Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	call_v	law_n	moral_a	2,598	5	9.2562	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38645	Essayes upon several subjects not unworthy consideration in these times communicated by letters to private friends and at their request to the publick.		1651 (1651)	Wing E3303; ESTC R214416	20,887	42

or in continuall war resolve that we must acknowledg some power from which upon our alleagiance wee may expect protection wherein the end and essence of all government seems to consist I am afraid lest I have given you more trouble then satisfaction by this Discourse which yet I hope you will favourably interpret the rather because my particular obligations to you have put me upon this taske and that my private condition hath hitherto suffered mee to remain more dis-ingaged then you can be however I have endeavoured to inform my selfe the best I could that I might either upon just grounds altogether decline the Engagement or when I should bee called upon as freely take it as I now subscribe my self Your Decemb. 5. 1649. ESSAY III. SIR IF these times abounded as much in acts of piety as they doe in discourse of Religion if the Reformation which hath dwelt so long in mens mouths had but sunk into their hearts and appeared in their lives we should then truly feel that happinesse which wee have but for the most part all this while fancied and quitting the cloud embrace that Goddesse whose native beauty cannot but ravish since so many have been enamour'd with her picture only Holinesse is so attractive that her very Enemies desire to shrowd themselves under her wings and to cover the ulcers of their vicious lives with her garment The Scribes Pharisees loved to sit in Moses chair and Machiavilians think they never put off their Politicks better then in Christs School if they can but counterfeit Iacobs voice they hope to passe well enough with Esaus hands Hence it is that may have made Religion a temporall interest only and under the specious title of godlinesse drive on those wicked designes which might make a modest heathen to blush giving us in stead of the real demonstrations of true piety outward formes only or else a company of packt words and canting language more becoming a charm then true devotion That wee may not therefore either deceive our selves or others or think we come to act our parts in this world as Mountebanks upon a stage where the most mimicall bablers passe for the most sufficient men we must know that Religion is not a common place of terms and notions it dwells not in the clouds of aiery fancy and sublime speculations If it swim only in the head without taking root in the heart it may send forth leaves but it bears no fruit or if any like those apples which were fair to look upon but being toucht fell to powder The life of holinesse is most conspicuous in the holinesse of mens lives No sooner does Gods Spirit move upon our souls but we bring forth abundantly all good works The least sparkle of divine light that kindles in our minds burnes as well as shines if it doe not warm our affections as well as enlighten our notions we may justly suspect it is some ignis fatuus no ray that is darted from the Sun of righteousnesse or the Father of lights And irreligious holinesse will profit us nothing they are really wicked that are but vertuous in words and shew only It will not therefore be impertinent briefly to consider the influence that Religion ought to have upon all our actions and how we may rather live then talk devoutly Religion then if it bee true as it beleeves all that God reveals so it obeys in all that he commands his commandements are exceeding broad and we shall not bee ashamed when we have respect unto them all There is a concatenation of vertues and graces as well in Divinity as Morality hee that pretends but to some few of them has none at all The two Tables make but one law and though they be first and second in regard of the object of which they treat the worship of God and love of our Neighbour yet they ought to be one and the same in our observation Nor must we think that this Law published on Mount Sinai is any other then the Law of Nature which the Scripture calls the Law written in our hearts and which every one might read were not the characters so defac'd by sin and corruption This as it is most agreeable to right reason so we find lively impressions thereof in many actions of the Heathens which because they seemed to fail either in the principle which set them awork or in the end which they aimed at some passe over only with the title of splendida peccata but how rightly I intend not here to examine Sure I am this is the divine unalterable law which Christ came to fulfil which by the finger of his Spirit he writes afresh in the hearts of all those that belong to him The Gospel it self is nothing but this law illustrated and this law nothing else but the Gospel obscured The Religion of the Iews was the same with that of Adam Noah the other Patriarchs and ours with both the difference only this that we enjoy a cleerer light of that day which Abraham rejoiced so much to see the various rites and ceremonies with the different manner of Gods manifestation of himself to us and them though it may seem to argue a difference of Religion to those whose Religion is nothing but fashion and ceremony or a form of words it cannot to any who shall consider that Christ was the lamb slain from the beginning of the world by faith in whom they are saved as well as we and that the same law was a rule to all and must be unto the end of the world And this as it is sometimes called the Law of Nature so more usually with us the Morall Law because it is the rule of our actions and manners and that part thereof which teacheth us the duties we owe each to other goes mostly under the name of universall justice a vertue so comprehensive that it includes all the rest so diffusive that it extends to all the actions that concern either our selves or others And though many self-seekers please themselves only with the name of godly as if it were a silly and dangerous thing to be just withall yet we shal find at last if justice be wanting our fained godlinesse will stand us in little stead though it may gain us applause with men it will but adde to our further condemnation with God The greatest Saints have been mostly by themselves and too often by others accounted the greatest sinners Since those that are wicked are loth to give to good men the title of godly they must be careful how they attribute it too much to themselves lest they bee conceived to have something of the Pharisee Humility is the truest character of a Christian it contends not about words nor is ambitious of great names Though it bee all one to be just as holy yet we find the Just-man more often mentioned in scripture then the godly to shew us that 't is but a vain pretence to be pious unto

