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	person_n	trinity_n	6,364	5	9.9651	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A01615	A discourse vpon the meanes of vvel governing and maintaining in good peace, a kingdome, or other principalitie Divided into three parts, namely, the counsell, the religion, and the policie, vvhich a prince ought to hold and follow. Against Nicholas Machiavell the Florentine. Translated into English by Simon Patericke.; Discours, sur les moyens de bien gouverner et maintenir en bonne paix un royaume ou autre principauté. English	Gentillet, Innocent, ca. 1535-ca. 1595.; Patrick, Simon, d. 1613.	1602 (1602)	STC 11743; ESTC S121098	481,653	391

and the same essence have an infinit and mutuall Intelligence together which Intelligence proceedeth equally from two persons the Father and the Sonne as they are of equall essence yet can not be confounded with them although the said Intelligence be the same essence for Intelligens understanding and Intelligentia the understanding ought to be distinguished This Intelligence is the third person of the Trinitie which the scripture calleth the holy Spirit Behold then how mans braine may something comprehend by naturall reason the doctrine which wee hold of the Trinitie by a rude and grosse description which is like to that which the Geographers take to pourtray all the earth namely in five or six grosse lines in a paper of an hand breadth For the knowledge that our sence can have of so high a thing is farre lesse in comparison of the full truth thereof than is such a portrature of the Geographers in comparison of all the earth and therefore will I well confesse that we neither need nor ought much to travaile to dispute by humane reason of so high a thing which of it selfe is infinit and incomprehensible to our sences and understanding and that they which doe least dispute with philosophicall reasons are most wise most modest and that we ought wholie to hold and resolve upon that which is written by in the holy Scripture But having to do with Atheists which receive not the witnesses of the word of God it hath made me shew in few words That even by humane reason it selfe they may be vanquished by the truth of that doctrine which we hold Let us now come to another point Naturall reason and common sence teacheth us That there is one God and that he is perfect in all perfection for otherwise he could not be God this is a point resolved Hereof necessarily followeth it That God is perfect just and perfect mercifull Being perfectly just by the rule of Iustice he must needs condemne and reject all mankinde for all men generallie are vicious and vice meriteth condemnation but if God should condemne and reject all mankind it should be repugnant to his mercie which also ought to be perfect with effect How then shall we say that God cannot be perfectlie just and mercifull together because it seemeth that his mercie repugneth his justice God forbid that such blasphemie should proceed out of our mouths But we say That thereby naturall reason leads us to a Mediator who being God and perfect hath satisfied the Divine justice which satisfaction God the creator accepteth of mankind because the mediator is man also and by the meanes of this great mediator God and man which the creator hath given us hee hath shewed himselfe perfectlie just in receiving of him a satisfaction condigne to his justice and perfectlie mercifull in pardoning us for his sake without which mediator we evidentlie see that God cannot shew himselfe perfectly just and mercifull together that is to say that he cannot shew himselfe to be God for the Father cannot be without the sonne It is then a true demonstration drawne from most certaine and evident principles There is one God therefore he is perfect If God be perfect as no doubt he is he is then perfectlie just and mercifull but he cannot be both without a mediator God and man Euclide nor Archimedes ever made more certainer demonstrations But this mediator which the creator hath given to men to make manifest his perfect justice perfect mercie is his eternall Sonne the wisdome of the father in favour of whom as well before he came into the world and had taken our nature as since men have enjoyed the mercie and clemencie of God in employing that mediator to satisfie the justice of God This mediator was promised and established to men from the beginning of the world and since that his promises have beene so often reiterated that not only they have beene notoriovs to the particular people of God which followed the true Religion but also to other people which follow false Religion The Historiographer Suetonius a Paynim who never read any part of holie Scripture speaking of Vespasian as though it were a vulgar and common thing saith thus Through all the East countries alwaies there hath beene a constant and auncient opinion as a thing certaine that it was so ordeined and foretolde of God That from Iudea should come the dominator and ruler of the world As much saith the Historian Tacitus a Paynim also that never saw holy letters when he said speaking of the same time of Vespasian Many have this persuasion that within the spirits and writings of the auncient priests was conteined that at that time the East should be in great power and that from Iudea should come the dominator of the world By which witnesses of these two Historigraphers is clearlie seene that the promise of Messias the dominator of the world was knowne to everie one but not onelie the Paynims but the Iewes