Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	father_n	holy_a	trinity_n	2,831	5	9.8465	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26923	An end of doctrinal controversies which have lately troubled the churches by reconciling explication without much disputing. Written by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1691 (1691)	Wing B1258AA; ESTC R2853	205,028	388

that Man's Soul is there by three forms for all are but one form But Man's narrow Mind cannot conceive of them but by three Conceptions which yet are not Fictions but as Scotus calis them FORMALITATES and as Campanella Primalities or Essentialities or as the Nominals extrinseck Denominations and Relative by connotation of the Objects and Effects He that hath a Wit subtile enough to conceive of Scotus his FORMALITIES as noting only a fundamentum objectivum distinguendi will not wonder that a Soul made in God's Image should be of difficult Conception § 13. II. The same Soul of Man hath three more general Faculties that is mental sensitive and vegetative or igneous These are distinct but not divided yet are not three Souls but one though the inferiour Operations at least may be alterable according to Organs and Objects and some uses of Senses and Vegetation cease § 14. III. The sensitive Soul in Brutes hatk the Faculties 1 Vitally active 2. Sensibly apprehensive 3. Sensibly appetitive one of these Faculties is not the other yet all are but one sensitive Soul § 15. IV. The igneous Nature in Plants called Vegetative hath three Faculties Motive Discretive differencing its proper Nutriment from other things and Attractive which is assimilative yet all are but one substance § 16. V. The Sun and all igneous substances have their formal Powers that is Motive Illuminative and Calefactive The motion in power or act is not formally the Light nor is the Light the Heat nor is the Heat the Light or Motion Nor are these three Suns or Substances but one Substance is in all three whose form we necessarily conceive of by this triple inadequate Conception And thus it is in all the Creatures of Active Nature which the Receptivity of the Passive also answer and as I have proved elsewhere through all Morality also Melancthon Loc. Com. per Maulium p. 3 4. mentioneth many such instances in the Sun in Astronomy in Musick in Geometry in Grammar in Arithmetick to which Logick and Politicks might be added All Effects have only three Causes which in the general of Causality are one that is the Cause efficient Constitutive and Final For Matter Receptive-disposition called Privation and Form are but the three parts of the Constitutive Cause My M●th Theol. instanceth in many more § 17. It is certain that the three grand Attributes Principles Primalities Essentialities or Formalities as men diversly call them of which the three Faculties of the Soul are an Image are in God not univocally the same as in Man but eminently and transcendently And his other Attributes of Truth Mercy Justice c. are these variously exercised and related that is Vital-act Intellect and Will called as Perfect Omnipotent Activity Omniscience or Wisdom and Goodness or Love And I have proved ubi supra that these are not Accidents in God but his Essence in a threefold formal Conception truly distinguishable some say Ratione rationata some say formaliter and some ex connotatione relatione ad objecta and perhaps all little differ in Sence § 18. All Theologue agree That GOD must be said to be essential Life Self-knowledge and Self-love to be essentially sui-vita se-scire se-amare and that these are best exprest by Substantives abstractly and not only in the Concrete by Adjectives or Verbs sui-vita sui-scientia sui-amor Thus far ●●ere is no doubtfulness § 19. As in man we must conceive inadequate●● of the three prime Faculties distinctly not ●●paratingly 1. As in virtute vel potentia 2. As 〈◊〉 actu immanente ad se. 3. In actu trans●unte ad 〈…〉 ia so must we inadequately conceive of them as 〈…〉 inently in God § 20. It is undeniable that GOD is CREATOR REDEEMER and SANCTIFIER the God of Nature Grace and Glory Vitae Medicinae Salu 〈…〉 s. And though Father Son and Holy Ghost are all these yet usually in Scripture Creation is said to be the Work of the Father by the Son and Spi●it and Redemption the Work of the Son sent by the Father and Perfection or Sanctification the Work of the Holy Ghost as sent by the Father and the Son Therefore Baptism which is our Christening bindeth us in Covenant to God as in these three Relations which I hope may be easilier understood than all the Schoolmens Disputes of the Trinity And no doubt but our Baptism is a practical Covenant Thus the Trinity of Principles in Unity is considerable as is aforesaid 1. Radically in virtute Essentiae 2. In the immanent acts of self-living self-knowing and self-loving 3. And exeunter transiently in Creation Redemption and Sanctification considered not as Effects but ex parte agentis as acting them § 21. The word PERSON by the custom of the Church having been so commonly used is not to be disused while it is well expounded lest we seem by changing the word to change the Doctrine But the Church had the same Faith before that word was applied to the Trinity and it was long before the use of it was agreed on some being for Hypostasis and some for Persona and some excepting against both but not knowing what word to substitute And is it any Wonder that Humane Language wanteth proper words to signifie that of God which is so far above our comprehension So that it is not because they are wiser than he that some except against the judicious Dr. Wallis for being no more zealous for this Name nor peremptory for any substitute but because they understand not so well how unfit man is to make Names for God which he hath not made himself and taught us § 22. The bare use of the name Person by one that knoweth not what that word signifieth doth prove no man Orthodox but only that he useth Orthodox words it will save no man to use a word which he understands not And the dislike of that word or the word Hypostafis as Hierome did will condemn no man who believeth the thing whi●h those that understandingly use the word do believe The Scripture hath all necessary names of the Trinity § 23. Doubtless the word PERSON of the Trinity is of very different signification from the same word applied to Man And what constituteth a PERSON in the Trinity none have so curiously searched and disputed as the Schoolmen yet he that shall read but what I have recited out of them in Method Theol. will find it past the capacity of an ordinary Student to know what they mean and impossible to reconcile them with each other Certainly their sence of the word PERSON was never made necessary to the Christian Faith § 24. Many Protestant Doctors take up with the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whenas the usual sence both of that Word and of Persona is but a Relative Person not Aquinas and such others Relation which is a substance but properly the same Person Natural as related diversly And if this were all no man that owneth One God would question a Plurality of Persons

