Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	holy_a	read_v	word_n	3,200	5	4.0993	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49698	God manifested by his works, and justified in his dealings with men a sermon preached at the cathedral church of Sarum, upon the 29th day of June, 1677 / by Paul Lathom.	Lathom, Paul.	1678 (1678)	Wing L573; ESTC R25447	13,396	34

GOD MANIFESTED by his WORKS AND Justified in his Dealings with MEN. A SERMON PREACHED At the Cathedral Church of SARUM Upon the 29th Day of June 1677. By Paul Lathom Prebendary of the same Church Rom. 3.19 That every mouth may be stopped and all the World may become guilty before God QVISEQVITVR ME NON AMBVLAT IN TENEBRIS LONDON Printed for Rich. Royston Bookseller to His most Sacred MAJESTY An. Dom. MDCLXXVIII Mr. ROYSTON THE Sermon concerning which You are desirous of my Certificate was here received from the Pulpit with so much applause and satisfaction that I think it great pity it should perish and expire as Sermons too often are wont to do together with the Breath it was spoken in It seems to me a proper Antidote very fit for such People as live in irreligious Air to carry about them against the Atheists and Scepticks and Vnbelievers of the Times To some 't will be useful as a Remedy to others as a Preservative and even without the help of Eloquence has an aptitude in it self of being profitable to All at least in the Hope and Opinion of Your Affectionate Friend to serve You THO. PIERCE IMPRIMATUR GUIL JANE Sept. 13. 1678. GOD MANIFESTED by his WORKS AND Iustified in his Dealings with Men. Rom. 1.20 For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his eternal power and God-head so that they are without excuse THE Apostle professing his readiness and zeal to Preach and propagate the Gospel v. 14 15. gives his reason for such his inclination v. 16. for I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto Salvation both to Jews and Gentiles and v. 17. tells us that therein is the righteousness of God revealed in justifying the World by faith To manifest the necessity of which method in justification he proceeds to convict both the Gentiles and also the Jews of being obnoxious to God's justice and shews them consequently the need they had of a righteousness by imputation The Gentiles he deals with at present and convinceth them that the wrath of God was most justly revealed from Heaven against their profaneness and impiety inasmuch as they had not wanted for competent means of knowledge but had lived much beneath the advantages they had enjoyed And though they had wanted that more sure word of prophecy the holy Scriptures yet they had the Book of God's works before them in which much of God might be read and whereby God had left them without excuse in their sins In the words I have read unto you we may observe a proposition and an inference The proposition that the invisible things of God ever since the Creation of the World have been discoverable by the things that are made The inference that God hath left Mankind without excuse if they live and dye in their sins In the Proposition are 3. Heads of Discourse First What are the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those works of God by which the invisible things of God are discoverable 2. What are those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the invisible things of God that are discoverable by his works 3. Why these are called invisible things First For the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those works of God from whence the invisible things of him are discoverable they are of 3. sorts Creation or giving a beginning to the World at first Production or preserving each Species by the propagation of individuals and Providence or upholding governing and providing for each Creature in the Universe First The Work of Creation or the giving a beginning to Heaven and Earth and all Creatures therein doth discover unto us the invisible things of God For. 1. Natural reason argues that none of these things could be eternal One generation comes and another goes and reason prompts us to follow these streams of successive generations till we find the Spring-head of the first generation for otherwise we must engage our selves to defend an infinity in the Series of Generations which will involve us in this perplexity I demand whether at this present an infinite Series of Generations be already past If you answer yea then I demand whether in the days of our posterity it will not be more than an infinite Series that will have passed If not then a part is equal to the whole If yea then we have found a number greater than an infinite both which are absurd If you say that at present an infinite Series of generations are not yet past but in process of time they will become infinite then it will follow that a finite number added to a finite will make an infinite which is also absurd Reason therefore will force us to own a beginning of generations 2. And it was impossible for the first generation to make it self or be the author of its own being and therefore we must search after some first cause of all things Reason explodes it as inconsistent to hold the same thing to be the cause and the effect for if so we must hold this contradiction that the same thing is in being and not in being at the same time In being for otherwise it could not work as a cause not in being for else it could not be produced as an effect A first cause of all things or a Maker of the World must be therefore of necessity owned 3. Nor could any thing less than an infinite being give the first original to things or produce something out of nothing To make great alterations in the same matter by introducing various forms successively falls within the power of Nature or Art But to produce any thing out of meer non-entity is to reconcile notions of such infinite distance and disproportion as no less can do than an infinite Agent Such an one therefore we must be forced to own in making things to subsist out of their original nothing 4. He that duly surveys the vastness of this Fabrick of the Universe must needs own an infinite power to be the Maker thereof When we look upon a small portion of the World either through the obscure glass of ignorance or through the magnifying glass of interest and pride we are apt to swell our Mole-hill into a Mountain But if we compare our little Spot with the rest of the habitable part of the World how little is it If the whole earthly Globe with the heavenly how like a point it looks And can we imagine any cause to have produced such an effect but such as greatly transcends it that is an infinite being 5. The vast variety of particular Creatures that are parts of the Universe argues the same If we survey the various sorts of particular beings that stock the Earth the Water and the Air beside those Heavenly Bodies that adorn the superior Orbs it will lead us to an infinite Intellect that contained those Idea's after which every individual was