Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
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A25995
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A sermon preached in Trinity-College Chappell before the University of Dublin, January the 9th, 1693/4 being the first Secular Day since its foundation by Queen Elizabeth / by St. George Ashe ...
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Ashe, St. George, 1658?-1718.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing A3933; ESTC R35285
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12,914
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23
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and all who are benefitted by this Auspicious Foundation must ever gratefully join with our Blessed Saviour in my Text Verily we say unto you wheresoever the Gospel whose Holy Doctrine we have here suck'd in and to the understanding and declaring of which we have been here train'd up and educated shall be preach'd by any of us in the whole world there also this that this Woman has done for us shall â—e told as a memorial of her Gratitude and sense of Obligation are a kind of Civil Conscience which oblige us as Men to perform many excellent Of Gratitude in general things thô there were no Religion in the World to enforce 'em He who preaches this Virtue pleads the cause both of God and Man since without it we can neither be Sociable nor Religious for Thanks and Acknowledgments are a Tribute payable by the poorest the most indigent wretch the most forlorn Widow has still her two Mites to throw in has a Heart to be sensible of and a Tongue to express its sence of a Benefit receiv'd for surely Nature gives no Man a Mouth to be always Eating and never saying Grace nor a Hand only to grasp and to receive but as 't is furnish'd with Teeth for the one so it should likewise have a Tongue for the other and the Hands which are so often reach'd out to take and to accept should sometimes too be lifted up to bless The beautiful systeme of Providence the whole course of Nature is one great argument for Gratitude and the World only a larger exchange in which one benefit is or ought to be the stated price of another If we consider the Universe as one Great Body Politick we may suppose Commerce Society and Conversation to supply the office of the Blood and Spirits and 't is Gratitude that makes 'em circulate this is the great Spring that sets all the Wheels of Nature a going the Band or Cement that holds together the differing and otherwise inconsistent parts of the Creation one may evidently discover it in all the Elements in the Air and Flame in the Seas and Rivers in the Earth and Sun in the friendly correspondence between the higher and the lower World so that the Monstrous Man who has a Soul wholly void of Gratitude would do well to set his Soul to learn of any of these nay even of his own Body for all the parts of that do kindly and mutually serve each other the Hands and Limbs labour dayly to bring in Food and Provision to the Stomach as it is handsomly applied in Menenius Agrippa's Apologue which is gratefully return'd in strength and nutriment diffused to all the members of the Body And is not then the Ungrateful Man a reproach to the Creation a manifest exception from all the visible World neither the Heavens above nor the Earth beneath afford any thing like him there is nothing besides himself but Hell which is both the Region and the Emblem of Ingratitude that is always receiving and never endeavouring to require Ingratitude is instead of all other Vices in the ballance of Morality a counterpoise to them all 't is one great blot upon Humanity and gives completion to the black Roll of numerous other sins Now if even Natural Religion prompts so strongly to this Duty what impressions must the Gospel make which so far outshines both the dim Light of that and the brighter Inspirations of the Law which has so far refined upon all the Duties of Morality that it declares even Anger and Harsh Words to be Murder and looks and desires Adultery that one may stab with his Tongue assassinate with his Mind and pollute himself with a glance which obliges us to love bless and do good to our most implacable Enemies then what tender sentiments what a rapturous sense of real Love must it inspire for Friends Of the Gratitude due to our Founders and Benefactors and Benefactors who have here express'd the noblest Charity to us and confer'd the most important and lasting Obligations upon us by cloathing our most shameful Nakedness our Ignorance our Errors our Prejudices by feeding our hungry Understandings by furnishing our Minds by healing our perverse Inclinations and placing us in the path way to Heaven these are truly Obligations as eternal as our Souls and therefore 't is but reasonable that