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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	scripture_n	spirit_n	3,143	5	5.2045	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33770	Theophilus and Philodoxus, or, Several conferences between two friends the one a true son of the Church of England, the other faln off to the Church of Rome, concerning 1. praier in an unknown tongue, 2. the half communion, 3. the worshipping of images, 4. the invocation of saints / by Gilbert Coles.	Coles, Gilbert, 1617-1676.	1674 (1674)	Wing C5085; ESTC R27900	233,018	224

they shall represent God as a shadow doth the Sun God hath clearly reveal'd himself to us in his Holy Word and you have drawn a veil upon him by your Dysanalogical Images and Pictures you take from the People the Holy Scriptures and teach them by Pictures according to that memorable Saying of a Pope Pictures are Lay-mens Books But God is a Spirit saith our Blessed Savior and Men must worship him in Spirit and in Truth Joh. 4. 24. And ●o by your Pictures of God you determine the Worship and the Imagination of deluded People to the shadow and representation of a Body And because Man is the most excellent of all bodily and visible Creatures you have favor'd God with an human shape whereas the Heathen vile wretches worship him under the shape of an Ox that eateth grass Phil. If God was pleased to manifest himself in an human shape as you have heard Why may not we represent him so to the People Theoph. First there is a great mistake in those Apparitions of God in the Old Testament you make use of them to represent God the Father in a human shape whereas the Fathers generally hold that God the Son assumed those appearances and therefore they call'd them Praeludia Incarnationis the Prologues of his future Incarnation and so they cannot warrant your Picturing of God the Father But to come more close to our present purpose such Visions of God which we read of were transient cited only to the present purpose as in that of Daniel concerning the ancient of days it represented Gods dreadful coming to Judgment as you may read at large the 9 th Chapter Now you would make a standing Representation of God thereby to all ends and purposes whatsoever And again when the Prophet had his Vision it was also revealed to him what it signified otherwise an old Man with white garments and the hair of his head like wool could not have represented God to the Prophet It was no Image that did bear any Analogy or Resemblance of the Divine Nature or of any Person of the Trinity and therefore cannot be made use of by it self to represent God a 3. Dist 9. Qu. 2. Durandus a great School-man tells us Such Forms wherein God appeared in the Old Testament were not assumed into one Person with the Divine Nature as was the Humane Nature of Christ and when the present design was over they were laid aside as we put off our clothes And you may as well make a suit of Clothes the Image of a Man as these Forms the Image of God Suppose any Man should converse with you a day or an hour under a Vizar would he like it if you should take his Picture and the standing copy of his countenance from the Vizar When the Holy Scriptures mention the Eye of the Lord and the Mouth of the Lord his right Hand and his Holy Arm will you take these parts and set them together and make the Image of a Man to represent God and bring these Autorities of Scripture for your warrant This is a ready way to make our People Anthropomorphites to create in them an Imagination that God consists of Parts and Members as a Man and that his Image after which God made Man was imprinted in the Body In the Gatechizing of Youth we find it an hard work to take their minds off from such conceits notwithstanding all the help of Holy Scriptures which expresly declare That God is a Spirit and not flesh invisible and not a Body When we tell them that in such Expressions of Gods Eye and Hand and Mouth c. the Holy Ghost descends to our capacity and speaks of God after the manner of Men That he seeth all things without Eyes he maketh all things without hands for he spake the word and all things were made and yet the Heavens are call'd his handy-work and so the whole Creation because Man performeth several Operations by several Organs of the body therefore for our better apprehension these Members figuratively and by a Trope are ascribed to God altho he worketh all things by himself by the Almighty Power of his will and pleasure Now when we labor to explain these things unto the People they hardly sink into their hearts to take them off from terrene Cogitations of God and much more would they be confirm'd in such low conceits of the Divine Nature if they should constantly behold God pictur'd and worship him under an humane shape Phil. For no other end do we represent God under an humane shape but to descend unto vulgar capacities and our Priests can instruct them as well as you that God is an invisible Spirit Theoph. Such Images which you make of God are not Tropes and Figures to represent him to the minds of Men but real