the Senses or the whole Life and much less beget the Soul or give it its Life again nor that which comes from Hearing or Understanding viz. Faith And if for reading of Words or for hearing them Preached Men had Faith wrought in them and were regenerated it would follow that all those which heard Christ preach believed and that none of those who hear Sermons and read the Scripture are unregenerated and that all may be saved at the same cheap easy rate that Papists hope to be so that is for hearing Mass said and some few Ave Maries cryed about them when they die And Mr. Keith hath ill Luck to have met with so few Men that believe a he tells us Pag. 12. of his Reasons among so many Hearers for he reckons in that Place no more than 40 Persons brought over by his Preaching from Quakery to his Church 6. So that the Word in the Mouth being not that which begets and worketh Faith in the Soul it remains that the inward spiritual Word in the Heart and Soul is that which doth it being quick and powerful and sharper than any Sword piercing to the very Soul and inward Thoughts of the Heart Hebr. 4. 12. as Peter shewed it to be in the Case of Ananias and of Sapphira his Wife Act. 5. 3 9. to work powerfully there and stir up all the Powers of the Soul and the Body And this Word being Spirit and Life as Christ himself saith Joh. 6. 63. and a Spirit that giveth life and quickneth 2 Cor. 3. 6. it is therefore the only Word that liveth and begets the Soul again and it is on this Account of being a Spiritual and a penetrating Word represented by a Sword coming from the Mouth of Christ Rev. 1. 16. and with some known by the Name of the Sword of the Spirit Eph. 6. 17. And as it is that which was from the beginning with God Joh. 1. 2. it is also that alone which abideth for ever 7. The word of Faith which St. Paul and the Apostles preached and by which they begat Souls 1 Cor. 4. 15. Jam. 1. 18. was inward and spiritual in the heart Rom. 10. 8. and a Spirit for they were the Ministers of the Spirit that gives Life and not of the dead Letter or outward word that killeth 2 Cor. 3 6. Ministring to that Spirit which Christ himself ministreth Gal. 3. 5. that thereby Men might serve God in newness of the Spirit and no more in the oldness of the Letter of Scripture Rom. 7. 6. of the Doctrine of Baptisms of Repentance from dead works and other fundamentals as Mr. Keith doth call them and recommend pag. 10. of the Christian Religion or of the Doctrine of Christ which St. Paul exhorts to leave Hebr. 6. 1 2. and Mr. Keith to stick to And they preached the Gospel which is the Power of God Rom. 1. 16. and which being a Spirit they begat Souls again by 1 Cor. 4. 15. This Power being the same as the Power from on high which is the Holy Spirit Luk. 24. 49. Act. 1 5 8. and which regenerates Souls Joh. 3. 5. So that the Word they preach'd being Power and Spirit it is not the empty Word in the Mouth of Mr. Keith which they begat or became Fathers in God to Souls with but the inward spiritual powerful Word in the Heart of good Men which they stirr'd up and set a working by that which they received of Christ and which his Sheep heard therefore speaking through their Heart and Mouth John 10. 3 5. 8. If the Protestants become Fathers in God by preaching the written outward Word why may not the Popish Priests be so too by their Preaching But if Preachers become such by Preaching and Ministring the spiritual Word of Truth Pray to whom Fathers in God and whose Ministers are they that stand for another Word and countenance its Preaching It is strange Fathers in God should beget they know not how nor by what and if they know should keep their Trades to themselves and should not let Mr. Keith who hath deserv'd it so well at their hands know the Knack on 't I am afraid Mr. Keith will never spoil a Bishop but always remain a Tool Quaere Pray Mr. Preacher what 's Religion now a-days Answ It is nothing but Acting the Story of Christ and a Cloak with as many Facings as Parties or Sects for the Sophisters of each to carry on their Designs and for every Party to act their Non-sense under impudently to the face of those that know better things as the silly Papists did their Mass in King James his time Poor King to take his Priest-craft for a Religious Worship and to be thus put upon in his most weighty Concern by dull Souls more confined and less knowing than himself But tho' Kings pay dear for it and have paid so ever since the time of Jereboam who became a sad Example of God's Justice upon such 1 Kings 13. 34. Yet no Calves no King prevails in the Mouth of their Profets and of their Politicians who must have some Calvish Priests Ch. 12. 