Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	divine_a	ghost_n	partake_v	3,515	5	13.0573	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07223	A mirrour for merchants With an exact table to discouer the excessiue taking of vsurie, against the lawes manifested in this treatise of Reasons academy. Set forth by R. Mason of Lincolnes Inne gent.; Reasons academie	Mason, Robert, 1571-1635.; Davies, John, Sir, 1569-1626. Reasons moane.	1609 (1609)	STC 17620; ESTC S119107	40,335	117

A MIRROVR FOR MERCHANTS WITH ●N EXACT TABLE To discouer the excessiue taking of Vsurie against the Lawes manifested in this Treatise of REASONS ACADEMY Set forth by R. MASON of Lincolnes Inne Gent. Vitet censura furorem LONDON Printed for Iohn Browne and are to be sold at his Shop in Saint Dunstanes Church-yard in Fleetestreete 1609. To the Reader VNderstand mee louing Reader as well for my purpose as my paines In the one I meane not to confront great Schoole men but leaue both themselues and their worthy Sciences to happy successe and the other I freely bestow on such as shall bee content to giue the same perusall As in the whole I presume there is nothing hurtfull so in some parts I hope there may be some thing auaileable Herein one principal Marke I ayme at is to discouer the abuse of Vse or rather the abused vse of Vsurie so entertained in this Kingdom that according to Seneca his speech Caepit licitum esse quia publicum est In late ages Diuines haue defied it vnmasked her foule visage and brought her to arraignement and conuiction for her vncleane vnhallowed and vnlawfull products the Lawes of this Kingdome euer este●med and adiudged it damnable and the holy ●ooke of God set an eternall Curse there●n The Iewes in this Kingdome caried then markes of separation from ciuill and honest company and the Vsurers generall● forbidden Christian Buriall and d●sabled to dispose by their Wil● of thing so wickedly gotten Sed tempore mutantur but observe the mutation of time In this our Age when God is most taught and should be most obeyed the old Serpent hath not onely perswaded the tasting but surfetting on this forbidden fruit The Takers haue lost their estates and broken their hearts with penurie and the Lenders filled their bagges and through cruelty brought their soules to perdition This viperous poyson hath infected the Court and the Country the Laity and Ciuilians the Church and the Chancell the Priests and the people in so much that Vsurie is set vp as an vniuersall Trade This is the cause that Charitie groweth cold louing affection betweene friends and alies turned into hatred hospitalitie decayed and the seruice of God despised Hinc illae lachrymae This is the cause that the almes to the poore are neglected the dish of neighbourly hospitalitie not prouided the ordinary and necessary seruants turned off and the gate of pitie and compassion fast locked and sealed vp One thing I must explaine in this place concerning the foure first Sections and the Table herein placed The Sections I haue wri●ten to expresse the care power and prouidence of God who hath left nothing vnmade needfull for the vse of man and for the preseruation and increase of all things hath ordained and appointed a certaine number of things to bee ingendered a time when and a place where they should be produced and hath limitted each of these to their certaine bounds quas vltra citraque nequit consist●re rectum but the policie of man hath past the limits of them all by inuenting a new kind of production that money being taken out of the bowels of the earth her natural place in a certaine time limitted at their pleasure should produce the increase of money by deliuering the same vpon Vsurie and so abuse both number time and place against the Law of God Nature and Nations The Table discouereth that the generall taking of money being for lesse time then a whole yeere is within the compasse both of the prohibiting and Penall law of this Kingdom because it exceedeth the rate often for an hundreth for one whole yeere and for the vnderstanding thereof I haue explayned in what sort the ignorant Arithmeticians haue abused their Art by mistaking the Divident and Diuisor Vse taken according to the rate of the first Table is subiect to the penall Law Vse taken according to the second Table is free from such punishment though the taking it selfe bee not approued by any Law of God or man All which I leaue to thy considerate perusall and thy selfe to the fauour of God Robert Mason REASONS Academie Of Nomber AS I purpose not to discourse of al the deepe points therof for that wold require a large treatise yet because it is a needefull part to be known in the vnderstanding of Reasons exercise I will make bold briefly to touch the same Nomber doth cōsist of diuerse things either of one or seuerall denominations and without nomber there can bee no true definition demonstration manifestation nor vnderstanding of any thing for if all things were but one then were there no nomber or order wherefore one is said to be no nomber Sed scala de vni●●te the beginning of nomber In the God-head being before