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	trinity_n	7,211	5	10.1332	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75616	Armilla catechetica. A chain of principles; or, An orderly concatenation of theological aphorismes and exercitations; wherein, the chief heads of Christian religion are asserted and improved: by John Arrowsmith, D.D. late master both of St Johns and Trinity-Colledge successively, and Regius professor of Divinity in the University of Cambridge. Published since his death according to his own manuscript allowed by himself in his life time under his own hand.	Arrowsmith, John, 1602-1659.	1659 (1659)	Wing A3772; Thomason E1007_1; ESTC R207935	193,137	525

word but my reason cannot fathome Whilest others run themselves on ground and dispute it till their understandings be non-plust may I be enabled to beleeve what Scripture testifieth concerning an unbegotten Father an onely-begotten Son and an Holy Spirit proceeding from both Three yet but One and therein to acquiesce without enquiring as Mary did when the Angel foretold her miraculous conception How can this thing be To which question my return should be no other but that of Austine who notwithstanding his fifteen books concerning the Trinity modestly said Askest thou● me Nescio libenter nescire profiteor August serm de tempore 189. how there can be Three in One and One in Three I do not know and am freely willing to profess my ignorance herein Verily this light is dazling and our eyes are weak It is a case wherein the wisest clerks are punies and the ablest Oratours infants § 6. Yet is the mystery it self written in Scripture as it were with the Sun-beams I reject not as invalid but onely forbear as less evident the places commonly cited out of Moses and the Prophets choosing rather to insist upon New-testament discoveries when the vail which formerly hid the Holy of Holies from mens sight was rent in pieces and the secrets of heaven exposed to more open view then whilest the Church was in her minority At our Saviours baptisme there was a clearer manifestation of the Trinity then ever before as if God had reserved this discovery on purpose to add the greater honour to his onely Sons solemn inauguration into the office of Mediatour-ship which was then most visibly undertaken Who so casts his eye upon the third chapter of the Gospel according to Luke will quickly discern the Father in an audible voice heard but not seen This is my beloved Son in whom I am well Vers 21 22 23. Voce Pater Na●us flumine Flamen ave pleased The word made flesh now in the water receiving baptisme and after praying so both heard and seen The Spirit like a Dove descending and resting upon Christ seen but slot heard Insomuch as the Catholicks were wont in the times of Athanasius to send the misbeleeving Arians to Jordan there to learn the knowledge of a Trinity § 7. Behold after this a clear nomination of the three coessential Persons in that commission which Christ our Lord sealed to the Apostles before his ascension in the end of the Gospel according to Matthew when he sent them out to make disciples in all Nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Who can but see a Trinity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil epist 78. here How can any who by vertue of this institution hath been baptized refuse to beleeve it It becomes us saith Basil to be baptized as we have been taught to beleeve as we have been baptized to glorifie as we have beleeved the Father the Son and the holy Spirit This the great Apostate Julian was not a little sensible of wherefore considering that he could not fairly disclaim the Trinity till he had renounced his baptisme he took the bloud of beasts offered in sacrifice to the heathen Gods as Nazianzen tells Nazian Orar. 1. aduers Juliar circa medium us from the report of his own domestical servants and bathed himself therein all over so as much as in him lay washing off the baptisme he had formerly received Add hereunto that impregnable place which hath hitherto and will for ever hold out against all the mines and batteries of hereticks in the first epistle of John There are three that bear witness in heaven 1 Joh. 5. 7. the Father the Word and the holy Spirit and these three are One. Where a Trinity is proclaimed both in numero numerante there are three and in numero numerato telling us plainly who they are Father Word and holy Spirit And that the same Essence is common to them all For these three are One. § 8. Yet is there a late generation of men commonly known by the name of Socinians who although they maintain against Atheists the Personalitie and Eternitie of God the Father have confounded Christian Religion by denying the Eternitie of the Son whose Personalitie they acknowledge and the personalitie of the Spirit whose Eternitie they confess Methinks it fares with these three blessed Persons as with those three noted wells of which we reade in the twenty sixth of Genesis Two of them Isaacs servants were enforced to strive for with the herdmen of Gerar which made him call the one Esek that is contention the other Sitnah that is hatred A third they got quiet possession of and he called the name of it Rehoboth saying Now the Lord hath made room for us The Fathers Godhead is like the well Rehoboth which there was no strife about the Sons divinity like the well Esek we are forced to contend for that as also for the Deity of the Spirit which is as Sitnah to the Socinians they hate the Exerc. 