Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	holy_a	person_n	trinity_n	2,662	5	9.6888	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15418	Limbo-mastix: that is, A canuise of Limbus Patrum shewing by euident places of Scripture, inuincible reasons, and pregnant testimonies of some ancient writers, that Christ descended not in soule to Hell, to deliuer the Fathers from thence. Containing also a briefe replie to so much of a pamphlet lately published, intituled, An answere to certaine obiections against the descension &c. as lookes that way, and is personally directed against some writers of our Church.	Willet, Andrew, 1562-1621.	1604 (1604)	STC 25692; ESTC S120030	49,797	70

death The soule as it may spiritually liue so it may spiritually die as the Prophet speaketh both of killing and sauing of soules in the same place He shall neuer bee able to shew out of scripture any such example or place that affirmeth anything to be quickened which is not apt to die in the same sense Christs soule then being not subiect to any spirituall death either by sin in this life or by damnatiō in hell cannot be said to be quickened Fourthly therfore Augustines exposition remaineth sure and sound He was quickned in the spirit because by the working of that spirit in the which hee preached to whom hee came his flesh being quickened did rise again in the which earst he came vnto men This exposition by the flesh to vnderstand Christs humane nature by the spirit his diuine by the which hee was raised agame is strengthened by other places of Scripture as Rom. 1. 3. made of the seede of Dauid after the flesh declared to be the sonne of God according to the spirit of sanctification by the resurrection from the dead 1. Tim. 3. 16. Being iustified in the spirit And Saint Paul giueth the sense of this place in other words 2. Cor. 13. 4. He was crucified of weaknes or infirmitie and liueth of or by the power of God And so Bernard to the same purpose saith well All the workes of Christ doe necessarily belong to one of his natures to his humane his miserie to his diuine his power and Maiestie Wherefore as the mortification of Christs flesh being a work of infirmitie belonged to his humanitie so his viuification and being made aliue againe being a worke of power appertained to his Deitie Argum. 2. Whereas Peter here saith In the which spirit he went and preached this may be expounded by the like place 1. Pet. 1. 11 Of the which saluation the Prophets haue inquired c. searching when or what time the spirit of Christ which was in them should testifie c. The Prophets were endued with and spake by the spirit of Christ so that by them as instruments as here by Noah Christ went and preached in his spirit Obiect 1. Thus you erroneously confound the distinct persons of the Trinitie turning the humane soule of Christ first into his diuinitie and then againe into the Holy Ghost Ans. p. 33. 2. So vpon these or like absurdities our late generall surueyer of the controuersies c. thought it better to forge a new figure Christ went in the spirit c. that is saith he Noe went in the spirit of Christ and preached which what els is it then wilfully to correct or rather to corrupt the text of holy scripture to set the Apostle to schoole as not knowing to speake properly c. pag. 33. Ans. 1. This is an vnlearned cauill for while hee feareth the heresie of Sabellius that cōfounded the persons of the Trinitie and made them all one August haeres 52. hee commeth nearer a Tritheist in diuiding Christ and his spirit When Marke saith It is not yee that speake but the Holy Ghost Mark 13. 11. and Matthew thus rehearseth the same place It is not ye but the spirit of my father that speaketh in you Matth. 10. 20 doth the Euangelist confound the persons of the Trinitie Is not the Holy Ghost as well the spirit of Christ as of his Father doth hee not proceed equally from them both This obiection then either sauoureth of error or bewrayeth ignorance Augustine could haue giuen him a solution of this doubt if he had consulted with him For both the sonne is a spirit in the substance of his Deitie and what doth the sonne without the holy spirit or the father when the workes of the Trinitie are inseparable Either of these answers might haue satisfied him 2. You still misreport him that seemeth to bee a great mote in your eye one may well returne Hieromes words vpon you You are toward others as blinde as a mole toward him as sharpe sighted as a goate you with disdaine call him our late surueyor of the controuersies if his leasure would serue him he might soone suruey more slippes and grosse ouersights in this three penie booke then you shall bee ouer able to finde in that greate worke which you so much carpe at But Hieromes words are here most true They doe bite me with an enuious tooth deprauing publikely what they reade in corners the same men being both accusers and defenders approouing in others that they reprooue in me as though vertue and vice were not in the things themselues but were changed with the authors But hee neither correcteth or corrupteth Scripture but you corrupt his words which are these This phrase is neither strange nor vnusuall to say that Christ went in spirit or the spirit of Christ went seeing Noah went in the spirit of Christ Here is nothing added or altered in the text but onely the meaning explained When our Sauiour saith It is the holy Ghost that speaketh in you Mar. 13. 