also themselves understand this of a temporall domination and indeed these two former historiographers and Iosephus himselfe Joseph lib. 7. cap. 12. de bel Juda. who was a Iew interpreted this prophecie of Messias of Vespasian who was created emperour of the Romane empire being in Iewrie in warre against the Iewes But this foolish and rash interpretation is nothing excusable in Iosephus who vaunteth that he himselfe was cunning foretelling things to come and in the knowledge of the bookes of Moses and of the other Prophets for all the Prophets doe all clearlie say That Messias ought to be borne of the race of Abraham of Iuda and of Dauid yea especiallie and plainly the place it selfe where he should be borne that is to say in Bethlem a little towne of the tribe of Iuda But Iosephus knew well that Vespasian was neither of that race nor borne in the towne of Bethlem but wee must beleeve that Iosephus understood better than he writ and that falslie he attributed that prophecie of Messias to the emperour Vespasian upon a flattering humor because he had received so many great favours and benefits of him And as for that which Tacitus and Suetonius have attributed unto the emperour Miracles of Christ a●●●ibuted unto Princes Vespasian that prophecie rather then to Christ men must not mervaile thereat for they were great enemies of Christ as is seene by many other places of their historie With the same faith Tacitus saith That the emperour Vespasian being in Iewry healed a blinde man which saw nothing with his spittle and another which had a drie Tacit. annal ●ib 20. hand wherewith he could not helpe himselfe for these indeed were the miracles of Christ which these prophane historians would steale from him to attribute unto Dion in Vesp their emperours And the better to discover their theft by their owne writings we must first marke that Tacitus himselfe saith That the blind man comming to Vespasian and falling on his knees before him said

will upon his owne daughter The custome which the Gaulois and many other people had to immolat and offer criminall men when they had an opinion that God was angrie with them what other thing was it but a following of the sacrifice of Abraham and of the sacrifices that God had commaunded for the expiation of sinnes The Paynims also imitated this of Moses his sacrifices that they immolated the like beasts and reserved also a part of the beast sacrificed to eat So that thereby also it is clearly seene That the Religion of Moses is the primitive and first and that the other religions are but fowle and lazie pourtratures and imitations thereof From hence followeth it That our Christian Religion which draweth his principles from the promises of Messias contained in Moses is the most ancient of the world yea as ancient as the world it selfe For I wil not vouchsafe to stay upō the refutation of the strange opinion of Machiavell and other ancient Philosophers Paynims which have maintained That the world had no beginning but I send them to Empedocles Plato and other ancient Paynim Philosophers which have maintained the contrarie I thinke that the ignorance of the philosophers which held That the world had no beginning shal something excuse them because they never saw the bookes of Moses and in a thing so difficile and hard to comprehend the spirits of men might easily faile But the impietie of Machiavel is no way excusable who hath seene the bookes of Moses yet followeth that wicked opinion like a mocker and contemner of the holy Scripture thinking to shew that he knowes more than others he I say who is ignorant and full of brutish beastlinesse as God willing I shall make knowne As for the simplicitie of the Christian Religion herein it is seene That the Christians Simplicitie of the Christian Religion will know God as he will that we should know him and as he hath manifested himselfe unto us simply without passing further For they are not so presumptuous as were those foolish Paynim philosophers which disputed of the Essence of God and disputing upon that point fell into opinions the most absurd and strange of the world Some after they had much dreamed in their brains cōcluded That the universall world was God others That it was the Soule of the world others That it was the Sun and others set forward certaine other like monstrous opinions They disputed also of his Power of his Eternitie and of his Providence by naturall reasons in all these they knew not how to resolve themselves therein For how is man so prowd and insensible to thinke that his braine which is not halfe a foot large can cōprehend so great and infinit a thing it is as great a foolery and grosenesse as he that in the palme of his hand will comprehend all the waters of the sea A Christian then hath this modestie and simplicitie To know God by those means and according as he will be known of men beleeving That to have a wil to passe further is to enter into darknesse not into knowledge From hence followeth it That the knowledge which a Christian hath of God is the only true knowledge and that all the knowledge that others as Paynims and Philosophers ever had it neither was nor is any other but a shadow and imagination very far from the most part of the truth And touching the excellencie of the doctrine of true Religion herein is it first seene The excellency of the Christian Religion that it is founded upon the promises of God made to the first fathers from the beginning of the world whereby all they that embrace that Religion are assured That God is their father