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nature_n ghost_n holy_a trinity_n 3,214 5 9.7060 5 false
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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A49846 A search after souls and spiritual operations in man Layton, Henry, 1622-1705. 1700 (1700) Wing L759; ESTC R39121 317,350 468

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high Building should be erected upon it as judging that Ground not to be Rocky 6. Paragraph You except against my Expression of making Men trust in a lye You say it is uncivil to tell a Man that he lyes or that he Teaches others to trust in lyes To this I say it seems you perused my Paper in haste and with a greater desire to Answer than to consider it for I find none of these sayings or things there either in letter or sense As to the Consequences of the Materiality we differ in Judgment and they appear worse to your fears that to me Experience was never yet made of them and I see not cause to apprehend them as you do Upon your Discourse of Purgatory you say Men must not renounce the truth because some draw ill Consequences from it and I grant it but find no cause or need for asserting it 7. Paragraph You say The Fathers generally thought that Souls departed do not go strait-way to Heaven the same which you said in your last Paper and thereupon I demanded why Men do no● think otherwise viz that Souls at this day go immediately to Heaven or Hell and I desired to know your Opinion upon this difference and which of them you think to be the truer but to neither of these Queries do you here return me any Answer But you think it strange that if the Opinion of the Separate Subsistence be an error it should be so early and so generally accepted in the Christian Church To this I Answer That those most early Professors found this the prevailing Opinion in the World at that time yet so as there were many disbelievers of it That St. Matthew Apostle and Evangelist did believe it seems something clear by his Relation Chap. 10.28 but that neither St. Paul St. Peter nor St. John believed it I hold the more probable of St. Paul from I Cor. 15. and 1 Thes 4.13 of Peter from 2 Peter 3.10 of John from 1 Joh. 3.2 and Chap 2.28 Our Lord also lays the Expectation of future Recompences upon the time of the last day John 6. in four places or expressions in that Chapter Another evident Cause of accepting the Opinion of a Separate Subsistence likely was the Expression in St. Matthew's Gospel before Quoted This Gospel was the most early Written and in the proper Language of the Jews the Hebrew Tongue and they were the first Preachers and Planters of the Christian Religion The other three Gospels are of a later date whence this Text of St. Matthew might likely have Planted this Opinion and confirmed the old Belief of the World But after St. Luke had from St. Paul's Mouth Published his Gospel there was reason to examine St. Matthew's Relation of that Fact or History by comparing his Chap. 12.4 with Matthew's 10.28 They agree exactly in the main Point of Doctrine viz. That we ought to fear God more than Men but when they give the reason why Men should do so they Word that reason in a different manner St. Matthew Worded it according to his Opinion in Expressions importing a Separate Subsistence of the Soul but St. Paul's Words or Expressions are not of that import What the very Words were wherein Our Lord delivered this Doctrine we have no means to discover without a future Revelation and therefore I conceive we may accept which of these we shall judge most agreeable to the reason and nature of things Those who judge immateriality most agreeable to Nature and the most reasonable are likely to adhere to the Words of St. Matthew And those who judge the Materiality most agreeable to the Nature and State of Man are likely to adhere to the Words of St. Luke as the very Expressions delivered by Our Lord and Saviour I believe that God hath given to Men for their Instruction ordinarily the two great Codes of Nature and Scripture and that where these two do with cleerness agree the difference of Opinions among Learned Men cannot be very great But the common cause of their differing is the differences appearing between Nature and Scripture Not that I believe either of them are or can be false or deceitful nor really contrary the one unto the other and therefore where there appears a difference between them the same ought to be accommodated by favourable and fair Constructions according to the Nature of the Subject then under Consideration viz. If the Subject be Supernatural or beyond the Capacities of Humane Senses and Reason to judge lightly of as are the Persons in the Holy Trinity The Incarnation or Uniting the Manhood with the Godhead The Proceeding of the Holy Ghost and the actings of it The Production of a Child by a Virgin The Power of Sacraments a Spiritual Regeneration by the Water of Baptism That Bread and Wine become the real Body and Blood of Christ after a Spiritual manner In all these and the like Cases if Mens Reason takes boggle and cannot understand them nor freely or readily consent unto them it seems Duty for Men to be over-ruled therein by Words or Expressions which the Scripture uses concerning them and to endeavour by all means to think of such things as the sence of Scripture Expressions do direct us On the other hand If the Subject doubted be a Natural thing falling clearly under the Notice and Power of the Humane Senses or Reason and Understanding to judge of If in such Cases some Scripture Expressions seem to thwart the true Nature of the thing or the Sense and reason of Mankind Working thereupon As for instance Moses says God made Two great Lights viz. the Sun and Moon This seems to intend that these Two were the biggest Luminaries yet when Astronomers teach the Moon to be the least or one of the least amongst those Luminaries Men do rather chuse to believe them and Collect that Moses did not intend to Teach in that Matter but spake at large according to common Apprehension And so upon the Question whether our day and night be made by a Circuit of the Sun about the Earth in every 24 hours or by the Circunvolution of the Earth it self in that space of time The Expressions of Scripture viz. Jos 10.12 and Psal 19. and 2 Kin. 19. which do all favour the going of the Sun about the Earth and yet Humane Art and Reason have lately so far prevailed as to perswade amongst Learned Men that the Circumvolution of the Earth is the true cause of day and night amongst us And for Scripture in the Point they say as before it spake ad captum Humanum of that time grown since to be ad capturd vulgi without intention to Teach the truth of Science concerning such things The long disputed Words viz. hoc est Corpus meum are a like Proof or Church and many other Churches refuse to accept them in their plain and usual import and fay they must be Figuratively taken because in their plain sense they thwart and oppose the common