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
A70803	A decad of caveats to the people of England of general use in all times, but most seasonable in these, as having a tendency to the satisfying such as are not content with the present government as it is by law establish'd, an aptitude to the setling the minds of such as are but seekers and erraticks in religion an aim at the uniting of our Protestant-dissenters in church and state : whereby the worst of all conspiracies lately rais'd against both, may be the greatest blessing, which could have happen'd to either of them : to which is added an appendix in order to the conviction of those three enemies to the deity, the atheist, the infidel and the setter up of science to the prejudice of religion / by Thomas Pierce ...	Pierce, Thomas, 1622-1691.	1679 (1679)	Wing P2176; Wing P2196; ESTC R18054	221,635	492

as He could not hope for a great Posterity in regard of His Age and Sarah's Barrenness which yet he could not but hope for in regard of God's Promise which could not fail so what we cannot believe exactly in regard of its being above the Reach of our Reason and common Vsages of Nature we cannot chuse but believe in regard that God says it who cannot lie The Worthiness of our Faith does stand in This chiefly that though 't is many times Wavering like the tremulous Needle in the Mariner's Compass yet being touch'd by God's Grace as That Needle by the Loadstone its prevalent motion is towards its Pole and from That its Trepidations can never wrest it Insomuch that we may say as once S. Paul in another case we are troubled on every side yet not in Distress perplex'd we are often but not in Despair Persecuted by Satan but by God not forsaken cast down indeed but not destroy'd Tremble we may like Aristippus in a shipwrack but like Him we are not guilty of yielding up our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 't is worded by Aulus Gellius We do not basely consent to our Perturbations which arise not from our Spirits but from our Flesh The Law in our Members do what we can will still be warring but the Law in our Minds does ever worst it We still believe with our Wills Lord help the Vnbelief of our Vnderstandings Our Hearts are steady Lord fix our Heads too In spite of our very Vnbelief in point of doubt or haesitation or now and then a dark interval We will believe so as to love the Incarnate Deity whom we admire and so love as to obey him and obey him to such a point as to lay down our lives for the love we bear him And so will prove by all three that we do really Believe what we cannot fathom God manifest in the Flesh because without our Believing we can do neither Neither Love nor Obey nor lay down our Lives in obedience to him Let our Doubtings or Disbelievings in some Degree and by Fits be what they can or let them seem to be what they will yet we are certain of our Faith whilst we are certain of our Fear to offend our Maker and of our Love to his Goodness and of our Obedience to his Commands Without this last 't is very true we cannot speak Peace to our selves or others For as S. John says expresly By This we know that we know him if we keep his Commandments so 't is the keeping of his Commandments by which we know that we love and obey him truly § 24. Now having arrived at a full knowledge of God's Existence and his good-pleasure expressed to us in his Precepts or of his Verity and his Will revealed to us in his Word and also ingraven in our own Nature as a Law written in our Hearts and farther yet having attained unto a knowledge also in part of his Glorious Essence as that he is a Spirit Existing of Himself from all Eternity an omnipresent and an omniscient and a necessary Being from whom and by whom is every Good Thing that is and that he is a Rewarder of Them that diligently seek him c. Having I say the satisfaction of knowing That which our Apostle does call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That which may be known of God which is as much as is needfull and as much as is enough we must not disquiet our Minds in vain by seeking out things which are too hard for us or by searching after Secrets above our strength or by being over-curious in unnecessary matters as the excellent Son of Sirach has very judiciously forewarn'd us The Trinity of Persons in the Vnity of the Godhead is the chiefest of Those Insearchables which are indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 past finding out more impossible to be traced than all his most mysterious ways which our Apostle thought worthy of That Expression Such a mystery it is as the most pious and the most learned and most acute of all Writers were never well able to give account of The most profound Divine Here is in the condition of Simonides when demanded by Hiero a definition of the Deity The more he looks into This Mystery by so much the obscurer it seems to be The longer he considers the less he is able to apprehend it S. John says expresly and I believe him There are Three that bear record in Heaven the Father the Word the Holy Ghost and These Three are One. 1 Joh. 5 7. The Antient Fathers and Councils to stop the Mouths of several Hereticks of Two especially Arius first and then Sabellius and to preserve the Christian Church from the Plague of Schism found it necessary to add This Form of Words though not in