and that he loveth them and that hee will give them eternall life by the meanes of Messias Can there then be any thing more excellent than this Is there any thing in the world that can give more contentment or repose to the spirit of man than this doctrine For when man considereth the brevitie of his dayes the languishments and miseries of this world full of envies enemities all vices and calamities will hee not iudge himselfe more unhappie than the beasts if hee hoped not for an eternall happinesse after this life The poore Paynims having this consideration aspired to an eternitie some in doing worthy acts wherof there should be a perpetuall memorie after them others writ bookes that might bee read after their death others persuaded themselves that the gods would send good mens soules into the Elisian fields and the wicked into the Acherontike and Stigian darkenesse Yet were there some Philosophers which disputed Cice. in Somn. Scipi Plato in Phaedo That the soules of generous and valiant men after death goe to heaven All these opinions and persuasions of men were but to give rest to their minds which iudged man of all creatures most unhappie without an eternall life after this But what assurance had they of these opinions which they gave to themselves These poore people had none neither founded they themselves but upon some weake and feeble reasons For thus they argued That it was not credible that God who is all good would create man who is the most excellent creature in the world to make him most unhappie which hee should doe if he should not enioy an happie and eternall life after this They also say That it is not credible that God which is all iust would equally deale with the good as with the bad which he should doe if there were not another life than this wherein the good might receive a felicitie and the wicked punishment for their misdeeds But what is all this These be but feeble and weake pettie reasons wherupon the spirits and consciences of men can find no good foundation to repose themselves and to take an assured resolution of a salvation and an eternall felicitie But the Christian hath another foundation than this for he knoweth that God is of old gone out if I may so say from his throne in heaven to communicate and manifest himselfe to our auncient fathers to speake vnto them to declare unto them his bountie and love towards mankind hee knowes that God hath made them promises of Messias which he hath since accomplished and that in him he hath promised to give eternall life to all them which lay hold of that Messias and use his meanes to come unto it These promises have ben many times reiterated to our said fathers and in ages well distant one from another that they might not be forgotten but that they might be so much the more cleare and known of every one insomuch that the Paynims themselves which never read our fathers writings have had some knowledge of the promises of God touching Messias they were so cleare not orious and well knowne as we shall say more at full in another place Heare thē for a resolution a great excellencie in this doctrine of Christian

great Atheist and contemner of God He was cunning enough to practise Machiavell his Maximes For to counterfeit his Suet. in Cal. cap. 51. Dion in Calig devotion he caused to be bruted That he often spake with Iupiter and that he had great familiaritie with Castor and Pollux which he said were his bretheren and that he had good acquaintance with the Moone by this meanes he not only persuaded the people that he was very devout but also that by the means of that privitie with the gods he participated even the diuinitie with thē yet never man more boldly despised all divinitie than he But consider what such kinde of people are there was never cowardlie beast more fearfull than this wicked Atheist as soone as he heard it thunder saith Suetonius he would cover and quickly wrap his head and hide him in and under his bed I pray you what other thing was this but an extreame feare of conscience when he heares the thundering and resounding voice of him whom he contemneth One day being beyond the Rhine with a great and puissaut armie as he passed over a little straite on foote one that was nigh him began to say unto him Sir if now the enemie should appeare and shew himselfe wee could not be without feare What then did this cowardly Atheist at that word he straight mounted on horseback and fled as fast as he could But as he was cowardlie so was he very cruell and so shall you almost ordinarilie finde in these Atheists both crueltie and cowardise together In the end God sent him his due reward for he endured not long but was massacred and slaine by Cassius Chaerea and Cornelius Sabinus captaines of his guarde whereby this wicked contemner of God felt the just divine vengeance and so knew he that he was a mortall man and not God that caused himselfe to bee worshipped as a God Dion writeth That after his death some did eat of his flesh to prove if the flesh of the gods were of a good tast The emperour Phillipus who raigned in the primitive Christian church was a wicked Arabian who had no feare of God but was the most cruell and wicked of the Pompo Laetus in Philli. world as commonlie Arabians are yet to cover his vices wickednesse he did that which Machiavell commaundeth a Prince here for he fained to be a Christian and something fauoured the Christian Religion which before had beene greatly persecuted but God soone punished this dissimulation and hypocrisie for he raigned but five