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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	person_n	scripture_n	trinity_n	3,376	5	9.9610	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52431	Reason and religion, or, The grounds and measures of devotion, consider'd from the nature of God, and the nature of man in several contemplations : with exercises of devotion applied to every contemplation / by John Norris ...	Norris, John, 1657-1711.	1689 (1689)	Wing N1265; ESTC R19865	86,428	282

the Essence of God being variously exhibitive and representative of the Essences of things made use of by this great Theorist to explain both the Nature of the Second Person of the Trinity and the Mode of his Eternal Generation And I think it does both much better than any other and indeed as far as conceivable by human understanding So highly useful is this Doctrine of Idea's when rightly understood to unsold the profoundest Mysteries of the Christian Religion as well as of Philosophy And so great reason had St. Austin to say Tanta vis in Ideis constituitur ut nisi his intellectis sapiens esse nemo possit There 's so much moment in Idea's that without the understanding of these no Man can be Wise. XXVI And I further consider that this is no less according to the Voice of Scripture than of Natural Reason St. Iohn speaking of the second Person of the Trinity says In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He says also that all things were made by him or according to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And he further says that he is the true light that lightens every man that cometh into the world Now what can this signifie but this Ideal World or the Essence of God as variously exhibitive and representative of things For observe he calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which here signifies the same as the inward conception or Idea he says that he was in the Beginning and that he was with God and that he was God and that all things were made by him Thus far it must be allow'd that the agreement is very exact As for the last part of the character How this can be said to be the true Light which lightens every Man that comes into the World this I shall explain when I come to consider the Nature of Man who as I shall shew sees and knows all that he sees and knows in this Ideal World which may therefore be said to be his Light. XXVII Again this second Person is said to be the Wisdom of his Father to be the Character of his Person both which expressions denote him to be the same with this Ideal World. And by him God is said to have made the Worlds that is according to the eternal Exemplars or Platforms in this Ideal World. To which I may add by way of overplus that noble Description of the Eternal and Substantial Wisdom given us in the 7. Chap. of the Book of Wisdom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Breath or Vapour of the Power of God and an Efflux or Emanation from the glory of the Almighty a clear Mirrour or Looking-glass of his active Energory vertue and the Image of his goodness And what can all this be but the Essence of God as Exhibitive the Ideal World Lastly I would have it considered how what our Saviour says of himself I am the Truth and what the Apostles says of him that he is the Wisdom of his Father can be verifi'd any other way but by this Hypothesis XXVIII I have the longer insisted on this to shew not only the Truth of this Ideal World and that the Essences of things have eternal Existence in it but also how very useful this Notion is for the Establishment of the Divinity of Christ and for the explication of his Eternal generation from the Father which is also a further confirmation that the Notion is true and Solid So great aguard is true Platonism against Socinianism XXIX Hence also we may be instructed how to understand that common Axiom of the Schools that the Truth of every thing is its conformity to the Divine understanding This must by no means be understood of the Mind of God as Conceptive that is as reflecting upon himself as Exhibitive for the Truth of the Divine Intellect as Conceptive depends upon its conformity with the truth of things not the truth of things upon that But it must be meant of the Mind of God as Exhibitive that is of this Ideal World for upon this all Truth depends and every thing and every Proposition is so far true as 't is conformable with it For indeed the Intellect of God as Exhibitive is the Cause and Measure of all Truth XXX And 't was for want of the help of this Notion that that Keen Wit Discartes blunder'd so horribly in stating the dependence of Propositions of Eternal Truth upon the Intellect of God. He saw it 't was necessary as indeed it is to make God the cause of Truth and that truth must some way or other depend upon him But then he makes it depend upon the Mind of God as Conceptive and that things are so only because God is pleas'd so to conceive them And this he carries so high as to say that even in a Triangle three Angles would not have been equal to two Right ones had not God been pleased so to conceive and make it Now I am for the dependence of truth upon the Divine Intellect as well as he but not so as to make it Arbitrary and Contingent and Consequently not upon the Divine Intellect as Conceptive but only as Exhibitive That is that things are therefore True in as much as they are conformable to those standing and immutable Ideas which are in the mind of God as Exhibitive and Representative of all the whole Possibility of Being XXXI Now if after all this Ideal way of things subsisting from all Eternity in God should seem strange as I suppose it will to those who are unexercised in these Contemplations I shall only further say First that it must be infinitely more strange that there should be Eternal Truths that is Eternal Relations and Habitudes of simple Essences or things without the Co-eternal existence of the things themselves so related For what should support such Relations The simple Essences therefore must exist eternally if their Relations do and where can that be but in the Mind of God XXXII Secondly I say that this Ideal way of subsisting ought not to seem such a Bugbear as some make it since 't is necessary not only for the salving of Propositions of Eternal Truth before their Subjects exist in Nature but even when they do For even while things have a Natural subsistence the Propositions concerning them are not cannot be verifi'd according to their Natural but according to their Ideal subsistencies Thus we demonstrate several Propositions concerning a Right Line a Circle c. when yet in the mean time 't is most certain that none of these are to be found in Nature according to that exactness supposed in our Demonstration Such and such Affections therefoe do not belong to them as they are in Nature and therefore they must belong to them as they are in the Ideal World or not at all XXXIII And if this be true in Propositions whose Subjects exist in Nature much more is it in Eternal Propositions whose simple Essences

