Selected quad for the lemma: body_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	nature_n	soul_n	unite_v	6,882	5	9.6339	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70306	The true Catholicks tenure, or, A good Christians certainty which he ought to have of his religion, and may have of his salvation by Edvvard Hyde ...	Hyde, Edward, 1607-1659.; Hyde, Edward, 1607-1659. Allegiance and conscience not fled out of England.	1662 (1662)	Wing H3868; ESTC R19770	227,584	548

or work of men hath in every age of the Church come to nought and so will to the worlds end but the counsel and work of God in the Christian Religion never yet was never shall be overthrown for the gates of hell might prevail against the Church of Christ could they prevail against the Christian Religion that upholds the Church But since chopping and changing in the profession and practise of Religion is now the great sin of many that would be thought the best Christians I will endeavour to shew that it should be also their shame no less then it is their sin for in vain is the pretence of Godliness in changing that which God hath ordained should partake of his own unchangeableness indeed in every respect that God himself is unchangeable Religion is so too now God is unchangeable in three respects essentiâ voluntate loco in his essence in his will in his place and Religion would fain also have this immutability First God is immutable in his essence Rev. 1. 4. Grace be unto you and peace from him which is and which was and which is to come from him who always was always will be the same that he now is as if he had said From him that is wholly immutable in his essence that is from God for no man is the same either that he was or that he shall be and no Angel is the same that he was for there was a time when he was not and the first Council of Nice thought it a sufficient proof of the judgement of the Catholick Church concerning the Divinity of Christ in that they said she anathematized those who said There was a time when he was not which is all one as if they had said concerning him That he was God who was and is and is to come for God alone may be said to have an unchangeable Being who hath his Being from himself all creatures whatsoever have once changed from a not-Being to a Being and would again change from a Being to a not-Being did not the same hand which at first made them still preserve them for it is proper onely to the Creatour who alone is of himself to be alone unchangeable in himself and so is Religion unchangeable in its essence for being the service of God it must be like its master since by the rule of Relatives Change in the service cannot but proceeed from change in the master at lest from some change in his will if not in his nature and therefore the argument rather pleads against the worship of Angels which is alledged by Bel. l. ● de beat can San. c. 14. then for it where he thus argues the Angels were worshipped before Christs incarnation by Abraham and Lot Gen. 18 and 19. but the Angel forbad St. John to worship him Rev. 19. 10. and 22. 9. ob reverentiam humanitatis Christi for the reverence he did bear to Christ now in the nature of man I answer That reason is more forcible against invocation which humbles the soul then it is against adoration which humbles the body since Christ took upon him as well the soul of man as his body and consequently if we may not adore the Angels without disparaging the humane nature in Christ much less may we invocate them without fear of that disparagement But because this answer doth not satisfie the argument but rather invert it if not retort it I answer secondly That therefore the worshipping of Angels cannot be made good Religion because it was not as good Religion in S. John as it is supposed to have been in Abraham For if it had been once good Religion it would have been so still and must needs be so for ever since it concerns the very object of worship which must be unchangeable and not the manner of it which may in some respects be capable of change For Religion is Gods service and knows no more how to change it self then how to change its master else serving the time would come to be good Divinity instead of serving the Lord which now is taken for a false reading of the text Rom. 12. 11. occasioned by short writing of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which being enlarged by vowels might easily be turned into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wherefore we must say that the same religious worship is commanded in Genesis and in the Revelation in the first and in the last book of Gods word and if the Angel might not lawfully be worshipped by S. Iohn he might not lawfully be worshipped by Abraham or by Lot that is to say not with a religious worship and therefore we must confess that their worship if religious was directed onely to the Son of God who then frequently appeared with the Angels as it were preluding to his own incarnation If not religious but either a civil or a moral reverence in acknowledgment either of the Angels government or of their excellency 't is improperly alledged as an act of Religion for if worshipping of Angels had been a duty of Religion either to Abraham or to Lot it must also have been so to S. Iohn and then the Angel would not have said See thou do it not but See thou do it And this is proof enough That worshipping of Angels is no part of Religion because it self is confessed to be a changeable worship but Religion cannot be denied to be an unchangeable service in its own nature and essence even as the God is whom it serves Secondly God is immutable or unchangeable in his will Vult mutationem non mutat voluntatem as saith Aquinas par 1. qu. 19. He wills a change but changeth not his will and accordingly God threatning destruction to the Ninivites and yet not destroying them may not be said to have changed his own will but to have willed their change For though in Promises and in Precepts Gods revealed will is a declaration of his secret will yet 't is not so in Threats or comminations of vengeance there God doth not so much declare what himself wills as what we deserve therefore threats may not be fulfilled and yet Gods will still be the same not so Promises or Precepts for God would not promise if he did not intend to perform nor would he command if he did not intend we should obey from his Promise we have an interest in his mercy for all good is clamable from his Precepts his Justice hath an interest in us for all evil is punishable and all transgression is evil so that God cannot promise or command what is not according to his will unless he should dispence either with his mercy or with his justice but in predictions of vengeance the case is otherwise God doth often threaten what he doth not will and therefore may change his threats and yet not change his will fór his threats shew not so much his will or his intent as our deservings that mischief is