a positive but in an exclusive sense A Trinity of Persons in an unity of the Godhead But if 't is asked what is meant by a Trinity of Persons S. Austin says we want words to express it by Dictum est tamen Tres Personae non ut illud diceretur sed ne taceretur quomodo Tres sint c. For who can speak fitly of what is Infinite and whilst he makes use of Terms belonging onely to finite Things yet This must be done if we speak at all Il en fault parler en language humain puisque le divin nous est incogneu Onely let us not forget the wise Advertisement of Anselm whensoe're we so speak that if we speak concerning God in Words which are Common to other Natures our sense and meaning must not be Common but peculiar to God alone § 25. Nor is This All. For we want understanding to apprehend the Blessed Trinity as well as words to express it by Anselm's excellent Understanding was utterly lost in This Labyrinth The Understanding of Boetius was also drown'd in This Ocean Good S. Bernard's Understanding was swallow'd up in This Abyss From whence I easily conclude because I do it with humility and due submission that the Trinity in Vnity onely can be fathomed by it self And that to speak of Three Persons in any acception of the word Persons which is in use amongst Men when at any time they speak of created Beings were to commit a grosser Haeresie than that of the Antitrinitarians § 26. This does prompt me to go out of this long Discourse at the very same Door at which I enter'd A Door of Hope and Consolation which seems to hang on These three Hinges First that I know whom I have believed by Knowledge properly so call'd Next that I believe what I cannot know as far as 't is affirmed in God's own word Lastly that I contradict not what 't is most difficult to believe because not written in God's own word as far as I find it is agreed on by All my Teachers especially met together in General Councils as an Act of Vniformity or as an Article of

shall apostatize from the Faith of Christ A very evident opposition unto final perseverance in Both those Places and 't is as evident that the Apostasie there prophesied of is from a State of Sanctification For the Love waxing cold and the Faith departed from That expressed by our Saviour and This by our Apostle are the same in both Texts in which they ought to have persever'd So again in the first Chapter of the same Epistle to Timothy S. Paul exhorts him to hold fast faith and a good Conscience which some says He having put away concerning Faith have made shipwrack That This was justifying Faith which was thus put away and suffer'd shipwrack may appear by two reasons clearly arising out of the Text First because it was That to the holding fast of which S. Paul does there exhort Timothy next because it was That which was attended with a good Conscience If a man saith our Saviour abide not in Me he is cast forth as a Branch and is withered and cast into the Fire clearly spoken of a Reprobate who had formerly been in Christ but abideth not in him and was therefore cast forth as a wither'd branch A Text to which our Apostle in probability does allude where he tells us of certain Branches broken off from The Olive Tree though once partakers of the Root and Fatness of it and broken off they were for their unbelief From whence he exhorts his Believing Romans to beware lest they who now stand by Faith do also fall into infidelity and They be also broken off who are grafted in There are that hear the word of God and receive it with Joy and indure for a while in that good Course and yet in time of Persecution they are offended and fall away saith our blessed Lord. Some have erred from the Faith through the Love of money saith S. Paul to his Son Timothy and in the Eighteenth of S. Matthew the Servant forgiven v. 32. was yet condemn'd v. 35. The same is signified by the Parable of an unclean Spirit cast out by Repentance or regeneration and re-entring by a Relapse into the House of a man's Heart well swept and garnish'd and that with 7 Devils worse if possible than himself so as the Person he repossesseth is worse than ever Which very Parable of our Saviour S. Peter seems to point at in the plainest terms whilst he tells us of some so intangled and overcome by those pollutions of the world which before they had escap'd as that their later end was very much worse then their beginning Again 't is said by the same Apostle in the Chapter going before that He who lacketh those things by which he is to make his Election sure has forgotten that he was purged from his old Sins that is to say that he was regenerate § 8. Whosoever is not satisfied with what I have hitherto alledg'd out of holy writ let him tell me what he thinks of That unpardonable Sin The Sin against the Holy Ghost Let him say whether that Sin can ever be possibly committed unless by one who was once enlightned and had tasted of the heavenly Gift had been made a partaker of the Holy Ghost and of the good word of God and the powers of the World to come Let him weigh the fourth Verse and compare it with the Sixth of the Sixth Chapter to the Hebrews and Both together with the Comment of learned Calvin thereupon if he will not trust That of our most learned Dr. Hammond Let him consider if 't is not possible for such a man to fall away who is so enlightned and if 't is not impossible for such a man falling