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	time_n	8,209	5	3.7442	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64013	Two letters concerning the Holy Trinity reconciling together in some measure the semi-Arian and the Trinitarian systems, concerning Christ's divinity, and inquiring, whether the term persons, speaking of God, shou'd be impos'd in acts of church-communion : to be offered to the consideration of the learned, in order to their giving their opinion and reasons concerning the things herein mentioned.		1680 (1680)	Wing T3456; ESTC R38384	16,482	18

TWO LETTERS Concerning the HOLY TRINITY Reconciling together in some measure the Semi-Arian and the Trinitarian Systems concerning Christ's Divinity and Inquiring Whether the Term Persons speaking of God shou'd be Impos'd in Acts of Church-Communion To be offered to the Consideration of the Learned in order to their giving their Opinion and Reasons concerning the things herein mentioned The First LETTER being a Preparatory of the Matter more fully treated of in the Second *** I Consume my Spirits daily in studying more and more the Doctrine of the Trinity and cannot cease that Study for fear I should be wanting to my Duty on the one Hand or the other But after all I can find no Rest but in the seeming Generality of the Expressions of Scripture I believe there may be more implied in those Expressions or they may import otherwise then all Men are aware of But then the Scripture being so Mysterious and Obscure about this Point doth it not seem to be to the intent to try the best Industry and Search of every one in particular and our Moderation in so intricate and difficult a Matter and so to lead and oblige us to bear with one another in different Sentiments herein uniting in the Scripture-Generality no Man being to judge for another The Ancients so far as I can perceive seem very much Divided and Uncertain in their Judgment about this Obscure Subject By the Expressions of the Primitive Doctors that began to Platonize among Christians it seems that they inclined most to Semi-Arianism as I also in some measure do mollifying the Arian System as I think is the true Import of it rationally understood I seek only Counsel and Instruction and desire to be truly Humble and Moderate as I ought to be and pray God I may actually discharge my whole Duty I believe that the Godhead is as intimately United with Christ as possible and that not only the Divine Power continually assists him so that he disposes of it as a Man disposes of his Arms or Hands which is merely by Desiring or Willing but also that the Divine Wisdom constantly illuminates and conducts his Soul as our Soul doth our Body insomuch that he is thereby enabled to represent God at the Head of the Universe And I do not see what more than this can be understood by the Union of the Divine with Christ's Human Nature Wherefore by this Consideration the Semi-Arian and Trinitarian Systems seem herein to be nearly reconciled together By the Holy Ghost or Holy Spirit I understand the Divine and Sanctifying Inspiration and the Miraculous or Wonder-working Divine Power communicated in some measure to some Men according to the good Pleasure of God together with the concurring Ministry of some Angel as seems to be inferr'd from several Places of Scripture particularly Luk. 1 35. 1 Tim. 5 21. Hebr. 1 7 compared with Acts 2 3 4. Hebr. 1 14 compared with John 16 13. Acts 8 26 29 39. I believe then that there is in God the Divine Mind the Divine Wisdom and the Divine Power Mr. Calvin asserted that it was sufficient to acknowledge these Divine Properties and that it was not necessary to insist on the term Persons Instit Cap. 6. Sect. 25. p. 179. Genev. 1550. St. Austin owns it to be very improper De Trin. L. 5 C. 9. St. Jerom declared he cou'd not use it Epist ad Papam Damas. I am of the same Opinion I have prepared a Second Letter humbly to represent my Reasons for it If I mistake in my Sentiment I hope I am but of those Weak in the Faith who may be received and whom God will receive I conclude most humbly beseeching you to compassionate me and to grant me your Prayers being c. The Second Letter *** THIS Controversy seems exceeding intricate and difficult after the maturest and carefullest Consideration of it But then seeing the Scripture expresses it self so obscurely and in so general terms concerning that Subject it seems that as was intimated in the former Letter it is to the intent to try our Moderation as well as every ones best Industry in particular and that we should not be too Decisive and Imposing and should not condemn but should bear with one another herein and should unite and agree in the