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_n	write_v	503	4	5.1932	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52486	Divine eloquence, or, An essay upon the tropes and figures contained in the Holy Scriptures and reduced under the proper titles & rhetorick also several texts of Scripture which fall in with the figures are briefly interpreted, especially those which seem to favour the papist or the Socinian.	Norwood, Cornelius.	1694 (1694)	Wing N1344; ESTC R30070	55,272	145

were with a whisper and yet even those that are in the most distant places in the remotest corners of the earth shall obey the powerfull summons of his voice and presently come and make their appearances Here you have a description with no less elegancy of the most unsearchable ways and councils of the great God he made darkness his secret place his Pavilion round about him were dark waters and thick clouds of the sky and the methods of his providence are very unaccountable and past our understanding his ways are extreamly private in the dark and in the deep waters and his footsteps are not known But because some have the most severe and rigid notions of God shall I give you a tast of the sweetness of his love and kindness Isai 49. 15. Can a woman says God forget her sucking child And the question is proposed to assure us 't is at least extreamly difficult though not impossible for a mother to break through the strongest ties and impressions of natural affection yet even then God himself assures us though a woman may be so very barbarous and so inhumane to the child of her womb yet that he himself had more Bowels more affection more tender compassions and could never be unmindfull of his children nay so great is his care his sollicitous concernment for them that in all their sufferings God cannot but have the same sence of Pain and misery and sympathize with them in all their afflictions says the Prophet He was afflicted Isai 47. 7. Nay to the very last degree of kindness and commiseration that no relation how near soever can have more for like as a father hath compassion on his children so the Lord hath pity on them that fear him And Psal 103. v. 13. if 't is yet possible to give a suller sense of his infinite love and affection to us he assures us that if his Church is under the least kind of suffering that he himself is extreamly sensible of it even as the most tender part resents the smallest injury They that touch you touch the apple of my eye Psalm 7. 11 12 13. God is there represented as a mighty man of war preparing to engage his enemy but yet he is so indulgent and merciful that he seems very unwilling to execute the fury of his wrath but is still in expectation of our conversion that we will at last sue for a peace and repent and obey him but if he will not turn says David He will whet his sword he hath bent his bow and made it ready he hath prepared for him the instruments of death And is there not a greatness of spirit and majesty in this short definition God gives of himself I am that I am hath sent me unto thee that is I am God unchangeable the same yesterday to day and for ever 't is I that send Moses And now perhaps these Texts of Scripture without any more are susficient to discover that the Scripture is not written in so very low and plain a strain as some ignorantly imagine and perhaps 't is not the least recommendation of the inspired Writings that no other book in all the world can furnish our minds with more distinct and clearer Revelations of his Being or his divine Attributes no other book can so excellently describe the power the majesty the infinte justice the mercy and goodness of Almighty God And now if you are desirous to take a view of his wonders in the deep how should man without an express revelation from heaven have been able in the least to discover the incomprehensible Mystery of the Trinity or how should he upon the fall of Adam have been ever capable to dive into the mysterious contrivance of our Redemption or acquaint himself with the reasons of Christ's Incarnation his Death and Passion Resurrection and Ascension And if you please to take into your serious consideration the Divinity of its Doctrines what a noble Scheme is the Christian Religion of all moral vertues such as a Seneca or a Plutarch never dreamt of and what are all their Systems of Morality in comparison of the Christian Institution what Charity what Forgiveness of Enemies what Provocations to mutual Love what tender Compassions to one another in distresses and miseries are we obliged to put in practice upon every occasion yea what Purity in all our thoughts what Innocence what Sincerity in all our Intentions these are all such mighty Perfections of moral Vertues as we can only learn from Scripture Perhaps others may recommend the practice of Vertue from common decency and convenience or from a temporal satisfaction attending the exercise of it but we derive our Obligations much higher for if we had only hopes of being happy in this life we were of all men the most miserable for how does the Christian Religion extend our Prospect beyond the grave and give us those comfortable hopes of a Resurrection and of eternal happiness hereafter which the heathens did but guess at But perhaps the spirit and the inimitable style of the Scripture may still more effectually recommend it to your perusal and has it not think you a mighty force power and efficacy when our Saviour began his Institution to the Christian Philosophy only with this very plain and naked Benediction Blessed are the poor in spirit and Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake Who can believe such kind of Blessings such Invitations to embrace the terms of the Gospel should be so very prevalent and bring in such a numerous company of Proselytes Jews and Gentiles Who can believe that Christianity should advance and make its way into the world against the opposition of so much wit and power from such sort of encouragements Thus the very difficulty of its moral Duties and the discouragement of the Proposals and the mighty plainness of its Principles are so far from being in the least disadvantageous to the Christian Religion that they are no small argument of its Divinity it being impossible it should ever make such a progress in the world unless it had been assisted by the power and the wisedom of God himself and thus the divine Authority of its Original commands our respect and reverence And after all the Simplicity of the Scriptural Style is not without Majesty How plain yet how magnificent is this expression I am that I am hath sent me Exod. 3. 14. And now as to the Translation of the Bible it self I will not deny but as very many places are not without a gracefull and elegant ornament of expression so there are some other parts less artificial neither is this so very strange since the original Languages sometimes carry in them a native Grace and Emphasis hardly expressible in a Translation at least with the very same beautify and significancy of speech And if our Translators here and there fall below the spirit and the dignity of the Original they are very excusable because they were

