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	nature_n	son_n	13,355	5	6.0279	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B21416	A sermon preach'd at Colchester, June 2. 1697. Before the Right Honourable and Reverend Father in God Henry Lord Bishop of London, at a conference with his clergy upon His Majesty's late injunctions. / By H. De Luzancy ... ; Printed by his Lordship's special command. ; To which are prefixed some remarks on the Socinians late answer to the four letters written against them by the same author.	De Luzancy, H. C. (Hippolyte du Chastelet), d. 1713.	1697 (1697)	Wing D2423A; Interim Tract Supplement Guide 226.f.17[10]; ESTC R26743	22,530	34

Fidei nostrae Sacramentum That which the Fathers understood by the answer of a good Conscience towards God that is a solemn Profession Declaration of what Religion obliges us to believe and from which we ought not to depart This is the first Shield of Faith which the Church oppos'd to the early Attempts of those Hereticks who thought to have stifl'd her in her Infancy This Confession of God the Father of his only begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord and of the Holy Spirit which is the Substance of that Creed made unsuccessful the Endeavours of Simon Cerinthus Basilides Menander Carpocrates and the swarm of impure Gnosticks By this every Christian was initiated to Religion gave a reason of the Hope that was in him and became a Member of that Society here on Earth which after perseverance in well doing is to be rewarded in Heaven I know that a Critick of this Age a Person of the first rank in the Common-wealth of Learning has disputed both the Antiquity and Universality of this Creed A Notion too unadvisedly taken up by several Authors who thought that the Socinians took too great an Advantage from the Simplicity of its Articles He made it to be only a Creed of the Latin or Western Church which the Catechumens were taught before their Admission to Baptism He produces two of St. Irenoeus three of Tertullian one of St. Cyril of Jerusalem three of Ruffinus and insists on some difference even between the Fathers who have been the Expositors of this Creed St. Austin Chrysologus Maximus and others But notwithstanding all this whosoever will look into the Creeds of St. Irenoeus and Tertullian for that of St. Cyril was after the Nicene Council and those which Ruffinus has compar'd that is the Roman the Aquileian and the Oriental Creeds will find so mighty an agreement and the variations so minute and inconsiderable as to make impossible any substantial difference And it is certainly a strange Fancy that the Socinians should take an advantage from the Simplicity of these Articles which being but a Compendium of the New Testament are at last resolv'd into it For the Sence of that Creed must be that of the Scriptures of which it is an Epitome And how can they argue against the Divinity of Christ and of the Holy Spirit from their not being call'd God in the Creed when the Scriptures are so full in asserting the Unity of God and the Trinity of Persons in that one Adorable and Divine Nature Are we not baptiz'd in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit Are there not Three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and are not these three one Is not Christ declar'd to be God blessed over all for ever and God manifested in the Flesh Are we not told that the Spirit searches all things even the deep things of God and that to lye to the Holy Spirit is to lye to God This Objection is of that Clearness and Evidence is so far from giving them any Advantage and they have found themselves so press'd by it that they have been forc'd to split on another Rock and say that the Form of Baptism is no part of Scripture and is only an addition to St Matthew That the Place of St. John is another and that the Word God is not to be found in the cited Scriptures Shifts unbecoming learned Men Which even Praxeas and Sabellius would have blush'd at The former oppos'd by Tertullian who tells him that this Rule of Faith is come down to us from the beginning of the Gospel The latter by Dionysius of Alexandria who tells him apud Euseb l. 7. c. 6. That the Persons of the Father Son and Holy spirit are indivisibly united in the same Divine Nature 2 dly The Forms agreed upon in the Primitive Councils at Nice Antioch Sardis Ephesus Constantinople Chalcedon c. are no Additions to but only Explications of the first Form They are still the Form of sound Words It is not in the Power of the Church to make new Forms new Articles of Faith And in this the Church of Rome is inexcusable and guilty of a Schism which she has charg'd others with But to declare and explain the Faith is an essential part of its Power The growing Heresies were the occasion of the Apostolical Creed the first Remedy apply'd to that raging Disease The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the vain and noisie Oppositions of a pretended Knowledge oblig'd them to deliver the sacred System of Divine Verities But when the old Hereticks were worn out