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	son_n	trinity_n	2,239	5	9.7275	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B21416	A sermon preach'd at Colchester, June 2. 1697. Before the Right Honourable and Reverend Father in God Henry Lord Bishop of London, at a conference with his clergy upon His Majesty's late injunctions. / By H. De Luzancy ... ; Printed by his Lordship's special command. ; To which are prefixed some remarks on the Socinians late answer to the four letters written against them by the same author.	De Luzancy, H. C. (Hippolyte du Chastelet), d. 1713.	1697 (1697)	Wing D2423A; Interim Tract Supplement Guide 226.f.17[10]; ESTC R26743	22,530	34

Fidei nostrae Sacramentum That which the Fathers understood by the answer of a good Conscience towards God that is a solemn Profession Declaration of what Religion obliges us to believe and from which we ought not to depart This is the first Shield of Faith which the Church oppos'd to the early Attempts of those Hereticks who thought to have stifl'd her in her Infancy This Confession of God the Father of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord and of the Holy Spirit which is the Substance of that Creed made unsuccessful the Endeavours of Simon Cerinthus Basilides Menander Carpocrates and the swarm of impure Gnosticks By this every Christian was initiated to Religion gave a reason of the Hope that was in him and became a Member of that Society here on Earth which after perseverance in well doing is to be rewarded in Heaven I know that a Critick of this Age a Person of the first rank in the Common-wealth of Learning has disputed both the Antiquity and Universality of this Creed A Notion too unadvisedly taken up by several Authors who thought that the Socinians took too great an Advantage from the Simplicity of its Articles He made it to be only a Creed of the Latin or Western Church which the Catechumens were taught before their Admission to Baptism He produces two of St. Irenoeus three of Tertullian one of St. Cyril of Jerusalem three of Ruffinus and insists on some difference even between the Fathers who have been the Expositors of this Creed St. Austin Chrysologus Maximus and others But notwithstanding all this whosoever will look into the Creeds of St. Irenoeus and Tertullian for that of St. Cyril was after the Nicene Council and those which Ruffinus has compar'd that is the Roman the Aquileian and the Oriental Creeds will find so mighty an agreement and the variations so minute and inconsiderable as to make impossible any substantial difference And it is certainly a strange Fancy that the Socinians should take an advantage from the Simplicity of these Articles which being but a Compendium of the New Testament are at last resolv'd into it For the Sence of that Creed must be that of the Scriptures of which it is an Epitome And how can they argue against the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit from their not being call'd God in the Creed when the Scriptures are so full in asserting the Unity of God and the Trinity of Persons in that one Adorable and Divine Nature Are we not baptiz'd in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit Are there not Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and are not these three one Is not Christ declar'd to be God blessed over all for ever and God manifested in the Flesh Are we not told that the Spirit searches all things even the deep things of God and that to lye to the Holy Spirit is to lye to God This Objection is of that Clearness and Evidence is so far from giving them any Advantage and they have found themselves so press'd by it that they have been forc'd to split on another Rock and say that the Form of Baptism is no part of Scripture and is only an addition to St Matthew That the Place of St. John is another and that the Word God is not to be found in the cited Scriptures Shifts unbecoming learned Men Which even Praxeas and Sabellius would have blush'd at The former oppos'd by Tertullian who tells him that this Rule of Faith is come down to us from the beginning of the Gospel The latter by Dionysius of Alexandria who tells him apud Euseb l. 7. c. 6. That the Persons of the Father Son and Holy spirit are indivisibly united in the same Divine Nature 2 dly The Forms agreed upon in the Primitive Councils at Nice Antioch Sardis Ephesus Constantinople Chalcedon c. are no Additions to but only Explications of the first Form They are still the Form of sound Words It is not in the Power of the Church to make new Forms new Articles of Faith And in this the Church of Rome is inexcusable and guilty of a Schism which she has charg'd others with But to declare and explain the Faith is an essential part of its Power The growing Heresies were the occasion of the Apostolical Creed the first Remedy apply'd to that raging Disease The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vain and noisie Oppositions of a pretended Knowledge oblig'd them to deliver the sacred System of Divine Verities But when the old Hereticks were worn out leaving to the World a sad remembrance of their gross Follies and Immoralities and a new