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 holy_a prayer_n 6,254 5 6.1558 4 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A44636 The Trinity asserted a sermon preach'd before the Lord-Mayor and aldermen of the city of London, at the cathedral church of St. Paul, upon Trinity-Sunday, Anno Dom. 1700 / John Howard. Howard, John, 1647-1729? 1700 (1700) Wing H2983; ESTC R15897 20,219 33

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

same Person Therefore to remove this Mistake and to give a farther Confirmation to the Truth I have been asserting 2. I am come to shew that these are not different Names of the same Person but Three Subsistences or Persons really distinct from one another And the very Design of the Apostle in this Place is enough to prove it for he brings them in as Three Witnesses of the Messias which Three Names cannot be in the Sense which is here intended So our Saviour speaking of the Father's Testimony concerning him Joh. 5.32 faith There is another that beareth witness of me and he afterwards tells his Hearers who he is in these Words The father himself which hath sent me Ver. 37. hath born witness of me And again Chap. 8.16 c. If I judge my judgment is true for I am not alone but I and the father that sent me It is also written in your law that the testimony of two men is true I am one that bear witness of my self and the father that sent me beareth witness of me Chap. 16.32 And he further tells his Disciples Behold the hour cometh yea is now come that ye shall be scatter'd every one to his own and shall leave me alone and yet I am not alone because the father is with me We see therefore that the Father and the Son are Two distinct Persons and that the Holy Ghost is a Person distinct from both of them is evident from those Words of our Saviour John 14.16 17. I will pray the father and he shall give you another comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the spirit of truth c. where Three Persons are distinctly express'd with different Actions belonging to each of them the Son prays the Father answers his Prayer and gives his Disciples another Comforter who shall always abide with them So these Three are express'd in the Form of Baptism the Apostolical Benediction and in several other Places of Scripture And it is absurd to think our Saviour requires us to be baptiz'd into Three Names and that the Apostle in blessing the Church would use Three Names with particular Distinctions to each of them if he intended but One Person 3. I proceed therefore to shew what Relation these Three Persons have to each other And as to the Father and the Son their very Names suppose that the One hath his Being from the Other not as if he were made by him for then he could not be Eternal and therefore not Truly God but as proceeding from him by Eternal Generation And hence he is called the Brightness of his Father's Glory the Word of God c. The Holy Ghost hath his Being both from the Father and the Son as eternally proceeding from them For our Saviour tells his Disciples Joh. 14.26 That he proceeds from the Father that he himself will send him and that the Father will send him in his Name Chap. 15.26 And St. Paul calls him the Spirit of Christ and of the Son Rom. 8.9 Therefore we have the same Reason to believe the Spirit proceeds from the Son Gal. 4.6 as from the Father As the Relation therefore between the Father and the Son is founded upon that Eternal Generation by which the Son hath his Being from the Father so the Relation of the Holy Ghost to them both is founded upon that Eternal Spiration whereby he hath his Being from them But what this Generation and this Spiration is as also the manner of each Person 's subsisting distinctly in the same Divine Nature I may say with the Prophet Isaiah who shall declare it Isa 53.8 4. I am to prove That these Three are One God And this is evident from all those Places of Scripture where God is said to be but One Deut. 6.4 Chap. 4.35 Isa 45.5 As Hear O Israel the Lord our God is one Lord. Vnto thee it was shew'd that thou mightest know that the Lord he is God there is none else besides him I am the Lord and there is none else there is no God besides me There is one God and Father of all Eph. 4.6 who is above all and through all and in you all c. To which we may add that our Saviour several times affirms that He and the Father are One and that He is in the Father and the Father in Him And as this Unity of the Godhead is so plainly asserted in Holy Scriptures so it is also taught by the Law of Nature for what is Infinite and Omnipotent can be but One for it is against the Nature of Infinity to be in more and if One can do all things there is no need of any other Therefore it was the Opinion of the wisest Heathens that there is but One God tho' they suffer'd the People who were fond of Superstitions to worship many Thus we see the Trinity of Persons in the Unity of the Divine Nature is plainly asserted in many Scriptures so that it these Words of my Text had been quite lost through the Malice of Hereticks the Mistake of Transcribers or any other Accident the Doctrine contain'd in them would fully appear in the Places before-mention'd and many others For as often as the Scripture attributes to each of these Three the Names Properties Works or Worship of God it asserts them to be so many Divine Persons and where ever it affirms there is but One God it teaches us that these Three are One And therefore we may justly wonder so much Offence hath been taken by some Men at several Expressions in the Athanasian Creed as The Father is God the Son is God and the Holy Ghost is God and yet they are not Three Gods but One God c. These Expressions they are bold to charge with Contradiction and yet they cannot deny that the Scripture plainly asserts the same many times over and therefore they would do well to consider upon whom this Charge of Contradictions must light And their Boldness is the greater not only for the Plainness of Revelation in this Case and the Greatness and Excellency of the Subject so treated by them but because it is far above the Judgment of their Reason For a Man must understand the Nature of an Infinite Mind or Spirit and what is the true Notion of different Hypostases or Persons in that Nature before he can say it is a Contradiction to assert them Therefore they would better employ their Reason in finding out such Contradictions they are sit to judge of and I will put them in mind what looks very like one and that is to acknowledge the Divine Authority of the Scriptures and yet deny some Doctrines plainly deliver'd in them because they cannot understand the manner of those things that are asserted by them and tho' they say they do understand it yet this shews their Boldness and Ignorance the more when we know the wisest of them will be easily puzzl'd about
