A25294:267
The substance of Christian religion, or, A plain and easy draught of the Christian…The substance of Christian religion, or, A plain and easie draught of the Christian…
The substance of Christian religion, or, A plain and easy draught of the Christian catechism in LII lectures on chosen texts of Scripture, for each Lords-day of the year, learnedly and perspicuously illustrated with doctrines, reasons, and uses / by that reverend and worthy labourer in the Lord's vineyard, William Ames ...The substance of Christian religion, or, A plain and easie draught of the Christian catechisme in LII lectures on chosen texts of Scripture, for each Lords-day of the year, learnedly and perspicuously illustrated with doctrines, reasons, and uses / by that reverend and worthy laborer in the Lord's vineyard, William Ames ...
London: printed by T. Mabb for Thomas Davies, 1659
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Use, Of Direction, That in exercises of our Faith, Hope, Charity, and in all parts and appurtenances of religious worship, and the practise of godliness, we lift up our minds as much as can be, not only to the name of God in common, but distinctly, to the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as equally in all our addresses to be honoured and celebrated.
Use, Of Direction, That in exercises of our Faith, Hope, Charity, and in all parts and appurtenances of religious worship, and the practise of godliness, we lift up our mindes as much as can be, not onely to the name of God in common, but distinctly, to the name of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as equally in all our addresses to be honoured and celebrated.
Doct. 3. Between these three persons there is a certain distinction, as to the form and manner, or order of subsisting.
It is gathered from the Text; because they are ⟨p. 61⟩disposed or set in a copulative enunciation. For if there were no distinction between them, then would that copulative be impertinent; and it would have no more ground for it, than if one should say, in the name of the righteous God, and the merciful God, and the omnipotent God, &c. Which are not to be taken in propriety and rigour of conjunction, but exegetically. They differ then from the essence, as essential, or substantial concretes do from their abstracts. They differ from themselves as relatives, and some ways as unlike; this unlikeliness or dissimilitude, is in certain as it were, of their individuant and characteristical proprieties, which are not inherent qualities, but relative affections or properties. As to the point of order, the Father is the first, the Son the second, the Holy Ghost the third, not in order of time, or of nature properly so called, but in order of origination. Hence is it, that such works, wherein the beginnings of things are most apparent, are attributed to the Father by appropriation, as the creation. But those things wherein the second, and successive dispensations or procurations are most conspicuous, are attributed to the Son; as redemption: and such, wherein the perfection and last consummation are manifest, are attributed to the Holy Ghost, as our sanctification, and glorification.