Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	father_n	place_n	worship_v	1,611	5	9.3694	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A17727	Three propositions or speeches, which that excellent man M. Iohn Caluin, one of the pastors of the Church of God in Geneua had there To which also is added, an exposition vpon that parte of the catechisme, which is appointed for the three and fortieth Sunday in number. Translated into Englishe, by T.VV.	Calvin, Jean, 1509-1564.; T. W. (Thomas Wilcox), 1549?-1608.	1580 (1580)	STC 4464; ESTC S121928	80,617	200

and yet notwithstanding there is some distinction And how is that thē thus it is because we are not able to comprehende that which is so high aboue all our vnderstanding and reason the auncient Doctors haue vsed the worde persons and haue saide that in God there are three persons Howe there are three persons in the Godhead not as wee speake in our common speache calling three men three persons or els as in the Popedom they will bee so bolde as to point three Puppets or Munkeyes and say Lo the Trinitie but this worde persons in this matter is vsed plainely to expresse and set out the proprieties that are in the essence of God The worde substance or as the Greekes speake Hypostasis is indeede more meete and conuenient because it is a worde of holy scripture and the Apostle vseth it in the first Chapiter of his Epistle to the Hebrewes when hee saieth Hebr. 1.3 that Iesus Christ is the liuely image and the brightnes of the glorie yea the image or ingraued forme of the substance or person of God his Father When he speaketh in that place of the substaunce or person of God hee meaneth not the essence or being but he speaketh of this proprietie which is in the father to wit that he is the fountaine of all thinges Gods word onely must be the rule of our faith in all pointes but specially in the article of the Trinitie But nowe let vs looke to their three substances or persons as we call them and marke howe they accorde and agree so farfoorth as God teacheth vs concerning them as I haue alreadie said for we must not at any hand go beyonde these boundes and limittes And therefore let vs haue an eye thereto so farforth as shal be requisite for the exposition of the place When men speake of God true it is that men of them selues are confounded and knowe not what to thinke or imagine sauing that they goe astraie in their owne cogitations and thoughtes Rom. 1.21 as Saint Paul saieth and thereupon it falleth out that they waxe thereof ouer proude through their owne prudencie and wisedome and therefore God also doeth in such sort punish them that they intangle them selues in suche horrible labyrinthes mazes that they can not at any hand come out But when we will suffer God to guide vs vnto him selfe by the holie scripture The Trinitie proued we shal know him so farforth as shal be necessarie and meete for vs. For we shal come to the father as to the fountaine of all thinges and then we can not conceiue or thinke vpon the father without his counsell and eternall wisedome besides there is a certaine vertue power that remaineth in him which we shall also perceiue and feele verie well Marke then howe we shall finde these three proprieties in the essence of God And this is that which Saint Iohn ment to saye in this place that that word was with God If there were not some distinction he could not speake so for that should be to speake vnproperly to say God was with him selfe So then let vs knowe that this worde hath some distinction and is indeed to be distinguished from the heauenly father Christ begotten from before all beginnings for it is that worde that was begotten from before all tyme seeing that God alwayes had his counsell and his wisdom And we must not for all that so much as imagine or thinke vpon a beginning for we may not say that God hath at any tyme beene without his vnderstanding counsell and wisedome So then wee must not sette aside and separate from God the proprietie of this worde as to say that we could iudge that there had bene some certaine tyme wherein it had not bene with God for this should be to make an idole of it The Trinitie destroieth not the vnitie neither doeth the vnitie infringe the Trinitie Gregor Nazi in sermo de sacro Basil as it were But as I haue saide the three persons are but one God and yet for all that we must distinguish them because there is a certayne and an assured distinction of them as is in this place declared And with al let vs remember an olde Doctours sentence which is verie worthie to be thought vpon because it is excellent I can not saith he thinke vpon these three proprieties that are set out vnto mee in God but that immediatly my vnderstandyng commeth backe againe to one and on the other side it is impossible for me to know one onely God but that I regarde and looke vpon all the three proprieties and see them distinguished in mine owne vnderstanding according to the light which is giuen me thereof in the holie scripture Beholde howe the faithfull shall knowe God knowing the father they will come to his wisedome who is this word of which there is spokē in this place they will come also incontinently to that vertue and power wherof we haue in parte saide somewhat And when they shall haue once knowne these three persons they will not any more straggle and wander hither and thither but they will come to this one and onely essence to knowe that there is no more but one onely God yea such a one and onely God indeede as hath in such sort created the worlde that he hath not left vndone any thing of all that which was requisite and necessary to accomplish our redemption Thus much then wee are to marke as concerning that which is saide that this worde was with God to wit The perfection of Gods workes that the Euangelist ment to separate Iesus Christ from all creatures and yet notwithstanding to declare vnto vs the distinction which is betwene him and the father Now he addeth that that word was God and this he doth the more fully and better to expresse that which hee ment Christ is very God to wit that Iesus Christ was not a thing created which had had a beginning but that he is our true and very God This place hath bene ill vnderstoode of some Read this with reuerence and iudgement and they haue also foolishly translated it as to say God was the worde for if we should say that God is the worde the father shoulde be no more God the holye Ghost should be no more God But S. Iohn ment to speake altogether the contrary to wit that this worde is God as if he should say that Iesus Christ in respect of his deitie and Godhead is of the same essence with the father So he shutteth not the father out from the deitie but declareth that there is no more but one onely essence in God and although there be a distinction betweene God and his worde yet must we alwayes come backe to this simple and plaine trueth that they are one God which we must worship Arius Nestorius c. It is true that the old heretikes trauailed verie sore to peruert this place to the end

