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	union_n	unite_v	3,428	5	9.3828	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30332	A continuation of the second part of the enquiry into the reasons offered by Sa. Oxon for the abrogating of the test: relating to the idolatry of the Church of Rome.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.; Parker, Samuel, 1640-1688. Reasons for abrogating the test, imposed upon all members of Parliament anno 1678. Octob. 30.	1688 (1688)	Wing B5771A; ESTC R213038	6,504	8

in that time having delivered themselves entirely from the sin of Idolatry to which their Fathers were so prone gave him no occasion of commenting on the first and second Commandment yet by the parity of things we may conclude that many sins are reducible to them besides those that are expressely named And tho we have not so compleat a History of the Idolatry of the Neighbouring Nations to Iudea before the Captivity yet we do certainly know what was the Idolatry of which the Greeks and Romans were guilty when the New Testament was writ And tho the greatest part of the New Testament is written chiefly with relation to the Jews whose freedom from Idolatry gave no occasion to made plainer than the matter of Fact is We know likewise that when the Controversy arose concerning the Godhead of Jesus Christ Athanasius and the other Fathers made use of the same Argument against the Arrians who worshipped him that they could not be excused from the sin of Idolatry in worshipping and Invocating him whom they believed to be only a Creature which shews that it was the sense of the Christians of that Age that all Acts of Divine worship and in particular all Prayers that were offered up to any that was not truely and by nature God and the Eternal God were so many Acts of Idolatry So that upon the whole matter it is clear that the worshipping the true God under a Corporeal Representation and the worshipping or Invocating of Creatures tho in an Inferiour degree was taxed by the Apostles and by the Primitive Church as Idolatrous When they accuse them for those Corruptions of Divine worship they did not consider the softning excuses of more refined men so much as the acts that were done which to be sure do always carry the stupid Vulgar to the grossest degrees of Idolatry and thetefore every step towards it is so severely forbid by God since upon one step made in the publick worship the people are sure to make a great many more in their notions of things Therefore if we should accuse the Church of Rome for all the excesses of the past Ages or of the more Ignorant Nations in the present Age such as Spain and Portugal even this might be in some degree well grounded because the publick and authorised Offices and Practices of that Church has given the rise to all those Disorders and even in this we should but Copy after the Fathers who always represent the Pagan Idolatry not as Cicero or Plutarch had done it but according to the grossest notions and practices of the Vulgar XIV All that our Author says concerning the Cherubims deserves not an answer for what use soever might be made of this to excuse the Lutherans for the use of Images without worshipping them tho after all the doing such a thing upon a Divine Command and the doing it without a Command are two very different things yet it cannot belong to the worship of Images since the Israelites payed no worship to the Cherubims They pay'd indeed a Divine worship to the Cloud of Glory which was between them and which is often in the Old Testament called God himself in all those expressions in which he is said to dwell between the Cherubims But this being a miraculous Symbol● of the Divine presence from which they had answers in all extraordinary cases it was God himself without any Image or Representation that was worshipped in it As we Christians pay our Adorations to the Humane Nature of Christ by vertue of that more sublime and ineffable indwelling of the Godhead in Him in which case it is God only that we worship in the man Christ Even as the respect that we pay to a man terminates in his mind tho the outward expressions of it go to the body to which the mind is united So in that unconceivable Union between the Divine and Humane Natures in Christ we adore the Godh●ad only even when we worship the man. XV. The General part of this Discourse being thus stated the application of it to the Church of Rome will be no hard matter I will not insist much on the Article of Image Worship because it is not comprehended in the Test tho our Author dwells longest on it to let us see how carefully but to how little purpose he had read Dr. Spencers learned Book But if one considers the Ceremonies and Prayers with which Images and particularly Crosses are to be dedicated by the Roman Pontifical and the formal Adoration of the Cross on Good Fryday and the strange vertues that are not only believed to be in some Images by the rabble but that are authorised not only by the Books of Devotion publickly allowed among them but even by Papal Bulls and Indulgences he will be forced to confess that the old notions of the Teraphim are clearly revived among them This could be made out in an infinite Induction of particulars of which the Reader will find a large account in the learned Dr. Brevint's Treatise entitled Saul and Samuel at Endor But I come now to the two Branches mentioned in the Test XVI One is the Sacrifice of the Mass in which if either our Senses that tell us it is now Bread and Wine or the New Testament in which it is called both Bread and the fruit of the Vine even after the Consecration or if the Opinion of the first seven Centuries or if the true principles of Philosophy concurring altogether are strong enough we are as certain as it is possible for us to be of any thing that they are still according to our Authors own phrase a senceless piece of matter When therefore this has divine Adoration offered to it when it is called the good God carried about in solemn Processions and receives as publick and as humble a Veneration as ●●uld be offered up to the Deity it self i● it appeared visibly here the highest degree of Divine worship is offered up to a Creature nor will such Worshippers believing this to be truely the Body of Christ save the matter if indeed it is not so This may no doubt go a great way to save themselves and to bring their sin into the the class of the sins of Ignorance but what large thoughts soever we may have of the mercies of God to their persons we can have no Indulgence for an Act of Divine Adoration which is directed to an Object that we are either sure is Bread or we are sure of nothing else XVII As for the Invocation and Adoration of the B. Virgin and the Saints I shall offer only three Classes of Instances to prove it Idolatrous 1. In the Office of the Mass on many of the Saints days that Sacrifice which is no other than the Body and Blood of Christ according to them is offered up to the honour of the Saints and they pray to God to accept of it thro the Saints Intercession One would think it were enough to offer up the Sacrifices of