11 but S. Peter holy men spake as they were moued by the holy Ghost 2. Pet. 1. 21 doth S. Peter corrupt or correct Christs words As then for the Holy Ghost to speake in men and men to speake by y e Holy Ghost in scripture is all one so to say y t Christs spirit preached in Noe or Noe preached in or by Christs spirit I pray you sir what difference If any here corrupt the text it is your self that forge a sense to vse your owne terme that by Scripture cannot be iustified and so you are of those of whom Hierom speaketh Non voluntatem legi sed legem iungunt voluntati They doe not conforme their fansies to the Scripture but the Scripture to their fansies This exposition of ours is not new but approoued long since by Augustine Before Christ came in the flesh to die for vs which he did once often before he came in spirit to whom he would speaking to them in visions as it pleased him Argum. 3. In the which spirit he went and preached Augustine further reasoneth that this cannot be vnderstoode of Christs going to hell for if there were preaching there it will followe there should bee a Church and that some may beleeue that are in hell for Christs preaching was not without fruite And if it were thus that any might bee conuerted in hell men would neglect the hearing of the Gospell while they liue to this purpose Augustine epist. 99. Obiect 1. Bellarmine saith that Christs preaching in hell was not to conuert the infidels but to bring tidings of ioy to the godly soules Cont. S. Peter saith contrarie that the Gospell was preached to the dead that they might be condemned according to men in the flesh but might liue according to God in the spirit 1. Pet. 4. 6. what is this else but to preach vnto them for their conuersion Obiect 2. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉

and the spirit where by the spirit the diuine nature is manifestly expressed Obiect 4. You must then reade thus Christ was mortified in his humanitie and quickened in his diuinitie which is both absurd and impious p. 24. Ans. 1. The answerer much contendeth pag. 25 to haue the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 supplied which though it bee not in the originall nor vulgar Latin yet we willingly yeeld him but what hath he gained by it 2. Is it impious to say he was quickened in his diuine spirit And doe yee know what you say Doth not S. Paul vse the same phrase hee was iustified in the spirit 1. Tim. 3. 16 that is in and by the power of his diuine spirit for there not his soule but his diuine nature is signified And what difference betweene this phrase of S. Peter quickened in the spirit and that of S. Paul Rom. 1. 3. declared to bee the sonne of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the spirit of sanctification that is by the power thereof Obiect 5. If by flesh you vnderstand the whole humane nature that is his body and soule then it will follow that he was done to death both in body and soule Ans. p. 24. Ans. First there is no more necessitie here by flesh to vnderstand the whole humanitie of Christ his soule and bodie than in that place of S. Paul named before Rom. 1. 3 Christ was made of the seede of Dauid according to the flesh Here the flesh that is Christs humanitie is set against the spirit his diuinitie and yet if the soule should necessarily be comprehended vnder the name of flesh it would follow that Christ receiued his soule from the seed of Dauid and so anima should be ex traduce be deriued from the parents as the flesh is whereas the Scripture saith that God formeth the spirit of man within him Zachar. 12. 1. Secondly yet if the soule be here conceiued no great absurditie will follow for either by being mortified according to the flesh all other suffrings are implied as S. Paul setting down a briefe summe of the Gospell that Christ died for our sins was buried rose again c. 1. Cor. 15. 3. by dying vnderstandeth all other of his suffrings as S. Peter saith he hath suffered for our sinnes 1. Pet. 2. 18 or els such a death of the soule may be vnderstood as Christs soule was subiect vnto neither by sinne nor damnation but in respect of his inward afflictions in which S. Paul saith I die daily 1. Cor. 15. 31. But I rather insist vpon the first point Obiect 6. The word which the Apostle here vseth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hee went and preached cannot properly be applied to the diuinitie but the humanitie of Christ as the Apostle vseth it ver 22 gone into heauen Bellarm. So likewise the Answerer quoteth almost twentie places out of the Gospell much glorying as it seemeth to paint his margin with Greek letters to shew how this word is vsed of Christs going and comming as he was man p. 31. Ans. First as though it were not an vsuall thing in Scripture to applie vnto God such words as signifie motion for our better vnderstanding so it is said that the spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was carried vpon the waters Gen. 1. 