Selected quad for the lemma: fire_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A51292
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Discourses on several texts of Scripture by Henry More.
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More, Henry, 1614-1687.; Worthington, John, 1618-1671.
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1692
(1692)
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Wing M2649; ESTC R27512
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212,373
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520
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the wilderness to tremble the Lord maketh the wilderness of Kadesh to tremble The voice of the Lord maketh the hinds to bring forth young and unbareth the thick bushes Every plant that my Heavenly Father hath not planted saith our Saviour shall be rooted out And indeed this was the end of his coming utterly to eradicate what so is evil And till he have his work in mans heart there be not a few ill Plants rather a Wilderness a Wood thick set with Trees not penetrable by any Star nothing capable of the light of Heaven But by the awful Voice of God the Hinds those fearful and timorous Creatures they bring forth the thick and shadowing Bushes are unbared And what follows In his Temple doth every man speak of his glory Now what is that Glory of God but the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the glorious eradiation of the Father of Lights the Wisdom of God and the Power of God And the Hinds that is those that fear and tremble who they are and what they bring forth and how presently the thick Bushes are unbared so that they that were in darkness see a marvellous light I leave to any man to judge that is not as fraid of a Spiritual sense as of a Night-spirit But if they will in this Psalm so full of life and vigour have all Body and no Soul How shall we expound the next Verse The Lord sitteth upon the water-floods and shall sit King for ever What will you turn the God of Heaven and Earth to some Triton or Water-Nymph Or the great Pastour of Israel who feeds the Souls of his people like a Flock will you have him Proteus-like to feed Sea-monsters It is true that all things according to their several degrees have their dependance and expectancy from God Yet so narrow and straitend sense as the bare letter sutes not here I think with the Majesty and Divinity of the Spirit of David or rather the Spirit of God in David The Summe is this Fear and Honour goes before and the Light of God follows after 4. I will only add this Fourth Proof or Illustration more and so go on 1 Kings 19. And the Lord said unto Elias Go forth and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And behold the Lord passed by and a great and strong wind rent the mountains and brake in pieces the rocks before the Lord but the Lord was not in the wind and after the wind came an earthquake but the Lord was not in the earthquake and after the earthquake fire but the Lord was not in the fire and after the fire a still small voice the voice of him that spake as never man spake But I would not have any mistaken as if the Fear of God which is said to be the Beginning of Wisdom were but an hours amazement or at most but a wonder of nine dayes Tam de repente Which Errour will easily be wiped out of their phansie if they observe but the description of the Fear of God in Holy Scripture The Fear of the Lord is to hate evil as pride and arrogancy and the evil way Now that which a man truly hates he will do the utmost of his endeavour to destroy or else to sever himself from it and decline it So the Prophet David in Psal. 34. where he professeth the teaching of the Fear of the Lord Eschew evil and do good saith he So that a lazy inert sluggish hatred is not sufficient See how that Victorious King uses his enemies in Psal. 18. I have pursued mine enemies and taken them and have not returned again till I had consumed them I have wounded them that they are not able to rise they are fallen under my feet I did beat them small as the dust before the wind I did tread them flat as the clay in the streets Now a mans enemies are they of his own Houshold Corruption residing in a mans own breast which he will never leave fighting against till he have the victory if he truly hate them which he will truly hate if he unfeignedly fear God So that the Fear of God is the victory over Corruption Which victory over Corruption maketh us capable of the Divine Nature as S. Peter speaks which Divine Nature is nothing else but Christ the Wisdom of God Wherefore whosoever would attain unto Wisdom the way is laid open the Old way known to those Antients of Renown Trismegist long since could point it out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be Godly my Son for he that is Godly philosophizeth in the highest degree or most efficacious manner Which Sentence of Trismegist puts me in mind of the Septuagints Paraphrastical variation of the Text For beside 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In which variation that which is most remarkable is the substitution of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sense for Wisdom No man I believe is so devoid of Reason as to think the Prerogative of the Godly to be to have a more exquisite sense than others Though too too many gape after as a reward of obedience that which proves too oft the fewel of Sensuality sensible things What 's then meant by Sense There is a swimmering superficial Knowledge a light phantastical impression or abortive imagination engendered of aery words which many times neither the hearer nor speaker rightly understand false phantasms elicited out of misunderstood writings notional conjectures vain and temerarious efformations of that which we have not yet attained to so unlike the thing we would have it that if we did not do as the old bungling Painters did in their uuskilfully scralled pieces write on it Knowledge it would be hard to find what to call it But this false-nam'd Knowledge the Fear of God doth not begin but consume As clear Light makes all those shadows and resemblances to vanish that by the Opticks skill had been convey'd into a dark close room But the Fear of God is the beginning of Sense Which is to be understood according to that in S. Iohns Epistle That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life this declare we unto you This is true Science quieting and setling the moveable mind This is the right 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even according to Aristotles Etymon which begets 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a rest and steddy standing in the Soul and therefore is not to be found in Cains Progeny nor to be light upon in all the Land of Nod. AND thus much of the first part of my Discourse That the Fear of God is the Beginning of Wisdom I will now enter upon the Reasons Why this is the only way that God hath pointed out for the attaining to Wisdom 1. One Reason may be the Falseness of mans Spirit The Heart is deceitful above all things So that God will not trust it with