Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	see_v	speak_v	write_v	2,745	5	4.9771	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39064	An Expedient for peace amongst Christians. The second part grounded on the impossibility of their agreement in matters of religion : and further enlarged in a discourse of church and state : wherein a new ecclesiastical administration is exhibited.		1689 (1689)	Wing E3872A_VARIANT; ESTC R31481	31,841	51

contend against and in my former Discourse have shewed to be impossible is that of Men being all of One Mind One Judgment One Apprehension in the matters of Religion or otherwise and whenever I say Agreement is impossible I mean this sort of Agreement which really is so and no other Christian Men have indeed taken indefatigable Pains to bring this Agreement to pass and cannot as yet be brought to leave off although opposed by God Nature and all things Visible and Invisible Let us turn our Eyes wherever we Please we shall see nothing but Diversity and infinite Variety in things if we look up to Heaven what shall we see there but an innumerable company of Stars not ranged and in order but promisciously placed hic et ubique Indeed if the Sons of Men had been to have placed them no doubt but they would have put them in Rows and in Order I mean such a position which they call Order But what they call Order Unity and Agreement The All-Wise God esteems not so He knows and can see Beauty Order and Agreement in different Natures and infinite variety of Things though They cannot and methinks He plainly speaks from Heaven and tells them so having Confronted them with such a glorious appearance of infinitely differing but most beautifull Instructors which they cannot miss of seeing if they will but look upward I say one would think they should learn their Lesson out of this glorious Book of Heaven wrote in such fair and legible Characters and cease their vain attemps about an universal Order and Agreement Further if the Almighty hath not only placed these Heavenly Bodies for Ornament but also hath empowered them to influence the Bodies and Minds of Men as 't is possible he hath and many suppose and contend for Then this will aggravate their vanity in endeavouring to be more in Order and more Methodised than their Principals And they may contend and endeavour to Eternity but all to no purpose for when they shall have Power or be able to remove the Stars from place to place or form them into what Figures they please discharge their Influences or regulate their Promiscuousness Then and not till then shall they be able to bring their Motly Agreement to pass But as 't is impossible to do the one so not more possible to perform the other Then again if we cast down our Eyes upon Earth what shall we see to agree there 'T is nothing but a Composition of things of different qualties and natures a pregnant Mass of Matter productive of infinite Variety of Forms and Shapes And this is not its Deformity but Beauty and it would be but an unpleasing Heap without it But after all we like Men as we are will needs have all to Agree We would have no Differences we would have all Men to have One Mind the Same Opinion the Same Thought and Apprehension of things and perform Actions after the Same Manner and Method Notwithstanding all the discouragement and constant and successive defeats we have met with in the Prosecution thereof For first our Maker defeated Nimrod and his Accomplices the old Babylonian Builders who were contriving and forming to themselves strange universal things under One Form One way and One Government as also of late in the Reformation the New Babylonian Butlders who were carrying on the same work but in an Ecclesiastical manner And most of the great Invaders of the Earth have met with the same misfortune for some of their large Dominions and Empires have at this day scarce any being but in Records and that with great difficulty Preserved By God Almighties proceeding and dealings with the sons of Men in the things of this Nature he seems plainly to tell them That he is not pleased with such their universal Proceedings He never yet prospered or established universal Kings or universal Churches excepting for some little time to punish others but has always pulled down their Buildings and reduced them to their primitive Condition and station And whatever esteem or value they may put upon universal Agreements universal Empire or Churches it doth plainly appear He has not the same For he has divided the Globe of the Earth by Seas and Rivers and Mountains and allotted each Nation its Limits And this Division is both Ornamental and Necessary and no Division with him at all for he beholds all the Kingdoms of the Earth as one Undivided Mass and Spot of Ground and all the Generations of Men as one Stock and Family in one House but several Apartments and though we cry out of Division and Separation yet he beholds all Christian Assemblis together and as in one place and all to be in the Communion of one Church as so many Figures in one Sum. and all their several Opinions to be parts of One Agreement So that we need not be so fierce to attempt impossibilities to fill up the Sea choak up the Rivers or level the Mountains to make all a Terra Firma nor take all that pains which some Men do to reconcile Differences and make all men of One Mind which is equally impossible Which brings me again to my first Assertion which ought a little further to be insisted on 'T is impossible that Christians should Agree in the way and nature they would Agree not onely for the reasons mentioned in my former Discourse but because there is no common Standard fixed and agreed to by all by which all Parties may take their measures and square and decide their Pretences Some will have the Pope to be head of the Church and to be Infallible and the sole Judge of all Controversies and Differences others will have a General Council some will have both in Conjunction others neither of them either apart or in Conjunction Some again will have the Scriptures to be Judge others Tradition some Scriptures and Tradition together others neither Scriptures nor Tradition but every private Person Some again will have the Church others the Fathers some neither Church nor Fathers And what a noise have we perpetually sounding in our Ears about Church Fathers Councills and Scriptures which are true and which are spurious The Objections at this time of Day lie almost equally alike against all But if they agree which are the True they fall out about the Interpretation and every Party say their own Comment is right and nothing as yet on Earth has been found sufficient and competent to make a dicision 'T is not fit that the less number should judge for the greater a single Man for a whole company nor a whole company for a single Man where the matter is Salvation The Scriptures indeed are the best Rule and the best Judge we have but this onely to private and Particular Persons for themselves but not for others not for publick Communities and Societies against one another For the Question Who shall interpret them will never be answered a private Person may judge for himself but not for