1. God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ascended vp from Abraham Genes 17. 22. The spirit of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 leaped or came vpon Saul 1. Sam. chap. 10. The word of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 runneth very swiftly Psal. 148. 15. Secondly yea this very word here giuen in instance is otherwhere so vsed As Matth. 4. 4. Man liueth not by bread onely but by euery word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which commeth or goeth foorth of the mouth of God Obiect 7. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 spirits you shall neuer finde where it is giuen to men liuing in the world Bellar Ans. p. 34. and these spirits are said to be in hell how then could they be liuing men in the world and if Noah preached to spirits in hell both the preacher and auditors must be shut vp in hell p. 38. Ans. 1. These are but ridiculous obiections and easily answered for those to whom Noah preached were then liuing in earth but now spirits in hell when Peter thus wrote so that by the figure Prolepsis which is vsuall in Scripture he describeth them by their present state not as they were at the time of the preaching So in the next chapter he saith the Gospell was preached to the dead now dead but then liuing when the Gospel was preached as Augustine well expoundeth It appeareth by the circumstance of the place that he vnderstandeth such as were now dead but in former time heard the Gospell when they were aliue By the same figure Christ is said to bee the iudge of the quicke and dead 1. Pet. 4. 5 which are now dead but shall be aliue at the comming of Christ. Obiect 8. To denie the word spirit in this place as also the word soule in the prophecy of Dauid to signifie the humane soule of Christ iustifieth those wicked heretikes which denied Christ to haue an humane soule and consequently condemneth those good Catholikes which by these testimonies of holy Scripture conuinced them as Athanasius Epiphanius Fulgentius Theodoretus c. Ans. p. 48. Ans. 1. The argument is denied for thus the reason is framed if the spirit here doe not signifie Christs soule then the heretikes are iustified that say Christ had no soule as though there were no other place of Scripture to prooue that Christ had an humane soule 2. But diuers Fathers conuicted the heretikes that so thought by these places They might dispute against them but confute them they could not by a place of Scripture mistaken to ouerthrow one error by another is but to establish error Augustine hath a good saying to this purpose It were lesse danger for the foxes to lie lurking in their holes than that the hunters to take them should fall into the pit of error themselues 3. The Fathers haue found out more pregnant places to prooue that Christ had a soule than this As that scripture was commonly alledged against the Monothelites to shew that Christ had two willes an humane and diuine will by Athanasius Origen Agatho Chrysostome as they are alledged in the sixt generall Councell assembled against the Monothelite heretikes Matth. 26. 39. Not my will but thy will be done Vers. 38. My soule is heauie vnto death Augustine against Felicianus the Arian vrgeth that place Luk. 19. 10. The sonne of man is come to seeke and saue that was lost concluding thus that if Christ came to saue all that was lost and man was lost both in bodie and soule then Christ tooke both bodie and soule to saue both 4. Rather this sense of the place to interprete it of the descending of Christ to hell where the

saith that where Abrahams bosome was there were Angelorum chori regnum Christi The companies of Angels the kingdom of Christ in 1. cap. Iob. Chrysostome calleth Abrahams bosome Paradise Hom. de diuite Augustine denieth it to be a part or member of hell Epist. 99. In the opinion then of these Fathers if Christ went to Abrahams bosome where the Fathers were and that is not in hell it followeth that the Fathers were not in hell and so not deliuered by Christs descending thither Thirdly whereas he also produceth diuers new writers of his opinion 1. Seeing they are but dumb witnesses they are only named but speake nothing a labour may be well spared in examining such silent testimonies 2. But herein hee can haue no aduantage against vs for beside that wee can oppose against him as many new writers and more that hold not the descension as he doth as Caluin Beza Iunius with others we haue the consent of whole Churches as of Scotland Geneua with other reformed places Fourthly it is not to bee omitted that euen many chiefe pillars and writers in the Popish Church haue misliked such locall descent of Christs soule into hell the place of the damned vnderstanding that place in Peter of the operation of his diuine power in hell this the Answerer himselfe denieth not to bee the opinion of Thomas Aquinas p. 4. confessing that which he goeth about to confute Andradius also agreeth that the place in Peter doth not pertaine to hell and that infernum hell Act. 2. 