or by the bounds of any place though all spirits are confined to and by the limited bounds of their own essence save onely one which is the God of spirits He acknowledgeth not any bounds of essence cannot confine himself much less doth he acknowledge any bounds of place to be confined by another And this boundless Infinity of God appears in three respects for God may be said to be infinite or incomprehensible three manner of ways Cogitatione nostrâ Essentiâ suâ Communicatione essentiae in our apprehension in his own essence in the communication of his essence 1. Cogitatione nostrâ God may be said to be infinite and incomprehensible in our apprehensions as 1 Cor. 2. 9. Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him From whence we cannot but argue thus Si non Divina multò minùs ipse Deus If not the things God hath prepared have entred into the heart of man much less God himself that prepared them Hence Aquinas denies that any created understanding can see the essence of God by a vision of comprehension 1. par qu. 12. ar 1. the reason is because his Infinity makes him incomprehensible and truly for our parts we must confess that we rather know of God what he is not then what he is so far are we from fully knowing him And so is it also with Religion we cannot know it at all till God hath enlarged our souls and after that enlargement we cannot know it perfectly for if we could admirabilis amoris excitaret sui we should be so in love with it as to love and desire nothing else for so it is with the Saints and Angels in heaven who fully knowing the excellency of loving and praising God can do nothing else but love and praise him 2. Essentiâ suâ God may be said to be infinite in his own essence and being and this Infinity of God is evidenced in his Omnipresence or Ubiquity whereby he is so present here as to be present every where and this belongs not to Angels no nor yet to the glorified body of Christ though united to his Deity for a bodie cannot lose its property which is to be in a place but it must also lose it self and no longer remain a body But this doth in some sort belong to Religion for what is spoken of Christs coming to judgement may also be fitly spoken of his coming into the soul of man S. Matth. 24. 27. As the lightning cometh out of the East and shineth even unto the West so shall also the coming of the Son of man be And indeed this alone is it which both makes proves the Church to be Universal or Catholick because the Spirit whereby it is quickened governed hath this ubiquity S. John 3. 8. The winde bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth so is every one that is born of the Spirit Spiritus spirat ubi vult The Spirit breatheth where it listeth is not confined to a corner in Africa as said the Donatists nor to a chair at Rome as saith the Papist nor to a Family of Love as saith the Catharist and this argument alone is able to evince That Religion is of God not of man because of its Universal presence for such have been the distempers of men that there is now scarce any one visible Church in the Christian world which will allow any true Religion out of its own communion and what men do not easily allow they do easily wish so that not to allow it to be so is in effect to wish it were not so and consequently If Religion did depend upon the will of man for its enlargement it would in short time be confined to a very narrow compass of the world But blessed be God it is far otherwise and we may say of Religion as the Schole hath said of God the Authour of it it is every where by its essence and by its power and by its presence by its essence to fill the soul and to enlarge the heart by its power to over-rule the affections and by its presence to overlook and guide the actions and as Religion is thus always present to us though few take notice of it so the Religious man is always present to himself the good Christian imitating his Saviour Christ who is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Semper eadem may be the Motto of the soul that is truly Religious though not as to its action for even our prayers are not always the same though our necessities are but sometimes with greater sometimes with lesser fervency yet as to its resolution a sanctified man always resolves for the best though he doth not always perform what he resolves and he is always ready to give an answer of the hope that is in him if you look upon him in his resolution though if you look upon him in his action he may sometimes scarce seem to have any hope of eternity or if he have may seem not to regard that hope Wherefore it is best for us to believe that Religion is always present to it self and always present with us calling upon us to fear God and to keep his commandments for this belief will make God himself always present with us to sanctifie us here and to save us hereafter and will make us delight in the presence of his grace till we come to enjoy the presence of his glory Thus the Apostle saith that our blessed Saviour hath undertaken to present us holy unblameable and unreprovable in the sight of God Col. 1. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make us stand by in a readiness and Saint Iude recommends all faithfull souls to him that is able to present them faultless v. 24. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to make them stand in his presence he will not make them stand there who do not care to appear there what we most love we most willingly fancy as present with us so he that truly loves God most wishes his presence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is a great reverence which belongs to the presence of a man that overlooks us much more to the watchfull eye of eternity the Sun of righteousness and his overlooking countenance and over-spreading light if shame will not let us offend against a man on whom we can have but an accidental dependance for a temporal and momentany being how much more will it keep us from offending against God on whom we have an essential dependance both of our being and of our well being for ever 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eye-service to men is forbidden Eph. 6. 6. because our masters on earth cannot be always present with us so that eye-service to man is but meer hypocrisie and dissimulation but it is not so towards God our master in heaven who is always present