31. to preach a Calvish Worship that is fit for Calves only and for making of Men Calves that they may lead them like Calves and will prevail to the End whilst Kings learn nothing from them of God judging in the Earth Psal 58. 11. and disposing of Kingdoms giving them to whom he will and setting up over them even the Basest of Men. Dan. 4. 17. The Kings that knew God themselves not only serv'd him themselves but preached and reformed their Priests and Clergy themselves 1. King 8. 12 14. 2 King 23. 2. 2 Chron. 29. 5. Psal 51. 13. 119. 46. but all they that know him not give their Power to the Beast Rev. 17. 13. Kings might serve God by Proxy if they had none of that Word in the Heart which all Men have and could give God an account by their Priests and Favourites 9. It is the Spirit gives life quickneth 2 Cor. 3. 6. Joh. 6. 63. creates forms reforms and upholds all things living Gen. 1. 2. Psal 33. 6. 104. 30. and that begets Souls therefore Without it all things lie dead and return to their Nothing vers 29. Jam. 2. 26. and he is the conveyer of Life unto all Creatures The hand and the arm of God Joh. 12. 38. whereby he makes all his Works From him the First Man Adam received his Breath of Lives Gen. 2. 7. that is both of the Divine and of the Natural Life for note that the Hebrew Word is Chajim in the Plural not Chajah as it should be to signify Breath of Life And as Adam received the Life of his Soul from him so from him we must get it again and be born of it not from the material Word or dead Letter of Scripture God's Kingdom or Salvation as St. Paul saith is through it Rom. 14. 17. then we must be born again of it Joh. 3. 5. and be born
of God and of this spiritual Seed to have it remain in us 1 Joh. 3. 9. and have the Kingdom of God or life eternal in us Luk. 17. 21. The Seed it self which the Flesh is born and begotten of is a Spirit abstracted from the Soul and the Body of Parents which are but Men Much more then that of the Soul regenerated of God who is only a Spirit and the Father of Spirits Joh. 4. 24. Hebr. 12. 9. ought to be a Spiritual and not a Material Thing such as is the outward Word which Mr. Keith soweth about in Sermons and in Papers which Booksellers and Printers catch at so nimbly and put Impune upon the World 10. Now Christ himself is the word Joh. 1. 1 14. in the Heart and in the Mouth Rom. 10. 9. and being that same Power of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. by which God made all Joh. 1. 2 3. the World and all Things therein Hebr. 1. 2. and which upholdeth all things v. 3. and gives them their Light and Life Joh. 8. 12. 14. 6. it is he that begets Souls and he is the same also as the Spirit or Power which hath been shew'd to doe it Jesus being the same Word as Paul spake of v. 8. of Chap. 10. of Rom. and the same Power of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. as Paul saith the Gospel is Rom. 1. 16. And the Lord is that Spirit which Paul was Minister of 2 Cor. 3. 8 16. and when the Holy Ghost comes it is Christ that comes Himself Joh. 14. 16 18. And upon the whole Matter Christ being the Word of God that was from the Beginning Chap. 1. 2. and by whom all things were made and Emmanuel God in us Matth. 1. 23. dwelling in us for ever according to his Promise Joh. 14 17. except we be Reprobates 2 Cor. 13. 5. and the Holy Ghost himself he is the Word in the Heart that abideth for ever and of whom St. Peter meant the Faithful are born again Being upon this account called the second Adam that is the second Father or Begetter of Mankind and the Bridegroom infusing his spiritual Seed in Man and impregnating his Soul which becomes his Mother thereby and by the same means he becomes the Son of Man and is formed within Man Gal. 4. 19. And in short Christ and the Word and the Spirit are all one 11. And he is called the word in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Reason because he is Wisdom Light and Understanding in God in the World and in the Soul In God he is the Wisdom and the Power 1 Cor. 1. 24. Will and Act For God having no Organs as Mouth or Hands his word is the thing it self that is done by his Power and Wisdom and having no other Will than his Power and his Act because Voluntas saith one Consilio nascitur and there is nothing but Sight no thinking nor consulting at all in the most Wise God his Wisdom Power Will Act are all one that is his Word In the World he is the Light Joh. 8. 12. and the Spirit that moved in the deep to form the Light Gen. 1. 