Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	humane_a	person_n	property_n	3,952	5	9.4155	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41383	A discourse of Christianity laying open the abuses thereof in the anti-Christian lives and worship of many of its professors, especially the Romanists : and shewing the way to a holy life in the character of a true Christian / written originally in French by the famous Monsieur de Gombaud ; and now done into English by P Lorrain.	Gombauld, Jean Ogier de, d. 1666.; Lorrain, P. (Paul), d. 1719.	1693 (1693)	Wing G1023; ESTC R14522	47,226	176

were better able to believe and hope for it than comprehend it Seeing the vast distance there is between Heaven and Earth they could not think of any means to fill up their great Abyss and were not informed there were any Steps by which they might ascend to Heaven save only by Jacob's Ladder Yet Reason does for all that give its assent to things that happen beyond Reason it self and helps us apprehend that at last which at first it could not so much as in the least make us imagine Since therefore it teaches us that a Mean ought equally to partake of both Extremes and doth unite them howsoever disagreeing they may be that a Mediator ought to be capable of the Sentiments and Affections of both Parties he intends to reconcile and set a just Estimate upon the Right or Wrong of either of them Who doubts but that he that for this end is sent to us from Heaven is fully possess'd of all the Qualities requisite for him as such that he partakes of the Humane and Divine Nature in a Word that he is Man and God both together Moreover who doubts but that he is a Man conceiv'd otherwise than other Men lest his Natural Corruption and Sin should make him incapable of an intimate essential Union with the Divine Justice and Purity For if he were not Man we could have no share in him neither could his satisfaction be imputed to us If he were not God he could not communicate his Immortal Virtues Glory and Felicity to us If he were Man only he could not overcome Death nor raise himself from the Grave but sink under the Burthen and be soon reduc'd to nothing And if he were God only he could not have Died nor received from himself that Payment to which we are bound by the Law Therefore he must suffer and yet be altogether incapable of Dying he must die and yet withal be Immortal too He must descend into Hell and come up thence again He must be above all the Infernal Powers and shew that to him truly belong all the ways that lead to as well as the Issues from Death He that will deliver others from the Curse must undergo and overcome it and to the end there might be some proportion between the Offence and the Punishment there must be a Person of an infinite Worth and Excellency to make a temporal and finite torment of infinite Merit For certainly it is more with God that his Son dies for the Sins of the World then to see all Mankind perish together Now tho' there be no Law that allows the Innocent to suffer for the Guilty neither is there any that forbids it provided he offer himself willingly and be not absolutely destroy'd by the Punishment but have power as to lay down his Life so to take it up again XVII O the Wonders of the Eternal Power and Wisdom who in the Beginning was pleased to take out of Man a Woman that caused us all to Die that afterwards out of the Woman he might take a Man that will make us all alive again Thus Humane and Divine Nature in the fulness of time are by a stupendious Mystery united together and without any the least alteration in the properties of either the Son of God has joyn'd himself in Unity of Person with the Son of Man I say the Son and not the Father for we cannot have him for an Intercessor who is to be interceded with He that does send cannot be sent and because the Father does nothing by himself but all things by his Son it is reasonable that he should exert the Second Creation who was the Author of the First And who could speak better on our behalf than he who is the Word it self Who could reprint the Divine Image better in us than he that formed it there at first or intitle us better to the right of Children than he that possesses it in the highest degree But it is not enough that he should make satisfaction and that this satisfaction should be imputed to us but he must also confer that Grace upon and apply it to us and this is the Office of the Spirit which equally proceeds from the Son and the Father He it is that enlightens and purifies us that enables us to understand love and believe these Mysteries that impregnates us as he did the Blessed Virgin and makes us conceive our Saviour He is that Band of Love which unites us to the Divinity that real Unction wherewith we are all anointed and thereby made Kings Prophets and Priests In short it is he that gives himself for a Pledge and Security of the Promises of the Life to come of the Resurrection and Glory XVIII This great Mediator therefore is come such as he was foretold not like some great Conqueror a Cyrus or an Alexander but in the form of a Man full of sorrows and acquainted with griefs like one Consecrated by suffering to be a Propitiatory Victim for Mankind whose Merit is sufficient for all but appliable only to them that believe in him He is come not to shed another's Blood but his own and combate Rebellion with Obedience Strength with Weakness Pride with Humility This is that which makes him appear greater and more Divine This is that which overcomes and ravishes us into admiration and obliges us to fall down and worship him This is the sole Object of Religion which is not only the Art of saving Man but of making a God of him without any the least prejudice to the Divine Unity or the Holy Trinity For what name can be given to the Son of Man who makes but one and the same Person with the Son of God And of what Extract must we esteem them to be whom he has vouchsafed so far to honour as to call them his Brethren Now this RELIGION has been established not by any Bribings Companies or Combinations not by the Favour of Princes or the Votes of People not by the Subtilty of Philosophers or the Perswasion of Orators In a word not by a Multitude of Men as the Mahometan nor a great Number of Gods as the Pagan but only by the plain Proposal of a simple and naked Truth Which Truth has notwithstanding all manner of Opposition and Gain-saying made it self to be heard throughout the World and at its appearance has seen all Errors confounded all Sects dissipated and vanishing all False Oracles struck Dumb and all Idols and their Worshippers fall down before it CHAP. V. XIX AFter all that this RELIGION lays before us of the only Way for Man to be sav'd what can all the Religions in the World besides teach us And what can Mahomet pretend to perswade us if the Name of a Christian be so odious to him and he so little agree with Christ who does so perfectly agree with all the Prophets Is it not a wonderful thing that so many Men should be inspired in so different Places and at so different times

