Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	hear_v	heaven_n	oil_n	4,117	5	10.0452	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96858	Gnōston tou Theou, k[a]i gnōston tou Christou, or, That which may be knovvn of God by the book of nature; and the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ by the Book of Scripture. Delivered at St Mary's in Oxford, by Edward Wood M.A. late proctor of the University and fellow of Merton Coll. Oxon. Published since his death by his brother A.W. M.A.	Wood, Edward, 1626 or 7-1655.; Wood, Anthony à, 1632-1695.	1656 (1656)	Wing W3387; Thomason E1648_1; ESTC R204118	76,854	234

to the consideration of the Supreame Governour and Mover of all I saith God will heare the Heavens and they shall heare the Earth and the earth shall heare the Corne and the Wine and the oyle and they shall heare Jezreel Hos 2. 21 22. Here is the order and concatenation of Inferiour Causes Jezreel crying unto the corne and the corne unto the earth the earth unto the heavens and both corne earth and heavens crying and leading unto God You know that absurdities will follow in Philosophy upon the allowing a progressus ad infinitum i. e. an endlesse rising up of one Cause above another without a non ultra and resting in one Prime and Originall one which may stay and ease the mind in it's inquiries and porings upon the reasons of things The inconveniences that would follow upon such a position were as I conceive next unto the Light of Nature the maine ground and motive that made the Heathen acknowledge a God and hence it was too as I suppose that though many amongst the Heathens maintained the World to be Eternall yet they acknowledged withall God as the Cause of it As the Sun is the cause of light though light be coëxistent with the Sunne True there were some few amongst them who held that God was not the Cause of the world but Austin very well called this their opinion intollerabilis error a most intollerable senselesse errour as being repugnant to the very Light of Nature and convictions they might have from the very Creatures themselves I might here enter very pertinently upon a discourse against the Eternity of the World but it being a businesse of Philosophy and besides having not had time to weigh and debate the matter in mine owne thoughts I shall omit it What remaines is this that God by way of Causality or by our arguing from the effect to the cause may be known in the Creatures The third way by which we may know God in his Creatures is per viam eminentiae which floweth from the two former for because God hath not those Imperfections in Being and Operation as his Creatures have and because he is the Prime Cause and Mover of all things therefore it will follow that he is the most Perfect Being that he doth Eminently containe whatsoever worth and goodnesse is scattered in his Creatures as we may argue and say that because all light that is in the aire be it little or much proceedeth from the Sunne and therefore the Sunne hath it in a more eminent and excellent degree so likewise may we conclude that since all Power Goodnesse Love and the like issueth from God unto the Creatures therefore God hath these infinitely more excellent in him then the Creatures Therefore we read that in God are riches of grace and treasures of wisdome and the like Ephes 2. 7. Col. 2. 3. In the Creature there is no Goodnesse but what is derivative and participated of God but what is dregg'd and allayd with evill and therefore Finite and Limited But now Goodnesse is Essentiall unto God and therefore as himselfe is Infinite Independent pure without measure and therefore as the Sunne hath for these many yeares together scattered light and influence dayes and yeares upon the world and yet doth still remaine the same Sunne as full of light as ever so likewise though God from the Creation of the world hath not ceased continually to bestow and communicate his riches unto his severall Creatures yet he is still the same God as Rich in Goodnesse as ever Wherefore doubtlesse it will come to passe that by these glimmerings and faint rayes of Goodnesse in the Creatures a meere Naturall man an Heathen may conclude that there is a God in whom such Goodnesse dwelleth more fully and plentifully And so much shall suffice to be spoken concerning the second point and the Doctrinall part of my Text let mee crave your patience now but to winde up all in a word of Application and so I shall conclude This should confute the damned Vse 1 Atheists who either in Speculation or Practice doth deny the Being of that Deity whom these creatures doe so clearly represent and voluntarily hoodwinke himselfe from beholding the footsteps of these Infallible things of God in the Workes which he hath done for so saith the Apostle 2 Pet. 3. 5. This they are willingly ignorant of that by the Word of God the heavens were of old and the earth standing out of the waters Doubtlesse those men were wilfully blind who when the Glorious Booke of the Creatures is laid wide open before them can yet notwithstanding not read the Authour of them for looke up unto the Heavens thou Atheist and view that Glorious cover which every where attires this Lower world and then tell me is it not a God that thus speadeth out the Heavens like a curtaine are not those glorious bodies the Workes of his hands or thinkest thou that Chance or Fortune could so uniformly for so many thousand yeares together turne about that vast body of the Sunne which so constantly as a bridegroome comes out of his chamber and rejoyceth as a strong man to runne his course Thinkest thou that those Starres thou beholdest were set a running by any kind of Fate or that they throw downe their Influences upon us by any designe of their owne without a guidance of Providence Looke down upon the Earth and tell mee who was it that laid the foundations and the corner stone thereof Who was it that founded it upon the Flouds Could it be brought to passe by Chance or any Confluence of Atomes that this little ball of Earth should hang up in the aire thus Immoveable poys'd by it's owne proper weight and not rather reele to and fro and stagger like a drunken man that the wild Ocean doth not challenge the upper hand of the Earth and overflow the surface of it that even the Raine should so strangely ascend up into the Clouds and there be Bottled up for the use of man and that there should be no meanes even in the joynt Powers of all men to unstop those bottles or command the least drop from them From whence come all these things must thou not of necessity say from some Almighty Power who hangeth the Earth upon nothing and who ruleth the raging of the Sea and madnesse of the waves and who bindeth up the waters in the thick clouds and the cloudes are not rent under them There is not a Creature in the world from the highest Heaven to the lowest earth from whence thou maist not copy out a Lesson of the Eternall power and Godhead and in whom as in a glasse thou maist not see the Invisible things of him clearly reflected unto us from the things that are made The serious contemplation of which cannot but make the most Sottish Atheist cry out with the Prophet O Lord how manifold are all thy workes in wisdome hast thou made them all the earth is full of thy