2. and which the Wise and Pulcher ordo Mundi proceeds from And in the Soul he is both the Light of Nature in all and the Light of Grace that is the Understanding in some being natural in all granted to all at their Birth by the prerogative of their Essence or nature above other Animals enlightning every Man that cometh into the World Joh. 1. 9 This is what they call Reason And supernatural in the regenerated granted them of Grace again by the gift of the Spirit upon their Birth of Water And this is properly that which they call Understanding I say he is called the word because he is Light Understanding and Wisdom in us as well as in God Quicquid in nobis videt audit verbum Dei That Light and that faculty whereby we see and perceive and hear and understand things is the Word of God in us that is Christ and his Spirit Understanding comes from Christ 1 Joh. 5. 20. and he is the Light of Men. Joh. 1. 4 9. and from the Spirit he sends Ch. 16. 17. to Guide Men into all Truth V. 13. to teach all things Ch. 14. 26. and to search even the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2. 10. understanding comes likewise Understanding is the word in the Heart The Light whereby the Mind conceiâ—â— in the Heart and sends forth the Spirit thence into the Mouth is the Woâ—â— not the combined Syllables nor the sound which the Air makes in the Thrâ—â—â— and in the Mouth The Heart conceives from the Light that riseth there the flash at every pullation and sends it into the Head whence returning to the Heart it is sent with the Spirit that issueth out of the Flash into the Tongue to move it the Tongue moving beats the Air in the Throat and in the Mouth according to those Organs which articulates its sound and forms the out spoken word and speaks forth the conception So that the Light the Spirit and the Conceit or notion is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the word That which the vulgar call Words being nothing but vo ces an articulated Noise and a combination of divers Sounds or Syllables by the Spirit from the Heart and neither the thing conceiv'd nor the Spirit expressing or speaking it forth themselves 12. To conclude Understanding Reason and Light in the Soul is from the Spirit of Christ the word of God Christ himself of whom we are born again and who worketh Faith in us From him and from his Spirit the hearing of Faith proceeds For Understanding as was said before proceeds from them and hearing in the Scriptures signifyeth Understanding as in that place where Christ saith he that hath Ears to hear let him hear c And Faith is one of the Gifts and Effects of the Spirit 1 Cor. 12. 9. No Faith without Conversion and no Conversion without Understanding Matth. 13. 15. By Hearing we Believe Turn or Convert and what we understand not we neither do nor believe Intelligere ipsum credere est by your leave Mr. Keith and Madam Rome No implicite Faith avails When God openeth our Hearts or gives us Understanding we believe as Lydia Act. 16. 14. and confess with our Mouth Rom. 10. 9. and come and shew our Deeds as Zacheus Luk. 19. 8 9. and those which burned their Learned Books did Act. 19. 18 19. and Faith is dead without Deeds Jam. 2. 26. So that to have Faith we must Understand in the first place and so have Understanding and the light of Christ's Spirit or Christ himself within us All which if we can obtain from the outward word Preached Mr. Keith is in the right but then Christ died in vain for he died to get us the effect of the Promise which is the Holy Spirit Luk. 24. 49. Act. 1. 4 5. from which Understanding comes 13. Therefore since we
stings and shutes like the Worm that never dies and a sore Boil not yet ripe and makes one die Raving mad The Fire of Hell is cold and burning without shining as appears from that Christ saith it causeth gnashing of Teeth and is in outer Darkness Matth. 8. 12. 21. Next in the little World Man Respice saith Trismegiste when thou wilt conceive something of God as Father of all Quid tibi accidat generare volenti First when a Man is in Love he becomes pensive and dark from his Lust that obscures him for Lust being attractive and binding the astringent or attractive quality coming only from the Lust or the longing in nature as may be seen in Acids which coagulate because they are of an esurine or desirous quality whence Corporification or Terrification comes and whence the Earth as having most of this bodyfying or astringent quality draws the needle in the Compass and by attracting of it causeth its variation Eastward in the Northern Seas as being there on that side larger than towards the West and Westward beyond the Line