4. thoughts of it much more the acknowledgement But can any man say by the Spirit of God that the Spirit is not God Is it not as clear by Scripture-light that Christ is God as by Natures light that God is Are they Christians and Spiritual who denie the divinity of Christ and the Spirit Let the judgement of charity enjoy its due latitude but for my part I would not for a thousand worlds have a Socinians account to give at the end of this EXERCITATION 4. Divine Attributes calling for transcendent respect They are set down in the Scripture so as to curb our curiositie to help our infirmity to prevent our misapprehensions and to raise our esteem of God Spiritual knowledge superadding to literal clearness of light sweeteness of taste sense of interest and sinceritie of obedience NExt to the Essence and Subsistence of God his Attributes are to be considered concerning which I premise this rule § 1. The degrees of our respect are to keep proportion with degrees of worth in persons and things ordinary worth requiring esteem eminent calling for reverence supereminent for admiration yea and adoration too if it be an uncreated object Hence the Psalmist upon contemplation of God crieth out as in an extasie O Lord our Lord how excellent Psal 8. 1 and 9. is thy Name in all the earth His Attributes are his Name their worth so superexcellent as far to transcend the utmost pitch of that observance which we poor we are able any way to render Seeing as the stars of heaven disappear and hide their heads upon the rising of the Sun that out-shineth them so creatures seem not to be excellent yea not to be when the being and excellency of their Maker displayeth it self according to that All nations before Isai 40. 17. him are as nothing and they are counted to him less then nothing and vanity The best of them have but some perfections

4. Surgit amari aliquid quod in ipsis floribus angat That is Some bitter thing from midst of sweetness breeds And that which vexeth from the flowers proceeds § 4. This God doth for divers good ends and purposes As first to manifest his wisdome in compounding passages of Providence so as one shall qualifie another prosperity allay the sowreness of adversitie this asswage the swellings of that As the painters skill appears in tempering bright colours and dark shadows the cooks in mingling sweet tart ingredients the musicians in raising harmony out of discords Oratours in making up curious Librat in Antithetis sentences by a fit opposition of contrarieties II. To magnifie his goodness The frame of our spirits is such that if prosperitie were continued without interruption we should be apt to swell and presume if adversitie without intermission to sinck and despair Our weakness such that we should never give a due estimate to blessings were we not sometimes taught by experience what it is to be under pressures We learn by sickness to prize health by restraint to value libertie A calm is much more pleasing to us after a tempest and the shining forth of the Sun after an elipse It is therefore an act of much mercy in God thus to intermingle favours crosses lest by a constant course of the former we should grow wanton and effeminate or by continuance of the latter sottish and stupid III. To keep up and maintain his respect in the world God will be known to be the Sovereign Lord of all persons and things the great disposer of all affairs in such a way as seemeth best to himfelf therefore gives out blessings and crosses interchangeably so as man shall be at no certainty what to expect but live in a constant dependance on him who keeps the disposal of prosperity and adversity in his own hands to the end that man should finde nothing certain but this that there is a great uncertainty of future events Wherefore § 5. First take notice from hence what we are to look for in our pilgrimage here viz. vicissitudes and changes from one condition into another If Solomon had no where said There is a time to weep and a time to laugh experience Eccles 3. 4. would soon have forced us to acknowledge that our whole course is chequered with prosperity and adversitie that most of a Christians drink in this life is Oxymel most of his food Bitter-sweets Whilest Israel marched throughout the wilderness the blackest night had a pillar of fire and brightest day a pillar of cloud so in this world things never go so well with the Israel of God but that they groan under some affliction never so ill but that they have some comfort afforded them Secondly Learn to maintain in our selves a mixture of affections suitable to this mixture of Divine dispensations Rejoyce with trembling Leaven and Honey were both excluded under the Psal 2. 11. Levit. 2. 