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	person_n	trinity_n	2,522	5	9.8786	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54151	The guide mistaken, and temporizing rebuked, or, A brief reply to Jonathan Clapham's book intituled, A guide to the true religion in which his religion is confuted, his hypocrisie is detected, his aspersions are reprehended, his contradictions are compared / by W.P., a friend to the true religion.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1668 (1668)	Wing P1301; ESTC R15309	49,937	66

Others contend for the existence of this Divinity in the relative persons of Father and Son as Macedonius of old and many in these times to say nothing of particulars both which may properly be call'd Anti-Trinitarians or opposers of this Guide's Trinity But because the Scriptures do not warrant that division into and appellation of three persons that he slightly passes over this weighty matter recommending it for an Article of Faith but never arming him with Reasons that receives it for his defence against the strength and great subtility of his Adversaries I here shall offer him by way of Query what every sober person would desire satisfaction in before he entertains his principle Query 1. Whether that Eternal and Almighty Being called GOD implies more than one pure and simple Act 2. Whether He can be said to subsist in three Persons 3. Whether any thing can rightly be called GOD that is not Infinite and without beginning 4. Whether if God did beget a Son that Son had not a beginning and if the holy Ghost proceeded from both whether he was contemporary with the Son and both co-eternal with God since the Begetter precedes the Begotten and that the Begotten cannot exist before it is 5. Whether these three Persons are indistinguishable or distinct from the Godhead and each other by incommunicable properties 6. Whether if GOD implies the Fulness Perfection and Glory of all and that no addition can be to his Greatness and Delight but what was in his most Pure and Perfect Self from all Eternity as that one pure Act the successive acts of those personal relations can soberly be predicated of him unless they all are co-eternal which seems in terminis to confute a conception progression and perfection of the distinct relations If he will tell me it is a mysterious Point and therefore did forbear a farther discussion of it I answer it did the more require his explanation for that I conceive a Religion or hope will do a man but little good for which he has not a reason in himself and to believe things by rote is quite as ineffectual as not to believe at all If he shall say That Reason is not to be consulted or rendred in this case I answer That either it's what deserves silence and so condemns himself amongst those fools that will be medling or if it 's to be pried into then to be understood before believed or else his three Philosophical Acts of Election are defeated Sect. 13. His second fundamental Principle to be received runs thus That God made man at first in a very holy and happy state from which he soon fell through Satans temptations and all mankind became plunged into sin and misery that we are all hainous offenders against the God of Heaven under his dreadful wrath and the curse of the Law bar'd out of Heaven and happiness and lyable to eternal torments if not speedily reconciled to God and pardoned and by renewing grace sanctified and converted which neither we nor any meer creature is able to do for us He has here drawn up an Article out of Scripture-Record but never tells us what he has experienced in the matter confidently bidding all embrace and believe it without any farther examination of its verity or conviction from the Spirit of God whose office it is to convince the World of sin And I shall boldly affirm That this forward putting people upon the entertainment of Notions though of Truth it self whilst the Spirit of the Living God is not at work or moves not on the Waters is but the forming up that very Righteousness which is the second office of the eternal Spirit to convince of and condemn the World for A confutation to his own Principles and Practises is apparent in the latter part of this second Fundamental for if they who are sanctified and convicted are no hainous offenders then will it reasonably follow That such as are hainous offenders are not sanctified and converted But this Guide with all his Tribe that are daily crying They do the things they ought not and have no health in them are hainous offenders therefore they never knew the saving health of all Nations nor yet have felt the Blood that purges that Spirit which sanctifies that Word which converts to God Again the Holy God is perfect and has no fellowship with one unfruitful work of darkness but this Guide allows that man must be reconciled or else he lies under the curse of the Law therefore there is a possibility nay a necessity of mans being perfect which to deny is to contradict his allowed reconciliation unless he can tell where to fetch a proof That the most pure God will have fellowship with or be reconciled to whatever is not of his most perfect Nature nor is it sense to say the Creature can be reconciled whilst in the commission of that the curse for ever lies upon His terms Sanctifie and Convert imply as much especially if he be of Pauls mind that prayed the Primitive Saints might be sanctified throughout and if he has an art to make convert imply more or less than a being changed turned from or made new he would do well to let us know it for how a man in good sense can be changed and the same sanctified and polluted turned from his way and yet in it reconciled and under the curse at the same time is a kind of Antitheses I never understood But I haste to his third Sect. 14. His next great Principle he recommends is this That the Lord Jesus Christ the onely begotten Son of God Coessential and Coeternal with his Father upon the appointment and designation of his Father voluntarily undertook the office of a Saviour and Redeemer to mankind and being made Man took upon him our sins and the curse of the Law and giving himself up a Sacrifice and an Offering to God for us purchased by his death all things conducing to Grace and Glory and having by his own power risen from the dead and ascended into Heaven he is become an all sufficient Saviour and will effectually confer Pardon Grace and Salvation on all those who shall truly believe in him and that there is no other Name under Heaven to be saved by but the Name of Jesus Christ O the confused babble of the World the by-rote ca●●ing of this Guide how does he wander in the by-paths of vain tradition and invention Romancing over the weighty must 〈◊〉 of eternal life And from the dark results of several factions and 〈◊〉 Councils has prec'd up a Fundamental to recommend as dispensibly to be embraced by all He tells us Christ is the begotten Son of God And in his next words says him Coeternal I am as far from questioning Christ's Eternity as ready both to scruple and reject his praise it carrying manifest opposition to it self A little further he sayes Upon the Fathers designation of the Son he voluntarily undertook the Office

