Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A19905
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Mirum in modum A glimpse of Gods glorie and the soules shape.
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Davies, John, 1565?-1618.
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1602
(1602)
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STC 6336; ESTC S109346
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43,605
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88
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Eternity and Time are opposite For Time no more can bound Eternity Then Finite can inuirone Infinite Both of both which haue such repugnancy As nere can stand with Gods true Unity Eternity is then produc'd from hence By ioyning of his sole Infinitie With his essentiall intelligence And all the Attributes proceeds from thence If then Eternity doth bound this One Or rather he bounds all Eternity How could he Bee or beeing all alone How could he worke that worke vncessantly For hee 's all Act that acts continually Hauing no subiect whereupon to worke And beeing without his Creatures vtterly It seemes he must in Desolation lurke Which must of force an actiue nature irke Or how could he extend his goodnesse when None could receiue it if none Beeing were What honor could he haue there beeing then No one to honor him or him to feare Or what in loue if hee his children deere Had made t'exist from all eternity As to eternity th' are made t' appeere What inconuenience could ensue thereby Yes very great and marke the reason why He is an Essence free not bound to ought Who can and doth exist in boundlesse blisse Although besides himselfe that there were nought For he of greatest glory cannot misse Sith that eternally all gloris his But should the Creatures eternall be His glory would be much eclip'st by this For were th' eternall too aswell as he They would be gods as great in each degree Then nought he needes to giue him laude or loue Or subiect for his worke though nought there were For ere nought was he did not worke or moue Yet idle was not for his Spirit did steere In contemplation of his Essence cleere So himselfe to himselfe was Well of Weale And in himselfe did Glory it selfe appeare Which to himselfe himselfe did aye reueale So pleasd himselfe with what himselfe did feale Suppose no man but one were on the Earth And none but Vermine vile did him attend What honour could they yeeld What ioy or mirth Could they afforde that rather doe offend Such and no more doe men their Maker lend Who were made changeable by changelesse will So chang'd they are and to the worse they tend Who in respect of him continue still Worse then vile Uermine though they were more ill Who for his goodnesse is the God of grace And for his glory is the Lord of Light Whose glorious greatnesse filleth eu'ry place For no place is exempted from his Sp'rite And by it all that is compasst quite As the least Poynt is by the Heau'ns clire And nothing is so solid as hath might To keepe him out as it can Aire or Fire But he is all in all and parte intire Hee 's not in Temples made with mortall hands Nor those which his immortall hands haue made Nor in himselfe as Man for Fleshes bands Can hardly hold the least glimse of his Shade Much lesse his Substance which e're biding had No more in one then in an other place And though with Flesh it seemeth to be clad Yet dwells he in it but by pow'r and grace And so he dwells in all he doth embrace He dwells in Heau'n of Heau'ns by his Glory For there that matchlesse Glory glitters most He is in Hell and each place transitory By presence of his Spirit the holy Ghost He dwells in Christ but how O Christ thou knowst For as the Soule and Body makes one Man So God and Man one Christ do make thou showst Yet the coherence neither may or can The diffrence abrogate since Christ began Whose natures from confusion are as free As from distraction they are cleerely quit Which though connext confounded may not be Much lesse distracted both in one beeing knit But how conioyn'd surmounts the reach of Wit For in Christs body bodily doth dwell The fulnesse of the Godhead most vnfit To be contained in Heau'n Earth or Hell His greatnesse doth their greatnesse so excell Then Contemplation stay here make a pause Stirre not too fast about vncompasst things Though thou canst compasse Heau'n and Earth because Thou art the Image of this King of Kings Yet this flight is too farre for thy clipt wings The Trinity in Unitie's a wonder Surmounting wonders which amazment brings Yet lesse if more may be that God is