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	son_n	subsist_v	3,178	5	11.7445	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20605	A sermon preached in Italian, by the most Reuerend father, Marc' Antony de Dominis, Archb. of Spalato, the first Sunday in Aduent, anno 1617. In the Mercers Chappel in London, to the Italians in that city, and many other honorable auditors then assembled. Vpon the 12. verse of the 13. chapter to the Romanes, being part of the Epistle for that day. First published in Italian by the author, and thereout translated into English; Predica fatta da Monsr. Marc' Antonio de Dominis, Arcivo. di Spalato. English	De Dominis, Marco Antonio, 1560-1624.	1617 (1617)	STC 7004; ESTC S109795	31,116	84

shales of these superfluous and superstitious deuotions What now adayes carrieth away the noise in their pulpits what but the Papacie Purgatory and Indulgences and other the like superstitions Here one extolls a certaine Image of the blessed Virgin to bee seene in his Church which makes miracles Gods plenty but these feates are either imagined or dreamed of or else contriued by imposture There another stands vpon the commendation of a certaine wodden wonder-working Crucifixe making a moster of it with a troope of lighted Torches about it and the more to endeare it hee withdraweth the Curtaines but seldome and openeth the Shrine at a few set times in the yeere Otherwhere others doe the like and all for the same end namely to allure the simple people to flocke to them and so to worke vpon their purses O misery of corruption O night of darkenesse I passe now to the third generall error and it is this That the thunderbolt of excommunication darted out by the Pope is euermore very terrible and that it strikes deepe wounding the soule and tumbling it downe-right into hell if the Popes commands be not obeyed True it is that euery Bishop within his owne Bishopricke no lesse then the Pope within the Bishopricke of Rome hath power to excommunicate grieuous and scandalous offenders either debarring them of Ecclesiasticall communion with other Christian people vntill they amend or if the case bee desperate casting them out of the Church and cutting them off from the body of Christ as dead and rotten members But whensoeuer such Excommunications are sent out without iust yea and most weighty cause they more hurt him that thundereth them out then them against whom they are bent It must needes therefore be a great folly to stand in feare of the Popes Excommunication whensoeuer hee threatens in this sort Either beleeue whatsoeuer I say or I will excommunicate you Either admit me to be supreme Lord of all the world both in spirituall and temporall matters or you shall be excommunicated Either acknowledge and worship mee for a god vpon earth or you shall bee held for Excommunicate To bring his owne ends to passe he worketh in this sort hee compelleth men both to beleeue and also to performe whatsoeuer he please hee forelayeth meanes to keepe simple ouerfearefull men in awe so that they shall not dare to stand out in their owne defence against his Tyrannie By these vaine terrors he taketh away the vse of many excellent bookes therefore prohibited because they lay open his collusions Neuerthelesse this rule is certaine and infallible whosouer walking vprightly in the sight of God with sincerity of heart and honest intention readeth bookes not out of carnall curiosity but out of desire to learne and to discerne betweene truth and falsehood and to the end that hee may not alwaies remaine blind let him not feare a whit nor make any account of such Excommunication which can neuer separate any man from God vnlesse hee hath in his owne heart first separated himselfe from him Without doubt the Pope maketh great vse of this scarcrow feare of his Excommunications as a fit engine to enforce many a falsehood and to hide out of the way many truths for the vpholding of his owne most vndue and vsurped greatnesse This indeede hath bene his weapon wherewith hee long since hath layde about him but it hath beene retorted backe vpon him by many holy men who haue not spared to laugh at his false thunderclaps bolted out by great abuse without necessity or iust cause at all and haue made him to giue ouer with shame enough Let vs now therefore render our thankes to God who hath rescued vs de ore Leonis out of the mouth of the Lion and de nube erroris out of the cloud of error so that the enemy cannot leade vs into such deepe darkenesse as he yet doth many soules miserably captiuated to him And therefore to vs Nox praecessit The night is past Dies autem appropinquauit But the day hath approached To these foure nights there are as many daies correspondent The first is of the knowledge of God and