Authority to declare There is not another Leader by whom Salvation is attainable and in obedience to whom the Nations of them that are saved must walk Although I needs must say this objection of our Ignorance had much better become a person whose abilities surpass this Cantabrigian Sizer's education whose inexpertness in Story Tongues and Opinions might have barr'd him from these uncivil as well as untrue reflections and so much of Literature is to be found amongst the Quakers though it 's not their strength as does and very likely will remain unanswer'd by Scholars of a higher Form than this conceited Guide Sect. 2. 2. His charge of obstinacy we deny nor am I much solicitous to enlarge in our vindication since 't is the sense I know he has of all who withstand a Conformity to that Establishment his Interest leads him to imbrace and bow not with him to the Rising-Sun In this sense we own his Epichite and adjunct of Singular also being indeed most so in sufferings having by all Powers since we were a People separated by the Lord from their Inventions been killed all the day long in Reputation Liberty Estate and sometimes Life but in all other respects our Consciences excepted we are alwayes ready to express complacency and willingness to assist our very enemies Sect. 3. 3. He does accuse us with a total Apostasie from Christianity but if the definition Paul gives of a Christian ought to decide the case then he is one in whom Christ reigns and by the fruits of his Spirit manifests to the world he is redeemed from it and from fulfilling those lusts which once had absolute dominion over him But whether this Guide or the so much calumniated Quakers are fullest of self-denyal most separated from the World or in greatest subjection to that pure Spirit of Grace which teaches to deny all unrighteousness and to live soberly in this present World impartial Reader speak For if the preceeding qualities denote men truly Christian and that a pious diligent and inoffensive Conversation is the most express Character of Christ's Followers I make my appeal to thee and the whole World if there lives among the Sons of men a people less deserving to be called Apostates and consequently any that so visibly carry with them the badg of true and primitive Christianity as they And whereas he sayes we scarce retain any Article of the Christian Faith We do in so many words reject his aspersion being made partakers of that Divine Faith in Jesus which sanctifies and is held in a pure Conscience Sect. 4. 4. His next accusation is That they extol the Light in all men as the only sufficient Rule to walk by to the apparent slighting of Scriptures and Preaching Reader If yet thou art a stranger to this Light he thus explodes and vilifies let me beseech thee once to observe it in thy self and tell me then if it has not that Divine quality to discern betwixt the Precious and the Vile and manifest every Thought Word and Act whether it is well-pleasing or the contrary to the great God If it be criminal to own those Scriptures he falsly sayes we slight the case is chang'd otherwise we all confess that God is Light and that he hath enlightned every man by heeding and obeying the Dictates of which we may be preserv'd in that capacity as the same Scripture sayes shall bring us into the pure Fellowship and that the Blood of Jesus shall cleanse us from all sin Nor do they own a Principle in the Clouds but above all people have demonstrated the power and authority of their Principle by that Redemption it has wrought for them and alteration it has made from that condition which nakedly expos'd their immortal Souls to the snares and entanglements of this Worlds perishing glories to experiment the Blood which cleansed from all iniquity the unspeakable peace of perfect reconciliation with God And for his confident affirming we slight both Scriptures and Preaching I have this to say That as there is not any who discover more respect for them by a conformity of life to what they require so do they both read and as often quote them in Preaching or Declaration as any who profess them for their Rule And Reader that thou mayest the better be informed concerning the esteem we have them in taking but the pains to visit our Assemblies and that shall be a sufficient vindication of our innocency which also may answer him as to the advantage that 's confest the Jew had above the Heathen 5. His fifth reflection is Our openly denying the Doctrine of the Trinity but me thinks it would become him who is reproving others for not paying that respect they ought unto the Scriptures to be a little more exemplary in using their unquestionable phrase and sound expression for I am altogether ignorant of any Scripture that mentions that word Trinity and t is his own Opinion that Fundamentals should not be drawn from dubious and obscure places but rather that the Scriptures were evident and perspicuous as to what was necessary to be believed yet if by Trinity he understands those three Witnesses in Heaven Father Word and Spirit he should better have acquainted himself with what we disown than ignorantly thus to blaze abroad our open denyal of what we most absolutely credit and believe 6. His next slander runs thus The Person of Jesus Christ as to his humane Nature with all his Offices assigned to him by his Father they utterly reject though this is an Arcanum that is kept hard from their Novices Fain would he here insinuate to people by his most invective impostures hard thoughts concerning an inoffensive people whilst in reality they own no other name by which Salvation is obtainable than the Christ of God and all the Offices that ever were assigned him by his Father are by them acknowledged and so remote are they from hiding their sentiments or being jealous of exposing them to all that whosoever will but give himself the time of frequenting their Meetings or perusing their Books will soon perceive how very far this Character is wide of Truth 7. His next report is We call not upon God in the Name and Mediation of Jesus Christ But Reader that thou mayest not thus be dogmatized upon and better satisfied in thy sober inquiries assure thy self the Quakers never knew an other Name than that of Jesus Christ through which to find acceptance with the Lord nor is it by any other than Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant by whom they expect Redemption and may receive the promise of an eternal Inheritance Sect. 5. He farther sayes They trust not in his death for Pardon and Salvation but in a pretended sinless perfection They are so far from disowning the death and sufferings of Christ that there is not a people in the Earth that so assuredly witnesse and demonstrate a Fellowship therewith confessing before Men and