11. Law from offering by fire Leaven for its excessive soureness Honey for its excessive sweetness To shew saith Ainsworth that in Saints there should neither be extremity of grief nor of pleasure but a mediocrity We should be carefull in time of prosperity to fear affliction with a fear of expectation though not of amazement with such a fear as may cause preparation but no discouragement Look at a very fair day as that which may prove a weather-breeder and usher in storms On the other side in time of adversity hope for refreshment The Psalmist did so Psal 42. 7. 8. Nemo considat nimiùm secundis Nemo desperet meliora lapsus Sen. Trag. All thy waves are gone over me yet the Lord will command his loving-kindeness Thirdly Observe the difference that is between this present and that other world Dying Aristotle is reported to have said I rejoyce that I am now going out of a world of contraries This indeed is so But that which dying men go into is without such mixture All tears shall be wiped from the Saints eyes impenitent sinners shall have judgement without mercy Briefly in this militant Church as in the Ark of old There is a rod and a pot of manna Here upon earth we have little Manna without some rods little welfare without some sharp affliction few Rods without some Manna not many afflictions without some measure of consolation whereas in Heaven there is nothing but Manna in Hell nothing but Rods or Scorpions rather § 6. IV. Keep we our selves in a frame of cheerfulness that we may be alwaies prepared in the day of prosperity to rejoyce This will appear a duty which we are bound to I. Because God doth not onely approve and like it He loveth a cheerfull giver so a cheerfull thanks-giver 2 Cor. 9. 7. and worshipper Nehemiah was afraid Nehem. 2. 2. to be seen sad in the kings presence Mordechai durst not go into the court gates with his sack-cloth on dejected Esther 4. 2. looks and the sack-cloth of an uncheerfull carriage do ill become the servant of the king the followers of the court of heaven But also require and command it Serve the Lord with gladness Psal 10● 2. The Jews of old were commanded to rejoyce in their solemn feasts Deut. 16. 14. 15. which were accordingly to be kept in the most cheerfull seasons The Pass-over at the first ripening of corn Pentecost at the first reaping and the Feast of Tabernacles at the end of Harvest II. Because Jesus Christ was anoynted to give us the oyl of joy for mourning Isa 61. 3. and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness He himself indeed was anoynted with the oyl of gladness above his fellows but such as are received into fellowship with him should and shall if the fault be not in themselves partake with him in some degree of the same unction III. Because the Spirit of Christ is a spirit of cheerfulness His two first fruits mentioned Galat. 5. 22. are Love and Joy Yea when it is said Grieve not Ephes 4. 30. Sanctam hilaritatem admitte Nè quis nimio moerore magnum illum hospitem ossendat Heins in locum the holy spirit of God Heinsius thinketh this to be part of the meaning Be cheerfull after an holy manner Let none offend that great guest the spirit of God by overmuch sadness And Drusius telleth us in the Preface to his Praeterita of an usual saying among the Hebrews Spiritum sanctum non residere super hominem moestum that the holy Ghost is not wont to reside upon a sad-spirited man IV. Because our adversary the Devil being a melancholy spirit himself delighteth in our sadness The prince of darkness loves to see the servants of God in a dark condition He is gratified and gets advantage by our uncheerfulness Therefore Paul writeth to his Corinthians concerning the incestuous person that upon his repentance they would comfort him and prevent

deceived Rev. 20. 10. them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever § 3. Thirdly Deep things of God of the divine Essence and Will concerning which the Apostle saith The 1 Cor. 2. 10. Spirit searcheth all things yea the deep things of God Things which the clearest understandings of men and Angels entertain with amazement we cannot but bewray our balbutiencie when we treat of One in Three and Three in one such a mysterious gulf is the Trinitie so when we discourse either of the Personal Union or the Theandrical acts of Christ And no wonder seeing we meet with such secrets and depths even in Gods revealed Will The greatest divines have acknowledged many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Things hard to be understood yea diverse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 knots that cannot be untied till there either come further light into this world or we be translated into a better Such as every modest christian will be readie to say of as the learned Cajetan did concerning the reason of that difference which in the Hebrew Text is observable betwixt the title of Psalm 121. and those other Psalms of Degrees Reservo Spiritui Sancto I reserve the solution of this and that doubt to the holy Spirit For to him and the other Divine Persons such things are no riddles though to us they be dark and Enigmatical yea perhaps unsearchable Although we ever and anon meet with cause of crying out as Saint Paul once did How unsearchable Rom. 11. 