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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	father_n	person_n	trinity_n	5,937	5	9.9723	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52614	The life of Mr. Thomas Firmin, late citizen of London written by one of his most intimate acquaintance ; with a sermon on Luke X. 36, 37 preach'd on the occasion of his death ; together with An account of his religion, and of the present state of the Unitarian controversy.	One of his most intimate acquaintance.; Nye, Stephen, 1648?-1719.	1698 (1698)	Wing N1508; ESTC R4561	35,362	90

sincerely preached as he then thought and continued still to think of those Points that however no bodies false imputations should provoke him to give ill Language to persons who dissented conscientiously and for weighty reasons That he knew well this was the case of the Socinians for whose learning and dexterity he should always have a respect as well as for their sincerity and exemplariness Afterwards when Mr. Firmin gave him a Copy of the Considerations after he had read it he only said My Lord of Sarum shall humble your Writers Nor did he afterwards at any time express the least coldness on the account of the Answer made to him but used Mr. Firmin as formerly enquiring as he was wonted How does my Son Giles so he called Mr. Firmins Son by his second Wife About the time the Great and Good Archbishop died the Controversie concerning the Trinity and the depending Questions received an unexpected Turn The Vnitarians took notice from D. Petavius Dr. R. Cudworth S. Curcellaeus the Oxford Heads Dr. S th and others that their Opposers agreed indeed in contending for a Trinity of Divine Persons but differed from one another even as much as from the Unitarians concerning what is to be meant by the term Persons Some of 'em say three Divine Persons are three Eternal Infinite Minds Spirits Substances and Beings but others reject this as Heresie Blasphemy and Tritheism These latter affirm that GOD is one Infinite Eternal All-perfect Mind and Spirit and the Trinity of Persons is the Godhead Divine Essence or Divine Substance considered as Vnbegotten Begotten and Proceeding which Modes or Properties they further explain by Original Wisdom Unbegotten and therefore named the Father the reflex Wisdom Logos or WORD which being generated or begotten is called the Son and the eternal Spiration of Divine Love that has therefore the name of Holy Spirit The Vnitarians never intended to oppose any other Trinity but a Trinity of infinite Minds or Spirits grant to 'em that GOD is one Infinite Spirit or Mind not two or three they demand no more They applied themselves therefore to enquire which of these Trinities a Trinity of Spirits or of Properties is the Doctrine of the Catholic Church they could not miss of a ready satisfaction all Systems Catechisms Books of Controversie Councils Writers that have been esteemed Catholic more especially since the General Lateran Council Anno 1215. and the Reformation have defined GOD to be one Infinite All-perfect Spirit and the Divine Persons to be nothing else but the Divine Essence or Godhead with the three relative Properties Unbegotten and Begotten and Proceeding They saw therefore plainly that the difference between the Church and the Vnitarians had arose from a meer mistake of one anothers meaning a mistake occasioned chiefly by the unscriptural terms Trinity Persons and such like They resolved that it became them as good Christians to seek the Peace of the Catholic Church and not to litigate about Terms tho never so unproper or implying only Trifles when the things intended by those Terms are not unsound or heterodox These Honest Pacific Inclinations of men who drove no design in their dissent from the Church gave birth to the Agreement between the Unitarians and the Catholic Church a Book written at the instance chiefly of Mr. Firmin in Answer to Mr. Edwards the Bishops of Worcester Sarum and Chichester and Monsieur de Luzanzy I need not to say what will be owned by every Ingenuous Learned Person without hesitance that the Agreement is as well the Doctrine of the Catholic Church as of the Vnitarians and that in all the points so long and fiercely debated and controverted by the Writers of this and of former Ages It must be confest the hands of a great many excellent Persons did concur to this Re-union of Parties that seemed so widely and unreconcilably divided and did encourage the Author of the Agreement in his disinteressed laborious searches into Antiquity and other parts of Learning and several learned men some of them Authors in the Socinian or Vnitarian way examined the Work with the Candor and