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	substance_n	5,324	5	8.7187	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65779	Controversy-logicke, or, The methode to come to truth in debates of religion written by Thomas White, Gentleman.	White, Thomas, 1593-1676.	1659 (1659)	Wing W1816; ESTC R8954	77,289	240

word Father But as it is a substance ●ove it is not well expressed by either ●f these names but by the common ●ame of an Holy Spirit or Ghost made proper by want of a proper expression And this is that wee meane when we ●ay there are in God three Persons Fa●her Sonne and Holy Ghost This indivisible thing we call God ●nd professe that he made time and in or with the beginning of time all other ●hings Whether spirituall and indivisible or bodily and subject to division and corruption or mortality Among the rest and as the principall of these Creatures which we know by our sense and conversation he made Man that is one man and one woman Hee made them such that by the corruption they were subject unto they should not be extinguished like the other Creatures sett round about them but should remaine spirituall things capable seeing him and of eternall happinesse These two he created in such state that reason was in them more powerfull then sense And could with ease have kept them from all unreasonable actions and from the unhappy effects of them had not the Envy of an other Intellectuall creature whom we call the Divell seduced the woman and by her meanes made the man also eate of fruits which they were fore-warned would bring them death and misery By this meanes disorder being brought into the two first men both in body and soule all their progeny became vicious every child drawing from his parents disorderly inclinations which avert him from the love and care of true Blisse and which strengthned by custome and opinion were able to carry the whole masse of Mankinde to eternall infelicity the just and deserved punishment of this default and its evill consequents This slavery of Man kinde to sinne was so strong that God Almighty was forced to lett great raines destroy it all reserving by his mercy onely 8. persons to people the world a new making the world it selfe much lesse distractive or inveighing with the pleasures of it by making it fuller of miseries And after a while againe he was forced to pitch upon one man and his seede neglecting the rest to conserve in them though weakely by lawes and speciall government the seedes of vertue often strengthening them by extraordinary meanes and encreasing their knowledge Yet for all that vertue faded much in them This people he governed first in Republike afterwardes in Royalty and lastly by Priests untill notwithstanding all his care and their science the people was growne into an extremity of perversenesse Then he came to the last remedy and taking or as it were grafting into his owne substance the nature of Man became the teacher and example to Man-kinde of all vertuous actions and good life And because mans nature was grafted by its noblest part that is by his Meus or roote of understanding to which God as a substance knowledge hath proportion It is rightly delivered unto us that the sonne of God tooke flesh upon him to be our guide and rule and not the Father or Holy Ghost though they both of them are inseparably in him So God who by his Ministers had hitherto instructed mankinde by Allegories and similitudes proportionable to their carnall imbecillity Now in his owne person opened the way to heaven in as plaine termes as mans nature is capable of teaching to abstract our selves from the love of creatures and to adhere to him by love of future blisse of our soules Having compleated the course of his teaching by word and example and having shewed us how to beare not feare the miseries of this world even death it selfe he thought good to give us a scantling of our future blisse of body being raised to life the third day after his death and during 40. days shewing us a new Nature which our bodies are to obtaine in the last resurrection if so we deserve it During his abode upon earth he chose certain believers called Apostles and under them did sett a number of disciples gave them authority to preach and practised them in it even during his owne life but ordered them more especially towards his departure how they should behave themselves in the conversion of Jewes and Gentils and how they should governe the people they converted and brought to his beliefe After this he left them ascending in their sight above the cloudes And after 10. dayes according to his promise he so replenished them with faith and charity that he made them fitt Executors of his commands and instruments of building the Church he intended to spread over all nations He gave them fervour of heart knowledge of tongues and power of miracles together with discretion to use all to the end for which he designed them This Church being to consist of all man-kinde as one Body-Politike He thought fitt to sett universall rules of certaine externall actions and practises common to all by and in which they should communicate together and know one another And the maine scope of this instruction being to bring Men to the honour and service of God He made likewise for the principall of our eternall actiōs one to be a publike testimony and recognisance that God is the sole Author of good to us and absolute Master of Life and death of Being and of Not-Being Such a ceremony is called a Sacrifice This he did immediatly before his death taking bread and wine and after imposition of his handes or blessing them he assured us that the thing he then gave was that very body which was to be wounded and that very Bloud which was to be shed for us And so against all prejudice of sense wee believe that the substances of bread and wine were changed really into the substance of this body and bloud notwithstanding that the Natures that is all the operations and resemblances of bread and wine do remaine as before This he commanded his Apostles to doe and by mediation of this sacrifice or obtestation or highest Prayer to obtaine for the quicke and the dead what ever is fitt to be impetrated for them He commanded also that doing this we should remember or rather commemorate that is offer in a human phrase to Gods remembrance his death and passion For as it is a true sacrifice by the reall and locall parting of his body and blood so this being done under the shapes of bread and wine becometh a figure and allegory of the reall and blondy separation of them made upon the holy Crosse This sacrifice performed which convenient ceremonies we usually call the Masse This incorporation of all Christians into the body of Christ by participation of this sacrifice is the highest motive of love to Christ and to one another that can fall into mans heart and therefore hath ever been a symbol or token of peace among Christians and is esteemed the Mystery or sacrament of Charity But because Christian life consisteth of seven vertues three Theologicall and foure Cardinall Christ delivered other six

