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	son_n	speak_v	11,770	5	5.4768	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91322	Dissertatio de pace, &c. Or, A discourse touching the peace & concord of the Church. Wherein is elegantly and acutely argued, that not so much a bad opinion, as a bad life, excludes a Christian out of the kingdom of heaven; and that the things necessary to be known for the attainment of salvation, are very few and easie: and finally, that those, who pass amongst us under the name of hereticks, are notwithstanding to be tolerated.; Dissertatio de pace. English	Przypkowski, Samuel, 1592-1670.; Biddle, John, 1615-1662,	1653 (1653)	Wing P4133; Thomason E1495_1; ESTC R203302	40,192	82

that the Socinians impiously contradict the manifest words of the sacred Scripture and scornfully reject the clear Truth coming-in upon them To which I answer That whatsoever pains and travel they undertake in this business is employed not against the holy Trinity as they are unjustly defamed nor against the Sacred Scripture but against the Humane Explications of both Hence we may see that they willingly assent and give credit to all the Sacred Oracles touching this matter onely rejecting certain interpretations and forms sprung-up certain ages after They believe that they are according to the command of Christ to be baptized into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Matth. 28. They believe those three sacred Witnesses in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit 1 Joh. 5. They acknowledge that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was a God Joh. 1. yet such a one to whom all power in heaven and earth was given as he speaketh of himself Matth. 28. It would be tedious to recko● up all the Scripture-testimonics of this kinde to which they give credence without any exception Those hard and subtil opinions concerning the Essence and Person of God concerning the communication of properties and others of that batch they either understand not or think them repugnant to the simple and plain word of God Give us leave say they to be ignorant of such things as are believed with danger In these so subtil and thorny explications if they after the maner of men chance to erre shall they presently be termed the enemies of God and Christ Shall there be found no pardon for an error in so great difficulty of things no excuse for weakness which notwithstanding we ingeniously seek even for the greatest crimes though we be never so well provided of means to avoid them Are they who out of ignorance and error violate the Edicts of Princes acquitted from the crime of treason and shall he that offendeth about the Divine Oracles in our opinion have no refuge for his weakness in the mercy of the Heavenly Father But you will reply that their Blasphemies are horrid wherein impiety leaveth no place for pity and reproachful against the Son of God and overthrowing the foundation of our faith To which I answer that if there have been any amongst them of a more intemperate tongue or quill they are infamous not onely with us but also with them But what is here meant by the Foundation of Faith I do not sufficiently perceive It hath been abundantly evidenced before that such errors do necessarily take away neither our Faith nor our Salvation For it is not the foundation of Salvation to know his Essence who hath promised the salvation to us so that we have no impious and contumelious opinion of him as the ignorance of the nature of the promiser taketh not away the certainty of the promise unless he hath promised us anything under the condition of such knowledge As for the knowlege of the Father they therein do in a maner agree with us They likewise adore and reverence with Divine worship the Son of God as the author and mediator of their Salvation the heir and Lord of the Universe and the General of our warfare But you will here reply that they deny his eternity I answer that they together with holy Paul care not much to know any thing but Jesus Christ and him crucified and had rather with so great an Apostle rest in the simplicity of this knowledge then either with Arius to ascend to non-enliti●s or with Athanasius to co-essentialities As for the honour which they give to the Holy Spirit the greatness thereof appeareth in that they scarce distinguish him from the Supreme Father Shall they then be said to blaspheme against these if they be somewhat mistaken in the other knowledge of them Indeed many opinions are drawn out of their doctrines that the wretches may be loaded with more envie and that by them who whilst they are so vigilant in other mens errors are fast asleep in their own But if all the chaff were to be sifted out of humane opinions I would wish that a great part of the Reformed Churches would labour to defend their own cause before they undertake to oppose that of others but those above all who have from the age of Chrysippus recalled down to these very times that secret and inevitable law of Fate and who hold also that the sins and destruction of mankinde and finally all and singular motions and impulsions of our will proceed from the Decree of Eternal Destiny to whom this false perswasion also seemeth to be fatal From which opinion if we lay aside prejudice more and more shameful errors will be deduced then out of the books of Socinians For which is more reproachful unto God to hold that he is one as well in Person as Essence or that I may clothe naked injustice with soft words to bring-him-in punishing men for not doing those things which by his own procurement were impossible Is it more absurd to conceive that there is one Essence of the Father another of the Son then that God I shudder to speak it hath one thing open in his tongue and another thing contrary thereunto shut-up in his breast This is reproach enough to the most high God although we do not adde that this dissimulation is joyned with deceit Is the dignity of the Holy Spirit more traduced whilst he is said to be onely the vertue and power of God then the goodness of God whilst he is held the author of sin which consequence doth also flow by a fatal and inevitable flux from that doctrine of Fate For he that decreed men should necessarily sin certainly would have them sin otherwise he would have decreed every thing against his owne desire Now he whose decree and will the event doth immutably follow may certainly be termed the cause of that event whether he effect it by himself or by another Finally is it a greater derogation to the dignity of Christ to deny two natures in him lest we should make him two persons then to the wisdome of God to affirm that he would perswade men to that whereto nevertheless he hath not perswaded them namely that he would give salvation unto all when notwithstanding he hath designed it onely to a few Truly if we look more narrowly into the matter the doctrine of the Socinians touching the Holy Trinity is not to be accounted so much evil and impious in its owne nature as imperfect and maimed For it seemeth to ascribe to the Holy Trinity nothing false or absurd but only to take away something that is true namely the divine nature of Christ and the proper person of the Holy Spirit Whereas this doctrine touching the fatal predestination of particular men laboureth not with any defect but with manifest ptavity For it not onely offereth injury to God by most unworthy calumnies but also

