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A01923 A panegyrique of congratulation for the concord of the realmes of Great Britaine in vnitie of religion, and vnder one king To the most high, most puissant and magnanimous, Iames King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland. / Written in French by Iohn Gordon Scottish-man, Lord of Long-Orme, and one of the gentlemen of the French Kings chamber. Translated into English by E.G.; Panégyrique de congratulation pour la concorde des royaumes de la Grande Bretagne. English. Gordon, John, 1544-1619.; Grimeston, Edward. 1603 (1603) STC 12061; ESTC S118946 22,215 52

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same Rome the idolatry and abhomination of the Gentiles the which Sathan hath sence brought in vnder the name of Christ which is the true meanes to purchase you the iust title of protector and defender of the faith and restorer of Christianitie And as God by that marriage of Henrie the seauenth with Elizabeth his wife made the Vnion of the houses of Lancaster and Yorke who had a long time beene in bloudye warres and by the marriage of Iames the fourth King of Scotland with Marguerite the eldest daughter of the sayde Henrie the seauenth your great graundfather the coniunction of the crownes of England and Scotland within these hundred yeares So wee hope that the same God will imploye this admirable Vnion vnder your commaunde to vnite the Christian and vniuersall Church vnder one spirituall royalty which is the worship of one God and to abolish idolatry which hath in a maner swallowed vp and deuoured the true Church My intention is to represent in briefe vnto your Maiesty and to all Christians desirous of eternall health the infinite graces benifits which God hath powred vpon your Ilands in the planting maintaining the preaching of his Gospell that it may plainely appeare that neither the deceased Queene Elizabeth of happy memory nor your Maiesty haue established any new religion in your Ilands but banished the new being polluted and defiled with errours and false worshippes of the Gentiles Arians Nestorians and Eutichians that the Religion which dooth now flourish in your Realmes is the same which soone after the death of our Sauiour was preached and receaued by the Kings your predecessours and by the people of your Realmes Theodoret a Greeke bishop and one of the most ancient of the Church in his bookes de curatione Grecarum affectionum sermon 9. de legibus makes a goodly comparison betwixt the power of the Romaine Empire and their Lawes the Empire of Iesus Christ and of his Lawe receiued throughout the worlde He saieth the Romaines could neuer make the Persians and Parthians of the East subiect to their lawes nor towardes the North the Cimbrians Danes nor the people of Brittaine But the power of Iesus Christ hath beene greater for saieth he our fisherman that is Saint Peter and our maker of tents which is Saint Paul haue made the Brittish people subiect to the lawes of Christ the which would not obey the Romaine lawes so as antiquitie doth testifie that the Apostles haue preached in our Ilands Metaphrastes cited by the Cardinall Barenius sayeth that Saint Peter came thether Ioseph of Arimathie and Simon Zelotes came likewise as Histories do teach vs. This seede of the Gospell in your Ilands tooke such increase as King Lucius and all his subiects about the yeere 180. did publikely receiue the Christian religion And indeede the Chronographers haue noted that about the yeare of our Lord 180 Brittaine was the first part of the world which did publiquely receiue the fayth of Christ for Lucius King of Brittaine did in those dayes depose the Priests of the Gentiles and did substitute in their places Bishoppes and Christian pastors hee banished Gentilisme out of his countrie which hapned not in any part of the worlde vntill the time of Constantine the great Tertulian and Origen who liued about the same time testifie that the countries of Brittaine beeing inaccessible for the Remains were subiect vnto Christ. The Bishops of this Iland were at the councell of Nice held vnder Constantine the great three hundred yeares after Christ which is the first period of Christianisme during the which the Christians did suffer twelue most cruell persecutions vnder the tyrannie of Paganisme and the Idolatrie of olde Rome We well wot that during the three first Periods of Christianitie whereof eyther conteynes three hundred yeares the true and onely worshippe of one God which hath beene planted since the Apostles time in your Ilands hath beene continued there during the said time and yet the Christians which liued in those ages no not the Romaines did euer allowe in the publique vse of the seruice of the Church of the worship of the host in the Romish masse nor of the pretended woode of the very crosse nor of the Images of Iesus Christ or his sepulcher seated neare to Mount Caluarie all which are worshiped in the new Romish Church as God himselfe which worships are abhominations of the Gentils Arriens Nestoriens which bring with it the shipwracke of eternall health The Christians vvhich liued during the first Period of the three hundred yeares of Christianitie did inuiolably keepe the first commaundement Thou shalt haue no