Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	beget_v	father_n	son_n	11,645	5	6.8465	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56745	The mystery of the Christian faith and of the Blessed Trinity vindicated and the divinity of Christ proved in three sermons preach'd at Westminster-Abbey upon Trinity-Sunday, June the 7th, and September 21, 1696 / by the late Reverend William Payne ... ; in the press before his death, and by himself ordered to be published.	Payne, William, 1650-1696.	1697 (1697)	Wing P906; ESTC R35097	36,960	108

cap. Helmon in Alcoran Nec Christum Deum adorare confessus est sc Mahomet ne forte duos Deos adorare deprehenderetur Cantacuzen in Mahomet Orat. 3. offers several reasons against it among which this is one That God and his Son would make two Gods and that they must worship only one God These Reasons I think may be fairly answered but Reason it self could nor have known or collected this either from the Divine fecundity or from any Natural Perfection or Property of God knowable by the Light of Nature 't is only Revelation acquaints us with it and lets us at the same time see the admirable ends and uses and purposes of this if not for the designs of Creation and Providence yet for the Redemption of the World by this Son of God which is a work as great and as Divine if not more so than the other two 'T is the peculiar Character Frame and Scheme of Christianity to reveal this Mystery fully to us this adorable Mystery of Divine Love and Wisdom God's Saving Lost and undone Mankind by his Son Jesus Christ Reason could not have discovered this nor can it now penetrate into all the deep Counsels of the Divine Govenment and hidden Reasons of the Divine Wisdom which made this either absolutely necessary or to be sure the most fit and convenient Method to Save and Redeem Mankind This is such a Mystery of State such a Secret of the Heavenly and Divine Policy and Management that whether God could have Effected and Accomplished this any other way is unknown to us and our Reason must cry out upon the Thoughts of it O the Depth of the Riches both of the Wisdom and Knowledge of God Rom. 11.33 how unsearchable are his Judgments and his ways past finding out Further The Christian Revelation discovers to us another Divine Person besides the Son to wit the Holy Ghost who proceedeth from the Father and the Son and who was sent by them in a Visible and extraordinary manner and was to be the Comforter and Paraclete as Christ the Redeemer and Saviour and was to Sanctifie and Fit and Qualifie all Christians for that Salvation which Christ had Purchased and Obtained for them without whom Christianity could not have been spred and established in the World nor in the Hearts of Men and who was therefore to bear a Peculiar and Distinct part and Office in the Accomplishing the great work of our Redemption which was to be Performed by the Fathers sending his Son and both sending the Holy Ghost to Perfect and Effect this Great Thing and This is the Constitution the Frame the Faith of Christianity as a Religion distinct from Natural and which is such a Mystery as could not have been found out by Natural Light and Reason without an immediate Divine Revelation for it was not any Natural Property of the Divine Nature so far as we know to have a Son and a Holy Spirit nor did the Purposes of Creation and Providence require this and therefore the Deists and others think more than one Divine Person and one Infinite Being Unnecessary and as far as Reason alone goes neither the Truth nor the Necessity of more would appear but Revelation and especially the Christian acquaints us with God's having a Son and a Holy Spirit distinct Persons from himself the one Begotten of him and so his only Son the other proceeding from him and the Son both and these two still in the Father naturally and inseparably united to him as to the Fountain of their Being One with him in the same Divine Nature and Essence and All Three together Accomplishing Effecting and Perfecting the Redemption of Mankind and bearing distinct parts in that Great and Blessed Work 2. As Reason could not have known or found out any thing of this so the Revelation of it was at first very Obscure and Imperfect there being only some smaller Glimpses and lesser manifestations of it and those covered with Types and shadows and Prophetic Symbols through which the Fathers saw as through a Glass darkly and beheld the Promises of the Messiah yet afar off so that the Jewish Law and Dispensation though it wholly pointed at this thing and Christ was the end of it yet was but a Shadow of these good things to come and Moses had a vail over his face by which the Children of Israel could not see to the end of their own Typical Institution till the vail was taken away in Christ And the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began a 2 Cor. 3.14 which had been hid from Ages and Generations b Rom. 16.25 and which in other Ages was not made known unto the Sins of Men c Col. 1.26 was by the Gospel revealed and manifest and made known to all men to the Gentiles as well as to the Jews d Eph. 3.5 