Representations to the Eye and so are apt in undiscerning Persons to improve the imagination that God is like unto us in our Earthly Members and for this cause among others he hath forbid such Images and you transgress the Commandment of God and endanger the Souls of deluded People in making and expressing such Pictures unto public view and adoration And it is worthy Observation That altho God would borrow a visible shape to appear unto a discerning Patriarch and a Prophet yet he would not do so when he would manifest his prefence to the whole Congregation of Israel he descended upon Mount Sinai in a Cloud in the voice of Thunder and he expresly makes the Observation to the People when he prohibited any likeness of God to be made Take ye therefore good heed unto your selves for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the Fire Deut. 4. 15. Phil. Your worthy Observations must not think to carry the cause against the Traditions and Determinations of the Church Theoph. I do not expect they should when the Commands of God do little move you However to keep others out of the snare we will not spare to represent the ill effects of your picturing God when you usually draw the Image of the Trinity after this manner An old reverend Man with a little Youth and a Dove to represent the Holy Ghost here you conceive you have given us the three Persons but where is the one Substance the one only true God These Images necessarily represent a diversity of Natures and of Substance as well as a distinction of Persons And when you make God the Father ancient and God the Son as an youth you sensibly confirm the Doctrine of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arrius who maintain'd That Christ the Son of God was yonger then his Father and that there was a time when the Son of God was net And therefore Abulensis a Cap. 4. Deut. qu 5. Erroris inductivae sunt cum periculo Idolatriae Herefis c. peremtorily determins against making Images of God or of the Holy Trinity

Patriarchs and Prelates Eutyches an Abbot and all these Broachers of Heresie And such Men of Learning and Reputation are likely to do much more mischief in seducing the People then some obscure and simple Phanatics And we have cause to fear that some Mercurial Wits beyond the Seas have laid the Scenes and come over Incognito in the mist of our Distractions and Troubles to act their parts and give Life and Motion to the Phlegmatic Humors of our Separatists who whil'st they dream of Popery and mightily declaim and fight against it are led by many of the Principals and Priests of the Church of Rome upon your account therefore wise Men should with-hold the Scripture rather from the Learned who are able to do most mischief then from the multitude But we affirm neither one nor the other That either Clerks or Pesants should be restrain'd from reading the Bible for their Instruction and Salvation out of a panic fear they should wrest and pervert them to their own destruction and others Every thing that is most useful may become pernicious Will you keep no Fire in your Chimney for fear you should burn your House Phil. a Loco praedict Bellarmine gives another considerable Argument That in the Holy Scriptures there are many seeming Contradictions which if the common People in reading should observe not knowing how to reconcile them they may be apt to question the Infallibility and Truth of the Scripture Theoph. These seeming Contradictions do not easily fall within the Observation of the vulgar but of the Learned and withal they ought to read the Holy Scriptures with veneration and due acknowledgment that they are the infallible Word of God and dictates of his Holy Spirit who cannot lye nor contradict himself and upon this ground when we apprehend any contradiction in Gods Word we must distrust our own Judgment and not question the truth of Holy Scripture in any place but our own apprehension and apply our selves to the Learned for reconciliation and better satisfaction But as to the other part of Bellarmines Assertion Is it possible any should conceive that the Holy Word of God should contribute to the corruption of Mens manners and debauch the Lives of such as study it Phil. Yes of the unwary Reader For he instanceth in that passage of the Canticles Cant. 1. 2. Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth And in another place Cant. 8. 3. His left hand should be under my head and his right hand should embrace me He instances in Davids Adultery and Thamars Incest in the Patriarchs Concubines Now the ruder sort may make ill use of such Expressions and Examples Theoph. And so may a carnal Priest Tit. 1. 