our Gratitude the memory of them shou'd be as immortal also But Words and Complements are no sutable return to our Pious Benefactors our justest Acknowledgments must be express'd by a diligent endeavouring to answer all the great and useful ends of their Donations by promoting the knowledge and practise of Religion and Piety the advancement of Learning by a sedulous application to all the improvements of Education and a careful managing the tender springs of Youth Now to shew how necessary the Institution of Universities The manifold usefulness of Universities and Colleges and Colleges is to the attainment of all these great designs as also the numerous advantages which the Learning and Arts therein cultivated derive to all the degrees and stations of life as it will best instruct us in our Duty so it may in some measure contribute to perpetuate the Memory of our Munificent Founders and Benefactors oncourage others to imitate their Generous Examples and be a Subject most proper and sutable to this present occasion But here it may be expedient to remove a mischievous prejudice An Objectâ— against Acaâ—mick studies â—â—swer'd against Academick Studies which comes recommended in a venerable imposing Proverbial Dress as if Ignorance were the only True Mother of Devotion and Learning of Atheism however antient this saying may be 't is certain that Humane Nature and the Service of God are little beholden to them who first introduced the false observation as if Simplicity and Dulness were becoming Qualifications for the Divine Worship or that the Light of Reason should ever be likely to produce a Spiritual Darkness The Jewish Law forbad to Offer a Sacrifice to God that had a Blemish yet this Opinion while it bestows the most Excellent and Useful of all the Race of Mankind on the Devil assigns to Religion only those Men and those Times which are stigmatiz'd with the greatest blemish of Humane Nature namely a Defect of Knowledge and Understanding nay as if God had despised our Rational Services it complements him still with Brutish Sacrifices Man without Vnderstanding being justly compared by the Psalmist to the Beasts that perish both Reason and Revelation assure us that all Sin and Error proceed from Ignorance that 't is the blindness of the Understanding which misguides the Will and our Blessed Saviour says the same thing to the Jews Ye do err says he not knowing the Scriptures and the Power of God the Scriptures which Reveal his Will and the World his Power as if the study of these two Books were the best preservative from Error and Irreligion and so it has always proved to omit the former
which yet makes one of the noblest parts of that Knowledg and Learning The Usefâ—â—ness of Humaâ— Learning to sacred Knowledge and Piâ— I am discoursing of how must the contemplation of the Admirable Order and oeconomy of Nature in all its Productions and Periods in all its several Seasons and Revolutions how must the study of the surprizing results of a Regular Providence that Harmonious Concordance which runs through all the parts of the Universe and renders them mutually subservient to each other not only charm our Thoughts with delightful Idaeas but likewise insensibly raise 'em up to the great Author and Contriver of this wonderful Masterpiece When God himself would represent his own Magnificence and Glory he directs to his Works he bids Job consider his Earth his Ocean his Clouds and Rain that is he bids him be a Philosopher and Holy Men in Scripâ—ure when they wou'd quicken their own Souls and those of others to Praise him send their Thoughts abroad among the Creatures to the stupendious Furniture of Land Air and Seas to gather instances of Acknowledgment By the help of this Prospect we may discover conspicuous Characters of Gods Omnipotence and sound his Wisdom as far as the short line of Humane Reason is capable thus by the Scale of Visibles Contemplation and Knowledge lead us up to that Supreme Invisible Power which gives the Spring and Motion to all this mighty Machine and by the steps and links of the Creation our Inquisitions may guide us till we ascend to the top of that Chain which the Poets feign'd was fastned to Jupiter's Throne Such dawnings of Divinity does each part of Knowledge contain that the Astronomer finds a Deity in the Uniform Motion of Coelestial Bodies and Regular Vicissitude of Seasons The Phylosopher in the delightful variety of Natural Productions their Beauty Order and conspiring tendency to the great ends of the Creation The Historian in the wonderful turns of Providence and manifest Discoveries of the Divine Managements in the Revolutions of the World and thô the Obvious Firmament the Visible Beauties of the great World and the appearing variety and fitness of those parts which make up the little one in Man could scarce secure