Selected quad for the lemma: son_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
son_n	daughter_n	mother_n	sister_n	25,437	5	10.5778	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60978	Platonism unveil'd, or, An essay concerning the notions and opinions of Plato and some antient and modern divines his followers, in relation to the Logos, or word in particular, and the doctrine of the trinity in general : in two parts.; Platonisme déviolé. English	Souverain, Matthieu, d. ca. 1699.	1700 (1700)	Wing S4776	180,661	144

a Million Dr. Bull himself owns some of them concerning the Holy Ghost how many would there be if we should collect those which they have misapply'd concerning the Word But what do I say That bad Interpreters may nevertheless be good Witnesses of the Faith of their Age Mons le Vassor in his Traité de l'Examen ch 1. p. 10. is not so ready to grant it he denys and I believe he 's in the right That any Advantage can be had from the Testimony of the Antients towards the Decision of the Points now controverted because of the Confusion which arose from their Philosophy Origen and St. Augustin says he have so perplex'd Theology one in the Eastern and the other in the Western Churches where they both had their Disciples and Admirers by endeavouring to adjust Christianity to Philosophy that we meet with a thousand Difficulties in determining what those two Authors and those who have follow'd their Steps really thought on several important points of Religion They give nothing but Allegorical Senses to the Texts of the Holy Scripture their Explications appear so very far distant from what the Sacred Writers meant that one knows not where to begin to disintangle the true Doctrine of the Apostles from the particular Speculations of the greatest part of those to whom we are sent as to irreproachable Witnesses of what was believ'd in their time If it be so I don't see that Justin and Irenaeus can be better Interpreters of the Scripture than Origen and St. Augustin they were not less corrupted by Philosophy nor less confus'd and perplex'd and consequently they cannot be good Witnesses of what was believ'd in their Time For how is it possible to distinguish the sound Doctrine of the Apostles in their Writings from their Platonick Speculations Let us therefore without hesitation rank all these fine contemplative Men as well Antient as Modern in the order of the Gnosticks and return to treat of them Lastly Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. l. 5. p. 587. Edit Lutet 1629. explaining that Text of St. John The only Son who is in the Bosom of the Father gives us plainly to understand what was the Language of the Valentinians St. John says he having called the invisible and unspeakable Excellencies of the Godhead the Bosom of the Father some have thence taken occasion to name him the Profound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as containing all things in his Bosom and being impenetrable and infinite Novatian reciting the same Text de Trinit c. 26. quotes it twice in the same Chapter thus The Son hath revealed the Bosom of the Father to us Tertullian adv Prax. c. 8. did the same that is in the Valentinian manner That the Son hath revealed to us the impenetrable Depths of the Father Read the 51st Heresy of Epiphanius in the 22d and 28th Chapters where may be distinctly seen that Valentin's Fable of the thirty Aeons was allegorically taken from the Scriptures Some may perhaps wonder that they so dispos'd their Deitys by Couples They therein imitated the Heathens who attributed both Sexes to each of their false Gods Rep. des Lett. Tom. 1. p. 84. But however that be it ought not to seem strange to those who know that they allegoriz'd Sinesius tho a Christian and a Bishop made no scruple to call God Male and Female Hymno 2. 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tu Mas tu Femina an Opinion so much blam'd by Lactantius in Orpheus l. 4. c. 8. He calls him also That which brings forth and which is brought forth the Father of himself Son of himself and to conclude Father of the Aeons Valentin himself would not have said more His fourth Hymn is diverting He there sets the whole Trinity to work on the Begetting of the Son particularly the Holy Ghost whom he brings in as a mediating Power to be assistant to the Father and the Son For after having said to the latter I praise you with the Father and with you I praise that other Fruit which the Father could not hinder himself from putting forth when he intended to produce you He speaks to the Holy Ghost thus It is of you I speak secund Wisdom mediating Principal holy Respiration Center of the Father and also Center of the Son you may be called altogether Mother Sister and