Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	air_n	earth_n	element_n	2,483	5	9.5484	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42201	Hugo Grotius Against paganism, Judaism, Mahumetism translated by C.B.; De veritate religionis Christianae. English. Selections. 1676	Grotius, Hugo, 1583-1645.; Barksdale, Clement, 1609-1687.	1676 (1676)	Wing G2082; ESTC R33798	40,194	106

God for some good end will be pleased to permit Neither can any thing be obtained of those evil Spirits which is not to be rejected because the Evil one when he b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soph. counterfeits is most evil and the gifts of Enemies are b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Soph. snares a Malus bonum cum sim●●lat tunc est pessimus Syr. Mimus IV. Against worshipping of the Dead There have been also Pagans and now there are who affirm that they give Worship to the Souls of men deceased But first this Worship too was to be distinguish by evident marks from the Worship of the most High God And then Prayers made to them are in vain unless those Souls are able to bestow something on us Whereof the Worshippers have no knowledge nor any ground to say that so it is rather than it is not so But this is worst of all that the persons to whom they pay this honour are found to have been notorious evil Livers Bacchus given to Wine Hercules to Women Romulus cruel to his Brother Jupiter to his Father so that the honouring of them redounds to the dishonour of the true God and of the Virtue wherein he delighteth whilst unto Vices pleasing enough of themselves there is given a farther commendation from * Cyprian Epist 2. Deos suos quos venerantur imitamur fiunt miseris religiosa delicta Religion V. Against worshipping the Stars and Elements The Worship given to the Stars and the Elements of Fire Water Air Earth was more antient than this not less erroneous For the greatest part of Religious Worship are Prayers and these cannot without folloy be offered up to any but intelligent Natures That the Elements are not such appears even by sense And if any one affirm it of the Stars he will find no proof thereof since from their operations the tokens of their nature no such thing can be collected yea the contrary is evidently gathered from their motion not varied as theirs is which have free will but certain and † The King of Peru moved by this Argument deny'd the Sun to be God prescrib'd And we have elsewhere shewed the courses of the Stars are fitted for the uses of mankind Whence it is man's duty to acknowledge himself to be both more like to God in his better part and more dear and therefore that he does an injury to his own Nobility if he subjects himself to those things God hath given him When on the contrary he ought to render unto God thanks for them which they are not able to do for themselves or are not prov'd to be able VI. Against worship given to Beasts Now this is most unworthy of all that men have fallen even to the worship of Beasts a Vide lib. I. Diod. Sie especially the Egyptians For although in some there shews it self as it were a shadow of understanding yet is that nothing compar'd to man because their inward conceptions they cannot express by speech or writing neither can they do works of divers kinds nor works of the same kind after a divers manner much lest attain to the knowledge of numbers of measures or of the heavenly motions On the contrary man by the subtilty of his Wit catcheth any of those Creatures even the strongest of them wild Beasts Birds Fishes and partly ramos them as Elephants Lions Horses Bulls deriveth also profit to himself from such of them as are most hurtful namely medicines from Serpents Certainly hath this use of them all which themselves know not that he vieweth the frame of their bodies the site of parts comparing their several kinds one with the other and here also learneth his own dignity how much the structure of humane bodies is more perfect than the rest and more noble Which things if a man a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Porph. de usu anim lib. 1. consider rightly he will be so far from worshipping other living creatures as gods that he will rather think himself to be by the great God constituted as a little God over them all VII Worship of Accidents We read the Greeks and Latines and others also adored things which have no subsistence but are the accidents of other things To omit those ill-favour'd deities the Fever Impudence b cic de Legib. 2. with such like Sanity is nothing else but a right temper of the parts of the Body Fortune a suitableness of Event with mans desire and the Affections as Love Fear Anger Hope and the rest arising from the consideration of a thing good or evil easie or difficult are certain motions in that part of the Soul which is most united to the body by the bloud being not in their own power but subject to the dominion of the Will at least as to their duration and direction And Virtues which have several names Prudence in the Election of what is profitable Fortitude in abiding dangers Justice in doing no wrong Temperance in moderation of pleasures and other are certain pronenesses unto good sprung up in the Soul and ripen'd by long exercise which as they may be encreased in a man so by neglect may be lessened and at last extinguished Now Honour a Liv. l. 27. whereunto also we find Temple to have been dedicate is the opinion of others concerning some person as endued with Virtue Which opinion oft happens to the bad and doth not happen to the good it being natural to men easily to err and to be mistaken These things therefore having no subsistence and so being not comparable in Worthiness to things which do subsist neither having any apprehension or sense of Prayers or Veneration to worship them for gods is most contrary to right reason seeing He is to be served for these things who is the Donor and Conservator of them VIII Answer to an Objection of miracles For the Commendation of their Religion the Pagans are wont to allege Miracles against which many Exceptions may be made The wisest among themselves reject many of them as supported by no sufficient Faith of Witnesses and plainly counterfeit a Datur haec venia antiquitati ut miscendo humana divinis primordia urbium augustiora facerent Livius l. 1. Some which are reported to have been real happened in secret in the dark in the presence of one or two whose eyes by the cunning of their Priests might be easily deluded Others there are which caused admiration only in such as were ignorant of things Natural and of Occult proprieties as it comes to pass among ignorant people if they see one draw Iron after a Loadstone By such Arts Simon and Apollonius Tyanaeus as many have written sometime prevailed I grant some greater things than these were seen but yet such as needed not a Power truly Divine being within the reach of Spirits interposed between God and Man who by their celerity efficacy and sagacity might bring together things distant and