Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	distinct_a	person_n	property_n	2,539	5	9.4838	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62137	Twenty sermons formerly preached XVI ad aulam, III ad magistratum, I ad populum / and now first published by Robert Sanderson ...; Sermons. Selections	Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.	1656 (1656)	Wing S640; ESTC R19857	465,995	464

word sufficiently to save our souls if we will believe but not to solve all our doubts if we will dispute The Scriptures being written for our sakes it was needfull they should be fitted to our capacities and therefore the mysteries contained therein are set forth by such resemblances as we are capable of but farr short of the nature and excellency of the things themselves The best knowledge we can have of them here is but per speculum and in aenigmate 1 Cor. 13. as it were in a glass and by way of riddle darkely both God teacheth us by the Eye in his Creatures That is per speculum as it were by a glass and that but a dimme one neither wherein we may read 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some of the invisible things of God but written in small and out-worne characters scarce legible by us He teacheth us also by the Eare in the preaching of his holy word but that in aenigmate altogether by riddles darke riddles That there should be three distinct persons in one essence and two distinct natures in one person That virginity should conceive Eternity be born Immortality dye and Mortality rise from death to life That there should be a finite and mortall God or an infinite and Immortall man What are all these and many other more of like intricacy but so many riddles 16. In all which that I may from the premises inferr something of Use we should but cum ratione insanire should we go about to make our Reason the measure of our Faith We may as well think to graspe the earth in our fists or to empty the sea with a pitcher as to comprehend these heavenly mysteries within our narrow understandings Puteus altus the well is deep and our buckets for want of cordage will not reach neer the bottome We have use of our Reason and they are unreasonable that would deny us the use of it in Religion as well as in other things And that not only in Agendis in matters of duty and morality wherein it is of a more necessary and constant use as the standard to regulate our judgements in most cases but even in Credendis too in such points as are more properly of Faith in matters doctrinal and dogmatical But then she must be imployed only as an handmaid to Faith and learn to know her distance Conférre and Inférre those are her proper tasks to conferr one Scripture with another and to inferr conclusions and deduce instructions thence by clear Logical discourse Let her keep within these bounds and she may do very good service But we marr all if we suffer the handmaid to bear too great a sway to grow petulant and to perke above the Mistress 17. It hath been the bane of the Church and the original of the most and the most pernicious errors and heresies in all ages that men not contenting themselves with the simplicity of beleeving have doated too much upon their own fancies and made Reason the sole standard whereby to measure both the Principles and Conclusions of Faith It is the very fundamental errour of the Socinians at this day No less absurdly then as if a man should take upon him without Mathematical instruments to take the just dimensions of the heavenly bodies and to pronounce of altitudes magnitudes distances aspects and other appearances only by the scantling of the Eye Nor less dangerously then as if a Smith it is S. Chrysostomes comparison should lay by his tongs and take the iron hot from the forge to work it upon the anvil with his bare hands Mysteries are not to be measured by Reason That is the first Instruction 18. The next is That forasmuch as there are in the mystery of Christianity so many things incomprehensible it would be safe for us for the avoiding of Errors and Contentions and consequently in order to those two most precious things Truth and Peace to contain our selves within the bounds of sobriety without wading too farr into abstruse curious and useless speculations The most necessary Truths and such as sufficed to bring our forefathers in the primitive and succeeding times to heaven are so clearly revealed in scripture and have been so universally and constantly consented unto by the Christian Church in a continued succession of times as that to doubt of them must needs argue a spirit of pride and singularity at least if not also of Strife and Contradiction But in things less evident and therefore also less necessary no man ought to ●e either too stiffe in his own private opinion or too peremptory in judging those that are otherwise minded But as every man would desire to be left to his own liberty of judgement in such things so should he be willing to leave other men to their liberty also at least so long as they keep themselves quiet without raising quarrels or disturbing the peace of the Church there-abouts 19. As for example Concerning the Entrance and Propagation of Original sin the Nature Orders and Offices of Angels The Time Place and Antecedents of the last judgement The consistency both of Gods immutable decrees with the contingency of second causes and of the efficacy of Gods grace with the freedom of Mans will c. In which and other like difficult points they that have travelled farthest which desire to satisfie their own curiosity have either dasht upon pernicious Errors or involved themselves in inextricable difficulties or by Gods mercy which is the happiest loose from such fruitless studies have been thereby brought to a deeper sense of their own ignorance and an higher admiration of the infinite majesty and wisdome of our great God who hath set his counsels so high above our reach made his wayes so impossible for us to finde out That is our second Instruction 20. There is yet another arising from the consideration of the greatness of this Mystery That therefore no man ought to take offence at the discrepancy of opinions that is in the Churches of Christ amongst Divines in matters of Religion There are men in the world who think themselves no babes neither so deeply possest with a spirit of Atheisme that though they will be of any Religion in shew to serve their turns and comply with the times yet they are resolved to be indeed of none till all men be agreed of one which yet never was nor is ever like to be A resolution no less desperate for the soul if not rather much more then it would be for the body if a man should vow he would never eat till all the Clocks in the City should strike Twelve together If we look into the large volumes that have been written by Philosophers Lawyers and Physicians we shall finde the greatest part of them spent in disputations and in the reciting and confuting of one anothers opinions And we allow them so to do without prejudice to their respective professions albeit they be conversant about things measurable by Sense or