all time the maker of time and all things that increase in time there is number The Trinity of persons and vnity of God-head do declare as much For although god be a most singular Diuine essence in himselfe yet hath he proportioned number in himselfe vnseperably vnited in his God-head which the diuines call the Father Son and holy Ghost And the ancient Philosophers cal three inbeings The Father the actiue or inworking vertue power nature The Son they cal the word speech or reason The holy Ghost Loue. These Philosophers haue striued wonderfully in this labor wherin they haue waded exceding deep Amelius the disciple of Plotin is said to name the trinity three things or three vnderstandings The Beer the Hauer and the Seer The Trinity is expressed in these words Power vnderstanding wil which Trinity maketh a full number of things belonging to a mind which the Philosophers esteeme to be the Godhead But to leaue off this kind of descriptiō I cōclude with Plotinus There are saith he three chiefe Inbeings The one or the God 2. The vnderstāding or wit 3. The soule of the world And of these three saith he it is not for any man to speake without praying vnto god And without setling his mind afore vnto quietnes And if it be demanded saith he how one of them begetteth an other it is to be considered that we speak of euerlasting things therefore we must not imagine any temporall begetting for this begetting which we speake of saith he betokeneth but onely cause and order This Trinitie and first and euerlasting number hath proportioned appointed other numbers in them a miraculous order If any aske a reason hereof I answere It was the power the wisdome vnderstanding wil of God to expresse himselfe in this compleat number of persōs in one vnity of godhead By this nūber three was the whole world created al things innumerable whose mouers are only known to the creator himself In that number three is expressed the wōder of the world the taking vp of Henock Elias the Ascention of our Lord Iesus Christ Ionas three dayes in the Whales belly and Christ three dayes in the graue So that in the nomber

of three is manifested the eternall Trinitie of the God-head the creation of the world and of man the life the death and the resurection There cōsented to the destruction of man The Serpent the woman and the man There haue repaired that downfal The Father the giuer the Sonne the gift and the holy Ghost the comforter In the num of three is a perfect conclusion of all things Much may be said of the nomber and orders made by this trinitie As fire water ayre and earth to make the world the Spring Somer Autum Winter to make the yeare East West North South to quarter the world Creatures going creeping flying swung with infinit miliōs of celestial terestial bodies which he keepeth preserueth boundeth in holdeth within this Trinity And briefly to wind vp this point concerning nomber I hold it the original most worthy part of the three I mean that number is of higher cōsideratiō thē place or time for God himself that can by no meāes stoope to be known to the capacity of man neither can be cōtained within any place nor limited to any time in respect of his ompotent greatnesse and eternall essence before and without respect of time yet hath hee vouchsafed to bring himselfe within the compasse of number And therein by the power therof to create man in a blessed and happy estate Thus hauing in som measure discouered the nature worthines of original number desir●ng by al meanes to auoyd tediousnes I leaue to be considered that these and diuers other auncient writers that haue left behind them learned workes had no other meanes to vnderstand any thing of the duty and eternity of the God-head or immortality of the soule but the vse and helpe of Reason only proper and peculiar to man And so I proceed to the rest Of place IN respect of God before the creation of the world beginning of time All was Place And yet in respect of his greatnesse there was no place for he cannot be cōtained in any thing but in himselfe If any be curious to demaund how spacious large or ample this place was let him take his answere with Cato of Vtica who would needs know of God why Caesar ouercame Pompey It is as if the meanest vassal in a kingdome should require the king to giue a reasō for all things he doth or cōmandeth Porpherius being much encumbred with vnderstanding of supernaturall causes breaketh out into these words Seeing that God did by skill dispose and ouerrule all things and ordereth them by incomparable propriete of vertue And on the contrary part mans reason being very smal is ignorant of most things how skilfull soeuer it seeme to be of the truth Surely we may thē cal it meaning Reason wise whē it is not curious in searching such doubtfull and hard matters as are matched with danger of blasphemie but rather graunteth that the things which are done are very well as they be for saith he what can our weak reasō find fault with or reproue in that great Reasō meaning of the deitie As if he shuld haue said The waies the works the place of God and Eternity are not to be searched nor enquired