Mr. HOWARD's SERMON Preach'd Before The Lord-Mayor and Aldermen of the City of LONDON AT THE Cathedral Church of St. PAVL upon Trinity-Sunday Anno Dom. 1700. Levett Mayor Jovis 20 die Junii 1700. Annoque Regni Regis Willielmi Tertii Angliae c. Duodecimo THIS Court doth Desire Mr. Howard to Print his Sermon Preach'd on Trinity-Sunday last before the Lord-Mayor and Aldermen of this City at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul's Goodfellow The TRINITY Asserted A SERMON PREACH'D BEFORE The Lord-Mayor and Aldermen of the City of LONDON AT THE Cathedral Church of St. PAVL upon Trinity-Sunday Anno Dom. 1700. By JOHN HOWARD M. A. Rector of Marston-Trussel in Northamptonshire LONDON Printed for J. Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry 1700. To the Right Honourable Sir Richard Levett Lord-Mayor of the City of London My LORD IN Obedience to the Order I receiv'd from your Lordship and the Court of Aldermen I have now Publish'd the Sermon lately preach'd before you with the Addition of some Things which through the Straitness of my Time were then omitted and do most humbly present it to your Lordship I should not have thought it fit for Publick View after so many Excellent Discourses as have been printed within a few Years in Defence of the Doctrine of the Trinity neither would I have ventur'd to preach to such an Auditory upon so Great and Venerable a Mystery if the Time to which I was confin'd by a Particular Providence had not requir'd it But as that Providence will I hope Justifie me in Choosing such a Subject so the Authority of your Lordship and your Honourable Brethren will Vindicate me in Publishing my Discourse upon it I pray God convince those Vnhappy Men in our Days who have deserted the Faith they were baptized into and deny the Lord that bought them for I am sure a meer Man could never do it that they may escape the Destruction he hath threaten'd to them And that the same God would continually bless your Lordship and give Success to your Pious Endeavours to suppress Error and Wickedness in an Age and Place that need all your Authority and Zeal to that End is also the hearty Prayer of My LORD Your Lordship 's most Humble and Faithful Servant John Howard 1 JOHN V. 7. For there are three that bear record in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are one BEFORE I speak to the Doctrine contain'd in these Words it will be necessary to say something towards the removing an Objection that hath been made against them as if they were not a Genuine Part of this Chapter because they are omitted in some Greek Copies In Answer to which It might be enough to satisfie unprejudic'd Men to say that they are in the Best and most Ancient Greek Manuscripts and have been constantly retain'd in the Vulgar Latin as several worthy Authors assure us and they might more easily be left out in some Copies by an Oversight in the Transcribers than fraudulently inserted into others Yet because it hath been said by some who would have the World think so that this Verse was added in Opposition to the Arians I must say farther that this could not be De Vnit Eccles because we find it quoted by St. Cyprian before ●rius his Time And indeed the Orthodox as they had no need to do this having the Scripture so plainly and fully on their side in many other Places so they must have ventur'd such an Hazard in it as no wise Men would expose themselves to For the Detection of such a Forgery which they would have Reason enough to fear would have done a great Injury to their Reputation and to a Cause which they valued more than their Lives It is therefore more Reasonable to suppose that the Arians raz'd this Verse out of such Copies as they could come by for their desperate Cause did more need the miserable Supports of Fraud and Sacrilege and the Men were fitter for the Practice of them Socr. Hist Eccl. l. 7. c. 32. And some of the Ancients complain of their corrupting several Places of Scripture and particularly of this Epistle and there is no Expression in it they could take more Offence at than this Hist Tripart l. 12. c. 4. though there are several others that plainly condemn them and their impious Doctrines Besides these Testimonies the Verse it self doth I think sufficiently assert its Right to this Place by the Agreement it hath with the foregoing and following Verses The Apostle's main Design in this Chapter is to prove that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God that is the Eternal Son of God of the same Nature with the Father as well as Man as I shall prove in the following Discourse and this he doth by the Witnesses mention'd at the 6 7 and 8 Verses But the Water and the Blood in two of those Verses whether we understand them literally as they came out of our Saviour's Side when his Body was pierc'd upon the Cross or in a figurative Sense for his Holiness and Sufferings can prove no more than the Truth of his Human Nature nor the Spirit that is join'd with them if it be meant of his Soul which he yielded up to the Father upon the Cross as some understand it And if we take it for the Spirit of God as it was given to our Saviour in an extraordinary measure it doth not necessarily prove any more than the Excellency of his Person as a Man and that he was highly in Favour with God the Father Though there are other Things to be said indeed concerning the Spirit that infallibly prove the Divinity of Christ which will more properly be spoken of him as he is mentioned in my Text. Now if nothing more had been said by the Apostle in this Place than what is asserted concerning these Three Witnesses in the 6 and 8 Verses they would have afforded us but a dark Proof at the best of what he mainly intends but his adding Three more at the 7th Verse puts the Matter out of all doubt I might further shew the Agreement between this and the other two Verses and how Defective the Sense of this Place will be without it but I hope what hath been said already is sufficient to prove the Divine Authority of these Words and I am so far from thinking the worse of them for the Violence done to them by sacrilegious Hands in some ancient Copies that I cannot but have a greater Veneration for them in that they have suffer'd a kind of Martyrdom in that Glorious Cause which they assert In speaking to these Words I shall I. Endeavour to shew you what these Three are that are here mentioned II. Give some Account of the Record they bear concerning the Messias I. I shall endeavour to shew you what these Three are in the following Particulars 1. Every One of these is the Great and Most High God 2. They are not