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spirit_n body_n sin_n soul_n 13,963 5 5.3517 4 true
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A61701 The religion of the Dutch represented in several letters from a Protestant officer in the French army to a pastor and professor of divinity at Berne in Switserland ; out of the French.; Religion des Hollandois. English Stoppa, Giovanni Battista.; Davies, John, 1625-1693. 1680 (1680) Wing S5769; ESTC R8262 51,056 72

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Having given you this Summary account of the Socinians my next work is to give you that of the Arrians Those last are very numerous in this Country and many amongst the Socinians have embrac'd their Opinions You know what were the Sentiments of the Arrians concerning the Birth of Jesus Christ They believ'd That the Word the Intellect and the Word of God had had been created before all the Creatures That God had made Use of it in the old Testament as of an Interpreter of a Mediator when he had something to declare to the Patriaerchs and Prophets That that word had by a voluntary annihilation animated the Body of Jesus Christ as the Spirit of Man animates his Body the Word having taken Flesh only without Soul and without Spirit Nay they were also of a persuasion That all the Souls of other men were Spirits subsisting before the Bodies and that they assum'd not the name of Souls till such time as they actually animated their Bodies Christopher Sandius a Gentleman of Poland Son to a Councellor of the Elector of Brandeburgh was the Restaurator of the Arrian Sect in this Country His habitation for some Years past has been at Amsterdam Among other works he has written two Books which I have seen whereof one is entituled The Paradoxall Interpretations of the Four Evangelists The other is An Ecclesiastical History in which he proves or pretends to prove That all the Doctors commonly called the Fathers of the Church who flourish'd from the time of the Apostles to that of Arrius had the same Sentiments as he had concerning the Mystery of the Trinity The Borrellists had their name from one Borrell the Ringleader of their Sect a man very Learned especially in the Hebrew Greek and Latine Tongues He was Brother to Monsieur Borrell Ambassador from the States-General to his most Christian Majesty These Borrelists do for the most part maintain the Opinions of the Mennonites though they come not to their Assemblies They have made choice of a most austere kind of Life spending a considerable part of their Estates in Alms-giving and a careful discharge of all the Duties incumbent upon a Christian They have an aversion for all Churches as also for the Use of the Sacrament publick Prayers and all other external Functions of God's Service They maintain That all the Churches which are in the World and have been ever since the death of the Apostles and their first subsequent Successors have degenerated from the pure Doctrine which they had Preach'd to the World for this reason That they have suffered the infallible word of God contain'd in the Old and New Testament to be expounded and corrupted by Doctors who are not infallible and would have their own Confessions their Catechisms and their Liturgies and their Sermons which are the works of m●n to pass for what they really are not to wit for the pure word of God They hold also That men are not to read any thing but the word of God alone without any additional explication of men Another persuasion they have is That if there should be any Assembly wherein men would content themselves with the bare reading of the word of God however the persons who might be desirous to be receiv'd into it may demean themselves provided they acknowledg the Holy Scripture to be the Word of God they ought to be receiv'd into its Communion The Enthusiasts or Quakers who affirm That what they say or do is by Divine Inspiration maintain That the Holy Scripture ought to be explicated according to the light of that Divine Inspiration without which it is but a dead Letter written to Children and not to perfect and spiritual men and that it is not the true only and perfect Word of God or the Compleat and Necessary Rule of Faith They maintain That their own private Spirit is the true internal and spiritual Word of God the Rule and the Judg of the Scriptures That men ought to hearken to and follow that Spirit and not the words of the Scripture That a man has within himself and in his own Spirit an infallible Teacher who if he hearkens to him will inform him of all he is to believe or do in orer to his Salvation That they who hearken to that Spirit are united to God and that such union makes them Gods When they are in their Assemblies they continue a long time in a sitting posture without speaking and many times without so much as stirring for the space of one or two hours and there is nothing heard of them unless it be some sighs and groans till such time as some one among them feeling the agitation and stirring of the Spirit rises up and speaks the things which the Spirit commands him to speak Nay many times the Women are sensible of those motions of the Spirit which occasion their speaking or holding forth in the Congregation of their Brethren In their ordinary discourses they speak of their Ecstasies and Revelations and will be always sure to add very severe censures of all other Christians They very vehemently declaim against Vices and with great earnestness press the mortification of the Flesh They challenge all those who are in the Assembly and conjure them to speak if there be any one that has ought to object against what the Spirit has inspir'd them to deliver And this occasions the frequent disputes and quarrels which happen amongst them Nay it comes to pass sometimes that after they have for a good while expected the coming and inspiration of the Spirit not any one amongst them being sensible of its heat and motion in himself they depart from the place where they were Assembled without any one's having held forth As to the Libertines they seem to have each of them his particular Sentiment to himself But most of them are of this persuasion that there is only one Spirit of God which is universally diffus'd and lives in all Creatures That the Substance and Immortality of our Souls is not any thing but that Spirit of God That God himself is not any thing but that Spirit That mens Souls die with their Bodies That Sin is not any thing That it is but a simple opinion which immediately vanishes provided there be no account made of it That Paradise is but an illusion a pleasant Chimera which the Divines have invented to engage men to embrace that which they call Virtue That Hell also is but a vain Fancy which the same Divines have fram'd to divert men from that which they call Sin that is to say to hinder them from being happy in doing what they please They affirm in fine That Religion is only an invention of Politicians to keep the people by the fear of a Divinity in a subjection to their Laws in order to the better Regulation and Government of the Commonwealth In short there are in this Country a vast number of persons as I know there were heretofore in England who go under the