have these distempers cured without wounds and cauteries especially because the Truth unless it be oppressed by force or scorned by men who are blinde with the love of vices is never wont to be supplanted by those pernicious errors yea this daughter and foster-childe of time always growing stronger with very age doth with the beams of her light dissolve and melt all the waxen arguments of falshood unless one of those twain before mentioned doth hinder both which ought to be banished from the true Church of Christ For since by force or the allurement of our affections as well falshood as truth may be promoted if yet truth may be so promoted but by a free dispute in mutual love onely truth and falshood sometimes putteth on the vizo● of Truth it is a safer course to keep this way onely in the Church which having shut-out error lyeth open to truth then whilst we endeavour by all means to insinuate truth into men to leave and prepare an entrance for falshood And therefore to cashiere the lighter errors for the Objection speaketh not of the lightest the care and vigilancie of the Pastors is sufficient who will finde that the love due to erring persons will no whit retard them in pulling up false opinions according to their ability However should it never so much be granted that in the infancie of the Church and in her following growth these errors which outwardly appear somewhat light but inwardly contain very much were not tolerated yet will it not be evinced from thence that they ought not at this day to be tolerated in the old-age of the Church For they deceive and are deceived who model our times by the pattern of that flourishing age The crazie health of the Church cannot be restored with the same remedies Many things stifle a disease in the birth which when it is grown up do foment it When the Church was found and lusty in the prime flower of her age and whilst the colledge of the Apostles was yet living even violent remedies were to be used towards her because of her vigour Whereas now being spent with diseases and old age and become feeble she doth in a maner sink under the weight of her prevailing sickness and is never in more danger then when she falleth into the hands of cruel Physicians Heretofore her former vigor did admit the opening of a vein and taking away of blood but now after her strength hath been exhausted with so many maladies if there be any vital juyce remaining it cannot be let out but the very life and spirit will issue forth together Believe me ye that talk of nothing but launcets and cauteries will with your unseasonable Physick kill the Church if ye let out that little blood which is remaining in this nick of time when she seemeth to be almost a dying Whatsoever remedies have been invented for the health and conservation of the Church as this is touching the punishment of Hereticks should then as prudence teacheth be omitted when they bring more hurt and danger then profit For why desire we that the people of God should like a lump of mouldring stuff be further crumbled into infinite pieces What end of Schisms will there be if a promiscuous dissent be sufficient to make a rent Why take we pleasure to behold not the coat onely as a Great man wrote but the very body of Christ whereof he is the head to be cut and torn in pieces But let the respect of profit take place let us see whether it be lawful for us at this time to chase those erring persons from the communion of Christs Church For there is a wide difference between them and those hereticks that were contemporary with the Apostles For suppose them who now-a-days erre in matters of faith to make their appearance before the reverend consistory of the Apostles and their associates suppose them to be often convicted and admonished and nevertheless to persist obstinate though in the least error who would not detest their malice Certainly a very slight error would now be transmuted into the nature of a wicked crime And why so Because they durst resist the holy Spirit speaking by the Apostles and when they had no cause to question the doctrine and faith of that most sacred Councel unless they would withal question the whole Christian Religion yet did not give credence thereunto nor obey it and nevertheless would be accounted Christians What madness what wickedness what perversness was it when by this very incredulity they do sufficiently testifie that they were not Christians as who denyed belief to the Apostles and their associates and yet under a pretence of Christianity did pester the Church with deceit and lyes Besides the malice of such men was in the beginning far more manifest in that a blemish may sooner be discovered in a clean body then in one that is spotted And therefore it was an easie matter to espie and punish the wickedness of such men as did turn aside out of the common road that never had been called in question But now though we have a very strong perswasion concerning the certainty of our faith yet who hath herein given us caution or security that we cannot erre What Councel can we at this day imagine so uncorrupt as that of the Apostles or the Primitive Church And yet how many Proscriptions may you behold in this age how many Decrees whereby men for the slightest matters exclude one another out of heaven and the Church I speak not these things as if I thought any question were to be made concerning the soundness of the Orthodox Opinion but to make it plain first that we ought more timorously then the Apostles heretofore to condemn such as are tardy in this behalf and secondly that we should not in lighter matters be over-confident of our knowledge and perswasion and finally that even in weightyer things provided they do not subvert our faith in the Lord Jesus and the obedience of his commandments we may and are bound to tolerate the weakness of such as erre For what matters it for me certainly to know that I hold the saving doctrine in these points if this be not manifest to all Christians or if I cannot always very clearly demonstrate the fame to him that erreth Have not all a far juster cause of questioning the true opinion now-a-days then heretofore in the time of the Apostles And suitably a man may very easily slip in such things through imprudence which heretofore could not be done without the intervening of extreme impiety Nor is there need of malice for continuance in error where prejudice is sufficient and a suspicion of error firmly imprinted in the minde against the patrons of the true opinion Which certainly may easily seise even on an honest heart especially because every sect of Christians instil into their partisans at the first a hatred and abhorrencie of others from their very cradle sow in their hearts their own