Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	nature_n	person_n	union_n	4,088	5	9.9328	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52291	An answer to an heretical book called The naked Gospel which was condemned and ordered to be publickly burnt by the convocation of the University of Oxford, Aug. 19, 1690 : with some reflections on Dr. Bury's new edition of that book : to which is added a short history of Socinianism / by William Nicholls.	Nicholls, William, 1664-1712.; Bury, Arthur, 1624-1713. Naked Gospel.	1691 (1691)	Wing N1091; ESTC R28145	124,983	144

is and bring as a proof of this that Text of Isai 53. Who shall declare his generation But then upon second thoughts least the People should laugh at their Inconstancy they themselves revoke this second Creed and strive to get in all the Copies of it and procure an Edict from the Emperour which threatens all those that shall detain them Now indeed we may see here a very foolish inconstancy in these Hereticks and that they had a very ill hand at making Creeds to oblige all the World under the pain of an Anathema to believe such a thing at one time and the next day to disbelieve it themselves but this is nothing to the Orthodox Faith which stood always firm and unchangeable After the Authour has been spitting his Venom against the union of the three Persons he now begins to do the same against the union of Christ's Divinity with his humanity For he would have that upon supposition there are three persons in the same Individual nature that either the Nestorian or the Eutychian Doctrine was the true For says he there are but two ways imaginable in reason either Christ must be two Persons because he has two such different natures or he must have but one nature because he is but one Person But for all our Authours hast why can't we imagine a third way that he should be two Natures and but one Person This is as easy to imagine and I am sure as reasonable too For first It does not follow that because he has two Natures he must be two Persons for Nature and Personality are not reciprocal terms for there may be two or three or more Natures where there is but one Person The Athanasian Creed most excellently expresses this As the reasonable Soul and flesh is one Man so God and Man is one Christ There is the sensitive nature in Man as well as the rational there is the rational Soul one distinct substance united to the Body another distinct substance and yet these two so distinct Natures are but one Person Now what more contradiction does it imply that there should be a Personal Union between Divinity and Humanity than there does between Rationality and Sensibility If there be any more difficulty in one than the other it is this That in the former the union of the Divinity with the Humanity there is an union of two reasonable Natures which are distinct Persons of themselves as all rational Individuals are and therefore they must be as distinct Persons after the union as before But why so If they are united they are not distinct for all union is a negation of distinction or division Two single pieces or pounds of Gold are two distinct Substances or Bodies but if these be united by melting down into one they are still two pounds but yet they are but one Individual Body And so it is in the Union of all other Bodies Well but what is this to the Union of Spirits or rational Beings Yet it is something for if Spirits be united they must follow the Laws of Union as well as other Beings If they be united they must be one in something for to be one in nothing is no Union at all Now in the Union of the Divinity with the humanity wherein possibly can their Oneness consist but only in their personality Their Natures are most certainly distinct for Gods is one Nature and Mans is another and therefore if they be one in any thing it must be in their Personality Upon this Union they acquire an Oneness which they had not before and as the two distinct pounds of Gold upon their melting become one Individual piece which is the Oneness they gain so the Divinity and Humanity upon their Union gain one Individual Personality which is the Oneness they acquire Well but here are two rational Natures united which must have two Reasons and two Wills and therefore must be two Persons It does not therefore follow that because there are two Reasons and two Wills there must therefore be two Persons any more than it follows that a Man is three living Creatures from the Union of the Vegetative the Sensitive and the Rational Soul in his nature For as the Subordination of these Souls one to another make him but one Vivens so the Subordination of these rational Natures one to the other make them but one Person or rational Suppositum The Divine Nature is indeed the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or governing Principle in the Union of the Godhead with the Humanity as the rational Soul is in the Union with the two other Souls and therefore though there are two Reasons and two Wills yet those of the Inferiour Nature are subordinate to the Superiour and therefore are determined by the operations of that Nor Secondly is it necessary that if he be one Person he should be but one Nature because Nature and Person are not reciprocal terms and because as we have already shewn that more Natures may be united into one Person for 't was the Person of the Godhead that took upon him the Humanity so that he has no other Personality than what he had from all eternity but yet he has another Nature than what he had from all eternity because he likewise took upon him our Nature which he had not from eternity but took it upon him at that time when he was conceived in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin Though he still continued one Person yet he had two Natures the Nature of God which he had from all eternity and the Nature of Man which he assumed at that particular time and this without any change but only in the manner of his subsisting which was before in the pure Glory of the Son of God and afterwards in the habit of our Flesh All the Properties of each Nature are as distinguishable now as before the Properties of the Humanity are incommunicable to the Divinity and those of the Divinity to the Humanity 'T is proper only to the Divinity to be the cause of all things to be immense eternal omnipresent c. and 't is proper only to the Humanity to have a beginning to be circumscribed in place to be passible c. If therefore they have these distinct and incommunicable Propertie they must have distinct Natures from which these Properties flow though they be united into one Person And thus I think I have answered every thing that is material in this Chapter and I could very willingly have done with it but only because it may be expected I should say something to those invidious Remarks he makes upon some of the first holy Councils for the Determinations they made in matters of Faith and the condemnation of Hereticks As to what he says about the Heresie of Nestorius 't is not worth considering but he has a little too grosly represented the matter of Eutyches which I must not pass over without a little Reflection He would insinuate that Eutyches was first