sort sprung up who did attempt to overthrow the Faith once deliver'd to the Saints by Blasphemous Heterodoxies It was high time for the Church to make the Creed more comprehensive than it was at first give a greater extent to its Articles and leave safe to future Ages the Depositum which they had receiv'd And indeed it would have been very happy for the Church if Men keeping to the Plainness and Simplicity of the Revelation had not presum'd to go farther Oh that an humble Faith had stifl'd Curiosity in its first Attempts to inquire into Divine Mysteries with weak Ratiocinations and Philosophy never assum'd to bring Divinity to be try'd at the Bar of humane Reason Then Mercy and Truth would have kiss'd each other and God even our God would have given us his Blessing But Man forgot that scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à Gloria That the bold and daring Searcher into the Majesty of God will be oppress'd and sink under the weight of his Glory He launch'd into a Sea in which the Rocks and Sands on all sides threatn'd a sad and inevitable Ruine God has reveal'd to us his Existence and the Unity of his Nature He has told us that in that one indivisible and inseparable Nature are Father Son and Holy Spirit He has asserted the Father to be God the Son God and the Holy Ghost God He has taught us that the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Father nor the Holy Ghost Father or Son He has inform'd us that in the Fulness of times he sent his only Son to take our Nature That the Word was made Flesh and offer'd himself a Sacrifice for us In such plain Propositions as these has he commanded us to acquiesce Faith is the Duty of this Intuition and Knowledge the Privilege of another Life The Perceptions of our present State have no proportion with so incomprehensible an Object Had we stay'd there the Church would have been a City at Vnity within it self But Man not contented with this strives to understand that which God has not been pleas'd to reveal that is the Nexus or manner of in being of the Three Persons The How these three can be one The Way of the Union of the two Natures in one adorable Person Christ Jesus and having no other

L. I hope it will not be taken amiss if I make some Remarks upon it 1. It is very diverting to see a Writing call'd an Answer to the four Letters and not so much as a Page or Line or Tittle of the four Letters touch'd I confess that this is an easie way of answering and that at this rate any Book upon Earth may be answer'd Any Body may have the Pleasure to be an Author But I am not altogether satisfied that this is consistent with that reputation of Learning and Eloquence which these Gentlemen men have so justly acquir'd One or two more such Answers will I am afraid sink or at least endanger a part of it 2. They give a rare reason for not meddling with the four Letters I know not says the Author p. 47. whether we are concern'd in them till I know more certainly in what Sence he holds a Trinity of Divine Persons and the Divinity and Satisfaction of our Saviour I beg leave of these Gentlemen to assert that they know as well as I do my self what is my sence in those Matters Obscurity is none of the many defects which the four Letters may be charg'd with But they were not willing to intangle themselves in the discussion of so many Citations or to make good the weak side of their Writings which they were sensible could not be maintain'd They have found of late a shorter Cut and that is the famous distinction of Real and Nominal Trinitarians They steal away with this on all occasions and still maintain a running Fight It is their last refuge and had it not been for the rare contrivance there had been before this an end of the Socinian Controversie To answer a solid Argument is a hard and generally an unfortunate Task But if they can but bring you right or wrong within the Verge of the fatal Distinction then they have always a large Field for Discourse They act in this like ingenious but whether altogether like conscientious Men I am not willing to determine 3. They are so full of that beloved distinction and so fond of meeting with any thing that looks like it that in what they call an Answer to the Four Letters they have done to themselves and to me a real Injury To themselves by a flat contradiction in the space of four Pages and to me by charging me with that which I never said or thought They make me say that the Divine Persons are Three Infinite Spirits Pag. 43. He says Three Infinite Spirits each of them a God are all of them but One God I averr that there is nothing in the Four Letters which directly or indirectly looks like that It is not the Language of Scripture nor that of the Catholick Church It never was and I hope shall never be mine But this they have contradicted Pag. 47. by desiring to know in what Sence I hold a Trinity of Divine Persons One would be apt to say that this betrays a great deal of Incogitancy 4. The Four Letters then are still sound and safe but the Preface is engag'd and I must endeavour to bring it off Two things in it are excepted against The one that I said That the Consent of the whole Christian