some lull'd themselves asleep and became Atheists others framed Gods to themselves after their own way and fell to Idolatry This unhappy Inclination yet so natural and so strong that 't is grown almost to an universal Fury did so pervert their Senses and Understanding that they would have the Objects of their Worships to be as themselves Corporeal and Visible and not being able to imagine any thing beyond themselves they attributed Humane Passions to them and appointed Services for them according to the Vanity of their own thoughts They not only degraded themselves beneath the nature of Man when they paid Adoration to their own kind but made themselves less than Beasts by Worshipping them all Nay they adored the most Vile and Abject of all Creatures that were so far from having any Ray or Mark of the Divinity that many times they were such as had not so much as any sign of Life in them Yea for fear lest any thing Horrid and Execrable should be wanting in their Idolatry they worshipped the very Infernal Powers and Enemies of the Creator Many judging well there must be a better state for Man than that of this World instead of enquiring whether there was not some Divine Word that could inform them of their chief End and supreme Good consulted only ambiguous and Devilish Oracles Instead of the only and true Remedy that was able to cleanse them from all filthiness of Sin they sought for nothing but Crooked and By-ways and therein wearied themselves with Ceremonies Abstinences Purifications Fasts and Offerings all which had no other effect than to add new afflictions to their Lives For what Sacrifices what Beasts what Hecatombs could ever make atonement for the Transgressions of one single Man Or rather what Man conceiv'd as he is in Sin could ever satisfie I don't say for others but even for his own self And what else could he offer in offering up of himself but Ingratitude Envy Hatred Malice Thoughts of Vanity and Words of Falshood Nay what are his very Virtues but disguis'd Vices What is his Prudence but Deceit his Valour but Rashness and his Wisdom but Hypocrisie If he prays he does it but perfunctorily and out of Custom and if at any time he shews some Zeal 't is not so much his Love to God that excites and inflames him as his apprehension of some Evil that he is threatned with or the sense of that which presses him What can he do better than to make a continual Confession of his Sins for which if he be judged according to his Demerits he ought to expect nothing else but the Sentence of Death and Eternal Damnation Therefore if all Humane Reason was never able to find out the means of Sanctifying so much as one single Man nor all Philosophy to make one Believer or discover a Good not to be snatch'd away by Death What remains but that we should believe what the best inspired Men could best tell us viz. That we must have recourse to the first Beginning That the means was to be Universal and that none but God could reveal it CHAP. IV. XIV 'T IS a thing most certain That as Man was not made by Chance so neither was he created in vain That his End can never be either to suffer Eternal Torments or to return to that Nothing out of which he was taken and that the same Power that gave him Being must save him Should not he who by the single Sparks of that Divine Image remaining in him is able to measure the Heavens without leaving the Earth think we be Immortal What would else become of so many Revelations and Promises or who is it that hath taken so much care to deceive us What would Justice and Piety be more than vain empty Names to cheat the World withal And to what purpose so much Regard and Caution if after this Life there be nothing to be hoped for No doubt our Natural Remisness and Sensuality would not be wanting in advising us to follow the beaten Road to enjoy the things Present without troubling our head with the Future and to live like Beasts since we must die like them But away with all these profane and rash Thoughts The first Act of the Creator answers for all the rest and he that has made us of nothing is as able to retrieve us from Death Should he be contented to suffer his own Image to be defac'd and defam'd Should the Devil be Conqueror in this Contest and raise his Trophies over the Works of the Almighty No certainly the first State of Innocence was not the End of Man How good soever he might be then he was to be still better and his latter end more Blessed than his Beginning But it was requisite he should be exposed to his own desires and left to the Counsel of his own hand as well for his Tryal as to the end he might know himself that this knowledge might be as a Step to him to raise him up to that of his Creator Perhaps he would have thought he was capable of maintaining himself without the Help of any other Power not reflecting that there is but one pure Holy and true Being on whom all others do depend and without whom either we must not be at all or be Eternally Miserable XV. To the end therefore that all Men might know they are not to rely upon the strength and virtue vouchsafed them God has given them the means to try themselves and acknowledge that they are all of them equally fallen by the fall of One that they are naturally the Slaves of Sin and consequently Tributaries to Hell and Death He gave them his Law which how perfect soever it be yet brings nothing to its full Perfection whose Justice serves only to make them the more guilty whose Instructions are but in order to confound them and which seems not to promise them good things but to make them despair of ever attaining them It is a Letter that kills an intolerable Yoke a Ministry of Death which is so far from justifying Men that it ranks them all under one and the same Condemnation Or to speak more favourably of it It is a Glass wherein they may see what they were what they are and what they shall be It is a Flower whose Fruit is the greatest Favour that can ever happen to them It is a Candle that lightens them during the Night till the Sun rise upon them XVI Now as the incomprehensible Unity which comprehends all multiplicity is the supreme Perfection of God so in like manner Union with God is the supreme Perfection of Man But we are not able to raise up our selves to him unless he first draws us or rather vouchsafes to come down to us This is the Mystery of our Redemption which even they themselves who had received the Promises of it confirmed by so many Signs and Miracles did see so far off and through so many shadows and so much darkness that they