away from such a Station and State of Grace to be renew'd again unto repentance But above all let him consider the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the sixth verse of That Chapter which signifies expresly a second regeneration and every second implies a first The Apostle does not say barely it is impossible to renew them if such as they fall away but that 't is impossible to renew them again clearly intimating unto us these two Illations First that a man may so fall from a State of Grace as not to be able to rise again Next that the Grace he falls from was such as gave him a Salvability or such as by which he was in a State of Regeneration § 9. Being about to carry my proof from Vniversals to Individuals I shall not instance in Saul with S. Cyprian and S. Austin much less in Ahab with S. Jerom and S. Chrysostom much less yet in Cain and Esau nor yet in Alexander and Demas Philetus and Hymenaeus Phygellus and Hermogenes who were Deserters of Christ in his Apostles Wasters of Conscience and Shipwrackers of Faith I shall not instance in Dorotheus who fell away to serve Idols at Thessalonica nor yet in Nicolaus who though one of the seven Deacons was yet the Author of that old Haeresie which carries the Name of The Nicolaitans much less shall I instance in the most excellent of the Haeresiarchs Nestorius Photinus Apollinaris and Pelagius for these last may be the subjects of great Dispute and whatsoever may be true in the Judgment of Faith yet the Judgment of Charity forbids me to affirm that These did finally fall away But of Judas I suppose there is no Dispute For He was chosen by Christ as one of the Twelve select Apostles Joh. 6. 70. and is said to have been given by God the Father to God The Son whose word he kept for some time Joh. 17. 6. and was justified by Faith v. 8. prayed for by Christ not as one of the World but as His peculiar v. 9. He confess'd and taught Christ and did Miracles in his Name Matth. 10. 5 7 8. He was one of Christ's Sheep v. 16. had been grafted into Christ Joh. 15. 2. notwithstanding all which he did not onely fall from but betray his Master hang'd himself as a man Lost and is call'd by our Lord expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Son of Perdition § 10. I would not here be so mistaken as if I meant that God's Elect can fall away finally from Grace I am so very far from That that I affirm it to be impossible and to imply a Contradiction For They and They onely are God's Elect who do finally persevere in a Christian Course who being delivered out of the hands of their Enemies do not onely serve God in holiness and righteousness for so do many that are called and are not chosen but they serve him in Both together All the days of their Lives as Zachary goes on in his Benedictus We must therefore so distinguish in our Discourse of this subject between The Regenerate and The Elect as still to carry in our minds as well their Difference as their Agreement In This they agree that all The Elect are still Regenerate In This they differ that all The

it is commonly as Pearl cast out to Swine Many sit not at ease whilst the Priest is in the reading of Psalms and Chapters and many loyter without the Church until they are very well assur'd the Preacher is going into the Pulpit not at all laying to heart what yet they cannot but assent to if ever it enters into their Heads whilst their Heads are Christian that the chiefest part of God's Service hath been performed in the Pew For the most powerfull words of Men can but edifie at the best whereas the pure word of God is apt to sanctifie and cleanse us Joh. 17. 17. and as S. Peter once said to the Jewish Sanedrim we ought to obey God rather than Man So in this Case also we ought to hear God rather than Men. Now the Lesson which is read out of the Law and the Prophets is the very word of God which he hath spoken by his Servants And so the Lesson out of the Gospel is the very word of God which he hath spoken by his Son Whereas the customary Discourse which we call a Sermon though it is profitable and pious and therefore worthy of all acceptance yet 't is of human Contrivance and Composition if it is not all taken word for word out of the Scripture and if it is it is no more than so much Scripture as fills an hour And how far it is from That our own experience may inform us from several Pulpits wherein we are often entertain'd with accurate Essays and Harangues with florid Discourses and Declamations which have a very strong savour of Art and Diligence and are deservedly applauded for Wit and Learning but are so far from being drawn from the VVell of Life so far from being wholly made or mostly deduced out of Scripture as to have hardly any Tincture or Rellish of it As if their Authors were afraid with Cardinal Bembus and other Romanists who are complain'd of and accus'd by Dominicus Nanus Mirabellius to fully and flatten their Elocution with the Oracles of God As if they had the same opinion touching the Language of the Pulpit with the Prophane Cardinal Hosius touching the wellfare of the Church when he said it had been better if no Gospel had been written As if the Scripture had seem'd to Them what once it did to S. Austin before he was absolutely converted very unworthy to be compar'd with Cicero's Elegance of Expression I wish we might not complain of some who are