other Gods against my face or before mee which the Thargum of the Caldeans hath interpreted besides mee or any other then mee The Greeke translation saith other Gods besides me Athanasius interpreting this commaundement sayth Hee hath not forbidden them to haue other Gods for that there were other Gods but least any one falling from the true God should make him a God of that which is not like to those Gods which the Poets and writers make mention of which haue but the name of God and not the effect And the same Authour sayeth If reason and the esteeme we houlde of God doth make vs beleeue that hee may bee in all places and that nothing of all that which God hath vnder him is God and that all things are vnder his power why doe not they which make a creature God see that it is out of the definition attributed vnto God Theodoret vppon the same commaundement saith that the Arrians offend against it and the true Christians obserue it They doe not allowe any thing to be held or worshiped for God but the deuine nature but those which follow the error of Arrius and Eunomius sinne directly against the deuine law for they confesse the onely Sonne of God but they maintaine that he was created and is deuided from the deuine substance God hauing sayde Thou shalt haue no other Gods but me doubtlesse these men bring in another God By these authorities we do inferre that the Romains which worship the host in the Masse breake this commaundement for they agree that it is no part of the deuine nature but of the substance and nature of Iesus Christs humanitie who is worshiped according to his diuinitie and not after his humanitie according to the auncient simboles of the Church The Christian faith then hath for a firme and onely foundation the worship of one God according to this first commaundement and the worship of any thing created by God which is vnder him ought not to be receiued in the Christian religion but the onely deuine nature of the Father Sonne and holy Ghost ought to be worshiped and called on in Triple vnitie without the which nothing ought to be worshiped without manifest impietie and idolatrie The same Theodorei interpreting this commandement saieth Serm. 2. God the maker of all things in the beginning of the law which he
gaue vnto Moses cōmaunded him to worship one God I am saith he the Lord thy God which brought thee out of the land of Egypt whē he hath put Moses in mind of his late benefits he exhorts him to persist in the seruice of god not to deuide his worship but to cleaue onely vnto God Thou shalt not saith he haue any other Gods but me The which doth teach vs that those of the Romish corruptiō haue brought in strange Gods for that they haue deuided the adoration and veneration betwixt God and his creatures making three degrees The first they call Latria which they attribute to God and to the Host in the Masse equally The second Hyperdeulia which they yeelde to the blessed virgin And the third Dulia attributed to their other Saints and to their images and reliques abusing with too grosse an ignorance the signification of these Greeke wordes for Deulia signifies a greater seruice then Latria And we learne that in this place Theodoret calles the seruice and adoration of God by the name of Deulia and so doe Athanasius and Chrisostome And Saint Augustine who hath brought in this distinction attributes both vnto God onely In his 84. Question● vpon Exod. Iustin Martir who liued vnder Antonius Pius in the second age of this period of Christianity shewes plainely that the Christians did not alow of the worship of any thing inferiour to the Deity and saieth that Iesus Christ had so taught them for speaking to the Emperour in his Apologie for the Christians of his time hee writes thus That God onely is to be worshipped for so Christ doth ●each the greatest commandement is thou shalt worshippe the Lorde thy God and him onely shalt thou honour with all thy heart and all thy strength the Lorde God which hath created thee And a little after he saith we worship God onely in other things we willingly serue you for that we do acknowledge you for Kings and Princes of men and we pray vnto God that he will giue you wisedome equall to your royall power So as the Christians in matters of religion did not yeeld any worship to things created neither did they deuide the worship betwixt God his creatures as the Romish Church doth Many Christians of the same time were so exact obseruers of the onely worshippe of God as they would not reuerence the Roman Emperors as the souldiers did in ciuil causes for Theophilus to Apostolicus the sixt Bishop of Antioche who liued in the yeare of our Lord 173. when as Lucius was King of great Brittaine saith I shall honor the Emperour more in praying for him then in worshipping him for it is not lawfull to worship any but God onely The Christians of these three first ages had no Alters no Images nor any materiall crosses of golde siluer wood or stone for Clemens Alexandrinus who was neere the Apostles time saith Wee Christians are expreslye forbidden to vse any arte of deceite for so hee calleth painting and making of Images Thou shalt not saith the Prophet Moses make the likenesse of any thing that is in heauen aboue or on the earth beneath And the same author