of the holy Christian faith the shadowes being discharged and the veiles taken away by the comming of Christ when that which lay hidde vnder types and darke resemblances was manifested by the light of the Gospel Neither was it without mysterious signification that at the very passion of Christ the veile of the Temple was rent from the toppe downe to the bottome For the sacred mysteries of God were not now to remaine any longer curtayned vp inasmuch as at the appearing of the Sunne of righteousnes all those cloudes and darkenes vanished away cleere reuelation beeing then made to vs of the vnity in Nature and trinity in Persons in God and of the Redeemer the true and naturall Sonne of God in whom are two Natures the one diuine the other humane subsisting in the diuine Person of the Word He is in substance and cleere signification the foreshadowed spotlesse Lambe of God He is the true Sacrifice which was hidden and veyled in the sacrifices of the old Law the most precious sacrifice offered vp vpon the altar of the Crosse for our sinnes whereto no other sacrifice is now to succeed Rom. 12. besides the reasonable seruice of our soules and bodies and perpetuall thankesgiuing and adoration of his most holy name The second day is the day of Grace with full remission of all our sinnes in holy Baptisme the Church beeing sanctified and cleansed by the Lauer of water in the Word Of those that receiued Christ by the preaching of the Apostles Saint Paul said Ephes 5. Yee were sometimes darkenesse but now yee are light in the Lord who commanded light to shine out of darkenesse To the Gentiles the light of Nature and to the Iewes the Law did point at what ought to be done but neither the one nor the other gaue grace and strength to worke well Rom. 8. as Saint Paul prooueth Hebr. 10. For that Nature beeing corrupted was ouer nimble to runne headlong into sinne But the grace of Christ helpeth our naturall weakenesse and helpeth vs to bee set free and preserued from sinne and therefore Hic dies appropinquauit The day hath approached The third day is the day of watchfulnesse diligence and care The wild and sauage beasts watch most of all in the night time forraging then for their prey On the contrarie man r●●oseth himselfe in the night and goeth about his businesse in the day time Psal 104.20 Posuisti tenebras facta est nox in ipsa pertransibunt omnes bestiae Syluae c. Thou madest darkenesse and it is night wherein all the beasts of the Forest creepe forth The young Lions roare after their prey and seek their meat of God When the Sunne riseth they retire and couch in their dennes It is not so with man For when the Sunne is vp then Exibit homo ad opus suum

faith he barreth vp the way to the people so that they cannot come to descry his inuentions as long as they make it a scruple of conscience to examine or consider what trueth may bee in such determinations which are made by him for his owne aduantage onely and not for their soules health In this meane while the poore vulgar think that they haue as much faith as will serue for their saluation and yet in fine they will bee found to haue none at all I beleeue that which the Church beleeues If I come not to particular articles I yet beleeue nothing but onely am in a disposition to beleeue that which the Church of Rome shall prescribe mee whether true or false Verely for any man to say I beleeue that which another man beleeueth is as much as if he said I see that which another man seeth though my owne eyes be shut And as no man can be said to see but only when the faculty of his owne sight exerciseth its operation vpon a particular obiect so there is no actuall beleeuing but when the vnderstanding and will doe actually apprehend and embrace the obiect of faith There are vnder the Papacy there are among the people many men endued by God with sufficient iudgement and capacity to receiue good instruction in many mysteries of our faith if they had conuenient meanes and opportunity to learne them but by reason of this implied faith they are not only kept from learning those things which they ought to know but also a great number of them and they not of the dullards when they vnder a confused notion apprehend such articles frame to themselues false and erroneous conceipts of them How many being enwrapped in this implicite faith and being otherwise able distinctly to vnderstand that there are in Christ two distinct natures and but one onely person and that diuine yet thinke that Christ is man by an humane person and so are Nestorians How many are there that beleeue Christ to be a meere man and so are Arians How many beleeue that in Christ the diuine and humane natures are confounded into one nature Innumerable such monsters of all heresies may bee found