upon the Coast of Brazil the Earth being larger there on that side than in Africk I say that Lust being astringent or attractive draws or attracts together and condenseth in the Mind the Spiritual Idea of the Thing lusted after and fills up the Mind with it which becomes adumbrated or darkned as the Sun-shine by the interposition of that which casts a shadow at the same time the Spirits moving in the darkned deep towards the Parts and Organs proper to Generation kindle and make in that party the Dark state of the Father of the Light and gathering in sufficient quantity break out by concentration when the Parts can hold no more and can hold out no longer into a Light Flash or Flame fit Lux The Son or the Seed comes forth with Delight and Joy a sign that the Son is Born The Pulchrum and the Bonum to be good and delightful being the Nature Essence and Property of the Light The Pleasure in begetting is a relick of the Light and the Good of Paradise Col. 1. 12. Then this same Son Flash or Seed turning to Spirit again becomes a thin Breath or Steam that steams from that place or part which the Flash did break out in into that Cell of the Womb where the Conception is made leaving behind it the Sperm or the gross part of the Seed for it comes out afterwards which is a demonstration it went not in with the steam for that Cell shuts close upon 't and doth not open again till the time of bringing forth In the Womb that same steam is by the binding quality of the Spirit of the Male coagulated like Cheese Job 10. 20. and becomes the Fruit or Son tho' it was the Son before as soon as the Flesh appear'd For it is the Son as soon as it becomes Prolifick not because 't is in the Womb the Womb receiving it not and yielding no Fruit or Son except it be such before it steams or comes into it And it becomes Prolifick in the Falsh when both the Male and Female Flash together and when the Spirits of both Joyn and Vnite in the Flash So that it becomes the Son from that very place in Man where the Flash or Light is made whilst it is yet in the Man Note that the Male and Female in that act make but one Man before it gets in the Womb. All the while this last Spirit which gives life unto the Son and is become his Spirit being the same as moved in the Deep of the Parents and brake out into a Flash and in the form of a steam got in the Cell of the Womb. The same whilst in the Father moving to Generation as whilst flashing steaming out and getting into the Womb and at whilst animating and vivifying the Son Thus remaining Father Son and Spirit at the same time and always the same Spirit in substance and the same thing tho' passing through three divers Steps Degrees and Forms or States Man being not wholly made and formed out of this World but partly from above it hath an Image of God more than all other worldly things to wit the Vnderstanding and the Will and the Courage or Power to act and do which three are actuated rectifyed and reformed by one and the same Spirit to wit by the Comforter or the Power from on High that giveth Vnderstanding and Strength to know and act by enlightning and directing those three Faculties in Man The Vnderstanding to Know the Will to Chuse or refuse and the Power to perform and reduce into Practice that thing the Vnderstanding knows and discerns to be good and the Will chuseth for such As the Faculties in Man so in God the Attributes not only the Trinity but his Omnipotency and All-sufficiency Eternity c. come from one Central Spirit and the same Might and Power exerting it self like Beams reflected several ways And lastly in Plants and Stones Minerals and Vegetables we may observe the same thing First a Potential Fire and Might mixed with Water whence their Body comes to be for both Stones and Minerals yield this fire by striking and Plants by fermentation which Might Fire or Spirit produceth in that Body a Sap a Marrow or Oyl which is their Light and vertue the Chymists call it Essence and those Oyls Essential Oyls And thirdly they yield a Smell and Taste which is the Spirit resulting from the two first and by which they Spring and grow and yield their Fruit or Vertue which last is not different from the first that gives them life and forms their Sap and Body It appears from rotten Apples which smell strongest when they are a rotting or corrupting and from Sweet smelling Flowers that yield no Essential Oyl when they have lost their Odour that this smell is their Virtue and the same as gave them life and made them to grow and Spring since they decay and perish as soon as they have lost it When you hold your hand over