Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	line_n	page_n	read_v	3,449	5	9.8327	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30563	An account of the Blessed Trinity argued from the nature and perfection of the Supream Spirit, coincident with the Scripture doctrine, in all the articles of the Catholick Creeds; together with its 1 mystical 2 fœderal 3 practical uses in the Christian religion, by William Burrough rector of Chynes in Bucks.	Burrough, William, b. 1639 or 40.	1694 (1694)	Wing B6058B; ESTC R214160	72,062	76

subsist otherwise than in three if we will venture to follow our own reason we must conclude there is a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead or else he is not absolutely perfect but if we find the plain expressions of the Scripture agree to this Conception in all the branches of it as friends and foes confess they do we cannot then without unreasonableness unbelief and immodesty continue our doubtfulness any longer Now this Coincidence of the Light of Nature with the Scripture in all points gives us the compleat evidence of this Doctrine 5. The Mystery of this Doctrine I have satisfied in the Book by dividing the Question of the Trinity into its two parts and shewed what belongs to the Natural Inquiry and what belongs to the Christian Mystery And therefore need say no more here than that no one can more acknowledge the Mystery of the Christian Faith in this point than is here taught which as such is wholly and solely of Scripture revelation But it is manifest that the other part belongs to the condition of the Divine Nature and so is of Natural Divinity and is a branch of the Theory of a Spirit If it may then appear by Nature that the Subsistence of a thing in the World is not more really its very self than it is the very Subsistence which the same thing has in the Divine Conception then it will also appear that the Divine Conception in this particular is of absolutely perfect truth and the Divine Mind thus Conceiving is a Being of absolute perfection This being evident it will follow from the condition of the Spiritual Nature that the Supream Spirit himself Subsists in three equally perfect and really distinct Hypostasies And is one God therefore and three Persons and whether all this be so or not is of Natural disquisition 6. And by this we may see why the Antients argued the Trinity only from Scripture Authority and made use but sparingly of the reason of the thing Because their Controversy was whether it was of Faith or no not whether it was of Natural Light or of Reason They therefore as Ministers of Religion taught this to be a part of the Gospel Doctrine which they could no otherwise prove it to be but only by the Scripture and the Tradition of the Church But for all that since there certainly is a Natural Enquiry about it that may be considered by a Natural Divine For if it be discovered by Natural Theory no one can doubt but it is required in Scripture and yet if it be not of Natural that does not hinder but it may be of Supernatural Revelation as many other things are which are unknown by the Light of Nature 7. Lest the Reader should surmise from any thing that has been said that he shall here meet with some new Doctrine of the Trinity to prevent any such prejudice at his entrance into this Discourse I must advertise him that he will meet with no conclusion touching the Trinity but the very Articles of the Three Creeds And the Propositions from whence those Conclusions are immediately deduced are acknowledged by all Christians and the Antitrinitarians themselves And the more remote principles which yield the evidence to those propositions are notorious dictates of Reason and Natural Sense So that here is nothing that can be new except the order in which the things are said And so new the Doctrine of every Book is which is neither Transcript nor Translation which indeed this pretends not to be And this I hope is enough to obviate the suspicion of Novelty which I much dislike in important Doctrines of the Christian Religion I have briefly pointed out the uses of it likewise that Faith and Charity may go together In doing this I was unwilling to beg my principles and thereby was forced to begin at some distance from the main point by which I presumed I should gain several advantages and the notions I had of several things become familiar to the Reader before he came to the pinch of the Question For being to contemplate the Supream Nature I thought it needful to begin the lower After I have told the Reader that the Nature of this Argument and Method will require some intentness of thoughts in the perusal that he may serve himself of it and assured him I know of no Objection but what I have anticipated or removed and therefore desire it may be read with the same candour wherewith it is offered I shall trouble him no further but commmend him to God and the Word of his Grace which is able to build us up in Truth and Holiness and so give us an Inheritance amongst all them which are sanctified Amen The ERRATA PAge 1. line 3. read remain p. 2. l. 3. r. being r. Substances p. 2. l. 4. r. Originate l. 6. r. Originate l. 19. r. valid l. 33. for Tradition r. Trinity l. ult r. condition p. 3. l. 15. r. restively p. 8. l. 9. r. operate p. 9. l. 34. r. do p. 10 l. 12. r. in infinitum l. 38. r. extension p. 11. l. 9. for pores r. partes p. 13. l. 35. for is the thought r. is in the thought p. 14. l. 6. r. depreciate p. 15. l 16. r. and p. 16. l. ult r. only one r. real p. 18. l. 43. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 19. l. ult r. eternal too p. 21. margin for one r. our p. 22. l. 3. r. Subsistence p. 25. l. 12. r. being so conceiving p. 25. l. 17. r. Subsistences p. 26. r. fecundity for moods r. modes for Souls r. Soul for effected r effect● for factors r. fautors p. 32. r. facing p. 33. l. 14. r. it self p. 34. for expediently r. expeditely p. 38. l. 43. for turned r. termed p. 40. l. 8. for cr r. nor l. 39. for Nature is one in as such r. Nature in one is as such l. 42. for same the r. the same p. 57. l. 20. de●e as p. 57 l. ult for since this r. since to this p. 59. for intruded r. obtruded p. 59. for Epicurians r. Epicureans literal slips are not here collected AN ACCOUNT OF THE Blessed Trinity Argued from the Nature and Perfection of the Supream Spirit CHAP. I. The Question Stated and Discussed BY the Blessing of God on the endeavours of his Church the Old-Heresies which denied the Unity of the God-head are long agoe extinct and there remains only some few of such as deny the Trinity together with others of a later rise which are yet to be reduced But these all seeming to confess there is but one true God and so far fully to acquiesce in the Catholick Doctrine The Question about which these are to be dealt with is in short Whether the True God in the Unity of whose God-head they consent with us does really subsist in three distinct personal subsistences Hypostases or only in one Or whether there being one God there be also but one Divine Person or else