vnder Fraile flesh and so contayn'd God cannot sunder Which two-fold natures oft co-operates And euermore assotiates each other But neuer mutually participates Each others properties as mixt together For what one hath the selfe same hath not either But in their kindes are diuerse yet but one That 's one of two or two in one much rather Which mystery to God is onely knowne But not as he is Man the same is showne To whom yet nerethelesse all pow'r is giu'n In whom as in its proper place it bides By which he ruleth in Earth Hell and Heau'n And were there some thing else the same besides Which powre beeing infinite with it he guides Each finite thing vnto its proper end In which omnipotence such force resides As were he willing he the Heau'ns could bend Belowe base Hell and make it Heau'n transcend Which peerelesse powre though nothing can oppugne Yet doth it selfe it selfe still so restraine As that it selfe cannot it selfe impugne For what it bindes it cannot loose againe At selfe same time for then that powre were vaine As beeing repugnant to it selfe and so No order should that rulelesse powre containe And then it selfe it selfe would ouerthro And with it selfe all things to wrack should go He cannot make Man free and bond at once Nor giue him Will and wrest it how he will He cannot hold in hate his Holy ones Nor in his loue much lesse imbrace the ill He cannot change himselfe beeing changelesse still Such things he cannot do not through defect Of powre what not if please him to fulfill But of his powre this is a strong effect That can do all but that it should reiect Who being euermore a compleate Acts In highest degree of diuine excellence He neede not chase Perfection by the tract For in himselfe It selfe hath residence Then motion hath he none by consequence For that must firmely stand wherein all moues Who is both Center and Circumference Of Motions motion for it him behoues To giue all rest which he moues or remoues He cannot moue but to himselfe alone Because alone at once hee 's eu'ry where And all that is is only in this ONE Then vnto what or whither should he steere Sith all 's in him that shal be is or were For mou'd he Motion should not tend to Rest But Motion should to Motion tend for ere So Time in bootelesse turnes should be at best When it should draw most neere to most vnrest He is that ONE in whom each one doth moue He moues each one that all in him should rest For whatsoe're from him doth most remoue It findes and feeles thereby the most vnrest Yet from himselfe nothing himselfe can wrest Who
I no name can frame To fitte thy greatnesse but it is too scant Thy goodnesse is as great good Great I grant But where art thou among thy Angels Noe Where then with thy Church euer triumphant There and where not thou art but yet not so As thou art with and in thy selfe I know For twixt the Heau'n where Saints and Angels rest And that same Heau'n of Heauens where thou resid'st Is greater distance then from East to West Yet on the Cherubins thou often rid'st And euery where in Essens thou abid'st But where thy Glories beames doe glitter most With distance infinite thou it deuid'st From all the Orders of the heau'nly Hoast Where to thy selfe thy selfe alone thou sho'st In quintescens of Glories quintescens Which was and is most vnapprochable The Throne is plac'd of thy magnificence Whereon thou sitt st in light vnthinkeable Then not by Tongue or Pen expressable For eu'n as when the Sunne his beames display Because our Eyes to see the same 's vnable We through a scarfe behold them as we may Eu'n so must Man behold Gods Glories ray Such as goe downe into the Sea profound Of deepe Philosophy doe meete thee there Of Men profane thou art there often found For in thy Workes thy steppes do plaine appeare Nay in thy works is stampt thine Image cleere And yet no worke of thine resembles thee So right though Men and Angels drawen neere But that the difference infinite must be Sith thou art infinite in each degree The Deites that in the Starres do dwell Thy Deity their seu'rall Mansions made And all that Sacred Senate found full well That it o're them supreme dominion had Who found it permanent when these did fade By Natures light they saw a light extreame Glaunce from his grace that did their glory shade And saw his Image true as in a dreame Together with the new Ierusalem This goodly Great or greatly Good is he So good so great as none so great or good That was that is and euermore shal be In each respect without all liklyhood Including in his threefold-single Godhood Notions Properties Relations In whom they stil as in their Subiect