Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A50303
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Tri-unity, or, The doctrin of the Holy Trinity asserted in a discourse on 2 Cor. XIII. XIV / by Isaac Mauduit ...
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Mauduit, Isaac.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing M1334; ESTC R32420
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18,315
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57
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an Innumerable company of Angels but much more to walk in the love of all the Divine Persons when they come to Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant and to God the Judge of all Heb. 12.23 24. It is ground of Faith and much Support that in their Addresses Believers can go to the Father Son and Holy Ghost feeling the Grace of the Lord Jesus the Love of the Father and Fellowship with the Holy Spirit Tasting the Love of God in bestowing his Son and admiring the Redeemer's Grace in giving himself Christians ought to testifie their Love to each Person in the Glorious Trinity By fearing to Offend being cautious of not provoking the Father who is a Consuming Fire also not to displease our God and Saviour according to the ancient Charge Exod. 23.21 Beware of him obey his voice provoke him not for he will not pardon your Transgressions For my Name is in him Also dreading lest we should grieve the Holy Spirit or quench his Motions Thess 5.19 By discharging Duty from a Principle of Love to all the Three Persons If any love me he will keep my Words By giving Glory to them all Being duly affected with their particular Goodness We are Baptized in their Names and should ascribe Praise and Honour to the Father Son and Holy Ghost Our Love ought to terminate on God more for what he is in himself than for his Benefits to us 3. Our Assurance has for its Object all the Three Persons waiting to be Sealed or to have their Ratification of our Evidences St. John declares That all the Saints shall partake of Eternal Life and hereof there are three Witnesses in Heaven the Father Son and Holy Ghost 1 Joh. 5.7 All these three do affix their Seal to this Record Altho' if we are certain of the Love of the one we need not doubt the Affection of them all Yet this ensurance the Faithful may humbly expect to be enjoy'd by a direct Beam darted into the Soul helping them in Prayer to cry Abba Father or after Self-Examination assisting them to conclude I am my Beloved's and my Beloved is mine The Soul cannot boast in the Lord nor triumph in him till it be satisfied of a Covenant-Interest in all the Persons 8. Observe the distinct acts of Office undertaken by the Trinity for the benefit of the Saints e. g. 1. In Conversion the Father Begets Calls Draws no Man can come to Christ except the Father draw him The Lord Jesus receives Sinners viz. Such whose Souls the Father gave him These shall come unto him and none else Nor will he cast off any that come unto him The Holy Spirit he Unites God Christ and the Soul or is the Bond of Union betwixt Believers and their Mystical Head Baptizing them all into one Body 2. In Duties performed by the Faithful each Glorious Person is particularly concerned e. g. 1. In Hearing we hear the Truth of God the Father The Gospel hence is called A Mystery hid in God from many Ages The Lord Jesus who sits upon the Throne he opens the Book of the Heavenly Councils for this he is stiled The Word of God or Interpreter of the Father's Mind as words discover our Conceptions By virtue of his Priesthood as he is the Lamb Slain he opens the Book Rev. 5.9 There is not a Truth discover'd but it cost the Blood of Christ Thou art worthy to take the Book and to open the Seals for thou wast Slain and hast Redeemed us to God by thy Blood Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ Meritoriously Joh. 1.17 The Blessed Spirit he applies the Eye-Salve to grant us an Understanding of what is Revealed and ingrafts the Word in our Hearts 2. In Prayer God the Father is addressed to to him we look up saying Our Father Not but that Christ and the Spirit may be Prayed to as well as Believed on being equally God But from the distinct Offices of these Blessed Persons we therefore Supplicate God as the Object and hearer of our Petitions We regard the Son as our Advocate and the Holy Ghost as an Intercessor in us The Spirit Indites our Requests and Jesus Presents them with his own Odours Rev. 8.3 And here Note These distinct Offices of the Trinity are only during the administration of Christ's Mediatory Kingdom When that is finished the Father will draw none to Christ The Son will Offer no