vnder this Chimaera of inuolued faith Besides this the more to cherish these monstrous errors the Popes barre Christian people from all means of learning the verities of the Christian faith forbidding them the vse of the holy Scriptures in such language as they may vnderstand For they are well assured that the very vulgar would by reading the Scriptures discouer the manifold deuises and trickes wherwith the Popes the Bishops the Preachers the Priests and Friars delude the simple people to draw money out of their purses and to make themselues be thought so many Gods If the people might bee suffered to read the Scriptures in the mother tongue they would finde that all the twelue Apostles had the same charge in all respects equall with S. Peter of planting gouerning the Church They would see that in all the Bible there is nothing to bee found for S. Peters being at Rome nor that hee hath left any speciall charge with the Bishop of Rome They would be aduertised that all Bishops succeed the Apostles in equall power among themselues without subiection of one to another And that the vnion of holy Church consisteth in the vnity of faith and in charity whereby all Churches are combined and embrace one the other and not in being vnder any one visible head but vnder Christ the true and only head of the Church They would well know that the Masse hath no other vse nor bringeth any other spirituall benefite then to consecrate the holy Sacrament for Communion and that only when there are some more or lesse to communicate that the pronouncing of some part aloud and whispering the rest so that the people heares it not is but a mockery Likewise that those mimicall gestures with the hands leggs and eyes serue for nothing but to set the people on gazing in a wonderment They would learne that in the bread of the Eucharist there is the true body of Christ Sacramentally and after a wonderful maner which to vs is inexplicable but not in flesh and bones with eyes hands and feet Neither should they euer finde that that consecrated bread is to bee adored for God euen as wee adore not the water which represents the blood of Christ in baptisme although by the power of Gods grace this water and that bread in him that receiueth it worthily worke maruelous spirituall effects in the soule They would vnderstand that Purgatory being not once named nor implied in the Scriptures is an inuention of the Priests and Friars to make men call for Masses and to draw on paiments and oblations for the rescuing of soules out of Purgatory Which deuice rayseth an income whereby such a swarme of idlesbies not only vnprofitable to the Church but also scandalous are maintained liuing in iollity and wallowing in all vncleannesse These and many other like trueths would the people descrie if they might read the holy Scriptures nor would they suffer themselues to be any longer deceiued and fuddled vp in that darke cloud and night of infolded faith Much the easier also would they vnderstand these things if together with the Scriptures diuers godly and holy Bookes might bee suffered to come to their view which discouer the impostures of the Papacie and sincerely lay down the true way to saluatiō yet these Bookes are most falsly by the Pope for his owne behoofe declared to be hereticall and prohibited as pestilēt in that kind without euer shewing particularly wherin these pretended heresies consist Which are notwithstanding taught by the holy Fathers of the Church But this is his refuge for security lest his errours should bee discouered And as for so many soules running this way headlong into hell that troubleth him not may he the while hold vp his wordly pomp And so much of the first generall error Another generall error wherewith the captiuated Churches in Italy and many other elsewhere are seduced is the perswading of the simple people that they obtaine infallible remission of all their sinnes committed after baptisme by vertue of certaine externall sensible and materiall actions which are called Sacraments and Sacramentals Indeed the common people being by nature prone and hasty to superstition and more willing and ready to vndergoe externall easie performances then inward duties difficult and distastful to flesh and blood put too much confidence in these outward superstitions being in the meane time destitute of the true inward effect of desired remission of their sinnes and so the blinde being led by the blinde both fall into the pit The true Sacraments instituted by our Sauiour for remission of sinnes are holy Baptisme and the sacred Communion And the only true and reall remedy whereby remission of sinnes done after Baptisme is obteined is Repentance which consisteth in true sorrowing for sinne together with resolution to