World must be a strong Inducement to a modest Socinian to mistrust all his Arguments and that to oppose all that is great and good in the Church of God in a Point of Faith which Word the Author of the Answer has overlook'd is too much for the most presuming Disputant He says to this p. 40. that the case is this one side has Argument the other has Authority and Number And that in a Clash between Argument and Number that whole World and all that is great in it when weigh'd against but one Argument is as if you had put nothing at all into the Scale I say that he absolutely mistakes the Case We maintain that the Church has Reason as well as Authority and Number and that on this very Account a modest Socinian must lose much of his Confidence By all that is great and good I mean the Sacred Councils the Holy and Learned Fathers and the different Societies of Christians all the World over who have been baptiz'd in the Name of that Blessed Trinity and look upon Iesus Christ as the Author and Finisher of their Faith In a Point of Faith and much less in the Foundation God will not suffer the Catholick Church to err Had I said that it had been a Reason to a modest Socinian to mistrust all his Arguments I had said nothing but what is exactly true I confess I was too modest my self in calling it only an Inducement 5. The other Exception is against an Assertion which I thought no Divine in the World would have disputed That Faith and Reason are two different things and consequently that that which is the Object of Faith cannot be the Object of Reason He calls this p. 41. a very rash Proposition He says some lines before That the Apostle teaches Heb. 11.1 not only that the Object of Faith and Reason is the same but that there cannot be Faith without Reason and that Faith is the Product of Reason This Author should have consider'd before he call'd the Proposition rash that it is the Sence of all the Ancient and Modern Divines and that thô sometimes Faith and Reason are conversant about the same Object as for instance in the Existence and Vnity of God which Reason considers as well as Faith yet for all that their Object is different and even in this very case Reason assents to it as it is naturally known and Faith as it is supernaturally reveal'd The place of the Apostle should not have been mention'd at all For what is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Evidence of things not seen but a Revelation of those things which Reason cannot reach or penetrate and on this very account are said to be unseen and is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Demonstration which rising from an higher Principle is different from and has a greater Certainty than Reason But what this Author says That there can be no Faith without Reason and that Faith is the Product of Reason shews plainly the misfortune of writing Answers in haste If by the first of these Propositions he means that Faith is always rational and that Reason never wants strong Inducements to believe which the Schools in their rugged Language call Motives of Credibility I say so too But if he means that we cannot believe except we have a clear Notion of what is propos'd to our Belief I say that it is against the Nature of Faith which offers things above Reason and expects the submission of our Judgments to the Authority of the Revelation The second Proposition that Faith is the Product of Reason is capable of a tolerable Sence if by it is meant no more than that Reason is an introduct●on to Faith But if by it is meant that it is

else it is unreasonable to the utmost degree Has the old way of answering been yet worsted Have not the decisions of the Councils been like a Rock on which indeed these proud Waves have beat but have been forc'd back broken and dispers'd I humbly beg leave to ask whether the receiv'd way of debating these sacred Doctrines can support it self or no If it can where is the necessity of any new one And if it cannot how comes that to be now so unsuccessful which the Church has been victorious by in all Ages and Places of the Christian World It fills learned Men with Grief and Indignation to see some of our late Authors strive to entangle an Elephant in a Spider's Web and expect the lamentable Issue of their Proceeding who as Gregory the Great expresses it lib. 6. mor. c. 17. Wanting Humility to be Disciples of the Truth become at last the Patrons of Error The Ecclesiastical History observes that the Great Basil of Seleucia and Gregory of Nazianzum before they offer'd to exercise their Episcopal Function did give themselves for thirteen years together in the Retirement of a private Life to the Study of the Holy Scriptures Illarum sententiam non ex proprio ingenio sed ex majorum ratione authoritate interpretantes Not interpreting them as they pleas'd says the Historian but conforming their Interpretations to the Sence and Authority of the Ancients A safe and an excellent Rule to us and a noble Proof by the way of the Sence of the Ante-nicene Fathers These two eminent Bishops having been so zealous of the Nicene Faith which they had learn'd from the Reasons and Authority of the Ancients in