Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	ghost_n	holy_a	trinity_n	3,214	5	9.7060	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63907	A discourse of the divine omnipresence and its consequences delivered in a sermon before the honourable Society of Lincolnes-Inn, upon the first Sunday of this Michaelmas term / John Turner ...	Turner, John, b. 1649 or 50.	1683 (1683)	Wing T3307; ESTC R5395	16,965	40

the other is the Angel or Spirit which in this place it seems are Synonymous terms to signifie the same thing and comprehending at once both the Angelick Forms and the Spirits of men departed out of this mortal Life I know indeeed that there is another possible exposition of this place which hath not yet been hit upon by any Interpreter no more than this which I have last mentioned concerning the Souls of men departed but at present it is not for my purpose to insist upon it and it is certain that the Council of Laodicea who as Theodoret informs us condemned the Worship of Angels from the authority of this place understood it in the most plain and obvious sense in which we usually understand the word and in this sense it proves with a still greater force and evidence against the Romish Superstition Angels being still a more noble Order of Beings and if it be not lawful to worship them it is much less lawful to pay our Devotions to any Saints departed however pious and exemplary they may have been and much less to those that have been Canoniz'd for Money or for Treason and owe their Saintship to their Friends on the one hand and which is still more horrid and detestable to their Crimes and Villanies on the other who are preferred to Heaven for disturbing the Earth and mounted into the blessed Regions of light and peace and love as the reward of strife disobedience hatred and contention and every evil work But without being beholding to the testimony of this place which yet may serve for a sufficient proof against the Romish Idolatry and Superstition we may appeal to that passage of Peter with respect to Cornelius and of Paul and Barnabas with relation to the Inhabitants of Lystra who would not suffer themselves by any means to be worshipped meerly for that reason because they were men so that it seems unless they lay down their humane nature at the time of their departure that is unless the Saints departed cease to be themselves they cannot be Objects of Divine Worship But we are sure that God hears our Prayers and that he is able to answer them and that he is every where present as it were on purpose that he might first know our wants and then relieve them and we may approach his presence with confidence in the Language of the Prophet whatever becomes of that gainful Hierarchy of the Romish Saints and Angels who pay the Priests well for the worship of the People Doubtless thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel acknowledge us not thou O Lord art our Father our Redeemer thy Name is from Everlasting Fourthly by a reflexion upon this universal Extension of the Divine Nature the worship of Images representing God the Father Son or Holy Ghost or the Blessed Trinity taken together which hath been practised frequently in the Church of Rome is manifestly condemned For besides the meanness of the Representation that he that made all things should be represented by an Image made with hands that he whose Nature is invisible should be represented by a Carved Image or a Painted Resemblance of that which the Scripture declares to have no Shape nor Appearance that he who is Infinite should be drawn in little upon a Wall or a Window that he who is all Life and Power and Wisdom should be represented by that which is senseless dull and unactive by that which knows nothing and is next kin to nothing I say besides this it is absurd to represent him as it were by Proxy who is present and in the midst of us himself neither is it sufficient to say in this case that his Substance being invisible and not to be discerned by mortal Eyes or humane Senses there is therefore need of a sensible Memorandum although the Worship be terminated in himself for at this rate all the Idolatry of the Heathen World may be excused for no man is so senseless to believe their Worship was terminated in a Stick or a Stone at least we ought not to believe it without very good Proof and if it could be proved yet even this would be parallel'd in the Church of Rome where they pray to the Crucifix of Wood or Stone as well as to Christ himself and attribute as much satisfaction and expiation to it as they do to the blood of their crucified Redeemer as appears undeniably from the Romish Missals which are extant at this day and may at any time be produced against them Fifthly upon the same account of the Divine Extension we are excused from all the Romish Pilgrimages to Jerusalem and Loretto and Canterbury and Compostella and other places for as to the Sepulchre of out Saviour at Jerusalem if they could certainly assign the place where he lay which it is more than probable they cannot do yet what signifies the Sepulchre when the body is not there or if it were yet I hope a dead Carcase is not a fit Object of Divine Worship and Honour and as for the Shrines and Reliques of the Saints certainly it must needs be gross Idolatry to worship them when it is so plainly unlawful to do it to the glorified Spirits of the Saints themselves The Saints cannot be worshipped without dishonour to God who challenges all our Worship and Adoration and God is alwayes present with us so we need not undertake a long and costly that Journey to find him out and wherever God is there Christ is also he is in the Father and the Father in him and they two are one and the same and this is the great mischief which Idolatry and Superstition do they take our minds off from him who is the only true Object of Worship in the contemplation of whose Nature there is the most perfect satisfaction and the truest pleasure who is the most suitable and worthy Object of our fear and hope our love and admiration and desire and who is infinitely the most noble and the most perfect Pattern of our Imitation and instead of this our minds are employed to a few ridiculous Rites and imaginary Expiations as if any thing but a sight and sense of our sin a dutiful and awful apprehension of that Majesty and Goodness which we have offended were able to reconcile us to God or to reinstate us in his Grace and Favour who will not accept the Sacrifice of Fools and the vain shews of bigotry and superstition without the obedience of a reasonable and the repentance of an humble and a contrite soul Sixthly by a due and serious reflexion upon this Doctrine we may absolve our selves from any obligation to the Romish Austerities and Mortifications because as the Divine Substance so also are his Attributes his Mercy and his Goodness extended over all his Works And it appears plainly not only by the appetites which we find about us which may be innocently gratified as well as from the provision which is made for their