sometimes afraid to venture at a phrase or a fineness of a period lest they should deviate more from the true sence and signification of the Text and after all you will discover some elegant Turns and some Beauties of Rhetorick in the Translations which do not so clearly shine out in the very Original which I have purposely inserted sometimes to let my Reader see that if our Translators lose in one place yet they gain in another As to my own part I shall only tell you this that I was extreamly pleased when any Figure was lodg'd upon any Text of Scripture that seem'd to favour and countenance any false doctrines especially the Romish or the Socinian that I might take an occasion to make a little inroad into them and recover them from the unkind and false imprisonment of the enemy and when several other Texts of Scripture were in darkness and obscurity or under any difficulty I have endeavour'd to let in more light into them by an easie explication or a short paraphrase upon the words which perhaps were not always so very plain and obvious at least to every man's capacity and apprehension Sir I will now trouble you no farther but I hope you will receive it kindly as if in this Essay some things at least were tolerable Farewell Divine Eloquence OR AN ESSAY Upon the Tropes Figures Contained in the Holy Scriptures A TROPE A Trope is nothing else but the change of a word from its natural Signification into another whereby the Idea of any thing is more sensible to us Instance Matt. 4. 19. And I will make you Fishers of men that is Instruments of drawing and converting men unto God and our Saviour useth the term by way of allusion to them that being their former Employ Psal 65. 14. The valleys says our Psalmist shall stand so thick with Corn that they shall Laugh and Sing that is A very plentifull harvest is the occasion of joy and pleasantness laughing or singing are the proper expressions of a gay and chearfull Spirit and so those terms applied to other things by way of Analogy represent to us the excessive joy and pleasure of Plenty Luke 13. 32. Go and tell that Fox meaning Herod that crafty and politick Dissembler and the application of the term gives us a fuller notion of his Hypocrisie I shall here set down only three Affections belonging to a Trope leaving the fourth to those who are more industrious to find it out viz. Hyperbole Allegory Metalepsis HYPERBOLE Hyperbole from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to exceed This Figure represents things greater lesser or better than they are in their own natures and this sort of Trope is extremely usefull when our ordinary terms are so very weak that they carry in them no proportion with the notices of our mind and so the soul for fear of speaking too little presently flies out and enlargeth too much but let no one fansie that the use of this Figure is in the least unlawfull for if we sometimes express ourselves in the highest or in the lowest degree imaginable yet 't is no Lye for we have not the least intention to deceive any one but we only fly so extravagantly high that our discourse may come down with more force into the minds of our audience and give them such a sense of what we are talking as may oblige them to conceive 't is highly impossible or else to enlarge their thoughts about it 2 Sam. 1. 23. of the latter kind Saul and Jonathan were swifter than Eagles they were stronger than Lions and by such sensible Idea's and familiar Resemblances you conceive still but an higher notion of their mighty strength and activity Gen. 32. 12. Thy Seed shall be as the Sand of the sea which cannot be numbred for multitude and the Comparison only implies that his family should be exceeding numerous Psal 107. 26. The Waves of the sea Mount up to Heaven and go Down again to the Deep that is the foaming Waters are carried up exceedingly high and they tumble down again into the lowest places of the Earth See Luke 10. 15. to the same purpose Rom 9. 3. I could Wish that my self were Accursed from Christ and as One cut off from the Communion of his Church for my Brethren and Kinsmen according to the flesh which Wish was absolutely a thing impossible yet such a kind of Imprecation could not but give the Jews an infinite Assurance of St. Paul's excessive Love and Charity to them See John 21. 25. the World it Self could not Contain the books that should be written a figurative expression very large Gen. 11. 4. Let us Build a Tower whose Top may reach up unto Heaven that is rise up exceeding high and lofty There are two sorts of this Figure Hyperbole Auxesis and Meiosis Aaxesis James 4. 1. From whence come Wars and fightings among you Wars is a word that carries in the very sound of it a publick Dispute and Engagement of Nations against one another but the term here is only made use of by way of amplification and signifies the private quarrels and animosities of Christians among themselves Judges 5. 4 5. Lord when thou Marchedst out of Edom the earth Trembled and the heavens Dropped the clouds also Dropped with water the mountains Melted before the Lord Not that all these wonderfull Effects did then actually come to pass but they are here specified to give us a mighty notion of God's presence and how the most sacred Majesty of it strikes an universal Fear and Consternation every where Meiosis Meiosis a Figure of diminution when we use a less word or expression than the matter requires James 4. 17. To him that Knoweth to doe Good and doth it Not to Him it is Sin but not a sin of the least degree as the phrase at first sight seems to import but of a very great Aggravation being against Reason and Reflection and so a very dangerous and presumptive sin Matt. 5. 19. Whosoever shall break one of the least of these commandments and shall teach men so shall be the Least in the king dom of Heaven 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very soft expression and much milder than such sort of false Teachers can pretend to deserve but indeed it signifies such shall be accounted as nothing and insignificant in the Church of God 1 Cor. 10. 5. But with Many of them God was not Well pleased A very soft and favourable expression God was not well pleased 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 whereas it is very plain by the Consequence that he was extremely angry insomuch that in the fury of his displeasure they were presently cut off and destroyed in the wilderness Matt. 3. 11. But he that Cometh after Me is Mightier than I whose Shooes I am not Worthy to Bear This was spoken by St. John not without the greatest sense of his own unworthiness even to that degree that he thinks himself not worthy to perform the offices of the meanest Servant