seeming Generality of the Expressions of Scripture considering that sincere Persons may mistake about so obscure a Point and considering that a hearty Love of God and of Christ cannot but be acceptable to them that the main things are secured when the Expressions of Scripture are adhered to in this Matter that it will in all probability suffice to have a fuller Knowledge of it after this Life that in the mean time we are not to judge for one another and that after all there is not probably so much Difference as has been imagined between the contending Parties There would have been no Disunion if Christians had seriously made those reflections and had contented themselves with this scriptural and general Profession that the Word is God that the Holy Spirit or Inspiration and Power of God is God that these three the Father the Word and the Spirit are one and that there is but one God There may undoubtedly as I said be more implied in these Expressions or they may import otherwise than some Men or all Men are aware of Howbeit the Scripture being thus general seems to require indispensibly no more than this general Acknowledgement And therefore Protestants particularly owning that they are not to judge for one another can justly require no more for Terms of Union And then all Christians that are sincere cannot but be safe for sincerely believing the Scripture as Mr. Chillingworth somewhere observes they believe implicitely even those very Truths and Senses which perhaps they are somewhat short in For my part God is Witness I consider this Subject to the best of my Power and act and proceed sincerely herein howsoever I may sometimes differ from former Sentiments and be sometimes perplexed in my Thoughts But after the fullest consideration it seems to me it is not impossible that the Arian or Socinian Systems be true and yet not impossible but that that System also be true which by the Word and Holy Spirit understands God himself or the Acts and Properties of the Father tho' indeed it seems very improper to say God the Wisdom and God the Power Incontestably there is in God as was said a Divine Mind a Divine Wisdom and a Divine Will or Power Nevertheless even tho' by the Word in the beginning of St. John's Gospel should be understood the Divine Reason or Wisdom produced forth or shewn in the Old and New Creation there said therefore by a Figure to be Incarnate that is most intimately to dwell with and assist the Human Spirit of that Man who is the chiefest of God's Messengers it hinders not but that at the same time by the Word may be meant the Soul of the Messiah which for the

Vnitarians that there have been Vnitarians all along and that many of them were the most learned of their time Who for instance more learned than Theodotian Symmachus Paulus Samosatenus Lucianus and Origen Arius and Eusebius for these last as Arians or Semi-Arians may as well as the former be reck'ned Vnitarians Even from the 28th Chapter of the 5th Book of Eusebius his Ecclesiastical History it appears that at least a great Number of the Primitive Bishops and Churches were Vnitarians Justin Martyr owns Vnitarians for his Christian Brethren Colloq cum Tryphon Jud. P. 207. But by a Quotation in the aforesaid Chapter of Eusebius it appears the Vnitarians pretended they were all along in the first Century the greatest Number and had the Succession of Bishops in their Sentiment in the most considerable Places even till Popes Victor and Zepherin at the end of the second Century which doth not seem to be there disproved as it might then have been if it had not been true Origen owns the Jewish Christians were generally Vnitarians Contr. Cels. L. 2. P. 56. It appears that Theodoret doth the same Haeret. Fab. L. 2. C. 3. For the Jewish Christians especially were call'd Nazarens as well as Ebionites as appears Acts 24 5. Epiphan Haeres Naz. C. 1 Augustin de Haeres C. 9 10. St. Jerom. Epist ad August Thus it is own'd the Ebionites and Nazarens were no contemptible Vnitarians and they were thus nick-nam'd first by the unbelieving Jews and in like manner probably by the Heathens and afterwards by the platonizing Christians A few years after the Council of Nice the greatest part of Christians were Vnitarians In fine there have always been some Unitarian Christians in Asia and there are many Churches of them to this day in the Dominions of the Pagan and Mahometan Princes and even in Muscovy as well as in Transilvania in Hungary Solavonia and Illyricum IV. It is certain that all the Doctors that in the greatest part of the second Century were proselyted from Heathenism and that became the great ring-leaders were wholly devoted to not to say infatuated with