Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	ghost_n	holy_a	person_n	20,536	5	5.7415	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67386	An eighth letter concerning the Sacred Trinity occasioned by some letters to him on that subject / by John Wallis ...	Wallis, John, 1616-1703.	1692 (1692)	Wing W577; ESTC R28904	17,133	22

Imperfection we find in the Creature we conclude that in God who is Infinitely Perfect there is nothing of this Imperfection And from both we conceive a Notion of somewhat in God which is more Great than is possible for us fully to comprehend But what that somewhat is we cannot fully understand Now these being the Steps by which we form these Notions we know no better way to express these Conceptions than by Metaphors taken from such Objects from whence these Notions take their Rise or some such Figurative Expressions And it was with this Prospect that I mention'd that Observation And in the same way God is pleased in Scripture to express himself to us by somewhat Analogous not just the same with what we meet with in the Creature As when it speaks of God's Eyes Ears Hands Feet c. of his Seeing Hearing Striking Going c. So when the Father is said to Beget the Son to be Begotten and both these to send out and the Holy Ghost to Proceed or Go forth from them All which expressions are such as we commonly apply to what we call Persons And in what sense those are to be understood concerning God in such sense they are fitly called three Persons And those who in such sense cavil at the word Person would no doubt if there were not somewhat else in the Wind as well cavil at those other words But because so to do were directly to affront the Scripture whose words they are they do not think fit so to speak out whatever they think When Christ saith of himself and the Father John 16. 28. I Came forth from the Father and am Come into the World again I Leave the World and Go to the Father Of Himself and the Holy Ghost ver 7 8. If I Go not away the Comforter will not Come unto you but if I Depart I will Send Him unto you and when He is Come He will Reprove the World c. Of himself and the other two Iohn 14. 26. and 15. 26. The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will Send in My Name He shall Teach you all things and Bring all things to your Remembrance whatsoever I have Said unto you And again When the Comforter is Come whom I will Send you From the Father even the Spirit of Truth which Proceedeth from the Father He shall Testifie of Me What could be said as of Three Persons more distinctly And if the Scripture speak of them as Three Persons why should we scruple to call them so But these Three Persons are but One God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These Three are One Vnum not unus One Thing 1 Iohn 5. 7. And John 10. 30. I and the Father are One 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unum sumus we are One and the same Thing and therefore One God And that there is no other God but One is known to be so often said that I need not repeat it But 't is not so much the word Person is the Deity of Christ which these Men are offended at and all their Cavils at the word Person and the Athanasian Creed are but to undermine our Saviours Deity Of this I have said enough elsewhere and need not here repeat it The LORD our God is One LORD Deut. 6. 4. That is The Lord God of Israel is One Lord or Iehovah the God of Israel is One Iehovah There are not more Iehovah's than One And this One Iehovah is the Lord God of Israel And Isa. 45. 3 5. I the LORD Jehovah am the God of Israel I am the LORD Jehovah and there is none else There is no God beside Me No God beside the Lord God of Israel So in 2 Kings 19. 15. and many other places to the same purpose Now our Christ is this Lord God of Israel Luke 1. 16 17. Many of the Children of Israel shall He Iohn the Baptist turn to the Lord THEIR God to the Lord God of Israel and he John Baptist shall go before Him this Lord God of Israel in the Spirit and Power of Elias Now no Man doubts but that it is our Christ whose Fore-runner John Baptist was and before whom he was to go in the Spirit and Power of Elias Therefore our Christ is this Lord God of Israel This One IEHOVAH 'T is true that the Greek Septuagint's Translation of the Old Testament doth not retain that word but doth every where wave the word Iehovah and puts 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of it And accordingly the New Testament which mostly follows the Language of that the only Greek Translation then in use doth so too But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they substitute for Iehovah is so oft applied to Christ even in those places cited out of the Old Testament wherein Iehovah is used that none can be ignorant of it And though we have not there the word Iehovah yet we have as full a Periphrasis of it as can be desired 'T is well known and owned by all that the two Proper Names of God Iah and Iehovah are derivatives from the Verb Hajah or Havah which signifieth to Be which whether we take for one and the same Root or Two Roots of one and the same signification is not material the Letter Iod and Vau in Hebrew being so oft used promiscuously or one changed for the other And therefore the Noun Verbal must needs import a Being And it hath been further observed long since by Hebricians that the Name Iehovah hath moreover the peculiar Characteristicks of the Three Times past present and future Ie the Characteristick of the Future Tense Ho of the Present Tense or Participle and Va of the Preter Tense which I did forbear to mention formerly lest they should throw it off as a Criticism till I had a fresh Voucher for it so good as Dr. Pocock in his late Commentary on Ioel. Chap. 1. 19. And we have all this in that Character of God indefinitely Rev. 1. 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from that Being who Is and Hath been and Shall be for the time to come And it is particularly applied to Christ at ver 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am Alpha and Omega saith the Lord God Jehovah Elohim which Is which Was and which is to Come the Almighty Which is a full Account of the Name Iehovah here Translated as elsewhere by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with a discant upon it importing his Being with the three diversities of Times past present and future and his Omnipotence superadded That Being which now Is which ever Was and which ever Shall be the Lord God Almighty So Rev. 4. 8. and Rev. 11. 17. And in Rev. 16. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so Beza and so Dr. Pocock reads it and so ours Translate it And much to the same purpose is that Rev. 1. 11 17 18. Rev. 2. 8. and elsewhere I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the end the first and the last he that liveth and was