it hath a Substantial Subsistence that Nature is very properly begotten in such a Subsistence by that Conception 4. Wherefore since it hath appeared by the Natural Reason of the Supream Being that the first Person is the Deity in its Parental Subsistence and the second in the Filial Chap. 5.14 And the Scripture teaches the first Person is the Father and the second the Son we are hereby assured that the Scriptural and the Natural Account of the Trinity are the same in the general only Nature teaches the bare thing as in it self and the Scripture in its Religious state Having said this to justifie the main of the process I shall now proceed to Evince that the particular Characters of the three Persons are the very same in Scripture with those I have delivered from the Light of Nature But I must first advise the Reader that I am not now so much to prove the Trinity from Scripture which has been done abundantly by many others but to compare the Natural Doctrine with the Scripture and shew their accord in all the branches of each which I shall do a briefly as I can 5. Reason taught us that the Divine mind in its first Subsistence does Subsist Conceiving the Divine Nature Chap 4.10 Cap. 5.10 this is confirmed by the Holy Oracles of the Father to the Son Thou art my Son this Day have I begotten thee We learn from the Divine Nature that the first Person is really distinct from the second Chap. 5.9 10 and we learn from the Scripture also that besides the Son that bears witness of himself there is another even the Father that bears witness of him and these are the two distinct witnesses But yet the reason of the thing assures us that it is one and the same Divine Nature that Subsists in these two distinct and real Subsistences Chap. 5.12 And accordingly Divine Revelation teaches us I and my Father are one ● one nature or one thing 6. Natural Light instructs us that the second Subsistence of the God head is a Substantial Subsistence Chap. 5.9 10. The Holy Scriptures conformably affirms That in him dwelleth all the fulness of the God-head bodily that is Substantially The Son himself is Naturally God even God by himself and that by Nature Chap. 5.11 13. The Scripture attests the same styling him God even God blessed over all and warns us of the future appearance of the great God even our Saviour Jesus Christ That the Deity in its second Substantial Subsistence is the Son and that not by Adoptive Reputation but Real Generation appeared from the nature of the thing Chap. 5.14 and this is confirmed by the Testimony of Gods word which says This day have I begotten thee That the Son conceives his own Divine Nature is a Natural Document and likewise that this is neither more nor less than his own Essential Subsistence Chap. 5.15 Both these the Sacred Dialect teaches declaring that he Lives in him is Life And as the Father hath Life in himself so hath he given the Son to have Life in himself The Son begotten of the Father is one and Eternally the same as reason teaches Chap. 5.16 and the Religious institution stiles him therefore the only begotten of the Father The Son Conceives the Divine Nature but with a Conception that do's not Procreate another Subsistence of the Deity as was shewed Cap. 5.15 And accordingly as the Scripture teaches that there is but one which is therefore the only begotten of the Father so it teaches there is but one the same that is the only begoten Son of God confirming the Natural Doctrine that there is but one only Substantial Subsistence of the Divine Nature by any Conception of it whatsoever But yet nevertheless the Fathers Conception and the Sons Conception are equally creative of all other things as is taught Chap. 5.17 which the Scripture witnesses For the Father worketh hitherto and I work and whatsoever the Father doth the same the Son doth also All things are of the Father and by the Son all things were made that were made and without him was not any thing made that was made He laid the Foundations of the Earth and the Heavens are the work of his hands and in him all things consist Thus we see in all points the Principles of Natural Truth and Instituted Religion do harmoniously accord But let us with the like brevity touch the other Scriptural Characters of the Son and observe how exactly they are conform to the natural condition of his Person for since the Essence of any Being as conceived is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Word of God The Word therefore the Deity subsisting in Conception is properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and consequently this second Subsistence of the Divine Nature both according to the reason of its Nature and of the Religious Style will either be turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Emphatically the WORD or else Explicitely the WORD OF GOD because Reason teaches that this is the Divine Nature in a Substantial Subsistence Cap. 5.10 This will be properly signified by affirming the Word it self to be God and that in it is Life all which St. John distinctly takes notice of 1 John 1.23 Telling us likewise Explicitly Rev. 19.15 That THE WORD OF GOD is his Name or the Character given him from the condition of his Person 2. TRUTH The reality of the Divine Nature Subsisting in the second Person consists in the Essential truth of the Divine minds Conception as was shewed Cap. 5.10 This person is therefore with peculiar respect to this condition of his Being to be called the TURTH as we read he is I am the TRVTH THY Word is TRUTH And St. John inculcates this so vehemently that it 's manifest he puts a special remark upon it that we might not omit to take particular notice of it 1 Joh. 5.20 We know that the Son of God is come and hath given unto us an understanding that we might know him that is TRUE and we are in him that is TRUE even in his Son Jesus Christ he is the TRUE GOD and Eternal Life 3. For the like cause this person will be styled the Light as he oft is that is the intellectual Light of a Conscious Life seeing his Subsistence is in the perspicacious Conception of the Divine Mind as the Nature of the thing teaches Cap. 5.10 4. And because what is perfectly conceived is thereby thoroughly understood and it is an infinite wisdom to understand all the perfections of the Divine Nature and their true excellencies for God is all in all Therefore this Wisdom conceiving is the personal Wisdom of the Father but then this Wisdom Subsisting Substantially by being conceived is the Son or it is Sapientia nata as St. Austine speaks distinguishingly after an Elaborate disquisition of this matter And as I have shewed the Reason if the Supream Spirit does teach this Cap. 5.10 11 12 13 14. so it is