Whether it be a glorious igneous Substance endowed with the Power of Motion Light and Heats And yet what is less comprehended And no man hath an adequate knowledge of it or of the least part of it § 2. There are three things that must concurr to our Conceivings of God 1. Our General Conceptions 2. Our Metaphorical Conceptions by way of Similitude 3. Our Negative Conceptions what God is not § 3. I have opened this as distinctly as I am able in my Methodus Theologiae Cap. 4. in the Table called Ontologia the beginning to which I must referr the Reader that would be accurate and clear I. We must conceive of God as a Substance lest we think him to be nothing And as a spiritual transcendent Substance not univocally the same with created Substance nor such as Man can reach to any sensible or immediate or formal Conception of But by the Similitude of created Substance our Conceptions may get some help This we call the Fundamental Conception but it is but a Conception partial and inadequate yet necessary fetcht from the Similitude of the Creature whose Matter or Substance is the first constitutive Conception § 4. II. We must conceive of God as the prime Essential LIFE And though God be not compounded of Substance and Form yet from Similitude of Creatures we must as inadequate Conceptions think of his being LIFE as the form of his Substance not divisible or compounding but as a distinguishing Conception And formadat esse noment § 5. III. Though in God's Essence there be no Parts Degrees or Accidents yet to answer the Similitude of Parts Degrees or Accidents in Man we must put in general Transcendent Perfection And this includeth abundance of his Perfective Attributes as that He is One infinite eternal necessary independent uncompounded unchangeable and all the rest that are contained in Absolute Perfection § 6. IV. When we say That God is the prime essential LIFE we mean a Life of Eminency above all that is created But yet such as must be known by Creature-similitude And therefore from the Similitude of Man we must think of the Formal Divine LIFE by a threefold Conception 1. As Vital Power in Act 2. As Eminent Intellect and Will called Omnipotency in Act Wisdom and Goodness or Love Whether these be the FATHER SON and HOLY GHOST is after to be opened But as FATHER SON and HOLY GHOST the Scripture teacheth us to conceive of God As Three in One God and One God and Substance in these Three § 7. V. God is to be conceived of in relation to the Creation in general as OF HIM and THROUGH HIM and TO HIM are all things As He is the Divine Efficient the more than Constitutive and the final Cause of all § 8. VI. He is especially to be conceived of in his Relations to the Reasonable Creatures as their absolute Owner supreme Ruler and chief Benefactor and amiable attractive Good and End § 9. VII He is especially to be conceived of ●s related to Man As our Creator and Conserver as the God of Nature 2. As our Redeemer by Christ and the God of Grace 3. And as our Perfecter by his Spirit and the God of Glory And as related to his Kingdom of Nature Grace and Glory § 10. VIII He being without Passivity a pure Act must be conceived of as 1. In virtute seu potentia Activa 2. In his Acts objectively immanent 1. Self-living 2. Self-knowing 3. Self-loving 3. In his transient Acts or Works considered both ex parte agentis and as the Effects § 11. IX He is negatively to be known by the d●nial of all that noteth Imperfection § 12. X. When I say that God is to be known by Similitudes I mean that though nothing be fully like to God yet somewhat in which he may be partly known appeareth on the whole frame of Nature but especially on the Soul of Man which is his Image Therefore he that would know how to conceive of God must first know himself and what his own Soul is The true Conceptions of your Souls must be the prime Helps to conceive of God by similitude And here you first find Intellective Volitive and Executive Acts. 2. And by these you know that you have the Power so to act for no one doth that which he cannot do 3. And hereby you know that your Souls are Substance For all Power is the Power of some Substance Nothing can do nothing 4. And by this you know that an intellectual Spirit is a Substance so impowered And that others are such as well as you And knowing what a Spirit is you know what God the Father is transcendently and eminently And though all God's Works notifie him you have thus the most intelligible Similitude within you § 13. Therefore I know not how you can better conceive of God than as MORE THAN A SOUL TO ALL THE WORLD but especially to Saints I say More than a Soul For a Soul is but a Part and C●●●●i●utive but God can be no Part and is more than Constitutive The World is finite but God is infinite therefore he is more than a Soul of the World ●ass●ndus calleth the World Indefinite but seemeth to mean Infinite and so to make God but the Soul of the World But that cannot be proved Not but that there be created Souls under God But while God is more than a Soul to all those Souls he is more than a Soul to all the World § 14. It is lawful and useful to think of God by such similitudes as he hath used of himself in his Word how low soever Even by his particular Works Three Names he assumeth Life Light and Love He is the Living God He is Light and with Him is no Darkness God is Love saith the beloved Apostle GOD is said to cloath himself with LIGHT as with a Garment And a man will say I have seen the KING to day who saw him but in his Garments And if he saw the Skin of his Face how little of the King did he see In Scripture they that have seen Angels are said to have seen God and heard his Voice by them When we see the Glory of the Sun that diffuseth its Beams to all the surface of the Earth and uniteth it self with every Eye even of the smallest Worms and quickeneth every thing that liveth this giveth us by similitude some low resemblance of the Divine Life and Light and Glory When he is called Our FATHER and he is said to love us as a FATHER his Children this is some help to our Conceptions of him When we read of all those Visions which Iohn had in the Revelations of Christ's glorious Appearance as before on the Mount and of God on the Throne with the four Beasts and seven Spirits and the thousand thousands of glorious Attendants and of the metaphorical Description of the Heavenly Ierusalem It is not unlawful nor unuseful to us to make use of such Spectacles of