15. For unto them that are defiled saith the Apostle nothing is pure but even their mind and conscience is defiled But unto the pure all things are pure And therefore in such cases evil unto him that thinks evil We ought to give unto Spiritual Songs a Spiritual sense and not a sensual Psal 51. Davids Adultery is recorded and his most signal Repentance the Vices of the Patriarchs together with their Virtues to shew they were Men of like Passions with us and subject to Infirmities And the whole design of Scripture tends unto our Sanctification and holiness of Life and therefore one would think may prove a sufficient Antidote against the Infection of such Examples and withal many who never read the Scripture may hear these Stories and not be so well fortified against them Bellarmine I know made himself mirth with a Story related as he saith by a credible Person a Loco cit supra audivi ab homine fide digno c. That a Calvinistical Minister of the Church of England reading the 25 th Chapter of Ecclesiasticus in the vulgar Tongue where much is spoken of the malice and wickedness of a Woman one of his hearers a Woman rose up and said Is this the word of God nay rather of the divel Whereunto I answer That perhaps the poor Wretch before the happy Reformation in England being kept more Romano in great ignorance of the Scriptures thought it strange to hear such passages against her Sex and was promted to Blaspheme whereas had she bin conversant in the Word of God she would have learn'd to Bless and nor Blaspheme to govern her Passion and rule her Tongue and to keep silence at the Church the Apostle not permitting her there to speak c Leo decimus qui dissolute respondit Cardinali Bembo Quantum nobis profuit haec fabula Christi satis est omnibus seculis notum Job Balaeus centuriâ 8 va illustrium scriptorum Britanniae pag 636. And withal the Pope who call'd the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ a Fable was the more notorious Blasphemer As for his taunt of a Calvinistical Minister of the Church of England he knew well that our worthy Reformers chose not Calvin for their Master We are bound to honor him for his great Learning and Labor in the Work of the Lord but not to subscribe in all Points unto his Doctrine or Discipline and yet without doubt John Calvin compar'd with Ignatius Loiola the Father of Bellarmines Order was a Saint Phil. These are Impertinencies to vent your spleen But what say you to Bellarmines next Consideration That if vulgar Translations be permitted they must be changed every Age with the Language of the Country and so there would never be an end of Translating and fit Men to undertake that great Work may probably be wanting Theoph. I say that Bellarmine wanted Modesty and Consideration to assert that which the Experience of all Ages contradicts namely That the vulgar Tongue of every Country changeth for the most part in the compass of an hundred Years whereas his most part must be contracted into some few Words and Phrases every Age refining but not changing or destroying the Language of a People Phil. The last Argument of Bellarmine is this That the Majesty of Divine Service and we may add of the Holy Scripture requires a more grave and venerable Language then is the vulgar And this part of his Argument I have already proposd but that which follows is considerable d Loco citato praesertim cum in Sacris Mysteriis multa sint quae fecreta esse debeant Especially seeing in Holy Mysteries many things there are which should be concel'd from vulgar apprehensions And this Pope Gregory the 7 th urgeth as a reason of his denial unto the request of the Duke of Bohemia that his Subjects might enjoy their public Service b Istudne est verbum Dei imo potius diaboli in the Sclavonian i. e. the vulgar Tongue a Ex hoc nempe saepe volventibus liquet non immerito sacram script omnipotenti Deo placuisse c. Bin. con Tom. 7. part 1. Ep. Greg. l. 7. Epist 11. Vpon due consideration saith he I have observ'd that Almighty God was pleased that the Holy

a Qui proprio sanguine laverunt si qua habuerunt peccata The Martyrs if they had any sins have washt them away with their own Blood The Blessed Apostle tells us 1 Joh. 1. The Blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all unrighteousness Immediatly before these words which Bellarmin quotes S. Ambrose hath this passage b Infirma est caro mens aegra ad Medici sedem non potest debile explicare vestigium The flesh is weak the mind sick and feter'd with the chains of sin and so we cannot creep to the Physician but must call upon the Angels and Martyrs c. Where do you read in H. Scripture that the sick to wit the sinner cannot come to Christ the Physitian did he not come to call sinners to invite the weary and heavy laden to come to him and find rest you shall hear other Fathers generally contradicting this Doctrine of Ambrose and the Holy Scripture much more yet this is the usual pretence for Saints Invocation and Intercession That we are unworthy of our selves to draw neer to an Holy God to put up our supplications to him of which more hereafter herein S. Ambrose contradicts what he hath piously commented upon the first chap. of the Epistle to the Rom. in the 4 chap. of his Commentary c Solent miserâ uti excusatione per istos posse ire ad Deum ut per Comites ad Reg. This is the miserable excuse saith he that by Angels and Saints we may have access to God being unworthy of our selves to come unto him as we go to the King by his Courtiers For which he answers d