Plato's Philosophy Even the Popish Criticks complain of it Huet Origenian L. 2. C. 2. And even some of them do insinuate what indeed cannot be doubted of that upon that account the Writings of the Primitive Vnitarians were destroy'd by the Trinitarians Vales. in Euseb L. 5. C. 11. Now all the unscriptural Terms which are us'd concerning the Trinity and which have caus'd all the Division being found in the Platonick Philosophers and so many of the Primitive Christians being avowedly Platonists it cannot be question'd or wonder'd from whence those Terms were brought in or which way came the alteration of Doctrine V. It cannot be denied but that about and since the Council of Nice the greatest Violences have been constantly used to suppress the Vnitarians It is not strange therefore if they have been driven out of many Places where the Governours persisted to persecute them Thus Protestants have been extirpated out of Spain Bohemia and in a great measure out of France VI. It seems incontestable that the Primitive Trinitarians or those commonly held such differed from those of the Council of Nice and their Followers and that these as well as the former differ from the present Scholasticks For the present Scholasticks assert that there is but one Divine Spirit and that the Son and Holy Ghost are eternal and necessary Persons equal to the Father The Nicene in their Creed say that the Son is God of God which implies distinct God of distinct God or a distinct God which title they give not to the Spirit Gregory Nazianzen says that many good Catholicks in his time would have been scandalized if in the religious Assemblies the Holy Spirit had openly been said to be God Orat. 20. The Great St. Basil says that God is not one in Number but only in Nature horrid Polytheism perfect Heathenism and too palpable a Demonstration of the Mischief of Platonism and of the then prodigious Alteration of the true Doctrine and with the current of the Doctors of those times he represents the three Persons as being as distinct Beings as three Men 141 Epist ad Caesariens Irenaeus teaches that the Father is greater than the Son Advers Haeres L. 2. C 49 and that besides the Father and the Son no other is of his own Person Lord or God L. 3. C. 9. Justin Martyr who owns that he and at least many Christians in the second Century ador'd and worshipped the Prophetick Spirit and the Host of the other good Angels together with God and his Son Apol. 2. P. 43 affirms that the Son had not a necessary Being but was voluntarily begotten of the Father that he is inferiour to him ministring to the Will of the Father Ibid. P. 221. that the unbegotten God or the Father doth not descend or ascend from any place neither is moved seeing he cannot be contain'd in any place but that this might be said from the beginning of the World of the Son who sais he by the Father's Will is a God and in the beginning before the Creation of the World was generated of the Father Ibid. P. 221 and 280. Accordingly Tertullian holds that there was a time when the Son was not Advers Hermogen C. 3. The Council which magisterially condemned the Doctrine professed by Paulus Samosatenus and his Party at Antioch at the same time decred that the Son is not of the same Essence with the Father as is even noted by Dalaeus in his Treatise De usu Patrum Lib. 1. Cap. 5. Thus by these very instances it appears that the Trinitarians have so much varied that a constant Tradition cannot be pleaded For these several reasons it seems that too great a stress should not be laid on the pretended Ecclesiastical Antiquity of this Sentiment but on the contrary that the chiefest Inquiry should be What appears most decisive in Scripture and Reason concerning the Points themselves that are controverted and concerning which it seems that the least that can be granted is that with relation to them we should keep in Terms of Vnion to the Generality of the Terms of Scripture If that should prove a Mistake yet it is very fit that so important a Matter should be most carefully consider'd and debated that the Errour may be evinc'd and confuted by those that may have the opportunity to do it But if this be no Errour the not considering of it cannot but be most pernicious wherefore I cannot but wish this were communicated to several learned Men in order to their giving their Opinion and Reasons concerning these things It seems that for any thing that appears to the contrary by the Father the Word and the Spirit in understanding them of God we may understand what the Vnitarians then understand thereby Namely God and the Divine Wisdom and the Divine Power or Divine Inspiration and that our Prayers are to be addressed to