Strom. Lib. 5. Pythagoras saith he forbids the wearing of rings nor to ingraue in them the images and figures of Gods as Moses had long before forbidden and that we must not make any Image be it grauen molten counterfeite or painted that wee should not bee carryed away with sensible things but should passe vnto those thinges which are comprehended by vnderstanding And soone after he saith To honour the essence by the knowledge of a materiall thing is to contemne it The Doctrine of the Romish Church do●th heerein directly oppugne the Doctrine of Christian antiquitye making a new God of the host of the new Masse giuing it the name of God worshipping it as God and yet their doctors confesse that it is made and created by the wordes of consecration It is therefore euident that they haue brought into the Church a God created which is not contayned in the definition of God before mentioned by Saint Athanasius for the hoast of the Masse is not euerye where which is the property of God onelye neither dooth it containe all things vnder his power but contrarywise the Counsell of Trent saith in expresse wordes that Iesus Christ God and man is contained vnder the visibie signes of Breade of Wine which is quite contrarye to the diuine nature which contaynes all things in it and is not contained in anye thing The God therefore of the Romish Masse is a God created which hath a beginning and ending and is contained in the visible forme of Breade and Wine and containes not in it all things created so as the worshippers of this God of the Masse doe worshippe a newe and strange God contrarye to the first commaundement If the Arrians as Theodoret saith haue broken this first commaundement for that they taught that Iesus Christ according to his deity was a creature and yet he was God with greater reason the Romaines transgresse the same commaundement confessing that the pretended deitie of the hoast of the Masse is a deitie purchased by the consecration and not by the eternall deity without beginning and without ending And the same Theodoret writing against the Greekes in the foresaide passage teacheth vs that by the commaundement which saith Thou shalt haue no other Gods but mee that Moses forbiddes to make anye deuision of the deuine worshippe but to giue all to God onelye The Romaines who haue made three degrees of worshipping cannot denie but they haue broken this first commaundement and brought in a multitude of Gods making as manye Gods as they saye Masses So as their pluralitie of Gods becomes infinite and surpasseth the multitude of the Paynims Gods Minutius Foelix Tertulian Origen and A●nobius vvho liued in the third age of this first Periode of Christianisme testifie that the Gentiles accused the Christians for that they had neither Temples Altars Images nor visible or Materiall Sacrifices and that they did hide from sight that which they did worshippe Cecilius a Pagan Oratour disputing against Octauius a Christian as Minutius doth reporte obiected to the Christians Why haue they no Alters no Temples no knowne Images They did blazon our Christians in the vvorshiping of the Crosse vvhich they sayd they deserued taking the Crosse for a punishment To whom Octauius aunsweres for the Christians We neither worshippe nor desire Crosses but you who haue consecrated Gods of Wood worshiping Crosses of Wood as peeces of your Gods Whereby it appeares that the auncient Christians in the purenesse of Christian religion did neither worship crosses of Gold Siluer Stone or Wood as these doe of the Romish religion How should they I pray you worshippe them seing they had them not which is more would not haue them But the Church of Rome doth quite contrarie running after Gods of Gold and Siluer made as the Psalmet saieth by mans hand Inregarde of that
which the Gentiles did obiect vnto the Christians that they did hide and not shew forth what they did worship Octauius aunsweres for the Christians Doe you thinke that we doe hide what we do worship although we haue neither Temples nor Aulters for what Image shall I make of God If thou hast thy right sences thou shalt finde that man is the true Image of God And a little after he saith But the God whom we worship we neither shewe nor see If the auncient Christians had beene like vnto the Romish Christians of this age the Gentiles could not haue obiected that they had neither Aultars nor Images for in truth they haue more Aulters and Images then the Gentiles had Neither should they haue obiected vnto the Christiās that they concealed what they worshipped for the Romains shew in the eleuation of the Host the God which they worship cause the people to worship it the which they not onely shewe in Temples but also in the streetes and in generall processions and other solemnities they shew forth what they worship against the vse of the first Christians Tertulian in his booke of Idolatrie confutes with many reasons the making of all sortes of Images to roote out all matter of Idolatrie and after he had cited the second commaundement whereby it is defended to make the likenesse of anie thing that is in heauen or earth hee saith It is forbidden throughout all the worlde for the seruants of God to vse such making of Images seeing that Enoch had forecoulde that the Diuell or the