leaving to the World a sad remembrance of their gross Follies and Immoralities and a new sort sprung up who did attempt to overthrow the Faith once deliver'd to the Saints by Blasphemous Heterodoxies It was high time for the Church to make the Creed more comprehensive than it was at first give a greater extent to its Articles and leave safe to future Ages the Depositum which they had receiv'd And indeed it would have been very happy for the Church if Men keeping to the Plainness and Simplicity of the Revelation had not presum'd to go farther Oh that an humble Faith had stifl'd Curiosity in its first Attempts to inquire into Divine Mysteries with weak Ratiocinations and Philosophy never assum'd to bring Divinity to be try'd at the Bar of humane Reason Then Mercy and Truth would have kiss'd each other and God even our God would have given us his Blessing But Man forgot that scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à Gloria That the bold and daring Searcher into the Majesty of God will be oppress'd and sink under the weight of his Glory He launch'd into a Sea in which the Rocks and Sands on all sides threatn'd a sad and inevitable Ruine God has reveal'd to us his Existence and the Unity of his Nature He has told us that in that one indivisible and inseparable Nature are Father Son and Holy Spirit He has asserted the Father to be God the Son God and the Holy Ghost God He has taught us that the Father is not the Son nor the Son the Father nor the Holy Ghost Father or Son He has inform'd us that in the Fulness of times he sent his only Son to take our Nature That the Word was made Flesh and offer'd himself a Sacrifice for us In such plain Propositions as these has he commanded us to acquiesce Faith is the Duty of this Intuition and Knowledge the Privilege of another Life The Perceptions of our present State have no proportion with so incomprehensible an Object Had we stay'd there the Church would have been a City at Vnity within it self But Man not contented with this strives to understand that which God has not been pleas'd to reveal that is the Nexus or manner of in being of the Three Persons The How these three can be one The Way of the Union of the two Natures in one adorable Person Christ Jesus and having no other

Literature and who have done for and in a bad Cause as much as Men can do It is an Honour to the Church to have such Adversaries to deal with Truth never appears with more force than when it is most strongly oppos'd In our late Disputes against Popery a small Stock of Learning and Common Sence was enough to shew its Folly In the wrangling War with the Dissenters we have been forc'd to argue with a sort of Writers who scarce understood good Language But in this we meet with a subtil and strong Enemy well fitted with all Materials for War and I look upon it as a Providence of God who turns all things to the good of his Servants that this Controversie will put us of the Clergy upon finer better and more comprehensive Studies But there is another sort of Socinians and they are they who pretend to make a Bustle in the World Men who after a long course of Atheism and Debauchery come at last to think of Religion not because they design to pursue the ends or submit to the Duties of it but because in an Age where so many Religions are allow'd it is not handsome to be without one They live still as they did before with as little care as ever of their Eternal Concerns but think Religion only to consist in talking at randon of Religious Matters These Heroes scorn to fall upon some part of the Discipline and Liturgy of the Church as other Mortals have done but presently impeach its Faith its Articles stare Mankind in the face and with that mouth us'd before to blaspheme and reproach their Maker they dare to deny the Lord that bought them Every Club Coffee-house or Tavern is the Scene of the Tragedy and Religion the most serious and grave business of Man's Life the Exercise of the Church Family or Closer is villainously prostituted over a Dish of Coffee or a Bottle of Wine The way to deal with these is not to dispute An evil heart of Unbelief has turn'd them aside that they cannot say there is a Lye in my right hand They are to be the Object of our Prayers and Tears to God for their Conversion The last Argument that remains is by our good Examples to bring them to some Sence of Morality But against the others we ought to dispute and to write When Error is always ready to speak Truth ought not to be silent We cannot be afraid of a Cause which the Glorious Company of the Apostles has taught the Noble Army of Martyrs maintain'd and the Holy Church throughout all the World so solemnly acknowledg'd But it is diligently to be observ'd that few Reasons and these good Authorities and these not contested an exact and accurate way of writing are the means to stop a Controversie Above all things Heat and Passion ought to claim no part in the Dispute Ill Language is a bad Introduction for the best Argument Either we design to confute instruct and perswade them or we do not If we do not we detain the