Ingenuity that is as necessary in such cases as Learning or Judgment are Mr. Firmin publisht it when examined and corrected with more satisfaction than he had before given forth so many Eristic Writings I did not wonder however that our Friend was so ready to embrace a reconciliation with the Church for he was ever a lover of Peace and always conformed as far as he could according to that direction of the Apostle Whereunto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule Which with the best Interpreters he understood thus Conform to the Doctrines Terms and Usages that are commonly received as far as you can if in some things you differ from the Church yet agree with her and walk by her Rule to the utmost that in Conscience you may or as the Apostle himself words it so far as or whereunto you have attained From this Principle it was that our Friend never approved of those who separate from the communion of the Church on the account of Ceremonies Habits form of Government or other mere Circumstantials of Religion He was wont to tell such that seeing 't was undeniable they might communicate with the Church without either sin or scandal and did communicate on some occasions it is therefore both scandal and sin to separate and divide With this he silenced many and reclaimed divers In the Year 1658. the Vnitarians were banisht out of Poland the occasion this Poland had been long harass'd with most dangerous Civil and Foreign Wars insomuch that at one time there were in Arms in Poland Lithuania and the Vkrain One hundred and fourscore thousand Poles as many Tartars and two hundred thousand Cossacks besides powerful Bodies of Austrians and Transilvanians which attacked Poland on the West and South The ravages and desolations committed and caused so by many great Armies in a Country that has but few fortified Places were unexpressible Poland therefore was reduced to such a feeble and desperate condition that their King himself withdrew and the King of Swedes took the advantage of their confusion and low estate to invade them with Forty thousand men regular Troops He took the Cities of Warsaw and Cracow and with them almost all Poland he constrained the Polanders to take an Oath of Subjection and Allegiance to him which Oath was first submitted unto and taken by the Roman-Catholies then by the Protestants and not till last of all by the Vnitarians But the Swedish King engaging himself in other Wars particularly with Denmark and in Germany John Casimire King of Poland appeared again and the Poles generally joining their King at length drove the Swedes out of Poland the Swedish King found himself obliged to condescend to a reasonable Peace with King Casimire As the Vnitarians were the last that submitted to the obedience of Swedeland so being bound thereto by an Oath they did not

reason to believe that many more have been delivered by others and yet one shall find the Prisons very full of Prisoners at this time As he discharged great Numbers of Prisoners he took care for the better and easier Subsistence of others while in Prison For he would examine the Prisoners concerning their Usage by their Keepers and sometimes prosecuted Jailors before the Judges for extorting unlawful Fees and other exorbitant Practices I remember one of the Jailors prosecuted by Mr. Firmin made a Rope and hanged himself before the matter was determined A strong Presumption that he was conscious to himself of great Faultiness and a demonstrative Proof of the great need of such Prosecutions and of the Virtue of him that undertook ' em He continued these Endeavours for poor Debtors from before the Year 1681. to his last Breath but being grieved that he could do nothing for Debtors laid up for great Sums therefore on behalf of such he always vigorously promoted Acts of Grace by Parlament whereby Insolvent Debtors were discharged Tho' he never was a Parlament man he had a mighty Interest in both Houses and was the Cause that many Bills were quashed and others passed insomuch that once when an Act of Grace for poor Prisoners that was liable to have and had an ill use made of it by unconscionable or knavish People passed the Houses and Royal Assent he was upbraided with it by some of the Creditors and told that it was his Act. Mr. Firmin was not insensible that sometimes people come into Prisons or otherwise become poor more by their own Negligence Idleness Riot and Pride than by Mishap and Misadventure yet he could not join with those who say hereupon they hate the Poor and that such well deserve the Straits and Miseries that they bring on themselves He was wont to answer to such Reasonings that It would be a miserable World indeed if the Divine