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
A30466	Some passages of the life and death of the right honourable John, Earl of Rochester who died the 26th of July, 1680 / written by his own direction on his death-bed by Gilbert Burnet ...	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1680 (1680)	Wing B5922; ESTC R15099	49,660	204

And the business of the Clergy and their Maintenance with the belief of some Authority and Power conveyed in their Orders lookt as he thought like a piece of Contrivance And why said he must a man tell me I cannot be saved unless I believe things against my Reason and then that I must pay him for telling me of them These were all the Exceptions which at any time I heard from him to Christianity To which I made these Answers For Mysteries it is plain there is in every thing somewhat that is unaccountable How Animals or Men are formed in their Mothers bellies how Seeds grow in the Earth how the Soul dwells in the Body and acts and moves it How we retain the Figures of so many words or things in our Memories and how we draw them out so easily and orderly in our Thoughts or Discourses How Sight and Hearing were so quick and distinct how we move and how Bodies were compounded and united These things if we follow them into all the Difficulties that we may raise about them will appear every whit as unaccountable as any Mystery of Religion And a blind or deaf man would judge Sight or Hearing as incredible as any Mystery may be judged by us For our Reason is not equal to them In the same rank different degrees of Age or Capacity raise some far above others So that Children cannot fathome the Learning nor weak persons the Councels of more illuminated Minds Therefore it was no wonder if we could not understand the Divine Essence We cannot imagine how two such different Natures as a Soul and a Body should so unite together and be mutually affected with one anothers Concerns and how the Soul has one Principle of Reason by which it acts Intellectually and another of life by which it joyns to the Body and acts Vitally two Principles so widely differing both in their Nature and Operation and yet united in one and the same Person There might be as many hard Arguments brought against the possibility of these things which yet every one knows to be true from Speculative Notions as against the Mysteries mentioned in the Scriptures As that of the Trinity That in one Essence there are three different Principles of Operation which for want of terms fit to express them by We call Persons and are called in Scripture The Father Son and Holy Ghost and that the Second of these did unite Himself in a most intimate manner with the Humane Nature of Jesus Christ And that the Sufferings he underwent were accepted of God as a Sacrifice for our Sins Who thereupon conferred on Him a Power of granting Eternal Life to all that submit to the Terms on which He offers it And that the matter of which our Bodies once consisted which may be as justy called the Bodies we laid down at our Deaths as these can be said to be the Bodies which we formerly lived in being refined and made more spiritual shall be reunited to our Souls and become a fit Instrument for them in a more perfect Estate And that God inwardly bends and moves our Wills by such Impressions as he can make on our Bodies and Minds These which are the chief Mysteries of our Religion are neither so unreasonable that any other Objection lies against them but this that they agree not with our Common Notions nor so unaccountable that somewhat like them cannot be assigned in other things which are believed really to be though the manner of them cannot be apprehended So this ought not to be any just Objection to the submission of our Reason to what we cannot so well conceive provided our belief of it be well grounded There have been too many Niceties brought in indeed rather to darken then explain these They have been defended by weak Arguments and illustrated by Similies not always so very apt and pertinent And new subtilties have been added which have rather perplexed than cleared them All this cannot be denied the Opposition of Hereticks anciently occasioned too much Curiosity among the Fathers Which the School-men have wonderfully advanced of late times But if Mysteries were received rather in the simplicity in which they are delivered in the Scriptures than according to the descantings of fanciful men upon them they would not appear much more incredible than some of the common Objects of sense and perception And it is a needless fear that if some Mysteries are acknowledged which are plainly mentioned in the New Testament it will then be in the power of the Priests to add more at their pleasure For it is an absurd Inference from our being bound to assent to some Truths about the Divine Essence of which the manner is not understood to argue that therefore in an Object presented duly to our Senses such as Bread and Wine We should be bound to believe against their Testimony that it is not what our Senses perceived it to be but the whole Flesh and Blood of Christ an entire Body being in every Crumb and drop of it It is not indeed in a mans power to believe thus against his Sense and Reason where the Object is proportioned to them and fitly applied and the Organs are under no indisposition or disorder It is certain that no Mystery is to be admitted but very clear and express Authorities from Scripture which could not reasonably be understood in any other sense And though a man cannot form an explicite Notion of a Mystery for then it would be no longer a Mystery Yet in general he may believe a thing to be though he cannot give himself a particular account of the way of it or rather though he cannot Answer some Objections which lie against it We know We believe many such in Humane matters which are more within our reach and it is very unreasonable to say We may not do it in Divine things which are much more above our Apprehensions For the severe Restraint of the use of Women it is hard to deny that Priviledge to Jesus Christ as a Law-Giver to lay such Restraints as all inferiour Legislators do who when they find the Liberties their Subjects take prove hurtful to them set such Limits and make such Regulations as they judge necessary and expedient It cannot be said but the Restraint of Appetite is necessary in some Instances and if it is necessary in these perhaps other Restraints are no less necessary to fortifie and secure these For if it be acknowledged that Men have a property in their Wives and Daughters so that to defile the one or corrupt the other is an injust and injurious thing It is certain that except a man carefully governs his Appetites he will break through these Restraints and therefore our Saviour knowing that nothing could so effectually deliver the World from the mischief of unrestrained Appetite as such a Confinement might very reasonably enjoyn it And in all such Cases We are to ballance the Inconveniences on both hands and where we find they