given to Man I say when we consider these what necessity is there of limiting and confining God Almighty here May we not as reasonably think that if in his infinite Wisdom he so thought fit he might as well make a Being yet more perfect Why is it not as conceiveable that to bring about his own eternal purposes he might actuate the Humane Nature by the Divine Power and make a Man in whom even the perfections of the Deity should reside Is the principle of Essentiality and Vitality any whit divided in or from the Deity by giving Life and Being to those Creatures Is the Eternal Mind any whit multiplied or divided by giving a Rational Soul or Mind to Man NOR is the Infinite and Eternal Spirit of the World multiplied or divided by creating and giving Being to those Glorious Spirits the Angels What necessity then to think that the Godhead must be either multiplied or divided or in any wise varied by acting the Divinity in the Humane Nature Oh rebellious Mankind that hast offended thy Creator but more ungrateful that wilt not accept his Mercy upon his own terms and believe it exhibited in that manner that he himself has revealed it Is it not that God whose Justice is infinite that is offended Is it not the same God who is also Infinite in Goodness and Mercy that is appeased What room for his Mercy without derogation to his Justice unless there be satisfaction And what satisfaction can be competent to the offended Deity Were Men or Angels fit to mediate or could they make a satisfaction Surely not 'T is his infinite mercy only that can appease his Justice There is Mercy with him that he may be feared yea Mercy rejoycing over Judgment NOW because it is inconceivable to man how the offended Deity should make a satisfaction to it self God Almighty is pleased thus far to condescend to the Capacity of Humane Nature as to tell us in what manner he hath done it viz. That he hath sent his only begotten Son into the World to be born of a Woman to live a life of righteousness for our instruction and example and to dye the Death of Sinners to satisfie for our defection And further that our Original Taint might not prevail over and misguide us into actual transgressions he hath sent his Holy Spirit amongst us to lead us into the ways of Truth and Righteousness This he was pleased to promise after the Fall by his Prophets in the times of the Old Testament and has now performed it to us in the times of the New Now is it fit for us to object against this manifestation of his Mercy to us and glorious contrivance of our Redemption because we cannot comprehend the mystery of it That surely was ne're meant to be within our fathom In the days of the Old Testament when God was pleased to command the adoration and duty of his People he manifested himself to them under several appellations whereby he put them in mind of his Mercies to them and their duty to him I am says he the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. And so in the Prologue to the Decalogue I am the Lord thy God which brought the out of the Land of Egypt out of the House of Bondage c. Intimating thereby to them the great mercies he had shewn in his Miraculous preservation of the Patriarchs and People of Isreal So now in the days of the New Testament God Almighty has been pleased to manisest himself to us under other denominations and appellations viz. those of God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost intimating thereby to us in what manner be hath made good his promised Mercy and brought about the great work of our Redemption and that under those appellations and manifestations of himself he will now be worshipped in the times of the Gospel But for us to understand the great mysteries of our Salvation in this manner offered unto us viz. That the Trinity in the Vnity of the Godhead and that of the Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour c. was certainly never intended by God Almighty And shall we doubt what God himself tells us because we cannot comprehend it When God said to the People of Israel I am the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the Land of Egypt c. had it been fit for them to have enquired how he brought them out of Egypt and to have ravelled into all the Miracles he wrought for that purpose and to have brought them to the touch of their understandings and to have doubted the truth thereof or the Power of God that did them because they could not reconcile them to their own reason Yet thus ill certainly do they use God Almighty who will doubt the Manner of our Salvation because they cannot understand the Mystery Alas vain Men that will not believe what God himself has Reveal'd because it will not bear the Test of their weak reason Do they think the Wisdom and Power of the Almighty are to be bounded by the Scanty Limits of their Vnderstanding That were for what is Finite to comprehend Infinity God were not God if that were so And these very Men who value themselves so much upon their Reason that they think they ought to understand the very Arcana of Heaven would I doubt not be ready enough by the same strength of Reasonng to disown that Deity that they could comprehend Thus I have presumed Reverend Sir to trouble you with this Draught of my Rude Notions about this matter which I hope you will excuse they coming from a private Countrey-Gentleman unread in Polemick Divinity and particularly in this Dispute and in whom these thoughts were occasioned by the Perusal of your late Papers I am Sir May 28th 1691. Yours most Humbly A. B. THIS Letter being for substance much to the same purpose with what I had undertaken to maintain and the expressions not much different and in nothing contrary to it I shall not detain the Reader with any long discourse upon it because it speaks sufficiently for it self It hath been suggested to me by another Anonymous That we knowing so little of the Infinite Divine Nature there may possibly be greater distinction between the Three which we use to call Hypostases or Persons than what he calls the Civil or Relative acceptation of the word Person and we may as well Prejudice the Truth by affirming too little as by affirming too much And it is very true there may be for ought we know and perhaps there is more than so nor have I any where denyed it But how much that more is we cannot tell Sure we are not so as to be three Gods or more Gods than one And I choose to say with St. Austin That these Three are One Spirit as we say they are One God not Three Spirits The true ancient import of the Word Person when first applied to the Trinity implies no