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 word_n 22,511 5 4.8766 4 true
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
A39511 An Earnest call to those nonconformists, who really believe the doctrine of the holy, blessed and glorious trinity, to come into the communion of the Church of England that by their constant regular confession of the Christian faith, they may confound the devices of the gain-sayers, whom by their separation they have so much encouraged. 1691 (1691) Wing E96; ESTC R40390 3,509 15

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

AN Earnest Call To those Nonconformists Who really Believe the Doctrine OF THE Holy Blessed and Glorious TRINITY To come into the Communion OF THE Church of ENGLAND THAT By their Constant Regular Confession of the Christian Faith they may Confound the Devices of those GAIN-SAYERS WHOM By their Separation they have so much Encouraged Let us consider one another to provoke unto Love and to Good Works Not forsaking the Assembling of our selves together c. Heb. 10. 24 25. London Printed and are to be Sold by Randal Taylor near Stationers-Hall 1691. AN Earnest Call To those Nonconformists c. My dear Brethren So I call you all who Believe the Doctrine of the Blessed TRINITY Sincerely and Practically who Worship the Father Son and Holy Ghost in whose Name we are BAPTIZED I beseech you by the Meekness and Gentleness of our Lord Jesus Christ That you would lay aside all Prejudices against me who have so often declar'd to so many of you That it can hardly be imagin'd that the Father of Lyes could ever find out a readier way to prepare the Populace for the Reception of that most damnable Doctrine of the Anti-Trinitarians than by the contempt of the COMMON-PRAYER We have often heard a senseless Clamour that the Common-Prayer is an Idolatrous Worship Now we are told why it is charg'd with Idolatry In a Book Entitled Essays towards a Union between Divinity and Morality Part 5. Chap. 4. are these Words The first Commandement settles Supreme Worship wholly on the Father and makes the communicating of it Idolatry as for our Honor we are to pay to the Son the Scriptures call Mediation As for Worshipping the Holy Ghost there is no Mention made of it in the whole Scripture and when there is no Ground for such Worship one had as good make 100 Persons in the God-head as Three But yet tho' such Worship be Idolatrous and consequently Odious yet ought it not to deter us from our reasonable Liberty thus I have formerly manifested the Socinian may communicate with the Church of England c. Thus you see this most Impudent TEACHER of the grossest Hypocrisie charges the publick Worship of the Church of England with Idolatry because we Worship the Son and the Holy Ghost as we do the Father as being with the Father the only True and Eternal GOD. In a late Pamphlet Entitled A Vindication of the Unitarians page 3. we find the like Expressions If we err says this Professed Arian indeed we Blaspheme the Son and Holy Ghost which we hope we do not but if you err Do not you both Blaspheme and and Commit Idolatry in Worshipping them as Co-equal to the Father You see here What Spirit it is that Instigates so many People to cry out against the Common-Prayer as if it were Idolatry c. I beseech you to consider these Words of T. Cartwright and the Answer given thereunto by the most Reverend Father in God Arch-Bishop Whitgifte The Defence of the Answer to the Admonition page 496. T. C. The like may be said of the Gloria-Patri and the Athanasius's Creed it was first brought into the Church to the end that men thereby should make an open Profession in the Church of the Divinity of the Son of GOD against the detestable Opinion of Arius and his Disciples wherewith at that time marvellously swarmed almost the whole Christendom Now that it hath pleased the Lord to quench that Fire ●here is no such cause why these things should be in the Church at the least why that Gloria-Patri should be so often repeated Jo. Whitgifte Even as convenient now as it was then For it is as necessary to maintain Truth and make it known as it is to suppress Errours and yet it is not unknown that even in our Days and in this Church there have been Arians and I pray God there be none still I must suspect the matter not well understanding whereunto those glances of yours at Gloria-Patri and Athanasius's Creed do tend Gloria-Patri besides that it containeth a brief Confession of the Trinity and of the Divinity of Jesus Christ it is a Magnifying and Glorifying of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Three Persons and One God and Athanasius's-Creed is not only an excellent Confutation of Arius's Heresy but a plain declaration of the Mystery of the Trinity such as is necessary for all Christian men to learn and know and therefore he that is offended with the oft repetition or saying of either of them I cannot tell what I should judge of him But undoubtedly there is great Cause why I should suspect him at the least of singularity and unquietness You see this Prudent Man did SUSPECT that some Cunning Anti-Trinitarians had a hand in the Inflaming