yeares and by his souldiers was massacred both he and his sonne at Verone The emperour Iulian who was called the Apostata all the time of his youth in the time of Constantine the Great his uncle was instructed in the Christian Religion Pompo Laetus in Iuli. Am. Marel lib 21 2● but upon a foolish curiositie he gave himselfe to diviners and sorcerers to know things to come which made him forsake the Christian Religion yet he alwaies feigned himselfe to be a Christian because for the most part the nobilitie and the men of warre were so therefore to please them he often went unto the Christians Churches and there used the exercises of their Religion After he was created emperour in the towne of Paris and had set a sure foote in the empire he began to discover that which he had alwaies kept in his heart that is To make open the Temples for Images and to set vp the Paynims Religion which Constantine the Great had suppressed and to establish their sacrifices and although hee durst not prohibit the exercise of Christian Religion yet under hand he sought by all meanes to destroie it for he forbad that any should receive any Christians to be regents and balemaisters and caused to be sowen all manner of partialities and divisions that he could amongst Christians Finallie after he had raigned by the space of a yeare and seven moneths he was slaine of the age of two and thirtie yeares making warre against the Persians Some write That as he died he blasphemed despightfully against Christ crying Thou hast vanquished thou Galilaean Behold the unhappie end of this Atheist and Apostata It is commonly seene That such men as have no God doe give themselves to sorcerers and diviners for of necessitie they must have a master and after they have forsaken God they must needs take the devill for their master and governour The emperour Bassianus Caracalla being a true contemner of God fell to delight in magicke and witcherie insomuch that by the art of necromancie he would needs Dion in Anto Caracalla Herod lib. 4. cause to come unto him the soule of his father Severus and the emperour Commodus to know of them if he should recover of the disease whereof he was sicke The soule of his father or rather some evill spirit appeared to him holding a naked sword in his hand but spoke not a word unto him but that of Commodus appearing also said unto him these words Get thee to the gallowes Being in warfare in Mesopotamia he had two lieutenants generall Audentius and Macrinus which hee incessantly outraged and mocked so that neither of them greatly trusted him he had also at Rome one Maternianus who executed all his affaires whom hee much trusted therefore hee sent unto him a commaund to assemble all the diviners sorcerers and negromancers that could be found to consult together and so search out if any secret enterprise were intended or practised against him Maternianus executed his commandement and upon a consultation of them they made answere that Macrinus had determined to slay the emperour Bassianus Maternianus which before loved not Macrinus failed not to advertise the emperour hereof but the packet of letters was presented unto him at a certaine houre when hee was very attentive and given to take his pastime insomuch as hee commanded Macrinus his lieutenant who was by to take the packet and open it to tell him the substance of them after at some houre of Counsell Macrinus tooke the packet and opened it within which he found many letters speaking of many of his affaires and amongst others one was found containing there solution of the said consultation Macrinus then was much abashed and joyfull withall abashed he was that the said deceiving diviners and necromancers laid to his charge a thing whereof hee never thought Ioyfull also he was that that letter fell not into the emperours hands whom he knew to be very cruell and readie to execute his choller Therefore he hid from him this letter and shewed him the other but thinking of his owne cause he resolved to slay his master rather than to attend whilest he were slaine himselfe and the sooner for feare Maternianus should write againe of the same cause Macrinus then suborned a captaine of certaine footmen called Martialis which also had himselfe a quarell to the emperour to slay him who espying one day the emperour going out of the way to

alwayes see that darkenesse vanisheth and disperseth away by the light the shaddow also flieth the Sunne and hideth it selfe alwayes behind some opposit Therefore have the auncient doctors of the Church said and held for a principle of Theologie That much better it were a scandale and offence should come than that Truth should be forsaken Which sentence even the Popes themselves have caused to be placed amongst their rules of Cannon right and would to God they had observed it But I see well it is to no purpose to alleadge reasons against this Atheist and his Reg. 1. de Reg. Iuris in VI. disciples which beleeve neither God nor Religion wherefore before I passe any further I must fight against their impietie and make it appeare to their eyes at the least if they have any not by assailing them with armes of the holy Scripture for they merit not to bee so assailed and I feare to pollute the holy Scriptures amongst people so prophane and defiled with impietie but by their proper armes and weapons whereby their ignorance and beastlinesse defendeth their renewed Atheisme They then tooke for a foundation humane reason and prophane and Paynim authors but in truth both the one and the other foundation