Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	world_n	write_a	write_v	117	3	5.2657	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63939	An essay upon the works of creation and providence being an introductory discourse to the history of remarkable providences now preparing for the press : to which is added a further specimen of the said work : as also Meditations upon the beauty of holiness / by William Turner ...	Turner, W. (William), fl. 1687-1701.	1695 (1695)	Wing T3346; ESTC R8093	77,474	214

Whether the darkest Nations have heard this Voice Answ Yes Their sound hath gone out to all the ends of the World And it is very easily made out For 1. They had no other Bible to read in than that of Nature and this of the Heavens was the most legible Page in the whole Book They were without the written Law but they were not without this Natural Light They had neither Moses nor the Prophets nor Evangelists nor Apostles and therefore whither else should they go but to the word writ upon the Book of the Creation the Divine Handy-works in the Make of the World Rom. 1.20 2. We find them confessing it making use of this Book reading studiously amongst the Stars poring with an inquisitive Eye upon the Heavens and Firmament to gather some scraps of a Religious Philosophy and trace the Principles of a Spiritual Divinity Seneca when he hath placed the Wise Man walking to and fro by the contemplation of his mind amongst the Stars Illic demum discit saith he quod diu quaesivit illic incipit Deum nosse And in the beginning of his Book of Natural Questions having undertaken some Philosophical Account of the Heavenly Bodies we find him no where in such a Rapture of Divinity as upon that Thesis Nisi ad haec the study of Divine Things the Contemplations of the Heavenly Bodies c. admitterer non fuerat operae pretium nasci O quam contempta res est Homo nisi supra humana se erexerit Nay more than this they had generally the original of all their Theology from the Firmament Their Gods were amongst the Stars nay the Stars were their only Gods 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Homer Even the Egyptians themselves are accounted to have lead the way to this Superstition And for this reason it was chiefly that their several Priests Prophets and Magi amongst the Egyptians Chaldeans Assyrians Persians c. were so well-skilled commonly in the Curious Arts of Astrology and Divination which have been since derived and diffused from them to us and the rest of the World Their Hermes Tresmegistus Ptolomy and Haly being Authors of great request still with our Astrologers and Prognosticators 2. What did they learn from hence Truly a great deal more than some Christians learn from Nature and Revelation both I speak not of all the poor dark Heathen World but of some who were more serious and contemplative amongst them Who took more pains than their Fellows And I dare safely say that tho their Eyes were dim and the Light they saw by but like the obscure Twilight or the first Dawning of the Morning that they might well School and Catechise some of our old Professors Gray-hair'd Christians for seven years together It would be too large a task now to tell you what Lessons they learn'd from the Contemplation and Study of these Things Their Books of Moral Philosophy writ by Aristotle Plato Cicero Seneca Isocrates c. were they preach'd in our Pulpits were enough to fill some number of years with Sermons strong enough for our Auditors of the Lower Form And convictive enough to shame the major part of Christians among us into blushing and confusion Read over but the Roman Twelve Tables Plato's Republic the Laws of the several Heathen Nations about Religion Sobriety Justice c. And you 'l find reason to fear left the Queen of the South and the Inhabitants of Tyre and Sidon the Greek Scythian and Barbarian will escape better some of them at the Day of Judgment than many of Christendom that have both the Books wide open before them all the days of their life Rom. 2.14 15. 3. What might they learn Answ All the Articles of our Christian Creed and all the Precepts of our Christian Religion except those which refer to the Cause and Cure of our Misery viz. The fall of Adam and the Intercession of the Second Adam That there was a God one only Supreme Maker of Heaven and Earth Infinite in the Attributes of Wisdom Power Truth Justice Mercy worthy to be worshipped with a Holy Life Prayer Praise Obedience and a pure Heart and Affection one that had a Good Will to save us one that would reward us with excellent Rewards or Punishments according to our Actions in the other World All this and more than this they might have discerned by their Glimmering Light of Nature in only the Frontispiece of Heaven if they had but used their Eyes And so much many of them did not only learn but teach and make a publick and stout profession of it to the World The Existence of one Supreme God the Divine Governance of the World the Immortality of the Soul a Mediation between God and us and almost all the Moral Duties of the Law in Substance the distribution of Rewards and Punishments after this Life distinct Places and times of Worship Priests and Priestly maintenance and Attonements and Purifications and something like the Dedicating of their Infants to God by Baptism with secret Devotions and Family Worship as well as that which was publick in the Temples All these and much more were adopted into the Body of the Heathen Religion And excepting only some few Articles of our Creed referring to the Trinity and especially the business of our Redemption and the True Notion of our two Sacraments and it may be the Resurrection of our Bodies it were not very hard to make out all the rest of our Religion demonstrable by the meer Light of Reason The invisible things of God from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made 4. What Practical Deductions may be made from hence How great is God A Contemplation of the Heavenly Fabrick will directly lead us to this point viz. an admiration of the Divine Eternal Power of the Godhead For Rom. 1.19 that which may be known of God is manifest to all the World for God hath shewed it to them He hath shewed his Face in the Glass of his Works and his Features there appear so glorious that 't is a wonder it doth not fill our apprehensions with a pregnant and awful conceit of his Infinite Majesty and Power The Splendor of the Divine Attributes gives shine to all the World so that now all the Inhabitants of the Round World have scope enough for Spiritual Contemplation and the exercise of their Rational Faculties and the Turk and Pagan both have a book large and voluminous enough lying wide open before them enough to employ all their studies in all the days of their Life Who that considers a while the Nature of that God that made the Heavens how he must stretch his Compass over the whole Vniverse how he must mete out the Heavens with a Span and comprehend the Dust of the Earth in a Measure and weigh the Mountains in Scales and the Hills in a Ballance and take up the Isles as a very little thing and measure the Waters in the hollow