deserve a better censure then the truth which others utter in proud and contemptuous language At least let us avoid all names of faction especially that odious name of Heretick which seems to declare an open war to those wee fixe that brand upon and alarums all their force to retort that dart upon the face of those that first cast it Thus pursuing the truth in love wee shall more easily convince the gainsayers then by all the anathema's and fulminations that are usually darted out upon them and if we cannot be so happy as hereby to convince the Papists and other declared enemies of our Church and State we shall at least by this our union prevent their designes and obtain that peace which we have so long expected and is most earnestly desired by SIR Your ESSAY V. SIR IT is no unusuall thing for those to complain of the times of whom the times have most just occasion to complain We cry out against those distempers which wee our selves have caus'd and doe much wonder that the times are so bad when we see men daily grow worse If this present age had brought forth no new monsters of iniquity of which it is too frutfull the acting over anew the transgressions of the former though under better names but many times in a worse manner might justly cause us to apprehend that the dregs of that cup of vengeance which hath already been poured out upon us are yet behind Amongst other synptoms of future calamity there is none seems to pretend more disaster then that emulation and hatred which yet reigns amongst all parties whilst many account their private envy part of the publick good and think they never prosecute Gods cause better then when they persecute each other So full are most of themselves that they are empty of all charity to others and think they never approach God neerer then when they keep their Brethren at the greatest distance Many are like him that would measure all his guests by himself and if they exceeded in stature would cut them shorter if they were lesse would stretch them upon the Tenters We are no lesse tyrannicall to mens opinions then he was to their persons wee arreign them all at the bar of our own judgments and passe a finall condemnation upon them according to the bare verdict of our own fancies Al is terra incognita that lies beyond the line of our discovery and whoever lives not in all points as we doe must bee accounted no lesse then a Barbarian If others vertues seem to outshine ours we endeavour by all means to obscure them and if their candle burns dimmer wee are not content till wee have quite put out their light What the Heathens were wont to say heretofore of the Christians See how they love each other most that passe for Christians may now more truly say of many of the Heathens in comparison of themselves How sweet is revenge to some mens taste how ingenuously wicked are they appearing then well-affected even when they are most malicious and thinking their particular condition too mean to repay their private grudges adventure to put them upon the publike score The diseases of this kind that reign among us wee may rather suspect to have been caused then ever hope to bee cured by the receipts of Machiavel his Divide impera as if the Kingdoms of this world were to be maintained as the Devill doth his by strife and division seems to weigh more in our practise then that of our Lord and Master which he makes the badge of his Disciples to love one another If we desire then truly to approve our selves to be Christians and we should be very angry at any that would censure us for other let us devest our selves of malice and detraction and put on the garment of charity which will cover the nakednesse of our former actions and make us comely in the eys of God and man What can we see in our selves that we should so much admire or in others that we should so much blame the best of men if we look upon the worst of their actions will appear something menstruous and the worst of men for ought we know are not so bad but they are stil capable of Gods grace and may be better by our loving assistance Where the Spirit of God reigns there is love and peace he descends in the shape of the Dove not of the Vulture and where his grace dwells it is most diffusive if it be not like that stone which converts all to gold we may be assured nothing shal bee defiled by its touch True Religion makes men more charitable not more censorious it confines not the free grace of God to any particular persons or factions nor endeavours to impale that Spirit in any one orbe or circuit that blowes where it listeth If we are commanded to love our enemies I know not any that we are permitted to hate And certainly love is the most noble revenge we can take even of our enemies By retaliation of wrongs we can but be their equalls in this we are stil their superiours and may hope not only to conquer but to indear them to us at last Nor is there any way so safe as this we have the security of heaven engaged for our protection and if we can but bring our spirits to this temper may bee assured that Gods angels wil pitch their tents about us And thus passing an Act of oblivion in our own brests for all the injuries we have received from others and overcoming of evil with good we shall make both our selves and others much better and with our own peace procure at least as much as in us lies the generall peace of the nation the establishment whereof he most zealously affects that is Sir Your ESSAY VI SIR IF custome did not pass for a law the lawes against many abused customes would more easily passe Those errors which can plead prescription are hardly reformed nor must we think a short time sufficient to remove the vices which have continued for many ages I doe not so much wonder at those who contend for the observation of Christmasse as we commonly call it and other usuall Festivalls as at their quicknesse that would blow them away with one breath Nature never introduceth the form but shee first prepares the matter If the minds of men were sufficiently molded for better impressions it would bee more easy to take away the old leaven but wee must expect to have that done by degrees when it shall please God by the gentle breathings of his Spirit to blow away that animosity and bitternesse which yet reigns in mens minds When the Athenian Law-giver was asked whether hee had given them the best laws he answered the best of those they were capable of And it was objected to Cato himself that he did many times more hurt then good by speaking in the Senate as if he had been rather in an imaginary Platonick