the Flame of a Stick or Candle you feel the Beams or Spirit coming from the Flame or Light which came first into the Flame from the dark lump of the stick or of the Fat or Tallow and gave the Stick or Tallow both its body and its life and so is the very same in the Stick and in the Flame as you feel warming your hand going from the light or flame into the Air whence it came into the Sap of the Tree and into the stick and Flame making a Flux and Reflux of one and the same Spirit from all things into the Air and the Sun and other Flames and from the Sun back again into the Air and all things upon Earth to give them life and so an Eternal Chain a perpetual Motion and Circulation of life for the Learned sort of People and go on with the main Point in Hand concluding from thence that as we see in the World and
must have Christ as a Spirit within us to Understand and Believe we must know him not only without us in that Body that died upon the Cross to fulfil all Righteousness and reconcile us to God Rom. 5. 10. that thereby having access V. 2. Hebr. 4. 16. we might obtain his good Gift to wit the Holy Spirit Matth. 7. 11. Luk. 11. 13. but within us in Spirit since he cannot enter in and dwell there in Flesh and Blood tho' he should work the Miracle of the Transubstantiation and Mr. Keith should plead for an outward Christ or a Christ without us as hard again as he doth in his Reasons about the 26th page Henceforth we know Christ no more saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 5. 16. after the Flesh And as a Spiritual Christ forming the Kingdom of God by his Spirit Rom. 14. 17. within us Luk. 17. 21. Especially seeing that he is glorified again with the Glory which he had before his Incarnation Joh. 17. 5. and sits in that Majesty which belongs to God alone Hebr. 1. 3. Rev. 3. 21. and into which Flesh and Blood cannot pretend to enter 1 Cor. 15. 50. Christ being to die but once Rom. 6. 9. Hebr. 9 28. took our Flesh and Blood once to bear our Sins in it and now having done with it he appears the second time without Sin to Salvation and therefore in the Spirit Salvation or God's Kingdom being in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. to them that look for him so and are no more concerned with his Flesh or his Body since he comes in the Spirit that is since his Ascension and Glorification Joh. 7. 39. Touch me not saith he himself Joh. 20. 17. that is be not concerned with me whilst in Flesh and Blood because I am not as yet ascended and Glorifyed and cannot yet give you Gifts Eph. 4. 8. viz. the Gifts of the Spirit of which see 1 Cor. 12. or come to you in Spirit the Holy Ghost being not given till after the time of his Ascension on High Joh. 7. 39. he being not till after ready to answer the end of his coming in the Flesh to wit to bring upon them the Promise of the Father or the Gift of the Spirit the shedding of which Spirit was the fulfilling of that same Promise as hath been said Luk. 24. 49. Act. 1. 4 5. 2. 17 23. Touch me not know me no more therefore in the Flesh saith he for when I come to you a second time to save you to answer expectation and the end of my coming it shall not be in the Flesh which I have died in but in quite another form to wit that of a Spirit capable to comfort you or to give you Strength and Life Joh. 14. 18 28. in a more Spiritual from than at my Resurrection and my Transfiguration when my gross Body of Flesh it self Shined like the Sun Matth. 17. 2. and passed through Doors and Walls Joh. 20. 19 26. 14. And mistake me not Reader I do not mean that Christ in puting off Flesh and Blood hath put off Humanity that is the Human Nature for then he were no more Christ that is to say God and Man a Concrete of both Natures or the Human nature Anointed with the Divine But he remains Christ or God and Man to Eternity For God's works are Eternal He being the most Wise God whose Purpose and Power stands Nothing but the Devils works the corruption and defects introduced in the World being to be destroyed And we must know Christ as Christ or as God and Man that is as a thing distinct from God or as a Person distinct from the Trinity it self to obtain Eternal Life or else he had never said that it is Life Eternal to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sends John 3. 