Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	ghost_n	holy_a	trinity_n	3,214	5	9.7060	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A05349	A treatise tending to unitie in a sermon preached at Droghedah on Whitsunday (being the ninth of Iune 1622.) before the Kings Majesties Commissioners for Ireland. By Henry Leslie.	Leslie, Henry, 1580-1661.	1623 (1623)	STC 15501; ESTC S102368	36,074	58

in like sort as we are yet without sinne And so forasmuch as Christ Iesus is a man wee may goe boldly unto him and by him have accesse unto the one God he being the only mediator betweene God and man This is the fulnesse of all comfort So this Text is like Iacobs ladder arising step by step till it bring us to comfort My speech then at this time shall as it were climbe up by these sixe staires 1. That there is a God 2. That this God is one 3. That he is made one with us by a mediator 4. That the mediator is one 5. That this one mediator is Christ 6. That Christ Iesus is a man In handling whereof you will perceive me to omit manie points that are incident for I must attend upon the time and aime at the occasion As to the first that there is a God I should spend my breath in vaine if I should labour to prove it for it is ingrafted into every mans heart by nature and plainely taught by all the dumbe and senselesse creatures so that never man denied it but a foole The foole saith in his heart Psal 19.1 Rom. 1.20 there is no God Psal 14.1 Therefore as it is presupposed in my Text so shall it be in my speech The second is that this God is one whereby three things are signified of God that he is indivisible one only not manie that he is immutable and unchangeable one and the same yesterday and to day and for ever and that he is without all respect of persons one and alike to all sorts of men First God is one that is indivisible one only and not manie according to that 1. Cor. 8.6 Vnto us there is but one God So doth the Nicen Creed acknowledge I beleeve in one God For God as Bernard saith is Vnissimus most one Si non est unus non est saith Tertullian either one or none Here wee must take heed of sundry wicked errors and heresies on each side on the right hand we have those who acknowledged manie Gods on the left hand wee have those who doe so farre maintaine God to be one that they fall upon the other extremitie to denie that there are three persons subsisting in this one God or divine nature And of either side there be severall sorts differing one from another as they do all from the truth all which I forbeare to remember as unworthie to be named at all unfit to be mentioned in the Pulpit It is enough for you to know that amids those rocks on everie side our safest course is to hold the middle way so acknowledging God to be one that we denie him not also to be three one in essence but three in person the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost distinct each from other by their personall proprieties the Father being from none the Sonne from the Father the Holy Ghost from them both yet not divided one from another because there is but one divine essence which being infinite is all and whole in the Father all whole in the Sonne all and whole in the Holy Ghost Therefore saith Athanasius in his Creed Deus Pater Deus Filius Deus Spiritus Sanctus tamen non tres Dij sed unus Deus For saith he as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every person by himselfe to be God so are we forbidden by the Catholicke Religion to say there be three Gods So that in all things unitie in trinitie and trinitie in unitie is to be worshipped I cannot stand here to confirme the truth of this by testimonie out of Scripture only to say something in a word for the unitie of Gods nature take my Text for a sufficient proofe There is one God and for the trinitie and distinction of the persons I will onely alledge one instance which I am occasioned by this present feast to remember When the Holy Ghost did descend upon the Apostles on this day there ye have a distinction of all the three persons The third person he is sent and appeares in a visible shape of cloven tongues the first person he sends him and the second by interceding with the first person procureth the third person to be sent So doth our Saviour distinguish them Ioh. 14.16 I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter there is the Sonne praying to the Father that the Comforter which is the holy Spirit might be given unto the Disciples and therefore those three must be distinct persons forasmuch as severall actions are ascribed to everie one of them in the same worke that was done on this day The Fathers to expresse this incomprehensible mysterie have used sundry similitudes taken from things naturall as the similitude of the soule of man wherein there be three distinct faculties and yet but one essence of them all The similitude of the fountaine the streame flowing from it and the river flowing from them both which being three distinct things yet for substance are but one water The similitude of a tree wherein there be three distinct things the roote the stocke and the branch the root depending from none the stocke from the root and the branch from them both yet all are but one tree Finally the light of the Sunne the light of the Moone and the light of the ayre are three distinct lights the light of the Sunne is from none the light of the Moone is from the Sunne and the light of the ayre from them both and yet for substance they are but one and the same light Even so the Father the Sonne the Holy Ghost are three distinct persons the Father from none the Sonne from the Father the Holy Ghost from them both yet all three are but one God But for all these similitudes we must acknowledge with Cyprian Nulla creatura talis esse potest qualis est creator ideo sicut sine exemplo est divina essentia ita sine exemplo est divina majestas as there is no creature such as is the creator so there is no example can expresse either the essence or the maiestie of GOD. For this is a mysterie of mysteries farre surpassing the reach of the understanding of anie creature which the Seraphims professe Esai 6.2 when at the presence of this one God they cover their faces with their wings acknowledging their inabilitie to behold much lesse to comprehend so glorious a maiestie Secondly by this that God is one is signified that hee is immutable and unchangeable Heb. 13.8 one and the same as saith the Apostle yesterday and to day and the same for ever In this sense it may be God is called one Gal. 3.20 But God is one He is one or immutable in his nature in his decrees in his actions His nature or essence is one and the same immutable and unchangeable because he is voyde of all kinde of composition both physicall and metaphysicall and as wee speake in the Schooles actus