sin with an infinite hatred as a thing that is diametrically opposite to his own Essential sanctity and to those great Ends which he cannot but propose in the regulation of the universe But how he should thus hate it and yet not shew this his hatred by punishing it is not easie to conceive And besides it seems agreeable to the Laws of Order and Proportion that so great a Dis-harmony as Sin should never go wholly unpunish'd but that the Publick happiness of which Sin is a violation should be both repair'd and secured by the exaction of some satisfaction VIII If it be said that every one may remit as much as he please from his own Right and that then much more may God. I answer that Right is either Right of Dominion or Right of Office. From Right of Dominion when alone no doubt any person may remit what he pleases but not from Right of Office or from Right of Dominion when joyn'd with Right of Office. Now there is great reason to believe that the exacting of Punishment for sin is not in God a Right of Dominion only but also a Right of Office that is that God does not punish only as supreme Lord but as a Iudge and as a Iudge 't is congruous to suppose that he may be obliged to punish Obliged not by any Law or Power superiour to himself but by the Essential Rectitude of his own Nature and Will Which by obliging him to regard the Public Order and Interest may by consequence oblige him to animadvert upon those who transgress against it IX And thus far of the Justice of God whereby he deals uprightly and equally with all his Creatures and renders to every one his own according to their Works good or bad without any Partiality or Respect of Persons The next thing I consider in God is his veracity whereby all his words are conformable to his Mind and Intention and all his performances conformable to his words Whereby he most assuredly makes good all his Covenants Promises and Threatnings and cannot possibly deceive his Creatures any more than he himself can be deceived X. That there is this veracity in God we may be assured from the All-sufficiency and Perfection of his Being For all Fraud and Deceit is grounded upon Inigence and Infirmity No Man deceives meerly for deceivings sake but to serve a turn to relieve a Necessity And such a Necessity too as cannot be reliev'd any other way For Fraud is not only a Remedy but the last Remedy men never betake themselves to tricks but when they can't compass their Ends by Plain-dealing But now none of these things can be incident to God who being above all Indigence and Infirmity must of consequence be as much above all Falshood and Deceit The Vse of this to Devotion COnsidering then that God is thus strictly Iust True and Faithful 't is rational hence to conclude first how much it concerns us to Fear him and to beware how we render our selves Obnoxious to this his Justice Secondly That we ought always to rest intirely satisfy'd in the Divine Dispensations knowing that 't is impossible but that this Judge of the whole Earth should do Right And lastly That we ought readily and firmly to believe him in all the Manifestations of his Mind and Will and particularly that we ought to repose a strong Confidence in his Covenants and Promises being well assured that he is Faithful who has promised The Aspiration MY God My Iudge who art Righteous in all thy ways and Holy in all thy works I delight to think of thee tho' I am too guilty to contemplate thee in this thy Attribute without Fear and Trembling For there is Iudgment as well as Mercy with thee that thou shouldst be Fear'd O enter not into Iudgment with thy Servant for in thy sight shall no man living be Iustify'd My God how strangely Impious are they who dare say or think that the way of the Lord is not equal My God I am none of those nor will I ever be of that profane number I will ever acquiesce in the Equity of thy Dispensations whether I am able to comprehend it or no. For I know tho' Clouds and Darkness may sometimes be round about thee yet Righteousness and Judgement are always the Habitation of thy Seat. I readily and firmly assent O my God to all the Declarations thou hast made of thy Mind and Will. I believe all thy Predictions all thy Promises and all thy Threatnings that they shall be fulfill'd all in their Season I know that nothing but Truth can proceed from thee who art Truth it self I know that thou O God can'st not deceive us O grant that we may not deceive our selves Amen Contemplation VIII Of the Divine Goodness and Philanthropy I. I shall now close up these my Considerations of God with a Meditation upon the Divine Goodness by which I understand a Propension of doing good to his Creatures by the Communication of his own good or happiness But here upon my first entrance I find my self plunged beyond my Depth It is an immense Ocean which no Line can fathom and where the Sight loses it self in a long boundless Prospect This is that Attribute which in a peculiar manner adorns and accomplishes the Divine Nature and renders it Amiable and Lovely as well as Venerable and Adorable This is the highest Repast of Angels and the peculiar entertainment of Contemplative Souls many of which who had no other guide to follow but the Clue of their own Reasonings have long since observed that Goodness is the Principal and as I may say the Divinest Attribute of the Deity II. This the Gentile Theology intended by making Love the most ancient of all the Gods. And accordingly we find in the Platonic Trinity which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that the first place is assign'd to the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they conceive after the manner of an immense and most pure Light continually dissusing and Communicating its invigorative Beams And this was that which the fine Platonist Boethius alluded to in that celebrated and graphical description of God when he call'd him Fons Boni Lucidus the Lucid Fountain of Good. And there is an ancient Cabalistical Table supposed to be borrowed from the Pythagoreans which represents in a visible Scheme the Order of the Divine Perfection wherein 't is observable that Goodness is seated in the Supreme Circle which they call Chether or the Crown thereby intimating that goodness presides over and gives Laws and Measures to all the other Attributes of God. III. And indeed it does so For thus God's Power serves to execute the Dictates of his Wisdom and his Wisdom is employ'd in finding out Objects Methods and Occasions for the exercise of his Goodness Nay even Justice it self which at first seems to thwart and reprimand the inclinations of Goodness will notwithstanding be found upon nearer inspection sweetly to conspire and