Adam immediately after his Fall had this Mystery of Gods sending the Messiah into the World for the Salvation of Mankind promised and revealed to him in those words The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents head Gen. 3.15 And no doubt he transmitted this great and comfortable Tradition to all his Posterity and there seem to be the broken remains and Characters of it in some parts of the Religion of all Mankind especially in the general if not Universal Custom of Sacrifices and the secret Cabala and mysterious design seems to run through the Gentile Theology which was a corruption of the Patriarchal Religion from whence some Marks and Footsteps of this Original Mysterious Tradition were preserved and continued among the Gentiles as appears in the Prophesies of Balaam of Old and the Sybils afterwards and in the Notion of a Trinity among the Platonists and others which outdoes any thing to be found about that matter in any Jewish Writer and must come from some Antient Cabala and Traditionary Account of it How far the Jews had a knowledge and belief of it we want their Writings to acquaint us though in some of those we have there are remarkable intimations of it as in the Caldee Paraphrase the Messiah is often called the Mamra Jehovae the Word of God the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as St. John calls him and there and in the Hierusalem Targum he is represented as a substantial Word and as a Divine Person and several of their Rabbies interpret that of 110 Psalm The Lord said unto my Lord of the Messiah and so that of Jeremy 23. where he is called the Lord or Jehovah our Righteousness and they often speak of their Emanations from the Kedem or Essence of the Antient of days and in their Prayers and Liturgies particularly in a Collect used at the Feast of Tabernacles God is invoked as Sanctified with three Sanctifications and in a Famous Book among them called The Gate of Righteousness this Sanctification is called a Mystery whereby they say is meant the Procession of the Emanations from the Corona which is the Mystery

in Isa 6.3 Holy Holy Holy Galatinus and Voisin and other Rabbinical Writers produce many such Instances out of the Jewish Writers to this purpose notwithstanding which I doubt the Notion of the Messiah as a Divine Person and as the Son of God in our Sense was lost among all the latter Jews who looked upon him only as a Temporal Prince and an Earthly Monarch and though in many places of the Old Testament and especially in the Book of Psalms there are several Proofs and Authorities for the belief of a Trinity and the Messiah's being a Divine Person yet there is nothing in their Revelation that has any Evidence of it equal to that of the Gospel and therefore notwithstanding all imperfect and obscure Revelations of it before it is called there a Mystery which hath been hid from Ages and Generatiins but is now made manifest Colos 1.26 Which was kept secret since the World began but now is made manifest Rom. 16.26 Which in other Ages was not made known unto the Sons of men as it is now revealed unto us Eph. 3.6 Our Socinian Adversaries will allow the Christian Faith to be a Mystery upon these two Accounts I have mention'd And I must confess the word Mystery is generally used in Scripture in these Sences but it is not so much the Word as the Thing we are to Consider namely whether there be any Truths in Religion Incomprehensible to our Reason And this is the Third Reason why I would have the Christian Faith called a Mystery which they so much Expose and Ridicule and which I shall endeavour to Defend as it contains 3. Something Incomprehensible and Vnconceivable and Vnaccountable to our Reason and Vnderstanding even after it is the most fully and clearly revealed by the Gospel By which I do not mean that we have no Idaea Conception or Knowledge at all of what we do believe concerning it for then it would be just such a Mystery as it is to those who know nothing at all of it a Thing perfectly unknown a Nullity a Non-Entity which is no manner of Object of our Faith and concerning which we can neither affirm or deny any things not have any Perswasion or Disswasion about it The Trinity would then be only an empty word or sound without any meaning or signification like the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 among the unlearned Greek Scribes mention'd by St. Hierome Epist 136. put for the Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but we know very well what is meant by those words of Father Son and Holy Ghost or Spirit though to connect and unite those Idea's and to make such Propositions out of those Terms as are agreeable to Faith may be a difficulty 2. Yet neither are we so to joyn and unite those Idea's nor to make any such Propositions out of those Terms as shall be inconsistent with themselves and destroy and contradict one another as to say that they are One and that they are Three in the same respect the same sense and consideration The doing this or endeavouring to do it has wretchedly perplext our Christian Faith and made it be called by its Enemies a Mystery of