after by any creature whatsoeuer If we descend but to the diuersitie of the condtion and nature of Creatures confined vnto place and their vnderstanding of matters not designed nor prouided for their estates conditions we shal haue sufficient cause to say that Place was such so much as it pleased the purpose prouidēce power wisdō of God Before there was a creation of things and a beginning of time Place was infinit indefinit in deuisible without space or distance without being repaired vnto or departed frō neither containing nor contained with out Center Circōferiēce rule or diameter consisting neither of matter substāce nor whatsoeuer stuffe Euery thing hath his point his Center his place and beginning Only the diuine escēce place nature of god hath none as euery mā that wil seriously looke into his own self shall be enforced to cōfesse In nature the greater can neuer be cōprehended by the lesser But God in his nature place and essence is greater then man Therefore cannot God his incomprehensible place and nature be comprehended by the reason or vnderstāding of man nature is a thing wrought by God Now no worke how great soeuer can perfectly expresse the cause or worker thereof Therefore nature cānot vnderstand the diuine essence place and nature of God The reasonable soule is the admirable nature of man Now whosoeuer shall come to know his owne soule and the place thereof meerly by the power worke of itselfe shall confesse himself to be absolutely ignorāt thereof Therfore if nature reason with the powers affects of the soule reason commeth short to know it self much more must it come short to discouer or vnderstand the incircumscriptible nature essence and place of the holy Trinitie We see in the cours of the greatnes of God as well terestrial as celestial cōtinual mouings frō place to place all those moued by their Creator the first mouer which argueth subiectiō obedience in the creatures to the Creator and out of a cessarie consequent of the contrarie it discouereth that God the mouer is neither moued nor doth moue top or from any place For to say he is here or there it is all one for he is euery where as it is authentically prooued If I clime vp to heauen thou art there If I goe downe to hell thou art there also If I take the wings of the morning and remaine in the vtmost part of the sea euen there also shall thy hand leade me and thy right hand shall hold me for the heauen is his seate and the earth is his foote-stole To conclude this point we see and confesse that God made and knoweth all things and hath appointed their natures beings times and places Now if he had in him the nature of any of his creatures that is to be limited vnto one contained in place or consisting of any materiall substance the same would incomber his diuine essence for hee doth not come within the compasse of their limited nature place nor number for by that meanes wee should derogate from his holy and diuine Deitie and essence of a Creator Seeing therefore that God is not compounded of material substance he can not be a bodie And seeing hee is not a bodie he can not bee contained in place neither wholly nor in part wherof it may properly be said that hee is no where namely that no part of him is limited within any place to be pointed at or described For like as hee made all things by the power of his beeing So doth the same power enter into al things fill all things containe all things And for so much as the same being power is indiuisible it is whole in all and whole in euery part So likewise is he

acquaintance then with the rest because it partaketh with our nature And vnder the ayre the earth and water And so of fire water ayre and earth they hold the bodies of man to be composed wherein still number and place partake together in all occasions If I should speak at large of the infinite numbers of ioynts sinews arteries muscles vaines organs instruments matter and things whereof a perfect man doth consist beside his immortall soule it would be as admirable as the whole frame and hoste of heauen and earth and all wherewith they are replenished But if I should discourse of the reasonable and immortall soule and minde of man the qualities affects effects condition state attribute faculties of the soule and minde It would farre surmount all the creatures that euer God made and all in number place and time which is the next point to be handled Then gentle friend I leaue thee a spectacle in thy selfe to behold all these 3. excellent things number place and time with the stuffe substance matter and essence wherof thou art composed much exceeding all the rest if they were all compared with thee Abuse neither of them least time turne thee in stead of a better place from the number of the blessed to a place of damnation among the number of the damned spirites So that whether thou seeke heauen earth or hell thou shalt finde all things to consist of number and place therefore make account of them as of their worthinesse Much might be said of the number and place of the fixed and mouing Starres Of the number of Monarkes Kings Emperors and their Countries