Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	flesh_n	son_n	7,126	5	5.5139	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38042	Socinianism unmask'd a discourse shewing the unreasonableness of a late writer's opinion concerning the necessity of only one article of Christian faith, and of his other assertions in his late book, entituled, The reasonableness of Christianity as deliver'd in the Scriptures, and in his vindication of it : with a brief reply to another (professed) Socinian writer / by John Edwards ...	Edwards, John, 1637-1716.	1696 (1696)	Wing E214; ESTC R3296	60,720	171

be in the Infallible Writings viz. God as well as Man The Word was God John 1. 1. The Word was made Flesh v. 14. And this Word is the Only begotten of the Father in the same Verse God was manifest in the Flesh 1. Tim. 3. 16. He is called not only God in these places and in several others but he is stil'd the True God 1 John 5. 20. and the Great God Tit. 2. 13. The Lord of all Acts 10. 36. God blessed for ever Rom. 9. 5. Hence we must conclude that there is a necessity of believing the Messias to be the very God of the same Essence with the Father and the Holy Ghost for these are the two other Persons included in the Deity So that hence it will follow that it is requisite to believe the Holy Trinity i. e. that there are in the Godhead Three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost which is the Doctrin that our Saviour himself taught and he taught it that it might be believed Mat. 28. 19. where the Celebration of Baptism which is a solemn part of Divine Worship is commanded to be in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost who are One God 1 John 5. 7. These Three are One one Essence or Being as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports Those words of the Apostle are observable 1 Cor. 1. 13. Were ye baptised in the name of Paul As much as to say Baptism is in the name of God and not of a Man Therefore when it is said Go and Baptize in the name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost it is included that these Three are God i. e. Three Persons of one and the same Deity Thus it is manifest that the believing of Iesus's being the Messias or Anointed is not sufficient to make a Man a Christian Believer but he must further believe these Propositions or Articles viz. that the Son of God was made flesh i. e. assumed our Human Nature that Christ is True God that He with the Father and the Spirit are One God for these are not only expressed in the Gospels and Epistles out of both which we are to gather the Fundamental Articles of Faith and consequently are to be assented to by all Christians but the very Nature of the thing it self dictates that we ought to have a firm belief of these Truths for otherwise when a Man professes his belief in the Messias he is yet ignorant of the Person he pretends to believe in He doth not know whether he believes in a God or in a Man or to which of these he is beholding for the Good he looks for by the Messias's coming Now Sir you with your Reasonableness of Christianity what do you think of this Is it not reasonable that a Christian should as the Apostle speaks of himself know whom he hath believed 2 Tim. 1. 12. Nay is it not indispensably necessary that he should know whether it be a Divine or Human or Angelical Power that he is obliged to that so he may accordingly proportion his Affections and Service for what ever the late Set of Socinians hold there must be a difference made between the Homage which is paid to a Creature such as they declare Christ to be and that which is due only to the Creator I will refer the Reader to the Incomparable Bishop Pearson on the Second Article of the Creed where he shews the Necessity of our believing Christ to be the Eternal Son of God and God himself 1. For the directing and confirming of our Faith concerning the Redemption of Mankind 2. For the right informing of us about that Worship and Honour which are due to him 3. For giving us a right apprehension and consequently a due value of the Infinite Love of God the Father in sending his Only-begotten Son into the World to die for us Thus this Judicious Writer But our Nameless Author would persuade us that there is no necessity of believing any such thing Then in the next place we are to have a right conception concerning our Recovery and Restauration by this Messias who is God-Man And here those several Scriptures will furnish us with Articles As by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation even so by the righteonsness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life For as by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous Rom. 5. 18 19. He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself Heb. 9. 26. Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many Heb. 9. 28. Christ hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust 1 Pet. 3. 18. He gave himself a Ransom for all men 1 Tim. 2. 6. Ye are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. And to it is prefix'd ye know to let us understand that this Article is to be known and assented to We are bought with a price 1 Cor. 6. 20. and 7. 23. We are reconciled unto God by the death of his Son Rom. 5. 10. By him now we have received the Atonement v. 11. By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. It behoved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day Luk. 24. 46. Christ must needs have suffered and risen again from the dead Acts 17. 3. He was taken up into heaven and sat on the right hand of God Mark 16. 19. These and the like places afford us such Fundamental and Necessary Doctrins as these are that by and for the Meritorious Righteousness and Obedience of Christ the Second Adam we are accounted Righteous and Obedient in the sight of God That Christ was a Sacrifice for us and suffered in our stead That he satisfied Divine Justice by paying an Infinite Price for us That by vertue of that Payment all the Debts i. e. all the Sins of Believers are perfectly absolved That hereby the anger of the Incensed Deity is pacified and that we are entirely Reconciled to him That we have an assurance of all this by Christ's rising from the dead and ascending triumphantly into Heaven These are Principles of the Oracles of God Heb. 5. 12. These are part of the Form of sound words 2 Tim. 1. 13. which are indispensable Ingredients in the Christian Faith which you may know by this that if a man be obliged to the belief of the Messias's Coming it is undeniably requisite that he should know what the Messias came to do for him and that he should firmly yield assent to it This I think no Man of Reason will deny and then it will follow that these Articles which I have last mentioned are the Necessary and Unexceptionable object or matter of the Faith of a Christian Man And here likewise it were easie to shew that Adoption Iustification Pardon of Sins c. which are Privileges and Benefits bestowed