17. Distinguishing Christ from God as a Person subsisting besides and apart from God But this I say that Christ hath put off his Flesh and Blood as being Accidental and not at all Essential to Man or Humanity For the first Father Adam was not Created with it but fell in it by his Lust which by Attraction drew in the Elements that took hold of him and Transmuted him made of Isch a shining Man such as he was an Adam that is a Man over-cast with dark clouds from Ad a mist and so got this Monstrous Shape And if it were Essential to Man or Human Nature God would never destroy it as he will certainly do 1 Cor. 6 13. to deliver the Faithful from the Body of this Death and its restraint and bondage into the glorious liberty of God's Children Rom. 7. 24. 8. 21. 23. Man shall put it off himself to rise with a Spiritual 1 Cor. 15. 44. and Angelical Body Luke 20. 36. that shall Shine forth as the Sun Matth. 13. 43. as it did before the Fall when Adam was as yet Isch or shining from Esch fire So that Christ as King of Men possessing Eminently all the Perfections to which Human Nature can pretend hath put off that which makes Isch Adam a dark beastly man contemptible and miserable Isa 53. 3. Rom. 7. 24. And his State and Condition ought not to be supposed since his Glorification worse than that of Man himself 15. But to clear another Riddle that is how the Anointed or the Christ or Messiah is the same Quatenus God with the Anointing Spirit I must do a bold thing which Reverend Mr. Keith will doubtless Bless himself at that is Contradict his Church and Athanasius his Creed shew that Athanasius and his Church are mistaken one in rendring by Person the Greek word Hypostasis and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by Substance and the other in Saying not confounding the Persons nor dividing the Substance For the Substance of the Three in the Godhead is the same and is to be confounded and their Essence or Nature or their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divers so ought to be divided And the word Hypostasis which they render by Person doth signifie a Substance and can bear no other Sense a Substance being that which Substat accidentibus which is the very meaning and signification of the word Hipostasis ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Substo Substituor the Hypostasis being the Subjectum or the Ground of the Three in the Godhead And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Essence as being the Participle of the Verb Esse in Greek 16. Then to make Persons in God is absurd and impious there being no such thing as Persons in the Godhead for a Person is a thing that Subsisteth of it self without any dependance even of that very thing it is a Relative to as a Son can well Subsist altho' his Father be dead But here in the Trinity the Father doth not Subsist without the Son and Spirit nay and is not before them Beginning but with the Son being but a Relative Property to God the Son there being in the Godhead that is
in the Unity and the still Eternity no such thing as Father and Son and Holy Ghost known all Three being as part of the Generation of God Included within the Bounds of this Denomination to wit of the Nasciture or Generation of God the Father being not known more than the Son or Spirit without Nature or before the Generation of God or his Manifestation tho' at him this Nasciture or Generation Beings Natura quasi dicas Nascitura La naissance the Nativity of God Respectu Creaturae or God bringing forth himself to a Generation or a Manifestation to Communicate himself or his good without himself to some things besides himself So that Nature is only God himself Manifested and his Motion to Nature is his Generation And as he moved himself as by three Steps or Degrees in this his Generation he Manifesteth himself under three Appearances Forms Natures or Essences of Fire Light and Spirit or Father Son and Spirit which tho' the Trinity be from Eternity in God or Coeternal to God that is to the Unity the Generation of God being from Eternity are not known as I said before God moved himself to Nature without himself but were hid in God himself and brought to pass in himself before his outward Nature or his manifestation the Godhead in Unity as it is without Nature being but a dark Abyss And these three appearances or distinct forms and degrees of Gods manifestation are called Father and Son and Spirit Father because the Godhead or Unity is the ground the stock the Womb that brings forth out of its deep the Light its first Born or Son and only begotten Son called Son by the Hebrews on the very same account as their Language calls a Spark the Son of the burning Coal Son because he doth come forth like a Spark out of the Coal by breaking and shining forth out of the dark lump or deep 2 Cor. 4. 