Truth of God in Hypocrisie and make it subservient to mean and inglorious Ends And if we do we cannot but be sensible that Truth Gravity Exactness and Strength of Reason are strangely obstructed by a sordid and malicious way of writing But if we are to be so just to them without how much more to them within It is one of the Excesses which God reproaches the Wicked with Ps 50.20 to sit and speak against his Brother to slander his own Mother's Son A Sin not allowable in the Jewish much less in the Christian Church not pardonable in a Laick much less in a Clerk It has been observ'd of the old Romans that they scarce ever felt any Convulsion in their State till their victorious Arms were turn'd against themselves and destroy'd in very few years the Prosperity of many Ages It has appear'd all along our Adversaries themselves being Judges that the great Piety mighty Genius vast Parts profound Learning and flowing Eloquence of the Clergy of this Nation has made the Church of England venerable to all the World They have brought the Clamouring Papist to shame and despair of Success They have silenc'd the buzzing Nonconformist No Argument has fallen into their hands but what they have exhausted with an incredible Felicity of Thought and Expression and must we turn those never foil'd Weapons into our own Bowels Is this a time to become the Contrivers of our own ruine whilst the Enemy takes breath and has nothing left to do but to inflame our unhappy Contentions I am not for stifling the Truth God forbid It would be in vain for it is great and it must prevail I would have Zeal to take its course and our mouth to be open and our heart enlarg'd to all Men But at the same time I would have fervent Charity amongst our selves and think it insufferable to bite and devour one another till we are consum'd of one another To avoid so dangerous an Excess let us take leave of our Passions when we begin to speak or write about these Sacred Matters Passion hinders us from taking the real Advantages of an Argument and makes us to administer Poison instead of a Medicine It generally puts us on the wrong side of the Question and the Man does sadly expose the Writer It has the same Effect on him against whom we write It hurries him to a retaliation and between two hot Spirits Truth vanishes and only the wrangling part remains It is that which we abhor in Conversation and is not suffer'd amongst civiliz'd People We wrangle in Print and stamp on Paper the lasting marks of Fury and Prejudice In the mean time the Judicious Reader pities Humane Weakness wants a stock of Patience to read the Book through and leaves us at last to the Judgment of the great Judge But a judicious Reader is somewhat rare The loose witty People swallow greedily the sarcastical and leave the serious part By this Religion is expos'd and cruelly misrepresented This has been the ground of many Canons taken from the grave Admonitions of the Fathers and in particular the 53 of our Church Let us unanimously return to the Form of found Words That which shews the Vanity and Unpracticableness of Explications beyond the Power of Contradiction is that there is none but what is liable to invincible Objections and indeed how can it be otherwise when the Subject transcends all our Apprehensions Man who is scarce acquainted with himself will pretend to decide of the Nature of God! A poor finite and limited Being will become a Judge of Eternity and Immensity One who does not know the least of his Soul 's Operations will presume to understand the several ways of Communication of the Divine Nature Away with this pretended Knowledge which at the bottom is nothing but Noise and Talk Away with that glittering Nonsence which is not worthy to take up a serious Man's leisure For my part I am resolv'd to Adore and to Believe I will give an unfeigned Assent to what is reveal'd and come to God with the Homage and Submission of my Understanding concerning what he is pleas'd to conceal from me I will have mean Thoughts of this present Life since in it we know so little and a mighty desire of that which is to come since in it we shall know so much In the mean time I shall conclude this Discourse with the excellent Prayer of St. Hilary in his 12th Book of the Trinity and doubt not my Reverend Brethren but you will join with me in it Conserva hanc Conscientiae meae vocem ut quod in regenerationis meae symbolo baptizatus in Patre Filio Spiritu Sancto professus sum semper obtineam Preserve in me O Lord that Answer of a good Conscience that I may ever hold fast what I have profess'd at my Regeneration when I was baptiz'd in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Spirit To these Three Co-eternal Co-essential Consubstantial Persons in that one Adorable Indivisible and Incomprehensible Nature To the Father Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth To the only Begotten Son Jesus Christ our Lord God of God Light of Light very God of very God To the Holy and Eternal Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son All Honour and Glory now and for evermore Amen FINIS