that is wary and timorous in the choice of his tenents though he may be thought an enemy to his own knowledge yet he cannot be thought an enemy to Gods truth for though he may stick a while at the embracing of some divine truths till they appear to him to be so yet he cannot easily obtrude any untruths for truths and God will sooner pardon the infirmity of a man in sticking at a truth then the presumption of a man in obtruding an untruth for the first shews himself as a man subject to doubtings not able to command his own faith but the other would fain be accounted little less then a God in making himself not the Interpreter but the Authour of truths and so challenging a dominion over the faith of others which however ought not to dishearten us from knowing the doctrine of any Christian Church for as of old it derogated nothing from the truth of God that some Prophets did tell lies in his Name so neither doth it now derogate from the truth of Religion that there is so much mixture of mens inventions or surmises with that truth But we must say of all these tares that an enemy hath sowed them whilest men slept and yet we may not think Gods Providence over his Church either careless in not looking after it or defective in looking after it to little purpose as if he that is the keeper of Israel did sleep when Israel most needed keeping for the Apostle hath said Oportet haereses esse inter vos 1 Cor. 11. 19. there must be sects or heresies amongst you that they which are approved may be made manifest as if he had said That must be for which there is a good reason why it should be and there is a good reason why there should be heresies amongst you nay indeed two good reasons the one on your parts that you may be tried or proved the other on Gods part that they which are approved may be made manifest to set forth the power and glory of Gods truth which like the Sun shines the more gloriously when it hath broken through some great cloud that opposed it for so much is true even of that wicked objection Rom. 3. 7. If the truth of God hath more abounded through my lye unto his glory why yet am I also judged as a sinner 't is most certain the Truth of God doth often more abound through our lies to his glory and yet the Objection is so ungodly and unreasonable why am I judged as a sinner that the Apostle doth not think it worth the answering but onely silenceth such a desperate and prophane Disputant with a damnabitur that he is like to be damned for his pains v. 8. whose damnation is just for no argument so fit to confute him as damnation who will needs plead or dispute for the devil Will ye plead for Baal will ye save him he that will plead for him let him be put to death Jud. 6. 31. what a shame is it for us Christians that Baal should have so many to plead for him and God so few that Superstition and Faction should so much outstrip true Religion the professours of the one for they both meet in the same Baal though they are so far asunder in themselves going as much beyond the professours of the other in zeal as they come short of them in truth and yet still since superstition and faction must needs be judged as sins why should they not be judged as sinners that maintain them for neither should we finde a Disputant to defend it if both be sins neither should we find an advocate to plead for it if both alike uphold the worship of Baal and yet there are and will be swarms of such Advocates multitudes of such Disputants notwithstanding Joash hath said Let them be put to death that so plead and S. Paul hath moreover said their damnation is just that so dispute for neither death nor damnation can silence the perverse disputings of men of corrupt mindes and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness wherefore St. Pauls advice to Timothy is from such withdraw thy self 1 Tim. 6. 5. and we are little beholding to the Latine Translation for taking no notice of this so necessary a text yet God forbid we should therefore think it ought to be expunged out of the Greek Copies wherein both Latine and Greek Church so joyntly agree or else out of our own practise and observation S. Pauls advice in controversies or rather corruptions of this nature is From such withdraw thy self not against such oppose thy self he adviseth us rather to have no communion with them then to maintain disputations against them for as in carnal uncleanness the onely way for a man to have a clean body and a chaste soul is to flee fornication 1 Cor. 6. 18. not to resist it so is it also in this spiritual uncleanness which makes men go a whoring after their own inventions we must rather avoid the temptation then think to overcome it rather shun the Disputants then think to answer their disputations for men whose faction is above their Religion will never be silenced by arguments of Religion and men whose Interest is above their conscience will never give any ear to the plea of Conscience and this reason is in effect given by S. Paul himself why in such a case it is better to withdraw then to withstand v. 3. For saith he if any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholsome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words as if he had said There is little hopes of doing good upon such a man for if he would have hearkned to any wholsome words and not onely to flattering speeches he would have hearkned to the words of our Lord Jesus Christ we may say to those words which Christ spake in his person S. Matth. 22. 21. Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars and unto God the things that are Gods for those words alone if rightly followed would suffer no man to be a Pharisee that is a Separatist either in Church or State for if men did give Caesar his due there could be no sedition in the state if they did give God his due there could be no schism nor heresie in the Church but we must say to those words which Christ spake in his doctrine whether immediately by himself or mediately by his Apostles if such a Pharisee would have hearkned to wholsome more then to pleasing words he would have hearkned to the words of Christ which he delivered both in his person and in his doctrine and if he would have received any doctrine but that which complied with his worldly interest he would have received the doctrine which is according to godliness but since he will neither hear the one nor receive the other 't is