Sacrifice unto God the Holy Ghost will no longer assist Sanctisie or Seal us in this Life but Grace shall be perfect and the ends of the Covenant be attained Till the Restitution of all Things peculiar Glory redounds to each Divine Person by these Offices The Father reconciles the World to himself The Son took the form of a Servant to purchase Eternal Life therefore he is Glorified in his People's Hearts The Blessed Spirit begins the work of Grace and perfects it All saving habits are Fruits of the Spirit and for this he is distinctly Adored The Hearts of Saints are Ravished with the Love Goodness and kind Offices of the Glorious Trinity Rev. 1.4 5 6. God doth not barely aim at the Glory of his Essence but at an exalting the Excellency of the Persons as well as at the admiring the Attributes of the Deity Rev. 4.8 They rest not day and night saying Holy holy holy By a constantly repeated Acclamation they acknowledge One God and confess him also to be Three Persons FINIS Books Printed for John Dunton at the Raven in the Poultrey 1. PRoposals for a National Reformation of Manners Humbly offered to the Consideration of our Magistrates and Clergy To which is added I. The Instrument for Reformation II. An Account of several Barbarous Villanies detected by the Society for Reformation As the same have been Sworn before two of Their Majesties Justices of the Peace As also the Black Roll containing the Names and Crimes of several hundred Persons who have been lately Prosecuted for Whoring Drunkenness Sabbath-breaking The whole Published by the Society for Reformation Price 6 d. 2. A Narrative of the late extraordiry Cure in an Instant wrought upon Mrs. Elizabeth Savage Lame from her Birth without the use of any Natural Means with the Affidavits which were made before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor and the Certificates of several Credible Persons who knew her both before and since this Cure Enquir'd into with all its Circumstances by Noted Divines both of the Church of England and others and by Eminent Physicians of the Colledge and many Persons of Quality who have express'd their full Satisfaction With an APPENDIX attempting to prove that Miracles are not ceas'd Price 6 d. 3. This is to give Notice That it was design'd that no Persons who did not Subscribe to the 2 d. 3 d. and 4th Volumes of the French Book of Martyrs c. which with the First lately Publish'd compleat the Work by the 24th of December last should have had any Advantage by the Proposals made concerning it but at
imperfect Traditions concerning this Truth the great Eastern Maxim which Pythagoras brought from thence into Greece touching God that he was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 One and many is conceiv'd to be a Notion borrow'd from the Jews The Platonists had some Sentiments of the Three Persons whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Trinity The first they named 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-being the Good the Father The Second Person they styled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Mind the Word the Begotten the Framer The Third they entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Soul of the World These dim Notices of a Trinity were perhaps derived from the Jews to these Philosophers by the Phaenicians or Egyptians but none of the Heathen had a true sound Apprehension of the Trinity Their Conceptions were mixt with many Errours they never attain'd to a knowledge of the Eternal Production of the Divine Word One Verse of the Evangelist is unconceivably more clear than all their Writings John 1.1 In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God By Natural Light we cannot fully understand what relates to Religious Worship far less can we hereby distinctly apprehend the Essence Nature and Subsistence of the Most High The dim Light of Nature could not have taught us that the Tree of Life should be a Sacrament to Adam when in Paradise Neither did this instruct the Jewish Church what Creatures were Ceremonially Clean or impure nor did Natural Reason acquaint them that the Priest hood should settle in the Family of Levi and not in another Tribe The Light of Nature doth not inform us in all Things respecting the Moral Law there were secret Irregularities which St. Paul did not perceive when a Pharisee though by his Education he was very expert in the Letter of the Law Rom. 7.7 I had not known Lust except the Law had said Thou shalt not covet The Light of Nature is much weaken'd by the Fall it s become faint and miserably defective and is an imperfect Guide in Moral Duties To cry up the Law written in our hearts is a disparaging of the Law recorded