of some Hot-headed Persons with an unreasonable Indignation against the Liturgy of the Church of England particularly those most Excellent Parts of it the Gloria-Patri and the Athanasian-Creed I do not charge T. C. with Arianism but I charge him with a gross Defect of that Zeal which Christianity requires to that Principal Article of Sanctifying Truth which the Arians and all other sorts of Anti-Trinitarians so eagerly endeavour to Suppress That Gloria-Patri is so often repeated is so far from being a Vain Repetition that 't is impossible any man should ever conceive a good Thought but when he has in his Heart the Power and Efficacy of those Words Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost Therefore doth our Mother the Church of England Order that the Gloria-Patri shall be repeated at the end of every Psalm because the Conforming of our Hearts to those Divine Affections which are exprest in every Psalm proceeds only from the Efficacy of the Sense contained in those Words Glory be to the Father c. in which consists the Life and Reality of all Christian Virtue No wonder that any man slights the LORD's PRAYER who hates the Doctrine of the TRINITY and consequently denies the Author of that Absolutely Perfect Form of Prayer to be the True and Eternal GOD. One of the late Blasphemers of the God-head of our Blessed Saviour in his Book Entitled Essays c. Part 6. Chap. 4. has these words The Lord's Prayer was but as an Example to shew the proper length and matter for Prayer and undoubtedly that Service is weak and superstitious that deals too much in repetition of it He plainly reflects upon the Divine Service of the Church of England which in another place he charges with Idolatry as he does here with Superstition Another of these Anti-Christians in a late Pamphlet Entitled Doctor Wallis's Letter c. Answered by a Friend Belches forth this horrid Blasphemy in derision of the Blessed TRINITY Suppose one Woman Mary to be Married to Three Men at once Peter James and John I Mary take thee Peter James and John to be my Wedded Husband c. Here are indeed Three Persons but only One Husband the Husband-hood is but One tho' the Persons are Three Hear O our GOD for we are Despised Hear O our GOD for Thou art Despised Arise O God plead thine own Cause remember how the Foolish Man reproacheth thee daily Oh My dear Brethren consider I beseech you that every True and Living Member of England seeing his Blessed LORD thus Crucified afresh and put to an Open Shame Cries out to you Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by Behold and see if there be any Sorrow like unto my Sorrow But that it may not be said by any of my Adversaries that I do nothing but make Exclamations I shall here shew you in one Instance how I deal with this sort of GAIN-SAYERS in a way of the strictest kind of Argumentation They Boast themselves in the Title of Unitarians and pretend a mighty Zeal for the Honor of the UNITY of the Divine Essence and yet one of them in a late Pamphlet Entitled Some Thoughts upon Dr. Sherlock's Vindication c. plainly Blasphemes that TRANSCENDENT UNITY in these Words By GOD we understand a Divine and Supreme Person one Numerical Being and Spirit having the same Notion of that Unity which we have of an Angel a Man a King c. Answer IT cannot be properly said That the Divine Essence is Numerically One Numerical Unity implies a possibility of Multiplication That which is Numerically One is One of Many as an Angel or a Man c. 'T is true the Son is Numerically One but 't is for this reason because the Plurality of Suns does not imply a Contradiction as it does that there should be more than One GOD or Being absolutely Infinite That the One Infinite Being is the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Holy Scriptures do abundantly Testify And it is most Reasonable to Conceive that in the One Infinite Essence there may be a Certain Trinity or Triplicity which cannot in any wise Appertain to any Three Persons of a Finite Nature Neither can the UNITY of the Divine Essence be communicable to any Finite INDIVIDUAL So that for any man to have the same Notion of that Unity which we have of the Unity of an Angel a Man c. is to Err not knowing the Scriptures nor the Power of GOD. That you may constantly retain the right Notion of the Infinity and consequently of the Absolute and Incommunicable UNITY of the Divine Essence I shall Advise you frequently to Meditate on the 40. Chap. of the Book of the Prophet ISAIAH I shall not detain you any longer at present but only to Entreat you to Joyn with me in that Devotion which we are Directed unto by the Right Reverend Father in GOD ARTHUR LAKE Bishop of Bath and Wells in the Prayer he sub-joyns to his Excellent Sermon on these Words of that Blessed Prophet And His Name shall be called the Wonderful Counsellour the Mighty GOD. LORD Guide us by thy Counsel Support us by thy Power that we be neither Circumvented nor Quelled but by thy Direction and Protection we may escape both the Craft and the Force of all our Enemies So shall we ever Glorify thee as our Admirable Counsellour and our most Mighty GOD Amen FINIS