Ideo per Tribunos Comites itur ad Regem quia homo est c. Ad Deum a. promerendum qui omnium novit merita suffragatore opus non est sed mente devotâ Therefore we come to the King by his Tribunes and Officers because the King is a man and must receive information from others but to obtain the favor of God who knoweth all mens deserts we need no suffragants but a devout mind whensoever such a one calls upon Him he will answer him Nothing could be more directly oppos'd to your usuall plea for the Invocation of Saints The same Father in his book de Isaac Anima cap. 5 tells us from the third chap. of Canticles and the third vers e Anima quae Deum quaerit transit custodes enim sunt mysteria quae etiam Ang. concupiscunt videre That a Soul seeking God passeth by the keepers for there are mysteries which the Angels them selves desire to looke into Phil. Do you then follow S. Ambrose's direction in one place and I will take his advise in the other Bellarmin brings the testimony of many other Fathers of the later Ages of the Church and I must confess I am almost tired in following him especially seeing you so dextriously shift him off Gregory Nyssen speaks home to the point in the latter end of his Oration opon Theodorus a Martyr thus We want many benefits doe thou become our Legat with the King of Heaven Thou art not ignorant of humane necessities procure peace for us That we have bin safe and sound hitherto we ascribe it to thee If you want more assistance take in the quire of your Brethren the Martyrs The praiers of many Saints wash away the sins of Nations and People In the like manner he speaks in his Panegyricks of another Martyr Theoph. This is sufficient to your purpose you need look no further But I pray tell me do you take him for an Orator or Divine in these passages Is it possible he should in earnest ascribe the preservation of the Faithfull all along unto this Martyr hope for security from him for the future and never take into consideration the divine protection Is it good Divinity to say That the praiers of the Just wash away the guilt of Nations and People and never mention the Blood of Christ and his effectuall Intercession Phil. That is to be suppos'd as the principall the Blessed Saints may be instrumentall in these Blessings Theoph. What you suppose is one thing and what he expresseth another But it is neither good Philosophie nor Divinity to intitle the effect unto the Instruments and leave out the principall Agent Should I make such an harangue to an Artists Tooles give them all the honor of the excellent work he would reckon me besides my wits and himself put besides his due commendation praise Phil. You ask Questions instead of giving Answers But I have now concluded to favor you and not overlade you with innumerable testimonies The Authority of the later Fathers perhaps you will except against in this point Such as Bede and Anselme Bernard Damascene the Elder I have hitherto produc'd and yet there remaine two of the Greek Church and two of the Latin Church whose Authorities I will urge out of Bellarmin in confirmation of this point then I shall give you respite The Greek Fathers are Chrysostome and Theodoret the Latin Jerom and Augustin Theoph. You have made a noble choise herein you much oblige me whilst your wisdom and your zeal do prompt you to urge the most effectuall testimonies on your side that you determine to let the others passe which cheifly serve to fill up a number Phil. Bellarmin quotes an eminent passage out of a Homil. 66 ad pop Antioch Chrysostom but we easier find it in his 26 Homilie upon the second Epistle to the Corinthians from whence we suppose the Homilie was collected it is in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of that Homilie The words out of Chrysostom are these He that weareth purple goes and salutes the sacred bodies and laying aside his state b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. stands praying unto the Saints that they would appear before God in his behalf He that weareth the Diadem beesecheth the Tent-maker and Fisherman being dead to become his Advocates Theoph. This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a passage whereunto we find not a second like it in all the works of Chrysostom Bellarmine refers to other p●●ces of this Father but according to his accoustum'd manner without truth and reason It is strange therefore if he were of the opinion the practice in his daies was usual to pray to the Saints before their shrines that any where else he should not speak of it and therefore I must tell you that the originall Greek doth not altogether warrant Bellarmin's translation but equally admits another which will fall short of his proof For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well signifies standing in need of the Saints Intercession as praying for it and so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He wants their protection Now we may stand in need and may reap the benefit of the Saints supplications in Heaven for the people of God here on earth yet have no warrant to call upon