Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	flesh_n	sin_n	sinful_a	2,809	5	9.4946	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61207	The spiritual chymist, or, Six decads of divine meditations on several subjects by William Spurstow ...	Spurstowe, William, 1605?-1666.	1666 (1666)	Wing S5097; ESTC R22598	119,345	208

these things the great end for which our understanding was given unto us Or is it any further desirable or profitable than as it conduceth to the knowledge of God Doth the rectitude of our actions and the holiness of them flow from the knowledge we have of any Creature or from the knowledge of God Is not his Will the Rule and his Glory the End of all that we do And how should we ever come to know what the good and acceptable will of God is but by his revealing it unto us Which he hath done most clearly and fully in this blessed Book of his the Scripture of truth That then which commends this Book and renders it worthy of all acceptation is the rich discoveries that it makes to us concerning so Excellent a Being as God is whom it acquaints us with in his Nature Perfections Counsels and Designs in relation to the Eternal Salvation of man It contains not any thing that is mean or trivial the matters in it are all of no less glory for any to behold than of weighty importance for all to know Do we not read in it with what Majesty God gave forth his Sacred Law when Thunders Lightnings dark Clouds and Burnings were used as Heralds in the promulgation of it And yet may we not again see the hidings of his power in the wonderful Condescensions of his goodness How doth he intreat wooe and importune those whom he could with a frown or breath easily destroy and pursue with bowels of mercy such whom he might in Justice leave and cast off for ever Are there not in it Precepts of exact purity that are as Diamonds without fl●ws and as fine Gold without dross In all other Books they are as the most Current Coyns that must have their Alloyes of baser Metals But in this they resemble the Author who is light in which there is no darkness and a Sun in which are no spots Are there not in it promises of infinite value as well as goodness in which rewards are given not of Debt but of Grace and to such who have cause to be ashamed of their Duties as well as their Sins Are there not in it Premoxiions of great faithfulness in which God fully de●●ares to men what the issues of sin will be And proclaims a Judgment to come in which the Judge will be impartial and the Sentence most severe against the least offences as well as against the greatest What is it that may teach us to serve God with Chearfulness to trust him with confidence to adhere to him with resolution in difficulties To submit to his Will with patience in the greatest extremities that we may not be abundantly furnished with from this Book It alone is a perfect Library in which are presented those deep mysteries of the Gospel that Angels study and look into both with delight and wonder being more desirous to pry into them than of perfect ability to understand them They are such that had they not been revealed could not have been known and being revealed can yet never be fully comprehended by any Was it ever heard that he who was the maker of all things was made of a Woman That the Ancient of daies was not an hour old That Eternal life began to live That he to whose Nature Incomprehensibility doth belong should be inclosed in the narrow limits of the Womb Where can we read but in this Book that he who perfectly hates sin should condescend to take upon him the similitude of sinful Flesh That he who was the Person injured by Sin should willingly be the Sacrifice to Expiate the guilt of it and to dye instead of the Sinners Are not these such Mysteries as are utter impossibilities to Reason And at which like Sarah it laughs rather than vvith Abraham entertain them vvith an holy reverence and joy vvhen made knovvn Reason is busie in looking after Demonstrations and enquires hovv this can be and then scorns what it cannot fathom But Faith rests it self in the Revelations of God and adores as a mystery what he discovers Yea it makes these Mysteries not only Objects of its highest Adoration but the grounds of its sure comfort and confidence From whence is it that Faith fetcheth its security against Sin Satan Death and Hell Is it not from this that he who is the Saviour of Believers is God-man manifested in the Flesh That he who is their Sacrifice through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God to purge their Conscience from dead works to serve the Living God That he who is their Advocate did raise himself from the dead and ascende● into the highest Heavens to make everlasting Intercessions for them Can then any depreciate this Book or abate the least Iota of that awfull Esteem which upon all accounts is due unto it and be guiltless Or can any neglect this Book as unworthy of their reading which God hath thought worthy of his Writing without putting an affront upon God himself whose Image it bears as well as declares his Commands And yet I tremble to think how many Anti-Scripturists there be who have let fall both from their Lips and Pens such bold Scorns as if Satan stood at their right hand to inspire them It was open Blasphemy and worthy that Antichristian Crue of Trent to affirm That though the Scripture were not yet a body of saving Divinity might be made out of the Divinity of the School The prophaneness of Politian shall make his name to rot in a perpetual stench who never read the Bible but once and said it was the worst time that ever he spent And yet what are the fruits of his studies but such as Gellius stiles Scholica Nugalia a few trifling Commentaries and Criticisms More I could readily name of the same Stamp that have presumed Impiously to scoff at the Revelations of God as others at his Providence but who can take pleasure to rake in a Dunghill that may enjoy the fragrancy of a Paradise I shall therefore turn my thoughts from them and as having nothing to cast over their wickedness shall Sanguinem pro velamento obtendere call my bloud into my face and spread it as a Vail in blushing for them that should have blushed and been ashamed for themselves But though the Word of God ceaseth not to be a reproach unto them yet I shall bind it as a Crown unto me Though they reject the Counsel of God against themselves yet I shall make his Testimonies my delight and the men of my Counsel and shall make the prayer of the Psalmist to be my dayly prayer that God would open mine Eyes that I may behold the hidden wonders that are contained in his Law Meditation LVIII Vpon the Spirituall Warfare WHo can either think or read what a Slaughter was made by one Angel in the numerous Army of Sennacherib who in a night destroyed a hundred fourscore and five thousand Men without reflecting upon the vast disparity that