of which the action formally is considered or else in respect of some other quality of the same person To speake more clearly A Catholike who writeth or disputeth against a Protestant or conferreth with him may deferre to him either in his very argumēt or in other things not concerning it as he may acknowledge him an eloquent man a good Linguist a subtile Critike or some other commendation belonging to either his understanding or his will Or else that his argument is good or hard to be solved or that his skill in divinity is extraordinary or the like Now as for this last commendation It is evident that it can not be given him without prejudice to the cause the Catholike maintaineth And therefore even if it should prove true which it is impossible it shoud Prudence would advise his adversary to wave taking notice of it as farre as ingenuity will allow him But he needeth not apprehēd being reduced to streights upon this account For Protestant arguments out of authority are easily answered And if some drawne from reason be difficult and intricate it is because that nature upon which the question dependeth is obscure and unknowne not because the Divinity part hath any speciall difficulty in it What the pitch of Divinity is that a Protestant may arrive unto wee have already declared As for other qualities both humanity requireth we should afford them a friendly esteeme of their good parts and the very ayme we have in discoursing with them which is to change their judgements to agree with ours maketh it no small part of our businesse to proceede with a faire and just difference towardes them if we understand how much the will conferreth to incline the judgement and how powerfull courtesy is over the will As for the arguments themselves it is necessary especially in writing which alloweth descending to many particulars to shew that they are but slight ones and that they proceede out of ignorance and that they imply a great distortion in the will of him that maketh them which onely causeth them to be well esteemed of and the like according as there shall be cause It is necessary also to display how the producer of such arguments is not a man to be replyed upon nor hath those qualities which are requisite in a teacher For either his braine is weake or the will of maintaining an evill cause worketh upon him to throw out pittifull and triviall objections instead of framing strong and solide ones which is the worse condition of the two Now with what justice may one give the commendations of an honest man to one that for his owne honour or interest will maintaine a proposition himselfe knoweth to be false especially of that nature that the salvation or damnation of the hearer as well as his owne dependeth on it Were it not better he cheated me of my purse robbed me of my credit tooke away my life then to bring my soule into the hazard of perpetuall damnation How then can hee who doth this bee esteemed an honest man and worthy of such civill testimonyes as shall enable him the more to ensnare poore soules who will rely the more upon him for his receiving such applause He may peradventure defend himselfe by saying that if he seduceth others he is first seduced himselfe and so ignorance excuseth him att least from being malicious and wicked But he mendeth his cause very little by this plea since he who undertaketh to be a Master of others especially in matters of so great consequence and hazard must not be admitted to alledge ignorance for an excuse Why doth he undergoe the office of a teacher if he understandeth not what he undertaketh to teach He who will affirme any thing must first know it Else he is a lyar and if it be in a matter of great prejudice a knave Perhaps he will againe answere for himselfe that there is no meanes to come to certainty in Religion and that therefore he is not more faulty for being a teacher then every one else is that doth the like In saying thus first hee blasphemeth against God as not having provided man-kind of that which farre beyond all other thinges is most necessary to it Secondly he proceedeth very rashly for how doth he know or what demonstration hath he made or can he make that he knoweth all that can be said to the cōtrary Thirdly he knoweth with out the least doubt that either himselfe or his very late predecessours did leave the way they were bred in Now if it were but for likelihoods and that there be no certainty in Religion how was it honestly done by the first that made the breach or is now by him who maintaineth it onely upon peradventures But to make it appeare more evident that they who have left the Catholicke Church or that still keepe out of it are unexcusable and to take away their mis-understāding of some points wherein their mis-taking of what we believe may seeme to justify in some sort their deserting us I will set downe a short explication of Catholike doctrine as farre as it is controverted by judicious and sensible men on both sides Against which I scarcely believe that any prudent person will thinke it fitt to make an objection unlesse it be out of naturall reason where the Mystery is difficult not for it selfe but because wee understand not nature As he who perfectly understandeth Logick will have no difficulty to believe the Trynity who knoweth the composition of body and soule in Man will easily admitt the Incarnation And who comprehendeth how living Creatures do nourish themselves will not sticke at the Mystery of the Eucharist I pretend not to set downe all For as there is no All of those demonstrations for example which may be made of the natures of a Triangle or of a circle So farre lesse of the dependencies of the Mysteries of our faith which the opposition of Adversaries may make necessary to be known and professed Therefore I content my selfe with those which I apprehend to be the most troublesome among the points in controversy now att present A briefe Explication of Catholik faith in order to moderne Controversies WEe believe that from all Eternity there was a Thing not made by any other but having its being from ●●selfe without beginning or springing That this thing is unchangeable an● immortall Having neither parts no● composition and so is perfectly indivisible and spirituall That this same Thing is Substantially and Essentially knowing and loving it selfe And so is a substance knowne a substance knowing and a substance loving the Thing knowne That as a thing knowne it is from which the thing knowing is and as a Thing knowne and knowing it is from which the substance or Thing loving is That as it is a substance knowing or knowledge wee explicate it well by a name taken out of our naturall considerations that is by the word sonne and likewise as it is a substance knowne by the