Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	ghost_n	holy_a	inspire_v	2,844	5	10.2489	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65188	The retired mans meditations, or, The mysterie and power of godlines shining forth in the living Word to the unmasking the mysterie of iniquity in the most refined and purest forms : and withall presenting to view ... in which old light is restored and new light justified : being the witness which is given to this age / by Henry Vane.	Vane, Henry, Sir, 1612?-1662.	1655 (1655)	Wing V75A; ESTC R23767	277,940	392

as their living Oracles that proceed out of the mouth of Christ the Mediator is also called the WORD according to Scripturesense and acceptation which yet will be more fully evident by considering the Word of God in a third sense to wit as the holy Scriptures coming not by the will of man but by inspiration from God in men moved by the Holy Ghost are also called the Word and Oracles of God containing in them the same Declaration and Testimony of the mind and will of God as is to be found in the inward WORD but dispensing it in an outward form of wholsome words taught and inspired by the Holy Ghost himself Unto these words of the Holy Scriptures given by divine inspiration no man may adde Rev. 22. 18. or take there from v. 19. Wherefore it is that they are not of any private interpretation but require the inspiration of the living WORD to open and declare the true and full meaning of them which is near unto every true believer being the WORD which dwels in the heart by faith the key of David and that holy anointing 1 Joh. 2. 27. that is truth and no lye which abideth in the Saints in such manner that they need not that any man teach them but as the same anointing teacheth them of all things taking of the things of Christ and shewing them unto them according to his promise John 16. 14 15. whos 's teachings nevertheless are also derived and communicated from one Saint unto another by the Ministry of outward words and Exposition of the Scriptures as by being taught of God they are fitted and prepared thereunto and made able Ministers of the new Testament who handle not the Word of God deceitfully through any private interpretations of their own but by manifestation of the Truth in its own self-evidence do commend themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God not preaching themselves but Christ Jesus the Lord and themselves servants for Jesus sake 2 Cor. 4 5. And Christ hath promised to send forth such a spirit of the Ministry as this in all Ages even to the end of the world Mat. 28. 20. for the perfecting of the Saints and edifying of the Body the Church till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ Ephes 4. 13. That then which doth enable to the work of the Ministry thus considered is the shining forth of the Truth in the face of Jesus Christ by his indwelling presence in the heart comparing it self in the mind and understanding of the Saint with the testimony which is given of it self in the Outward Word And by discerning the perfect Analogie and Harmony that springs up between both answering one another as face answers face the believer receives such certainty and satisfaction in the mind of God made known as warrants him in the delivery and declaration thereof unto others This as the safest and best rule in judging and declaring truth from the Scriptures hath been owned in a constant harmony of witness by Saints in all Ages against all the enemies under one form or other that have sprung up either against the holy Scriptures themselves or the Spirit and inward WORD that lives and breathes forth in them and by them Thus through the faith that is in Christ Jesus the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation and to make the man of God perfect throughly furnished unto every good work being in this harmony and consent with the inward WORD of the same Authority with it and of the same divine and spiritual nature property and use able to save the soul and prosper to the end for which they are sent as a servant in the hand of the living WORD to fulfil all his pleasure and become either a savour of life unto life as ministred in harmony with and subserviency unto the living WORD or a savour of death unto death 2 Cor. 2. 16. as ministred singly in opposition thereunto The Scriptures then are not properly the inward and living WORD but have a testimony and expression peculiarly their own John 5. 39. search the scriptures they are they which testifie of me saith Christ in which Testimony of theirs they are either as a servant and preparer of the way unto the living WORD as those that literally testifie of it pointing at Christ the life and spirit of them or else they are to be considered as one and the same with the living WORD in perfect analogie and harmony both consorting and dwelling together in an inseparable band of union unveiling rather the naked beauty of the inward WORD then bearing any different sense from it professing themselves to be but as a dead letter or sealed book Isa 29. 11. any farther then the living unwritten WORD of God as breathing into them becomes their life and is made use of as the key to open them so that both together make up one and the same divine oracle whereas if consideration be had of the Scriptures in the letter only they are then capable of having a meer private interpretation and humane sense put upon them and so to nourish up a way of prophecying that hath its rise out of the divination of mans own heart or the single ability of the natural mind exercised in them which is so far from being the true ministry that it is but the vision of God that proceeds from man as he follows his own spirit and not Gods Ezek. 13. 2. 3. c. Now if the body of the Scriptures deserve the name as they do of the word of God their spirit and Original deserves it much more and is much more eminently of authority and use for the effecting of all that is or can be done by them even the WORD that is nigh thee that is in thy heart and in thy mouth the WORD of faith Rom. 10. 8. the unseen and unwritten WORD which evidences itself to faith which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen Heb 11. 1. This WORD is described Heb. 4. 12. where it is said the WORD of God is quick and powerful sharper then any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joynts and marrow and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do By being here described as a person the Holy Ghost signifies to us in what sense we are to understand the WORD of God in this place even for Jesus Christ the Mediator not simply considered as the second in the Trinity any more then for the outward body of the Scriptures which person of Christ is spoken of under the same name and description Rev. 19.