the vegitatiue and sensitiue creatures and of the things that haue onely being without sense or growing But because I am to speake in the next place of Time and of the vse thereof I cease further to enlarge this point with this conclusion that the exercise of reason euen amongst the heathen and prophane men hath waded farre into this matter Of Time IN this discourse of Time there is an other way to discouer the truth thereof then is vsed in handling the former For in number and place there is neither prioritie nor posteritie For though in the Deitie there be three distinct persons in number yet in reputation of place greatnesse or number none is greater or lesse then another and in respect of Time none is before or after an other But the whole three persons are coequall together and coeternall The Philosophers of auncient time found in the reason of their soules that there was a certaine nature and essence in which they alleage to bee three in-beings as is aforesaid And that this great and eternall nature and essence doe make the beginning of all other natures which are contained in Time And besides among many opinions There were of these Philosophers that did maintaine and vphold two beginnings which in all likely-hood they were induced vnto out of the two seuerall dispositions and inclinations of the same in men one to vertue the other to vice To these beginnings they giue seuerall names The one good which they call Oram●ses The other euill and that they call Arimarius This opinion is furthered by some to haue his beginning from Zoroastres the grand child of Noa and from him by tradition to the Persians and from the Persians to the Manachies Their meaning vnderstanding in this behalfe is that the Elements the Plants the herbs the trees beastes men and Spirits were diuided between these two Gods holding one to bee Creator of the good and the other of the euil To the one they allotted light to the other darknesse to the one Sommer to the other winter c. The sins the wickednesse corruptions which they saw in the natures of men differing from the perfection of a righteous Creator drew them into these absurd opinions because they held their corruptions and euils in time and qualitie to be in the creation of those euill creatures Which opinion hath come neare to some in these Ages who entering into consideration of the euill thing● will not sticke if not to affirme 〈…〉 least to demaund whether God be the author of euil These opinions may be answered thus That making or creating are referred to natures and substances and that all originall natures substances are good And therefore that God who is al good is the Creator and maker of them Now euill is neither a nature nor a substance but an income which is fallen into natures and substances And therefore not in the time of creation but is come in since by a colaterall meanes Euill is a breathing or diminishing of the foure good qualities effects which natures and substances ought naturally to haue Hereby wee see that euen in time it selfe good was before euill and in place shall be farre preferred aboue it I conclude therefore that Euill being neither nature nor substance hath not nor can haue any being in it selfe but in the thing that of his originall nature or stuffe is good Euill is not an effect but a default not a production but a corruption Plato and Plotin hold opinion that euill is not a thing of it selfe nor can bee imagined but in the absence of goodnesse as a depriuation of the good which ought to bee naturally in euery thing And that euil is a certaine kinde of nothing hauing no abiding but in the the good whereof it is a fault or diminishing of perfectiō By which they conceiue that these things which haue their being nature and substance onely temporary and are finite with time tending to the matter whereof they were first created that is to an vnbeing of that it formerly was or to not beeing at all as were the things whereof they were created and vnto which creatures haue still a certaine inclination whereby they may fall frō their goodnesse By these many other reasons may bee concluded that there was not two beginnings but one beginning of creatures and time But the euill is crept in since in the default decay or absence of the good which in the originall creatiō was in the same natures substances that are now become euil Many supposals imaginations and opinions haue beene holden of euerlastingnesse eternitie of the world and of Time by old writers that had no other meanes to reach vnto the same but the scope of their owne weake reasons But omitting the rest I will come shortly to the point Plotinus in his booke of Eternity and of Time saith That Eternitie and Time differ in this respect That Eternity is verified only of the euerlasting nature meaning the Creator But Time is to be verified of the things that are created So as Eternitie is and abideth in God alone which hee calleth the world that is to be conceiued but in minde and vnderstanding And Time hee intendeth to abide in the world that is subiect to the senses Adding further that the world was not made in Time