stood Then all Diuines diuide the Notions Into fiue braunches or partitions Namely into Innascibility Fatherhood breathing or Spiration Son-hood Procession these fiue naturally Dependeth still by Logicall relation Vpon the mistery of the Trinity All which conioynd makes but one Unity The two first solely to the Sire pertaines The third to Sire and Sonne indifferently The fourth the Sonne within himselfe retaines And to the holy-spirit the fift remaines Which Notions are Relations in some sence For Father Sonne doth euer presuppose And Sonne a Father by like consequence The holy Spirit proceeding from both those Implieth them from and with whom he goes The Notion of Innascibility Is no Relation sith it doth suppose No other person in the Trinity But is a Notion noting Vnity The two first is the Fathers in respect He onely doth beget and doth vnite Spiration Father and the Sonne effect From it the Holy-Ghost's excluded quite They breathe and what is breathed is that Sprite But Filiation solely to the Sonne Doth appertaine sith only Sonne hee hight For as one Father so one Sonne alone The Trinity affords and brookes but one cession with the holy Spirit accords And only with that Spirit it doth agree As with the other two three other words Agreed and did with him quite disagree So this alone applied to him must be For if they breath'd him foorth as erst was said None can be sayd then to proceed but he Sith from the other two he is conuaide Yet in the other two he still is staid Now in another Sence we may transmute These Notions into Properties To witt When they doe one and not another sute As father doth the Father only fitt The Sonne the Sonne and to the holy Sprite Procession is peculiar And againe Innascibility we must admitt The Father But Spiration th' other twaine Then name of Property t' will not sustaine So in the Trinity fiue Notions are Foure Properties and foure Relations Wherein besides are other Secrets rare Founded vpon vnsearchable foundations The Sires beginning is th' eternall Sonnes Though he be said to be the Sonnes beginning Yet no beginning had these holy ones But from beyond Beginnings both haue bin Nor can their neuer endings euer liâ— The Sire and Sonnes beginning being one Breath foorth their blessed Spirit a third one being VVhich by a generall creation Beginning gaue to all in one agreeing And from eternity the same foreseeing The greatest Monarch and the least Insect With earthly things aquaticall or fleeing Whose seu'rall shapes and what they should effect Had euer being in their Intellect et how they should there actually exist And by what meanes they should haue entrance there Sith there eternally they did subsist Is hard for Man to know who doth appeare A Chaos of defect and folly meere They entred not by meanes into his mind As from Ideas which without him were VVithout whom nothing is in any kind Then in him selfe he all that all doth finde Yet are they not of such necessity As without them he could no way exist For they on him not he on them rely Then how eternally can they consist Sith he alone doth only so subsist They are not of his Nature but his wil His Intellect inciting to insist In knowledge of what that will should fulfill So in that knowledge they existed still For as to God it is most naturall To know himselfe in whome he all doth seet Eu'n so to him it is essentiall To know the kindes of all things as they be Or else he should not know his owne degree Yet his essentiall knowledge doth not stretch Vnto particulars as Mee and Thee For he may well exist without that reach And which his knowledge no way can impeach But all his Science of distinguisht things Flowes from the freedome of his sacred will Drawne from those Notions which his nature brings And are essentiall to his nature still Who made to shew his vniuersall skill What is created in particular As t' were a proofe of that he can fulfill When he is pleas'd to make or mend or marre Then in that skill all things distinguisht are The things that were or are or are to come Makes in his minde no change though chang'd they be Obiects our mindes affect our mindes o'recome But his intelligence is euer free Actiue not Passiue sith all Act is he For as by Sense he makes vs Arts to learne And abstract Formes by other meanes to see So he by meanes can seu'rall things discerne Though it no way his nature doth concerne Who being infinite nought is in him That 's lesse then so but so he could not be If his all-seeing Eies should be so dimme That now he sees what erst he could not see Then sees he all from all eternitie The whole the partes the rootes