God can be in any measure justifiable For there is no reason why the Divine Wisdom and Power should be looked upon as distinct Persons from the Father the Father as we have seen being said to dwell thereby in Christ any more than there is that a Man's Reason and Will or that his right Hand and left Hand should be said to be distinct Persons from him A Person is something intelligent subsisting of it self But whatsoever is in God whether Wisdom or Power cannot subsist from or without the Divine Mind All things in God avowedly are inseparable from one another and therefore it must be owned no one of them distinctly can subsist of it self it being absolutely necessary for all of them to subsist together and in particular the Divine Power and Wisdom necessarily subsisting in the Divine Mind They are as in an Human Spirit Properties and Acts or Powers of the Mind and not Persons tho' Personal Acts may be ascribed to them by a Figure common in all Languages and particularly in the Stile of Scripture Prov. 20.1 Prov. 30 16. John 3 8. Prov. 9.1 Ps 119 24 A Single Personal Pronoun is always used in Scripture in speaking of God And therefore God is to be held one Person and not three Persons The Apostle St. Paul says that what may be known of God is discernible by the Light of Nature Rom. 1 19. But certainly the Light of Nature teaches not that God is three Persons but one who is All-wise and Powerfull A Divine Person must comprise all Divine Perfections For it must be All-Perfect otherwise it were not God so as to include as it is said each Person doth the whole Divine Nature and Essence For God is All-Perfect Now one such Person must be All-Sufficient Consequently others cannot be Necessary There cannot therefore be any other or any more than one Person in God For all that is in God is Necessary Moreover to suppose three All-Sufficient or All-Perfect