Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A52564
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Essays divine and moral by Bridgis Nanfan, Esquire.
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Nanfan, Bridgis.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing N145; ESTC R22027
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58,916
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216
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those Devils those Impieties that have lain so long leiger They must be thus exorcis'd before we can fashion an entertainment garnish the best lodgings in our souls give a respectful audience to those tutelary Angels to that Legatus à latere Christ Jesus himself In the Reign of Tiberius it was judged an heinous crime in Paulus the Praetor for taking a Chamber-pot in his hand when he wore a Ring that had the Engravement of Caesar 7. It must needs then be an offence of a deeper die after we have once lodged God in our hearts instead of Myrrh and Cassia incense of a pure life to make him nauseate those dwellings with the ordure and filth of corrupt affections This is a Catholicon a Medicine for all diseases When we are entangled with macerating cares the thoughts of a true and powerful friend clears the mind of its disturbances builds a confidence in us equal to a victory so though misfortunes like violent Surges rowl in upon us yet if the Heavens be serene that we have but a gleam of our Maker such beams such coruscations issuing from his grace dispel all Mists and Fogs that incurtain our souls brighten every affliction make every wound and scar received in his warfare marks of honour and beauty 8. The Ancient Hebrews would memorize on their Gates and Porches the favours the Lord had been pleased at any time to confer upon them Such gentle dews of acknowledgment exhaled from us by God are showred down in whole Cataracts of Love and Bounty If such gratitude in Heaven that a cup of cold water given in the name of Christ ushers in a sure Reward shall we who have not activity to inspirit the meanest action without the Master-spring of God's Omnipotent Power satiate our selves with the affluence his goodness affords us and not give a retribution of thanks Shall he that formed all find only a repugnancy in him whose reason as an Heavenly Intelligence should sit on the Sphere of his active abilities to give them perfect motion Remember now thy Creatour 9. This the Persian Decree that cannot be reverst the first word of command given unto the Young Souldiers fighting under the Banner of the Church Militant This ranks our thoughts and affections that they run not into disorder These few words make◠us more than Archimedes to take the transcendent height of Heaven and though but a ladder of few rounds yet when we ascend the uppermost step our heads are reared above the Clouds where we look upon the great Magnifico's of the World as so many Anticks below us dancing Galliards to no better Musick than what pleasure and vanity as so many deceitful Syrens sing us 10. Is it not time therefore to sound a retreat to such that run a full career in pursute of their own vanities with this excellent piece of Scripture Remember now thy Creatour Let such learn to put by insinuating pleasures with that brave resolved answer Hippolitus gave to the inchantments of an alluring Syren Procul impudicos corpore à casto amove Tactus Shall we throw the remembrance of him behind us who made himself the Pattern to mould us into so enamouring a shape whose hands as Saint Basil hath it were to man as a Womb enobled that shape with a soul though clogg'd with the rags of flesh journies from East to West rides about the Circumference descends to the Centre ascends to the top of the Universe posts from Earth to Heaven in a moment 11. And when like foolish School-boys we had robbed God's Orchard of that Fruit impaled with his own mandate and so heaped coals of fire upon our own heads though by this we had sunk our selves to the lowest abyss of misery yet would he not like friends that take their farewel with our felicity leave us forlorn but rather than we should eternally perish and so cancel the benefit of our Creation tore a limb of the Diety made a divorce between God and God betwixt himself and his beloved Son that he might be a Sacrifice for so grand an offending When he had thus repaired the old defacements caused by Adam new minted coyned us full of Glories steering us from a troubled Sea into safe harbour this Watch-man that slumbereth not still kept Sentinel knowing the storm being once allay'd we would put our weather-beaten Vessels to Sea again 12. This not all though sufficient to engage our remembrance but every Creature the riches of Nature made by the hands of the Almighty kneaded of the same Elements and only beholden to man for their names are so subservient as to pay themselves to him as constant Tribute I need not take care to put more weight into God's ballance when the least mite of his favour will at any time turn the Scale of our best deservings but joyn wonder with the Psalmist What is man that thou art so mindful of him or the Son of man that thou so regardest him But let us not Fata fugiendo in fata ruere while we hale off the Sands fall foul on the Rocks to prevent a forgetfulness of our Maker take such boldness with this Superspiritualis spiritus stiled so by Damascen as one friend will with another The Effigies of him whose endeeredness to us hath merited some extraordinary value is commonly drawn in the liveliest colours set in the most obvious and eminent place that we may enjoy a living shew for a dead substance 13. But this great and terrible Jehovah glorious in his incomprehensible Attributes whose sacred name I adore afar off not daring to approach but with a prostrate countenance much more with a rude Pencil venture at his Dimensions who is great without quantity and good without quality can he be circumscribed with lines whose Centre is every where and Circumference no where Who spans the Poles with his fingers and holdeth the whole World in his fist Shall fading colours set forth the glory of his countenance who is cloathed with light as with a garment With what eyes shall we behold this Father of light when the face of his servant Moses carried too radiant a lustre for the Israelites to behold without a darkning Veil 14. Nay by what measures shall we estimate the Creatour when the Creature it self the Sun a Creature without so much as Vegetation appears too resplendent for the eye of man to fix on without dropping a tear as a repentance for his boldness But then let hot sullenness have that predominancy over us because we cannot see beyond our Horizon have a full draught of his ineffable Majesty refuse to know so much as we can Without unravelling the ruffled skein of the Trinity we may comprehend that which may be the material cause of our salvation To remember him as our Creatour and in the acceptance of his Son's merits our Redeemer as one that by day goeth before us in a pillar of a cloud and by night in a pillar of fire is a Sphere large enough for