the Center of a World from this consideration he cannot imagine that our great Creatour should be so greedy of a little of our corrupt breath as to purchase it with a fall from Heaven This would be to disgrace our Lord from the dignity of a Benefactor to the vileness of an unskilful Tradesman who buys vile ware and pays for it infinitely more than it is worth Indeed I have hardly patience to answer this abominable Blasphemy to see a foolish Philosopher thus horridly to affront his Creatour and in this witless Buffoonry to ridicule the infinite satisfaction of his blessed Redeemer because he cannot make it agree with his system of Physicks But pray let him consider that we do not think the dignity of our nature or the beauty of our World inclined God who has no respect of persons to work our Redemption this was only the effect of his infinite mercy which we can never enough admire and praise And besides what signifies the largeness and gloriousness of the Heavenly Bodies in comparison with Mens Immortal Souls The Sun is the most glorious Body we see and yet a Fly is a more noble Creature than that The sensitive Soul that this is endowed with advances its excellence far above any the most glorious inanimate being that can be imagined But the immortal Soul of one Man is of more dignity than all the Corporeal Creation and if there had been no other way to redeem Mens Souls that were lost but by the destruction of all the other Creation 't would not have been unbecoming the divine Wisdom to have destroyed all them to have redeemed these because these are of infinitely more value than they But it may be that the Authour thinks there are an infinite number of Worlds all stocked with rational Creatures of it may be much more dignity than we so that it was not worth God's while to take care of such insignificant Creatures as we are Now we know nothing of these great Bodies and for what use Providence designed them besides for the benefits we receive from them and therefore Men talk at random when they ascribe any other to them But supposing there were rational Creatures in ten Millions of Earths that were moving round their respective Suns must God less take care of our World because he has a great many more to take care of This is to attribute a foolish weakness to the Deity and to think it is with him as it is with some Parents who when they have a great number of Children do not love any particular Child so well as if they had but that alone or but fewer Certainly God bears a Fatherly Love to all his Creatures and will provide whatsoever is necessary for them 't is not his providing for innumerable other Creatures that can hinder him from providing for us his Omniscience cannot be distracted by innumerable Operations and his infinite Power and Love can and will do all things that are necessary for us So that if it be requisite to repair the forfeited Souls of Mankind that a Person of the Godhead should make an infinite satisfaction for sins against an infinite Majesty and which do deserve an infinite punishment 't is not the gloriousness of the other Worlds which should hinder him from doing it for his Fatherly compassion reaches to us as well as them and he would not stick to use these means for our Redemption if no other could effect it But the Authour says that then Christ has paid infinitely more than the ware was worth like an unskilful Tradesman as he calls him I shall not now dispute whether God could have pardoned the sins of the World any other way than by the blood of God 't is enough for us to know that God has done it only by these means and to be sufficiently thankful to him for it And when the Authour or any of his Party shall think fit to engage upon a dispute of satisfaction the Pens of those excellent Defenders of our Religion of late against Popery will not be silent in this dispute if they shall think fit to begin it though all the Tribe down from Servet to this Authour will not be able to shake any part of the Treatises on this subject by the most Excellent Grotius and the Bishop of Worcester But because the Authour here offers nothing but his bare assertion and because I have in part answered this objection already in the fifth Chapter I shall proceed to his next Argument which is That it is not supposable that our Lord should require a belief in his Divinity because it was not required of some of the first Embracers of Christianity such as Philip's Eunuch and the like who were baptized into the Christian Faith he says without any knowledge of his Divinity It is very certain we do not find in Scripture any set Form to be recited by all Persons to be baptized that declares an express belief in our Saviour's Divinity but such a Declaration has been the Custom of the Church in the most early times and therefore though the Scripture do not assert any such Declaration yet such a silence especially considering the compendious way of writing in the Authours of these Books cannot conclude that there was no such form used by them or that all that were to be baptized did not give an express assent to and belief in the Doctrine of the Trinity It is most certain they were baptized with a form of words which does imply that Doctrine viz. In the name of the Father of the Son and of the Holy Ghost So that unless we will suppose that they were baptized into names which they did not understand which we cannot suppose any reasonable Men should they must understand the meaning and purport of these names and so have a belief in the person as well as in the Doctrine of our Saviour For how can we suppose but that when any new Converts to Christianity should see others baptized before them into these three names of Father Son and Holy Ghost they should never trouble themselves to know who they were If they were Jews they would by this be afraid of running into the Gentile Polytheism and would be sure to be well instructed in this matter for fear of Idolatry If they were Gentile Converts to hear this form without any farther Instruction they would be apt to think this was but to keep in their own Religion still and only to retrench the number of their Gods from 300 to 3 which would be still as much contradiction to the Principles of their Conversion as their former Tenets So that we must needs think that the Apostles did explain this form of Baptism to all that were baptized how suddenly soever and did inform them what these three Persons into whose names they were baptized were and how they were consistent with the unity of the Deity which would give them the full notion of the Doctrine of the