their Interpretations of Scripture Thirdly It cannot be done without giving the Adversaries a mighty Advantage By Adversaries I mean all the Opposers of the sacred Truths But most particularly the Socinians of whom it must be acknowledged that in their first Prints they manag'd this Controversie in a dull and languishing sort of a way and were really at a loss till the unwary manner of writing of some amongst us set them again on a full Cry and made them more eager and vehement Till then their Objections were stale and their Answers to ours strain'd and unnatural But some must pretend to explain things inexplicable and understand things incomprehensible The Socinians sensible of the Advantage remove all their Batteries and place them against that weak side and what work they were like to have made if more accurate Writers had not stept in learned Men see and grieve Only disingenuous in this that when they have expos'd a Writer they think to have overcome the Church as if the Church did warrant all their Inadvertencies who pretend to write in her Defence or espouse private Notions which she never knew nor ever will own This eminently appears in one of their latest Prints call'd A Discourse concerning the Real and Nominal Trinitarians This they take to be the lucky hit If you believe them the Church is made up either of Tritheists who really assert three Gods or of Sabellians who mean no more by three Persons than three meer Modes or Denominations and this Notion they have carry'd so far and so throughly perswaded themselves of the Truth and Strength of it that it has swallow'd up all their other Topicks Whereas there never was perhaps a more unjust way of arguing in the World For the Church is so far from being divided into such Real and Nominal Trinitarians as they are pleas'd to represent us that there is no such thing in Nature There is no Church or part of the Church which believes any more than one Infinite and Eternal God There is no Church or part of the Church which ever plac'd the Trinity of Persons in meer Modes Relations Names or Offices There is no Church or part of the Church but what has admitted a Real Unity in Trinity and a Real Trinity in Unity but has declar'd the Modus or manner to be altogether incomprehensible But where then have the Socinians met with a ground for this bold Assertion Truly from some unhappy Expressions of Men who have not been judicious and exact enough to see all the Consequences which flow from their Principles and have not perceiv'd that an Adversary could not be oblig'd to be so equitable as not to carry those Consequences further than ever they were intended The Socinians did hear some talk of Three Infinite Minds and Spirits an Expression indeed harsh and new And an Infinite Mind or Spirit being the definition of God they have concluded that they asserted Three Gods But they have not had the Justice to consider that they who asserted Three Infinite Minds and Spirits asserted them in one altogether indivisible and inseparable that is in a Numerical Nature On the other side they have heard that the Three Persons were the several Modes and Relations of the Divine Nature They presently run upon the Notion of Modes in created Beings which are only the several Affections of Substances and concluded that such a sort of a Trinity is only of Modes and Denominations But they have not had the Justice to consider that the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Modes of Subsistence are quite of another Nature That whatsoever is in God is God That the Subsistences and Relations are all substantial and that the Church never pretended nor these Authors themselves that they could give any adequate representation of an Object incomprehensible In the mean time they have made a diversion heated several great and learned Men one against another and by equally misrepresenting both have given us a sad Instance how dangerous it is to depart from the Form of sound Words I draw now to a Conclusion and come to shew how we ought to behave our selves in relation to them who have departed from it Our behaviour must be limited by so many several Rules as there are Persons who have done it First Those without who have departed from the Article it self Secondly Those within who have departed from the Terms which the Church expresses it by The only Adversaries of the Sacred Doctrine in this Age are the Socinians I humbly conceive that that part of the Injunctions which concerns the Angels of the Church the most Reverend the Archbishops and Bishops is no part of our business We must not presume to prescribe to them from whom we ought to receive Laws They are the Principle of Order and Unity in the Church They are Stars of the first Magnitude and in that Elevation of Zeal and Knowledge that as they see farther and move in a far larger extent than we do so they cannot be wanting to themselves when grievous Wolves enter in amongst us not sparing the Flock I confine my self to us who by the Trust committed to our Care may come to be engag'd in these Disputes Of the Socinians several are Persons of Learning and Conscience acquainted with all the fine sort of