Nonsense Absurdity and Contradiction and exposed it as such to our Heretical Adversaries whereas had we gone no farther then Scripture the only Rule of our Faith in this matter and held with that that to us there is One God the Father One God 1 Cor. 8.6 Eph. 4.6 John 17.3 and Father of all who is above all and had we known him the onely true God as Christ calls him not exclusively but eminently and by way of Excellency and Prerogative by which the Name and Title of God is peculiarly praedicated of God the Father in Scripture Calvin in Protheses Valent. Gent. as Calvin ingenuously delivers it to use his own words Ingenue tradimus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dei nomen Patri proprie ascribi And another Protestant Divine his Follower Zanchius de tribus Elohim L. 5. C. 5. Patrem sic vocari Vnum solum Deum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quia totius est Deitatis fons which is the great Reason given by the Fathers of the Divine Unity and in this the * Peculiaritèr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tribuitur Patri nomen Dei Ravanell Bibl. v. Deus Persona Papists agree with them Had we considered this plain Scriptural account and observation that one God is spoken and praedicated of the Father and meant of him when it is said both in the Old Testament and the New The Lord thy God is One God Deut. 6.4 Mark 12.32 and there is none other but he or besides him we had not given occasion for that objection of our Adversaries against our Faith of its implying a Contradiction or of its setting up more Gods than one The One God whom we Pray to in the Lord's Prayer and in other Christian Offices and Addresses whom we profess to believe in in our Creed and whom the Scripture calls so is God the Father Almighty and he hath an onely begotten Son of the same Nature and Essence with himself who is the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person and there is also an Holy Spirit proceeding from both and sent by both who hath the Characters and Attributes of Divinity plainly ascribed to him and who is joyned with the Father and the Son in the Office of Christian Baptism and in the Form of Christian Blessing and against whom the most high and unpardonable Sin may be committed This is our Christian Faith which as it lies in the Scripture has no contradiction in it that I know of nor do the several terms whereof it consists destroy or oppose one another These three are one is the only thing in Scripture or in our Faith that sounds as a Contradiction and in one and the same sense it must be owned such a downright contradiction that it cannot be true some would therefore suspect and throw out that passage and are very willing to find some Copies of the Bible without it it being the only place of Scripture that sayes this but our Saviour sayes He and his Father are one John 10.30 and three may be one as well as two We must therefore consider the true sense and meaning of the words which was not to teach us a new way of numbring or to destroy the nature of numbers no more then when it is said Man and Wife are One Christ and Believers are One and the many hundred Converts to Christianity were of one Heart and of one Soul there are several sorts of Unity there is an Unity of Consent and agreement which may be amongst a great many of Power and Authority which may be possessed and executed by several Persons who may be all one General Admiral Chancellor and even one Sovereign and Royal Monarch A great many Individuals may be one in Nature and Essence as all Mankind

Unity but this has been from not understanding what the Divine Unity was and wherein it truly consisted according to the Scriptural account I have given of it which wholly takes off this Objection There are several things I own in the Blessed Trinity Incomprehensible to our Reason and Unconceivable and Unaccountable to our Finite Understandings when they are imployed about so great and Infinite an Object which is too big for them and so much above them As why and how an Infinite All-sufficient God should produce an Eternal Son and Communicate the same Nature to him with himself whether this were by a voluntary or a necessary Production and Emanation and how the Procession of the Holy Ghost differs from the Generation of the Son any otherwise than as that was an Emanation from both and not from the Father alone and how three such Infinite Persons are so distinct from one another as not to be confounded or be the same tho' Omnipresent and in the same Infinite Vbi and tho' so Inseparably united yet the one to take flesh and be Incarnate and not the other These and other things relating to this Mystery of our Christian Faith are I say Incomprehensible Unconceiveable and Unaccountable to our Reason by which I mean only that we can compare 'em to nothing else that we certainly know that we have no perfect or absolute likeness of them in any thing else that we have no adequate Idea simple or complex no similitude or Representation of any such thing in our minds from any thing else in Nature but that 't is a Truth purely known and manifested by