adds to his Fault But this Author of the New Christianity wisely objects that the Apostle's Creed hath none of these Articles and Doctrines which I mentioned p. 12 13. Nor doth any considerate man wonder at it for the Creed is a Form of outward Profession which is chiefly to be made in the Publick Assemblies when Prayers are put up by the Church and the Holy Scriptures are read Then this Abridgment of Faith is properly used or when there is not generally time or opportunity to make any Enlargement But we are not to think that it expresly contains in it all the Necessary and Weighty Points all the Important Doctrines of our Belief it being only design'd to be an Abstract It is with this Creed as 't is with the Commandments and the Lord's Prayer If a man doth not more than is expresly enjoyned in the Decalogue he can't be said to Act as a Christian. If he prays for no more than is expresly mentioned in the Petitions of the foresaid Prayer he can't be said to Pray as a Good Christian. So if a man believe no more than is in express terms in the Apostle's Creed his Faith will not be the Faith of a Christian. And yet still it is to be granted that as all things to be done and all things to be prayed for are reducible to the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer so All matters of Faith in some manner may be reduced to this Brief Platform of Belief But when I call it an Abstract or Abbreviature it is implied that there are more Truths to be known and assented to by a Christian in order to making him really so than what we meet with here And yet I must take leave to tell our Vindicator that this Creed hath more in it than he and his brethren will subscribe to If he were not above Catechisms as well as Creeds I might remind him of Our Church's judgment concerning the Articles of this Creed Qu. What dost thou chiefly learn in these Articles of thy Belief Answ. First I learn to believe in God the Father who had made me and all the world Secondly in God the Son who hath redeemed me and all mankind Thirdly in God the Holy Ghost who sanctifieth me and all the Elect People of God These are killing words to a Disciple of Socinus who acknowledges neither the God-head of the Son nor of the Holy Ghost nor the Redemption or Sanctification by either Yet our Church with all the Christian Churches in the world owns these Truths to be contained in the Apostles Creed And there are other Articles of this Symbol let them palliate it as they please which the Racovian Gentlemen are unwilling to give their assent to They faulter about Christ's Iudging the quick and the dead they partly deny the Resurrection of the body they deny Life Everlasting as it respects wicked men for they hold that these shall be Annihilated of all which I may have occasion to speak another time At present I only take notice of their lopping off several Articles from this Creed But was it not judiciously said by this Writer that it is well for the Compilers of the Creed that they lived not in my days p. 12. I tell you Friend it was impossible they should for the Learned Usher and Vossius and others have proved that that Symbol was drawn up not at once but that some Articles of it were adjoyned many years after far beyond the extent of any man's life and therefore the Compilers of the Creed could not live in my days not could I live in theirs but I let this pass as one of the blunders of our Thoughtful and Musing Author Nor had he reason to think that those that made the Apostles Creed would have been censured by me for I have vindicated and asserted their Articles whereas he and his friends have new-modell'd the Creed yea indeed have presented us with One Article instead of Twelve and in order to that have sunk the Epistles because they are not Socinianized all over Socinianized If this Gentleman had said that the belief of Iesus's being the Messias was one of the first and leading acts of Christian Faith he had said right and none would have opposed it If he had said that the knowledg of the Gospel and consequently of the Doctrines of it advanc'd at first by degrees and shone brighter after our Saviour's Ascension than before he had spoken truth but when he positively and peremptorily declares that neither at first nor afterwards there was any Necessity of believing more than this that Iesus is the Messias he misrepresents the Gospel-Dispensation and mistakes the nature of Christiaanity To stop here and go no further is unsufferable This is as if a Breeder up of Children and Youth should carry them no further than the A B C. He is wholly for reducing of Christianity whereas he should have given it in its Full and Ample Extent especially he should not have kept back any thing of the Foundation CHAP. IV. The Christian Faith which this Gentleman describes is of the same scantling with that of the Mahometans The Affinity between the Turks and Anti-trinitarians The Devils are capable of a higher degree of Faith than that which he saith makes a Christian. A brief Idea of the Compleat Faith of a Christian. The Danger of asserting that there is but One Article of Christian belief necessary to be assented to This is the way to introduce Darkness and Blindness into Christendom and to promote the designs of that Church which cherishes Ignorance as the Mother of Devotion and Religion How far this Writer is instrumental in it What care he hath of mens Souls and of their Salvation It is the practise of Socinian Writers to curtail Christianity and to cut off as many Fundamental Articles from it as they can This Writer had his Platform from Crellius He is approved of and applauded by the English Socinians Three Reasons assign'd why the Socinians agree to maim the Heads of Christianity and to reduce all into One Article The Office of Catechizing was not instituted for the teaching of One Article of Faith only IT is likely I shall further exasperate this Author when I desire the Reader to observe that this Lank Faith of his is in a manner on other than the Faith of a Turk For the Alcoran acknowledges that the Spirit of God bore witness to Christ the Son of Mary a Divine Soul was put into him He was the Messenger of the Spirit and the Word of God And in another place God is brought in declaring that he had sent Christ the Son of Mary c. And in other places he is mention'd as a Prophet as a Great Man one Commission'd by God and sent by him into the world This is of the like import with what our good Ottoman Writer the Vindicator saith of our Saviour and this he holds is the sum of all that is Necessary