call'd to be Preachers of the Gospel as Laurentius Valla was said to do of Cardinal Sadolet and Politian and other Orators of their Age Gentilem illos Sermonem magis quàm Ecclesiasticum deamâsse That they have rather lov'd an Ethnical than Ecclesiastical way of speaking And yet if in a zealous Enmity to such affected Idolizers of human Eloquence the Preacher frames his whole Sermon word for word out of the Scripture what is This but the Recital of so much Scripture as fills an Hour And then 't is certainly as regardable when barely read out of the Pew as when with Emphasis and gesture it is rehearsed out of the Pulpit § 11. Refuse not therefore him that speaketh upon any Pretense to be imagin'd Not for the meanness of the Person by whom he speaks Not for the Plainness of the language in which he speaks Not for the Hardness or mysteriousness of the things that are spoken by him Not for the cheapness or the commonness of what he speaks Nor yet for any other Objections which some who are wittily profane are wont to urge against the Scriptures For I suppose it to be true because I find it in the writings of an honourable Author That some of those who do acknowledge both the Truth and the Authority do find I know not how many faults with the stile of Scripture As that it is too obscure and immethodical and contradicting to it self incohaerent and unadorn'd flat and unaffecting abounding with things that are either trivial or impertinent and also with useless Repetitions Monsters more prodigious than any Africa can afford us who acknowledging the Authority and Truth of Scripture can so blasphemously detract from the Credit of it § 12. But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for all the scandalous Aspersions that either the Wit or the Malice of Men or Devils shall at any time contrive to be cast upon him in his Word And First refuse not him that speaketh for the meanness of the Person by whom he speaks The word of God being as sacred when pronounced by the Mouth of the lowest Priest as when by That of the profoundest and greatest Prelate in the Church Nay his word being as pure out of a vitious man's Lips as the Beams of the Sun when daily reflected from a Dunghill or as the most uncorrupted and limpid Water when it is running through a sordid and earthy Channel As the Blessing of God to Israel was not the worse or the less welcome for proceeding from the Lips of a cursed Balaam so his Rebuke sent to Balaam was not the less to be attended for being spoken by the Mouth of an arrant Ass Be not therefore as impatient of being spoken to by a Priest of the poorest Talent and Degree as Nabal was of being spoken to by a persecuted and destitute but royal Prophet nor so impatient of a Reproof from any the meanest of God's Embassadours as Abner from Ishbosheth or as Herod from John the Baptist or as Ahab from Micaiah who for speaking an unpleasant but wholsome Truth was presently clapt up in Prison and fed with the Bread of Affliction too Entertain not the vilest of all Christ's Messengers as the Pharisees and the Rulers did Christ Himself when they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deride and scoff at him for the despicable Garb of his Appearance But be as civil to him at least as ye would that your Equals should be to You and even because ye are unwilling to have your Messages refus'd for being sent by the basest of all your Servants therefore See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for the meanness of the Person by whom he speaks § 13. Secondly do not refuse him for the plainness of the Language in which he speaks For what is Plainness but Perspicuity and of all those Virtues which are required in an Orator Perspicuity and Pertinence are worthily reckon'd amongst the chief So far forth as the Scriptures contein a Covenant and a Law the one of Works and the other of Faith That delivered by Moses and This by Christ there is nothing more becomes the State and Majesty of its Author than to communicate with his People in greatest Plainness Or is the Gospel very destitute of what the world calls Wit and Eloquence call to mind that God the Father hath sent it to us by God the Son and pay an humble Veneration to what is spoken

for the honour you bear unto Him that speaks And since his words are the words of Eternal Life that is the words of Direction by our Conformity to which we shall live for ever of what a barbarous ingratitude shall we be judged to be guilty if we shall quarrel at his Care to have their meaning understood Besides it ought to be remembred that there are Parables in the Scripture as well as Plainnesses of Speech Places so deep that an Elephant may swimm as well as Places so shallow that a Lamb may wade through them There are some such 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things so difficult and hard to be understood as that the Ignorant and unstable who are arrogant and proud as well as empty do many times wrest them to their Damnation And therefore whatsoever else may be the colour for your Refusal See that ye refuse not an heavenly Speaker for the Plainness of the Dialect in which he speaks because of all his Condescensions expressed to us in his word this must certainly be one of the most Obliging And yet § 14. Thirdly do not refuse him for the mysteriousness of the things that are spoken by him