Providence should act by that Rule if God should show no Favour grant no Help or Deliverance to us in those Straits or Calamities that are the effects of our Sins If the universal Lord seeks to reclame and to better us by Favours and Graces do we dare to argue against the Example set by Him and against a Method without which no Man living may ask any thing of God There is no place whatsoever but of necessity it must have divers Poor more especially London where every House having one or more Servants who are obliged to spend their whole Wages in Clothes when these Servants marry every little Mishap in the World reduces 'em to Beggary their small or rather no Beginnings are crushed by every Accident Mr. Firmin had so full a Sense of this that in some Years of his Life he begged about 500 l. a Year which he distributed to the Poor at their Houses or at his own by the Sums of 2 s. 6 d. or 5 s. or 10 s. or 15 s. as he saw or was well inform'd of the Necessities of the Persons The way he took for the better effecting this Charitable Distribution was he would enquire of the most noted Persons for Honesty and Charity in the several Parishes who were the most Necessitous and best Deserving Poor in that Neighbourhood He went then to their Houses that he might judg farther by their meagre Looks number of Children sorry Furniture and other Circumstances in what proportion it might be fit to assist ' em He always took their Names and Numbers into a Book and sent a Copy of so much of his Book to the Persons who had intrusted him with Charity as answered to the Mony trusted to him by every such Person That if he so minded he might make enquiry by himself or any other concerning the Truth of the Account given in But Mr. Firmin's Fidelity grew to be so well known that after a few years divers of his Contributors would not receive his Accounts I know a certain Person whose hand was with Mr. Firmin in all his Charities I should not exceed I believe if I said that in Twenty One Years time he hath given by Mr. Firmin's hand or at his Recommendation Five or Six Thousand Pounds this Person hath himself told me that Mr. Firmin was wont to bring him the Accounts of his Disbursments till he was even weary of 'em and because he was so well assured of him he desired him not to bring him any more Sometimes the Sums brought or sent in to Mr. Firmin for the Poor were such as did enable him to spare some part to some whom he knew to be charitably dispos'd like himself In that case he would send small Sums such as 40 s. or 3 l. sometimes more to those his Acquaintance which Sums they were to divide among the Poor of their Vicinage whose Names and Case those Friends were to return to him He hath sent to me and divers others that I know of many such Sums in Christmas Time in Hard Weather and Times of Scarcity In these Distributions Mr. Firmin sometime considered others besides the mere Poor particularly the poorer sort of Ministers I doubt not he hath made use of many hands besides mine but by me he hath sent of his own proper motion divers times the Sum of 40 s. sometimes two Guineas to Ministers that were good Preachers and Exemplary but their Vicarige Curacy or Lecture small I have known that he has sent no less than 10 l. to a Clergyman in Debt or opprest with many Children when he hath been well assured that the Person was a Man of Probity and Merit He asked me once concerning Mr. P. of Gr. Ch. what sort of Man he was I answer'd his Mind was much above his Purse He was Charitable Curious Learned a Father among young Scholars who were promising Men but his Living not above 80 l. or 90 l. a Year Mr. Firmin said I have done considerable for that man I answer'd as I thought my self obliged You may take it on my Word that your Liberality was never better placed Afterwards I met the Widow of Mr. P. in London I desired her to accept half a Pint of Wine at the next Tavern While we were together I asked her Whether there had not been some Acquaintance between her Husband and Mr. Firmin She said The Acquaintance was not much but the Friendship great She said Her Husband was acquainted with many Persons of Quality that he had experienced their Liberality thro' the whole course of his Life because his Address as well as his Merit was so remarkable She said that of so many Benefactors to Mr. P. Mr. Firmin had done most for him both in Life and Death When her Husband died his Estate would not pay his Debts she was advised hereupon by a Clergyman to propose a Composition with the Creditors that seeing every one could not be fully pay'd yet all of 'em might receive part of their Debt She consulted Mr. Firmin by Letter about this he approved the Advice