6. And thirdly they are called by the name of the Spirit because the same Unity doth not only shew it self or make it self manifest in the Light or by the Son but makes it self to be felt and communicates its good in the form of a Spirit or Beams flowing from the Light nothing in Nature being so fit to diffuse convey and communicate the good as the Light and its efflux the Influences whereof are the Holy Ghost in God and in the World the Spirit which makes what we call the Air by vapourising Water or turning it to vapour 17. Quaere What is a Spirit Answer It is a Substance as imperceptible as God himself to natural Men whose knowledge goeth no higher than sense and intelligece 1 Cor. 2. 14. The thing that is and exists Exod. 3. 14. for it is the same as God who is but a pure Spirit Joh. 4. 24. the substance of substances that actuates all substance and gives it form and Essence In God alone and the Soul to wit regenerated it is simple immaterial but in this World where it was at first mixt with the Water its concrete and material and hath the three dimensions that all other concretes have and is that which raiseth up the Water into vapours Out of it and of Water comes all material Substance or Matter for out of both this material World was made Gen. 1. 2. 2 Pet. 3. 5. All things saith Lucretius are come from their spiritual and their invisible State to a visibility and a palpability By its joyning to Water which it inspissates to Oyl then concocts into a Salt Earth and Body comes to be Corporification and Terrification being one and the same thing And by its separation and freedom from its vehicle whilst it is clearing it self of the Vapour that holds it for it leaves it not wholly not a spark of pure Spirit being suffered in the World for then it would inflame it fire and the destruction of things compacted by it for ejus ope totum cum toto compactum est are still made and come to pass From the Spirit all encrease and decrease or corruption of material things proceed From the Spirit as Spirit their Multiplication Multiplication being but a flux or extension of the first central Spirit infused into the deep and a propagation made a traduce of the same and from it as a fire Quateuus become fire their decrease and corruption that is the separation of that which was compacted In fine the stock of all things of God and of the Creature being Spirit and all things coming from a spiritual invisible and unknown state into materiality Ken perceptibility all things agree in substance and as God is a Spirit and Spirit is the substance and stock of the Deity the three in the Deity which we call the Trinity agree into this one thing and are but one in substance not so in Form or Essence 18. And the Truth is the Scripture speaking of Persons no where there is no reason wherefore we should set up this Notion and make of Hypostasis which is the stock and substance the things dependent of it viz. the form or the Persons tho' I am not ignorant that the Schools make of the form what I make of substance to wit The most Essential and Principal part of things But Christians who learn of Christ being anointed by him with that which teacheth all things Joh. 14. 26. 1 Joh. 2. 27. or else they were not Christians for a Christian signifyeth one that is anointed ought not to take upon tick from the Schools and the Heathen their Theosophick Notions nor such as is or may be the occasion of Errours but from Nature and Scripture and the Etymology of words if they have any as here of Hypostasis ab 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is by no Greek Author made use of to signify an individual Person And the Scriptures speak only of Three or a Trinity which bear Record in the World or make known the Deity which three things agree in one and are One and the same Thing 1 Joh. 5. 7. in the stock or the substance but divers in the Essence The Nature or the Essence of the Light being divers from that of the dark fire which is the Father of it and from that of the Spirit or beams that flow out of both as is that of the Spirit different from that of both the Light and Fire likewise 19. And that it is so to wit that these three appearances being divers in Essence are the same in the substance or one and the same Spirit and so that the Holy Ghost and Christ as the Light of God and the second Appearance of the Three in the Godhead are but One and the same Thing St. John saith there be three things in Earth bear Record of it the Spirit Water and Blood which last is but a concrete of Water and of Spirit digested and concocted in the Animal Bodies and I say that all things in the whole World witness it the World it self Man and Beast