For what were this but to find fault with the sublimity of the matter and implicitly to complain that there is strong meat for men of the ripest Age as well as Milk for those Babes who are unskilfull in the word of righteousness It were to quarrel with the Scripture for having any thing in it whereby to exercise our Diligence and crown our Search to make us sensible of our weakness and to excite our Admiration Besides it ought to be consider'd that as there are Mysteries in the Scripture so there are Stewards of those mysteries As things lock'd up from low and vulgar Apprehensions so there are also special men to whom is committed the Key of Knowledge The Priest's Lips are to preserve it and the People are to seek it flowing out in expositions from his Orthodox mouth 'T is fit the Scripture should be plain and mysterious too I mean in several parts of it for several purposes and ends For if nothing in it were plain we should but grope after heaven and miss the way too And yet if nothing were mysterious it s over great Familiarity would make it liable to contempt Whereas the due consideration of both together will discover to us the Vse and the End of Sermons For though it is not perhaps the pleasant'st yet it may seem to be the best because the profitablest Preaching in all the World onely to read and expound and apply the Scripture to shew the sense where it is difficult and the use when it is easie And therefore See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for the hardness of the things that are spoken by him § 15. Fourthly do not refuse him for the cheapness or the commonness of what he speaks For this were just as extravagant as if a man should disesteem and depretiate the worth of the New Jerusalem because the very Foundations of the wall of the City were adorn'd with all manner of pretious Stones and so common a thing was Pearl that the Gates of the City consisted of it and so cheap was pure Gold that the street of the City was nothing else To slight the means of Salvation for being commonly to be had is just as if a Nice person should die with Thirst rather than quench it with common VVater Or as if a proud person should scorn his life for depending upon so cheap and so common an Element as the Air. There is nothing more destructive and dishonourable to men than their Itching after things that are rare and novel This was one of those Crimes wherewith God upbraided his People Israel That forsaking him the old and the living Fountain they had hewn unto themselves such broken Cisterns as had nothing but newness to recommend them And therefore such Men and Women are very sharply to be rebuk'd as S. Paul chargeth Timothy in the very same Case who not enduring sound Doctrine for being old do turn aside unto Fables for being new and still are heaping up Teachers not to work upon their Hearts but to gratifie their delicate and prurient Ears Choosing rather to quench their Thirst out of every new Ditch than to satisfie themselves with the Antient Springs And therefore if ye do not think that the Antient of days is the less to be valued for being antient to wit the Lamb slain from the Foundations of the world or that the Waters of Life eternal do lose their Virtue with their credit by being cheap by being easily to be had without Money and without Price See that ye refuse not him that speaketh for the commonness of the things that are spoken by him § 16. Last of all do not refuse him in case his words shall sometimes seem to be incoherent immethodical contradicting to themselves unaffecting or impertinent or clog'd with useless Repetitions For first at most they can but seem to be such and such as the Sun does onely seem to be deform'd in an Eclipse and no bigger than a Bushel in his Meridian Next they cannot so much as seem so to labour with Defects unless it be through our Defects of Vnderstanding or of Humility of competent Industry or Art sufficient Time to converse with or Patience to consides the things we read § 17. In a word as we desire that we may never be refused by God Almighty when at any time we shall speak or cry to Him in our Distress whether by Prayers or Tears from a Gallows or from a Rack perhaps out of a Prison perhaps out of a Pest-house out of the Belly of a Leviathan or which at least is as terrible out of the Bowels of a sinking and dying Ship for we know not what end may await us all I say as ever we hope to be heard our selves when in any kind of Exigence we speak to God let us at least give God the hearing when in any kind of Dialect he speaks to Vs Be it by his Son or by his Servants be it by Precept or by Example by Life or Doctrine by Exhortations or Admonitions by Promises or Threats by his Prophet or by his Rod by Words or Blows And be it by whatsoever Instrument the Blows of God are laid on by War Pestilence Fire or Famine The first of which is now consuming our valiant Country-men abroad The second you know hath been devouring far and wide here at home The third hath lately laid waste the goodliest Empory in the world by having us'd our Great City as once the Cities of the Plain And unless our Repentance or change of Life shall cry as loud in God's Ears as our Sins have done we know not how soon we may feel the Fourth Less than which I cannot say to the most considering Congregation and if this little be laid to heart I think