Daughter you came to the assistance of the Father who could not beget his Son without you obstetricata es abditam radicem For the Father designing to pour himself into the Son that pouring was the Bud of a Third who was a Medium between the Father and the Son You see Poets are not very scrupulous neither were their Imitators the Valentinians any more so than they Synesius was not without Company in expressing himself like the Valentinians If his Hymns are full of these Cabalistick Terms the Profound the Silence the Ineffable c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we find also the same Cant in many other Platonick Fathers Do they speak of the incomprehensible Nature of God you presently see the Profundity and the Silence Are they to say how God passed from that State of Silence to a State of Revelation You shall there see every where this inseparable Pair of Aeons the Internal Word and the Vttered-Word Clemens and Origen expresly distinguish the Word-God from another Word which was made Flesh In short nothing so much resembles the Gnoslick Heresy as Tertullian's two Gods the Rationalis and the Sermonalis the Rational God and the senerous and speaking God One may also range in the same Category the Verbum silens and the Verbum sonans of Marius Victorinus And many other chimerical Ideas of the Antients which tho they would be tolerable in a figurative and allegorical Stile yet become insupportable and worse than Valentine's Aeons by being personaliz'd and made Spirits distinct from the supreme God This is the Case Some Philosophers in endeavouring to avoid the Opinions of the Ebionites thereby fell into so ridiculous an extreme as to reject the God and the Messiah of the Jews They spake ill of the God who had given the Law and pretended Irenaeus l. 1. c. 25. that the Christ was the Son of another superiour God and therefore apply'd themselves to sublime Generations of the Substance of the most High God and to other such extravagant Conceits which the Orthodox greedily embracing out of hatred of the Jews and of Judaizing Hereticks at first they were only mystical senses to set off the Glory of Jesus Christ but afterwards these metaphorical Generations degenerated to real Generations and what had at first been conceiv'd only as Operations and Powers was converted into Hypostases and Personal Substances To conclude as I make no difference between the Jewish Cabals and the Valentinian Pleroma these two Systems are either equally ridiculous if examined according to the strict literal sense or equally rational if you seek in them the concealed sense which lies under the Bark of Allegory For 't was indeed

learnt Theology of the Prophets perhaps of the Egyptian Prophets did often philosophize according to the hidden Sense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Having made this general Observation I pass to somewhat more particular A great noise has been made in the World of the Opinion of Pythagoras concerning the Transmigration of Souls The literal Sense which has been given to this Opinion has been almost generally receiv'd and there have been but few Persons who perceiv'd that it only run on a mere Allegory thro want of duly reflecting on the Genius of antient Philosophy Coelius Secundus Curio was one of those who saw thro the Mystery of it Aranei p. 42 c. As to the Opinion of Pythagoras says he I can never persuade my self that that Learned Philosopher ever came to such a degree of Absurdity as to believe that the Souls of Men passed out of one Body into another Let us not doubt but that he thereby intended to signify the Change whereunto Matter is subject making it continually pass from one form to another a Metamorphosis which that Philosopher call'd Regeneration Palingenesiam or a Metempsychosis which according to him is nothing but the Transmigration of the Spirit infus'd in Matter and with it transmitted into all the several Forms which it puts on 'T was the misunderstanding of this Revolution of Souls which made some Hereticks say that Adam's Soul had pass'd into Jesus Christ in misapplying some Texts of Scripture where Christ is called the second Adam and which suppose a kind of Analogy between the one and the other 'T is by a like Mistake that some others held that the Soul of Elias had passed into the Body of John Baptist grounding themselves on these Words that John came in the Spirit and Power of Elias and not comprehending that those Words refer to the Conformity of Zeal and Courage between those two Prophets But when once the right understanding of a mere Figure in Speech comes to be lost and the literal Sense prevails into what Extravagances are we not capable of falling Witness the monstrous Doctrine of Transubstantiation