in the holy Scriptures It is the setting up of an expiring Snuff in the Socket yet at the same time to reject the Sun's Meridian brightness The Law of Nature since Adam's Apostacy is so blotted as that it doth not detect the smallest part of the Corruption of the Heart How then should it reveal God unto us The Doctrin of the Gospel is doubtless a grand Mystery but what Truth is a greater secret than the Article of the Trinity No Man can comprehend it and Angels above Adore it Would it then deserve the Character of a Mystery if the dim Light of an unrenewed Conscience or the Conduct of Nature could make it manifest 4. Labour to apprehend a little the difference betwixt Essence and Person in the holy Trinity Essence is a Nature not existing before the Persons or without them common to them and the same in them Or it is the very Divinity which is individually and wholly in each Person Hence the Essential Properties belonging to the Father Son and Holy Ghost as Wisdom Power Holiness Justice Goodness Eternity are one and the same numerically A Person is a Subsistence in the Divine Nature which though related to others yet is distinguish'd from them by an incommunicable Property So we conceive the Son asbegotten and the Holy Ghost as proceeding from the Father and the Son Though these Three glorious Persons are distinct yet they are not separated because the Divine Nature is Infinite not capable of being divided into parts existing wholly in each Person Whereas the Nature of Men or Angels is not only in each individual but partly in one and equally in another 5. Observe a double distinction not diversity in the glorious Persons of the Trinity 1. Outward taken from the external Works of God e. g. The Father sent the Son into the World the Son being sent became the Redeemer and the blessed Spirit is the Sanctifier Tho one and the same God effecteth all these Things the Actions of the Trinity which are terminated on the Creature being undivided Greg. Naz. expresses this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I no sooner conceive of One but the glorious Trinity present themselves to my Mind in a dazling Splendor Neither can I apprehend a Trinity of Persons but immediately my Thoughts center in the Vnity of the Godhead 2. Inward caused by their intrinsick Proprieties or Operations The noble Acts performed by God without any Creature are peculiar to one Person of the Trinity Opera Trinitatis ad intra sunt divisa For instance The Propriety of the Father is this That He existing from Eternity neither begotten nor made yet did beget an Eternal Son of the same Substance with himself The Propriety of the Holy Ghost is this That being neither created nor begotten yet he eternally and inseparably Proceedeth from the Father and the Son The peculiarity of the Word consists herein That although he were not formed or made yet He from Everlasting was begotten from the Father existing in and of himself as God but from the Father considered as a Son As Light is begotten by the Sun in the Firmament so Christ is from the Father another Person or the Second in the Order of the Trinity but one and the same with his Father as God On which account Naz. speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Reverential Silence is more becoming us than over-free Discourfes of the Birth of a God it is sufficient to understand that the Redeemer is the only begotten Son of God The Lord Jesus considered absolutely is Jehovah subsisting of himself but Relatively the Father may be styled his Principle therefore our Saviour is said John 3.35 To receive all things from his Father Hence the School-men say The Son is by himself not from himself St. Hilary notes Data a Patre non infirmant Divinitatem Christi sed affirmant His Father's Grant doth not lessen his Divine Excellency And St. Aug. to this purpose declares Christus ad se Deus dicitur ad Patrem Filius dicitur In himself he has the Character of God but with regard to the Father is styled his Son This internal Difference between the three Persons is not Essentially as betwixt the Creatures which have all their proper and determinate Essence but one and the same Nature is in the Father in the Son and in the Holy Ghost the whole whereof the Father Communicates to the Son and both Father and Son do the like to the Holy Spirit It is not a meer conceived Difference Father Son and Holy Ghost are not bare Thoughts or Words alone Nor respective as the same Man in different accounts may be a Father and a Son But this Distinction is real tho Incomprehensible either Person having his peculiar description with an incommunicable Property of Subsistence and varies from another not in Essenee