time the Sale first by Sin and then the Redemption by Christ. 2. You have sold your selves for nought Words not many in our Translations But in the Original as also in the Greek as few as can be to be a Number but two Yet do they fairly yield us these four Particulars 1. The Act and that is a Bargain of Sale ye have sold 2. The Object of that Act the Commodity or thing sold and that is themselves sold your selves 3. The Consideration or Price if you will allow that Name to a thing of no Price and that is nothing or as good as nothing sold for nought 4. The Agent the Merchant or Salesman and that is themselves too Ye have sold your selves To sell and that themselves and that for nought and to do all this themselves of these in order 3. The Act is first it is a Bargain of Sale Ye have sold your selves If we had but deposited our selves with Satan being so perfidious as he is it had been hazard enough and but too much For even among Men if the party that is trusted have but the Conscience to deny the trust and the face to forsweare it he that trusteth him may soon come to lose all But yet in point of right and to common entendment he that depositeth any thing in the hand of another doth only commit it to his custody both property and use still reserved to himself 2. In a Demise a man parteth with more of his interest he transmitteth together with the possession the use also or fruit of the thing letten or demised so as the ususructuarius or tenant may during his Terme use it at his Pleasure and so far as he is not limited by special Covenant make benefit of it to his own most advantage But here is yet no Alienation it is but jus utendi salvâ substantiâ Still the Property remaineth where it was and the Possession too after a time and when the terme is expired reverteth to the first owner 3. A Mortgage indeed hath in it something of the Nature of an Alienation in as much as it passeth over Dominium as well as Rem and Usumfructum that is property and as you would say Ownership as well as Possession Use and Benefit Yet not absolutely any of these but with a defeisance and under a Condition performable by himself so as the Mortgage is upon the point the proprietary still if he will himself because it is in his own power by performing the Condition to make a defeisance of his former act and consequently to make the alienation void and then he is in statu quo 4. But in a Bargain of Sale there is a great deal more then in all these There the Alienation is absolute and the contract Peremptory Wherein the Seller transferreth and maketh over to the Buyer together with the Possession use and profits the very property also of the thing sold with all his right title claim and interest therein for ever without power of revocation or any other reservation whatsoever And this is our Case this the fact whereof we stand indited in the Text. What the Scripture chargeth upon Ahab for his particular that he had sold himself to work wickedness is though not in the same height of sence yet in some degree more or less chargeable upon all Man-kinde We have all sold our selves to Sin and Satan Venundati sub peccato saith St Paul and he seemeth to speak it of the better sort of Men too in the judgment of many good interpreters Rom. 7. And then how much more is it true of the rest that they are Carnall sold under sinne 5. The greater is our Misery and the more our Presumption which are the two Inferences hence Our Misery first For by selling ourselves over to sin and Satan we have put our selves out of our own into their Dominion and during that state remain wholly to be disposed at their pleasure They are now become our Lords and it is not for us to refuse any drudgery be it never so toilsome or irksome whereabout they shall list to employ us How should it else be possible for men endowed with reason some to melt themselves away in Luxury and Brutish sensuality as the Voluptuous othersome to pine themselves lean with looking at the fatness of anothers portion as the Envious othersome to run themselves out of breath sometimes till they burst in the pursuit either of shadows as the Ambitious or of smoak as the Popular or vain-glorious othersome like those that in old time were damnati ad Metalla to moyl perpetually in lading themselves with thick clay whereof it could give them to think that ever they should have use as the Covetous were it not that they are put upon such drudgeries by their imperious Masters Sin who raigneth like a tyrant in their mortall Bodies and will have all his lust obeyed and Satan who grown great by this new purchase for by it it is that he claimeth to be Prince of the world sitteth in the hearts of ungodly men as in his Throne and there commandeth like an Emperour and who may be so bold as to contradict or but to say Domine cur ita facis Acti agimus is a true saying in this sence howsoever He must needs go we say whom the Devil driveth and St Paul saith he is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience It is but an empty flourish then that licentious men sometimes stand so much upon their liberty saying with them Iohn 8. we were alwayes free and were never in bondage unto any or with them in Psalm 12. Our lips are our own who is Lord over us who is Lord over you do you say No hard matter to tell you that Even Satan your lips and your tongues are his your hearts and your hands his your bodies and your souls his all you have all you are wholy and entirely his You have sold your selves to him and Emptum cedit in jus emptoris He hath bought you and his you are to have and to hold he may now do what he will with you if God suffer him and you must abide it This being the case of us all by reason of Sin till we be restored by Grace I need say no more to let us see what misery we have pulled upon our selves by this Sale 6. But there is another thing too in this Sale besides our Misery meet for us to take knowledge of and that is our high and intolerable Presumption joyned with extreme injustice and unthankfulness God made us to do him service and his we are his Creatures his Servants Now then Quis tu What hast thou to do to judge saith S. Paul may not I say much more what hast thou to do to sell anothers servant and that invito nay inconsulto Domini without any Licence of Alienation from the chief Lord nay without so much as