which owes its birth to the Ignorance of an Allegory a little strain'd Again Have not some fallen into a prodigious Error by literally taking that Expression of the Apostle where he says that Melchisedec was without Father without Mother and without Descent Have not Men infer'd from those Words that Melchisedec was not of the Posterity of Adam as other Men are Some having suppos'd him a Celestial Man consubstantial with the eternal Son of God others that he was an Angel others the Holy Ghost others the Son of God himself and lastly others a Power superior to the Son of God from which the Son of God had receiv'd his everlasting High-Priesthood I am asham'd for Christians when I think with what Superstition they consecrate all their Fancies and make as many Mysteries of them In short I might venture to affirm that the Fable of Simon the Magician's flying in the Air carry'd by Devils and struck down by St. Peter is no more than a mere Allegory of St. Peter's Victory over Simon when disputing together concerning the Unity of God the Apostle put that Heretick to silence as the Author of the Constitutions speaks Lib. 6. c. 8. That pompous Description signifying nothing more than that the Evangelical Simplicity concerning the Unity of God prevail'd and triumph'd over the too swelling Philosophy of Simon who held divers Persons in one God But to proceed Another fam'd Doctrine of Antiquity is that of the Pre-existence of Souls Somebody explaining those Words of Moses that the Sons of God came in unto the Daughters of Men turn'd that Text into an Allegory and interpreted it of Souls delighting in being united to Human Bodies But because he expressing himself theologically called the Sons of God Angels that Word deceived many Platonist Fathers who took it literally And thence came that so absurd yet at the same time so generally receiv'd Opinion that the Angels had Commerce with Women and that from those monstrous Copulations proceeded Giants Origen in his 50th Book against Celsus teacheth us the Mystery of that Allegorical Copulation Some body says he meaning Philo de Gigant has apply'd that Text of Moses to incorporeal Souls which he metaphorically calls the Daughters of Men. It may be the other Fathers were nor ignorant of this spiritual Sense but they follow'd their manner of philosophizing which was to speak always in such terms as kept the Allegory conceal'd in order to give the more mysterious Air to what they said They always suppos'd that the Wits of the first rank for whom they wrote knew the Secret of it and as to the Vulgar their aim was to conceal it from them After what has been said how shall we know but that they affected the giving an appearance of a real and literal Doctrine to all they have deliver'd to us concerning the Word And whether they have not designedly conceal'd from us the Secret of the Allegory that they might by that majestick Out side draw the more admiration and respect from the common People who love what 's wondrous The Distinctions which Origen so often makes between intelligible and sensible between Contemplation and Faith between the Word-God which is the Object of seraphick Minds and the incarnate and crucified Word the Object of vulgar Minds I say these Distinctions and some others of like nature scarce leave room to doubt of it And indeed he may be confident of it who considers what the same Origen says ubi supra By the second God says he 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we mean no other than a Power which comprehends all other Powers a Word or Reason which contains all other Reasons and we say that that Reason is particularly united to the Soul of Jesus Christ because that only is capable of receiving the Word it self Wisdom it self Justice it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And elsewhere he teaches us That the Word was join'd to the Soul of Jesus Christ even before the Incarnation that Soul having merited to be join'd to it ib. l. 4. That so that Soul or that Word for he uses those two Words indifferently did for our sakes descend on Earth there to suffer Death for us Mortals Again Comment in Joan. Tom. 20. That this Soul which was before in God in its Perfection and Fulness was by God sent into the Womb of Mary there to take a Body other less perfect Souls not having had the same Honour If to this be added his affirming in the 1st and 2d Tome on the same Gospel That 't is only the uttered Word which according to him can be no other than the Soul of Jesus Christ That I say only this Word and not the Word-God was incarnate it cannot be doubted but that by this Soul sent descended and incarnate he means the same thing which he and others say when they speak of a Word sent descended and