Selected quad for the lemma: word_n

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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58367	Reflections on the poems made upon the siege and taking of Namur together with a short answer to the modest examination of the Oxford decree, &c. Lately published. Both in a letter to a friend at Oxon.		1696 (1696)	Wing R710; ESTC R217976	6,394	11

Gentleman's Cause whom he undertakes to defend but you know the Principle is too much his own to be so easily resign'd And therefore as a Self-preservation-Man would he once more draws his Pen that infallible Weapon in the old Quarrel not at all despairing of a Glorious Conquest for he assures the World he can maintain his Hypothesis against all Opposites whatever dogmatically asserting If it be false our Belief of a Trinity is Nonsense and Contradiction His Three Distinct Infinite Minds c. being fairly deducible from the receiv'd establish'd Notions of the Fathers and including if modestly expounded no more than they did by Three Persons But under the Learn'd Doctor 's Favour whatever his Private Sentiments are I fear his New Words admit of too great a Latitude as the Animadverter has prov'd at Large to be ever reconcil'd to that nice Signification the Primitive Church restrain'd Persons to certainly those unwarrantable Terms of Three Individual Substances never can Which however are not so extravagant but that the Doctor would very fain justifie them too because he says The Preacher seems to have had no ill Meaning in them but he must excuse us if we do not allow him to be a Judge in a case wherein he is too nearly concern'd to be an unprejudic'd one He promises a Treatise to give an Account of the Judgment of the Catholick Fathers and Councils concerning a Real Substantial Trinity and what their Notion of Tritheism is Which I am heartily glad of because if freely and impartially collected it will evidently confute his own Crude Indigested Opinion and save your University and every Body else the Trouble of a Formal Answer by bringing one of his Books against another for Self-Contradiction is no new thing to the Master of the Temple He gives your Doctors an open Challenge To enter the Lists with him relying I suppose upon this Discourse he has in store and unawares modestly pretends It is indifferent to him whether he overcomes or is overcome for Truth is better than Victory and will make an honest Man such as himself triumph in being conquer'd But he quickly forgets this Concession and all-along proudly insists upon the Eternal Infallible Verity of his Principles tho' at the same Time he cannot forbear to complain of his Animadverter's Arrogance and Evil Spirit in his Writings such as is enough to give an Unchristian Tincture to those that read them Whereas any unbyass'd Man must certainly return him his Character when he has heard that besides a great many other Insolencies he charges Dr. South for he is pleased to name his Animadverter with Impiety and Prophaneness and says He may justly fear his Blasphemies will bring down the Curse of the ever-bless'd Trinity upon him and that will be no Jest. No sure But why does our modest Christian when he has profess'd to curse no Man wrest the Thunder out of the Hands of the Almighty Why does he judge his Brother who is accountable to God only that made him This you will own to be a great Heighth of Unchristianity and such an one as is not to be met with in the Animadversions tho' I confess that Author has too much of the Spirit of Persecution in him and the Argumentative Part of his Book which is penn'd with a Strength and Clearness becoming the Subject is extreamly injur'd by his trivial Jests and Condescensions It is much to be lamented that our Divines are so divided among themselves in this great Fundamental Point of our Faith for after all their Disquisitions and pretended Definitions it will be a Mystery and ought therefore rather to be rever'd than examin'd Our good Friends the Socinians are doubtless well pleas'd with this Civil War in our Church and begin to fancy the Victory on their Side But alas their Reason as arrogant as it is can never frame any adequate Conceptions of a single Deity no more than we can of a Trinity and I hope this inconceivable Mystery will still be the noble Exercise of all honest Men's Faith notwithstanding the devilish Attempts that are daily made to undermine this and all other Articles of our Christian Belief But I have already tir'd your Patience and ask your Pardon for meddling with things above me and such as indeed ought to be touch'd by no Hand much less by London Decemb. 24th 1695. Your humble Servant FINIS