33. are his judgements and his waies past finding out Let us alwaies remember and believe that of St. James known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the Act. 15. 18. world § 4. Well may the prudent consideration of what hath been said concerning the depth of Divine Omniscience put the wisest of men in minde of their Nescience keep them from leaning to their own understandings and give them just occasion to think of an answer to Zophars question What canst thou know If the secrets of nature do so puzzle thee what canst thou know concerning those much greater secrets of grace and glory of which Luther Quid si philosophia haec non capit fides tamen capit major est verbi Dei authoritas quam nostri ingenii capacitas major Sp. Sanctus quàm Aristoteles Luther de captivit Babylonic● Psal 147. 5. very excellently Philosophy receives them not faith doth The authority of Scripture is greater by far then the capacity of our wit and the Holy Ghost then Aristotle Well may the depth of Divine understanding which the Psalmist saith is infinite Great is the Lord and of great power his understanding is infinite cause us to reflect upon the shallowness the finiteness yea the folly of our own For if the foolishness of God be wiser then men as the Apostle telleth us it is 1 Cor. 1. 25. what is his wisdome Add if the wisdome of this world be foolishness with God 1 Cor. 3. 19. what is its folly No wonder if one learned man wrote a book of the vanity Cornel. Agrip. of Sciences others of the Nullity Anton. Verderius Franc. Zanch. M. D. Hoc unum scio quod nihil scio Socrates Quo magis studiis incumbimus eò magis nos videre quàm nihil scimus Ap. Jo. Bevoricium Epist quaest p. 86. Quod nihil scitur If the wise heathen profest the onely thing he knew was this that he knew not any thing at all If Frier Paul of Venice the judicious author of that excellent history of the Councel of Trent was wont to say The more we studie the more we see how little or nothing we understand yea if more knowing men then any of these abounded in acknowledgements of their own ignorance Asaph So foolish was I and ignorant Psal 73. 22 Prov. 30. 23. I was as a beast before thee Agur Surely I am more brutish then any man and have not the understanding of a man I neither learned wisdome nor have the knowledge of the holy So true is that of our great Apostle If any man think that he knows any thing he 1 Cor. 8. 2. knows nothing yet as he ought to know § 5. Next followeth the third dimension which is Longitude in this expression The measure thereof is longer then the earth For the better stating whereof let it be considered that whereas the word here translated Measure relateth not to extension onely but also to duration and the earth hath a double longitude one of space the other of continuance which the Scripture taketh special notice of in other texts as in that of Ecclesiastes One generation Eccles 1. 4. passeth away and another generation cometh but the earth abideth for ever I conceive the latter may here be alluded to viz. the earths long continuance as in some low proportion fit to resemble that everlasting duration of God which cannot be adequately represented by any creature Sure I am by the Ancient of days in Daniel the eternal Dan. 7. 9 13. Jehovah is described by length of Prov. 3. 16. days in wisdomes right hand of which in the Proverbs many Interpreters understand the blessings of Eternity And this very place of Job is expounded by Gregory in this sense His words are Terrâ longior quia creaturae modum perennitate Greg. Moral lib. 10. cap. 7. suae Aeternitatis excedit All creatures had an original all but some few shall have a dissolution Of the Creatour and of him onely is that of the Psalmist verified From everlasting Psal 90. 2. to everlasting thou art God He gave beginning Principium sine p●incipio finis sine sine to all things but was himself without a beginning is the end for which all things were made but himself without end The best of men alas are but of yesterday and know not where they shall be to morrow according to that of Bildad We are but Job 8. 9. of yesterday and know nothing because our days upon earth are a shadow His being God from everlasting to everlasting should encourage us to walk in the way everlasting having this everlasting consolation Psal 139. last 2 Thess 2. 16. and good hope through grace that he will save us with an everlasting salvation because he wanteth neither power to Isa 45. 17. effect it for his strength is everlasting Isa 26. 4. nor will for his mercy is so too as David testifieth The mercy of the Lord is Psal 103. 17. from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him § 6. The more to blame were some overweening sons of Adam for daring to assume unto themselves and ascribe to other persons and things this incommunicable perfection of God Of old the heathenish people of Rome were wont to style their Emperours yea and their city Eternal Concerning