27 is rather to be taken for death and the graue and that the descension into hell is not expressely taught in Scripture but a tradition of the Church All this also is by the Answerer acknowledgest p. 45. 46. Beside these Durands opinion is Christi animam descendisse ad inferos non secundum substantiam suam sed per effectus quosdam c. That Christs soule descended to hell not in substance but by certaine effects and for this cause Bellarmine taketh paines to confute him Yea Bellarmine himselfe confesseth that Licet non esset necessaria praesentia Christi c. tamen congruum esse videbatur That although Christs presence should not be necessarie in hell yet it is of congruitie c. he doubteth of the necessitie of such local presence of Christ in hel Wherefore seeing neither out of Scripture such locall descent of Christs soule into hell can be prooued neither were the ancient writers of one vniforme iudgement herein and both the professors of the Gospell doe disallow it and Popish writers doubt of it with what face can the Answerer affirme that his opinion concerning Christs descension into hell standeth as mount Sion which cannot be remoued pag. 58. He saith not vntruly that whosoeuer seeke to discredite this article of faith corrupt and depraue the holy Scriptures and fall into diuers absurdities and impieties For who denieth the article of Christs descension We beleeue that Christ euen vpon the crosse suffered the paines of hell as Reuerend D. Fulk thus writeth What may rather be called hell than the anguish of soule which 〈◊〉 suffered when being God he complained that he was forsaken of God Wee also confesse that Christ by his death ouercame hell and shaked the powers thereof that hee humbled himselfe to the ignominious death of the crosse and descended from thence into the graue and there continued in the state of the dead till the third day and whatsoeuer els may be comprehenhed in the article of Christs descension hauing warrant out of the word But to receiue such a sense as an article of our faith which is not grounded vpon the Scriptures wee dare not presume so farre without a warrant nor be so bold where we haue no such commandement To conclude then I wish that from hencefoorth all such domestical contentions may cease that we content our selues to beleeue as the Scripture teacheth vs and that no man obtrude his priuate sense as an article of the faith The common aduersarie will affoord vs worke enough though we one prouoke not another and so I end with that holie saying of S. Paul Let vs follow the truth in loue and to the Christian Reader I will commend that wise sentence of Augustine Quisquis haec legat vbi pariter est certus pergat mecum vbi paeriter haesitat quaerat mecum vbi errorem suum agnoscit redeat ad me vbi meum reuocet me De Trinitat lib. 1. c. 3 whosoeuer readeth this booke where he is resolued let him proceede with me where hee doubteth let him search with me where he seeth his owne error let him returne to me where he seeth mine let him reuoke me FINIS Vereor ne officium putetur ambitio videamur sub occasione sermonis amicitias potentium quaerere ad Saluinam Act. 4. 20. Hosh. 10 9. Iudg. 20. 1. Maior pars vicit meliorem Sciamus eum pessime dixisse cut maxime sit applausum Eras praef in 2. tom Hieron Isai. 6. 1. Reuel 4. 9. 11. Hieron Paulin. tom 3. Meditat in 1. Chron. 15. 2. part Necesse erat vt qui potentior cunctis fuerat deuotior fieret vniuersis Ambrosserm 40. Edward 3. anno 29. Anno 1388. sub Richard 2. Aliud est quaerere quod perdideris aliud possidere quod nunquam amiseris Hier. ad Demetriad Psal. 87. 3. Ambros Ergo paruulos nostros ablactare properemus ablactato Isaak epulū magnum sacit Abraham paruulum non ablactatum per temulentiam somnolenta nocte opprimit in Lu 6. 21. 1. Cor. 6. 4. Reprobata est fatui vox anseris tanquam anser inter olores ea tamen docuit senatores vrbem seruare ab incendio Valer. ad Ruffin Philip. 3. 16. Uera illa necessitudo quam non vtilitas rei familiaris nō praesentia tantùm corporum non subdlo a adulatio sed Dei amor diuinarum studia scripturarum conciliant Hier. Paulin. tom 4. Athletae suis incitatoribus fortiores sunt tamen neonet debilior vt pugnet ille qui fortior est Hieron ad Iulian Animas ante Christi mortem non fuisse in coelo proinde Christum qui ad locum animarum descendit in infernum subterraneum descendisse lib. 4 de Christ. anim cap. 9. The author of 〈…〉 to be a 〈◊〉 Juxta Plautinam sententiā altera manu lapidem tenere panem offerre altera Hierom. Russin Qui Christianum te dicis Gentilium arma depone aut si tu de numero hostium es often de te liberè aduersarium vt Ethnicorum suscipias vulnera Haec est consuetudo hominum multorum vt post salem panem insidientur hominibus etiam cum quibus ad eandem mēsam corporis Christi ad e●ndem potum sanguinis simal fuerunt Tract 35 in Matth. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quae de caetero velis praesens percontator praesentem vt si quid forte nescimus