Revelation joyning together and connecting such Idea's concerning God and so presenting them to the mind as united together under one view and so compounded and complicated with one another that tho' they do not disagree nor are contrary to one another yet we see not perfectly their agreement or connection but have only an obscure and general and confused view and conception of them as we have a sight of such Objects which are too high or too remote for our eye thoroughly to ken and yet we see them tho' not by the naked Eye yet by the help of a glass or Telescope so as to be satisfied of the Truth of them Revelation is as a Telescope and our Reason and Understanding is as the Eye which could not by its naked Power discern or find out those high Objects and supernatual Truths of our Christian Faith but now by Revelation they are discovered to us and our Reason and Understanding as the Organ without which we cannot see or believe any thing does plainly see and discern them but it is as through a glass darkly as having something of Cloud and darkness about them or as we see the Sun which is an object too dazling and illustrious to look fully upon with our weak Eyes The Sun with ' its coeval light and heat is an usual resemblance of the sacred Trinity and is the best material one that is in Nature but light and heat are but qualities and motions not substantial Things and are though not divided from the Sun yet without it and not in it so the fountain River and streams are but imperfect partial Resemblances as having the same water in all and not being cut off or separated from the Fountain but all material likenesses must fail when applyed to Spiritual things Our own Soul is the best Image of God and without it we should not know what God or Wisdom or any of his Perfections were the two faculties of Understanding and Will are the most like to the Divine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Wisdom and to the Divine Spirit power and Energy and in allusion to these the Schoolmen would have the Son to be begotten per Intellectum by a direct act of the Divine Mind conceiving an Idea of ' its Self and the Holy Ghost to proceed by a reflexion per amorem by an active Love of it self upon such a Conception But these men have been the most rash and bold explainers of the Trinity which is a Truth and an Object by it Self to which nothing else is perfectly like and of which we can have no Comparative knowledge nor no compleat and adequate Idea or Comprehension for the two sacred Originated Persons are not two faculties but two substantial Persons and Real Beings the Scripture ascribing as distinct Properties Relations Attributes Characters Acts and Operations to each of them as to any other distinct Persons and Beings whatsoever as the Son to be begotten of the Father to be sent into the World by the Father to pray to the Father and mediate with the Father Now the same Being and Person cannot be Father and Son to it Self beget and be begotten of it Self send and be sent by it Self pray to and mediate with it Self and the like may be said as to the Spirit These are not therefore like one and the same mind with two faculties or two acts or operations or only as variously considered two ways nor are they one thing or one Being diversified only with three Names Titles Offices Characters Capacities Respects or any three differences whatever belonging to one Person or Being but three true proper real Divine Persons The One the Father the other the Son the third the Spirit of both Now nothing in our own minds or in visible Nature is perfectly like these or to which we can compare them or from whence we can draw a Similitude Representation or Idea of them and therefore they are Incomprehensible and Unconceivable by us for 't is by Comparison and likeness we chiefly know and conceive things and 't is hard to distinguish between Knowledge Conception and Imagination so that what some persons cannot imagine or cannot have a picture or likeness of in their Fancy and Imagination they say they cannot conceive and therefore some pretend they can have no Conceptions of a Spiritual Substance and others no Idaea of the Trinity nor even of God by which they mean they cannot have a Picture or Idea or likeness of these things in their Imagination but we know and believe and are well assur'd of a great many things without that as of all Mathematical and Metaphysical Verities about abstracted things of all Axioms and Common Notions of all Demonstrations about Lines and Numbers of all things not Corporeal as Time Motion the Acts and Operations of our own Minds such as Understanding Choosing Suspending Doubting and the like all which we know by Reason and can reason about though we can have no Pictures or imaginary Idaea's of them or any other likenesses of them I shall show for the Defence of Mysteries and of the Mystery of the Trinity and the Christian Faith that there are a great many other things which are Incomprehensible and unconceivable to us concerning which we are well assur'd and have no doubt of them and this in several Particulars 1. In visible Nature and