are so much against them as even by them I will prove our Christian Religion For first if wee consider the least creature in the world and sound the causes of his essence and nature it will Every creature leadeth mā to God leade us by degrees to one God Take an ante or a flie and consider the causes which makes these little creatures moove you shall finde it is heat and moisture which are two qualities consisting in all living creatures nourishers of nature for assoone as heat moisture faile in any living thing it can no more live nor moove straight is the body occupied with contrarie qualities coldnesse and drought the enemies of nature Mount and ascend vp higher and consider what is the cause that in the little bodie of an ante or flie there are found the two qualities of heate and moisture you shall find that it is because all living creatures are composed of the foure elements of fire of aire of water and of earth in which the said foure qualities of heat moisture colde and drinesse do consist and whilest heate and moisture raigne in the bodie it liveth but when colde and drought doe dominiere therein than dieth it Consider further what is the cause of the heate and the moisture and the other qualities which we see in the foure elements and in the bodies made of them you shall finde that the Sunne is cause of the heate and the Moone cause of the moisture as sence and experience shew it Let us yet passe further and seeke the cause wherefore the Sunne is hoate and the Moone moiste and from whence come unto them these qualities of heate and moisture wee must necessarilie now come to a first and sovereigne cause which is one God for the Sunne or Moone which are corporall and finite things as we see with our eyes cannot be God who is of infinite essence Behold then how the least creature of the world is sufficient to vanquish by naturall reason the opinion of the Atheists how much more if wee come to consider other creatures and especiallie the composition of mans body for there shall you contemplate without going any further so well ordered a rule that of necessitie must be concluded That there is a most ingenious and excellent workeman other than the Sunne and Moone which hath disposed that architecture and building for within mans bodie you shall see appeare an harmonie verie like a well governed common-wealth you see the minde and understanding of man which is as the king that is set in the highest place as in his throne and from thence commandeth all the parts you see also the heart the seat of amitie clemencie bountie kindnesse magnanimitie and other vertues all which obey the understanding as their king but the heart as the great master hath them all under his charge it hath also under his charge envie hatred vengeance ambition and other vices which lodge in the heart but they are holden mewed and bridled by the understanding after you have the liver which is the superintendent of victuals which it distributeth unto all the parts of the bodie by the meanes of his subalterne and inferiour officers as the bellie veines and other pores and passages of the bodie brieflie a man may see within man an admirable and well ordeined disposition of all the parts and it brings us necessarilie and whether we will or no to acknowledge that there must needs be a God a sovereigne architect who hath made this excellent building and by these considerations of naturall things whereof I do but lightlie touch the points the auncient philosophers as the Platonists the Aristotelians Stoickes and others have beene brought to the knowledge of a God and of his providence and of all the sects of philosophers there was never any which agreed not hereunto unlesse it were the sect of the Epicures which were gluttons drunkards whoremongers which constituted their sovereigne felicitie in carnall pleasures wherein they wallowed like brute beasts Out of this schoole Machiavell and the Machiavelists come which are well inough knowne to be all very Epicureans in their lives caring for nothing but their pleasures which also have no knowledge of good letters contenting them selves with the Maximes of that wicked Atheist Touching the doctrine of the Trinitie which we hold it must bee confessed that the philosophers understood nothing thereof and that by humane reason wee can not well be lead to the knowledge thereof but this knowledge is manifested unto us by the witnesses of God himselfe which are so cleare and evident in the holy scripture as nothing can be more but I have no purpose here to recite them yet will I say That the doctrine which I hold in this place is not repugnant nor contrary unto The d●ct●in of the T●initie is not repugnant to human reason humane reason but consonant enough although the ancient philosophers have not penitrated so far For by their owne Maximes a very true thing it is That God who is an eternall and infinit spirit is not passible of any qualities or accidens so that that which is a qualitie in men as bountie love wisedome an essence in God This presupposed as a thing confessed of the philosophers themselves it followeth That that infinit admirable wisdome wherby God knoweth himselfe is an essence and not a qualitie in God yea it is one the same essence yet is it a distinct subsistence or hypostasis from him For the Wise and Wisedome cannot be without distinction This Wisdome then is the second person of the Trinitie which the scripture calleth the Word or the Sonne Neither also is it repugnant to humane reason to say That these two persons in one