Angels of darkenesse should turne all the Elements into Idolatrie and all that it conteyned in Heauen and Earth that all these things might bee consecrated for God against God himselfe And so mans errour doth worshippe all things except the Creator of all things Their Images were Idols and the consecration of Images is Idolatrie And whatsoeuer Idolatrie commits must necessarily be attributed to the maker of the Idol That which Origen speaketh vpon the Epistle to the Romaines is to be considered to make Christians wholy to reiect Idolatrie For after that he hath refuted the Errours of the Gentiles in that they might know God by the visible Ellementes yet they had fallen to the worshippe of the visible Images of Creatures concluding thus To the ende that in fewe wordes wee may speake the truth wee houlde it an abhominable impietie to worshippe any thing except the Father Sonne and holy Ghost And a little after hee saith They wrong themselues that serue Images and worshippe the Creature leauing the Creator But we Christians which worship and adore the Father Sonne and holy Ghost onely and no other Creature as we doe not erre in the diuine worshippe so doe wee not offend in our actions and conuersation It is most certaine that the Host offred vp in the Romaine Eyturgie is not consubstantiall with the Father Son holy Ghost much lesse vnited in consubstantialitie with the Trinitie as it is well noted in the sermon de Caena Domini inserted among the workes of Cyprian who liued in the third age where it is saide That the diuine essence is infused in the visible Sacrament after an vnspeakable manner that there might bee more deuotion and reuerence giuen to the Sacraments and a more holy accesse to the truth of him of whose bodie they bee Sacraments and to the participating of the spirite not to the consubstantialitie of Christ but to this brotherly and indiuisible vnitie for the Sonne onely is consubstantiall with the Father the substance of the Trinitie may not bee deuided our coniunction and that of Christ doth not confounde the persons nor vnite the substances but doth onely consociate the affections and binde the willes If in the person of Iesus Christ consisting of three natures in one person worshiped with one onely worshippe the deuine nature had beene onely infused in the humanitie of Iesus Christ after his birth as Nestorius did teach and not vnited personally in the virgins wombe Cyrillus and the other Orthodoxes did rightly mainetaine agaynst him that to worshippe one Christ carrying God in him had beene an Antropolatrie or Pagan Idolatrie With greater reason the infusion of the Diuinitie in the Sacrament and in the elements of Breade and Wine cannot attribute vnto it the dignity to bee worshipped as God himselfe for as that text doth teach vs this infusion which is made in the sacrament is not consubstantiall with the deity of the Sonne of God the which is onely consubstantiall with the father and the holy spirite for that it dooth affect amost straight and mutuall coniunction betwixt God and vs. Saint Iohn in his seuenteenth Chapter speaketh of this coniunction and vnion where our Sauiour prayes to his father for all those that shall beleeue in him That all may be one as thou O father art in me and I in thee that they may be one in vs. If this vnion should make that sacrament of the Lords supper to be worshipped then those which are vnited in Christ and by him in God the lather should worship one another for our Sauiour saith in the sixt of Saint Iohn Hee that eates my flesh and drinks my bloud remaines in me I in him That we might know saith Cypriā that our abiding in him is a true eating and the drinking an incorporation with a duty of obedience ioyning of willes and vnitie of affections The eating therefore is a certaine greedinesse in vs and a desire to remaine for euer in Christ. We learne by these authorities that euen as Christs abyding in vs by our eating of the sacrament makes vs not capable of worship for that by this coniunction wee are not personally vnited with the deity of Iesus Christ In like sort the infusion of the deuine essence in the sacramentes whereof Saint Cyprian speakes makes not the sacrament to be worshipped if it were so the said adoration were in idolatrye like that of Nestorius who worshipped man carrying God in him as is said before We may therfore say with good reason against those that worship the creatures and the images of Iesus Christ his sepulcher and the wood of the crosse that which Origen speaketh against the Gentiles of his time God is the vertue which gouernes all things and the diuinitye which filleth all things making themselues thereby inexcusable that whereas God hath giuen them the grace to know him yet haue they not honoured him as they ought neither haue they giuen him due thankes but haue sought in the vanity of their owne imaginations the images of God As those of the Romish Church doe in the Masse for in their hoast they make figures and images They haue lost in themselues the Image of God they which vanted to haue the spirite of wisedome are fallen into the obscure darkenesse of ignorance For what is there more abhominable thē to turne the glory of God to the corporall and corruptible image of mans nature the which is done at