Galen from Atheism Yet when he pried farther by Anatomical Inquiries and saw the surprizing diversity aptness and order of the minutest Fibres and Passages that are in the inward Fabrick he could not then abstain from the devoutness of an Anthem of Acknowledgment nor can it otherwise happen but that the Discoveries which are dayly made by Study in God's Immense Treasury must needs every moment fill the Soul with pleasant astonishment and enflame the Heart with the ardors of the highest Love and Devotion and the Contemplation of God's Works join'd with these natural pious Sentiments seem almost an anticipation of that Bright and Clear Knowledg which we shall hereafter enjoy in Heaven Nay of such a pious tendency is Learning that in proportion to the Phylosophy and Knowledge in which various Nations excell'd God has generally been worshipped in former Ages Thus in Persia and Chaldaea where the Skill of Heavenly Motions first began they had their Temples on the Tops of Hills and Open to the Air In Egypt where they had the best opportunities of studying the Natures of Living Creatures by reason of that Variety which their River and Land produced all their Religious Mysteries were contain'd in Hieroglyphicks borrow'd from Beasts and Animals And shall Learning now be stigmatiz'd for contempt of Divinity when of old it did rather incline Men to Superstition which is the supersaetation and rankness of Religion and quite the other extreme Formerly Priests and Scholars were Synonimous Words and the great Apostles of Natural Theology the Preachers of Un-enlightened Divinity thrô the World were no others than the Phylosophers and Wisemen and certainly Nature being nothing else but the Instrument of God whereby he gives Being and Action to things the knowledge of that and other Useful Science should be so far from being accounted Dangerous or Impious that it ought rather to be esteem'd a subordinate Theology a necessary step and gradation to those exalted Mysterious Truths which revealed Religion discovers to us And agreeably hereunto we find the Patriarchs and Holy Men of antient times that were most in God's Favour were also best Instructed in the Knowledge of his Works and Contributed most to the good of Mankind by their Useful Discoveries and Inventions Adam we read was acquainted with the Natures of all Living Creatures Noah a Planter of Vineyards Abraham as Grotius collects an Excellent Astronomer Isaac prosperous in Agriculture Jacob blessed in his Phylosophical Experiment and Stratagem of the Speckled Rods Moses eminent in all the Wisdom of the Egyptians Bazaleel and Aholiab inspired in Architecture Solomon a deep Naturalist Daniel and his Brethren skill'd in all Learning and Wisdom and not to multiply Instances they were the Phylosophers of the East the Magi or Wisemen who expressed the most Early Piety and Zeal for Christianity and made first Addresses to the Infant Saviour Julian the Apostate who was the most Refined Politick Enemy that ever Christianity had well knew how beneficial sound Learning ever was to true Religion and therefore the Edict which he published to suppress all Christian Schools and Colleges was justly esteem'd a more pernitious Engine to overthrow our Religion than all the most Bloody Persecutions of former Emperors Let them therefore whose Interest it is to preach up saving Ignorance implicit Faith and blind Credulity who cou'd declare the Assertion of Antipodes to be a point of Heresy and imprison poor Galileo in the Inquisition for proving the Earth's Motion who cou'd pronounce Mathematicks heretofore to be Magick and find Damnable Heresie in Greek and Hebrew Let such I say applaud Ignorance as the Mother of Devotion condemn all curious Researches and free Disquisitions in Learning and write Encomiums upon passive credulous Simplicity 't is certain our Church and Religion can never be safer than amidst the Consequences of a Rational Learned Age and all the various Improvements of Knowledge since they aim not at the Captivity but Freedom of Men's Minds and we can never make War against Learning without Undermining one of our chief Strengths our most successful Weapon with which we combat Enthusiasm on one hand and Supersâ—ition on the other And thus having not only vindicated Human Learning and the Arts that are here cultivated from an unjust Prejudice but likewise shewn their great Usefulness and Subserviency to all sacred Knowledge Religion The Proofs will lie more easie and obvious how they farther tend to the Improvement Perfection of â—our Minds and are the fruitful Parents of all those profitable Discoveries which render the Life of Man Happy The Usefulness of Human Learning to Government and all the In 〈…〉 and Comfortable The Poets with great Significancy feign'd Minerva as well to be the Goddess of Arms as Patroness of