that this Gospell is according to S. Iohn The Gospel is from Iesus Christe Iohn 7.16 too the ende we should know that it is not from a mortall man but that S. Iohn was onely the minister or meane thereof From whom then shall wee say that wee holde the Gospell From Saint Iohn or from Iesus Christe Certainly from Iesus Christe And in deede Iesus Christe vseth this maner of speach as to say that the doctrine is not his but that he preached it in the authoritie of God his father from whom it proceeded and all this is to the end that wee should beare so muche the more reuerence to this doctrine and that we shoulde not receiue it as a common thing but as the pure trueth of God which was preached and declared by his onely sonne S. Iohn then was indeede the meane or instrument that God vsed euen as a Penne that wil write in a mans hande but yet for all that wee must not receiue the Gospell which was written by him as from a mortall man Let vs nowe come to the Text. The worde saith he was in the beginning The purpose of Saint Iohn is too declare vnto vs how the sonne of god did not then beginne to bee when hee appeared or shewed himselfe in the worlde neyther yet that then he began onely too spread abroad his power in euery place Christ is very God from all eternitie for he was alredy from all time and before al time his power abroade alreadye in hymselfe and hee tooke it not from any other but that there was a power which was in the worde of GOD from the beginning which at the last was manifested and we know it now seeing Iesus Christ hath been sent into the world Wherefore S. Iohn mente too declare here that whē Iesus Christ came into the world he that cāe was our eternal God who also hath redeemed vs. But yet to the ende that wee may the better vnderstand the whole wee must particularly and by peecemeale marke the thinges that are here spoken The worde was in the beginning There is no doubte but that hee heere calleth the Sonne of God The woorde The reason is Why Christ is called the word because it is that very wisedome which hath alwayes byn in GOD and his Counsell and his power True it is that wee haue not in this place the thinges declared and set out as they are in their owne greatnesse and excellencie I meane euen as they are here propounded and set foorth vnto vs by S. Iohn For albeit that the spirite of God spake by his mouth yet so it is that he hath not yet declared and set foorth the matters vnto vs in theyr greatnesse and maiestie The Lord in setting out him self Christ to vs had respect to our weaknesse And heerein we derogate nothing from the spirite of God when wee say that he hath not fully and in perfection set out the thinges which are heere signified vnto vs for the holye Ghoste therein applieth him selfe vntoo our infirmitie and weakenesse And indeede yf wee should heare God speaking vnto vs in his maiestie it shold bee vtterly vnprofitable for vs because wee coulde comprehende or conceiue nothyng thereof So then because we be carnall hee must needes stut and stāmer as it were or else he woulde not be vnderstoode of vs. By this then we see that wee are too vnderstande that God is as it were become little and hath abased him self that he might declare hymselfe vnto vs And that so it is tell me how should it be possible to expresse what Gods maiestie is If we speake mens speach and wordes Is it not think you a farre vnequall measure S. Iohn then albeit he be the holy Ghosts instrument speaketh not of these matters according to their greatnes and yet notwithstanding hee speaketh in a speache whiche is as it were vnknowne to vs. And therefore wee must conclude that the secretes which are conteined in this place are not so openly and plainly declared as that wee are able too vnderstand the same in such sort as we vnderstand the matters of the worlde but let vs content our selues with that which is heere simply declared vntoo vs God hath in his worde reuealed sufficient for his children for our Lorde knewe that which was sufficient for our good and hee applied hymselfe vntoo vs and our infirmitie in suche sorte that hee hath not forgotten or omitted any thing which was good and profitable for vs to know So let vs learne to keepe vs faste too this puritie and simplicitie of his doctrine considering how the worlde in this behalf hath been fouly abused by foolish imaginations and vaine speculations and by a certayne diuelish boldnesse For when the question hath beene to handle these matters men haue ouerwhelmed themselues in asmuch as they ment besides the reuelation of of the doctrine to search out with a certaine curiositie and boldnesse the eternall essence and beyng of Almightie God as a man in the Papacie shall heare disputations that are made thereof euen as if men disputed of a flocke of Gotes or I knowe not whereof They haue no more reuerēce to God thē to a beast Now we neede not seeke out a better witnesse against the doctrine of the Sophisters of Sorbone to knowe that the Diuell raigneth there Sorbone is the name of the place wher the brotherhood of the Sorbonistes doe yet remanine to this day in Parris and hath alwayes raigned there thē this And this I say that albeit theyr doctrine were not false yet so it is that when men see they haue so little reuerence and regarde to Gods maiesty wee must needes say that it is a diuelishe doctrine euen that I meane which is at this day practised by the Sophisters and Sorbonistes in all the Popes Colledges So then let vs as I haue saide content our selues with that simplicitie which is declared vnto vs by the holy spirite for he toucheth and speaketh of that which is good and profitable for our saluation and as I haue already declared hee hath heere brought and deliuered vnto vs that which was meete and fit for vs to know Iames. 1.17 ●●man 11.29 Let vs come nowe to this true woorde When S. Iohn calleth Iesus Christe That worde it is as if he should say the eternall counsell of God or the wisdome that remayneth in him Notwithstanding we must marke that GOD is not like to men when wee haue a Counsell it may alter and chaunge but it is not so with GOD for that which is in GOD is vnchaungeable Though man be wauering yet God is constant Besides the counsell which wee haue is not our very Essence or substance but the counsell which is in God is verily and truely God for God is not as a vaile or couerture wher there are shadowie places as Saint Iames vseth this similitude Iames 1.17 we are as a shadowe that flitteth vp down