to bestow any further light upon any it comes to passe that the Gentiles being not able to walke according to the knowledge they primitively had are left without excuse So then the Essentiall Primary end of the Light of Nature and the Creatures was to instruct man in the knowledge and true worship of God the consequentiall if I may so terme it and accidentary end is to the intent that they may be without excuse This shall suffice concerning the words themselves on which I have been the larger because the Exposition of them may give much light to my ensuing discourse which shall be grounded upon this proposition viz. That God though in his owne Nature invisible may yet by a Gentile a meere Naturall man be reacht unto and discovered in his Workes For the better clearing of this Point it will be convenient to distinguish concerning the Workes of God which are either ad intra or ad extra those ad intra are such which have no other object then God himselfe and are eternally bounded within his owne nature such as are the Eternall generation of his Sonne and Proceeding of the Holy Ghost now as no one knoweth the inward workings and contrivances of the mind save the spirit of a man or he to whom he revealeth them in like manner there is no one that can fath om or dive into these inward essentiall Workes of God save God himselfe or those to whom his Word hath communicated them nay indeed the best Saints of God in this their Earthly Tabernacle though never so much enlightened by his Word and Spirit cannot perfectly know or conceive these his ineffable Workes and Mysteries True they may substantially and in generall know that such Workes there be for they are revealed in his Word but then the strange manner of the Generation of the one and Proceeding of the other that admirable Energy and divine Reflexion by which he understands himselfe from all Eternity they cannot but by Analogy faint resemblances and conjectures apprehend much lesse then can a meere Naturall man a Gentile discover and trace either God in these Workes or these Workes in God The second sort of Gods Workes are those ad extra viz. such whose effect is in something without himselfe or whose proper subject is the Creature and these again are either such which do chiefly concerne us in another case as the Election of some unto salvation and reprobation of other unto damnation or else such which immediately concerne either the Being or Preservation of the Creature in this world and these properly are the Workes of Creation and Providence from these chiefly I say it is that a Naturall man knowes God This we shall prove First in the Works of Creation Secondly in the Workes of Providence And first we shall shew in generall that the Creatures in themselves doe every where set forth and proclaime a God Secondly we shall shew by what wayes and meanes the Creatures doe thus bring us unto the knowledge of God 1. First then that the creatures doe every where proclaime a God is manifest from Psal 19. 1 2 3 4. the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth his handy worke c. That glorious canopy which we behold above us however in it selfe mute and dumbe doth yet notwithstanding set forth as it were unto us a declaration of it's Creatour's Power Goodnesse and Wisdome of his power in the framing and contriving so excellent a piece of his Goodnesse in ordering all it's Motions and Revolutions unto the benefit of his Creatures and of his Wisdome in allotting it so commodious a position and structure unto the performance of those offices to which he hath ordained it and so vers 2. Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night sheweth knowledge that is doth sufficiently Discipline and Instruct men in the knowledge of God so that the most sottish and rude Gentile cannot plead ignorance For what though their Philosophers alone could tell the severall vertues and influences of the Starres the periodicall motion of the Sun Moon their just Horizontall elevation and depression and the like yet day unto day and night unto night doth sufficiently shew forth even to the most ignorant who is the Authour of this their Succession and Revolution for so the Psalmist goes on vers 3 4. there is no speech nor language where their voyce is not heard their line Scriptura ipsorum their writing is gone out throughout all the earth and their words to the end of the world Marke here how the Creatures are made the praecones as it were of God the Cryers and Heraulds of his glory Doubtlesse there is a certaine kind of dumbe eloquence even in Inanimate Creatures to perswade men to subscribe unto the mighty Creatour of all things Wherefore it was not without some cause that Hermes an Auncient Philosopher among the Heathens called the world the Image of God for as the coine of a King doth represent the King whose coine it is or as in the beholding of a curious Edifice we cannot choose but in it admire the Art and Dexterity of the Artificer in like manner the admirable structure of this neat Vniverse the curious and subordinated disposition which one creature hath to another the exact Symmetry and proportion of each part unto the whole must needs lead us unto the Creatour of them and cause us to admire the infinite Power and Perfection of him who out of nothing could raise so glorious a fabrick As then Protogenes at the very sight of a curious picture did presently guesse it to be the workmanship of Apelles because he knew that none could doe the like so likewise in the contemplation of these glorious Creatures of God we may straightway conclude him to be the Authour of them because they are beyond the contrivance and art of any other For there is no finite being that can make or adde one haire unto our heads much lesse can contribute any sense life or vitall motion unto any thing Many men indeed as Zeuxis Albertus Magnus and others have endeavoured to imitate the God of nature in his workes but never could any one by all his Apish art frame a naturall and reall creature for besides the limitednesse of his Nature the narrownesse of his Vnderstanding the inabilities of him to find out the true forme and peculiar operations of all things there is a certaine stubbornesse and disobedience if I may so speake in the matter it selfe whereby it scornes as it were to be wrackt and tortured into another forme then what the Soveraigne of all things is pleased to impresse upon it God can out of dust build a man but t' is impossible for any man be he of the most exquisite wit invention and judgment as he will ever to raise the least contemptible Creature out of the most refined Matter It remaineth therefore that the most minute inconsiderable least thing in the world doth