the Trinity in the first and abstract consideration of God their opinion were in that not to be faulted by their opponents any more then the applying of divine personality unto them in the second consideration of God as he is God the Mediator is to be blamed in them that acknowledge three individual persons in the same Godhead Having thus occasionally opened in what sense the Trinity are three persons coming forth in distinct similitudes in which they are to be known as it were by name we also affirm that thus for them personally to appear and minister a distinct three-fold similitude of God is absolutely necessary in God the Mediator in order to the sitting him for that his Office and to render him the sutable object of converse with the creature either in the life that now is or in that which is to come If therefore the intent of the Antitrinitarians be to assert that God comes forth but in one manner of operation and personality ministring but one single image of himself they do thereby either exclude the creature from any converse with him at all as leaving no other way of converse but such as is improper and impossible for any in the capacity of a creature to obtain and which to enjoy is the only incommunicable priviledge of the Mediator and that only as he is God or else they do so far debase the Majesty of God as to rank him in an equality with the creature confining his similitude to what bears proportion only to the creatures understanding and converse as upon its first natural root thus changing the glory of the incorruptible God into the image of a corruptible man Hence then we conclude the necessity of three persons in unity of essence The first ministring that similitude and operation which is commensurate to Gods own infinite comprehension The second that which is proportioned to the creatures finite natural discerning springing up in the Mediator as he is the first-born of every creature the root and measure to all inferiour natural beings The third that which is adaequate to the new creatures capacity formed also in the Mediator through the offering up of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world in which he is the beginning and first-begotten from the dead the root and measure unto the whole spiritual seed or general Assembly and Church of the first-born whose names are written in heaven In all these three similitudes of God or personal appearances of the Trinity considered in themselves the Mediator is truly and perfectly God able to give them forth in himself who therein is the image of the invisible God in which sense he is frequently called in the Scriptures the WORD the WORD of Life the WORD of God Now since the effects of this three-fold operation at least in what concerns the Mediators being made thereby a meet object of converse unto the Creature in its creature-capacity in any sort must needs he owned by the Antitrinitarians themselves why should they be unwilling to be led by these to the acknowledgement of the springs whence they flow which are the three essential properties in God that in the sense we have shewed do very well agree and consist with the unity and simplicity of his essence But as these are short-sighted in this great mysterie so is it but too evident that their opposers also are in other respects overseen who by confounding these two together which ought to be kept distinct do little less then deny Gods essential image under pretence of asserting the three persons or at least entertain very mistaken notions thereof wholly praetermitting the proper witness which the second and third persons bear in the essential image in order to cause their own reception in Christ as he is the first-born of every creature and first begotten from the dead And having thus singled out the Fathers witness from the other two they rank it under the notion of a person between the first and the third looking upon the second person only as Gods essential image making it his proper distinguishing character from the Father and the Holy Ghost excluding him thereby out of the number of the three that bear witness and confining the essential image to the Fathers operation only as that which is peculiar unto him They may be supposed to have been led into this mistake by that common description of the Trinity in these expressions the Father begets the Son is begotten the Holy Ghost proceeds understood by them in an improper and differing sense from what the Scrpiture holds forth 1 Joh. 5. 7. where it is said that there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the Spirit and these three are one So that here we find the three that are their own self-evidencers or the head cause of their own manifestation or witness each of whom in this sense do beget are begotten each hidden property producing its own image so come forth in their distinct personal appearances peculiarity of witness w ch all three bear in the face of the Mediator which argues that those who deny the Trinity in these their distinct operations similitudes wherein only they are to be beheld as in a glass by the creature and yet pretend to own their persons hidden vertues and properties do seem rather to please themselves in an implicit faith and formal confession of this high mysterie then to have a due regard to the teachings and witness which the Trinity themselves give as laying open the inward reason and nature of their three-fold operation The first of which bears the name of Father because the similitude of God as it is witnessed by him unto the increated and unbegotten understanding of God alone is the first and the original glory The second bears the name of Son because the similitude of God as it is witnessed by him is proportioned to the natutural mind of the creature and as such is begotten as a secondary and figurative representation of the first The third bears the name of the Holy Ghost because the similitude of God as it is witnessed by him is the union and proceed of the other two retaining themselves in perfect harmony and love as the sutable object to the new creatures understanding In this sense we say the witness of the Father is unbegotten The witness of the Son is begotten The witness of the Holy Ghost is proceeding as the record which the three in heaven are said to bear which three are one and their witness one as well as three CHAP. II. Concerning the Holy Scriptures their Authority and Vse with the Harmony and Analogie which they hold with the Living WORD WEE have already shewed how by the WORD is not only meant the second person in the Trinity in his distinction from the Father and the Holy Ghost who bears witness as well as they but that the witness it self which is given by them all